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What are ABC's weakest affiliates?

bpatrick said:
It's always been something of a puzzlement to me that ABC is so weak in South Carolina; traditionally NBC is number one in Greenville/Spartanburg/Asheville and Columbia; CBS in Charleston and Florence. But if you go into eastern North Carolina it's a different story. WWAY/3 Wilmington's strongest competition is probably from NBC affiliate WECT/6 (CBS is on low-power WILM/10. which gets its news from sister station WRAL in Raleigh; Fox is WSFX/26); WCTI/12 Greenville/New Bern/Washington runs first or second at newstime (it carries Oprah at 4 before its 5 PM news) and is about dead even now with NBC affiliate WITN/7. Norfolk's WVEC/13, which serves northeastern North Carolina, is usually first in news and has a formidable lineup of syndicated shows including Oprah, Regis & Kelly, "Wheel Of Fortune," and "Jeopardy!"

Not sure where you're getting your info. CBS is #1 overall in the Upstate (NBC wins in Greenville proper, ABC in WNC). WECT has always dominated in Wilmington.

ABC is strong in the South in three large markets: Atlanta, Dallas & Houston. Outside of that, CBS still rules the roost.

G
 
upstate29651 said:
bpatrick said:
It's always been something of a puzzlement to me that ABC is so weak in South Carolina; traditionally NBC is number one in Greenville/Spartanburg/Asheville and Columbia; CBS in Charleston and Florence. But if you go into eastern North Carolina it's a different story. WWAY/3 Wilmington's strongest competition is probably from NBC affiliate WECT/6 (CBS is on low-power WILM/10. which gets its news from sister station WRAL in Raleigh; Fox is WSFX/26); WCTI/12 Greenville/New Bern/Washington runs first or second at newstime (it carries Oprah at 4 before its 5 PM news) and is about dead even now with NBC affiliate WITN/7. Norfolk's WVEC/13, which serves northeastern North Carolina, is usually first in news and has a formidable lineup of syndicated shows including Oprah, Regis & Kelly, "Wheel Of Fortune," and "Jeopardy!"

Not sure where you're getting your info. CBS is #1 overall in the Upstate (NBC wins in Greenville proper, ABC in WNC). WECT has always dominated in Wilmington.

ABC is strong in the South in three large markets: Atlanta, Dallas & Houston. Outside of that, CBS still rules the roost.

G
It's no surprise ABC wins in WNC, as that is the only true news station for that area. As someone in the WLOS viewing range, I don't care for them. The newscasts on 13 are just....bleh. Graphics leave a lot to be desired and they mostly cover WNC.

I know they're in the same market as Greenville/Spartanburg, but I've never really considered them to be, news wise. I still wish Greenville/Spartanburg and Asheville were separate markets so we could get our own ABC affiliate :D
 
WPVI 6 is one of the weakest FULL POWER stations being That they are on Low VHF, one of the few that use channel 6 for full power use.
 
Greg Goodfellow said:
I couldn't imagine a station weaker than WOAY (worst on air yet) in Oak Hill/Beckley, West Virginia.

I can only imagine what WOAY would had been like had Bob Denver ( yes Gilligan himself ) had got his "island" hands on it. ;D

15 years ago when I worked in West Virginia the BIG rumor at the time was that Bob Denver had wanted to get into West Virginia broadcasting by owning a radio station ( he did.. WGAG-FM ), host an oldies/classic rock show for West Virginia-Metronews Radio Network ( many stories as to why that never became a reality )...and that Bob had wanted to own a TV station within West Virginia and WOAY was the one rumored to be the one he was interested in ( he lived in nearby Princeton ).

Bob Denver & WOAY...not sure if he had made an offer to purchase or it never went past the "I wish I had them" stage but either way, of course it never did happen.
 
Greg Goodfellow said:
I couldn't imagine a station weaker than WOAY (worst on air yet) in Oak Hill/Beckley, West Virginia.

I'm still getting over the fact they dumped identifying by Channel 4 and went to being known by their digital assignment, Channel 50 after the 2009 switch. What station director ever makes the choice to dump a low channel number imaging for that usually found by a station airing Jewelry TV?!
 
upstate29651 said:
bpatrick said:
It's always been something of a puzzlement to me that ABC is so weak in South Carolina; traditionally NBC is number one in Greenville/Spartanburg/Asheville and Columbia; CBS in Charleston and Florence. But if you go into eastern North Carolina it's a different story. WWAY/3 Wilmington's strongest competition is probably from NBC affiliate WECT/6 (CBS is on low-power WILM/10. which gets its news from sister station WRAL in Raleigh; Fox is WSFX/26); WCTI/12 Greenville/New Bern/Washington runs first or second at newstime (it carries Oprah at 4 before its 5 PM news) and is about dead even now with NBC affiliate WITN/7. Norfolk's WVEC/13, which serves northeastern North Carolina, is usually first in news and has a formidable lineup of syndicated shows including Oprah, Regis & Kelly, "Wheel Of Fortune," and "Jeopardy!"

I think I misspoke about WECT/WWAY; WECT does remain number one in Wilmington and I didn't make that clear. Sorry.
As for WSPA, I had seen on Wikipedia that it had fallen to third although it was coming back, but the article led me to believe WYFF was still overall number one in Greenville/Spartanburg/Asheville. No wonder I don't let my students use Wikipedia for research projects. :)

Not sure where you're getting your info. CBS is #1 overall in the Upstate (NBC wins in Greenville proper, ABC in WNC). WECT has always dominated in Wilmington.

ABC is strong in the South in three large markets: Atlanta, Dallas & Houston. Outside of that, CBS still rules the roost.

G
 
kenrayc said:
WPVI 6 is one of the weakest FULL POWER stations being That they are on Low VHF, one of the few that use channel 6 for full power use.

Thank you kenrayc. I do remember an engineer from PVI bragging about a power output less than a hairdryer. This was before they had to beg to the FCC for a power increase.

On the other end is WMAR ABC Baltimore pumping out a megawatt on UHF 38. I used to get them in Dover, DE with a loop aerial on the ground floor. Granted, it was a west facing window. ;)

BTW: I've read through this thread and those comments on my critique of ABC 6 have me thinking of a new thread ...

What are radio-info's weakest replies. :p :D ;)
 
Late to the thread....

The worst ABC affiliate I have seen has to be KLAX Alexandria LA. It broadcasts ABC programming not only in SDTV but in horrid stretchovision. It makes KATV and KAQY look like major market stations.
 
I would like to add one to the thread, since this is my first time seeing. I'm adding WBBJ in Jackson, Tennessee. Very horrible station, can't keep anyone there very long either.
 
Since my post in this thread, WLNE in the Providence market was auctioned off out of bankruptcy to Citadel Communications (not related to the radio Citadel, soon to be swallowed by Cumulus).

VP/GM Stephen Doerr, former WOIO/19 "19 Action News" news director, is out, and they fired a bunch of people.
 
Jazz_Kat said:
I would like to add one to the thread, since this is my first time seeing. I'm adding WBBJ in Jackson, Tennessee. Very horrible station, can't keep anyone there very long either.
I can't believe that we got into five pages before anyone mentioned channel 7! :eek: Can't believe I didn't mention it when this thread was active earlier! "Anotherguy" must have missed this thread, too. I knew that this station was lousy back in the '70s, '80s, and '90s, but I haven't lived in that market in nearly 20 years, so I can't comment on what they've been doing lately.

It is well known that Bahakel Broadcasting is little more than a training ground for newspeople to get some experience before they go on to bigger and better markets. But their weatherman seems to be an exception to that rule. Is he still there?
 
I mentioned (or re-mentioned) WBBJ in my last reply, but it's my understanding that the rest of the Paducah-Cape Girardeau market (those in the states other than Tennessee) get their programming from WSIL (I think I have those call letters right) in Harrisburg, IL. As a Tennessean, I lived a little too far south to receive their programming, because we got ours from the aforementioned WBBJ, but it's my understanding that WSIL is a fairly weak station, too.

Asking which ABC station is its weakest affiliate is like asking a kid what his least favorite vegetable is! ;D
 
Yeah, Bahakel is very cheap with their stations. They own ABC in Columbia, and they didn't even have a local news studio until 3 or 4 years ago. Before, they did local news from Charlotte. They were stop and start before that.

They have never had continuity with their news. WOLO is just adding a morning news and noon show in July, I believe for the first time ever.

They only have news weeknights at 6 and 11 and weekends at 11. Even now, their weather is done from Charlotte on weekends. They were the first station in Columbia to go HD, but WLTX and WIS went HD a year after.

Here is WOLO:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrSXpyevWpo
 
I thought I had responded earlier to this thread, but it must have been another one. WBBJ is nothing fancy now, but they aren't as lousy now as they had been in the past. Either that or I've become so used to them that I haven't noticed it as much. And if you're referring to Gary Pickens, he's still there.
 
wncc said:
Has anyone mentioned WKPT yet?
WKPT is worse than weak. When they had local news it was so Mickey Mouse. I do not watch them on a regular basis but have heard that they may be trying to make something of a restart with some kind of local news. They have no chance against WCYB and WJHL. Holston Valley Broadcasting pumps tons of cash into their radio stations but does not put a lot of effort into the TV station.
 
Jazz_Kat said:
I would like to add one to the thread, since this is my first time seeing. I'm adding WBBJ in Jackson, Tennessee. Very horrible station, can't keep anyone there very long either.
Many years ago that was a pretty good station. Had a lot of local "talent" on there. Have not seen it in years but like most small market stations stuck between 2 large markets, Memphis and Nashville, I guess things tend to go downhill.
 
Surprised no one mentioned WNWO yet, back when they were an ABC affiliate, and especially during the days when they were WDHO -- at first, all three networks felt comfortable on the two VHF stations (WTOL and WSPD (WTVG)), with WDHO taking any leftovers not cleared by the big guys. WDHO successfully lobbied ABC to have them join their network in 1970, but the bad fortunes prevailed -- the owner, Overmyer Broadcasting, went bankrupt by 1982, and the station often operated out of the cheapest digs in Toledo, with its news department working out of a trailer (which almost got repossessed).

The station got new owners and new calls in 1986, and a new network in 1995 (with another new owner, Malrite, soon to follow, which would build them new studios). But their news have always remained in last place -- even after WUPW entered the picture. As for news in HD on WNWO -- forget it.

More here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WNWO-TV
 
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