What cable system in the US has the least amount of channels?

[crainbebo]

No I don't live in Carson. But looking up some ND cable lineups I found the Carson one, and it is so old looking!

-crainbebo

 

[blizzard59]

I found a cable lineup that beats Carson, and it's not too far away in Westby, MT. The city of about 200 is located roughly 9 miles south of the Canadian border and was actually originally located in North Dakota (hence the "west" in the name), but was moved just over the border in Montana in the 1910s in part because that state had more permissive liquor laws. Anyway, the ZIP Code 59275 into TitanTV gives you the following 11 channel lineup:

2 - HBO
3 - TBS
4 - Prairie Public Television, ND's PBS network
5 - WGN America
6 - ESPN
7 - CNN
8 - KUMV (NBC) Williston, ND
9 - KNDX (Fox) Minot, ND
10 - USA
11 - KXMD (CBS) Williston, ND
13 - KMGH (ABC) Denver, CO

The same company operates two other nearly identical systems in the region. The only difference is that the Froid, MT system gets an additional channel (Disney) and the Medicine Lake, MT system has the broadcast affiliates ordered differently.

One thing that separates these cable systems from some of the others in extreme northeastern Montana is that they get a PBS station, though not one associated with Montana PBS. The Montana PBS network is actually relatively hard to view in that part of the state, as OTA coverage is spotty at best and nonexistent on DirecTV/Dish Network due to the region officially being in the Minot-Bismarck, ND market. If you look on Montana PBS's website, they actually encourage people in the area who wish to view Montana PBS to get a FTA Ku satellite system and aim for the AMC-21 satellite.

Having traveled extensively throughout the region in the past, one thing about TV viewing in the area that's always struck me is how careful you have to be about time zones when watching the broadcast networks, since some are based on Mountain Time and others on Central Time. The example of Scobey I gave earlier is particularly interesting since they can view CTV and CBC (well, until CBC shuts down their translators later this year), and Saskatchewan does not observe Daylight Saving Time. If you were living in Scobey and had cable TV, here's what you would have to consider in terms of time zones.

ABC (KMGH) - Based in Mountain Time Zone, prime time is 7-10 PM MT
CBS (KXGN) - Operates on a mixed Central/Mountain schedule, for example prime time is 6-9 PM MT but Letterman is on at 10:35 PM MT
Fox (KDVR) - Based in Mountain Time Zone, prime time is 7-10 PM MT
NBC (KUMV) - Based in Central Time Zone, prime time is 6-9 PM MT
And the CBC and CTV schedules will shift ahead one hour when DST is not in effect

Cable systems in the southwestern parts of North Dakota that are in the Mountain Time Zone generally don't have this issue since they typically get all of their broadcast stations by way of Bismarck-based stations. The Minot-Bismarck market operates exclusively on Central Time though, so prime time on all the broadcast networks runs from 6-9 PM local time in places like Dickinson.

OMG that lineup DOES look like its 30 years old!! The only modern-ish channel they have on there is the Travel channel. But that's to be expected for states like ND and Montana.

Actually, aside from a select few places, such as portions of the southwest part (like Carson) and Fargo, cable service is North Dakota is dominated by South Dakota-based Midcontinent Communications, of which Comcast is a part owner. Through the years, they've been pretty good about keeping their systems modern and up-to-date in all of the communities they serve, including the small ones under 1,000 people. They converted most, if not all, of their cable systems in North Dakota to "all-digital" last year and then proceeded to make over 100 channels available in HD. You can view channel lineups of all the systems they operate in the Dakotas and Minnesota at this website.

 

[blizzard59]

Cable systems in the southwestern parts of North Dakota that are in the Mountain Time Zone generally don't have this issue since they typically get all of their broadcast stations by way of Bismarck-based stations. The Minot-Bismarck market operates exclusively on Central Time though, so prime time on all the broadcast networks runs from 6-9 PM local time in places like Dickinson.

Actually, let me clarify this (I can no longer edit the post): Cable systems in the southwestern parts of North Dakota that are in the Mountain Time Zone may or may not have similar issues. Generally, places like Beulah and Dickinson in the northern and central part of the Mountain Time region will get all of their broadcast networks by way of Bismarck-based stations while places like Bowman and Hettinger in the far southwest part of the state typically get CBS and NBC from Central Time Zone Bismarck-based stations and ABC and Fox from Mountain Time Zone stations located in Rapid City, SD.

One thing that might be apparent is that the ABC and Fox affiliates in the Minot-Bismarck market do not actually enjoy cable carriage throughout their market. One of the reasons is probably due to the whole time zone matter, but another could be due to historical conditions. There was no Fox affiliate in the market until 1999 and no full-time ABC affiliate until 1985. By the time either network got an affiliate in the market, long-established cable systems had already figured out how to provide the networks to viewers. Even today, the Fox and ABC affiliates in the market are very weak, offering no local newscasts and a minimal local presence.

 

[Mr Tony]

I know this thread is kinda old but had to comment

Got a buddy who has a cabin in Northern MN in a place called Remer. He's outside of the "cable" area but he did check with the Telco (who does everything) and was floored at it
12.00 a month and they bill you for 3 months at a time. Here is the channel list

2 TNT
3 CNN
4 WGN
5 TBS
6 KARE (NBC)
7 ABC FAMILY
8 ESPN
9 KAWE (PBS)
10 DISCOVERY
11 FS NORTH
12 KCCW (CBS)
13 WDIO (ABC)
15 USA

14 USE to be FoxNet (yes the same Foxnet in areas where there was no Fox near there). There is no Fox affiliate available.

 

[crainbebo]

Wow. And not even a premium movie channel like HBO! Wonder why they couldn't pull in KMSP 9/MSP or KQDS 21/Duluth for Fox.

-crainbebo

 

[Mr Tony]

Wow. And not even a premium movie channel like HBO! Wonder why they couldn't pull in KMSP 9/MSP or KQDS 21/Duluth for Fox.

-crainbebo

Both are too far away. Although recently there is a translator station about 30 miles away that **might** be possible to grab with a heckuva antenna setup. It has ABC, NBC, and Fox as 480i stations (CBS has full power KCCW there) so you could possibly get KMSP

I always called that cable the "G5" system as most of those channels were on the same big dish satellite back in the day (Galaxy 5 at 125 degrees west)

 

[Sammi Brie]

I've stayed on Put In Bay, in the Lake Erie islands in Ohio, and the cable there in the motel had maybe 20 stations. The Weather Channel there used a local graphics package in the weather on the 8's that looked straight out of 1990. This was maybe 3-4 years ago. But, most people on that island are only there in summer months, working seasonal jobs. The island population in the winter is maybe 200 people.

That's a Weather Star 4000. And yes, that equipment is straight out of 1990.

I don't know if this necessarily counts, but the "cable system" at Evergreen High School had eight channels (six, plus a couple "internal access" closed-circuit channels) circa 1999-2002.

This system, as I was told, was originally installed as part of a failled "Channel One" experiment that happened there in the very early 90s, and was a remnant of that project. After they pulled out the satellite equipment, they still had all the (expensive then) TV sets in each classroom and coax lines tying them all to the A/V room, so they used it!

Something similar has happened at our school, where C1 was pulled, but the TVs remain dormant. The equipment was installed in the late 90s (and I had the "honor" of pulling the last Admiral VCR out of its rack and discovering that Admiral was a Montgomery Ward (!!) brand!).

CBS (KXGN) - Operates on a mixed Central/Mountain schedule, for example prime time is 6-9 PM MT but Letterman is on at 10:35 PM MT

That's more a legacy of their CBS-NBC days than anything else. (NBC programming took up the extra hour.) If they wanted to they could move the syndicated programming to the 6pm hour and air a normal CBS primetime, but they haven't.