ding12 said:
bpatrick said:
We tend to get into the technicalities of digital (WXIA is Ch. 10, WGCL is Ch. 19, WAGA is Ch. 27, WSB is Ch. 39, etc.), but the general public still thinks of them as 11, 46, 5, and 2, respectively. As I recall, when CBS moved from 2 to 62 in Detroit, before the digital conversion, WTOL/11 Toledo became, in effect, the CBS affiliate for Detroit, if you go by the numbers of people watching. Atlanta viewers would probably say, WUPA, oh, that's Channel 69, and CBS has another WWJ on its hands.
I think in the past, VHF meant a lot more. A VHF station would pay less for electric bills and get greater exposure of the channel, as people 50 miles out could receive the channel. I remember it was a lot easier to receive the Philly VHF stations in Central NJ, than it was to receive the Philly UHF channels, and the few that did reach Central NJ like WPHL and WTXF had to pay alot more for power to reach the same viewing area as the big three VHF stations: KYW, WCAU, WPVI.
The VHF Channel would have a low cable channel position. Channel would be grouped with other VHF channels on the dial, likely other successful VHF channels, and newspaper listings were relevant. It also was carried SV in areas out of market, while the UHF station likely didn't. From an advertising perspective, that meant a station like WGAL could claim to Central PA advertisers that WGAL reached more homes including Berks County, while the UHF Harrisburg stations didn't.
A channel like WCAU in Philly for example operates on UHF now, but brands itself as NBC 10. If one is 20 miles from the Philly and lives in an apartment and uses an indoor antenna (even amplified), the signal on WCAU breaks up, but WPHL doesn't. It varies so much from place to place and the advantage is less clear. So, one is stuck having to get Comcast which might have a deal like I get $20/mo. that includes cable nets, which isn't bad. The networks have the leverage to secure preferred cable channel positions, like NBC did with KNTV in SF market on Ch.3 (not sure if it still is on Ch.3 on cable there). It's also easy to brand without a number like "NBC Bay Area"
That's all well and good if you understand the logistics behind digital, and obviously you do. But I still think the average viewer still identifies stations with their analog channels, which means that in Atlanta WSB is still Ch. 2, WAGA is still Ch. 5, WXIA is still 11 Alive, etc., because that's how they see them identified. WGCL might have a better signal on digital 19, but even I don't think of WGCL Ch. 19; the closest 19 to me is the analog channel of WLTX Columbia, SC. So I still think the average viewer is going to think of WUPA as that channel at the top of the dial that doesn't put out a decent signal. There's just one problem is WUPA did get CBS: Detroit viewers can still see CBS on Ch. 11 in Toledo, Ch. 5 in Flint, or Ch. 6 in Lansing. None of the CBS stations surrounding Atlanta (WSPA/7 Spartanburg, WDEF/12 Chattanooga, WRBL/3 Columbus, GA, WRDW/12 Augusta, WMAZ/13 Macon, or WIAT/42 Birmingham) gets into the Atlanta metro area. So there's no WTOL to take up the slack if WUPA were to become another WWJ.
On other notes: I think ABC has tried to get WJXT Jacksonville and been turned down. I still rank it as one of the all-time blunders when Ch. 4 dropped CBS; ironically, back when ABC was number one in the '70s Florida Trend magazine had an article about three markets that were bucking the trend and where CBS was still number one: Miami (WTVJ), Tampa (WTVT), and Jacksonville (WJXT). None of them is a CBS affiliate today: WTVJ is an NBC o&o (I guess it still is), WTVT a Fox o&o, and
WJXT an independent. Of the three, WJXT could have stayed put; I've heard the real reason was that negotiations broke down over compensation, but I also heard that the g.m. didn't like CBS sports programming running over into her local news time. Oddly, CBS has not been a factor in Orlando for as long as I can remember; that always seems to have been an ABC town, and ever since I was a kid I've always thought of WFTV first when I thought of Orlando television.
As for WFAA, it is true that Dallas is the largest market without a Big Four o&o, and WFAA reminds me a lot of an ABC o&o;
their newscasts always reminded me of the ABC o&os even though they branded themselves "News 8" rather than "Eyewitness News" or whatever. If WFAA were to become an ABC o&o, it should have happened during its years of dominance from the mid-'70s until their front four of Tracy Rowlett, Iola Johnson, Troy Dungan, and Verne Lundquist were gone (I think the then-existing ownership limits might have been a barrier). I still don't think Belo would sell its flagship any more than I think Cox would sell its flagship, WSB. That might also be true with Allbritton and WJLA; I've just often heard speculation that if ABC ever does buy another station it would probably be the one.
Finally, what is the big deal about KSL not clearing "Saturday Night Live" or certain one-shots that might potentially offend the Mormons? Sounds to me as if Ch. 5 is still considering community standards. We had an incident several years ago when our CBS affiliate, WFMY, refused to show the Victoria's Secret special; management considered it blatantly sexist. Nobody screamed for CBS to take WFMY's affiliation away. Nor do I recall any mass call for ABC to change affiliates in heavily-Catholic markets in the Central time zone that ran "Soap" at 9:30 instead of 8:30 (San Antonio comes immediately to mind and KSAT is still the ABC affiliate there) or to drop all those stations that didn't carry "NYPD Blue" when it was new. Give KSL a break; management obviously knows what it's doing.
