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When did you get all three networks?

B

bpatrick

A point about Louisville. The terrain in that area is fairly hilly and thus an incentive for cable. It's my understanding that the
market has close to 100% cable penetration. Having spent a night at the Galt House once, I noticed that WAVE (NBC) is
on cable channel 2, WHAS (ABC) on channel 4, and WLKY (CBS) on channel 5.

But Louisville has never been an ABC town. Maybe it was WLKY's late entry into the market, or perhaps ABC's programming,
but Louisvillians seem to prefer CBS, as seen by WLKY's upsurge after it got CBS. And it was and is no problem to access
WLKY on cable: just go up one channel (from 4 to 5). I will go to my grave believing that WHAS made a major mistake
dropping CBS.

Nashville is interesting for a different reason. After the 2/8 channel swap in 1973, many people there did not readjust their
antennas to bring in ABC on channel 2 so WKRN remains a perennial third. But WSMV (NBC) and WTVF (CBS) do not
conform to their networks' traditional audience patterns. WSMV is stronger the farther out one gets from Nashville (perhaps
because of WSM's long tradition of country music) and WTVF does best in Nashville and its suburbs, giving the lie (at least
in that market) to CBS as the "Country Broadcasting System," while more urban-oriented NBC does best in the countryside.


WTVF's newscasts and its midday talk show "Talk of the Town" are hardly "country," except when CMA week rolls around.
Then "TotT" interviews country-music stars. But you're more likely to be reminded of Nashville's days as a cultural center
if you watch that show.







i



nt reason, When they had the 2/8 channel swap in 1973, a lot of people did not adjust
their antennas
 
Growing up Dayton, Ohio, in the 1960s/early 70s, I don't ever remember not having all three networks. We also had a couple independent UHF stations in the area. Additionally, it wasn't that difficult to pick up Cincinnati stations, both (all three) network affiliates and independent channel 19.

In the early 60s, my Dad (who was a huge college basketball fan) invested in a Channel Master rotary/directional antenna system, and a tower to mount it on. We routinely watched stations in Columbus, Indianapolis, Louisville, Lexington, and Charleston; plus had some surprising one-offs where late at night we'd pick up stations significantly further away. When I was probably 8-9 years old, I remember my Dad waking me very late at night to show me a test pattern for a station in Texas. Also remember a station from Iowa.
 
Calhoun said:
Growing up Dayton, Ohio, in the 1960s/early 70s, I don't ever remember not having all three networks. We also had a couple independent UHF stations in the area. Additionally, it wasn't that difficult to pick up Cincinnati stations, both (all three) network affiliates and independent channel 19.

In the early 60s, my Dad (who was a huge college basketball fan) invested in a Channel Master rotary/directional antenna system, and a tower to mount it on. We routinely watched stations in Columbus, Indianapolis, Louisville, Lexington, and Charleston; plus had some surprising one-offs where late at night we'd pick up stations significantly further away. When I was probably 8-9 years old, I remember my Dad waking me very late at night to show me a test pattern for a station in Texas. Also remember a station from Iowa.
Click to expand...
You might recall that prior to 1968, the Dayton TV stations aired a patchwork quilt of shows from all 3 networks. WHIO was a mix of NBC and CBS; WLW-D was a mix of NBC and ABC, and WKEF got leftovers. That changed when WKTR-16 came on the air as an ABC affiliate (in a bizarre story)
 
bpatrick said:
Nashville is interesting for a different reason. After the 2/8 channel swap in 1973, many people there did not readjust their
antennas to bring in ABC on channel 2 so WKRN remains a perennial third. But WSMV (NBC) and

nt reason, When they had the 2/8 channel swap in 1973, a lot of people did not adjust
their antennas
Click to expand...
You didn't need too. IIRC (it's been 50 + years) according to a story in the Nashville Tennessan part of the swap the PBS station got almost FREE tower rights to the much taller channel 8 tower. Channel 2 was moved to the channel 8 tower. If you got channel 8 you didn't have to adjust you rabbit ears to get channel 2 once the dust settled.

It was supposed to be a "win win". The educational station got improved coverage from a much taller tower and GE (I believe they owned WSIX at this time) got a "low channel" 2 to battle with channels 4 & 5. Channels 4 & 5 were owned by Insurance companies so they were well funded and had excellent local newscasts for decades.
 
gr8oldies said:
You might recall that prior to 1968, the Dayton TV stations aired a patchwork quilt of shows from all 3 networks. WHIO was a mix of NBC and CBS; WLW-D was a mix of NBC and ABC, and WKEF got leftovers. That changed when WKTR-16 came on the air as an ABC affiliate (in a bizarre story)
Click to expand...
I remember a lot of intrigue with the three Dayton area independent UHF channels about that time....WKTR, WKEF, and Springfield's WSWO. WSWO folded when they tried, but failed to become the local ABC affiliate. They came back a few years later, but not for long as the then current owner got busted for using equipment pilfered from other stations.
 
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gr8oldies said:
You might recall that prior to 1968, the Dayton TV stations aired a patchwork quilt of shows from all 3 networks. WHIO was a mix of NBC and CBS; WLW-D was a mix of NBC and ABC, and WKEF got leftovers. That changed when WKTR-16 came on the air as an ABC affiliate (in a bizarre story)
Click to expand...

Said bizarre story:

History of UHF Television

uhfhistory.com uhfhistory.com
 
WSWO/Channel 26 also made waves when they showed "racy" movies late/overnight. I remember specifically seeing one of those movies that showed Brigitte Bardot vacuuming a home in the nude. Nothing explicit, mostly saw her from behind, but for the time, seeing even an out-of-focus butt was quite daring for US TV.

Pretty sure this was under the second ownership (Lane) when they went back on the air in the summer of 1972. I was sixteen at the time and working part-time, often getting home after midnight. Best guess it was that summer before I started school in the fall. As I recall, the stationed folded around Christmas after ~6 months back on the air.
 


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