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WHYY-12 not serving Delaware thread

Scott Fybush said:
Note that we're seeing CBS and ABC signing some deals to get into new small markets via DTV subchannels (Elmira's WENY-36.2 for CBS, for instance, or Macon's WGXA-16.2 for ABC), but NBC doesn't seem to have any interest in playing that game. The only new NBC affiliate I can think of in recent years is WNBW-DT in Gainesville, Florida, and that's a significantly larger and faster-growing market than Salisbury/Dover.
Click to expand...

Gainesville (161) is smaller than Salisbury (148).

One of the biggest obstacles to a Salisbury NBC has been Hearst WBAL. Technically the City of License of Baltimore is the closest as the crow flies to Dover and Salisbury, than is Philadelphia or Washington DC. Therefore it bests WCAU and WRC, and the closest NBC affiliate is WBAL, and is the the NBC station that is carried on Fios, and available on every Comcast system in the market. There is a Fox station on a digital subchannel, and WRDE-LP which has MyNetwork affiliation. However, NBC affiliation isn't up for grabs so easily while Hearst claims the region. If a local operation like WRDE-LP got the NBC affiliation, it'd bounce WBAL off the lineup. I think Hearst has some clout, as they could flip some NBC stations to ABC. The Comcast-NBC deal could likely start the idea of a cable-only NBC but I think Fios should be permitted to still carry WBAL then, and Dish and DirecTV offer WNBC via distant networks. Either way, it wouldn't been DE specific or even DelMarVa specific, just a Comcast offering NBC, selling ad time and keeping the local ad revenue of it.
 
I think the idea of a Delaware NBC 40 sounds nice at first. But having recently watched WMGM on Dish Network, I've spent quite some timing observing the small market station and newscast. I think you'd get a headache quite quickly with the low budget commercials. The news is better than the commercials, but non newsworthy news in the newscasts and ithere is an overall real low budget in look compared to the big 4 and WFMZ.

Anytime I need information from the Atlantic City area (like new gains to the ACY airport, etc.), I always find more info from the Press of Atlantic City newspaper (and its website) than from WMGM TV 40 news. Perhaps its my observance. But I'd say the newspaper is of more use to the region than the sole TV station. My opinion.

And forcing WHYY to do DE News might not be ideal. How many people in NJ really watch NJN News? I haven't seen other state PBS newscasts, but the NJN news format is quite dated imo.

I do think a cable news channel or something like an independent like WFMZ could do a better job and provide an alternate to the newspaper, but irregardless I think the newspapers can fill the void. If its a truly breaking story, the big 4 from Philly cover it LIVE, something WMGM can't even afford to it for its region.
 
On as the crow flies distance, I wanted to add:

Seaford, DE to Baltimore, MD (crow flying distance): 70 miles; to Washington DC 78 miles; to Philadelphia, PA: 97 miles
Reheboth Beach, DE to Baltimore: 92 miles; to Washington DC : 105 miles; to Philadelphia, 89 miles. (Philly bests Baltimore here)
Ocean City, MD to Baltimore: 106 miles; to Washington DC: 113 miles; to Philadelphia, to Philadelphia, 112 miles.
Salisbury to Baltimore: 85 miles; to Washington DC: 86 miles; to Philadelphia, 115 miles.

While Baltimore is the nearest city in most points, it's well over 60 miles from almost all of the DMA, so that area definitely warrants an OTA NBC broadcast station.

I think WRDE-LP with its MyNetwork and Retro TV Network affiliation, would have wanted NBC.
There are a number of big 4 LP stations across the country like Weigel's WBND-LP in South Bend, IN.
The larger station group Hearst from Baltimore might be the source of blockage however. Sad though given that Baltimore does only MD news and nothing of DE, but atleast the DelMarVa stations (the ABC and CBS station) don't have to worry about local competition from another station.

The Comcast-NBC deal doesn't bode well for another NBC affiliate in that region, except for maybe Comcast cable-only, but that wouldnt' be DE specific. If WRDE didn't get the opportunity before, it's likely unlikely it'll be getting it now.
 
ding12 said:
I think the idea of a Delaware NBC 40 sounds nice at first. But having recently watched WMGM on Dish Network, I've spent quite some timing observing the small market station and newscast. I think you'd get a headache quite quickly with the low budget commercials. The news is better than the commercials, but non newsworthy news in the newscasts and ithere is an overall real low budget in look compared to the big 4 and WFMZ.

Anytime I need information from the Atlantic City area (like new gains to the ACY airport, etc.), I always find more info from the Press of Atlantic City newspaper (and its website) than from WMGM TV 40 news. Perhaps its my observance. But I'd say the newspaper is of more use to the region than the sole TV station. My opinion.

And forcing WHYY to do DE News might not be ideal. How many people in NJ really watch NJN News? I haven't seen other state PBS newscasts, but the NJN news format is quite dated imo.

I do think a cable news channel or something like an independent like WFMZ could do a better job and provide an alternate to the newspaper, but irregardless I think the newspapers can fill the void. If its a truly breaking story, the big 4 from Philly cover it LIVE, something WMGM can't even afford to it for its region.
Click to expand...

At least that small station in Atlantic City did a newscast last night after the football game. WCAU did not. They ran sports until SNL. I lived in NJ for 30 years and really never watched NJN News. Action News and the rest of the other Philly stations cover what is happening in the tri county South Jersey area pretty well. The big 4 Philly stations also cover Trenton politics as well as PA.
 
It would be interesting to see if another organization existed with funding and interest in serving DE with news, could start a joint venture with Comcast to start a cable news channel for the state.

It could be much like a Cablevision News 12 channel.

Since CSN-Philly will eventually be made to satellite, and Fios has DE coverage in every county, Comcast will need to put effort here and there to keep customers, so leaving bandwith for a local service like that could have warrant.
 
Well, if the situation on Long Island, NY, is any indication, I don't think Comcast will worry about Fios breathing down its neck as far as a local news channel serving Delaware is concerned.

Here is a review of the new "Fios 1" news channel from Verizon Fios on their Long Island systems:
http://boards.radio-info.com/smf/index.php?topic=156220.0

(While there's only one reply to the topic, there's almost 1,400 views as of this post. I wonder where all of those hits are coming from... maybe other Fios subscribers who think the "Fios 1" channel is a joke when it comes to "local" news?)
 
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