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Worst Stations and Markets for Local TV

More on Peoria from Jokinjer1 on AVS Forum:

It's bad enough that some stations, such as WEEK & most Granite stations, have stopped at digital widescreen 480p as opposed to going full HD 1080i. But for WMBD, which is Peoria's most watched station overall, to still be broadcasting in 4:3 is just ridiculous. Even tiny KHQA is at least in digital widescreen (tiny WGEM is in HD). Nexstar gave the digital widescreen treatment to a few stations last year which would not be going HD just yet. WMBD didn't even get that upgrade. WMBD is far more profitable than some of the Nexstar stations which have been fully renovated over the past 3 years.

Yes, seeing WMBD still broadcasting in 4:3 angers me. But their policy of continuing to blatantly ignore viewers who complain is the straw that broke the camel's back for me. Not very many Peorians are complaining about WEEK & WMBD not being in HD, I'm one of only a handful because the others simply don't know what they're missing. In other markets, far more people have complained. However, WMBD does continue to get complaints related to their inability to show syndicated programming in HD. Every time there's a sports event broadcast in 4:3, they get dogged with complaints, and yet they never bother to respond to any of those complaints. I find their shunning inexcusably rude. It shows they don't operate in the interest of the viewer, nor do they give a crap. That's why WMBD and Nexstar have totally lost my support. At least WEEK will sometimes answer these complaints, though they are not always truthful or even professional.

And even though WMBD doesn't have a single Meteorologist with a CBM, AMS or NWA certification, as well as a horrible turnover rate, I still like them better than WEEK. Both stations are horrible for technical glitches and failures. But I'll have to watch WEEK when forced. Otherwise I'm thankful for access to superior neighboring stations.

The next person who wants to criticize me or call me an armchair manager (as "peoria555" did last July) better first look into what is happening at virtually every other tv market, and provide me with some real answers, instead of just copping-out that there's no money in Peoria. Peoria is not the poorest market in the nation. If Erie PA can do it TWICE, than so can Peoria. Some Terre Haute & South Bend IN, Youngstown OH, Carbondale IL stations have already converted a few years ago as well. BTW, "peoria555" never did answer me back on why almost every other market is there. Perhaps "peoria555", or any of the others who have criticized me over the years, could also tell me why Peoria is now the biggest market without an hd newscast. He mentioned he worked at WEEK & WMBD. But i guess it is possible to work at those 2 stations and only those 2 stations, which would therefore make somebody oblivious of the national trend.

http://www.avsforum.com/forum/45-lo...on/412347-peoria-il-hdtv-73.html#post31941921
 
Also from the AVS Forum, sebenste on Rockford:

While the 4 stations (not 3) are all in HD now up in the Rockford market, it's known that all the Rockford stations are up for sale to someone who will buy them. As one Chicago media person in the know once told me 3 or 4 years ago: it may not be terribly long before those stations become satellites of the Madison stations. I fully agree. The owners of the ABC/FOX affiliate up here are in bankruptcy, and even the roof of WTVO, our ABC affiliate, was in such poor shape that employees wondered if it was going to collapse. Seriously! Last winter, their tower was so unstable that they had to go off the air for a few days because it was in danger of collapsing into their studios and transmitter!

So, things aren't as rosy as you think they are up here. Furthermore, turnover is very high. After several years, a very good meteorologist was let go...simply because of salary, I am sure. Their news department has been cut beyond to the bone. And, we don't even have a PBS station up here!

I could see WMBD, WEEK, etc become satellites of the Champaign/Springfield market stations, and your market getting absorbed into that one, creating a huge central Illinois TV market, much like Birmingham, AL. While that wouldn't be fun, you'd finally get HD. BTW, Birmingham's ABC affiliate shut down 2 of their three full power transmitters last year to save money. Some people can't get them now except via satellite or cable.

The only thing that I can say is that market revenue is so bad, they cannot upgrade. Furthermore, they can't keep high-paid talent as a result. Finally, going HD would be too expensive for a small or cheap owner. Their return on investment would be too small, otherwise, they would certainly be in HD. And, more than likely, the company has told local management, to put it bluntly, to shut up or hand wave as best they can when the HD question is asked. If they lie, that is wrong, but if they are silent, the answer is "no, and we cannot tell you when...because we don't know either". I'm sure they all wish they were in HD. I'm 100% positive on that. Who doesn't want to look like a Mickey Mouse operation operating with 1990s equipment? But their company bosses higher up have said "no", and I'm sure they are pushing to have it done.

So, I say: don't pummel them hard. It stinks, I know. They likely have NO say in when they will be upgraded, though I am sure they have voiced their concerns, repeatedly. Instead, encourage them, when they get good talent, to pay to keep them. Having idiots in HD who couldn't write or tell a news story is infinitely worse than someone who can in 4:3 and 1990s cameras, switchers and editing equipment.

http://www.avsforum.com/forum/45-lo...on/412347-peoria-il-hdtv-73.html#post31981497
 
Lincoln-Grand Island-Hastings-Kearney can definitely be a cursed TV market as a whole in general.
Umm.....OK......I'll play along..... *Smirk*
The Lincoln area can get KMTV for CBS, WOWT for NBC, KETV for ABC and the now Sinclair controlled KXVO for CW and KPTM for FOX from Omaha over the air and on cable. While Grand Island and Hastings have KLKN on cable for ABC programming in addition to longtime ABC station NTV-KHGI.
First of all, you could've spared us the Wikipedia stuff (That is what Wikipedia is for)

Secondly, if you what you say is true, then WHY is it Lincoln has ITS OWN CBS affiliate (KOLN/KGIN) ??
My solutions to the Lincoln TV market in general:

Have NTV and KFXL combined their operations with KLKN, it would result in KLKN from Lincoln being ABC on it's DT1 digital channel while NTV as KHGI and KWNB from Kearney and Hayes Center being FOX on it's DT1 digital channel but still be able to carry both KLKN as ABC and NTV as KHGI/KWNB as FOX in full 16:9 widescreen HDTV on both stations. KLKN would relay NTV as a FOX stations on it's DT2 digital channel while NTV as KHGI and KWNB would relay KLKN as a ABC station on it's DT2 digital channel. Live Well Network would move over to a DT3 digital channel and could get shown in 16:9 widescreen SDTV over on both KLKN and NTV as KHGI and KWNB coming from KLKN. It is mainly to compete with the now Sinclair controlled KPTM from Omaha for FOX viewers in the Lincoln area. KLKN and NTV would still continue to air separate newscasts serving the areas KLKN and NTV always covered as they have been in the past. The downside to that is that what is the best of KFXL would get folded into their senior partner station in the LMA NTV as KHGI and KWNB with while what is left of KFXL possibly being picked up by 10/11 to air on their sister station KSNB 10/11 Central Nebraska and KNOP would have to shut down their own FOX station in order for NTV to still serve the North Platte area and as the FOX station in that area with KNOP being able to fully transmit 10/11 North Platte on it's DT2 digital channel with Gray taking control of KNOP and KNPL LD 10/11 North Platte with K11TW being known as KIIT going dark to make room for NTV carrying KHGI/KWNB FOX and KLKN ABC over on KHGI CD in North Platte.
I have an EVEN SIMPLER solution

KNOP keeps its Fox sister (I'm only an average viewer but as I understand it, this is what those in the industry would call A DUOPOLY) while the NTV network of stations SHUTS DOWN its Fox station since it's al ALL ABC shop statewide (Except for Omaha) anyway

Anyone else care to comment on this bit of COMMON SENSE - Feel free.....

Cheers & 73 :)
 
rying to make him crack up

I don't think that anyone's mentioned the old KZTV down in Corpus? I remember an ex-employee there telling me of a time when Gene Looper got so ticked at the director that during a commercial break he leaned into the camera, shot the director the bird, and was promptly punched up on air.

Ya, I heard it was a cameraman giving him a BA, trying to make him crack up. Switcher was fired, Looper was suspended 2 weeks, FCC fined kztv... Starting to wonder if this is just urban legend around the station or if, "Looper's Blooper" really happened.
 
kztv

I knew a reporter who applied at KZTV in Corpus as his first job out of UT in the early 90s. He was at the station and getting a tour/interview. They told him they didn't have medical insurance because the "employees didn't want it." He thought that was weird. The news director left him in the lobby to fill out his paperwork, he was alone sitting there when the receptionist (a little old lady) came up to him and whispered "don't come to work here." She said "did they tell you we didn't want health insurance?" He nodded yes. She said "we've been begging for insurance for years and they won't give it to us." My friend put down the paperwork and just walked out without speaking to anyone and drove back home to Austin. When he got back to his apartment the phone was ringing, it was the news director at KZTV wanting to know what happened to him and if he still wanted the job!
 
Here are some more examples of cursed stations:

WNEG/WUGA Toccoa GA (was a semi-satellite of WSPA CBS, then an indie owned by the University of Georgia, now a noncommercial station airing GPB Knowledge programs)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WUGA-TV

From the "Non-Commercial to Commercial TV Stations" thread:

Another in the other direction: WNEG/channel 32 in Toccoa GA (Greenville/Spartanburg/Anderson S C/Asheville N C DMA) started out as an independent ion 1984. It became a CBS affiliate in 1995 controlled by WSPA in Spartanburg for the benefit of those who couldn't get Atlanta's WGNX (now WGCL), which switched to CBS after WAGA switched to Fox. In 2008, owner Media General sold WNEG to the of Georgia in Athens as a media training facility and the station reverted to independent status (running some shows from America One). In 2011, WNEG changed calls to WUGA and became a PBS station, rebroadcasting Georgia Public Broadcasting's World subchannel and moved broadcasting facilities to Athens. It still has Toccoa as its city of license.

I saw on RabbitEars that WUGA is being handed over to Marquee Broadcasting. I Googled that and found out they own WMDT (ABC) Salisbury MD. Is Marquee about to turn WUGA back to a commercial station?

Crossposted to Atlanta TV board
 
Many PAX/ION stations just barely reach their intended audience, due to their transmitters being placed 30-50 miles from the main population center.

WUPX Morehead/Lexington – transmitter atop McCausey Ridge (was a satellite of UPN station WBLU-LP)

WBLU-LP was itself a cursed station. At one point it was both the UPN and WB affiliate for Lexington, but was never carried on cable and was plagued by signal problems. It went dark in 2008 and its license was canceled in 2010.

Before then, Channel 62 in Lexington was home to full-power station WLKT, which too was cursed. It went on the air in 1989 after a long legal battle, only to go dark in June 1990.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WBLU-LP
 
Bay News 9 and News 13 in Tampa and Orlando :(, respectively, may be cursed in the coming months, BECAUSE BHN was acquired to CHARTER!!! :mad:
 
"KVVV Channel 16 Galveston-Houston. It only lasted about a year in 1968-69. One of their featured personalities was "No-No the Clown."

KVVV was mismanaged and doomed from the get-go because nobody knew how to sell its air time. Nobody. It was losing money from its first day to its last. The program they hoped would be the big rainmaker was the Stock Market Observer, a live running analysis of the stock market from open to close every day. They hoped to sell it to the big companies in the DJ 30 and other local big companies, but it didn't work. I was one of three people doing that program every day, and even though I had only been there about five months, I was one of the first to get laid off.

You may be interested to know that No-No the Clown was a highly popular program. No-No was a guy named Ralph Ehntholt, one of the most sweet natured and thoughtful men I've ever known. Kids and everybody who knew him adored him. After KVVV went dark he made his living as a professional special events clown around the Houston area. He passed away in 2001. His son Ralph Ehntholt Jr is a professor in the Theatre Department at San Jacinto College South, and he's active in the Houston live theater community.
 
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they [KPXM] do have a CP to move to Shoreview at the "AntennaFarm" (where the other stations are)

But they have yet to build it - I think the FCC still has a freeze on transmitter moves. And even if it is built, it would deliver a marginal signal at best to COL St Cloud.
http://www.rabbitears.info/contour.php?appid=1490810&map=Y

I also think Paxson wanted KVBM/KSTC for their network because it covered more of the Twin Cities metro but they were outbid by Hubbard, who formed a duopoly with KSTP.
 
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The permit for the KPXM move expired earlier this month. They will not be moving any time soon.

- Trip
 
The permit for the KPXM move expired earlier this month. They will not be moving any time soon.

- Trip

This is similar to what happened with WJAL Hagerstown MD. Entravision wanted to move WJAL to Silver Spring so they could get Washington metro coverage. The FCC denied the move and cited the National Broadband Plan.

...even if we were inclined to overlook the procedural irregularities of Entravision’s new proposal and waive the freeze on the filing of petitions for rulemaking by television stations to change their community of license, the Commission’s priorities no longer support such an action. Pursuant to the recommendations made in the National Broadband Plan, the Commission has initiated a rulemaking proceeding to consider voluntary incentive auctions, which could result in the reallocation of up to 120 MHz from the television broadcast band for mobile broadband use, as well as methodologies for repacking full-power television channels to increase efficiency. Allowing Entravision to move a digital station into a top ten television market runs counter to these policy goals.

https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-12-363A1.pdf

Maybe the Broadband Plan was the reason KPXM didn't move to Shoreview.
 
More Defunct Central Indiana Stations

Another one from Indiana was WTAF-TV 31 Marion, a miniscule independent that lasted from 1962 to 1969. It was essentially what would be a Class A station today (about 30 kW ERP, IIRC) that rebroadcast quite a bit of WTTV's schedule but had some of its own programming as well.

There was a CP issued in 1970 to resurrect it as WSFO-TV on Channel 23 (the channel allocations for several cities in Indiana and Illinois had been shuffled around during the time WTAF was on the air - Marion went from 31 to 23), but it never went back on the air until WMCC started up in 1984.

I don't know if WMCC (now WNDY) used the same CP and/or license as WTAF-TV. I'm guessing that the license was turned in and the call letters were deleted, since the call letters ended up on what had been WIBF-TV Channel 29 in Philly almost immediately after Channel 31 left the air in 1969.

Others I recently discovered, thanks to the new UHFTelevision.com and some research on David Eduardo's site, are:

WWHB 3 Indianapolis was owned by the Wm H. Block department stores, and was a pre-freeze CP that never made it to air.

WJRE 26 Indianapolis was a never-built CP from 1953.

WCBC-TV 26 Anderson apparently operated as an independent, and had a news director named Morton Crim (that Mort Crim?), from 1/28/58 to 3/20/59. Its original CP was for Channel 61, assigned on 2/2/55, and moved to 26 when the allocation table was changed on 11/7/57. In that switch, 26 went from Indy to Anderson, 61 Anderson was deleted, and 39 was assigned to Indy. The 61 allocation was later moved to Muncie, but never used. Channel 26 was later assigned to Terre Haute for noncomm use (see below).

WMRI-TV 29 Marion IN was an unbuilt CP in 1953.

WISU-TV 36 Terre Haute was owned by Indiana State University in the mid '60s, but they never built it. It was reissued in the '80s on Channel 26, but again, it was never built.

WACH-TV 43 Richmond was issued in 1967 but never built. I don't know if it was used later to build the TBN station there.

WRAY-TV 52 Princeton was an independent that lasted a few months from December '53 to July '54. From what I understand, the license and CP were never turned in, and were used to build WVUT Channel 22 in Vincennes 15 years later.

WAAC-TV 66 Terre Haute was a late '60s CP (per the Vane Jones guide) that later was used to build WIIL-TV 38.

WNES 67 Indianapolis was an unbuilt CP from 1953.

WAIV-TV 67 Anderson was an unbuilt CP from 1968.
 
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Wow, some pics from the color era as KVFD-TV! I wrote the article about KQTV / KVFD-TV that K.M.Richards put up recently on his UHF Television site, with many pics from the Webster Co. Historical Society. All of those pics are black and white. I'm guessing the pictures here are from Matt Breen's personal collection. I may have to get in touch with him to see if they can be included on the UHF Television site.
 
In the summer of 1969 my family moved to Dallas. There was KFWT Channel 21 that had a part time schedule. Moving from Kansas City, it was just way too hot to go outside so I'd frequently watch the Afternoon Movie. I was amazed at the light commercial load. It was the same every time. The station came on at 4 on weekday afternoons. The movie would start after the intro. At 4:30, the movie would suddenly stop and they'd show an ID frame a few seconds. The same happened at 5:30. At 5, however, you got the 'we'll return after these messages'. There was a very short ad, a single frame of a single item on sale at Buddy's Supermarket...I'm guessing 5 seconds, then the ID and 'back to the movie. Most of their syndicated shows were not the popular stuff. I recall one of the shows was "Hazel".

They didn't last long, no local news and nothing but elementary production. They had a beautiful music FM, KFWT, that stayed on morphing to KFWD as a Quad Beautiful Music station before going top 40 and eventually to the legendary AOR KTXQ.

There was a small market TV station I was told about but never saw. A guy I worked with at a radio station had worked for them. It seems that to get the cable company to carry them they had to do more than the 2 hours they were on each night. That's when he got there as his first broadcast job. He said they had a room with a cart machine, small mixer and a turntable. He was to do the morning shift, call it radio on TV. He said the IDs had a small logo saying "music provided by" and the logo of the music store

It seems they had a trade out for the top 40 hits from one music store and his job was to play commercials and songs, give frequent time and temperature. He was to pick up the big city newspaper and rewrite a few top stories for the news. He got the weather off cable TV before he left his apartment.

It seems all the ads were frames. In other words they had a couple of cameras in front of copy holders and a toggle switch. If the ad had multiple frames, he set the next frame on the other copy holder and switched to the other camera. That was how they did IDs as well. Never worked TV but the 'frame' I mention was a a smaller than 8 1/2 by 11 page and in full color. They were all held in a notebook in plastic sleeves from what he said. He thought a printer might have made those.

It seems during the midday and overnight the station had a digital clock and thermometer that was on the screen with the ID. After school got out kids played records until the evening programming began at 7.

He got to do sales during the day. He said the spots were $1 each. He said they charged more in the 7 to 9 time frame but the station had virtually no viewers. He quit as his paychecks began bouncing each pay period.

I cannot recall the TV station or the market but I'm thinking it might have been a LPTV, an early one.

In fact what got him talking about that was we worked together in Eagle Pass, Texas and the cable system there (owned by the LBJ family) had a local access channel that had kids playing records very much like what he experienced.

In fact, when LPTV came about, there was a LPTV this couple put on in a town of about 800. I was curious enough to call them and talked to the wife. I'm guessing a few thousand could tune in the channel. It seems they were all local programming. If a Church wanted their service on the air, they had a company that charged to go tape it and it seems they had a number of people that videotaped for a fee (guessing VHS). The station had tapes of parades, Church services and even stuff like family reunions and school events all non-stop. Don't know how long that lasted but she said they had a good number of viewers and frequently got requests to repeat shows (they took requests). Whatever their bills were, the lady said they covered them plus a little more. That stuck in my head...all local TV in a tiny town. I think the lady said the station was in their house.
 
WAAC-TV 66 Terre Haute was a late '60s CP (per the Vane Jones guide) that later was used to build WIIL-TV 38.

You just stumbled across the reason I rarely used the Vane Jones books in the research for the UHF History site, Keith. Where unbuilt stations were concerned, they fudged their listings and did not always guess right. (The UHF site grew out of my researching and fixing the station list which is now the "Channels" section, when it was part of Clarke's DuMont Network site. That list was based upon an article which was entirely researched with the Jones books ... and was riddled with errors as a result.)

Here's what happened in Terre Haute, and perhaps this will explain why that station isn't in the list.

WAAC filed for channel 66 in 1968, and found themselves in a comparative hearing with a second applicant. In late 1971, the two parties merged and dismissed one of the applications and the FCC assigned the CP to the merged entity. About a year later, the Commission acted on a rulemaking petition that had been submitted during the hearings, substituting channel 38 for channel 66 in Terre Haute. It wasn't until that rulemaking was being finalized that the call letters for the CP (now on 38)were finally requested ... WIIL-TV.

So, there was never a WAAC-TV call letter assignment on either channel and the WIIL-TV calls were assigned on channel 38, where the station was indeed constructed.

Jones apparently jumped the gun when the CP was issued and called it WAAC-TV based on the existing radio station ... but got it wrong as a result.

When I did my research, which was largely going through the notices of record in Broadcasting issue by issue, I created a humungous Excel file to track everything. I created a separate entry for each new application, then went back and added CP grant date and call letter assignment as they came along later, deleting entries for withdrawn or rejected applications, and adding first on-air dates. From there, only stations which subsequently went dark have any further notes. So WIIL-TV does appear in my notes but because it did make it to air it doesn't appear on the site's list of unbuilt CPs.

WACH-TV 43 Richmond was issued in 1967 but never built. I don't know if it was used later to build the TBN station there.

My notes say the CP for WKOI was issued from a new application, in 1980, so no.

WRAY-TV 52 Princeton was an independent that lasted a few months from December '53 to July '54. From what I understand, the license and CP were never turned in, and were used to build WVUT Channel 22 in Vincennes 15 years later.

I have a specific note that the WRAY-TV CP was surrendered in February, 1961. The WVUT CP was granted in 1966.
 
I wrote the article about KQTV / KVFD-TV that K.M.Richards put up recently on his UHF Television site, with many pics from the Webster Co. Historical Society.

I have to keep saying this, because the whole basis of the UHF History site is to correct many misconceptions that came about over the years because of people presuming timelines and actions.

The site is not mine. It belongs to my friend and colleague Clarke Ingram, who developed the idea out of the list of defunct UHF stations and unbuilt UHF construction permits that had appeared on his DuMont Network website. I did the site design, I wrote several articles for the new site, I edited and added content to others, and at Clarke's request I act as the content coordinator for UHFTelevision.com ...

... but it's not "my" site. It's Clarke's. :)
 
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