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Worst TV stations ever

Quote:Small Market: Augusta, GA #115 WAGT-TV 26 (NBC) from 1980s-1995 when at the time it was known as 26 Power. But they didn't have newscasts until 1995.

Someone who lived in the Augusta market told me that at one time (I think in the late 60's or early 70's)they played music (records!) while sitting on a slide during many breaks. They hadn't sold the time. Actually, that may have been a welcome respite from commercials but still....it shows how bad off they were.
 
WTVY 4 (CBS) / Dothan, Ala. (pre-1998)
Launched and for years owned by perennial fringe presidential candidate and disfigured war hero Charles Woods. The first station in the South to go 24/7 (early '70s), but aside from that it was defined by two personalities: Farm director Gene Ragan, who for decades hosted the noon farm report. The opening theme and set were practically unchanged from the '60s -- same recorded theme and V/O, and same wood-paneling background and desk mic. This was the case well into the '90s, until after Woods lost the station amidst financial difficulties.

Then there was RED HOLLAND, who hosted a weekend hunting/fishing show Outdoors With Red, and his weekday early-morning show Good Morning Tri-States was a spectacle of bad television. Red didn't talk, he SCREAMED. Imagine Crazy Eddie with a "John Deere" cap and a redneck accent. Did most all sponsors' commercials himself. And the rural trailer-dwellin' folk worshipped him.

WTVY's graphics were pathetic -- just two (2) fonts. Picture wasn't very crisp, and audio was muffled.

When WTVY transferred to new ownership late in 1997, their first order of business was to axe Red.
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I used to watch WTVY. It was the first 24-hour station in the area and ran old Warner Bros. movies and cartoons in the wee hours back in the 70s. That was one of its good points.
Aside from straw-hatted Gene Ragan and screaming good-ol'-boy Red Holland (we used to call him "Red Hollerin'") one of the station's longest lasting personalities was morning show host Ann Varnum, who wore the worst wigs this side of Sam Donaldson. And station owner Charles Woods would make occasional appearances - a plane crash in WW2 left him minus his hair, ears, and an eye.
The commercials - aside from those featuring Red, there were the spots from King Furniture featuring the owner's son Howard King. He would be up in the loft of the store's stockroom, or sitting on a stack of mattresses, and his dad yelled "Hey Howard, whatcha doin' up there?" and Howard would go into his spiel he read off cue cards. At the end, a shot of a $20 bill with a superimposed Clutch Cargo mouth saying "A $20 bill free if you can find anyone who beats our prices!"

However, the worst show they ran (I think it ran on both WTVY and WDHN) was probably "Fort Rock" - an attempt at a religious kids' show. The cast consisted of three or four rednecky guys wearing camo uniforms with "God's Army" on the name patches. To diversify the cast, they added Rufus... a hand puppet of a black man, speaking in an Amos-&-Andy dialect. I kid you not. The production values were as horrid as that stereotype. And this aired in the mid-late 80s!

After Gray Television bought WTVY, things weren't the same.
 
Current TV makes the list!!!!!!!!

and

any Religious, Shopping Channel, MSLSD, CNN like left wing propaganda station I have to have as part of a cable package. Oh that's right that is why I refuse to get Cable! I told them A la Carte or stick it where the sun doesn't shine ::) They used to call me to get their U-Verse package, I asked is it A La Carte? No. Well, you can stick it where the sun don't shine, and don't call me back ever until you start offering A la Carte. I would pay anything to pay for only the channels I want!!!
 
willdav713 said:
Current TV makes the list!!!!!!!!

and

any Religious, Shopping Channel, MSLSD, CNN like left wing propaganda station I have to have as part of a cable package. Oh that's right that is why I refuse to get Cable! I told them A la Carte or stick it where the sun doesn't shine ::) They used to call me to get their U-Verse package, I asked is it A La Carte? No. Well, you can stick it where the sun don't shine, and don't call me back ever until you start offering A la Carte. I would pay anything to pay for only the channels I want!!!
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Did you really have to bring politics into this thread? Besides, these are cable networks, not OVER-THE-AIR television stations, which is the subject.
 
Yeah, a thread made 7 years ago and you try and put political stuff in it.

This one (KGNS Laredo in 1980, with a bearded weatherman!):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqNpC-6gvbU&feature=player_embedded#!
 
I thought Laredo lost its ABC affiliate when Ch. 27 switched
to a Spanish-language format in the early '80s. Also, I'm
thinking KRGV/5 in the LRGV switched from NBC to ABC in the
mid-'70s (it was an ABC affiliate when I moved to Texas in '76)
and that KGBT/4 split CBS and NBC until KVEO/23 came on and
took the NBC affiliation.

Anyway, "the best of two networks" reminds me of WTVD's
slogan, "The best of the two best," during the period 1962-71
when it carried both CBS and NBC. However, I don't now and
never have thought WTVD should be on this list; it's just the
similarity of the slogans that got my attention.
 
Ultimajock said:
...I kinda hate to say it, since they did run Bob Luce's pro wrestling show as a Monday-thru-Friday late nite Carson competitor in the mid-'70s, but WSNS/44 Chicago in its English-language incarnation of the late '70s-early '80s. The KCOP of the Windy City...
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Wow, really. We had only 4 stations in Peoria through 1981. Cable tv beamed in WGN 9 and WSNS 44 Chicago and as a kid I often found 44's shows to be more interesting to me. WSNS was replaced when they went to ONTV I think. WSNS's replacement WFLD was good too. I was upset when we lost WFLD for TBS! I wasn't interested in high quality graphics and so on, just the programs I liked. I remember Bob Luce wrestling too.
 
Joseph_Gallant said:
Channel 68 must be somehow cursed; the station seems to have been nothing but a problem for the five owners the station has had (Boston Heritage Broadcasting 1978-1983; Arlington Communications 1983-87; Christian Science Monitor 1987-1993; Boston University 1993-1999, and Paxson Communications since 1999) in its history.
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I don't think they were cursed under Boston University - they had the Red Sox and picked up the CBS Morning News in the fading days of WHDH 7 as a CBS affiliate. Monitor TV seemed to be highly underfunded, however.

My nomination would have to be WNDS-50 out of Derry New Hampshire. Christmas and holiday programming was a highlight - shows like "Magic of Christmas" with B-list stars, another with something about a trucker having to be home for Christmas Eve and stuff that looked like it was filmed with one camera in Branson. When they ran news the set had a plant on each side of a desk.
 
Willdav713 repeats, "I would say Current-TV always makes my list of the Worst TV station!"

We heard you the first time...

And undoubtedly, given their declining ratings especially among 49-and-younger viewers, there are many who find Fox "News" at least equally unwatchable, ludicrously over-the-top in its partisanship, or both.

But through most of this thread the discussion has been about local, OTA stations.
 
Bob1370 said:
Willdav713 repeats, "I would say Current-TV always makes my list of the Worst TV station!"
We heard you the first time...
Click to expand...
Given that his previous posting was a few months ago, I would cut him some slack on that one. He probably forgot about posting it. (Still, I would have checked before posting it again.)

Yesterday, something from seven years ago drew a new reply! Geez, aren't old threads ever allowed to EXPIRE around here? :mad:
 
Bob1370 said:
Willdav713 repeats, "I would say Current-TV always makes my list of the Worst TV station!"

We heard you the first time...

And undoubtedly, given their declining ratings especially among 49-and-younger viewers, there are many who find Fox "News" at least equally unwatchable, ludicrously over-the-top in its partisanship, or both.

But through most of this thread the discussion has been about local, OTA stations.
Click to expand...

If it said it many months ago, it is hard to keep track because I post on these boards really frequently since Radio and TV are some of my interests.

Second, if this discussion was titled Worst OTA TV stations ever, I wouldn't have posted it since it is Cable TV station forced down my throat because A La Carte is like a dirty word to the cable companies. I would also include the Disney Channel of Today from 1995-on wards , because the Disney channel back then as subscription only was so much better.

The OP was specific in their Subject. When the OP says TV stations, I assume anything that can be picked up on a Television (TV) channel.

With that I add, Disney, TV Land, Nickelodeon, and Cartoon Network (now vs. first launch) to the list. Make that TV networks running on a station. No partisanship on those.
 
Willdav:

A TV station isnt "Forced" down your throat if you don't tune it in..You are the only one that offered a "Cable channel " as a worst TV station..That means that everyone else took this thread for what it was meant for..OTA TV..
 


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