TV stations of the 70's

[Bandit3 the Worker]

I grew up in Highland Heights KY in the '70s and '80s, and most of our TV stations were in Cincinnati, unfortunately. I remember having 5 stations that usually came in clearly - NBC, CBS, ABC, PBS, and an independent. Then we got another PBS and later another independent.

The Cincinnati stations were so loaded with preemptions that we often had to pull in a snowy signal on a Dayton station.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

I remember Channel 5 preempting 'Diff'rent Strokes' for 'The Billy Graham Crusade'. Also, there was a long period when Channel 12 wouldn't show 'New Year's Rockin' Eve' because it was considered too daring for Cincinnati. Instead they showed the local New Year's "party" that consisted of about 3 people standing on Fountain Square drinking Diet Coke.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

One of my big interests was radio. There's always been a real lack of data about what stations are heard in rural counties.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

It's ridiculous for Staunton to be in the Richmond DMA.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

It's ridiculous for Staunton to be in the Richmond DMA.

Counties can change DMAs.  Neilsen redraws the lines every year, based on which market's TV stations are most watched in the county.  Last I checked (my DMA shapefiles are from at least 2010, and it's difficult to find new ones), Staunton is in the Harrisonburg DMA.  But if Richmond stations were more watched than Harrisonburg or Charlottesville stations in the 80s, it very well could have been in the Richmond DMA in earlier years.  Especially when there was less cable penetration and people had more of a choice in local stations than what their cable company gives them.  That is especially true if a small market like Harrisonburg only had one or two stations and more people watched the network programming from Richmond, which had all network stations and probably some independents.

I imagine it would be pretty hard to pick up the Richmond stations in Staunton without cable.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Maybe Fallon County is heavily Mormon, so they chose to rebroadcast Salt Lake City. Or maybe it's just very conservative, so they wanted to rebroadcast stations from a conservative market. (The NBC affiliate in Salt Lake City refused to air 'Saturday Night Live' for years.)

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Some markets were designed to be all-UHF to get people to buy TV sets that had UHF. One example of this is Lexington. I think Peoria might be another.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Channels 5, 9, and 12 in Cincinnati were originally 4, 7, and 11. I saw a TV special that said the stations were moved to different channels because they interfered with each other. If you were watching one channel, it would interfere with your neighbor's TV that was on a different channel.