TV stations of the 70's

[jimrtex]

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

Now that I think about it, when I was little, we listened to the radio to learn about school snow days.  It probably wouldn't be very accurate, but it might have been possible, once upon a time, to determine a radio station's reach based on which school superintendents called in to them.

The 50,000 watt stations reach a long way.  KOMA (in OKC), a rock n'roll station, used to announce bands appearing all over the Plains, up in to Nebraska.  KOA (Denver) would broadcast the livestock report at 6 am or whenever farmers woke up.  One memorable occasion a new announcer reported the price of heifers, which he pronounced as heefers.

When I was a boy, we didn't have snow days. 

[jimrtex]

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

Probably.  Richmond is about 95 miles away.  But it depends on a lot of factors, like where the Richmond TV stations' transmitters were, how strong and high up they are, and, perhaps most importantly, whether the Richmond stations had translator or satellite stations in or near Staunton.  In the old days, there were more translators broadcasting far-away signals to places where you otherwise wouldn't get any signal than there are today.

The bulk of the population in Sullivan County, New York is about 75 miles away from Manhattan, yet it is in the NYC DMA.  In the old days, some of the NYC stations had translators to bring the signal there.  They don't now, but with cable and satellite penetration rates as high as they are, there is no need to.  Much of Northern Nevada is in the Reno DMA despite Reno being hundreds of miles away.  The Reno stations still have translators in many Northern Nevada counties to bring their OTA signal there.

One of the early Cable TV systems was built in Casper, WY by Bill Daniels.   While traveling through Denver in 1952 he saw television for the first time and was amazed to see a boxing match from New York.  He figured out how to use microwave to transmit the TV signal 200 miles.  At times, his systems purported to let viewers vote on which programs they watched, but were apparently faked.

KREX, KREY, and KREZ on the Western Slope of Colorado in Grand Junction, Montrose, and Durango, respectively, used to broadcast programming from all networks, and only stopped when other local stations were built.

[jimrtex]

Since stations from Canada and Mexico spill over the border, does that mean some sort of allocation system was pre-negotiated between the FCC and its counterparts?

Yes (although technically the agreement was pre-negotiated between the State Department and its Canadian counterpart, not the FCC).  The U.S.-Canada agreement is available online here.

Annex VI is interesting.  For some reason, I didn't expect the treaty to be quite that specific.  I just assumed all that would be worked out administratively.

They may have been playing catchup with existing practice.   Notice on the Canadian section the number of specific provisions protecting stations on the USA side of the border, such as power and directional limitations.

The Canadian allocation may reflect different social values, with a broad swath of single stations.

There was a 3-year freeze in VHF licenses in the early 1950s, which was probably triggered by somewhat haphazard assignment of channels.  There is some interference between adjacent channels, so that they can't be assigned in the city of nearby.   Channels 4/5 and 6/7 aren't adjacent, so you can have 7 stations in an area: 2, 4, 5 or 6, 7, 9, 11, 13.   New York City had 7 which produced an area nearby that could not have VHF stations.

Philadelphia could use the adjacent channels, 3, 5 or 6, 8, 10, 12.  But that might cause problems for Scranton or Allentown.

If you look at the treaty allocation for Ohio, they have 14 stations, with two channels duplicated.  Cincinnati and Cleveland in opposite corners shared channel 5, and Steubenville and Cincinnati shared channel 9.

If you were working with paper maps and a compass, it might be easier to work out a statewide allocation, and then fit them together.   So the Toledo, Dayton, Cincinnati channels would have to fit with the Michigan, Indiana, and Kentucky maps.   Columbus and Indianapolis are apparently far enough apart to share channel 6.

Michigan appears to have a double set, but that is because you can allocate stations in the UP and upper LP.  But if Michigan were considered an outer edge similar to Florida, it would likely interfere with Canadian stations.

The FCC tried to push UHF to add channels, but that in general was not commercially viable, since it required specific antennas and tuning in receivers.  Networks would avoid the UHF stations, who as independents would have to scramble for content, which would produce less viewership, which would reduce advertising, which would mean scrimping on things like local news, which would attract fewer viewers, who would be even less inclined to get the necessary receivers.  Most of the UHF licensees went off the air.

The exception were areas where they couldn't have any UHF stations, and networks if they wanted access would use a VHF station, and viewers if they wanted to watch would get the required equipment.

[jimrtex]

TEXAS
DALLAS and FORT WORTH.  ABC:  8 (Dallas, TX).  CBS:  4 (Dallas, TX).  NBC:  5 (Fort Worth, TX).  IND:  11 (Fort Worth, TX), 39 (Dallas, TX).
CORSICANA and GREENVILLE.  ABC:  8 (Dallas, TX).  CBS:  4 (Dallas, TX).  NBC:  5 (Fort Worth, TX).  IND:  11 (Fort Worth, TX).
PARIS and SHERMAN.  ABC:  8 (Dallas, TX).  CBS:  4 (Dallas, TX), 12 (Ardmore, OK).  NBC:  5 (Fort Worth, TX).  IND:  11 (Fort Worth, TX).
PALESTINE.  ABC:  7 (Tyler, TX), 8 (Dallas, TX).  CBS:  4 (Dallas, TX).  NBC:  5 (Fort Worth, TX).  IND:  11 (Fort Worth, TX).
TYLER.  ABC:  3 (Shreveport, LA), 7 (Tyler, TX).  CBS:  4 (Dallas, TX), 12 (Shreveport, LA).  IND:  11 (Fort Worth, TX).
MARSHALL, MOUNT PLEASANT, and TEXARKANA.  ABC:  3 (Shreveport, LA).  CBS:  12 (Shreveport, LA).  NBC:  6 (Shreveport, LA).
LONGVIEW.  ABC:  3 (Shreveport, LA), 7 (Tyler, TX).  CBS:  12 (Shreveport, LA).  NBC:  6 (Shreveport, LA).
NACOGDOCHES.  ABC:  3 (Shreveport, LA), 9 (Lufkin, TX).  CBS:  12 (Shreveport, LA).  IND:  11 (Fort Worth, TX).
JACKSONVILLE.  ABC:  3 (Shreveport, LA), 7 (Tyler, TX), 9 (Lufkin, TX).
LUFKIN.  ABC:  9 (Lufkin, TX).
WACO.  ABC:  8 (Dallas, TX), 10 (Waco, TX).  CBS:  4 (Dallas, TX).  NBC:  6 (Temple, TX).  IND:  11 (Fort Worth, TX).
TEMPLE.  ABC:  10 (Waco, TX).  CBS:  7 (Austin, TX).  NBC:  6 (Temple, TX).
AUSTIN.  CBS:  7 (Austin, TX).  NBC:  42 (Austin, TX).
BRYAN.  ABC:  3 (Bryan, TX).  NBC:  6 (Temple, TX).  IND:  11 (Fort Worth, TX).
HUNTSVILLE.  ABC:  3 (Bryan, TX), 13 (Houston, TX).  CBS:  11 (Houston, TX).  NBC:  2 (Houston, TX).  IND:  39 (Houston, TX).
BAY CITY, GALVESTON, HOUSTON, and LAKE JACKSON.  ABC:  13 (Houston, TX).  CBS:  11 (Houston, TX).  NBC:  2 (Houston, TX).  IND:  39 (Houston, TX).
BEAUMONT, ORANGE, and PORT ARTHUR.  ABC:  12 (Beaumont, TX).  CBS:  6 (Beaumont, TX).  NBC:  4 (Port Arthur, TX).
WICHITA FALLS.  ABC:  7 (Lawton, OK).  CBS:  6 (Wichita Falls, TX).  NBC:  3 (Wichita Falls, TX).
BROWNWOOD.  ABC:  12 (Sweetwater, TX).  NBC:  9 (Abilene, TX).  IND:  11 (Fort Worth, TX).
ABILENE and SWEETWATER.  ABC:  12 (Sweetwater, TX).  NBC:  9 (Abilene, TX).
SAN ANGELO.  CBS:  8 (San Angelo, TX).  NBC:  9 (Abilene, TX).
SAN ANTONIO.  ABC:  12 (San Antonio, TX).  CBS:  5 (San Antonio, TX).  NBC:  4 (San Antonio, TX).  IND:  41 (San Antonio, TX).
DEL RIO and KERRVILLE.  ABC:  12 (San Antonio, TX).  CBS:  5 (San Antonio, TX).  NBC:  4 (San Antonio, TX).
EAGLE PASS.  CBS:  5 (San Antonio, TX).  NBC:  4 (San Antonio, TX).
VICTORIA.  ABC:  3 (Corpus Christi, TX), 12 (San Antonio, TX).  CBS:  5 (San Antonio, TX).  NBC:  4 (San Antonio, TX).
CORPUS CHRISTI.  ABC:  3 (Corpus Christi, TX).  CBS:  10 (Corpus Christi, TX).  NBC:  6 (Corpus Christi, TX).
LAREDO.  NBC:  8 (Laredo, TX).  IND:  2 (Nuevo Laredo, Mexico).
BROWNSVILLE and McALLEN.  ABC:  5 (Weslaco, TX).  CBS:  4 (Harlingen, TX).
AMARILLO, BORGER, and PAMPA.  ABC:  7 (Amarillo, TX).  CBS:  10 (Amarillo, TX).  NBC:  4 (Amarillo, TX).
LUBBOCK and PLAINVIEW.  ABC:  28 (Lubbock, TX).  CBS:  13 (Lubbock, TX).  NBC:  11 (Lubbock, TX).
MIDLAND, MONAHANS, and ODESSA.  ABC:  9 (Monahans, TX).  CBS:  7 (Odessa, TX).  NBC:  2 (Midland, TX).
BIG SPRING.  ABC:  4 (Big Spring, TX), 9 (Monahans, TX).  CBS:  7 (Odessa, TX).  NBC:  2 (Midland, TX).
EL PASO.  ABC:  13 (El Paso, TX).  CBS:  4 (El Paso, TX).  NBC:  9 (El Paso, TX).

Why is Fort Worth 11, included for distant markets such as Nacogdoches, and Bryan?  Is it because it was the only VHF independent?