Cursed TV Markets

[mvcg66b3r]

I put this thread on some other boards, but I wanted to get you reaction on this board as well.


With all this talk of cursed frequencies, what about cursed TV markets?


For example, mid-sized markets which have to stand in the shadows of much-larger adjacent markets.


Baltimore → Washington
Providence → Boston
Baton Rouge → New Orleans
Toledo → Detroit
San Diego → Los Angeles


Baltimore has the Big 4, CW, MNT and PBS, but no ION or Univision. This market has had its share of network musical chairs.


In Baton Rouge, the Big 4 networks and PBS are full-power, while The CW and MyNetworkTV are low-power.


Toledo has the Big 4, PBS and a religious independent. The CW is cable-only, while MNT is low-power.


Grand Rapids has two separately-owned ABC affiliates, each of which covers part of the market. MNT is on a group of low-power stations, while CW is on a CBS subchannel. The ION station (which aired WB programming for a while) also serves Lansing.


The only full-power stations licensed to San Diego are the Big 4, a PBS station and an independent. The CW, MNT and Telemundo (!) come from Mexico, while Univision is low-power.


El Paso lost both its UPN and WB affiliates to Spanish networks. And its CBS station almost got sold to Azteca America.


In Reno, CW is on a subchannel of the Univision station.


Many markets that were cursed had become “uncursed” recently, like Austin, where a KXAN satellite became a brand new MyNetworkTV station, and a WB affiliate in Waco moved in to bring Univision programming to Texas’ capital (although still licensed to Killeen in the Waco DMA).


Of course, markets can be cursed for other reasons, such as not clearing popular network or syndicated programs (or airing them in odd hours); or local news on only two stations in a market with four or more.


Which TV markets do you think are cursed?

[tvfreak1987]

I'll nominate Lansing, which you mentioned in the Grand Rapids part when you brought up our honorary ION station. Our CBS and NBC stations have owned this market since basically the dawn of time, especially in local news (though our CBS affiliate has historically been the far more dominant of the two). Didn't get our own ABC affiliate until 1990 (before that, our ABC was out of either Flint or Battle Creek), the same time our little Indy station which signed on in '82 became a FOX affiliate. Our NBC produces the 10:00 newscast for our FOX affiliate, and our ABC, after many attempts at their own newscast (even airing a simulcast from WXYZ out of Detroit at one point in the mid-90s), now airs a simulcast of our CBS affiliate's news (they now run our ABC affiliate, actually). Our CW is on a subchannel of our ABC station, and our MyNetwork station (which was once a UPN affiliate, and also run by our CBS affiliate) is barely even full-power and doesn't even hardly cover the whole market.

So, do I win?

[Regulus]

One of the neat things about living in Detroit was having access to Canadian Programming across the river courtesy of CBET. In the Autumn of 1965 President Johnson denied me of my daily fix of Bozo the Clown. Stumbling across the dial,I Came across something that piqued my Interest. I saw puppets flying spaceships and operating fancy gadgets. You know something? I Like! Goodbye Bozo, Hello Thunderbirds! When CBET showed the Olympics their coverage different than NBC's coverage had was like night and day. The Canadian coverage was far superior, with far less commercials and yammering than NBC's

Having access to Toledo TV was also a blessing. People living in the Detroit area in 1975 had to turn to Toledo's NBC Station to watch NBC's Saturday Night Live because the Detroit NBC Station insisted on showing old movies instead. (We were also denied half the first half of season one of CHIPsbecause the station thought it was "lame" and it wouldn't last 13 episodes (They were only 4 1/2 seasons off :LOL))). I also turned to Toledo to watch the Christmas Special The Little Drummer Boy because the local affiliate Refused to show it because it offended the Arab Population.

35-40 years ago I faced the same problems I encounter today, I'll want something and the provider who's supposed to offer it refuses to sell it to me. So what do I do? Simple, I get that product from "Somewhere Else"

[factsoflife]

Providence, RI is definitely cursed, you got that one right... But the Boston market doesn't really affect it because no Boston stations air anywhere in the Providence area.

The main problem in this market is because it's such a small area there is little to no room for stations to gain traction; and in fact the same station WJAR 10 has been the top-rated station for over twenty years. In fact third place WLNE 6 has tried unsuccessfully for just as long to gain any headway and has had a revolving door of news anchors, management teams and executives, none of whom has figured out a strategy at all to topple WJAR.

It also doesn't help stations here that in the Providence area our options are limited because we have only 1 major cable company that provides service to us; plus the option of Verizon Fios, or Direct TV. I'm guessing stations have to pay heavy fees to get on the 1 cable system we have.