Cursed TV Stations

[mvcg66b3r]

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


In a “Cursed TV Markets” thread on another board, WeatherSTARIII brought up the story of WJJY-TV in Jacksonville IL, a station that died too young. So, I’ll just go ahead and start a new thread on cursed TV stations.


Are there any stations in your market that are cursed (weak signal, no HD, program shifts, ownership changes, etc.)?

[Tubehead]

with classic station like me tv the hub or Annette TV I think TV land or nick at nite be obsolete in few years

[factsoflife]

Pretty much any station in Providence, RI is cursed, except for WJAR 10 (an NBC affiliate) which has been the top-rated station in the area for decades. No other station has been able to increase it's ratings in any major way. The station most affected seems to be WLNE 6, the ABC affiliate which has suffered in a distant fourth place for just as long.

WLNE has had a series of new anchors, executives and management teams and none have been able to increase ratings or take down WJAR.


Very few people in RI even watch the WLNE news at all and it's a shame, IMHO because it's one of the better produced news stations in the market.


WLNE's history is also very shaky and it has had a lot of problems gaining market share in the years it's operated.

[tvfreak1987]

Definitely our ABC affiliate here in Lansing, MI (WLAJ 53) is cursed. Since they first signed on in 1990 it's been an uphill battle to gain any sort of traction in the market. Numerous attempts at local newscasts have failed, usually finishing 4th behind our FOX affiliate's (WSYM 47) 10:00 newscast which debuted in 1997. Doesn't help that our CBS and NBC stations (WLNS 6 and WILX 10, respectively) have owned this market for decades. They're now being run by WLNS and airs a simulcast of their morning, 6 and 11pm news.

[mvcg66b3r]

This is from crainbebo on radiodiscussions.com:

I already mentioned the short-lived Fox 60 WYVN in WV - going from a 10PM newscast to "The Cisco Kid" reruns in a year, and off in another half a year!

-crainbebo

[mvcg66b3r]

This is from joebtsflk1 on radiodiscussions.com:

If I had access to an Iowa edition of TV Guide, or microfilm of the Des Moines Register, I'd provide the whole day. For the record, the last show aired on KVFD-TV was The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams.

It was 7 pm, and engineer Don Lewis had rejoined the NBC feed after an hour of local programs. He'd been monitoring severe weather activity that afternoon and evening. At 7:15, a Webster County sheriff's deputy spotted a tornado several miles south of town. Tornado sirens were activated in Fort Dodge. Lewis was able to broadcast tornado warnings several times from the station. At 7:30, there was only enough time for him to dive to safety under a steel table before the station took a direct hit.

A John Wayne movie was on the schedule at 8 pm for NBC's Wednesday Night at the Movies. It wouldn't be seen, nor would KVFD-TV ever return to the air. The station's 650 foot tower at the studio didn't fall, but suffered major structural damage. Tower experts remarked that they had never seen a tower take so much damage and still remain standing.

KVFD's owner and founder Ed Breen made the decision to dismantle the tower. Breen, at age 78 had been trying to sell KVFD-TV for some time, but vowed to rebuild the station anyway. Unfortunately, cancer would take Breen's life less than a year later, which marked the end of commercial TV in Fort Dodge.

KVFD-TV started out life as KQTV in November 1953 on channel 21. Unlike most UHF stations of the time, KQTV actually survived, having a monopoly of sorts in the Fort Dodge area. WOI-TV from Ames was the only other station that reached Fort Dodge at that time. Des Moines' channel 8, KRNT-TV (later KCCI) wouldn't start up until 1955. WHO-TV the NBC affiliate on channel 13 started in 1954, but its tower 15 miles east of Des Moines at the WHO-AM site was too far away to reach Fort Dodge. So it was a natural decision for KQTV to be an NBC affiliate.

KQTV would take the calls of Ed Breen's AM station KVFD in 1967. In the early 70's, Breen built a 1200 foot tower for channel 21 northwest of Fort Dodge. tv Increased revenues didn't follow, so when Iowa Public Television proposed to build a Fort Dodge station, Breen offered the channel 21 tower to IPTV. KVFD-TV would take over IPTV's channel 46 license, modified to channel 50 as a used antenna and transmitter tuned to that channel was available. It was installed at the original 650' tower site next to the studio. KVFD spent less than a year on channel 50 before the tornado 37 years ago this week put the station into the archives.

[mvcg66b3r]

This is from Suncoast Bull on the506.com:

How could I not have thought about the Research Triangle's current MyNetworkTV outlet WRDC?* I don't know of a major commercial station in a market that size that's more cursed than WRDC seemed to be.* Being on UHF during the analog era was one strike against it, but select NBC stations elsewhere in the Tar Heel State (WRDC was an NBC affiliate under the WRDU and WPTF call signs) could cover parts of the Triangle with signals strong enough to be picked up there.* Preempting many of NBC's shows in the '70s and '80s didn't help its cause with the Peacock and as many of you know, NBC didn't play that in those days.

Here's an idea of how piss-poor an NBC affiliate WRDC was:* even when the station moved its transmitter site to have its signal cover more of the Triangle, the Peacock rose in popularity with a strong primetime lineup and WRAL and WTVD switched networks after the CapCities/ABC merger made the former a CBS affiliate and the latter an ABC O&O, WRDC was still scraping the bottom of the Triangle ratings barrel!* Even a then-independent WLFL, a future charter FOX station, had better ratings!

NBC's decision to say "Screw WRDC" and hook up with WNCN shouldn't surprise you after reading the two grafs above.

[UMFaninMD]

WMAR, the ABC affiliate in Baltimore. They are always last in the ratings, getting trampled by WBAL and WJZ. They got rid of several of their long-time reporters and anchors. Their Sunday night newscast is only fifteen minutes long and they quit airing Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune last year in favor of reality-based interactive shows Let's Ask America and The List.

And last week they made news when a mentally ill man crashed a truck into their station and they were off the air because of it. I like their news reporters and meteorologists, and appreciate their more laid-back, less sensational approach, as opposed to the FOX affiliate WBFF, which is so political and off-putting I only tune into their 10pm news for the weather.

[MrCleveland]

WUAB...

Cleveland's MyNetwork Station Affiliate!

It happened on September 1, 1997 when they lost the WB Affiliate to WBNX (I was talking about WBNX, Cleveland's CW Affiliate in my Ohio Center for Broadcasting Class since they used to censor "butt"...this came when we talked about the FCC). WUAB then lost The Disney Afternoon, Kids WB, many syndicated shows, then lost Cavs and Indians games, and is now a station with infomercials and Tabloid TV Shows with some sitcoms thrown in there.

WUAB also has Action News at 10 which is affiliated to WOIO and has Tabloid News!

Is there room for a local Comedy News, like "Daily Show"-ish?

[mvcg66b3r]

Here are some more examples of cursed stations:

WICC/WBCT/WHAI/WIPX/WBPT/WSAH/WZME Bridgeport CT
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WZME

WGPR/WWJ Detroit
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWJ-TV

WKBS/WGTW Burlington NJ/Philadelphia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WGTW-TV

KCPM Grand Forks ND
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KCPM_(TV)

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

WCEE/WPXS Mount Vernon IL
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WPXS

WAZE Madisonville KY/Evansville IN
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAZE-TV

WNAC/WNEV/WHDH Boston (best known for the Jay Leno fiasco)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WHDH_(TV)

The original WHDH Boston on channel 5 (now WCVB)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WHDH-TV_(defunct)

KWWF Waterloo IA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KWWF

KTGF Great Falls MT
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KTGF

KCTF/KWBU/KDYW Waco TX
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KDYW

WVUE Wilmington DE (now noncommercial WHYY)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WVUE_(Delaware)

And in Canada:

CJNT Montreal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CJNT-DT

CKXT Toronto
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CKXT-DT

CKNX Wingham ON
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CKNX-TV

CKX Brandon MB
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CKX-TV

CKRD/CHCA Red Deer AB
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHCA-TV

And for that matter, the entire CBC network.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment...ose.print.html

[factsoflife]

Originally Posted by mvcg66b3r

Here are some more examples of cursed stations:




WNAC/WNEV/WHDH Boston (best known for the Jay Leno fiasco)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WHDH_(TV)

The original WHDH Boston on channel 5 (now WCVB)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WHDH-TV_(defunct)

I've gotta take issue with this one. Yes the Leno situation was something of a disaster, but beyond that WHDH has always been pretty successful. In fact for much of the last two decades WHDH and WCVB have been neck and neck in the ratings, with WHDH often coming very close to beating WCVB.

Also at one point Columbia Journalism Review named WHDH one of the best newscasts in the country. (I got this information from wikipedia).

If any station in Boston is cursed I'd say it's WLVI or WSBK which have had a much harder time gaining market traction, IMHO.

[comedyfreak]

Cursed? Hub network selling out like other stations showing reality shows and dropping their classic lineup.

[SitcomsOffline]

WADL in Detroit.

They have the strongest signal of any station in the city, yet has struggled as a low-budget, non-affiliated station since its inception trying to find its place...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WADL_(TV)

[mvcg66b3r]

Originally Posted by SitcomsOffline

WADL in Detroit.

They have the strongest signal of any station in the city, yet has struggled as a low-budget, non-affiliated station since its inception trying to find its place...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WADL_(TV)

It transmits from Mount Clemens, not Southfield like the other Detroit stations. And it's not in HD, just crappy 4:3 SD. That last thing matters when WADL airs NBC programming not cleared by WDIV. Either it's letterboxed or the sides are chopped off.

[SitcomsOffline]

Originally Posted by mvcg66b3r

It transmits from Mount Clemens, not Southfield like the other Detroit stations. And it's not in HD, just crappy 4:3 SD. That last thing matters when WADL airs NBC programming not cleared by WDIV. Either it's letterboxed or the sides are chopped off.

Interestingly enough, someone mentioned WWJ earlier, which is Detroit's CBS affiliate (which BTW is the only CBS affiliate in the country that doesn't have a local news broadcast).

Back in the early-mid 1990s, when Fox first launched, News Corp bought a sizable stake in WJBK's owner, New World Communications. In return, New World Communication agreed to switch most of its stations (including WJBK) to Fox affiliates. At this time, WJBK was a CBS affiliate.

As Detroit was still a top 10 market, CBS frantically searched for another station. A tentative agreement was actually signed with WADL to become the CBS affiliate (CBS was attracted to their signal strength), and they were already broadcasting some CBS shows. But Adell Broadcasting's demands were too much, and that's how CBS ended up settling on WWJ.

The reason I said all of that is because I doubt the location of the signal ultimately matters.

As far as the conversion to digital broadcasting, it's sort of a catch-22. The station probably can't afford the upgrades due to the lack of affiliate shows to bring in the ratings and sufficient ad revenue