What would you do in your market if you had the clout? If you had your way, what would you do in your market? What I would do in mine: 1. Bring back Eyewitness News to channel 7. That Seven on Your Side stuff is getting somewhat old, at least to me. 2. Get a dedicated ABC station for this market (Greenville-Spartanburg) so that we no longer have to be tethered to 13-WLOS in Asheville, which has an unhealthy (albeit understandable) focus on WNC news. Dallas-Fort Worth market: Rebuild the news staffs at all the affiliates. (they've all had deep staff cuts in the past 5 years) Put more news resources in the suburbs. (there's way too much focus on Dallas) Put a 24/7 local news channel of some kind on someone's subchannel. (could be a rebroadcast of newscasts with traffic and weather updates 24/7 in some way along with live news events, maybe some simple talk shows and other exclusive programming) Put more national subchannels on the air and promote the idea of cutting cable. (this market has so many stations we could put nearly all of them on the air) Put one of the local newscasts in a sidewalk studio in Sundance Square in Downtown Fort Worth. (so many more people there than WFAA has with Victory Park in Dallas) 1. Get rid of these long blocks of paid programming. It seems they are becoming more and more numerous. The dustiest rerun of almost anything would be an improvement. 2. Cut the local newscasts to an hour or two in the morning, and half an hour at 6 and 11. Not enough legitimate news happens in my town to fill up an hour or more every day. I would in particular scrap the all-morning news blocks that run on weekends. 3. Expand local sports coverage on the newscasts back to the length and prominence it had in the 1980's. 4. Use my best judgment to run locally-produced or syndicated programming in place of network shows that are proving to be absolute stinkbombs and/or offensive in some manor. 5. Get rid of the mind-destroying bilge like Jerry Springer and all of his imitators. Again, the dustiest kinescopes from the DuMont Network would be an improvement. 6. Quit beating us over the head with sanctimonious promotional campaigns that imply that you are somehow better than your viewers. (the long-running KDKA-TV "For Kids Sake" campaign comes to mind as a particularly egregious example). 7. Restore some political balance to the programming on the PBS affiliate. Give us a sense that the half of us who are not liberals are getting some value out of our tax money that is going to subsidize you. Actually put a 24-hour 7-day weather subchannel on KGW's allegedly 24-hour 7-day weather subchannel. Wouldn't that be a novel concept?

Put more national subchannels on the air and promote the idea of dropping pay-cable. This market has so many empty channels we could put nearly all of them on the air. (Just taking the liberty, tested.) Rebroadcast the local public/community access channels over the air, especially for those without reliable (or any) QAM access or in areas out of range of the cable company (LOTS of those outside VanCamas.) What good are community access channels if the community can't access them? First, I'd put tighter restrictions on duopolies and LMAs. Here in the Chico-Redding, CA market, the CBS affiliate (KHSL-TV) operates the NBC affiliate (KNVN) under an LMA. Both stations share news departments (even simulcasting newscasts at 5 am, 11 pm and on weekends). The result is the worst, most bland newscasts I've ever seen. Competitor KRCR (ABC affiliate) isn't much better. I moved down here five years ago from Spokane, so maybe I'm not getting the whole picture, but it seems like the stations here "gave up" at some point, probably when the NBC and CBS stations entered into their LMA. Maybe if the stations here were all under unique ownership and management (the Fox and MNTV affiliates are also a duopoly), there would be more competition, yielding better product. I would also try and reincorporate local programming back into the mix. I believe locally-produced shows are a very important aspect of television history that, across the country, has been lost to "progress" in the past 30-40 years. Finally, I'd give stations a deadline to upgrade completely to high-definition (news broadcasts and syndicated shows). 1. Get rid of these long blocks of paid programming. It seems they are becoming more and more numerous. The dustiest rerun of almost anything would be an improvement. Commercial television stations exist to make money. Period. Infomercials generate revenue. Ancient reruns don't. Quote 2. Cut the local newscasts to an hour or two in the morning, and half an hour at 6 and 11. Not enough legitimate news happens in my town to fill up an hour or more every day. I would in particular scrap the all-morning news blocks that run on weekends. Scrap the weekend shows, and you'll get more infomercials outside of the E/I requirements. Sorry, but the days of Bugs Bunny cartoons on TV is over. Quote 3. Expand local sports coverage on the newscasts back to the length and prominence it had in the 1980's. Not a chance. Teams want rights fees from everyone - that means cable-only. Local sports PxP other than the network-controlled NFL is just about dead in most markets, with only a few games in each market at most (wait until Tribune comes out of bankruptcy and WGN is sold - No Cubs for you!). Quote 4. Use my best judgment to run locally-produced or syndicated programming in place of network shows that are proving to be absolute stinkbombs and/or offensive in some manor. The networks will become a moot point in the next few years, especially in the smaller markets (You think Fox really cares about losing Twin Falls, or being on a subchannel in Terre Haute or an

LPTV in Lima?). Syndicated programming is expensive. I think station groups will go with programming produced in-house and shown group-wide if Scripps is successful with its new programming. They'll have to, otherwise TV stations will start going the way of AM radio. Quote 5. Get rid of the mind-destroying bilge like Jerry Springer and all of his imitators. Again, the dustiest kinescopes from the DuMont Network would be an improvement. As long as people live in trailer parks, there will be plenty of viewers for Springer and his ilk. Grin Quote 6. Quit beating us over the head with sanctimonious promotional campaigns that imply that you are somehow better than your viewers. (the long-running KDKA-TV "For Kids Sake" campaign comes to mind as a particularly egregious example). They want you to think that they care, I guess. Maybe these things look good to the FCC and parents' councils. Quote 7. Restore some political balance to the programming on the PBS affiliate. Give us a sense that the half of us who are not liberals are getting some value out of our tax money that is going to subsidize you. Most PBS stations are either owned by colleges/universities or state governments. Either way, they're your tax dollars at work. And you didn't like William F. Buckley, John McLaughlin, or Louis Rukeyser? No liberals in that bunch. The myth that PBS is hard-core liberal/Democrat is just that much of which is due to Bill Moyers' former ties to LBJ 45 years ago. ATLANTA: WUPA 69 dumps the CW and goes independent WATL 36 dumps MNT and goes indepedent low powers WTBS 26 and WANN 32 somehow go full power (or switch with 69 and 36) In Jackson, TN: On WBBJ I'd drop 7.2, which is usually nothiing but a repeat of 7.1 (ABC) with occasional secondary audio, but usually there's no real difference. Then I'd adjust the bitrate to make Me-TV a full time subchannel instead of just filler for the CBS subchannel on 7.3. On WJKT (Fox) I'd replace Cool TV with Antenna TV on 16.2. ON WLJT (PBS) I'd bring back The Red Green Show and also add Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, and Mr. Bean. Finally I'd dump ALL infomercials and trash talk. Even dead air would be better than that. Charleston: I like Charleston's TV market. All 3 TV stations are pretty good at what they do, and act like they're much larger than the 98th market. I wish though, they had a few things. Hopefully Charleston grows a few pegs in the next few years so we don't have as many inexperienced reporters. Charleston needs a weekend morning newscast. After 11:30 on Friday night, there's no news until 6pm on Saturday night.

Raleigh-Durham-Fayetteville 1. (In the analog days) Move the channel 28/Durham allocation to Chapel Hill as NCE and return the channel 4 allocation to Durham as commercial to allow for a competitive NBC or Fox affiliate on VHF. 2. More standalone stations and less duopolies or news sharing agreements. 3. Separate Raleigh-Durham from Fayetteville with either separate affiliates or via digital subchannels. I realize this would negatively affect our market ranking, but Fayetteville doesn't have many cultural ties to Raleigh and Durham besides sharing TV stations. In a market that size (194,600 TV households, over a very large geographical area), I'm not sure you can expect too much. I have friends who live near Redding, so I spend a couple weeks a year up there, and have for close to 30 years. If it's any consolation to you, the news programming there is much better and more professional than it used to be a couple decades ago when it was laughably amateurish...one camera pointed at some young just-out-of college anchor who was hoping to step up to the "big time." I remember when KRCR had an 'interns-on-the-air' feeling to it, and the Chico CBS affiliate didn't exist...or wasn't available to Redding residents, many miles away, in any case. In Milwaukee; 1. WTMJ/NBC needs to get back to being a good news operation run by a newspaper owner. Going tabloid and repetitive with six hours of news a day, along with an image which suggests the conservative hosts on their radio side get some newscast and reporter casting input has ruined their image completely. Also, get some syndicated programming people actually watch rather than watch solely for mocking value. And just stop with the charade and merge your Green Bay NBC station in as a gloried full-power translator already. We know you really just want to cut out that terrible news operation with how much you go to Milwaukee for sports and weather, so just stop stringing your employees there along and put them out of their misery so they can move on with their careers. 2. WISN/ABC is doing fine, but get the HD upgrade finished already. We had to stand 3:3 SD weather warnings for years during Lost and Grey's, I don't want to see image quality on field video that makes my local public access station look awesome. 3. WDJT/CBS is doing everything right with programming and news, but they need to issue a challenge to the big stations in town. Double down on good talent when their contracts are over, and keep covering good stories rather than the 'who cares' car accident stories everyone else runs. 4. Better luck for the Sinclair duopoly (WCGV/WVTV) once they eventually get their new studios and HD syndication capability. It's one of the better duopolies in the chain but Weigel is overwhelming them in the market just by how many subchannel networks they have, and their schedules are stuck with crap corporate foists upon them. 5. MPTV/PBS, we really don't need two audio channels devoted to jazz and classical music, or a poor quality version of Local Accuweather. Just give us 1080i video on your stations, please. WITI in 720p should not have better video quality than your version of 720p. 6. Finally, when Armando Montelongo and other 'hotel ballroom hustler' infomercial kings come to town...just turn down their infomercials. Please. You keep talking about how these people are ripoffs in your newscasts and then you carry their garbage anyways, which monopolizes every late night slot in the market? That's what you'd find if you looked up "double standard" in the dictionary. Thanks for all the responses! You all have made some good points. This WSPA promo from the 80s illustrates very well why I would bring Eyewitness News back. For Greenville, SC: For WHNS 21, I would regain Wendy Williams. Other stations add shows that are unseen in this market like Til Death, Ugly Betty, Punk'd, Cash Cab, etc. Get WSPA 7 to do

weekday morning newscasts starting at 4:30am just like WYFF 4 and WLOS 13. Plus get WLOS 13 to clear ABC's Litton's Weekend Adventure programming block on Saturday mornings. Plus add a Antenna TV and Bounce TV subchannel on one of the stations. Get SCETV/PBS out of Columbia, SC to bring back Nightly Business Report, Are You Being Served?, and Keeping Up Appearances. We need a real indie station besides WGGS 16 after WNEG 32 became non-commercial WUGA last year despite having inadequate signal and pay-TV coverage in it's market. And GSP should stop being more Paid-Programming Happy and air uncleared syndie shows as well. And air less 4x3 local commercials and more 16x9 HD commercials. Plus just for laughs, WYFF 4 needs to bring back the Arrow 4 logo (used during it's WFBC years to WYFF from red/blue from 1974-86 to gold from 1986-91)! Seen in this video from late 1990 on channel 4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9a2VLaePnfc That's what I call a classic logo you dig! For Augusta, GA: They need MyNetworkTV and CW stations to be on a HD primary channel instead of SD digital subchannels. For Columbia, SC: They need to clear Jeremy Kyle Show in Columbia! For Charleston, SC: Get WCBD 2 to do HD news. Get WTAT 24 to have their own news division just like WHNS in Greenville, SC. Plus get WCIV 4 to do news at noon, five and five-thirty. Get their CW station on primary HD channel instead of SD digital subchannel. I agree with the poster said about Charleston SC doing weekend morning news. Plus get WTAT 24/WMMP 36 to have HD syndicated shows in true HD. That would hurt Raleigh-Durham as you pointed. While cultural may not be strong, I think it does have valid economic ties even if not commutership. I've been to Fayetteville and it's a lot cheaper and not so incovenient to fly through RDU than FAY to reach there. RDU also had 16,000 avg. daily seats on departures to domestic airports while FAY had less than 1,000. No doubt Research Triangle Parks helps alot of that, but it could be the main carriers (including low cost carriers) prefer serving RDU at FAY's expense (given the paltry service there) and making RDU a gateway to a greater area than just the MSA. I think it is a greater association than Philadelphia and Allentown. ABE is economically and culturally just as tied to New York as it is to Philadelphia now, and independent on its own merit as well - with people not commuting to either region. There is state commonality between ABE and Philadelphia, and the broadcast stations being able to reach there, but IMO it's weak. Those are your examples of Conservatives on PBS? Two are dead and the third one is pretty much retired. Let them offer a slot to Mark Steyn or Walter Williams or somebody and then get back to me on that. They also have an annoying tendency to wrap the liberal perspective on issues like Global Warming throughout every piece of programming that they have. This is the reason I do not contribute to PBS or NPR stations. They make is abundantly clear to me that my point of view is not welcome there. Which is fine if they are owned and funded by a university or a non-profit corporation. I just don't like my tax money going to that. If Limbaugh one day moves to NPR I'm sure you'd understand within the first five seconds. Although you did give me a pretty good punch line. "How do you spot the Conservative on PBS? He's the guy who's dead!" Grin

I wouldn't blame the radio channels for that. They compress pretty well & don't really occupy much bandwidth to begin with. The weather & other video channels, on the other hand, are indeed using a fair bit of space. Another thought on my earlier post: I'd also drop all courtroom shows and most reality shows. Those are your examples of Conservatives on PBS? Two are dead and the third one is pretty much retired. ...producing and hosting two weekly half-hour shows (The McLaughlin Group and McLaughlin One On One) hardly qualifies as anything near "retirement"... Lake of the Ozarks it's own CW/PBS and so on. KSHB Action Weather Plus it's own Channel and make it KSHB Action News and also in HD. Metro Weather,Sports HD and 2,KMCI HD/Live Well Network,Ion Life/Qubo on Comcast Bounce TV on the Cable Systems here in KC area because not yet only on Digital Antenna. Daily Buzz more live Newscast on KMCI. A National Channel out of Orlando. Why stop with a local market, I will take a shot at the big 4 networks and a lot of the cable networks. When a network "buys" a weekly sitcom, assuming it lasts more than 3 or four weeks, please buy at least 26 episodes! I understand the economics of summer reruns but twice is enough. If someone can't watch the show when it is aired, there is always Hulu. In Phoenix... Break up the Gannett news monopoly...either sell off the paper to local interests or sell KPNX to another media company. Combine Belo and Scripps local operations...put ABC back on 3TV, move the CW to 15, put antenna-tv on 61? And move Fox 10 out of the termite terrace on Adams, maybe out to Westgate near the stadium. In Phoenix... Break up the Gannett news monopoly BS generator... Fixed. Grin Quote ...either sell off the paper to local interests or sell KPNX to another media company. The Repugnant probably can't be saved in the long-term; it's the worst big-city paper in the country. I haven't bought it in almost 5 years. I used to use it to line the cat-box until the cats complained. Grin NBC might have been interested in Channel 12 years ago, but I can't see them buying another station now (they already own KTAZ/39 here). The only way I can see Comcast still wanting it is if they shut the OTA NBC network down and would want to move Telemundo there. Quote Combine Belo and Scripps local operations...put ABC back on 3TV, move the CW to 15, put antenna-tv on 61? What difference does it make where ABC is? Both stations are UHF now, so reception isn't an

issue anymore. Besides, are Belo and Scripps interested in merging? Didn't think so. What I think would be a good idea is for KAET to return to RF 29, KSAZ to 31, and Belo sell KASW's transmitter to Gannett and then put KPNX on 49. KASW's programming could then be moved to 3.3. Get off of VHF completely! Greensboro/Winston-Salem/High Point: Although my biggest wish is for WGHP to become an ABC affiliate again (and I think Fox has been too much of a cash cow for the station for that to happen), my changes are directed at WFMY: 1. Dump the 7-8 AM hour of "The Good Morning Show," run "CBS This Morning" from 7-9, then start a 9 AM newscast to compete with WGHP's. 2. Move "Let's Make A Deal" to 10 AM. 3. WBTW Florence, SC has a three-hour block of "The Talk" at 2, Anderson at 3, and Ellen at 4. Let WFMY do something like that in the afternoon. I also wouldn't mind seeing CBS make an offer for either WBTV Charlotte or WRAL Raleigh. A few months back the rumor mill was stirring with suggestions that CBS was going to buy WAGA and it would once again be Atlanta's CBS station, but that obviously isn't going to happen. Why can't CBS just make WUPA the CBS affiliate for Atlanta? CBS has held it so long that it's as if it's always as an option. CBS could start it off without a newscast and run it like the Detroit CBS station WWJ, but then start one up by paying talent from other stations to move there. In Philly, KYW got Larry Mendte (from WCAU) and Alicia Layne who was hot from Miami and paired the two together. The two didn't last because of a scandal, but the point is neither were KYW vets. It'd probably be cheaper to just build a newsteam rather than buy a station that has one, but not sure. Also, here in Philly, Univision built up a newscast on WUVP, which was once a HSN station. The benefit for such a large market is CBS would keep the retrans and advertising profits. Meredith would get screwed in the process, but it's business. That brings another point. With the auto industry rebounding in Detroit, Detroit still relatively healthy and stable and the VHF UHF thing being a less relevant issue in digital, could CBS put investment in their Detroit station and launch a newscasts there? It seems like newscasts on these major stations are still a profitable business, and with CBS #1 in primetime, it'd seem to make sense to make a go for it. Put Me-TV and Antenna TV in the Knoxville Tn market. In the designated market area of Mobile, Alabama-Pensacola, Florida... I would have WFGX-TV broadcast all programming from ThisTV on their main channel and sell the rights to some of their syndicated programs (including "The Jerry Springer Show", "The Maury Povich Show", and "The Jeremy Kyle Show") to other stations.

I would cancel all plans for WALA-TV and WEAR-TV to produce 4:00 PM newscasts Monday through Friday and have them broadcast syndicated programs at those times instead (WALA-TV would broadcast "Jeopardy!" at 4:00 PM and "Wheel of Fortune" at 4:30 PM. WEAR-TV would broadcast "Inside Edition" at 4:00 PM and "The Insider" at 4:30 PM. I would purchase the local rights to "Dark Shadows" and "Mama's Family" for WKRG-TV ("Mama's Family" was very popular locally after having been broadcast by WKRG-TV and WALA-TV at 10:30 PM for years after production of the program ended). "Dark Shadows" would be broadcast at 9:00 AM and 9:30 AM Monday through Friday instead of paid programs and "Mama's Family" would be broadcast at 6:30 PM Monday through Friday and broadcast at 10:35 PM on Sunday. I would establish rules (at any station) requiring all newscast presenters and reporters not to express their personal feelings about news, weather, or sports during local newscasts. I would have WEAR-TV broadcast "Nightline" at 10:30 PM instead of 11:00 PM and "Jimmy Kimmel Live" at 11:00 PM instead of 11:30 PM Monday through Friday. These programs would no longer be delayed by "Prep Football Final" every Friday during the high school football season, because "Prep Football Final" would be rescheduled for 6:30 PM on Saturday (WEAR-TV usually produces local news programming between 6:00 PM and 7:00 PM on Saturday). I would have WALA-TV end 5:00 PM and 9:00 PM newscasts by 5:30 PM and 9:30 PM respectively Monday through Friday. I would create new local programs for the station to broadcast at 5:30 PM and 9:30 PM Monday through Friday. I would make programming from Antenna TV and the Funimation Channel available on digital subchannels through WALA-TV, WPMI-TV, or WJTC-TV. I would have Comcast Cablevision of Mobile provide programming from the Retro Television Network (RTV) by retransmitting the programming broadcast on one of WKFK-TV's digital subchannels. In Jackson, TN: On WBBJ I'd drop 7.2, which is usually nothiing but a repeat of 7.1 (ABC) with occasional secondary audio, but usually there's no real difference. Then I'd adjust the bitrate to make Me-TV a full time subchannel instead of just filler for the CBS subchannel on 7.3. Fire some of the four or five weatherpeople(there's one who only does the Saturday morning news) they have and use that money to get some good reporters. Quote On WJKT (Fox) I'd replace Cool TV with Antenna TV on 16.2. Start a WJKT newscast and drop the WLMT/WPTY news. Quote ON WLJT (PBS) I'd bring back The Red Green Show and also add Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, and Mr. Bean. Air more shows about West Tennessee history. KMBC- Exstrella TV,Own Weather Channel and Moretv back KCWE- Tuffy TV,AMGTV,Midday and 4PM Newscast and 9pm to an hour KCTV5- TNN,The Country Network,Weathernation TV,PBJ,Weekend and 4pm Co-Anchors KSMOTV Saturday's 9PM, Weekday Morning Newscast back,Pursuit,9pm Co-Anchor,The Cool TV,Povich at 4pm if coming back

FOX4KC- My Family Net,Outside,4pm Newscast,Accuweather KSHB- RTV,Untamed Sports TV,Ethnic Channel,Weekend Mornings Co-Anchor KMCI- Shopping Channel,Youtoo,other Digital Sub Channels,more local programming and also Game Shows like Family Fued Orlando Stations do nothing but add local Sports and more Newscast/Digital Sub Channels. For Springfield and Columbia/Jefferson City,MO more Newscast and Digital Sub Channels. I would like to see all the Nexstar duopolies here in West Texas (Lubbock, Amarillo, Abilene, Wichita Falls, San Angelo) split up. That way we'd have more options for local news. I live in Lubbock and the newscasts on KLBK and KAMC are pretty much the same other than different anchor talent. Raleigh-Durham (RDU) is an international airport, while Fayetteville (FAY) is a regional one. It's not unique to Fayetteville for air travelers to opt out of their local airports' limited offerings in favor of RDU. Cities such as Danville, Burlington, or Greenville--all three of which are in adjacent TV markets--could be included as well. Despite the difference in airports (and being joined in a hyphenated TV market, the two areas are separate and distinct: Two separate radio markets Different economic engines (education/medicine/research-Research Triangle Park) vs. military/industrial/agriculture-Fort Bragg/Pope Army Air Field) Over an hour away from each other via interstate (and that's not a direct connection--you have to take I-40 East to I-95 South) Fairly self-contained as far as retail and entertainment Different weather patterns and conditions Fayetteville is culturally and economically more tied to Lumberton (in the Myrtle Beach-Florence market) than RDU. Really the only time you see Raleigh, Durham, and Fayetteville together is on top of the hour IDs and on the local newscasts when they stretch to cover the two different areas, be it the two useless token Fayetteville Traffic Cams in the morning, an extra long list of election returns/school closings, or interrupting a Spring Lake (near Fayetteville) viewer's favorite show about a thunderstorn in Oxford (near Raleigh). Often, even TV promotions where, say, Wheel of Fortune is "coming to your town" will require two separate events for Raleigh and Fayetteville. One of Fayetteville's two TV stations, WFPX, channel 62, literally doesn't even register in the RaleighDurham part of the market (not even a faint picture in analog days and with digital it actually shares UHF channel 36 with Roanoke Rapids public TV station WUNP-TV in the far northeastern corner of the market). Again, market rank (now #24) and lots of money are at stake, and both take precedence over viewer convenience or the separate areas argument, so Fayetteville always has and always will be joined to Raleigh-Durham as far as local TV is concerned. For New Orleans, LA: WWL 4 should dropped their local morning newscasts at 7-9am and clear CBS This Morning. WVUE should go back to ABC, WGNO should be FOX. For Salt Lake City, UT: I would get KSL 5 to force to relinquish the NBC affiliation and give the Peacock affiliaton to KXTV 4 and clear the entire NBC line-up (despite NBC has more tolerence on local pre-emptions) including SNL, and ABC goes to KCSG 44 and KSL would be an indie!

For Jacksonville, FL I would like to see WJXT 4 be affiliated with MyNetworkTV instead being on subchannel of it's FOX station in the market. For Boston, MA (just like my friend Shane Spencer said): WCVB 5 should switch from ABC to NBC and bought by NBC Universal (and trade NBC Connecticut to Hearst TV), WHDH 7 switch from NBC to ABC and bought by Disney, and regain Wheel and Jeopardy!, and I would say Live! With Kelly. WSBK 38 should be CW instead of MyNetworkTV, and WLVI 56 should be bought by FOX and become My56. San Francisco, CA: I would like to see KTVU 2 bought by FOX making all four network O&Os in Bay Area! Dallas, TX: I would like to see WFAA 8 being bought by ABC, so they could have all four network O&Os. I disagree about KSL. You really thInk everything on that network is worth clearing? They spared their viewers crap like "The Playboy Club" That station seems to have more smarts than the network, and that's why they're number 1 (or 2) in Salt Lake City. And SNL isn't worthwhile either. In Austin: I would switch Fox and CBS back to their original channels, so KTBC Fox 7 would be CBS 7, and KEYE 42 would go back to Fox 42. In San Antonio: Fox would buy WOAI 4 and become an O&O, and become Fox 4 San Antonio. KABB would become NBC 29 Action News. In Dallas: I would trade ownership of KTVT and KDFW. Therefore KTVT would become Fox 11 and KDFW would once again be CBS 4. In addition to the changes I suggested previously for the designated market area of Mobile, Alabama-Pensacola, Florida, I would switch network affiliations for WALA-TV (FOX) and WPMI-TV (NBC). Since WALA-TV was affiliated with NBC from 1953 to 1995 and they lost that affiliation as a result of a change in ownership in which the FOX Television Stations group and Savoy Pictures Entertainment were involved (their venture was called Savoy-Fox, or SF Broadcasting), I believe it is best to restore their affiliation with NBC. Even though they may have fewer hours for syndicated programming, the limits may help them gain more viewers and listeners and better programming. We tend to get into the technicalities of digital (WXIA is Ch. 10, WGCL is Ch. 19, WAGA is Ch. 27, WSB is Ch. 39, etc.), but the general public still thinks of them as 11, 46, 5, and 2, respectively. As I recall, when CBS moved from 2 to 62 in Detroit, before the digital conversion, WTOL/11 Toledo became, in effect, the CBS affiliate for Detroit, if you go by the numbers of people watching. Atlanta viewers would probably say, WUPA, oh, that's Channel 69, and CBS has another WWJ on its hands. Besides, some of you are saying Chs. 4 and 11 in DFW ought to switch so that KDFW/4 is once again CBS, and that 10 and 15 in Mobile ought to switch so that WALA/10 is once again NBC. So what's wrong with WAGA going back to CBS, except that Fox will never sell the station?

I would like to see WFAA become an ABC o&o, being the largest Big Four station that is not one currently. But, just as I don't think Cox would sell its flagship, WSB, to ABC, neither do I think Belo would sell its flagship. The two stations I'd most like to see as ABC o&os are WFTV Orlando (just because of the Disney connection there) and WJLA Washington, since NBC and Fox have o&os in Washington and CBS has one in Baltimore (scratch WMAR--Scripps-Howard already owns it and I don't know why ABC would want to own it; even being on Ch. 2 it's rarely been a factor in the Baltimore market, except for Orioles games). Somebody pointed out that WVUE will not go back to ABC; the station owner also owns the Saints, and as long as Fox has the NFC contract, WVUE is going to stay put to carry the team. Finally, KSL is a special case; it is owned by the Mormon church, which considers programs such as "Saturday Night Live" and "The Playboy Club" inappropriate. When it was a CBS affiliate it frequently pre-empted made-for-TV movies it considered offensive to its primary audience. Bill Paley never said a discouraging word; he once said that KSL was one of CBS's weakest affiliates but it had a reason and was thus willing to make allowances for its tendency to pre-empt. Besides, "SNL" is on--what?--Ch. 13, so you can still see it. First, I'd quintuple TheRob's salary. You're welcome. Twin Cities: TPT (PBS) has two stations and only 4 streams -- PBS, "Life", "Minnesota Channel" and Weather. Add PBS WOrld and a traffic channel with 88.5FM audio (This used to be done OTA on Channel 45) WCCO (CBS O & O) The husband and wife primary anchor team is getting tough to watch. Break 'em up. KSTP/KSTC (ABC/Ind.) Blow up the news department. Throw reruns of "McHale's Navy" during the news time. Start over in 2013. KMSP (Fox O & O) Do something with your sub-channels. Antenna TV perhaps? KARE (NBC) Hire a primary news anchor. Add (yes, ADD) a Sunday morning local news presence. WUCW (CW) No opinion. WTFC (MyNet, Fox O & O) See KMSP. KPXM (Ion) Move to the Shoreview Telefarm with the other full power stations. Your wish is their command: KPXM recently received a CP to do just that. I think in the past, VHF meant a lot more. A VHF station would pay less for electric bills and get greater exposure of the channel, as people 50 miles out could receive the channel. I remember it was a lot easier to receive the Philly VHF stations in Central NJ, than it was to receive the Philly UHF channels, and the few that did reach Central NJ like WPHL and WTXF had to pay alot more for power to reach the same viewing area as the big three VHF stations: KYW, WCAU, WPVI. The VHF Channel would have a low cable channel position. Channel would be grouped with other VHF channels on the dial, likely other successful VHF channels, and newspaper listings were relevant. It also was carried SV in areas out of market, while the UHF station likely didn't. From an advertising perspective, that meant a station like WGAL could claim to Central PA advertisers that WGAL reached more homes including Berks County, while the UHF Harrisburg stations didn't.

A channel like WCAU in Philly for example operates on UHF now, but brands itself as NBC 10. If one is 20 miles from the Philly and lives in an apartment and uses an indoor antenna (even amplified), the signal on WCAU breaks up, but WPHL doesn't. It varies so much from place to place and the advantage is less clear. So, one is stuck having to get Comcast which might have a deal like I get $20/mo. that includes cable nets, which isn't bad. The networks have the leverage to secure preferred cable channel positions, like NBC did with KNTV in SF market on Ch.3 (not sure if it still is on Ch.3 on cable there). It's also easy to brand without a number like "NBC Bay Area" Here's what I'd like to see changed with the Chicago market: WLS-TV (ABC) - Make WLS-TV & all other ABC O&O remove the dual HD from their stations. I don't know about other ABC O&O, but the few times I watch Livewell Network, the HD on that channel is horrible. As for Livewell Network, get better programming. Also, eliminate the Livewell Network simulcast on 7.3 & add a different diginet. WTTW (PBS) - make WTTW Prime a widescreen channel. There's no excuse why they can't make this channel widescreen since the bulk of their newer programming is filmed in widescreen. I don't like windowboxed programming. For the main channel in HD, add more desireable programming in primetime. I find it sad that WTTW Prime is programmed better than the main WTTW channel. While this doesn't have to do with WTTW, but the people who program V-Me, but I'd like to see all the programming that was originally recorded in English to be available with English audio. For programs originally done in Spanish, or other languages, have English dubs. WYCC (PBS) Eliminate the SD. It isn't necessary. Since this station has an NCE license calling for so many hours of instructional programming, they could have the subchannel programmed to handle the instructional programming in the morning & early afternoon hours, & childrens programming all other hours. Since adding more children's programming in the morning hours, they moved the instructional programming in the overnight hours on Monday - Thursday. I can't say it's 100% entertainment, but for someone going to college, these programs can help them out. WCIU (ind) Eliminate U Too. I don't see the channel being needed. They already have plenty of syndicated programming. The bulk of the programming on U Too is time-shifted. Instead, I'd move Bounce from WWME-LD 23.2 to WCIU 26.2. End the Fox duopoly on WFLD & WPWR-TV. Ever since Fox bought WPWR-TV in 2002, the station's programming has overall gone downhill. It's simply a dumping ground for programming that Fox doesn't want to air on WFLD. WCPX (Ion) Make Ion Media actually allow their stations to be programmed locally instead of being on the bird 24/7. I'd also have the infomercials cut back (not eliminated), as they rely too heavily on infomercials to fund their stations. I would also make Ion Media sell most of their stations, & instead allow stations to be affiliated with them. The extra money they would have by having fewer O&O stations could be used to acquire better programming. Since they're acquiring some programming from Canada, their network would stand out from everyone else by showing programs not seen anywhere else. I'm not sure what changes I'd like to see with Qubo. For Ion Life, I'd like to see more than 1 or 2 seasons of shows that are still on the air in Canada. This diginet has potential, but with Ion Media refusing to allow anyone to affiliate with Ion Life, it actually hurts them, since they're spending a lot of money on their stations, even with a skeleton crew. WYIN (PBS) I'd have the dual HD eliminated on this station as well (WLS-TV being the other station running dual HD). If PBS World is a free service as I hear it is, then WYIN could add that to a subchannel to eliminate 1 simulcast. I don't know how long it'll take the Indiana Channel to completely get off the ground. If that diginet only intends to air about 6 hours of programming a week (I believe that's correct), then it doesn't make sense to even have the Indiana Channel, & simply incorporate the programming within the Indiana PBS schedules. So far, WYIN hasn't dedicated a subchannel for the Indiana Channel. Besides, not all Indiana PBS stations have

completely converted to HD, or even SD Widescreen. WYIN Gary & WNIT South Bend broadcast in HD, but locally produced programming isn't in HD, or even SD Widescreen. I don't know about the other PBS stations in Indiana. WJYS (Ind) I would like to see this station sold to Weigel Broadcasting, & move MeTV & MeToo to this station. Then on the WCIU side, remove MeTV & MeToo simulcasts from WCIU 26.3 & 26.4, & have more bandwidth for HD programming. Weigel could then sell off WWME-LD & WMEU-CD, as it would be needed (unless they would have other plans for these LPTV stations). WJYS (Ind) I would like to see this station sold to Weigel Broadcasting, & move MeTV & MeToo to this station. Where would the people with bad credit who want to buy cars go? Oh won't someone please think of the people with bad credit who need cars!!!! I actually agree with Dave, let Weigel have either WJYS or WPWR Going back to my hometown of Rockford, Illinois...first thing I would is take some of the counties in the other surrounding DMAs (such as Rock County, Wisconsin from Madison, DeKalb County, Illinois from Chicago as example), and of course, it would like the Rockford DMA slightly bigger (currently #134). Secondly, I would add at least a few more stations to the area; presently, there are four full-power stations (each affiliated with the Big Four), and a couple low-powered stations (one's religious, the other is a repeater of Weigel's Chicago stations). My idea would be standalone CW and MyNet fullpower stations (currently, they're each on subchannels of the NBC and ABC stations respectively), and they can have subchannels of their own (MeTV, Antenna, This, TheCoolTV, the re-born TNN, etc.). More importantly, I would have two PBS stations in the market; one could originate from Northern Illinois University (one of NIU's radio stations is licensed to Rockford), the other could be a station from Wisconsin Public TV (the city of license would be Janesville or Beloit). Phoenix: Seriously take a look at better branding for the local news stations. Three out of five have station group graphics and music at this point. Throw back to the days when each station actually felt, uh, distinct: I *love* 10's Spirit of Arizona era, same for 12 at that time. KNAZ: Return local news to Flagstaff, this time in an insert format in KPNX's newscasts. (This is what SHOULD have been done in 2008. One anchor, one reporter, not much needed. Larger stories can be sent to Phoenix to air on big 12.) KTVK: Bring back NewsChannel 3 and a traditional newscast format. Solo anchoring is not working. Fields Moseley needs to be an at-desk anchor for the newscasts. 3 could be a better racehorse if it were cared for properly. 3, however, would be throwing out its circle 3 tradition (same logo modified several times since 1982; circle 3s going back to the late 70s), in favor of a nice, earthy package (preferably John Christopher Burns or the people that did KWGN). Had Belo still operated KMSB Tucson, I would have suggested tighter integration between the two or a statewide newscast, but that's not happening now. (Tucson would probably involve a separation of Raycom's SSA there.) KPHO: Doing fine, though a little too tabloid in style right now. KSAZ: Complete rebrand based on the Spirit of Arizona package from the 90s; return to the Channel 10 News title and modernized sunset 10. Get a better weekend weather person; Kristy Siefkin (late of San Francisco) is not good at all. (Hey, we're lucky; a weekend newscast with two

main anchors is unheard of these days!) Start thinking about retiring Dave Munsey and getting a chief met with a seal. KPNX: Returns to the Arizona's News Station era, this time redone in HD. Cancel EVB Live. Get a proper chief meteorologist. KNXV: There's no good era of this station to throw back to. Phoenix has the luxury of five fullstrength news operations. 15 has been growing, but I think there are other ways it could grow. My idea is "15 Action News" with a completely de-corporatized look that still riffs off Scripps' other "Action News" properties and a renewed emphasis on franchise and in-depth reporting to position itself as a rival to 5. General: Produce some decent high school sports coverage. Two stations are trying now, and their efforts are good but limited, especially at 3. I've had an idea for an hour-long football-season show brewing in my head for some time now (with East Valley and West Valley in separate blocks, better statewide coverage, etc.), and it can be done, but it'd be a bold effort. General: Ever considered a 30 minute newscast each week for certain "focus areas" of the sprawling Phoenix market? Flagstaff, White Mountains, Navajo Nation, Pinal County, Yavapai County would make good areas to do that. Sounds best on 3, though any station could attempt. DENVER KWGN 2 (CW) Dump the news (Not only is it redundant in the AM since sister station KDVR 31 also has a morning newscast but I don't know of ANYONE who watches the 7:00 PM newscast). Also drop the CW network (They'd get higher ratings as an Indie than they currently do as a CW affiliate as KCDO 3 quickly discovered when it dropped RTV to go Indie) KCDO 3 (Independent) Drop the religion & infomercials KCNC 4 (CBS) Invest in Diginets (All the CBS O&Os should do this as CBS has already previously announced) KMGH 7 (ABC) Pick up the LiveWell Network once Scripps Howard moves Azteca America affiliate KZCO 27 to its own DTV tower KUSA 9 (NBC) None KTFD 14 (TeleFutura) Avoid the temptation to affiliate with MundoFOX KTVD 20 (MyNetwork TV) None KDVR 31 (FOX) None KETD 53 (Estrella) Bring back English programming (Even as a subchannel in the 250 channel region on cable) KPXC 59 (ION) Drop the religion & infomercials I say no changes for KTVD 20 because (For all intents & purposes) it IS an Independent (Gannett just call it as such) JMO..... Cheers & 73 Grin

For Salt Lake City, UT: I would get KSL 5 to force to relinquish the NBC affiliation and give the Peacock affiliaton to KXTV 4 and clear the entire NBC line-up (despite NBC has more tolerence on local pre-emptions) including SNL, and ABC goes to KCSG 44 and KSL would be an indie! I would have to disagree here. Because of ABC's long standing history of appealing to moderately Conservative viewers, I think KSL 5 would make an excellent ABC affiliate IMO But mind you, that's just MY opinion, not that of the Mormon Church Grin Quote For Jacksonville, FL I would like to see WJXT 4 be affiliated with MyNetworkTV instead being on subchannel of it's FOX station in the market. Actually ABC would be a better fit for this station as well (Especially since it's on crappy Gannett owned WJXX 25, which is a duopoly of NBC affiliate WTLV 12) Quote For Boston, MA (just like my friend Shane Spencer said): WCVB 5 should switch from ABC to NBC and bought by NBC Universal I have a one word response to this - WHY Shocked What's to be gained by COMCAST & Hearst Argyle doing that? Quote WHDH 7 switch from NBC to ABC and bought by Disney Again, the one word question - WHY Shocked Both WCVB 5 & WHDH 7 are well established with their respective networks & have strong relationships with them. Why should either one of them rock the boat? You're starting to look like Julius May with these ASININE & RIDICULOUS suggestions..... Quote WSBK 38 should be CW instead of MyNetworkTV, and WLVI 56 should be bought by FOX and become My56. First, neither network is worthy of a swap. Secondly, CBS does own at least one other MyNetwork (West Palm Beach, FL comes to mind). So YET AGAIN I ask the (Now redundant) one word question - WHY?? What's to be gained by CBS & Sunbeam doing this? Quote San Francisco, CA: I would like to see KTVU 2 bought by FOX making all four network O&Os in Bay Area! Dallas, TX: I would like to see WFAA 8 being bought by ABC, so they could have all four network O&Os. What is it with you & network O&Os? Lemme test you - Did you know that in Washington DC, NBC & FOX own the stations there yet ABC & CBS do not? Under your so-called "Logic", are you suggesting that ABC buy WJLA from Albritton (Sp?) & CBS buy WUSA from Gannett just so that all four networks own the stations there too? Seems kinda silly if you ask me..... Cheers & 73 Grin That's all well and good if you understand the logistics behind digital, and obviously you do. But I still think the average viewer still identifies stations with their analog channels, which means that in

Atlanta WSB is still Ch. 2, WAGA is still Ch. 5, WXIA is still 11 Alive, etc., because that's how they see them identified. WGCL might have a better signal on digital 19, but even I don't think of WGCL Ch. 19; the closest 19 to me is the analog channel of WLTX Columbia, SC. So I still think the average viewer is going to think of WUPA as that channel at the top of the dial that doesn't put out a decent signal. There's just one problem is WUPA did get CBS: Detroit viewers can still see CBS on Ch. 11 in Toledo, Ch. 5 in Flint, or Ch. 6 in Lansing. None of the CBS stations surrounding Atlanta (WSPA/7 Spartanburg, WDEF/12 Chattanooga, WRBL/3 Columbus, GA, WRDW/12 Augusta, WMAZ/13 Macon, or WIAT/42 Birmingham) gets into the Atlanta metro area. So there's no WTOL to take up the slack if WUPA were to become another WWJ. On other notes: I think ABC has tried to get WJXT Jacksonville and been turned down. I still rank it as one of the all-time blunders when Ch. 4 dropped CBS; ironically, back when ABC was number one in the '70s Florida Trend magazine had an article about three markets that were bucking the trend and where CBS was still number one: Miami (WTVJ), Tampa (WTVT), and Jacksonville (WJXT). None of them is a CBS affiliate today: WTVJ is an NBC o&o (I guess it still is), WTVT a Fox o&o, and WJXT an independent. Of the three, WJXT could have stayed put; I've heard the real reason was that negotiations broke down over compensation, but I also heard that the g.m. didn't like CBS sports programming running over into her local news time. Oddly, CBS has not been a factor in Orlando for as long as I can remember; that always seems to have been an ABC town, and ever since I was a kid I've always thought of WFTV first when I thought of Orlando television. As for WFAA, it is true that Dallas is the largest market without a Big Four o&o, and WFAA reminds me a lot of an ABC o&o; their newscasts always reminded me of the ABC o&os even though they branded themselves "News 8" rather than "Eyewitness News" or whatever. If WFAA were to become an ABC o&o, it should have happened during its years of dominance from the mid-'70s until their front four of Tracy Rowlett, Iola Johnson, Troy Dungan, and Verne Lundquist were gone (I think the then-existing ownership limits might have been a barrier). I still don't think Belo would sell its flagship any more than I think Cox would sell its flagship, WSB. That might also be true with Allbritton and WJLA; I've just often heard speculation that if ABC ever does buy another station it would probably be the one. Finally, what is the big deal about KSL not clearing "Saturday Night Live" or certain one-shots that might potentially offend the Mormons? Sounds to me as if Ch. 5 is still considering community standards. We had an incident several years ago when our CBS affiliate, WFMY, refused to show the Victoria's Secret special; management considered it blatantly sexist. Nobody screamed for CBS to take WFMY's affiliation away. Nor do I recall any mass call for ABC to change affiliates in heavily-Catholic markets in the Central time zone that ran "Soap" at 9:30 instead of 8:30 (San Antonio comes immediately to mind and KSAT is still the ABC affiliate there) or to drop all those stations that didn't carry "NYPD Blue" when it was new. Give KSL a break; management obviously knows what it's doing. How I would do my markets: Austin KTBC 7- Return to CBS as CBS 7/Newscenter 7. KLRU - Leave as is. KVUE - Rebrand as KVUE ABC Austin. Brand the newscasts as ABC Austin News. KBVO - Leave as is. KXAN - Rebrand the station as NBC 36, NBC 36 News.

KEYE - Return to Fox, as Fox 42. KNVA - Leave as is. San Antonio KCWX - Leave as is. WOAI - Switch affiliations, as it should have been if the station wasn't traded by ChrisCraft in 2001, and it would become a Fox affiliate. Rebrand as Fox 4 San Antonio. KENS - Rebrand as CBS 5 Eyewitness News KLRN - Leave as is. KSAT - Rebrand as KSAT ABC 12, rebrand news as simply 12 News, just like WISN ABC 12/12 News in Milwaukee. KMYS - Leave as is. KABB - Would have traded affiliations with WOAI, and become the new NBC affiliate, rebrand as NBC San Antonio/29 Action News. Smiley Like here in Charleston. Since Channel 5 has always had CBS, with the highest rated news by far (sometimes two or three times the other stations), CBS has always been the strongest network. While 2 and 4 both have their followings here, Channel 5 gets huge ratings in the rural areas who have grown up watching them. Almost all of their shows are at least #2 in the market (even the Evening News when Couric was on it). Years ago (late 80s), them and WBTV were approached for a switch to NBC. The stations are so loyal to CBS they wouldn't budge. Savannah is like that too with WTOC. WSAV has turned into a decent #2, probably being the leader in Savannah itself, but 11 and CBS owns all the rural areas of the market, because they have been the same for so long. Their anchors have been around for decades, they are always out in the community (they cover live pretty much every parade within 50 miles), and they have always had the same news music. Jacksonville has changed since they switched. 4 was the #1 by a huge margin for probably 30-40 years. 4 is still #1 in news, but NBC is much stronger because of WTLV. ABC has almost always been an afterthought there, too. They went from 17 to 25, which simulcast with WBSG in Brunswick, had separate newscasts, lasted about 2 1/2 years, then 25 merged with WTLV. GMA only got a 4 share this sweeps month on 25. Speaking of WBTV, if I had the clout, I would like to see them owned by either Capitol Broadcasting or CBS. Raycom can have WMYT and can put all their sports programming on there. WBTV just isn't what it once was which started with Lincoln Financial. Otherwise, honestly the Charlotte market is really not that bad. Defunct TV stations in your city Does your city have defunct TV stations?

Duluth has eleven. The very first preceded all other TV stations in about 1953. It operated on UHF - requiring a special converter then - and went by the call letters "WFTV". It picked up programming from a couple networks. With KDAL and modern-day KBJR signing on in 1954, it soon went kaput. The first eight were part of a "UHF cable TV" service common in the 1980's and 1990's in rural Minnesota. In Duluth, it went by the name of "BEAM TV". My family subscribed to it for a while when I was 7 and 8. I still remember the channel line-up: 15 - Sci-Fi Channel 27 - CNN 30 - TBS 32 - USA Network 34 - Discovery Channel 38 - Family Channel 56 - Showtime 60 - Nickelodeon They were going to add channels on 62, 64, 66, and 68, but never did as far as I know. They shut down operations in 1996 as Primestar, Dish, and DirecTV / USSB gained popularity. Duluth got a FOX affiliate on September 1, 1999 (KQDS 21). The enthusiasm for local TV spread to a group of local investors who started up KDUL-LP, channel 12. After several delays, it launched in the Fall of 2000, with transmitter tests in August 2000 (their puny VHF signal launched during a tropo opening, in which it was often interfered with by WJFW, Rhinelander, WI, 160 miles away). It carried A1 or AIN, as well as UPN programming and the local sports-themed public access show "The Average Guys". They received carriage on Bresnan (local) cable channel 16, which was the only way most people saw them. This probably created a inconvenient sim-sub situation with KMSP-9, which was the state's superstation at the time and then affiliated with UPN. Their transmitter had a fire in August 2001, kicking them off the air for good. K58CM, a long standing affiliate of TBN, signed off in 2010. In Seattle, there used to be KPEC 56 in Tacoma in the 1960s, which was operated by the Clover Park School District. It signed off in the '70s, and then bought KTVW 13, which several years later would morph into, you guessed it, Q13 Fox. -crainbebo We've had a couple of LPTVs come and go here in Rochester. W38AW (later WAWW-LP) and WROH-LP 47 are both gone now. I think WAWW was running America One when it was last on the air, and WROH-LP was shopping. The only defunct full-power TV here is only sort of defunct: channel 10 in Rochester signed on in 1953 as a share-time between WHEC-TV (affiliated with WHEC 1460) and WVET-TV (affiliated with WVET 1280). In 1962, the owners of WVET-TV bought WROC-TV 5 (soon moved to channel Cool and WROC-FM 97.9. WVET 1280 moved in with the WROC stations and became WROC 1280. The WVET-TV half of the channel 10 license was sold to WHEC-TV, which went full time on 10. The WVET staff moved over to WROC, so the only thing that really went "defunct" was the WVET-TV callsign. There's more defunct-ness in our neighboring markets: in Buffalo, WBES channel 59 came and went in the first flush of UHF in 1953. WBUF-TV 17 also signed on in 1953 and lasted for six years before the channel ended up being donated to educational TV as WNED in 1959.

In Syracuse, there was a channel 43 (WONH) that was built in the early 1970s but apparently never made it past a test pattern before folding. (The channel was later reused in the 1990s by what's now WNYS.) Elmira's first TV station, WTVE channel 24, signed on in 1953 and died in 1956 when a storm took down its tower. WKBS 48 in Philly in the 1980's went defunct. KQEC 32 in San Francisco the 1980's went defunct and was off the air for sometime before KMTP 32. KEMO-TV 20 in SFO went defunct in the 1980's and was off the air for 1 month before James Gabbert took over TV-20 for KTZO and KOFY. Chicago W9XZV/KS2XBS Ch. 2 was Zenith's pay-TV experimental channel. It operated off and on between 1939 and 1953, when it was bounced to make way for WBBM-TV's move from Channel 4. It also held the callsign WTZR, but that was never used on-air as the station never received its commercial license. KS2XBS briefly returned on Channel 38 in the '60s. WXXW Ch. 20 was WTTW's second channel, operating between 1965 and 1974. Its license survives today as WYCC, and its CP goes back to the never-built WIND-TV from 1953. W36AO was a Juke Box Network station that had broadcast on Channel 36 in Palatine in the late '80s and early '90s. I think it became a TBN affiliate later, and I don't know when it left the air. WCAE Ch. 50 St. John IN (1967-84) was Indiana's first public broadcasting station. Its license was never turned in to the FCC and it was used to test WPWR's transmitter in late '86, right before it moved from 60 to 50, but I don't know if WPWR or WYIN/56 is its "official" successor. WLXT Ch. 60 Aurora was a short-lived independent circa 1970. WBBS-TV Ch. 60 shared time with WPWR-TV between 1982 and 1985. It was a Spanishlanguage station. Phoenix KOY-TV Ch. 10 shared time with KOOL-TV in 1953 and '54, alternating days until KOOL bought them out. Juke Box Network also had an affiliate in Phoenix on Channel 61 around 1990. I don't know if it moved or left the air, but by the time I moved back here in 1994, it was gone. Yuma KIVA Ch. 11 aired between 1953 and 1970. It is no relation to the current KYMA. In Raleigh-Durham, the market's first TV station, WNAO-TV/Raleigh, was a UHF on channel 28 that signed on on 1953. Three VHF stations followed in 1954 (WTVD/Durham), 1955 (WUNC/Chapel Hill), and 1956 (WRAL/Raleigh), WTVD and WRAL specifically spelling doom for WNAO, which fell silent in 1957. In the southern part of the market, Fayetteville had WFLB-TV on UHF channel 18 from 1955-1958. We've had quite a few LPTV stations come and go, such as W34AX in Henderson, WUBX-CA 13 in Durham (Former W13BW), and WBXU-CA 13 in Raleigh (W13CI).

I have always looked at WPWR-TV being the successor to WCAE (channel wise), only after the allocation was changed from non-commercial to commercial. WYIN's license on 56 goes back to WGMI (originally a commercial license), which was an unbuilt CP that Newsweb Corp. held. So WYIN signed on 56 for the first time in 1987. As for WCAE, I don't remember the station ever being on the air in 1984. I remember it being off the air in 1983, & nothing ever broadcasting on 50 until late 1986, when Newsweb was running test patterns on the station with the WCAE call letters. As for WCAE being Indiana's first non-commercial station, I'm surprised that it was in fact Indiana's first non-commercial station. Their original network was NET, then became PBS in October 1970. WFWA Fort Wayne, IN was the last non-commercial station to sign on in Indiana. WYIN claims (on their website) they descended from WCAE. Which would jibe with FCC policy on conservation of non-commercial reservations. WFWA was *not* the last non-comm to sign on in Indiana; that title would go to WDTI-69 (WTBU at the time?) Indianapolis, which came on six years later. Yes, WDTI holds a non-commercial license. Oh, Milwaukee? -- only one truly defunct station. WCAE-TV channel 25 operated in the mid-1950s, as a CBS affiliate. They left the air when CBS bought WOKY-TV 19. (CBS also traded WOKYTV's inferior equipment to WCAE-TV in return for WCAE's gear, with the thought that WCAE would continue to operate. With a second VHF station -- WTVW channel 12 -- already in operation, and a pretty good chance for a third VHF, WITI channel 6 -- WCAE decided not to continue.) There was a permit for channel 31 but it never operated. Nashville's channel 17 has had at least one false start. Other than LPTVs I can't think of any other truly defunct stations in Middle Tennessee. WKBF 61 in Cleveland, a Kaiser-owned independent, went dark in 1975. The frequency was later occupied by another indie, WCLQ, which later became WQHS (home shopping network), and is now a Univision O&O. Mobile, Alabama used to have a station with the call letters WKAB-TV; it was the first TV station in the area to begin broadcasting. Here is a link to a series of articles about the history of WKAB-TV in Mobile. When I looked back on that one, I didn't realize that now WDTI used to be WBTU, a former PBS station. Now as for WCAE/WGMI mess I found wasn't easy. Newsweb Corp. was already holding the unbuilt CP for WGMI Gary. They also acquired the WCAE license from the Lake Central School System. Since channel 50 was able to be moved to Chicago for broadcasting purposees (not changing the COL), they applied with the FCC to swap the allocations to make 50 commercial, & 56 non-commercial. The original 56 license that was commercial, but changed to non-commercial, was transferred to what is now the Northwest Indiana Broadcasting Company. The original WCAE license (originally non-commercial, but now commercial), is currently held by Fox Corp. The fact of the manner is that the license WYIN holds did not evolve from the WCAE license. They however did evolve from WCAE in the sense that they're providing a TV station to NW Indiana with programming aimed at NW Indiana. Had the Northwest Indiana Broadcasting Company acted sooner, they would have been broadcasting on 50, & WPWR-TV would have likely stayed on 60. 56 most likely would never made it to the air, & the channel allocation probably would have been deleted. 54 & 33 were also non-commercial allocations for the Chicago market (54 for Kankakee & 33 for Dekalb), but those never went on the air, & have since been deleted. I'm surprised 62 managed to stay on the air in the analog days, with their limited signal. Pittsburgh has had WENS-TV 16, which went dark in 1957 after it's transmitter was damaged in a

storm. Two new VHF competitors were about to sign on, and it was deemed not economically feasible to rebuild. The license was later transferred and the station returned some years later as public broadcaster WQEX. Channel 53 has gone kaput twice. Once in the 1950's after a brief existence as WJKF. And then in the early 70's as WPGH (it was on for a few years, off for three, and back on again). Also several LPTV's on 29, 35, 63. The obvious example in Hartford/New Haven would be the old WHCT-TV channel 18 of Hartford. They were the market's first CBS affiliate as WGTH-TV. They were then an independent station. Even Dr. Gene Scott's people owned it for a few years. Then came the controversial sale to Astroline Communications in the mid-1980s. They tried to compete with then-independent WTXXTV channel 20 of Waterbury and pre-FOX WTIC-TV channel 61 of Hartford. Outside of some Hartford Whalers NHL games, I can't remember anything else worth watching. They were forced off the air in April of 1991 by the FCC. They were nearly entirely running as a home shopping channel by then. It came back on around 1997 and looked like they would become the market's PAX affiliate. Today, the station is WUVN-TV, a Univision affiliate owned by Entravision. In Greenville, SC market: WAIM 40 (CBS/ABC later Indiependent) around 1979. Came back as indie WAXA 40 in the mid 1980s, after losing the FOX affiliation to WHNS 21 in 1988 following Frank Outlaw's death, suffererd Chapter 11 and went dark on August 31, 1989. If WAXA was still on the air in 1990-onwards, it would pick up Match Game (1990 ABC revival), and other ABC shows prempted from WLOS 13 (if it wasn't simalcast), and syndicated shows we never got to see in GSP like Hogan Family,Perfect Strangers, etc. Today it's WMYA My40. Also last year WNEG 32 (despite having an inadequate signal/pay-TV coverage in it's home market) which was then a commercial indie became non-commercial WUGA. As a result, GSP viewers didn't get to see Punk'd, The Hills, Storm Stories, The Daily Buzz, and the rest of Steve Harvey's first year on Family Feud until WMYA My40 regain Family Feud this season. WLKT-TV channel 62 in Lexington Ky. It came and went before anyone really knew it was there. Also on channel 62 in Lexington several years later was WBLU LP. It is gone now. ...Channel 25 was WCAN-TV, matching their co-owned radio station WCAN/1250... ...and, up Highway 41 from Milwaukee: Fond du Lac: KFIZ-TV/34, independent/CBS secondary, 16 December 1968 to 19 November 1972 Neenah: WNAM-TV/42, ABC, 10 December 1953 to 2 January 1955 (license morphed into WFRV/5 Green Bay) Oshkosh: WOSH-TV/48, NBC, 27 June 1953 to 22 March 1954 (assets used to build WMBV/11 Marinette) There have been a few in Southeast Michigan... - WDCP-TV in University Center - originally WUCM and later WDCQ, was a PBS station on Channel 19. The station had a full-power repeater on Channel 35 in Bad Axe (WDCQ, originally WUCX and later WDCP - confused yet?). When the DTV transition took place, it was decided to use one digital transmitter instead of two analog transmitters, so the Bad Axe station was kept while WDCP was shut down entirely. Interestingly, the remaining WDCQ now uses 19.1 for its PSIP, instead of 35.1. - WPAG-TV in Ann Arbor, an early UHF station, broadcast on Channel 20 from 1953 to 1957

- WJMY-TV in Allen Park (a suburb of Detroit) took over Channel 20, got a CP, and broadcast a test card one night in 1968. It never came back on the air. The Channel 20 allocation later went to independent WXON-TV, now MyNetworkTV affiliate WMYD. - WFHD-LP in Ann Arbor was a repeater of Detroit's WDWO-CA (TCT) on Channel 27, now silent. - W67AJ in Ann Arbor was a repeater of CBS affiliate WLAJ-TV in Lansing. The translator was owned by Eastern Michigan U, and has been off the air since 2007. - WXON-LP in Flint - no relation to WXON/WMYD in Detroit - broadcast starting in 1999 on Channel 54. Its license was cancelled by the FCC in January of this year, although I don't know when it actually signed off. The station's Wikipedia article says it was an independent station. - WTAC-TV in Flint signed on in 1953 on Channel 16, and went off the air after less than a year. It was affiliated with ABC and DuMont. On the Canadian side of the border in Western Ontario, the only station that has actually ceased broadcasting was digital-only CKXT-DT-2 in London, a short-lived rebroadcast station for the nowdefunct CKXT-TV in Toronto. Also in Arizona: Full power: KPOL broadcast on channel 40 in Tucson from 1985 before going dark in 1989. The license lay dormant until it was purchased out of bankruptcy and launched as KHRR in 1992. KTFL was a FamilyNet affiliate in Flagstaff, broadcasting on channel 4 from 2000 through 2006, when the license was canceled and call sign deleted. Low power: There have been about 160 low power licenses canceled throughout the State of Arizona, mostly from small community-owned translator associations who no longer wished to maintain a translator system once DBS became widely available. In the Phoenix area: KUSK/KAZT owned four stations that served as translators for the full power Prescott station: K17BU Mesa broadcast from Usery Mtn. in Mesa. Became K57HX when it was displaced by KPHO's digital operations. When it came time to clear the 700 MHz band, the owners of K57HX chose to shutter the station instead. K49DF Phoenix covered the west valley from the White Tanks Mtns. Was displaced when channel 49 was assigned to KASW for digital operations. Became K18GH, but interference from KTVW 33 crippled the station and it shut down. K55EH Phoenix covered the central and north valley from Shaw Butte. Once the primary translator for KUSK, once KHSK 27 became KAZT-CD, the channel 55 signal was redundant. The station went dark and twelve months later, the FCC canceled the license. K43CO Casa Grande broadcast to central Pinal County, including Casa Grande, Eloy, Coolidge and Florence, from 1989 until 2010, when the FCC canceled the license, presumably at the licensee's request. I remember seeing TV listings for both of Tucson's UHF independents in the late-'80s, and I thought KPOL was more aggressively programmed than KDTU-18 (an independent owned by the Diocese of Tucson, now MNT station KTTU) and also had stereo sound (which KDTU/KTTU didn't). By 1989, KDTU and KPOL were in bad financial shape, but a company by the name of Clear Channel came to KDTU's rescue and that sale sealed the fate for KPOL. Tucson did not have room for three English-language independent stations (this included Fox affiliate KMSB-TV 11). Fast forward to 2012, and both KMSB and KTTU are now operated by CBS affiliate KOLD-TV, a sign of how weak Tucson still is as a TV market. An example of a typical KPOL nightly sign-off can be seen here. If you go back to the 1970's, Phoenix's KPAZ-TV 21 can also be considered a once-"defunct"

station. They were on the air from 1967 until 1977 as first a bilingual independent, then a Christianleaning independent. The transmitter was repossessed in 1977 and the station stayed dark for several months until Trinity Broadcasting Network stepped in and assumed the license and put the station back on the air. I believe KeithE4 mentioned Channel 61 (K61CA) as an example of a station that was short lived. It was on the air from early 1983 until October of 1984 as a locally-programmed music video station, years before The Box came to town on now-defunct K58DV (which became KPHZ-LP, then KDTPLP--what remains of the station is piggybacked on a subchannel of KDPH-LD as "58.1" with Jewelry Television shopping). Forgot to add one, KCWT-27 Wenatchee, WA, 1984-1993. Had been an independent, then turned into a satellite of KCPQ-13 in Seattle [FOX], before turning into Channel America, and finally a TBN affiliate until 1993, when it's transmitter malfunctioned and KCWT went to TV Heaven. -crainbebo In Ventura, CA, part of the Los Angeles market, there was KKOG-TV channel 16 (the call letters stood for Kalifornia's Koast of Gold). This station existed for a whopping nine months, from December 1968 to September 1969. There is no channel 16 in the Los Angeles market now. The frequencies occupied by UHF channel 16 have long since been reallocated from TV in Ventura to mobile radio in L.A. Then from May 5, 1974, to December 23, 1975, there was KVST-TV channel 68 (the call letters stood for K Viewer Sponsored Television, since the station was owned by the Viewer Sponsored Television Foundation. Various technical problems led to this station's demise after a mere 19 months. In May 1987, the Black Television Workshop returned channel 68 to the air as KEEF-TV. By August 8 of that year, KEEF-TV was gone, due to the FCC's Mass Media Bureau shutting the station down for using antennas and antenna height other than those which were authorized by the Commission. Obviously, the removal of channels above 51 from TV use as part of the 2009 digital transition, channel 68 is gone forever. The only defunct low-power station in the Los Angeles market that I can think of is Almavisin translator K55KD, which had to file for an STA to move to channel 57 due to interference complaints lodged by Qualcomm, which had purchased exclusive rights to broadcast on the frequencies occupied by UHF channel 55. The station is still on the air today, as WXFT-DT. After WSNS picked up the SIN affiliation, WBBS gave its weekday hours to WPWR, and kept its weekend hours for Spanish movies. After WPWR moved to channel 50, channel 60 was sold to HSN, and became WEHS in 1986, then Telefutura and WXFT in 2002. CBS is Lansing was, and still is, WLNS, and W67AJ repeated that station. We had that wireless "UHF" cable service here in Fresno, it was called Choice TV, it went dark also, as far as stations going dark and not coming back there was one in the 50s on channel 27 that carried the Dumont network, other than that KFRE CBS 12 switching to Channel 30 and KAIL 53 (MNT) switching to channel 7 recently all original stations still exist. ...KCOK-TV/27 Fresno apparently was announced as a DuMont affiliate in an ad in the Fresno Bee, but never actually took to the air http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_former_DuMont_Television_Network_affiliates ...

Here in Boston, we had WTAO-56, the market's first UHF station, which went on the air September 28, 1953 (carrying a handful of DuMont or ABC programs but never a "full time" affiliate of either network). WTAO went off the air two-and-a-half years later, on March 30, 1956. The station failed because not many sets in the area could get UHF at a time when most set owners had access to three (or some, even four) VHF stations: WBZ-4 and WNAC-7 from Boston plus WMUR-9 Manchester (beginning in 1954) and/or WJAR-10 Providence. WTAO's owners Harvey Radio Labs kept the license, and briefly put the station back on the air in 1962 as an FCC-sponsored test as WXHR-TV, using programming from the Boston Catholic TV Center (according to a Boston Globe article of the period). In 1966, the Channel 56 license along with two radio stations owned by Harvey was sold to a joint venture of Kaiser Broadcasting and the Globe, which put the station back on the air that December as WKBG (it is now WLVI). Further West, in Worcester, there was Channel 14, originally WWOR, later WJZB. As WWOR in the 1950's, it broadcast a few ABC and DuMont shows, and a handful of local programs. After several years off the air, the station reappeared as WJZB, under the same ownership of WWLP-22 in Springfield. While simulcasting "Western Massachusetts Highlights" (a talk show) and the NBC news (then co-anchored by Chet Huntley and David Brinkley) from WWLP, the rest of the time, WJZB was an independent carrying "bargain basement" syndicated programming. Although there were rumors that WWLP was going to try to move WJZB into the Boston market, the station left the air in 1969 after fire destroyed their facilities atop historic Mount Amnesbumskit in Paxton. And north, in New Hampshire, there were two stations that are now defunct: The first was WXPO-50, which launched in the Fall of 1969 as an rather ambitious independent. But the station lost money and went off the air nine months later. Later, there was WNHT-21 in Concord, which was at first an independent, but was later a CBS affiliate. But even that wasn't enough to save it, and it went off the air around 1990. Out in Northwest Massachusetts, there was WRLP-32 in Greenfield. Long a satellite of sister station WWLP, WRLP eventually (late 1970's) became an independent for Western Massachusetts (with a signal that greatly overlapped WWLP's). WRLP carried games of the Boston sports teams (Red Sox and Bruins from WSBK-38; Celtics and Patriots' pre-season games from WBZ), primetime movies, but did also carry NBC's nightly news (by this time, anchored by John Chancellor). WBBS's share of Channel 60 was purchased by WPWR in early 1986 (I'd thought it was late '85), ending the split-schedule arrangement. WPWR moved to Channel 50, and Channel 60 became WEHS in January of '87. For the last year or two, that was it. From the June 8-14, 1968 TV Guide, Eastern New England Edition: Mon - Fri: 6 PM (14) Highlights - Tom Colton (from WWLP) 6:30 (4) (10) (14) {COLOR} News - Chet Huntley, David Brinkley (with note "Ch. 14 does not colorcast") 7 PM (14) News, Weather, Sports (from WWLP)

I can recall two oddities - colorcast or not, the color signal was fed to the transmitter - and produced a weird phase-shifted pattern of several color images over the monochrome background. Also, they must have used a cheap timer or manual remote control - the signal would actually disappear somewhere between 7:30 and 7:45 PM - showing the beginning of whatever NBC show was on WWLP at the time. I remember it stayed on all evening at least once. No, It Was KVVG Tulare, It was before my time , but my grandmother told me when I was like 9, saying that she saw the Dumont Network on 27, and KBAK 29 Bakersfield that Carried Dumont and ABC in the mid 50s. The site KVVG 27 was broadcast at, Eshom Point(Sequoia National Forest), was home for the short lived KICU 43, which went dark in the early 60s and didn't return until 1989 as KSDI. WARNING: LONG Reply. It would have been nice to have had a GSP station showing programs like Hogan Family, Perfect Strangers, Head of the Class, Saved By the Bell (which aired on WYCW 62 for a year when it was brought back to E/I syndication), A Different World (which later aired on WFBC C40, then WHNS Fox Carolina, and finally on WYCW -Your Carolinas' CW 62), children's programs like The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog (which would, in fact, later air on WFBC C40 when the show was brought back to syndie - in 1993-95 I watched this over the air on Charlotte's WJZY 46 before school, and it later wound up on USA Network), Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad with Matthew Lawrence (which aired on WJZY and on WGN Channel 9 on cable), and game shows like Talk About, Jackpot with Geoff Edwards (syndicated version from 1989-90 after USA Network version went off the air), The 3rd Degree with Bert Convy, John Davidson's $100,000 Pyramid (which I saw on WCNC-36 NBC in Charlotte at noon its first season), The Quiz Kids Challenge, Studs, and Infatuation with Bob Eubanks (the latter two early 90's dating shows). WAXA may have wound up clearing these shows, but I have read old Herald-Journal TV listings from its time on the air. There were programs that I see even game show-heavy WAXA didn't clear such as Wink Martindale's High Rollers, the second and final season of syndicated Sale of the Century with Jim Perry (the first season aired for a few months at 7:30 p.m. on WSPA before Dawson's syndie Family Feud came back to the schedule at 7:30 for its final few months), Split Second with Monty Hall (Canadian 80's version), Bill Cullen's Joker's Wild, Bill Rafferty's Card Sharks (syndicated version concurrent with CBS Daytime Card Sharks with Bob Eubanks), Every Second Counts with Bill Rafferty, Couch Potatoes with Marc Summers, most of Dick Clark's $100,000 Pyramid (which they wound up picking up in the middle of its last season around January 1988 and aired at 6 or 6:30 p.m. weeknights), Yahtzee with Peter Marshall (they had the syndicated Canadian Lingo from the same producers), and the final season of John Davidson's Hollywood Squares (which aired on WSPA-TV at 7:30 p.m. from 1986-88 before being replaced with Ray Combs syndicated Family Feud). They also did not clear the following games from CBS: Body Language from January 1985-January 1986 (which aired at 9:30 a.m. to be replaced with Jim Lange's $100k Name that Tune and later Jim Caldwell's Tic Tac Dough which moved there from WLOS-TV at 7 p.m. when Wink still hosted), Press Your Luck from January-September 1985 (replaced with Caldwell Tic Tac Dough and later either Perfect Match with Bob Goen or Love Connection), Bob Eubanks' Card Sharks from September-March 1988 (replaced with Peter Tomarken's syndicated Wipeout which I thought was a CBS daytime game as a kid), and Chuck Henry's Now You See It (Love Connection aired in this spot; Card Sharks had come back to WSPA for its final month on CBS). I also want to think that WSPA didn't clear the last few months of Family Feud Challenge (CBS Daytime, 1992-93), which could have wound up on WAXA in later years but they never cleared any CBS games previously. And WAXA never cleared any of ABC's daytime sitcom reruns/game shows in the late 80's that WLOS never carried (Perfect Strangers, Mr. Belvedere, Who's the Boss, Growing Pains, Angie, maybe All-Star Blitz/Double Talk/Family Feud/Hot Streak with Bruce Forsyth) It was a GREAT move to pick up Super Password since WYFF didn't clear it and it was a successful, quality game (and NBC's most successful game show in the noon timeslot, lasting 4 1/2 years). They also picked up Double Dare (syndicated version with Marc Summers) from WHNS when it became Super Sloppy Double Dare after Finder's Keepers syndicated version (also on WAXA) went off the

air and moved to Nickelodeon in reruns. I do not understand how Double Dare jumped stations in the middle of a season; I thought WHNS would have had the rights for the entire 1988-89 season (WHNS also aired rival show Fun House with JD Roth for its entire syndicated run and it's Fox Kids season as well as spin-off College Mad House with Greg Kinnear). WAXA might have cleared the syndicated sitcoms (along with second cycles of shows such as Gimme a Break, Silver Spoons, Punky Brewster, Family Ties, Facts of Life, etc and reruns of syndie shows such as New Leave it to Beaver, Out of this World, Small Wonder, and Munsters Today), but from reading their schedule, they were not a very sitcom-heavy station. From what I remember they had: Soap, The Ted Knight Show, Canada's Hangin' In, I Dream of Jeannie, Gidget with Sally Field, Flying Nun, weekend syndies such as Throb, T and T, New Gidget, and Starting From Scratch plus FOX's program lineup from 1986-88. The owner was actually Anthony Kupris, not Frank Outlaw, and he was heavily invested in expanding the station before his death, so we might have seen a wholly upgraded WAXA, the station might have also kept or gained back its Fox affiliation and became "Fox 40". However, the station might have still stayed low-budget or might even have went dark later than it did (or Kupris would have died later in the 90s or so), and the station might have still ended up under Sinclair/WLOS). I think potentially a converted WGGS-16 (becoming a general entertainment station and phasing out religious shows) or an earlier WASV 62 might have also picked at least the sitcoms up (Hogan Family and Perfect Strangers syndication contracts ran out right before WASV signed on in 1997, and WASV brought Step By Step, Hangin' with Mr. Cooper, and Martin along with older classic sitcoms that previously were not seen/had not been seen in years in the GSP market (and they later aired the second cycles of Full House and Family Matters), so the shows could have wound up there for at least a short while). I am actually surprised WHNS didn't clear at least Perfect Strangers since they aired their spinoff Family Matters and also sister show Full House, as well as most of Miller-Milkis-Boyett's shows with Garry Marshall - Happy Days/Laverne & Shirley/Mork & Mindy/Bosom Buddies (but not Angie, which was in local syndication), but Hogan Family I can see station executives going: do we want viewer confusion when one episode airs with Valerie Harper and another with Sandy Duncan? (which was also a sister show to Full House and Family Matters). Hogan Family might have been offered to stations at a bargain (and WAXA had a very low-budget schedule). I guess WHNS didn't get Step By Step because WSPA secured the rights to air on the New 62 WASV. WSPA could have signed on WASV in a Local Marketing Agreement as early as 1993 or 1994. WFBC C40 was on the air from 1995-97 but never picked up the sitcoms, and the only sitcoms they showed until 1997 were shows previously shown on WLOS - Growing Pains, Who's the Boss, Night Court, and Murphy Brown, and they did have Beverly Hillbillies and Brady Bunch reruns). So I think either a later WAXA, an earlier WASV, or a general entertainment WGGS would have showed these programs (WACH Fox 57 in Columbia, SC - formerly WGGS' sister station WCCT - had the Columbia rights to The Hogan Family as well as Martindale's High Rollers and Davidson's Hollywood Squares its last two seasons) or maybe - possibly a FOX-less WHNS 21 with more room on their schedule. Also, WNEG cleared Chappelle's Show but not Reno 911 or the second cycle of South Park (which it might have already been WUGA then). It would have been nice to have Reno while it was syndicated). I personally think WMYA-My40 should now be called WTSH or WTRS-Trash 40 (or WTTF-"Trash TV 40") due to their daytime schedule with Maury/Jerry Springer/Steve Wilkos and other talk shows (and the unbelievably superior MyNetworkTV could go to the also superior WYCW station if The crappy CW goes off the air and MyNet doesn't and the station could get the WASV call letters back and be called My 62 WASV like the old days of The New 62/Super 62/UPN 62). The only good things on 40's lineup are Family Feud, some sitcom repeats overnights, MyNetworkTV's primetime reruns, and the occasional Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy (which I think should be moved to WSPA/WYCW since my great aunt lives in Duncan, SC and cannot pick up WLOS with no cable/satellite). The 7:00 news could be moved to 4 or 4:30, Jeopardy could air at 4 or 4:30, and Wheel could air at 7 before Scene on 7...or Scene could move to WYCW after their 10 p.m. news and be simply called "Your Scene" or something close and Wheel and Jeopardy could air together from 7-8 with news ar 4/4:30 or a full hour (and dump Judge Judy or Dr. Phil, or only air them on

WYCW). Or WYCW could air the two game shows...but they have too great of a comedy lineup to mess with that. Move Who Wants to Be a Millionaire to a daytime/afternoon slot from overnights, and maybe even get Family Feud from WMYA and Andy Griffith from WYFF and air the B&W episodes weekdays instead of the color ones (air the color ones overnights/weekends/in a lesswatched time slot). I remember them being a semi-satellite of KAYU-28 out of Spokane (also FOX) for awhile -- this would be before the LPTV FOX affiliates launched in Yakima and the Tri-Cities. In the Tri-Cities, you first had KBWU 66 [which IIRC was a satellite of KAYU], and Yakima first had a translator of KAYU, K68EB on TV-68. KBWU later morphed into KFFX 11 which is full-power, and K68EB turned into KCYU-LP, still on 68, but it later moved to 41 where it is today. -crainbebo ...there was WNHT-21 in Concord, which was at first an independent, but was later a CBS affiliate. But even that wasn't enough to save it, and it went off the air around 1990... IIRC, it signed off at midnight, right in the middle of CBS' main late-night offering at the time, the now-defunct "Pat Sajak Show." Not a way to go out in a blaze of glory. Embarrassed What doomed 21 was becoming a CBS affiliate as since NH cable also carried WNEV and WGME at the time they could not get any traction. 20 years earlier both WMUR and WXPO were mentioned as possible CBS affiliates to make ONE viewer happy -one William Paley who could not get CBS at his summer home north of Laconia and for a few years CBS paid AT&T long lines a small fortune for a microwave hop to the home. What would be interesting, is to discuss how many stations got as far as securing a construction permit, taking an option on a studio and transmitter location, and maybe even getting as far as firing up a test pattern, before throwing in the towel and stopping short of ever getting even a day of scheduled programming on the air. In Buffalo, NY, the abortive Channel 59 and Channel 17, which did get on the air for a few months or a few years in the 1950s, were already mentioned. Just to the east in Rochester, Channel 15, WCBF (allied with longtime top 40 powerhouse WBBF) was a live construction permit for years although it never got a signal on the air--and a Channel 27 station, which was going to be another joint venture of WHEC and WVET while serving as the city's ABC affiliate, was on the books in the late 1950s (although without a callsign being assigned) before Channel 13 was assigned to the city as a third VHF in 1959 and got on the air to stay three years later. In Syracuse, a third VHF was granted a CP on Channel 10 just before the 1948 freeze as WAGE-TV (companion to then-WAGEAM 620) and had an option on a Sentinel Heights tower site, but never got built--WAGE-AM later changed hands and became Meredith-owned WHEN-TV's sister station WHEN (AM). Syracuse waited until 1962 for its third VHF on channel 9. There are a surprising number of buildings out there that were built as TV studio facilities by radio broadcasters in the 1940s and 1950s who were absolutely certain they'd be getting TV licenses. At least a few of them never got those TV licenses, or got CPs they never built. We had one in Rochester that you might not know about, Bob...the studio building at 191 East Avenue was constructed around 1951 by WRNY radio, complete with upstairs studios for WRNY 680 and WRNY-FM 97.9 and a big TV studio and control room in the basement for a future WRNYTV. After WRNY failed to prevail in the four-way battle for channel 10 (they were granted a channel 27 permit that was never built), they didn't need that big building, so they sold it around 1955 to WHEC

and it became the home of WHEC 1460 and WHEC-TV 10 for the next quarter-century. (It was demolished in 1979 and the land where it sat is now the parking lot of the current WHEC studio building next door.) A good example being the aforementioned WKJF-TV 53 in Pittsburgh. A WKJF-FM radio station did take to the air and still remains (as KDKA-FM, The Fan 93.7). Before moving into the CBS cluster this station was in a HUGE studio building at the base of it's tower in the Mt. Washington section of Pittsburgh. Built to accommodate Channel 53 studios, no doubt. Now largely empty except for the 93.7 transmitter, it is perched dangerously close to the edge of the cliff. In addition to the already mentioned WKBF/61 here (yes, definitely a different license than what is today's WQHS/61, a Univision O&O, with a long gap between WKBF and WCLQ)... There's, of course, WICA/15 Ashtabula, in the far northeast corner of the market. Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WICA-TV UHF Morgue (reprint of a 1995 Ashtabula Star-Beacon article): http://radiodxer.bravehost.com/WICA.html On the air briefly in the 1950s and again briefly in the 1960s. Attached to 970/97.1, today's WFUN and WREO-FM... Channel 36 in Atlanta had a couple of false starts; the first being around 1954 (as WQXI-TV, which became Channel 11's call letters from 1968-73) and whose biggest program was a Saturday-night country-music show. Then there was the first WATL, owned by U.S. Communications, from 196971. 36 returned as WATL in 1976 and has remained on the air, today being a duopoly with WXIA. Channel 3