OTA Stations on Cable

[Hudsons81]

Found this interesting site today.

https://apps.fcc.gov/coals/forms/search/cableSearchNf.cfm

At that site, one can find out which over-the-air stations were carried on cable when the system was first installed.

I decided to pull up the installation document for the system in my original home city of Southgate, Michigan (now operated by Comcast) dating from 1979, two years before I was born. When the Southgate, MI system first went into operation in November 1980, the following OTA stations were carried:

• CBET-TV CBC 9 Windsor, Ontario
• CBLT-TV CBC 5 Toronto, Ontario
• CICO-TV-32 TVO 32 Windsor, Ontario
• KTVU Independent 2 San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose, California (now a Fox O&O)
• WDIV-TV NBC 4 Detroit, Michigan
• WGPR-TV Independent 62 Detroit, Michigan (now WWJ-TV, a CBS O&O)
• WGTE-TV PBS 30 Toledo, Ohio
• WJBK-TV CBS 2 Detroit, Michigan (now a Fox O&O)
• WKBD-TV Independent 50 Detroit, Michigan (now a CW O&O)
• WTBS Independent 17 Atlanta, Georgia (now WPCH-TV)
• WTVS PBS 56 Detroit, Michigan
• WXON-TV Independent 20 Detroit, Michigan (now WMYD, a My Network TV affiliate)
• WXYZ-TV ABC 7 Detroit, Michigan (then an ABC O&O, now an ABC affiliate)

See if you can get interesting stations that might've been carried in your town when it first got cable.

[Pikapower]

Here the one for Lancaster, NY circa 1980

*CBFLT-TV Radio-Canada 25 Toronto, Ontario
*CBLT-TV CBC 5 Toronto, Ontario
*CFTO-TV CTV 9 Toronto, Ontario
*CHCH-TV Independent 11 Hamilton, Ontario
*CICA-TV TVO 19 Toronto, Ontario
*CITY-TV Independent 79 Toronto, Ontario (Now on channel 57)
*WGR-TV NBC 2 Buffalo, New York (Now WGRZ-TV)
*WHEC-TV CBS 10 Rochester, New York (Now NBC)
*WICU -TV NBC 12 Eire, Pennsylvania
*WIVB-TV CBS 4 Buffalo, New York
*WKBW-TV ABC 7 Buffalo, New York
*WNED-TV PBS 17 Buffalo, New York
*WNEW-TV Independent 5 New York City (Now WNYW, a Fox O&O)
*WOKR-TV ABC 13 Rochester, New York (Now WHAM-TV)
*WPIX-TV Independent 11 New York City
*WROC-TV NBC 8 Rochester, New York (Now CBS)
*WSBK-TV Independent 38 Boston, Massachusetts (Now MyNetwork TV)
*WSEE-TV CBS 35 Eire, Pennsylvania
*WTBS Independent 17 Atlanta, Georgia (Now WPCH-TV)
*WUHF-TV Independent 31 Rochester, New York (Now Fox)
*WUTV-TV Independent 29 Buffalo, New York (Now Fox)
*WOR-TV Independent 9 Secaucus, New Jersey/New York City (Now WWOR and MyNetwork TV)
*WXXI-TV PBS 21 Rochester, New York

[Hudsons81]

Here's one from my current location, Wyandotte, Michigan, from January 1983.

• CBET-TV CBC 9 Windsor, Ontario
• CICO-TV-32 TVO 32 Windsor, Ontario
• WDIV-TV NBC 4 Detroit, Michigan
• WGPR-TV Independent 62 Detroit, Michigan (now WWJ-TV, a CBS O&O)
• WGTE-TV PBS 30 Toledo, Ohio
• WJBK-TV CBS 2 Detroit, Michigan (now a Fox O&O)
• WKBD-TV Independent 50 Detroit, Michigan (now a CW O&O)
• WTBS Independent 17 Atlanta, Georgia (now WPCH-TV)
• WTVS PBS 56 Detroit, Michigan
• WXON-TV Independent 20 Detroit, Michigan (now WMYD, a My Network TV affiliate)
• WOR-TV Independent 9 Secaucus, New Jersey/New York City (now WWOR, a My Network TV O&O)
• WXYZ-TV ABC 7 Detroit, Michigan (then an ABC O&O, now an ABC affiliate)

[TheFugitive]

An interesting case was Genesee County, Michigan (outside of Flint) when I lived there in the late
1980's.

We got not only the Flint-Saginaw market stations, but WLNS, the CBS station out of Lansing,
plus all of the Detroit market stations.  This meant among other things that I had 3 CBS
stations on my dial (WEYI, which is now NBC, WLNS and WJBK, which was Detroit's CBS
affiliate at the time).

When the FCC passed SYNDEX regulations systems in neighboring counties had to take
down the Detroit stations.  But Genesee County apparently fell into a no-mans land between the
Flint and Detroit markets, and got to keep all of them for some reason.

The downside was that I was on one of the few cable systems in the area that had no
Canadian stations on the dial.  The NHL was at the time on an obscure sports channel called
SportsChannel America that almost nobody carried.  So with no CBC station on my dial I was
never able to get my hockey fix.   :(

[Hudsons81]

Another interesting case, also in Michigan, is Berrien County (the furthest southwest county in the entire Lower Peninsula, containing Niles, Benton Harbor, Saint Joseph etc.). Even though it's in Michigan, none of the TV stations in the market Berrien County is in are based in Michigan. In fact, cable viewers got not only the South Bend market's stations but also all of the Chicago market stations. Additionally, I believe Berrien County cable customers can still get both the South Bend and Chicago markets. I believe Comcast there also carries WWMT, the CBS affiliate in Kalamazoo. This means that, for example, Niles viewers get 3 CBS stations on their systems (in-market WSBT, WWMT and their Chicago O&O WBBM).

This has even brought up conceptions among Berrien County residents that "even though they may live in Michigan, they travel to downtown Chicago each workday and to do Christmas shopping." This is somewhat surprising, as the Chicago stations never report on any Michigan news unless it's reported by the national news bureau of the network that the station is affiliated with and also never air any commercials aimed specifically at Michigan audiences. This is all despite the fact that the high-paying folks of Cook County, Illinois also have summer homes in Berrien County, as well as the fact that the Chicago skyline is faintly visible from the Saint Joseph coast.

Another case is that when the Kalamazoo cable system started up in 1966 (originally operated by Cablevision, yes, that exact same Cablevision that still operates in the New York City region), viewers got not only their in-market Kalamazoo-Grand Rapids stations but also those out of South Bend, Lansing, Detroit and Chicago. This was somewhat prevalent up until the final few years of the 20th century (at one time cable customers in far southwestern Michigan could get 3 Fox stations on their dials (WXMI, their Chicago O&O WFLD and their then-affiliate in Detroit, WKBD).

[mvcg66b3r]

Here's a thread I made on RadioDiscussions on this topic (although it deals mainly with HD feeds of local stations):
http://www.radiodiscussions.com/showthread.php?664054-Cable-systems-located-in-one-market-that-carry-another-market%92s-channels-in-HD

And a related thread:
http://www.radiodiscussions.com/showthread.php?667674-Areas-where-a-station-puts-a-city-grade-OTA-signal-but-is-not-seen-on-cable

[TheFugitive]

Interesting.  I thought this website had gone out of business.