Retro TV

[TheFugitive]

Formerly RTV, this OTA diginet was one of the earliest to appear when TV went digital.
Once the king of classic reruns, it's fortunes have waned as it's revenues have dropped
and syndicators moved their shows to other networks.

Their lineup now contains a motley assortment of public domain programming and forgotten shows.
I tuned across it the other night and actually saw a 1952 kinescoped episode of Mr. Peepers, the
live NBC sitcom that made Wally Cox a household name.  Followed by The Barbara Stanwyck Show, which lasted all of one season in 1960.

There are some familiar series, such as The Beverly Hillbillies, Dragnet and Petticoat Junction.  But they are the old black-and-white episodes that have fallen into the public domain (you can tell because the original theme music has been edited out and replaced with generic music).

Also on the schedule are The Doctors, an NBC soap opera from the late 1960's (I am somewhat impressed that color videotape from that era still exists, as it was frequently wiped and re-used).
And Police Surgeon, a strange program produced in Canada to help Canadian stations comply with new Canadian content laws (and to provide some local fill-in for the U.S. when the networks were forced to give up the 7-8PM hour).  Produced on a shoestring budget, American actor Jack Albertson walked out on his contract after the first season after the lack of a dressing trailer forced him to change behind a bush.

Another series is Movin' On, a trucking drama starring Claude Akins, which I actually remember from it's NBC run in the 70's.

All in all their schedule sounds like that low-power UHF station in Kentucky that reportedly programmed itself with public domain DVD's purchased at the local Walmart.  For television historians it is a bit interesting though.

Retro does air one of my guilty pleasures....Mystery Science Theater 3000.   A program which caused me great marital strife when it began running on the Comedy Channel (precursor to Comedy Central) and I quickly became addicted to it.

Airing locally on WEPA (formerly WBGN) at 59.3

[Hudsons81]

It used to be seen here on WXYZ 7.3 (or 7.2, don't remember). It left Retro TV in 2011.

[ynkeesfn82]

WZME 43.1 in Bridgeport, CT used to carry the network mixed with Infomercials. They gradually reduced the number of hours it was airing until they went back to all infomercials 24/7. They picked it up again. Eventually they switched 43.1 to ME-TV and moved Retro to 43.2 replacing SINO-TV a Chinese language network run by then-owner MultiCultural Broadcasting. In January 2014 WZME which is owned by NRJ, but operated by Titan TV moved Retro to 43.3 and put the low-budge network The Works on 43.2 All the stations run by Titan TV dropped Retro in May or June 2014 after a dispute.

[Hudsons81]

WHNE first launched Retro TV when it was still in Flint, Michigan. It has retained it, now on 14.2, after moving to the Detroit DMA, providing that market with an outlet for the network again.

Mystery Science Theater 3000 is airing right now with The Castle of Fu Machu (I think that's the title).

[TheFugitive]

I LOVE MST3000!  That was a bone of contention early in my marriage because my spouse
HATED it, yet I just could not turn it off.

I guess first all the people fled Flint, and the TV stations followed.