Ever received any out-of-market stations OTA?

[Hudsons81]

I'm only counting using antennas here.

As the title says.

I moved my antenna around late last night and decided to perform a scan...and to my surprise, it picked up the signal of WEWS out of Cleveland! That is a surprising feat for a small indoor antenna the size of mine. Sadly, the picture kept going off and on.

[ynkeesfn82]

It's called DXing and there are several different types of it. It was easier in the analog days because with digital you either get the signal or you don't. And it happens with FM radio too. This past Tuesday sitting in my car in my driveway in Southington, Connecticut I was picking up FM stations from Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi. With AM radio it's different. AM signals travel farther at night so every night you can pick up far away AM stations.

[Retail Fan+ (Justin Hill)]

On a cloudy day, I was able to receive WJFW NBC 12 out of Rhinelander, Wisconsin along with an Antenna TV digital subchannel, but that signal quickly dropped out.

I heard that it is easier to do in some cities near the Canadian and Mexican border.

Some cities, like Buffalo, New York can get some Canadian stations from Toronto, Ontario if their rooftop antenna is pointed in the right direction (north, across Lake Ontario, towards the CN Tower in downtown Toronto). I remember my dad telling me that he could pick up some Boston stations in a similar fashion from Portland, Maine.

[TheFugitive]

On one particular evening in the late 1990's I sat in my bedroom in Pittsburgh and, on a 13 inch Magnavox TV with nothing but rabbit ears, I was able to pick-up the analog broadcast signals from

Erie, PA
Cleveland
Akron
Toledo
Detroit
Southern Ontario

This lasted for perhaps an hour.  Due to some odd atmospheric inversion I assume.

On rare occasions in the past I was able to DX the early morning signals of
WTVG in Toledo and WRC in Washington, DC when local stations on those channels
were off the air.

[TheFugitive]

It's called DXing and there are several different types of it. It was easier in the analog days because with digital you either get the signal or you don't. And it happens with FM radio too. This past Tuesday sitting in my car in my driveway in Southington, Connecticut I was picking up FM stations from Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi. With AM radio it's different. AM signals travel farther at night so every night you can pick up far away AM stations.

My biggest radio DX catch was when I lived in Michigan and one afternoon I picked up KAJA (KJ 97 FM, San Antonio, Texas) on my JVC stereo boombox.

I called the station and talked to the engineer. He was amazed. Said that was "one helluva skip".
Took my address and sent me a bunch of bumper stickers.   I gave them to one of my Ames employees, who oddly enough was originally from San Antonio, and said that was always her favorite station.

Come to think of it I once also picked up TV channel 3 from College Station, Texas OTA while
living in Michigan.

[Retail Fan+ (Justin Hill)]

Another channel I received was WFRV-TV CBS 5 of Green Bay's semi-satellite sister station from Michigan's Upper Penninsula, Escanaba's WJMN-TV CBS 3. Both stations share the same logo design layouts, since they are both owned by Nexstar Communications and both stations used to, until recently, share studios at WFRV-TV studios on East Mason Street in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Now WJMN has established a separate physical presence in the U.P. with their own studio which happens to be located in a Marquette strip mall. Gabe Caggiano is the anchorman for Local 3 News in Escanaba/Marquette, while Tom Zalaski is the anchorman for Local 5 News in Green Bay/Appleton.

At the time I found channel 3 back in 2011, it was still a repeater of Green Bay's Local 5 with added content for Local 3, different station breaks for U.P. viewers, all coming from the Green Bay, Wisconsin studios.

[Hudsons81]

I remember my dad telling me that he could pick up some Boston stations in a similar fashion from Portland, Maine.

I remember way back in the 1980's when outdoor antennas were still the norm in our part of Downriver Detroit, though Cablevision and TCI were starting to enter the market.

Whenever Detroit's Big Three affiliates (back then, they were WJBK CBS 2, WDIV NBC 4 and WXYZ ABC 7) preempted primetime shows in favor of events like the Auto Show or the International Fireworks, they would swing their antennas around 180 degrees to watch them on their Toledo equivalents (which were then WTOL CBS 11, WTVG NBC 13 and WNWO ABC 24). This happened so often that the Detroit TV Guide even listed the Toledo stations for decades.

If conditions permitted, we would possibly even receive analog TV signals from Lansing and Flint. And due to the presence of Lake Erie, we would often even receive a few stations out of Cleveland, like WEWS (mentioned in my original post above).

ShopkoFan, I'm surprised that in the UP, they had to rely on satellites of Green Bay stations for years. Things are a lot different up there.

[TheFugitive]

I was in Marquette in 1993 and Channel 6 there was juggling programming from THREE networks.
I think the only other stations on the air at that time were CBS and PBS.

[ynkeesfn82]

One summer 18 or 20 years ago it was crazy. I had a little pocket size TV and from Bristol, Connecticut I was getting channels from Boston and Providence crystal clear in addition to the locals from Hartford/New Haven, and Springfield that always came in.

I know I didn't get WGBH 2 PBS from Boston and I don't remember if I got WBZ 4 CBS Boston or WCVB 5 Boston ABC. But I know I got:

6 WLNE New Bedford/Providence ABC
7 WHDH Boston NBC
10 WJAR Providence NBC
12 WPRI Providence CBS
36 WSBE Providence PBS
38 WSBK Boston UPN
44 WGBX Boston PBS

I don't think I got 25 WFXT FOX Boston because of locals on 24 WEDH Hartford PBS and 26 WHPX Infomall New London.

[Retail Fan+ (Justin Hill)]

I was in Marquette in 1993 and Channel 6 there was juggling programming from THREE networks.

WLUC-TV 6 of Marquette was once a sister station of WLUK-TV 11 of Green Bay, Wisconsin back when both stations were NBC affiliates.

WLUK-TV was recently bought out by Sinclair Broadcast Group in 2014 making WLUK and WLUC sister stations again. WLUK-TV and WCWF (CW 14) was previously owned by LIN Media, who merged with Media General, the current owners of WBAY-TV 2, an ABC affiliate. Media General was prohibited from owning all three stations, so Media General decided to trade WLUK-TV 11 and WCWF CW 14 to Sinclair in exchange for a few Sinclair-owned stations.

[Hudsons81]

I was in Marquette in 1993 and Channel 6 there was juggling programming from THREE networks.

WLUC-TV 6 of Marquette was once a sister station of WLUK-TV 11 of Green Bay, Wisconsin back when both stations were NBC affiliates.

WLUK-TV was recently bought out by Sinclair Broadcast Group in 2014 making WLUK and WLUC sister stations again. WLUK-TV and WCWF (CW 14) was previously owned by LIN Media, who merged with Media General, the current owners of WBAY-TV 2, an ABC affiliate. Media General was prohibited from owning all three stations, so Media General decided to trade WLUK-TV 11 and WCWF CW 14 to Sinclair in exchange for a few Sinclair-owned stations.

Could you imagine how WLUC ran it's primetime lineup back when it had affiliations with three networks?

[TheFugitive]

I was in Marquette in 1993 and Channel 6 there was juggling programming from THREE networks.

WLUC-TV 6 of Marquette was once a sister station of WLUK-TV 11 of Green Bay, Wisconsin back when both stations were NBC affiliates.

WLUK-TV was recently bought out by Sinclair Broadcast Group in 2014 making WLUK and WLUC sister stations again. WLUK-TV and WCWF (CW 14) was previously owned by LIN Media, who merged with Media General, the current owners of WBAY-TV 2, an ABC affiliate. Media General was prohibited from owning all three stations, so Media General decided to trade WLUK-TV 11 and WCWF CW 14 to Sinclair in exchange for a few Sinclair-owned stations.

Could you imagine how WLUC ran it's primetime lineup back when it had affiliations with three networks?

When I was there they ran an ABC college football game in prime-time and pushed the NBC prime time lineup till after midnight.   Guess the old VHS really got a workout.

[Hudsons81]

I was in Marquette in 1993 and Channel 6 there was juggling programming from THREE networks.

WLUC-TV 6 of Marquette was once a sister station of WLUK-TV 11 of Green Bay, Wisconsin back when both stations were NBC affiliates.

WLUK-TV was recently bought out by Sinclair Broadcast Group in 2014 making WLUK and WLUC sister stations again. WLUK-TV and WCWF (CW 14) was previously owned by LIN Media, who merged with Media General, the current owners of WBAY-TV 2, an ABC affiliate. Media General was prohibited from owning all three stations, so Media General decided to trade WLUK-TV 11 and WCWF CW 14 to Sinclair in exchange for a few Sinclair-owned stations.

Could you imagine how WLUC ran it's primetime lineup back when it had affiliations with three networks?

When I was there they ran an ABC college football game in prime-time and pushed the NBC prime time lineup till after midnight.   Guess the old VHS really got a workout.

Speaking of all this...there was a station in Grand Rapids that had to deal with programming from Pax, UPN and the WB back in the early 2000's. This was a Pax O&O too. As a result, that station became one of Pax's strongest O&Os.

[mvcg66b3r]

Speaking of all this...there was a station in Grand Rapids (and Lansing) that had to deal with programming from Pax, UPN and the WB back in the early 2000's. This was a Pax O&O too. As a result, that station became one of Pax's strongest O&Os.

Fixed. This is one of a few stations that serve two markets despite only being assigned to one. More over on this thread:
http://www.radiodiscussions.com/showthread.php?662100-More-TV-Station-Oddities

[Hudsons81]

Speaking of all this...there was a station in Grand Rapids (and Lansing) that had to deal with programming from Pax, UPN and the WB back in the early 2000's. This was a Pax O&O too. As a result, that station became one of Pax's strongest O&Os.

Fixed. This is one of a few stations that serve two markets despite only being assigned to one. More over on this thread:
http://www.radiodiscussions.com/showthread.php?662100-More-TV-Station-Oddities

Here's another oddity-My Network affiliate WHTV 18, even though it serves Lansing, actually has it's transmitter in Chelsea (in fact, the same transmitter WPXD used to use), which is in the Detroit market.

And yet another: low-powered WHNE 14 has remained licensed to Flint, even after it's relocation to the Detroit market and moving to a transmitter in Oak Park.

[mvcg66b3r]

Fixed. This is one of a few stations that serve two markets despite only being assigned to one. More over on this thread:
http://www.radiodiscussions.com/showthread.php?662100-More-TV-Station-Oddities

Here's a related thread:
http://www.radiodiscussions.com/showthread.php?686097-Stations-licensed-in-one-market-but-assigned-to-another

[Retail Fan+ (Justin Hill)]

Green Bay, Wisconsin once had a PAX affiliate, WPXG (later WB/CW affiliate WIWB, now CW affiliate WCWF) channel 14 that could extend its reach as far as northern Ontario.

[Hudsons81]

Well, the conditions are back-right now, I am able to pull in decent signals from WKYC and WEWS from Cleveland.

I can also get a perfect signal from WNWO and WGTE out of Toledo. I also have a lock on WUPW from that city, but I never get a signal from them.

[TheFugitive]

Here's another oddity-My Network affiliate WHTV 18, even though it serves Lansing, actually has it's transmitter in Chelsea (in fact, the same transmitter WPXD used to use), which is in the Detroit market.

And yet another: low-powered WHNE 14 has remained licensed to Flint, even after it's relocation to the Detroit market and moving to a transmitter in Oak Park.

There used to be an LP home shopping channel here that was actually licensed to Johnstown, PA.
Johnstown is an economically depressed area so they got special temporary authority to move the
station to Pittsburgh.  I think they went off the air after the digital switch.

Ames used to have a store in Chelsea.  That's basically Ann Arbor.  Quite a stretch to say that station
serves Lansing.

And where WHNE is concerned, I think another 40,000 people have bailed out of Flint since I lived there.

[Hudsons81]

Ames used to have a store in Chelsea.  That's basically Ann Arbor.  Quite a stretch to say that station
serves Lansing.

If I know correctly, Jackson and Lansing are the same market. Ann Arbor is in the Detroit market and therefore so is Chelsea.

[Hudsons81]

Well, there seems to be some sort of Supertropo event going on tonight-I already pulled in five Cleveland stations, plus two from Lansing-Jackson, MI and even got WBGU Bowling Green, OH.

[TheFugitive]

Well, there seems to be some sort of Supertropo event going on tonight-I already pulled in five Cleveland stations, plus two from Lansing-Jackson, MI and even got WBGU Bowling Green, OH.

Michigan media markets are strange.  Detroit, Toledo and Jackson/Lansing all slam into
each other within a few mile radius.  With Flint-Saginaw-TriCities not far away.  I lived in
Hillsdale which was on the edge of all three.

Plus most of those towns are not big enough to make a decent Arbitron market.
So you get bizarre conglomerations like Baycitysaginawmidlandflint. or
Jacksonlansingbattlecreek.

[Hudsons81]

Jacksonlansingbattlecreek.

Actually, Battle Creek's WOTV serves as the Grand Rapids market's secondary ABC affiliate, coincidentally, it is a sister station to NBC affiliate WOOD, which originally used the WOTV call sign through the late 1980's.

Another interesting thing about the Grand Rapids market is that their Fox station, WXMI, actually had to set up a translator in Muskegon due to reports of interference from Chicago CW affiliate WGN, which is also on RF 19. On the opposite end of this, WOOD (RF 7) easily reached Chicago to the point that ABC-owned WLS had to switch to RF 44.