Wally
10-12-2009, 09:17 AM
Channel 7, WLS, in Chicago, recently switched from VHF Channel 7 to UHF Channel 44. In the switch, their power went from 9.5 kW to 473.300 kW. In Kenosha, Wisconson, 50 miles away, it means that Channel 7 was once the 23th most powerful station and now they are the 9th most powerful--the second strongest Chicago station in a Milwaukee market--stronger than the Milwaukee ABC station.
www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d03fb477eacd7c1
JB Antennaman
10-12-2009, 01:16 PM
Having the 9th most powerful television station transmitter is like having the next to the ugliest dog or the next to the fattest girlfriend in town.
In my stories, I told you how when Dumont opened his television station in Pittsburgh Pa - it was the 5th largest television market in the USA. WDTV had a 100% market share, which means when you turned on your television you watched WDTV and when you were done watching TV - you shut it off, because he had the only station in town.
Furthermore, he strung hundreds of miles of coax cable through the coal patch mining communities to connect Pittsburgh with New York and from there to the mid west. Something called the Golden Spike.
By owning the wire, he controlled what programming was sent over his cable system and he could pick and choose which programming he wished to carry over his stations and which time slots he wanted to occupy.
At the same time, they other stations could use his programming and he basically owned a large portion of what television is today.
http://www.wqed.org/mag/columns/sebak/2009/0109_tv.php
Right now, I doubt if there is 10 stations in Pittsburgh PA.
If you really want to read something interesting, check out the firings and layoffs at WPXI channel 11. Their news ratings is the 4th highest in Pittsburgh and the station owners decided that they needed a wholesale change and just started firing people.
Pittsburgh:
WPXI-TV (11) News director Corrie Harding is out of the job tonight after he and General Manager Ray Carter came to a mutual decision today. Carter tells the Post-Gazette that the ratings weren't terrible, but it became necessary to make a change. Assistant News Director Melissa Knollinger was let go under similar circumstances a couple weeks ago. During the search for a new news director, Carter will oversee things in the newsroom which he says will give him the opportunity to see what's effective and what needs work.
Harding had been with the station since 2005.
