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Markets that don't have full power or OTA PBS affiliate stations

E

e-dawg

Are there TV markets that don't have full power or off the air PBS stations?

So far I know in the state of California,
  • Bakersfield (LPTV Rely on fullpower KVPT 18 Fresno)
  • Santa Barbara-Santa Maria-San Luis Obispo (LPTV from KOCE in Santa Barbara; Santa Maria, & San Luis Obispo no OTA coverage, only beta PBS KCET translators, cable in Santa Maria & San Luis Obispo relays KQED 9 from San Francisco).
  • Yuma-El Centra (LPTV in Yuma only from KAET 8 Phoenix, no OTA on the California side: El Centro, Calexico. Cable coverage from California side relay KPBS 15 San Diego, Arizona side relay KAET 8 Phoenix).
  • Palm Springs (LPTV from KOCE 50, KCET 28, and KVCR24 from Los Angeles area).
Any others?
 
Rockford IL. The closest PBS stations are WTTW/11 Chicago and WHA-TV/21 Madison. I believe one or both are on cable/satellite, depending on whether one is on the Illinois or Wisconsin side of the market. DeKalb was allocated Channel 48 in the analog era, but it was never applied for, AFAIK.

Terre Haute IN. Indiana State University was awarded a couple of CPs for WISU-TV, first on Channel 36, and later on 26, but they were never built. The closest are WVUT/22 Vincinnes to the south, WTIU/30 Bloomington to the southeast, and WILL-TV/12 Champaign/Urbana to the northwest.
 
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KeithE4 said:
Rockford IL. The closest PBS stations are WTTW/11 Chicago and WHA-TV/21 Madison. I believe one or both are on cable/satellite, depending on whether one is on the Illinois or Wisconsin side of the market. DeKalb was allocated Channel 48 in the analog era, but it was never applied for, AFAIK.

Terre Haute IN. Indiana State University was awarded a couple of CPs for WISU-TV, first on Channel 36, and later on 26, but they were never built. The closest is WVUT/22 Vincinnes, which is quite a ways south.
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Which PBS's do the cable systems carry?
 
Lafayette IN is another one. Despite Purdue University being a pioneer in early television development in the 1930s, there was never a WBAA-TV. Lafayette was allocated Channel 47, moved to 24 in the late 1960s after Danville's WICD went dark, but I'm not sure Purdue ever applied for the channel. The closest is WFYI/20 Indianapolis, 60 miles southeast.
 
Mankato, MN does not have a PBS...there is a translator farm about 30 miles away that does carry KTCA Minneapolis but due to terrain its tough to pick up unless you are in the right part of town and have a huge antenna

KTCA Minneapolis is imported on cable
Dish and Directv gives them the national feed
 
Utica NY (WCNY Syracuse via translator/cable/satellite)

Lima OH (WBGU Bowling Green on cable)

Zanesville OH (WOSU Columbus on cable)
 
Rio Grande Valley. Probably the biggest market in the country without an in-house PBS member station.

Yes, PBS is carried on KCWT-LD 21.4 but that's the national feed. RGV needs a local one, and currently, they don't have that.
 
e-dawg said:
Are there TV markets that don't have full power or off the air PBS stations?

So far I know in the state of California,
  • Bakersfield (LPTV Rely on fullpower KVPT 18 Fresno)
  • Santa Barbara-Santa Maria-San Luis Obispo (LPTV from KOCE in Santa Barbara; Santa Maria, & San Luis Obispo no OTA coverage, only beta PBS KCET translators, cable in Santa Maria & San Luis Obispo relays KQED 9 from San Francisco).
  • Yuma-El Centra (LPTV in Yuma only from KAET 8 Phoenix, no OTA on the California side: El Centro, Calexico. Cable coverage from California side relay KPBS 15 San Diego, Arizona side relay KAET 8 Phoenix).
  • Palm Springs (LPTV from KOCE 50, KCET 28, and KVCR24 from Los Angeles area).
Any others?
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Monterey/Salinas TV Market has no PBS affiliates on their own. The PBS stations they have are from San Francisco's KQED-TV and KQEH-TV.
 
KeithE4 said:
Lafayette IN is another one. Despite Purdue University being a pioneer in early television development in the 1930s, there was never a WBAA-TV. Lafayette was allocated Channel 47, moved to 24 in the late 1960s after Danville's WICD went dark, but I'm not sure Purdue ever applied for the channel. The closest is WFYI/20 Indianapolis, 60 miles southeast.
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I was going to suggest that, but Lafayette has been a single station market until fairly recently. It is strange that Purdue never put one on the air. When I lived there, cable carried WFYI-20 and WTTW-11. WYIN-56 never made an appearance on that cable system (WYIN serves bGary, Hammond, Lowell and the Indiana side of the Chicago metro, last I knew with some Indiana-centric programming
 
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itsTheRolyPoly said:
Yes, PBS is carried on KCWT-LD 21.4 but that's the national feed. RGV needs a local one, and currently, they don't have that.
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And, in today's world, the culture of NYC-DC is well removed and almost foreign to the LRGV.

It really needs some public media generated local content. The commercial radio and TV markets underperform (lower revenue rank than population rank) so commercial media is not going to do a lot in investigative reporting, feature programming and the like.

I presume the issue is mostly funding, but also the fact that many channels are taken by Mexico for its own purposes in the highly populated areas "on the other side".
 
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gr8oldies said:
WYIN-56 never made an appearance on that cable system (WYIN serves bGary, Hammond, Lowell and the Indiana side of the Chicago metro, last I knew with some Indiana-centric programming
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In my last years in the Chicago area (early 1990s), WYIN aired the IU and Purdue basketball games that came from WTTV/WTTK, with the commercials blacked out, of course. IIRC, their aired PSAs and begathons in their place. WYIN was quite Indiana-centric, and I don't remember if they aired PBS programming at the same time it aired on WTTW.
 
KeithE4 said:
In my last years in the Chicago area (early 1990s), WYIN aired the IU and Purdue basketball games that came from WTTV/WTTK, with the commercials blacked out, of course. IIRC, their aired PSAs and begathons in their place. WYIN was quite Indiana-centric, and I don't remember if they aired PBS programming at the same time it aired on WTTW.
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We (WLFI) originated Purdue games while I was there, and I think the courier took our coaches show tape to WYIN. They also carried the Hoosier Lottery and WNDU-16 South Bend delayed news.
 
itsTheRolyPoly said:
Rio Grande Valley. Probably the biggest market in the country without an in-house PBS member station.
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The RVG used to have KMBH Channel 60 as their PBS station from the early 1980’s up until 2016. It is now KFXV, a commercial station. In the analog days, I could occasionally receive the station in Houston during good tropo conditions, over 300 miles away.

The Waco-Temple market used to have two PBS stations—KNCT serving the southern part and KWBU serving the Waco area. KWBU was eventually taken dark and the license turned in after a failed sale. KNCT operated from 1970 until 2018 when it was sold to become a commercial duopoly with KWTX. KAMU in Bryan-College Station does serve the eastern part of the market, but otherwise cable systems bring in either KERA in DFW or KLRU from Austin.
 
gr8oldies said:
Which PBS's do the cable systems carry?
Click to expand...
For Rockford, the Xfinity system there only just carries WTTW and its associated subchannels. I know for the longest time, WHA (PBS Wisconsin) was available on the Rockford system (and surrounding areas) for years; they must have dropped WHA in the last few years. As far as satellite, both Dish and DirecTV provide a PBS national feed to the Rockford area.
 
itsTheRolyPoly said:
Rio Grande Valley. Probably the biggest market in the country without an in-house PBS member station.

Yes, PBS is carried on KCWT-LD 21.4 but that's the national feed. RGV needs a local one, and currently, they don't have that.
Click to expand...
That's interesting, a PBS subchannel on a commercial station (albeit LPTV). Is this the only place in the US that has this sort of arrangement?

And I may have asked this question before on this forum (forgive me if I did), but would it be possible for a PBS station to allow one or more of its subchannels to be used for commercial purposes? Something like this already exists, where commercial and public stations share a channel (WZME and Connecticut PBS in Bridgeport, etc.), but I have in mind a public TV station actually allowing one of its subchannels to be used by a commercial broadcaster. Or does that run afoul of separate and distinct commercial and noncommercial channel allocations?
 
IM42A said:
Or does that run afoul of separate and distinct commercial and noncommercial channel allocations?
Click to expand...

Yes. See 73.621(j) of the FCC's rules.

- Trip
 
IM42A said:
That's interesting, a PBS subchannel on a commercial station (albeit LPTV). Is this the only place in the US that has this sort of arrangement?

And I may have asked this question before on this forum (forgive me if I did), but would it be possible for a PBS station to allow one or more of its subchannels to be used for commercial purposes? Something like this already exists, where commercial and public stations share a channel (WZME and Connecticut PBS in Bridgeport, etc.), but I have in mind a public TV station actually allowing one of its subchannels to be used by a commercial broadcaster. Or does that run afoul of separate and distinct commercial and noncommercial channel allocations?
Click to expand...
Well there was a case where a PBS affiliate KOCE prior to being converted as a primary affiliate in 2011 was rumored to lose it's affiliation with PBS for a religious station with a Daystar affiliation. Note this was prior to KOCE negotiating with Daystar and get a subchannel spot with that network.


current.org

For legal peace, KOCE pledged channel to Daystar

KOCE will give religious broadcaster Daystar Television Network one of its DTV multicast channels in exchange for Daystar dropping its persistent litigation to gain control of the channel that the public TV station bought in 2003. KOCE and Daystar yesterday swore not to disclose the terms of...
current.org current.org
 
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