TV stations of the 70's

[cinyc]

1.   In places where the main TV station has satellite stations, sometimes the main station is listed and sometimes the satellite station.  (In some cases, there are also boosters.  For example, when I lived in Salem VA in the 1990’s, I could pick up the ABC affiliate on Channel 13 out of Lynchburg, but I could often pick up a stronger signal from the booster on Channel 5, which didn’t officially exist.)

While there is less of a need for them due to cable and satellite penetration, there are still some translator stations today, especially in sparsely populated western markets.  Some directly mirror the main station's content and commercials.  Others insert some local commercials or offer local programming, especially news.  I think they're generally treated as one station for ratings purposes, but I'm not sure.

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Which makes sense, especially in heavily populated areas of the country like the Northeast where there is a greater chance of interference.  For example, New York has the 2-4-5-7-9-11-13 stations while Philadelphia has the 3-6-8-10-12 configuration.  Hartford and Providence shared the 3-6-8-10-12 stations, meaning some of their network stations had to be UHF.

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VHF stations generally had a stronger signal.  Plus, older TVs and antennas didn't necessarily have a UHF tuner or element.  So VHF stations were at a great advantage in the days before cable.
 
Ironically, VHF stations are out of favor today because VHF digital signals are harder to pick up with indoor antennas and, especially in the channel 2-6 range, subject to more interference.  Most network stations picked a UHF channel after the digital transition.  You rarely see a network  Channel 2 on Channel 2 these days - it's actually broadcasting on channel 33 or 46 or something like that because of the signal degradation. 

[cinyc]

In particular, I was thinking of South Dakota when I said this.  All the stations seemed to be assigned either to Sioux Falls or Rapid City.

When I was in Virginia, I think the reason for the booster was the Blue Ridge Mountains, which sat between me and Lynchburg.

South Dakota's current TV markets are a bit weird.  I can only imagine how it was in the 70s when there were fewer TV stations.

All but three counties in the state are either in the Sioux Falls-Mitchell DMA or the Rapid City DMA.  (Two counties on the North Dakota border are in the Bismarck-Minot-Dickinson, ND DMA, while Union County in the state's southeastern corner is in the Sioux City, IA DMA).  The Sioux Falls stations tend to have satellite stations or translators throughout the East River part of the state.  One station, current CBS affiliate KELO, even has a satellite station in Rapid City that serves as Rapid City's CBS affiliate.  Since Sioux Falls is in the Central Time Zone and Rapid City is in the Mountain Time Zone, you get some strange TV listings in Rapid City - like Letterman being on at 9:35 Mountain time while Fallon is on at 10:35.  CBS prime time starts as 6PM weekdays there, while ABC, NBC and Fox start at 7:00PM.  Some of the Rapid City stations have satellite stations and translators in parts of Wyoming and even western Nebraska, while others just have a translator for the Black Hills an/or in-town Rapid City.  Rapid City is one of the smaller TV markets in the country - 173rd of 210.

[cinyc]

VIRGINIA
CHARLOTTESVILLE.  ABC:  3 (Harrisonburg, VA), 8 (Petersburg, VA).  CBS:  6 (Richmond, VA).  NBC:  12 (Richmond, VA).

It looks like Charlottesville didn't have its own TV stations back in the 1970s.  It is in its own TV market today.  I wonder whether it was considered part of the Harrisonburg or Richmond DMA for ratings purposes back then.

[cinyc]

It's ridiculous for Staunton to be in the Richmond DMA.

Counties can change DMAs.  Neilsen redraws the lines every year, based on which market's TV stations are most watched in the county.  Last I checked (my DMA shapefiles are from at least 2010, and it's difficult to find new ones), Staunton is in the Harrisonburg DMA.  But if Richmond stations were more watched than Harrisonburg or Charlottesville stations in the 80s, it very well could have been in the Richmond DMA in earlier years.  Especially when there was less cable penetration and people had more of a choice in local stations than what their cable company gives them.  That is especially true if a small market like Harrisonburg only had one or two stations and more people watched the network programming from Richmond, which had all network stations and probably some independents.

[cinyc]

I imagine it would be pretty hard to pick up the Richmond stations in Staunton without cable.

Probably.  Richmond is about 95 miles away.  But it depends on a lot of factors, like where the Richmond TV stations' transmitters were, how strong and high up they are, and, perhaps most importantly, whether the Richmond stations had translator or satellite stations in or near Staunton.  In the old days, there were more translators broadcasting far-away signals to places where you otherwise wouldn't get any signal than there are today.

The bulk of the population in Sullivan County, New York is about 75 miles away from Manhattan, yet it is in the NYC DMA.  In the old days, some of the NYC stations had translators to bring the signal there.  They don't now, but with cable and satellite penetration rates as high as they are, there is no need to.  Much of Northern Nevada is in the Reno DMA despite Reno being hundreds of miles away.  The Reno stations still have translators in many Northern Nevada counties to bring their OTA signal there.

[cinyc]

It's ridiculous for Staunton to be in the Richmond DMA.

Those 1980s-era maps I referenced in my previous post are weird.  The highlight:  Fallon County, MT, on the North Dakota line, is shown as being part of the Salt Lake City market.  I can't even begin to figure that one out.

Fallon County is a very small county in the middle of nowhere.  Many small counties in the middle of nowhere still have tax districts that are responsible for rebroadcasting distant TV stations for the local county.  What market it was included in the 1980s might have something to do with what stations the Baker TV Tax District were rebroacasting on their translators and/or what any Fallon County cable or satellite systems were rebroadcasting in the 1980s.  If the translators or cable or satellite companies were showing Salt Lake City stations, it could have been placed in that market.

Best I can tell, right now the Baker TV Tax District is currently rebroadcasting one Glendive, one Rapid City and one Bismarck-Minot-Dickinson TV station, along with North Dakota's Fargo PBS station.  As best I know, it is currently in the Bismarck-Minot-Dickinson DMA, as are most of the counties on the Montana-North Dakota border other than Carter County on the southeast corner, which is in the Rapid City DMA.

[cinyc]

MYRTLE BEACH.  ABC:  3 (Wilmington, NC).  CBS:  5 (Charleston, SC), 13 (Florence, SC).  NBC:  6 (Wilmington, NC).

Was Horry County (Myrtle Beach) in the Myrtle Beach-Florence TV market back then?  There was only 1 Florence station, instead of the myriad of stations the market has today.  Maybe it was just the Florence TV market, as Myrtle Beach had no stations itself.

[cinyc]

Since stations from Canada and Mexico spill over the border, does that mean some sort of allocation system was pre-negotiated between the FCC and its counterparts?

Yes (although technically the agreement was pre-negotiated between the State Department and its Canadian counterpart, not the FCC).  The U.S.-Canada agreement is available online here.