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Manistee, MI through the years

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ftballfan
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Joined: Thu Sep 17, 2009 6:38 pm

Manistee, MI through the years

Post by ftballfan » Wed May 29, 2019 11:41 pm

All via Manistee News-Advocate microfilm
September 1980
2 - WBAY (CBS 2 Green Bay)
3 - HBO
4 - WPNE (PBS 38 Green Bay)
5 - WFRV (NBC 5 Green Bay)
6 - CBN / USA Network [listed as MSG Sports; the name changed in April 1980]
7 - WGTU (ABC 29 Traverse City)
8 - WPBN (NBC 7 Traverse City)
9 - WGN (IND 9 Chicago)
10 - WWTV (CBS 9 Cadillac)
11 - WLUK (ABC 11 Green Bay)
12 - WTBS (IND 17 Atlanta)
13 - WZZM (ABC 13 Grand Rapids)

March 1985
2 - WBAY (CBS 2 Green Bay)
3 - HBO
4 - WCMW (PBS 21 Manistee) [had just signed on in the fall of 1984]
5 - Cinemax
6 - USA Network [listed as MSG Sports]
7 - WGTU (ABC 29 Traverse City)
8 - WPBN (NBC 7 Traverse City)
9 - WGN (IND 9 Chicago)
10 - WWTV (CBS 9 Cadillac)
11 - WLUK (NBC 11 Green Bay)
12 - WTBS (IND 17 Atlanta)
13 - WZZM (ABC 13 Grand Rapids)
A - MTV
B - ESPN
C - CNN
D - Nickelodeon
E - TNN
F - CBN Family Channel

March 1992
3 - CNN
4 - WPBN (NBC 7 Traverse City)
5 - WGKI (FOX 33 Cadillac)
6 - WCMW (PBS 21 Manistee)
7 - WBAY (CBS 2 Green Bay)
8 - WGTU (ABC 29 Traverse City)
9 - WZZM (ABC 13 Grand Rapids)
10 - WWTV (CBS 9 Cadillac)
12 - WTBS (IND 17 Atlanta)
13 - WGN (IND 9 Chicago)
14 - USA Network
16 - Nickelodeon
17 - Discovery Channel
18 - CNBC
21 - TNN
22 - Weather Channel
23 - C-SPAN
24 - HBO
25 - Showtime
26 - Cinemax
27 - Disney Channel
28 - The Movie Channel
29 - ESPN
30 - MTV
31 - A&E
32 - VH1
33 - C-SPAN 2
34 - Lifetime
35 - PASS
36 - TNT
38 - Headline News
39 - Comedy Central
40 - Family Channel



organman95
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Re: Manistee, MI through the years

Post by organman95 » Thu May 30, 2019 7:45 am

Surprised there isn't a Prevue Guide in either '85 or '92 lists



ftballfan
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Joined: Thu Sep 17, 2009 6:38 pm

Re: Manistee, MI through the years

Post by ftballfan » Thu May 30, 2019 2:08 pm

organman95 wrote:
Thu May 30, 2019 7:45 am
Surprised there isn't a Prevue Guide in either '85 or '92 lists
The 1992 guide didn't list channels that aired the same loop 24/7 (such as the Weather Channel, VH1, MTV, CMT, QVC, HSN, etc.; channel numbers for Weather/VH1/MTV were taken from a Ludington Daily News lineup from January 1992 I had posted on another site a couple of years ago).

Also notice that Manistee never had WKBD (unless they had it briefly in the late 1980s before WGKI came on; if I had more time, I would have looked at a late 80s paper)



organman95
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Re: Manistee, MI through the years

Post by organman95 » Fri May 31, 2019 7:58 am

ftballfan wrote:
Thu May 30, 2019 2:08 pm
The 1992 guide didn't list channels that aired the same loop 24/7 (such as the Weather Channel, VH1, MTV, CMT, QVC, HSN, etc.; channel numbers for Weather/VH1/MTV were taken from a Ludington Daily News lineup from January 1992 I had posted on another site a couple of years ago).
That's odd. I thought nearly ALL cable companies had at least an Amiga 1000 with Prevue by the late 80s



ftballfan
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Re: Manistee, MI through the years

Post by ftballfan » Tue Jun 11, 2019 5:22 pm

July 1988
2 - WBAY (CBS 2 Green Bay)
3 - CNN
4 - WPBN (NBC 7 Traverse City)
5 - CBN Family Channel
6 - WCMW (PBS 21 Manistee)
7 - WLUK (NBC 11 Green Bay)
8 - WGTU (ABC 29 Traverse City)
9 - WZZM (ABC 13 Grand Rapids)
10 - WWTV (CBS 9 Cadillac)
11 - ESPN
12 - WTBS (IND 17 Atlanta)
13 - WGN (IND 9 Chicago)
14 - USA Network
15 - HSN
16 - Nickelodeon
17 - Discovery Channel
18 - Financial News Network / Home Shopping (possibly QVC?)
20 - Lifetime
21 - TNN
22 - Weather Channel
23 - C-SPAN
24 - HBO
25 - Showtime
26 - Cinemax
27 - Disney Channel
28 - The Movie Channel
29 - PASS
30 - MTV
31 - A&E
32 - VH1
33 - C-SPAN 2

January 1990 had the exact same lineup, which meant Manistee (and Ludington) missed the first few years of FOX as they never picked up WKBD, not even briefly in the late 1980s before WGKI came on (WGKI appears to have replaced WLUK in Manistee sometime between 1990 and 1992).

I am almost assuming Prevue Guide and/or local access was on 19 at this time.

While at the library, I also looked in February 1978, but there was no cable lineup listed. However, there were ads listing CBN (on channel 6) and then-WTCG (on channel 3)



organman95
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Joined: Mon Aug 31, 2015 9:49 pm

Re: Manistee, MI through the years

Post by organman95 » Wed Jun 12, 2019 8:23 am

Prevue Guide on 19? Wow... I grew up with it on 4 in Cheboygan. I found out a few years ago, apparently Cheboygan was the only system to have it on 4. Most everyone else had it on 7.



ftballfan
Posts: 875
Joined: Thu Sep 17, 2009 6:38 pm

Re: Manistee, MI through the years

Post by ftballfan » Wed Jun 12, 2019 9:21 am

organman95 wrote:
Wed Jun 12, 2019 8:23 am
Prevue Guide on 19? Wow... I grew up with it on 4 in Cheboygan. I found out a few years ago, apparently Cheboygan was the only system to have it on 4. Most everyone else had it on 7.
It eventually moved to 7 in Manistee, probably in the mid 1990s.

Also, The Movie Channel was dropped for a few years in the mid to late 1990s (it was probably dropped to make room for Starz!, Encore, HBO2, and Cinemax 2) before returning in 2002 in the 600s.



organman95
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Re: Manistee, MI through the years

Post by organman95 » Thu Jun 13, 2019 9:43 pm

Interesting



Chris1980
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Re: Manistee, MI through the years

Post by Chris1980 » Tue Jul 02, 2019 12:29 am

I found cable lineups for Ludington and Mason County from 1982 on the Google News Archive. Before WCMW 21 signed on, Ludington and Scottville subscribers received then-WGVC 35 as their PBS signal (both on cable 3). WMVS from Milwaukee was also available in Ludington as a second-tier offering on channel "I." WPNE was carried in Pentwater on cable 10.

Here's the Ludington channel lineup as listed in the Ludington Daily News, November 10, 1982:

2 - WBAY Green Bay CBS
3 - WGVC Grand Rapids PBS
5 - WFRV Green Bay NBC - this was still a few months before the WFRV/WLUK affiliation swap. That very issue of the newspaper carried an article about WFRV and WJMN deciding to drop their NBC affiliation for ABC. At that point it was apparently not known what would happen to the NBC affiliation in Green Bay.
6 - WTBS Atlanta
7 - WPBN Traverse City NBC
8 - CBN Cable
9 - WWTV Cadillac CBS
10 - WGN Chicago
11 - CNN
12 - Weather
13 - WZZM Grand Rapids ABC
Listed as "Additional Cable Channels Available from Cablevision Inc.":
4 - The Movie Channel
A - USA Network
B - Escapade
C - Nickelodeon
D - WLUK Green Bay ABC
E - ESPN
F - HBO
G - WGTU Traverse City ABC (misprinted as WGTV)
H - CNN2
I - WMVS Milwaukee PBS
J - MTV

The Scottville lineup was almost identical except that CNN was carried on cable 5 and WLUK on cable 11.

This was the Pentwater lineup:
2 - The Movie Channel
3 - WGN
4 - ESPN
5 - WFRV
6 - WOR New York
7 - WPBN
8 - Weather
9 - WWTV
10 - WPNE Green Bay PBS
11 - WLUK
12 - WGVC
13 - WZZM



organman95
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Joined: Mon Aug 31, 2015 9:49 pm

Re: Manistee, MI through the years

Post by organman95 » Wed Jul 03, 2019 7:57 am

Chris1980 wrote:
Tue Jul 02, 2019 12:29 am
B - Escapade
What was Escapade? Almost sounds like a pre-cursor to current 'adult channels'



Chris1980
Posts: 111
Joined: Sun Nov 04, 2018 9:43 pm

Re: Manistee, MI through the years

Post by Chris1980 » Fri Jul 05, 2019 11:46 pm

organman95 wrote:
Wed Jul 03, 2019 7:57 am
Chris1980 wrote:
Tue Jul 02, 2019 12:29 am
B - Escapade
What was Escapade? Almost sounds like a pre-cursor to current 'adult channels'
Apparently, that's exactly what it was, and it shared the channel with Bravo (which had been launched two years earlier). I hadn't heard of it before either.



organman95
Posts: 583
Joined: Mon Aug 31, 2015 9:49 pm

Re: Manistee, MI through the years

Post by organman95 » Mon Jul 08, 2019 11:26 am

Chris1980 wrote:
Fri Jul 05, 2019 11:46 pm
Apparently, that's exactly what it was, and it shared the channel with Bravo (which had been launched two years earlier). I hadn't heard of it before either.
Not the Bravo we know today? Wasn't that launched about 20 or so years ago?

EDIT: Ok, nearly 40 years ago. I hadn't heard of Bravo until early-2000s, so I just assumed.



WC8KCY
Posts: 154
Joined: Tue Dec 14, 2004 4:09 am

Re: Manistee, MI through the years

Post by WC8KCY » Thu Aug 29, 2019 1:20 pm

ftballfan wrote:
Tue Jun 11, 2019 5:22 pm
July 1988
2 - WBAY (CBS 2 Green Bay)
...
January 1990 had the exact same lineup, which meant Manistee (and Ludington) missed the first few years of FOX as they never picked up WKBD, not even briefly in the late 1980s before WGKI came on (WGKI appears to have replaced WLUK in Manistee sometime between 1990 and 1992).

I am almost assuming Prevue Guide and/or local access was on 19 at this time.

While at the library, I also looked in February 1978, but there was no cable lineup listed. However, there were ads listing CBN (on channel 6) and then-WTCG (on channel 3)
It's also odd that they just didn't pick up WXGZ from Appleton, Wisconsin, when the Fox network got rolling. WXGZ, from their 1984 sign-on until going dark in 1992, put out a really robust signal that made it into the central Upper Peninsula--it should have been an easy OTA catch for Manistee and Ludington CATV headends.



ftballfan
Posts: 875
Joined: Thu Sep 17, 2009 6:38 pm

Re: Manistee, MI through the years

Post by ftballfan » Fri Aug 30, 2019 10:29 am

WC8KCY wrote:
Thu Aug 29, 2019 1:20 pm
ftballfan wrote:
Tue Jun 11, 2019 5:22 pm
July 1988
2 - WBAY (CBS 2 Green Bay)
...
January 1990 had the exact same lineup, which meant Manistee (and Ludington) missed the first few years of FOX as they never picked up WKBD, not even briefly in the late 1980s before WGKI came on (WGKI appears to have replaced WLUK in Manistee sometime between 1990 and 1992).

I am almost assuming Prevue Guide and/or local access was on 19 at this time.

While at the library, I also looked in February 1978, but there was no cable lineup listed. However, there were ads listing CBN (on channel 6) and then-WTCG (on channel 3)
It's also odd that they just didn't pick up WXGZ from Appleton, Wisconsin, when the Fox network got rolling. WXGZ, from their 1984 sign-on until going dark in 1992, put out a really robust signal that made it into the central Upper Peninsula--it should have been an easy OTA catch for Manistee and Ludington CATV headends.
Did some cable systems in the UP pick up WXGZ?

In the analog days, my great-grandma (who lived near Onekama) could occasionally pick up WGBA and WPNE, as well as W22BW from Sturgeon Bay, off the back of her antenna (which was aimed right at WGKI/WFQX)



WC8KCY
Posts: 154
Joined: Tue Dec 14, 2004 4:09 am

Re: Manistee, MI through the years

Post by WC8KCY » Fri Aug 30, 2019 12:38 pm

ftballfan wrote:
Fri Aug 30, 2019 10:29 am
Did some cable systems in the UP pick up WXGZ?

In the analog days, my great-grandma (who lived near Onekama) could occasionally pick up WGBA and WPNE, as well as W22BW from Sturgeon Bay, off the back of her antenna (which was aimed right at WGKI/WFQX)
The Central UP cable systems operated by Bresnan--which was nearly all of them--already carried WKBD when the Fox network debuted.

The small systems operated by the Upper Peninsula Telephone Company (known locally as the Carney Telephone Co.) did not carry WKBD or any network affiliate besides must-carries that they couldn't pick up with a cheap RadioShack antenna, so it's highly unlikely they ever carried WXGZ or WGBA when they were Fox. They usually took the Detroit CanCom feeds off Anik D1 and later E2 to cover the networks not easily picked up off-air, going with WDIV for an NBC feed when WLUC was an ABC affiliate and later WXYZ for ABC when WLUC flipped to NBC. It's possible they carried WJBK for Fox on some systems, but I don't recall ever seeing any Fox affiliate on their Garden/Nahma system.

Bressnan used the CanCom feed of WXYZ as their ABC affiliate across the Central and Western UP from the time WLUC switched to NBC in 1995 until the sign-on of WBKP in 1996.

In the analog days, we could pick up Sturgeon Bay's W22BW and Sister Bay's W18CU from our home near Escanaba. Both signals could really get out there. After the digital transition, it was WBAY-DT on channel 23 that became the most reliable OTA signal from Green Bay.



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