Global Sarnia-Oil Springs

[KeenerGold]

Harron Cable in Port Huron carried CKCO-42 (CTV), CBET (CBC), CFPL (CBC), and CKGN-29 (Global) back in the early 80's.

[edj]

New Buffalo still carries the main Chicago stations on cable.

[rugratsonline]

I think WNEM had all night movies.

At least on weekends, by the late 1970s. There were times around then that I woke up early to watch Saturday morning cartoons, beginning with NBC's on WNEM (as they started around 7AM or 7:30AM at the time), and I would see the end of the last movie before the first cartoon.

I think CMU was greedy when they turned the [WCMZ channel 28] license in, and UM sold it to CMU because the higher ups in AA had no vision for the station, since it was not under their direct control.

They could have spun off the station to an independent public broadcasting group or sold it to WKAR, WDCQ or WTVS to use as a satellite, but as the spectrum auction was in full swing and it was easy money to just close the station and cancel the license, CMU chose to do just that instead, once again leaving a sizable city (Flint) without easy access to PBS over the air.

[MWmetalhead]

In the late 00s, WFUM had a good signal in analog in NW Warren via an amplified indoor antenna (the unit included a UHF loop). There was some electrical crud dancing across the screen, but all-in-all a very watchable signal. This was on my LCD set in the living room.

On the 19" CRT set in the bedroom, which was near a window, WFUM came in almost clearly most of the time with only minimal noise on the screen.

[ftballfan]

Comcast dropped WCMU in Flint despite WCMU still being assigned to the Flint/Tri-Cities market. However, both dishes and Spectrum still carry WCMU in the entire Flint DMA. In fact, WCMU is still carried on Spectrum systems in northern Oakland County and Lapeer County.

Speaking of WCMU, I'm a little surprised it doesn't have much cable carriage in the Grand Rapids area. It isn't carried in Howard City (whose system also serves Morley) or in Greenville. It has never been carried in Hart or Shelby AFAIK despite WCMW having one of the stronger OTA signals in Oceana County.

[mmb5]

TVO was on the Downriver cable systems in the United Cable era.

[edj]

I always wondered why TVO never put a repeater in Sarnia during the analog days. Windsor and Chatham (and London for that matter) didn’t operate with a ton of power. Sarnia is much larger than many of the tiny towns that had transmitters.

[Marcus]

Sarnia's high cable penetration might have kept TVO from adding a local transmitter.

https://digital.library.mcgill.ca/image ... 639445.pdf

[MWmetalhead]

Comcast dropped WCMU in Flint despite WCMU still being assigned to the Flint/Tri-Cities market. However, both dishes and Spectrum still carry WCMU in the entire Flint DMA. In fact, WCMU is still carried on Spectrum systems in northern Oakland County and Lapeer County.

Speaking of WCMU, I'm a little surprised it doesn't have much cable carriage in the Grand Rapids area. It isn't carried in Howard City (whose system also serves Morley) or in Greenville. It has never been carried in Hart or Shelby AFAIK despite WCMW having one of the stronger OTA signals in Oceana County.

My guess is these decisions date back to the analog days. WCMU in analog in channel 14 had limited range and so did WCMW on channel 21. WGVU on the other hand had decent range. With VHF dipoles, I could get a snowy but watchable picture near Hardy Dam. Probably could've gotten a better quality picture with a proper UHF antenna.

[mtburb]

TVO was on the Downriver cable systems in the United Cable era.

Downriver, TVO was also present on Wayne Cablevision/MacLean-Hunter until it was dropped on June 2, 1993 and replaced with WADL (due to a new carriage law that went into effect), and TVO was also present on Wyandotte's municipal system, where it lasted a bit longer, not being removed until the 1999 rebuild and channel reshuffling, where it was dropped to make room for WPXD.

Early on Wayne Cablevision also carried CBEFT (perhaps the only Michigan system to do so?), and both Wayne Cablevision and Wyandotte also originally had WOR/WWOR until replacing it with WGN sometime in the late 1980s.

[rugratsonline]

Early on Wayne Cablevision also carried CBEFT (perhaps the only Michigan system to do so?), and both Wayne Cablevision and Wyandotte also originally had WOR/WWOR until replacing it with WGN sometime in the late 1980s.

Maybe because WGN and the Cubs are more relevant to the midwestern region than WWOR and the Mets. Considering that WGN radio's 720 signal comes in in the Detroit / Windsor area, it makes sense. (On a 1999 trip to Toronto, I listened to WGN on the car radio on the 402 from Sarnia until close to London.)

[TC Talks]

Speaking of WCMU, I'm a little surprised it doesn't have much cable carriage in the Grand Rapids area. It isn't carried in Howard City (whose system also serves Morley) or in Greenville. It has never been carried in Hart or Shelby AFAIK despite WCMW having one of the stronger OTA signals in Oceana County.

WGVU has first service coverage in Grand Rapids. There is a gentleman's agreement between PBS stations, and they risk CPB grants if they encroch.

[edj]

Does that mean WTVS and WFUM (and for that matter WGTE) didn't have the same agreements? I'm sure it was WFUM that pushed the FCC for cable coverage in Oakland, and WGTE is available in Monroe and some Downriver systems.

[Marcus]

Over here sometimes cable companies are required to carry certain TV signals. In the early 1980's Maclean Hunter wanted to be exempt from adding CFMT Toronto from their St.Catharines cable lineup because none of the programming was in either English or French at the time. The CRTC made them carry it anyway because there was a city grade signal from the CN tower into that city.

One thing cable did get to do is omit WADL TV 38 from the Sarnia, Chatham and Windsor systems because it was from the U.S. and it was mostly home shopping for years.

In the U.S. It sounds like a cable system, or any TV service provider can offer as little or as much as they want when it comes to standard TV signals.

[ChrisWL1980]

Comcast dropped WCMU in Flint despite WCMU still being assigned to the Flint/Tri-Cities market. However, both dishes and Spectrum still carry WCMU in the entire Flint DMA. In fact, WCMU is still carried on Spectrum systems in northern Oakland County and Lapeer County.

Speaking of WCMU, I'm a little surprised it doesn't have much cable carriage in the Grand Rapids area. It isn't carried in Howard City (whose system also serves Morley) or in Greenville. It has never been carried in Hart or Shelby AFAIK despite WCMW having one of the stronger OTA signals in Oceana County.

My guess is these decisions date back to the analog days. WCMU in analog in channel 14 had limited range and so did WCMW on channel 21. WGVU on the other hand had decent range. With VHF dipoles, I could get a snowy but watchable picture near Hardy Dam. Probably could've gotten a better quality picture with a proper UHF antenna.

WPNE from Green Bay had cable coverage in some northwest Michigan communities in the early '80s, likely an OTA pickup. They were still included in Traverse City Record-Eagle TV listings into the early '90s although they were no longer carried on area cable systems by then.