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Why is Sanilac part of the Detroit DMA?

Discussion pertaining to Detroit, Ann Arbor, Port Huron, and SW Ontario
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Splouge
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Why is Sanilac part of the Detroit DMA?

Post by Splouge » Mon Jul 08, 2019 5:23 pm

For decades now (the earliest I can trace is 2004), the Neilsen Company has defined the Detroit DMA as Wayne, Washtenaw, Macomb, Oakland, Monroe, Livingston, St. Clair, Lapeer, and Sanilac counties. But Sanilac County can't even get Detroit stations (or any locals) on Comcast, and the TVFool reports for many Sanilac County zip codes show the Flint stations as having higher signals than Detroit stations.


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thekman
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Re: Why is Sanilac part of the Detroit DMA?

Post by thekman » Mon Jul 08, 2019 6:35 pm

My brother has a cottage north of Port Sanilac. I’m not certain what cable service he uses, but he gets Detroit stations and not Flint with that service.



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RingtailedFox
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Re: Why is Sanilac part of the Detroit DMA?

Post by RingtailedFox » Mon Jul 08, 2019 8:31 pm

I think Sanilac was swapped-in to replace Jackson and Hillsdale Counties around 1998 in an attempt to keep Detroit in the top 10 DMAs list... all that did was delay the inevitable by about 5 years.


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Splouge
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Re: Why is Sanilac part of the Detroit DMA?

Post by Splouge » Mon Jul 08, 2019 8:57 pm

RingtailedFox wrote:
Mon Jul 08, 2019 8:31 pm
I think Sanilac was swapped-in to replace Jackson and Hillsdale Counties around 1998 in an attempt to keep Detroit in the top 10 DMAs list... all that did was delay the inevitable by about 5 years.
Wait, Jackson and Hillsdale were in the Detroit DMA at one point? Hillsdale seems like kind of a stretch, are you sure you're not thinking of Lenawee?


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RingtailedFox
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Re: Why is Sanilac part of the Detroit DMA?

Post by RingtailedFox » Mon Jul 08, 2019 9:26 pm

Yeah. back when i was younger (1990s), I'd be watching Fox 2 or Local 4 or Channel 7... and whenever there were bad storms rolling in, they'd have the DMA overlay with watches/warnings and occasionally a radar loop (later on in the 1990s) and towards the bottom: three counties in the bottom two rows (hillsdale, lenawee, monroe, then jackson, washtenaw and wayne).... though they also showed Genessee and Shiawassee Counties too...


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Splouge
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Re: Why is Sanilac part of the Detroit DMA?

Post by Splouge » Mon Jul 08, 2019 9:33 pm

RingtailedFox wrote:
Mon Jul 08, 2019 9:26 pm
Yeah. back when i was younger (1990s), I'd be watching Fox 2 or Local 4 or Channel 7... and whenever there were bad storms rolling in, they'd have three counties in the bottom two rows (hillsdale, lenawee, monroe, then jackson, washtenaw and wayne).... though they also showed Genessee and Shiawassee Counties too...
That doesn't define Neilsen DMAs though.

Also, I found some more maps of the DMAs going back to 1987, turns out, Sanilac WAS switched to the Flint DMA from 89-91. Sanilac was Detroit since 99, but there aren't maps from 91 to 99.

It's gerrymandering.


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Luke
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Re: Why is Sanilac part of the Detroit DMA?

Post by Luke » Mon Jul 08, 2019 9:37 pm

Growing up in Huron County in the 90s my cable provider aired WDIV, WXYZ and WKBD as well as the Flint locals.



fuzzpower
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Re: Why is Sanilac part of the Detroit DMA?

Post by fuzzpower » Mon Jul 08, 2019 10:13 pm

Genesee and Lenawee have been included in Detroit station’s maps because the stations were available OTA (probably still are with a decent antenna), as well as on cable.

Lenawee in all reality is no man’s land. The county is ignored by both Toledo (its actual DMA) and Detroit stations.

As for Sanilac, it makes no sense for it to be part of Detroit. Even Lapeer being in the market is a stretch.



cs15
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Re: Why is Sanilac part of the Detroit DMA?

Post by cs15 » Tue Jul 09, 2019 9:00 am

I'm in Grand Blanc, which is in Genesee county, and can pick up 4, 7, 20, 56 & 62 from Detroit.



ftballfan
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Re: Why is Sanilac part of the Detroit DMA?

Post by ftballfan » Tue Jul 09, 2019 9:42 am

Even to this day, I think Genesee and Lenawee counties are included in weather maps for the Detroit stations.

The Comcast lineup for Sandusky (which is an utter joke for a community of its size) doesn't carry a PBS member at all according to Zap2it. It also doesn't carry CBS 62 (WNEM is carried, along with WJRT and WEYI).

Many stations include counties outside of their DMA on their weather maps. For example, WZZM doesn't include two in-market counties (Branch and St. Joseph) in their weather maps, but includes four Traverse City-Cadillac market counties (Lake, Mason, Mecosta, Osceola). That may be partly because the four latter counties are served by the Grand Rapids NWS office while Branch and St. Joseph are served by the Fort Wayne NWS office. In another example, 9&10 includes all 25 counties in its DMA plus five others (Gladwin, Isabella, Newaygo, Oceana, Ogemaw; a sixth county (Midland) would likely be included if it were served by either the Grand Rapids or Gaylord NWS offices).



KeenerGold
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Re: Why is Sanilac part of the Detroit DMA?

Post by KeenerGold » Tue Jul 09, 2019 11:59 am

We had a cottage in Lexington in the 80's and 90's. I don't remember who the provider was, but we had a fairly basic cable lineup that included the Detroit locals as well as CBET and WNEM, and I think WJRT.

Comcast/XFINITY serves Lexington now, and carries all of the Detroit locals, as well as CBET and Global Toronto, similar to what's carried in Port Huron.

The only off-air stations I could pick up the last time I was there were CIII-DT-29 Sarnia (Global), and CHCH-DT Hamilton.



Deleted User 4520

Re: Why is Sanilac part of the Detroit DMA?

Post by Deleted User 4520 » Tue Jul 09, 2019 1:32 pm

When I lived in southern Tuscola county at the Lapeer county line in the 80's through mid 90's, on cable we got the Flint/Saginaw stations as well as the Detroit stations. It was cool having 2 of each network.



YpsiGuy
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Re: Why is Sanilac part of the Detroit DMA?

Post by YpsiGuy » Tue Jul 09, 2019 2:25 pm

The Thumb area of MI screams for a 100kW digital TV transmitter, with about 8 multiplexed digital subchannels. Place it just south of Bad Axe. Put 480i of the majors from F-S-BC and 2 or 3 digital subchannels on it.



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Splouge
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Re: Why is Sanilac part of the Detroit DMA?

Post by Splouge » Tue Jul 09, 2019 2:36 pm

YpsiGuy wrote:
Tue Jul 09, 2019 2:25 pm
The Thumb area of MI screams for a 100kW digital TV transmitter, with about 8 multiplexed digital subchannels. Place it just south of Bad Axe. Put 480i of the majors from F-S-BC and 2 or 3 digital subchannels on it.
It would probably have to be a Sinclair-owned station, since they own a lot of stations in the Flint area, and it would have to be a translator or LPTV, otherwise the FCC wouldn't allow them to own that many stations.

I imagine the lineup would be like this:

.1-NBC (WEYI)
.2-Fox (WSMH)
.3-CW (WBSF)
.4-Comet
.5-Charge!
.6-Stadium
.7-TBD
.8-Antenna TV


"Wanna watch some syndicated slop with very little budget or entertainment value? You got it buddy!"

-Byron "The Broadcast Butcher" Allen

YpsiGuy
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Re: Why is Sanilac part of the Detroit DMA?

Post by YpsiGuy » Tue Jul 09, 2019 2:41 pm

Splouge wrote:
Tue Jul 09, 2019 2:36 pm
YpsiGuy wrote:
Tue Jul 09, 2019 2:25 pm
The Thumb area of MI screams for a 100kW digital TV transmitter, with about 8 multiplexed digital subchannels. Place it just south of Bad Axe. Put 480i of the majors from F-S-BC and 2 or 3 digital subchannels on it.
It would probably have to be a Sinclair-owned station, since they own a lot of stations in the Flint area, and it would have to be a translator or LPTV, otherwise the FCC wouldn't allow them to own that many stations.

I imagine the lineup would be like this:

.1-NBC (WEYI)
.2-Fox (WSMH)
.3-CW (WBSF)
.4-Comet
.5-Charge!
.6-Stadium
.7-TBD
.8-Antenna TV
I would also put WJRT(ABC) on it. WJRT's signal is almost non-existant up there.

I would replace TBD with ThisTV. The audience is an older one up there and a movie channel like ThisTV would play a lot better up there.

Sidenote: I delete TBD from my decoder boxes along with PBS Kids, infomercial/shopping channels and religious ones.



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