When I lived on the south side of Ann Arbor, I could get channel 13 halfway decently with just rabbit ears. This was when they were still licensed directional. I suspect more "juice" was sent in the direction of Ann Arbor than pattern plots suggested. I had relatives who live in Chelsea, and they c...

Can someone please explain the point of dual TV IDs in Northern Michigan? IE 9&10 4&7 29&8. With digital television, the secondary ID can now be dropped as it is all virtual channels anyway. It just seems so clunky. I believe it's because they still use two transmitters covering two geographical ar...

What is now WEYI was originally WKNX-TV 57. Funny that there were two stations operating in Eastern Michigan early on, the other being WTVS 56, and they were on first adjacent channels. Maybe the tuning slugs used early on in receivers covered both channels. Considering the distance between the two...

I *think* most above 55 were largely ignored, even today. Which was why many of them would relocate to lower channels. A couple of examples included WBGU-TV in Bowling Green, Ohio, which signed on channel 70 in the 1960s, before moving to channel 57, then to 27. Another was ABC affiliate WTVQ in Le...

Does Retro TV show infomercials during late night? If so, maybe the "inappropriate commercial content" may be in the form of late night infomercials for "male enhancing" products or 1-900 dating ads (are those still around anymore?). WLLA could have done what cable systems do by running their own in...

It’s a gimmick from GM Ken. It won’t do anything to bring a single new viewer to their newscasts. Many station groups have started to play the SSB as a token of patriotic pride. But while conservatives have lauded the stations for restoring the practice, many of them play the SSB before the early m...

Speaking of educational, I always wondered why Lansing was allotted two stations for such a small market. The other was channel 69 if memory serves, I don’t think it was ever even applied for. There are very few stations on channel 69, mainly because that channel was as far as you could go on UHF i...

Fox 17 in Grand Rapids enjoys decent ratings and revenue from its newscasts. Replace that with a cut and paste broadcast from Detroit, and they can kiss all of that good bye. Look how well WNWO went with its South Bend-produced newscast, until poor ratings and budget cuts led to Sinclair replacing ...

WKAR-TV originally aired on UHF channel 60; but while it was an educational station, it still sought a wider audience so they applied for channel 10, only for that channel to be snapped up by WILX. An agreement would allow both stations to share the same channel and transmitter, though WKAR-TV would...

Doktor No wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 01, 2023 9:05 pm

Highland Appliance ad...VCR in 1981, $569. In todays money, $1852.71. The 19" TV at $286 today would be 931.27... Both the TV and VCR are obsolete at any price today.

Where TVs are concerned, you could buy a 50-inch flat screen today for half as much as a 1981 19-inch CRT TV in today's dollars.

Well, I just checked them again, and they are now UN-encrypted again. Maybe it was a test, or they got enough complaints quickly to turn it back off for now? As we're still early in the game with ATSC 3.0, newer sets and boxes will likely support newer encryption methods, while those in use now wou...

Keeping directional AM arrays that need repairs and generate a limited amount of profit does not make sense to them before a sale. Either way the abrupt closures and sales of a total of nine AM radio at once indicates that they are up to something. Considering that they are a big media company, it'...

MWmetalhead wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 15, 2023 6:54 pm

Channel 8 stunk in those days. They basically gave their news operation a complete reboot in 1983.

The station was still owned by Time-Life, 9 years after they sold their other TV stations to McGraw-Hill. 1983 was when LIN Broadcasting acquired channel 8, giving them a shot in the arm.

Mega Hertz wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 13, 2023 8:58 pm

ZenithCKLW wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 13, 2023 7:10 pm

PHIL!

I can hear The Pointer Sister's "Neutron Dance" just looking at that picture.

Doesn't Walmart Radio have a link that you can listen to at home, at least?