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Towns that should be in other DMAs

Topics of general interest that just don't fit anywhere else.
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mtburb
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Location: Wyandotte, 17 miles from Southfield, 38 miles from Oregon

Towns that should be in other DMAs

Post by mtburb » Tue Dec 04, 2018 7:53 pm

There were two similar, previous threads on towns that should be in Lansing's small and narrow DMA, but both threads have been deleted for different reasons. I'll try this again, but on a more general note.

Three should be the three Monroe County townships (Erie, Bedford and Whiteford) that border Ohio and the villages within those townships. They are all part of the Detroit DMA, but from SEMCOG data, more residents of those townships and villages commute to Toledo. In fact, even though those townships are served by Buckeye, those townships haven't even had WNWO and WUPW on cable for several years now.

At the opposite end, Clinton could be part of the Detroit DMA since it has more commutership to the Ann Arbor vicinity than it does to the Toledo area.

To the north, Fowlerville should be part of the Lansing DMA as that village is closer to Lansing than Detroit, which is nearly 60 miles away. Even Flint is closer than Detroit. Plus, Fowlerville is served by a WOW system that doesn't even have any Lansing or Flint stations-just Detroit stations.

Holly should be part of the Flint DMA since it is much closer to Flint even though it's in the same county (Oakland) as the vast majority of the transmitters for the Detroit stations. Years ago, the Comcast system in Holly favored Flint over Detroit (to the point that the Detroit stations were often blacked out) since it was connected to a headend in Flint, but in 2011 Holly got it's own headend which did away with most of the Flint stations (except WJRT, WAQP and the late WCMZ) in favor of Detroit. Had Holly been in the Flint DMA then, this change would've never happened.

Heading further west, Portland should be in the Lansing DMA as well. They too have a WOW system that has done away with anything Lansing in favor of Grand Rapids stations. Other places that should be in the Lansing DMA are Perry (their WOW system in fact only carries WSMH and WAQP from the Flint DMA!) and Albion (heck, Calhoun County could've easily been in the Lansing DMA if not for WOTV having their COL as Battle Creek and operating as a secondary ABC affiliate for the Grand Rapids DMA).

Finally, New Buffalo could be part of the Chicago DMA. Their Comcast system is already set up for such a scenario, but that's since it's connected to a headend in Michigan City, Indiana.

I am aware that Nielsen, for the most part, doesn't support splitting counties into different DMAs and wants to stick to using county lines as much as possible. The largest benefit of this is overall county viewership, but with the technology we have now what's the hassle of changing things?

Feel free to list any more towns that you know should belong to another DMA for any reason.
Last edited by mtburb on Wed Dec 05, 2018 7:23 pm, edited 2 times in total.


My furthest DTV tropo: KDKA Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at 202 miles for three days in January 2017 and a night in September 2017 with only an Antennas Direct C2V!

Current setup: Antennas Direct C2Max (2018-present)

ftballfan
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Re: Towns that should be in other DMAs

Post by ftballfan » Wed Dec 05, 2018 5:30 pm

Pentwater and Walkerville (and maybe even Hart) in Oceana County, as well as some townships in northern Newaygo County, should be in the Traverse City-Cadillac DMA. If not for WZZM having its stick near Grant and 29&8 being a joke of an ABC affiliate with a stick near Kalkaska to boot, Oceana County likely would have been in the Traverse City DMA (7&4 and 9&10 were dominant CBS and NBC stations in the pre-cable days).

Portland and Fowlerville are both in the Lansing State-Journal coverage area and both high schools play in the Lansing-based Capital Area Activities Conference. By the way, Perry is WOW (not Charter). WOW is extremely cheap (Ionia and Howell, which are farther from Lansing than Portland and Fowlerville respectively, get WLNS and WKAR on cable [Charter in Ionia and Comcast in Howell]). Speaking of high school leagues, Holly High School has always played in Flint-based leagues.

The northern half of Menominee County (basically everything from Stephenson on north) should be in the Marquette DMA.

County lines are used because many states have no township equivalent. Most of the states with township equivalents are in the northeast and Midwest.

In Florida, northeast Polk County should move to the Orlando DMA (Disney-related development is solid well into Polk County, and then there's a development gap between roughly US-27 and Lakeland, which is the beginning of the Tampa metro area).



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mtburb
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Joined: Sun Oct 18, 2015 12:28 pm
Location: Wyandotte, 17 miles from Southfield, 38 miles from Oregon

Re: Towns that should be in other DMAs

Post by mtburb » Wed Dec 05, 2018 9:39 pm

Here's a couple more examples:

In Ohio, eastern Ashtabula County should move to the Erie DMA (as most of the county is closer to Erie than Cleveland), it is only quite obviously in the Cleveland DMA because Ashtabula County contains Geneva and Geneva-On-The-Lake, two sorta extreme outer outburbs of Cleveland. WICU claimed Conneaut as part of it's coverage area as of 1988 (according to one of their NBC "Come Home To The Best" promos) and it's likely they still do.

Nearby, in Pennsylvania, Lawrence County (which includes New Castle) should be in the Youngstown DMA (Lawrence County used to be it's own DMA, but in the late 1950's it was merged into, for some odd reason, the Pittsburgh DMA even though Youngstown is much closer, and I think the only reason why Lawrence County is still in the Pittsburgh DMA is because their stations provide Pennsylvania news).


My furthest DTV tropo: KDKA Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at 202 miles for three days in January 2017 and a night in September 2017 with only an Antennas Direct C2V!

Current setup: Antennas Direct C2Max (2018-present)

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