Talk:WKBD-TV

Untitled

That's basically the whole story of WKBD-50, UPN Detroit.

This sounds unprofessional. Anything better that we can put in here? --Revised 18:19, 18 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I did a major revision of the article. Apparently, someone erased the entire content of the WKBD article and hence I had no choice but to redirect here. I have to agree that the quote sounds unprofessional. In fact, the entire article didn't sound professional at all. Hence the huge amount of revisions. Pentawing 06:46, 24 Apr 2005 (UTC)

The CW

I'm noticing quite a bit of unsourced speculation in articles on present UPN and WB affiliates. For example, is there any source which states that WDWB will revert to its WXON calls? -- SwissCelt 15:28, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

I think Viacom should take advantage of this opportunity and move CBS to the stronger rated WKBD, and reactivate its newsroom to do "Early Show" cut ins and a 6pm and 11pm news, while putting the new CW network onto the weaker WWJ ch 62. CBS on WKBD makes the most sense, putting the strong netwok on the strong station. Both would benefit. WWJ is almost a lost cause, and CBS has not been a factor in Detoit for a decade. Viacom needs to fix this, unless they want to write off CBS in Detroit as a lost cause. Besides, I don't think anyone expects CW to last as long as UPN and WB lasted...I predict CW's lifespan will be five to seven years.

In case you have not noticed, Viacom no longer owns these stations. CBS Corporation owns them now. And CBS will stay as it is on WWJ, low ratings or not. CoolKatt number 99999 02:09, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

As a side note, give WWJ some time, who knows, it may one day become the ratings leader in Detroit. CoolKatt number 99999 05:38, 19 April 2006 (UTC)

And remember how WWJ became a CBS affiliate? Back then, talk about a series of unfortunate events! CoolKatt number 99999 01:56, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

He Has A Point, You Know. Tomjerry9 15:13, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

Sports

WKBD used to produce and broadcast both Red Wings Hockey and Detroit Tigers Baseball games. I don't have the exact dates at this time, but will try to get them. They also produced occasional Pre- and Post-game shows for the Red Wings, Tigers and Pistons. WKBD aired special coverage of the Red Wings' Stanley Cup Celebration and parade ceremonies in 1997 and 1998, as well as carrying the final Tigers game played at Tiger Stadium on September 27, 1999.Thomprod 12:51, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Transmitter Maintainance

at 12:01 AM, Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2008, WKBD signed off for transmitter maintainance.... is that notable? should i add that to the article? It has a static image, but with diagonal lines (Lower Left to Upper Right) rolling across the screen towards the right... This is also affecting PBS station WTVS (minus the diagonal lines), which shares the same tower. RingtailedFox • Talk • Contribs 05:06, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

It's not notable, in my opinion. Transmitter maintenance is done for many different reasons, but is almost always temporary and no different than any other television station.Thomprod (talk) 20:52, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Cw50.png

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BetacommandBot (talk) 20:34, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

The Ghoul

The Ghoul aired in Detroit on WKBD from 1971 through 1975, being produced by its sister station WKBF-TV in Cleveland, Ohio which was also owned by Kaiser Broadcasting. When Kaiser dropped the program, the show's production moved to Detroit where it was produced by and aired on WXON (channel 20). The show moved briefly to WGPR (channel 62) and then back to WXON. Although never produced at WKBD itself, a reference to this show should be added to the main article for the benefit of those looking for local programs that aired on WKBD. I'm still thinking over the best way to include it. Comments are welcome. Thomprod (talk) 16:06, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

Seeing no comments since 2008, I will add this short reference to "The Ghoul" to the main article shortly, without objection. --Thomprod (talk) 13:15, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

Large Cable Footprint?

Owing to its large cable footprint, it was the default Fox affiliate for the Traverse City/Cadillac/Sault Sainte Marie and Marquette markets as well

The basis of this statement (appearing in the "From Fox to UPN" section) is not predicated in the article. The article's only other mention of WKBD's cable presence relates to the post-Fox period which began in 1994. However, I can confirm that WKBD's broad distribution to cable customers all across Michigan had indeed been long established by that time. As I recall, WKBD was available throughout the northern Lower and Upper Peninsulae as far north as Houghton from at least the early '80s (perhaps even the late '70s) onward. That situation not only predated WKBD's switch to UPN, it even predated the creation of the Fox Network.

Perhaps some discussion of WKBD's role as one of the earliest superstations is warranted. Indeed, detail on that very subject (i.e., just how WKBD broadened its market so far beyond the Detroit area) is what I was seeking from the article in the first place.

My understanding is that WKBD was distributed to rural cable providers in the '80s and '90s over a network of microwave repeaters using ground-level transmission, whereas most superstations at the time distributed their programming via satellite (typically using C-band).

I don't know the reason for using microwave rather than satellite. It seems to me that, even in the '80s, satellite transmission would have been fundamentally cheaper than ground repeaters. While using satellites does introduce latency problems for many types of communications (up to geostationary orbit and back is a very long way for a signal to travel; it adds about a quarter-second delay vs. sending directly between two ground stations), television is not adversely affected by it. (That is, such a lag would be noticeable for two-way communications, such as a telephone call or a news interview, but not for a one-way broadcast.)

I can speculate that perhaps there was a severe shortage of television signal space available on the satellites in orbit at the time (much having been snapped up by HBO and the like), which persuaded KB to contract for the ground transmission. Or, perhaps, the microwave network was built for some other type of communication project (such as by the government or by someone attempting to compete with AT&T) that had either failed or had surplus capacity. Thus, KB may have been able to get it at a competitive rate.

Another possibility is that the available satellite transponders lacked adequate coverage for northern markets. (A communications satellite uses a beam antenna that focuses on a particular portion of the globe, resulting in an area on the ground of perhaps only 500-1000 miles wide where the signal will be strong enough for reception. Additionally, in order to deliver adequate signal strength to a point at a higher latitude, these geostationary satellites, being equatorial, must use an even narrower beam focus to overcome the greater atmospheric effects. Thus, there may not have been space available on a satellite back then that had an antenna that was focused suitably to get all of Michigan within the footprint of a single beam.)

I recall my mother saying in the early '80s that people up around Hudson Bay were unable to get CBC but watched Detroit television; that may have been a result of the microwave distribution.

(By the way, in addition to "Saturday Night Live" [which, at the time, was actually titled "NBC's Saturday Night"--not to be confused with "Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell", which also began the same year and, if memory serves, was also carried by WKBD], "Late Night with David Letterman", and "The Ghoul" already mentioned in the article, I believe that another first-run program that was significant to the station's success in the '70s and '80s was "Star Trek: The Next Generation". Most else I remember of their programming back then was just syndicated reruns of cartoons and sitcoms, such as "The Brady Bunch" and "I Love Lucy".) Starling2001 (talk) 23:00, 30 November 2012 (UTC)

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Subchannels

I just wanted to point out that channel 50.5 is now airing Nosey as opposed to the color bars ForYourlnfo (talk) 23:16, 9 April 2024 (UTC)