Broadcasting in the United States: Difference between revisions

Recent changes have increased the number of broadcast stations one entity may own, thus allowing very large companies like [[Clear Channel]] Communications (iHeart Radio) or Sinclair Broadcasting to own hundreds of radio or TV stations that reach something like 20% of the entire country. Back when the national networks had considerable more reach, they were each limited to no more than seven owned-and-operated broadcast stations (and no more than five VHF stations). These would usually be in the largest urban markets; the rest of the stations would be "affiliates" which carried the network programming but were owned independently. PBS used a slightly different pattern in which the individual local broadcasters were "member stations" who, collectively, owned the network.

[[American Television Stations]] often display a prominent local channel number in their branding, such as the "circle seven" logo on WABC-TV and KABC-TV. This number usually corresponds to whatever frequency the station used before the digital transition; these are virtual channel numbers and that broadcaster with the big red "2" logo may well now be a digital [[Ultra High Frequency|UHF station]] today. If the same station is using digital compression to send multiple program streams simultaneously, the over-the-air subchannels will have numbers like 2.1, 2.2, 2.3... which appear on no other medium.

K is used for stations west of the Mississippi River, and W is used for stations east of the Mississippi. Prior to 1923, the dividing line was further west.<ref>Along the eastern borders of New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana, similar to the modern dividing line between the Central and Mountain time zones</ref> Because of this rule change, and other more complicated reasons, there are stations that do not follow the K/W convention. KDKA- (AM) in Pittsburgh, the oldest commercial station in the United States, KYW Philadelphia and WNAX- (AM) in Yankton, South Dakota, are twoa few notable examples. WWV and WWVH, thea time broadcast in Colorado and Hawaii, is another exception. In Minnesota and Louisiana, where the Mississippi River begins and ends, station can have either W or K.

There are also exceptions based upon prior ownership. In the Dallas-Fort Worth area, every television station's call sign starts with a K ''except'' for WFAA, because the station was originally owned by the same company that owned WFAA- (AM, so it was allowed to keep its W call sign). This practice of allowing call sign carry over continues even today. Stations with a common owner can have the same callsign, but with a different suffix. So there can be a KOPB- (AM), a KOPB-FM and a KOPB-DT (for digital television). Other suffixes are "TV" for analog television and "LP" for low power FM/TV (there's also "CA", "CD", and "LD" for low power TV; for example, WWNY-CD rebroadcasts WWNY-TV into Massena, New York). To reach communities outside of the main transmitter's area or fill in "dead spots", translators are used. The least-powerful translators [[Station Ident|Theyoften have namescallsigns like K11BX]] (the number in the middle is the "channel" or frequency assignment where the station operates); the next two or [rarely] three letters are assigned sequentially, andfollowed optionally by a -D for a digital TV station). Numbered translators are lowerinvariably low-power stations. The number will also tell you the type of translator: if the number is two digits, it's a repeater of a television station; a three digit number is a repeater of an FM station. Often, religious broadcasters abuse the translator rules and have FM translators scattered across the country; they're also prone to abuse the reservation of 88.1-91.9 MHz (intended for US non-commercial educational stations) by competing with public outlets like [[NPR]] for this scarce FM spectrum.

There is no national government-operated broadcaster. All stations are funded by advertising, donations or money from <s>viewers[[Viewers likeLike youYou]]</s> the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Local stations are either owned locally, by media conglomerates or the networks themselves (this is common in large markets such as [[New York City]], [[Los Angeles]] and [[The Windy City|Chicago]], which are usually the top three Nielsen-ranked markets in that order). Most stations are affiliated with a national [[Networks|network]], such as [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]], [[CBS]], [[NBC]] or [[FOX]]. This means that the station plays shows from the national network, along with local programming. In the very smallest markets (such as Glendive, Montana) a small, privately-owned station may be affiliated with multiple networks.

* The 1989 [["Weird Al" Yankovic]] cult classic ''[[UHF (film)|UHF]]'' had two stations whose call letters are never identified, Channel 62 and Channel 8 (the latter of which went dark by the movie's end; the logo for that station looks identical to the logo used by real-life Dallas station WFAA from 1996 to the present day)

* ''[[Bruce Almighty]]''. WKBW-TV 7 (ABC Buffalo) sacks the lead character in the first five minutes. "That is perfect. That is the motivation that I needed! Right there! Thank you. Thank you, W.K.B.W.! Wimpy Kitty Baby Whiners! That's what that stands for! I'll see you on Channel 5 where they do the real news."<!-- WKBW uses the branding of a real Buffalo station. Crosstown rival "5 Buffalo" is fictional, butas usesthe analogue '5' spot was occupied by CBC Toronto; the film transplants the logo and calls of a real "CBS 5" infrom Syracuse. -->

* ''[[The Mary Tyler Moore Show]]'': Mary Richards worked at WJM 12 in Minneapolis.