ABC Affiliates on Ku-Band (1998)

[JosephHolloway1998]

I mean this is the actual link:

https://videoservicesforum.org/vidtrans/presentations/1999/1P-1%20Wolf.PDF

 

[JosephHolloway1998]

As shown in that link, ABC had Full time Ku-Band Transponder Services on Telstar 4, transponder 9, Telstar 4, transponder 12 and GSTAR-4, transponder 11. Those feeds on Telstar 4 Ku and GSTAR4 were mostly for Satellite Newsgathering feeds. Their primary satellites on Ku-band were SBS-6, Telstar 4, Telstar 5 and GSTAR-4.

 

[JosephHolloway1998]

Speaking of all that, WJXX had a newsmagazine program called "ABC 25 Tonight" leading to the launch of a full-fledged news department in December 1997, that program was also being simulcast on WBSG Brunswick, GA as a semi-satellite of WJXX (which had it's own-standalone 11PM newscast prior to WJXX's news launch) whose WB affiliation moved over to WJWB-TV (formerly WJKS-TV which discontinued its ABC affiliation in February 1997).

 

[JosephHolloway1998]

The Ku side of Spacenet 3R also carried newsfeeds from Florida (including WJXX Jacksonville/WBSG Brunswick (owned by Allbritton Communications at the time), WCJB Ocala/Gainesville, WPLG Miami, WPBF West Palm Beach, WFTV Orlando, WEAR Mobile-Pensacola (owned by Sinclair), WTXL Tallahassee, WMBB Panama City, WZVN Naples, WFTS Tampa Bay, WWSB Sarasota, Central Florida News 13 (Cable), Bay News 9 (Cable) etc....) in addition to the NyNet/Sunnysat, Oregon Ed-Net and NY State Lotto feeds.

 

[JosephHolloway1998]

As for the earlier conversation Sinclair I believe used T5 Ku (same sat as the CBS Newspath and FOX SNG feeds, several ITC sports backhauls were on there as welll) for their newsfeeds (WSYX Columbus, WEAR Mobile-Pensacola, WCHS Charleston, WV, KDNL St. Louis, WLOS Ashville/Greenville/Spartanburg, WXLV Greensboro-High Point, WGGB Springfield, MA (acquired from Guy Gannett) etc....)

 

[JosephHolloway1998]

Like most other networks, ABC requires all of their affiliates to have local newscasts. But there were several of them that didn't have any news outlets such as WBND-LD South Bend/UPN secondary and WGTU Traverse City/Cadillac (whose news operation was scaled back 13 years ago after failing to make headway against WPBN 7&4 and WWTV 9&10).

 

[JosephHolloway1998]

And for figuring out which full-time Ku transponders they had (Telstar 4, transponder 9 & 12 and GSTAR4, transponder 11 mainly for satellite newsgathering feeds). I'd like to know which transponder ABC used for the ENG and newscast feeds.

 

[JosephHolloway1998]

KSVI Billings, MT were among one of the few ABC affiliates without news outlets at the time (until 2002 when they shared a news operation with KHMT 4). WGTU/WGTQ Traverse City/Cadillac only provided weekday morning newscasts and live cut-ins during "Good Morning America".

 

[JosephHolloway1998]

As for the ABC affiliate with news outlets at the time, I'm not sure about KFNB 20-now Fox Casper, WY (Fox secondary)?

 

[JosephHolloway1998]

For the Satellite Magazine I got (Orbit) other than the feeds I've already listed (Telstar 4, transponder 9 & 12 and GSTAR4, transponder 11), on the Kuband chart I also see some ABC feeds being listed on SBS6, transponders 7 and 16 (same sat as CONUS), as well as GSTAR4, transponder 6 (as IRS/ABC). This proves there are ABC Feeds on Ku as well.

 

[JosephHolloway1998]

NBC affiliate WTOV Steubenville/Wheeling at the time also carried ABC programming as secondary affiliate (NYPD Blue, The Practice, America's Funniest Home Videos, Home Improvement, Ellen (not to be confused with talk show of the same name), The Drew Carey Show, Spin City etc...) until 2000, as the Steubenville/Wheeling area did not have a full-time ABC affiliate (despite the fact the WTAE Pittsburgh, WSYX Columbus and WYTV Youngstown acted as "de facto" affiliates on several cable systems in the area). ABC did not return to the small market until the launch of a WTRF sub-channel (WTRF-DT3) years later.

 

[JosephHolloway1998]

WBND-LP South Bend (a low-powered ABC station) which was one of the several ABC affiliates without news outlets at the time would often run a Business Brief (under the "WBND News" banner) on weekdays, in addition to carrying UPN programming as a secondary affiliate (Clueless, Moesha, Star Trek Voyager, Love Boat: The Next Wave, Malcolm & Eddie, The Sentinel, etc....)

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCFQw2n5jjQ

 

[JosephHolloway1998]

KIMO Anchorage was on Satcom C5, transponder 14, despite SatcoDX listing C5 as a C-Band satellite (but my Superstar Magazine from July 1998 lists it as one of the Ku sats).

 

[JosephHolloway1998]

This is absolutely not true.
NYPD Blue was fed on Friday mornings at 9am ET on Cband T301. Mostly leitch encrypted as the network commercial feeds were that way at the time. The show was fed on the ABC transponders.
Home Improvement was fed on G4 Cband Sunday's mostly at 7:30am ET on the Buena Vista feed. I didn't watch the other shows that much so I don't remember the others. None were ever fed on Ku. NBC transponders when they were on c or ku were never used for ABC shows.
I already commented on the other stuff in one of the threads floating around.

Well even though Satcom K2 was an NBC bird as I've mentioned earlier, there were plenty of newsfeeds and SNG feeds on K2 as well. CONUS Communications also had two satellite transponders on there for satellite news gathering, special events and a daily news exchange among US TV stations and cable systems.