Atlantic City loses its NBC affiliate

[Mr Tony]

WMGM 40 Atlantic City/Wildwood, NJ lost its NBC affiliation at the end of the year. There is already a NBC in the market (Philly...although OTA may not reach it without outdoor antenna) and apparently the station was sold to a company who is more interested in selling it back to the FCC for the auction

Right now they switched to "Soul of the South" and apparently will stay that until the auction possibly comes up

 

[RjDRjD]

As far as the NBC affiliation, WRDE-LD replaced it. The affiliation was to cover the void area of Extreme Southern NJ & Eastern Delaware that the Philadelphia stations did not reach. No areas lost NBC, and I think NBC actually gained some coverage with WRDE-LD.

The product that will be most missed is the South Jersey news. I watched it often when I lived in NJ. Thought they did it well. Hopefully they bring it back up on WMGM-LD or another South Jersey station.

 

[Mr Tony]

As far as the NBC affiliation, WRDE-LD replaced it. The affiliation was to cover the void area of Extreme Southern NJ & Eastern Delaware that the Philadelphia stations did not reach. No areas lost NBC, and I think NBC actually gained some coverage with WRDE-LD.

WRDE barely even hits NJ (the extreme tip of it) and doesnt cover most of NJ where WMGM did.

WRDE coverage
http://rabbitears.info/contour.php?appid=1274836&map=Y

WMGM
http://rabbitears.info/contour.php?appid=1135000&map=Y

 

[RjDRjD]

Right-- WMGM's NBC affiliation was justified for the section of WMGM's coverage area that it shares with WRDE.

 

[Mr Tony]

which is the very southern tip of NJ (barely)...so folks in Southern NJ wont get NBC anymore (Philly is 64 miles from Atlantic City)

 

[RjDRjD]

Back in the day, Channels 3 and 10 (which shared NBC with at different times) came in pretty good along the shoreline. Those were the analog days, not sure that is still the case. I used to pull Channel 10 (WCAU) in with rabbit ears, when I lived on the oceanfront. I always got at least 2 instances of NBC.

If I remember correctly, Channel 40 (WMGM) had an analog directional pattern that nulled toward Philadelphia and pointed northeast & southwest. It didn't overlap nearly as much as it does now with the Philadelphia stations. The purpose of the NBC affiliation was to cover Cape May County and coastal DE. They were even carried on cable in DE for a while.

According to the rabbitears.info maps for WCAU & WRDE, WRDE is covering the part of NJ that WCAU misses, but without the major overlap that WMGM had. WMGM likely had enough penetration, and a better cable TV channel position, to make a (negative) difference for NBC in the Philadelphia ratings. WRDE can't interfere like that, but it can cover the signal void. And on paper, it's not in the Philadelphia market, like WMGM was.