WB Affiliates on Ku-Band Satellite (1998)

[JosephHolloway1998]

Well The WB only had four nights of programming at the time (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday), they didn't expand to Thursdays until the fall that year. But on days when The WB didn't run any programming their satellite feed (G4/9 and later T5/18) would run a promo loop, or a closed circuit promo briefing for affiliates (hosted by then VP/on-air promotion Steve Domier (and later David Zaccaria)) as well as upfront presentations and TCA meetings that weren't meant for air, they also shared their channel space with Warner Bros. Television (Prey (ABC), ER (NBC), Friends (NBC), Drew Carey Show (ABC), For Your Love (NBC/WB), Suddenly Susan (NBC), Pinky and the Brain (Kids' WB), Veronica's Closet (NBC), Rosie O'Donnell (syndication), Babylon 5 (syndication), Kelly, Kelly, Jamie Foxx Show, Wayans Bros., Parent Hood, Family Matters (CBS), Step by Step (CBS), Police Academy: the Series (syndication), Maximum Bob (ABC) etc...) where viewers got a chance to see the shows episodes before they made it on-air. Whiles the affiliates would run movies or syndicated programming leading into their local news (Though only a handful WB affiliates had news outlets at the time, outside of the Tribune stations).

 

[harshness]

And these activities were conducted on which satellite band?

 

[JosephHolloway1998]

C-Band Galaxy 4, transponder 9 and Telstar 5, transponder 18 (The WB feed), though the Ku side of Galaxy 4 (X4) consisted of CBS Newspath feeds (which moved to Galaxy 3R Ku after the G4 shutdown) as well as several other newsfeeds (along with SBS6 and GSTAR4) and Telstar 5 (T8) also had CBS Newspath feeds, FOX also had newsfeeds on there plus several sports backhauls, before Echostar's Sky Vista DBS service (spot formerly reserved for Alphastar) occupied the sat by July '98 (they had WGN Chicago (whose superstation feed stopped carrying WB programming by Oct. 1999) and WPIX New York as their WB choices).

 

[harshness]

C-Band Galaxy 4, transponder 9 and Telstar 5, transponder 18 (The WB feed), though the Ku side of Galaxy 4 (X4) consisted of CBS Newspath feeds (which moved to Galaxy 3R Ku after the G4 shutdown) as well as several other newsfeeds (along with SBS6 and GSTAR4) and Telstar 5 (T8) also had CBS Newspath feeds, FOX also had newsfeeds on there plus several sports backhauls, before Echostar's Sky Vista DBS service (spot formerly reserved for Alphastar) occupied the sat by July '98 (they had WGN Chicago (whose superstation feed stopped carrying WB programming by Oct. 1999) and WPIX New York as their WB choices).

I don't see anything here to suggest that affiliates of any network were uplinking Ku. Seeing Ku activity for downlinks is perhaps unusual but it obviously happened.

In the aggregate, I think your proposition that stations were heavily engaged in Ku is proving to be mostly false.

 

[JosephHolloway1998]

Well I'll get back to the affiliates later, but I'll get on with the newsfeeds, while Tribune broadcast video feeds on CNN Newsource (GE-3 Ku (W8)/SBS 6 (B6)/GSTAR-4 (R4)), I'm not sure which Ku transponder Tribune used for their newsfeeds at the time? (KTLA Los Angeles, KWGN Denver, WGN Chicago, WPIX New York, WBZL Miami-Ft. Lauderdale (newscast produced by WTVJ NBC6), WPHL Philadelphia, WLVI Boston as well as non-WB affiliates like WGNO New Orleans (ABC), WGNX Atlanta (CBS) sold to Meredith Broad. the following year, KTXL Sacramento (Fox), WXIN Indianapolis (Fox), WPMT York/Harrisburg (Fox; WB secondary), WTIC Hartford-New Haven (Fox), and cable-only CLTV (Chicagoland Television)). Outside of the Tribune stations only a handful of affiliates had news outlets at the time (save for KPLR St. Louis, KKYK Little Rock (whose news operation shut down in Sept. 1999), WKCF Orlando and WYLN Hazleton, PA (which became an America One affiliate several months after losing its WB affiliate to WSWB-TV (formerly WOLF-TV whose affiliation (Fox) and call letters moved to Ch. 56)), with others having newscasts produced by their local affiliate (NBC, ABC, Fox, CBS) like KQCA Sacramento (which took the WB affiliation after PSG bought Ch. 31), WTTV Indianapolis, WRAZ Raleigh (whose affiliation switched to Fox in August that year), WNUV Baltimore, WFGX Moblie/Pensacola and several others etc...., like you mentioned earlier in the thread "The WB had no news feed".

 

[JosephHolloway1998]

Well I can give you a hint, SBS6 and GSTAR4, as well as the Ku side of Galaxy 4 (X4) with feeds being moved to backup satellites after the Galaxy 4 shutdown (Galaxy 3R Ku, Telstar 5 Ku and several others) were the Ku birds were most newsfeeds were broadcast.

 

[harshness]

Well I can give you a hint, SBS6 and GSTAR4, as well as the Ku side of Galaxy 4 (X4) with feeds being moved to backup satellites after the Galaxy 4 shutdown (Galaxy 3R Ku, Telstar 5 Ku and several others) were the Ku birds were most newsfeeds were broadcast.

I don't see where you've established that "most newsfeeds" appeared on Ku satellites.

You need to establish both presence and direction of travel to prove that the affiliates (more than one or two) were using Ku to send signals. Having bandwidth available is a lot like DIRECTV and their reverse band: If you only have two channels riding on it, are you really "using" it or are you just squatting.

 

[JosephHolloway1998]

I don't see where you've established that "most newsfeeds" appeared on Ku satellites.

You need to establish both presence and direction of travel to prove that the affiliates (more than one or two) were using Ku to send signals. Having bandwidth available is a lot like DIRECTV and their reverse band: If you only have two channels riding on it, are you really "using" it or are you just squatting.

At least this will explain what Ku is, they mention the newsfeeds.

37 What About This Mysterious Ku Band?

Ku band satellites don't require as large a dish to receive, some have 32 ...

stason.org

 

[JosephHolloway1998]

Well speaking of the newsfeeds by the way, affiliates like KRRT San Antonio (newscast produced by KABB-TV) and KBWB San Francisco (formerly KOFY-TV) would launch their news outlets several months later.

 

[harshness]

At least this will explain what Ku is, they mention the newsfeeds.

Any mention of news feeds is with respect to content from the mother ship. They make mention of "backhauls of all kinds" but they don't say whether it is from the affiliates or from network-sponsored production trucks.
There's little to nothing there to support your claim. There are more reasons why you shouldn't use Ku than evidence that the affiliates did might have.

 

[bobvick]

Any mention of news feeds is with respect to content from the mother ship. They make mention of "backhauls of all kinds" but they don't say whether it is from the affiliates or from network-sponsored production trucks.
There's little to nothing there to support your claim. There are more reasons why you shouldn't use Ku than evidence that the affiliates did might have.

I think you are basically talking to the wall.

He has a concept, an idea in his mind and that is the way that it was, period.

Regardless of whether or not he was there.

Even accepting answers from people that were there at the time seems to be beyond his comprehension, or he flat refuses to.

It would be like asking someone that was there, alive and watched an event like the Moon Landing or The Kennedy Assassination, and then arguing with them about details that did not or could not have happened.

 

[JosephHolloway1998]

I think you are basically talking to the wall.

He has a concept, an idea in his mind and that is the way that it was, period.

Regardless of whether or not he was there.

Even accepting answers from people that were there at the time seems to be beyond his comprehension, or he flat refuses to.

It would be like asking someone that was there, alive and watched an event like the Moon Landing or The Kennedy Assassination, and then arguing with them about details that did not or could not have happened.

Well although the FTA fans don't want me contacting marketing execs it's worth the risk, sometimes I have to (they may have the answer or the transponder information), and as mentioned in the ABC thread, my parents only had cable when I was born (June 1998) so I could only get whatever affiliate was in my range, KTLA 5 (WB Los Angeles) which was also carried as a superstation on C-Band, Dish Network, StarChoice (Canada), ExpressVu (Dish Network Canada) and various other cable systems.

 

[Titanium]

Worth the risk! Serious? If that is what you believe, you certainly don't belong in this forum! If you are contacting executives looking for support for your inane suppositions regarding FTA usage, you are putting our hobby at risk. Don't be a self serving JERK!

I certainly hope that the forum mods or Scott consider banning your ignorant punk a$$!

Well although the FTA fans don't want me contacting marketing execs it's worth the risk, sometimes I have to (they may have the answer or the transponder information), and as mentioned in the ABC thread, my parents only had cable when I was born (June 1998) so I could only get whatever affiliate was in my range, KTLA 5 (WB Los Angeles) which was also carried as a superstation on C-Band, Dish Network, StarChoice (Canada), ExpressVu (Dish Network Canada) and various other cable systems.

 

[harshness]

Well although the FTA fans don't want me contacting marketing execs it's worth the risk, sometimes I have to (they may have the answer or the transponder information), and as mentioned in the ABC thread, my parents only had cable when I was born (June 1998) so I could only get whatever affiliate was in my range, KTLA 5 (WB Los Angeles) which was also carried as a superstation on C-Band, Dish Network, StarChoice (Canada), ExpressVu (Dish Network Canada) and various other cable systems.

Here's the failing in your supposition: Today's ad execs have no idea what the details are now much less where they were in 1998. Your's is a fools errand and pursuing it can only do damage to the hobby. It just doesn't matter what was happening the year you were born because much has changed but what hasn't changed is that Ku typically wasn't a significant part of the playing field.

Your quest for historical trivia is not worth the damage it may bring.

 

[Martyn]

I encourage you to visit your library. The absolute best resource for this information isn't people working at satellite companies (who likely have no memory of operations 20 years ago) but materials written at the time.

Some online databases, such as Lexis Nexis, will contain news reports and press releases from 1998 and before that might cover commercial announcements (eg: "WB takes Galaxy transponder for affiliate news feeds") or trade and hobbyist magazines from the time that wrote about what they actually saw month-to-month.

WorldCat.org: The World's Largest Library Catalog has a pretty comprehensive listing of the magazines and journals held in libraries across the US and world. Your local library or a university library might hold the magazines, or they might be able to order them. If not, you might be able to make a short trip to visit a library and in one day you'd end up with all your answers and a whole new lot of information and stuff to read up on.

Take it from me, someone who obsessively researches the field I write about: Libraries and database services are the way to go, not the dodgy memory of someone who probably didn't care about this 20 years ago let alone now.

If you're lucky, you might find something in the Internet Archive on old sites from 1998. It will take a lot of searching but it might be there. Lexis Nexis or the like will be much faster. Look for PR Newswire or Businesswire databases or industry news magazines.

If you are really set on contacting people, marketing execs are the wrong people. First of all, they never knew this stuff. Secondly, no major TV network marketing person that you'll be able to contact was in the job 20 years ago. If you really want to do this, get a premium LinkedIn account and find retired station technicians at affiliates who actually ran the equipment.

 

[harshness]

Of course you can search until your skin falls from your bones and you won't find documentation or testimony (authoritative or otherwise) of something that generally wasn't happening.

 

[bobvick]

Worth the risk! Serious? If that is what you believe, you certainly don't belong in this forum! If you are contacting executives looking for support for your inane suppositions regarding FTA usage, you are putting our hobby at risk. Don't be a self serving JERK!

I certainly hope that the forum mods or Scott consider banning your ignorant punk a$$!

I think that our poster perhaps might suffer from some sort of issue.

I am not positive, and I am not being rude, but now that I think about his behaviour,I believe he is either autistic or suffers from some sort of case of Asperger’s syndrome.

In any case, I think it might be best to limit or edit his posts, for the preservation of what is left of FTA.





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[JosephHolloway1998]

I am not positive, and I am not being rude, but now that I think about his behaviour,I believe he is either autistic or suffers from some sort of case of Asperger’s syndrome.

I am not autistic as I used to be, and information like this (WB Affiliates/newsfeeds on Ku) can be tough to find. Going to the library is another option for me.

 

[harshness]

...information like this (WB Affiliates/newsfeeds on Ku) can be tough to find.

As I said in post #36, finding details on something that wasn't taking place should be monumentally difficult. Consider that this may be why you're having such trouble locating the information you seek.

 

[bobvick]

I am not autistic as I used to be, and information like this (WB Affiliates/newsfeeds on Ku) can be tough to find. Going to the library is another option for me.

I realize that you likely have some issues which might make it difficult for you to understand how your actions, regarding contacting programmers, will effect many other FTA users.

I would ask that you please attempt to empathize and consider your actions contacting these people.

When you do that, you bring to their mind these feeds that perhaps they are unaware of or do not regularly think about.

In any case, you, whether you believe it or not, might cause some feeds to become scrambled.


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