WBTS and WHDH

[Ed Hennessy]

WSBK was carried before that at least in parts of New England. In 1976 they were carried into the New Haven area, along with WLVI. We got cable in February, '76 and both were available then. They were just wiring our neighborhood at the time. We got cable after our 6' antenna mast on the roof bent and the antenna crashed to the roof after ice loading. My dad, not wanting to climb up there in the snow and ice, figured the cable installation would be temporary until he could get up there and replace the antenna. He never replaced the antenna...

Both stations got dropped in the late 1980s-early 1990s with syndicated exclusivity, as the blackouts became more common since, in addition to the New Haven-Hartford market stations, NYC stations were receivable and were also (at the time) "must carries." The loss of the Boston stations was not surprising, considering that at that time, WTNH and WFSB would require the cable company to feed their signals on the WABC/WCBS slots when network programming was on, but that's another story...

Ed Hennessy

 

On 01/04/17, Kevin Vahey<kvahey@gmail.com> wrote:
 
WSBK became a mini-superstation in 1978 when a Syracuse based company
(Eastern Microwave) started to relay the signal. Red Sox games being beamed
into Manhattan was a major selling point for the then Paragon Cable. WSBK
also got picked up in Canada because of hockey and is still available on
most systems there today.