WBTS and WHDH

Scott Fybush scott@fybush.com
Wed Jan 4 11:12:19 EST 2017


We had WSBK on our cable here in Rochester for a few years in the early
1980s. That was probably about the farthest west the microwave network
carried the signal.

On Jan 4, 2017 10:39 AM, "Ed Hennessy" <ehennessy@verizon.net> wrote:

> 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.
>


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