In Chicago we have broadcast channels 23, and now, 48 that broadcast old TV shows. The shit I used to watch when I was in kneepants: Superman, Gilligan’s Island, and Maverick. Crap you couldn’t pay young’uns today to watch, and it show in that the commercial breaks, needed to have the shows end on time, are divided between antique ads, station promos, and spots actually paid for.
These are owned by Weigel Broadcasting, which created the first UHF station in, Chicago, Channel 26, in 1964. Pretty good foresight for a sportscaster mostly known for his Weigel’s Weiners, where he showed the latest sports flubs. Though Tim is long gone his company has continued to buy otherwise crappy UHF stations. There are limits to the number of broadcast frequencies that can be used, until each is chopped down to many others as the technology improves. Is the ghost of Tim Weigel camping on these frequencies and eating the loss against their future value?
It’s probably the same principle that Hollywood works by: the small number of movies that make vast profits pay for the rest, which make a loss. Meanwhile the minority TV channels serve to publicize the corporation that owns them.
Idealism? Maybe you’re right. Back in the 1960’s, why on earth would something like “Sesame Street” be on tv? How about “The Electric Company” a few years later? (What’s up w/that upstart Morgan Freeman, anyhow?)
If they play it right, those stations that are losing money can be a tax write-off against profits realized elsewhere. This was a key plot point on WKRP once.
I’d guess that a station that primarily broadcast old TV shows would be incredibly cheap to run, and better to take miniscule losses than give up the broadcast license that might be extremely valuable someday. By way of analogy, it’s like hanging onto a piece of useless real estate and paying the taxes each year, because someday somebody might want to build a road or a condo development there, making the land suddenly valuable.
If you’re showing stuff that’s cheap to license, it isn’t too hard to make enough to cover your expenses. It’s probably cheaper for local advertisers to advertise there than on any other station, so you can find someone willing to buy time. Ad to that infomercials and Enzyte Bob spots and you can have a reasonable income, and if you keep your expenses down (old shows no one wants, skeleton staff), you can be in the black.
Hey! I watch those channels sometimes! They have Twilight Zone reruns on at night, and sometimes 23/48 is the only channel NOT showing infomercials. Like really late at night when I’m trying to find something to watch to fight the insomnia.
Well, just because you wouldn’t watch reruns of old shows doesn’t mean there couldn’t possibly be enough of an audience to justify their continued operation. From what you’ve described, it’s sounds like they’ve identified a viable audience and have targeted their programming and advertising toward it. As others have said, costs are probably lower, so they don’t have to pull in network-sized audiences.
