One very interesting aspect of broadcast history isn’t really “broadcasting” itself, but rather the combinations of broadcast channels carried by early cable systems.
While most cable systems nowadays are restricted to channels from their own market, some systems in the early days of cable piped in multiple network affiliates from three or more markets!
One of these places was Storm Lake, Iowa, where my late grandmother worked at the Storm Lake Register and Pilot Tribune. I went through PDF’s of old newspaper editions now posted online to feed my curiosity about what was carried on The City Beautiful’s early cable system (Grandma herself didn’t have cable; she thought the four Sioux City stations were more than enough.)
The city’s first system, called KAY-B-L VISION since it was co-owned with KAYL radio, launched in the fall of 1973. Storm Lake is in the Sioux City market but a Register article previewing the launch says viewers would be able to receive channels from five other cities:
Everything is ready at the tower site northeast of town. Antennas on the 400 foot tower are receiving signals from 10 stations: the three Sioux City stations, two Sioux Falls, Mankato, Ames, Vermillion (educational), Omaha (KETV-7), and Fort Dodge. In addition, the system will feature two local channels, one a 24-hour weather channel, and the other for local origination.
August 18, 1973, Storm Lake Register article
I was unable to find an exact channel lineup from 1973, but here is an extrapolation of what it may have looked like based on newspaper articles and advertising, including the lineup seen in a 1978 ad on the right:
2 KUSD-TV (PBS) Vermillion, SD
3 KMEG (CBS) Sioux City
4 KTIV (NBC) Sioux City
5 WOI-TV (ABC) Ames
6 Local weather
7 KETV (ABC) Omaha, NE
8 Local programming
9 KCAU (ABC) Sioux City
10 KVFD-TV (NBC) Fort Dodge
11 KELO-TV (CBS) Sioux Falls, SD
12 KEYC (CBS) Mankato, MN
13 KSOO-TV (NBC) Sioux Falls, SD
With some of the stations more than 100 miles away and co-channel with other regional stations, reception may have been poor. (KVFD-TV went off the air in 1977.) KETV, KELO-TV, KEYC, and KSOO-TV were eventually replaced by other channels including Iowa Public Broadcasting Network and Des Moines stations KCCI (CBS) and WHO-TV (NBC).
According to news accounts and advertising:
- KUSD-TV, KETV, and KEYC were carried from 1973 to at least 1978
- KELO-TV and/or KSOO-TV may have been carried in 1973 and 1974
- WOI-TV was carried from 1973 to at least 1978 and again beginning in 1985
- KCCI has been carried from 1975 to the present
- WHO-TV was carried in 1975 but was gone by summer of 1978
- KDSM (FOX, Des Moines) has been carried from 1989 to the present
A 1978 news account and accompanying ad tout the addition of Atlanta’s WTCG, which later became WTBS-TV. SuperStations WGN-TV Chicago and WOR-TV New York were later added as well.
Many of the out-of-market channels were dropped as more national cable channels started up, leaving only KCCI and the SuperStations as out-of-market services by 1981. WOI-TV returned when the system expanded in 1985, but was eventually dropped again. KDSM was added in 1989.
Nowadays, Mediacom operates the legacy cable system in Storm Lake, competing with a newer system operated by Vast Broadband. TV listings indicate the Mediacom system continues to carry KCCI and KDSM in addition to the Sioux City channels. KTIV and KCAU are the only stations that have been carried on the same channel numbers since the system’s launch in 1973, and KTIV brings viewers weather forecasts from Storm Lake native Ron Demers.