rkolsen 1678 Posted April 24, 2014 Share Posted April 24, 2014 Interesting timing on the announcement considering someone mentioned how come there is no NBC Affiliate on the Delmarva peninsula. Here's the article from MultiChannel Delaware has its first in-state affiliate of one of the top four broadcast networks, as WRDE-TV in Rehoboth Beach is relaunching as an NBC station branding itself "Coast TV," serving the rural Delmarva Peninsula area. Channel president Bob Backman (pictured below) obtained the NBC affiliation some two years after first approaching Comcast-owned NBCUniversal about the idea. He then obtained retransmission-consent agreements with Comcast, the biggest multichannel video programming distributor in the Delmarva area, and with Dish Network, according to Matthew Davidge, who has been working with WRDE as a consultant. Backman wrote directly to Steve Burke, the CEO of NBCUniversal, according to Davidge. "Steve Burke passed the letter on and it made it to Jean Dietze’s desk, the head of affiliate relations at NBC. We then developed a good relationship with Jean and [NBCU's] Gary Ventolo over time and eventually voila! They realized the need was there -- why should someone on the Delaware beach or the Maryland shore be watching NBC 'local' news from a Big 10 city over 100 miles away? It makes no sense." A Comcast spokesman said the company is still evaluating what changes might be made to the local lineup in the Sussex County, Del., region as a result of WRDE's joining as an NBC affiliate in June. Currently the company imports NBC affiliate signals from Philadelphia (WCAU) and Baltimore (WBAL). Customers will be notified about any possible changes in the coming weeks, the company said. WRDE, a low-powered digital station, in June will convert from being a retro-programmed MyNetwork TV and COZI TV affiliate and create local news, weather and sports programming for 6 and 11 p.m. on Coast TV. The "MyNetwork COZI TV" broadcasts will shift to 31.2 and continued on Comcast and over the air. WRDE Coast TV will be over the air on channel 31.1 and shown on Comcast in high definition and standard definition (channel 9) and in standard definition on Dish. Davidge said retransmission carriage talks are under way with other providers in the region, namely DirecTV, Mediacom Communications (which has carried WRDE on channel 99) and Verizon FiOS TV. Davidge said the Delmarva region is served by stations that air CBS and Fox programming (WBOC-TV) and ABC and CW programming (WMDT-TV), but both of those are based in Salisbury, Md. The Salisbury market area is designated as No. 142 by Nielsen, containing about 162,000 homes. "I've been privileged to have lived in Rehoboth Beach for six years and to be a member of this wonderful community," Backman said in a statement to be released Thursday. "The people in Rehoboth Beach deserve their own NBC station with in-depth coverage of the concerns of the coastal community. Well, now they have one!" The release also has laudatory quotes from the Rehoboth Beach-Dewey Beach Chamber of Commerce and Delaware Economic Development Office chiefs. Davidge said credit goes to Backman for his community efforts and to NBCU and Comcast for recognizing the value in having a local Delaware NBC affiliate and then negotiating a retransmission agreement to put it on the local cable system. The Delmarva area is flat and rural and receives programming from relatively nearby media markets Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, D.C., he said, but had local news and concerns of its own that Coast TV will seek to serve. "It is amazing to me that in all these years of broadcasting this hasn't happened before," Backman told me in an email Wednesday. "We're really excited about bringing a local NBC station to Rehoboth Beach and Delmarva and we're going to make sure it was worth the wait." - See more at: http://www.multichannel.com/blog/my-turn/meet-delawares-new-nbc-affiliate/374066#sthash.1zF8i31b.dpuf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewsMaster 226 Posted April 24, 2014 Share Posted April 24, 2014 WOW!!! This is great news, not just for Rehoboth, but the entire state of Delaware. I wonder if it will be carried throughout the rest of the state. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samantha 2878 Posted April 24, 2014 Share Posted April 24, 2014 Not digging the logo personally, but that's not the important part—the important part is that this area is getting a news operation and Delmarva is getting NBC service. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rkolsen 1678 Posted April 24, 2014 Author Share Posted April 24, 2014 WOW!!! This is great news, not just for Rehoboth, but the entire state of Delaware. I wonder if it will be carried throughout the rest of the state. I doubt it given that in the article they mentioned it was going to be carried in parts of the Salisbury DMA. Northern DE is covered by a combination of WCAU and WBAL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
compubit 670 Posted April 25, 2014 Share Posted April 25, 2014 Well, the logo is an improvement of the current locally-sourced on-air presence: white letters on a black background keyed over the programming with the call sign and COL. This will be a station built for the ground up. Looking forward to seeing it once on the air on my next trip to the Delmarva peninsula. J Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cg41386 131 Posted April 25, 2014 Share Posted April 25, 2014 I doubt it given that in the article they mentioned it was going to be carried in parts of the Salisbury DMA. Northern DE is covered by a combination of WCAU and WBAL. New Castle County is in the Philadelphia market. I don't think WBAL covers it much, if at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewsMaster 226 Posted April 25, 2014 Share Posted April 25, 2014 New Castle County is in the Philadelphia market. I don't think WBAL covers it much, if at all. I was talking more about Kent County (Dover). I think WBAL is on cable systems there, on top of WCAU. But true, I don't think WBAL is carried at all in New Castle County. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewsMaster 226 Posted June 13, 2014 Share Posted June 13, 2014 This post has appeared on WRDE's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/wrdetv/posts/10154211150780632 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rkolsen 1678 Posted July 17, 2014 Author Share Posted July 17, 2014 I decided to "bump" this thread. I was reading the Facebook page for WRDE and they have some complaints like NBC Nightly News and Saturday Night Live being joined already in progress about three minutes into the program. Second, it appears that it has not caused either WCAU or WBAL to be bumped off Comcast's carriage lineup (yet). Per the online listings they carry WRDE, WCAU and WBAL (I used a Rehoboth Beach address to find the line up.) WBAL is the only NBC affiliate that is carried in their high definition. Third, it appears their news content is limited to 6PM and 11PM newscasts provided by an outside contractor called Independent News Network based out of Davenport, Iowa. Independent News Network uses the same anchor staff for the NBC, CBS and MyNetwork affiliates in Gainesville, FL, in addition to the NBC affiliate for Columbus, GA and finally the ABC affiliate for Alexandria, LA. They also produce news for about six Spanish language stations affiliated with Azteca America. But they appear to have four reporters based in Delaware to cover Rehoboth Beach. Needless to say I doubt their newscasts are live with the same staff serving four other cities or even have current information. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrtraveler01 737 Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 I decided to "bump" this thread. I was reading the Facebook page for WRDE and they have some complaints like NBC Nightly News and Saturday Night Live being joined already in progress about three minutes into the program. Second, it appears that it has not caused either WCAU or WBAL to be bumped off Comcast's carriage lineup (yet). Per the online listings they carry WRDE, WCAU and WBAL (I used a Rehoboth Beach address to find the line up.) WBAL is the only NBC affiliate that is carried in their high definition. Third, it appears their news content is limited to 6PM and 11PM newscasts provided by an outside contractor called Independent News Network based out of Davenport, Iowa. Independent News Network uses the same anchor staff for the NBC, CBS and MyNetwork affiliates in Gainesville, FL, in addition to the NBC affiliate for Columbus, GA and finally the ABC affiliate for Alexandria, LA. They also produce news for about six Spanish language stations affiliated with Azteca America. But they appear to have four reporters based in Delaware to cover Rehoboth Beach. Needless to say I doubt their newscasts are live with the same staff serving four other cities or even have current information. I understand that they're an upstart organization with limited resources (hence why they outsourced their news to INN), but I can't see this competing against WBOC or WMDT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samantha 2878 Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 I imagine the most limited resource for WRDE is physical plant. I cannot find their Rehoboth Beach street address (FCC lists one in Cincinnati), but a station that until months ago was a Me-TV/Cozi TV outlet probably doesn't have the space to produce news on site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rkolsen 1678 Posted July 17, 2014 Author Share Posted July 17, 2014 I understand that they're an upstart organization with limited resources (hence why they outsourced their news to INN), but I can't see this competing against WBOC or WMDT. I don't think they will and I would imagine they are focusing mainly on Sussex County since that's about the only area there signal reaches. But if they do one day decide to upgrade to a full power signal I would imagine they would get complaints from WCAU and WBAL (both of which are carried in much of the DelMarVa peninsula) for encroaching on both stations DMAs. I imagine the most limited resource for WRDE is physical plant. I cannot find their Rehoboth Beach street address (FCC lists one in Cincinnati), but a station that until months ago was a Me-TV/Cozi TV outlet probably doesn't have the space to produce news on site. They have yet to have a functioning website - all there is a splash page saying "WRDE (Peacock) LOCAL NEWS IN HD" and they only post a few generic posts on their Facebook page. The Facebook page lists an address in Lewes, DE which is north of Rehoboth. Both Rehoboth and Lewes are nice towns and growing up that's mainly where my family vacationed. Lewes is a small town on the coast - but doesn't have a boardwalk like Rehoboth or Ocean City, Md or Wildwood NJ has. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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