Anyone who got cable television in the late 1970s or 1980s in the United States probably got "superstations" on their service. These are ordinary television stations in a community that were received off the air, uplinked to satellite (usually by a third party - without the permission of the station), and then rebroadcast by cable companies across the United States and often Canada. Superstations were not affiliated with any network, and were known as "independent" stations. Their programming was heavy on syndicated off-network shows (in other words, repeats of shows long off the networks where they started), sports, and movies. Most operated 24 hours a day, which was unusual for a TV station to do at the time.
Superstations were an important part of a cable system lineup, and brochures given to potential cable customers heavily emphasized the existence of superstations on cable.
The first superstation was WTBS Atlanta, which was uplinked by Ted Turner, who owned the station (and would later start CNN and other networks). His station aired movies, Atlanta Braves baseball, and lots of TV shows from a decade earlier. WTBS was the most commonly available superstation on cable, and has since become a cable network itself - TBS. It is also uniquely the only superstation that was provided nationwide by station ownership. All the others were put on satellite by third parties.
The superstations you received on cable was usually dictated by how relevant their programming was to your location, particularly when it came to sports programs. Additionally, time zones made a big difference - east coast cable systems rarely had west coast superstations because their "prime time" began when most folks on the east coast were headed to bed.
Superstations were also expensive to carry - royalty payments were set based on a percentage of revenue a cable system earned - far more pricey than the usual 5-25 cents per subscriber most cable networks charged.
Regardless, most cable systems carried at least three superstations, in this order of popularity:
WGN Chicago
WPIX New York
WOR/WWOR New York
WSBK Boston
WNEW/WNYW New York
KTLA Los Angeles
KTVT Dallas
Additionally, some limited regional distribution of TV stations via microwave or by limited contracts also made superstations out of relatively nearby signals. Denver stations were often carried by mountain west cable systems who had no access to any local network stations. Northern US cable systems often pick up and relay a CBC or CTV station from Canada, usually off the air.
Canadians typically see superstations from the United States as well as from major provincial cities across Canada. Canadians see American network programming via superstations on their own cable/satellite systems. Major American networks ABC, CBS, and NBC usually come from stations in Buffalo/Erie/Rochester or Detroit for the eastern time zones and from Seattle for the west coast.
The most unique superstation from the list had to be WPIX in New York. It's slogan, "11 Alive!" is well remembered by a lot of folks, along with the all-night lineup of syndicated sci-fi shows they used to carry. And there were some memorable ads too.
Let's start in the late 1970s and move forward:
Three interesting points about this video:
1) It uses the classic 11 Alive jingle and color scheme.
2) The news reader is THE VOICE of WPIX - he recorded virtually all of the station's promos.
3) Many cities used the same news theme as WPIX - It's the "Move Closer to Your World" theme package.
