[bluedog2]

Originally Posted by masssachoicetts

Ive never understood why all six NE states weren't in their own Timezone.

New England should be in the Atlantic Time Zone. Maine is thinking about doing it with or without anyone else.

[dazzleman]

I think it would be a lot easier to leave things alone than try to work through all of this. We have much more important things to worry about. This has all the hallmarks of a solution in search of a problem.

[JayCT]

Originally Posted by dazzleman

I think it would be a lot easier to leave things alone than try to work through all of this. We have much.more important things to worry about. This has all the hallmarks of a solution in search of a problem.

I agree. What’s the purpose? What does it get anyone? Connecticut is too small and dependent on other states to do this on its own. In fact, all of the states in the northeast are too small and interdependent to do this on their own. Connecticut won’t do it without New York and Massachusetts and Rhode Island. New Jersey won’t do it without New York and Pennsylvania so I don’t think any of them will do it. There’s no good reason. Jay

[7 Wishes]

Originally Posted by JayCT

I agree. What’s the purpose? What does it get anyone? Connecticut is too small and dependent on other states to do this on its own. In fact, all of the states in the northeast are too small and interdependent to do this on their own. Connecticut won’t do it without New York and Massachusetts and Rhode Island. New Jersey won’t do it without New York and Pennsylvania so I don’t think any of them will do it. There’s no good reason. Jay

The only state it remotely makes sense for and I emphasize remotely is Maine.

[kidyankee764]

Originally Posted by JayCT

I agree. What’s the purpose? What does it get anyone? Connecticut is too small and dependent on other states to do this on its own. In fact, all of the states in the northeast are too small and interdependent to do this on their own. Connecticut won’t do it without New York and Massachusetts and Rhode Island. New Jersey won’t do it without New York and Pennsylvania so I don’t think any of them will do it. There’s no good reason. Jay

Agreed. And that really flows right down the eastern seaboard. DC wouldn’t do it without New York. Richmond wouldn’t do it without DC, etc.

[JayCT]

Originally Posted by kidyankee764

Agreed. And that really flows right down the eastern seaboard. DC wouldn’t do it without New York. Richmond wouldn’t do it without DC, etc.

Exactly. Jay

[IM42A]

Originally Posted by 7 Wishes

The only state it remotely makes sense for and I emphasize remotely is Maine.

Maine, all by itself, could probably pull it off. Aside from the area around Portsmouth and immediately north, there is minimal economic activity and interaction between Maine and New Hampshire. Time zones usually break in thinly populated rural areas, and people along the time zone border pretty much accept it as the normal order of things, and adjust their schedules and lifestyles accordingly.



One "down side" that I'm not sure is considered, is that network TV stations in the three Maine markets (Portland, Bangor, and the small market of Presque Isle, the latter only having one full-power TV station, a CBS/FOX affiliate) would either have to find some way to run network programming on their own, or else be content with network prime time lasting from 9 pm to midnight. Much of Maine is rural and I doubt that many people stay up all that late. If they were an hour behind the Eastern Time Zone, the solution would be simple --- either "roll your own" (i.e., record the ETZ feed and run it an hour later) or do like the Central Time Zone and make prime time 7 to 10 pm. I have to doubt the major TV networks (NBC/CBS/ABC/FOX) would want to run a special "one hour ahead" feed just for three very small TV markets.


Running network programs a day later (recording them and running them the next day) would throw Maine even more out of sync with the rest of the country. Guam does that (and the same may be true of American Samoa, I honestly don't know), but they are highly isolated exclaves of the United States, not states immediately contiguous to the rest of the country. People there have never known anything different, and I guess they just think of it as normal for their circumstances.

[IM42A]

Originally Posted by 7 Wishes

Problem is the whole area is too population dense. There are plenty of people in New Haven who work and shop in FFC and vice versa. Having to change your time everytime you cross that will be a bugbear. They try real hard to make timezone boundaries (at least in the US) only go through very rural areas. There's the weird exception of Columbus GA vs. Phenix City AL though I've heard Phenix City and the area immediately around it just does Eastern time. Also, it's still a much smaller area population and commuting wise:

https://www.al.com/living/2017/02/do...bama_town.html


Wikipedia says that Phenix City and anything in a 15 mile radius of it follows Eastern instead of Central Time. Unlike CT, 15 miles outside of Phenix CIty/Columbus GA is very very rural.

I don't see why they don't just go ahead and put Lee and Russell counties in the Eastern Time Zone. I fail to see how that would be in any way disruptive to the state of Alabama as a whole. Texas does the same with El Paso, and Kentucky is split down the middle --- their public TV network simply lists programs as (for instance) "9 pm Eastern, 8 pm Central", and it creates no problem whatsoever.

[7 Wishes]

Originally Posted by IM42A

One "down side" that I'm not sure is considered, is that network TV stations in the three Maine markets (Portland, Bangor, and the small market of Presque Isle, the latter only having one full-power TV station, a CBS/FOX affiliate) would either have to find some way to run network programming on their own, or else be content with network prime time lasting from 9 pm to midnight. Much of Maine is rural and I doubt that many people stay up all that late. If they were an hour behind the Eastern Time Zone, the solution would be simple --- either "roll your own" (i.e., record the ETZ feed and run it an hour later) or do like the Central Time Zone and make prime time 7 to 10 pm. I have to doubt the major TV networks (NBC/CBS/ABC/FOX) would want to run a special "one hour ahead" feed just for three very small TV markets.


Running network programs a day later (recording them and running them the next day) would throw Maine even more out of sync with the rest of the country. Guam does that (and the same may be true of American Samoa, I honestly don't know), but they are highly isolated exclaves of the United States, not states immediately contiguous to the rest of the country. People there have never known anything different, and I guess they just think of it as normal for their circumstances.

That's one thought I did not consider. Running shows behind (i.e. California vs. the east coast) is no problem but I guess running them ahead is (though unless the show is live it could be done, unless for some reason they are worried about people in the Bos-Wash corridor, Florida, etc.) finding some way via the Internet to see something blockbuster like whatever the modern day equivalent of the "Who Shot JR" episode would be one hour early.

[IM42A]

Originally Posted by 7 Wishes

That's one thought I did not consider. Running shows behind (i.e. California vs. the east coast) is no problem but I guess running them ahead is (though unless the show is live it could be done, unless for some reason they are worried about people in the Bos-Wash corridor, Florida, etc.) finding some way via the Internet to see something blockbuster like whatever the modern day equivalent of the "Who Shot JR" episode would be one hour early.

The closest existing analogy would be the Maritime Provinces, who get US TV networks via cable and satellite, and therefore watch prime-time shows from 9 pm to midnight, or going one step further, from 9:30 pm to 12:30 am in Newfoundland. To my knowledge, there is no place in Canada --- not even places as remote as Inuvik in the far northernmost part of the NWT, and Iqualit in Nunavut --- that does not get American TV networks via cable or dish. Not sure how these areas would handle simultaneous substitution or other simulcasts of American programming, though as far as I am aware, the Canadian networks do have a separate Atlantic Time Zone feed, time-shifted as appropriate for viewing habits. (Don't know how they handle Newfoundland.)


The one-hour offset with the Central Time Zone has existed as long as there has been network television. It is very practical, as it does not disadvantage anyone living near the boundary (on either side), and those living in the ETZ who get broadcasts from the CTZ simply watch prime-time from 8-11 pm their time, and vice versa (as with the example of Kentucky Educational Television, which broadcasts from Lexington with a very efficient statewide repeater network). One perhaps unintended reason that is given, is that Midwesterners tend to go to bed earlier, and thus 10 pm nightly local news is more practical for them. Even in the ETZ, many Fox stations, and some subchannels and independent stations that have an LMA with a major-network station, run local news at 10 pm local time, and that works out very well for those who don't want to stay up until 11 pm to watch local news.


The border areas between Central and Mountain time, and between Mountain and Pacific time, are so sparsely populated, that viewers affected by spillover from stations in one time zone and another would probably number in the few thousands at most. Network TV stations in the Mountain Time Zone receive a time-shifted feed that tracks Central time, i.e., prime-time in the MTZ is from 7 pm to 10 pm, just as it is in the CTZ. I would like to see some flexibility from satellite providers, allowing people along these borders either to receive New York or Los Angeles affiliates (or both) in tandem with the stations from their DMA, to permit prime-time viewing at a more appropriate time for these areas. At one time several years ago, two counties in deepest Nevada (Lander and Eureka counties) were considered to be in the Denver TV market by satellite providers, as over-the-air reception from Reno, Las Vegas, or Salt Lake City was impossible (translators cannot possibly cover all areas), and Denver network affiliates were provided instead. Those counties are now in the Reno DMA, as it is no more challenging today to provide Reno affiliates via satellite, than it is to provide Denver affiliates, and the Reno stations are in the same time zone as these counties.