How to keep Wheel fresh? From Buzzerblog; by Benjamin Williams, pacdude, and me.

[TLEberle]

What percentage of households aren't in a TV market? Seattle-Tacoma is listed at over a million, and Spokane rates 400k, but that leaves a great deal of my home state as unlisted? Or do the TV markets reach much farther than the boundaries of the city for the purposes of this exercise?

[WhammyPower]

What percentage of households aren't in a TV market? Seattle-Tacoma is listed at over a million, and Spokane rates 400k, but that leaves a great deal of my home state as unlisted? Or do the TV markets reach much farther than the boundaries of the city for the purposes of this exercise?

Market =/= City.

Last year's DMAs, but illustrates the point

/Whoops... someone goofed up Rochester, NY vs. Rochester, MN!

[TLEberle]

The map answers the question beautifully.

[clemon79]

Wow, that really is a fantastic map.

/holy cow is Denver farked up

[J.R.]

For anyone's interest, and for future use, these are Nielsen's rankings used for 2014-15: http://www.tvb.org/media/file/Nielsen_2014-2015_DMA_Ranks.pdf

I see the Des Moines, IA market is still ranked at #72.

[trainman]

/holy cow is Denver farked up

If I recall correctly, it used to have even more discontiguous areas, but Nielsen has created a few new DMAs as the result of some new TV stations going on the air in some relatively small Western towns.

(In case anyone can't figure it out:  it's a function of cable systems in various portions of the Mountain time zone importing the Denver stations.)

[BrandonFG]

Maybe someone from that area can confirm this for me. My former neighbors lived near Colorado Springs for a time, and from what I remember them telling me, that market was eventually absorbed into the Denver market about a decade ago. Could that have contributed to the funky mapping too, if that is indeed true?

/There's been talks of merging the Hampton Roads and Richmond markets
//Would create a population of three million
///And a Top 20-25 DMA
////Still no pro sports tho

[TimK2003]

Maybe someone from that area can confirm this for me. My former neighbors lived near Colorado Springs for a time, and from what I remember them telling me, that market was eventually absorbed into the Denver market about a decade ago. Could that have contributed to the funky mapping too, if that is indeed true?

Not sure about the Colorado Springs vs. Denver DMA.

However the Grand Junction/Montrose DMA is a weird market -- The city/county between the 2 cities (Delta) is part of the Denver DMA and is not considered part of either -- despite people in Delta County getting newspapers and radio from both towns. 

And for whatever reason, Grand Junction stations have yet to be added by DirecTV, so people living in the Western Colorado DMA are screwed in that vein, getting only Denver stations off the bird.  But then again, seeing how some of the stations are run in GJ (shoestring farm-team), it is probably a blessing.

That little strip of desert in north-central Nevada, being in the Denver DMA is probably the oddest area in the whole country.

[Thunder]

...
/There's been talks of merging the Hampton Roads and Richmond markets
//Would create a population of three million
///And a Top 20-25 DMA
////Still no pro sports tho

I would guess "Highly Doubtful". Both areas are well established and separated by a decent amount of distance.

[BrandonFG]

It's more of an effort to become more of a unified region* (and allow HR to reap some of the benefits from the capital), but you're right in that both are well established. The argument is that the two markets are distant yet close enough to try it.

Norfolk is just under 90 minutes from Richmond, and roughly the same number of miles. The furthest northern point of the HR DMA is Williamsburg/James City County, which is about halfway between both DMAs. But I agree on the distance...that stretch between Williamsburg and Richmond is a bit of a snooze. :-P

Same for the amenities, both markets have their own separate set of media outlets, not to mention airports. One of these days, I'll tell the story of how the Cavemen sitcom pilot inadvertently implied how Norfolk and Richmond are closer than it seems.

/As if NCIS hasn't been doing so for years!
*//A problem that's plagued HR for decades

[BrandonFG]

Tonight's Before and After puzzle actually felt like a traditional B&A, and not just another phrase with a related weird acked on.

MR. POTATO HEAD OF THE HOUSEHOLD...meanwhile, how often does the show use titles like MR./MS./DR., which require a period?

[Kevin Prather]

meanwhile, how often does the show use titles like MR./MS./DR., which require a period?

You're a Mean One Mr. Grinch" was a puzzle a few days ago.