The Steelers-Cincinnati Bengals game Thursday will be carried on the NFL Network and also locally, in what is known as the Pittsburgh Designated Market Area, on WPCW.
The PDMA includes the following counties: Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Clarion, Fayette, Forest, Greene, Indiana, Lawrence, Venango, Washington and Westmoreland.
Some nearby counties, such as Bedford and Somerset, are not included in the PDMA and viewers in those areas can see the game only on the NFL Network.
NFL Network games are bid out to stations. WPCW, a sister station to KDKA, won the right to carry the game locally. KDKA, which carried the NFL Network's coverage of the Steelers- St . Louis Rams game last December, did not bid on this game.
Chris Pike, the general manager of KDKA and WPCW, explained KDKA's reasoning.
"The reality is that this game is in November and we are still in original programming, and Thursday night is extremely strong for CBS.
"Last year when we did the game we could project to be in a re-run period."
Had KDKA carried the game Thursday, it would have preempted such popular shows as "Survivor" and "CSI."
-- Bob Smizik
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