Talk:Omni Broadcasting Network

Untitled

According to the OBN website, they have affiliates in New York, Los Angeles, and various other places. If they really have affiliates in those places, wouldn't there be an article on at least one of their stations? Plus, I don't know of a single person who has ever even heard of this network. It just seems kind of strange to me. - HG707

Affliates?

Do they have any affliates in any of the cities listed there? I know there is no OBN affliates in the major cities but I'm not too sure about any of the smaller markets. It also seems that their website hasn't been updated in a really long time. --~Pikachu9000 01:27, 25 December 2007 (UTC)

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Hoax?

I am adding the hoax template to this article. I can find almost no evidence Omni Broadcasting Network ever existed.

• The article has two references, one of which is the alledged network's home page and both of which are now archive site links.
• Googling "Omni Broadcasting Network" mostly turns up pages citing this Wikipedia article. Tellingly, the first two results after this page are for pages on fan wikis about fictional TV stations.
• There is no information on stations within the network, either here or on the homepage. If it existed, this information would be verifiable with the FCC's online database.
• When I manage to get through the recursive references, I find primary documents like this [1] that still seem fake. If you go to the top level of this website, Globenewswire describes itself as "Press Release Distribution Services." If you click on the homepage link in the press release, you end up here, in a directory with a folder that can't be open and a text file that looks vandalized.
• The comments here on the talk page show that people were skeptical OBN was real as far back as 2006, but apparently no one ever followed up on it.

It doesn't look like anything ever existed of Omni Broadcasting Network other than the website. Based on my research, I think this is either a project that never got off the ground (in which case I'd argue it's non-notable) or something entirely fictional. Tisnec (talk) 03:47, 1 July 2021 (UTC)

Hi Tisnec,

The network definitely wasn't a hoax. The Internet Archive has captured the website, where its 36 affiliate locations are listed. You can see its business filings, including logo trademarks, in Delaware, California, and Nevada here. You can see a press release here, where they announce the broadcast of The Four Tops anniversary concert. You can see on the archived website they are a division of OBN Holdings, which has a Bloomberg profile here. OBN Holdings is listed on several stock exchanges, subject to SEC filings, and you can find information on their various subdivisions here. Firsfron of Ronchester 16:36, 1 July 2021 (UTC)

The affiliates list doesn't actually list affiliates, just the cities they would be in (unless I'm just dense and missing something). The press release you linked is from the same source I posted above; it looks like Globenewswire is just an outlet that publishes press releases. The Bloomberg page is better but it doesn't mention the network anywhere, just the parent company, whose existence is not well-supported elsewhere. I don't consider the sec.report filing credible because the site says at the bottom "Data is automatically aggregated and provided “as is” without any representations or warranties, express or implied. SEC.report is not affiliated with the U.S. S.E.C. or EDGAR System." What I really want is some information in a government system somewhere that shows they broadcast a single hour of television, anywhere. I can't find any independent third-hand sources, there are no primary government sources, and I can't even find anything on YouTube. That's an incredible lack of information for a TV network that would have existed entirely in the digital age. Compare the Omni page to the one for the Overmyer Network, which existed for less than a year between 1966 and 1967. That has a full affiliate list (with call signs) and extensive third party sources. Tisnec (talk) 17:44, 1 July 2021 (UTC)

I'm not sure an affiliate list is necessary to retain this article. A good third-party source for the Four Tops broadcast is Variety. Firsfron of Ronchester 18:10, 1 July 2021 (UTC)

That Variety article reads like a press release. It doesn't give call signs, channel numbers or an air date. The only date mentioned is the date the performance was taped and the only source cited is Omni president Dennis Johnson. It does say (citing Johnson) that Omni owns one TV station in San Luis Obispo, California. That page has a media section. I looked at the pages for each station located there, and none of them mention affiliation with Omni. Tisnec (talk) 19:19, 1 July 2021 (UTC)

The allegation that this article is a hoax is a serious one, and deserves more eyes on it. I'm going to ping a few active users of the relevant WikiProject. User:RingtailedFox, User:Mrschimpf, User:Azumanga1, User:Sammi Brie may be able to provide input. Firsfron of Ronchester 16:11, 2 July 2021 (UTC)

Thanks for the tag, Firsfron.

• I cannot find a lick of coverage in reliable media about this thing, and I've never heard of it. If they had LPTV affiliates, we'd at least know of those.
• This 10-K says the television station in San Luis Obispo is KSSY, which did exist as KSSY-LP (it is now deleted). The licensee of KSSY-LP at that time was a Cherie Irwin. Omni leased KSSY from Irwin. There were press releases in the 2003-05 period, which occasionally got picked up by news outlets, but I've never heard of any of this. It's a bunch of press releases for something that seemed to exist but made no tangible impact. Honestly they fail WP:CORP. Sammi Brie (she/her • t • c) 16:27, 2 July 2021 (UTC)

I have to agree with Sammi; I do believe the network did exist and did air content, but like a lot of those networks in the early 2000s (re:Urban America Television), it was only picked up by a few low-tier low-power stations to keep the lights on in prime time in-between infomercial marathons, barely got any viewers and just quietly went off the air, and fails CORP. Like UATV, it doesn't even have hits on YouTube for usergen videos of airchecks, suggesting that no one could bother to set up a VCR to record anything on it, either. Nate • (chatter) 23:55, 2 July 2021 (UTC)

Thanks, guys. I sure appreciate your eyes and your Google-Fu. Sammi, your info on the lease on KSSY-LP was quite helpful; I hadn't found that document. Nate, thanks for your input, as well. I do agree the company was similar to America One and Urban America Television, with chains of (mostly) low-power stations that couldn't compete with the big network affiliates, but using NewspaperArchive, I did find that the Four Tops special that OBN aired was actually quite widely viewed, even being picked up by several full-power stations (semi-independent KPEJ-TV, for example; the source for KPEJ-TV's broadcast is the Odessa American, July 31, 2005 page 100). I see that special is on Amazon, and there are IMDB entries for the special and the the network. Firsfron of Ronchester 15:22, 4 July 2021 (UTC)

Firsfron, you might also want to see Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Entertainment#Omni_Broadcasting_Network. It feels like as a network they never launched but they produced occasional specials. The second quote box I found is pretty laughable. Sammi Brie (she/her • t • c) 18:30, 4 July 2021 (UTC)

Firsfron, I do note that the Omni affiliate list mentions Terry Elaqua and AMGTV as contacts. I wonder if there is a connection. It wouldn't be citable in RS, though. Sammi Brie (she/her • t • c) 18:59, 4 July 2021 (UTC)

Oh no! A split conversation! I don't know if I should reply here or over there. Though Newspaper Archive, I can confirm OBN definitely launched, and their big 2005 special was aired pretty much coast to coast (which is why, I suspect, the special has an IMDB page: it received major coverage at the time). If it's helpful, I can list the affiliates here. Firsfron of Ronchester 19:57, 4 July 2021 (UTC)

Firsfron, Please do. I'd also appreciate a link to the clipping (I have NewspaperArchive access). Sammi Brie (she/her • t • c) 20:52, 4 July 2021 (UTC)

Thanks Sammi. The affiliate list was filed with the Securities Exchange Commission and is here. The newspaper clipping is one of those "Tonight's TV Highlights" reviews you see in newspapers; this review was for an encore performance of the Four Tops special, and states (in full), "The quartet celebrates 50 years in the entertainment industry with a concert at Detroit Opera House hosted by Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson (In Stereo)". The URL is here (hope you can view that). The IMDB listing goes into greater detail here Firsfron of Ronchester 16:22, 8 July 2021 (UTC)

Seconded; that's something I've been trying without success to find since I started digging. Tisnec (talk) 03:27, 5 July 2021 (UTC)

Elaborating off the NA source, channel 16 is WGTD, suggesting the special found much more success on the PBS pledge drive nostalgia programming circuit than it did through OBN and they adjusted their business model appropriately. Nate • (chatter) 21:56, 9 July 2021 (UTC)

I've removed the hoax template. It still looks like this might be non-notable, as per other users' comments, but enough evidence has been dug up that there was a (possibly successful) attempt to launch OBN as a real business that I retract my original point of concern. Tisnec (talk) 04:00, 5 July 2021 (UTC)

Thanks Tisnec. Anything you can do to provide additional references is greatly appreciated. I have only partially filled in the stations airing the Four Tops special. Many stations are still missing. I haven't bothered to fill in the stations airing the 2005 special in 2006; this was a rebroadcast that aired on PBS member stations. Firsfron of Ronchester 16:22, 8 July 2021 (UTC)

I wasn't able to find any references I considered credible - which is why I contacted you in the first place - since I don't have access to the archives you do. I might find time to do some page formatting, though, but no promises. Tisnec (talk) 18:03, 8 July 2021 (UTC)