dog station

plural dog stations

1. broadcastingA minor television or radio station with little chance to succeed.

   Again, available evidence indicates that fewer than one percent of all radio and television properties are controlled by minority persons. […] Minority owners claim that only the so called "dog" stations are offered to them.

   1978, United States. Federal Communications Commission. Minority Ownership Task Force, Minority Ownership in Broadcasting, page 9

   1 more example

   And, as you know, most of the black broadcasters and Mexican-American broadcasters and minority broadcasters in the United States have wound up with the dog stations in various markets, mainly daytimers. Very few of us are in the large markets […]

   1979, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce. Subcommittee on Communications, The Communications Act of 1979: Hearings, page 339