Buffy The Vampire Slayer

WB, source of cult television hits "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Pokemon," is back in Anchorage on General Communication Inc.’s cable Channel 3, showing old "Buffy" episodes and current programs like "7th Heaven."

WB disappeared from Anchorage in 1999, when GCI and WB parted over the price and length of their contract, GCI spokesman David Morris said.

"It’s been sorely missed," said Jennifer Weinfurter, 43. She and her four children, ages 18 to 7, have been "7th Heaven" fans for years, but have had to get by on reruns.

The show about a minister’s family covers all kinds of social issues "you want to talk about with your kids," Weinfurter said.

"Buffy" and other shows appeared months later in the Matanuska-Susitna area on an independent cable operator GCI later bought, but GCI didn’t have room on its old communications system to bring the WB programs to Anchorage.

GCI has been converting to digital, which carries six channels in the space of one channel on its former system.

The two businesses kept talking and finally agreed to different terms, Morris said. Anchorage’s ABC affiliate, KIMO Channel 13, is part of the deal too, selling advertising for WB in Alaska. Fairbanks is scheduled to get WB early next year, a WB executive said.

WB started running on Anchorage’s KWBX-WB3 on July 1.

The programming is in Alaska through The WB 100+ Station Group, a division of The WB Television Network that uses local cable companies to deliver WB shows to the 15 percent of the U.S. population that lives outside major urban markets.

Juneau is one of those markets. GCI has been running WB 100+ there for years, said Russell Myerson, executive vice president and general manager of WB 100+. Myerson said recent rankings show WB programs coming in first or second with different age groups, but stressed the network’s target audience is from 18 to 34.

Prime-time WB shows include "7th Heaven," "Smallville," about a young Clark Kent, "Charmed," "Gilmore Girls," "One Tree Hill," comedy "Reba" and family drama "Everwood."

"We have a lot of customers into ’Charmed’ and ’Smallville,’ " said John Weddleton, co-owner of Anchorage comic and playing card shop Bosco’s. He said the shop sells posters and other items linked to the shows.

When GCI stopped showing WB, Weddleton and customers created The Committee for Popular Culture, an informal group that lobbied GCI heavily to bring "Buffy" back.

"I think it’s fully because of our efforts four years ago" that WB programming returned, Weddleton said.

The station group also carries "Will & Grace," "King of Queens," and daytime Emmy Award-winning talk show "The Ellen DeGeneres Show."

Children’s programming on weekday afternoons and Saturday mornings includes the popular "Yu-Gi-Oh" and "Jackie Chan Adventures."

New shows coming this fall include "The Mountain," a drama starring Goldie Hawn’s son Oliver Hudson as part of a family that runs an upscale ski resort battling another family trying to take it away.

"It’s extreme sports meets ’Dynasty,’ " Myerson said, referring to a 1980s-era prime-time soap opera.