Switching affiliations

[James]

Recently Dayton's NBC and ABC affiliates switched frequencies with each other. WDTN 2 went from ABC to NBC and WKEF 22 went from NBC to ABC. About ten years ago Cincinnati's ABC and CBS affiliates, WCPO 9 and WKRC 12, did this.

What is usually the reason behind such a switch?

[TV Guy]

Sometimes there's a change of ownership in the station and the new owners decide a change of affiliation might benefit them, either because of stronger programming or a better compensation package. In other cases, if one of the affiliates in the market is stronger than another (a VHF station vs. a UHF station, for instance) then the network on the weaker station may offer the stronger station a better compensation package in return for switching affiliations.

About seven years ago, Fox bought a fairly large group of stations from another company (whose name escapes me right now). Many of those stations were affiliated with CBS. But when those affiliation agreements were up for renewal, Fox converted them to Fox affiliates. I know that the CBS station in Detroit became a Fox affiliate due to this sale, and CBS was banished to a smaller UHF station.

The Westinghouse/CBS deal is another interesting example. Westinghouse bought CBS around 10 years ago (this was a few years before Westinghouse was swallowed by Viacom). Westinghouse had a division called Group W, which owned quite a few major network affiliates across the country. Most of these were already CBS stations, but two of them (one in Philadelphia and another in Boston) were NBC affiliates. Those two stations switched to CBS. So in this case, the stations didn't switch because they acquired by another company; they switched because they were owned by a company which acquired a network.

In the case of the Dayton switch, NBC went after the ABC affiliate because they had the chance to go from a UHF to a VHF station. And since NBC's primetime schedule is much stronger than ABC's, WDTN was happy to make the switch. Check out this story for more details:

http://www.mediaweek.com/mediaweek/h..._id=1000588130

[snl75]

the name of the compnay was new world

[musicradio77]

In New York City, no affiliation was changed. WNBC is still channel 4, WABC is still channel 7, WCBS is still channel 2, WNYW is still channel 5 and it is still carried Fox, WWOR is still channel 9 which is still carried by UPN, and WPIX is still channel 11 which is still carried by WB. As I said before in NYC, no affiliation changes.

[ShawnieMac]

Originally posted by Full House
In New York City, no affiliation was changed. WNBC is still channel 4, WABC is still channel 7, WCBS is still channel 2, WNYW is still channel 5 and it is still carried Fox, WWOR is still channel 9 which is still carried by UPN, and WPIX is still channel 11 which is still carried by WB. As I said before in NYC, no affiliation changes.

And most likely ever will, because those stations (in the case of 2, 4, 5, 7, and Pax 31) are owned by their respective networks...while the stations are owned (in this case 9 and 11) by companies that have a partial ownership of their respective network. You'll also notice that with the recent NBC-Universal merger, every broadcast network (except Univision/Telefutura) is now tied to a movie studio. ABC, with Disney; UPN and CBS with Paramount/Viacom; Fox with Fox (duh! ), WB with Warner Bros./Tribune (Tribune is a 25% owner in the network), and now NBC/Telemundo/Pax (to a lesser extent) with Universal.

I live in Los Angeles, and much like New York and Chicago, the network affilliations have been pretty stable. Again in the case of New York, Channels 2 (CBS), 4 (NBC), 7 (ABC), and 11 (Fox) are owned by their respective networks. The last time there was a network affilliation switch was in 1951, when CBS bought Channel 2 (then KTSL, later KNXT) from local broadcaster and car dealer Don Lee, and in turn CBS gave up its 50% stake in KTTV (the Los Angeles Times owned the other half until 1963, when the Times sold the station to Metromedia). So, on New Year's Day of 1951, KTSL changed its calls to KNXT and became a CBS O&O, while KTTV became the Dumont network's L.A. outlet until its demise in 1956.

Recently, Viacom bought current indy KCAL Channel 9, and combine its operations with Channel 2. Of course, Viacom owns CBS and UPN, and rumors were rampant (at least in the trade papers) that Viacom was going to move UPN to KCAL, and leaving current UPN affilliate KCOP back an as independent. However (in my gut feeling), that affilliation switch might (and will) happen eventually when UPN's affilliation deal with the Fox-owned UPN stations in New York, L.A., Chicago, Minneapolis, Houston, Baltimore, Orlando, and Phoenix expire in 2005.

Here's what might happen: KCAL will make the switch to UPN, Baltimore's WUTB (currently UPN, owned by Fox) will switch to Fox, which means Baltimore's current Fox station (WBFF) could either take UPN or switch UPN with its sister station WNUV (currently WB), and take the higher-rated WB. Meanwhile, the remaining Fox-owned UPN affilliates could simply renew its agreement for another few years. KCAL would become UPN's largest O&O station (currently, UPN's largest O&O is San Francisco's KBHK).

[Brad]

Our current ABC affiliate (KXLY) started out with CBS, and our CBS affiliate (KREM) began their existence as an ABC affiliate. The swap occured sometime in the '70s.

In Seattle, KSTW was originally a CBS affiliate, but enjoyed independent status for many decades, while KIRO was the CBS affiliate. In 1995, KSTW became a CBS affiliate again, while KIRO became a UPN affiliate (Mariners baseball rights also moved from KSTW to KIRO). A few years later, Viacom bought KSTW and made it a UPN affiliate, switcing CBS back to KIRO.

[USTVFanFromUK]

Didn't Fox purchase UPN afew years back?

[Brad]

Originally posted by USTVFanFromUK
Didn't Fox purchase UPN afew years back?

Nope.

[USTVFanFromUK]

Originally posted by AKA
Nope.

That's weird because when I lived in NYC whenever there was some major news they'd always switch the channel to Fox News.

I guess Fox owns NYC's UPN affiliate and carries it as a sub-channel.

[spunkygirl]

Our WB station changed to UPN, but they air both WB and UPN shows, so it's technically a WB and UPN station so confusing

[snl75]

one other one i remember ksl in salt lake city was cbs for years then switched to nbc whereupon channel 2 kutv became cbs i have a question for anybody in utah do you think ksl will ever switch again because i know nbc has a lot more racy programming then they did when they first made the switch and the owners im sure are not amused

[ShawnieMac]

Originally posted by snl75
one other one i remember ksl in salt lake city was cbs for years then switched to nbc whereupon channel 2 kutv became cbs i have a question for anybody in utah do you think ksl will ever switch again because i know nbc has a lot more racy programming then they did when they first made the switch and the owners im sure are not amused

I don't live in Utah, but knowing that KSL is owned by the Mormon Church, the only network switch might be between them and KTVX, the current ABC station, owned by Clear Channel. KUTV is owned by CBS now, and the other network-owned station is Fox's KSTU Channel 13. ABC's programming isn't as risque (except maybe NYPD Blue, but that's going off the air this coming season). I believe KSL is the only NBC affilliate among the top 50 markets that doesn't carry Saturday Night Live.

[musicradio77]

Originally posted by ShawnieMac
And most likely ever will, because those stations (in the case of 2, 4, 5, 7, and Pax 31) are owned by their respective networks...while the stations are owned (in this case 9 and 11) by companies that have a partial ownership of their respective network. You'll also notice that with the recent NBC-Universal merger, every broadcast network (except Univision/Telefutura) is now tied to a movie studio. ABC, with Disney; UPN and CBS with Paramount/Viacom; Fox with Fox (duh! ), WB with Warner Bros./Tribune (Tribune is a 25% owner in the network), and now NBC/Telemundo/Pax (to a lesser extent) with Universal.

NBC was purchased by RCA back in 1926 by David Sarnoff (long before NBC now owns Universal Pictures) and it was the first network ever in radio history. There was no TV back then. NBC started to air lots of great radio shows by one of radio biggest stars like Jack Benny, Jim & Marion Jordan ("Fibber McGee & Molly"), Bob Hope, Fred Allen, Harold Perry ("The Great Gildersleeve"), William Bendix ("The Life of Riley") and others. According to the special "WNBC: The First 66 Years", back in 1922, the earliest years of the networks came to the air as W2XY, and then later came the call letters, WBAY. That same year, the call letters changed to WEAF, and the call letters stayed there until 1946 while NBC was still the radio network, the call letters changed to WNBC until 1954 and changed again to WRCA. When NBC first appeared on TV after its departure from radio, radio shows are gone. There was no more comedy, no more drama, none of that. People could listen to their radio for music and news. By 1961, the call letters changed back to WNBC and it continued until 1988 when NBC purchased by GE, the radio franchise was dismantled and it became a sports radio station as WFAN (now owned by Infinity Radio). I know anything about radio and TV history than the first network, NBC. Here are those major networks owned by movie studios:

NBC owns Universal Pictures
ABC owns Disney
CBS owns Paramount/Viacom

Other three networks:

FOX owns 20th Century-Fox
UPN owns Paramount/Viacom
WB owns Warner Brothers

[musicradio77]

If you like to listen to the first 66 years of WNBC and a look back at the NBC network, go to this link from the Reelradio site and listen to it.

WNBC - The First 66 Years

[EmoJoe]

~Edited~