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20 Years Ago Today...


iamnomad

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Hi there. I've been reading this forum for about a year now and decided to join last month. This is my very first post on this site and I have to warn you: this one is going to be a long one.

 

Note: this was posted at 11:54 P.M. Pacific Standard Time, in case the date on the post seems off.

 

20 years ago today, the Westinghouse/Group W-owned TV stations WJZ-TV in Baltimore and WBZ-TV in Boston switched to CBS, dumping their longtime affiliations with ABC and NBC, respectively.

 

After New World announced their affiliation deal with Fox, CBS began wooing longtime ABC affiliates WXYZ-TV (channel 7) in Detroit (originally an ABC O&O from its sign-on in 1948 until 1986) and WEWS (channel 5) in Cleveland to replace New World-owned WJBK-TV (channel 2) and WJW-TV (channel 8) in their respective markets. Both are owned by the E.W. Scripps Company, and as part of the renewal of their ABC affiliations, Scripps agreed to switch some of its other network affiliates. Included were KNXV-TV in Phoenix, WFTS-TV in Tampa (both were losing Fox to New World stations in their markets), and WMAR-TV in Baltimore, which would displace WJZ-TV.

 

Westinghouse felt betrayed by ABC after over 45 years of loyalty. They had been shopping around for a groupwide affiliation deal, but the Scripps/ABC deal pushed them proceed faster. Eventually, Group W struck a deal with CBS to switch all five of its TV stations. Existing affiliates KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh and KPIX in San Francisco began carrying CBS network programming in full in the fall of 1994 (Group W had been known for preempting network programming for local shows). KYW-TV in Philadelphia had to wait until September, however, since NBC wanted to purchase CBS O&O WCAU-TV but couldn't do so without incurring large taxes. Therefore, CBS/Group W and NBC arranged a deal in which NBC would give up its stations in Denver (KCNC) and Salt Lake City (KUTV) and WTVJ's stronger channel 4 transmitter (and license) in Miami in exchange for WCAU and WCIX's (now WFOR) weaker channel 6 transmitter (and license).

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Hi there. I've been reading this forum for about a year now and decided to join last month. This is my very first post on this site and I have to warn you: this one is going to be a long one.

 

Note: this was posted at 11:54 P.M. Pacific Standard Time, in case the date on the post seems off.

 

20 years ago today, the Westinghouse/Group W-owned TV stations WJZ-TV in Baltimore and WBZ-TV in Boston switched to CBS, dumping their longtime affiliations with ABC and NBC, respectively.

 

After New World announced their affiliation deal with Fox, CBS began wooing longtime ABC affiliates WXYZ-TV (channel 7) in Detroit (originally an ABC O&O from its sign-on in 1948 until 1986) and WEWS (channel 5) in Cleveland to replace New World-owned WJBK-TV (channel 2) and WJW-TV (channel 8) in their respective markets. Both are owned by the E.W. Scripps Company, and as part of the renewal of their ABC affiliations, Scripps agreed to switch some of its other network affiliates. Included were KNXV-TV in Phoenix, WFTS-TV in Tampa (both were losing Fox to New World stations in their markets), and WMAR-TV in Baltimore, which would displace WJZ-TV.

 

Westinghouse felt betrayed by ABC after over 45 years of loyalty. They had been shopping around for a groupwide affiliation deal, but the Scripps/ABC deal pushed them proceed faster. Eventually, Group W struck a deal with CBS to switch all five of its TV stations. Existing affiliates KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh and KPIX in San Francisco began carrying CBS network programming in full in the fall of 1994 (Group W had been known for preempting network programming for local shows). KYW-TV in Philadelphia had to wait until September, however, since NBC wanted to purchase CBS O&O WCAU-TV but couldn't do so without incurring large taxes. Therefore, CBS/Group W and NBC arranged a deal in which NBC would give up its stations in Denver (KCNC) and Salt Lake City (KUTV) and WTVJ's stronger channel 4 transmitter (and license) in Miami in exchange for WCAU and WCIX's (now WFOR) weaker channel 6 transmitter (and license).

Welcome! There is already a thread on related matter: http://forums.tvnewstalk.net/index.php?/topic/14355-december-11-1994-20-years-later/

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Welcome! There is already a thread on related matter: http://forums.tvnewstalk.net/index.php?/topic/14355-december-11-1994-20-years-later/

 

I knew about that thread before posting, but I decided to start a new one since that one seems tied to a specific date (note the title). Also, this post focuses on the Scripps/ABC and Group W/CBS deals and their effects.
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  • 8 months later...

I had planned to post this yesterday, but 20 years ago yesterday, the CBS and NBC affiliations in Philadelphia, Miami, Denver, and Salt Lake City were swapped as a result of a deal between the two networks and Group W/Westinghouse Broadcasting.

 

As discussed before, Group W had struck a deal with CBS to affiliate all five of its stations with the network. WJZ-TV in Baltimore and WBZ-TV in Boston had switched on January 2, 1995. However, in Philadelphia, CBS already owned WCAU-TV on channel 10 for many years. In order for the deal to go through, CBS would have to sell channel 10 and relocate its affiliation to KYW-TV on channel 3 (which was NBC’s oldest affiliate, dating back to 1941, and where CBS would receive a 49% ownership stake from the Westinghouse stations).

 

New World and NBC emerged as the leading buyers for channel 10. New World planned on switching WCAU to Fox if it got hold of the station. NBC had long wanted an owned-and-operated (O&O) station in Philadelphia, so much so that it had coerced Westinghouse into swapping the KYW radio stations and WPTZ (the future KYW-TV) for the WTAM radio stations and WNBK (now WKYC-TV) in Cleveland in 1956. NBC threatened to pull its programming off WPTZ and WBZ-TV, as well as withhold an affiliation with Group W’s newly-acquired KDKA-TV (formerly DuMont O&O WDTV) in Pittsburgh (which would ultimately go with CBS). Immediately after the swap was completed, Westinghouse complained to the FCC, who would order a reversal of the swap in 1965.

 

Meanwhile, back in 1993, Fox affiliate WTXF (channel 29), then owned by Viacom through the Paramount Stations Group, had plans to become a charter station for the new UPN network with which it would be co-owned. Fox, too, wanted an O&O in Philly, so it had announced it would purchase WGBS-TV, channel 57 (now CW O&O WPSG), earlier that year. Fox was unable to get WGBS, so it turned its attention to WCAU in case New World lost its bid for the station. Viacom later had a change in plans and decided to sell WTXF directly to Fox, while at the same time purchasing WGBS to become its O&O.

 

With New World and Fox out of the picture, WCAU went to NBC by default. However, the network couldn’t complete the one-off purchase of channel 10 without running into heavy capital gains taxes. To avoid this, NBC and Group W/CBS arranged an “equal” deal where in exchange for WCAU, NBC would give up its O&Os KCNC-TV in Denver and KUTV in Salt Lake City to CBS, as well as WTVJ’s stronger channel 4 transmitter facility (and associated broadcast license) in Miami, to the Group W/CBS joint venture. CBS would give its existing channel 6 transmitter facility (and license) for Miami’s WCIX (which became WFOR after the switch, and returning CBS to channel 4 after a 6-year absence).

 

After the local airings of Saturday Night Live on September 10, the changes written into the deal took effect. In Denver, NBC moved to KUSA (channel 9) in a three-way swap that saw its former ABC affiliation moving to KMGH-TV (channel 7) as a result of that station’s owner, McGraw-Hill, signing an agreement with ABC to switch all of its stations to the network. In Salt Lake City, KUTV (channel 2) simply switched affiliations with Mormon-owned KSL-TV (channel 5). And in Philadelphia, WCAU went straight from being a CBS O&O to one of NBC. Westinghouse would acquire CBS later that year, making the Group W stations CBS O&Os, and the company would sell off all its non-broadcasting assets to become the first CBS Corporation.

 

Read more about the deals that led to the switches and their effects on Wikipedia.

 

Video relating to the switch will come soon.

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Should've posted this on July 1st, but 20 years ago on that day, News Corp had 20% investment into New World Communications and switched KDFW, KTBC, WAGA, KSAZ, WJBK, WTVT, WITI, WJW, and WDAF to Fox because the executives at Fox (including Rupert Murdoch) figured out that the network would not be viable without VHF stations (Whether a station was a VHF or UHF station was a big deal at the time).

 

In DFW back in 1993, Gaylord announced that its stations would affiliate with the WB network as charter stations, however, in 1995, KDFW switched from CBS to Fox, displacing KDAF as the Fox affiliate of the Metroplex, which was a problem for CBS because they were going to be left without an affiliate. So they decided to make an affiliation deal with KXAS, but Lin Media turned it down. Instead they approached KTVT, then an independent station, and in desperation, caused the breach of Gaylord's contract with the WB when they agreed to affiliate KTVT and KSTW with CBS (which cost KTVT and KSTW both their superstation status) and the WB affiliation went to KXTX and then on July 1995, KDAF. Eventually, as mentioned earlier, CBS wanted to own a station in the Metroplex because they knew how much (and how rapidly) DFW was growing, not to mention it helped that at that point, Gaylord was in the stages of exiting the TV business. So, in 1999, Gaylord decided to exit the TV business altogether by selling KTVT to CBS.

 

NBC would later buy a majority stake on KXAS from Lin in exchange for Lin having a minority stake on KNSD, presumably because NBC wanted a TV station in DFW as badly as they wanted a station in Philly.

 

In Austin, KTBC switched with KBVO (now KEYE, the KBVO call letters are now on Austin's MNTV affiliate) from CBS to Fox, I would think not only in relation to the Dallas Cowboys, but also the fact that Fox wanted more synergy with its stations in DFW and Houston since Austin is between the two market areas, and the fact that by the time the switch happened, the Simpsons was immensely popular in those three market areas, more so after the switch (I even have an episode of the Simpsons on a videotape recording on Fox 4 dating as far back as 1998).

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Should've posted this on July 1st, but 20 years ago on that day, News Corp had 20% investment into New World Communications and switched KDFW, KTBC, WAGA, KSAZ, WJBK, WTVT, WITI, WJW, and WDAF to Fox because the executives at Fox (including Rupert Murdoch) figured out that the network would not be viable without VHF stations (Whether a station was a VHF or UHF station was a big deal at the time).

 

In DFW back in 1993, Gaylord announced that its stations would affiliate with the WB network as charter stations, however, in 1995, KDFW switched from CBS to Fox, displacing KDAF as the Fox affiliate of the Metroplex, which was a problem for CBS because they were going to be left without an affiliate. So they decided to make an affiliation deal with KXAS, but Lin Media turned it down. Instead they approached KTVT, then an independent station, and in desperation, caused the breach of Gaylord's contract with the WB when they agreed to affiliate KTVT and KSTW with CBS (which cost KTVT and KSTW both their superstation status) and the WB affiliation went to KXTX and then on July 1995, KDAF. Eventually, as mentioned earlier, CBS wanted to own a station in the Metroplex because they knew how much (and how rapidly) DFW was growing, not to mention it helped that at that point, Gaylord was in the stages of exiting the TV business. So, in 1999, Gaylord decided to exit the TV business altogether by selling KTVT to CBS.

 

NBC would later buy a majority stake on KXAS from Lin in exchange for Lin having a minority stake on KNSD, presumably because NBC wanted a TV station in DFW as badly as they wanted a station in Philly.

 

In Austin, KTBC switched with KBVO (now KEYE, the KBVO call letters are now on Austin's MNTV affiliate) from CBS to Fox, I would think not only in relation to the Dallas Cowboys, but also the fact that Fox wanted more synergy with its stations in DFW and Houston since Austin is between the two market areas, and the fact that by the time the switch happened, the Simpsons was immensely popular in those three market areas, more so after the switch (I even have an episode of the Simpsons on a videotape recording on Fox 4 dating as far back as 1998).

This has been discussed in this thread as well as another one (see further up for link to other thread). Seriously, your posts are becoming annoying and troll-like in nature.

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If CBS was still with WJBK, WAGA, WJW, WTVT, KSAZ,KTBC, & KDFW my hunch would be Hearst could be the owner of those shops.

 

Several questions I have wonder about that deals back in the 1990s such as with the Scripps deal to keep ABC on WXYZ/WEWS Scripps did the old switch-a-roo. Scripps had shops in Tampa, Phoenix & Baltimore. With that being said. How come Scripps & I'm not sure how the FCC rules were at that time and it seem there were very little combo stations at that time. Scripps should of made a deal with KTVK owners to purchase Channel 3 & either kept 15 (if allowed by FCC or sell KNXV and Channel 3 & ABC could of stayed together, however 3 & 15 could of been a combined operations if allow.

 

Then second with The Baltimore switch Scripps owned WMAR at the time when WMAR it 11pm was #2 when they were an NBC affiliate. Again even though Group W own WJZ Scripps should of made a play for WJZ & to keep the ABC affiliate and sell of WMAR to whoever. CBS could of probably stay on WBAL & NBC stay on WMAR.

 

Third in Tampa Bay, WTVT was moving from CBS to FOX and again Scripps should of made a play for WTSP and sold off WFTS to whomever. I've been thinking about why didn't they do that to keep ABC on the outlets instead of changing affiliations, because Scripps love for ABC is hot and twisted at the same time. (being sarcastic.)

 

 

How would FOX be in the present day without those former CBS/ABC/NBC affiliates? Example WATL was owned by FOX and had plan to start a news outlet in the market, but we all know now that WAGA switch and eventually it became owned by the network. If that 1994 switch never happened and WATL was still FOX owned & operated and running a local news along with Tribune still owning WGNX instead of WGCL but 46 as CW and having a news operation and of course the (3) big dogs WSB, WAGA, WXIA as ABC/CBS/NBC. Atlanta would have (5) shops.

 

Detroit could of still have (4) shops running local news & would WKBD still be owned by COX as FOX 50?

 

Would WOIO get a news outlet as FOX or would WUAB try to take the FOX affiliation away and 43 expand their news offerings in Cleveland?

 

If KTVT was never CBS in Dallas what would be of Channel 11 in DFW?

 

How would things be in 2015 if none of the network switches happened 20, 21 years ago? Yes we love to speculated, but I wonder would FOX be as strong as it is a network, because FOX has evolved and CBS has too. Where NBC & ABC were king in the 90s seem to have found a slump (IMO) but I do wonder how these stations would be today where they were totally different back then? Opinions?

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If KTVT was never CBS in Dallas what would be of Channel 11 in DFW?

KTVT would've become a WB affiliate as originally planned, I suppose. No idea if the CW affiliation would've gone to them or to Viacom/Paramount's KTXA. Maybe Fox would've tried to purchase them in their quest for VHF stations.

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What if CBS had been just a little higher on their 1994 NFC bid? Fox got the NFC due to the wide gap between their surprisingly high bid and CBS low end bid. Eagles, Vikings, and Bears fans had to began assuming the Fox viewing position every Sunday (and Chiefs fans also when the Fox viewing position became the NBC viewing position in KC). Does the VHF/UHF difference even mean anything anymore with so many legacy VHF stations actually moving to UHF with the DTV launch and the analog shutoff? Many of the CBS affiliates that had recently lost the NFC had planed to stay with the 1# (but older) CBS until Fox made the New World deal. When Fox tried to MNF in 87, ABC was ready to bail out on MNF until Fox made a bid but Art Modell did not assume the Fox viewing position. If Fox hadn't got the NFC in 94 (or AFC from in NBC in 94) Would WB or UPN tried to get any sports?

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