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1950s O&O and market rank question

D

dustintv

Does anyone know where I might find a list of Nielsen market ranks from the 50s and/or 60s?

Also, are these are the originial O&Os right?

ABC:
WABC-New York
KABC-Los Angeles
WLS-Chicago
WXYZ-Detroit
KGO-San Francisco

CBS:
WCBS-New York
KNXT-Los Angeles
WCAU-Philadelphia
KMOX-St. Louis
WBBM-Chicago

NBC:
WNBC-New York
KRCA-Los Angeles
WNBQ-Chicago
WNBW-Washington
WNBK-Cleveland
 
dustintv said:
Does anyone know where I might find a list of Nielsen market ranks from the 50s and/or 60s?

Also, are these are the originial O&Os right?

ABC:
WABC-New York
KABC-Los Angeles
WLS-Chicago
WXYZ-Detroit
KGO-San Francisco

CBS:
WCBS-New York
KNXT-Los Angeles
WCAU-Philadelphia
KMOX-St. Louis
WBBM-Chicago

NBC:
WNBC-New York
KRCA-Los Angeles
WNBQ-Chicago
WNBW-Washington
WNBK-Cleveland
Click to expand...

WLS-TV Channel 7 in Chicago was originally WENR-TV and later WBKB-TV. The WLS-TV call-letters were issued in 1968 to co-incide with co-owned WLS/890 and WLS-FM/94.7.
 
More of less those are correct. CBS entered the O&O area later so they had a later start getting O&O, like in Los Angeles and Chicago CBS had affiliates then bought a channel

I read on the web that outside of Chicago, LA and NYC the only one of the Big Three could own a station in each market. Though I don't think that is correct, because NBC tried to get a O&O in Philly.
 
Peter Q. George (K1XRB) said:
WLS-TV Channel 7 in Chicago was originally WENR-TV and later WBKB-TV.  The WLS-TV call-letters were issued in 1968 to co-incide with co-owned WLS/890 and WLS-FM/94.7. 
Click to expand...

Thanks! I also found out that KRCA(now KNBC) was KNBH until 1954.
 
dustintv said:
Does anyone know where I might find a list of Nielsen market ranks from the 50s and/or 60s?

Also, are these are the originial O&Os right?

ABC:
WABC-New York
KABC-Los Angeles
WLS-Chicago
WXYZ-Detroit
KGO-San Francisco
Click to expand...

WABC-TV New York was originally WJZ-TV.
KABC-TV Los Angeles was originally KECA-TV
WLS-TV Chicago was originally WENR-TV, then WBKB-TV as mentioned elsewhere in this thread.

CBS:
WCBS-New York
KNXT-Los Angeles
WCAU-Philadelphia
KMOX-St. Louis
WBBM-Chicago
Click to expand...

WCBS-TV New York was originally WCBW.
WBBM-TV Chicago was originally WBKB and not a CBS O&O (I won't reiterate the famous 1953 Paramount/ABC/CBS cluster****, which we all know about)

KNXT Los Angeles was originally KTSL and was not a CBS O&O when it first went on the air. It was a Dumont affiliate (but not an O&O). CBS and the LA Times jointly owned KTTV Ch. 11 until sometime around 1952 when CBS sold its interest in the station and bought KTSL.

NBC:
WNBC-New York
KRCA-Los Angeles
WNBQ-Chicago
WNBW-Washington
WNBK-Cleveland
Click to expand...

WNBC New York was originally WNBT, later WRCA-TV.
KRCA (now KNBC) Los Angeles was originally KNBH, also as mentioned earlier.

Dumont:
WABD - New York (later WNEW-TV, now WNYW)
WTTG - Washington
WDTV - Pittsburgh (now KDKA-TV, this station carried all 4 networks while being owned by Dumont)

These stations were owned by Paramount, a major investor in Dumont and were considered by the FCC to be Dumont O&Os. Neither was a Dumont affiliate, though.

WBKB - Chicago (Dumont affiliate was WGN-TV, shared with CBS for a few years)
KTLA - Los Angeles (Dumont affiliate was KTSL, later swapped with KTTV for CBS when CBS sold its share in the latter station)
 
If you want market rank, consider this: The following cities were the twenty most populated cities in the US according to the US census. Though population doesn't always correlate with market rank, I think you can make a good guess:

1 New York city, NY...... 7,891,957
2 Chicago city, IL......... 3,620,962
3 Philadelphia city, PA.... 2,071,605
4 Los Angeles city, CA..... 1,970,358
5 Detroit city, MI......... 1,849,568

6 Baltimore city, MD....... 949,708
7 Cleveland city, OH....... 914,808
8 St. Louis city, MO....... 856,796
9 Washington city, DC...... 802,178
10 Boston city, MA.......... 801,444
11 San Francisco city, CA... 775,357
12 Pittsburgh city, PA...... 676,806
13 Milwaukee city, WI....... 637,392
14 Houston city, TX......... 596,163
15 Buffalo city, NY......... 580,132
16 New Orleans city, LA..... 570,445
17 Minneapolis city, MN..... 521,718
18 Cincinnati city, OH...... 503,998
19 Seattle city, WA......... 467,591
20 Kansas City city, MO..... 456,622
 
fortmill said:
I believe NBC owned stations in Hartford (ch. 30, in fact it was the original WNBC-TV) and Buffalo (ch. 17).
Click to expand...

Indeed they did. At the time a network could own up to seven O&Os, provided that two were UHF stations. CBS also owned a UHF stations, one in Hartford as well and one Milwaukee. All four stations failed to meet network expectations, so they sold them.

The same thing happened with DuMont buying the UHF station in Kansas City...it failed.
 
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