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1976 Spokane, WA affiliation swap (KREM and KXLY)

A

AKA

In February of 1976, CBS announced they would be terminating KXLY-TV's 23-year affiliation with the network, citing the station's constant pre-emption of network programming. In August, CBS went to KREM-TV, whose ABC affiliation was switched to KXLY. This affiliation arrangement remains to this day.

I was born and raised in Spokane, but KREM's ABC and KXLY's CBS days were before my time, so the period fascinates me. The only artifacts from the old affiliations I've been able to find are old articles, listings and ads from The Spokesman-Review and The Spokane Chronicle, thanks to the Google Newspaper Archive. Aside from that, though, I don't know much about the period.

I'd like to pick the brains of those of you in the know: did KREM and KXLY otherwise enjoy good relationships with ABC and CBS, respectively (both affiliations, after all, lasted more than twenty years)? Are there any additional details about CBS's dissatisfaction with KXLY? And how was KXLY-AM able to hold onto its affiliation with CBS through the mid-'90s despite being stripped of its affiliation with the television network? Did the swap cause confusion among viewers, or was the change heavily advertised (TV, print, billboards; etc.) beforehand? How did the swap affect the ratings locally, especially for KREM and KXLY's newscasts?

Thanks in advance for any information you can provide.
 
I don't really know anymore than you do about the Spokane situation, but I have read where CBS' dropping of KXLY-TV as an affiliate seemed to put the fear of God into CBS affiliate WKRG-TV in Mobile, Alabama. Apparently, WKRG was also pre-empting and delaying a considerable amount of CBS programming. From what I've read, after CBS dropped the hammer on KXLY, WKRG's network pre-emptions/delays were drastically reduced.
 
Thanks, Steve. I find that very interesting. So KXLY was essentially an example to other stations across the country. I'm not sure if it's true, but I read somewhere (Wikipedia?) that KXLY was the first instance of a network dropping a station because of pre-emptions.
 
Network Exchange Scheduled for Aug. 8

Spokane Daily Chronicle
June 3, 1976

Two Spokane television stations, KREM and KXLY, will exchange network affiliations Aug. 8, it has been announced.

On that date, a Sunday, KREM will become a CBS affiliate and KXLY will join the ABC network.

The switch comes prior to the beginning of the fall television season, but after the Summer Olympics, which begin in mid-July and will be broadcast by ABC on KREM-TV, Dean Woodring, the station’s general manger, said today.

Woodbring made the announcement yesterday afternoon after reaching agreement with ABC executives, he said. The station’s current contract with ABC was to have lasted until Oct. 1, but the earlier date was agreed upon to facilitate fall programming promotion, the station manager said.

Last February, CBS filed a notice terminating its network affiliation with KXLY, effective in August.

When the cancellation notice was given, a CBS spokesman in New York said the network was ending its television ties with KXLY because CBS felt it could “get wider exposure for our programs with another station.”
 
What I've always wondered was what, specifically, CBS' dissatisfaction with KXLY-TV was. I got my answer: according to the article below, KXLY was shuffling a handful of prime-time network shows to 7:30, a big no-no—especially during a season in which CBS was losing its dominance in the ratings to ABC.

KREM-TV to Join CBS Chain

Expected in August

By Bill Morlin
Spokane Daily Chronicle
Monday, March 29, 1976

KREM-TV will become a CBS affiliate this fall after the network ends a 23-year tie to KXLY-TV, which may join up with ABC, it was learned today.

“We are happy to reach this agreement,” Dean Woodring, vice president and general manager of KREM, said when asked about reports the Spokane station would become a CBS affiliate.

No exact date for the KREM network switchover has been set, but it’s expected to be about Aug. 19 when CBS ends its affiliation with KXLY—a divorce that some industry sources said was brought about by the network to strengthen its dictatorial programming powers over other affiliates in larger markets.

“We’ve been visiting with ABC (representatives), but we have not worked out any decision yet,” Wayne F. McNulty, general manager of KXLY, said when reached for comment.

“We have a high regard for ABC and have for years been familiar with (the network’s) high standards of programming,” said McNulty, who is vice president of Spokane Television, Inc., a subsidiary of the Evening Telegram Corp., a Superior, Wis. newspaper and television chain which owns ABC affiliates in Yakima and the Tri-Cities.

Woodring initially had no comment on the report but two hours later released a statement saying:

“KREM Television will join the CBS television network this fall. We are happy to reach this agreement. CBS is the established industry leader in news and entertainment and we look forward to bringing CBS programs to our Spokane audience.”

The KREM general manager said the station’s affiliation with ABC “has been marked with mutual pride and success.”

“We now look forward to providing the CBS network with the same public service, news and promotional support to insure its rightful place as No. 1 in the Spokane market,” Woodring’s statement said.

Before the network change, KREM-TV will carry the Summer Olympics, scheduled for airing by ABC in late July and early August, the station manager said.

McNulty said CBS’ decision to terminate its affiliation with KXLY-TV came Feb. 19 “without warning.”

“The disagreement was over some programming that ran with the network’s permission in the 7:30 to 8 p.m. time slot,” the KXLY general manager said in his first public comment about the unexpected termination.

McNulty said he had a meeting in San Francisco with CBS executives after the termination notice was given. The network, trailing ABC for 10 consecutive weeks in “second season” prime time ratings, expressed displeasure that KXLY-TV was airing “Mary Tyler Moore,” “Doc,” “The Bob Newhart Show” and “Good Times” in the 7:30 to 8 time slot, the station manager said.

The KXLY general manager said the station has aired the shows at that time because “telephone and personal contact and audience surveys have shown that the people in the Spokane market preferred to watch these all-family type shows at a time when most everyone in the family was available.”

McNulty said the CBS television departure “will have no effect at this point” on KXLY Radio’s affiliation with the CBS Radio Network. The station manager called that relationship “very amicable.”

The CBS pullout at KXLY-TV was one of the first times ever that a network has terminated an affiliation without simultaneously announcing a new affiliate, industry sources said.

In the March 12 issue of “Media Reports,” a nationally distributed trade journal, the KXLY-CBS divorce was given attention in an article which said: “Our contacts universally feel the CBS move is a result of the network’s rating slide in the past few months.”

The same article said although the Spokane television market is relatively small, CBS’ action with KXLY-TV “will rattle a few cages” of other larger affiliates who’ve been ignoring the networks’ programming directives.
 
One thing: the "message" that CBS sent by disaffiliating KXLY was received loud and clear in Spokane. When I moved to the east side of the state for college in 1980, I noticed that both KREM and KXLY carried their respective network prime time schedules in pattern, and preemptions were relatively rare.
 
I noticed the same thing.KXLY bumped ABC's primetime lineup one night in 1993 for a tenth anniversary screening of M*A*S*H: Goodbye, Farewell and Amen. There was also a Starlit Stairway (local kids' talent show that aired from 1953-1973) reunion in primetime on KXLY in 1990.

Other than that, the only things I remember either station pre-empting network programming for growing up in the '80s and '90s were Billy Graham Crusades, telethons and breaking news.

I'm sure CBS firing KXLY had a lot to do with it. Not only did that put the fear of Jesus into the stations' hearts;I'll bet that ABC and CBS made sure, upon signing affiliation agreements with their new Spokane homes in 1976, that both stations aired network programming in sequence. CBS didn't want to be burned a second time by KREM (no matter how unlikely that may have been), and ABC surely didn't want KXLY to mutilate their lineup as it had CBS'.

I think it's pretty telling that CBS was so fed up with KXLY's pre-emptions that they would have rather gone to secondary status on KREM or KHQ than stay with KXLY.
 
AKA said:
I'll bet that ABC and CBS made sure, upon signing affiliation agreements with their new Spokane homes in 1976, that both stations aired network programming in sequence. CBS didn't want to be burned a second time by KREM (no matter how unlikely that may have been), and ABC surely didn't want KXLY to mutilate their lineup as it had CBS'.
Click to expand...

FCC regulations of that era may have prevented the networks from putting such a clause explicitly in writing in the affiliation agreement...but I'm sure that they managed to communicate the point rather clearly to KREM and KXLY.
 
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