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CBS getting an O&O in Atlanta as WUPA replaces WANF

True and it's interesting to see this one. Also WUPA has been one of the largest stations owned by Paramount for three decades to not affiliate with CBS directly and the CBS affiliation for three decades has been with WGNX/WGCL/WANF a Gray owned station. The only thing I see with WANF is carry pre-empted CW shows from WPCH-TV going forward and expanded news casts taking the void that CBS left behind when they move to WUPA.

The other two stations owned by Paramount to not have a CBS affiliation are KSTW and WTOG given that the CBS affiliation went to Tegna owned WTSP and Cox owned KIRO.

*WUPA, WTSP and KSTW were previously UPN and CW affiliates at the time Paramount purchased those stations. CBS and Paramount merged in 1999-2000 as part of the Viacom deal.
 
Wonder how this will impact the WANF news budget. They currently still have an interest in a leased news helicopter currently shared with channels 5 and 11. It even carries N46CL as a call sign, referring back to the old CLear News brand. All three stations brand the footage as their own.

Doesn't WAGA call it SkyFoxFive? I forget. Remember when Atlanta had a veritable news airforce? WSB had two helicopters and a plane. 5, 11, and 45 each had their own helicopter. I remember visiting the the helipad for the then-new 46 studios on 14th street.

Now it is down to just two: the shared 5/11/46 machine and the one used by WSB TV which has not actually flown in over two months. I would not be surprised if they get rid of it.

Anyway, it cannot be cheap to operate a news helicopter even as shared platform. Does Gray typically support that kind of expense?
 
Y2kTheNewOldies said:
True and it's interesting to see this one. Also WUPA has been one of the largest stations owned by Paramount for three decades to not affiliate with CBS directly and the CBS affiliation for three decades has been with WGNX/WGCL/WANF a Gray owned station. The only thing I see with WANF is carry pre-empted CW shows from WPCH-TV going forward and expanded news casts taking the void that CBS left behind when they move to WUPA.

The other two stations owned by Paramount to not have a CBS affiliation are KSTW and WTOG given that the CBS affiliation went to Tegna owned WTSP and Cox owned KIRO.
Click to expand...
KMAX in Sacramento also does not have a CBS affiliation as Tegna's KXTV still maintains it.
Y2kTheNewOldies said:
*WUPA, WTSP and KSTW were previously UPN and CW affiliates at the time Paramount purchased those stations. CBS and Paramount merged in 1999-2000 as part of the Viacom deal.
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KSTW was previously CBS (for the 2nd time) in the mid-1990s when it took the affiliation from KIRO as part of a deal to get CBS an affiliate in Dallas (KTVT) when CBS lost KDFW as part of the Fox/New World alignment and wanted to avoid downgrading to a UHF station in D/FW. KTVT and KSTW were to originally be initial affiliates for the new The WB, but got CBS instead. When Cox acquired KIRO a few years later, the CBS affiliation reverted back to KIRO.
 
txchipk said:
KMAX in Sacramento also does not have a CBS affiliation as Tegna's KXTV still maintains it.
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KXTV is affiliated with ABC. KOVR is co-owned with KMAX (by CBS) and KOVR has the CBS affiliation. KXTV and KOVR had an affiliation swap in the 90s. KXTV was at one time a CBS affiliate, but no longer.
 
txchipk said:
KMAX in Sacramento also does not have a CBS affiliation as Tegna's KXTV still maintains it.

KSTW was previously CBS (for the 2nd time) in the mid-1990s when it took the affiliation from KIRO as part of a deal to get CBS an affiliate in Dallas (KTVT) when CBS lost KDFW as part of the Fox/New World alignment and wanted to avoid downgrading to a UHF station in D/FW. KTVT and KSTW were to originally be initial affiliates for the new The WB, but got CBS instead. When Cox acquired KIRO a few years later, the CBS affiliation reverted back to KIRO.
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Umm KOVR aka CBS News Sacramento is owned by Paramount since 2005. Also KOVR was a contract CBS affiliate from 1995-2005 when Sinclair owned KOVR and prior to that KOVR was the areas ABC affiliate.

In KXTV’s case they were Sacramento’s CBS affiliate from 1955-1995. For three decades KXTV has been with ABC since Disney took over the network.
 
VMan said:
KXTV is affiliated with ABC. KOVR is co-owned with KMAX (by CBS) and KOVR has the CBS affiliation. KXTV and KOVR had an affiliation swap in the 90s. KXTV was at one time a CBS affiliate, but no longer.
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Oops....correct. As I had on my '90s CBS affiliates recall for KSTW...I had KXTV on my mind.
 
I see that CBS acquired 69 in 1994. Why didn’t the affiliation swap of CBS/FOX/IND between channels 5/36/46 give CBS to channel 69 at that time? And why has it taken over 30 years for the CBS affiliation to move to channel 69?
 
RadioDoogie said:
I see that CBS acquired 69 in 1994. Why didn’t the affiliation swap of CBS/FOX/IND between channels 5/36/46 give CBS to channel 69 at that time? And why has it taken over 30 years for the CBS affiliation to move to channel 69?
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CBS bought WVEU 69 out of desperation when it lost WAGA as part of the Fox/New World deal. In the end, it managed to work out a deal with Tribune to put CBS on WGNX. WGNX had a news operation and was higher rated than WVEU. In CBS' point of view, that was preferable to trying to do an expensive build of a news operation and station from scratch -- which they had to do in Detroit when they had no option but to purchase WGPR (now WWJ-TV) there.
 
I have to wonder if Gray ever saw it coming, that one of these days WANF might be an independent. AFAIK Gray doesn't have any stand-alone (i.e., not co-owned with a major in-market network affiliate) independents. The closest thing would be WPGA in Macon (MeTV), and that poor little station has bounced all over the place ever since it began.

I can't imagine the suits at Gray are the least bit happy about this. If it were a case of a very strong legacy station going independent (such as WHDH, WJXT, or KRON), that would be one thing, but I'm not sure WANF has ever had anywhere near those stations' chops.
 
txchipk said:
KMAX in Sacramento also does not have a CBS affiliation as Tegna's KXTV still maintains it.
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You're probably getting Sacramento and Tampa Bay mixed up. CBS/Paramount owns WTOG there while TEGNA has the CBS affiliation on WTSP. You got to be wonder how safe their affiliation is as WTSP has been struggling the past decade or so.
 
IM42A said:
I can't imagine the suits at Gray are the least bit happy about this. If it were a case of a very strong legacy station going independent (such as WHDH, WJXT, or KRON), that would be one thing, but I'm not sure WANF has ever had anywhere near those stations' chops.
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Doesn't Gray hold the second or third most CBS affiliated stations? If I were Gray, I would've threatened to pull CBS from some of my other affiliates, especially if I could've gotten another network easily (like potentially ABC for KMOV in St. Louis).

The article posted from TV News Check, however, indicates that Gray renewed its CBS affiliations for its other stations.
 
Kent said:
Doesn't Gray hold the second or third most CBS affiliated stations? If I were Gray, I would've threatened to pull CBS from some of my other affiliates, especially if I could've gotten another network easily (like potentially ABC for KMOV in St. Louis).

The article posted from TV News Check, however, indicates that Gray renewed its CBS affiliations for its other stations.
Click to expand...

Depending upon how many stations you're talking about, that could start a domino effect, a replay of the "musical chairs" that took place with Fox in the mid-1990s. Viewers typically don't like affiliation changes, especially when it involves several stations in the same market.

Gray might think it's better just to take the hit in Atlanta, and put the pieces back together as best they can. With WUPA having been owned by CBS for many years, notwithstanding what I said upthread, Gray should always have had it in the back of their mind that CBS might take the plunge and affiliate with O&O WUPA one of these days. With all of the repacking and having the majority of stations on UHF in the digital era, being consigned to a high channel number probably isn't the kiss of death it once was. Digital tuning no longer creates the handicap of being "way up on the dial".
 
IM42A said:
I have to wonder if Gray ever saw it coming, that one of these days WANF might be an independent. AFAIK Gray doesn't have any stand-alone (i.e., not co-owned with a major in-market network affiliate) independents. The closest thing would be WPGA in Macon (MeTV), and that poor little station has bounced all over the place ever since it began.

I can't imagine the suits at Gray are the least bit happy about this. If it were a case of a very strong legacy station going independent (such as WHDH, WJXT, or KRON), that would be one thing, but I'm not sure WANF has ever had anywhere near those stations' chops.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure it was Gray that made the move. CBS was making a lot of money in fees from WANF to be an affiliate, and didn't have to do much work to get it. Aside from a dream of setting up a streaming OTT service in the largest market in the southeast, CBS probably had little motivation to take the affiliation from WANF and turn WUPA into an O&O. Especially at a time when their parent company is planning a merger, and their news department is in absolute chaos. Not to mention having to build a local news department from nothing in two months in a very competitive market. I don't think CBS wanted to make this move at this time.

Meanwhile, Gray, which has recently been building up a competitive news operation at WANF, has been paying millions of dollars for a CBS affiliation that apparently hasn't been paying off to their expectations. The network news department is a mess, and they no longer have rights to SEC sports. Without CBS, they save on paying for the network, and they can go after more lucrative local sports rights, which may become more abundant in the Atlanta market. They also can expand local programming, including news, where they collect 100% of the advertising money. They have some flexibility here.

The new CBS Atlanta operation is going to be a huge money pit for a long time, at the worst time possible. Sure, they can put on a happy face and spin it, especially when it comes to the new streaming news channel and a deeper presence in the South. But I highly doubt this was their intent.

I've been reading lots of ridiculous speculation and conspiracy theories on other boards about what this means for Seattle and Tampa Bay, where Paramount/CBS owns independent stations, but affiliate the network with other broadcasters. I really can't see Paramount/CBS wanting to take affiliations away from Tegna or Cox to create their own startup O&O operations on much weaker stations, when they could just merely sit back and collect the reverse comp money from the current, well-established affiliates.
 
RadioDoogie said:
My next question - will they change the call letters and the virtual channel number?
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Call letters don't really matter unless it's tied to branding. The FCC is mentally stuck in the last century by not allowing Older TV stations using their "real" channel number. That being said that "real" channel number can change in the next repack.
 
secondchoice said:
Call letters don't really matter unless it's tied to branding. The FCC is mentally stuck in the last century by not allowing Older TV stations using their "real" channel number. That being said that "real" channel number can change in the next repack.
Click to expand...

Some stations have switched their virtual channel number to their actual broadcast channel in the digital era. But seeing as WUPA's digital broadcast channel is Ch. 36, that would not be feasible, due to WATL's long-established virtual channel 36.
 


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