Did the massive affiliation switches of the 1990s improve or degrade television?

[only1moore]

Re: Did the massive affiliation switches of the 1990s improve or degrade televis

How about Hawaii? KHON -TV went from NBC to FOX. They are still number one in their newscast. While KHNL-13 (Cable 8 ) place 4th in their newscast and programming after the major FOX shuffle switch.

Ironically, KHON's news anchor Joe Moore was vocal about the station's switch from NBC to Fox at first, but since then has back away.

As for KHNL, well given that Raycom has merged the news operation with KGMB and KFVE, its more of a miss than hit.

In the case of KITV, they must be really glad that they stayed with ABC, even with Hearst now owning the station and pouring resources into its expanding newscasts.

 

[MarcB]

The initial growth of UPN and WB also spawned the bane of all of television's existence: PAX, which became I(nf)o(mercial televisio)n. This ate up a good number of remaining independents and completely destroyed them.

PAX really didn't take over any quality independents. Channel 26 WTWS in New London, CT (now WHPX) was a failed station. 2 owners that owned the station went bankrupt. And no one watched their 10PM news - the first in the state of Connecticut. The only commercial TV station East of the Connecticut River.

In New York City PAX took over Channel 31. Channel 31 had been a "public" television station and was sold to and became business formatted WBIS known as "S-Plus". They went under and were sold to PAX.

In West Virginia PAX took over Channel 60 - a failed FOX station.

In Boston PAX was initially on Channel 46 - a failed suburan TV station. So much of a failed TV station it's in the UHF Morgue.

I'd have to say Boston's second PAX affiliate Channel 68 was the only quality Independent lost. It had been owned by Boston University and had a lot of decent General Entertainment programming including (for a couple years anyway) the Over-the-Air rights to The Boston Redsox.

Channel 68 in Boston's simulcast partner in New Hampshire was a failed CBS station.

 

[ding12]

In Philadelphia, PAX came on Wilmington, DE's Ch.61 (WTGI) which was also not a quality station. I believe the station briefly ran some int'l programming but then Paxson purchased it and ran infomercials before starting PAX TV.

While Wilmington licensed WHYY could broadcast in Roxborough with the Philadelphia stations, WTGI 61 couldn't, because of adjacency to WBPH 60/Bethlehem and WWSI 62. Thus, the OTA homes likely would get a fuzzy picture on Ch.61 (not broadcasting from Roxborough) if the antenna was faced towards Philadelphia. Being 30 miles south doesn't provide benefits. On cable, via must-carry, it was just another channel.

The concept of an indy station was basically replaced by TBS, WGN, TV Land, etc. although you pay for it. With the launch of This TV and soon Antenna TV, some homes could get similar programming cable-free.

 

[TheRob]

Working for one of those stations involved in the affiliate switch, I think it definitely hurt us in terms of brand recognition. We still get calls today from people complaining about NBC programming. We were third in the news rankings before the switch and continue to be third today (exception being the morning show, which has been #1 for several years). KSHB was fourth prior to the switch and remains fourth today.

 

[daryll]

I loved this time in television! In Atlanta, WAGA made the most of their switch and has become a strong number 2 with Fox. Nationally, CBS took it on the chin with the loss of the NFC, the New World V's and that's ok with me. I'm an NFC loyalist and from day one, Fox has brought a fresh look to the NFL. By 1998, the Tiffany Network had to eat crow and steal the weaker AFC from NBC to regain competitiveness. Remember how CBS looked down on the old AFL? Rupert Murdoch was, and is, one smart man.

All corporately-owned stations now have the same sets, music and graphics. It's just a way of controlling licensing fees and such. Gotta keep those shareholders happy!

 

[kilamanjero]

Re: Did the massive affiliation switches of the 1990s improve or degrade televis

It probably goes without saying that CBS took its biggest
hit in Detroit, moving from Ch. 2 to Ch. 62 and forcing a lot
of people to turn to "Toledo Eleven" for CBS.

BTW, Eyewitness News was not a "heritage" name on WAGA.
The station used "Panorama News" in the '50s and '60s, and
"News Scene" in the '70s. "Eyewitness News" had been used
by WQXI (WXIA) from 1969 to 1972 and had been so unsuccessful
with it that no other station in Atlanta would touch the name for
years.

As for the prospect of Comcast turning NBC into an "affiliateless"
network, it would suit me fine. Maybe then CBS could upgrade to
Ch. 11 in Atlanta, and ABC to Ch. 12 in Greensboro/Winston-Salem.

IDK, don't count out WGCL these days. I think Meredith has finally realized that you have to actually have qualified talent on the station for its ratings to improve. Also the Piedmont Triad is in the 40s (market size), so Sinclair apparently doesn't care at all. I think 2 stations should have "moved-in" that 3 primary city metro/market and formed a single operation like Allbritton did in the Birmingham/Tuscaloosa/Anniston market with "ABC 33/40". The latter market isn't as consolidated as the Piedmont Triad, so such a set up would have flowed much better there for a market ABC affilate.

ABC was on two stations in the Triad following the switch, Chs. 45 and 48, for about a year. Ch. 48 then became the UPN, and now MyNetwork, affiliate. 45 is licensed to Winston-Salem, 48 to Greensboro, so what you're saying about ABC33/40 in Birmingham should have worked in Greensboro and Winston-Salem. As for the former ABC affiliate, WGHP, Greensboro News and Record readers just voted it the best news operation in the Triad, and it is certainly competitive in the ratings.

Well since it is Sinclair, yeah it still would be an epic failure.

 

[Sammi Brie]

I loved this time in television! In Atlanta, WAGA made the most of their switch and has become a strong number 2 with Fox. Nationally, CBS took it on the chin with the loss of the NFC, the New World V's and that's ok with me. I'm an NFC loyalist and from day one, Fox has brought a fresh look to the NFL. By 1998, the Tiffany Network had to eat crow and steal the weaker AFC from NBC to regain competitiveness. Remember how CBS looked down on the old AFL? Rupert Murdoch was, and is, one smart man.

All corporately-owned stations now have the same sets, music and graphics. It's just a way of controlling licensing fees and such. Gotta keep those shareholders happy!

@daryll ...At that time, the great NFC streak in the Super Bowl had been ended after 13 years. The AFC would rule for quite a while longer.

I must agree with the cookie cutter. This is my favorite news open of all time:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Po9G3HpdYkI (the first one)

Nowadays, they look like this (in fact, I'll be watching their 9pm newscast in a few minutes):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZ2Nbd63dbU

Ironically, New World went to great expense at that package in 1994. It was unveiled on February 12, and KTSP became KSAZ. The voice is John B. Wells (the same one that did WFAA for a long time). It did not last long in this form...by the time the featured open aired, it was June 30 (a month after the switches were announced; the very night Arizona knew where its CBS shows were going to, actually!). The package managed to linger two years (the NMSA is incorrect on when they started using Impact News). Fox buying New World killed TV's best open designs: WTVT, KSAZ, WGHP (Television by Design client!) among them. Nowadays, I can do better than they can!

KCNC? Similar fate, though it wasn't until 2003 that the corporatization really took hold.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

At the time of the swaps, I was living in the Terre Haute, IN market. WBAK-38 had been an ABC affiliate, but it was by far the lowest budget operation in the market (perhaps even lower than WVUT-22/PBS). WBAK became FOX and ABC went away. The switch had very little effect on the market, other than cable companies adding WAND, WRTV, or WEHT to provide ABC service to their customers. It did not change the syndication landscape or the news landscape. The changes in Terre Haute were brought about when WTHI-TV was sold to Emmis Communications, and WTWO and WBAK ended up in a Nexstar "duopoly". WBAK has since changed calls to WFXW, and WTHI-TV has again been sold to LIN Media.

 

[Robnoxious]

Affiliate swapping didn't effect any O&O's in LA but it did ruin a once great onslaught of independents. The once iconic independent KTLA hitched to The WB and later The CW and frankly hasn't been the same ever since despite their trying.

KTTV hitched to FOX and became a cesspool of yellow journalism and in it's wake News Corp gobbled up KCOP, an also ran station that operated for years on the cheap and turned it into a bland generic MYTV but more importantly a secondary FOX net sounding board.

The loneleft indie KHJ became Disney owned KCAL but Disney had to divest because duopolies weren't allowed yet and eventually was turned over to CBS once duopolies were allowed (Disney got really hosed on this). CBS O&O KCBS and KCAL are now mirrors of each other minus the fact KCAL is still technically independent but has an illustrious history with the LA Lakers broadcasts.

All this did was have Orange County based and formerly owned by Pat Boone KDOC start taking up the slack that LA's former independents once lorded over in secondhand syndication runs. KDOC's history is a bit of a joke. It's hard to fathom how they made it at all.

To keep this post on topic, the affiliation swaps degraded television even in the markets where no Big 3's swapped. I think every market suffered the same downfall.

 

[bpatrick]

Re: Did the massive affiliation switches of the 1990s improve or degrade televis

It probably goes without saying that CBS took its biggest
hit in Detroit, moving from Ch. 2 to Ch. 62 and forcing a lot
of people to turn to "Toledo Eleven" for CBS.

BTW, Eyewitness News was not a "heritage" name on WAGA.
The station used "Panorama News" in the '50s and '60s, and
"News Scene" in the '70s. "Eyewitness News" had been used
by WQXI (WXIA) from 1969 to 1972 and had been so unsuccessful
with it that no other station in Atlanta would touch the name for
years.

As for the prospect of Comcast turning NBC into an "affiliateless"
network, it would suit me fine. Maybe then CBS could upgrade to
Ch. 11 in Atlanta, and ABC to Ch. 12 in Greensboro/Winston-Salem.

IDK, don't count out WGCL these days. I think Meredith has finally realized that you have to actually have qualified talent on the station for its ratings to improve. Also the Piedmont Triad is in the 40s (market size), so Sinclair apparently doesn't care at all. I think 2 stations should have "moved-in" that 3 primary city metro/market and formed a single operation like Allbritton did in the Birmingham/Tuscaloosa/Anniston market with "ABC 33/40". The latter market isn't as consolidated as the Piedmont Triad, so such a set up would have flowed much better there for a market ABC affilate.

ABC was on two stations in the Triad following the switch, Chs. 45 and 48, for about a year. Ch. 48 then became the UPN, and now MyNetwork, affiliate. 45 is licensed to Winston-Salem, 48 to Greensboro, so what you're saying about ABC33/40 in Birmingham should have worked in Greensboro and Winston-Salem. As for the former ABC affiliate, WGHP, Greensboro News and Record readers just voted it the best news operation in the Triad, and it is certainly competitive in the ratings.

Well since it is Sinclair, yeah it still would be an epic failure.

See now why I hope ABC eventually moves to WXII?

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

Here in Cleveland:

* The market's long-dominant #1 news operation, CBS affiliate WJW/8, took an early hit as a Fox O&O - through the New World-to-Fox deal. Their GM famously said, at the time of the change, that "this station will NOT be 'Fox 8 News'"...branding it eventually adopted and still uses today, of course. WJW ended up thriving as a Fox O&O with an expanded news schedule and still dependably local personalities ("Cleveland's Own"). It's now one of the Local TV Fox outlets after Fox shuffled off the mid-market Fox O&Os. It still uses the Fox O&O "cookie cutter" look seen in that YouTube video, a change it made a year or two before Fox sold it off.

* WOIO/19 was actually a pretty strong Fox affiliate, but it suffered under CBS affiliation. Perhaps the biggest problem is a mismatch between CBS' older skewing audience, and 19's "in your face" presentation, particularly at "19 Action News", the market's news joke. (Note: the CBS audience has helped 19 actually climb out of the basement at 11, and they've had some success with the market's only 4 PM newscast, but friends and family are the only ones watching their awful morning show.)

* Pre-CBS affiliation, 19 actually had a decent 10 PM news operation in the building...the market's original early/late news on WUAB/43, a shining star as an independent station (it's now a MyNetwork TV affiliate). Before Raycom took over, they had to build on "The Ten O'Clock News" to put news on the new "CBS 19". That failed in the ratings even more miserably than "Action News" has...no one was watching "Hometeam 19 News". despite the station luring anchor Denise Dufala over from WJW.

 

[charlestondxman]

Here in the Lowcountry, our ABC and NBC were a part of the switches, so Albritton could start its new ABC in Birmingham.

WCBD (ABC) was usually #3 in the ratings with a quonset hut studio and little money. After they got NBC, they went to a strong #2 in the ratings, helped by their "Must See TV". Even with NBC's horrible programming today (compared to a few years ago) and cheap Media General, they are still #2 in the market, but have been challenged by WCIV and WTAT.

WCIV (NBC) was usually a strong second behind WCSC in the ratings for about five years. After they switched to ABC, their ratings dived. They couldn't get any traction, getting new weather anchors almost every few months in the morning, and now are a distant #3, sometimes #4, even with ABC's better programming. Albritton also gives very little money to the station, as they try hard, but nobody can beat WCSC.

 

[MarcB]

Here in Connecticut the Big 3 have remained the same since the late 50s.

Channel 3 Hartford - CBS (Previously CBS had been on an O&O on Channel 18)
Channel 8 New Haven - ABC.
Channel 30 New Britain - NBC

Channel 18 Hartford became an independent after CBS sold the station. (Originally Channel 71 a ABC/Dumont Affiliate).

Channel 53 Waterbury was an NBC affiliate for Western Connecticut where they could not receive Channel 30's signal.

Channel 18 was always a throw-away station. In the 60s they were RKO's PAY-TV station. GM at the time was Charles "The Osgoode Files" Osgoode. Later they spent a lot of time on and off the air as an independent station. Eventually the station was bought by Dr. Eugene Scott. In the mid-80s Channel 18 went dark and put up for a distress sale and was bought by Astroline Communications. They were facing stiff competition from 2 new independent stations - Channel 20 in Waterbury (formerly channel 53) and Channel 61 in Hartford. Towards the end they were running infomercials including Jim & Tammy Bakker and Home Shopping Club most of the day,. They went dark in April 1991. Revived in 1997, they showed the Worship Network, the Shop-At-Home Network, and Valuevision Shoppign network. In 2000 they were sold to Entravision and became Univision affiliated WUVN.

http://www.asminor.info/radiojunkie1/whct.html

Channel 61 a new independent station in Hartford signed on in 1984. They eventually became the FOX affiliate, which they remain to this day under ownership of Connecticut One Media d/b/a Tribune.

Channel 20 in Waterbury struggled. They lost the bid for the FOX affiliation to the much more powerful Channel 61. Channel 61 was 5 Million Watts. They ended up showing The Home Shopping Club most of the day. Eventually they were LMA'd by Paramount owned Channel 30 and became the UPN affiliate. Channel 30 even ran a 10PM Newscast on the station. A few years later channel 30 was bought by NBC and Channel 20 ended up being LMA'd by Channel 61 which later purchased it outright. In 2000 they swapped affiliations with Channel 59 in New Haven sending UPN to them and gaining the WB affiliation. Today Channel 20 is WCCT-TV, Connecticut's CW affiliate. (In June of this year they cast-off the 20+ year old WTXX call letters). This fall WCCT-TV took many popular shows from sister station FOX 61 including: Steve Wilkos, Maury Povich, Jerry Springer, Family Guy, and The Simpsons.

Channel 59 in New Haven signed on in 1995 as an independent station WTVU. Initially programming consisted of Coverage of The OJ Trial from KTLA and The Mor Music video shopping channel. Channel 59's programming later consisted of all kinds of old shows including: Matlock, Family Matters, Doogie Howser, I Love Lucy, Beverly Hillbillies. And same-day prime-time repeats of Sally Jessey and Phil Donahue from Channel 8 which was LMAing the station. WB programming which was only on one night a week at the time aired Saturdays. Channel 8 has previously cleared the WB Programming on Wednesdays 12:37AM-2:37AM. Eventually channel 59 became known as WB 59 WBNE. When they swapped affiliations with Channel 20 Channel 59 became known as The X WCTX rather than UPN 59. Eventually they demanded carriage on Cable Channel 9 and around 2005 changed their branding to UPN 9, confusion people who also got WWOR from NYC on cable as they too used the UPN 9 branding. In September 2006 WCTX became the MY Network TV affiliate and took on the MY TV 9 branding, again causing confusion with WWOR which is known as MY 9.

Channel 26 in New London was a low-budget independent station east of the CT River. They struggled for years and several owners went bankrupt. Eventually bought by PAX. (Now ION).

Channel 43 in Bridgeport never had any success. Being a UHF station in an area that could receive programming from VHF stations from NYC. They spent most of their life showing infomercials and shopping. Today they are owned by Multi-Cultural Television and run infomercials 24/7 outside of the E/I programming. They briefly ran RTV programming last year but dropped it due to way too numerous technical problems.

http://www.asminor.info/radiojunkie1/wicc.html

 

[KML0224]

To add to what MarcB just mentioned:

Channel 30 of New Britain is the only commercial TV station in the Hartford/New Haven TV market which has never changed their primary network affiliation. They've been a primary NBC affiliate since their 1953 sign on.

Channel 20, was NBC-affiliated WATR-TV until 1982. Not long after channel 30 of New Britain increased their power, the WATR-TV signal was seen as redundant. It was cool for a time though, since then-WATR would be more likely to show the Jets where as WHNB/WVIT would show the Patriots (made sense since Waterbury was closer to Shea Stadium while Hartford was/is closer to Foxborough, MA).

I don't know if it's true or not, but I thought I heard something once that channel 18 almost became our then-WB affiliate. All I DO know is that their analog signal was always horrible at my Hartford County home.

Then there was then-WTWS-TV channel 26. Licensed to New London, CT, with their transmitter in Montville, CT. I don't think they could've had their analog transmitter any closer to Hartford, since it would've short-spaced WMEA-TV (PBS) channel 26 of Biddeford, ME. As was mentioned elsewhere, they had Newsbeat 26 with Jim Parisi and Kathy Calnen. Mike Ratte, who does occasional sports reporting with WVIT, worked their long before with WTWS. Thay newscast dated back to at least 1987. WTIC-TV (FOX) didn't sign their WTIC News at 10 until the spring of 1989. If they were to lose their ION affiliation, the only other network I could see them with is Telemundo, assuming low-power analog channel 50 of Hartford were to shut off.

 

[ShawnHill1]

Affiliate swapping didn't effect any O&O's in LA but it did ruin a once great onslaught of independents. The once iconic independent KTLA hitched to The WB and later The CW and frankly hasn't been the same ever since despite their trying.

KTTV hitched to FOX and became a cesspool of yellow journalism and in it's wake News Corp gobbled up KCOP, an also ran station that operated for years on the cheap and turned it into a bland generic MYTV but more importantly a secondary FOX net sounding board.

The loneleft indie KHJ became Disney owned KCAL but Disney had to divest because duopolies weren't allowed yet and eventually was turned over to CBS once duopolies were allowed (Disney got really hosed on this). CBS O&O KCBS and KCAL are now mirrors of each other minus the fact KCAL is still technically independent but has an illustrious history with the LA Lakers broadcasts.

All this did was have Orange County based and formerly owned by Pat Boone KDOC start taking up the slack that LA's former independents once lorded over in secondhand syndication runs. KDOC's history is a bit of a joke. It's hard to fathom how they made it at all.

To keep this post on topic, the affiliation swaps degraded television even in the markets where no Big 3's swapped. I think every market suffered the same downfall.

I was always partial to KCOP, for some reason, moreso than KTLA, KTTV, or KHJ/KCAL, but even since Fox took over the station, what little identity 13 had was pretty much obliterated once Rupert and his cronies took it over. Honestly, as much history KCOP has (it's the fourth-oldest station in the L.A. market, and only a few months older than KTTV), it just might better served to shutter Channel 13, and move all of its programming to a subchannel of Channel 11; like its other MyNetwork sisters, it's essentially a full-powered standalone subchannel of KTTV anyway.