Independent stations carrying daytime soap operas in the past

[spencerkarter85]

During the good ole analog days, some network affiliated (ABC, CBS, and NBC) stations woudn't clear a daytime soap opera, instead ending on an indepdendent station. Here's some I know.

Philadelphia, PA: One Life to Live (1968-2012) pre-empted from then-Capitol Cities owned WFIL/WPVI 6 (now ABC O&O of course), seen instead on WPHL 17 during the early years. Ironically, OLTL tooks place in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Also, it recieved controvesey when WPVI turned down The Edge of Night (1956-1984) when it moved from CBS to ABC in late 1975, so now-defunct indie WKBS 48 aired it instead three weeks later.
Boston, MA: In the late 1980s, then-NBC and Group W owned (now CBS O&O) WBZ 4 dropped the popular NBC soap Another World (1964-1999) for talk shows for example. A few indies carried Another World before WBZ and WHDH switched affiliates in the mid-1990s, I don't know that an indie still carried AW after the switches.
Washington, DC: After the popular ABC soap Ryan's Hope (1975-1989) moved to the Noon timeslot, some affililates dropped the show for news or other fare, including DC's ABC station WJLA 7, and then indie WFTY 50 (signed on in 1981) picked up Ryan's Hope for the remainer of it's run.
Houston, TX: When now-defunct soap Passions (1999-2008) debuted on NBC, KPRC 2 turned it down, but seen on an indie (can't remember which one) until KPRC cleared it in 2004. Also they turned down other defunct soap Sunset Beach (ran until 1999), seen on it's UPN station instead.
Detroit, MI: Same story for Passions when WDIV 4 turned it down in 1999 and end up on indie WADL 38 for the first three years before clearing by WDIV after Sally's cancellation in 2002. Also same story for Sunset Beach seen instead on then-UPN WKBD 50.
Seattle, WA: When NBC's Days of Our Lives debuted in 1965, KING 5 turned it down. Seen instead for the first years on indie KTNT 11 (now KSTW). And it made controversey when CBS station KIRO 7 was owned by Mormons at the time, they refused to air The Bold and The Beautiful from it's 1987 debut until 1994, they received protest letters and one from the late William J. Bell. It was seen instead on KTZZ (now KZJO).
Pittsburgh, PA: I've heard on this boards that WPGH 53 carried the ABC soap Dark Shadows during it's later years, since I know that WTAE 4 carried it on one-day delay. I've never heard an indie carrying Dark Shadows in place of an ABC affiliate during it's 1966-1971 run.
Kansas City, MO: When Days of Our Lives debuted on NBC in 1965, it was unseen in KC until when now-defunct indie KCIT 50 aired it in place of then-NBC WDAF 4 until 4 cleared it in 1971. Also KCIT carried the short-lived ABC soap A World Apart (1970-1971) in which KMBC turned down unfortunately.
Honolulu, HI: They carried The Edge of Night and Ryan's Hope on an indie in place of ABC station KITV 4 around in the 1970s-80s.

Yeah, I felt sorry for viewers in Dayton, Ohio missing the Luke and Laura Wedding on GH in 1981 because then-ABC WDTN didn't cleared it until 2000 and now defunct OLTL until 2002 unless they were able to pick up ABC stations from Cincinnati, Columbus, and Indianapolis over-the-air. Those in Sacramento, I felt sorry for them for missing GL's final 17 years on CBS since then-CBS station KXTV (now ABC) and later current CBS (also an O&O) KOVR turned it down. Pretty uncommon for a network O&O don't clear their network offerings.

Do you have some other indies that carried network soap operas that the affiliates didn't clear in the past?

 

[Marckd]

In Philadelphia -WKBS TV Channel 48 aired Edge Of Night from 1976 to the early part of 1983. They dropped it 6 months before going dark. I believe 65 WRVB picked that up until that show was canceled. Channel 48 also ran whatever noon offering ABC had from 1977 on. From 1978 until its cancelation in 1980, Channel 48 also ran 25,000 dollar pyramid. Once that was canceled they ran Love Boat or whatever ABC offered at 11 AM. Channel 6 woulkd run Family Feud at 1030 AM. Channel 29 picked up Family Feud when Channel 6 dropped it. Channel 29 WTAF (now WTXF) continued running the preempted ABC 11 AM hour long after Channel 6 became an O & O.

In Boston tons of NBC shows were preempted by WBZ TV. They ran on WSBK until about 1981. At that point Channel 68 WQTV picked that stuff up. They ran Another World in the 1 PM slot while WBZ ran days at 2 PM an hour late and a day behind. WQTV dropped the rejected NBC shows in the fall of 1985 to get more agressive programming which failed and in January of 1986 the NBC shows WBZ was not running returned. WQTV continued running this stuff until April of 1987 when the shows moved to Channel 27 WHLL. That station ran NBC rejects until 1993 when they moved to 62 WMPB. That was short lived because in 1995 WBZ TV became a CBS station and WHDH picked up NBC's entire lineup. So WHDH carried Another World after the switch in 1995.

ABC shows all aired in Dayton. Channel 12 WKRC TV and then from 1997 on 9 WCPO ran all the ABC shows not airing on WDTN. Boths stations had grade B signals into Dayton so those with a roof antenna had no problem getting Cincinnati stations. Those to the east would get Columbus stations. Those with Cable got Cincinnati stations until 2000. After that they were temporarily out of luck but by 2002 they had all the shows on WDTN. Moot point being WDTN became an NBC affiliate in 2004. But those 2 years for people with Cable were the ones out of luck unless they had a roof antenna or a good indoor antenna and not in a brick concrete building.


In Sacramento, when KOVR became the CBS affiliate they were not an O & O. That happened in 2005. But still in spite of being an O & O they still were not compelled to carry Guiding Light. I still wonder why to this day. I am still shocked CBS alloews their own station to not run the show. I believe they did this knowing they would be canceling the show eventually.

While a hour long soap not being run by an O & O is UNCOMMON. Network O & O's have preempted network offerings on some occasions. Its always stations that networks acquired that at one time were not O & Os. Capital Cities which acquired ABC affiliates and CBS affiliates, continued preempting the 11 AM hour on the ABC stations they bought in Philadelphia and Houston. They even only ran half the Home Show and later Mike and Maty on WPVI Philadelphia and Channel 13 Houston. NBC when they acquired WVTJ 4 (now on 6) Miami, once finally getting NBC programming, continued preempting the 12 noon offering from NBC for local news until NBC gave that time back to affiliates in 1990. Channel 10 WCAU TV preempted hald an hour of Children's Programming airing Sunday Mornings from 1976-77. From 1977-78 they preempted an hour of Sunday Morning Cartoons from CBS. In 1978 they also preempted an hour of Saturday Morning cartoons from CBS as well resulting in 2 hours a week of preemptions. In 1979 they reinstated half an hour of Sunday Morniung Cartoons on Saturday Morning when a syndicated show was cut back to 30 minutes. From 1979-80, WCAU TV ran the hour of Sunday Morning cartoons Saturday Morning but preempted an hour of Saturday Morning Cartoons. Finally in 1980 WCAU began running the entire Saturday Morning and Sunday Morning lineups.

SO those are examples of O & Os rejecting network offerings.

 

[bpatrick]

When "One Life To Live" was new, Atlanta's Channel 11 passed
on it in favor of a 3:30 movie (which they would do again in 1972,
moving "OLTL" to the morning) and then-WJRJ/17 picked it up.
That lasted probably less than a year; "OLTL" debuted in July 1968
and I know 11 had it by the fall of 1969 at the latest.

Atlanta's Ch. 69 also carried "Loving" at a time when WSB was
delaying "Ryan's Hope" from noon to 12:30; I think "Loving" aired
on at least a day-behind at noon. When "RH" was canceled in
1989, Ch. 2 began airing "Loving" in pattern at 12:30. For several
years in the late '80s and early '90s Ch. 69 also carried whatever
11 AM show ABC had, notably "Home" and, IIRC, "Mike & Maty."
Ch. 2 has been carrying "The View" since at least 2000. I also seem
to recall "The Doctors" on Ch. 36 after WXIA dropped it.

 

[ajc_trw]

Philadelphia, PA: One Life to Live (1968-2012) pre-empted from then-Capitol Cities owned WFIL/WPVI 6 (now ABC O&O of course), seen instead on WPHL 17 during the early years. Ironically, OLTL tooks place in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Also, it recieved controvesey when WPVI turned down The Edge of Night (1956-1984) when it moved from CBS to ABC in late 1975, so now-defunct indie WKBS 48 aired it instead three weeks later.

It was even more controversial when Three-Mile Island (March 28, 1979) caused ABC to run news updates within the soap operas that day. WKBS simply taped the whole thing and showed it later. Anyone watching thought it was happening all over again. War of the worlds anyone?

 

[harrisburgpatv]

In Philadelphia -WKBS TV Channel 48 aired Edge Of Night from 1976 to the early part of 1983. They dropped it 6 months before going dark. I believe 65 WRVB picked that up until that show was canceled. Channel 48 also ran whatever noon offering ABC had from 1977 on. From 1978 until its cancelation in 1980, Channel 48 also ran 25,000 dollar pyramid. Once that was canceled they ran Love Boat or whatever ABC offered at 11 AM. Channel 6 woulkd run Family Feud at 1030 AM. Channel 29 picked up Family Feud when Channel 6 dropped it. Channel 29 WTAF (now WTXF) continued running the preempted ABC 11 AM hour long after Channel 6 became an O & O.

Not to nitpick but I'll help out with this one and add some things...

"$25,000 Pyramid" was the one in syndication at the time...."$20,000 Pyramid" was the daytime version. They ran it at 10am, with Edge of Night immediately following.

29 from Philly ran a bunch of things - they ran the sitcom reruns off NBC at 10am - "Diff'rent Strokes" and "Facts of Life". They also ran "Fantasy" from 10:30-11:30. Also, like you said, when "Loving" premiered on ABC in June 1983, WPVI stopped carrying the Feud at 11:30 and began carrying "Loving". 29 carried daytime Feud at its normal time of noon for the summer, but come fall, 29 dropped it and Philly never saw daytime Feud again until 1988, when Combs's version premiered.

 

[onairb]

In San Francisco, channel 20 (then KTZO, now KOFY, as mentioned in the similar thread about game shows on independent stations) carried a couple of uncleared NBC soaps in the early '80s-the long-running 'The Doctors' and the short-lived 'Texas'. NBC killed both shows by 1983, so this arrangement didn't last long.

 

[spencerkarter85]

Actually both soaps ended on December 31, 1982.

 

[chris12]

In Milwaukee, WVTV 18 cleared quite a bit. From what I've seen in old listings they cleared the first few years of All My Children and One Life To Live and Dark Shadows as well as some of the shoprt-lived ABC soaps of the late 60s/early 70s. Also, they aired Texas for its last few months in the fall of 1982. Plus, now CBS afiliate then new indie WDJT 58 aired Loving for a spell in 1991-92.