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Indepenedent TV Stations that "tried" to be network affiliates and failed

Re: Indepenedent TV Stations that "tried" to be network affiliates and failed

bpatrick said:
Most notoriously, perhaps, WSUN/38 Tampa/St. Petersburg,
the Bay Area's original ABC affiliate until Channel 10 picked
off ABC in 1965. 38 tried to make it as an independent but
was outdistanced by WTOG/44, which had the resources of
Hubbard Broadcasting. That incarnation of 38 died in the
early '70s but has been revived as WTTA.
Click to expand...

WSUN barely made it into the 1970s when it closed down, in February 1970 (I think). By then, it was on the air only in the evenings, carrying only old sitcoms ("My Little Margie" comes to mind) and movies, staying on-air as late as 9PM or 10PM. A very far cry from when they were an ABC affiliate, which they tried to keep by taking the network to court.
 
Re: Indepenedent TV Stations that "tried" to be network affiliates and failed

Media Hack Chris | SDR said:
KUSI-TV 51 in San Diego was independent. They tried UPN for a couple of years and then went back to independent. XHUPN-TV signed on from Mexico .... and now it's XHDTV and running the hideious myTV.

KUSI is more successful as an independent.
Click to expand...

KUSI really wanted to be Fox and sued to have affiliation strippd from XETV, along the lines of XETV being a cross-border station and not originating from the U.S. (similar to what happened between KCST, XETV and ABC in the 70's). KUSI lost, of course...
(see wikipedia for the whole story)
 
Re: Indepenedent TV Stations that "tried" to be network affiliates and failed

Garrett said:
Media Hack Chris | SDR said:
KUSI-TV 51 in San Diego was independent. They tried UPN for a couple of years and then went back to independent. XHUPN-TV signed on from Mexico .... and now it's XHDTV and running the hideious myTV.

KUSI is more successful as an independent.
Click to expand...

KUSI really wanted to be Fox and sued to have affiliation strippd from XETV, along the lines of XETV being a cross-border station and not originating from the U.S. (similar to what happened between KCST, XETV and ABC in the 70's). KUSI lost, of course...
(see wikipedia for the whole story)
Click to expand...

Well, in a way until XETV got its news operation up and running around 1998 or '99, KUSI was kind of the secondary Fox affiliate for San Diego, only in terms of Fox News and Sports using KUSI for news-gathering resources as it pertained to San Diego. KUSI is a pretty successful independent station (pretty much cloning KCAL up here in L.A., and it's like a Fox-less version of WSVN in Miami), and XETV seems to be pretty successful in its own right.
 
Re: Indepenedent TV Stations that "tried" to be network affiliates and failed

I don't know if this counts, New York City had two, which later became successful with later networks. WABD (now WNYW) Channel 5 signed on as DuMont's first O&O. DuMont itself got into so much debt, you know the story. WABD would become independent WNEW, and in 1986, Rupert Murdoch bought all of MetroMedia's stations and made them into the root of the successful FOX network, which is still going strong 20 years later. The other, ironically enough, is WNYW's sister station, Channel 9, which signed on as WOR-TV. The station was to affiliate with the Mutual Television Network, but that network never came to be, so 9 carried on as an Indy. In 1995, Channel 9 (by now WWOR-TV) affiliated with UPN (which is now one half of the CW), and is now affiliated with FOX's MyNetworkTV. What a strange trip it's been.
 
Re: Indepenedent TV Stations that "tried" to be network affiliates and failed

WRIW LP was independent until they were bought by NBC and became Telemundo.
 
Re: Indepenedent TV Stations that "tried" to be network affiliates and failed

Quote-XETV had been a pretty decent ABC
affiliate, became a good independent, and is now Fox (the current
FCC doesn't seem to have a problem with this).

FOX is still not considered a "full service" network
 
Re: Indepenedent TV Stations that "tried" to be network affiliates and failed

ROBGv1 said:
WRIW LP was independent until they were bought by NBC and became Telemundo.
Click to expand...

WRIW LP is not owned by NBC. Like the other Telemundo stations in New England WRDM in Hartford, WDMR in Springfield, and WTMU in Boston, WRIW is owned by ZGS. The other "BOSTON" Telemundo station WNEU is owned by NBC, but is LMAd to ZGS.
 
Re: Indepenedent TV Stations that "tried" to be network affiliates and failed

Wilmington Delaware's TV station had a difficult history. It started out in 1948 as WDEL-TV channel 7, as an NBC affiliate, then being moved to channel 12 so it wouldn't interfere with NYC or DC's channel 7's. Philly's KYW channel 3 had requested that NBC pull its TV affiliation from Wilmington's WDEL-TV back in early 1950's which it did making the Wilmington station an independent and unfortunately a money loser. WDEL sold channel 12 and the calls changed, I don't remember those calls. Then after a couple of years, the station was sold again to the Storer Broadcasting company as WVUE. Channel 12 (WVUE) went dark in 1958 after this third attempt to make a go of it without being a network affiliate. It became an educational NET (National Educational Television) affiliate as WHYY in 1963. Today WHYY channel 12 is Wilmington/Philly's PBS affiliate.
 
Re: Indepenedent TV Stations that "tried" to be network affiliates and failed

Hi everyone:
johnissoevil1976 said:
I don't know if this counts, New York City had two, which later became successful with later networks. WABD (now WNYW) Channel 5 signed on as DuMont's first O&O. DuMont itself got into so much debt, you know the story. WABD would become independent WNEW, and in 1986, Rupert Murdoch bought all of MetroMedia's stations and made them into the root of the successful FOX network, which is still going strong 20 years later. The other, ironically enough, is WNYW's sister station, Channel 9, which signed on as WOR-TV. The station was to affiliate with the Mutual Television Network, but that network never came to be, so 9 carried on as an Indy. In 1995, Channel 9 (by now WWOR-TV) affiliated with UPN (which is now one half of the CW), and is now affiliated with FOX's MyNetworkTV. What a strange trip it's been.
Click to expand...
And don't forget WPIX 11. Wasn't that station an indie since sign on before affiliating with The WB and then later The CW?

Me thinks so.......

Cheers :D
 
Re: Indepenedent TV Stations that "tried" to be network affiliates and failed

MikefromDelaware said:
Wilmington Delaware's TV station had a difficult history. It started out in 1948 as WDEL-TV channel 7, as an NBC affiliate, then being moved to channel 12 so it wouldn't interfere with NYC or DC's channel 7's. Philly's KYW channel 3 had requested that NBC pull its TV affiliation from Wilmington's WDEL-TV back in early 1950's which it did making the Wilmington station an independent and unfortunately a money loser. WDEL sold channel 12 and the calls changed, I don't remember those calls. Then after a couple of years, the station was sold again to the Storer Broadcasting company as WVUE. Channel 12 (WVUE) went dark in 1958 after this third attempt to make a go of it without being a network affiliate. It became an educational NET (National Educational Television) affiliate as WHYY in 1963. Today WHYY channel 12 is Wilmington/Philly's PBS affiliate.
Click to expand...

Then the WVUE call letters ended up in New Orleans and made their way to at least three different channels: 13, 12, and 8. WVUE was not an
independent; it's been an ABC and now a Fox affiliate, but it did swap channels with WYES (PBS) in 1970, putting ABC on 8 and PBS on 12.
13 ended up in Biloxi (WLOX/ABC).
 
Re: Indepenedent TV Stations that "tried" to be network affiliates and failed

In Buffalo, WNYB/49 signed on in 1987 as the market's FOX affiliate. In 1989 or 1990 they lost the affiliation to strong independent WUTV/29, and WNYB went religious and joined the TCT network. WNYB became WNYO in 1995, and became a WB affiliate, and now a MyNet affiliate.

W27BI was supposed to be the FOX affiliate for the Burlington-Plattsburgh market when it signed on in 1992. In 1995, as WWBI-LP, it ended up with UPN, and then when UPN moved to WBVT-LP/39 (now WGMU-CA, a MyNet affiliate) in 1998, WWBI joined the new PAX network. There was no FOX station up there until 1997 when WFFF/44 signed on.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe there was an LP station in Watertown, NY that was supposed to be a UPN affiliate but later went dark. I think a similar scenario played out in the Marquette, Michigan market.
 
Re: Indepenedent TV Stations that "tried" to be network affiliates and failed

M.J. said:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe there was an LP station in Watertown, NY that was supposed to be a UPN affiliate but later went dark. I think a similar scenario played out in the Marquette, Michigan market.
Click to expand...

You are correct - that was WLOT-LP 46 Watertown and its repeater WBQZ-LP 34 Watertown. The owner died, I believe.
 
Re: Indepenedent TV Stations that "tried" to be network affiliates and failed

WKTR-16 Ketering, Ohio was the ABC affiliate for Dayton briefly. WKEF-22 grabbed it after a short while and 16 was independent for a time then went off the air.It is nos part of Dayton Public TV 14/16.
 
Re: Independent TV Stations that "tried" to be network affiliates and failed

ignore post...someone already covered the point I was going to make.
 
Re: Indepenedent TV Stations that "tried" to be network affiliates and failed

dhett said:
You are correct - that was WLOT-LP 46 Watertown and its repeater WBQZ-LP 34 Watertown. The owner died, I believe.
Click to expand...

Didn't WBQZ-LP later return with other programming? I know WLOT is still dark...
 
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