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Markets with one channel that has 2 network affiliations

T

-TJ-

Guest
<font color=3333ff>I've seen smaller markets have one channel that carries two networks. How does this work?

And how do they decide which network programming to air first for prime time and/or evening news.

Kinda strange to have a ABC/CBS affiliate or a Fox/WB or WB/UPN combo.

</font>
 
Hartford/New Haven...Briefly (1995)

WAGM-TV channel 8 of Presque Isle, ME is a CBS primary affiliate. They've carried NBC, ABC and even "WWE Smackdown!" from UPN a few years ago. The only other station in the market is a PBS station while some of the market receives a VHF station from New Brunswick (Canada).

The smallest market is Glendive, MT, Home to KXGN-TV channel 5.

As for Hartford/New Haven, it happened here in 1995. When WB started up in 1995, it was simply a 1-night block of 2 hours (4 sitcoms). WTNH-TV (ABC) channel 8 of New Haven aired that two-hour block on Saturday nights from 11:30 PM to 1:30 AM. A couple of months later, WTVU-TV channel 59 of New Haven signed on. The programming then shifted to that new station. Channel 59 increased their power and changed their call letters to WBNE-TV ("Warner Brothers New England"). The call letters became WCTX-TV sometime over 2000-01 and switched from WB to UPN on January 1, 2001. Today, our WB affiliate is WTXX-TV channel 20 of Waterbury, CT (owned by Tribune Broadcasting).
 
> WAGM-TV channel 8 of Presque Isle, ME is a CBS primary
> affiliate. They've carried NBC, ABC and even "WWE
> Smackdown!" from UPN a few years ago. The only other station
> in the market is a PBS station while some of the market
> receives a VHF station from New Brunswick (Canada).
>
> The smallest market is Glendive, MT, Home to KXGN-TV channel
> 5.
>
Thirty years ago WBOC-16 Salisbury MD advertised "Get the best of all 3 networks on WBOC!" At least I heard this promo during a station ID one night while visiting friends in Ocean City, MD (I was staying up the road in Dewey Beach, DE).

When WMDT-47, an ABC affiliate, started up in 1980, WBOC switched to CBS only IIRC.

Also, when I stayed in Stowe, VT, in January 1997, I watched Fox's broadcast of the NFC championship on WCAX-3 Burlington, which was a CBS affiliate otherwise. Fox didn't have a Burlington/Plattsburgh affiliate at the time.

ixnay
 
> Also, when I stayed in Stowe, VT, in January 1997, I watched
> Fox's broadcast of the NFC championship on WCAX-3
> Burlington, which was a CBS affiliate otherwise. Fox didn't
> have a Burlington/Plattsburgh affiliate at the time.

The above situation where a station is a primary affiliate of one network and cherry picks from another is probably the most common. The seconday network shows might be run late at night, weekends, or cover up shows that are poorly rated. There were a number of secondary Fox affiliates like the one described above after Fox picked up football broadcasts from CBS in the mid 90's. Secondary UPN affiliations are common in smaller markets.

While cherry-picking from all three network sounds like a great idea in a small market, it would be quite labor instensive, since programming would need to be tape delayed frequently. Also, you would have problems with networks promoting shows that the station doesn't air or airs at another time, causing confusion. Most small markets aren't lucrative enough to warrant all of that, and if they are, it would be better to secure an LPTV, cable channel, or digital sub-channel to carry some of the other networks and have additional revenue streams.

Stations cannot be required to clear a network show. This is because the station licensee is still responsible for the content of what is being broadcast. If a primary affiliate passes on a show, the network can offer it to another station in the market. It's not that common, but it happens, especially with controversial or poorly rated programs.. Of course, too many preemptions might cause the network to look elsewhere when it is time to renew the affiliation.
 
> I've seen smaller markets have one channel that carries two
> networks. How does this work?
>
> And how do they decide which network programming to air
> first for prime time and/or evening news.
>
> Kinda strange to have a ABC/CBS affiliate or a Fox/WB or
> WB/UPN combo.
>
The Tyler, TX ABC station, KLTV, (as well as sister Lufkin station KTRE) before 1984 juggled all 3 nets...NBC for morning and evening news, ABC/NBC for game shows/soaps/most primetime, while sports was a mixed bag on the weekends...CBS was mainly used for Cowboys games (**very** popular, especially when DFW airings of the games were blacked out).

I haven't lived in any other market that had a multi-net station, except Amarillo; all stations there while I was there had single nets till after I moved away, then the Fox station took on UPN and later Pax...I don't know how KCIT did that other than run UPN or Pax stuff in the hours after Fox's prime time, maybe.
 
WLWC in Providence Rhode Island on channel 28 carries both UPN and WB programming. It's primary focus is UPN as it's owned by Infinity and it's sister stations are channels 4 (CBS) and 38 (UPN)in Boston.
 
> While cherry-picking from all three network sounds like a
> great idea in a small market, it would be quite labor
> instensive, since programming would need to be tape delayed
> frequently. Also, you would have problems with networks
> promoting shows that the station doesn't air or airs at
> another time, causing confusion. Most small markets aren't
> lucrative enough to warrant all of that, and if they are, it
> would be better to secure an LPTV, cable channel, or digital
> sub-channel to carry some of the other networks and have
> additional revenue streams.

Well, having never lived in the Salisbury market, I don't know how WBOC went about juggling the Big 3. (I got WMDT's on-air date from Broadcasting Yearbook some years ago.)

I do know that during the '70s, which were my middle and high school years, whenever we were vacationing in Dewey Beach or Indian River, we always had a cottage that lacked a telly so we had to go elsewhere for our boob tube fix.

In 1971 we watched the baseball all star game (played that year, as this, in Detroit) at my father's friend's motel room in Dewey Beach. On the aforementioned WBOC Salisbury. Most people, myself included, who watched that game remember it for Reggie Jackson's towering dinger off the transformer in right field. I remember it for an additional reason. During one station ID, WBOC showed its logo next to a still cartoon of a paunchy, balding duffer, body in a corkscrew from his followthrough, watching in horror as his 5 iron shot lands in the drink. :) Such was the state of minimarket tv in the year of the Pentagon Papers. :)

Perhaps Radio-Info-ers from the lower eastern shore or "slower lower Delaware" might remember which network's news WBOC carried every night pre-1980, and whether Salisbury had a second station during, say, the sixties that I don't know about.

> Stations cannot be required to clear a network show. This
> is because the station licensee is still responsible for the
> content of what is being broadcast. If a primary affiliate
> passes on a show, the network can offer it to another
> station in the market. It's not that common, but it
> happens, especially with controversial or poorly rated
> programs.. Of course, too many preemptions might cause the
> network to look elsewhere when it is time to renew the
> affiliation.
>

I lived in the Philadelphia market in the '70s. I remember WPVI-6 (then Cap Cities ABC affiliate, now Disney-ABC O&O) would in the mid-70s preempt the ABC Friday (IIRC) movie with a movie from its own library. WPHL-17 (then indie, now WB affiliated) would pick up the ABC movie that same night (if WPHL wasn't showing a Phillies game in season).

Speaking of ownership, I recall reading where WBOC was owned by the Baltimore Sun until around 1980.

ixnay<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by ixnay on 08/23/05 01:54 AM.</FONT></P>
 
> The smallest market is Glendive, MT, Home to KXGN-TV channel
> 5.
>
...which, last time I checked, is still affiliated with CBS and NBC. Last time I checked, around 2002, KXGN had a prime-time schedule consisting of both networks.

KTEN ch.10 in Ada, OK, was the same way until a few years ago, but involving ABC and NBC. Today, it's strictly NBC.
 
In the Greenwood/Greenville, MS market, WXVT-TV 15 is a primary CBS affiliate fulltime while UPN is their secondary. Some of the UPN programs are tape-delayed and aired after 10:30pm on weekends (Saturday and Sunday nights).<P ID="signature">______________
Note to MRS Ventures: Have you checked your transmitter lately? It's leaking dead air!</P>
 
WIWB 14 Suring/Green Bay started out as a religious license, WRVM (based in Suring), and was bought by PAX and renamed WPXG in 1999. A year later Acme bought the station, renamed it WIWB and started carrying the WB, but kept PAX shows on in the morning and late-night hours. That has, looking at their listings, ended (I never watched either one; I'm not a teenager or terribly religious).
 
Prior to the early 1970s, stations being affiliated with more than one network was very common, even on stations in medium and even major markets. The practice has been discussed extensively in the past on this board. One of the best examples was Charlotte where WBTV/3 and WSOC/9 each carried programs from all three networks. When WCCB/36 (now 18) came on in 1965 it also carried programs from all three nets. It is safe to say that a majority of network programs were not aired at their nationally scheduled time on those stations. It was really quite interesting since most viewers in the area could recieve other network affils from areas such as Greenville/Spartanburg, Greensboro, or Columbia that aired the straight network feed. But WBTV and WSOC were big-time professional stations that presented their modified programing seemlessly, so that viewers had so sense that they were recieving a very unusual program mix...
 
>
> Also, when I stayed in Stowe, VT, in January 1997, I watched
> Fox's broadcast of the NFC championship on WCAX-3
> Burlington, which was a CBS affiliate otherwise. Fox didn't
> have a Burlington/Plattsburgh affiliate at the time.
>
> ixnay
>

WCAX carried the '96 World Series on FOX too. Ironically, our FOX affiliate now carries WB programming from 10-midnite or after baseball ends in October. WFFF-44.
 
> Prior to the early 1970s, stations being affiliated with
> more than one network was very common, even on stations in
> medium and even major markets. The practice has been
> discussed extensively in the past on this board. One of the
> best examples was Charlotte where WBTV/3 and WSOC/9 each
> carried programs from all three networks. When WCCB/36 (now
> 18) came on in 1965 it also carried programs from all three
> nets. It is safe to say that a majority of network programs
> were not aired at their nationally scheduled time on those
> stations. It was really quite interesting since most
> viewers in the area could recieve other network affils from
> areas such as Greenville/Spartanburg, Greensboro, or
> Columbia that aired the straight network feed. But WBTV and
> WSOC were big-time professional stations that presented
> their modified programing seemlessly, so that viewers had so
> sense that they were recieving a very unusual program mix...
>
First, in response to the question of current markets where a
station is affiliated with two or more networks, Richmond's
WWBT/12 carries both NBC and the WB (WB shows air overnight).
I know of a couple others that carry a second network on their
digital channel: WCTI/12, the ABC affiliate in Greenville/New
Bern/Washington, NC, carries ABC on digital 48-1 and UPN on
48-2; WCYB/5 (NBC) Bristol/Kingsport/Johnson City carries NBC
on (I think) 5-1 and the WB on 5-2.

Second, in response to past situations, I recall vividly when
Charlotte's three affiliates cherrypicked the three networks.
But as to which network's news a station carried, generally it
was the primary network (WBTV carried Cronkite, WSOC carried
Huntley-Brinkley, WCCB carried Peter Jennings in 1965 and '66).
But sometimes there were exceptions. One we've noted several
times: WRAL/5, then the ABC affiliate in Raleigh, carried
Huntley-Brinkley in the late '60s; in the same market, in 1954
and '55, WTVD/11, then an NBC primary/ABC secondary, carried
John Daly (ABC) instead of John Cameron Swayze (NBC). This was
done, I'm convinced, because Daly aired at 7:15, Swayze at 7:45,
and WTVD wanted to run entertainment programs at 7:30. RAL's
rationale was political: Frank Reynolds' commentaries were too
liberal for Jesse Helms and company.

Another station I remember having all three networks in the '60s
was WSVA (now WHSV)/3 Harrisonburg, VA. It is now ABC exclusively,
but I remember back in '66 and '67 it carried Huntley-Brinkley,
all the CBS soaps except Search For Tomorrow and Guiding Light,
the NBC morning game-show block, a couple of NBC soaps (Days Of
Our Lives and The Doctors), and ABC's General Hospital. In
prime time, it carried mostly NBC, although it did run Gunsmoke,
Andy Griffith, and Red Skelton from CBS; Lawrence Welk, the Sunday-
night movie, The Fugitive, Peyton Place, and Rat Patrol from ABC.
It also carried Johnny Carson but only the first hour of the
Today show (Captain Kangaroo aired in the second hour).
 
> Prior to the early 1970s, stations being affiliated with
> more than one network was very common, even on stations in
> medium and even major markets. The practice has been
> discussed extensively in the past on this board. One of the
> best examples was Charlotte where WBTV/3 and WSOC/9 each
> carried programs from all three networks. When WCCB/36 (now
> 18) came on in 1965 it also carried programs from all three
> nets. It is safe to say that a majority of network programs
> were not aired at their nationally scheduled time on those
> stations. It was really quite interesting since most
> viewers in the area could recieve other network affils from
> areas such as Greenville/Spartanburg, Greensboro, or
> Columbia that aired the straight network feed. But WBTV and
> WSOC were big-time professional stations that presented
> their modified programing seemlessly, so that viewers had so
> sense that they were recieving a very unusual program mix...
---------
The best example of this has to be WWNY in Carthage/Watertown, New York. Until 1971 they were the only station in the Watertown market, and they aired programming from all four networks (including PBS).

There was also Channel 13 in Toledo, now WTVG (can't recall its original calls). When it first went on the air they aired programming from all four networks of the time, including DuMont. Then, DuMont folded and WTOL-11 was launched.
 
> A year later Acme bought [WRVM], renamed
> it WIWB and started carrying the WB, but kept PAX shows on
> in the morning and late-night hours.

Grand Rapids also has a Pax/WB combo on WZPX ch.43, but it's Pax that's primary and WB secondary -- WB's shows are delayed until the next afternoon, with Kids WB shown live. The rest of the day is Pax and the usual infomercial crap.
 
> Well, having never lived in the Salisbury market, I don't
> know how WBOC went about juggling the Big 3. (I got WMDT's
> on-air date from Broadcasting Yearbook some years ago.)
>
> I do know that during the '70s, which were my middle and
> high school years, when were in Dewey Beach or Indian River,
> we always had a cottage that lacked a telly so we had to go
> elsewhere for our boob tube fix.
>
> In 1971 we watched the baseball all star game (played that
> year, as this, in Detroit) at my father's friend's motel
> room in Dewey Beach. On the aforementioned WBOC Salisbury.
> Most people, myself included, who watched that game remember
> it for Reggie Jackson's towering dinger off the transformer
> in right field. I remember it for an additional reason.
> During one station ID, WBOC showed its logo next to a still
> cartoon of a paunchy, balding duffer, body in a corkscrew
> from his followthrough, watching in horror as his 5 iron
> shot lands in the drink. :) Such was the state of
> minimarket tv in the year of the Pentagon Papers. :)
>
> Perhaps Radio-Info-ers from the lower eastern shore or
> "slower lower Delaware" might remember which network's news
> WBOC carried every night pre-1980, and whether Salisbury had
> a second station during, say, the sixties that I don't know
> about.>

Here's a link to a retro Baltimore area schedule from October 1977 that includes WBOC-TV as an affiliate of all three networks.

> Speaking of ownership, I recall reading where WBOC was owned
> by the Baltimore Sun until around 1980.>

I know they were, but I'm not sure if it was a full ownership (which would have put the <u>Baltimore Sun</u> under the FCC's "one-to-a-market" rule doghouse, thanks to the signal overlap with WMAR-TV), or if it was only an non-majority interest. I'm also not sure when the year when the <u>Sun</u> sold its share of the station.

BTW: When WMDT signed on, they took both the ABC <u>and</u> NBC affiliations away from WBOC. The ABC alliance was the primary one.<P ID="signature">______________
"Know your role and shut your mouth!!" -- The Rock</P>
 
> > The smallest market is Glendive, MT, Home to KXGN-TV
> channel
> > 5.
> >
> ...which, last time I checked, is still affiliated with CBS
> and NBC. Last time I checked, around 2002, KXGN had a
> prime-time schedule consisting of both networks.
>
It was that way last summer - They run CBS Prime time from 6pm-9pm MT, then cherry pick 1 hour of NBC programming from 9-10pm. You actually get to see 2 sets of credits around 9:59pm - First NBC (and if it's a 10pm ET program, a la Law and Order, you get to see the Leno promo - which doesn't air on KXGN, but is airing at that precise minute on KUMV/8/Williston SD - on CT), then a slate then the CBS credits (from the program that aired one hour ago) leading into KTVQ/2/Billing's 10pm news (simulcast on KXGN); KXGN has their "Montana East News" at 10:35pm with Letterman airing at 11:00pm.

The irony is that KXGN carries the NBC programming, but there is no full-power ABC station in either western North Dakota or Eastern Montana (Cable in Glendive gets KMGH out of Denver). OTA, you get Full CBS + Full NBC + partial NBC, less most of the syndicated programming.

Jim
 
> I know of a couple others that carry a second network on
> their
> digital channel: WCTI/12, the ABC affiliate in
> Greenville/New
> Bern/Washington, NC, carries ABC on digital 48-1 and UPN on
> 48-2; WCYB/5 (NBC) Bristol/Kingsport/Johnson City carries
> NBC
> on (I think) 5-1 and the WB on 5-2.
>
>
>
Received KYTV-DT 44 from Springfield,MO (via Tropo enhancement) weeks after
getting a DTV receiver. 3-1 carries the NBC programming (in HD) and 3-2 carries a simulcast of co-owned LPTV "UPN-15".

Also, WMLT-30 Memphis carries UPN as primary, and WB as secondary.
 
> I've seen smaller markets have one channel that carries two
> networks. How does this work?

One semi-common version of the dual network affiliate is Fox affiliates that also carry UPN programming. One example of this that comes to mind is KMMF/17 in Missoula, MT -- they carry Fox primetime from 7 PM to 9 PM, followed by the UPN lineup between 9 PM and 11 PM.
 
KXGN Glendive

> > > The smallest market is Glendive, MT, Home to KXGN-TV
> > channel
> > > 5.
> > >
> > ...which, last time I checked, is still affiliated with
> CBS
> > and NBC. Last time I checked, around 2002, KXGN had a
> > prime-time schedule consisting of both networks.
> >
> and Order, you get to see the Leno promo - which doesn't air
> on KXGN, but is airing at that precise minute on
> KUMV/8/Williston SD - on CT), then a slate then the CBS
> credits (from the program that aired one hour ago) leading
> into KTVQ/2/Billing's 10pm news (simulcast on KXGN); KXGN
> has their "Montana East News" at 10:35pm with Letterman
> airing at 11:00pm.

Of course, Williston is in ND, not SD. :)

Saw KXGN about 18 mos. ago when I spent a couple of days in Glendive. The guy that does the Montana East news program kinda reminded me of Wilford Brimley. Definitely a very low-key rural operation, with an incredibly simple news set. One night the anchor is reading the news wearing a sweatshirt, two nights later he has on a suit jacket. Probably due to where he was coming from before doing the news.
 
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