Metromedia Television Network-

[Markd]

Re: The bottom line

> Highwayman's concept is flawed, no matter what you do to
> correct his list, because there were still only three
> Metromedia stations in 1965.
>
Well at least I am correct about what Metromedia had in 1965. I just did not know how KTTV got into the family. But yes the point was Metromedia had NY, LA and DC in 1965. They would get others later.

 

[Markd]

> > New York: WABD/WNEW (WNYW) Ch. 5 (1956-86, from Dumont)
> > Washington: WTTG Ch. 5 (1956-86, from Dumont)
> > Los Angeles: KTTV Ch. 11 (1963-86, from LA Times)
> > Chicago: WFLD Ch. 32 (1983-86, from Field Communications)
> > Boston: WCVB Ch. 5 (1981-85, from Boston Broadcasters, to Hearst)
> > Dallas: KDAF Ch. 33 (1983-86, from unknown, to Tribune)
Actually KDAF was known as KRLD TV under Metromedia from 1984-86
The previous owners were Dallas Christian Family Broadcasters until 1973 when Pat Robertson bought the station's assets and combined them with 39 KDTV and created 39 KXTX. After that NBN TV owned Channel 33 and in the early 80's the station KNBN was owned by Hill TV.
> > Houston: KRIV Ch. 26 (1980-86, from unknown)
Crest Communications was previous owner
> > Minneapolis: WTCN (WUSA/KARE) Ch. 11 (1971-83, from ChrisCraft, to Gannett)
> > Kansas City: KMBC Ch. 9 ( 1968-82 from unknown, to Hearst-Argyle)

> Also missing in this list is one station that is still on
> the air -- WXIX ch.19 in Cincinnati; Metromedia acquired the
> station sometime in the 1970s, and sold it to Malrite in the
> mid-1980s, shortly before the start of Fox. Raycom, which
> acquired Malrite a few years back, owns that station today.

Malrite bought WXIX in 1983.

 

[bpatrick]

> > > So unless the stations were VHF or the entire market was
>
> > UHF
> > > it would have been tough to compete
> >
> > ...or if a then-independent UHF had previously been a
> > network affiliate for long enough for people to have been
> > used to the idea of a UHF station being worth watching.
> > Milwaukee was such a market; Channel 19/18 had been a CBS
> > owned-and-operated station for several years, and
> affiliated
> > with ABC and Du Mont before that for about a year and a
> > half. In fact, as some of the retro schedules posted on
> this
> > site show, WVTV/18 was picking up ABC and CBS programming
> > passed on by WITI/6 and WISN-TV/12 in the mid-'60s, so
> > potential affiliation in Milwaukee would have been a
> > legitimate option...
>
> Unfortunately, there were not enough of those markets, added
> to the handful of markets with an available indie, for a


True enough. A Metromedia network might have had to do
what Overmyer did--go to affiliates of the Big Three.
I was living in Norfolk, VA, when Overmyer tried and failed
with The Las Vegas Show. Our local CBS affiliate, WTAR (now
WTKR)/3 ran it. When it was canceled after one month, Channel
3 picked up Joey Bishop's ABC show, which ABC affiliate WVEC/13
passed on in favor of movies. The CBS affiliate in Richmond,
WTVR/6, also carried The Las Vegas Show, but ABC affiliate WXEX
(now WRIC)/8 carried Bishop, so TVR had to go back to movies.

BTW, KTTV was once owned by the Los Angeles Times. In Times
listings from the '40s and early '50s KTTV's are always listed
first (the St. Louis Post-Dispatch used to do that with KSD(K)/5,
and the Dallas Morning News with WFAA/8).




> fourth network to get enough national clearance for
> advertiser interest. (That was part of Overmyer/United's
> problem.)
>

 

[Tom_Desmond]

> The previous owners were Dallas Christian Family
> Broadcasters until 1973 when Pat Robertson bought the
> station's assets and combined them with 39 KDTV and created
> 39 KXTX. After that NBN TV owned Channel 33 and in the early
> 80's the station KNBN was owned by Hill TV.

After Pat Robertson's CBN combined channels 33 and 39 as KXTX on channel 39, 33 actually went dark. It didn't return to the air until somewhere around 1979 or 1980 when it ran business news as KNBN, along with subscription TV programming at night. After the subscription programs went away, they ran Spanish language programming for a year or two before it became KRLD under Metromedia.

 

[AirwaveSurfer]

Re: Interesting discussion though...

> > Highwayman's concept is flawed, no matter what you do to
> > correct his list, because there were still only three
> > Metromedia stations in 1965.
>
> Definitely a flawed idea, and not just because Metromedia
> only had three stations at the time. Another problem is
> that the All-Channel Act had only kicked in the previous
> year, which means that any new network would have struggled
> to be seen in the many markets where it would have landed on
> UHF affiliates.
>
Still another huge hurdle for a would-be fourth TV network in the mid '60s, and almost definitely something that doomed the Overmyer/United network from the start, was that any new national TV network would have had to rely -- as NBC, CBS, and ABC all did -- on an expensive combination of intercity coaxial cable links owned entirely by the AT&T Bell System and intercity microwave relays. Communications satellite technology, which ultimately brought huge cuts in distribution costs to networks, was in its infancy back then and would not become commercially viable for another decade. I, for one, think it was no coincidence that the Fox network didn't launch until after the Big Three had replaced most, if not all, of their cable and microwave distribution infrastructures with satellite feeds.<P ID="signature">______________
This is AirwaveSurfer, reminding you that portions of this post have been prerecorded.</P><P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by AirwaveSurfer on 09/18/05 07:52 AM.</FONT></P>

 

[Rollo-Smokes]

Corrections and Additions

...May I add two more?

KOVR Stockton/Sacramento, Ca., was a Metromedia station from 1959 until 1964. Gannett was the seller, and McClatchy was the buyer.

The station now known as WHOI-TV in Peoria, Ill., was owned by Metromedia as well, from 1959 to 1965. Then known as WTVH, this station and KOVR were the first purchases for Metropolitan Broadcasting after the split from DuMont Laboratories.

BTW, KMBC-TV was purchased in 1961 from the Mormons' subsidiary, Bonneville International; and KRIV-TV was bought in 1978 from Crest Communications, not 1980.<P ID="signature">______________
"Know your role and shut your mouth!!" -- The Rock</P>