MY AREA FINALLY HAD ALL 3 (ABC, CBS, NBC) WHEN ____ SIGNED ON IN 19??

[bpatrick]

Re: MY AREA FINALLY HAD ALL 3 (ABC, CBS, NBC) WHEN ____ SIGNED ON IN

Atlanta had all three as of Sept. 30, 1951:

WSB Ch. 2 (NBC)
WAGA Ch. 5 (CBS)
WLTV Ch. 8 (now WXIA 11 Alive) (ABC)

WSB had moved from 8 to 2 when the Cox family
acquired the Atlanta Constitution and its station,
WCON Ch. 2. Cox put WSB on 2 and put 8 up for
sale; 8 was later reassigned to the University of
Georgia and ABC was kicked upstairs to 11.

5 and 11 split DuMont programming; "Captain Video"
and Bishop Sheen, for example, aired on Ch. 5; "Down
You Go" and Chicago wrestling aired on Ch. 11.

Greensboro/Winston-Salem/High Point Oct. 14, 1963:

WFMY Ch. 2 (CBS)
WGHP Ch. 8 (ABC)
WSJS (now WXII) Ch. 12 (NBC)

Greenville/Spartanburg/Asheville April 8, 1956:

WFBC (now WYFF) Ch. 4 (NBC)
WSPA Ch. 7 (CBS)
WLOS Ch. 13 (ABC)

7 and 13 did pick up pre-empted shows (such as
"Wide World Of Sports" on 7 instead of 13) from
each other until the late '60s.

Orlando/Daytona Beach February 1, 1958:

WESH Ch. 2 (NBC)
WDBO (now WKMG) Ch. 6 (CBS)
WLOF (now WFTV) Ch. 9 (ABC)

 

[gregg75]

Going back to WTVD in Raleigh, looks like they were making the most of two networks. It seemed most stations with two networks only took a few shows from the sub-network. WTVD was like a
mixing bowl and taking it to a much larger level.

Can't say as I blame them, I would probably have done the same thing......to boost ratings.

 

[charlestondxman]

Charleston had all three pretty early. WCIV signed on as NBC October 23, 1962, right in the middle of the Cuban Missile Crisis. They signed on at 6:30pm that night, with a premiere program, and then the 15-minute Huntley-Brinkley Report.

Weirdly, at that time, WUSN 2 carried both ABC and CBS's evening newscasts. Charleston was one of the smallest markets to get 3 stations at that time.

Charleston got its second station on September 25, 1954, when WUSN signed on from the quonset hut studios in Mt. Pleasant. They started as an NBC and DuMont affiliate. They stayed in those studios all the way through 2002.

 

[dave73]

A month later, WBNQ (now WMAQ) signed on in October 1948, & has been an NBC O&O station from the beginning. They were on channel 5 the entire time in the analog days.

A correction. The call letters were WNBQ not WBNQ.

Sorry about that. It was late at night when I typed this up. I nearly got the call letters wrong for WBKB too. I nearly entered them as WKBK.

Now for the South Bend Indiana market, an all UHF market:

WSBT-TV was the first TV station in that market to sign on. I always thought they were on 22 the entire time, but according to wikipedia, WSBT-TV originally was on 34 before moving to 22 in 1957. For the first 2 years, WSBT affiliated with all 4 networks (CBS, NBC, ABC, & Dumont), with CBS being the primary affiliate.

WSJV signed on in 1954 on 52 before moving to 28 in 1958. For the first year, they affiliated with NBC with ABC & Dumont being secondary affiliates. They lost the NBC affiliation a year later when WNDU signed on, and became the primary ABC affiliate, with Dumont still being secondary, until its demise. WSJV dropped ABC in 1995 for Fox, & ABC lost their affiliation on a full power station in South Bend. Today, WBND-LD is the ABC affiliate.

In 1955, WNDU signed on on channel 46, but changed to 16 in 1957. They've been the NBC affiliate the entire time. From 1970 to 1974, WNDU aired Sesame Street from NET/PBS until WNIT 34 signed on in 1974 to give South Bend a PBS station.

Not sure how many people were able to watch South Bend TV stations in the 50' & 60's, since few TV's had UHF tuners built in, & all the VHF allocations had been given to neighboring markets Grand Rapids/Kalamazoo, MI (3, 8, 13), Chicago (2, 5, 7, 9, 11), & while Indianapolis is over 100 miles away, that market had 4, 6, 8, & 13.

 

[Toledo Eleven]

Toledo was surprisingly late in getting all 3, maybe because of close proximity to Detroit...WSPD/13 (now WTVG) hit the aircame along in 1948 and for a long time cherrypicked from all 3 but was NBC primary. WTOL/11 signed on in 1958 and was primary CBS but carried some ABC. The Glass City's 3rd station, WNWO/24 didn't come along until 1966, after which 13 was NBC, 11 was CBS, and 24 was ABC. (That's until 13 and 24 switched in 1996.) I'm doing this all without looking it up, so there may be a mistake or 2.

Actually, throughout the '60s 13 was primarily ABC, but also carried some NBC. 11 was primarily CBS and also carried NBC. It was 1970 before each station only carried from one network: 13 NBC, 11 CBS and 24 ABC. In October '95 13, now owned by ABC switched from NBC and 24 became the NBC affiliate. I think it was similar to this is Dayton, too.

 

[Mr. Mike]

IIRC, St. Louis didn't get all three networks until July 8, 1954, when Channel 4 reached the airwaves as an affiliate of CBS under the call letters KWK-TV. Today it's known as KMOV-TV.

Besides Channel 4, the other two channels were KSD-TV (now KSDK-TV) Channel 5, affiliated with NBC and WTVI-TV Channel 54 (now KTVI Channel 2), affiliated with ABC. The former, KSD-TV, was the first TV station in the region, having begun operations February 8th, 1947. The latter, WTVI, changed its calls to KTVI and moved to UHF Channel 36 in 1955, and finally two years later moved again to its present position on Channel 2 in 1957.

 

[fybush]

A few more markets in the northeast that haven't been mentioned yet: Boston had to have been one of the last top-10 markets (maybe even the very last) to get full-time affiliates for each of the big 3. After WBZ-TV (NBC) and WNAC-TV (CBS) signed on within weeks of each other in 1948, it was another 9 years - November 1957 - before WHDH-TV finally made it to the air on channel 5. WTAO-TV 56 had carried ABC programming briefly in 1953, but didn't last as a U in a VHF world.

Providence-New Bedford got its third on January 1, 1963 with the debut of ABC on WTEV channel 6 from New Bedford.

Burlington-Plattsburgh went from two stations in 1954 (WMVT 3 with CBS, WIRI 5 with NBC) to all three in 1969 when WVNY-TV 22 signed on with ABC.

Portland got all three when WMTW-TV 8 signed on in 1958 with ABC. I'm pretty sure WEMT 7 (ABC) completed the trio in Bangor a few years later.

Manchester and Presque Isle never did get all three; Springfield finally became a three-station market with the debut of WSHM-LP (CBS) just a few years ago.

 

[ShawnHill1]

In Rockford, Illinois, it was in September 1965 when WIFR Channel 23 signed-on the air (it was then WCEE) as the area's primary CBS affiliate. Before that, CBS programming was on WREX Channel 13, while NBC was on WTVO Channel 39 (they shifted to 17 in '67); WREX ended up as the primary ABC affiliate. IIRC from WREX's own history page, they also carried some DuMont shows. WREX and WTVO both signed on in 1953; 'TVO in May, 'REX in October. 23, of course, remains with CBS to this day, while 13 and 17 swapped network affiliations in 1995.

Rockford remained a three-station market for another 13 years until WQRF (Channel 39) signed-on in November 1978 as an independent. Even when Fox signed-on in 1986 as a network, WQRF didn't take on the affiliation until 1989...before then, you needed cable (in the outlying areas of the city) or a large antenna to pull-in Chicago (WFLD), Milwaukee (WCGV), or Madison (WMSN) for Fox programming.

 

[Bob1370]

Buffalo, NY, right down the road from where I grew up in Rochester, first had primary affiliates for all the big 3 in mid-1955. That's when WGR-TV (Channel 2, ABC, sign-on in 1954) and WBEN-TV (Channel 4, CBS, sign-on in 1948) was joined by WBUF, a UHF on Channel 17 which had picked up scraps from all the networks from its 1953 start until NBC bought it and turned it into an NBC O&O. That was the status quo from 1955 until late 1957, when the FCC licensed a third VHF station, WKBW-TV, on Channel 7. NBC promptly started to panic. Channel 7 (which NBC couldn't buy because it hit its national limit for VHF O&Os in 1948) was expected to be an indie while it was being built. But poor UHF penetration in the market, and market dominance by channels 2 and 4, made WBUF a big money loser for the Peacock. NBC tried to sell it--complete with a commitment to continue NBC primary affiliation--and got no takers at any price. So they shut it down, opted instead to affiliate with Channel 2 (which let ABC go), and Buffalo was back to a two station market without an ABC primary for a month or so in the early fall of '58. Then Channel 7 signed on November 30, 1958 and took up the ABC franchise it still holds today. 2 remains with NBC, 4 with CBS (as it has for 62 years) and 7 with the Mouse. So the status quo of Buffalo's Big 3, and the final channel/network roster, dates from 11/30/58.

 

[fortmill]

Even in the 1960s, Charlotte was a fairly large market, mid thirties I think, but they didn't get their third station until 1964 when WCCB/36 signed on. Previous to that, WBTV/3 came on in 1949 with all four nets (including Dumont). WAYS/36 supposedly came on in 1953 with ABC, but I've never seen any proof they actually existed. WSOC/9 came on in 1958 with NBC and ABC. After WCCB hit the airwaves, Charlotte had 3 stations affiliated with all three networks! WBTV and WSOC got first choice from all three and newcomer WCCB got the leftovers, which did include some pretty tasty programs. WCCB operated on the original WAYS license from 1953, which had certainly been off the air since at least 1954! In 1967 WCCB switched to channel 18 with a tall tower and the nation's first 5,000,000 watt signal. Soon after, they got a full time ABC affiliation, which was quite a catch, considering what was going on in other cities such as Raleigh/Durham. BTW, CHarlotte was surounded by smaller markets---Greensboro/WS, Greenville/Spa/Asv, and Columbia, all of which had three distinct affilates well before CHarlotte did...

 

[Charles1]

Birmingham finally got its third commercial station on the air in 1965. Both WBRC-4 (moved to Channel 6 in 1953) and WAFM-13 (later WABT, WAPI and now WVTM) signed on in 1949. Originally, WBRC was affiliated with NBC and Dumont, while Channel 13 was affiliated with CBS and ABC. In 1954, the stations swapped CBS and NBC, then in 1961, WBRC became went to ABC, leaving WAPI with NBC and CBS, although WBRC still carried a few CBS shows (mainly soap operas).

In 1965, WBMG-42 (now WIAT) signed on, ostensibly as an independent station. However, it quickly began carrying the network shows from all three networks that Channels 6 and 13 didn't carry. None of the local stations had exclusive affiliations until 1970, when Channel 13 became an NBC station, and Channel 42 went with CBS. At the same time, WCFT-33 in Tuscaloosa and WHMA-40 in Anniston became exclusive CBS affiliates as well.

Well into the 1970's (maybe even the early '80's), Channels 33, 40 and 42 still carried any late Sunday afternoon NFL games from NBC because Channel 13 had the rights to the Bear Bryant Show (Alabama football highlights and showed it at 4:00 p.m., and the Auburn Football Review with Coach Ralph "Shug" Jordan, which they showed at 5:00. IIRC, WAAY-31 in Huntsville, which at the time was an NBC station, also carried Bear at 4:00 and Shug at 5:00. I can't remember if either CBS affiliate WHNT-19 or ABC's WMSL-48 (now WAFF) carried the late games from NBC.

 

[mjlarochelle]

Some markets never had had all three, notably Watertown, NY, Presque Isle, ME, and Alpena, MI.

Erie, PA didn't have all three until 1966, when WJET/24 signed on as the ABC affiliate.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

I'll let Tim Lones go into detail about Cleveland, as I'd have to look up the exact dates. Needless to say, as a large, early market, we had all three pretty early.

Youngstown was whenever WXTV/45 signed on with ABC (later to become WYTV/33).

Wheeling/Steubenville only got ABC very recently, when WTRF/7 Wheeling launched "ABC Ohio Valley" on digutal subchannel 7.3. So recently, in fact, I was visiting the market when it arrived.

Lima only got ABC when WLQP-LP/18 moved from UPN when that mininet died. Today, "ABC Lima" is a digital subchannel in the WLIO empire, along with all of the other three major networks.

 

[mleach]

Reading these posts, kinda sad that today when a new TV station comes to a community regardless of which network they hook up with, today nobody seems to really care.

The past weekend I had to go to Fort Collins, Colorado on business. While there I noticed Fort Collins now has their own CBS afflilateKGWN-DT 2 "Northern Colorado 5". According to my friends who live in Fort Collins..to them it was either no big deal or a waste of time and space since they will continue to watch Denver TV anyway.

In other words I didn't see to many who were excited about "Northern Colorado 5 Fort Collins".

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

The people on one of the (non-R-I) Denver media message boards are excited about it, because they're joking about it.

"Northern Colorado 5" is apparently yet another client of that world-famous producer of pre-packaged TV newscasts, Davenport IA's Independent Network News.

http://www.inn-news.net/clients.html
(warning - embedded video ahead!)

As for new subchannel affiliates like Wheeling's "ABC Ohio Valley", they offer very little that wasn't seen either on the main WTRF/7 CBS channel (and in fact, simulcast that newscast on the ABC side, with ABC logos spliced in), or on Pittsburgh's WTAE/4, the defacto ABC affiliate for the market until that subchannel signed on.

 

[Tim L]

For Cleveland:

5 WEWS CBS Primary ABC, DuMont secondary December 17 1947
4 WNBK NBC Full October 31 1948
9 WXEL DuMont Primary ABC secondary December 19 1949

5 and 9 by the early 1950's shared CBS shows almost equally..

It wasnt until about September 1955 after DuMont was out of the TV Network business and the Scripps/Storer Network swap that Cleveland proper had full-time affiliates on all 3 Networks..

By September 1, 1955
3 WNBK NBC (Channel 4/3 has been NBC since its sign-on-KYW 1956-65 and WKYC 1965-present)
5 WEWS ABC
8 WXEL CBS (would become WJW-TV in 1956, WJKW in 1977 and revert back to WJW in 1985-FOX since September 1994)

 

[bpatrick]

Re: MY AREA FINALLY HAD ALL 3 (ABC, CBS, NBC) WHEN ____ SIGNED ON IN

Even in the 1960s, Charlotte was a fairly large market, mid thirties I think, but they didn't get their third station until 1964 when WCCB/36 signed on. Previous to that, WBTV/3 came on in 1949 with all four nets (including Dumont). WAYS/36 supposedly came on in 1953 with ABC, but I've never seen any proof they actually existed. WSOC/9 came on in 1958 with NBC and ABC. After WCCB hit the airwaves, Charlotte had 3 stations affiliated with all three networks! WBTV and WSOC got first choice from all three and newcomer WCCB got the leftovers, which did include some pretty tasty programs. WCCB operated on the original WAYS license from 1953, which had certainly been off the air since at least 1954! In 1967 WCCB switched to channel 18 with a tall tower and the nation's first 5,000,000 watt signal. Soon after, they got a full time ABC affiliation, which was quite a catch, considering what was going on in other cities such as Raleigh/Durham. BTW, CHarlotte was surounded by smaller markets---Greensboro/WS, Greenville/Spa/Asv, and Columbia, all of which had three distinct affilates well before CHarlotte did...

You can find WAYS' schedules in the Charlotte Observer back around 1954. They cherrypicked ABC and NBC but, like most UHFs in those days, couldn't make a go of it (Atlanta's first Ch. 36 signed on around the same time and had to make do with mostly cheap local programming; it was gone by 1955 and didn't come back until 1969).

 

[The King Bee]

Here in Louisville, we had ABC, CBS and NBC first for a brief time in the spring of 1953 when WKLO-TV, sister station to WKLO-AM, signed on Channel 21 in March, 1953. Despite having the full ABC (and DuMont) schedules, the weakness of UHF signals then and the lack of receivers or converters for UHF doomed the station to go dark in July, 1953. This all happened after Indiana Senator Homer Capehart spirited the commercial allocation of Channel 7 away from Louisville to Evansville as a reward for a newspaper/TV licensee's endorsement in the tight 1950 Senate race...WKLO-TV on Ch. 7 could have successfully competed.

Also a factor was the fact that WHAS-TV (then CBS, 1950-1990; ABC 1990-) and WAVE-TV (NBC, 1948-present) were two extremely well run stations, highly influential in the industry and regarded as vital to each network's affiliate lineup. WHAS and WAVE cherry-picked the best from ABC until September 16, 1961 when WLKY-TV signed on Channel 32 as an ABC primary affiliate. By then, UHF technologies had made great strides forward and, along with a successful viewership education/marketing campaign by WLKY, the new station was a success from the start. WLKY was an ABC affiliate until September 1, 1990 when it swapped to CBS, with ABC going to WHAS.

The local Fox affiliate, WDRB-TV, signed on February 28, 1971 and has been with Fox since their beginning in Fall 1986.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

Re: "Northern Colorado 5" - KGWN is actually Cheyenne WY's CBS affilate, which puts a decent signal over Fort Collins.

They have had a news bureau in Fort Collins, and with digital TV, apparently decided they could put a whole Fort Collins-focused station on DT2 - which runs the same CBS programming (SD only) as DT1 (where it's the same signal, so you can watch CBS in HD ).

As per usual with an INN client, there's at least one local reporter on the ground - Tom Livingston, formerly of KOA/850 Denver.

 

[Bob E. Nelson]

Re: MY AREA FINALLY HAD ALL 3 (ABC, CBS, NBC) WHEN ____ SIGNED ON IN

Boston had to have been one of the last top-10 markets (maybe even the very last) to get full-time affiliates for each of the big 3.

I think Pittsburgh might have that distinction since Hearst's WTAE-TV (ABC affiliate) signed on in September 1958. And in the 50's, I'm fairly certain that Pittsburgh was still a top 10 market.

On the flipside, I've long heard that Nashville was the smallest market to get all three of the networks when WLAC-TV (CBS) signed on in August 1954.