NBC and local baseball in the '60s, 70s, etc.

[ShawnHill1]

It's another one of these somewhat-odd topics, but it's something that's been on my mind although we've discussed off and on, and it's the correlation between NBC's ratings plunge (particularly during the late '70s through the mid-80s) and how many of their affiliates carried local baseball (and maybe other live sports) in lieu of network programming. By now, we're well aware about stations like WLWT in Cincinnati and their long-time relationship with the Reds, KSDK's stints with the Cardinals in St. Louis, and WDIV's 20-year run as the flagship of the Detroit Tigers.

There were other NBC stations during that rough ratings period that also carried local baseball--KXAS in Ft. Worth/Dallas was the home of the Texas Rangers from 1974 to 1984, WMAR in Baltimore had the Orioles (although the O's run on that station started when they were still with CBS), WDAF in Kansas City had the Royals during most of the George Brett era, and WTMJ in Milwaukee was the original TV home of the Brewers until 1980. I don't have the time to calculate it all, there was probably at one time where the highest percentage of team TV flagships were made up of NBC affiliates, and certainly many of them in the central part of the country (Cincinnati, Milwaukee, DFW, Detroit, St. Louis, Kansas City).

I guess my question would be what other NBC affiliates that you know of became an affiliate of a MLB team network during this time frame?

 

[BD Sullivan]

From 1961-79, Cleveland Indians games were on the CBS affiliate. Had they been on the NBC affiliate, that would have made for some grumbling from the then-perpetually lousy Tribe--whose games were usually playing at the same time as the NBC games. That's because the NBC affiliate was an O & O. Beginning in 1980, the Indians games were shown on a local independent until 2003(?)

 

[FreddyE1977]

KDKA in Pittsburgh (a CBS affiliate) had a stranglehold on the Pirates affiliation until the mid-90's when CBS took
a harder line on pre-emptions. In 1995 the Bucs then moved to WPXI, an NBC affiliate. The team
was in steep decline, beginning a two-decade run of losing futility. They were only on WPXI for two seasons
before transitioning to WPGH/cable (and eventually all-cable)

 

[Mr Tony]

The Twins have never been on a NBC station when that station was NBC. The Twins do have the distinction (other than 2 years) of being on an Independent from 1961-1989
1961-1972 and 1975-78 WTCN (what is now KARE 11 NBC). Was Independent from 61-79
1973 & 74 and 1989-1997 WCCO CBS
1979-1988 and 1998-2001 KMSP which was Independent when they lost the ABC to KSTP in 1979
2005-2010 WFTC and now only on cable

 

[joebtsflk1]

This is about a much bigger story than baseball pre-emptions: basketball pre-emptions.

Otherwise it's a story about about a handful of NBC affiliates in Iowa that placed a successful bet on University of Iowa basketball in the early 80s, with plenty of Wednesday night games. KWWL in Waterloo was the lead station, and it spread to the NBC stations in Davenport, Des Moines and Sioux City. I think NBC was behind the end of UI basketball on this group of affiliates.

 

[mvcg66b3r]

Otherwise it's a story about about a handful of NBC affiliates in Iowa that placed a successful bet on University of Iowa basketball in the early 80s, with plenty of Wednesday night games. KWWL in Waterloo was the lead station, and it spread to the NBC stations in Davenport, Des Moines and Sioux City. I think NBC was behind the end of UI basketball on this group of affiliates.

The games aired on Thursday nights per kwwl.com:

Under President Harry Slife and General Manager Bill Bolster, [KWWL] built University of Iowa basketball into an amazing force. KWWL created the Iowa Television Network, a precursor of cable sports networks, and syndicated Hawkeye Basketball across the state. During the early 80s, viewers across Iowa never saw an NBC program on Thursday night. They were too busy watching Hawkeye basketball, which preempted the entire NBC lineup. KWWL still holds record ratings shares from those years.

http://www.kwwl.com/story/8155564/about-kwwl-and-kwwlcom

 

[joebtsflk1]

Should have known that 35 year old memories needed refreshing!

 

[Ccook55]

The Atlanta Braves were first on WSB/channel 2 (then NBC) but the station sporadically carried Braves night games. Not sure if there was a regional network as TV Guide didn't show any other stations in our edition that carried the Braves. WSB usually cleared Saturday afternoon baseball. The Braves moved to WTCG/channel 17 (later WTBS and now WPCH) sometime later in the 70s.

 

[ixnay]

WMAR in Baltimore had the Orioles (although the O's run on that station started when they were still with CBS),

The O's switched from ABC affil WJZ to WMAR in 1979 IIRC, the same year they switched radio flagship rights from MOR WBAL to top-40 WFBR 1300 (now sports talker WJZ [AM]). The O's radio rights of course have bounced around some more since then and are now with WJZ-FM.

I remember reading on either this board or radio-info.com where CBS was disdainful of WMAR's Orioles preemptions, which led to WMAR trading affiliations with WBAL (which had been NBC) in 1981.

I moved to the Baltimore DMA from the Philadelphia DMA in 1985, when The Cosby Show was a big Thursday night hit, so much so that WMAR wouldn't preempt it.

I don't remember if WMAR ever cleared NBC's GotW when there were Saturday Orioles conflicts after switching to the Peacock. If it did, it was probably before 1984 when NBC acquired exclusive rights on Saturday afternoons.

ixnay

 

[hamster]

I remember reading on either this board or radio-info.com where CBS was disdainful of WMAR's Orioles preemptions, which led to WMAR trading affiliations with WBAL (which had been NBC) in 1981.

ixnay

This was true. TV Guide not long after the 1981 WMAR/WBAL switch did a story about this and CBS in the TV Guide article was quite blunt..they were very unhappy with WMAR pre-empting so much of their programming in favor of Orioles baseball and took away WMAR's rights to be with CBS. There is a strange footnote to this. In 1995 on the morning when WMAR, WBAL and WJZ would switch networks WJZ's morning weather guy Marty Bass did make some comment about how when WMAR had lost CBS in 1981 CBS at the time "came close" to hooking up with WJZ but WJZ/Westinghouse was happy to be with ABC so CBS went to WJZ's neighbor WBAL instead. True ?? Who knows !! Bass sometime ago had also made a comment about in Washington DC back in the early 70s ABC was so unhappy with then WMAL channel 7 that they ( ABC ) had almost made a deal with Metromedia that would had made WTTG channel 5 DC's ABC affiliate. However some oldtimers from both the old WMAL-TV and WTTG said on DCRTV what Marty had claimed was pure bull****.

 

[TheBigA]

Keep in mind that during the 60s and 70s, most local baseball broadcasts took place during the day. The change to primetime baseball came in the 80s and 90s. Even the World Series in the 60s took place primarily during the daytime.

NBC's problem during the 70s was their shows sucked, and CBS was a lot stronger at the time. Then ABC improved its prime time lineup with Happy Days and other popular shows, and NBC simply couldn't compete.

 

[paulsonj72]

The Twins have never been on a NBC station when that station was NBC. The Twins do have the distinction (other than 2 years) of being on an Independent from 1961-1989
1961-1972 and 1975-78 WTCN (what is now KARE 11 NBC). Was Independent from 61-79
1973 & 74 and 1989-1997 WCCO CBS
1979-1988 and 1998-2001 KMSP which was Independent when they lost the ABC to KSTP in 1979
2005-2010 WFTC and now only on cable

In Southern Minnesota(outside the MSP DMA) NBC station KTTC of Rochester MN would carry a partial schedule of Twins games)It wasn't all 50 games which is what the Twins had televised in those days) but it was a number). Usually they were done on Friday n nights and Sunday afternoons during the summer.

 

[KML0224]

WVIT-TV (NBC) channel 30 of New Britain/Hartford would do similar with select Boston Red Sox games. This was back in the era of WSBK-TV channel 38 of Boston producing the games. If it matters, WVIT-TV wasn't owned by NBC then (Viacom, actually).

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

This is about a much bigger story than baseball pre-emptions: basketball pre-emptions.

Otherwise it's a story about about a handful of NBC affiliates in Iowa that placed a successful bet on University of Iowa basketball in the early 80s, with plenty of Wednesday night games. KWWL in Waterloo was the lead station, and it spread to the NBC stations in Davenport, Des Moines and Sioux City. I think NBC was behind the end of UI basketball on this group of affiliates.

The games aired on Thursday nights per kwwl.com:



http://www.kwwl.com/story/8155564/about-kwwl-and-kwwlcom

Same thing in the neighboring Peoria/Bloomington market with at least 12 Bradley University men's games airing on their NBC station, WEEK-25, for many years (and the Bradley coverage was very popular in the Peoria area). Including some on Thursday nights in the early 80s before "The Cosby Show" came along. There were probably many Thursday nights where most western/west central Illinois viewers (not within the range of WGEM-10 Quincy or then-NBC affiliate WICS-20 Springfield) were completely shut out of NBC prime-time programming because of college basketball (Bradley in Peoria; Iowa in the Quad Cities).