Network affiliations

[Kurt Toy]

Has there ever been any one individual station that has, at one time or another, been affiliated with all four "golden age" networks [Blue-ABC, Mutual, Red-NBC, CBS]? In Pittsburgh, WJAS has that distinction, for it was a CBS outlet from 1927, when the network was formed, until 1953, when KQV went CBS, then WJAS was Mutual from 1953-55, then a dual ABC-Mutual outlet until NBC bought the station in 1957, then an NBC station [it was WAMP from '57 to '60] from '57 until Cecil Heftel bought the station in 1973, then went independent. Any such examples in your market?

 

[MikefromDelaware]

Closest we have would be 1450 WILM newsradio in Wilmington, Delaware. My memory may not be 100% on the years, but the order of networks is correct. In the late forties into the 50's it was an ABC radio affiliate ( I believe it may have been a NBC Blue prior to the change over to ABC) , (I'm not sure about earlier years from 1930 when first went on the air to mid forties, but may have been NBC Blue all along), then during the late 50's, 60's, and early 70's it was a Mutual affiliate, then a short lived time as an NBC radio News and Information Service affiliate in the early 70's, and then from the mid 70's to present as a CBS radio affiliate. Interestingly, prior to the Westwood One take over of the various radio networks, even during the CBS radio years, WILM always carried the Mutual late night talk show (Larry King, and then and still Jim Bohannan) which of course now Bohannan is WW1 feed as is CBS radio).

 

[fred flintstone]

WDEL and WILM were jointly owned in the 20s, 30s and into the 40s. Both were NBC affiliates and as was common practice, the stronger station (WDEL) was part of the "Red" network line-up and the weaker station (WILM) was assigned to the "Blue" network line-up. However, these "brands" were used only by advertisers and network engineers and all programs used the same network cue ("This is NBC, The National Broadcasting Company") until the early 40s when NBC prepared to divest the Blue Network.
Prior to this, advertisers had a great deal of flexiblity in buying station line-ups and often did the Chinese Menu approach (picking from Column A and Column B), especially outside of the "Basic Network" station list covering large and major markets. For this reason, advertisers placing a show on the "Blue" line-up might substitute a "Red" station in certain markets (and the other way around).
I have seen station listings from the 50s and 60s in which some small market stations were listed as affiliates of all four networks simultaneously.
Technically, smaller market "Mutual affiliates" were not really Mutual affiliates until the 50s. Stations not on the network trunk lines actually were affiliates of regional networks like Don Lee, Yankee, Texas, Intermountain, Allegheny and Michigan, which fed smaller stations selected network and regional programs. At various times, ABC and CBS had similar arrangments.

 

[hrhwebmaster]

The closest in Houston would be KXYZ. A WBS affiliate (see the thread on NBC Southern Blue), it affiliated with NBC-Blue in 1937 and stayed with that network when it became ABC. Beginning on St. Patrick's Day, 1949, KXYZ originated a regular Saturday night broadcast on ABC called "Saturday Night at the Shamrock' from Houston's huge new Shamrock hotel owned by oilman Glenn McCarthy (the inspiration for the character Jett Rink in the movie Giant; in the movie the hotel was called the Conquistador and was located in Dallas). McCarthy's Shamrock Broadcasting owned KXYZ at the time. The show lasted 4 years. Smetime in the mid-50s, KXYZ went independent and briefly tried to do top 40. Later they tried to reaffiliate but ABC had signed with another station (KWBA, Baytown) and KXYZ went with Mutual. Still later, ABC bought KXYZ (AM&FM) and owned them for about 10 years.

Though never affiliated with CBS, during the 30s and 40s KXYZ had a close relationship with KTRH which was. Jesse Jones owned KTRH and his nephew Tilford Jones ran KXYZ. They shared some office space and staff at times.