One Network Affiliate Picking Up Another's "Discards"

[Stanislav]

What are some of the oddest cases of one primary network affiliate in a TV market picking up another network's show that the area affiliate failed to carry? Not talking about stations with established multiple (primary and secondary) affiliations, but rather a station with a single "official" network affiliation picking up a specific program from another network for whatever reason.

Example: In the early 70's for a brief period, the Orlando-Daytona Beach NBC affiliate (WESH-2) decided to pass on one of the network's movie nights (I believe it may have been NBC Saturday Night at the Movies) in favor of their own movies. For maybe two or three weeks (certainly no more than that, as I recall), the ABC affiliate (WFTV-9) picked up that movie instead of its own network's offerings. It was an experiment that did not last long, chiefly because the fact that the broadcast was "branded" as "NBC" (on the intro and outro titles, and on every commercial bump) led to much confusion from viewers, who kept calling the station to ask why they were suddenly getting NBC on channel 9!

 

[dhett]

Salt Lake City's KSL-TV, the NBC affiliate, is owned by Bonneville, an arm of the LDS church. As such, they did not air some of NBC's more "risque" shows, such as Coupling and Saturday Night Live. The local WB affiliate, KUWB (now CW affiliate KUCW), picked up the shows. Prior to that, KUTV was the NBC affiliate and they did not air SNL either.

 

[bpatrick]

WFTV did indeed pick up NBC's Saturday-night movie in the
summer of 1971, when ABC had given 8:30-11 PM back to
the affiliates; I seem to recall WLOS Greenville/Spartanburg/
Asheville doing the same thing.

I don't know if it's still true but at the time a network could
offer a program to any other station in the market if its affiliate
turned it down. Around the same time WFTV was carrying NBC's
movies on Saturday nights, WTOG Tampa/St. Petersburg was
carrying the CBS Friday-night movie, pre-empted on WTVT,
as well as CBS's Sunday-morning 9-10 AM cartoon block.
Remember that WTOG was independent.

And I think we all know that Ted Turner used to pick up NBC
programs pre-empted by WSB. Likewise in Atlanta, there was
a time when WAII (now WXIA), then an ABC affiliate, picked
up Walter Cronkite, pre-empted on WAGA (around 1963).

I know it can be confusing, and I wonder if WFTV was besieged
with callers wanting to know if the station had changed networks.
But, AFAIK, it's still perfectly legal and you may see more of it:
WNEM Flint, MI, for example, hands off "Guiding Light" to its
digital channel 5-2.

 

[Stanislav]

I know it can be confusing, and I wonder if WFTV was besieged
with callers wanting to know if the station had changed networks.
But, AFAIK, it's still perfectly legal...

Oh, sure, I know it's legal, but the point is that it is more often done by independents (like your WTOG example) -- it's more unusual for a station that is strongly identified with their network, and in competition with the others, to do so. I think in the WFTV example, if they had "borrowed" a show that wasn't blatantly branded as "NBC" in the title and graphics, there would have been little to no confusion. Sure, they'd still have to be careful to cover any NBC promos that might pop up, but at least viewers wouldn't have had "NBC" blatantly stuck in their faces at every break.

 

[w9wi]

I don't know if it's still true but at the time a network could
offer a program to any other station in the market if its affiliate
turned it down. Around the same time WFTV was carrying NBC's

FCC Regulation 73.658 addresses this. It has quite a few provisions, some of which:

- Require a network to allow its affiliates to air programs from other networks.
- Require a network to allow affiliates of other networks to air its programs that are not aired by the network's normal affiliate. (the situation described here)
- Require a network to allow affiliates to pre-empt any network program the affiliate feels is unsuitable, or if the affiliate feels a different program is "...of greater local or national importance."

 

[Tim L]

In researching, I found that ABC affiliate WEWS-TV 5 Cleveland carried "Lassie" from CBS in at least 1960. The same year Channel 5 carried "Jackpot Bowling" from NBCand My Sister Eileen from CBS. .About tis same time Channel 5 also carried Huntley/Brinkley from NBC..In summer 1964 Channel 5 aired "Bill Dana" Satuirday afternoons..also from NBC. After 1965, at least in Cleveland, there was really no instances of one affiliate picking up a program from another affiliate among the 3 major networks

 

[Stanislav]

- Require a network to allow affiliates to pre-empt any network program the affiliate feels is unsuitable, or if the affiliate feels a different program is "...of greater local or national importance."

.....or is a paid religious show or infomercial that brings in beaucoup bucks. ;D

 

[Charles1]

WBRC-6 in Birmingham dropped CBS and became an ABC affiliate in 1961, leaving WAPI-13 to split NBC and CBS. (WBMG-42 didn't sign on until '65, and basically picked up the CBS and NBC leftovers until it became a full affiliate of CBS in '70, when WAPI elected to go NBC). Still, WBRC carried the CBS soap "Love of Life" well into the '60's and maybe even into the early '70's.

 

[rhead]

A few examples off the top of my head...

-In the late 90s, in Houston, then-UPN affiliate KTXH (Channel 20) showed the short-lived NBC daytime soap Sunset Beach; the NBC affiliate KPRC (Channel 2) pre-empted Sunset Beach to show Montel in that timeslot.

-Not sure if this counts, but in East Texas in the early 90s, then-NBC affiliate KLSB (Channel 19) in Lufkin, as well as co-owned KETK 56 in Tyler (also NBC), often showed sporting events from CBS, although this was probably because there was no CBS affiliate in the area at the time.

-Probably not quite the same thing, but back in the early 80s, Houston ABC affiliate KTRK (Channel 13) used to show some PBS programs early on Sunday mornings.

 

[bk77]

Back in 1981 a few months before they switched from CBS to NBC, Baltimore's WMAR aired a few NBC sitcoms after their Baltimore Orioles broadcasts ( The Orioles was the key reason CBS dropped WMAR ). I remember watching Diff'rent Strokes, Harper Valley, and I believe The Facts of Life on WMAR after the game. All of which were on NBC at the time. So with that being said it came as no surprise to me when WMAR picked up NBC full time a few months later ( Septemeber 1981 I believe this happened ).

For WBAL, a friend of mine told me he thinks they did the same with CBS. Airing one or two of CBS shows before actually joining CBS full time. But since I couldn't pick up WBAL at the time, I can't confirm that.

I do know that Baltimore's WBFF in the arly 80s ( before they became FOX ) aired Johnny Carson and a few NBC game shows like Blockbusters that wasn't cleared. WBFF got Carson because WMAR had Alan Thicke.

WBAL back then had some midday talk show ( Hello Baltimore ? ) which pre-empted some NBC game shows, those found their way to WBFF.

 

[bpatrick]

WBRC-6 in Birmingham dropped CBS and became an ABC affiliate in 1961, leaving WAPI-13 to split NBC and CBS. (WBMG-42 didn't sign on until '65, and basically picked up the CBS and NBC leftovers until it became a full affiliate of CBS in '70, when WAPI elected to go NBC). Still, WBRC carried the CBS soap "Love of Life" well into the '60's and maybe even into the early '70's.

WBRC carried "Love Of Life" and "Secret Storm" until the late '60s. By the
time I moved to Birmingham in 1969, WBMG had them both and WBRC was
no longer carrying any CBS programs.

But up I-65 in Nashville, ABC affiliate WSIX/8 (now WKRN/2) carried CBS's daytime
reruns of "The Lucy Show" and "The Beverly Hillbillies" since CBS affiliate
WLAC (WTVF)/5 opted for Mike Douglas from 9-10 AM (Central).

One of the craziest examples of this comes out of Washington, DC in 1974.
ABC affiliate WMAL (WJLA)/7 carried "Now You See It" (CBS) at 11 AM because
WTOP (WUSA)/9 elected to carry "What's My Line?" Then Channel 9 carried
"$10,000 Pyramid" (ABC) at 4 PM, when Channel 7 was carrying a movie.

In all the markets where I've lived, I can think of only two cases where
one affiliate picked up something from another network:

In Norfolk, CBS affiliate WTAR (WTKR)/3 carried Joey Bishop's late-night
talk show (ABC) when WVEC/13 elected to stick with movies. However,
Channel 3 dropped Joey when Merv Griffin moved to CBS in 1969, and
ABC's late-night programming wasn't carried in Hampton Roads again
until the mid-'70s, when Channel 13 finally decided to run "Wide World
Of Entertainment."

In Greenville/Spartanburg/Asheville in 1968 CBS affiliate WSPA/7 carrried
the ABC game show "Treasure Isle," pre-empted on WLOS/13 in favor
of Mike Douglas. "Treasure Isle" ran at 9 AM instead of the in-pattern
time of 12:30 PM; Channel 7 had "Search For Tomorrow" and "Guiding
Light" (both still 15 minutes) from 12:30 to 1.

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

Not sure if these count (these are 1-2 station market examples):

I remember reading somewhere that after KTVO-3 Kirksville, MO/Ottumwa, IA (which also serves as the de facto ABC affiliate for Quincy/Hannibal) after switching to full-time ABC in the late 60s (they were once primary CBS with some ABC, IIRC) continued to air "As the World Turns" for a few years after the network switch.

Also, during most of the '80s and well into the '90s (with the exception of around 1987-88 when KTVO had increased its coverage area to better serve the Quincy market, but their new transmitter collapsed in June 1988 and they returned to their old facility), WGEM-10 (NBC) in Quincy aired "All My Children" at 3PM (after the NBC soaps).

 

[SteveRichards]

WGEM was running "All My Children" in the late '70s...not sure when they picked it up. I remember it running at 3:30, after WGEM's delayed broadcast of ABC's "Family Feud" at 3PM. I can't remember if WGEM carried "Feud" all the way up until ABC canceled it or dropped it beforehand.

Another sidenote about "All My Children"...for many years, KTVO delayed AMC to 3:30PM in order to do a noon newscast. I've heard that WGEM, which I guess didn't have a direct connection to ABC, carried AMC off the air from KTVO at 3:30. Now, I can remember that although WGEM and KTVO ran AMC at the same time, it wasn't always the same episode. Perhaps WGEM pulled the show in from KTVI-St. Louis, or taped KTVO or KTVI's broadcast and aired it a day or two late so they could edit out some KTVO/KTVI and/or ABC promo material.

For a period in the early '80s, KTVO also dumped the ABC daytime version of "Family Feud," so WGEM would have had to have picked up the show from another source.

 

[Ultimajock]

Salt Lake City's KSL-TV, the NBC affiliate, is owned by Bonneville, an arm of the LDS church. As such, they did not air some of NBC's more "risque" shows, such as Coupling and Saturday Night Live. The local WB affiliate, KUWB (now CW affiliate KUCW), picked up the shows. Prior to that, KUTV was the NBC affiliate and they did not air SNL either.

...even odder was when NBC ran "God, The Devil & Bob," and KSL-TV predictably passed on that one. NBC managed to place it with KJZZ-TV, then the UPN affiliate, owned by Utah Jazz owner Larry Miller, himself a devout Mormon. Even stranger was, IIRC, KJZZ-TV chose to run the show on late Sunday afternoon...

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

WGEM was running "All My Children" in the late '70s...not sure when they picked it up. I remember it running at 3:30, after WGEM's delayed broadcast of ABC's "Family Feud" at 3PM. I can't remember if WGEM carried "Feud" all the way up until ABC canceled it or dropped it beforehand.

Another sidenote about "All My Children"...for many years, KTVO delayed AMC to 3:30PM in order to do a noon newscast. I've heard that WGEM, which I guess didn't have a direct connection to ABC, carried AMC off the air from KTVO at 3:30. Now, I can remember that although WGEM and KTVO ran AMC at the same time, it wasn't always the same episode. Perhaps WGEM pulled the show in from KTVI-St. Louis, or taped KTVO or KTVI's broadcast and aired it a day or two late so they could edit out some KTVO/KTVI and/or ABC promo material.

For a period in the early '80s, KTVO also dumped the ABC daytime version of "Family Feud," so WGEM would have had to have picked up the show from another source.

Steve,

Thanks for the additional information about AMC and Family Feud on WGEM. I'll need to check on when the latter show aired on channel 10 sometime by checking old Springfield (IL) State Journal-Register listings (back when Quincy and Peoria stations were also listed in addition to Champaign/Decatur/Springfield and St. Louis in the TV section, the former two markets were inexplicably dropped four years ago from the listings even though the SJ-R has parts of their coverage area that receive stations from those markets, particularly around Rushville and Beardstown).

I also know about KHQA-7 being a secondary affiliate for ABC (in addition to CBS primary) up until the ill-fated WJJY-14 in Jacksonville (which from 1969-71 became a de facto ABC affiliate for much of the Quincy market and provided a second ABC station to the Springfield portion of the C/D/S market--back when WAND-17 Decatur was ABC). I often wonder how things could have played out in both markets had WJJY became more successful and managed to stay on the air at least up to Easter 1978, when their tower collapsed in the great central Illinois ice storm of that weekend.

Also, I just remembered this after my original post, but I don't know if this would technically count (since in late 1986, Fox programming only consisted of "The Late Show with Joan Rivers"). In late '86 (and possibly into early 1987), WYZZ-43, the Bloomington/Peoria affiliate of the fledging network, picked up NBC's daytime broadcasts (from 9-10:30 AM CT) of "Family Ties" reruns (9AM), "Sale of the Century" (9:30), and daytime "Wheel of Fortune" (10AM) as Peoria NBC affiliate WEEK-25 passed on those three shows for "Donahue" at 9 followed by "Sally Jessy Raphael" at 10 (Sally was only a half-hour talk show then). WEEK rejoined the NBC daytime lineup at 10:30 for Scrabble, followed by "Super Password" at 11, but for the last few months of its run, passed on "Search for Tomorrow" at 11:30 in favor of "Love Connection." I don't remember if WYZZ may have also picked up "Search" as it was wrapping up its 35-year run on television, or if the last few months went unseen in those parts of the Peoria market that could not receive additional NBC affiliates from the Quad Cities (KWQC-6, which had retired the WOC-TV calls in fall '86), Springfield/Champaign (then WICS-20/WICD-15--their switch to ABC and NBC's move to the forementioned WAND-17 Decatur did not occur until Labor Day 2005) or Quincy (WGEM-10)--I am sure that the Springfield and Quincy NBC stations continued to air "Search" until the end (and its replacement, the game show "Wordplay"), but ironically, I'm not sure about KWQC (even though I grew up in a home that could receive the sets of affiliates from both Peoria and the Quad Cities on a daily basis).

 

[SteveRichards]

I, too, have often wondered how things would have played out had WJJY-TV in Jacksonville not gone dark.

I subscribed to TV Guide for years and got the Western Illinois Edition, which covered Quincy, the Quad Cities, Peoria, Springfield, and Kirksville. Now that you mention it, I remember WYZZ picking up the mid-morning NBC game shows that you mentioned. Since I was old enough to remember or understood what was going on, WEEK never cleared what NBC showed from 9 to 10AM. I don't specifically remember them not carrying "Wheel of Fortune" at 10, but that could have very well happened. I also remember WRSP in Springfield picking up the 9 to 10AM block of CBS shows that WCIA-Champaign passed on. For a time, WRSP also carried the "CBS Late Movie"/"CBS Late Night," which I don't think WCIA ever carried (unless they ran it in the early '70s). WRSP even carried "The Pat Sajak Show" from CBS. "CBS Late Night" came and went a couple times on WMBD-Peoria (WCIA's sister) in the 1980's. WMBD also pre-empted the 9 to 10AM CBS block for most of the 1980's, although I know they ran the Ray Combs version of "Family Feud," at least briefly. At one point, WMBD may have delayed the pre-empted shows to the late afternoon...don't remember. However, I don't remember WYZZ ever picking up any CBS shows not cleared by WMBD. I'm not saying it didn't happen...I just don't recall.

As far as "Search for Tomorrow" goes, WGEM in Quincy was the only NBC affiliate listed in the WIE of TV Guide that was still carrying the show when it ended. I remember NBC took out an ad in TV Guide for the last episode, and "10" was the only channel listed on the ad. This meant the show was being pre-empted by KWQC-Davenport, WEEK-Peoria, and WICS-Springfield. I believe WICS was doing a newscast at 11:30AM at that time, but not sure. KWQC did news at noon, and ran the NBC afternoon line-up in its entirety starting at 12:30. At the time, WGEM, WICS, and WEEK ran the NBC afternoon line-up, starting with "Days of Our Lives," in pattern starting at Noon. Intertestingly, sometime later WICS started delaying "Days" till later in the afternnon, and WGEM now runs "Days" at 4PM to compete with Oprah on KHQA.

 

[Tim L]

Another instance of this happening in Cleveland was WXEL-TV 8 (DuMont-ABC) picking up CBS Soaps Brighter Day (1PM) Portia Faces Life (1:15) Woman With A Past/Brighter Day (4PM) and Secret Storm (4:15) From at least Mid-May 1954-March 2, 1955. Channel 5 was carrying Women's Widow at 1 and Mixing Bowl at 4, both local programs.

On 3-2-1955 WXEL/8 switched to CBS so they just started carrying all the CBS soaps along with the entire network's programming..

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

For a time, WRSP also carried the "CBS Late Movie"/"CBS Late Night," which I don't think WCIA ever carried (unless they ran it in the early '70s).

I believe the main reason WCIA may not have carried the "CBS Late Movie" or "CBS Late Night" was because they aired MASH reruns at 10:30 all through the '80s and even into the first season of "Late Show with David Letterman" (delaying Dave until 11:05) (I think WCIA was the only CBS affiliate in Illinois which delayed Letterman when he moved to CBS in '93, but I think the following year, based on seeing TV listings for the Champaign area when travelling, he was moved to the normal 10:35 slot with the 4077th, IIRC, moved to 11:35).

WMBD also pre-empted the 9 to 10AM CBS block for most of the 1980's, although I know they ran the Ray Combs version of "Family Feud," at least briefly. At one point, WMBD may have delayed the pre-empted shows to the late afternoon...don't remember.

I think WMBD's preemptions of CBS daytime game shows in the 9-10 block did not begin until about 1987, but if the show they aired at 9 flopped (which occurred in fall 1987 with the Will Shriner show), they tended to return to the CBS lineup of games until the following fall. I remember $25,000 Pyramid, Child's Play, and PYL airing on both WMBD and WHBF-4 Rock Island (Quad Cities) simultaneously with little or no preemption, IIRC.

In addition, from reading old Springfield TV listings from about 1976-79, "Price Is Right" was apparently preempted on WCIA during those years (particularly when it aired at 9AM--WCIA had Donahue at that time slot throughout much of the '70s and into the mid-'80s, while airing "Dialing for Dollars" movies from 3-5 during the '70s and to about 1983, which resulted in the preemption of the 9AM CBS game block on WCIA during the early run of Pyramid, Child's Play, and at least the first year of Press Your Luck. But Price apparently returned to channel 3's lineup by late 1979.

I also someday need to post old listings from about the 1978-81 era that also include Peoria and the Quad Cities (I'll likely obtain them from the Galesburg Register-Mail). Past checks of those from that era indicated that both markets seemed to not go easy on the network preemption button during that time (in some cases, if, for instance, WMBD decided to bump/preempt a network show at a given time, WHBF tended to bump or preempt it as well. Although I can't pinpoint any examples of this, I have seen some examples of this practice involving NBC programming being preempted on both WEEK and WOC at the same time).

 

[bpatrick]

WTTG/5 Washington used to carry CBS's "Brighter
Day," "Secret Storm," and "On Your Account"...
and this was in 1954, when DuMont still owned
Channel 5! What happened was that CBS affiliate
WTOP (WUSA)/9 had a show called "Pick Temple's
Ranch," which showed old Western movies, from 4
to 5:30, pre-empting the three CBS shows. The
odd thing is that the DuMont o&o picked them up.

 

[Ultimajock]

...there was also an odd situation when WBAY-TV/2 Green Bay, then a CBS affiliate, refused to carry "The CBS Late Movie" and then-ABC affil WLUK/11 picked it up; WLUK cancelled "Wide World of Entertainment" in order to pick up the CBS flick. I also seem to recall WLUK picking up an NBC (playoff?) baseball game on a Sunday when some sort of conflict arose on WFRV/5. All the NBC promos dropped in by the announcers were clumsily blanked out by the WLUK engineer. Both of these took place in the early '70s; since then, all of the networks have changed affiliations -- WBAY is now ABC, WFRV switched to ABC and was then bought by CBS (who in turn sold them earlier this year), WLUK reverted to its original NBC affiliation before being partially purchased by Fox in '94 (since sold several times), and NBC eventually wound up on WGBA/26, which didn't exist until 1980...