One Network Affiliate Picking Up Another's "Discards"

[Charles1]

Another strange one, and one for a lot of you to say "only in Alabama"...

Throughout the 1970's and maybe into the early '80's, NBC affiliate WAPI-13 in Birmingham didn't carry the late afternoon NFL games on Sunday afternoon, leaving them to be picked up by CBS affiliates WBMG-42 in Birmingham, WHMA-40 in Anniston and WCFT-33 in Tuscaloosa. Channel 13 had a longstanding commitment to carry the Bear Bryant Show (Alabama football highlights) at 4:00 p.m., and at 5:00, they carried the Auburn Football Review, first with Shug Jordan, then Doug Barfield after Coach Jordan retired.

 

[compubit]

This ties to an upcoming (back in 88) affiliation switch:

WTVJ (which became NBC in '89) picked up several NBC programs that WSVN (which was NBC becoming "independent" as they called it - but we called it Fox...) didn't clear. I recall Santa Barbara airing on WTVJ while still a CBS station, as well as Sunday Today after it went on the air. I don't recall anything else, but I was just a visitor in Miami at the time (mom & dad lived there...).

Jim

 

[Iowan]

Um, I don't know if this counts, but I think the first Quad Cities (western Illinois and eastern Iowa) discard was UPN's Star Trek Voyager which first aired on WHBF-TV, then on WQAD for the final two seasons, while KLJB aired Smackdown and XFL (even though there was no UPN station here at that time). WBQD-LP finally signed on in 2002, and for that following season, it only aired two Disney shows while the other two were on KLJB. To date, there have been no network discards in the Quad Cities (although I personally think that 'cause of the LMA between WQAD and WBQD, the latter should air ABC soaps on Labor Day while the former airs the MDA Telethon--it'd only be just for that one day....)

 

[stdjsb25]

-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.

Yep...back in the days after KLMG dropped CBS for Fox and became KFXK....I recall the Super Bowl in 92 being carried on KETK even though CBS was airing the game.

And back before KETK, KLTV would carry NBC sporting events along with some CBS. Then again, KLTV also carried the NBC soaps instead of the ABC soaps (except for Ryan's Hope), along with the Tonight Show and Letterman instead of Nightline.

And of course for its first two years on the air, KFXK would pick up Star Trek: Voyager before UPN came to East Texas.

And as for another preemption, KLTV would preempt NYPD Blue in its first season and run Babylon 5 in its place, while KFXK would run the show in its network slot.

 

[BoscoGoldBear]

And let's not forget WHDH-TV (now WCVB) 5, then with CBS, carrying "The Tonight Show" (early Johnny Carson) from WBZ-TV 4 (then with NBC) so that WBZ could carry a locally televised movie back in 1962. (That came from Peter Wiggins' many classic New England TV schedules and from Don Gillis, whose WHDH sportscast came right before Johnny.)

 

[BIG APE]

Back in the OLD days at WESH in Orlando, Hank Johnson, Chief Photog..used to sit around all week and look at 16mm prints of old movies to make sure they were in one piece! I bet he had something to do with airing those "relics"

 

[fortmill]

One of the odder network program exchanges took place in Raleigh-Durham back in the 60s and very early 70s. WTVD/11 was a CBS affilate which aired many NBC programs, including Tonight and Today. Of course, they stayed with CBS news. WRAL/5, the other network affilate, had started off with a NBC affilation in the 50s, but switched to primary ABC around 1960, supposedly because they believed NBC was too liberal (Jesse Helms was their political commentator). After that, they aired some NBC sports, but no other NBC programing. educational tv station (now PBS) WUNC/4 began airing NBC news for a while after WRAL dropped them, then surprisingly, WRAL took the Huntley-Brinkley News and dropped ABC NEWS!!! A third commercial Tv station came on in 1967 (WRDU/28), airing the left over NBC and CBS programing WTVD didn't take, but NBC news stayed with WRAL, who was by this time entirely ABC, other than the evening news. WRDU did not air ABC news. This continued until 1972 when the FCC forced each station to select one network. WRDU got the entire NBC schedule, including Huntley Brinkley, at that time

 

[bpatrick]

I remember the WUNC/Huntley-Brinkley connection
beginning just before, or perhaps during, the coverage
of JFK's assassination. I know that WRAL had ABC's
coverage of the tragedy, WTVD had CBS's, and with
nowhere else to go in the Triangle, NBC had its coverage
on WUNC (so we did get to see Jack Ruby shoot Lee
Harvey Oswald live). WUNC then carried "The Huntley-
Brinkley Report" for about a year or so.

But a number of ABC affiliates dropped the network news
in 1968, when Frank Reynolds replaced Peter Jennings (who
had decided he needed more reporting experience). Reynolds
was deemed too liberal by many ABC affiliates, including WRAL,
and that was when Channel 5 went back to carrying Huntley-
Brinkley. In Birmingham, WBRC dropped ABC News and didn't
pick it up again until Harry Reasoner forced the issue in 1972;
likewise, WQXI (WXIA) Atlanta handed off ABC News to pre-
Turner Channel 17 (then WJRJ) in 1968; 17 had no success with
it, and ABC News didn't return on Channel 11 until December 1971.

Oddly, fortmill, the only ABC affiliate in the I-85 corridor carrying
the network's news between 1968 and 1970 was WCCB/18 in
Charlotte. WGHP and WLOS began carrying it in 1970 (WLOS had
also dropped it after the switch from Jennings to Reynolds, and
WGHP had never carried it); WRAL and WQXI (WXIA) added it
in 1971.

 

[NeilRattigan]

Didn't WHIO Dayton, OH [a CBS affiliate] clear NBC's Huntley-Brinkley in the 60s?

I know KTBC, a CBS affiliate owned by LBJ, chose Huntley-Brinkley over Cronkite for a while.

 

[azumanga]

This continued until 1972 when the FCC forced each station to select one network. WRDU got the entire NBC schedule, including Huntley Brinkley, at that time

Actually, WRDU got its predecessor, the "NBC Nightly News" -- Huntley-Brinkley ended in July 31, 1970, when the former retired.

 

[Stanislav]

Educational tv station (now PBS) WUNC/4 began airing NBC news for a while after WRAL dropped them...

That's the first I've heard of a non-comm station running a network news show. Did they carry it live from the NBC feed, or on tape-delay? Because if live, I suppose they had to "cover" the commercials with something else (PSAs, etc.) "on the fly" while the show was airing. (A situation always ripe for screw-ups...)

 

[bpatrick]

WUNC carried the 7 PM feed of Huntley-Brinkley and
did substitute the commercials with PSAs, promos for
upcoming programs on the station, etc.

WTVI, the PBS station in Charlotte, used to carry
Sunrise Semester in the early evening; this was
pre-empted on WBTV in the mornings, but there
was less problem here, since Sunrise Semester
aired without commercials to begin with.

 

[MACK184]

When N.Y.P.D. Blue came out there were a number of mid-west & southern TV stations who would not carry the ABC show because of the nudity and language. In Toledo, the NBC affil carried Blue for a number of years, until a new owner came along at the ABC outlet. Also, while this isn't exactly in the thread topic, when I was going to college 100 years ago in Montana, there were 2 over the air stations we could recieve. Both of the stations were affiliated with all 3 networks, and it was amazing to watch what their PD's would come up with each week. The "Tuesday Night Movie" might actually air on Thursday, or they would have a
CBS show at 8pm, an NBC show at 9, then an ABC show at 10 and so on. Ahhh...The good old days!

 

[Cincinnati Kid]

In 1958 or so, WCPO-TV, an ABC affiliate in Cincinnati, started picking up The Jack Paar (Tonight) Show when WLW-T, Channel 5, the NBC affiliate, showed movies. Back then, the show went from 11:15 P.M. to 1:00 A.M. The only difference in Channel 9 picking up that show was a local personality appeared at 11:15 and told viewers who the guests on that night's show were going to be (this was done at the same time as Hugh Downs was announcing them on the NBC-TV Network). The local personality would then say, "Here's Jack Paar" and Channel 9 would cut to the feed as he walked through the curtains.

The failure of the local NBC affiliate to pick up the show was caused by the previous offering that NBC used for late-night called "America After Dark". It was a form of a late-night "Today Show" which only lasted a short time and had viewers turning it off. Many affiliates stopped carrying it and started showing movies. When Paar began on NBC, there was still some reluctance by affiliates to pick up that show until Paar became very popular. By the late 1950's, WLW-T finally started carrying it.

 

[Tim-In-Houston]

Educational tv station (now PBS) WUNC/4 began airing NBC news for a while after WRAL dropped them...

That's the first I've heard of a non-comm station running a network news show. Did they carry it live from the NBC feed, or on tape-delay? Because if live, I suppose they had to "cover" the commercials with something else (PSAs, etc.) "on the fly" while the show was airing. (A situation always ripe for screw-ups...)

For a while in the early-80s (I had, at one time, a couple of 1982 TV Guides that showed this) PBS was carrying a tape-delayed and open-captioned version of ABC's "World News Tonight." It was listed as "Captioned ABC News" in the TV Guide listing and was offered, I think, in the 7:30/6:30 slot, perhaps after PBS' "MacNeil/Lehrer Report" (prior to its expansion to an hour in 1983).

 

[davect]

Back in the early 90's when WHLL Worcester was an independent we would scavenge Boston's NBC rejects, and also for a time ABC rejects. It was mostly daytime programming during the noon hour and some weekend primetime or sports programming.

 

[bpatrick]

Educational tv station (now PBS) WUNC/4 began airing NBC news for a while after WRAL dropped them...

That's the first I've heard of a non-comm station running a network news show. Did they carry it live from the NBC feed, or on tape-delay? Because if live, I suppose they had to "cover" the commercials with something else (PSAs, etc.) "on the fly" while the show was airing. (A situation always ripe for screw-ups...)

For a while in the early-80s (I had, at one time, a couple of 1982 TV Guides that showed this) PBS was carrying a tape-delayed and open-captioned version of ABC's "World News Tonight." It was listed as "Captioned ABC News" in the TV Guide listing and was offered, I think, in the 7:30/6:30 slot, perhaps after PBS' "MacNeil/Lehrer Report" (prior to its expansion to an hour in 1983).

Right, but that was offered to the full PBS network. When ABC began
closed-captioning "World News Tonight," the PBS program labeled "Captioned
ABC News" was discontinued. I'm not sure, and somebody correct me on
this, but I think WGBH or some other company in Boston handled the open-
captioning.

Huntley-Brinkley aired in the Triangle on WUNC when we didn't have a
fulltime NBC affiliate. Back in '63 and '64 WRAL (ABC) carried Ron Cochran,
and WTVD (CBS/NBC) carried Walter Cronkite, so Chet and David had nowhere
else to go. Interesting, since nationally they still outrated Cronkite at the time.

 

[azumanga]

When ABC began
closed-captioning "World News Tonight," the PBS program labeled "Captioned
ABC News" was discontinued. I'm not sure, and somebody correct me on
this, but I think WGBH or some other company in Boston handled the open-
captioning.

I think I saw WGBH credited for the captioned version. In addition, during the commercial breaks, additional headlines, weather and sports scores would be displayed instead.

 

[Charles1]

When N.Y.P.D. Blue came out there were a number of mid-west & southern TV stations who would not carry the ABC show because of the nudity and language...

Huntsville was one of those southern markets. The local ABC affiliate WAAY-31 did not carry NYPD the first few years, and instead, Fox affiliate WZDX-54 scooped it up.

 

[Tim L]

Another unusual instance of networks and "discarded" programs occured in Pittsburgh in Spring 1958 (Sunday, May 11)

WQED-13, Pittsburgh's educational station on Sundays from 2:30-7PM carried several Sunday news/discussion programs from all 3 networks

2:30 College News Conference-ABC
3PM Johns Hopkins-ABC
3:30 Dean Pike-ABC
4PM Open Hearing-ABC
4:30 Face The Nation-CBS
5PM Ceiling Unlimited (Walter Cronkite Special)-CBS
5:55 CBS News-Harry Reasoner (TV Guide had this as a "SPECIAL" so it may have been a one time thing)
6PM Last Word-CBS
6:25 CBS News-Robert Trout
6:30 Outlook-Chet Huntley-NBC

The airtime of WQED on Sundays appeared to be from 11:30 AM-7:30 PM..No programming listed after 7:30..