Shortest time affiliated with a major network?

[Stanislav]

What is the shortest period of time that a station has been a primary affiliate of a particular major network (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox)?

I would imagine that under normal circumstances, because contracts are involved, that it would be extremely rare not to be affiliated for less than a year or two, and in most cases affiliation agreements are probably set up for longer than that. Plus, if a station is going to identify with a particular network, brand themselves as such (with the appropriate logos on signs, cameras, paperwork, advertising, etc.), and craft their programming strategy around the network schedule, they pretty much like to believe that the relationship will last long enough to make the effort and expense worthwhile.

The exceptions and asterisks would come into play in the case of stations that went dark not long after getting a network affiliation (New Hampshire's WNHT comes to mind: they went dark exactly 13 months after picking up CBS) or in the case of early UHFs and the like, a station that was a network affiliate from the start, but didn't even survive a full year on the air.

Nominations for this category?

 

[Mike Stroud]

My nomination would go to WCJB in Gainesville, Florida, which began in 1971 as an NBC affiliate. Gainesville, as most people know, is the home of the University of Florida, where college football is the primary cultural force. ABC had exclusive rights to college football at the time. So, in 1973, after just two years of NBC affiliation, the station switched to ABC. I cannot think of any other explanation as to why that station changed networks so early in its history. What I wonder instead is why it did not attempt to affiliate with ABC in the first place before it began broadcasting. I suspect that it may have had to do with Orlando NBC affil WESH being headquartered in Daytona Beach, which was the most farther removed geographically of the Orlando stations from the northern part of its market, thus possibly precluding duplication of NBC programs among viewers in and around Gainesville. Orlando ABC station WFTV, by contrast, may well have shown up clearly in some homes to the south of Gainesville. Whatever happened about reception issues, the Minshall family, owners of WCJB, decided that the prestige of showing the home team on some Saturday afternoons in the fall outweighed other considerations. One last question would be whether WCJB paid a large sum to NBC as a penalty/recompensation for getting out of its contract early.

 

[bpatrick]

Gainesville could pick up NBC on WTLV/12 Jacksonville,
but ABC was on then-WJKS/17. Cable wasn't as
widespread in '73, and with a strong CBS affiliate in
Jacksonville (WJXT/4 at the time), a good NBC affiliate,
and a weak ABC one, it made sense.

 

[Mike Stroud]

bpatrick, you did have a point about Jacksonville, a place I overlooked when I was making my argument. ABC being on a UHF there would have meant viewers to the north of Gainesville had no access to that network. But that still does not answer the question about why WCJB initially went with NBC. Would any of you guess that its payment rates were more lucrative than ABC's at the time? Remember that ABC was still in third place nationally in 1971.

 

[james32746]

KCEN 9 (then ch. 6) (NBC) - Waco, affiliate of ABC from March to September 1985. Promptly returned to NBC afterwards (probably after ABC ratings fell sharply compared to NBC's rising ratings at the time)

KXXV 25 (ABC) - Waco, affiliate of NBC from March to September 1985. Station took NBC affiliation from KCEN but promptly lost it back to KCEN.

 

[mleach]

Though NOT the shortest but at least in the top ten chances are would be the now defunct WYVN FOX 60 in Martinsburg, West Virginia.

Signing on the the air in 1992 as FOX 60. First they had a decent line-up with "Live with Regis and Kathy Lee" and reruns like Love Boat, Married With Children, Three's Company, I Love Lucy and a bunch of cartoons..and of course "FOX 60 News at 10" ( West Virginia's first hour long 10pm news ). WYVN was state of the art, complete with live trucks and even a chopper ( though by default..thanks to WEPM-AM 1340 ).

That was in 1992..by 1993 WYVN had most of their gear re-poed and soon filed bankruptcy and WYVN went from having a live truck to a few camcorders that were bought at a local TV shop., employees ended up working for free and shows like "Regis & Kathy Lee" and "Three's Company" were replaced by such reruns as "The Cisco Kid" and local programs such as "Our West Virginia"..nothing more than a camera sticking out of the WYVN back door showing a nearby mountain..THATS IT !!! Oh sometimes if you are lucky one could catch the employees at a nearby insurance office taking a cigarette break...LIVE !!!!

Oh there was "4 State Live". A call in show that replaced "Fox 60 news at 10". However..they never had any callers. One show I remember the host was so bored he called up the local Dominos Pizza and when the driver arrived the host actually interviewed him while they ate the pizza.

By early 1993, all of news staff had left. At the time the rumor was that some bigwigs at WTTG would book motel rooms in Martinsburg, just to tape WYVN and send them to FOX, just to show the network just how bad WYVN was and hoping FOX would say "screw this" and yank their FOX affiilation.

What killed Fox 60? Combination of an owner who spent too much money and had ZERO experience in the TV business and Martinsburg's "change of direction". In 1992 when WYVN signed on, Martinsburg ( population 14,500 ) was hoping to become West Virginia biggest city within 10 years complete with an international airport ( the town at the time was trying to lure United Airlines ) and the owners of the then-new Martinsburg Mall wanted Macy's, Neiman-Marcus and Bloomingdales. With so much "metro growth" predicted, WYVN thought they could be as big as WTTG.

Anyway the growth did happen ( mainly home building..for DC commuters ) but United Airlines said no ( no passenger flights continue to this day in that town ) and Martinsburg Mall had to settle for Wal-Mart.

WYVN went dark in 1993. But I am pretty sure other than the Simpsons and a handful of Fox shows ( less than 3 I believe ) very little FOX was seen on FOX 60, by the time WYVN signed off, safe bet to say FOX couldn't care less about WYVN and once the station went dark, WYVN of course lost FOX totally.

However within a year later WYVN did come back but without FOX ( as an independent ). That too failed and WYVN went dark a second time..for good until PAX bought them a number of years later.

 

[Stanislav]

KCEN 9 (then ch. 6) (NBC) - Waco, affiliate of ABC from March to September 1985. Promptly returned to NBC afterwards (probably after ABC ratings fell sharply compared to NBC's rising ratings at the time)

KXXV 25 (ABC) - Waco, affiliate of NBC from March to September 1985. Station took NBC affiliation from KCEN but promptly lost it back to KCEN.

Would that imply that both stations only had 6-month contracts with their new networks to begin with? Or did the two stations and their legal eagles just work out a mutually beneficial arrangement in spite of what was originally signed? (How written in stone are those affiliation agreements, anyway?)

 

[bpatrick]

bpatrick, you did have a point about Jacksonville, a place I overlooked when I was making my argument. ABC being on a UHF there would have meant viewers to the north of Gainesville had no access to that network. But that still does not answer the question about why WCJB initially went with NBC. Would any of you guess that its payment rates were more lucrative than ABC's at the time? Remember that ABC was still in third place nationally in 1971.

I know that in the '70s affiliation contracts were for two years.
After that, I can only guess. NBC probably did make the most
attractive contract offer (CBS didn't need an affiliate in Gainesville,
and ABC in '71 was too weak). But somehow I have to believe that
WCJB failed to make a dent in WTLV's ratings (Ch. 12 being the
established NBC affiliate), and ABC--looking to fill in the gap in northern
Florida caused by a UHF in Jacksonville--decided that WCJB looked good
after all, and WCJB would have had almost exclusive ABC coverage;
WFTV gets into Ocala, true, but neither it nor WJKS could have been
a factor in Gainesville.

I can't top KCEN/KXXV, but WTVD/11, the ABC o&o in Raleigh/Durham,
was an ABC affiliate once before. It started as an NBC affiliate in 1954
and lost it to WRAL/5 in December 1956 (WNAO/28 was the CBS affiliate,
but with its terrible signal WFMY/2 Greensboro was the beneficiary, especially
in Durham and Chapel Hill). At any rate, during 1957 WRAL was NBC, WTVD
was ABC, and WNAO was CBS. Then, sometime in 1958, WNAO folded and
WTVD took the CBS primary affiliation (ABC secondary until 1962, NBC
secondary 1962-71), which it held until becoming an ABC o&o in 1985.

WTVR/6 Richmond lost NBC to WXEX (now WRIC)/8 in 1955. For about
a year it was a CBS primary, until the advent of WRVA (now WWBT)/12
in 1956 (WRVA had been the CBS radio affiliate in Richmond). WTVR then
went to ABC by default, switching back to CBS in 1960 because WRVA was
underperforming, and has been there ever since. (Ch. 12 got ABC, then
switched with Ch. 8 in 1965.)

Now-defunct WAYS/36 Charlotte might qualify, having carried ABC and NBC
in 1954 (I don't think before or after).

 

[Charles1]

How long was WCBI in Columbus, MS affiliated with ABC during the '70's? I don't think it was more than two years before it went back to CBS.

 

[bpatrick]

WCBI was affiliated with ABC from 1977 to 1979,
when it went back to CBS. And contrary to popular
belief, WSAV Savannah, GA, was an ABC affiliate
only from 1982 to 1984 before rejoining NBC.

 

[compubit]

KCEN was primary ABC before KXXV signed on - I moved to College Station in Fall of 1984, and there were 2 competing cable systems in town - depending on where you lived, you could choose (but most apartment complexes were exclusive):

The Cable System in our Apartment Complex had:
NBC: KPRC/2 Houston
CBS: KBTX/3 Bryan, KHOU/11 Houston, KTBC/7 Austin
ABC: KCEN/6 Temple, KTRK/13 Houston, KVUE/24 Austin
PBS: KUHT/8 Houston, KAMU/15 College Station
Ind: KTXH/20 Houston, KHTV/39 Houston

If you wanted NBC, all that the system offered at the time was KPRC (with some spill-over from KCEN).

The other system had:
NBC: KPRC/2 Houston, KTVV/36 Austin
CBS: KBTX/3 Bryan, KHOU/11 Houston, KTBC/7 Austin
ABC: KCEN/6 Temple, KTRK/13 Houston, KVUE/24 Austin
PBS: KUHT/8 Houston, KAMU/15 College Station
Ind: KTXH/20 Houston, KHTV/39 Houston

In '85, McCaw communications bought the 2 systems and merged them - in the process, they dropped KTBC & KVUE and KCEN went back to NBC (not adding KXXV immediately), leaving 1 ABC on the system, but 3 NBCs - although KPRC was relegated to channel 31, and then only on during news programming. Eventually, they added KXXV, leaving 2 of each network - except for Fox. They did add KTVT out of Dallas, though. We never had a Fox station on the system by the time I left in 89-90 - although KWKT had signed on by then. After I left, almost all out of market stations were dropped, except for KUHT (PBS) and KTRK - which followed the KPRC model (only local news - seems folks had to have their Dave Ward and Marvin Zindler fix...).

I recall trying to do anything I could to pick up KXXV when it first came on - since they didn't delay David Letterman like KPRC did...

Jim

 

[KeithE4]

How about KCTY Channel 25 in Kansas City? It not only was a short-lived network affiliate (Dumont), but it was an O&O! It lasted for about 6 weeks in early 1954 before Dumont pulled the plug.

 

[PDXREXX]

I would Think KSTW in seattle would by one. in 1995 they would be the CBS
affiliate it lasted 2 years then CBS went back to KIRO and they would become
a UPN affiliate

 

[Robnoxious]

Earle C. Anthony launched Los Angeles' KFI-TV channel 9 (later KHJ, now KCAL) in August 1948 as an NBC affiliate and became an independent in January 1949 when NBC launched O&O KNBH channel 4 (now KNBC). Channel 9 has been an independent ever since.

 

[Mike Stroud]

I found another one, and this may top them all. WPGA-TV in Macon, Georgia (analog channel 58) started in March 1995 as that market's first full FOX affiliate. WGXA (analog 24) started in 1982 as the ABC affil there, but began carrying FOX's Sunday NFL games when FOX acquired those rights for the first time in the 1990s. Apparently WGXA underwent a big revenue drop during the 1995 football season (despite carrying ABC's college football coverage, which was far more important to local viewers, IMO) and began negotiating with FOX to join up full-time, which would have the added effect of possibly nipping an upstart station in the bud by causing an early identity crisis.

WGXA succeeded, and after just 10 MONTHS of affiliation, WPGA had to give up FOX on New Year's Day 1996 in favor of ABC. Even though this change was a drop in the bucket considering the massive amount of switching to FOX that took place around the country at the time (particularly among longtime CBS stations), this was a vivid demonstration that FOX had finally butted its way into major league TV territory, and that America now had a "Big Four," not a "Big Three."

 

[oburn]

kfi tv also had cbs in 1948

 

[johnnya2k6]

After KTVF switched from CBS to NBC in April 1996, KFXF became a secondary CBS affiliate while still primarily with Fox. This lasted from April-August 1996 while they were preparing to launch sister station K13XD (marking the full-time return of CBS to Fairbanks), and they showed a few CBS shows like "Young and the Restless", "60 Minutes", "Late Show with David Letterman", and "Murphy Brown" as well as the NCAA Final Four championship game and the Masters. They didn't touch "The Price Is Right", the "CBS Evening News", or the Tony or Daytime Emmy Awards, but they did show CBS News coverage of the Olympic Park bombing.