STATIONS WITH THE SAME NETWORK FOR YEARS, BUT CALL LETTERS HAVE CHANGED

[dhett]

D.W. Ingram sold the station to Tucson Television Co, Inc. in late 1956. According to the 1957 TV Factbook (Page 5), the FCC approved it on 12/19/1956, so the callsign change to KGUN-TV must have occurred on or near that date.

Actually, the Ingrams owned Tucson Television Co. and filed their original application for a TV station under that name.

http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC-IDX/55-OCR/BC 1955 04 04-0011.pdf#search="ingram"

The Ingrams sold to H.U. Garrett in a deal first announced in November 1956, reportedly due to Dr. Ingram's declining health.

http://www.americanradiohistory.com...R/BC-1956-11-05-Page-0005.pdf#search="ingram"

 

[trapper12]

Lexington Ky WTVQ started out as WBLG but has been with ABC since day one.

They also changed channels from Channel 62 to Channel 36 as well. (Their DTV is on Channel 40 now).

Forgot about that. I remember when they changed out the equipment.

 

[Tim L]

WKYC-TV was an NBC O&O all the way to 1990, when Multimedia acquired 51% of WKYC, which was sold to Gannett in 1995 (along with NBC's 49%)..The 1965-72 years applied to WKYC Radio, which NBC sold in 1972..

WTOV-9 Steubenville was actually primary CBS from 1953-80, switching to NBC in January 1980..

 

[therealjm12]

In Syracuse Ch 9. Started out as WNYS, then WIXT and now WSYR-TV but still ABC.
Rochester, WOKR Now WHAM-TV still ABC
Buffalo WGR-TV now WGRZ but has remained NBC

 

[fybush]

As a general rule, it's probably true that a majority of TV stations that signed on in the medium's early years (say, up to the mid-1960s) have now changed calls at least once. In many, many cases it was a joint radio-TV operation that split, with the TV station getting new calls. In others, it was a station that might have started out small and struggling, trying to change its image as times got better. But in any case, I suspect it's rarer now to find a station of that vintage that hasn't changed calls than one that has. (In New York state, for instance, the only big-three affiliates from those early years that still use their original calls are WRGB in Schenectady, WKTV in Utica and WKBW-TV in Buffalo, and of those only WKTV and WKBW are with their original networks; in all of New England, it's just WJAR Providence, WBZ-TV Boston, WMUR Manchester, WCSH Portland, WMTW Poland Spring and WABI-TV Bangor, and only WJAR, WCSH, WMTW and WABI are still with their original nets.)

The rarer and more interesting cases, I think, are the stations that have changed calls more than once while staying with the same network - the channel 30s in Connecticut (WKNB/WNBC/WHNB/WVIT), the channel 9s in Syracuse (WNYS/WIXT/WSYR), the channel 34s in Binghamton (WBJA/WMGC/WIVT).

Anything out there that can top four callsigns and one network in New Britain?

 

[Charles1]

As a general rule, it's probably true that a majority of TV stations that signed on in the medium's early years (say, up to the mid-1960s) have now changed calls at least once. In many, many cases it was a joint radio-TV operation that split, with the TV station getting new calls. In others, it was a station that might have started out small and struggling, trying to change its image as times got better. But in any case, I suspect it's rarer now to find a station of that vintage that hasn't changed calls than one that has. (In New York state, for instance, the only big-three affiliates from those early years that still use their original calls are WRGB in Schenectady, WKTV in Utica and WKBW-TV in Buffalo, and of those only WKTV and WKBW are with their original networks; in all of New England, it's just WJAR Providence, WBZ-TV Boston, WMUR Manchester, WCSH Portland, WMTW Poland Spring and WABI-TV Bangor, and only WJAR, WCSH, WMTW and WABI are still with their original nets.)

The rarer and more interesting cases, I think, are the stations that have changed calls more than once while staying with the same network - the channel 30s in Connecticut (WKNB/WNBC/WHNB/WVIT), the channel 9s in Syracuse (WNYS/WIXT/WSYR), the channel 34s in Binghamton (WBJA/WMGC/WIVT).

Anything out there that can top four callsigns and one network in New Britain?

Channel 13 in Birmingham can't top it, but they can match it: WAFM (1954, when they took NBC from WBRC, until 1955); WABT (1955-58); WAPI (1958-80), WVTM (1980-present). They were a split NBC affiliate from 1955-70 (NBC/ABC, 1955-61; NBC/CBS 1961-70).

 

[spencerkarter85]

You've forgot KCBS-TV 2 (before 1984) when it was KNXT (after gaining the CBS O&O).

 

[desertv]

Add Albuquerque...

KGGM/KRQE(CBS) channel 13

 

[fybush]

Anything out there that can top four callsigns and one network in New Britain?

Channel 13 in Birmingham can't top it, but they can match it: WAFM (1954, when they took NBC from WBRC, until 1955); WABT (1955-58); WAPI (1958-80), WVTM (1980-present). They were a split NBC affiliate from 1955-70 (NBC/ABC, 1955-61; NBC/CBS 1961-70).

I can think of another one, at least on a technicality: 11 in Minneapolis, which started out as shared-license WMIN-TV/WTCN-TV, then became solely WTCN-TV, then WUSA-TV, then KARE-TV. It went from DuMont to indie to NBC along the way, too.

And Mesa/Phoenix (KTYL/KVAR/KTAR/KPNX) has been mentioned previously, too.

 

[cwf1701]

Another one Channel 4 in Detroit has been with NBC since 1947, but its call letters was WWDT (1947), WWJ-TV(I) (1949-78) , and WDIV (1978-present)

 

[azumanga]

Also, the 6/4/56 edition of Broadcasting Magazine (Page 109 of 120) shows the station as being granted an STA to begin operations as KDWI-TV.

I GIVE UP!!!!!! And beg forgiveness. ;D

KDWI.....almost as bad as KDUI. And I think there is actually a college station in Iowa that has the DWI calls. Wonder if it's in a dry county.

The KGUN Wikipedia article used to state that the reason the call sign was changed was due to the negative connotation of DWI.

For the record, there is a radio station in Ottumwa, Iowa that uses the KDWI calls, owned by Iowa State University as part of the Iowa Public Radio network:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KDWI

Unfortunately, no radio or TV station uses KDUI. For that matter, no one is using "WDWI" or "WDUI" either.

 

[anotherguyTN]

In Memphis there were minor changes:
WREC/WREG 3 (CBS)
WMCT/WMC 5 (NBC)

 

[FreddyE1977]

In Pittsburgh, WPXI started out as WIIC. It has been NBC all along.

In Altoona, WTAJ started out as WFBG. It was CBS/ABC and today is CBS only. It was sold apart from former radio siblings WFBG/AM-FM.

In Youngstown, WYTV (ABC) started as WKST in New Castle (sibling to an AM station that still has that callsign today). It also moved from Channel 45 in New Castle to Channel 33 in Youngstown.

In Steubenville, WTOV started out as WSTV, sibling to a longtime (but recently silent) AM station. It has been NBC all along ... started out as NBC and ABC.

WTOV was a primary CBS affiliate from 1953 until about 1979, I think. WTRF in Wheeling was the NBC affiliate in the market.
They flipped, with both maintaining secondary ABC affiliations.

 

[bpatrick]

Columbus, OH:

WLWC/WCMH Ch. 4 (NBC)
WTVN/WSYX Ch. 6 (ABC)

 

[dave73]

No one has mentioned this one yet. For the Fort Wayne, IN market, WISE-TV started out as WKJG-TV in 1953. IN 2003, new owners changed the call letters to the current WISE-TV, while affiliating with NBC all this time.

Also, WANE-TV started out as WINT-TV, & used those call letters for 2 years from 1954 - 1956. Then they changed to WANE, & used those until 1979. IN 1979, they only added the -TV suffix to the WANE call letters. They've been primary CBS the entire time.

 

[Bob1370]

It was mentioned by therealjim that "Buffalo's WGR-TV now WGRZ...has remained NBC". All true, beginning in September 1958. But before then, it was an ABC affiliate because NBC had chosen to use Buffalo as an experimental market to see if it could make money with a UHF O&O (in this case WBUF, Channel 17). NBC's experiment failed, it drew the lowest ratings of any NBC station in a top 100 market, and was shut down after WKBW got a permit for a third VHF station in the market. WBUF shut down two months before WKBW-TV signed on, handing off the NBC affiliation to WGR. WKBW-TV signed on as an ABC affiliate right after Thanksgiving 1958 and has been an ABC affiliate ever since.

There are other stations in NY State which have held their networks since their first sign-on, through callsign, ownership and even channel changes. Case in point;

New York City; WCBW/WCBS-TV, Ch. 2, CBS O&O from day one in July 1941
WNBT/WRCA-TV/WNBC-TV/WNBC, Ch. 1/Ch. 4; NBC O&O from day one in July 1941
WJZ-TV/WABC-TV Ch. 7; ABC O&O from day one in August 1948
Buffalo; WBEN-TV/WIVB Ch. 4; CBS basic from day one in May 1948
WKBW-TV Ch. 7; ABC from day one in November 1958
Rochester; WOKR/WHAM-TV, Ch. 13; ABC from day one in September 1962
Syracuse; WSYR-TV/WSTM-TV Ch. 5/Ch.3; NBC basic from day one in 1950
WHEN-TV/WTVH Ch. 8/Ch. 5; CBS basic from day one in November 1948
WNYS-TV/WIXT/WSYR-TV Ch. 9; ABC from day one in September 1962
Binghamton; WNBF-TV/WBNG Ch. 12; CBS basic from day one in 1949
Utica; WKTV Ch. 13/Ch. 2, NBC basic from day one in 1949
Watertown; WCNY-TV/WWNY-TV Ch. 7, CBS basic from day one in 1954

You'll notic that while the Capital District has had television service since 1942, none of its stations are on this list because all oof the stations which were on the air before 1960 have swapped affiliations at least once since the mid-1970s.

 

[KeyTimes950]

WTOV-9 Steubenville was actually primary CBS from 1953-80, switching to NBC in January 1980..

Thank you, I had forgotten that. Likewise, WTRF-7 in Wheeling started out primary NBC and today is primary CBS (with ABC and Fox on subchannels).

 

[trapper12]

WTNZ Knoxville, formerly WKCH, has been with FOX since the beginning of FOX. It is the only station in Knoxville to stay with its original network. WVLT aka WKXT aka WTVK has been with three of the four major networks and none were secondary affiliations.

 

[ChuckTiller]

In Houston, the CBS affiliate (Channel 11) has only had two sets of calls:
KGUL-TV (1953–1959)
KHOU-TV (1959-2009)

The NBC affiliate (Channel 2)has had two sets of calls:
KLEE-TV (1949–1950)
KPRC-TV (1950-Present)

Before KTRK-TV 13 signed on, it had secondary affiliation with ABC. Before KGUL-TV signed on, it had secondary affiliation with CBS. Before KNUZ-TV (Channel 39)signed on, it had secondary affiliation with DuMont.

On another note, KTRK-TV 13 has been an ABC affiliate (now owned by Disney/ABC) since 1954 without a call letter change.

 

[RobertAnthony]

How 'bout WKNB/WNBC/WHNB-TV/WVIT (Channel 30/NBC) New Britain/Hartford (1953-present)
WHYN-TV/WGGB (Channel 40/ABC) Springfield, MA (1958-present)
WNHC-TVWTNH (Channel 8/ABC) New Haven, CT (1955-present)
WGAN-TV/WGME (Channel 13/CBS) Portland, ME (1954-present)

You forgot Hartford's channel 3 WTIC-TV (1957-74) WFSB (1974-now) which has been a CBS affiliate since 1957 although it was an independent believe it or not for its first few months.