TV AFFILIATIONS DIFFERING FROM RADIO COMPANIONS

[Bob E. Nelson]

When a TV station signed on in the 40's and 50's, the usual convention was that the network on the radio side was adopted by the television.

There were a few exceptions such as WDEF/Chattanooga (NBC radio but CBS on TV). It was the same story when WTIC-TV/Hartford went from being an indy to CBS, with the radio retaining its longtime NBC affiliation. Off the top of my head, WJBK-TV/Detroit signed on as a CBS primary but the radio side was Mutual (with CBS over on WJR).

I'm sure there are many others fitting this pattern. What are those that you can recall?

 

[Bob1370]

Worked in a couple such situations.

In Syracuse in the 70s WHEN radio (AM 620), where I worked as afternoon newscaster, was an ABC Entertainment Network affiliate while WHEN-TV (channel 5) was CBS. All the radio newscasts were locally originated 24/7 so all we used the net for was audio for national stories and also a little extra $$$ per national spot aired.

In Buffalo, WKBW (iAM 1520) had no network affiliation at all, just using UPI for both wire and national audio, while WKBW-TV was, and is, ABC from the time it first signed on in 1958.

 

[bpatrick]

In Raleigh WNAO radio was an ABC affiliate; WNAO-TV was
a CBS primary, ABC secondary. WRAL radio was affiliated
with Mutual, which, of course, had no television network;
WRAL-TV signed on as an NBC affiliate, later switching to
ABC, then CBS.

 

[Ultimajock]

Off the top of my head, WJBK-TV/Detroit signed on as a CBS primary but the radio side was Mutual (with CBS over on WJR).

...are you sure about WJBK Radio being Mutual? I was under the impression that CKLW Windsor had become the Mutual affiliate for the Detroit market after founding affiliate WXYZ switched to NBC's Blue Network in the mid-'30s. In the '50s, when RKO General bought CKLW, the station was co-owned with the Mutual network itself...

...in Milwaukee, there was a spell when WISN-TV/12 was "Milwaukee's address for CBS" while the radio station was affiliated with one of ABC's networks (American Information?). In '77, CBS moved to WITI/6 and WISN-TV regained the ABC affiliation it had signed on with (as WTVW) in 1954...

...up the highway, in Fond du Lac WI, KFIZ-TV/34 was a secondary CBS affiliate (while primarily independent), airing occasional material WBAY-TV/2 Green Bay and WISN-TV both rejected (especially The Merv Griffin Show) while KFIZ Radio was Mutual...

 

[mleach]

This may be a bad example but recently I had caught an old American Top 40 broadcast from the early 80's that mentioned that their NYC affiliate was WNBC-AM. However at the end of the show I heard Casey say something like ABC/Watermark.

After WABC-AM went talk while the top 40 sounds continue on WNBC did 66/WNBC pick up an ABC affiliation?

 

[Bob E. Nelson]

...are you sure about WJBK Radio being Mutual?

Come to think of it, I can't be 100% certain about that. I seem to recall seeing an 'M' next to WJBK in an early Vane A. Jones book (which I don't have access to at my present location). Or it may have even been on a Gulf Oil map of Michigan where the radio stations and networks used to be listed as a service to the motoring public.

And, then again, it may have just been my imagination at my advanced age.

In any event, it's also noteworthy that WJBK was a little class IV way up at 1490 during that era but still was able to launch a television station with a strong network and what was then prime real estate (channel 2) on the TV dial.

 

[therealjm12]

In Syracuse WHEN radio was actually CBS radio until the format switch to A. C. in the early 70's. WFBL was the CBS affilate in the golden days of radio. I don't know when or why WFBL switched to ABC and WHEN became CBS. Must have been in the early 50's.

 

[CdSull502]

The one that comes to mind most readily to me is WTIC in Hartford. WTIC-AM was a long time NBC affiliate; when WTIC-TV signed on in 1957 it was briefly an independent and then became a CBS affiliate. The logical choice would have been for the AM to pick up CBS but it never did.

 

[BobbyNBC10]

In Lansing, WJIM-AM 1240 was NBC Radio, WJIM-TV (now WLNS-TV) Channel 6 was and still is CBS. WJIM-TV did have affiliations with NBC, before WILX-TV 10 signed on in 1959, and ABC before WJRT-TV 12 Flint,signe don in 1958 which was Lansing's defacto ABC station until WLAJ-TV came on in 1990.

 

[KeithE4]

When WGN-TV 9 Chicago signed on as a Dumont/CBS station in 1948, WGN radio 720 was a Mutual affiliate. Of course, by definition, Dumont TV affiliates and Mutual radio affiliates had sister-stations on different networks.

WTTV 10 (now 4) Bloomington/Indianapolis IN was a primary NBC affiliate from sign-on in 1949 to 1956. Its co-owned radio station, WTTS 1370, was affiliated with ABC for most of its life as an AM station (1949-1984). They were both ABC in 1956-57.

KPHO-TV 5 Phoenix was primary CBS at sign-on (1949), while KPHO radio 910 was ABC.

KOOL-TV 10 Phoenix was originally an ABC affiliate in 1953, while KOOL 960 switched from Mutual to CBS around that time. KOOL-TV didn't change to CBS until 1955.

KTYL-TV (now KPNX) 12 Mesa/Phoenix was (and is) NBC from Day One in 1953, but KTYL radio had no network affiliation. That changed when KTYL-TV was sold to NBC Radio affiliate KTAR.

 

[oldiesfan6479]

KTYL-TV (now KPNX) 12 Mesa/Phoenix was (and is) NBC...(snip)...KTYL-TV was sold to NBC Radio affiliate KTAR.

Also resulted in the channel 12 calls changing from KTYL-TV to KVAR(TV) to KTAR-TV to
the current KPNX(TV). But there's another R/TV affiliation twist: while the TV has always
been NBC, in the early 1970s, KTAR(AM)--a long time NBC Radio affil--flipped to ABC/I.
IIRC it was gradual at first (airing Paul Harvey from ABC), but evolved to where ABC was
its primary radio network.

KT'R (as we call it on the PHX board) later had a secondary Mutual affiliation, primarily to
carry Larry King at night.

 

[KML0224]

Of course today in 2010, WTIC-AM 1080 of Hartford is owned by CBS Radio. The original WTIC-TV channel 3 became WFSB-TV in 1974. Arnold Chase would sign on WTIC-TV channel 61 in 1984, with the classic call letters moving there. WTIC is one of the original FOX affiliates outside of the O & O stations. Today, they share space in the same building as The Hartford Courant newspaper and sister station WCCT-TV (CW) channel 20, on Broad Street in Hartford. (WFSB-TV channel 3 is presently owned by Merideth Broadcasting and their studio is now off of I-91 in Rocky Hill, CT.)

 

[BobbyNBC10]

In Lansing, WJIM-AM 1240 was NBC Radio, WJIM-TV (now WLNS-TV) Channel 6 was and still is CBS. WJIM-TV did have affiliations with NBC, before WILX-TV 10 signed on in 1959, and ABC before WJRT-TV 12 Flint,signe don in 1958 which was Lansing's defacto ABC station until WLAJ-TV came on in 1990.

WILX-TV is still NBC and when they were HQ'd in Jackson before moving to Lansing in 1993, their co-owned radio station from 1963-78 WJCO-AM 1510 was the Mutual Broadcasting System.

 

[fortmill]

Richmond: WTVR/6 was CBS, while radio counterpoint WMBG/1380 was ABC. WXEX/8 was NBC while the co-owned WLEE/1480 was Mutual. WRVA/12 was ABC while co-owned WRVA/1140 was NBC.

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

Richmond: WTVR/6 was CBS, while radio counterpoint WMBG/1380 was ABC. WXEX/8 was NBC while the co-owned WLEE/1480 was Mutual. WRVA/12 was ABC while co-owned WRVA/1140 was NBC.

Was WRVA-1140 once part of CBS Radio too--including during the early '90s? There were times late at night I would actually listen to parts of the "Big John" Trimble trucking radio show that aired on WRVA until about 1995 or so IIRC--and back then their national news came from CBS.

 

[MattParker]

In Detroit, WJBK radio was an independent (personality DJs playing popular music). CBS, early on, urged radio affiliates not to apply for TV licenses. They were convinced that their own non-mechanical color system would supplant the NTSC black and white system. So, WJR sat things out and WJBK got the TV license. CBS also ended up having to pay big bucks to buy O&Os in markets like Chicago and Los Angeles (because they, too, passed when the FCC was giving away TV licenses).

WJBK-TV, channel 2, became a CBS and Dumont affiliate. CKLW was a Mutual affiliate up to (about) 1960, when RKO-General sold Mutual and dropped their stations' affiliations with it. At some point in the late 60s, Van Patrick, who was also Mutual's sports director, was doing sports on WJBK-TV's news broadcasts. WJBK radio at that point picked up his sports broadcasts from Mutual (which originated from WKNR radio, of which Patrick was part owner). To the best of my knowledge, WJBK radio did not carry other Mutual programming.

WJR later picked up a license for a station in Flint, Michigan (WJRT) when the 50s freeze on new TV licenses was lifted. That station became an ABC affiliate. (CBS owned a UHF station in the same market.)

In the late 40s, through the 50s and even into the 60s some places, many markets did not have three TV stations. In a market with one or two TV stations, a station would carry programs from two, three or even all four networks - despite any exclusive network affiliation on the radio side. And from time to time, those radio stations would change networks - or drop network affiliation all together. For example, up to 1955, Group W radio stations were NBC affiliates (Westinghouse and GE were original partners in RCA and NBC). In markets where they had both radio and TV at the time, Group W dropped NBC radio and stayed (at least for the time being) with NBC television.

 

[Mike Sheridan]

In Buffalo, WKBW (iAM 1520) had no network affiliation at all, just using UPI for both wire and national audio, while WKBW-TV was, and is, ABC from the time it first signed on in 1958.

Bob knowing what a radio fan you are you probably already know this. At various times WKBW radio in the early days before top 40 had been affiliated at different times with CBS, ABC, and lastly NBC before going top 40.

I'm not sure but in the days of Buffalo's NBC owned WBUF wasn't WGR-TV the ABC affiliate before WKBW-TV signed on? I vaguely remember WBUF and their NBC programming. Yes we had a TV with UHF!

At the combined KB/GR transmitter site in Hamburg shared with WGR since the days of the Buffalo Broadcasting Corp. The WGR calls were on the right side of the building. They were replaced when the stations had separate owners and ABC went up in place of the WGR calls. I wonder if they still have the WGR letters stored somewhere?

 

[oldschooler1]

In Syracuse WHEN radio was actually CBS radio until the format switch to A. C. in the early 70's. WFBL was the CBS affilate in the golden days of radio. I don't know when or why WFBL switched to ABC and WHEN became CBS. Must have been in the early 50's.

But then WFBL picked up CBS radio again in the early 70s, when WHEN went A.C. w/ local origination on news 24/7 (NewsWatch 62, a 24 hour service of WHEN). I distinctly remember hearing CBS top of the hour news on FBL in the seventies, at the same time they carried CBS Radio Mystery Theatre at 11PM.

WSYR radio was NBC (same as TV side)....

WNYS ch. 9/ABC had no radio affiliate....

FBL had no TV side.

And since 62-WHEN had the contract for ABC Entertainment (just playing the spots during local casts and using the news cut feed for local news), ABC Information top of the hour was not heard in Syracuse in the seventies. The closest ABC Information affiliate at the time would have been WTKO Ithaca.

Sorry to get off-topic...

 

[Kurt Toy]

From 1981 through sometime in the '90s KDKA radio was affiliated with NBC while the TV was [and still is] CBS. The radio station rejoined NBC after having dumped it somtime around '55-'56-'57.

 

[azumanga]

CKLW was a Mutual affiliate up to (about) 1960, when RKO-General sold Mutual and dropped their stations' affiliations with it.

CKLW-TV, during the time both radio and TV were sisters, carried CBC Television programming, as well as some DuMont programs when they existed.

WJR later picked up a license for a station in Flint, Michigan (WJRT) when the 50s freeze on new TV licenses was lifted. That station became an ABC affiliate. (CBS owned a UHF station in the same market.)

If you're talking about the Flint / Saginaw / Bay City market, CBS never founded or owned WKNX-TV (today's NBC affiliate, WEYI). CBS never acquired a TV station in the Lower Peninsula until it bought WGPR-TV in 1995.