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TV stations that aired news from 2 networks

M

moedog1

Guest
Everybody knows that many stations aired programs from two or even all three networks back in the days before UHF and cable. My question is, how many aired two different network's evening news programs at the same time. In Florence SC, WBTW/13 aired ABC News at 6 PM, followed by local news at 6:30 and CBS News at 7:00. THis went on from at least the late 60s until about 1981 when WPDE/15 came on as the ABC station there.
 
I thought I once read in an old TV Guide on microfilm in the Boston Public Library (I didn't make a photocopy) that when Boston's Channel 5 first went on the air in the Fall of 1957, it broadcast both NBC's "Huntley/Brinkley Report" and CBS' "Evening News", then anchored by Douglas Edwards, with a local newscast in-between (all three were fifteen minutes each). At the time, Channel 5 was an ABC affiliate (and is again today) and didn't carry ABC's own evening newscast, which at the time was anchored by John Charles Daly.
 
> I thought I once read in an old TV Guide on microfilm in the
> Boston Public Library (I didn't make a photocopy) that when
> Boston's Channel 5 first went on the air in the Fall of
> 1957, it broadcast both NBC's "Huntley/Brinkley Report" and
> CBS' "Evening News", then anchored by Douglas Edwards, with
> a local newscast in-between (all three were fifteen minutes
> each). At the time, Channel 5 was an ABC affiliate and
> didn't carry ABC's own evening newscast, which at the time
> was anchored by John Charles Daly.
>
KTWO-TV Casper was one of those stations. If I recall, they ran NBC and CBS News (at the time, KTWO was primarily an NBC) prior to their 5:30pm news.
 
> > I thought I once read in an old TV Guide on microfilm in
> the
> > Boston Public Library (I didn't make a photocopy) that
> when
> > Boston's Channel 5 first went on the air in the Fall of
> > 1957, it broadcast both NBC's "Huntley/Brinkley Report"
> and
> > CBS' "Evening News", then anchored by Douglas Edwards,
> with
> > a local newscast in-between (all three were fifteen
> minutes
> > each). At the time, Channel 5 was an ABC affiliate and
> > didn't carry ABC's own evening newscast, which at the time
>
> > was anchored by John Charles Daly.
> >
> KTWO-TV Casper was one of those stations. If I recall, they
> ran NBC and CBS News (at the time, KTWO was primarily an
> NBC) prior to their 5:30pm news.
>
Back in the "old days", when there was only 1 commercial station in Watertown, NY and before the days of cable, WWNY/ch. 7 carried programming from all 3 networks in any given day. Their regular schedule included the Today show from NBC in the A.M., and Walter Cronkite at 6:30 pm eastern. Then on Tuesdays you could see Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley at 8PM. Just as an example.
 
> Everybody knows that many stations aired programs from two
> or even all three networks back in the days before UHF and
> cable. My question is, how many aired two different
> network's evening news programs at the same time.

In the late '60s and early '70s, KNOE-8 in Monroe, La. carried ABC's evening cast at 5 PM, followed by Cronkite at 530. At the time, they were CBS primary and ABC secondary .... nearby KTVE-10 in El Dorado, Ark. was NBC/ABC.

This continued until around '72 or so, when KTVE became an ABC primary (eventually they'd return to NBC, where they are today).

Birmingham, Ala.: When WBRC-6 switched from CBS to ABC in 1961, WAPI-13 (now WVTM) ran CBS and NBC back-to-back when both were still 15 minutes. When both expanded, 13 dropped CBS and aired just NBC. (side note: WBRC would drop ABC's evening cast in 1967 when they went to 30 minutes, and did a 15' local "world news" followed by their regular "Alabama Newsreel" -- they didn't carry ABC Evening News again until August 1972).

--Russell W.
 
In the '70s WAIM/40 Anderson, SC (now WMYA, the MyNetwork
affiliate for Greenville/Spartanburg/Asheville) carried ABC News
at 6, followed by CBS News at 6:30. KFSM/5 (NBC/ABC at the
time, CBS now) Ft. Smith, AR, aired ABC News at 5 (CT), followed by NBC News
at 5:30.

I think at one point in the '60s Atlanta's Ch. 11 (ABC then)
carried both Ron Cochran (ABC) and Walter Cronkite, during a
time when he was pre-empted on WAGA. This was around early
1963, before the CBS Evening News expanded to 30 minutes.
 
When I first passed through Redding, California in 1973, I stayed at a Motel 6. You had to feed quarters into the 12 inch black and white TV to get it to play. The local Redding news consisted of the local anchor introducing the stories filed by the field reporters from at least 2 of the Big 3 networks. I can't remember which 2 - possibly it was all 3.

I can't recall what station it was, either - probably KRCR which is still the only local Redding network station, affiliated with ABC, these days. The other network affiliates come out of Chico, about 2 hours away, by automobile.
 
...of course, many PBS affiliates ran both WETA's MacNeil/Lehrer Report and The Captioned ABC News in the mid-70s...
 
I might add that WTVK (now WVLT) Knoxville, an ABC
affiliate at the time, carried both Cochran and Cronkite
in the '60s; then-CBS affiliate WBIR pre-empted
Cronkite.
 
In 1965, Milwaukee's CBS affiliate opted not to run CBS News with Walter Cronkite in favor of a local music show. So the city's independent station, WUHF (Channel 18), picked up Cronkite. It was already running the 15-minute ABC newscast, so each night WUHF ran a 45-minute block of network news.
 
Hal Erickson said:
In 1965, Milwaukee's CBS affiliate opted not to run CBS News with Walter Cronkite in favor of a local music show. So the city's independent station, WUHF (Channel 18), picked up Cronkite. It was already running the 15-minute ABC newscast, so each night WUHF ran a 45-minute block of network news.
Click to expand...

The irony in that: WUHF (now WVTV) had been a CBS O&O back in the 1950's when it was WXIX on Channel 19.
 
In Canada, at least two stations currently air news from two networks: CJON in St. John's, Newfoundland and CJBN in Kenora, Ontario air both Global National and CTV National News. CJBN is a CTV affiliate while CJON is independent, although it also airs CTV's Canada AM. I'm not aware of any stations in the past that aired both CTV's and CBC's national newscasts, although I'd be curious about CFQC in Saskatoon during its years as a dual CBC/CTV affiliate in the late 60s/early 70s.
 
I wonder what the Wheeling WV/Steubenville OH market stations did back in the day...IIRC, WTRF/7 in Wheeling and WTOV/9 (WSTV) in Steubenville BOTH had secondary ABC affiliations.

They flipped their main networks at some point...WTRF is CBS now, and WTOV is NBC, to pair with Cox sister NBC affiliate WPXI/11 in Pittsburgh.

And of course, WTRF is now running Fox and ABC on the same transmitter via the "Fox Ohio Valley" and "The Ohio Valley's ABC" subchannels, but that probably doesn't count in this thread. ;)
 
Before about 1970 Dayton's stations cherry-picked from the major networks (WHIO 7 mostly NBC and CBS while WLWD carried d mix of NBC and ABC. WHIO carried Huntley-Brinkley but I don't know if either station carried news from 2 networks.
 
During the late 1970's, KTVF carried ABC World News Tonight and the CBS Evening News w/Walter Cronkite; in around the early '80s, KATN aired World News and NBC Nightly News.

At one point in the early '90s, KFXF carried NBC News at Sunrise; I was hoping they would pick up NBC Nightly News as well (so that Fairbanks would have all three network newscasts: ABC News on KATN, CBS News on KTVF, NBC News on KFXF), but they didn't.
 
Found a 1977 answer to the Wheeling/Steubenville question from this thread:

http://boards.radio-info.com/smf/index.php?topic=51189.msg985213#new

The Youngstown-Erie edition listed both 7 and 9, and it looks like:

* Only 9 was officially listed as a secondary ABC affiliate
* 9 did not carry ABC's evening newscast, but DID carry one hour of ABC's then-pretty-new "Good Morning America" at 7, flipping back to CBS at 8 for its staple at the time, "Captain Kangaroo".
* I don't see any ABC programming on 7, at least in a quick glance at the post.

BTW, it doesn't look like WEWS/5 in Cleveland was carrying even the first hour of "GMA" (that came later, as I recall). The 7 AM listing was "Porky Pig and Friends".

Of course, the morning show that heavily influenced "GMA", WEWS' "Morning Exchange", was on at 8...
 
gr8oldies said:
Before about 1970 Dayton's stations cherry-picked from the major networks (WHIO 7 mostly NBC and CBS while WLWD carried d mix of NBC and ABC. WHIO carried Huntley-Brinkley but I don't know if either station carried news from 2 networks.
Click to expand...

That was also the case in Toledo. Prior to 1970 WTOL/11 was the CBS affiliate and WSPD/13 (now WTVG) was the ABC affiliate, and the two stations cherry-picked from the NBC schedule. If I recall correctly what I've seen in old schedules, WSPD actually aired the Huntley-Brinkley Report instead of Peter Jennings during the 1960s. Independent WDHO/24 signed on in 1966 and took the ABC affiliation in 1970, leaving WSPD to become a full-time NBC affiliate. Of course the two stations swapped affiliations in 1995 when ABC bought WTVG in order to gain leverage against CBS during the Detroit network affiliation shuffle.
 
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