TV Stations With More Than 1 Network, Who Decided Which Programs?

[Markxxx]

I was reading the thread about Boise ID, and how it had no ABC TV station at the time.

It lists

KBOI 2-CBS/ABC
KTVB 7-NBC/ABC

OK so here's my question, who decided which ABC programs went with what channel? Was it the ABC Network, or were the locals free to choose?

 

[newsmark]

I can't speak for every station, but at the multi-network affiliates where I worked in Texas, it would be a combination of the Program Director and the GM.

Normally, they would contact the "secondary" net and say "we'd like to clear (show) on (day/time)." The net would almost always say yes.

At my stations, we only had the ability to receive one network signal at a time, so we would almost always clear the programs in pattern.

 

[Charles1]

Until 1965 Birmingham had only 2 commercial stations, WBRC-6 and WAPI-13 (now WVTM). From '49-'54, WBRC was NBC/Dumont and WAPI was CBS/ABC. Pretty easy decisions back then, since Dumont and ABC were minor leaguers. From '54-'61, WBRC was CBS and WAPI was NBC/ABC. In '61, WBRC went ABC and WAPI had to juggle CBS and NBC, although WBRC carried a few CBS programs (mainly soaps).

In 1965 WBMG-42 signed on, finally giving Birmingham a third commercial station. By '66, Channel 42 became a split affiliate of NBC and CBS, almost by default. Basically, they carried the network programs that Channel 13 rejected...mainly the dregs of both networks. That being said, Channel 42 got Walter Cronkite, Johnny Carson and Ed Sullivan since Channel 13 didn't make room for any of those programs. Not sure who made Channel 13's decisions, but it's pretty safe to say that 42 didn't get to call dibs on a lot.

 

[classictvfan]

Until 1965 Birmingham had only 2 commercial stations, WBRC-6 and WAPI-13 (now WVTM). From '49-'54, WBRC was NBC/Dumont and WAPI was CBS/ABC. Pretty easy decisions back then, since Dumont and ABC were minor leaguers. From '54-'61, WBRC was CBS and WAPI was NBC/ABC. In '61, WBRC went ABC and WAPI had to juggle CBS and NBC, although WBRC carried a few CBS programs (mainly soaps).

In 1965 WBMG-42 signed on, finally giving Birmingham a third commercial station. By '66, Channel 42 became a split affiliate of NBC and CBS, almost by default. Basically, they carried the network programs that Channel 13 rejected...mainly the dregs of both networks. That being said, Channel 42 got Walter Cronkite, Johnny Carson and Ed Sullivan since Channel 13 didn't make room for any of those programs. Not sure who made Channel 13's decisions, but it's pretty safe to say that 42 didn't get to call dibs on a lot.

So when did WBMG become a full-time CBS affiliate?

 

[Charles1]

Until 1965 Birmingham had only 2 commercial stations, WBRC-6 and WAPI-13 (now WVTM). From '49-'54, WBRC was NBC/Dumont and WAPI was CBS/ABC. Pretty easy decisions back then, since Dumont and ABC were minor leaguers. From '54-'61, WBRC was CBS and WAPI was NBC/ABC. In '61, WBRC went ABC and WAPI had to juggle CBS and NBC, although WBRC carried a few CBS programs (mainly soaps).

In 1965 WBMG-42 signed on, finally giving Birmingham a third commercial station. By '66, Channel 42 became a split affiliate of NBC and CBS, almost by default. Basically, they carried the network programs that Channel 13 rejected...mainly the dregs of both networks. That being said, Channel 42 got Walter Cronkite, Johnny Carson and Ed Sullivan since Channel 13 didn't make room for any of those programs. Not sure who made Channel 13's decisions, but it's pretty safe to say that 42 didn't get to call dibs on a lot.

5/31/70. At the same time, WCFT-33 in Tuscaloosa and WHMA-40 (now WJSU) in Anniston went exclusively with CBS. Prior to then, their prime-time schedule was a virtual carbon copy of 42's. Of course, 26 years later, 33 and 40 merged to become the ABC affiliate for Birmingham and all of central Alabama.
So when did WBMG become a full-time CBS affiliate?

 

[bpatrick]

Practically the same situation in Raleigh/Durham. After the demise
of WNAO/28 in the late '50s, WRAL (NBC) and WTVD (CBS) shoehorned
some ABC programs into their schedules. In 1962 WRAL went full-time
ABC, with WTVD carrying mainly CBS programs and a few of the more
popular NBC ones (WTVD did carry Cronkite, Sullivan, and Carson, unlike
Birmingham's Ch. 13). In November 1968 WRDU (now WRDC)/28 signed on,
but WTVD continued to have first dibs on CBS and NBC until 28 complained
to the FCC; WTVD became full-time CBS on September 13, 1971.

WRAL and WTVD swapped networks, due to Cap Cities' (owner of WTVD)
acquisition of ABC, on August 4, 1985. Over the next decade 28 became
more and more pre-emption happy; NBC finally bought WYED/17 in Goldsboro,
renamed it WNCN, and became the full-time affiliate for the Triangle on September
10, 1995. WRDC switched to UPN, then MyNetwork.

BTW, both WNCN and WVTM were sold by NBC to Media General.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

If I remember, ABC only got limited clearance on either Wheeling/Steubenville market station - WTRF/7 (then NBC) and WSTV/9 (then CBS).

WTAE/4 Pittsburgh acted as the defacto ABC affiliate (with some sprinkling from WYTV/33 Youngstown in the northern half of the Ohio Valley) for decades.

Only very recently did the market get its own ABC affiliate, WTRF/7.3 "Ohio Valley ABC". WTRF's primary is CBS now ("Fox Ohio Valley" is on 7.2, and pre-dates the ABC signon), and WSTV is now NBC affiliate WTOV.

 

[azumanga]

So when did WBMG become a full-time CBS affiliate?

May 31, 1970:

http://www.birminghamrewound.com/features/1970-05.htm

http://www.birminghamrewound.com/radio-tv.htm

 

[Bob1370]

Back before 1952-53 when a lot of sizable cities got caught in the FCC freeze with only one station on the air and operating, the lucky station that beat the clock and got on the air in time just picked and chose among all four networks' offerings and timeshifted/kinescoped shows at will.

After 1952 a lot of cities in areas like the big upstate NY metros had two stations operating, one with a primary CBS and secondary ABC affiliation while the other station was primary NBC and secondary ABC. Buffalo was unique in that it had primary CBS and ABC stations on VHF while NBC had an O&O on UHF for much of the mid-50s. I've heard that elsewhere in upstate NY the stations were largely faithful to their primary networks and gave preferential carriage to their principal networks, while splitting up the strongest ABC shows between stations by informal gentlemen's agreement and either carrying them in pattern (if their primary network had a weak offering) or kinescoping and time-shifting some shows. They turned to videotaping as a time-shift technique after all the upstate NY stations acquired their VTRs in 1958-59--presumably other cities in the top 100 TV markets across the country were going from kinescope to tape around the same time. AFAIK the stations never battled, at least openly, over clearance of their secondary networks' shows. The arrangement meant you saw some of all three main networks' offerings spread among the two stations on the air. At the same time, all three networks found some of their weaker offerings just didn't get cleared in two-station markets. I think the station managers basically used Nielsen numbers from markets where all three networks had full clearance, to determine which shows from each network would be cleared in pattern and which shows the viewers in their markets either saw time-shifted or just never saw at all.

Between 1958 and 1962, of course, all these markets (Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Albany-Schenectady-Troy) got a fulltime ABC affiliate on the air with a full power VHF signal comparable to the CBS and NBC stations already on the air, so by the start of the 1962-63 season all these arrangements went by the boards and all three networks were seen with virtually full schedules, in pattern, from then on, on a single station.

 

[Tim L]

In Cleveland, WEWS was basically a 4 network station.. from December 1947-October 1948.  While they were considered primary CBS they picked out some DuMont and ABC and the rare NBC program..

WXEL-9 considered themselves primary DuMont, secondary ABC..Despite that, by the early  1950's, they carried a large number of CBS shows, particularly some daytime soaps..The 1955 affiliate swap put channel 5 on ABC and now-WXEL channel 8 on CBS..

 

[Markxxx]

So basically it was the local TV station that went and asked the network, not the network asking a local station to squeeze on of their show in?

 

[newsmark]

Usually. I'm sure there were exceptions, but generally it was the station's call.

 

[bpatrick]

In Cleveland, WEWS was basically a 4 network station.. from December 1947-October 1948. While they were considered primary CBS they picked out some DuMont and ABC and the rare NBC program..

WXEL-9 considered themselves primary DuMont, secondary ABC..Despite that, by the early 1950's, they carried a large number of CBS shows, particularly some daytime soaps..The 1955 affiliate swap put channel 5 on ABC and now-WXEL channel 8 on CBS..

WFMY was a four-network station in Greensboro/Winston-Salem/High Point from September 1949-September 1953, primary CBS, but some of its choices would seem puzzling by today's standards; for example, on Sundays at 8 it carried the "Colgate Comedy Hour" (NBC) instead of Ed Sullivan's "Toast Of The Town" (CBS). When it finally did pick up Sullivan, in 1952, it was on Tuesdays at 10, replacing "Ted Mack's Amateur Hour," which had gone on (as it turned out) a sabbatical, returning in April 1953. When Mack returned, it was as a half-hour, Saturday 8:30-9 PM, on NBC. WFMY was already carrying Jackie Gleason from 8 to 9, and ran Mack on Sunday afternoons (shades of things to come) in the spring and summer of 1953; the Triad got its NBC affiliate, WSJS (now WXII), in September 1953, which solved the problem since it aired Mack in pattern.

But before Channel 12 came on, WFMY did something that still puzzles me. I can understand picking "Colgate" over Sullivan, as "Colgate" was the higher-rated on Sundays at 8 in the early 1950s, but carrying "Voice Of Firestone" instead of the top-rated "Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts" on Mondays at 8:30? I can think of only one possible reason for this: Greensboro did not have an NBC radio affiliate; to hear "Firestone" meant turning to WPTF Raleigh or WSJS Winston-Salem. OTOH, both shows were simulcast, and Godfrey could be heard on Greensboro's WBIG (a similar situation prevailed on Saturdays as WFMY, logically, picked "Your Show Of Shows" over such short-lived CBS entries as "Sing It Again" and "Songs For Sale," which were heard locally on WBIG). Again, however, the Godfrey/"Firestone" problem was cleared up with the advent of Channel 12, at which point Channel 2 began airing Godfrey in pattern.

There were, however, occasions when a station would keep a show it had aired when there were only one or two stations in a market. WSB, at the time NBC primary, carried ABC's "The Lone Ranger" and "Super Circus" from their beginnings in 1949. Atlanta got its ABC affiliate, Channel 11 (originally Channel 8), in 1951 but it never got those two shows; they stayed on Channel 2 all the way.

 

[gregg75]

I think most just kinda dipped thier toes in the other network (with maybe 2 or 3 primetime
shows a week and 3 or 4 weekly daytime shows).

If I ran something like a CBS/ABC in a one station city, I think I would have jumped in head first,
with something like 60% CBS 40% ABC. It might have created some scheduling conflicts and
small headaches, but on the other hand CBS on steroids might be a very desirable station.

 

[newsmark]

I would have jumped in head first[/b], with something like 60% CBS 40% ABC.

If you had a couple of VTRs sitting around, you could have done something cool, like create an extended prime time (if you're willing to give up or delay the late news), and use the secondary network's daytime schedule to fill the late afternoon and prime access slots.

I guess some stations could have taken one network's prime time from 8-11 ET, then taken another net from 8-11 PT. I haven't seen any schedules indicating anyone actually DID this, but it's cool to imagine.

 

[anotherguyTN]

In Memphis WB was carried by WPTY ABC 24 from 11:05 PM until 1:05 PM after Nightline, and Jimmy Kimmel Live was pushed back to 1:05 for several years, until WB was moved to WLMT UPN 30, which was by this time (early 2000's) co-owned with WPTY. UPN programming was carried 7-9 PM Monday through Friday with a break from 9-10 PM for news, followed by WB from 10 PM to Midnight and 6-9 PM on Sunday. This probably worked out good for them when UPN and WB merged to become CW, since it was almost certain that WLMT would carry CW.

 

[TexasTom]

If you had a couple of VTRs sitting around, you could have done something cool, like create an extended prime time (if you're willing to give up or delay the late news), and use the secondary network's daytime schedule to fill the late afternoon and prime access slots.

I remember seeing some Montana TV listings from the late seventies, and stations in places like Great Falls, Missoula, and Butte did indeed run a somewhat extended prime time schedule -- network news at 4:30 or 5:00 PM, local news at 5:30, and then a four hour block of primetime shows from 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM. In these two station markets, that meant that between those two stations, they could clear 8 out of the 9 hours of primetime programming between the networks.

Obviously, this did take a VTR to do...but that was almost a necessity even in three stations markets in the Mountain Time Zone, since the networks didn't provide a Mountain time feed back then, which meant that the network primetime feed ran from 6:00 to 9:00 PM. In those two station markets, it was probably relatively easy to start primetime with the live feed, then switch in something recorded in the final hour or two.

 

[Hal Erickson]

Whoever ran the 2 TV stations (and their satellites) covering Traverse City-Cadillac-Cheyboygan-Sault Ste Marie Michigan in the 1950s and 1960s seemed determined to carry every prime time network show they could. Channels 4 WTOM/7 WPBN were NBC primary but carried time-shift ABC shows in most of their fringe periods, with only a handful of local and syndicated shows. Channels 9 WWTV/10 WWUP were CBS primary but followed the same policy as 4/7--and in addition also carried a generous portion of programming from the University of Michigan educational service. All this changed of course when ABC came to town in the late60s-early 70s. Here in Milwaukee we were able to pick up 7 from Traverse City and 9 from Cadillac during the Summer months, and frequently watch "delayed" ABC shows like BATMAN and THE FUGITIVE at what used to be described as a "more convenient time."

 

[bpatrick]

If you had a couple of VTRs sitting around, you could have done something cool, like create an extended prime time (if you're willing to give up or delay the late news), and use the secondary network's daytime schedule to fill the late afternoon and prime access slots.

I remember seeing some Montana TV listings from the late seventies, and stations in places like Great Falls, Missoula, and Butte did indeed run a somewhat extended prime time schedule -- network news at 4:30 or 5:00 PM, local news at 5:30, and then a four hour block of primetime shows from 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM. In these two station markets, that meant that between those two stations, they could clear 8 out of the 9 hours of primetime programming between the networks.

Obviously, this did take a VTR to do...but that was almost a necessity even in three stations markets in the Mountain Time Zone, since the networks didn't provide a Mountain time feed back then, which meant that the network primetime feed ran from 6:00 to 9:00 PM. In those two station markets, it was probably relatively easy to start primetime with the live feed, then switch in something recorded in the final hour or two.

In a market like Great Falls, which is outside the top 50, the access rule would not have come into play, and it would have been perfectly legal to run delayed network shows (or live feeds of shows airing 8-9 ET) in the 6-7 slot.

Birmingham's Channel 13, when it carried both NBC and CBS, used to air its late local news at 11 instead of 10 and squeeze out another hour of primetime from 10 to 11. For example, on Saturdays at 6:30 (CT) in the 1969-70 season, Jackie Gleason (CBS) and Andy Williams (NBC) went head-to-head; in Birmingham, 13 carried them both: Andy at 6:30, Gleason at 10. The station used to delay "Mannix" from Saturdays at 9 to Wednesdays at 10, and I remember in the summer of 1969, when "Bonanza" and "Hee Haw" went head-to-head Sundays at 8 (CT), 13 would carry "Bonanza" in pattern and delay "Hee Haw" to Mondays at 10 (WBMG/WIAT aired "The Mothers-In-Law" on a half-hour delay Sundays at 8, followed by "Truth Or Consequences"; IIRC, it aired NBC's movie on Saturdays at 8, and I've forgotten what it aired from 6:30-7:30 on Saturdays).

After becoming fulltime NBC, 13 would still stick syndicated programs into the 10-11 slot and delay Carson to 11:30 (by the early '80s, IIRC, only it and KARE Minneapolis/St. Paul were allowed to delay Carson). The only late-night network talk show airing in pattern in Birmingham at the time was Merv Griffin (CBS) at 10:30; Dick Cavett usually came on around midnight, although WBRC had a tendency (until the 1972-73 season) to start him anytime between 11:45 and 12:15; by the summer of '73 Cavett and the rest of the "Wide World Of Entertainment" lineup was on at 11:30 (CT) on a one-hour delay.

 

[w9wi]

In a market like Great Falls, which is outside the top 50, the access rule would not have come into play, and it would have been perfectly legal to run delayed network shows (or live feeds of shows airing 8-9 ET) in the 6-7 slot.

(emphasis mine)

You mention the Prime Time Access Rule in passing. By my reading, this rule would have prevented the extended prime time concept for significant periods.

The rule went into effect in late 1971 and as I understand it, initially applied to *all* stations. (regardless of market size) It was later amended to apply to only top-50 markets (when?), and repealed in 1996.

What the rule did, was to prevent stations from airing network programs for more than 3 of the 4-hour "prime time" period.