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"UPN 11"
- Thread starter valvashon
- Start date
That whole KSTW becoming the local CBS affiliate was wild. If I recall, there was a lot of upheaval during this period and KIRO got back their CBS affiliation in this mid 90’s period. Of course this brought back the original network affiliate channels in Seattle, and KSTW dropped local news soon after.
KSTW had such a great history of logos and graphic design, culminating in the KSTW/KTVT look during the couple years as a CBS affiliate. And then once they were purchased by Paramount and switched to a UPN station, they just (unsurprisingly) lost all of that for a look that was unpolished and amateurish. Really sad.
KSTW's switch to CBS in 1995 was actually fallout from the loss of long-time CBS affiliate KDFW (channel 4) in Dallas-Fort Worth to Fox. Gaylord broadcasting still owned both KSTW in Tacoma and KTVT (channel 11) in Fort Worth, and told CBS that it was a package deal -- if they wanted channel 11 in the Dallas-Fort Worth market, they also had to take channel 11 in the Seattle-Tacoma market. So for a couple years, CBS returned to Tacoma's channel 11 (which had carried CBS programming as KTNT-TV in the fifties for several years).
But a couple years later, Gaylord exited the TV business and sold off both KSTW and KTVT, at which time the switch in Seattle-Tacoma was undone.
As for "The Ten O'Clock News" on KSTW -- they launched a full news department in the late 70s. Prior to that, they had only run a brief newscast in the middle of their prime time movie.
But a couple years later, Gaylord exited the TV business and sold off both KSTW and KTVT, at which time the switch in Seattle-Tacoma was undone.
As for "The Ten O'Clock News" on KSTW -- they launched a full news department in the late 70s. Prior to that, they had only run a brief newscast in the middle of their prime time movie.
I remember KSTW then UPN now CW affiliate managed by CBS moved their master control to the KPIX-TV offices in San Francisco as part of a cost cutting measure when CBS was split from Viacom in 2005-2006 when they were getting ready to form the CW.
KSTW is an afterthought these days, mainly because of their network affiliation and lack of local news.
They call that CentralCasting. Pretty common move for station groups since the early 2000's.
Longtime Seattle station KSTW's reorganization means layoffs
More than half a century and several affiliation switches later, the storied Puget Sound...
www.seattlepi.com
This is the article.
If CW had some guts they would return KSTW to a 10pm newscast, even if they need to share a local network affiliate like they once did. I realize these deals are complicated but allowing Fox to control 10pm is costly IMO.
At one time, KSTW was a pretty significant station in the industry and locally. They were in the founding coalition for "Operation Prime Time" in the late seventies, which was the first real attempt to challenge the prime-time dominance of the then "big three" TV networks. They also became a regional superstation in the eighties ("We're entertaining the whole Northwest" and "K-S-T-Washington" come to mind from that era). They were a pretty solid independent station with respectable ratings -- but they passed on the Fox affiliation when it was offered, and let it go to KCPQ-TV, which leveraged Fox to move ahead of KSTW in the local ratings. By the mid-nineties, independent television was a dying business, and the station was first signed up to be an inaugural affiliate of the new WB network, which they hastily dumped after owner Gaylord Broadcasting was able to leverage their clout in Dallas-Fort Worth to get the CBS affiliation for KSTW.
Zero percent chance that this would happen. There are two 10pm newscasts, one on KCPQ and one on KONG but both get poor ratings, ratings that once upon a time would have meant cancellation of that newscast. While they get better ratings than what is on KSTW during that half hour, paying KOMO or KIRO to produce an hour at 10 pm would cost an enormous amount of money, money that you would never see a return on given the low overall viewership of local news these days. There's only so many ways to slice the local news viewership, and trying to draw viewers to what is essentially now a transmitter fed by automated syndicated programming with virtually no local presence would be a futile quest. I am not at liberty to discuss the exact ratings, but you'd be hard pressed to equal the astonishingly low numbers that two half hours of Seinfeld draw now.
They passed on the Fox affiliation because that would have meant being dropped from many cable systems that would be carrying a nearby Fox affiliate, such as those in central and eastern Washington. Rather than carry KSTW and bother with blacking out the prime time network shows that the local Fox affiliate was airing (from KAYU for example) they would have just dropped KSTW altogether. Also, I'm pretty sure that KSTW was an independent in the 70's and beyond until the CBS era in 1995 and after that affiliated with UPN. KTWB was the local WB affiliate, being a Tribune station, and not KSTW.
Yes, Kelly, because we do enjoy memories of the past. But your point is well taken. Change is inevitable.
Not Gonna Happen because if that was the case then today KSTW would end up borrowing people from KPIX KBCW or KOVR/KMAX when that cannot happen at this point. Not so sure if thats a good idea given that the CBS has put KSTW operations in Northern California and their staff members also have to do CBSN local editions in Sacramento and Bay Area.
I thought before the mid 1970s switch to the 10 O'clock news, KSTW had a half hour local news at 11pm called Newstar 11?
KSTW was KTNT in the 50’s through mid 70’s. And yes they did some local news during this period. They were also a CBS affiliate back in the day. So they have been a CBS affiliate twice in their history, once way back before most of us were born but another in the mid 1990’s that lasted about two years due to litigation. They have subsequently dropped their local newscasts, which is a shame. Seattle is a big enough market to support another 10pm newscast, despite Tegna trying the same. What ever happened to good old fashioned competition? In this biz you need to go for it.
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