What Are CBS's Strongest Affiliates?

[tripinva]

I'm not certain why they have WSLS on cable up that way, but it's been on cable in Staunton for years which didn't count anyway since that's the Harrisonburg market. I suspect their headend could see WJLA on 7 but since there's no DC station on 10, they pulled in WSLS on 10. (And I think they recently unified the lineups throughout the valley, thus WVIR and WSLS being expanded.) As far as actual OTA coverage area, WDBJ at 675 kW ND has a bigger coverage area than WSLS at 950 kW DA.

I definitely believe it hurt the station, but I have a very hard time believing they were close to overtaking WDBJ. There are too many people in the eastern half of the market who will tell you, rightfully or wrongfully, that WSLS won't go anywhere east of Bedford. I know I refuse to watch any newscast on WSLS after seeing them overlook one too many events in my area, including tornado warnings.

- Trip

 

[fortmill]

Actually, WJLA/7 was on the Staunton/Waynesboro cable system for many years, until being dropped by Adelphia about 2001. Regarding WSLS there, it was obvious 10 was the only channel recieved by Adelphia OTA, since various reception problems popped up from time to time, whereas the DC and Richmond stations always came in picture perfect. OTOH, WDBJ is the only CBS station carried on InTelos fiber cable system in Waynesboro. GO figure....

 

[MarcB]

I agree with Kevin on page 1 about WFSB Channel 3 in Hartford. There's just a couple things about it that bug me:

1. They rebroadcast Entertainment Tonight at 12:37AM right after Letterman. They have for years. Craig is delayed to 1:07AM-2:07AM.

2. This fall they replaced the 2:07AM rebroadcast of Eyewitness News at 11 with an infomercial.

3. They don't clear the Saturday Edition of The CBS Early show.*

Over the air viewers can see the Saturday Edition of The CBS Early show on Channel 3.2 as that is a simulcast of WSHM-LP 67 from Springfield, Mass a station WFSB acquired about 10 years ago from TBN.

 

[jsu5381m]

WWL-4 in New Orleans has been very, very strong for over 30 years, and the ratings prove it.

Especially following Katrina. Did that station not win an emmy for that reason?

 

[therealjm12]

The absolute worst CBS affiliate in my opinion... WTVH-Syracuse.

I'll second that. They are just embarrassing- a shell of what they used to be. On the other hand, I'll give points to WROC in Rochester for all the improvements they've made in the last few years.

 

[mleach]

OTOH, WDBJ is the only CBS station carried on InTelos fiber cable system in Waynesboro. GO figure....

..and yet in nearby C'Ville..they have their own CBS.

Several years ago Waynesboro ( ..and Staunton, Harrisonburg, Winchester, Luray..) almost had their own CBS when the valley's WAZT was put on the market when owner/founder Art Stamler had decided to retire after the death of his wife. Don't recall who it was but whoever he/she was had offered a ton of money for WAZT with the intention of that station in becoming a CBS affiliate for the central and northern Valley.
.
However someone else offered Stamler about the same amount of money for WAZT as the group who wanted the station to go CBS. Stamler took to former as that person had planned on keeping WAZT's mostly religious format.

Today WAZT is in bankruptcy and could very well be dark by the end of the year...Art Stamler should've had sold WAZT to the group who had wanted "The Valley's CBS..WAZT".

 

[kilamanjero]

CBS affiliate WRAL-TV 5 in Raleigh is a perennial market leader, even when it was ABC (before WTVD-11 in Durham became an ABC O&O in 1985 and they swapped networks). WRAL owns and uses their news brand on the market's Fox affiliate, WRAZ-TV 50, as well. Raleigh is basically a two-horse town, TV-wise.

WRAL-TV's parent company, Capitol Broadcasting owns WRAZ. WRAZ used to have "FOX50 News" brand (although it was produced by WRAL) until about 8 years ago when it was just easier to just call it "WRAL News on FOX50". WNCN was making strides under network ownership, but Media General killed that real quickly.

 

[RadioDaze]

Capitol actually signed WRAZ-TV on the air in 1995, and operated it as an LMA with the licensee until buying the station outright several years later. Originally a WB affiliate, it has had WRAL-produced news from the very beginning, starting with a WRAL-branded 10pm news. In 1998, when the station became the Raleigh-Durham market's Fox affiliate, they introduced the separately-branded Fox 50 10 O'clock News out of WRAL's studio B (WRAL used the old analog newsroom down the hall as their set, and they rolled the cameras from one set to the next). When WRAL's new HD newsroom went live in 2001, the analog cameras were used for the Fox 50 news. I think when Fox 50 added local morning news from 7-9 in 2003 or 2004, that's about the time the station reverted to WRAL-branded news. In addition to having the backing of a powerful news brand, I'm guessing the cost of a separate HD-equipped studio plus the logistics of moving the station's existing three HD studio cameras to a separate set with little to no turn around time may have played a role. That Fox 50 morning show has to work its segments and breaks around CBS Early Show cut-ins now.

 

[taylorjsdad]

The absolute worst CBS affiliate in my opinion... WTVH-Syracuse.

I'll second that. They are just embarrassing- a shell of what they used to be. On the other hand, I'll give points to WROC in Rochester for all the improvements they've made in the last few years.

Actually in the late 1980's when I was going to college in Syracuse I did not think much of WTVH. When I saw them in the summer of 2009 while in CNY for a vacation I could not believe they could get any worse.

 

[vchimpanzee]

WDBJ Roanoke, VA, holds onto number one in its market, but its
audience is aging out; ABC affiliate WSET Lynchburg may be in the
best position to eventually take over the number-one slot.

While you are right about the audience aging out for WDBJ actually this holds true for Roanoke in general, I doubt WSET will ever become the big cheese in that market mainly due to two reasons...

1. WSET is of course a Lynchburg station and Roanoke is the "bigger" city. I just cant see very many people in Roanoke switching away from their city's WDBJ and WSLS in favor of Lynchburg's WSET unless its strictly to catch a show on ABC, not their news.

2. The younger crowd in the market more/less means the New River Valley-Blacksburg ( Virginia Tech )....a bit of a ways from Lynchburg and WSET. I wouldn't be surprised that when it comes to ABC in that region, a good chunk of the younger crowd gets it online while for CBS, NBC and FOX its from nearby Roanoke.

Actually the station that has the highest chance in the market ( IMO ) to beat WDBJ is FOX 21 & 27 only because they are acctually a Roanoke AND Lynchburg TV station not just Roanoke OR Lynchburg's.

When I was a child Roanoke had its own ABC station on channel 27.

I had to watch WLVA occasionally for some reason. Make that listen. I was so glad the night I actually saw the episode of "The Partridge Family" after having had to guess what was going on the first time.

WDBJ was a good, clear station, though. And they had "Tom and Jerry" on Sunday, while WFMY delayed it to Saturday so they could show Oral Roberts. "Something Good Is Going to Happen to You."

 

[vchimpanzee]

WBTV Channel 3 here in Charlotte was (and maybe still is) a very big CBS affiliate. Their main competition, WSOC-TV the Cox ABC affiliate has been strong too for many years. The others are on UHF so for a long time it was a 2 horse race.

I do know that CBS News operated a regional bureau out of the station. There were also stories of during a strike in NYC, WBTV did the network switching for the CBS-TV feed. There were also rumors that CBS paid WBTV a bundle to stay with the network when WSOC dropped NBC to pick up ABC.

I don't know how things are now, but WBTV lost its #1 status long ago. In the days of Doug Mayes, Clyde McLean and Jim Thacker, they were THE station for news and WSOC could only dream of competing.

Then Doug Mayes left for WSOC and Clyde had all those health problems and retired, and I lost my loyalty. So did everyone else. I discovered WCNC when Terri Bennett moved there. The other meteorolgists couldn't be bothered to tell us what the low and the high were that day if there was other stuff to talk about. Brad panovich made a real efort not to talk about the low and the high. He had to finds things to talk about other than that. His worst quality, though, is the enjoyment of giving people vertigo with 3-D weather maps. Once I discvered Fox Charlotte there was no turning back. For weather. Nothing else.

 

[Mike Sheridan]

I think the question was more about what the network considers their strongest affiliate. CBS had a strong relationship with WBTV and I think still does.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

I'll have to agree with the mentions of WBNS/10 Columbus, WHIO/7 Dayton and WDBJ/7 Roanoke.

The first two have strong local ownership - though Cox is not technically based in Dayton anymore, it sprung from there and is basically still a "hometown company".

Meanwhile, WBNS is owned by the dominant local Wolfe family (Dispatch et al.), and even has sister stations in other markets (Indianapolis).

As Trip noted, WDBJ is basically the only full-market TV station in the Roanoke/Lynchburg market. Fox 21/27 doesn't really count for this purpose (since we're considering news, etc., and Fox 21/27's cast is produced by WSLS).

In viewers' eyes, WSLS is the Roanoke-only station that occasionally dips into the NRV, WSET is the Lynchburg station that tries to serve Danville and Southside, and WDBJ is (though Roanoke-based) the closest thing to a full-market station in the sprawling market.

There's no way anyone in the Roanoke or NRV areas turns to 13, unless they're looking for "Dancing with the Stars".

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

Locally, WJW/8 was a very, very strong CBS affiliate in the Storer days.

Of course, that all changed in the Fox/New World mess in the mid-1990s...in replacement for WJW, CBS got what was actually a fairly decent UHF Fox affiliate, and now, is the market dog as a CBS affiliate...

 

[bpatrick]

WBTV Channel 3 here in Charlotte was (and maybe still is) a very big CBS affiliate. Their main competition, WSOC-TV the Cox ABC affiliate has been strong too for many years. The others are on UHF so for a long time it was a 2 horse race.

I do know that CBS News operated a regional bureau out of the station. There were also stories of during a strike in NYC, WBTV did the network switching for the CBS-TV feed. There were also rumors that CBS paid WBTV a bundle to stay with the network when WSOC dropped NBC to pick up ABC.

I don't know how things are now, but WBTV lost its #1 status long ago. In the days of Doug Mayes, Clyde McLean and Jim Thacker, they were THE station for news and WSOC could only dream of competing.

Then Doug Mayes left for WSOC and Clyde had all those health problems and retired, and I lost my loyalty. So did everyone else. I discovered WCNC when Terri Bennett moved there. The other meteorolgists couldn't be bothered to tell us what the low and the high were that day if there was other stuff to talk about. Brad panovich made a real efort not to talk about the low and the high. He had to finds things to talk about other than that. His worst quality, though, is the enjoyment of giving people vertigo with 3-D weather maps. Once I discvered Fox Charlotte there was no turning back. For weather. Nothing else.

As I understand it, the Charlotte market divides "number one" three ways: WBTV is strongest to the northwest, toward the mountains (its transmitter is located west of Charlotte, on the Gaston-Lincoln county line); WSOC tends to do best on the east side of the market (Concord, Salisbury, etc.) and, I believe, Gastonia and Rock Hill; WCNC is strongest in the city. That may have changed with NBC's problems, however. (It's interesting, though, that although WFMY puts a stronger signal into Salisbury, about halfway between Charlotte and Greensboro, folks there prefer WBTV.)

WBTV's news is number one at noon (between "The Price Is Right" and "The Young And The Restless") and 11 PM (after CBS's strong primetime lineup); WSOC tends to win at 5 and 6 (after Oprah, and right now I'm interested in seeing if WSOC will follow sister station WSB's lead and add a 4 PM newscast next fall; WBTV already has one).

 

[trapper12]

WKYT in Lexington Ky has long dominated that market although the local NBC is is comming at them hot and heavy and has been known to beat them in the local ratings. WVLT in Knoxville Tn although not the top station there is making a lot of noise in that market and has cut into WATE and long dominate WBIR in audience. Gray pumped a lot of money into that operation.

 

[NeilRattigan]

WBOC-TV Salisbury, MD has been on the air since the mid 50s, and had no competition until WMDT in the early 80s. It's like WBOC gets a 30-yard start in a 50-yard dash.