What Channel will be the new CW Network?

[AZJoe]

Will WB 61 be the CW outlet for Phoenix? I know 45 is taking on the MY network.

 

[dhett]

Will WB 61 be the CW outlet for Phoenix? I know 45 is taking on the MY network.

Yes - it was one of the earlier CW announcements not involving either CBS- or Tribune-owned stations.

 

[Tim-In-Houston]

It's a BELO co-owned station with KTVK-3. I assumed, the day of the CW announcement, that Belo would get the network in Phoenix as kind of a make-up for getting screwed in New Orleans.Only a few months before the announcement, Belo purchased the New Orleans UPN affiliate from CBS. Then got screwed when the CW went to the Tribune station there that is co-owned with the ABC affiliate, WGNO.

 

[dhett21]

I assumed, the day of the CW announcement, that Belo would get the network in Phoenix as kind of a make-up for getting screwed in New Orleans.Only a few months before the announcement, Belo purchased the New Orleans UPN affiliate from CBS. Then got screwed when the CW went to the Tribune station there that is co-owned with the ABC affiliate, WGNO.

Perhaps, but there were really only three stations even available to be considered: KTVK 3 (Ind. - Belo), KUTP 45 (UPN - Fox) and KASW 61 (WB - Belo). Fox quickly announced that their top-market O&O stations would not affiliate with the CW, so that took KUTP out of the running almost right from the start and virtually guaranteed that a Belo-owned station would get any CW affiliation.Then the CW chose to go with Granite-owned KWBA 58 in the Tucson market instead of Belo-owned KTTU 18, in spite of KTTU's seeming advantage in transmitter location and CW-friendly scheduling (KWBA usually pre-empts prime-time programming during baseball season in favor of D-backs broadcasts).For those reasons, I don't see the choice of a Belo-owned station in Phoenix as being a makeup; the CW would have been stupid not to affiliate with one of the only two available full-service stations in the 14th-largest TV market.