20 Years Ago Today…

…the CBS and NBC affiliations in Philadelphia, Miami, Denver, and Salt Lake City were swapped as a result of a deal between the two networks and Group W/Westinghouse Broadcasting.

As discussed before, Group W had struck a deal with CBS to affiliate all five of its stations with the network. WJZ-TV in Baltimore and WBZ-TV in Boston had switched on January 2, 1995. However, in Philadelphia, CBS already owned WCAU-TV on channel 10 for many years. In order for the deal to go through, CBS would have to sell channel 10 and relocate its affiliation to KYW-TV on channel 3 (which was NBC’s oldest affiliate, dating back to 1941, and where CBS would receive a 49% ownership stake from the Westinghouse stations).

New World and NBC emerged as the leading buyers for channel 10. New World planned on switching WCAU to Fox if it got hold of the station. NBC had long wanted an owned-and-operated (O&O) station in Philadelphia, so much so that it had coerced Westinghouse into swapping the KYW radio stations and WPTZ (the future KYW-TV) for the WTAM radio stations and WNBK (now WKYC-TV and owned by Tegna, the former broadcasting arm of the Gannett Company) in Cleveland in 1956. NBC threatened to pull its programming off WPTZ and WBZ-TV, as well as withhold an affiliation with Group W’s newly-acquired KDKA-TV (formerly DuMont O&O WDTV) in Pittsburgh (which would ultimately go with CBS). Immediately after the swap was completed, Westinghouse complained to the FCC, who would order a reversal of the swap in 1965.

Meanwhile, back in 1993, Fox affiliate WTXF (channel 29), then owned by Viacom through the Paramount Stations Group, had plans to become a charter station for the new UPN network with which it would be co-owned. Fox, too, wanted an O&O in Philly, so it had announced it would purchase WGBS-TV, channel 57 (now CW O&O WPSG), earlier that year. Fox was unable to get WGBS, so it turned its attention to WCAU in case New World lost its bid for the station. Viacom later had a change in plans and decided to sell WTXF directly to Fox, while at the same time purchasing WGBS to become its O&O.

With New World and Fox out of the picture, WCAU went to NBC by default. However, the network couldn’t complete the one-off purchase of channel 10 without running into heavy capital gains taxes. To avoid this, NBC and Group W/CBS arranged an “equal” deal where in exchange for WCAU, NBC would give up its O&Os KCNC-TV in Denver and KUTV in Salt Lake City to CBS, as well as WTVJ’s stronger channel 4 transmitter facility (and associated broadcast license) in Miami, to the Group W/CBS joint venture. CBS would give its existing channel 6 transmitter facility (and license) for Miami’s WCIX (which became WFOR after the switch, and returning CBS to channel 4 after a 6-year absence).

After the local airings of Saturday Night Live on September 10, the changes written into the deal took effect. In Denver, NBC moved to KUSA (channel 9, owned by Gannett and now transferred to Tegna) in a three-way swap that saw its former ABC affiliation moving to KMGH-TV (channel 7) as a result of that station’s owner, McGraw-Hill (yes, that McGraw-Hill that is well known for publishing school textbooks), signing an agreement with ABC to switch all of its stations to the network. In Salt Lake City, KUTV (channel 2) simply switched affiliations with Mormon-owned KSL-TV (channel 5). And in Philadelphia, WCAU went straight from being a CBS O&O to one of NBC. Westinghouse would acquire CBS later that year, making the Group W stations CBS O&Os, and the company would sell off all its non-broadcasting assets to become the first CBS Corporation.

Read more about the deals that led to the switches and their effects on Wikipedia.

Video relating to the switch will come soon.

Also, you may be wondering: where the hell have I been? Well, in short, I haven’t been reading and catching up on the TV news forums lately, so I haven’t had anything to write about for the past several months.

20 Years Ago Today...

...the Westinghouse/Group W-owned TV stations WJZ-TV in Baltimore and WBZ-TV in Boston switched to CBS, dumping their longtime affiliations with ABC and NBC, respectively.

It all started in 1993. After acquiring the rights to the NFC from CBS, Fox sought to upgrade their affiliate lineup through station group deals, most notably with New World Communications, a company who owned mostly CBS affiliates (inherited from Storer Broadcasting) in key NFC markets. This led to more group deals involving such companies as Scripps and most notably, Group W (Westinghouse), who ended up purchasing CBS the next year. This major shakeup elevated Fox to the position of the fourth major TV network in the U.S. and sustained the growth of Fox Sports. The first of the New World stations (WJW-TV in Cleveland and WDAF-TV in Kansas City) switched on September 12, 1994, with the majority of the others switching on December 11 and 12.

After New World announced their deal, CBS began wooing longtime ABC affiliates WXYZ-TV (channel 7) in Detroit (originally an ABC owned-and-operated station, or "O&O," from its sign-on in 1948 until 1986) and WEWS (channel 5) in Cleveland to replace New World-owned WJBK-TV (channel 2) and WJW-TV (channel 8) in their respective markets. Both are owned by the E.W. Scripps Company, and as part of the renewal of their ABC affiliations, Scripps agreed to switch some of its other network affiliates. Included were KNXV-TV in Phoenix, WFTS-TV in Tampa (both were losing Fox to New World stations in their markets), and WMAR-TV in Baltimore, which would displace WJZ-TV.

Westinghouse felt betrayed by ABC after over 45 years of loyalty. They had been shopping around for a groupwide affiliation deal, but the Scripps/ABC deal pushed them proceed faster. Eventually, Group W struck a deal with CBS to switch all five of its TV stations. Existing affiliates KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh and KPIX in San Francisco began carrying CBS network programming in full in the fall of 1994 (Group W had been known for preempting network programming for local shows). KYW-TV in Philadelphia had to wait until September, however, and I'll explain why when the time comes.

In Cleveland, WJW-TV on channel 8 simply swapped affiliations with WOIO on channel 19. However, in Detroit, CBS struggled to find a new affiliate. Former Fox-outlet WKBD (channel 50) was out of consideration, since it was owned by Viacom and slated to become a charter O&O of the upcoming UPN network. CBS couldn't come to a deal with NBC-affiliate WDIV (channel 4), and the other major independent stations did not want to join the network, either. CBS had negotiated with WADL (channel 38), but walked out after its owner began to make unreasonable demands. With the date for WJBK's switch quickly approaching, CBS ended up purchasing low-rated WGPR-TV on channel 62 from a group of African-American Masons, changing the its call letters to WWJ-TV (the former calls of WDIV until 1978, since both had been co-owned with WWJ radio sometime during their history). The sale was met with controversy, however. WGPR is commonly acknowledged to be the first American TV station ever owned by African-Americans, therefore, a minority-owned group sued to block CBS' purchase of the station. A judge ruled on behalf of CBS in 1996 and the deal proceeded. Channel 62 had the weakest signal of any station in Detroit, but CBS significantly upgraded its facilities to become the strongest signal in Detroit. However, this and an advertising campaign featuring Bill Cosby didn't help the network's ratings in the city, which plunged as part of the switch, and WWJ-TV remains the lowest-rated of the major network stations in Detroit.

Read more about the network affiliation switches on the Encyclopedia Anyone Can Edit (Wikipedia).