How the 1994-96 realignment worked differently if WCAU became a Fox station instead of NBC?

[DucNguyen0131]

Lamco Communications broke up

Lamco Communications announced that they would dismantle their operations. CBS bought out the radio stations, while major networks showed interest in the broadcasting operations.

• KRCR-TV in Chico and its semi-satellite KAEF-TV in Eureka, as well as KTXS-TV in Abilene and KTXE-TV in San Angelo was sold to Disney/ABC, for $2.5 billion.
• The Montana stations (KECI-TV, KCFW-TV, KTVM-TV and KDBZ-TV) as well as WCYB-TV in Bristol were sold off to General Electric/NBC for $3.5 billion.

The current Sinclair Broadcast Group (made up from acquired stations in addition to existing stations) has been completely butterflied away, leaving in for Fox to acquire the Sinclair stations in 1995.

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Ackerley Group sold

Disney/ABC announced its negotiations to buy Ackerley Group, who owns several ABC affiliates like WIVT-TV in Binghamton, WIXT-TV in Syracuse and WUTR-TV in Utica. This did not include KVOS-TV, which was instead sold to California Television Partners LP, owners of KCAL-TV in Los Angeles, KKTV in Colorado Springs, which was sold to Sony/CBS, KGET-TV in Bakersfield which was instead sold to General Electric/NBC and KCBA-TV in Salinas, which was instead transferred to Fox Television Stations for $50 billion.

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FCC approves Disney/Grapevine offer

The Federal Communications Commission had approved the $12.4 billion offer to purchase KAAL in Austin and KODE-TV in Joplin. NBC would purchase KTVE-TV in El Dorado, and KTBY-TV in Anchorage was sold off to Fox Television Stations.

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FCC approves Paramount/KJZZ offer

The Federal Communications Commission had approved Paramount's $1 billion offer to buy KJZZ-TV. This make the Salt Lake City market the fifth owned-and-operated television station. The others were KTVX (ABC), KUTV (NBC), KSTU (CBS) and KSL-TV (FOX).

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Time Warner to buy Salt Lake station

Time Warner Inc. announced a $6.4 healthy billion offer to purchase the Salt Lake City station KUWB-TV. KUWB was a WB affiliate operating on UHF channel 30, carrying several programming from The WB Television Network.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

Disney/Grapevine deal completed

The $12.4 billion merger between The Walt Disney Company and Grapevine Communications has just been completed. Upon finalization, KAAL-TV in Austin and KODE-TV in Joplin were folded into ABC's owned-and-operated television unit. NBC would purchase KTVE-TV in El Dorado, and Fox Television Stations would buy KTBY-TV in Anchorage.

KAAL-TV's operations and master control were integrated into KSTP-TV, which is about to be WNCF-TV next spring.

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NBC's Boston and Philadelphia stations expanded activity

NBC's owned-and-operated television stations WBTS-TV in Boston, and WWAC-TV in Wildwood/Atlantic City-WMNJ-TV in Millville-WOCI-TV in Philadelphia is expanding their news coverage, in hopes for additional viewers for the Boston and Philadelphia television markets, in order to challenge the respective O&Os in the Boston market (Fox's WHDH-TV, CBS' WBZ-TV and ABC's WCVB-TV) and in the Philadelphia market (Fox's WCAU-TV, CBS' KYW-TV and ABC's WPVI-TV).

Both WBTS-TV in Boston, WMNJ-TV in Millville and WOCI-TV in Philadelphia has origins as independent stations (although the Boston station would affiliate with Fox for seven years), before Outlet took control of these stations (along with WWAC-TV in Wildwood/Atlantic City and WNCN-TV in Goldsboro/Raleigh/Durham/Fayetteville) in 1994 and became NBC stations, and it was purchased by NBC outright in 1996.

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Paramount/KJZZ-TV's offer completed

The $1 billion offer between Paramount Stations Group and KJZZ-TV has been completed. This means that they became the fifth Salt Lake City owned-and-operated television station in the market.

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Texas stations start newscasts

KRRT-TV in San Antonio, KTXA-TV in Dallas/Fort Worth and KTXH-TV in Houston, both UPN owned-and-operated television stations has plans to start their news operation in the May of 1999, with the scrambling to hire news directors for each individual stations. WTXF-TV in Philadelphia, WXIN-TV in Indianapolis, WWOR-TV in Seacaus/New York, KCOP-TV in Los Angeles and WTOG-TV in Tampa/St. Petersburg have successful news operations.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

Paramount to buy Wilmington station

Paramount Stations Group Inc. announced its negotiations to purchase Wilmington television station WSSN-LP for $1 billion. This intended to make the Wilmington market the first owned-and-operated television station ever.

CBS won a construction permit to build a television station on channel 15 to avoid interfere with the Raleigh, Greenville or Myrtle Beach television stations.

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CBS/Draper merger for FCC approval

The Federal Communications Commission had approved the $7.5 billion merger between Sony/CBS and Draper Holdings Business Trust. Draper Holdings owns WBOC-TV in Salisbury and KGBT-TV in Brownsville, which were CBS affiliated television stations.

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NBC to buy Federal Enterprises

NBC announced a $6.5 billion offer to purchase Federal Enterprises. Federal is owner of WPBN-TV in Traverse City and its satellite WTOM-TV in Cheboygan, WLUC-TV in Marquette, WDAM-TV in Hattiesburg, WSTM-TV in Syracuse, KNDO-TV in Yakima and its satellite KNDU-TV in Richland, and ABC affiliate KTVO-TV in Ottumwa.

Disney won a construction permit to build a new station that served Iowa and Kirksville, operating on channel 32, to avoid interfere with the other stations in Kansas, Columbia, Quincy, Des Moines, Cedar Rapids and Burlington.

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ABC to buy WOAY-TV

Disney/ABC announced a $5.3 billion offer from the Thomas family to buy WOAY-TV. This made the Bluefield television market its first owned-and-operated television station in the city.

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FCC approved Quincy Media offer

The Federal Communications Commission had approved a joint consortium between NBC and Berkshire-Hathaway to buy all of Quincy's assets. NBC would cover the TV stations, except for WSJV in South Bend, which was sold off to Fox Television Stations, and Berkshire-Hathaway to get all newspaper assets.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

WDCA and WNUV to launch news departments

Paramount Stations Group, who owns WDCA-TV in Washington, D.C. and WNUV-TV in Baltimore, currently UPN affiliates announced plans to launch a news department facility. The previous WDCA-TV newscast was produced by NewsChannel 8, which at that time Allbritton was about to be merged with Disney in a five-way company merger, was discontinued in 1996.

WDCA-TV and WNUV-TV had hopes to compete with Fox's owned-and-operated newscasts WTTG-TV and WBFF-TV in Baltimore.

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Time Warner to buy WMJF-LP

Time Warner Inc. announced its plans to buy low power television station that served the Baltimore area, WMJF-LP, and converted into a full power television station. WMJF-LP operates on channel 39 and it was an affiliate of The WB television network.

Time Warner has plans to make some upgrades on the Baltimore transmission tower.

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Roberts/Silver King merger approved by FCC

The Federal Communications Commission had approved the merger between Silver King Broadcasting and Roberts Broadcasting. The combined company owns and operates 12 television stations, plus an additional station in St. Louis, WHSL-TV. Both of these were Home Shopping Network affiliates.

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KDAF-TV to adapt new identity

Four years after becoming a CBS affiliate, KDAF-TV is adapting a new identity and logo, and a new slogan "Where the News Come First". The slogan was used to emphasize the news programming that was produced for the Dallas/Fort Worth market. The news department is expanded a bit further, and a new theme is added.

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WB's Texas properties to expand news operation

The WB's owned-and-operated television stations KTVT-TV in Dallas/Fort Worth and KHTV-TV in Houston is expanding their news activity, by adding a morning newscast, and it will compete against Fox O&Os KDFW-TV and KRIV-TV in the respective markets Dallas/Fort Worth and Houston to bring their news identity, who was successful, experimenting with morning newscasts.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

WDTN to remove 2-4pm news

WDTN, the ABC owned and operated station announced that they would replace the newscasts at 2:00-4:00pm with the pickup of two ABC soap operas that was previously uncleared (One Life to Live and General Hospital) (ITTL, IOTL in two stages of the station General Hospital was picked up in 2000, followed by One Life to Live in 2002).

WDTN in Dayton, WCPO in Cincinnati, WSYX-TV in Columbus and WRAI-TV in Cleveland has plans to link their news operations together to form a planned program "Ohio All-Access" for prime access.

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CBS/Draper merger completed

Sony/CBS and Draper Holdings Business Trust has completed their $7.5 billion offer to merge the companies together. This means that WBOC-TV in Salisbury and KGBT-TV in Brownsville becoming CBS owned-and-operated TV stations.

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Quincy Media offer completed

A joint venture between NBC and Berkshire Hathaway had completed its offer to buy all assets of Quincy Media. NBC would cover the TV stations owned by Quincy, except for WSJV in South Bend, which was instead transferred to Fox Television Stations, while Berkshire-Hathaway would get the newspaper assets.

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FCC approves BH/News Press & Gazette merger

The Federal Communications Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice had jointly approved the $7.5 billion merger between Berkshrie-Hathaway and The News-Press & Gazette Company. Three of the TV stations were excluded, as KUNA-LP was sold off to Telemundo, while KESQ-TV and KVIA-TV would be sold to Disney/ABC.

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WPVI-TV introduces new theme

WPVI-TV, the longtime Philadelphia ABC O&O had finally changed its theme song (IOTL, the theme song has never been changed). WPVI-TV had commissioned Gari Communications to do a customized version of the "Image News" theme used by the ABC O&Os by incorporating WPVI's signature theme song/national anthem "Move Closer to Your World" into the customized "Image News" theme. Sydney Forest, who had performed two songs on the recent English dub of Kiki's Delivery Service, was hired to perform/sung the customized version of WPVI's newer theme, using the lyrics from the original WPVI theme "Move Closer to Your World" by Al Ham. This new theme reflects ABC O&Os "camera graphics" package (IOTL this camera graphics package was used exclusively by Hearst-Argyle Television stations between the late 1990s and early 2000s). It was recorded in Los Angeles on December 22, 1998, the new theme was introduced on January 25, 1999.

WPVI's news set was a bit updated and modified to match the modern look used by some ABC O&Os like WISN-TV in Milwaukee.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

KTBS-TV sold for $4 billion

The Walt Disney Company, owners of the American Broadcasting Company, and its larger owned-and-operated TV station group announced a $4 billion offer from the Wray Properties Trust to buy KTBS-TV. KTBS-TV is an ABC affiliate operating on channel 3. If the deal is finalized, then KTBS-TV would change its call sign to "KLMN-TV" (the middle part of the ABC network), as a nod to WXYZ-TV (ITTL, IOTL the KLMN letters resist on a defunct TV station in Montana).

This means Shreveport will have two owned and operated TV stations in the row, with KSLA being the first.

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WATL and KSTU to rebrand identity

WATL-TV and KSTU, the CBS owned-and-operated stations in both Atlanta and Salt Lake City (two of them, along with KDAF-TV were acquired from Fox in 1994 as part of a trade deal with WCAU in Philadelphia) is officially rebranding their identities. They both get their own new news set, and the "CBS Enforcer" news music package by Gari Communications. KSTU will rebrand as "CBS 13" and WATL-TV was rebranded as "CBS 36".

KSTU was a VHF station, while WATL was a UHF station.

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WTBS to expand news coverage

WTBS-TV, the WB affiliate in Atlanta has plans to expand their news coverage, adding morning, noon and 5:00pm newscasts, both produced by CNN. WTBS' news, operating on channel 17 gave them the slogan "Total News Coverage", in order to compete with ABC's WSB-TV, NBC's WXIA-TV, Fox's WAGA-TV and CBS' WATL-TV, both in the Atlanta market.

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BH/News-Press & Gazette merger completed

The $7.5 billion merger between Berkshire-Hathaway and The News-Press & Gazette Company has been completed. This means two of the television stations were sold to Disney, with the third News-Press station KUNA-LP became a Telemundo owned-and-operated TV station.

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Silver King/Roberts merger completed

The merger between Roberts Broadcasting and Silver King Broadcasting has been finalized/completed. This means that they will have 13 television stations that were currently affiliated with the Home Shopping Network.

 

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Silver King to buy more HSN stations

After the completion of the merger between Silver King Broadcasting and Roberts Broadcasting, Silver King Broadcasting announced a $3.5 billion offer to purchase Miller Broadcasting, who owns KMCI-TV in Kansas City, and The Videohouse's W61CC in Pittsburgh. This gave them a total of 15 television stations.

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CBS to buy KION

CBS announced a $5.3 billion offer to purchase KION-TV, the CBS affiliate in Monterey/Salinas/Santa Cruz, and has plans to make the Monterey Bay market the second owned-and-operated station, the first was KSBW-TV, which NBC acquired a few years earlier as part of a buyout of Sunrise Television.

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Detroit station starts newscasts

The UPN O&O WGPR-TV in Detroit has plans to build a news operation. It will plans to air prime-time newscasts at 10pm in order to challenge the most successful newscasts on FOX O&O WJBK-TV in Detroit.

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UPN to buy Oklahoma station

The Paramount Stations Group, owners of UPN announced plans to buy KOCB-TV in Oklahoma City for $2 billion. This make UPN the sixth Oklahoma owned-and-operated television station ever made.

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Three-station offers completed by Time Warner

Time Warner Inc. has just finalized the $23.5 billion offer to purchase three television stations WMHQ-TV in Albany/Schenectady/Troy, WLWC-TV in Providence/New Bedford and WWHO-TV in Columbus. WMHQ-TV would be converted into a commercial license, and served as an owned-and-operated television station of The WB. CNN announced plans to produce primetime news for each of the three stations.

Paramount Stations Group has hopes to start two television stations on channel 67 for the Columbus station and channel 41 for the Providence station, called "WPSC" for the Columbus station and "WUPR" for the Providence station.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

WBAL-TV to rebrand identity

WBAL-TV, the NBC owned-and-operated station in Baltimore decided to rebrand their identity as "NBC 11" and decided to rebrand their news activity as "NewsChannel 11". The set was updated to match the set used by WRC-TV in nearby Washington. This also brought out WRC's news theme "Working for You" by 615 Music to the television station as the news theme to replace "Third Coast" by Stephen Arnold Music (ITTL, IOTL Third Coast disappeared quickly in December of 1995 to be replaced by Hearst's "Image News" by Gari Media Group).

Master control of WBAL-TV was integrated into WRC-TV's operations.

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Berkshire Hathaway/Evening Post merger completed

The $22.5 billion merger between Berkshire Hathaway and Evening Post Industries has been completed. The Cordillera Communications unit was excluded as the unit was sold off to General Electric/NBC.

KIVI-TV in Bend was sold to ABC, while eight of Cordillera's stations were sold to Sony/CBS.

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Miami Valley News Channel started

As a companion piece to Disney's own Washington-based NewsChannel 8, and the success of NBC's Denver-based Colorado NewsChannel and the Tribune's Phoenix-based Arizona NewsChannel, Disney was in its hands to officially launch Miami Valley News Channel, which like NewsChannel 8, which was a joint venture with WMAL-TV, Miami Valley News Channel operated as a joint venture with WDTN-TV, the ABC owned-and-operated station, and rebroadcasting WDTN's local newscasts in a 24-hour format with the ability to cut in for breaking news. The cable providers who signed up for DirecTV and TimeWarner Cable.

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CBS/Morris Multimedia merger for FCC approval

The $12.5 billion offer for Morris Multimedia by CBS has been officially approved. This means that WMGT-TV in Macon and ABC's WDHN-TV in Dothan becoming CBS owned-and-operated stations, while KARK-TV was sold to NBC for $2.5 billion.

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UPN to drop weekday kids block

The United Paramount Network, while increasing a push for their newscasts, has officially dropped the Nickelodeon on UPN weekday block, while moving the Sunday morning block to Saturday mornings (swapping it with the locally-acquired E/I programs), to replace it with two hourly soaps Undressed (ITTL, IOTL this as a half-hour soap on MTV) and Spyder Games (ITTL, IOTL Spyder Games aired on MTV in 2001). Both soaps were produced by Paramount Television, as an emphasis to make UPN a bigger network.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

Kids' WB officially dropped

The WB television network has officially been dropping the Kids' WB! weekday block due to poor ratings, while converting the Saturday morning block to an educational-and-informational block. This means that they would move most of the Kids' WB! shows including Pokémon and Batman Beyond, to Cartoon Network. They will replace the Kids' WB morning block with a new CNN-produced morning series, while the afternoon block was replaced by two new hourly soaps. The new soaps were a new soap which was Town Across, created by Lynn Marie Latham, and a new soap created by Kay Alden, Jersey City, which is about the city of New Jersey.

This meant The WB has plans to go all seven nights by the fall of 1999 in order to palace all nWo Heat fans.

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Chambers Communications/Disney merger approved

The Federal Communications Commission had approved the merger between The Walt Disney Company and Chambers Communications. This means that four of them were Oregon stations that were affiliated with ABC.

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New callsign took effect

The new callsign for KSTP-AM-FM-TV, the ABC O&O would be officially changed into WNCF-AM-FM-TV, which stood for "Where the News Come First", which had became the station's slogan. There are other of the four Minneapolis owned-and-operated television stations.

WHOA-TV in Montgomery, the ABC O&O would change its callsign to "WKGO-TV", which reflects the network's co-ownership with the station KGO-TV, and decided to build its news operation.

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CBS/Spartan merger approved by FCC

The Federal Communications Commission had approved the merger between Sony/CBS and Spartan Communications. All of them were CBS affiliates, while WMBB and WJBF were ABC affiliates, which are about to move to CBS.

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Milwaukee station to build newscast

The UPN O&O in Milwaukee, WDJT-TV announced plans to build its news operation, by showing only a primetime newscast at 10:00pm to compete with WVTV's established 10pm newscast. (ITTL, IOTL WDJT started its news operation barely a year after it was switched to CBS).

 

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WHAG-TV to became WRC-TV satellite

NBC announced a $4 billion offer to purchase WHAG-TV in Hagerstown, and decided to merge its operations, including technical research and master control with WRC-TV once the sale was finalized. Once the deal is done, it will became a semi-satellite of NBC owned-and-operated station WRC-TV in Washington, D.C.

Two other Great Trails stations WFFT-TV was sold to Fox Television Stations in a separate deal, for $2 billion, and KSVI in Billings, which was sold to Disney/ABC for $1 billion.

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WUSA and KUSA to rebrand identity

WUSA-TV and KUSA-TV, the CBS owned-and-operated stations in Washington, D.C. and Denver, respectively (after Gannett broke off) announced that they would rebrand their activity to rebrand the station as "9 Eyewitness News". Both WUSA-TV and KUSA-TV started using WJZ-TV's news theme "Chroma Cues" by Music Oasis, as well as a new set that was similar to WJZ's set.

The master control of WUSA-TV would be merged into WJZ-TV's operations.

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CBS to buy Marks Radio Group

CBS announced a $16.4 billion offer to purchase Marks Radio Group, who owns radio television stations, as well as four TV stations, which were KXGN-TV in Glendive and WBKB-TV in Alpena.

This will exclude WBKP in Marquette, which was transferred to Disney/ABC, and KYUS-TV, which was sold to KULR-TV.

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CBS/Spartan merger completed

The merger between Sony/CBS and Spartan Communications has been completed. All of these Spartan stations were CBS affiliates, except for WMBB and WJBF-TV, which were ABC affiliates.

Disney received to launch two new FCC-licensed stations to displace these two (WMBB and WJBF) which were set to launch in the fall of 1999.

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Disney/Chambers merger completed

The merger between The Walt Disney Company and Chambers Communications has been completed, and four of the Chambers stations became ABC owned-and-operated television stations, that served the Oregon state.

At the same time, the FCC announced that they will expand the 218-station limit to the 256-station limit, thus giving them a full national reach of 100%.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

CBS to buy Catamount Broadcasting

CBS/Sony announced its negotiations to purchase Catamount Broadcasting, owners of KXJB-TV, which was a CBS affiliate operating on channel 4 in the Fargo market. This gave the North Dakota market an owned-and-operated television station.

The station would expand its television activity, having plans to rebrand the newscast as "News 4 North Dakota".

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WXIN to expand newscasts

WXIN-TV, the UPN owned-and-operated station has plans to expand its newscast, adding a morning newscast at 6:30am, to compete with WTTV's established newscast (which had done so ever since WTTV was converted from a skeleton crew-based independent to a news-intensive Fox station in 1994, after River City sold the station to New World).

They would also plans for UPN to push forward with their newscasts.

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CBS/Reiten deal approved by FCC

The Federal Communications Commission had approved the $6.4 billion merger between Sony/CBS and Reiten Television, who owns CBS television stations that served the North Dakota television area.

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WTXF and WTOG to launch morning newscasts

WTXF-TV in Philadelphia and WTOG-TV in Tampa/St. Petersburg announced that they would launch their morning newscasts in the fall of 1999, in order to compete with the successful news operations of Fox affiliates WCAU-TV and WTVT-TV in the Philadelphia and Tampa markets respectively. Both stations are owned by Paramount Stations Group, which are UPN O&Os.

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FCC approves Benedek Broadcasting divesture

The Federal Communications Commission had approved the break-up of Benedek Broadcasting, and the sale of television stations to ABC, NBC and CBS, for a complete total of $67.3 billion. Benedek executives say that this is "the Field Communications breakup of the new millennium".

 

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WRGB and WTLV to drop acquired programs

WRGB-TV (channel 13), the CBS O&O in Schenectady/Albany/Troy, New York and WTLV (channel 12), the NBC O&O in Jacksonville, Florida, jointly announced that they would drop all acquired programs in favor of solely focusing on local programming, consisting solely of local newscasts, as well as its own original local programming.

KCNC-TV, the current NBC O&O in Denver first pioneered the concept in 1990. WDTN-TV in Dayton is one of the ABC O&Os that currently used the concept.

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NBC to buy Maine Radio and Television

NBC and Westwood One jointly announced a $5.3 billion offer to buy Maine Radio and Television. Westwood One would cover the radio assets, while NBC would cover two of its TV stations, which will consist of WCSH-TV in Portland and WLBZ-TV in Bangor. This deal does not include the third Maine station CBS affiliate KMEG-TV in Sioux City, which was instead transferred to Sony/CBS.

NBC already owns KTIV in Sioux City, which was benefit from the purchase of the Quincy assets.

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Fox to buy Waitt Broadcasting

Fox Television Stations announced a $16.4 billion offer to purchase Waitt Broadcasting. The company owns four television stations WFXL-TV in Albany, WPGX in Panama City, WDFX in Dothan and KYOU in Ottumwa.

This station met FCC's new 256-station limits and a full national market reach coverage.

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WCGV to be rebranded

The CBS O&O WCGV-TV (which CBS only acquired Meredith, after Sinclair traded the Milwaukee and Birmingham stations to Meredith for the Orlando and Vegas stations) in Milwaukee, is rebranding it to "CBS 24", and the new slogan was "Wisconsin's 24-Hour News Source", in order to put an emphasis on news programming (which only started after WCGV became a Meredith-owned CBS station), and start branding their newscasts "Action News".

Master control and technical research of WCGV would be integrated into WBBM-TV and WFRV-TV, both stations in nearby markets.

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CBS/Reiten deal completed

The $6.4 billion merger between Sony/CBS and Reiten Television has been completed. Reiten Television owns the CBS television stations that served the North Dakota area, and the North Dakota stations owned by Reiten became CBS owned-and-operated television stations.

 

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CBS to buy Greenville station

CBS announced negotiations to purchase WXVT-TV in Greenville/Greenwood, which operates on channel 15 for $10.5 billion. This made the Greenville television market an owned-and-operated television station.

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Sony/K-Six offer approved by FCC

The Federal Communications Commission had approved Sony's $13.5 billion offer to purchase the K-Six stations. It owns and operates KVTV in Laredo and KZTV in Corpus Christi, which were two television stations that were affiliated with CBS.

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Benedek Broadcasting dismantled

Benedek Broadcasting had officially closed its operations. Employees were however laid off. The sale of the television stations to ABC, NBC and CBS for $67.3 billion, becoming the owned-and-operated television station group ever.

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WSBK to launch morning newscast

WSBK, in partnership with the New England Cable News decided to push forward and decided to gave the station a morning newscast at 7am-9am. This gave them successful numbers to compete with WHDH's established and highly profitable "Good Day New England" show.

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KTZZ to launch primetime newscast

KTZZ, the UPN owned-and-operated station announced that they would push forward with the newscasts, by launching a primetime newscast at 9:00pm. It was in hopes of competing against KIRO-TV's established 9pm newscast as a Fox affiliate, and KSTW's 9pm newscast as a WB O&O.

This is part of UPN's pushing forward with their newscasts.

 

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WKBD-TV to rebrand identity

The CBS owned-and-operated station WKBD-TV (which is one of the stations acquired from River City TV, along with KOVR in Sacramento), decided to change its call letters to WWJ-TV to match its radio sister (ITTL, IOTL this used as a callsign for WGPR-TV when CBS bought it in 1995), adapted a new logo "CBS 50", adapted the CBS Enforcer as the new theme for the news department, and hired Don LaFontaine to voice the news station.

The station immediately rebranded the news department as "NewsCenter 50".

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WBTS and WJAR merged

NBC announced that the master control of WBTS-TV (channel 25) in Boston, to be merged with WJAR-TV (channel 10) in Providence/New Bedford, in order for the station to have connecting links between the two. Boston is television's sixth-largest market, while Providence is a bit farther, being on the mid-sized television list.

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KEZI to rebrand identity

KEZI-TV, the ABC owned-and-operated station is giving an overhaul to rebrand their identity to go in line with the owned-and-operated stations. Disney/ABC took control of the station two months ago, and forced the station to receive a new look, upgrading their news open from the Hearst copycat to the real ABC O&O "camera" look.

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WTVG to link news with WXYZ

WTVG (channel 13) in Toledo and WJRT-TV (channel 12) in Flint announced that they will link their news operation with the ABC owned-and-operated station WXYZ-TV (channel 7) in Detroit to launch an all-access program, which is based on WCVB-TV's Chronicle program.

Technical research and master control of WTVG-TV and WJRT-TV would be merged with WXYZ-TV in Detroit.

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Sony/K-Six merger completed

The $13.5 billion offer between Sony/CBS and K-Six Television has been completed. K-Six Television has been principal owner of KVTV in Laredo and KZTV in Corpus Christi, which became CBS owned-and-operated television stations.

 

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WGRZ to adapt new look

WGRZ-TV, the CBS owned-and-operated station in Buffalo adapted a new look that the station would officially became "CBS 2" on-air, and "CBS 2 Action News" for its newscasts, with graphics and music being derived from the New York City sister station WCBS-TV, which was also a CBS owned-and-operated station.

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WIVB to adapt new graphics

WIVB-TV, the NBC owned-and-operated station in Buffalo adapted a new look that uses WRC-TV's recent television graphics of the time, and rebranded the stations to "News 4 Buffalo", and adapted WNBC's news theme "NBC Stations" by Edd Kalehoff for its news theme.

WIVB-TV was formerly a CBS affiliate owned by King World Productions, which was sold to General Electric in 1994 and became a NBC owned-and-operated station.

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CBS to buy Yuma station

CBS received a $6.3 billion offer from Eclipse Media to purchase KSYT, which operates on channel 13 in the Yuma market. This made the Yuma market its first owned-and-operated television station ever made.

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Saga Communications sold to radio owner

Westwood One announced a $32.4 billion offer to purchase Saga Communications, who owns radio stations, while the TV unit of Saga Communications has been sold off to CBS. Saga's TV properties included were KOAM-TV. CBS did not want to include KAVU-TV, which was sold to Fox Television Stations outright.

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CBS to buy Texoma Broadcasting

CBS announced a $10.4 billion offer to purchase Texoma Broadcasting. Texoma is owner of KWTX-TV, KBTX-TV and KXII. Both of them were currently CBS television affiliates that serve both the Texas and Oklahoma markets.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

NBC to buy two stations

NBC announced a $3.4 billion offer to purchase two Pennsylvania stations WJAC-TV covering the Johnstown market and WTOV-TV, covering the Steubenville market. Thus this make the two stations owned-and-operated television stations.

They had to cover them through south and north of the Pittsburgh television market.

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Fox to buy Madison station

Fox announced a $6.4 billion offer to purchase WMSN-TV in Madison and WFXV-TV in Rome. This would make the Madison market an owned-and-operated television station, as well as giving the Rome market an owned-and-operated television station.

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WLUK to rebrand identity

WLUK-TV is rebranding their station identity giving it as under Fox's universal owned-and-operated station branding. This would gave the Green Bay market a larger owned-and-operated station that follows the news intensive format.

Master control of WLUK-TV would be merged into WITI-TV in Milwaukee.

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CBS/Morris Multimedia merger completed

The $12.5 billion merger between Sony/CBS and Morris Multimedia has been completed. Two of them will be CBS owned-and-operated stations, while KARK-TV in Little Rock will be transferred to NBC for $2.5 billion.

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Continental Television dismantled for FCC approval

The FCC has sent down the approval for the dismantling of Continental Television. This means that KTGF-TV would became a NBC owned-and-operated station, allowing KRON-TV in San Francisco to produce weather updates for the station, while ABC bought out KTMF-TV in Missoula and KWYB-TV in Butte.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

Fox to buy Wilmington station

Fox Television Stations announced a $2.6 billion offer to purchase WSFX-TV in Wilmington. This gave the Wilmington market an owned-and-operated television station of any big four television network.

The Wilmington station is one of the largest that does not have any owned-and-operated television station.

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Fox/Bahakel merger approved by FCC

The merger between Fox Television Stations Inc. and Bahakel Communications has been approved by the Federal Communications Commission. This gave WCCB-TV in Charlotte an owned-and-operated television station. Five of the television stations were sold individually to various owners like Sony/CBS, Disney/ABC and California Television Investors.

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Lamco Communications brokeup approved by FCC

The breakup of Lamco Communications has been approved by the Federal Communications Commission. This means that CBS bought out the radio parts, while the TV parts were sold to Disney/ABC and General Electric/NBC.

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Time Warner/Salt Lake merger approved by FCC

Time Warner's $6.4 billion offer to buy KUWB-TV has been approved by the Federal Communications Commission. This means that KUWB-TV would became the sixth owned-and-operated television station in the Salt Lake television market.

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KMSP and KPTV to expand news operation

KMSP-TV and KPTV, two UPN O&Os in the respective markets Minneapolis/St. Paul and Portland is expanding their news operation to make it more "news-intensive". KMSP and KPTV had build up ground for the noon newscasts, and decided to expand their news operations. Among those, Perry Mason has been officially dropped from KPTV. KMSP and KPTV will became news-intensive UPN stations.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

Lamco Communications shut down

Lamco Communications is laying off their employees, shutting down their operations. CBS bought out the radio pieces, while the TV pieces were sold individually to Disney/ABC and General Electric/NBC. This will gave FCC's 256-station status and a full national market reach coverage for the station.

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Disney buys Sarasota station

The Walt Disney Company announced a $13.5 billion offer to purchase WWSB-TV in Sarasota, which covered both the Tampa and Fort Myers market. Berkshire-Hathaway announced that they would acquire the newspaper assets of Calkin Media, while dissolving the company.

WWSB's technical research and master control would be merged into WFTS-TV once the sale is closed.

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Fort Myers station sold

The Walt Disney Company announced a $14.5 billion offer to purchase WZVN-TV in Fort Myers from Montclair Communications. This means that they would gave the Fort Myers market an owned-and-operated station.

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Time Warner closes on KUWB purchase

The purchase of KUWB-TV by Time Warner Inc. has been finalized, meaning that there are six owned-and-operated TV stations in the market. These are KUTV, which NBC acquired in 1994, KTVX-TV, which ABC purchased the station from Hubbard Broadcasting, which was part of a tradeoff along with the San Antonio station to Chris-Craft for the St. Petersburg/Tampa station, KSL-TV, which News Corporation acquired the Bonneville assets in 1997, KSTU-TV, which CBS acquired in 1994 as part of a tradeoff along with the Dallas and Atlanta stations for the Philadelphia station, and KJZZ-TV, which was sold to Paramount Stations Group a year earlier.

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Fox/Bahakel merger closed

The merger between Fox Television Stations Inc. and Bahakel Communications has officially been closed. This means that WCCB-TV in Charlotte to became Fox's owned-and-operated television station. Five of the TV stations were sold individually to different owners, like Sony/CBS, Disney/ABC and California Television Investors.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

WDAF-TV to drop acquired programs

The Kansas City Fox O&O WDAF-TV said that starting this September that they would drop all acquired programming, putting better emphasis more on the station's newscasts, as well as local programming completely. WDAF-TV said they had plans to build local children's programs on Saturday mornings, such as Fun Time, which was hosted by kids at Trost Elementary, recorded from WDAF-TV's studios. Fun Time would displace both Peer Pressure and Click, and it will be a live series.

KCNC-TV, the current NBC O&O in Denver is the first to utilize the concept in 1990.

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FCC to approve NBC/Maine merger

The Federal Communications Commission had approved the $5.3 billion offer to a joint venture between NBC and Westwood One to buy Maine Radio and Television. Westwood One would cover the radio assets, while NBC covered two TV stations, while the third Maine station, KMEG-TV in Sioux City was transferred to Sony/CBS.

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CBS to buy Schurz Communications

A joint venture between AT&T, Berkshire Hathaway and CBS announced a joint venture proposed to buy Schurz Communications. CBS would cover the radio and television assets, AT&T would cover the broadband and cloud managed services, and Berkshire Hathaway could cover the newspaper assets. Schurz's TV stations include WSBT-TV in South Bend, KYTV in Springfield, and WDBJ in Roanoke. A Schurz station, WAGT in Augusta would be sold to NBC in a separate deal for $2.1 billion, since CBS already bought out Spartan Communications, owners of rival WJBF-TV in Augusta.

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KOLR goes to NBC

NBC announced a $6.4 billion offer to purchase VHR Broadcasting, who owns CBS affiliate KOLR-TV in Springfield, and converted the station into a NBC affiliate. This makes KOLR-TV the new home for various shows like Friends, Frasier, Will & Grace, Just Shoot Me! and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Concurrently, KYTV would switch to CBS via the buyout.

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NBC to buy Nebraska holdings

NBC announced a $2.5 billion offer to purchase Greater Nebraska Television, who owns KNOP-TV and KHAS-TV to cover the Nebraska market, while K11TW would be sold to Paramount Stations Group in a separate deal for $1 billion.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

Time Warner sets FCC approval for the WMJF station

The Federal Communications Commission had approved Time Warner's offer for the Baltimore station WMJF-LP operates on channel 39, which was an affiliate of The WB Television Network, and converted from a low power station to a full power television station.

The Baltimore transmission tower was upgraded.

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Paramount to start news operations

The United Paramount Network is making a push towards newscasts. The three Texas stations KRRT-TV in San Antonio, KTXA-TV in Dallas/Fort Worth and KTXH-TV in Houston already started newscasts in the May of 1999, while WDCA and WNUV in the respective markets, Washington, D.C. and Baltimore started their news operations.

The most successful and most-watched newscasts are WWOR-TV in New York and KCOP-TV in Los Angeles.

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CBS set FCC approval for KION

The Federal Communications Commission has set down the approval for CBS' $5.3 billion offer for KION-TV, which was acquired from the trust group, and make the Monterey Bay market the second owned-and-operated television station.

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NBC/Maine merger closed

The joint venture between NBC and Westwood One has closed the purchase of Maine Radio and Television. This means all of Maine's radio assets were transferred to Westwood One, while NBC bought out the two TV stations outright, with the third Maine station KMEG-TV was sold off to Sony/CBS.

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WTMJ to rebrand newscasts

WTMJ, the NBC owned-and-operated station is rebranding their news operation to go in line with the owned-and-operated stations, and decided to rebrand their on-air news branding as "News 4 Wisconsin", and decided that they would start using WMAQ-TV's graphics and music for their newscasts.

Master control of WTMJ would be integrated into WMAQ-TV in Chicago, another nearby NBC owned-and-operated television station.