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

[DucNguyen0131]

December 9, 1994

The ownership transfer of WCGV-TV and WTTO-TV/WDBB-TV/WNAL-TV from the Sinclair Broadcast Group to Des Moines, Iowa-based Meredith Broadcasting unit of the Meredith Corporation was completed, and Sinclair would receive two of Meredith's television stations WOFL-TV and KVVU-TV, both two of these are currently Fox affiliates.

WTTV-TV in the meantime, had just finished its news department. WTTV had to air news programming from 5:00am-9:00am in the mornings, in the noon time slot, 5:00-7:00pm in the evenings, and 10:00-11:00pm in the overnight slots, taking the format of a major network affiliate. WTTV will plans to air "Countdown to News 4 Indianapolis", in which the channel 4 Indianapolis station had regarding the changes on the network's direction to became a Fox affiliate. Most weekday cartoons, as well as most sitcoms has been dropped, in favor of gradually focusing on becoming news-intensive, which is parallel to other New World stations that had became Fox affiliates, because WTTV-TV had just been purchased by New World two months earlier. The Saturday morning block on WTTV is left intact, with children's programming acquired via syndication and all (all other New World Fox stations elected not to carry Fox Kids at all, defecting to other and outgoing Fox stations). WTTV-TV once had a newscast in the late 1970s, but in 1990, Capitol Broadcasting dismantled the news operations, and reduced to a skeleton crew, until River City traded the station to New World that WTTV-TV saw improvements to the station and a relaunch of a news operation.

Two days later...

December 11, 1994

WJBK-TV officially becomes a Fox affiliate, and former Fox affiliate WKBD-TV officially becomes a CBS affiliate, by the virtue of the ownership of the St. Louis-based River City Broadcasting, and its UPN affiliation was committed to WGPR-TV, channel 62 in Detroit. And the news operations was expanded. River City would soon transfer KOVR-TV to CBS on March 6, 1995, this makes River City two CBS stations. Here's our logo under the new River City ownership:

Meanwhile in Milwaukee, when WITI-TV officially became a Fox affiliate, CBS transferred its Milwaukee affiliation to former Fox affiliate WCGV-TV, by the virtue of the ownership of Meredith Broadcasting, who had an outstanding relationship with CBS, and owns KPHO-TV in Phoenix, KCTV-TV in Kansas City and WNEM-TV in Flint. Here's our logo under the new Meredith ownership:

The transfer of WCAU-TV from CBS' television stations group to Fox Television Stations has been completed, and CBS would receive three Fox markets, KDAF-TV in Dallas and WATL-TV in Atlanta (both of these were losing Fox outlets to New World outlets), and KSTU-TV in Salt Lake City. CBS sold the channel 2 transmitter facility and license to Fox, in return for having the channel 32 transmitter facility and license, which then swapped channel positions. The intellectual unit of WFLD (calls, shows, Fox network and staff) was moved from channel 32 to channel 2, while the intellectual unit of WBBM-TV was moved to channel 32. CBS then traded controlling interest in KDAF-TV, WATL-TV, KSTU-TV and WBBM-TV to Westinghouse Broadcasting, in exchange for a minority interest in Philadelphia's KYW-TV. Fox then traded controlling interest in WCAU-TV and WFLD-TV to New World Communications, in trade for a minority stake in four of New World's stations KDFW-TV, WJBK-TV, WITI-TV and WAGA-TV, which both WFLD-TV and WCAU-TV were converted to news-intensive stations. Fox Kids then transferred from WFLD-TV to Paramount's WCIU-TV, being the first of the original six Fox stations following Metromedia's ownership to drop Fox Kids. Here's our WATL logo under CBS/Group W ownership:

CBS/Group W however introduced a new logo for KDAF-TV. CBS and Group W had jointly being able to run KDAF-TV as a Fox affiliate as CBS' affiliation with KDFW-TV did not run out on July 1, 1995.

Fox/New World also introduced a new logo for the WCAU-TV unit, but Fox/New World was able to run WCAU-TV as a CBS affiliate, until NBC's affiliation contract with KYW-TV expired on January 3, 1995 (ITTL, IOTL the contract expired on September 10, 1995).

As a compensation for the loss of the stations, Fox and CBS swapped channel positions for WFLD-TV and WBBM-TV, with WFLD-TV moving to VHF channel 2. Here's our new channel 2 logo for WFLD:

And here's our new logo for WBBM-TV when it moved to channel 32:

WBBM-TV saw a decline in viewership when it was moved to UHF channel 32, and WFLD-TV posted lower than expected ratings when it moved to VHF channel 2.

One day later, the story continues...

 

[DucNguyen0131]

Continued from Part 1!

December 12, 1994

WTTV-TV, a former independent station running on VHF channel 4 in Indianapolis, devoted to general entertainment, was officially switched to Fox, along with two former CBS affiliates KSAZ-TV in Phoenix and WTVT in Tampa Bay, which was also officially switched to Fox, by its virtue of ownership with New World Communications. Here's our new WTTV logo when the station became Fox:

New World decided to brand the station as "News 4 Indianapolis", in the same way NBC did before when Denver's NBC O&O KCNC-TV was branded as "News 4 Colorado". New World however relaunched newscasts for the station, showing improvements to the station, four years after Capitol Broadcasting dismantled the news operations, forcing the news share agreement with WRTV to be terminated. New World's WTTV-TV had picked up 615 Music's "Newswire" music package for the newly-relaunched newscasts (of which, KTVU, which was owned by New World two months earlier, already picked up the package).

Meanwhile, former Fox affiliation WXIN-TV temporary became an independent station, until the station had to receive UPN on January 16, 1995. Here's our new logo for WXIN before it became UPN:

Meanwhile in Salt Lake City, CBS affiliate KSL-TV, running on VHF channel 5, and Fox affiliate KSTU-TV, running on VHF channel 13 swapped affiliations, because KSTU-TV has just been purchased by CBS/Group W. Here's our new logo for KSTU under CBS/Group W ownership:

The new KSTU logo appears to be based off KCBS-TV and KREM's new logos, which happened to debut on the same year.

Bonneville International, who owns KSL-TV (its flagship station) in Salt Lake City, and KIRO-TV (ITTL, IOTL the station was transferred to Belo and switched to UPN) was switched from CBS to Fox, on the same day the trades had ever happened. Here's our new logo for KSL-TV as a Fox affiliate:

And here's our new logo for KIRO-TV as a Fox affiliate:

Bonneville chose to substitute the "O" in the Fox logo with the circular number logos for KSL-TV (introduced in 1981) and KIRO-TV (introduced in 1993) when it became a Fox station.

Meanwhile, in Seattle, Kelly Broadcasting has officially switched KCPQ-TV, a Fox affiliate running on channel 13, to CBS, and decided to build its news department under the branding "Q13 Reports", in the manner used by KCRA-TV when it was "Channel 3 Reports" (ITTL, IOTL KCPQ didn't build its news operation until 1998). Here's our new logo for KCPQ under CBS affiliation:

And the story continues later in alternate history, when NBC's affiliations with KYW-TV and WBZ-TV, and ABC affiliate WJZ-TV run out in order to make way for CBS on the alternative world of Janaury 3, 1995.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

January 2, 1995

WCAU-TV officially ends its longtime affiliation with CBS after 47 years (ITTL, IOTL, WCAU ends its longtime affiliation with CBS on September 10, 1995 to gave way for NBC) in order to gave way for Fox, by the virtue of joint Fox/New World ownership. News programming was expanded, and the station picked up some of the family-friendly programming on Saturday mornings to displace the CBS cartoons, namely Sweet Valley High, Iron Man, Fantastic Four and Boogie's Diner. Meanwhile, KYW-TV ends its longtime affiliation with NBC after 54 years (ITTL, IOTL, KYW ends its longtime NBC affiliation on September 10, 1995 to switch to CBS), in order to switch to CBS.

The transfer of WMGM-TV, WGTW-TV and WGBS-TV from the three previous owners (South Jersey radio, the Brunson grant, and Combined Broadcasting, Inc.) to the Providence-based company Outlet Communications has been completed, in order to start out the new NBC trimulcast that covered the Philadelphia market with new callsigns stimulated by the FCC: WWAC (for Wildwood/Atlantic City), WMNJ (for Millville, New Jersey) and WOCI (for Outlet Communications, Inc., the station's owner)

Meanwhile, WTXF-TV was losing their Fox affiliation, after nine years, becoming an independent station for two weeks, before UPN was officially started. The station however kept Fox Kids programming, but the primetime schedule was replaced by movies, before officially assuming the UPN affiliation.

In Boston, WHDH-TV officially transferred its affiliation from CBS to Fox. In order for the network not airing news programming, WHDH-TV expanded its news programming. WBZ-TV meanwhile, officially transferred from NBC to CBS. And the transfer of WFXT-TV from Boston Celtics, to Outlet Communications has been completed, in order for WFXT to became a NBC station, under the new callsign assigned by the FCC: "WNEN" (for New England's News). Here's our new logo under Outlet ownership:

These new logos for the NBC Philadelphia trimulcast, along with NBC's new Boston affiliate were shared with WYED-TV, which had just became WNCN-TV under Outlet ownership, using the same design, represented by colors (red for WNCN, green for the NBC trimulcast WWAC/WMNJ/WOCI, and blue for WNEN). As WNEN continues to build its news department until its completion on September 4, 1995, New England Cable News continues to provide programming for the station. Fox Kids, however moved from WFXT-TV to WSBK-TV (channel 38, in Boston, which is about to became a UPN affiliate in two weeks). The FCC agreed to gave them a wavier for letting Outlet to keep WNEN, together with Providence's WJAR, citing city grade signal overlap.

In Baltimore, WMAR-TV was transferred from NBC to ABC, WJZ-TV was transferred from ABC to CBS and WBAL-TV was transferred from CBS to NBC (which by default, ITTL's world was the same as IOTL's).

 

[DucNguyen0131]

January 11, 1995

The WB officially launches with three new programs: The Wayans Bros., which is a sitcom that starred the Wayans Brothers themselves, Unhappily Ever After, which is a sitcom that was created by Ron Leavitt and Arthur Silver, writers of Married... with Children, and Muscle, which was a soap opera spoof that was created by writer Rob LaZebnik. Another sitcom, The Parent Hood, starring Robert Townsend, came out the next week.

The original station roster (ITTL) is:
WPIX in New York
KTLA in Los Angeles
WGN in Chicago
WPHL in Philadelphia
KOFY in San Francisco
WLVI in Boston
WFTY in Washington, D.C.
KTVT in Dallas/Fort Worth
WXON in Detroit
WGNX in Atlanta
KHTV in Houston
KSTW in Seattle/Tacoma
WUAB in Cleveland
KLGT in Minneapolis/St. Paul
WTMV in Tampa/St. Petersburg
WDZL in Miami/Fort Lauderdale
WPTJ in Pittsburgh
KWGN in Denver
KTVK in Phoenix
KPLR in St. Louis
KRBK in Sacramento
WKCF in Orlando
W61BT in Baltimore
WNDY in Indianapolis
KEBN in Portland
WTVU in Hartford
KTTY in San Diego
WFZT in Charlotte
WVTV in Milwaukee
W25AI in Cincinnati
KMCI in Kansas City
WNCN in Raleigh/Durham/Fayetteville
WZTV in Nashville
WWHO in Columbus
WASV in Greenville
WNYB in Buffalo
KOGG in Salt Lake City
WOWD-LP in Grand Rapids
KABB in San Antonio
WVBT in Norfolk
WGNO in New Orleans
WPTY in Memphis
KOKH in Oklahoma City
WHP-TV in Harrisburg
WPBF in West Palm Beach
WJAR in Providence
WOLF-TV in Scranton
WEJC in Winston-Salem/Greensboro/High Point
KRQE in Albuquerque
WBNA in Louisville
WBMG in Birmingham
WKEF in Dayton
WAWB in Richmond
WBSG in Jacksonville
WSAZ in Charleston
KGMC in Fresno
Every VTN station in Arkansas
KOKI-TV in Tulsa
WFGX in Mobile/Pensacola
KNVA in Austin
WDRG in Roanoke
WSYT in Syracuse
WDKY in Lexington
KFVE in Honolulu
WXGZ in Green Bay
WHAM in Rochester
KFBT in Las Vegas
WHO-TV in Des Moines
KPTM in Omaha
KSKN in Spokane
WGME in Portland, Maine
KMSB in Tucson
WFLI-TV in Chattanooga
WYLE in Huntsville
W08CK in Madison
KJLF in El Paso
WUBI in Savannah
WCTP in Charleston
KYES in Anchorage
WVDC in Elmira

In Birmingham's case, WBMG-TV elected to air The WB's programming on weekend afternoons, until its contract with CBS ran out.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

January 16, 1995

United Paramount Network officially launches on the air, with a two-hour premiere of the new entry in the Star Trek franchise, Star Trek: Voyager, which was a sci-fi drama that was set in the near future about the spaceship of Voyager. The network had additional shows in the next day, like Marker, which was created by Stephen J. Cannell, that starred Richard DeMora, and it was set in Hawaii, and The Watcher, which was created by Christopher Crowe, who formerly wrote for the 1993 version of The Untouchables, and it starred rapper Sir Mix-a-Lot, who was a narrator that was set through the city in Las Vegas, and the next week saw the first sitcoms, which are Platypus Man, which was created by Barry Fanaro and Mort Nathan, and it starred Richard Jeni, and Pig Sty, which was a sitcom that was created by Cheers writers Dan Staley and Rob Long, that is about five male roommates sharing an apartment in New York City with their female superintendent.

The original station roster (ITTL) is:
WWOR in New York City
KCOP is Los Angeles
WCIU in Chicago
WTXF in Philadelphia
KBHK in San Francisco
WSBK in Boston
WDCA in Washington
KTXA in Dallas/Fort Worth
WGPR in Detroit
WVEU in Atlanta
KTXH in Houston
KTZZ in Seattle/Tacoma
WUAB in Cleveland
KMSP in Minneapolis/St. Paul
WTOG in Tampa/St. Petersburg
WBFS in Miami/Fort Lauderdale
WPTT in Pittsburgh
KTVD in Phoenix
KUTP in Phoenix
KDNL in St. Louis
KSCH in Sacramento
WRBW in Orlando
WNUV in Baltimore
WXIN in Indianapolis
KPTV in Portland
WTXX in Hartford
KUSI in San Diego
WJZY in Charlotte
WDJT in Milwaukee
WSTR in Cincinnati
KSMO in Kansas City
WRDC in Raleigh/Durham/Fayetteville
WXMT in Nashville
WTTE in Columbus
WHNS in Greenville
WUTV in Buffalo
KJZZ in Salt Lake City
WOOD in Grand Rapids
KRRT in San Antonio
WGNT in Norfolk
WUPL in New Orleans
WLMT in Memphis
KOCB in Oklahoma City
WHP-TV in Harrisburg/Lancaster
WTVX in West Palm Beach
WNAC-TV in Providence
WYOU in Scranton/Wilkes Barre
WNRW in Greensboro/Winston-Salem/High Point
KRQE in Albuquerque/Santa Fe
WFTE in Louisville
WABM in Birmingham
WRGT in Dayton
WRLH in Richmond
WVAH in Charleston, West Virginia
KAIL in Fresno
KASN in Little Rock
KFTO in Tulsa
WJTC in Mobile
K49CY in Austin
WJPR in Roanoke
WNYS in Syracuse
WDKY in Lexington
KFVE in Honolulu
WXGZ in Green Bay
WUHF in Rochester
KRLR in Las Vegas
KDSM in Des Moines
KPTM in Omaha
KAYU in Spokane
WPXT in Portland, Maine
KTTU in Tucson
WFLI in Chattanooga
WOWL-TV in Huntsville
WISC in Madison
KJMH in Davenport
WPNPL in Fort Myers
WAP-TV in Bristol/Kingsport
W52AZ in Evansville
WBTR in Baton Rouge
KXRM in Colorado Springs
KBTX-TV in Bryan
KZIA in El Paso
WTVG in Lincolkn
WJCL in Savannah
WTAT in Charleston
WFXK in Tyler
KADY in Santa Barbara
WGKI in Traverse City
K62DW in Lafayette
K68EB in Yakima-Pasco
KHDT in Boise
WWMB in Florence
KCIT in Amarillo
KNLD in Duluth
KJTL in Wichita Falls
KNKT in Topeka
KMVU in Medford
KYES in Anchorage
WENY in Elmira
KCEY in Yuma
WMTU in Jackson
WFND in Lima
KTVF in Fairbanks
WPSB in South Bend

Some of them, were secondary affiliates of the Big Four, and some of them, especially in Cleveland, airs programming, together with the upstart The WB.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

January 24, 1995

Fox Television Stations, a unit of News Corporation finalizes the purchase of Hunt Valley, Maryland-based broadcasting group Sinclair Broadcast Group. The group owns and operates WBFF-TV in Baltimore, WPGH-TV in Pittsburgh, WTVZ-TV in Norfolk, WOFL-TV in Orlando and KVVU-TV in Las Vegas. Silver King Broadcasting, owners of HSN was in negotiations to buy Indianapolis station of WIIB-TV in Bloomington, which was a HSN station, while WTTA-TV was sold to a trustee which was operated by Media General, owners of NBC's Tampa station WFLA-TV.

Paramount started negotiations to buy Glencairn Ltd., which was owning several UPN affiliates in Baltimore (WNUV-TV) and Pittsburgh (WPTT-TV). If Paramount proceeded to buy Glencairn, then the local marketing agreements ended. The acquisition lend Paramount to push the FCC to double up the 48-station limit to being a 72-station limit in order to increase the national market reach to 80%. Paramount also has plans to buy Birmingham affiliate WABM-TV.

Fox Television Stations started negotiations to buy Renaissance Broadcasting, which owned and operated a large number of Fox affiliates including markets in Raleigh (WLFL-TV), Sacramento (KTXL), Hartford (WTIC-TV), Denver (KDVR) and Harrisburg (WPMT). Fox decided to also put up Miami's WDZL-TV for sale. Tribune Broadcasting, who is a part-owner of The WB Television Network is the likely bidder for the Miami station. Capital Cities/ABC also started talks with Paramount Stations Group to buy two stations KBMT and KIII, which reportedly cost $6 billion.

The Fox/Renaissance merger reportedly cost $5 billion, which is one of the largest Fox acquisitions ever made, by terms of purchase, pushing towards the network to own several stations.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

February 6, 1995

CBS was in negotiations to purchase Citicasters, a Cincinnati-based radio and television group, who owns two stations WTSP-TV in Tampa/St. Petersburg and ABC affiliate WKRC-TV in Cincinnati, as well as several radio stations. The purchase of Citicasters by CBS, which costed $6 billion, in order to butterfly the purchase of WPRI-TV away. Citicasters sold off most of the television assets to New World Communications last year (although two of Citicasters' stations along with KNSD-TV in San Diego, were traded by New World to Cox Broadcasting in return of KTVU in the Bay Area ITTL, IOTL the two Citicasters stations, WGHP and WBRC were sold off to Fox Television Stations)

The purchase of Citicasters by CBS expands its roster by combining CBS' radio lineup with the existing Citicasters radio stations, and wanted to add two stations to CBS' television station group. WKRC-TV had a contract with ABC that went into expiration on June 1, 1996. The purchase led the fate of Scripps-Howard's WCPO-TV without a network affiliation, hoping for it to affiliate with ABC.

The purchase of Sunbeam Television by Fox Television Stations were near completion. Fox owns several of the owned-and-operated stations in the market, and WSVN and WHDH joined the ongoing list of Fox's television stations, creating both Miami and New England bases for the network. Boston was designated #6 in the top television markets, and Miami was designated #16 in one of the top 30 television markets. It is expected that the deal would complete next month.

Ed Ansin would join Fox Television Stations, serving as vice president of the unit. Ed Ansin said that they will hopes to acquire more television stations in the future, reaching out 80% of the national reach by the Federal Communications Commission.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

February 21, 1995

The St. Louis media company Pulitzer, Inc. announced that they would sold off its media assets. Media General shows interest in purchasing the Pulitzer assets, while NBC showed interest in purchasing out the entire nine station group (NBC affiliates WESH, WDSU, WXII, WGAL and WYFF, CBS affiliates WLKY and KCCI and ABC affiliates KETV and KOAT), and the NYC-based Westwood One showed interest in the five radio stations KTAR/KMVP/KKLT, WLKY and WXII. If the NBC deal went forward, the FCC wanted to double up the 72-station limit to the 144-station limit, and increased the national market reach for a single television station to 95% for an individual television station owner.

If NBC did buy Pulitzer's television assets, then NBC forced to sell WLKY, KCCI and KETV, and decided that KOB-TV would lose their NBC affiliation to ABC as part of its pending acquisition of Hubbard Broadcasting, which was subject to FCC approval. CBS was among the bidders for WLKY and KCCI, while Hearst and Capital Cities/ABC are among the bidders for KETV-TV.

The transfer of Belo to a joint between Hearst Corporation, CBS and ABC has been near completion, which was subject to FCC approval, for completion in the May of 1995. Hearst's broadcasting unit has an outstanding relationship with ABC, and it is also slated to buy Quincy Jones Broadcasting, owners of outgoing Fox affiliate WNOL-TV, which is set to switch to ABC upon completion on January 1, 1996 was set for FCC approval.

Plans are underway for NBC's new Boston affiliate WNEN-TV to construct its news department, which was promoted by Outlet Communications on a planned studio facility to be built, in order to be completed to meet the September 4, 1995 deadline.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

March 10, 1995

Chronicle Publishing Company, owners of seven television stations including KRON-TV in San Francisco, the nation's fifth largest market, WOWT in Omaha, KAKE in Wichita, WSMV in Nashville, WNYT in Albany, WVIT in New Britain and WHEC-TV in Rochester, announces negotiations with NBC in order to let NBC's television station unit traded 60% of KCNC-TV to Chronicle Publishers in exchange for a minority stake in KRON-TV and WSMV-TV (ITTL, IOTL KCNC and KUTV was traded to CBS in exchange for WCAU), in order to launch a startup joint venture "Station Venture Holdings I, LP", which covers markets in San Francisco, Nashville and Denver.

Chronicle Publishing and NBC announced an agreement to affiliate the NBC network with KAKE, while the Kansas State Network would lose their NBC affiliation. A possible sale for a joint venture between ABC and Hearst Television is up for the Kansas State Network assets (KNST, KNSW, KSNC, KNSG, KSNK) outbidding Lee Enterprises, which the venture cost $2 billion.

The Atlanta-based company Cox Enterprises decided to go with a sale agreement. A venture between Berkshire-Hathaway, ABC, CBS, NBC, Interep Radio Services, Tele-Communications, Inc. and Paramount Domestic Television were up for pieces of Cox's assets.

Meanwhile, New World Communications, who owns 14 television stations that were all Fox stations (Philadelphia, San Francisco, Dallas/Fort Worth, Detroit, Atlanta, Cleveland, Tampa, Phoenix, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Kansas City, Birmingham, Austin and Indianapolis) all agreed to air the new 90-minute Marvel Action Universe block that consists of three programs Iron Man, Fantastic Four and Biker Mice from Mars.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

March 27, 1995

Hearst Broadcasting was in negotiations to purchase Young Broadcasting (who owns ten television stations including ABC affiliates WTVO, WTEN, WCDC, WATE, WRIC, WBAY and WKRN, and CBS affiliates KLFY-TV, WKBT-TV and WLNS-TV). If the deal went forward, Hearst would convert three CBS affiliates to ABC affiliates, displacing KATC, WLAJ and WXOW, the latter two of the ABC affiliates are UHF stations. Hearst wanted to promote their VHF outlets.

Hearst was also in negotiations to finalize the purchase of Quincy Jones Broadcasting, owners of New Orleans' WNOL-TV, which is about to lose its Fox affiliation to WVUE-TV, which is part of a deal with SF Broadcasting, which was set for FCC approval. WNOL was in the process of building a news department, which was to be completed by January 1, 1996, in order for the station to became an ABC affiliate. The Fox/Renaissance merger also went FCC approval for the station.

Hearst also owned a large number of ABC affiliates, including its only NBC outlet, which came in Baltimore, WBAL-TV. Gaylord however had in talks to merge the broadcasting group with Tribune Broadcasting. Gaylord owns four WB affiliates including KTVT in Dallas/Fort Worth, while Tribune owned a large number of WB affiliates including WPIX-TV in New York and KTLA in Los Angeles.

Hearst and ABC had an outstanding relationship. Hearst and ABC would jointly own ESPN, A&E and Lifetime, which are cable networks, but the recent acquisitions of Quincy Jones Broadcasting and Young Broadcasting would solidify the relationship in order to boost up more ABC affiliates in many markets.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

April 13, 1995

Allbritton Communications, which is about to sign a groupwide deal with ABC announced negotiations to let Coastal Com, Inc. to sign a LMA with the company in order to pick up WBSG-TV, and WPR, L.P. who founded WJXX in 1989 entered a LMA with the company, in order to convert into a semi satellite of WBSG.

Media General announced that they would put up for sale. A joint venture Berkshire Hathaway, NBC, Tribune Broadcasting and Cablevision had plans for Media General's entire assets. NBC was in negotiations to buy WFLA-TV and WCBD-TV, Tribune Broadcasting would have in negotiations to purchase WJKS-TV, an ABC affiliate, Berkshire Hathaway would cover Media General's newspaper assets, and Cablevision would obtain Media General's cable properties.

Allbritton Communications was in negotiations to sign a groupwide affiliation deal with ABC, which caused WBMG-TV to go with The WB. A joint venture between Clear Channel Communications, Tribune Broadcasting, Hearst Broadcasting, NBC and CBS was in negotiations to buy Park Communications, who owned WBMG-TV, which is about to lose its CBS affiliation to WTTO-TV by an agreement with Meredith Corporation. Clear Channel would cover the radio assets, Tribune would bought out WBMG-TV, WHOA-TV, WTVQ, WDEF-TV and WUTR went to Hearst Broadcasting, while WSAV-TV, KALB-TV, WTVR-TV and WSLS-TV went to NBC, and WJHL went to CBS. The FCC agreed to double up the current 144-station limit to the 218-station limit, reaching 100% of the national market audience reach cap, giving its full flavor. CBS announced an affiliation agreement with Freedom Communications to switch WTVC-TV to the network.

News Corporation was in negotiations to enter the radio business by purchasing Clear Channel Communications, who owned several radio stations and fewer television stations. News Corporation announced that they would sell WPTV-TV in Memphis to Capital Cities/ABC, KTTU-TV to Paramount Stations Group and WPMI-TV to NBC, while News Corporation is keeping WAWS-TV, WXXA, KSAS-TV and WFTC-TV if the Clear Channel purchase completes.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

April 26, 1995

The Hearst Corporation and McGraw-Hill, Inc. reached an agreement to merge two companies together. The merger will have publishing assets, such as newspapers, and the television station group (KMGH-TV in Denver, KERO-TV in Bakersfield, WRTV in Indianapolis and KGTV in San Diego), which the broadcasting arm will go into the "aegis" of the Hearst Broadcasting group, which had its potential to purchase larger ABC stations.

McGraw Hill's existing arm, such as one of its educational arms would fall into the Hearst Corporation umbrella once the deal was completed, and the four McGraw-Hill stations would come under the aegis of Hearst Broadcasting. The company owns a large number of ABC affiliates like WISN in Milwaukee, WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh, WCVB in Boston and KMBC in Kansas City, as well as NBC outlet WBAL-TV in Baltimore. It also plans to purchase Young Broadcasting, as well as Quincy Jones Broadcasting, owners of WNOL-TV in New Orleans.

Hearst and ABC had an outstanding relationship. It owned a joint venture covering Lifetime, A&E Television and ESPN. It is expected that KMGH-TV and KERO-TV would became ABC affiliates, while incumbent ABC affiliates KUSA-TV and KERO-TV would be in the process of going to CBS.

The deal was subject to FCC approval. If the deal was completed, then the Hearst Corporation would became the largest book, newspaper and broadcasting owner of that time. Hearst expects the McGraw-Hill assets would cost $15 billion to do so, making it the largest event in history when the two companies wanted to merge together, covering both newspapers, book publishing, entertainment and broadcasting, in order to form the biggest organization.

On the same day, Hubbard Broadcasting completed its transfer of WTNH-TV, Hartford's ABC station from Cock Inlet.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

WOOD-TV sold to NBC for $6 billion

NBC, a division of General Electric was in negotiations to buy WOOD-TV, the Grand Rapids station from AT&T, a telephone operator, who bought out the station last year. WOOD-TV operates on VHF channel 8, and it was a NBC affiliate. The purchase price cost $7 billion, in order for WOOD-TV to run the entire NBC schedule with no pre-emptions, except for breaking news coverage. The deal was subject for FCC approval.

CBS meanwhile considered negotiations to buy Toledo Television Investors, owners of WNWO-TV in Toledo. The purchase price cost $6 billion. If the deal was completed, then WNWO-TV would became a CBS station, while outgoing CBS affiliate WTOL-TV would search for a new affiliate. Among the contenders were NBC and Fox. Liberty Corporation was not interested in Fox, because of "lack of news", something New World stations do.

WOOD-TV and NBC had an outstanding relationship. It has been affiliated since the beginning, and later on it was sold to Time-Life in the late 1950s. Although Time-Life sold off its broadcasting assets, it held on to the station until the early 1980s, when LIN bought out the station. When AT&T bought out LIN, they had to held on the station. Although the new owner NBC showed interest in the six billion dollar buyout of the station, was to make a perfect combination.

-

News updates

Although WNOL-TV was in the process of becoming an ABC affiliate effective New Year's Day 1996, the station's news department has been in construction. The newsroom has been almost finished, because the station is in the process of hiring a news director. They hired two CNN news anchors to run the new WNOL-TV news department, and plans to make the slogan "A New Generation of News".

-

Fox Kids' weekday block axed

The Fox Broadcasting Company announces negotiations to put the Fox Kids weekday block on the axe on September 11, 1995. The station had a reaction to its poor ratings for most of its shows, because many of the new Fox affiliates (such as WTTV-TV in Indianapolis, and the other 13 New World stations) showed the block uninterested, in order to protect the competition from soap operas from other networks. Fox had to counterprogram it by launching a national talk show, and four soap operas (one half-hour, three hour series), all produced by New World Entertainment. New World just signed John Conboy to do a new soap for Fox in the weekdays, to dismantle the Fox Kids weekday block, which remained on Saturday mornings.

 

[Nivek]

Did all those networks always have that money to throw around?

 

[DucNguyen0131]

Did all those networks always have that money to throw around?

Yes, in the ITTL world. IOTL, several of them never had money. For example, in 1994 ABC bought out Toledo and Flint stations from SJL to earn cash.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

Fox unveils soap lineup

Fox is giving the way to enter the world of daytime soap operas when the new daytime lineup goes onto effect on September 11, 1995 to replace the displaced Fox Kids block, that several of the new stations like KTVU in Oakland (which dropped the block after Cox traded the station to New World for WGHP, WBRC and KNSD), WTTV in Indianapolis and WCAU in Philadelphia refused to carry. John Conboy signed on to write and produce a new soap opera Pier 39, which is about the San Francisco town, which would be a hour soap opera, while Paul Rauch, former producer of Santa Barbara would wrote and produce a new soap opera Marriages, which is about a romantic wedding, former One Life to Live writer Josh Griffith came up with a new soap opera Altogether Couples, which is all about couples, and Pam Long, writer of Santa Barbara, came up with a show Glendale, which was set in the town of Glendale. All four soap operas came from KTVU's studios in Oakland, and it was produced by New World Entertainment.

The soap opera block would be attractive to newer Fox audiences. Fox announced that they would expand to a four-hour block on Sundays, and a three-hour block on Mondays through Saturdays. In the ITTL version of the Saturday lineup, Martin and The Preston Episodes came first, followed by Cops at 9-10pm and America's Most Wanted at 10-11pm, though to make competition.

Meanwhile all Fox stations and New World Entertainment asked game show host Peter Tormaken and stand up comedian Blaine Capatch to do a talk show, which was orginated at KTVU's studios in Oakland, dubbed Peter & Blaine, to launch September 10, 1995, to replace the displaced Fox Kids weekday morning lineup.

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WTTV's news hit strong ratings

WTTV's recent newscast, started after River City trading the station to New World for WSBK, which had in turn traded to Viacom for WKBD, and a subsequent Fox affiliation hit a strong Nielsen performance, becoming the news leader in Indianapolis, to compete with WRTV, WISH and WTHR, in order to gain a higher news performance. The morning newscast competes against The Today Show on channel 13, and Good Morning America on channel 6, to make WTTV the top Fox station in Indianapolis.

The previous Fox station WXIN-TV, which is now a UPN affiliate has a newscast at 10pm, but that was lower than WTTV's upstart news department. Paramount threatened it to retain the newscast.

The ITTL version of the Saturday morning block (WCW Worldwide, Gladiators 2000, Iron Man, Fantastic Four, Sweet Valley High, Boogie's Diner, Phantom 2040) after the switch to Fox, hit higher ratings, and it has 2 more points compared to the Fox Kids block on WXIN-TV, which kept the affiliation shortly after losing the Fox affiliation to UPN.

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The New Fox 2 got high ratings

KTVU's new branding hit higher ratings compared to KRON, KPIX and KGO-TV, as well as KNTV, when it scored a 30 Nielsen rating, compared to newscasts. The revamped morning block got higher ratings, compared to Good Morning America, which hopes that they would be the next market leader in the Bay Area.

The revamp, by New World, after Cox traded the station to New World for three stations (WBRC, WGHP and KNSD) was more successful than what Cox wanted to got. The revamped KTVU, internally dubbed "The New Fox 2" got more successful as they purchased more talk shows in order to make up for the loss of the Fox Kids block.

Meanwhile, Sweet Valley High and the Marvel Action Hour series got more successful in the Bay Area, running on New World's revamped KTVU got higher ratings in the Nielsen share, which is a bit higher compared to Fox Kids when KTVU was under Cox ownership (but New World dropped the block when the transfer was completed several months earlier).

 

[DucNguyen0131]

KDAF launches news department by next month

The CBS/Group W-owned KDAF in Dallas/Fort Worth is undergoing changes. It would launch a news department by July 1, 1995, when KDAF-TV switches from Fox to CBS, leaving KDFW-TV to move from CBS to Fox. It also approached Newsmusic Central (a music company) to create its own package titled "Image X", by incorporating the CBS theme, introduced in 1992 to the music package (this is the ITTL POD, IOTL the news music package was used on Denver's KCNC from 1995 to 1998 when it switched from NBC to CBS). KDAF would air much as news programming as what KDFW did (they run news from 5-7am, noon, 5-7pm, and 11pm). They also hired Don LaFontaine to do the voiceover for KDAF's news department. KDAF-TV introduced a new slogan "The Eye of Texas".

KDAF hired several KABC anchors to anchor the news programs from the Dallas studios, and Marianne Bannister joined as anchor for the newly-launched morning news (ITTL, IOTL Bannister joined WBAL-TV in Baltimore after leaving KABC-TV).

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WATL hit strong ratings

The CBS/Group W-owned WATL hits stronger ratings in order to battle against Tribune's WB affiliate in Atlanta, WGNX-TV, running on channel 46. The upstart news department, which was launched in the December of 1994 (after WAGA-TV switched to Fox) placed fourth in the ratings, behind ABC affiliate in the market WSB-TV, NBC affiliate in the market WXIA-TV, and Fox affiliate in the market, WSB-TV, and ahead of WB's affiliate in the Atlanta market, WGNX-TV, which only aired news at 10pm.

CBS/Group W said that the WATL news would be as successful as WAGA-TV, which had just been switched to Fox in the December of 1994.

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Fox launches late night talk shows

Fox Broadcasting Company pushed forward for the television realignment by launching two daily late night talk shows at 11:35pm-12:35am and 12:35am-1:35am. They hired two In Living Color cast members Jay Legett and Reggie McFadden to emcee talk shows. Both of them would compete against NBC and CBS, as well as ABC's Nightline.

Both of the talk shows would be produced by New World Entertainment, who also produced the upcoming Strange Luck for Fox. The new late night talk show would be as successful as failed efforts from the likes of Joan Rivers and Chevy Chase.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

Fox launches news department

After a few success, running news programming in the powerful top five markets (New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco) as well as several news programs in nations like Baltimore and Miami, Fox decided to push forward and decided to build a full scale news department consisting of anchors from WNYW in New York. Fox decided to displace the Fox Kids morning block, and launched national news programs, an early morning show at 6am-7am, a morning news show at 7am-9am, and an evening news show at 6:30pm, as well as a Sunday morning news program, and a political affairs program. This made the stronger Fox network competing well with the Big Three networks.

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Channel 40 hit strong ratings

Outlet Communications posted strong ratings for the NBC Philadelphia trimulcast (WWAC-WMNJ-WOCI), posting higher ratings compared to what KYW had previously been as an NBC affiliate. The new trimulcast, proposed by Outlet wanted to expand their news, as much as to compete with news programming on KYW, WPVI and WCAU. When channel 57 was launched in 1981, it provided general entertainment programming. Now Outlet picked it up and turned channel 48 and 57 to became NBC affiliates, effectively becoming satellite stations of channel 40 in Wildwood, in order to cover the whole entire Philadelphia market.

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WNEN completes news department

WNEN, NBC's new Boston affiliate, would nearly complete its news department, and WNEN said the newscast would begin on September 4, 1995, running news programming from 5-7am, 5-6:30pm and 11pm, for a total of 31 hours of news programming, as well as morning cut-ins during Today. WNEN decided that they would not renew their agreement with New England Cable News, which felt incompatible with the NBC programs as well as the "WNEN" branding. The NECN agreement started when channel 25 was a Fox station owned by the Boston Celtics. Now, channel 25 is launching their own newscast for a September 4, 1995 date. Fox was in negotiations to acquire the "WFXT" call sign in order to move to channel 5 in New York.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

The second official switcheroo!

KDAF-TV, the former Fox affiliate running on channel 33, is now a CBS station, thanks to CBS/Group W ownership, seven months after Fox traded three television stations (two were affected by the New World deal) to CBS in return for WCAU. The logo was altered to include the CBS eyemark in the logo.

KDFW-TV, the former CBS affiliate officially changes its affiliation to Fox on July 1, 1995.

Meanwhile, at Birmingham, former NBC affiliate WVTM switches to Fox, while WBRC switches to NBC (ITTL POD, IOTL WBRC switches to Fox on September 1, 1996, while WVTM stayed at NBC). WBRC will now be a Cox-owned NBC affiliate, to go in line with WPXI, the Northern counterpart in Pittsburgh, and San Diego's KNSD. WTTO and its two satellite stations WDBB and WNAL switches to CBS under the ownership of Meredith Corporation, which owns four other CBS stations in Flint, Milwaukee, Phoenix and Kansas City. WCFT-TV, WJSU-TV and W58CK officially switches to ABC. Former CBS affiliate WBMG, which is the network's lowest-rated affiliate officially switches to The WB, calling it "the biggest switches ever".

Here's our new logo for the ABC trimulcast in Birmingham (ITTL POD, IOTL this logo was used from 1996 to 2011 after WBRC switched to Fox):

Here's our new logo for the new CBS affiliates under Meredith Corporation ownership in Birmingham:

Here's our new logo for the new NBC affiliate owned by Cox Broadcasting in Birmingham:

Here's our new logo for the new FOX affiliate in Birmingham when it was owned by New World:

At WBMG-TV, the station decided to expand its news programming and rebrands it to "Alabama's News Station".

In Austin, KBVO-TV switches to CBS, while KTBC-TV switches to Fox, and in St. Louis, KTVI switches to Fox, while KDNL-TV switches to ABC.

Fox completes Renaissance takeover

The transfer of Renaissance Broadcasting by the Fox Television Stations unit of News Corporation has been completed. Renaissance owns several Fox stations. WDZL-TV meanwhile, was sold to Tribune Broadcasting. Renaissance's Fox stations included were KDVR-TV in Denver, WLFL-TV in Raleigh/Durham/Fayetteville, KTXL-TV in Sacramento, WTIC-TV in Hartford and WPMT in Harrisburg all became Fox owned and operated stations.

The FCC agreed to gave them a wavier to keep WTIC-TV in Hartford and WNYW-TV in New York, as well as KTXL-TV in Sacramento, and KTTV in Los Angeles, due to overlapping city-grade signals.

ABC had a five-way merger

Capital Cities/ABC Inc. announced that a five-way merger between The Walt Disney Company, E. W. Scripps Company, Hearst Broadcasting and Allbritton Communications (three companies that owned the largest ABC stations), both cost $12 billion in terms of purchase. The new company also had to divest Hearst's WBAL-TV in Baltimore, as well as three of Scripps' stations KJRH-TV in Tulsa, WPTV-TV in West Palm Beach, and KSHB-TV in Kansas City, and Hubbard's KMOL-TV in San Antonio, both of them were sold to NBC itself, as well as KCAL-TV, which had to be sold off to California Television Investors, a new company formed by KTLA executives.

Hearst's station holdings were WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh, WDTN-TV in Dayton, WCVB in Boston, KMBC in Kansas City, and WISN-TV in Milwaukee, as well as newer acquisitions, such as WNOL-TV in New Orleans, the McGraw-Hill stations (KMGH-TV in Denver, KERO-TV in Bakersfield, WRTV in Indianapolis and KGTV in San Diego), the ten Young Broadcasting stations (WTVO in Rockford, WTEN in Albany-Schenectady-Troy, WCDC in Adams, WATE in Knoxville, WRIC in Richmond, WBAY in Green Bay, WKRN in Nashville, KLFY-TV in Lafayette, WKBT-TV in La Crosse and WLNS-TV and Lansing), and Park's ABC stations WHOA in Montgomery, WTVQ in Lexington and WUTR in in Utica.

Allbritton's station holdings include W58CK in Birmingham, WJSU-TV in Anniston, and WCFT-TV in Tuscaloosa, KATV in Little Rock, WJLA-TV in Washington, D.C., WJXX in Jacksonville, WBDG in Brunswick, KTUL-TV in Tulsa, WCIV in Charleston and WSET-TV in Lynchburg. The merger also announced its plans to purchase WHTM-TV in Harrisburg from Price Communications, as well as the Kansas State Network, and KETV-TV in Omaha.

Scripps' station holdings include six of its stations: WXYZ-TV in Detroit, WEWS-TV in Cleveland, WCPO-TV in Cincinnati (a CBS affiliate), WMAR-TV in Baltimore, KNXV-TV in Phoenix and WFTS-TV in Tampa/St. Petersburg.

The current ABC O&O roster includes WABC-TV in New York, KABC-TV in New York, WLS-TV in Chicago, WPVI-TV in Philadelphia, KGO-TV in San Francisco, KTRK-TV in Houston, KFSN-TV in Fresno, WTVD-TV in Raleigh/Durham/Fayetteville, and its new acquisitions, including WTVG-TV in Toledo, WJRT-TV in Flint, the Belo stations (KXTV in Sacramento, WFAA in Dallas/Fort Worth and WVEC-TV in Norfolk) and sale plans for the entire Hubbard Broadcasting group (KSTP-TV in Minneapolis/St. Paul, WDIO-TV in Duluth, WIRT in Hibbing, KOB-TV in Albuquerque, KSAX-TV in Alexandria, KRWF in Redwood Falls, KOBF in Farmington, KOBR in Roswell, and newly acquired station KTVX-TV in Salt Lake City). The FCC agrees to gave them a wavier for city grade signal overlap in the new markets.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

Multimedia sale completed

A joint venture between Media General, NBC, Warner Bros., Westwood One and Tele-Communications, Inc. completed the assets of Multimedia, Inc.

1. The five Multimedia affiliates in Macon, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Cleveland and Knoxville, would join the current NBC owned-and-operated stations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Denver, Salt Lake City, Miami and Washington, D.C.
2. Tele-Communications, Inc. would acquire all the cable assets.
3. Warner Bros. acquired Multimedia Entertainment, as well as its Multimedia Motion Pictures division, merging it into Warner Bros. Television.
4. Media General would acquire all the newspaper assets of Multimedia, Inc.
5. Westwood One would acquire all of Multimedia's radio assets.

NBC was in negotiations to purchase Outlet Communications, Inc., who owns television stations in Providence, Columbus, Raleigh, Boston, Philadelphia, Wildwood and Millville. All seven would became NBC owned and operated stations if the deal was completed. NBC would gave FCC the wavier access for both the Philadelphia market, creating signal overlap with WNBC in New York. The purchase price would cost $50 million dollars. NBC was in the process of purchasing the LIN Television stations.

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Clear Channel targets River City

Clear Channel Communications, which was in the process of being sold to News Corporation, announced negotiations to purchase River City Broadcasting, for $1.16 billion. The River City television assets were sold off. Clear Channel would keep KDSM-TV and KABB, while KOVR and WKBD would be sold to CBS, and ABC would purchase KDNL-TV, WSYX and WLOS.

The purchase was yet to gain FCC approval.

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Fox Radio Network announced

As News Corporation was in the negotiations to purchase Clear Channel, News Corporation was in negotiations to purchase the Mutual Broadcasting System for $2.7 billion. The assets of Clear Channel and Mutual would be combined to create the Fox Radio Network. The new Fox Radio Network would be the radio base of the television's Fox Broadcasting Company, just as CBS did their lessons for the CBS Radio unit, and ABC had their lessons for the ABC Radio unit. NBC had stopped showing radio in 1987, and it was transferred to Westwood One.