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

So which one would be the one to be sold off?
I think Time Warner sold off the channel 46 license to the Christian Television Network for $1 billion, leaving in for WTBS to merge the schedule with WGNX under the WTBS license and channel allocation. They had to split the TBS Superstation cable channel from the Atlanta signal in order for the stronger WTBS to allow for The WB affiliation. If it does so, then WTBS could pick up syndicated programs, cartoons movies and production equipment from WGNX, including its news facility.
 
Chapter 69: December 1996 (Part 2)
Tribune/Time Warner merger completed

Barely two months after Turner and Time Warner completed its merger, Time Warner and Tribune completed their $6 billion dollar merger. Both of them got their ownership in The WB Television Network.

It is announced that Time Warner would shut down WGN Superstation effective March 1997 and be merged into TBS Superstation. Time Warner also announced plans to sell channel 46 to Christian Television Network for $1 billion.

As a compensation for the loss, Time Warner has plans to split the national TBS Superstation feed to became a separate cable/satellite channel that retained the "TBS Superstation" moniker and decided to separate channel 17 for the national feed. WTBS however had to merge the schedule with WGNX under the WTBS license and channel allocation, and once the transition completed, WTBS would became an affiliate of The WB.

-

The New World/Fox merger approved by FCC

The Federal Communications Commission had approved the New World/Fox merger. The newly merged company has to own fourteen television stations, five of them were joint ventures with Fox Television Stations.

The New World/Fox joint venture includes WCAU-TV in Philadelphia, KDFW-TV in Dallas/Fort Worth, WJBK-TV in Detroit, WITI-TV in Milwaukee and WAGA-TV in Atlanta.

-

Time Warner completes two-station deal

After the recent Tribune/Time Warner merger, Time Warner announced that they would complete the acquisition of the two channel 20 stations associated with The WB in Detroit and San Francisco.

This would make them two owned-and-operated stations.

-

FCC approved Gannett merger

The Federal Communications Commission announced that they would approve the $65 billion Berkshire Hathaway-Gannett merger. This means when Berkshire Hathaway was not interested in broadcasting, they had to sell the stations.
  • CBS purchased its radio operations, as well as four stations in Little Rock, Washington, D.C., Denver, and Greensboro/Winston-Salem/High Point, all cost $2 billion
  • NBC purchases four stations in Atlanta, Minneapolis, Phoenix and Jacksonville for $1 billion.
  • Disney purchases two stations in Austin and Oklahoma City for $975 million-$1 billion.
This met FCC's 218-station limit with full national market reach alliance cap.
 
Chapter 70: January 1997 (Part 1)
Fox and New World completes acquisition

Fox Television Stations Inc. had completed the acquisition of New World Communications. This would mean the fourteen New World stations to join the 48 Fox owned and operated stations to made them a total of 62. New World owns and operates WVTM-TV in Birmingham, KSAZ-TV in Phoenix, WTVT in Tampa/St. Petersburg, WTTV-TV in Indianapolis, WDAF-TV in Kansas City, KTVI in St. Louis, KTVU in San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose, WJW-TV in Cleveland and KTBC-TV in Austin, while Fox and New World involved in a joint venture that owns WCAU in Philadelphia, KDFW in Dallas/Fort Worth, WAGA-TV in Atlanta, WJBK-TV in Detroit and WITI-TV in Milwaukee.

Although New World maintains news programming, many of the stations were news intensive. WTTV only switched from a general entertainment/bare-bones format the indie stations directly to a news intensive format that New World's Fox stations had.

-

NBC completes Palmer takeover

NBC announced that they would complete the $550 million offer to purchase KFOR-TV in Oklahoma City, and WHO-TV in Des Moines, so this would met down the FCC's new 218-station limit, and 100% of the national market reach.

The $550 million offer beat out an initial price bid from The New York Times Company.

-

WHME-TV to expand news coverage

The ABC owned-and-operated South Bend station WHME-TV is expanding their relationship with their news team. The previous ABC affiliate WSJV-TV switches to Fox on April 28, 1995, while WHME-TV switches to ABC on April 28, 1995, and it will be owned by Hearst from September 1995 to February 1996, when it was switched to ABC.

It could expand their coverage of their successful news operation.

-

NBC to buy the rest of KUTV

NBC announced negotiations to buy 12% of KUTV of Salt Lake City it did not own, making KUTV to became a fully owned-and-operated station. NBC O&O president said that they would gave them access to the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake.

-

Time Warner to buy several stations

Time Warner announced negotiations to purchase Channel 32, Inc., controlled by Victor Ives, and owned Portland's WB's affiliate KRCW-TV. It also has negotiations to purchase Crossville TV, LP., who owns WINT-TV, which will became a WB owned-and-operated station.

With that change, Tribune Broadcasting will merge with Turner Broadcasting System to form "The WB Television Stations", and Turner's entertainment assets (TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network, Turner Classic Movies, the Hanna-Barbera cartoon studio, Castle Rock Entertainment) will move to Warner Bros., while New Line Cinema will merge its distribution operations with Warner Bros. Pictures. The WB Television Stations owns and operates CNN, Headline News, and several of the top affiliates associated with The WB.
 
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Chapter 71: January 1997 (Part 2)
NBC trimulcast adapted moniker

NBC's Philadelphia owned-and-operated trimulcast WOCI-WWAC-WMNJ will have plans to adapt the moniker "NBC Philadelphia". NBC Philadelphia will have the same focus and anchor group as what channel 40 saw. The original moniker "40-48-57" is now retired due to NBC executives felt how to solve math, and the branding is too simple.

Philadelphia was ranked fourth in the national television market, behind Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City. NBC Philadelphia will planning on to be "the number one news station in the town".
-

Chronicle completes divesture

The divesture of Chronicle Publishing Company was completed. The assets were put up in pieces for liquidation:
  • Chronicle's publishing arm was sold off to Berkshire-Hathaway.
  • NBC acquired all eight of Chronicle's television stations, including three in the joint venture, which includes KRON-TV in San Francisco. In case of Denver, NBC regains full ownership of the station.
-

Colorado NewsChannel announced

NBC, Time Warner Cable and Tele-Communications, Inc. announced plans to launch a 24-hour cable news channel to rebroadcast KCNC-TV's news coverage in a 24-hour format, with the ability to cut in for breaking news for the Colorado area market, which is called "Colorado NewsChannel", which is named after KCNC-TV's news slogan.

NBC has also plans to bundle the channel along with its owned and operated station KCNC-TV in carriage contracts in the Colorado market. It has plans to compete with CNN and will be highly profitable in the Colorado market.

-

CBS to buy Retlaw Enterprises

CBS was in negotiations to purchase Retlaw Enterprises for $2.5 billion. The $2.5 billion acquisition saw the Fresno station going to stand as an owned-and-operated television station, standing next to ABC's O&O KFSN-TV. Retlaw's KJEO-TV in Fresno, Yakima's KIMA-TV, and two satellites, KIDK in Idaho Falls, KBCI-TV in Boise and KVAL-TV in Eugene, and two satellites would be integrated into the larger CBS owned-and-operated station family.

Retlaw saw some profit, while CBS saw some larger money for the acquisitions. Thus this met FCC's 218-station guidelines, and the 100% of the national market reach.
 
Chapter 72: February 1997 (Part 1)
NBC to upgrade Philadelphia transmission tower

NBC announced its negotiation to upgrade the transmitter power for both channels 40, 48 and 57, the NBC trimulcast station in Philadelphia market. The transmission tower will also be upgraded as it could see more viewers in the Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delware markets.

Production on newscasts increased, so the three UHF channels, called the trimulcast, could increase news production, in order to boost up ratings to challenge CBS' KYW-TV, ABC's WPVI-TV and Fox's WCAU-TV, and the two major market UHF stations UPN's WTXF-TV and WB's WPHL-TV.

-

Channel 7 sold to Christian Television Network

Christian Television Network announces plans to purchase Philadelphia's VHF station W07CB for $750 million, in order to convert the station into a religious station. This would help challenge poorly-performing UHF stations in the market.

W07CB would add religious shows to the schedule, in order to simulcast the Tampa station.

-

Fox to rebrand stations

Fox announced its plans to rebrand WTTV-TV as "Fox 4", to go in line with the other Fox stations, and plans to rebrand WCAU-TV as "Fox 10" and KTVU as "Fox 2", effectively going in line with the standard Fox network.

-

Fox to start NewsPro

Fox Television Stations Inc. announced its plans to start NewsPro (the TTL's version of Sinclair's NewsCentral), which consists of mixed locally produced news with nationally produced news, to be produced by Fox News Channel. WFTC-TV in Minneapolis/St. Paul and KDVR-TV in Denver were one of the first Fox owned and operated stations to carry the NewsPro package, prior to that Fox O&Os in these markets lacked local news.

This could help to roll out to Fox's owned and operated stations currently not offering local news.
 
NBC announced its negotiation to upgrade the transmitter power for both channels 40, 48 and 57, the NBC trimulcast station in Philadelphia market. The transmission tower will also be upgraded as it could see more viewers in the Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delware markets.
As say before, too late to avoid the ATSC standard? USA would love the DBT and DBT2.
 
As say before, too late to avoid the ATSC standard? USA would love the DBT and DBT2.
Well we have the ATSC standard, at least in Raleigh's CBS WRAL. UHF channels affiliated with NBC as O&Os like KNSD worked with the ATSC standard.
 
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Chapter 73: February 1997 (Part 2)
WNEN-TV to change callsign

NBC announced a plan by the Federal Communications Commission to change the Boston television callsign from "WNEN-TV" to "WBTS-TV", which stood for "Boston Television Station" and adapted the "NBC 25" moniker. NBC felt to the FCC that the original call letters sounded like the word "WHEN", so NBC had to rename the call letters.

This put greater emphasis on Boston, making Boston to be the largest television market ever.

-

Popular Mechanics for Kids picked up by KTVU and WTTV

KTVU in the San Francisco Bay Area and WTTV in Indianapolis, both Fox owned-and-operated stations announced plans to pick up Hearst Entertainment's syndicated series Popular Mechanics for Kids. These two, along with the other eleven New World stations that were Fox affiliates (save for KTVI in St. Louis, which used Fox Kids), created a three-hour educational and informational programming block that also paired up with Wild About Animals, Secrets of the Animal Kingdom, Inside High School Basketball, Peer Pressure and Click.

These shows however met to comply with FCC's "educational-and-informational" guidelines.

-

Granite Broadcasting sold off

Granite Broadcasting Corporation announced plans to sell the assets of the company, and forced employees to be dismantled. Among the assets to be sold off:
  • KNTV was sold off to ABC and became a semi-satellite of the network's O&O KGO-TV. ABC also purchased WPTA in Fort Wayne and WKBW-TV in Buffalo.
  • WLAJ-TV in Lansing, WTVH in Syracuse, KEYE-TV in Austin, and WWMT-TV in Battle Creek was sold off to CBS, becoming sisters of WKBD-TV, the network's owned and operated station. CBS also acquired Granite's interest in KMOV-TV in St. Louis and KSLA-TV in Shreveport.
  • WEEK-TV in Peoria, KSEE in Fresno and KBJR-TV in Duluth will be sold to General Electric, who owns the NBC television network.
Both of them cost a total of $45 billion, which is above Granite's asking price.

-

Sony and Westinghouse approved merger

Sony's shareholders approved the $50 billion merger with Westinghouse Electric Corporation, who owns and operates electric material, as well as the CBS television network, and its owned and operated stations, so they had a push for every movie studio to own any television network. This able to reunite all pieces of Columbia, so that Sony could maintain the "Columbia" moniker. The FCC allows to gave them push limits to allow foreign companies to own any interest in a television station.

So they had to make the movie studios parallel to networks.
Walt Disney Studios = ABC
Sony Pictures = CBS
Universal Studios = NBC
20th Century Fox = FOX
Warner Bros. = The WB
Paramount Pictures = UPN

All the "Big Six" movie studios own any television network you can own.

And a related note in Britain:

Granada to buy Scottish franchise

Granada plc announced negotiations to buy Scottish Media Group for £5 billion. Scottish Media Group owns the ITV franchise Scottish Television, and it was in the process of buying Northern Scotland's ITV franchise Grampian Television. The merger is subject to ITC (Independent Television Commission) approval. Granada owns several ITV franchises, including existing ITV franchises like Granada and LWT. It was also in the process of buying Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television.
 
Chapter 74: March 1997 (Part 1)
WTBS switches to The WB

Time Warner's WTBS-TV properly changed its schedule, in order to separate channel 17 from the national feed to became a separate cable/satellite channel that retained the TBS Superstation name (ITTL, IOTL it won't be until 10 years in 2007 that WTBS-TV would become Peachtree TV). WTBS' new schedule from the Atlanta signal would merge the syndicated programs on WTBS and WGNX, under the WTBS license and channel allocation, and move programming from The WB to channel 17. This means the move promoted new programs like Buffy, the Vampire Slayer. The station retained any Atlanta Braves games.

The sale of former WB affiliate WGNX-TV in Atlanta, to Christian Television Network was completed, so WGNX-TV became a religious television station under its new name "WCTA" for "Christian Television Network of Atlanta".

-

Sony and Westinghouse completes merger

Sony and Westinghouse Electric Corporation completed their $50 billion merger. The electric branch of Westinghouse falls under Sony's electronics category. The entertainment branch of Westinghouse, which is CBS, Inc. would be merged into Sony Pictures Entertainment. This was able to reunite all pieces of Columbia, so the "Columbia" name was applied to entertainment material, so the FCC allows to gave them push limits to allow foreign companies to own any interest in a television station.

It was reported that CBS Productions, the production subsidiary of Westinghouse's CBS would merge with Columbia TriStar Television.

-

Sony to buy International Family Entertainment

Sony Pictures Entertainment, which had just completed its purchase of CBS, via the Sony-Westinghouse merger, announced plans to buy International Family Entertainment for $3 billion, beating out NBC, Viacom, Disney and Fox. The entertainment offering included The Family Channel, Dorothy Hamill International, the Great American Entertainment Company, and MTM Enterprises.

It was threatened that once the sale is completed, all the current MTM shows (Sparks, The Cape, The Pretender) would be transferred to Columbia TriStar Television, who had just transferred production on NBC's Caroline in the City from CBS Productions.

CBS and MTM's origins date back to the 1970s when The Mary Tyler Moore Show premiered, and had a working relationship on The Bob Newhart Show, Rhoda and Phyllis.

-

Disney/Guy Gannett merger approved by FCC

The Federal Communications Commission had approved the merger between The Walt Disney Company's ABC Television Stations and Guy Gannett Communications. This mean seven Guy Gannett television stations would be integrated into ABC's owned and operated station portfolio.

WMTW, WTXL and KCRG will lose their ABC affiliations to competing networks. WMTW and KCRG would switch to CBS, and WTXL-TV would switch to NBC.
 
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Chapter 75: March 1997 (Part 2)
Fox to buy First Media Television

Fox Television Stations announced negotiations to purchase Atlanta-based limited partnership company First Media Television LP, who owns KPDX-TV in Portland and WHNS-TV in Greenville, for $2 billion. Fox did not buy WCPX-TV in Orlando, but it instead be sold to the Sony-owned CBS, keeping up with their associated callsign "Columbia Pix", short for "Pictures", as Sony had just purchased Westinghouse owners of CBS and made the CBS network sister of the Columbia Pictures movie studio.

The callsign was originated when Outlet attempted to buy Columbia Pictures, but it failed, staying up with the callsign until Sony had bought out Westinghouse, owners of CBS.

-

Paramount to buy Seattle station

Paramount Stations Group offered a $1 billion offer to buy Seattle's UPN affiliate KTZZ-TV from Dudley Communications Corporation. This would gave Seattle an owned-and-operated station, standing next to NBC's owned-and-operated KING-TV in Seattle.

-

News Corporation approved LDS Church offer

News Corporation's shareholders had approved the $10 billion offer to purchase The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and decided to merge it with HarperCollins, a book publisher. The broadcasting operations will be integrated into Clear Channel, while two television stations KSL-TV in Salt Lake City and KIRO-TV in Seattle would be transferred to Fox Television Stations, in order to join all of the existing Fox owned-and-operated stations.

-

News Corporation completes Mutual Broadcasting transfer

News Corporation is completing the $2.7 billion offer for the Mutual Broadcasting System. The assets of Mutual would be combined with the existing Clear Channel stations in order to launch Fox Radio Network, to start next month once the deal closes, serving as the radio base of the Fox Broadcasting Company television network.

-

Fox to rebrand Philly station

Fox Television Stations announced plans to rebrand the Philadelphia station, WCAU-TV as "Fox 10", using a logo that was based on KSAZ-TV's logo around that time. It also introduced new Saturday morning programs, keeping up with the existing paid programming inventory, and added every program that was to comply with FCC's "educational-and-informational" guidelines, such as Wild About Animals, Secrets of the Animal Kingdom, Inside High School Basketball, Popular Mechanics for Kids, Peer Pressure and Click, as well as Student Bodies.
 
Chapter 76: April 1997 (Part 1)
KRON-TV to adapt new moniker

NBC owned-and-operated station KRON-TV is adapting a new moniker "NBC 4", which has focus on greater emphasis on the NBC television network, just after NBC bought out the Chronicle stations. The news opens were starting to use WNBC's news graphics that was recently used two years ago when they dropped the "News 4 New York" moniker, but they continued to use Michael Boyd Music's "KRON Instant Classics" news package.

This was when NBC said that KRON-TV would surpass ABC O&O KGO-TV and CBS O&O KPIX to became the most popular San Francisco news station.

-

Post-Newsweek sale approved

The Federal Communications Commission has approved the merger of The Washington Post Company with Berkshire Hathaway for $15 billion dollars.
  • Berkshire-Hathaway retains the newspaper assets, like The Washington Post and Newsweek.
  • Disney will buy the educational unit Kaplan, as well as KSAT-TV in San Antonio and WPLG in Miami.
  • Tele-Communications Inc. would buy Post-Newsweek Cable.
  • General Electric/NBC would purchase WDIV-TV in Detroit and KPRC-TV in Houston, two of the most popular TV stations.
  • WFSB in Hartford and WJXT-TV in Jacksonville will be sold to CBS/Sony.
This would met FCC's 218-station limit and full national market reach.

-

ABC to purchase Citadel Communications

Disney/ABC was in negotiations to purchase Citadel Communications for $3.5 billion dollars. One of these stations is Rock Island's CBS affiliate WHBF-TV, which would displace the longtime ABC affiliate WQAD-TV. The other Citadel properties were ABC affiliates WOI-TV, KCAU-TV and KLKN and its satellite KLKE.

WQAD-TV, was in negotiations to sign with CBS.

-

NBC to buy U.S. Broadcast Group

NBC was in negotiations to purchase U.S. Broadcast Group, who owns four TV stations KNSF-TV in Joplin, KJAC-TV in Port Arthur and KFDX-TV in Wichita Falls, and ABC station WMGC-TV in Binghamton. It was notified by NBC that WBGH-LP would lose its affiliation, and it would likely sign with ABC.

-

Fox Radio Network launches

Ten years after the launch of the television network, Fox is pushing forward to launch a radio companion to the television network, which is called Fox Radio Network. It would produce as much as ABC Radio has offered, such as radio dramas and news programs.
 
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Chapter 77: April 1997 (Part 2)
CBS to buy Midwest Television

Sony/CBS announced negotiations to receive a $2.5 billion offer to buy Midwest Television. Midwest Television owns KFMB in San Diego, WCIA in Champaign, and WMBD-AM-TV and WPBG in Peoria. This buyout gave CBS the third owned and operated station in the San Diego market (the first were ABC's O&O KGTV-TV in San Diego, and NBC's O&O KNSD-TV in San Diego).

KFMB-TV is one of the strongest CBS affiliates in the nation.

-

Cox's divorcement completed

The Atlanta-based Cox Enterprises is completely dismantling its operations, while ABC purchased most of the the radio stations, as well as its flagship WSB-TV in Atlanta, and four fellow ABC affiliates WHAS-TV in Louisville, WGHP-TV in Greensboro/Winston-Salem/High Point, WSOC-TV in Charlotte and WFTV-TV in Orlando, while CBS purchased some of the radio stations as well as WHIO-TV in Dayton, and NBC having a complete buyout offer for WPXI-TV in Pittsburgh and two fellow NBC affiliates WBRC-TV in Birmingham and KNSD in San Diego. Rysher Entertainment was sold off to Paramount Pictures, while Tele-Communications, Inc. is purchasing Cox Cable, and InteRep Radio Services would purchase TeleRep.

In the case of both the Triad, San Diego, and Birmingham markets, these three are traded by New World for Cox Broadcasting in exchange for Fox's affiliate KTVU in San Francisco to block the defection of the Piedmont Triad and Birmingham markets to Fox.

-

Colorado NewsChannel to launch next month

NBC formally announced a launch date for a companion cable channel to KCNC-TV, Colorado NewsChannel, to be launched on May 12, 1997 on Time Warner Cable and Tele-Communications, Inc. cable providers in the Colorado market. This cable channel would rebroadcast KCNC-TV's news in a 24-hour format, with the ability to cutin for breaking news for the Colorado area market, in a similar format to Arizona's KTVK companion Arizona NewsChannel.

NBC is also bundling the channel along with O&O KCNC-TV in carriage contracts in the Colorado market.

-

Media General sale approved

A joint venture between Berkshire-Hathaway, NBC, Tribune Broadcasting and Cablevision is set for FCC approval. Berkshire-Hathaway would cover the newspaper assets, Tribune would cover WJKS-TV in Jacksonville, which is losing an ABC station to The WB in the February of 1997 in time for the launch of ABC's O&O WJXX-TV, NBC/General Electric to purchase WFLA-TV in Tampa/St. Petersburg and WCBD-TV in Charleston, and the cable properties were sold to Cablevision.

This made the Tampa market five owned and operated stations, which are ABC's owned-and-operated WFTS-TV, CBS' owned-and-operated WTSP-TV, NBC's owned-and-operated WFLA-TV, Fox's owned-and-operated WTVT and UPN's owned-and-operated WTOG. A sixth Tampa station WTMV-TV is set to be purchased by Time Warner and became a WB owned-and-operated station, which will be submitted for FCC approval.
 
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Chapter 78: May 1997 (Part 1)
Fox TV Stations to buy two TV stations

Fox Television Stations Inc. announced negotiations to buy KFOX-TV in El Paso, Texas and KRXI-TV in Reno, Nevada. Both of these were associated with the Fox Broadcasting Company for $2 billion. Paramount Stations Group announced negotiations to buy KAME-TV in Reno, Nevada for $750 million.

If the deal is closed, then Fox would move the KFOX-TV callsign to channel 11 in Los Angeles, and adapted the WFOX-TV callsign to channel 5 in New York, as mandated by the Federal Communications Commission.

Fox has plans to expand its programming content.

-

Post-Newsweek sale completed

The $15 billion transaction of The Washington Post Company by Berkshire-Hathaway has been officially completed. This means that Berkshire-Hathway, Disney, Tele-Communications, Inc., General Electric and Sony vying up for the assets.

-

Colorado NewsChannel launches

The KCNC-TV cable channel owned by NBC, Colorado NewsChannel is now launching on May 12, 1997 on Time Warner Cable and Tele-Communications Inc. cable providers, and on its first day hit 1,000,000 subscribers, the largest to beat CNN for the Colorado area.

-

CNN to produce news for TV stations

CNN, the subsidiary of Time Warner is expanding its production by launching news departments for The WB's TV owned-and-operated stations that did not receive a news department, along with existing news stations, such as WPIX-TV would move its facilities to CNN under its restructuring.

-

Time Warner to buy Indianapolis station

Time Warner Inc., who owns The WB Television Network announced negotiations to buy The WB's Indianapolis affiliate WNDY-TV for $1 billion in cash. This made Indianapolis the owned-and-operated market. The other Indianapolis owned and operated stations were ABC's O&O WRTV, NBC's O&O WISH-TV, FOX's O&O WTTV-TV and UPN's O&O WXIN-TV. CBS has negotiations to buy Dispatch Broadcasting, who owns WTHR-TV.

Indianapolis was ranked #25 in the television market.

-

NBC to buy Kelly Broadcasting

NBC announces negotiations to buy Kelly Broadcasting, who owns KCRA-TV in Sacramento, for $3 billion. This deal included Kelly News & Entertainment, who produces the kids game shows Click and Peer Pressure, to debut in the fall of 1997 on the Fox owned-and-operated stations.

The deal did not include KCPQ-TV in Seattle, which would be instead sold to CBS for another $1 billion.
 
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Chapter 79: May 1997 (Part 2)
The WB unveiling fall lineup

The two-year old The WB Television Network is unveiling its fall lineup. Beyond its successful string on Sundays (Nick Freno: Licensed Teacher, The Parent 'Hood, The Jamie Foxx Show, Unhappily Ever After, The Tom Show, Alright Already), Mondays (7th Heaven, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and Wednesdays (Sister, Sister, Smart Guy, The Wayans Bros., The Steve Harvey Show), the network had added two extra nights on Tuesdays (Three, Dawson's Creek) and Saturdays (nWo Heat (the TTL version of WCW Thunder on TBS)).

nWo Heat is produced by the World Championship Wrestling, airing Saturday nights at 8-10pm on The WB, will be a wrestling series that was conceived by Eric Bischoff, on the popularity of the World Championship Wrestling, that starred the talent of WCW's New World Order. This program was taped at WTBS' Atlanta studios, which WTBS is a WB affiliate more recently. To make room for nWo Heat, the cable channel TBS' WCW Saturday Night will move to Thursday nights.

Jamie Kellner and Eric Bischoff will be happy at the nWo Heat concept that it would be more pleased that they wanted a strong Saturday series.

-

Disney/Fisher merger approved by the FCC

The Federal Communications Commission had approved the Fisher Communications acquisition by the Walt Disney Company. This would likely mean that Fisher's existing television properties KATU-TV in Portland and KOMO-TV in Seattle will became ABC's owned and operated stations.

ABC had owned top 10 television markets, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Dallas, Boston, Washington, D.C., Atlanta and Detroit.

-

Gannett dismantled

Berkshire Hathaway has closed the $65 billion dollar merger between Berkshire-Hathaway and Gannett. Berkshire-Hathaway opted to keep the newspapers, as its television properties were not involved.
  • All of Gannett's radio properties, as well as KTHV, KUSA, WUSA and WFMY were transferred to Sony/CBS for $2 billion.
  • WXIA, KARE, KPNX and WTLV was transferred to General Electric/NBC for $1 billion
  • KVUE-TV and KOCO-TV, both Gannett properties were sold off to The Walt Disney company for $1 billion.
Denver's TV O&Os:
KWGN (WB)
KUSA (CBS)
KCNC (NBC)
KDVR (FOX)
KMGH (ABC)

Denver would surpass Boston and San Francisco to enter the top 10 television market.
-

Paramount to buy Denver station

Paramount Stations Group announced talks to purchase Channel 20 Television Company, who owns KTVD-TV, the current UPN affiliate there. This would make the Denver market the sixth major market owned and operated television station.

Denver is one of the larger markets without a UPN owned-and-operated television station. Denver has five owned and operated TV stations in the portfolio.
 
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Chapter 80: June 1997 (Part 1)
Granite divesture set for FCC approval

The divestment of Granite Broadcasting is set for FCC approval. KNTV will be sold to ABC and became a semi-satellite of KGO-TV. Two other stations in Fort Wayne and Buffalo were sold off to ABC. The Lansing, Syracuse, Austin and Battle Creek stations became CBS owned and operated stations, and acquired complete control of the St. Louis and Shreveport stations (both of these are formerly owned by Viacom). The Fresno, Peoria and Duluth stations would be sold off to NBC.

Many Granite employees were dismantled.

-

Ellis Communications split set for FCC approval

The split for Ellis Communications was set for FCC approval, to a venture between Connoisseur Communications Parnters LP, Fox Television Stations, Paramount Stations Group, CBS, NBC and Disney.

Bert Ellis would took over the role at ABC's owned and operated television station group.

-

Block Communications sold off

Berkshire-Hathaway announced negotiations to purchase Block Communications. It owns and operates Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and newspapers as well as Blade in Toledo, Ohio. Blade's TV station WLIO was sold off to NBC's owned and operated television station group, while WDRB-TV was sold to Fox Television Stations, and WLFI-TV in Lafayette would be sold to CBS' television station group. The cable assets were sold off to Tele-Communications, Inc.

-

Waterman sold to NBC

NBC announced negotiations to purchase Waterman Broadcasting, who owns WBBH-TV in Fort Myers, as well as WVIR-TV in Charlottesville, which cost $950 million, which is above Waterman's asking price. This made the Fort Myers market an owned and operated station, causing it more attractive to their viewership.

-

Colorado NewsChannel posted high ratings in first month

The KCNC-TV-based regional cable channel Colorado NewsChannel, owned by NBC posted 5 million ratings in its first month, becoming the most-watched regionally cable news channel in the state of Colorado. Other high-rated regional cable services include KTVK-based Arizona NewsChannel of Phoenix and WJLA-based NewsChannel 8 of Washington, D.C.

Colorado NewsChannel, the regional channel that rebroadcasts NBC owned-and-operated KCNC-TV will became a success story.
 
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Chapter 81: June 1997 (Part 2)
Time Warner reorganizes divisions

Time Warner Inc. announced a plan to reorganize several divisions in a cost-cutting move, after the purchase of Tribune Company.
  • Many Tribune-owned newspapers like The Chicago Tribune, were consolidated into Time Inc.
  • The Tribune Entertainment syndicated division was folded into Telepictures Distribution and Warner Bros. Television Distribution.
  • The Tribune Broadcasting and Turner Broadcasting television division were merged under the group of The WB Television Group, and the broadcasting unit was renamed to The WB Television Stations.
  • The WB, a network formerly owned by Time Warner will be absorbed into Turner Broadcasting.
  • New Line Cinema's distribution unit was folded into Warner Bros. Pictures.
  • The news stations produced by Tribune Broadcasting was merged with CNN.
Time Warner also saw the shutdown of several Tribune-related divisions.

-

Midway outbid Hasbro for Atari assets

Midway Games of Chicago had outbid Hasbro Interactive for $50 million, for the Atari name and assets from JTS Corporation. This was able to reunite all pieces of Atari, including Atari Games and Atari Corporation. Hasbro's price cost $5 million. Midway's price cost $50 million. Atari Games, meanwhile announced plans to launch Centipede 3D for the arcade market.

-

Disney/Guy Gannett merger completed

The merger between The Walt Disney Company and Guy Gannett Communications was completed. All of the seven Guy Gannett television stations were integrated into the ABC owned-and-operated television station family.

KCRG-TV in Cedar Rapids and WMTW in Portland would switch to CBS, before it was completed, while WTXL-TV in Tallahassee would switch to NBC.

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NBC to buy WTXL-TV

NBC announced negotiations to buy the Tallahassee station WTXL-TV for $1 billion, which is more than Tydings' asking price. WTXL-TV operates as a NBC station shortly after Disney purchased Guy Gannett Communications.

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Berkshire Hathaway to buy Evening Post Industries

Berkshire Hathaway announced a $22.5 billion offer to purchase Evening Post Industries, who owns a series of successful newspapers in The Post and Courier. This makes Berkshire Hathaway the top leader in newspapers. The broadcasting unit Cordillera Communications will be sold to NBC, with some exceptions below.

The only exceptions were the Boise station KIVI-TV which was transferred to Disney/ABC, while KATC-TV in Lafayette, KTVQ in Billings, KXLF-TV in Butte and its Bozeman satellite KBZK, KRTV in Great Falls and its Helena satellite KXLH-LD, Missoula station KPAX-TV and its Kalispell satellite KAJJ-CD, which would instead be transferred to Sony/CBS.
 
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