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

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WNOL-TV got into news when it switches to ABC

WNOL-TV would begin their news operation on January 1, 1996. WNOL-TV has just been purchased by Hearst Broadcasting, and intended for Hearst to convert WNOL-TV into an ABC station on January 1, 1996, and wants to produce local news that would have been more successful to compete with newscasts airing on WVUE, WWL-TV, and WDSU, in order for Hearst to build its news department.

Hearst intended to hire various workers at KMBC-TV in Kansas City and WISN-TV in Milwaukee to join WNOL-TV in order to supply for its news department. Hearst said that WNOL-TV would air ABC's quality shows.

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Washington Post Company splits up

The Washington Post Company agreed to put pieces of the company up for sale, effectively helped to shutter when the deal was closed. The Post-Newsweek stations had to be divorced up into several separate units.

• Berkshire Hathaway would acquire Post Newsweek's newspapers including The Washington Post and Newsweek.
• The education unit Kaplan was sold to Disney, who is in the process of purchasing four companies ABC, Scripps, Hearst and Allbritton.
• Post-Newsweek Cable was sold to Tele-Communications, Inc.
• NBC would acquire WDIV in Detroit and KPRC-TV in Houston.
• ABC purchases KSAT-TV and WPLG in Miami.
• CBS purchases WFSB in Hartford and WJXT in Jacksonville.

As a result of the split, KMOL-TV was sold to NBC from Hubbard Broadcasting. Both deals cost a healthy $15 billion offer by investment.

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Media General and NBC completes transfer of Providence Journal

The transfer of Providence Journal has been completed, for $4 billion dollars. The deal gains FCC approval in the last four months. Among the holdings to be sold off:

• Media General would purchase Providence Journal's newspapers, including its flagship magazine The Providence Journal.
• NBC would acquire Providence Journal's television stations WCNC-TV in Charlotte, KTVB in Boise, KGW-TV in Portland, Oregon, KING-TV in Seattle and KHNL-TV in Hawaii, as well as its two satellites KHBC-TV in Hilo and KOGG in Wailuku. Fox Television Stations would purchase KMSB-TV in Tucson and KASA-TV in Santa Fe, New Mexico, while Cox purchases WHAS-TV in Louisville and CBS purchases KREM-TV in Spokane.

The deal would be healthy, that they would invest their profit.

 

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CBS/Westinghouse/Meredith completes merger

CBS, Westinghouse Electric Corporation and Meredith Corporation all completed the three-way $13 billion dollar merger investment. Westinghouse and CBS expanded their broadcasting industry in order to make the existing CBS properties owned by both Westinghouse and Meredith CBS O&Os. CBS prior to that last week completed its purchase of Toledo Television Investors, owners of WNWO-TV, channel 24 in Toledo, a CBS affiliate.

Among the CBS properties owned by Westinghouse included KYW-TV in Philadelphia, KPIX-TV in San Francisco, WBZ-TV in Boston, KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh, WJZ-TV in Baltimore, WATL-TV in Atlanta, KDAF-TV in Dallas/Fort Worth and KSTU-TV in Salt Lake City. The five Meredith CBS properties are KPHO-TV in Phoenix, KCTV in Kansas City, WNEM-TV in Flint, WCGV in Milwaukee and WTTO/WDBB/WNAL in the Birmingham area. All thirteen of them became CBS owned-and-operated stations, joining the existing roster that includes WCBS-TV in New York, KREM in Spokane, KCBS-TV in Los Angeles, WBBM-TV in Chicago, WCCO-TV in Minneapolis, WFRV-TV in Green Bay and WCIX-TV in Miami, making a grand total of 20. It was part-owner with Granite Broadcasting on KMOV-TV and KSLA-TV, formerly owned by Viacom.

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Ellis sold to new owners

New owners were interested in Ellis Communications, which was an Atlanta-based company. Ellis would divest its interests to a new holding company.

• The radio stations WMC-AM-FM was sold off to Connoisseur Communications Partners LP.
• WUPW, WTNZ-TV and WACH-TV was sold to Fox Television Stations
• KAME-TV was sold to Paramount Stations Group
• KOLD-TV and satellite KAIR-TV, WHLT-TV, and WJTV was sold to CBS
• WECT-TV, WMC-TV, WSAV-TV was sold to NBC
• KSFY-TV, KPRY-TV and KABY-TV were sold to Disney.

Bert Ellis would join Disney once the sale was completed. The purchase price cost $16.5 billion each.

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Hubbard Broadcasting and ABC completes transfer

The purchase of Hubbard Broadcasting by ABC was completed. As a result of the sale, Hubbard was forced to sell KMOL-TV in San Antonio to NBC, which would join its existing owned and operated stations.

• Existing Hubbard stations transferred to ABC include KSTP-TV-AM-FM in Minneapolis/St. Paul, KTVX in Salt Lake City, WDIO-TV in Duluth, WIRT in Hibbing, KWRF in Redwood Falls, WTNH-TV in Hartford, KOB-TV in Albuquerque, KOBF in Farmington and KOBR in Roswell (KOB-TV and its two satellites were transferred to ABC, while NBC went to Pulitzer's KOAT-TV)
• ABC's owned and operated stations include existing stations 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 newly acquired stations WTVG-TV in Toledo, WJRT-TV in Flint and the three Belo stations (KXTV in Sacramento, WFAA in Dallas/Fort Worth and WVEC-TV in Norfolk)

The FCC started allowing common ownership of multiple stations with overlapping coverage areas without a wavier if the overlap was between city-grade signals (ITTL, IOTL it won't stay allowed until 2000 when the FCC began to allow common ownership of stations with overlapping signals without a waiver)

 

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CBS sold publishing unit

Several weeks after the CBS/Meredith/Westinghouse merger has been finished, CBS announced that they would spinoff its publishing unit, including several magazines formerly owned by Meredith Corporation, to Berkshire Hathaway.

CBS said they would only focused on broadcasting. Several of the new acquistions would became owned and operated stations.

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FCC approves News Corp./Clear Channel deal

The Federal Communications Commission approves the News Corporation acquisition deal of Clear Channel Communications, a radio and television company that was based in San Antonio, whose flagship station is WOAI-AM-FM.

It is expected once the deal is finished, then they would lead up to the start of the Fox Radio Network.

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NBC completes Pulitzer deal

NBC, Westwood One and Media General announces the completion of the Pulitzer deal. The FCC approved the deal three months earlier. The results for the deal:

• Media General would obtain Pulitzer's newspapers such as the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
• NBC would obtain Pulitzer's television stations WESH, WDSU, WXII, WGAL, WYFF and KOAT.
• ABC purchases KETV-TV, which is owned by Pulitzer.
• CBS purchases two Pulitzer television stations WLKY and KCCI.
• Westwood One purchases all of Pulitzer's radio assets KTAR/KMVP/KKLT, WLKY and WXII.

The NBC deal would join most of the existing owned and operated stations, while reuniting it with several former media assets from Multimedia, and added the former LIN-owned television stations. As a result, KOB-TV was moved to ABC through the acquisition agreement.

 

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Four Hearst stations unveiled new look!

After WCVB-TV in Boston and WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh gradually gave them new looks for the news stations, WISN-TV in Milwaukee and KMBC-TV gradually gave them new looks for the stations. Hearst acquisitions via the McGraw-Hill merger, KMGH-TV in Denver and KGTV in San Diego, gave them new looks to match the Hearst feel WCVB has been received. Here's our new logos for KMGH and KGTV under Hearst ownership.

Ed O'Brien signed on as new announcer for these two stations. Both KMGH and KGTV, along with the other Hearst stations started using "Image News" by Frank Gari that WCVB first used. In case of Denver, "7 News" was rebranded to "7 Action News" giving us the slogan "Action News is Everywhere", taken from WTAE's slogan.

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Time Warner and Tribune to merge

Time Warner Inc., while in the process of merging with Turner Broadcasting System, had offered a $6 billion merger with Tribune Company. Both companies own interest in The WB Television Network, while Tribune also held the WGN superstation.

Time Warner owns the Warner Bros. movie division, as well as its animation unit.

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Sunrise Television sold to NBC

NBC announced that a $750 million offer to purchase broadcasting company Sunrise Television. Smith Television owns the broadcasting properties KSBW, WETM, WKTV, and as well as all that in the process of buying WTOV-TV.

ABC also announced plans to purchase KEYT-TV in Santa Barbara and WWTI-TV in Watertown, two of the stations that NBC never kept these stations.

 

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Journal Communications to shutter

The Milwaukee-based Journal Communications, who owns a series of newspapers, shoppers, and printing plants, as well as the publishing group and radio and television stations and decided to broke up the group in order to make sure Journal could be possible, both cost $32 billion in order for the company to close in the future. Pieces of Journal's assets would be split up.

• Berkshire Hathaway receives the newspaper assets such as The Milwaukee Journal, as well as the Advantage Press and the Louisiana based publishing assets.
• Shopper assets of Journal would be sold to BestMark.
• The printing product assets would be sold off to the Dutch company Vistaprint.
• Westwood One would acquire Journal's radio assets.
• Journal's television assets were broken up. WTMJ-TV would be sold to NBC, while KTNV-TV would be sold to Disney, and WSYM-TV would be sold to Fox Television Stations.

Effectively, this effect saw the breakup of the publishing and broadcasting business future companies occur.

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Fox wins bid to purchase Savoy

News Corporation announced a bid for Savoy Pictures for $500 billion, beating out an initial price tag held by Silver King Communications for $210 million. News Corporation would win the Savoy assets, and wanted Savoy to merge with Fox Searchlight Pictures.

SF Broadcasting is a television station group that owns and operates WLUK-TV in Green Bay, WVUE-TV in New Orleans, WALA-TV in Mobile, and KHON-TV in Honolulu and its two satellites, which the latter three stations would soon became Fox affiliates on January 1, 1996.

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CBS/Citicasters purchase set for FCC approval

The Federal Communications Commission is set for the approval for the Westinghouse-owned CBS, which would merge with Citicasters, a radio company with several radio stations, and two television stations: WKRC-TV in Cincinnati (an ABC affiliate) and WTSP-TV in Tampa/St. Petersburg (a CBS affiliate). WKRC-TV is an ABC affiliate with a contract that runs through June 2, 1996.

CBS would increase the number of owned and operated stations to a grand total of 20.

 

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WNOL-TV switches to ABC

Through Hearst Broadcasting found good relations with ABC, though on January 1, 1996, WNOL-TV formally switches to ABC, with the former Fox affiliation going to WVUE-TV, as part of an agreement between SF Broadcasting and Fox. WNOL-TV also introduced a new logo to coincide with the affiliation change. WNOL-TV also started introducing newscasts with the affiliation change, and several of the children's programming inventory had been dropped, and most of the sitcoms had been moved to WGNO-TV. Here's our new logo for WNOL-TV under Hearst.

The announcer Ed O'Brien, who announces newscasts for most Hearst stations introduced the grand opening of WNOL-TV's first newscast at 5:00pm, said in a statement:

You're watching WNOL-TV, channel 38 in New Orleans. Welcome to a brand new generation of news. This is 38 News.

WNOL agreed to ABC not to preempt any programming, outside of breaking news coverage. Their slogan for their newscasts would be "A New Generation of News". Accompanying the news theme is "Image News" by Frank Gari, first shown on WCVB-TV in Boston, and WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh.

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Argyle Television Holdings II sold

The company Argyle Television Holdings II, formed by two former employees of the first Argyle Television Holdings, after it sold off the stations to New World, was announced that they would sold off to Disney, for a reported cash of $750 million. Disney is in the process of buying ABC, along with Hearst, Scripps, and Allbritton, while selling off Hearst's WBAL-TV and three Scripps stations KSHB-TV in Kansas City, KJRH-TV in Tulsa and WPTV-TV in West Palm Beach to General Electric's NBC, and Disney's KCAL-TV to be sold off to California Television Investors LP, a holding company formed by former KTLA-TV employees.

Argyle's television holdings include KHBS in Fort Ville/Fayetteville/Rogers, and its satellite KHOG-TV, WAPT-TV in Jackson, WZZM in Grand Rapids, and KITV in Honolulu and its two satellite stations KHVO in Hilo and KMAU in Wailuku. Argyle also had to sell off WGRZ-TV in Buffalo to CBS, and WNAC-TV in Providence, to Fox Television Stations, for an additional cash of $250 million.

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Shareholders approve Disney/ABC/Hearst/Scripps/Allbritton merger

Disney's shareholders agreed to approve the $30 billion deal/merger between The Walt Disney Company, Capital Cities/ABC Inc., The E.W. Scripps Company, the Hearst Corporation and Allbritton Communications. Disney was required to divest several holdings once the sale was completed:

• Hearst's WBAL-TV in Baltimore, along with Scripps' KJRH-TV in Tulsa, KSHB-TV in Kansas City and WPTV-TV in West Palm Beach would be sold to NBC for $1 billion.
• Disney's KCAL would be sold to California Television Investors LP, a new company formed by KTLA employees, for $3 billion.
• Farm Progress was sold to Rural Press.
• NILS would be sold to Wolters Kluwer.

In addition, the station groups would be combined:

• ABC owns and operates television stations like 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 newly acquired stations, which are the two SJL stations (WTVG-TV in Toledo and WJRT-TV in Flint), KETV-TV in Omaha, the three Belo stations (KXTV in Sacramento, WFAA in Dallas/Fort Worth and WVEC-TV in Norfolk) and the Hubbard stations (KSTP-TV in Minneapolis/St. Paul, KTVX in Salt Lake City, WTNH-TV in Hartford, WDIO-TV in Duluth, WIRT in Hibbing, KWRF in Redwood Falls, KOB-TV in Albuquerque, KOBF in Farmington and KOBR in Roswell). ABC is also the owner and operator of various radio television stations. The network was in the process of purchasing WHTM-TV in Harrisburg.
• Scripps owns and operates six television stations like WEWS-TV in Cleveland, WXYZ-TV in Detroit, WCPO-TV in Cincinnati, WMAR-TV in Baltimore, KNXV-TV in Phoenix and WFTS-TV in Tampa Bay, as well as various radio stations.
• Hearst owns and operates ABC television stations like WDTN-TV in Dayton, KMBC-TV in Kansas City, WCVB-TV in Boston, WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh, WISN-TV in Milwaukee, and newly acquired outfits like WNOL-TV in New Orleans (which Hearst merged with Quincy Jones Broadcasting), KMGH-TV in Denver, KERO-TV in Bakersfield, KGTV-TV in San Diego and WRTV in Indianapolis (which Hearst was merged from McGraw-Hill several months earlier) and Young Broadcasting's WTVO in Rockford, WTEN in Albany, 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 in Lansing. It also owns and operates several radio stations.
• Allbritton owns and operates television stations like WJLA-TV in Washington, D.C., W58CK in Birmingham and two newly acquired satellites WJSU-TV and WCFT-TV, KATV in Little Rock, two newly-acquired Jacksonville outfits WJXX and its Brunswick satellite WBSG, KTUL-TV in Tulsa, WCIV in Charleston and WSET-TV in Lynchburg.

All of these met FCC's new 210-station limits with a full national reach coverage. ABC would inherit Hearst's stake in both the ESPN, Lifetime Entertainment Services and the A&E Television Networks joint venture once the merger completes.

 

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Hearst introduces new look

Hearst Broadcasting is introducing new look for WDTN in Dayton, as well as the Young Broadcasting stations WTVO in Rockford, WTEN in Albany/Schenectady/Troy (along with its Adams satellite WCDC), 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 in Lansing (Hearst took control of Young Broadcasting several months earlier), and McGraw-Hill's WRTV in Indianapolis. These new logos reflected the new Hearst feel introduced by WCVB in Boston in 1995. WBAL is excluded, because it would have been in the process of selling it to NBC (ITTL, IOTL Hearst adapted a new look for WBAL-TV to reflect sister stations in January 1996) Here's our new logos for the Hearst stations:

As a result of the Hearst-Young merger, longtime ABC affiliates KATC in Lafayette, WXOW in La Crosse and WLAJ-TV in Lansing would move from ABC to CBS on the same day the new look is introduced, in order for ABC to seek VHF upgrades for both the Lafayette, La Crosse and Lansing markets. Accompanying the new affiliations for the latter three markets, came a new Hearst-based image, and Frank Gari's "Image News" news theme, and Ed O'Brien took over announcing duties for most of the stations.

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News Corporation completes Clear Channel offer

News Corporation completes its $7 billion acquisition of radio and television company Clear Channel Communications. It would be integrated into the Fox portfolio, in order to expand it to include their radio outlets. News Corporation had to divest some of the television holdings:

• WPTY-TV in Memphis was sold to Capital Cities/ABC for $750 million.
• KTTU-TV in Tucson was sold to Viacom's Paramount Stations Group for $955 million
• WPMI-TV in Mobile was sold to NBC for $1 billion.
• WAWS-TV in Jacksonville, WXXA-TV in Albany, KSAS-TV in Wichita and WFTC-TV in Minneapolis/St. Paul was remained under Clear Channel, and it would be onto the "aegis" of Fox Television Stations' holdings.

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CBS buys Freedom Communications

CBS Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Westinghouse Electric Corporation made a $4 billion offer to purchase television station group Freedom Communications, and it was required itself to divest newspaper holdings to Berkshire Hathaway.

• Berkshire Hathaway would receive the Los Angeles County, Riverside County and the Orange County newspapers, as well as the regional Spanish-language newspapers.
• West Palm Beach station WPEC-TV, which has been in the process of being purchased by Freedom, as well as WRGB in Albany/Schenectady/Troy, KTVL in Medford, KTVL in Medford, WTVC in Chattanooga and KFDM in Beaumont would be transferred to CBS.
• CBS excluded WLNE-TV in Providence, since it already owned WPRI-TV, and it was transferred to Capital Cities/ABC.

It was part of a push for owned and operated station group expansion for holdings.

 

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Disney/ABC/Scripps/Hearst/Allbritton merger completed

The $30 billion merger between The Walt Disney Company, Capital Cities/ABC Inc., Scripps-Howard, Hearst Corporation and Allbritton Communications has been just completed. The following organizations Disney had to spin it off:

• Scripps' KJRH-TV in Tulsa, WPTV-TV in West Palm Beach, and KSHB-TV in Kansas City, and Hearst's WBAL-TV in Baltimore, were sold to NBC for $1 billion
• KCAL-TV, owned by Disney, was sold to California Television Investors, a limited partnership company formed by KTLA employees for $3 billion
• Farm Progress was sold to Rural Press
• NILS would be sold to Wolters Kluwer

Disney said they would keep several stations, including those previously owned by Hearst, Scripps, and Allbritton and merged into ABC's owned-and-operated stations group. Two new organizations were launched, Disney Enterprises Inc. and ABC Inc., a rename from Capital Cities/ABC Inc. Disney also inherited Hearst's interests in Lifetime, History Channel, A&E and ESPN.

Disney/ABC agreed to strip all CBS branding from WCPO-TV in Cincinnati, as well as stripping all NBC branding from WCIV in Charleston, and stripping all WB branding from WBSG-TV in Brunswick. A new callsign change for the Cleveland station WEWS was expected next month by the Federal Communications Commission, which was expected to be "WRAI-TV" (for Robert A. Iger, an ABC executive).

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Tribune purchases Tampa and Kansas stations

Tribune Broadcasting, owners of The WB Television Network, announces negotiations to purchase WTMV-TV in Tampa Bay, and start-up KCWB in Kansas City, all for $3 billion. Tribune was in the process of building a construction permit in San Antonio for the channel 36 license, which had to be affiliated with the WB Television Network, by the Federal Communications Commission.

WTMV-TV and its forthcoming KCWB in Kansas City would became WB affiliates.

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Chattanooga stations switches affiliation

The CBS affiliate WDEF-TV in Chattanooga and WTVC-TV, the longtime ABC affiliate swaps network affiliations. This means that WDEF-TV became an ABC affiliate, while WTVC-TV going to CBS through a groupwide affiliation agreement with Freedom Communications.

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NBC completes King World transfer

The transfer of King World Productions to General Electric, owners of NBC was completed. Several of King World's assets were folded into NBC Enterprises. Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!, however transferred distribution from King World to Columbia TriStar Television Distribution.

Several talk shows distributed by King World were sold to Warner Bros. Television.

In the following month, NBC decided to affiliate with WIVB-TV, and notified that NBC would let CBS to terminate its contract with CBS effective March 1, 1996. NBC would lose WGRZ-TV in Buffalo to CBS.

 

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KERO-TV officially switches to ABC

KERO-TV, longtime CBS affiliate in Bakersfield, officially made its jump to ABC, shortly after Hearst acquired McGraw-Hill, and several weeks after it became an ABC owned-and-operated station outright. A new logo is also introduced alongside their new affiliation:

Accompanying the new image and affiliation is Frank Gari's news theme "Image News", used by other television stations, such as WCVB-TV in Boston and WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh. KBAK-TV however took on the CBS affiliation.

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FCC approves Tribune/Gaylord merger

The Federal Communications Commission announced its intention to approve the merger between the Tribune Company, a Chicago newspaper company, and Gaylord Entertainment Company, a television broadcaster who owns the Nashville Network.

Gaylord only owns four television stations, all of them affiliated with The WB, like KHTV in Houston, KTVT in Dallas/Fort Worth, KSTW in Seattle and WVTV in Milwaukee. Two of them are on VHF stations, the other two were UHF stations.

Tribune Broadcasting owns and operates several of the stations affiliated with The WB.

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CBS/Citicasters merger completed

CBS Inc. and Citicasters, a Cincinnati-based radio operation expects to complete its merger. CBS Inc. is a broadcasting company owned by Westinghouse Electric Corporation, with CBS being its television network.

Citicasters is a radio station operator that owns only two stations WKRC-TV in Cincinnati, and WTSP-TV in Tampa/St. Petersburg, which are CBS stations. WKRC-TV is an ABC affiliate with a contract that ran until June 1, 1996. The other television stations were sold two years ago, to New World Communications (the Birmingham and High Point stations were traded by New World to Cox Broadcasting for KTVU-TV in San Francisco).

Upon completion, CBS had to run WKRC-TV as an ABC affiliate until its contract expired. CBS agreed to strip all ABC branding from WKRC-TV.

 

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ABC owned and operated stations adapt new identity

Shortly a month after the completion of the $30 billion dollar merger between ABC, Disney, Scripps-Howard, Hearst and Allbritton, ABC decided to go and adapt a new look that was based on Hearst's look that was introduced with WCVB-TV in Boston and WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh, for their owned and operated stations. Here's our new logo for the first 10 ABC O&Os that adapted the new look:

These new looks for the first 10 ABC owned and operated stations started using Frank Gari's "Image News" as its news theme. With the exception of WPVI-TV, with only the "Action News" graphics changed, the station retained the opening visuals as well as keeping "Move Closer to Your World" as the news theme.

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NBC officially completes Outlet transfer

The FCC approved the NBC/Outlet merger in the last two months. Now on March 1, 1996, the NBC/Outlet Communications merger has been completed. It resulted in all of the Outlet stations (WJRH-TV in Providence, WCMH-TV in Columbus, WNCN-TV in Raleigh/Durham/Fayetteville/Goldsboro, WNEN-TV in Boston, WWAC in Wildwood, WMNJ in Millville and WOCI in Philadelphia) becoming NBC owned and operated stations, joining existing NBC O&Os WNBC-TV in New York City, KNBC-TV in Los Angeles, WMAQ-TV in Chicago, KUTV-TV in Salt Lake City, WTVJ in Miami, WRC-TV in Washington, D.C., WMAZ-TV in Macon, WLWT-TV in Cincinnati, KSDK in St. Louis, WKYC-TV in Cleveland, WBIR-TV in Knoxville, WISH-TV in Indianapolis, WANE-TV in Fort Wayne, KXAS-TV in Dallas/Fort Worth, KXAN-TV in Austin, WAVY-TV in Norfolk, WAND-TV in Decatur, WBAL-TV in Baltimore, KSHB-TV in Kansas City, KJRH-TV in Tulsa, WPTV-TV in West Palm Beach, WESH-TV in Orlando, WDSU-TV in New Orleans, WXII in Greensboro/Winston-Salem/High Point, WGAL in Harrisburg/Lancaster/York, WYFF in Greenville-Spartanburg-Asheville, KOAT in Albuquerque/Santa Fe, KMOL-TV in San Antonio, WIVB-TV in Buffalo, WCNC-TV in Charlotte, KTVB in Boise, KGW-TV in Portland, Oregon, KING-TV in Seattle and KHNL-TV in Hawaii, as well as its two satellites KHBC-TV in Hilo and KOGG in Wailuku making a grand total of 43 owned and operated stations.

NBC has been invested in a limited partnership with Chronicle Publishing Company, Station Venture Holdings I LP, that owns KCNC-TV in Denver, WSMV-TV in Nashville and KRON-TV in San Francisco.

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AFLAC's broadcasting unit sold

Aflac's broadcasting unit was sold off for $12 billion to the big three network ownership. Among the ownerships Aflac received:

• WTOC-TV in Savannah, Georgia, KFVS-TV in Cape Girardeau and WAFB-TV in Baton Rouge was sold to Westinghouse/CBS
• WTVM-TV in Columbus, Georgia, WAFF-TV in Huntsville, KWWL-TV in Waterloo and WITN-TV was sold to NBC.

If WTVM was transferred to NBC, then ABC would likely be aligned with J. Curtis Lewis' WLTZ-TV.

 

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Fox purchases Petracom

News Corporation, owners of the Fox Broadcasting Company announces plans to purchase Petracom Broadcasting. Petracom owns Fox stations WTVW (channel 7) in Evansville, KARD (channel 14) in West Monroe/El Dorado and KOZL (channel 27) in Springfield.

Concurrently, KLBK-TV (channel 13) in Lubbock, Texas would be transferred to Westinghouse/CBS ownership.

Fox also owns several television stations, including a joint venture with New World for WCAU-TV in Philadelphia, KDFW-TV in Dallas/Ft. Worth, WAGA-TV in Atlanta, WITI-TV in Milwaukee and WJBK-TV in Detroit, all VHF stations that were Fox affiliates.

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Tribune/Gaylord merger completed

Tribune Broadcasting completes its purchase of the Gaylord Entertainment Company, with cash price being $15 billion. Tribune is part-owner of The WB Television Network, with Warner Bros.

Gaylord owns four television stations, while Tribune owns several television stations, as well as being in the process of purchasing the Tampa stations.

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ABRY Holdings to be sold to Fox

Fox Television Stations was in negotiations to purchase ABRY Holdings Inc., for $15 billion. ABRY's assets include WUTV-TV in Buffalo, WUHF-TV in Rochester, WNRW-TV in Greensboro, WRGT-TV in Dayton, WZTV-TV in Nashville, WRLH-TV in Richmond, WVAH-TV in Charleston, West Virginia and WTAT-TV in Charleston, South Carolina. All of them were FOX affiliates running on the UHF band. All of the stations were formerly owned by Act III Broadcasting. (ITTL WNRW remained a Fox affiliate in Greensboro, while Cox is owning the ABC affiliate WGHP-TV in Greensboro, IOTL WNRW lost its Fox affiliation to WGHP, and transferred to ABC, where it was reworked into WXLV).

Concurrently, KSMO-TV in Kansas City would be sold to the Paramount Stations Group, which cost $750 million.

 

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WEWS-TV to change callsign

WEWS-TV, the longtime ABC affiliate, running on channel 5 in Cleveland, will change its call letters to WRAI-TV, which the call letters meant to be stood for Robert A. Iger, an ABC executive, after a five-way merger between Disney, Capital Cities/ABC, Scripps-Howard, Hearst and Allbritton was completed. It also introduced a new image, that was used by ABC O&Os since the previous month, after appearing on Hearst stations. Thus the new logo was also introduced alongside the new call letters:

Accompanying the new call letters and logo comes Frank Gari's music package "Image News", first used in November 1995 on WTAE in Pittsburgh and WCVB-TV in Boston. The Federal Communications Commission appealed to Disney that KMBC-TV in Kansas City would change its call sign to KRAI-TV next month, to reflect its new ownership.

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Tribune to buy WBNX

Tribune Broadcasting was in negotiations to buy WBNX, which operates on channel 55 in Cleveland, from Winston Broadcasting Network, Inc., which is owned by Ernest Angley, a religious television priest, for $1 billion.

Its plans for WBNX-TV would convert itself into an affiliate of The WB Television Network.

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Malrite Communications sold off

Malrite Communications, the Ohio-based company that owns WXIX-TV in Cincinnati and WFLX-TV in West Palm Beach, announced its plans to merge with Fox Television Stations, a division of the Fox Broadcasting Company for $5 billion. In accordance with the merger, Malrite was required to divest WLII-TV, WSUR-TV and WOIO-TV in Cleveland.

WOIO-TV would be sold to Westinghouse/CBS for $1 billion. The Puerto Rico stations WLII-DT and WSUR-TV would be sold to Spanish company Groupo Televisa for $1 billion. Puerto Rico is a US territory that has native Spanish in it.

 

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WGHP-TV to adapt new look

The ABC affiliate WGHP-TV, running on the Piedmont Triad region (Greensboro/Winston-Salem/High Point), owned by Cox Broadcasting (POD ITTL, IOTL Fox Television Stations owned the station as a Fox affiliate) adapted a new look that was based on the look that was used by fellow Cox-owned ABC affiliate WSB-TV in Atlanta. Here's our new logo for WGHP-TV under Cox ownership:

The new look adapted the theme "Image VIII" by Newsmusic Central to the station, and hiring Scott Chapin (who was voice of several stations like WSB-TV in Atlanta) to do the voiceover for the station, as well as the news opens.

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Quincy Media to be sold off

NBC and Berkshire-Hathaway announced negotiations to purchase Quincy Media, which is a family owned media company that owns newspapers and broadcasting.

• NBC would cover most of Quincy's stations including WGEM-TV in Quincy, WREX in Rockfordm KITV-TV in Sioux City, KTTC in Rochester, and WVVA-TV. The sole exception is WSJV in South Bend, which went to Fox Television Stations.
• Berkshire-Hathaway to receive all newspaper assets.

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NBC to purchase KSBY-TV

NBC announces negotiations to purchase Santa Barbara's KSBY-TV, which operates on channel 6 for $950 million. NBC announced that KSBY-TV would became an owned-and-operated station that would join existing stations. It was in the process of purchasing Sunrise Television, who owns KSBW-TV several months earlier.

 

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Fox buys Pappas

Fox Television Stations, who owns and operates television stations in markets including WNYW-TV in New York, KTTV-TV in Los Angeles, WFLD-TV in Chicago, KRIV-TV in Houston, WTTG-TV in Washington, WBFF-TV in Baltimore, WPGH-TV in Pittsburgh, WTVZ-TV in Norfolk, WOFL-TV in Orlando, KVVU-TV in Las Vegas, KDVR-TV in Denver, WLFL-TV in Raleigh, KTXL in Sacramento, WTIC-TV in Hartford, WPMT in Harrisburg, WHBQ-TV in Memphis, WSVN-TV in Miami, WHDH-TV in Boston, WAWS-TV in Jacksonville, WXXA-TV in Albany, KSAS-TV in Wichita and WFTC-TV in Minneapolis/St. Paul and part-owner (with New World Communications) on WCAU-TV in Philadelphia, KDFW-TV in Dallas/Fort Worth, WJBK-TV in Detroit, WAGA-TV in Atlanta and WITI-TV in Milwaukee, announced negotiations to purchase Pappas Telecasting, who owns Fox stations KMPH-TV in Fresno, KBFX-CD in Bakersfield, KTVG-TV in Grand Island, KSNB-TV in Superior and KPTM-TV in Omaha. Fox announced that they would sell KPWB-TV in Sacramento, KREN-TV in Reno, KXVO-TV in Omaha and WBFX-TV in Greensboro/Lexington to Tribune Broadcasting, and KAZR-CA to Univision Communications. The purchase price cost $2 billion.

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NBC purchases Palmer stations

NBC announced its negotiations to purchase KFOR-TV and WHO-TV for $550 million, beating out an initial $226 million price bid from The New York Times Company. The reason explicitly stated why NBC won that they could make the Oklahoma and Des Moines stations owned and operated stations as possible.

NBC had good relations with the two stations, that they would integrate the two stations into NBC's owned-and-operated stations group.

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Heritage Media sold off

A joint venture between News Corporation, ABC and NBC announced negotiations to purchase Heritage Media, all over a cost of $2 billion.

• WPTZ-TV in Plattsburgh and WNNE-TV in Hartford would be sold to NBC, owned by General Electric.
• WEAR-TV in Mobile, KOTA-TV in Rapid City, and WCHS-TV in Charleston would be sold to The Walt Disney Company, and made it as part of ABC's O&O group.
• KOKH-TV in Oklahoma City and WFFF-TV in Plattsburgh would be sold to Fox Television Stations.
• The Actmedia and DIMAC subsidiaries would be sold to News Corporation.

This explicitly reflected the FCC's new 100% national market reach, and the new 210-station limit, that see networks owning and operating every network-affiliated station.

 

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KMBC-TV to change callsign

KMBC-TV, ABC's longtime affiliate, operating on channel 9 in Kansas City would change its call letters to KRAI-TV, which stood for Robert A. Iger, an ABC executive, after a five-way merger between Disney, Capital Cities/ABC, Scripps-Howard, Hearst and Allbritton was completed, and reflecting co-ownership with Cleveland's WRAI-TV. The image used on KMBC-TV was unchanged, but only the call letters changed. Here's our new logo for KRAI-TV.

The image remains unaltered, but only a few bits are altered to reflect the new callsign.

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River City sold to News Corporation

The $1.16 billion transfer of River City Broadcasting by News Corporation has been completed. The following holdings were to be divested:

• News Corporation opted to keep KDSM-TV in Des Moines and KABB in San Antonio, but it was transferred to the Fox Television Stations unit.
• KOVR-TV in Sacramento and WKBD-TV in Detroit would be sold to Westinghouse/CBS.
• KDNL-TV in St. Louis, WSYX-TV in Columbus and WLOS-TV in Asheville was transferred to The Walt Disney Company under its ABC Television Stations unit.

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Guy Gannett Communications sold off

The Maine-based company Guy Gannett Communications announced that they would merge with The Walt Disney Company, owners of the ABC television network. Guy Gannett's stations WICS-TV, WICD-TV, WOKR-TV and WGGB-TV were already ABC affiliates. Three of Guy Gannett's stations WTWC-TV, KGAN and WGME-TV would drop both NBC and CBS to make way for ABC.

Harron Communications' WMTV in Portland, Joseph Tydings' WTXL-TV and The Cedar Rapids Gazette's KCRG-TV would lose ABC affiliations, but WMTV and KCRG would probably switch to CBS, and WTXL-TV would switch to NBC.

 

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The Cincinnati switcheroo!

On June 3, 1996, the affiliation swap in Cincinnati was completed. WKRC-TV became a CBS owned-and-operated station (several months after CBS acquired parent Citicasters), while WCPO-TV became an ABC owned-and-operated station (several months after both Disney, ABC, Hearst, Scripps and Allbritton merged). WLWT-TV was unaffected, as it was a NBC owned-and-operated station, thus Cincinnati could became "all owned-and-operated". Fox was in the process of buying WXIX-TV in Cincinnati, along with Malrite's West Palm Beach station WFLX-TV in a two-station deal, which could became an owned-and-operated station when it was finished.

Paramount Stations Group was in negotiations to purchase WSTR-TV for $950 million. Tribune received negotiations to buy WBQC-TV in Cincinnati for $750 million.

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Berkshire-Hathaway bought Gannett

Berkshire-Hathaway, an Omaha-based company announced negotiations to purchase television and newspaper holder Gannett Company, all for a cost of $65 billion dollars. Berkshire-Hathaway was allowed to keep the newspaper operations, while the broadcasting unit was sold off.

• Gannett's radio operations, as well as WUSA-TV in Washington, D.C., KTHV-TV in Little Rock, KUSA-TV in Denver and WFMY in Greensboro/Winston-Salem/High Point were transferred to Westinghouse/CBS for $2 billion.
• WXIA-TV in Atlanta, KARE in Minneapolis, KPNX-TV in Phoenix and WTLV-TV in Jacksonville was sold to NBC for $1 billion.
• KVUE-TV in Austin and KOCO-TV in Oklahoma City were sold to The Walt Disney Company for $975 million-$1 billion

Thus effectively, Berkshire Hathaway had no broadcasting stations. That goes under FCC's 210-station limit, and having 100% national market reach coverage.

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Tribune to buy San Francisco and Detroit stations

Tribune Broadcasting, part-owner of The WB Television Network was in negotiations to purchase WXON-TV, channel 20 in Detroit, and KOFY-TV in San Francisco, also channel 20. Both of these are affiliated with The WB.

Tribune owns and operates many stations that were associated with The WB. These included WPIX in New York, KTLA in Los Angeles, WGN in Chicago, WPHL in Philadelphia, WLVI-TV in Boston, WGNX in Atlanta, WGNO-TV in New Orleans, KWGN-TV in Denver, WDZL-TV in Miami, WBMG-TV in Birmingham, KTVK and its satellite KASW in Phoenix, WVTV in Milwaukee, KSTW in Seattle/Tacoma, KHTV in Houston and KTVT in Dallas/Fort Worth. The buyout of the two stations increased Tribune's total to 17 stations.

San Francisco was ranked #5 in the television market, while Detroit was ranked #9 in the television market.

 

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WTTV-TV to overhaul format

WTTV-TV, the Fox affiliate owned by New World Communications in Indianapolis, decided to devote nearly all of the programming hours outside of network shows to locally produced news programs. The general manager of WTTV-TV said they spent better on local programming instead of paying syndication distributors to acquire nationally syndicated shows, and decided to drop all acquired programs like The Mark Walberg Show, The Marvel Action Universe, Sweet Valley High, Day & Date and The Gabrielle Carteris Show, which viewers felt that was incompatible with the "News 4 Indianapolis" branding.

This is not the first time a station decided to devote programs outside of network hours to local news. KCNC-TV, a NBC affiliate used the method nearly six years earlier when they dropped all nationally syndicated shows.

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WJLA-TV to change callsign

WJLA-TV, the longtime ABC affiliate operating on VHF channel 7 in Washington, D.C., would change its callsign back to WMAL-TV (that station used the callsign from 1947 to 1977), in order to reflect co-ownership with the radio station, following the five-way merger between Disney, ABC, Allbritton, Scripps-Howard and Hearst. The station also introduced the "camera" package that was introduced by WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh and WCVB-TV in Boston, and most recently used in ABC's owned and operated stations, including New York. Here's our new logo to reflect the callsign change:

The "Circle 7" logo was updated to match the one used by its owned and operated stations. Frank Gari's "Image News" theme was also introduced to the station.

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General Electric to buy Seagram

General Electric, who owns the NBC television network announced a $35 billion offer to buy the Canadian multinational conglomerate Seagram Company, which was recently expanded to other business ventures. The results needed to be divested:

• Seagram's beverage division was sold off to both Pernod Ricard and Diaego.
• Seagram's entertainment division, including MCA Inc. was merged and integrated into NBC, which is another venture owned by General Electric.

General Electric had good relations with MCA. MCA/Universal had produced several series including the highly successful Law & Order, and the upcoming series Mr. Rhodes and Something So Right, will air on General Electric's NBC television network. (ITTL, IOTL General Electric bought out Universal in 2004 and merged into NBC)

 

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Fox to buy New World Communications

News Corporation acquired New World Communications for $2.4 billion, and it would combine the television stations into one holdings.

• New World's television stations include 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, WJW-TV in Cleveland and KTBC-TV in Austin.
• Fox's television stations include WNYW-TV in New York, KTTV-TV in Los Angeles, WFLD-TV in Chicago, KRIV-TV in Houston, WTTG-TV in Washington, WBFF-TV in Baltimore, WPGH-TV in Pittsburgh, WTVZ-TV in Norfolk, WOFL-TV in Orlando, KVVU-TV in Las Vegas, KDVR-TV in Denver, WLFL-TV in Raleigh, KTXL in Sacramento, WTIC-TV in Hartford, WPMT in Harrisburg, WHBQ-TV in Memphis, WSVN-TV in Miami, WHDH-TV in Boston, WAWS-TV in Jacksonville, WXXA-TV in Albany, KSAS-TV in Wichita, WFTC-TV in Minneapolis/St. Paul, KDSM-TV in Des Moines and KABB-TV in San Antonio. It was in the process of buying several stations from Pappas Telecasting.
• Fox and New World owned a joint venture that consists of WCAU in Philadelphia, KDFW in Dallas/Fort Worth, WAGA-TV in Atlanta, WJBK-TV in Detroit and WITI-TV in Milwaukee.

New World owns nine television stations, Fox owns 24 television stations, and the Fox/New World joint venture owns five television stations, for a total of 38 television stations, covering the largest television station group ever.

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NBC completes WOOD-TV takeover

NBC announces that they would complete the $7 billion dollar purchase of WOOD-TV from AT&T. This would join existing NBC O&O properties WNBC-TV in New York City, KNBC-TV in Los Angeles, WMAQ-TV in Chicago, KUTV-TV in Salt Lake City, WTVJ in Miami, WRC-TV in Washington, D.C., WMAZ-TV in Macon, WLWT-TV in Cincinnati, KSDK in St. Louis, WKYC-TV in Cleveland, WBIR-TV in Knoxville, WISH-TV in Indianapolis, WANE-TV in Fort Wayne, KXAS-TV in Dallas/Fort Worth, KXAN-TV in Austin, WAVY-TV in Norfolk, WBAL-TV in Baltimore, KSHB-TV in Kansas City, KJRH-TV in Tulsa, WPTV-TV in West Palm Beach, KMOL-TV in San Antonio, WIVB-TV in Buffalo, WJRH-TV in Providence, WCMH-TV in Columbus, WNCN-TV in Raleigh/Durham/Fayetteville/Goldsboro, WNEN-TV in Boston, WWAC in Wildwood, WMNJ in Millville, WOCI in Philadelphia, WAND-TV in Decatur, WESH-TV in Orlando, WDSU-TV in New Orleans, WXII in Greensboro/Winston-Salem/High Point, WGAL in Harrisburg/Lancaster/York, WYFF in Greenville-Spartanburg-Asheville, KOAT in Albuquerque/Santa Fe, WCNC-TV in Charlotte, KTVB in Boise, KGW-TV in Portland, Oregon, KING-TV in Seattle and KHNL-TV in Hawaii, as well as its two satellites KHBC-TV in Hilo and KOGG in Wailuku, for a 44-station total.

It operates a limited partnership Station Venture Holdings I L.P. with Chronicle Publishing that owns WSMV-TV in Nashville, KRON-TV in San Francisco and KCNC-TV in Denver.

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Silver King to buy Roberts Broadcasting

Silver King Broadcasting, owners of the Home Shopping Network, announces negotiations to purchase Roberts Broadcasting, who owns home shopping television stations. The purchase price cost $15 billion.

• Silver King's 12 television stations include WHSE-TV in Newark, WHSI-TV in Smithtown, KHSC-TV in Ontario, WEHS-TV in Aurora, WHSP-TV in Vineland, WHSH in Marlborough, KHSX-TV in Irving, KHSH-TV in Alvin, WQHS-TV in Cleveland, WHYS-TV in Hollywood, WBHS-TV in Tampa and WHSW-TV in Baltimore.
• Roberts Broadcasting's only television station holding include WRBU-TV in St. Louis.

This would make them a total of 13 stations.

 

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KDAF-TV expands staff

The CBS owned-and-operated station KDAF-TV in Dallas/Fort Worth (of which CBS acquired in December 1994 from a tradeoff between WCAU and three Fox O&Os, became an owned-and-operated station in the July of 1995) is expanding their staff activity, rising to 1,000 staff members, including 500 found in the newsroom. KDAF-TV saw promotion to new shows like Promised Land.

KDAF-TV would be very pleased that they would produce election coverage on KERA-TV, channel 13 in Dallas/Fort Worth, while KDAF would run CBS' scheduled lineup without preemptions.

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CBS completes Freedom purchase

CBS Inc., a unit of Westinghouse Electric Corporation is completing the purchase of California-based Freedom Communications, a newspaper and broadcasting company. The following organizations had to be divested:

• Freedom's newspaper branch was sold off to Berkshire-Hathaway.
• Freedom's television stations WPEC in West Palm Beach, WRGB in Albany-Schenectady-Troy, KTVL in Medford, WTVC in Chattanooga and KFDM in Beaumont were transferred to CBS, joining the other owned-and-operated stations KYW-TV in Philadelphia, KPIX-TV in San Francisco, WBZ-TV in Boston, KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh, WJZ-TV in Baltimore, WATL-TV in Atlanta, KDAF-TV in Dallas/Fort Worth, KSTU-TV in Salt Lake City, KPHO-TV in Phoenix, KCTV in Kansas City, WNEM-TV in Flint, WCGV in Milwaukee, WTTO/WDBB/WNAL in the Birmingham area, WCBS-TV in New York, KCBS-TV in Los Angeles, WBBM-TV in Chicago, WCCO-TV in Minneapolis, WNWO-TV in Toledo, WFRV-TV in Green Bay, WCIX-TV in Miami, WPRI-TV in Providence, WLKY in Louisville, KCCI in Des Moines, WKRC-TV in Cincinnati, KOVR-TV in Sacramento, KREM in Spokane, WKBD-TV in Detroit and WTSP-TV in Tampa/St. Petersburg, raising the total to 33 owned-and-operated stations.
• WLNE-TV in Providence was sold off to ABC, joining the existing owned-and-operated station roster.

As a result of the purchase, WDEF-TV became an ABC affiliate.

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Fox completes Savoy takeover

News Corporation is completing the takeover of Savoy Pictures. The results go like that:

• Savoy Pictures was transferred and folded into Fox 2000 Pictures and Fox Searchlight Pictures.
• Savoy transferred its home video arm from HBO to 20th Century Fox Entertainment.
• The four SF Broadcasting stations (WLUK-TV in Green Bay, WVUE-TV in New Orleans, WALA-TV in Mobile, and KHON-TV in Honolulu and its two satellites) were transferred to Fox Television Stations, joining the entire owned-and-operated roster that includes WNYW-TV in New York, KTTV-TV in Los Angeles, WFLD-TV in Chicago, KRIV-TV in Houston, WTTG-TV in Washington, WBFF-TV in Baltimore, WPGH-TV in Pittsburgh, WTVZ-TV in Norfolk, WOFL-TV in Orlando, KVVU-TV in Las Vegas, KDVR-TV in Denver, WLFL-TV in Raleigh, KTXL in Sacramento, WTIC-TV in Hartford, WPMT in Harrisburg, WHBQ-TV in Memphis, WSVN-TV in Miami, WHDH-TV in Boston, WAWS-TV in Jacksonville, WXXA-TV in Albany, KSAS-TV in Wichita, WFTC-TV in Minneapolis/St. Paul, KDSM-TV in Des Moines and KABB-TV in San Antonio, as well as in the process of purchasing New World Communications. It operates a joint venture with New World, owning five stations WCAU-TV in Philadelphia, KDFW-TV in Dallas, WJBK-TV in Detroit, WITI-TV in Milwaukee and WAGA-TV in Atlanta.

This means there are now thirty Fox owned and operated stations in the roster.

 

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Chronicle Publishing to split

Chronicle Publishing Company, a publishing and broadcasting company based in San Francisco, whose flagship properties are the San Francisco Chronicle and TV's KRON-TV announced that they would merge with Berkshire Hathaway. The merger cost $45 billion. The results are expected when complete:

• Berkshire-Hathaway would keep the publishing assets, like the San Francisco Chronicle, and Chronicle Press.
• Television stations like WOWT in Omaha, KAKE-TV in Wichita, WNYT-TV in Albany, WROC-TV in Rochester, WVIT in New Britain and controlling interest of Station Venture Holdings I LP (KCNC-TV in Denver, KRON-TV in San Francisco, WSMV-TV in Nashville) would be transferred to NBC. If they do so, then they would join existing NBC owned and operated stations WNBC-TV in New York City, KNBC-TV in Los Angeles, WMAQ-TV in Chicago, KUTV-TV in Salt Lake City, WTVJ in Miami, WRC-TV in Washington, D.C., WMAZ-TV in Macon, WLWT-TV in Cincinnati, KSDK in St. Louis, WKYC-TV in Cleveland, WBIR-TV in Knoxville, WISH-TV in Indianapolis, WANE-TV in Fort Wayne, KXAS-TV in Dallas/Fort Worth, KXAN-TV in Austin, WAVY-TV in Norfolk, WBAL-TV in Baltimore, KSHB-TV in Kansas City, KJRH-TV in Tulsa, WPTV-TV in West Palm Beach, WESH-TV in Orlando, WDSU-TV in New Orleans, WXII in Greensboro/Winston-Salem/High Point, WGAL in Harrisburg/Lancaster/York, WYFF in Greenville-Spartanburg-Asheville, KOAT in Albuquerque/Santa Fe, WIVB-TV in Buffalo, KMOL-TV in San Antonio, WAND-TV in Decatur, WJRH-TV in Providence, WCMH-TV in Columbus, WNCN-TV in Raleigh/Durham/Fayetteville/Goldsboro, WNEN-TV in Boston, WWAC in Wildwood, WMNJ in Millville, WOCI in Philadelphia, WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids, WCNC-TV in Charlotte, KTVB in Boise, KGW-TV in Portland, Oregon, KING-TV in Seattle and KHNL-TV in Hawaii, as well as its two satellites KHBC-TV in Hilo and KOGG in Wailuku.

The rule met FCC's 210-station limit and full national market reach.

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Paramount to buy Nashville station

Paramount Stations Group announced negotiations to buy WUXP-TV, a UPN affiliate in Nashville. The purchase price cost $1.5 billion. With some of the profits generated from ABRY, it could easily make Nashville owned-and-operated television stations.

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CBS to buy Sarkes Tarzian, Inc.

CBS Inc., a unit of the Westinghouse Electric Corporaiton announced a $3 billion offer to buy the Indiana-based company Sarkes Tarzian, Inc.

The radio holdings would be automatically merged into the CBS radio unit, while KTVN-TV would be sold to the CBS owned and operated stations group. CBS did not include WRCB-TV in Chattanooga, it would be instead sold to NBC for $950 million.