WPTV and WSM to become ABC affiliation in the 80s

Chapter 85: Hearst nears FCC approval for Nashville station
July 5, 1983

The Federal Communications Commission is sending down the approval for Hearst's offer to purchase WSM-TV-AM-FM from the National Life and Accident Insurance Company, which was an ABC affiliate since 1980.

Hearst's other broadcasting properties include WBAL-TV in Baltimore, WISN-TV in Milwaukee, WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh, WDTN-TV in Dayton, KAKE-TV in Wichita and WNAC-TV in Boston.

There are rumors that WCVB-TV and WNAC-TV would swap owners and affiliations, since WCVB-TV would be better associated with ABC than it was on CBS.

Hearst's stations were ABC affiliates, of which these was a close relationship, since the 1950s. WBAL-TV just signed up with ABC in 1981.
 
Chapter 86: TVX to buy Atlanta station
July 19, 1983

After the successful buyout of what would be TVX's largest TV market, WLVI-TV in Boston, TVX Broadcast Group took a $2 billion step in order to purchase WATL-TV, channel 36, in the Atlanta market, outbidding Outlet Communications.

Atlanta was ranked #15 in the television market. TVX's flagship station was WTVZ-TV in Norfolk.

Boston was number 6 in the television market, while TVX Broadcast Group was successful in purchasing WLVI-TV in Cambridge/Boston from Field Communications.

TVX's other station properties include WRLH-TV in Richmond, WJTM-TV in Greensboro, and it was in the process of buying WXXA-TV, channel 23 in the Capital Region (Albany/Schenectady/Troy).
 
Chapter 87: ABC to steal WTVJ
August 1, 1983

ABC announced an affiliation agreement with the longtime CBS affiliate WTVJ, which served Miami and Fort Lauderdale, which operates on channel 4 and it will be the number one South Florida television station.

This left the current ABC affiliate in South Florida, WPLG without an affiliate, and possibly to sign with CBS (since the stations in New Hartford, Jacksonville and St. Louis had been already affiliated with the network).

WTVJ will be the new home of popular award-winning shows like That's Incredible!, Happy Days, Three's Company, T.J. Hooker, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Hart to Hart, Dynasty, The Fall Guy and Benson, and prepared for exciting new shows like Oh Madeline, Just Our Luck, Hardcastle and McCormick, Hotel and Webster.

The combination of the number-one network with the number-one news station could be important to our viewers, so it was understandable to South Floridans. The current NBC affiliate owned by General Electric, WCKT-TV would be left unaffected.
 
Chapter 88: Baltimore has second swap
August 8, 1983

The Baltimore television tempest, which was started two years earlier on August 30, 1981, had changed very much of its affiliations.

WJZ-TV, which served as CBS affiliate in Baltimore for two years, officially changes to become a NBC affiliate, this was pretty much of a prelude to the RCA-Westinghouse merger, which was soon to be finalized in the January of 1984.

WMAR-TV, which only served the NBC affiliate for two years, reverts to being a CBS affiliate. CBS acquired 75% of controlling interest in The A.S. Abell Company.

Pittsburgh will soon have its swap on September 5, 1983, when KDKA, the longtime CBS affiliate switches to NBC, ceding CBS to WPXI-TV, the Cox station.
 
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Chapter 89: WPLG switches to CBS
August 10, 1983

Upon realizing that Post-Newsweek's other television stations in St. Louis, New Hartford and Jacksonville are all affiliated with CBS, CBS quickly signed an agreement to affiliate with outgoing ABC affiliate WPLG-TV.

This means that WPLG would carry the CBS shows like 60 Minutes, Cagney & Lacey, Trapper John, M.D., Magnum, P.I., Dallas, The Dukes of Hazzard, Knots Landing, Falcon Crest, and exciting new shows like Scarecrow and Mrs. King, Emerald Point N.A.S., Whiz Kids and Cutter to Houston.

The move came in because Post-Newsweek Stations developed better relations with CBS, since the network had lost WTVJ to ABC.

The reason came because WTVJ was not satisfied of preempting several CBS programs, being preempted by occasional sports events, this is the reason why the South Florida station WTVJ moved to ABC.
 
Chapter 90: Hearst took control of Nashville station
August 18, 1983

The acquisition of WSM-AM-FM-TV in Nashville by Hearst Broadcasting has been completed. WSM-TV was an ABC affiliate since 1980, when General Electric's WNGE-TV in Nashville was moved to NBC.

This means Hearst's other television properties in the portfolio included WBAL-TV in Baltimore, WISN-TV in Milwaukee, WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh, WDTN-TV in Dayton, KAKE-TV in Wichita and WNAC-TV in Boston.

Hearst's first television station WBAL-TV was built in 1948, and several more acquisitions followed. Hearst and ABC are great partners and opportunities.

Hearst now has seven ABC-affiliated television stations. Hearst and ABC having plans to discuss a possible merger. The station was originally owned by the National Life and Accident Insurance Company, but when the organization exited out of broadcasting, Hearst took control of the station.
 
But when will WSM drop Smokey Robinson's Let the Children Play as it's Closing Theme so Hello News by Frank Gari could be used for All Newscasts Opens and Closes?
 
Chapter 91: Pittsburgh stations swapped network affiliation
September 5, 1983

KDKA is ending their longtime affiliation with CBS, so they will be able to affiliate it with NBC. This was partly due to a prelude between the merger between RCA and Westinghouse, a move that stunned the broadcast industry.

Meanwhile, WPXI, the longtime NBC affiliate also transferred its affiliation to CBS, so this means all viewers in Pittsburgh could watch any favorite CBS program.

WTAE-TV, the longtime ABC affiliate in Pittsburgh, would not change its affiliation, so this would be unaffected, and Hearst had a long-term ABC affiliation contract.

The RCA/Westinghouse merger will yet to receive FCC approval. Two of the Pittsburgh network affiliates simply swap network affiliations. This only came after Cox had to let go with NBC, two of the stations in Charlotte and Atlanta switched respectively to ABC.
 
Chapter 92: Other Labor Day events
September 5, 1983

The General Electric-owned KRGB-TV, in San Francisco, debuts two new programs to fulfill the television schedule, First News, a television program that was based off the format used by KOA-TV in Denver, and The Northern California Evening News, an evening news program that featured some of KRGB-TV's top news talent.

These two new programs obtained help for KRGB-TV to fulfill the strong schedule, even with the NBC programming as appropriate lead-ins.

On the same day, both WPLG-TV and WTVJ switched network affiliations in South Florida, with WPLG-TV going to CBS, while WTVJ going to the much appealing ABC. This was due to Post-Newsweek Stations' better relations with the CBS network, as it already owns KMOX-TV in St. Louis, WJXT-TV in Jacksonville and WFSB in Hartford-New Haven. KMOX-TV-AM-FM is expecting to change callsign to KMYG-TV-AM-FM, which stood for Katharine MeYer Graham.

On the same day in the Denver market, KWGN repackaged its existing newscasts, picking up its "Action News" format and its accompanying theme "Move Closer to Your World", and repackaged it to The Rocky Mountain Action News, to make the station look like WPIX-TV, the New York sister station.
 
September 19, 1983: Press Your Luck and Star Words hit the air on CBS Daytime and clear in a lot of affiliates including WCBS in NY, KCBS in SF, KCBH in LA, WBBM in Chicago, WCAU in Philadelphia, WPLG in Miami and WGR-TV in Buffalo.

Host for Press Your Luck: Peter Tomarken
Announcer for Press Your Luck: Rod Roddy
Theme Music: Same as OTL

Host for Star Words: Nipsey Russell
Debut Guests for the Premiere: Vicki Lawrence & Tom Poston
Theme Music: Body Language by Score Productions (However Body Language with Tom Kennedy will not happen ITTL in which they had the OTL Theme Music for use on Star Words)

ITTL 1983-1984 CBS Daytime TV Schedule

6:00 AM: CBS Early Morning News
7:00 AM: The CBS Morning News
9:00 AM: LOCAL/SYNDICATED PROGRAMMING
10:00 AM: The $25,000 Pyramid
10:30 AM: Press Your Luck
11:00 AM: The Price Is Right
12:00 AM: LOCAL/SYNDICATED PROGRAMMING
12:30 PM: Young and the Restless
1:30 PM: As The World Turns
2:30 PM: Capitol
3:00 PM: Guiding Light
4:00 PM: Star Words
4:30 PM: LOCAL/SYNDICATED PROGRAMMING
6:30 PM: CBS Evening News with Dan Rather
 
Stay with us tomorrow, for more interesting events on how do you want to do differently TTL (WRGB is still a NBC affiliate TTL, but became a CBS affiliate since 1981 OTL).
 
Chapter 93: WSM to drop end theme
September 19, 1983

Hearst Broadcasting, the station's new owner of WSM-TV is officially dropping The Miracles' "Let the Children Play" as its closing theme of WSM's newscasts, electing to use "Hello News" as the closing theme.

WSM-TV is an ABC affiliate since 1980, which was operating on channel 4 in Nashville. Prior to that, this was a NBC affiliate, until NBC was realized to be in third place and ABC wanted a stronger outlet in Nashville (realizing that WNGE shows many preempted programs).

Hearst Broadcasting is also principal owner of six other ABC affiliates WBAL-TV in Baltimore, WISN-TV in Milwaukee, WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh, WDTN-TV in Dayton, KAKE-TV in Wichita and WNAC-TV in Boston.

The reason cited by Hearst management is that executives say "we did not care for the song at all".
 
Chapter 94: WPTV to change call letters
September 21, 1983

The current ABC affiliate for West Palm Beach since 1980, WPTV announced that they would change its call letters to WSHB. The call letters stood for the station's owner, Scripps-Howard Broadcasting.

Since 1980, WPTV and WMC were exiled from NBC in order to switch to the top-rated and popular network ABC.

Scripps also owns a third ABC station, which was that of WEWS-TV in Cleveland, along with a NBC affiliate KJRH-TV, a CBS affiliate WCPO-TV, and KSHB-TV, an independent television station.

ABC's signal for WPTV decently covers the network, so WTVJ has already switched to ABC. WPTV was the West Palm Beach affiliate for ABC, prior to 1980, it was a NBC affiliate until it swapped affiliations with WPEC.
 
Chapter 95: FCC seeks waiver for TVX
September 26, 1983

The Federal Communications Commission is seeking a waiver from the TVX Broadcast Group to keep WXXA in Albany/Schenectady/Troy, citing signal overlap with WLVI-TV in Cambridge/Boston.

TVX Broadcast Group is owner of four current independents WRLH-TV in Richmond, WJTM-TV in Greensboro, WLVI-TV in Cambridge/Boston and WTVZ-TV in Norfolk.

TVX's first station was built in 1979 with the launch of the independent station WTVZ-TV, which served the Norfolk area.

WXXA-TV was signed on in 1982 as the Capital District's first independent television station. The current VHF stations in the Capital District are WRGB-TV (NBC), WTEN-TV (ABC) and WAST-TV (CBS).
 
Chapter 96: WRGB introduces new show
October 3, 1983

After the success of General Electric-owned KRGB in San Francisco with the two new programs, the General Electric-owned NBC affiliate WRGB in Schenectady (TTL this remained a NBC affiliate due to a group deal with General Electric, OTL this became a CBS affiliate in 1981) is introducing two new programs First News, and The Capital Region's Evening News.

One of the two new programs were First News, which was adapted from a format that was used by General Electric-owned sister stations KOA-TV in Denver and KRGB-TV in San Francisco, with two anchors emceeing, at 5:30.

The other new program, The Capital Region's Evening News, which was an adaptation of the format The Northern California's Evening News that was used by KRGB-TV in San Francisco. Unlike KRGB's Northern California's Evening News, which used "Image VI" by Newsmusic Central, WRGB's Capital Region's Evening News used WNBC's 1980 news theme "News 4 New York" by Jim McAllister.

The Capital Region's Evening News will air at 7:30, and it will follow the NBC Nightly News. The news program will compete against PM Magazine on rival station WTEN-TV.
 
Also on October 3, 1983: Go Makes it debut hosted by Kevin O'Connell and announced by Johnny Gilbert and aired on a lot of NBC Affiliates including KNBC in LA in which Kevin does the weather on News 4 LA, KRGB in SF, WNGE-TV in Nashville, WRGB-TV in Schenectady, WIVB in Buffalo, WMAQ in Chicago and WNBC in NYC
 
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