WPTV and WSM to become ABC affiliation in the 80s

[DucNguyen0131]

November 7, 1983

The Chicago-based Tribune Company announced a $2 billion offer to purchase independent station KNTV-TV, a station in the San Francisco Bay Area that was licensed to San Jose. This was part of Tribune's expansion into bigger markets.

Other stations Tribune is buying included WANX-TV in Atlanta and WGNO-TV in New Orleans. The company already owns WGN-TV in Chicago, KWGN-TV in Denver and WPIX-TV in New York.

Tribune also planning on to purchase KHJ-TV in Los Angeles, though Los Angeles is the only city without a Tribune owned television station.

KNTV-TV is an ABC affiliate until 1982, when it became independent due to conflicting problems with the ABC owned-and-operated station KGO-TV in San Francisco.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

November 16, 1983

TVX Broadcast Group is completing their $950 million offer to purchase Albany TV 23, Inc., who owns WXXA-TV in the Capital District of New York (Albany/Schenectady/Troy). This means TVX would gave a station in the State of New York.

TVX is owner of six independents, which include WMKW-TV in Memphis, WTVZ-TV in Norfolk, WRLH-TV in Richmond, WJTM-TV in the Piedmont Triad and WLVI-TV in Boston.

WLVI-TV is TVX's largest television market by size.

Meanwhile, at NBC, the network introduced two new game shows scheduled for January 1984, Jeopardy!, a Merv Griffin production (the second revival of the long-running game show NBC had aired 20 years earlier) that starred former Battlestars host Alex Trebek (a nighttime version would eventually debuted in the September of 1984), which would replace Diff'rent Strokes/Facts of Life reruns, and Hot Potato, a Barry & Enright production that starred former Child's Play host Bill Cullen, which will replace GO. At ABC, the network is introducing one game show for January, Catch Phrase (the TTL version of the 1985 syndie series), which was a Marty Pasetta production, that starred Joe Farago (IOTL his only game show experience was in the 80s game Break the Bank after Gene Rayburn left), which will replace repeats of the nighttime hit Benson.

NBC's Jeopardy! program will be taped at the TAV Celebrity Theater in Hollywood, while ABC's Catch Phrase was taped at Metromedia Studios in Hollywood.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

November 21, 1983

The Federal Communications Commission had approved the Westinghouse-RCA merger. This means that RCA/NBC would own five television stations, while Westinghouse would own seven television stations.

Both Westinghouse and RCA television stations reached a combined 25% of the television market.

It is speculated that the Federal Communications Commission is starting to lift the ownership caps for the radio and television market.

It is said that they would make it into a television pioneer, to become the world's largest electronic and television organizers.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

November 29, 1983

The Federal Communications Commission had officially lifted its ownership cap on all of its television and radio holdings. This means that they would let the station group reaches infinitely of all TV households.

The infinite percentage cap means that the Federal Communications Commission had let everybody to own any TV group to be affiliated with the network.

Starting next month, WPTF-TV, the General Electric-owned NBC station would change its call letters to "WBGT", which matches the identity of General Electric, who owns the television station.

A Hearst-ABC merger is about to be for FCC approval.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

December 1, 1983

The Federal Communications Commission had approved Tribune Company's offer for KHJ-AM-FM-TV, which cost $6 billion, which is higher than RKO General's asking price. This made Tribune to get an outlet in Los Angeles.

RKO General is forced to divest its broadcasting holdings, starting itself from the sale of its TV stations.

KHJ-AM-FM-TV was originally started in 1922, and it was expanded to FM in 1943, and television in 1948.

Tribune's television holdings include WGN-TV in Chicago, WPIX-TV in New York, KWGN-TV in Denver, WGNO-TV in New Orleans and WANX-TV in Atlanta. It is in the process of buying KNTV-TV in San Jose. Tribune also distributes At the Movies with Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

December 5, 1983

The Federal Communications Commission had approved the $5 billion bid for WOR-AM-FM-TV by Chris-Craft Industries, who owns KPTV-TV in Portland, and KCOP-TV in Los Angeles. This gave Chris-Craft the first radio entry in New York.

This was part of RKO's divesture of their broadcasting assets.

This means that Chris-Craft Industries would now have three television stations, and New York would displace Los Angeles as Chris-Craft's largest TV station by market size.

RKO already sold off two stations in Memphis and Boston, so Los Angeles and New York is in the process of selling it off. This is an ITTL verdict, IOTL Chris-Craft didn't buy WOR-TV/WWOR-TV until 1993.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

December 9, 1983

The Federal Communications Commission had approved TVX Broadcast Group's offer to purchase WATL-TV, channel 36, that served the Atlanta television market, which was an independent television station that was restarted in 1976, five years after they shut down in 1971.

The bold move for TVX is that there are now six independent stations in the portfolio.

Other stations TVX is owning include include WTVZ-TV in Norfolk, WRLH-TV in Richmond, WJTM-TV in Winston-Salem, WLVI-TV in Cambridge/Boston, WLMT in Memphis, and WXXA-TV in Albany.

TVX was in negotiations to purchase WPDS-TV, which was about to sign on in the February of 1984.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

December 12, 1983

There are two important events on the day. On Durham's NBC station WPTF-TV, they would change its call letters to "WBGT", which call letters meant for General Electric's then-current slogan "We bring good things to life".

General Electric had bought out the Durham Life and Insurance Company in 1982, adding it to the nine TV station roster, as well as its existing radio lineup.

Also, on West Palm Beach's ABC station WPTV-TV, they would change its call letters to "WSHB", which stood for the station's owner, Scripps-Howard Broadcasting. The same kind of calls were used when Kansas City's channel 41 indie KBMA was changed to KSHB in 1981.

Scripps-Howard had owned three ABC affiliates. WEWS is the longtime ABC affiliate, and WPTV-TV (now WSHB) and WMC-TV were ABC affiliates since 1980, due to in part of the network's higher ratings.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

December 19, 1983

The merger between Radio Corporation of America and Westinghouse Electric Corporation was finalized. The new merging company would be called "Westinghouse-RCA", and owns twelve television stations that serve 25% of the country.

Westinghouse is one of the co-founders of Radio Corporation of America, who owns the current NBC television network.

One of NBC's most successful group deals were LIN TV Corporation, General Electric Broadcasting and Times-Mirror Broadcasting, who owns a handful of TV stations.

NBC owns three of the five largest television markets in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, while General Electric (also a co-founder of RCA) owns two markets in Philadelphia and San Francisco, the nation's fourth and fifth largest television markets.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

December 22, 1983

Scripps-Howard Broadcasting, a Cincinnati-based broadcaster and subsidiary of the E.W. Scripps Company, announced a $1 billion offer to purchase Kelly Broadcasting Company of Sacramento.

Kelly Broadcasting is owner and licensee of ABC affiliate KCRA-TV in Sacramento, and independent station KCPQ-TV in Tacoma/Seattle.

Scripps-Howard Broadcasting is owner and licensee of three ABC affiliates WEWS-TV in Cleveland, WMC-TV in Memphis and WSHB-TV in West Palm Beach, NBC affiliate KJRH-TV in Tulsa, CBS affiliate WCPO-TV in Cincinnati and independent station KSHB-TV in Kansas City.

Scripps-Howard would now have eight television stations once the deal is finished. This butterflies Scripps' acquisition of WXYZ-TV in Detroit away.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

December 25, 1983

WGEB-TV, the current NBC affiliate owned by General Electric Broadcasting in Minneapolis/St. Paul is undergoing an "all-news" format. WGEB-TV would add two news programming to the schedule.

The first one is First News, which is based off the format that was invented by KOA-TV in Denver, as well as other General Electric television stations.

The second one is The Minnesota Evening News, which is based off the format used by other GE-owned stations in San Francisco, Schenectady and Miami, designed to air after NBC Nightly News at 6:30.

General Electric's flagship television stations in the East Coast was WRGB-TV in Schenectady, and its West Coast flagship is KRGB-TV in San Francisco. It is also announced to General Electric executives that two Nashville stations WSIX-AM-FM would change its call letters to WNGE-AM-FM to match its TV call sign. It is also announced that KOAQ would change its callsign to KOA-FM in Denver.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

December 30, 1983

Metromedia Inc., who owns seven TV properties WNYW in New York, KTTV in Los Angeles, WFLD in Chicago, WTTG in Washington, D.C., KMSP-TV in Minneapolis/St. Paul, KRIV-TV in Houston and WXIX-TV in Cincinnati, strikes a deal to purchase Coral Television for $5.4 billion.

Coral Television is principal owner of WCIX-TV, channel 6 in Miami/Fort Lauderdale.

Coral has plans to add additional programs mandated by Metromedia to the newscast. This means Metromedia would now have nine television stations, which plans to include KNBN-TV in Dallas.

Metromedia would now see a station in the Miami area.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

January 2, 1984

Tribune Company through its Tribune Broadcasting unit is completing their $6 billion offer for KHJ-AM-FM-TV in Los Angeles. This is the company's first outing in Los Angeles, as the company has three outings in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

Tribune also owns WGN-TV in Chicago, WPIX-TV in New York, KWGN-TV in Denver, WGNO-TV in New Orleans and WANX-TV in Atlanta.

This is part of a divesture of all the RKO General assets, which all started in 1980 with the sale of WHBQ to Multimedia, Inc., a South Carolina-based company, who owns TV stations affiliated with NBC and CBS.

On a related note, the upcoming NBC revival of Jeopardy! would let invite players of a $25,000 Tournament of Champions, where every person competing against five games would result in a $25,000 tournament (the nighttime version would have a $100,000 tournament).

 

[DucNguyen0131]

January 10, 1984

The TVX Broadcast Group, who owns and operates independent stations WMKW-TV in Memphis, WTVZ-TV in Norfolk, WRLH-TV in Richmond, WJTM-TV in Greensboro/Winston-Salem/High Point, WXXA-TV in Albany/Schenectady/Troy and WLVI-TV in Cambridge/Boston is finalizing their offer to purchase WATL-TV in Atlanta.

This means TVX would now have seven TV stations in the portfolio.

TVX was in the process of buying WPDS-TV, which was not yet signed on until next month. TVX also received a $1 billion offer from The Wright Brothers to purchase Dayton's independent station WRGT-TV.

TVX will now going to have the largest independent station group ever.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

January 16, 1984

The Hatch family announced that the ABC affiliate in Salt Lake City, KUTV was sold to The Hearst Corporation for $4.2 billion. KUTV would became the eighth Hearst television station, joining WBAL-TV in Baltimore, WISN-TV in Milwaukee, WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh, WDTN-TV in Dayton, KAKE-TV in Wichita, WNAC-TV in Boston and WSM-TV in Nashville.

KUTV was an ABC affiliate since 1982, while United Television's KTVX was an NBC affiliate.

Hearst and ABC had an outstanding relationship. It owns Hearst/ABC Video Services, who owns the Alpha Repertory Television Service, and Daytime, both of the cable services, which are about to be folded into The Arts & Entertainment Network, and Lifetime by next month.

Hearst's first television station WBAL-TV signed on the air in 1984. WSM-TV is Hearst's latest acquistion.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

January 23, 1984

WNGE-TV, the NBC affiliate owned by General Electric, is unveiling two new programs that used the typical news channel format that was used by the General Electric television stations.

The first new program to come out on WNGE-TV was First News, which was based off the format that was used by other General Electric television stations, including KOA-TV in Denver.

The second new program to come out on WNGE-TV, replacing PM Magazine, was The Tennessee Evening News, featuring the top performers of the best news anchors in Nashville, held by former talent who had quit channel 2 in the early 1980s.

The new programs came out to the urban appeal of the Nashville city. WNGE-TV since 1980 was a NBC affiliate, ranking in third place among newscasts. Scott Chapin also came on board to join GE's WBBH-TV, channel 20 in Fort Myers to do the station's voiceover.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

January 30, 1984

WCVB-TV and WNAC has officially been swapping owners and networks once again. WCVB-TV was now sold to The Hearst Corporation, while WNAC-TV was sold to Dun & Bradstreet, who already owns several stations.

WCVB-TV will now be an ABC affiliate once again, while WNAC-TV was reverting to a CBS affiliate.

The reason cited was CBS' poor performance of its ratings on WCVB-TV. Hearst was in the process of merging with ABC, which was subject to Federal approval.

Most of the on-air talent on both WCVB-TV and WNAC-TV was unchanged.

Also on the same day, Tribune's Los Angeles station KHJ-TV is adapting a new look, while a news program The Southern California Action News, which was based on WPIX's version will be shown. The theme for The Southern California Action News is "Move Closer to Your World", which was also on KWGN and WPIX.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

February 6, 1984

The Hearst Corporation and ABC Inc., both benefit announced that the merger would proceed as forward. ABC has five stations in the roster, and Hearst will have seven stations in the television portfolio.

The following of the new combined television stations:

• WBAL-TV Baltimore (Hearst)
• WISN-TV Milwaukee (Hearst)
• WTAE-TV Pittsburgh (Hearst)
• WCVB-TV Boston (Hearst)
• WDTN Dayton (Hearst)
• KAKE Wichita (Hearst)
• WSM-TV Nashville (Hearst)
• WABC-TV New York (ABC)
• KABC-TV Los Angeles (ABC)
• KLMN-TV San Francisco (ABC)
• WLS-TV Chicago (ABC)
• WXYZ-TV Detroit (ABC)

All of the twelve stations in the roster were affiliated with ABC.

Hearst's acquisitions grew in the 1980s, starting from the acquisition of KAKE in Wichita from Chronicle Publishing Company, and WDTN-TV in Dayton from Grinnell College, followed by WSM-TV-AM-FM from National Life and Accident Insurance Company.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

February 13, 1984

The Federal Communications Commission had approved the merger between CBS Inc. and Storer Communications Inc. This means that CBS would now own 12 owned-and-operated television stations. Concurrently, the FCC also granted a waiver for CBS to keep WITI, citing Grade B signal overlap with WBBM-TV in Chicago.

The new 12-station Storer/CBS list:

• WJBK-TV in Detroit (Storer)
• WITI-TV in Milwaukee (Storer)
• WJKW-TV in Cleveland (Storer)
• WTVG in Toledo (Storer)
• WAGA-TV in Atlanta (Storer)
• WAST-TV in Albany (Storer)
• WKYT-TV in Lexington (Stoer)
• WCBS-TV in New York (CBS)
• KCBH-TV in Los Angeles (CBS)
• WBBM-TV in Chicago (CBS)
• WCAU in Philadelphia (CBS)
• KCBS-TV in San Francisco (CBS)

There is also a talk between Cox Enterprises and CBS to swap frequencies for the San Francisco stations. KCBS-TV will be on channel 2 and KTVU will be on channel 5.

Several months earlier, we have the Westinghouse-RCA merger, that stunned the broadcast industry.

 

[DucNguyen0131]

February 19, 1984

KMOX-TV-AM-FM, the Post Newsweek-owned CBS affiliate in St. Louis (as part of a tradeoff involving Detroit and San Francisco) is officially changing its call letters to "KMYG", which is stood for Katherine MeYer Graham, the widow of Phillip Graham.

This reflects the identity of how Post-Newsweek's television stations had turned out.

Post-Newsweek Stations is the successful of any CBS group deal ever had, the others were Miami, Jacksonville (its independent status in 2002 had been butterflied away) and New Hartford, which were also Post-Newsweek owned CBS affiliates. WPLG is used to be ABC affiliate until 1983 when Post-Newsweek Stations discovered better relations with the CBS television network.

Post-Newsweek used to own WDIV, the NBC affiliate from 1978 to 1982, when it was traded off to Group W and CBS in a three-way swap involving two other cities St. Louis and San Francisco.