On The Cover-What's The Deal?

[chris319]

Mr. Pax is doing what the big networks did for decades in daytime: programming the network as economically as possible. He gets original programming without having to pay an ensemble cast $1 million for their every utterance. No big stars + no location shooting + the set never changes + meager prizes = economy TV. This is how local station KTLA was programmed in the '50s and '60s before Gene Autry came in.

No one is going to travel from Des Moines to Hollywood expecting to win $10,000 on OTC. You're going to see all locals.

[TimK2003]

[quote name=\'CaseyAbell\' date=\'Aug 6 2004, 11:40 AM\'] Really, you gotta wonder if the age of the dinosaurs is finally drawing to a close. Will anybody ever try to start another broadcast network? Why bother with all the infrastructure hassles of over-the-air when cable/satellite has so many fewer barriers to entry?

Over the past several decades the number of commercial broadcast networks has grown from three to seven (we'll be generous and count PAX). The number of cable networks has gone from somewhere near zilch to hundreds.


 [/quote]
Are there any independent open-air stations left in the US that...

•  Are NOT affiliated with any national network (ABC/CBS/NBC/FOX/UPN/WB/Telemundo/Telefutura/PAX/PBS...),

•  Are NOT primarily/exclusively religious or home shopping programming,

AND

•  Are NOT a low-power local channel??


It seems that with the advent of FOX, PAX, WB, UPN, and the Spanish Networks, stations once on the air as independents before 1990 have since joined the ranks of at least one of those networks, no?

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'TimK2003\' date=\'Aug 7 2004, 12:16 PM\'] Are there any independent open-air stations left in the US that...
•  Are NOT affiliated with any national network (ABC/CBS/NBC/FOX/UPN/WB/Telemundo/Telefutura/PAX/PBS...),
•  Are NOT primarily/exclusively religious or home shopping programming,
AND
•  Are NOT a low-power local channel??
 [/quote]
 KCAL 9 out of LA comes immediately to mind. KONG 6/16 here in Seattle is another (although they are under the same ownership as KING 5, which is the NBC). I'm sure there are quite a few.

[tommycharles]

[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Aug 7 2004, 05:43 PM\'] KCAL 9 out of LA comes immediately to mind. KONG 6/16 here in Seattle is another (although they are under the same ownership as KING 5, which is the NBC). I'm sure there are quite a few. [/quote]
 KWHD 53 is the only one I know of here in Colorado, and they show Religious shows and sitcom reruns, mostly. Apparently their daytime ad rate is $25/ 30 sec... anyone know if that is really low, or just typical for these stations?

[chris319]

Mr. Lemon, you forget that legacy (and now former) NBC affiliate KRON-TV San Francisco is now an indie owned by Young Broadcasting, the NBC affiliation having gone to KNTV San Jose. KNTV doesn't come in worth spit in the city, but they pack a helluva wallop in Milpitas. KRON-TV was once a great station until the Theriot family sold it.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'chris319\' date=\'Aug 7 2004, 05:25 PM\'] Mr. Lemon, you forget that legacy (and now former) NBC affiliate KRON-TV San Francisco is now an indie owned by Young Broadcasting, the NBC affiliation having gone to KNTV San Jose. KNTV doesn't come in worth spit in the city, but they pack a helluva wallop in Milpitas. KRON-TV was once a great station until the Theriot family sold it. [/quote]
 Chris Horan, ladies and gentlemen.

All of that happened after I moved up to Seattle, so I had no idea that KRON had gone indie. I knew that KNTV had gone NBC, after flying as a silent secondary UPN affil for a while.

Growing up in Monterey, we had this:

KRON-4 & KSBW-8 (Salinas): NBC
KPIX-5 & KMST-46 (Monterey, now KION, Salinas): CBS
KGO-7 & KNTV-11: ABC

When one of the affils had to black out in prime time, the SF ones would go. We watched our network TV on the latter of each pair above.

Later on, KTVU-2 would become the Fox affiliate, and then KCBA-35 (Salinas) turned into an English-language station, and soon thereafter the local Fox affiliate.

They now also have a dedicated WB station running out of Monterey, but no UPN affiliate. To the best of my knowledge KCBA is still a secondary UPN in addition to their Fox duties, running UPN programming on weekend afternoons and during overnights.

Honestly, the idea of network affiliates changing is really weird to me. The channels were as I describe them above for my entire life, so I never knew anything else. And I moved to a city that doesn't look like the affiliates are gonna change anytime soon, either.

[dzinkin]

[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Aug 7 2004, 10:02 PM\'] All of that happened after I moved up to Seattle, so I had no idea that KRON had gone indie. I knew that KNTV had gone NBC, after flying as a silent secondary UPN affil for a while. [/quote]
Secondary WB, actually... before KNTV was bought by NBC, it was owned by Granite, which also owned the WB affil (KOFY, later KBWB).  Once KNTV dropped ABC it had to fill the schedule somehow, so it shared the WB shows with its sister channel.

The issue of network affiliation switches doesn't seem strange to me because we had one here back in '89, when WROC switched from NBC to CBS and WHEC did the reverse.  A few months before the change, WROC picked up the CBS shows that WHEC wasn't carrying, including the entire Saturday morning schedule and (NOW we're on topic! :-) Family Feud and Now You See It.  What DID seem strange to me was when Dan Rather broke into NYSI one morning with a special report -- and because WROC didn't bother switching back to NBC (I guess they figured, "what's NBC going to do, drop us?"), Rather ended up on WROC and WHEC at the same time.

As to your question about indies, I can name two more.  WLNY-TV in Riverhead, NY, is carried on cable in New York City and carries a fair number of decent syndicated shows including Wheel and J!.  (However, NYC cable viewers don't see some of those shows due to syndex rules... not sure if Wheel and J! are among them.)  And KTVK in Phoenix became the #1 indie in the country (and may still be) after ABC dropped the station as part of the wave of affiliation switches in '94.  I remember specifically that KTVK ran Wheel and J! in prime time -- and ran ads in Broadcasting & Cable bragging that they'd beaten the networks. :-)

[inturnaround]

[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Aug 7 2004, 10:02 PM\'] Honestly, the idea of network affiliates changing is really weird to me. The channels were as I describe them above for my entire life, so I never knew anything else. And I moved to a city that doesn't look like the affiliates are gonna change anytime soon, either. [/quote]
 We thought the same thing in Philadelphia. KYW was the NBC affiliate for over 50 years when it switched with WCAU to become a CBS affil. Now KYW (formerly part of Group W)is a CBS O&O and WCAU is a NBC O&O.

It's been 10 years and we're still getting used to the switch.

[tvwxman]

WJXT in Jacksonville FL is another indy....the #1 powerhouse of the medium sized market was a CBS affil until 2  years ago, when Post Newsweek told CBS to take their affiliation deal and put it where Dan Rather doesn't shine.

Since ABC and NBC were locked up in affil agreements (both owned by Gannett, that's another wierd story)....and Fox and UPN were in bed together, they went the indy route, adding plenty of news to fill holes...

The results...lower ratings, but higher revenue, since they don't have to share national ad profits with the network....

Ratings, my friends, aren't the be all and end all in local news like they used to be!

[opimus]

Is WCIU in Chicago the bigest indy in the US?

[aaron sica]

[quote name=\'inturnaround\' date=\'Aug 8 2004, 12:30 AM\'] We thought the same thing in Philadelphia. KYW was the NBC affiliate for over 50 years when it switched with WCAU to become a CBS affil. Now KYW (formerly part of Group W)is a CBS O&O and WCAU is a NBC O&O.

It's been 10 years and we're still getting used to the switch. [/quote]
 "NBC 10" still leaves a funny taste in my mouth......

Although the absolute king of network affiliation switches, to me, has to be Baltimore.  Philly's 3 and 10 did the big switch in September 1995; Baltimore had all three of its network VHF stations play musical networks on Jan. 2, 1995.  

You had WMAR-2, which was NBC, switch to ABC (due to an agreement with Scripps-Howard and ABC);
You had WJZ-13, which was ABC, switch to CBS (because CBS bought Group W..same reason KYW-3 in Philly became CBS);
You had WBAL-11, which was CBS, switch to NBC (the only one left from the buyouts)..

Even more interesting to this is the fact that Baltimore had one affiliation switch ALREADY, 14 years prior in 1981; WMAR-2 was CBS, WBAL-11 was NBC, and they switched networks in September of that year.

So, during the span of 14 years, WMAR-2 sampled all three networks (CBS from inception to 1981, NBC from 1981-1995, and ABC from 1995-present);
WBAL-11 switched from NBC, to CBS, back to NBC again;
CBS has been on all three VHF slots (2, then 11, then 13).

To put this back on topic somewhat, in 1981, when 2 switched networks, instead of going with the NBC lineup from 11am-noon, they aired "Newlywed Game" reruns at 11:30.

[dzinkin]

[quote name=\'aaron sica\' date=\'Aug 8 2004, 10:21 AM\'] Although the absolute king of network affiliation switches, to me, has to be Baltimore. [/quote]
 Close, but I think the king is Phoenix... the ABC station (KTVK) went indie, the independent station (KPHO) went to CBS, the CBS station (KSAZ) went to Fox, and the Fox station (KNXV) went to ABC.  Even funnier was the fact that they all didn't switch on the same day -- so each station took turns at being independent for a few weeks or so and had to fill the time with whatever it could find (game shows were one common "fill-in," I read).

Moreover, KTVK was so ticked at losing ABC that it immediately dropped all ABC News programming when the switch was announced.  ABC persuaded KNXV to pick up the shows in the interim, but since KNXV was still under contract with Fox, it had to air the ABC shows on a delay.  Good Morning America still hasn't recovered in the market, and one night, KTVK kept Monday Night Football but had dropped Nightline, so when KNXV took the latter, ABC was competing against itself. :-D

[sshuffield70]

Seems to me Denver had it worse.  If I'm not mistaken, 4, 7 and 9 all changed affiliations in the big switch.

[aaron sica]

[quote name=\'sshuffield70\' date=\'Aug 8 2004, 01:17 PM\'] Seems to me Denver had it worse.  If I'm not mistaken, 4, 7 and 9 all changed affiliations in the big switch. [/quote]
 You are correct there, too.

KCNC-4, which was NBC, changed to CBS;
KMGH-7, which was CBS, changed to ABC;
KUSA-9, which was ABC, changed to NBC.

When MG90 was on, KUSA was still ABC at that point and actually aired the show in a late afternoon time slot, if I'm not mistaken.

[tvwxman]

Best affil switch was Jan 1, 1989 for Miami AND Palm Beach at the same time!

WTVJ 4 (cbs) became NBC (bought by NBC)
WCIX 6 (fox) became CBS (bought by CBS)
WSVN 7 (nbc) became FOX (still owned by sunbeam)

I cant' rememeber why, but it may have had to do with signal reach, but it set off a flurry of changes in WPB as a result...

WPEC (abc) became CBS
WTVX (cbs) became independent
WPBF  signed on(!) as an ABC
NBC stayed the same....

Reading the TV guide that week caused a few migranes!