# CBS/NBC Deal for WCAU



## Link

Wasn't it back in 1993 or 1995 when all Group W Westinghouse stations became CBS affiliates leaving CBS to leave its very own O&O WCAU 10 in Philadelphia for Westinghouse's KYW 3??

If I recall the deal included CBS trading WCAU 10 for NBC owned KCNC 4 in Denver, KUTV 2 in Salt Lake City, and the channel 4 transmitter in Miami. WCIX-TV 6 became WFOR-TV 4 and left WTVJ to move from 4 to 6. Was there anything else that was a part of the deal?

Am I correct that if that were to happen today, CBS could have moved affiliation to KYW 3 and kept WCAU 10 as its own independent station leaving NBC with no affiliate in the Philadelphia market??? Since now the FCC allow duopolies, I figured CBS could have kept both stations.


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## swing

The switchover took place 1995. KYW and WCAU are both among the top four station in the market, in terms of billing and revenue, and ratings. The FCC still won't permit a duopoly of two from the top four, regardless of permitting duopolies. VHF duopolies were permitted in New York and Los Angeles, under different circumstances. 

Supposing a scenario with the FCC regulations not in place, if CBS had chosen to keep WCAU as an indepedent or make it the UPN, it wouldn't be a strong station, and the license itself would be worth less than what it could be sold off for, or traded for. KYW might have a stronger news division with one less competitor, but likely WPVI 6 (ABC) would have picked up most the lost in transition viewers. 

After the Fox - NewWorld deal in the 90s, CBS realized the importance of maintaining its network presence on VHF and/or heritage stations, and needed trade-offs. Neither NBC or CBS wanted giving Fox a chance at WCAU.


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## Link

swing said:


> The switchover took place 1994. KYW and WCAU are both among the top four station in the market, in terms of billing and revenue, and ratings. The FCC still won't permit a duopoly of two from the top four, regardless of permitting duopolies. VHF duopolies were permitted in New York and Los Angeles, under different circumstances.
> 
> Supposing a scenario with the FCC regulations not in place, if CBS had chosen to keep WCAU as an indepedent or make it the UPN, it wouldn't be a strong station, and the license itself would be worth less than what it could be sold off for, or traded for. KYW might have a stronger news division with one less competitor, but likely WPVI 6 (ABC) would have picked up most the lost in transition viewers.
> 
> After the Fox - NewWorld deal in the 90s, CBS realized the importance of maintaining its network presence on VHF and/or heritage stations, and needed trade-offs. Neither NBC or CBS wanted giving Fox a chance at WCAU.


I recall that Capital Cities/ABC owned KCAL at one time in LA but were forced to sell it because of the duopolies and FCC rules. Then they changed and Viacom was able to buy KCAL from Young Broadcasting.

Correct me if I am wrong but didn't CBS have a stronger station and news operation with WCAU 10 then they have today with KYW 3??

I never understood why they just didn't sell KYW 3 to NBC and leave WCAU as CBS to avoid viewer confusion and changes in the market. But at the time it was like ALL Westinghouse stations HAD to become CBS.

As far as Fox goes, the VHF stations that were forced to change in the 90s are still not ratings leaders in their markets as they were with CBS or ABC affiliation. The only one that is the exception is WAGA in Atlanta which is a strong Fox station.


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## Guest

cbs lost several vhf stations to fox earlier that year(in some midsize cities)..nbc was forced to give cbs their vhf affliates and move their own affliates to uhf channels(in those cities)..otherwise cbs was going to sell to channel 10 to fox and nbc would have been forced to move to uhf in philly


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## Link

Un-lucky said:


> cbs lost several vhf stations to fox earlier that year(in some midsize cities)..nbc was forced to give cbs their vhf affliates and move their own affliates to uhf channels(in those cities)..otherwise cbs was going to sell to channel 10 to fox and nbc would have been forced to move to uhf in philly


Actually NBC moved to KSL 5 in Salt Lake and Gannett's KUSA 9 in Denver and did not move to UHF channels in those locations.

CBS was the loser in the Fox/New World deal losing WJBK 2 in Detroit only to end up on WWJ 62. They also lost WAGA 5 in Atlanta and got WGNX 46. In Dallas they came out ok with KTVT 11 losing KDFW 4. They also lost WITI 6 in Milwaukee and endup on channel 58.


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## Guest

Link said:


> Actually NBC moved to KSL 5 in Salt Lake and Gannett's KUSA 9 in Denver and did not move to UHF channels in those locations.
> 
> CBS was the loser in the Fox/New World deal losing WJBK 2 in Detroit only to end up on WWJ 62. They also lost WAGA 5 in Atlanta and got WGNX 46. In Dallas they came out ok with KTVT 11 losing KDFW 4. They also lost WITI 6 in Milwaukee and endup on channel 58.


I think cleveland??..but i do not remeber all the cities that were involved


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## compubit

Let's see if I can recall all of the stations in the New World Deal:

WTVT 13 Tampa (CBS went to 10, ABC from 10 to 28, Fox from 28)
KSAZ 10 Phoenix (CBS went to 5, ABC from 3 to 15, Ind from 5 to 3, Fox from 15)
KDFW 4 Dallas (CBS went to 11, WB to 33, Fox from 33, Ind from 11)
KTBC 7 Austin (CBS went to 42, Fox from 42)
WDAF 4 Kansas City (NBC to 41, Fox from 41)
WAGA 5 Atlanta (CBS to 46, Fox from 36)
WJW 8 Cleveland (CBS to 19, Fox from 19)
WITI 6 Milwaukee (CBS to 58, Fox from 24?)
KTVI 2 St. Louis (ABC to 30, Fox from 30)
WBRC 6 Birmingham (ABC to 33/40, Fox from 17/21, CBS off of 33/40)
WGHP 8 Greensboro (ABC to 45, Fox from 45)
Maybe 1 or 2 others...

This led to numerous other switches...


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## swing

Link said:


> I recall that Capital Cities/ABC owned KCAL at one time in LA but were forced to sell it because of the duopolies and FCC rules. Then they changed and Viacom was able to buy KCAL from Young Broadcasting.
> 
> Correct me if I am wrong but didn't CBS have a stronger station and news operation with WCAU 10 then they have today with KYW 3??
> 
> I never understood why they just didn't sell KYW 3 to NBC and leave WCAU as CBS to avoid viewer confusion and changes in the market. But at the time it was like ALL Westinghouse stations HAD to become CBS.
> 
> As far as Fox goes, the VHF stations that were forced to change in the 90s are still not ratings leaders in their markets as they were with CBS or ABC affiliation. The only one that is the exception is WAGA in Atlanta which is a strong Fox station.


When KYW 3 (Westinghouse) took CBS affiliation, it wasn't yet a CBS owned station. Westinghouse acquired CBS a year later in 1995.

The CBS network sold its O&O station in Philadelphia, and just gained an affiliate. It didn't regain an O&O until the network itself was bought out, by Westinghouse.

Back in 1994, CBS made an arrangement with Westinghouse for long term affiliation deal, and to broaden the deal, it included all stations, including the Philadelphia station. The affiliation deal was in place to secure the network in several top markets, on heritage stations. CBS wouldn't have wanted to give up WCAU otherwise. After the Fox disaster that impacted other markets, they had to have a long term affiliation deal with Westinghouse.

ABC did something similar with Scripps Broadcasting, and many Scripps stations switched to ABC. Even happened in some markets where ABC didn't benefit. In Phoenix, ABC affiliation moved from a strong KTVK 3 to a weaker UHF station (don't have the call letters on me at this moment) that Scripps happened to own. Scripps benefited from the deal, but the KTVK owners and ABC didn't in that market.

A little bit of history...It also should be noted that NBC once had an O&O station (CH.3 originally). In January 1956, channel 3 became an NBC owned and operated station.. NBC acquired the station through an exchange of broadcast properties with Westinghouse. In February the call letters were changed to WRCV.

Years of litigation and Westinghouse complaining to the FCC that NBC had illegally forced the sell of KYW, resulted, a decade later that in 1965, and the FCC and Supreme Court ruled the Westinghouse/NBC trade null and void. KYW moved back to Philadelphia, PA,
http://www.wkyc.com/3cares/3cares_fullstory.asp?id=4582

You are right that CBS was stronger on CH.10, and NBC was stronger on CH.3, ratings wise, and if the network buyout situtation was different, that both would have theoretically saved money not doing the swap. Also, historic footage (where KYW was branded as NBC, and WCAU as CBS) would have better gone in NBC and CBS' respective coffers, respectively (though much isn't saved anyways).

There are also radio stations to consider (such as KYW 1060, the all news station), that are tied to their broadcast stations.

KYW was a distant third for many years in local news. Viacom spent tons of money recently to improve KYW, a different image and branding ("CBS 3"), hiring of familiar anchors off the other stations (Viacom/KYW lured Larry Kane, Larry Mendte, Kathy Orr to work at KYW's news, from competing Ch.6 and Ch.10 news over the years. I believe these news anchors usually have just a one-year clause that prevents them from switching stations immediately.

I also believe KYW's problems were also related to poor daytime offerings by the CBS Network in the late 90s (example: CBS This Morning, then Early Show were way nationally behind Today and GMA). Dr. Phil has helped their daytime numbers a bit lately though, so has CBS has rebounded, and KYW is doing better.

Even though NBC 10 has been doing well, my general feeling is NBC would have preferred being on CH.3, also, as it being lower on the cable dial.

Other than these factors, they both got a heritage VHF station as an owned and operated, eventually in 1995.


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## Link

Having all network owned stations in New York and also Philadelphia now, it seems that the daily schedules on these network owned stations is practically identical. How long has WPVI been owned by ABC? They used to have their own local show at 10am - AM Philadelphia until ABC had the station start airing The View giving Rosie the 10am spot dumping the local show. Today, WABC 7 New York and WPVI have identical daytime schedules as do WCBS and KYW, WNBC and WCAU, WNYW and WTFX, and WPIX and WPHL.

It seems like syndicated programming is sold or designated towards affiliates of particular networks. For instance mostly NBC affiliates are carrying The Jane Pauley Show and Starting Over--both NBC/Universal syndicated programs as well as NBC's Access Hollywood and WB's Extra.

Most ABC affiliates carry Disney's syndicated product Regis & Kelly, Tony Danza, and Who Wants to Be a Millionare as well as King World's Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune and Oprah.

Most CBS stations carry Dr. Phil, Judge Judy, Entertainment Tonight, and The Insider.

Most Fox carries the 20th Century shows - Good Day Live, Live Like a Star, Design Invasion, Ambush Makeover, Texas Justice, and Divorce Court.


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## Link

The Denver stations had a major affiliation switch as well in 1995 I think that partly was resulted by the WCAU/KYW deal. NBC owned KCNC 4 in Denver was traded to CBS leaving NBC open in the market. McGraw Hill's KMGH 7 was the CBS affiliate at the time and wanted to switch to ABC and had been planning to despite KCNC's deal. That left NBC to go to Gannett's KUSA-TV 9.


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## swing

I just made a correction. The changeover happened in 1995. For some reason, I thought the decade anniversary passed. Sorry, my bad! The Group W-CBS 10 yr. affiliation deal though was announced in 1994.


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## Michael P

> ABC did something similar with Scripps Broadcasting, and many Scripps stations switched to ABC. Even happened in some markets where ABC didn't benefit.


 I believe the ABC/Scripps deal happened because of fallout from the FOX/New World deal.

Case in point: Detroit. When CBS lost WKBK-2 to FOX, there was some concern that CBS was going after WXYZ-7 the Scripps-owned ABC affilliate. ABC purchased stations in both Toledo and the Flint/Saganaw/Bay City DMA's. The thought here was that ABC would serve Detroit from 2 "rim-shots" in case they lost WXYZ. In the end the Scripps deal saved ABC and that left CBS having to buy the highest dial postion station, ch 62. The "legacy" call letters "WWJ" is from an AM radio station in the market. So CBS does have a "legacy" station of sorts. From what I've read, the news programming on WWJ failed to compete with their VHF rivals.

So today ABC has a couple O&O's in small markets.

BTW: The Scripps stations I'm familliar with (WEWS-5 and WXYZ-7) have been ABC for most of their existance. So if there were other Scripps stations that had different affilliations and switched to ABC, I would not know. To me, Scripps has always been tied with ABC.


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## Link

Michael P said:


> BTW: The Scripps stations I'm familliar with (WEWS-5 and WXYZ-7) have been ABC for most of their existance. So if there were other Scripps stations that had different affilliations and switched to ABC, I would not know. To me, Scripps has always been tied with ABC.


WMAR 2 in Baltimore switched from NBC to ABC, WCPO 9 in Cincinnati switched from CBS to ABC, KNXV 15 in Phoenix switched from Fox to ABC, and WFTS in Tampa switched from Fox to ABC.

Scripps insisted ABC put their affiliation on these other stations to keep WEWS 5 and WXYZ 7 from switching to CBS. Both markets lost their CBS station to Fox.


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## Terry K

Scripps did end up having to put NBC on in Kansas City on KSHB. KMBC/Hearst wasn't about to lose ABC. (Hearst's preferred network is ABC, however they do run a few NBC, like Baltimore, and a CBS or two, like KCCI in Des Moines)

Its worth noting that WXYZ was a Cap Cities owned station and was sold to Scripps when CC and ABC merged in the 80s. 

In Denver, KUSA ended up getting the better end of the deal. Gannett prefers its stations to be NBC as a rule (they do own a couple CBS and ABC stations, but for the most part Gannett is an NBC operator) KCNC floundered as an NBC O&O (and other than the Broncos doesn't do well as CBS), but KUSA does just fine with NBC. As I recall, ABC isn't overly pleased with KMGH's performance in the market, but they really don't have many other options other than a purchase of the station.


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