Owned-and-operated television stations in the United States
Encyclopedia
In the United States
, owned-and-operated television stations
(frequently abbreviated as O&Os) constitute only a portion of their parent television networks, due to an ownership limit imposed by the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC). Currently, the total number of television stations owned by any company (including a television network) can only reach a maximum of 39% of the country; in the past, the ownership limit was much lower.
s having more households, hence higher revenue. They opted to run their programming on affiliate
s instead in other markets.
The five-station limit posed a problem for DuMont
, the first attempt to operate a "fourth" television network. Paramount Pictures
owned a share of the network, and also owned KTLA
in Los Angeles
and WBKB (now WBBM-TV
) in Chicago
. Even though DuMont showed its programming on other stations in those cities, the FCC considered Paramount's stations to be DuMont O&Os and thus forbade it from acquiring any more stations. This was one of the factors leading to DuMont's shutdown in 1955.
For much of the era from 1958 to 1986, the major network O&Os were distributed as followed: ABC, CBS, and NBC each owned stations in the top three markets (New York
, Los Angeles, Chicago). Between 1958 and 1965, fourth-ranked Philadelphia housed CBS-owned WCAU-TV and NBC-owned WRCV-TV
, a station which NBC acquired two years earlier through a trade with Westinghouse Broadcasting
in return for NBC's stations in Cleveland
. The FCC reversed the trade in 1965 and NBC regained control of the Cleveland station, which is today WKYC-TV
. Each network owned stations in other markets where the other networks did not: in addition to Cleveland, these were ABC's KGO-TV
in San Francisco
and WXYZ-TV
in Detroit
, NBC's WRC-TV
in Washington, D.C.
, and CBS' KMOX-TV
in St. Louis
.
A company can now own any number of TV stations with a combined reach of less than 39% of the country, but cannot own two of the top four stations in any market. Still, O&Os in the United States are primarily found in large markets such as New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago, among others. Despite that, O&Os can still be found in smaller markets. For example, KFSN-TV
in Fresno, California
is an ABC O&O, while KTBC
in Austin, Texas
is a Fox
O&O. While WOGX
in Ocala, Florida
, is technically a Fox O&O, it is operated out of the studios of WOFL
, located in Orlando
.
The FCC currently applies a discount to UHF stations, only counting half of the station's market reach when applied to ownership caps. This has allowed Fox, CBS, and especially the ION network to own stations that cover more of the country then they would without this UHF discount. After the transition to digital TV, the big four networks will lose this UHF discount, although the ownership of their existing stations will be grandfathered in.
dial (channels 2-13) in the early days of the industry. However, it soon became apparent that the 12 channels available on the VHF dial would not be sufficient to meet the demands of the growing industry. Hence, in 1952, the FCC opened up a new spectrum of frequencies on the UHF
dial (channels 14-83) for terrestrial television. As an incentive for companies to operate UHF stations, the FCC relaxed the ownership limit for a given entity from five to seven stations, provided that no more than five were on the VHF dial.
With this opportunity to expand its roster of O&Os, NBC bought WBUF-TV (channel 17) in Buffalo
in 1955 and WKNB-TV (channel 30) in New Britain, Connecticut
, near Hartford
, in 1957, and changed WKNB's call letters to WNBC-TV. (Present-day WNBC in New York City used the WRCA-TV calls from 1954 until 1960.) The network wanted to see if a UHF station could effectively compete against VHF stations, and attempted to make the stations more competitive by investing in significant equipment upgrades. However, WBUF consistently ranked behind its VHF competitors, WGR-TV (now WGRZ-TV
) and WBEN-TV (now WIVB-TV
). Similarly, WNBC consistently rated behind VHF competitor WNHC-TV (now WTNH
). WNBC faced an additional problem as its signal was not strong enough to cover New Haven and western Connecticut
(nearly all of Connecticut is part of the Hartford-New Haven market).
By the time the FCC allocated additional VHF stations to Buffalo (WKBW-TV
) and Hartford (WTIC-TV, now WFSB
), NBC decided its experiment was a lost cause, and put WBUF and WNBC up for sale. While it found a buyer for WNBC (which retained its NBC affiliation), there were no takers for WBUF, and it went off the air in 1958. NBC then affiliated with WGR-TV, where it remains to this day. NBC donated WBUF's license and some of its equipment to PBS station WNED-TV
, which took over the channel 17 frequency in 1959.
Similarly, CBS bought UHF stations WGTH-TV (channel 18) in Hartford and WOKY-TV (channel 19) in Milwaukee in 1955, and changed their call letters to WHCT-TV and WXIX-TV respectively. However, CBS' ratings were astonishingly low in those markets. In 1959, CBS decided to move its Hartford and Milwaukee affiliations to VHF stations WTIC-TV (channel 3) and WITI-TV (channel 6) respectively, and sold off WHCT (now WUVN
) and WXIX (now WVTV). (Ironically, CBS was sent back to the UHF dial in Milwaukee following an affiliation switch in 1994, which saw WITI becoming a Fox station. The CBS affiliation moved to WDJT-TV
, channel 58.)
KFSN channel 30 after merging with Capital Cities Communications
, as KFSN was the highest-ranking station in a market where all full-power TV stations were on the UHF band.
By the time the Fox network launched in 1986, many of the nation's VHF stations were already affiliated with one of the Big 3 networks. Hence, Fox had little choice but to affiliate with UHF stations in most markets upon its launch. The network even had UHF O&Os in markets like Chicago (WFLD
/32), Houston (KRIV
/26) and Dallas (KDAF
/33; now a CW station owned by the Tribune Company). However, by the time Fox acquired the rights to NFC
football games in the early 1990s, it became convinced that the network would not be viable without more VHF affiliates. As such, in 1994, the network arranged a deal with New World Communications
which saw nearly all New World stations (most of which were VHF stations) becoming Fox affiliates. (See Fox affiliate switches of 1994
.) Fox then bought out New World Communications in 1997, and those VHF stations (including one in Dallas
) became Fox O&Os in the process. The network, however, did acquire more UHF O&Os in subsequent years, e.g. Philadelphia's WTXF/29 (acquired in 1995) and Orlando's WOFL
/35 (acquired in 2002).
As a result of the New World deal, CBS lost its longtime Detroit affiliate WJBK
channel 2 to Fox. CBS then unsuccessfully sought to affiliate with other stations in town before eventually deciding to purchase WGPR-TV channel 62, and changed the station's calls to WWJ-TV
in 1995. The station continues to receive low ratings, and after a brief attempt at running an 11pm newscast from 2001 to 2002, was the only CBS O&O without a local news presence until 2009, when a morning newscast produced by the Detroit Free Press
premiered. CBS also bought KEYE-TV
channel 42 in Austin, Texas
from Granite Broadcasting in 2000, five years after the station gained the CBS affiliation from KTBC
channel 7, another former New World station which switched to Fox.
NBC would not buy a UHF O&O again until 1995, when it acquired WNCN
channel 17 in Raleigh
-Durham, North Carolina
. It subsequently repurchased channel 30 in Hartford, now WVIT
, in 1996 and bought San Diego's KNSD
channel 39 in 1997.
Currently, most American networks have at least one O&O on the UHF dial. Newer networks, such as Univision
and ION, even have mostly UHF O&Os.
, WDTV, which was the only commercial VHF station in what was then a top ten television market in the United States. Westinghouse Electric Corporation bought the station for $6.75 million, and changed its call letters to KDKA-TV
. (The station is now CBS's Pittsburgh O&O.)
However, even with income generated from the sale, DuMont was never able to recover from its problems, and the network shut down the next year. Its two other O&Os, WABD (now WNYW
) in New York City and WTTG
in Washington DC, became independent stations and remained so until 1986, when they became Fox O&Os at the network's inception.
, KMOX-TV, to Viacom (then separate from CBS). Viacom changed the station's calls to KMOV
, then sold it to Belo
in 1997, in a three-way swap which also saw Viacom acquiring KSTW
in Seattle
-Tacoma
from Cox Television
, and that company in return getting KIRO-TV
from Belo.
The last station CBS purchased was KOVR
in Stockton, California
. The purchase was announced in December 2004 and closed in May 2005.
On February 7, 2007, CBS announced the sale of its O&Os in Salt Lake City
(KUTV and its satellite in St. George, Utah
, KUSG) and Austin
(KEYE-TV
) to affiliates of Cerberus Capital Management
as part of a group deal which also included two CW
O&Os (WTVX
in West Palm Beach
and WLWC
in Providence
), one low-power MyNetworkTV
affiliate
and one low-power Azteca America
affiliate
(both in West Palm Beach). Six days later, CBS announced that it is swapping its O&O in Green Bay
, WFRV-TV
, and its satellite in Escanaba, Michigan
, WJMN-TV
, to Liberty Media
in exchange for common CBS stock held by Liberty Media. The sale of WFRV/WJMN closed on April 18, 2007. As of June 25, 2007, CBS no longer controls the stations being sold to Cerberus, which operates the stations under the Four Points Media Group
brand, even though it continued to hold the licenses for several months afterward. However, the Four Points transaction was approved by the FCC on November 21, 2007 and was finalized on January 10, 2008. As of mid-March 2009, the Four Points Media stations are managed by the Nexstar Broadcasting Group
.
CBS also owns two independent stations: KCAL-TV
in Los Angeles and KTXA
in Fort Worth, Texas
. It also owns two MyNetworkTV affiliates, WSBK-TV
in Boston and WBFS-TV
in Miami.
-AM-FM and WNBK-TV in Cleveland. Westinghouse only agreed to the trade after NBC threatened not only to yank its programming from WPTZ, but also Westinghouse-owned WBZ-TV
in Boston. NBC renamed the Philadelphia stations WRCV-AM-TV, while Westinghouse renamed the Cleveland stations KYW-AM-FM-TV. NBC's then-ownership of Philadelphia's channel 3 was cited by CBS when it purchased its then-affiliate WCAU
/10 in 1958, despite FCC rules at the time barring companies from owning stations with overlapping signals, as WRCA/WRCV did.
In 1965, NBC was forced to reverse the trade on orders from the FCC
and Justice Department
. WRCV-TV was then renamed KYW-TV
to match its radio cousin. When NBC regained control of the Cleveland stations, it renamed them WKYC-AM-FM-TV because of the AM station's popularity as "KY11." It sold the radio stations in 1972, but kept WKYC-TV until 1990, when majority control of the station was sold to Multimedia, Inc. (which later merged with Gannett). NBC remained minority owner of WKYC-TV until 1999.
NBC continued to pursue efforts to acquire an O&O in Philadelphia, especially when KYW became its weakest major-market affiliate for much of the 1980s. However, NBC was unsuccessful until 1995, when it won a bidding war for longtime CBS O&O WCAU-TV (see below).
In 1997, LIN Television sold 76% of KXAS-TV
to NBC in exchange for 24% of KNSD-TV. Therefore, NBC owns 76% of both stations. Although the arrangement is not defined as a traditional O&O arrangement, NBC's controlling interest in the stations allows them to be considered NBC O&Os.
In January 2006, NBC announced its intention to sell four of its O&Os: WCMH
in Columbus, Ohio
; WVTM
in Birmingham, Alabama
; WNCN
in Raleigh
/Durham, North Carolina
; and WJAR
in Providence, Rhode Island
. On April 6 of the same year, it was announced that the stations would be sold to Media General
in a $600 million dollar deal. That sale was finalized on June 26, 2006. WCMH has since become one of two hub facilities for Media General's stations.
On March 19, 2008, NBC announced its intention to sell two additional O&Os: WTVJ
in Miami, Florida
and WVIT
in New Britain
/Hartford, Connecticut
. On July 18 of that year, it was announced that WTVJ would be sold to Post-Newsweek Stations
, the owner of Miami's local ABC affiliate WPLG
. Had the FCC approved this deal, it would have resulted in the Miami market being home to the largest duopoly in the country between two "Big Three" or "Big Four" network affiliates. WVIT was later withdrawn from the selling block, as all of the offers made for that station were much lower than NBC's asking price. The sale of WTVJ also fell through due to the delay in FCC approval for the deal.
One of the last stations NBC purchased was KNTV
, based in San Jose, California
, which currently serves the entire San Francisco Bay Area
. It became a full NBC owned-and-operated station in April 2002. Prior to the purchase, KNTV was owned by Granite Broadcasting and affiliated with ABC for most of its history, while NBC was affiliated with KRON; by 2000, ABC wished for its own longtime San Francisco O&O station, KGO-TV
, to exclusively serve the San Jose portion of the viewing area and terminated its 40-year affiliation with KNTV, while KRON, which had recently been sold, declined to maintain its NBC affiliation after 52 years in the wake of a dispute with NBC (which lost a bidding war with new owners Young Broadcasting
) over the terms of the affiliation renewal. Soon after, Granite, which was operating KNTV as a WB affiliate after ABC programming left it, offered to pay NBC a then-unheard-of $37 million annually for KNTV to become an NBC affiliate, an offer which NBC accepted before later finalizing the outright acquisition. (Back in 1960, ABC allowed KNTV to be its affiliate because it agreed to not serve San Jose directly, but focus more on the Monterey Bay
area, which was too far south to clearly receive the KGO over-the-air signal; KNTV also agreed to transmit at lower power so as not to unreasonably overlap KGO's signal. Upon the July 2000 termination of the affiliation agreement, ABC added KGO to cable systems in the Salinas
/Monterey area to compensate for the loss of ABC programming on KNTV.)
7 had been an ABC O&O since it signed on in 1948, as WXYZ radio had been an affiliate of ABC radio's predecessor, the NBC Blue Network. However, when ABC merged with Capital Cities Communications in 1986, the combined assets of the new company exceeded the ownership limit at the time. As such, the network opted to sell WXYZ to the E. W. Scripps Company. Since 1986 WXYZ-TV has continued as Detroit's ABC affiliate.
Later during the affiliate switches of 1994 ABC bought WTVG
in Toledo, Ohio
and Flint, Michigan
's WJRT in the markets adjacent to Detroit, specifically to keep some fringe suburban coverage of Detroit in case WXYZ/Scripps would attempt to affiliate with another network and leave ABC on a lower-tier station in the market. Though WXYZ did stay with ABC after Scripps agreed to keep WXYZ with ABC in exchange for affiliation deals for other stations in other cities, ABC decided to retain ownership of WTVG and WJRT.
Capital Cities also owned some CBS affiliates and chose to keep them, and affiliate them with ABC. Hence, the earlier-mentioned KFSN/30 and WTVD
/11 in Raleigh/Durham, NC. CBS moved to the former ABC affiliates in each market, WRAL-TV
/5 in Raleigh/Durham and KGPE
/47 in Fresno. WRAL has since become one of CBS's strongest affiliates.
On November 3, 2010, it was reported in Broadcasting & Cable
that ABC reached an agreement to sell WJRT and WTVG, its thirty two smallest O&Os, back to former owner SJL Broadcasting, amidst speculation that The Walt Disney Company
might spin off
ABC. Both stations were expected retain their ABC affiliations. When the sale was completed, ABC-owned KFSN-TV
in Fresno, California
(Nielsen DMA #55, 2010-11) would then become the smallest-market O&O of any of the major English-language networks (not counting satellites
and semi-satellites). The sale was completed on April 1, 2011.
. Its parent News Corp also owned The Boston Herald, requiring Fox to obtain a temporary waiver for the station. When the waiver expired, WFXT was sold to the Boston Celtics
of the NBA. The Celtics could not survive as a broadcaster, and Fox purchased WFXT a second time in 1995 after the Boston Herald was sold. It remains a Fox O&O to this day.
As a result of the aforementioned Fox/New World partnership, Fox had to sell off its original O&Os in Dallas (KDAF
) and Atlanta (WATL) to Renaissance Broadcasting and Qwest Broadcasting, respectively. Along with Dallas' KDFW, Atlanta's WAGA
became a Fox O&O after Fox bought out New World. KDAF is now a CW affiliate owned by Tribune. WATL, also a former WB affiliate, is now a MyNetworkTV
affiliate owned by Gannett.
On June 13, 2007, Fox announced its intention to sell nine of its O&Os: WJW in Cleveland, Ohio
; KDVR
in Denver, Colorado
; KTVI
in St. Louis, Missouri
; WDAF-TV
in Kansas City, Missouri
; WITI in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
; KSTU
in Salt Lake City, Utah
; WHBQ-TV
in Memphis, Tennessee
; WBRC
in Birmingham, Alabama
; and WGHP
in Greensboro, North Carolina
. On December 21 of that year, it was announced that eight of the stations -- all except WHBQ -- would be sold to Local TV
, a broadcast holding company controlled by the private equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners, with the sale closing on July 14, 2008. Of those eight former Fox O&Os, WBRC was swapped to Raycom Media
on March 31, 2009 for a station in Richmond, Virginia
. WHBQ was later withdrawn from the selling block after Fox failed to find a suitable buyer for the station, as both Local TV and Raycom already own stations in that market which would easily put them over ownership caps, and the only other purchaser which might be interested already owns two stations in Memphis.
was a partner in The WB Television Network
, along with the Warner Bros. division of Time Warner. Tribune held an initial 12.5 percent ownership in the network at its launch, and later increased its stake to 22 percent; most of Tribune's television properties were WB owned and operated stations. On January 24, 2006, the WB announced that it would merge with the CBS-owned United Paramount Network to form a new programming service called the CW. All but three of Tribune's WB stations joined the CW on September 18, 2006, through ten-year agreements. Tribune does not have an ownership interest in the CW, turning most of its former WB O&O's into affiliates of the network. In late March 2008 Tribune announced that San Diego affiliate KSWB-TV
would switch its network affiliation to Fox in August of that year. The future status of the CW affiliation in San Diego remained unclear until early July when the network named the soon-to-be-displaced Fox affiliate, Tijuana
-licensed XETV
, as its new affiliate.
included its CW stations in West Palm Beach, Florida
(WTVX
) and Providence (WLWC
); as aforementioned, CBS-owned CW affiliates can be considered O&Os.
In June 2010, CBS announced the sale of its Norfolk, Virginia
The CW station WGNT
to Local TV
, the owner of that market's CBS affiliate WTKR
(as well as seven of the former Fox O&O stations listed above). This would create the second duopoly
operation in that market (the first has been NBC and Fox affiliates WAVY-TV
and WVBT
, respectively, both owned by LIN TV). As part of the deal, Local TV would take over the operations of WGNT through a time brokerage agreement while the deal awaited FCC approval. Until the sale closed on August 4, WGNT was the smallest-market station owned by CBS since the Four Points Media group deal. The sale also made WJZ-TV
in Baltimore
the smallest-market full-service station still owned by CBS.
As part of the same deal, NBC in turn transferred its own O&Os in Denver (KCNC-TV
) and Salt Lake City (KUTV) to Westinghouse/CBS, and those stations became CBS O&Os after Westinghouse merged with CBS. NBC and CBS also swapped transmitting facilities in Miami between the then-weaker CBS-owned WCIX/6 (now WFOR-TV
/4) and the then-stronger NBC-owned WTVJ
/4, now on weaker channel 6 under the same calls.
* These stations were considered DuMont O&Os by the FCC, whether one can count these stations is questionable
176% owned by NBC Universal
while 24% owned by LIN Television.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, owned-and-operated television stations
Owned-and-operated station
In the broadcasting industry , an owned-and-operated station usually refers to a television station or radio station that is owned by the network with which it is associated...
(frequently abbreviated as O&Os) constitute only a portion of their parent television networks, due to an ownership limit imposed by the Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
(FCC). Currently, the total number of television stations owned by any company (including a television network) can only reach a maximum of 39% of the country; in the past, the ownership limit was much lower.
Distribution
At the dawn of the American TV industry, each company was only allowed to own a total of five television stations around the country. As such, when the networks launched their television operations, they found it more advantageous to put their five O&Os in large media marketMedia market
A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area , Television Market Area , or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same television and radio station offerings, and may also include other types of media including newspapers and Internet content...
s having more households, hence higher revenue. They opted to run their programming on affiliate
Affiliate
An affiliate is a commercial entity with a relationship with a peer or a larger entity.- Corporate structure :A corporation may be referred to as an affiliate of another when it is related to it but not strictly controlled by it, as with a subsidiary relationship, or when it is desired to avoid...
s instead in other markets.
The five-station limit posed a problem for DuMont
DuMont Television Network
The DuMont Television Network, also known as the DuMont Network, DuMont, Du Mont, or Dumont was one of the world's pioneer commercial television networks, rivalling NBC for the distinction of being first overall. It began operation in the United States in 1946. It was owned by DuMont...
, the first attempt to operate a "fourth" television network. Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
owned a share of the network, and also owned KTLA
KTLA
KTLA, virtual channel 5, is a television station in Los Angeles, California, USA. Owned by the Tribune Company, KTLA is an affiliate of the CW Television Network. KTLA's studios are on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, and its transmitter is located atop Mount Wilson...
in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
and WBKB (now WBBM-TV
WBBM-TV
WBBM-TV, virtual channel 2 , is the CBS owned-and-operated television station in Chicago, Illinois. WBBM-TV's main studios and offices are located in The Loop section of Chicago, as part of the development at Block 37, and its transmitter is atop the Willis Tower.-History:WBBM-TV traces its history...
) in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
. Even though DuMont showed its programming on other stations in those cities, the FCC considered Paramount's stations to be DuMont O&Os and thus forbade it from acquiring any more stations. This was one of the factors leading to DuMont's shutdown in 1955.
For much of the era from 1958 to 1986, the major network O&Os were distributed as followed: ABC, CBS, and NBC each owned stations in the top three markets (New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, Los Angeles, Chicago). Between 1958 and 1965, fourth-ranked Philadelphia housed CBS-owned WCAU-TV and NBC-owned WRCV-TV
KYW-TV
KYW-TV, virtual channel 3, is an owned and operated television station of the CBS Television Network, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. KYW-TV shares a studio facility with its sister station, CW flagship WPSG just north of Center City Philadelphia...
, a station which NBC acquired two years earlier through a trade with Westinghouse Broadcasting
Westinghouse Broadcasting
The Westinghouse Broadcasting Company, also known as Group W, was the broadcasting division of Westinghouse Electric Corporation. It owned several radio and television stations across the United States and distributed television shows for syndication....
in return for NBC's stations in Cleveland
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
. The FCC reversed the trade in 1965 and NBC regained control of the Cleveland station, which is today WKYC-TV
WKYC-TV
WKYC, virtual channel 3 , is an NBC-affiliated television station located in Cleveland, Ohio, owned by the Gannett Company. Its studio is located on the shores of Lake Erie, while its transmitter is located in Parma, Ohio....
. Each network owned stations in other markets where the other networks did not: in addition to Cleveland, these were ABC's KGO-TV
KGO-TV
KGO-TV, channel 7, is an owned-and-operated television station of the Walt Disney Company-owned American Broadcasting Company, based in San Francisco, California...
in San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
and WXYZ-TV
WXYZ-TV
WXYZ-TV, channel 7, is an ABC-affiliated television station in Detroit, Michigan, USA. WXYZ-TV is owned by the E.W. Scripps Company, and is the media company's largest-market TV station property...
in Detroit
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...
, NBC's WRC-TV
WRC-TV
WRC-TV, channel 4, is an owned and operated television station of the NBC television network, located in the American capital city of Washington, D.C...
in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, and CBS' KMOX-TV
KMOV
KMOV, virtual channel 4, is the CBS-affiliated television station in St. Louis, Missouri. KMOV is owned by the Dallas-based Belo Corporation, with its studio and office facilities in St...
in St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
.
A company can now own any number of TV stations with a combined reach of less than 39% of the country, but cannot own two of the top four stations in any market. Still, O&Os in the United States are primarily found in large markets such as New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago, among others. Despite that, O&Os can still be found in smaller markets. For example, KFSN-TV
KFSN-TV
KFSN-TV, UHF channel 30, is an owned-and-operated television station of the Walt Disney Company-owned American Broadcasting Company, located in Fresno, California. The station's transmitter is located in Meadow Lakes, California. Its signal covers the Central San Joaquin Valley and the mountain...
in Fresno, California
Fresno, California
Fresno is a city in central California, United States, the county seat of Fresno County. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 510,365, making it the fifth largest city in California, the largest inland city in California, and the 34th largest in the nation...
is an ABC O&O, while KTBC
KTBC
KTBC, channel 7, is the Fox owned-and-operated television station in Austin, Texas. Studios are located in downtown Austin at the corner of 10th and Brazos Streets , and its transmitter is located in the city....
in Austin, Texas
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
is a Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
O&O. While WOGX
WOGX
WOGX is the Fox owned-and-operated television station for North Central Florida that is licensed to Ocala. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 31 from a transmitter along CR 316 west of I-75/FL 93 and the Heijahs Town section of Reddick...
in Ocala, Florida
Ocala, Florida
Ocala is a city in Marion County, Florida. As of 2007, the population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau was 53,491. It is the county seat of Marion County, and the principal city of the Ocala, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area, which had an estimated 2007 population of 324,857.-History:Ocala...
, is technically a Fox O&O, it is operated out of the studios of WOFL
WOFL
WOFL, channel 35, is the Fox owned-and-operated television station serving the Orlando, Florida metropolitan area. It is licensed to Orlando, with studios located in Lake Mary. It broadcasts its digital signal on UHF channel 22. On cable, WOFL-TV is currently seen on channel 3 for subscribers of...
, located in Orlando
Orlando, Florida
Orlando is a city in the central region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat of Orange County, and the center of the Greater Orlando metropolitan area. According to the 2010 US Census, the city had a population of 238,300, making Orlando the 79th largest city in the United States...
.
The FCC currently applies a discount to UHF stations, only counting half of the station's market reach when applied to ownership caps. This has allowed Fox, CBS, and especially the ION network to own stations that cover more of the country then they would without this UHF discount. After the transition to digital TV, the big four networks will lose this UHF discount, although the ownership of their existing stations will be grandfathered in.
Early development
Local television stations in the United States were concentrated on the VHFVery high frequency
Very high frequency is the radio frequency range from 30 MHz to 300 MHz. Frequencies immediately below VHF are denoted High frequency , and the next higher frequencies are known as Ultra high frequency...
dial (channels 2-13) in the early days of the industry. However, it soon became apparent that the 12 channels available on the VHF dial would not be sufficient to meet the demands of the growing industry. Hence, in 1952, the FCC opened up a new spectrum of frequencies on the UHF
Ultra high frequency
Ultra-High Frequency designates the ITU Radio frequency range of electromagnetic waves between 300 MHz and 3 GHz , also known as the decimetre band or decimetre wave as the wavelengths range from one to ten decimetres...
dial (channels 14-83) for terrestrial television. As an incentive for companies to operate UHF stations, the FCC relaxed the ownership limit for a given entity from five to seven stations, provided that no more than five were on the VHF dial.
With this opportunity to expand its roster of O&Os, NBC bought WBUF-TV (channel 17) in Buffalo
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
in 1955 and WKNB-TV (channel 30) in New Britain, Connecticut
New Britain, Connecticut
New Britain is a city in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. It is located approximately 9 miles southwest of Hartford. According to 2006 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 71,254....
, near Hartford
Hartford, Connecticut
Hartford is the capital of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960, it is the second most populous city on New England's largest river, the Connecticut River. As of the 2010 Census, Hartford's population was 124,775, making...
, in 1957, and changed WKNB's call letters to WNBC-TV. (Present-day WNBC in New York City used the WRCA-TV calls from 1954 until 1960.) The network wanted to see if a UHF station could effectively compete against VHF stations, and attempted to make the stations more competitive by investing in significant equipment upgrades. However, WBUF consistently ranked behind its VHF competitors, WGR-TV (now WGRZ-TV
WGRZ-TV
WGRZ, virtual channel 2 , is the NBC-affiliated television station in Buffalo, New York. Its studio is located at 259 Delaware Avenue in downtown Buffalo. Its transmitter is located at 11530 Warner Hill Road in South Wales, New York...
) and WBEN-TV (now WIVB-TV
WIVB-TV
WIVB-TV, virtual channel 4, is the CBS-affiliated television station for Western New York that is licensed to Buffalo. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 39 from a transmitter on Center Street in Colden. Owned by the LIN TV Corporation, the station is sister to CW...
). Similarly, WNBC consistently rated behind VHF competitor WNHC-TV (now WTNH
WTNH
WTNH is the ABC-affiliated television station for the state of Connecticut that is licensed to New Haven. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 10 from a transmitter in Hamden. Owned by the LIN TV Corporation, the station is sister to MyNetworkTV affiliate WCTX and the two...
). WNBC faced an additional problem as its signal was not strong enough to cover New Haven and western Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
(nearly all of Connecticut is part of the Hartford-New Haven market).
By the time the FCC allocated additional VHF stations to Buffalo (WKBW-TV
WKBW-TV
WKBW-TV, channel 7, is the ABC affiliate for the Buffalo, New York television market, and is one of many local Buffalo TV stations seen over-the-air and on cable in Canada. Its transmitter is located at 8909 Center Street in Colden. The station is owned by the Granite Broadcasting Corporation, who...
) and Hartford (WTIC-TV, now WFSB
WFSB
'WFSB, channel 3, is a CBS-affiliated television station located in Hartford, Connecticut, USA, owned by the Meredith Corporation. WFSB's studios and offices are located in Rocky Hill, Connecticut, and its broadcast transmitter is based on Talcott Mountain in Avon, Connecticut. Syndicated...
), NBC decided its experiment was a lost cause, and put WBUF and WNBC up for sale. While it found a buyer for WNBC (which retained its NBC affiliation), there were no takers for WBUF, and it went off the air in 1958. NBC then affiliated with WGR-TV, where it remains to this day. NBC donated WBUF's license and some of its equipment to PBS station WNED-TV
WNED-TV
WNED-TV is a Public Broadcasting Service member Public televisionstation in Buffalo, New York. Owned by the Western New York Public Broadcasting Association, it broadcasts on digital channel 43 from studios in downtown Buffalo and a transmitter located in Grand Island, New York...
, which took over the channel 17 frequency in 1959.
Similarly, CBS bought UHF stations WGTH-TV (channel 18) in Hartford and WOKY-TV (channel 19) in Milwaukee in 1955, and changed their call letters to WHCT-TV and WXIX-TV respectively. However, CBS' ratings were astonishingly low in those markets. In 1959, CBS decided to move its Hartford and Milwaukee affiliations to VHF stations WTIC-TV (channel 3) and WITI-TV (channel 6) respectively, and sold off WHCT (now WUVN
WUVN
WUVN is the Connecticut affiliate for the Spanish language Univision television network. It is licensed to Hartford. Owned by Entravision, the station broadcasts its digital signal on UHF channel 46...
) and WXIX (now WVTV). (Ironically, CBS was sent back to the UHF dial in Milwaukee following an affiliation switch in 1994, which saw WITI becoming a Fox station. The CBS affiliation moved to WDJT-TV
WDJT-TV
WDJT-TV, channel 58, is the CBS-affiliated television station located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin broadcasting on UHF digital channel 46, that displays WDJT's virtual channel as its former analog channel assignment of 58 via PSIP...
, channel 58.)
1980s and beyond
The underperformance of early UHF O&Os (and UHF stations in general) was primarily attributed to the fact that manufacturers were not required to equip new television sets with UHF tuners until 1964, following the passage of the All-Channel Receiver Act in 1961. While the technical problems which plagued early UHF stations had largely disappeared by the 1980s with the spread of UHF tuners and (in particular) cable television, UHF stations in many television markets continued to be compared unfavorably against their VHF counterparts, often simply by virtue of viewer loyalty. As such, the "Big Three" networks (ABC, NBC and CBS) were still not inclined to acquire UHF O&Os; however, ABC did keep Fresno'sFresno, California
Fresno is a city in central California, United States, the county seat of Fresno County. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 510,365, making it the fifth largest city in California, the largest inland city in California, and the 34th largest in the nation...
KFSN channel 30 after merging with Capital Cities Communications
Capital Cities Communications
Capital Cities redirects here. For the article about the seat of a government, see Capital .Capital Cities Communications was an American media company best known for its surprise purchase of the much larger American Broadcasting Company in 1985...
, as KFSN was the highest-ranking station in a market where all full-power TV stations were on the UHF band.
By the time the Fox network launched in 1986, many of the nation's VHF stations were already affiliated with one of the Big 3 networks. Hence, Fox had little choice but to affiliate with UHF stations in most markets upon its launch. The network even had UHF O&Os in markets like Chicago (WFLD
WFLD
WFLD, virtual channel 32 , is the Fox owned-and-operated television station, based in Chicago, Illinois; through its parent company News Corporation, the station is owned in a duopoly with area MyNetworkTV affiliate WPWR-TV...
/32), Houston (KRIV
KRIV
KRIV, channel 26, is an owned-and-operated television station of the News Corporation-owned Fox, located in Houston, Texas. KRIV is co-owned with MyNetworkTV affiliate KTXH...
/26) and Dallas (KDAF
KDAF
KDAF, virtual channel 33 , is a CW-affiliated television station serving the Dallas-Fort Worth television market area. The station is licensed to Dallas and owned by the Tribune Company with its studios located off the John W. Carpenter Freeway in northwest Dallas. The station's transmitter is...
/33; now a CW station owned by the Tribune Company). However, by the time Fox acquired the rights to NFC
National Football Conference
The National Football Conference is one of the two conferences of the National Football League . This conference and its counterpart, the American Football Conference , currently contain 16 teams each, making up the 32 teams of the NFL.-Current teams:Since 2002, the NFC has comprised 16 teams,...
football games in the early 1990s, it became convinced that the network would not be viable without more VHF affiliates. As such, in 1994, the network arranged a deal with New World Communications
New World Communications
New World Pictures was an independent motion picture and television production company, and later television station owner in the United States from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s...
which saw nearly all New World stations (most of which were VHF stations) becoming Fox affiliates. (See Fox affiliate switches of 1994
Fox affiliate switches of 1994
The United States television network affiliate switches of 1994 were a series of events resulting from a multi-million dollar deal between Fox Broadcasting Company, known commonly as Fox, and New World Communications, an owner of several VHF television stations affiliated with major networks,...
.) Fox then bought out New World Communications in 1997, and those VHF stations (including one in Dallas
KDFW
KDFW, virtual channel 4 , is the Fox owned-and-operated television station in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex designated market area....
) became Fox O&Os in the process. The network, however, did acquire more UHF O&Os in subsequent years, e.g. Philadelphia's WTXF/29 (acquired in 1995) and Orlando's WOFL
WOFL
WOFL, channel 35, is the Fox owned-and-operated television station serving the Orlando, Florida metropolitan area. It is licensed to Orlando, with studios located in Lake Mary. It broadcasts its digital signal on UHF channel 22. On cable, WOFL-TV is currently seen on channel 3 for subscribers of...
/35 (acquired in 2002).
As a result of the New World deal, CBS lost its longtime Detroit affiliate WJBK
WJBK
WJBK is the Fox–owned and operated television station in Detroit, Michigan broadcasting on digital channel 7...
channel 2 to Fox. CBS then unsuccessfully sought to affiliate with other stations in town before eventually deciding to purchase WGPR-TV channel 62, and changed the station's calls to WWJ-TV
WWJ-TV
WWJ-TV, virtual channel 62 , is the CBS-owned and operated television station in Detroit, Michigan. It is co-owned with Detroit's CW station, WKBD-TV , and the two stations share a studio in Southfield, Michigan, a Detroit suburb....
in 1995. The station continues to receive low ratings, and after a brief attempt at running an 11pm newscast from 2001 to 2002, was the only CBS O&O without a local news presence until 2009, when a morning newscast produced by the Detroit Free Press
Detroit Free Press
The Detroit Free Press is the largest daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, USA. The Sunday edition is entitled the Sunday Free Press. It is sometimes informally referred to as the "Freep"...
premiered. CBS also bought KEYE-TV
KEYE-TV
KEYE-TV, digital channel 43 , is the CBS affiliate in Austin, Texas. It is owned by the Four Points Media Group, LLC Sinclair Broadcasting Group has announced a purchase of the the Four Points stations, and has begun operating KEYE-TV through a local service agreement in anticipation of FCC...
channel 42 in Austin, Texas
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
from Granite Broadcasting in 2000, five years after the station gained the CBS affiliation from KTBC
KTBC
KTBC, channel 7, is the Fox owned-and-operated television station in Austin, Texas. Studios are located in downtown Austin at the corner of 10th and Brazos Streets , and its transmitter is located in the city....
channel 7, another former New World station which switched to Fox.
NBC would not buy a UHF O&O again until 1995, when it acquired WNCN
WNCN
WNCN is the NBC affiliate television station in the Triangle region of North Carolina , broadcasting on digital channel 17. It is licensed to Goldsboro, but its studios are just outside of downtown Raleigh...
channel 17 in Raleigh
Raleigh, North Carolina
Raleigh is the capital and the second largest city in the state of North Carolina as well as the seat of Wake County. Raleigh is known as the "City of Oaks" for its many oak trees. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city's 2010 population was 403,892, over an area of , making Raleigh...
-Durham, North Carolina
Durham, North Carolina
Durham is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the county seat of Durham County and also extends into Wake County. It is the fifth-largest city in the state, and the 85th-largest in the United States by population, with 228,330 residents as of the 2010 United States census...
. It subsequently repurchased channel 30 in Hartford, now WVIT
WVIT
WVIT, virtual channel 30, is the NBC owned and operated television station for the state of Connecticut, licensed to New Britain. WVIT has its offices and studios located in West Hartford, and transmitter based in Farmington, Connecticut....
, in 1996 and bought San Diego's KNSD
KNSD
KNSD is the NBC television station based in San Diego, California. It is owned by a joint venture of NBCUniversal and LIN TV . However, because NBCUniversal has majority control, KNSD is run as an NBC owned and operated station...
channel 39 in 1997.
Currently, most American networks have at least one O&O on the UHF dial. Newer networks, such as Univision
Univision
Univision is a Spanish-language television network in the United States. It has the largest audience of Spanish language television viewers according to Nielsen ratings. Randy Falco, COO, has been in charge of the company since the departure of Univision Communications president and CEO Joe Uva...
and ION, even have mostly UHF O&Os.
Ownership and network changes
Mergers, acquisitions and other business deals between television networks and other companies sometimes require a network to sell off an O&O in order to stay under the ownership cap. In addition, networks may choose to sell off O&Os in smaller markets in order to concentrate on their stations in larger markets, or to give themselves leeway to purchase stations in other growing markets. The following are examples of transactions involving O&Os in the US:DuMont Television Network
The DuMont network found itself in financial trouble in 1954, and decided to sell off its O&O in PittsburghPittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
, WDTV, which was the only commercial VHF station in what was then a top ten television market in the United States. Westinghouse Electric Corporation bought the station for $6.75 million, and changed its call letters to KDKA-TV
KDKA-TV
KDKA-TV, channel 2, is an owned and operated television station of the CBS Television Network, located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. KDKA-TV broadcasts from a transmitter located in the Perry North neighborhood of Pittsburgh, and its studios are located in downtown Pittsburgh at Gateway Center....
. (The station is now CBS's Pittsburgh O&O.)
However, even with income generated from the sale, DuMont was never able to recover from its problems, and the network shut down the next year. Its two other O&Os, WABD (now WNYW
WNYW
WNYW, virtual channel 5 , is the flagship television station of the News Corporation-owned Fox Broadcasting Company, located in New York City. The station's transmitter is atop the Empire State Building and its studio facilities are located in the Yorkville section of Manhattan...
) in New York City and WTTG
WTTG
WTTG, channel 5, is an owned-and-operated television station of the Fox Broadcasting Company, located in the American capital city of Washington, D.C...
in Washington DC, became independent stations and remained so until 1986, when they became Fox O&Os at the network's inception.
CBS
In 1986, CBS sold its longtime O&O in St. LouisSt. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
, KMOX-TV, to Viacom (then separate from CBS). Viacom changed the station's calls to KMOV
KMOV
KMOV, virtual channel 4, is the CBS-affiliated television station in St. Louis, Missouri. KMOV is owned by the Dallas-based Belo Corporation, with its studio and office facilities in St...
, then sold it to Belo
Belo
Belo Corp. is a Dallas-based media company that owns 20 commercial broadcasting television stations and two regional 24-hour cable news television channels. The company was previously known as A.H. Belo Corp. after one of the early owners of the company, Alfred Horatio Belo, now the name of the...
in 1997, in a three-way swap which also saw Viacom acquiring KSTW
KSTW
KSTW is a television station serving the Seattle, Washington media market. It is owned by CBS Corporation, and is a part of The CW Television Network. It broadcasts its digital signal on VHF channel 11...
in Seattle
Seattle, Washington
Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...
-Tacoma
Tacoma, Washington
Tacoma is a mid-sized urban port city and the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. The city is on Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and northwest of Mount Rainier National Park. The population was 198,397, according to...
from Cox Television
Cox Enterprises
Cox Enterprises is the successor to the publishing company founded in Dayton, Ohio, United States, by James Middleton Cox, who began with the Dayton Daily News. He was the Democratic candidate for the President of the United States in the election of 1920...
, and that company in return getting KIRO-TV
KIRO-TV
KIRO-TV, virtual channel 7, is the CBS affiliate television station in Seattle, Washington. It broadcasts on digital channel 39. The station's offices and broadcasting center are located near Seattle Center in Belltown, and its transmitter is located on Queen Anne Hill...
from Belo.
The last station CBS purchased was KOVR
KOVR
KOVR, channel 13, is an owned-and-operated station of the CBS Television Network located in Sacramento, California and licensed to Stockton. KOVR-TV shares its offices and studio facilities with sister station KMAX-TV in West Sacramento, California, and its transmitter is located in Walnut Grove,...
in Stockton, California
Stockton, California
Stockton, California, the seat of San Joaquin County, is the fourth-largest city in the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California. With a population of 291,707 at the 2010 census, Stockton ranks as this state's 13th largest city...
. The purchase was announced in December 2004 and closed in May 2005.
On February 7, 2007, CBS announced the sale of its O&Os in Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. The name of the city is often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC. With a population of 186,440 as of the 2010 Census, the city lies in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, which has a total population of 1,124,197...
(KUTV and its satellite in St. George, Utah
St. George, Utah
St. George is a city located in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Utah, and the county seat of Washington County, Utah. It is the principal city of and is included in the St. George, Utah, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city is 119 miles northeast of Las Vegas, Nevada, and 303 miles ...
, KUSG) and Austin
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
(KEYE-TV
KEYE-TV
KEYE-TV, digital channel 43 , is the CBS affiliate in Austin, Texas. It is owned by the Four Points Media Group, LLC Sinclair Broadcasting Group has announced a purchase of the the Four Points stations, and has begun operating KEYE-TV through a local service agreement in anticipation of FCC...
) to affiliates of Cerberus Capital Management
Cerberus Capital Management
Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. is one of the largest private equity investment firms in the United States. The firm is based in New York City, and run by -year-old financier Steve Feinberg. Former U.S...
as part of a group deal which also included two CW
The CW Television Network
The CW Television Network is a television network in the United States launched at the beginning of the 2006–2007 television season. It is a joint venture between CBS Corporation, the former owners of United Paramount Network , and Time Warner's Warner Bros., former majority owner of The WB...
O&Os (WTVX
WTVX
WTVX is the CW-affiliated television station for West Palm Beach, Florida that is licensed to Fort Pierce. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 34 from a transmitter southwest of Palm City and I-95 in Martin County...
in West Palm Beach
West Palm Beach, Florida
West Palm Beach, is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and is the most populous city in and county seat of Palm Beach County, the third most populous county in Florida with a 2010 population of 1,320,134. The city is also the oldest incorporated municipality in South Florida...
and WLWC
WLWC
WLWC is the CW-affiliated television station licensed to New Bedford but which operates out of Providence and acts largely as a Rhode Island station despite its licensing. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 22 from a transmitter in the Ashley Heights section of East...
in Providence
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...
), one low-power MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV is a television broadcast syndication service in the United States, owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a division of News Corporation...
affiliate
WTCN-CA
WTCN-CA is the Class A MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station for West Palm Beach, Florida. It broadcasts a low-powered analog signal on UHF channel 50 from a transmitter south of Port Saint Lucie and I-95 in Martin County...
and one low-power Azteca America
Azteca América
Azteca América is a broadcast television network marketed toward Spanish-speaking families residing in the United States. As a rapidly-growing Spanish language network, Azteca América now reaches 89% of the Hispanic households in the U.S., operating in sixty-two markets nationwide. Wholly owned by...
affiliate
WWHB-CA
WWHB-CA is an Azteca América affiliate in West Palm Beach, Florida, but actually licensed to Stuart. Owned by the Four Points Media Group and operated under a local service agreement by the Nexstar Broadcasting Group, WWHB is sister station to CW and RTN affiliate WTVX and MyNetworkTV affiliate...
(both in West Palm Beach). Six days later, CBS announced that it is swapping its O&O in Green Bay
Green Bay, Wisconsin
Green Bay is a city in and the county seat of Brown County in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, located at the head of Green Bay, a sub-basin of Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the Fox River. It has an elevation of above sea level and is located north of Milwaukee. As of the 2010 United States Census,...
, WFRV-TV
WFRV-TV
WFRV-TV is a CBS-affiliated television station licensed to Green Bay, Wisconsin, and serving Green Bay, the Fox Valley, and Northeastern Wisconsin. The station broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 39 from a transmitter north of the Brown County town of Morrison...
, and its satellite in Escanaba, Michigan
Escanaba, Michigan
Escanaba is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan, located in the banana belt on the state's Upper Peninsula. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 13,140, making it the third-largest city in the Upper Peninsula after Marquette and Sault Ste. Marie...
, WJMN-TV
WJMN-TV
WJMN-TV is the CBS-affiliated television station for Michigan's Central Upper Peninsula licensed to Escanaba. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 48 from a transmitter in unincorporated Northern Delta County south of the Alger County line. The station can also be seen on...
, to Liberty Media
Liberty Media
Liberty Media Corporation is an American media conglomerate and the control is exercised by company Chairman John C. Malone, who owns a majority of the voting shares....
in exchange for common CBS stock held by Liberty Media. The sale of WFRV/WJMN closed on April 18, 2007. As of June 25, 2007, CBS no longer controls the stations being sold to Cerberus, which operates the stations under the Four Points Media Group
Four Points Media Group
Four Points Media Group LLC is a television station holding company founded by the private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management in 2007 with its purchase of seven television stations previously owned by CBS Television Stations, a subsidiary of CBS Corporation.Four Points Media Group took over...
brand, even though it continued to hold the licenses for several months afterward. However, the Four Points transaction was approved by the FCC on November 21, 2007 and was finalized on January 10, 2008. As of mid-March 2009, the Four Points Media stations are managed by the Nexstar Broadcasting Group
Nexstar Broadcasting Group
Nexstar Broadcasting Group, Inc., is an entity of broadcast television stations headquartered in Irving, Texas. The company consists of 50 television stations across the U.S., ranging from market sizes 9 to 201 . 43 of the stations are broadcasting at full power, with the other 4 broadcasting at...
.
CBS also owns two independent stations: KCAL-TV
KCAL-TV
KCAL-TV, channel 9, is an independent television station in Los Angeles, California, USA, owned by the CBS Corporation. KCAL-TV shares its studio facilities with KCBS-TV inside CBS Studio Center in the Studio City section of Los Angeles, and its transmitter is located atop Mount Wilson.-Digital...
in Los Angeles and KTXA
KTXA
KTXA, virtual channel 21 , is an independent television station based in Fort Worth, Texas, and serving the Dallas/Fort Worth designated market area. With its transmitter in Cedar Hill, KTXA is owned by CBS Corporation and is the sister station of CBS outlet KTVT .KTXA was originally an...
in Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth is the 16th-largest city in the United States of America and the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas. Located in North Central Texas, just southeast of the Texas Panhandle, the city is a cultural gateway into the American West and covers nearly in Tarrant, Parker, Denton, and...
. It also owns two MyNetworkTV affiliates, WSBK-TV
WSBK-TV
WSBK-TV is a MyNetworkTV television station for eastern Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire that is licensed to Boston. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 39 from a transmitter along the Needham and Wellesley town line southwest of the MA 9 and I-95 / MA 128...
in Boston and WBFS-TV
WBFS-TV
WBFS-TV is the MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station for South Florida that is licensed to Miami. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 32 from a transmitter in Miramar. Owned by the CBS Corporation, the station is sister to CBS affiliate WFOR-TV and the two share...
in Miami.
NBC
For much of the modern television era, NBC did not have an O&O in Philadelphia. In 1955, NBC forced Westinghouse to trade its NBC-affiliated Philadelphia cluster of KYW-AM and WPTZ-TV, channel 3 to NBC in exchange for WTAMWTAM
WTAM — branded Newsradio WTAM 1100 — is a commercial radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio, serving Greater Cleveland and much of surrounding Northeast Ohio. Owned by Clear Channel Communications, the station broadcasts primarily a news/talk format...
-AM-FM and WNBK-TV in Cleveland. Westinghouse only agreed to the trade after NBC threatened not only to yank its programming from WPTZ, but also Westinghouse-owned WBZ-TV
WBZ-TV
WBZ-TV, virtual channel 4, is a CBS owned-and-operated television station, located in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. WBZ-TV's studios and office facilities, shared with sister station WSBK-TV , are located in the Allston-Brighton section of Boston, and its transmitter is located in Needham,...
in Boston. NBC renamed the Philadelphia stations WRCV-AM-TV, while Westinghouse renamed the Cleveland stations KYW-AM-FM-TV. NBC's then-ownership of Philadelphia's channel 3 was cited by CBS when it purchased its then-affiliate WCAU
WCAU
WCAU, channel 10, is an owned-and-operated television station of the NBC Television Network, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. WCAU has its studios on the border between Philadelphia and Bala Cynwyd. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 34 from a transmitter in the...
/10 in 1958, despite FCC rules at the time barring companies from owning stations with overlapping signals, as WRCA/WRCV did.
In 1965, NBC was forced to reverse the trade on orders from the FCC
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
and Justice Department
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
. WRCV-TV was then renamed KYW-TV
KYW-TV
KYW-TV, virtual channel 3, is an owned and operated television station of the CBS Television Network, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. KYW-TV shares a studio facility with its sister station, CW flagship WPSG just north of Center City Philadelphia...
to match its radio cousin. When NBC regained control of the Cleveland stations, it renamed them WKYC-AM-FM-TV because of the AM station's popularity as "KY11." It sold the radio stations in 1972, but kept WKYC-TV until 1990, when majority control of the station was sold to Multimedia, Inc. (which later merged with Gannett). NBC remained minority owner of WKYC-TV until 1999.
NBC continued to pursue efforts to acquire an O&O in Philadelphia, especially when KYW became its weakest major-market affiliate for much of the 1980s. However, NBC was unsuccessful until 1995, when it won a bidding war for longtime CBS O&O WCAU-TV (see below).
In 1997, LIN Television sold 76% of KXAS-TV
KXAS-TV
KXAS-TV, virtual channel 5 , is the NBC television station for the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. The station was Texas' first television station when the station made its debut on September 28, 1948. Its transmitter is located in Cedar Hill...
to NBC in exchange for 24% of KNSD-TV. Therefore, NBC owns 76% of both stations. Although the arrangement is not defined as a traditional O&O arrangement, NBC's controlling interest in the stations allows them to be considered NBC O&Os.
In January 2006, NBC announced its intention to sell four of its O&Os: WCMH
WCMH-TV
WCMH-TV, channel 4, is a television station in Columbus, Ohio, affiliated with the NBC television network and owned by Media General. The station's studios and transmitter are located in Columbus. NBC-4 broadcasts from its studio and office complex near the Ohio State University on Olentangy River...
in Columbus, Ohio
Columbus, Ohio
Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...
; WVTM
WVTM-TV
WVTM-TV, channel 13, is the NBC-affiliated television station in the Birmingham-Anniston-Tuscaloosa-Gadsden, Alabama television market. The station is owned by Media General...
in Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...
; WNCN
WNCN
WNCN is the NBC affiliate television station in the Triangle region of North Carolina , broadcasting on digital channel 17. It is licensed to Goldsboro, but its studios are just outside of downtown Raleigh...
in Raleigh
Raleigh, North Carolina
Raleigh is the capital and the second largest city in the state of North Carolina as well as the seat of Wake County. Raleigh is known as the "City of Oaks" for its many oak trees. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city's 2010 population was 403,892, over an area of , making Raleigh...
/Durham, North Carolina
Durham, North Carolina
Durham is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the county seat of Durham County and also extends into Wake County. It is the fifth-largest city in the state, and the 85th-largest in the United States by population, with 228,330 residents as of the 2010 United States census...
; and WJAR
WJAR
WJAR is the NBC-affiliated television station for the state of Rhode Island and Bristol County, Massachusetts licensed to Providence. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 51 from a transmitter in Rehoboth, Massachusetts...
in Providence, Rhode Island
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...
. On April 6 of the same year, it was announced that the stations would be sold to Media General
Media General
Media General, Inc. is a media company based in the Southeastern United States. Its major properties include newspapers such as The Tampa Tribune, the Winston-Salem Journal, and the Richmond Times-Dispatch, as well as numerous television stations, such as flagship station WFLA-TV.The company was...
in a $600 million dollar deal. That sale was finalized on June 26, 2006. WCMH has since become one of two hub facilities for Media General's stations.
On March 19, 2008, NBC announced its intention to sell two additional O&Os: WTVJ
WTVJ
WTVJ, virtual channel 6 , is an owned-and-operated television station of the NBC television network, located in Broward County. WTVJ shares its TV studio and office facility with co-owned Telemundo station WSCV in Miramar, Florida, and its transmitter is located near Sun Life Stadium in north...
in Miami, Florida
Miami, Florida
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...
and WVIT
WVIT
WVIT, virtual channel 30, is the NBC owned and operated television station for the state of Connecticut, licensed to New Britain. WVIT has its offices and studios located in West Hartford, and transmitter based in Farmington, Connecticut....
in New Britain
New Britain, Connecticut
New Britain is a city in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. It is located approximately 9 miles southwest of Hartford. According to 2006 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 71,254....
/Hartford, Connecticut
Hartford, Connecticut
Hartford is the capital of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960, it is the second most populous city on New England's largest river, the Connecticut River. As of the 2010 Census, Hartford's population was 124,775, making...
. On July 18 of that year, it was announced that WTVJ would be sold to Post-Newsweek Stations
Post-Newsweek Stations
Post-Newsweek Stations is the official name of the broadcasting division of the Washington Post Company and is a self-contained corporation within that company...
, the owner of Miami's local ABC affiliate WPLG
WPLG
WPLG, channel 10, is an ABC network affiliated television station located in Miami, Florida. WPLG is owned and operated by Post-Newsweek Stations, a subsidiary of the Washington Post Company. The station's studios are located in Pembroke Park, and its transmitter is located at the massive broadcast...
. Had the FCC approved this deal, it would have resulted in the Miami market being home to the largest duopoly in the country between two "Big Three" or "Big Four" network affiliates. WVIT was later withdrawn from the selling block, as all of the offers made for that station were much lower than NBC's asking price. The sale of WTVJ also fell through due to the delay in FCC approval for the deal.
One of the last stations NBC purchased was KNTV
KNTV
KNTV, channel 11, is the NBC owned-and-operated television station in the Bay Area market. It is licensed to San Jose, with its transmitter located on San Bruno Mountain, just south of San Francisco. It shares facilities in San Jose with NBC Universal sister station KSTS and CNBC's Silicon...
, based in San Jose, California
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
, which currently serves the entire San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
. It became a full NBC owned-and-operated station in April 2002. Prior to the purchase, KNTV was owned by Granite Broadcasting and affiliated with ABC for most of its history, while NBC was affiliated with KRON; by 2000, ABC wished for its own longtime San Francisco O&O station, KGO-TV
KGO-TV
KGO-TV, channel 7, is an owned-and-operated television station of the Walt Disney Company-owned American Broadcasting Company, based in San Francisco, California...
, to exclusively serve the San Jose portion of the viewing area and terminated its 40-year affiliation with KNTV, while KRON, which had recently been sold, declined to maintain its NBC affiliation after 52 years in the wake of a dispute with NBC (which lost a bidding war with new owners Young Broadcasting
Young Broadcasting
New Young Broadcasting Holding Co, Inc. is an owner of 14 television stations in 11 United States media markets. The company was formerly known as Young Broadcasting Inc. and was the outgrowth of the ad representation/invest firm Adam Young, Inc. which was founded in 1944 by Adam Young and is...
) over the terms of the affiliation renewal. Soon after, Granite, which was operating KNTV as a WB affiliate after ABC programming left it, offered to pay NBC a then-unheard-of $37 million annually for KNTV to become an NBC affiliate, an offer which NBC accepted before later finalizing the outright acquisition. (Back in 1960, ABC allowed KNTV to be its affiliate because it agreed to not serve San Jose directly, but focus more on the Monterey Bay
Monterey Bay
Monterey Bay is a bay of the Pacific Ocean, along the central coast of California. The bay is south of San Francisco and San Jose, between the cities of Santa Cruz and Monterey....
area, which was too far south to clearly receive the KGO over-the-air signal; KNTV also agreed to transmit at lower power so as not to unreasonably overlap KGO's signal. Upon the July 2000 termination of the affiliation agreement, ABC added KGO to cable systems in the Salinas
Salinas, California
Salinas is the county seat and the largest municipality of Monterey County, California. Salinas is located east-southeast of the mouth of the Salinas River, at an elevation of about 52 feet above sea level. The population was 150,441 at the 2010 census...
/Monterey area to compensate for the loss of ABC programming on KNTV.)
ABC
Detroit’s WXYZWXYZ-TV
WXYZ-TV, channel 7, is an ABC-affiliated television station in Detroit, Michigan, USA. WXYZ-TV is owned by the E.W. Scripps Company, and is the media company's largest-market TV station property...
7 had been an ABC O&O since it signed on in 1948, as WXYZ radio had been an affiliate of ABC radio's predecessor, the NBC Blue Network. However, when ABC merged with Capital Cities Communications in 1986, the combined assets of the new company exceeded the ownership limit at the time. As such, the network opted to sell WXYZ to the E. W. Scripps Company. Since 1986 WXYZ-TV has continued as Detroit's ABC affiliate.
Later during the affiliate switches of 1994 ABC bought WTVG
WTVG
This is about the TV station in Toledo, Ohio for the former WTVG-TV in Newark, New Jersey see WFUT-DT.WTVG, channel 13, is the ABC-affiliated television station for Northwest Ohio and licensed in Toledo, Ohio. WTVG's studios and offices are located in Toledo and its transmitter is located in...
in Toledo, Ohio
Toledo, Ohio
Toledo is the fourth most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Lucas County. Toledo is in northwest Ohio, on the western end of Lake Erie, and borders the State of Michigan...
and Flint, Michigan
Flint, Michigan
Flint is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and is located along the Flint River, northwest of Detroit. The U.S. Census Bureau reports the 2010 population to be placed at 102,434, making Flint the seventh largest city in Michigan. It is the county seat of Genesee County which lies in the...
's WJRT in the markets adjacent to Detroit, specifically to keep some fringe suburban coverage of Detroit in case WXYZ/Scripps would attempt to affiliate with another network and leave ABC on a lower-tier station in the market. Though WXYZ did stay with ABC after Scripps agreed to keep WXYZ with ABC in exchange for affiliation deals for other stations in other cities, ABC decided to retain ownership of WTVG and WJRT.
Capital Cities also owned some CBS affiliates and chose to keep them, and affiliate them with ABC. Hence, the earlier-mentioned KFSN/30 and WTVD
WTVD
WTVD, channel 11, is an owned-and-operated television station of the Walt Disney Company-owned American Broadcasting Company, licensed to Durham, North Carolina. The station serves the areas of Durham, Raleigh, Chapel Hill, and Fayetteville, known as the Triangle...
/11 in Raleigh/Durham, NC. CBS moved to the former ABC affiliates in each market, WRAL-TV
WRAL-TV
WRAL-TV, virtual channel 5 , is a television station in Raleigh, North Carolina. WRAL-TV has been the flagship station of Capitol Broadcasting Company since its inception, and is currently the CBS affiliate for the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill/Fayetteville area, known collectively as the Triangle...
/5 in Raleigh/Durham and KGPE
KGPE
KGPE, virtual channel 47, is the CBS affiliated television station for the Fresno, California market. KGPE's digital signal is on UHF channel 34 from Auberry, California. It's currently owned by High Plains Broadcasting and operated by Newport Television, LLC....
/47 in Fresno. WRAL has since become one of CBS's strongest affiliates.
On November 3, 2010, it was reported in Broadcasting & Cable
Broadcasting & Cable
Broadcasting & Cable magazine is a television industry trade magazine published by NewBay Media. Previous names included Broadcasting/Telecasting, Broadcasting and Broadcast Advertising, and Broadcasting...
that ABC reached an agreement to sell WJRT and WTVG, its thirty two smallest O&Os, back to former owner SJL Broadcasting, amidst speculation that The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
might spin off
Spin out
A spin-out, also known as a spin-off or a starburst, refers to a type of corporate action where a company "splits off" sections of itself as a separate business....
ABC. Both stations were expected retain their ABC affiliations. When the sale was completed, ABC-owned KFSN-TV
KFSN-TV
KFSN-TV, UHF channel 30, is an owned-and-operated television station of the Walt Disney Company-owned American Broadcasting Company, located in Fresno, California. The station's transmitter is located in Meadow Lakes, California. Its signal covers the Central San Joaquin Valley and the mountain...
in Fresno, California
Fresno, California
Fresno is a city in central California, United States, the county seat of Fresno County. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 510,365, making it the fifth largest city in California, the largest inland city in California, and the 34th largest in the nation...
(Nielsen DMA #55, 2010-11) would then become the smallest-market O&O of any of the major English-language networks (not counting satellites
Broadcast relay station
A broadcast relay station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator , rebroadcaster , or repeater is a broadcast transmitter which relays, repeats, or reflects the signal of another radio station or television station, usually to an area not covered by the signal of the originating station...
and semi-satellites). The sale was completed on April 1, 2011.
Fox
In 1987, Fox purchased its Boston affiliate, WFXTWFXT
WFXT is a television station owned and operated by the News Corporation-owned Fox Broadcasting Company, located in Boston, Massachusetts. The station's studio and office facility is in Dedham, Massachusetts, and its transmitter is located in Needham, Massachusetts...
. Its parent News Corp also owned The Boston Herald, requiring Fox to obtain a temporary waiver for the station. When the waiver expired, WFXT was sold to the Boston Celtics
Boston Celtics
The Boston Celtics are a National Basketball Association team based in Boston, Massachusetts. They play in the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference. Founded in 1946, the team is currently owned by Boston Basketball Partners LLC. The Celtics play their home games at the TD Garden, which...
of the NBA. The Celtics could not survive as a broadcaster, and Fox purchased WFXT a second time in 1995 after the Boston Herald was sold. It remains a Fox O&O to this day.
As a result of the aforementioned Fox/New World partnership, Fox had to sell off its original O&Os in Dallas (KDAF
KDAF
KDAF, virtual channel 33 , is a CW-affiliated television station serving the Dallas-Fort Worth television market area. The station is licensed to Dallas and owned by the Tribune Company with its studios located off the John W. Carpenter Freeway in northwest Dallas. The station's transmitter is...
) and Atlanta (WATL) to Renaissance Broadcasting and Qwest Broadcasting, respectively. Along with Dallas' KDFW, Atlanta's WAGA
WAGA-TV
WAGA-TV, virtual channel 5.1 is an owned-and-operated television station of the News Corporation-owned Fox Television Network and based in Atlanta, Georgia, United States...
became a Fox O&O after Fox bought out New World. KDAF is now a CW affiliate owned by Tribune. WATL, also a former WB affiliate, is now a MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV is a television broadcast syndication service in the United States, owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a division of News Corporation...
affiliate owned by Gannett.
On June 13, 2007, Fox announced its intention to sell nine of its O&Os: WJW in Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
; KDVR
KDVR
KDVR, , is the Fox-affiliated television station serving the Denver, Colorado designated market area. The station is owned by Local TV LLC, the media arm of private equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners, under a local marketing agreement with Tribune-owned CW affiliate KWGN . Its transmitter is...
in Denver, Colorado
Denver, Colorado
The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
; KTVI
KTVI
KTVI, virtual channel 2, is the Fox-affiliated television station serving the St. Louis, Missouri, designated market area. The station is owned by Local TV LLC, the media arm of private equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners, under a local marketing agreement with Tribune-owned CW affiliate KPLR...
in St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
; WDAF-TV
WDAF-TV
WDAF-TV, virtual channel 4.1, is the Fox-affiliated television station serving the Kansas City, Missouri-Kansas designated market area. The station is owned by Local TV LLC, the media arm of private equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners. Its studios and transmitter are located in the Signal Hill...
in Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
; WITI in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee is the largest city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, the 28th most populous city in the United States and 39th most populous region in the United States. It is the county seat of Milwaukee County and is located on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. According to 2010 census data, the...
; KSTU
KSTU
KSTU, channel 13, is the Fox-affiliated television station serving the Salt Lake City designated market area. The station is owned by Local TV LLC, the media arm of private equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners, and its transmitter located on Farnsworth Peak, southwest of Salt Lake City...
in Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. The name of the city is often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC. With a population of 186,440 as of the 2010 Census, the city lies in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, which has a total population of 1,124,197...
; WHBQ-TV
WHBQ-TV
WHBQ-TV, channel 13, is an owned-and-operated television station of the News Corporation-owned Fox Broadcasting Company, located in Memphis, Tennessee. Its studios and transmitter are located in Memphis.-Under RKO General:...
in Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
; WBRC
WBRC
WBRC, virtual channel 6, is the Fox-affiliated television station serving the Birmingham, Alabama designated market area. The station is owned by Raycom Media, and its transmitter is located atop Red Mountain in Birmingham...
in Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...
; and WGHP
WGHP
WGHP, channel 8, is the Fox-affiliated television station serving the Greensboro/High Point/Winston-Salem, North Carolina designated market area...
in Greensboro, North Carolina
Greensboro, North Carolina
Greensboro is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the third-largest city by population in North Carolina and the largest city in Guilford County and the surrounding Piedmont Triad metropolitan region. According to the 2010 U.S...
. On December 21 of that year, it was announced that eight of the stations -- all except WHBQ -- would be sold to Local TV
Local TV
Local TV LLC is a limited liability corporation, owned by Oak Hill Capital Partners , which operates 18 local network-affiliated television stations in the United States.-History:...
, a broadcast holding company controlled by the private equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners, with the sale closing on July 14, 2008. Of those eight former Fox O&Os, WBRC was swapped to Raycom Media
Raycom Media
- History :Although Raycom Media dates its birth to 1996, the core of the company was formed in 1992 when Atlanta native Bert Ellis formed Ellis Communications. He eventually controlled 13 television stations and two radio stations....
on March 31, 2009 for a station in Richmond, Virginia
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
. WHBQ was later withdrawn from the selling block after Fox failed to find a suitable buyer for the station, as both Local TV and Raycom already own stations in that market which would easily put them over ownership caps, and the only other purchaser which might be interested already owns two stations in Memphis.
The WB
From January 1995 to September 2006, Tribune BroadcastingTribune Broadcasting
The Tribune Broadcasting Company is a group of radio and television stations located throughout the United States which are owned and operated by the Tribune Company, a media conglomerate based in Chicago, Illinois and named for the flagship Chicago Tribune newspaper.- History :Tribune Broadcasting...
was a partner in The WB Television Network
The WB Television Network
The WB Television Network is a former television network in the United States that was launched on January 11, 1995 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. and Tribune Broadcasting. On January 24, 2006, CBS Corporation and Warner Bros...
, along with the Warner Bros. division of Time Warner. Tribune held an initial 12.5 percent ownership in the network at its launch, and later increased its stake to 22 percent; most of Tribune's television properties were WB owned and operated stations. On January 24, 2006, the WB announced that it would merge with the CBS-owned United Paramount Network to form a new programming service called the CW. All but three of Tribune's WB stations joined the CW on September 18, 2006, through ten-year agreements. Tribune does not have an ownership interest in the CW, turning most of its former WB O&O's into affiliates of the network. In late March 2008 Tribune announced that San Diego affiliate KSWB-TV
KSWB-TV
KSWB-TV, virtual channel 69, is a Fox-affiliated television station in San Diego, California. It broadcasts a 720p high definition digital signal on UHF channel 19 from a transmitter southeast of Spring Valley...
would switch its network affiliation to Fox in August of that year. The future status of the CW affiliation in San Diego remained unclear until early July when the network named the soon-to-be-displaced Fox affiliate, Tijuana
Tijuana
Tijuana is the largest city on the Baja California Peninsula and center of the Tijuana metropolitan area, part of the international San Diego–Tijuana metropolitan area. An industrial and financial center of Mexico, Tijuana exerts a strong influence on economics, education, culture, art, and politics...
-licensed XETV
XETV
XETV is a television station licensed to Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico, serving as the CW Television Network affiliate for the San Diego, California area across the international border in the United States...
, as its new affiliate.
UPN
UPN stations formerly owned by Chris-Craft and those that at the close of the network were owned by CBS Corporation were sometimes considered O&Os, and several transactions have involved these stations:- Not too long after becoming a UPN O&O itself, KRRT (now KMYSKMYSKMYS, channel 35, is the CW affiliate in San Antonio, Texas. The station is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group. It is licensed to the nearby city of Kerrville. Its transmitter is located near Lakehills, Texas.-Founding:...
) in San AntonioSan Antonio, TexasSan Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the United States of America and the second-largest city within the state of Texas, with a population of 1.33 million. Located in the American Southwest and the south–central part of Texas, the city serves as the seat of Bexar County. In 2011,...
was sold to Jet Broadcasting in 1995, eventually becoming a WB, then MyNetworkTV, and now The CW affiliate under SinclairSinclair Broadcast GroupThe Sinclair Broadcast Group is an American telecommunications company that operates the largest number of local television stations in the United States. Headquartered in Hunt Valley, Maryland, it owns a total of 57 stations across the country in 35 primarily small and medium markets, many of...
ownership.
- Upon Chris-Craft's exit from the television industry, its UPN stations were sold to the Fox Television Stations GroupFox Television Stations GroupFox Television Stations, Inc. is a group of television stations located within the United States which are owned-and-operated by the Fox Broadcasting Company, a subsidiary of the Fox Entertainment Group, part of News Corporation...
. Of those stations, San Francisco's KBHK (now KBCW) was traded to CBS CorporationCBS CorporationCBS Corporation is an American media conglomerate focused on commercial broadcasting, publishing, billboards and television production, with most of its operations in the United States. The President and CEO of the company is Leslie Moonves. Sumner Redstone, owner of National Amusements, is CBS's...
, while PortlandPortland, OregonPortland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
's KPTVKPTVKPTV is the Fox-affiliated television station serving the Portland, Oregon market, which includes most of the state of Oregon and portions of Southwest Washington. KPTV is owned by the Meredith Corporation in a duopoly with MyNetworkTV affiliate KPDX , with its studios located in Beaverton and...
was traded to Meredith CorporationMeredith CorporationThe Meredith Corporation is a media conglomerate based in Des Moines, Iowa, USA. The company has two divisions, National Media and Local Media.-History:...
, and is now a Fox affiliate. KMSPKMSP-TVKMSP-TV, channel 9, is the Fox-owned-and-operated television station serving the Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minnesota designated market area, owned in a duopoly with MyNetworkTV affiliate WFTC...
in Minneapolis-St. Paul then traded its UPN affiliation to WFTCWFTCWFTC, channel 29, is a MyNetworkTV owned and operated television station licensed to Minneapolis, Minnesota, and serving the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area...
for that station's Fox affiliation. Fox had acquired WFTC not long after the Chris-Craft purchase was finalized. The remaining UPN stations kept by Fox retained their UPN affiliations, but were no longer O&Os of the network - giving UPN the dubious distinction of being the only broadcast network whose stations in the three largest markets of New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago were not O&Os. These stations became O&Os of Fox's new network My Network TV, as UPN and The WB closed down order to launch The CW, and Fox announced none of their UPN stations would join The CW. In fact, Chris-Craft's former NYC station, WWOR-TV, is the second area station to have been an O&O of 2 major networks (after sister WNYW), and its former LA station, KCOP, is the first (second if counting KTLA) station in its area to be O&Oed by 2 networks.
- Viacom/CBS sold off several UPN O&Os in the network's final five years. Mercury Broadcasting bought Wichita's KSCC (now KMTWKMTWKMTW is the MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station for Wichita, Kansas licensed to Hutchinson. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 35 from a transmitter in Sedgwick...
) in 2001 (a newly-launched station, LMA'dLocal marketing agreementIn U.S. and Canadian broadcasting, a local marketing agreement is an agreement in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another licensee...
to Clear Channel CommunicationsClear Channel CommunicationsClear Channel Communications, Inc. is an American media conglomerate company headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It was founded in 1972 by Lowry Mays and Red McCombs, and was taken private by Bain Capital LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP in a leveraged buyout in 2008...
at the time, and now to Newport TelevisionNewport TelevisionNewport Television, LLC is a television station holding company founded by Providence Equity Partners and Sandy DiPasquale in 2007 to acquire the television stations owned by Clear Channel Communications. In September 2007, Newport agreed to sell KFTY and KVOS-TV to LK Station Group LLC for $26.6...
), and Houston's KTXHKTXHKTXH, digital channel 19 , is a MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station in Houston, Texas. It is owned by the Fox Television Stations, a division of the News Corporation, and is one-half of a duopoly with Fox network station KRIV .Along with programming from MyNetworkTV, the station also airs...
and Washington's WDCAWDCAWDCA, virtual channel 20, is a television station in Washington, D.C.. Owned by Fox Television Stations, a division of the News Corporation, WDCA is a sister station to Fox network outlet WTTG , and is affiliated with the co-owned MyNetworkTV programming service...
were sold to Fox in the same year (as part of the aforementioned swap with KBHK). In 2005, IndianapolisIndianapolisIndianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...
' WNDY-TVWNDY-TVWNDY-TV is the MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station for Central Indiana licensed to Marion. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 32 from a transmitter in White River Township north of Strawtown. The station can also be seen on Comcast and Bright House Networks channel 10...
and Columbus' WWHOWWHOWWHO is the Columbus, Ohio television affiliate for The CW Television Network. The station is licensed to Chillicothe, though it operates out of a facility in Columbus with its transmitter located in Williamsport, halfway between Columbus and Chillicothe...
were sold to LIN TVLIN TVLIN TV Corporation is an American holding company that operates 31 television stations.-History:LIN TV's roots trace back to the founding of its former parent, LIN Broadcasting Corporation, in 1961. LIN Broadcasting was engaged in radio, television, direct marketing, information and learning, music...
; Oklahoma CityOklahoma cityOklahoma City is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma.Oklahoma City may also refer to:*Oklahoma City metropolitan area*Downtown Oklahoma City*Uptown Oklahoma City*Oklahoma City bombing*Oklahoma City National Memorial...
's KAUT was sold to The New York Times CompanyThe New York Times CompanyThe New York Times Company is an American media company best known as the publisher of its namesake, The New York Times. Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr. has served as Chairman of the Board since 1997. It is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City....
(who has since sold its entire television group to Local TV), and WUPLWUPLWUPL, virtual channel 54, is the MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station for the Greater New Orleans, Louisiana area. It is licensed to the Northshore community of Slidell. It is currently owned by the Belo Corporation, in a duopoly with CBS affiliate WWL-TV. It broadcasts on UHF digital channel...
in New Orleans was sold to Belo. In September 2006, KTXH and WDCA became My Network TV O&Os.
The CW
As mentioned above, CBS's sale of some of its stations to Cerberus Capital ManagementCerberus Capital Management
Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. is one of the largest private equity investment firms in the United States. The firm is based in New York City, and run by -year-old financier Steve Feinberg. Former U.S...
included its CW stations in West Palm Beach, Florida
West Palm Beach, Florida
West Palm Beach, is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and is the most populous city in and county seat of Palm Beach County, the third most populous county in Florida with a 2010 population of 1,320,134. The city is also the oldest incorporated municipality in South Florida...
(WTVX
WTVX
WTVX is the CW-affiliated television station for West Palm Beach, Florida that is licensed to Fort Pierce. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 34 from a transmitter southwest of Palm City and I-95 in Martin County...
) and Providence (WLWC
WLWC
WLWC is the CW-affiliated television station licensed to New Bedford but which operates out of Providence and acts largely as a Rhode Island station despite its licensing. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 22 from a transmitter in the Ashley Heights section of East...
); as aforementioned, CBS-owned CW affiliates can be considered O&Os.
In June 2010, CBS announced the sale of its Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....
The CW station WGNT
WGNT
WGNT, channel 27 , is a television station licensed to Portsmouth, Virginia, USA. WGNT is the CW Television Network affiliate for the Hampton Roads television market and is owned by Local TV, which also operates WTKR , Hampton Roads' CBS affiliate...
to Local TV
Local TV
Local TV LLC is a limited liability corporation, owned by Oak Hill Capital Partners , which operates 18 local network-affiliated television stations in the United States.-History:...
, the owner of that market's CBS affiliate WTKR
WTKR
WTKR is the CBS affiliate television station serving the Hampton Roads area of Virginia, officially known as the Norfolk-Portsmouth-Newport News DMA. The station is licensed to Norfolk and broadcasts on channel 40 . Its transmitter is located in Suffolk, Virginia...
(as well as seven of the former Fox O&O stations listed above). This would create the second duopoly
Duopoly (broadcasting)
In United States broadcast television and radio, duopoly is a term used to describe a single company which owns two or more stations in the same city or community....
operation in that market (the first has been NBC and Fox affiliates WAVY-TV
WAVY-TV
WAVY-TV, channel 10, is a television station licensed to Portsmouth, Virginia, serving as the NBC affiliate for the Hampton Roads area . WAVY is owned by LIN Television Corporation, and is a sister station to Fox affiliate WVBT...
and WVBT
WVBT
WVBT is the Fox-affiliated television station for the Hampton Roads area of Southeastern Virginia that is licensed to Virginia Beach. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 29 from a transmitter in the Driver section of Suffolk...
, respectively, both owned by LIN TV). As part of the deal, Local TV would take over the operations of WGNT through a time brokerage agreement while the deal awaited FCC approval. Until the sale closed on August 4, WGNT was the smallest-market station owned by CBS since the Four Points Media group deal. The sale also made WJZ-TV
WJZ-TV
WJZ-TV, channel 13, is an owned and operated television station of the CBS Television Network, located in Baltimore, Maryland. WJZ-TV's studios and offices are located on Television Hill in the Woodberry section of Baltimore, adjacent to the transmission tower it shares with four other Baltimore...
in Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
the smallest-market full-service station still owned by CBS.
Other networks
- In 1999, not long after Pax was launched, its parent company sold its DaytonDayton, OhioDayton is the 6th largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County, the fifth most populous county in the state. The population was 141,527 at the 2010 census. The Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 841,502 in the 2010 census...
, Green BayGreen Bay, WisconsinGreen Bay is a city in and the county seat of Brown County in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, located at the head of Green Bay, a sub-basin of Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the Fox River. It has an elevation of above sea level and is located north of Milwaukee. As of the 2010 United States Census,...
and DecaturDecatur, IllinoisDecatur is the largest city and the county seat of Macon County in the U.S. state of Illinois. The city, sometimes called "the Soybean Capital of the World", was founded in 1823 and is located along the Sangamon River and Lake Decatur in Central Illinois. In 2000 the city population was 81,500,...
O&Os — WDPX, WPXG and WPXU, respectively — to ACME CommunicationsACME CommunicationsACME Communications is a United States-based television broadcasting company. The company was co-founded by current Chairman and former CEO Jamie Kellner, who previously served as a Fox Television Network executive and was founding CEO of The WB Television Network. Kellner used the name Acme as a...
. The stations now broadcast under the WBDTWBDTWBDT is the CW-affiliated television station for Ohio's Miami Valley. Licensed to Springfield, the station broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 26 from a transmitter in the Frytown section of Dayton. The station can also be seen on Time Warner Cable channel 13 and in high...
, WCWFWCWFWNMN is the RTV-affiliated television station for Upstate New York that is licensed to Saranac Lake. It broadcasts a digital signal on UHF channel 40 from a transmitter on the WYZY-FM tower north of the village along the Essex and Franklin County line. The station can also be seen on Burlington...
and WBUIWBUIWBUI is a television station licensed to Decatur, Illinois and serving the Central Illinois market, including the cities of Springfield, Champaign, and Urbana. The station broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 22 from a transmitter in Oreana along I-72. WBUI is affiliated...
callsigns, respectively. All three then became primarily WB affiliates (though they retained a secondary affiliation with Pax until 2005), and are now CW affiliates (however, WBDT and WCWF are in the process of being sold to LIN TV). Two years later (2001), it sold its Little RockLittle Rock, ArkansasLittle Rock is the capital and the largest city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 699,757 people in the 2010 census...
O&O KYPX to Equity Broadcasting, who switched its affiliation to The WB as KWBF. That station is now MyNetworkTV affiliate KARZ-TVKARZ-TVKARZ-TV is the MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station for Central Arkansas. It is licensed to Little Rock. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 42 from a transmitter on Shinall Mountain near the Chenal Valley section of Little Rock...
, owned by the Nexstar Broadcasting GroupNexstar Broadcasting GroupNexstar Broadcasting Group, Inc., is an entity of broadcast television stations headquartered in Irving, Texas. The company consists of 50 television stations across the U.S., ranging from market sizes 9 to 201 . 43 of the stations are broadcasting at full power, with the other 4 broadcasting at...
(who also controls the former CBS-owned stations now owned by Four Points Media). In 2003, Pax sold its Albuquerque O&O, KAPX, to TeleFuturaTeleFuturaTeleFutura is a U.S. Spanish-language broadcast television network owned by Univision with headquarters in Miami, Florida.-Overview:TeleFutura Is America’s #2 Spanish-Language Network in prime time...
. That station now broadcasts under the KTFQ callsign. Also, that year, it sold KPXJKPXJKPXJ is the CW-affiliated television station for Shreveport, Louisiana. Licensed to Minden, the station broadcasts a digital signal on UHF channel 21. KPXJ's transmitter is located in Mooringsport. The station is owned by The Wray Family as part of a duopoly with the area's ABC affiliate KTBS-TV...
in Shreveport to LMA partner KTBS, and that station became a UPN affiliate and like the three stations sold to ACME above, is now a CW affiliate.
Multiple networks
Philadelphia’s WCAU-TV had been a CBS O&O since 1958. However, after CBS announced its alliance with Westinghouse in 1995, the network chose to affiliate with Westinghouse’s KYW-TV, Philadelphia's longtime NBC affiliate. After a bidding war, WCAU was sold to NBC. KYW became a CBS O&O after the merger of Westinghouse and CBS a few months later.As part of the same deal, NBC in turn transferred its own O&Os in Denver (KCNC-TV
KCNC-TV
KCNC-TV, virtual channel 4, is a CBS owned-and-operated station television station in Denver, Colorado, owned by CBS Television Stations, Inc. KCNC broadcasts on UHF channel 35 from Lookout Mountain near Golden, Colorado.- Digital programming :...
) and Salt Lake City (KUTV) to Westinghouse/CBS, and those stations became CBS O&Os after Westinghouse merged with CBS. NBC and CBS also swapped transmitting facilities in Miami between the then-weaker CBS-owned WCIX/6 (now WFOR-TV
WFOR-TV
WFOR-TV, virtual channel 4.1 , is the CBS owned-and-operated station in Miami, Florida. WFOR shares its TV studio facilities with sister station WBFS-TV in Doral, near Miami International Airport, and its transmitter is located in Miramar.WFOR-TV also previously had two translator stations in the...
/4) and the then-stronger NBC-owned WTVJ
WTVJ
WTVJ, virtual channel 6 , is an owned-and-operated television station of the NBC television network, located in Broward County. WTVJ shares its TV studio and office facility with co-owned Telemundo station WSCV in Miramar, Florida, and its transmitter is located near Sun Life Stadium in north...
/4, now on weaker channel 6 under the same calls.
Stations that have been O&Os of more than one major network
- this includes future O&Os, and also counts UPN and WB
- KCNC Denver (NBC and CBS)
- KCOP Los Angeles (UPN and My Network TV)
- KDAFKDAFKDAF, virtual channel 33 , is a CW-affiliated television station serving the Dallas-Fort Worth television market area. The station is licensed to Dallas and owned by the Tribune Company with its studios located off the John W. Carpenter Freeway in northwest Dallas. The station's transmitter is...
Dallas/Fort Worth (Fox and WB) - KDKAKDKA-TVKDKA-TV, channel 2, is an owned and operated television station of the CBS Television Network, located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. KDKA-TV broadcasts from a transmitter located in the Perry North neighborhood of Pittsburgh, and its studios are located in downtown Pittsburgh at Gateway Center....
Pittsburgh (DuMont and CBS) - KMSPKMSP-TVKMSP-TV, channel 9, is the Fox-owned-and-operated television station serving the Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minnesota designated market area, owned in a duopoly with MyNetworkTV affiliate WFTC...
Minneapolis/St. Paul (UPN and Fox) - KTLAKTLAKTLA, virtual channel 5, is a television station in Los Angeles, California, USA. Owned by the Tribune Company, KTLA is an affiliate of the CW Television Network. KTLA's studios are on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, and its transmitter is located atop Mount Wilson...
Los Angeles (DuMont and WB)* - KTXHKTXHKTXH, digital channel 19 , is a MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station in Houston, Texas. It is owned by the Fox Television Stations, a division of the News Corporation, and is one-half of a duopoly with Fox network station KRIV .Along with programming from MyNetworkTV, the station also airs...
Houston (UPN and My Network TV) - KUTPKUTPKUTP, channel 45, is a MyNetworkTV-affiliated station in Phoenix, Arizona. It is owned by Fox Television Stations, a division of the News Corporation, and is a sister station to Fox outlet KSAZ-TV . The two stations share studio facilities in Phoenix, and KUTP's transmitter is located on South...
Phoenix (UPN and My Network TV) - KUTV Salt Lake City (NBC and CBS)
- KYWKYW-TVKYW-TV, virtual channel 3, is an owned and operated television station of the CBS Television Network, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. KYW-TV shares a studio facility with its sister station, CW flagship WPSG just north of Center City Philadelphia...
Philadelphia (NBC and CBS) - WATL Atlanta (Fox and WB)
- WBBMWBBM-TVWBBM-TV, virtual channel 2 , is the CBS owned-and-operated television station in Chicago, Illinois. WBBM-TV's main studios and offices are located in The Loop section of Chicago, as part of the development at Block 37, and its transmitter is atop the Willis Tower.-History:WBBM-TV traces its history...
Chicago (DuMont and CBS)* - WCAUWCAUWCAU, channel 10, is an owned-and-operated television station of the NBC Television Network, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. WCAU has its studios on the border between Philadelphia and Bala Cynwyd. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 34 from a transmitter in the...
Philadelphia (CBS and NBC) - WDCAWDCAWDCA, virtual channel 20, is a television station in Washington, D.C.. Owned by Fox Television Stations, a division of the News Corporation, WDCA is a sister station to Fox network outlet WTTG , and is affiliated with the co-owned MyNetworkTV programming service...
Washington (UPN and My Network TV) - WFTCWFTCWFTC, channel 29, is a MyNetworkTV owned and operated television station licensed to Minneapolis, Minnesota, and serving the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area...
Minneapolis/St. Paul (Fox and My Network TV) - WJBKWJBKWJBK is the Fox–owned and operated television station in Detroit, Michigan broadcasting on digital channel 7...
Detroit (CBS and FOX) - WKBDWKBDWKBD-TV, virtual channel 50 , is an owned and operated station of the CW Television Network, based in Detroit, Michigan. The station is owned and operated by the CBS Corporation, and is one-half of a duopoly with sister station WWJ-TV . Its studios and transmitters are located at 11 mile and...
Detroit (FOX, UPN, and The CW) - WMYDWMYDWMYD is the MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station for Southeast Michigan licensed to Detroit. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 21 from a transmitter on Eight Mile Road in Oak Park along the Oakland and Wayne County line. The station can also be seen on Comcast...
Detroit (The WB and My Network TV) - WNYWWNYWWNYW, virtual channel 5 , is the flagship television station of the News Corporation-owned Fox Broadcasting Company, located in New York City. The station's transmitter is atop the Empire State Building and its studio facilities are located in the Yorkville section of Manhattan...
New York City (DuMont and Fox) - WRBWWRBWWRBW is the MyNetworkTV owned and operated station serving the Orlando/Daytona Beach/Melbourne, Florida television market. It is owned by the Fox Television Stations Group, along with Fox station WOFL Channel 35. Known on-air as "My65", the station offers sitcoms, cartoons, court shows, and...
Orlando (UPN and My Network TV) - WTTGWTTGWTTG, channel 5, is an owned-and-operated television station of the Fox Broadcasting Company, located in the American capital city of Washington, D.C...
Washington (DuMont and Fox) - WUTBWUTBWUTB, digital channel 41, is the MyNetworkTV owned-and-operated television station for Baltimore, Maryland. Its transmitter is located near Gilson Park in Catonsville. The station has studios on Seton Drive in Baltimore near the city and county line...
Baltimore (UPN and My Network TV) - WWOR-TVWWOR-TVWWOR-TV, virtual channel 9 , is the flagship station of the MyNetworkTV programming service, licensed to Secaucus, New Jersey and serving the Tri-State metropolitan area. WWOR is owned by Fox Television Stations, a division of the News Corporation, and is a sister station to Fox network flagship...
New York City (UPN and My Network TV) - All CW O&Os were UPN O&Os before UPN's closure and The CW's launch.
ABC
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CBS
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Fox
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NBC
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176% owned by NBC Universal
NBC Universal
NBCUniversal Media, LLC is a media and entertainment company engaged in the production and marketing of entertainment, news, and information products and services to a global customer base...
while 24% owned by LIN Television.
External links
- ABC-owned Television Stations - List of ABC O&Os
- CBS Television Stations - List of CBS and CW O&Os
- NBC Universal: Company Overview - List of NBC and Telemundo O&Os
- Fox Television Stations, Inc. - List of Fox and MyNetwork TV O&Os