25 Years After the Big Switch, Some Viewers Still Confuse NBC10 With CBS 

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And also in Savannah GA, WSAV (NBC 3) and WJCL (ABC 22) swapped affiliated in 1980 and undid it in '85 And technically in Terra Haute IN, with WBAK (ABC 38) switching to Fox in 1995 but switching back in 2011 and now operates under WAWV

@@carsonneeley4862 Another one. On January 7, 1980, a couple other stations swapped. WTRF (Channel 7, NBC) in Wheeling, West Virgina swapped with WTOV (Channel 9, CBS), in Steubenville, Ohio.Those two towns are in close enough proximity that the market is referred to as Wheeling-Steubenville. WTRF became CBS after the swap; WTOV went to NBC, where they are to this day.

The reason WCAU will always linger as CBS is because it was part of the original CBS radio network.

The networks all built and signed on those stations.

How it started: 1. Fox won the rights to NFC games (a major coup at the time) 2. Fox partnered with New World to switch 12 Big 3 affiliates that New World had acquired, or was acquiring, to Fox once existing affiliation agreements expired (WHBQ in Memphis would be switched to Fox in a separate transaction). 3. Not wanting to be relegated to the UHF band, CBS tries to woo WXYZ (Detroit) and WEWS (Cleveland)to switch to CBS (WXYZ was one of the original ABC O&Os before the Capital Cities purchase put it too many VHFs over the limit). 4. Scripps, which owns WXYZ and WEWS (Scripps has always owned WEWS) threatened to switch them to CBS unless ABC agreed to affiliate with KNXV (Phoenix), WFTS (Tampa), and WMAR (Baltimore). The former two are UHF stations and the latter is a weak-performing Baltimore station. Scripps had an especially hard line, insisting on KNXV and WMAR. 5. ABC agreed to Scripps' terms, BUT it meant that WJZ in Baltimore lost its ABC affiliation (WJZ is the Baltimore market leader). WJZ had also been the longest tenured ABC affiliate (that now resides with WJLA in DC, which was the second station to affiliate with ABC). 6. Westinghouse (Group W), owner of WJZ, now sought a group-wide affiliation for all of its stations, and eventually signed a deal with CBS (Westinghouse would eventually buy CBS outright). This displaced NBC from WBZ in Boston and KYW in Philadelphia (its other 2 stations were already CBS affiliates), switching to CBS...despite the fact that... 7. CBS already owned WCAU in Philadelphia. Thus, WCAU had to be sold. 8. After Fox decided to buy WTAF (now WTXF), WCAU was traded to NBC in a complicated trade; traded to NBC would be WCIX (Miami)'s broadcast facility and transmitter. In exchange, CBS acquired KUTV (Salt Lake City), KCNC (Denver) and WTVJ (Miami)'s broadcast facility and transmitter. KUTV and KCNC were then sold to Group W. WTVJ was renamed WFOR and the former WCIX became the new WTVJ. Simple enough for you? CBS ended up suffering a lot in Detroit and Atlanta. ABC would suffer in St. Louis and the Piedmont Triad. NBC was only affected in Kansas City as only one NBC station (WDAF) was switched to Fox.

Well who’s the blame well it’s Fox

@@DisneyStudioNetwork no they aren't

@@sillygoose635 Actually, Fox did indirectly set in motion the KYW/WCAU network swap by cutting an affiliation deal with New World Communications (which almost bought WCAU just before NBC decided to acquire it) to switch their major network stations to Fox. CBS decided to align with (and subsequently buy) Group W, flipping all three of its non-CBS stations (read: every station it owned other than KPIX in the Bay Area and KDKA in Pittsburgh), including KYW. NBC decided to sell WCAU to CBS/Group W, and agreed to sell its stations in Denver and Salt Lake City and trade the transmitters and associated channels of those networks' Miami stations (WCIX-turned-WFOR and WTVJ) to CBS directly for good measure to limit tax burdens. In addition, Paramount sold WTXF to Fox, flipping it to buy WGBS (now WPSG) to turn it into a UPN O&O; but since WTXF was already a Fox affiliate under Paramount, there wasn't a third network switch in Philly in September '95.

Not just Philadelphia. Several other cities also were involved. Including Atlanta, Denver, Birmingham, Kansas City, Tampa, San Diego, Saint Louis, Detroit, Cleveland, Dallas, Austin, and so on until 1996 most of the switch was because Fox got the NFC broadcast rights from CBS.

@@sillygoose635 he means the Fox NFL deal in '94 that set off all the station swapping in the first place. When Fox got the NFC, they pulled what ABC did in the 70s, going hunting for stronger affiliates, or in this case, VHF stations in the NFC team markets where Fox was on UHF. Fox bought a station group named New World, which was majority CBS affiliates in Dallas, Detroit, Milwaukee, Atlanta, Phoenix, and some that weren't like St. Louis. A wild spree of station buying & selling, swaps, and affiliation deals followed for a year and change. Plus WB & UPN were coming on-line! It was utter chaos unless you were in NY, LA, or Chicago, stable TV markets locked in place since probably 1960.