WRAL-TV Action News 5 - ABC/CBS Affiliation Switch (7/17/1985) 

RIP, Charles Kuralt.

People also purchased the latest issues of TV Guide magazine from their local supermarkets, so they could figure out which stations carried their favorite shows...

Did that affiliation switch in Tampa in '94 have anything to do with the big nationwide deal involving Fox? For example, in Cleveland, WJW (was previously CBS) switched to Fox while the previous Fox affiliate, WOIO, took up the CBS mantle; in Greensboro NC, WGHP, then ABC, switched to Fox, sending the ABC affiliation to what is now WXLV (was WRNW in the '80s)...

@@dianeadkins-diorio1783 Yeah, it did. New World bought WTVT in 1993 and FOX's then-parent company, the original News Corp., bought a 20% stake in New World so it could switch the stations New World was keeping, including WTVT, to FOX. That change here in Tampa Bay affected other stations, including leaving existing FOX affiliate WFTS-TV without a network until its owner used CBS as leverage to make a deal with ABC (same as Phoenix's KNXV) and longtime ABC affiliate WTSP to take the CBS affiliation. Also, WTVT (needed more shows) and then-independent WTTA got a lot of the syndicated shows that WFTS wouldn't have time to air as an ABC affiliate and WTTA got FOX kids programming.

In Summary: WTVT-TV13 Had CBS, wound up with FOX, but keeping rights to the Buccaneers WTSP-TV10 had ABC, and got CBS instead WFTS-TV28 was FOX, but wound up with ABC. Meanwhile, WFLA-TV8 had NBC, and STAYED with NBC.

@@davidmatthewvinotjr8396 WFLA-TV ended up at the top of the local news ratings soon after the switches because everyone knew where NBC's programming would be. Many people in the market were trying to get used to the programming from ABC, CBS abs FOX being shifted from one station to another.

유동균 That's true.

No, WTVD did too.

Even so, WRAL was such a force, the network shenanigans didn’t faze their ratings.

Cyclops236 She was on all three networks as a result of affiliation switches with KUSA being in 1995.

Oh, yeah! That's right! Adele Arakawa was there when The Big Switch happened in Denver 10 years later!

This was the news team I watched as a kid. I remembered Charlie Gaddy and Bob Debardelaben (sp?), but forgot Adele. Man, brings back memories!

WRAL and WTVD have both basically gone full-circle: WTVD started out as an ABC affiliate in 1954, and ironically lost the ABC affiliation to WRAL in 1962; WTVD then shoehorned CBS and NBC programming until the early 1970s when the FCC ordered WTVD to choose one network, at which time they chose CBS and let NBC go to now-WRDC; then WTVD's parent company bought ABC, thus taking back the affiliation from WRAL, who in turn took up the CBS mantle; WRAL, meanwhile, started out with NBC in 1956 before switching to ABC in 1962, held the ABC affiliation for 23 years and then CBS for 31 years before switching back to NBC, with WNCN, the previous NBC affiliate (since 1995) taking up the CBS mantle...

@@dianeadkins-diorio1783 Actually, WTVD started out as a primary NBC affiliate, and has secondary affiliations with CBS, ABC, and DuMont. WNAO, a now-defunct TV station on channel 28, was a primary CBS with secondary NBC, ABC, and DuMont affiliations. WRAL-5 signed on in 1956, taking the NBC affiliation, leaving WTVD-11 with ABC (then primary) and CBS (secondary). In 1957, WNAO-28 went dark, and WTVD took CBS as the primary network, bumping ABC to their secondary affiliation. WRAL-5 also added ABC as a secondary network in 1957 when WNAO went out of business.

At least Raleigh-Durham's #1 station will be re-affiliated with America's #1 network...well, in the 18-49 demo (CBS is still tops among overall viewers).

+Jonathan Allen Yes, NBC is having a good year, but they've had many bad years in prime-time. I'd like to see their success continue, especially for WRAL's sake. But NBC is well known to mess it up when things are going well. Time will tell.

WRAL is also currently testing the new ATSC 3.0 technology on their channel.

Well is it a coincidence that David Crabtree, Bill Leslie, and countless WRAL employees are all of the sudden "retiring?" You can tell the stories are more biased now, (not WRAL's fault) but they have to follow the NBC way, and now the CBS affiliate (WNCN) has grown from a joke to be much more professional. The biggest gainer of all of this is the still always Steady WTVD ABC 11 with people like John Clark, Barbara Gibbs, Steve Daniels, etc. etc.

WRAL may take a lesser network, but CBS is taking a lesser station.

Capital Cities (WTVD's former owner) bought ABC in 1985, which means WTVD had to switch to ABC and become an ABC O&O station.

@@ScoopNemeth they didn't *have* to, they became one.

With the way the WRAL/WNCN swap was timed in 2016, WRAL aired both the Super Bowl (as a CBS affiliate) and the Summer Olympics (as an NBC affiliate) in the same year...

+Jamal G. It won't be for much longer. WRAL and the Raleigh-Durham NBC station WNCN are supposed to be switching affiliations effective February 29 www.wral.com/wral-shifting-affiliation-to-nbc/15239067/

+HRTVFan2 Whaaat? I didn't know but I thank you for the lookout. I'll be watching soon.

+HRTVFan2 Looks like WRAL is heading back to NBC

ghost of broadcast future: They switched to NBC in 2016. :)

Alan Katzer I

@@kyndlehewett same thing in Atlanta ! 2 and 11 swapped on labor day, 1980 and 5,36,46 and 69 swapped on December 11th , 1994!

Add Jacksonville too as between 1985-2002

Yet it was becoming one of the strongest markets in the country?...

mehh, it's still NBC after the switch in 2016

NBC's chance to leave WPTF (now WRDC) wouldn't come until 1995 with what would become today's WNCN, who held the NBC affiliation for 20+ years until the CBS/NBC swap with WRAL in 2016...

Jimmy Sanders Damn I had forgotten about WPTF TV 28 until I read this comment.

They could have also became independent...

WXYZ would have been the more likely to be given to ABC than WTVD was. There was NO reason WXYZ had to be passed over WTVD and KFSN for ABC owenership. Detroit is a top 20 market (then as now) Fresno is only in the (as of 2020) Mid 60's, and the Triangle is only Now getting into the top 30.

@@davidmatthewvinotjr8396 ABC's reasoning for divesting WXYZ was so they could keep WJR radio from Cap Cities. FCC rules at the time forbade TV/Radio cross-ownership at the time, with the exception of grandfathered cases and those with waivers. I guess ABC figured having WJR and WTVD was more lucrative than just having WXYZ.

Until December 11, 1994 when it became a fox affiliate.

Alan Katzer Channel 5 own Storer communications Atlanta Incorporation back in 1949

Then 14 years later, in the fall of 1994, WAGA-TV Channel 5 went from CBS to FOX, WATL-TV Channel 36 went from FOX to The WB, WGNX-TV Channel 46 went from an independent station to CBS, and would later become WGCL, and WVEU Channel 69 went from an independent station to UPN, and would later become WUPA!

1994 saw a nationwide shuffling of FOX affiliates, including WGHP Channel 8 in Greensboro (was ABC before switching to FOX, while now-WXLV took up the ABC mantle), another Channel 8 (this one WJW in Cleveland, which was CBS; WJW switched to FOX and sent CBS to previous FOX affiliate WOIO), and who knows how many others. Coincidentally, that deal happened the same year FOX Sports took over the NFL's NFC broadcast package from CBS, who in turn snatched up the AFC package from NBC four years later; eight years after losing the AFC package NBC would come roaring back by snagging the Sunday-night slot (now if only ESPN would move Monday Night Football back to ABC where it began; ESPN would still produce the games, since ABC and ESPN are now sister networks and ESPN produces all of ABC's sports programming)...

The switch from ABC was a result of WTVD's parent company at the time buying ABC, thus making WTVD an ABC O&O

ABC still owns the station to this day in fact. Even after Disney bought ABC Capital Cities.