PRE-1970 STATIONS (NOT O & O) STILL WITH THEIR DEBUT NETWORK

[gregg75]

So I guess we'd say maybe half of the pre-1970 stations are still with their network.

Interesting that a lot of switching has gone on in the big cities, but in much of the
medium and smaller markets things have remained much the same. I think when
you're in Ashland and selling apples, there is not much desire to suddenly switch
over to oranges.

[mleach]

Come to think of it, there have been no network shifts in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Harrisburg/Lancaster/York, or Altoona/Johnstown, either...

Harrisburg-Lancaster-York..
WLYH-TV 15 was actually part-time ABC in the 50's..went to CBS in 1961..today its part of CW.

WSBA-TV 43 for years was CBS then in the early 80s went independent as WPMT and would join FOX in 1986 (?).

[Scott Fybush]

I'd say it's hard to generalize. For every Syracuse, where there's never ever ever been an affiliation switch, there's an Albany, where the great ABC growth spurt of the late 70s touched off a three-way shuffle (WTEN from CBS to ABC, sending WAST/WNYT from ABC to NBC and WRGB from NBC to CBS), or a Rochester, where a once-great pioneering NBC affiliate (WROC-TV) rode the Peacock all the way down in the 80s, only to lose the network to a stronger competitor (WHEC-TV, ex-CBS) during the Cosby resurgence later in the decade.

Broadly speaking, I think it's pretty safe to say that when there were network swaps, they happened in three big bunches: the addition of a third station in many markets starting in the late 1950s into the mid 1960s. The new station usually ended up with ABC (which had been a secondary affiliation in most two-station markets), but sometimes the coming of a third station meant the end of an established NBC or CBS affiliation at an older station.

The next big batch of switches was in the late 70s, of course, when ABC finally achieved parity with the Big Two, sparking a bunch of long-established stations (usually but not always NBC) to go with ABC - WSB-TV, KSTP-TV, and so on.

And then, of course, came the ascent of Fox and the mid-90s New World/Scripps/etc. shuffles as the marketplace adjusted from "Big Three" to "Big Four" and the networks came to be allowed a larger number of O&Os.

It would be interesting to make a list of flips that weren't tied to one of those three broader disruptions in the network/affiliate ecosystem.

[Charles1]

Alabama stations still with their original affiliate:

WSFA-12 (Montgomery)---signed on in 1954 with NBC,.
WHNT-19 (Huntsville)---signed on in 1963 with CBS.
WKRG-5 (Mobile)---signed on in 1955 with CBS.
WTVY-4 (Dothan)---signed on in 1955 with CBS on Channel 9.

And technically, you can add WIAT-42 in Birmingham.  When it signed on in 1965 as WBMG, it picked up the leftovers from CBS that WAPI-13 (now WVTM) didn't carry while it juggled NBC and CBS.  It became an exclusive CBS affiliate in 1970.

[searadiofreak]

So I guess we'd say maybe half of the pre-1970 stations are still with their network.

Interesting that a lot of switching has gone on in the big cities, but in much of the
medium and smaller markets things have remained much the same. I think when
you're in Ashland and selling apples, there is not much desire to suddenly switch
over to oranges.

Absolutely correct.  There are probably multi-hundreds of local stations that have the same affiliation as when they signed on pre-1970.  Just not that unusual.
I would be interested in a comprehensive list, if anyone has the time and/or desire to put one together. 

But, I can't resist in throwing my home market in there...KOMO-TV Seattle was originally NBC, but switched with KING-TV in the 50's.  I only point this out as this was not one of those modern changes, it goes way back! KIRO-TV signed on as CBS (although KIRO lost its CBS affiliation to KSTW in the 90's, only to gain it back).

[anotherguy]

WMCT/WMC Memphis - NBC since 1948
WREC/WREG Memphis - CBS since 1956
WPSD Paducah, KY - NBC since 1957
KFVS Cape Girardeau, MO - CBS since 1954
KAIT Jonesboro, AR - Independent from 1963 to 1965, but ABC since then

[Tim from Springfield, IL]

Peoria, IL:

WEEK-25 (originally 43 from 1953-64) (NBC) (signed on Feb. 1, 1953)
WMBD-31 (CBS) (signed on Jan. 1, 1958)

IIRC the first CBS affiliate for Peoria was the then-WTVH-19 (now WHOI and ABC) from its sign-on in October 1953 until the time of WMBD's sign-on (WMBD-AM was then the CBS Radio affiliate for the Peoria, thus the reason why the CBS affiliation moved to 31). 

Or another option in parts of the Peoria area--even in parts of Peoria County--was to forego UHF in its early days and get Grade B quality signals of the two Quad Cities V's whose sign-ons predated those of the Peoria U's: WHBF-4 (CBS, signed on July 1, 1950) and WOC-6 (originally on 5 until after the freeze, now KWQC) (NBC, signed on Oct. 31, 1949).  Particularly those who bought their TV's prior to WEEK's 1953 sign-on in order to get QC stations. 

In fact, I have seen, on microfilm, issues from fall 1960 of local newspapers serving the Peoria County, IL communities of Elmwood, Princeville, Brimfield and Dunlap that even had small ads from WHBF promoting their station (but not the big ones promoting the fall '60 CBS shows).  That would NOT be allowed nowadays even with at least a Grade B--and some areas getting Grade A--signals of most QC stations in parts of Peoria County even in the digital age.

[azumanga]

In Tampa Bay, WFLA ch.8 was always NBC since first signing on in 1955. And in nearby Orlando, all Big 3 stations, WESH (NBC), WKMG (CBS) and WFTV (ABC), had kept their affiliations since sign-on.

Further south, other candidates include WINK (CBS) and WBBH (NBC) in Fort Myers, WPTV (NBC) in West Palm Beach, and WPLG (ABC) in Miami.

[johnnya2k6]

ANCHORAGE:
KTVA (always been with CBS since 1953)
KENI/KTUU (NBC also since 1953, though from 1967-70 it served as a secondary affiliate with ABC as the primary)

FAIRBANKS:
KFAR/KTTU/KATN (ABC since 1955, though until 1985 it was their secondary network while NBC was the primary)

[Mike Stroud]

So I guess we'd say maybe half of the pre-1970 stations are still with their network.

Interesting that a lot of switching has gone on in the big cities, but in much of the
medium and smaller markets things have remained much the same. I think when
you're in Ashland and selling apples, there is not much desire to suddenly switch
over to oranges.

gregg75, you are on the money. While some would chalk long affiliations up to inertia, I think loyalty for many stations comes down to the need for stability. If a channel changes networks every three or five years or so, the public is likely to give up on it, figuring, "Well, wonder how long I can watch such-and-such show here? Hell, it might wind up on channel so-and-so before it gets cancelled." That's why the mid-90s flippings to FOX posed so much of a headache to a lot of people, but the dust did settle on that, setting the stage for The Simpsons, COPS, and American Idol to become as part of Americana as anything on the Big Three ever did.

We should take this to another level: are there likely going to be large numbers of switchovers in the near future? I would speculate not, because the industry is so fundamentally changing. The mind-boggling amount of competition for a local station almost puts an iron-clad pressure on it to cling fiercely to an identity, and the networks are about the only thing that can give it, especially to a station running behind in its news ratings. In fact, talk is increasing that the prospect exists that networks might, when TV and the internet eventually merge (and they will, it's just a question of when), drop local stations entirely and go direct, a la satellite dish reception. Then it will be a question of whether some local stations, particularly weaker ones (probably those that were UHFs for most of their lives) SURVIVE.

That proposition, of course, is worth a thread in and unto itself (probably not in this forum perhaps), but in the meantime, I would very well suggest that we will never see massive affiliation changes again. There is too much danger for local stations to do so.