Post-switchover Changes
Fox continued to upgrade its stations in at least two unrelated deals struck later:
- In 1995, News Corporation/Fox purchased ABC affiliate WHBQ-TV in Memphis, Tennessee from Communications Corporation of America. WHBQ-TV was part of the RKO General broadcasting empire, which had collapsed in the late 1980s due to corruption and perjury.
- In 2002, KMSP-TV in Minneapolis, the home market of the Minnesota Vikings, returned to the Fox network after seven years as a UPN station. Fox had purchased KMSP as part of a group acquisition of Chris-Craft Industries' television station group a year earlier. Co-owned WFTC, which held the Fox affiliation prior to the switch, took over the UPN affiliation, and eventually became a MyNetworkTV outlet in 2006 when UPN and The WB merged to form The CW.
At least one other station owner has pulled off a similar maneuver. In 2002, Meredith Corporation moved the Fox affiliation in the Portland, Oregon–Vancouver, Washington market from KPDX, on UHF channel 49, to KPTV, on VHF channel 12 (coincidentally, KPTV was a charter Fox affiliate from 1986–88). KPTV was bought by News Corporation with the Chris-Craft stations, but was later traded to Meredith in exchange for Orlando Fox affiliate WOFL. In an ironic twist, most of the remaining UPN-affiliated, former Chris-Craft stations retained by Fox (WWOR-TV in New York City, KCOP in Los Angeles, and KUTP in Phoenix among them) would join MyNetworkTV in 2006, as a result of the realignment caused by the UPN/ WB merger. This makes for an indirect connection between the last two major changes in broadcast affiliate lineups in the U.S.
Another took place on August 1, 2008: XETV, whose presence in the San Diego market discouraged Fox from switching the affiliation to KNSD, switched with KSWB-TV and became a CW affiliate. KSWB was one of 16 charter CW affiliates owned by Tribune Broadcasting. Although it might been seen a downgrade on the surface, as KSWB's UHF analog position was Channel 69, while XETV was on analog Channel 6, the market has heavy cable penetration and has the majority of their stations on UHF, which then brand according to their dominant cable channel slot rather than their broadcast channel designation; as such, the station brands itself as Fox 5 and only uses their over-the-air channel position in legally-required promos, their PSIP virtual channel and a short sweep in their newscast logo of a "Fox 69" logo. In regards to the NFL, it is also not a major problem, as the Chargers play in the AFC and thus most of their games are on KFMB-TV (ironically, they were on KNSD from 1977–97).
On the other hand, CBS saw an affiliate downgrade from VHF to UHF in an unrelated transaction, which occurred in the Jacksonville, Florida–Brunswick, Georgia market, home of the Jacksonville Jaguars. (Being in the AFC, most Jaguars games are on CBS.) In the summer of 2002, Post-Newsweek Stations, which owns WJXT, terminated that station's longtime affiliation with CBS in a dispute over compensation. The new affiliate became WTEV-TV, which had been the local outlet of UPN (which was then co-owned with CBS). WJXT broadcasts on channel 4; WTEV on channel 47. The new UPN affiliate became Fox affiliate WAWS, on a secondary basis. Both WAWS and WTEV were sold by Clear Channel to Newport Television, but because of FCC regulations forbidding the ownership of two of the four top-rated stations in a market (Clear Channel had purchased WTEV when it was a low-rated UPN station), Newport sold WTEV to High Plains Television, though Newport continues to operate the station through a joint sales agreement and shared services agreement. Due to the network switch in Jacksonville, nearby Gainesville, Florida's WB affiliate WGFL (channel 53), also switched to CBS in order to keep the network available in that area, sending the WB affiliation to a digital subchannel of WGFL (now the area's MyNetworkTV affiliate, as well as low-power WMYG-LP).
Only one other AFC team plays home games in a market with a UHF CBS affiliate: the Cleveland market, home of the Browns, has WOIO (channel 19) as its CBS affiliate (though in technicality in the digital age WOIO transmits over Channel 10 but retains their virtual channel 19). WOIO was Cleveland's charter Fox affiliate before the market was involved in the New World deal - and has even held the teams' preseason game rights twice; from 1988 to 1995 as a Fox affiliate, and again in 2005 as a CBS affiliate. However, WOIO only carries the CBS games and news coverage of the Browns, due to conflicts between the Browns and WOIO's news department over coverage about personal issues involving team players and ownership, and WKYC, the market's NBC affiliate, carries the bulk of the team's preseason games and other Browns programming. (However, the first Browns' preseason game in the 2012 season - during the second weekend in August - was shown on WOIO, as WKYC carried the Summer Olympic Games from London.)
Read more about this topic: U.S. Television Network Affiliate Switches Of 1994