I just found out that WHDH based in Boston used to be a CBS affiliate from 1982-1995 and thought it was always an NBC affiliate. WBZ used to be an NBC affiliate from 1948-1995.

What were your affiliates like back in the day? Were they always still what they are now? Or have they changed and are now different affiliates?

Fox 25 used to be known as WXNE TV, which happened to be an independent station until 1987 when it became WFXT.

WLVI was also independent from 1966 until 1995 when it became The WB. It is now a CW affiliate and has been that way since 2006.

WSBK: Independent from 1964-1993 and again in 2006 until 2011. Used to be a PTEN affiliate from 1993 until 1995 until it became a UPN affiliate which lasted until its closure in 2006. It's now a myTV affiliate.

WMUR used to have an affiliation with Fox from 1994 until 2001. It was secondary on the main channel, but primary on two repeaters. Until December 19, 2001, two of the stations were primarily affiliated with Fox but simulcast channel 9's newscasts (the third repeater carried all WMUR programming, including ABC network programs). The two Fox stations started simulcasting WMUR when WMTW (at that time separately owned) relocated its transmitter away from Mount Washington.

In 1994, WMUR became both a primary and secondary affiliate of Fox in which they also launched 3 low-powered repeaters in the Northern portion of New Hampshire, one of them (W38CB in Littleton) carried WMUR's full ABC schedule, while the other two (W27BL in Berlin & WMUR-LP in Littleton) were full-time primary affiliates of Fox, all of them including its main channel carried WMUR's newscasts as well as FOX Sports telecasts. While WMUR and W38CB managed to retain its full-time ABC schedule, W27BL & WMUR-LP offered a different lineup than that of WMUR's actual lineup, even though W27BL & WMUR-LP retained WMUR's newscasts and syndicated fare, the ABC programs were replaced with more syndicated programming, including programs from Fox itself including FOX Sports telecasts, FOX News shows, the Fox Kids children's block, and of course the network's full primetime lineup. However on December 19, 2001, WMUR dropped its primary/secondary affiliation with Fox after the Hearst acquisition (Hearst has never affiliated any of their stations with Fox, a rarity in American broadcasting), and has since replaced the full Fox lineup on W27BL & WMUR-LP with a full-time simulcast of WMUR's ABC programming itself.

None of the stations in my area have changed from what they were (albeit the Fox station in my area [WHNS 21] is Fox Carolina now).

None of the stations in my area have changed from what they were (albeit the Fox station in my area [WHNS 21] is Fox Carolina now).

That's interesting.

That's interesting.

Just a name change-- it's still the Fox station of the area. The others are of the same affiliations as they were as I grew up around them.

On 6/1/1979 WTHR Indianapolis changed from ABC to NBC.

At the same time WRTV changed from NBC to ABC.

On 1/1/2015, WISH changed from CBS to the CW.

At the same time WTTV changed from the CW to CBS. (this swap was a REALLY big deal--you don't want to go from CBS to the CW.)

Reading on Wikipedia, there are affiliation changes for WTTV that go back into the 1950s, and other later changes which are less important (UPN to the WB.)

In Boston, Channel 5 was originally called WHDH (the same call letters used for Channel 7 now) and was a CBS affiliate. The Boston Herald-Traveler, which owned Channel 5, lost the license. Boston Broadcasters, Inc was awarded the license for Channel 5, with the promise that they would do more local programming than any other station in the country. CBS wanted no part of the new WCVB, because they didn’t want any of their programming preempted. So they made a deal with Channel 7, which was an ABC affiliate. And ABC made a deal with WCVB.

WBZ was the longtime NBC affiliate that switched to CBS when its parent company, Westinghouse, made a long-term affiliation deal with CBS.

WXNE was owned by the Christian Broadcasting Company, which also owned CBN cable. They shared some programming (X= Christ; N= New; E=England).

WMNT Toledo used to be an affiliate of The Box Music Network, then UPN, and now MyNetwork TV.

WJBK Detroit used to be a CBS affiliate, it's now a Fox O&O.

All of these pale in comparison to KYW-TV in Philadelphia. Try reading some of its history on Wikipedia.

In my area my CBS station has had different names but the CBS programming has always been the same and has had the same lineup for a long time. But my city lost their ABC station in 2000 and the ABC station became a WB "Now The CW" channel but when my NBC station got a sister station in 2003 the sister channel became an ABC station and it has a different lineup including Who Wants To Be A Millionaire which originally was bought over from the CBS station before ABC carried it and the NBC and ABC stations share the exact same newscast. Fox has always had the same station in my area for a long time but they were a sister channel to my CBS station until another station bought them but the Fox lineup remains the same after these years. But in my city I don't have any independent channels but I used to have a channel that came from the San Francisco area that used to carry game shows and sitcoms and show movies every afternoon but I think they went broke and I never saw it again and I have two Spanish language stations that is an Univision station and the other Spanish language station is also owned by the NBC station as well. I think that cities should have more local stations in addition to ABC NBC CBS The CW and FOX because it seems that when you live in a big city such as Boston New York Phoenix and Austin or Miami you have stations that are big money makers but it seems that California especially Northern California has no interest in getting stations such as Buzzr TV Antenna TV Decades Channel and Me TV and that would make California TV fans happy. But I think the biggest money makers are stations owned by Hearst and Clear Channel because they seem to get all the glory in states like Texas and Arizona and California but if California could get Me TV and Decades added to the Northern California lineups of Direct TV fans would be very overjoyed
Bestie

In Memphis in the 1990's, for some reason, the ABC affiliate (Channel 13) and the FOX affiliate (Channel 24) swapped their networks. Took me a long time to get into the habit that 13 is not ABC anymore, with me wondering why they did this?

In Memphis in the 1990's, for some reason, the ABC affiliate (Channel 13) and the FOX affiliate (Channel 24) swapped their networks. Took me a long time to get into the habit that 13 is not ABC anymore, with me wondering why they did this?

In 1994 and 1995, Fox bought a lot of VHF (2-13) stations to help expand their coverage since UHF (14-69) didn’t have as good of coverage, so 13 in Memphis was part of that deal.

Just a name change-- it's still the Fox station of the area. The others are of the same affiliations as they were as I grew up around them.

I meant that how they are the same and nothing changed.

In Boston, Channel 5 was originally called WHDH (the same call letters used for Channel 7 now) and was a CBS affiliate. The Boston Herald-Traveler, which owned Channel 5, lost the license. Boston Broadcasters, Inc was awarded the license for Channel 5, with the promise that they would do more local programming than any other station in the country. CBS wanted no part of the new WCVB, because they didn’t want any of their programming preempted. So they made a deal with Channel 7, which was an ABC affiliate. And ABC made a deal with WCVB.

WBZ was the longtime NBC affiliate that switched to CBS when its parent company, Westinghouse, made a long-term affiliation deal with CBS.

WXNE was owned by the Christian Broadcasting Company, which also owned CBN cable. They shared some programming (X= Christ; N= New; E=England).

WMFP and WWDP have some interesting affiliate history.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WMFP

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWDP

WTVZ became a Fox affiliate starting in 1986 or '87; WVBT started as a WB affiliate in January 1995.

In summer 1998, the two stations switched affiliations. WVBT remains "Fox 43" to this day, while WTVZ became "WB 33". When the WB merged to form the CW, WTVZ became a MyNetworkTV affiliate, and is currently known as "MyTVZ".

In summer 1995, KDFW (CBS) and KTVT (independent) in Dallas switched affiliations, although I think KTVT then became a Fox affiliation.

WBIN here in New Hampshire used to be the following:

Primary

Independent (1983–2006, 2011–2017)

MyNetworkTV (2006–2011)

Antenna TV (2017)

Secondary:

PTEN (1993–1997)

DT2:
Universal Sports (2010–2011)
LWN (2012–2014)
Antenna TV (2015–2017)

DT3:
TheCoolTV (2011–2012)
WeatherNation TV (2013–2014)
Grit (2014–2017)

It is now an affiliate of The Justice Network.

If Fox wanted stations with VHF frequency why didn’t they just buy or get a number on the VHF dial? Memphis was only using 3, 5, 10 and 13. Wouldn’t it have been better to be say, VHF Channel 4? Instead of just swapping out networks and confusing is yokels for a year?

If Fox wanted stations with VHF frequency why didn’t they just buy or get a number on the VHF dial? Memphis was only using 3, 5, 10 and 13. Wouldn’t it have been better to be say, VHF Channel 4?

They couldn't.

In a controversial decision, the FCC decided, in 1952, that they would only allow three commercial VHF (channels 2-13) stations in every market in the US (only the eight largest TV markets were allowed four or five VHF TV stations).

If a fourth TV station signed on -- in Memphis or anywhere else -- it had to be on a lower-quality UHF (channels 14+) frequency. This decision, strongly lobbied for by NBC and CBS in the 1940s and '50s, absolutely destroyed the hopes and dreams of hundreds of local business people who had applied for station licenses, and bankrupted them: the UHF signal was much weaker than VHF, and was more prone to interference, and additionally TV set manufacturers weren't even required to include a UHF tuner in their sets until 1964. That meant that most TV sets in the US didn't have a way to view UHF TV stations' signals until the mid-1970s. (The movie UHF humorously portrays the way UHF stations were at a disadvantage).

The FCC's ruling not only bankrupted many local stations (here is a list of UHF stations that declared bankruptcy due to the ruling (http://www.uhftelevision.com/14-25.html)), it also helped destroy the DuMont Television Network, the NTA Film Network, and the Overmyer Network (the last of which only broadcast for a month); these national TV networks depended on people being able to view their local stations... stations that few people could watch, because they were on a crappy UHF frequency. The FCC's decision to restrict the number of VHFs to just three in every market would mean that the three companies which had come to dominate radio from the 1920s to the 1950s (NBC, CBS, and ABC) would be the big three television networks as well.

In 1986, the Fox Broadcasting Company started; their ratings were quite poor, and NBC execs called them "the coat hanger network", until they were able to lure away some major VHF affiliates from the Big Three Television Networks.

None of the stations in my area have changed from what they were (albeit the Fox station in my area [WHNS 21] is Fox Carolina now).

WHNS TV 21 used to be a Ind Station before they pickup FOX and they used to be a Parttime afffiate with UPN (witch is now CW)

WAXA TV 40 (WMYA now ) used to be a IND then became a FOX Affilate before they went dark then WHNS Gain the FOX Affilate then Company own WLOS TV purchase WAXA TV return it to air as a Satelitte Station of WLOS TV by SIMULCAST WLOS TV Programing then the SIMULCAST was drop the Call letters was change to WFBC (Fomer Call Letters of WYFF 4) then became a IND station then they picked up WB affilate calls change to WBSC then when WB and UPN Merge came CW WBSC became WMYA a My Network affilate

and WYCW 62 used to be WASV 62 a Ind before they pickup UPN affilate

In Cleveland...

WJW was CBS from 1956 to 1994 when it became FOX as of to today.

WOIO was FOX from 1987 to 1994 when it became CBS as of today.

WBNX was The CW from 2006 to 2018...now it's back to an independent station, as it was between 1985 and 1997.

WHNS TV 21 used to be a Ind Station before they pickup FOX and they used to be a Parttime afffiate with UPN (witch is now CW)

WAXA TV 40 (WMYA now ) used to be a IND then became a FOX Affilate before they went dark then WHNS Gain the FOX Affilate then Company own WLOS TV purchase WAXA TV return it to air as a Satelitte Station of WLOS TV by SIMULCAST WLOS TV Programing then the SIMULCAST was drop the Call letters was change to WFBC (Fomer Call Letters of WYFF 4) then became a IND station then they picked up WB affilate calls change to WBSC then when WB and UPN Merge came CW WBSC became WMYA a My Network affilate

and WYCW 62 used to be WASV 62 a Ind before they pickup UPN affilate

I used to watch the reruns of Perry Mason on WHNS/21 before they were a Fox station.

in Philadelphia; for YEEEARS ever since they started in the late 40s WCAU channel 10 was a CBS affiliate and KYW channel 3 was an NBC affiliate. Then in 1995 when the NBC and CBS affiliates switched channel 10 became NBC and channel 3 became CBS.

I recall back prior to 1995 when Channel 2 was a ABC affiliate while Channel 30 started as the Independent Station before becoming a FOX affiliate during the late 1980s & early 1990s

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