I remember from childhood that we had (in Baltimore) WBFF channel 45, which was “independent” and had no network affiliation. Washington DC had WTTG (channel 5). They showed old reruns, Saturday/Sunday afternoon movies, Saturday afternoon wrestling, etc. Are there any independent stations (non-cable) left here in the U.S., or were they all swallowed up by the various networks?
There are six broadcast networks now — ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, UPN, and WB — and life is usually a little bit more secure for a local station if they have some network affiliation. For one, the networks pay their affiliates for showing their programming. So unless you live in a huge market to which the FCC assigned more than six stations, there isn’t much likelihood that there’s going to be a station that is still unaffiliated.
Another thing you might think about — in some sense, all local t.v. stations in the U.S. are independent. There are a handful that are actually owned by the networks, but the rest are mostly owned by media chains. It’s up to them to decide whether they want to be network affiliates or not. Also, any individual station can choose to be a part-time affiliate of a network or even two. Networks are not allowed to have exclusive contracts with affiliates that prevent them from signing up with another network at the same time. In such cases, of course, the local station has its choice of programming from both.
TBS in Atlanta is independent
www.wtbs.com
An interesting aside is that WTTG was technically between networks. It was originally built by, and affiliated with, the DuMont network. (The callsign stands for Thomas T. Goldsmith, DuMont’s Chief Engineer). When that network failed in the early 50s, the stations were sold to Metromedia, and run as independents. But Metromedia was later bought out by Fox, which used them as the core stations for its new network.
Actually there is a seventh English language network – PAX. Also assorted small Spanish, shopping, and religious networks that are a mixture of cable and over the air stations.
And to answer the original question, among over-the-air stations in the Raleigh-Durham, NC area we have all seven of the English-language networks, plus fulltime Shop-at-Home netwrok station, plus one independent – WKFT-40.
Not always. KRON Channel 4 in San Francisco lost its affiliation because they refused to pay NBC for content.
Google your questions away!
The TBS superstation is a cable network in its own right.
As mentioned, KRON lost its NBC affiliation, and now counts as a large independent station, focused heavily on news:
It doesn’t seem like a “real” independent station of the sort the OP is talking about. KICU 36 out of San Jose is also an independent in the Bay Area, heavily sports focused:
http://www.bayinsider.com/partners/kicu/
The quirky independent of the sort the OP is talking about WAS KOFY in the Bay Area. But it became the local WB station years ago. Too bad. I liked the dogs.
(KOFY had an interesting station break format where they would show viewer’s dogs - a different “spot” for each spot, if you will. The dog would be sitting on a chair while a snake scrolled at the bottom with something like “Fido, age 4, Fremont”. And at the right point in the playing of the jingle, the dog would turn its head to look in the general direction of the KOFY logo appearing on the screen.)
TBS is a cable channel, yes. TBS as in WTBS is a over-the-air independent broadcast channel.
WGN in chicago is the same way. except it’s dependent (WB) as a broadcast. different programming on their broadcast station and their cable station.
KOFY! That was Jim Gabbert’s station, wasn’t it? Man, what a psycho!
Don’t forget PBS. THey’ve got affiliates all over the place, like WNET in NYC. (Channel 13).
It isn’t really a network, because it doesn’t have any affilate stations. Cable services all get their feed directly from TBS. Now you could consider all the cable services together to be a kind of network, but the relationships and economics are very different.
In the media business, PBS is usually not referred to as a “network.” Just like with cable channels, it operates very differently from a commercial broadcast network. Principally, the money flows in the opposite direction. Network pay their affiliates to broadcast network programmes. PBS’s member stations (not affiliates) pay PBS to get programming.
There used to be limits on how many TV stations could a network could own and operate (O & O’s in the trade).
Most of the stations in L.A. and NYC are O&O’s. It’s always a good hint to look for stations like KCBS or WNBC as a tipoff.
(Although KCBS was KNXT until the late 1980s I believe).
Slightly off topic, I find it interesting that KCBS is a TV station in Los Angeles, but a radio station in San Francisco.
Back on topic, as someone above implied, KRON San Francisco lost its NBC affilitaition, and it’s now an independent station.
Ed
[ultranitpick]
The Channel 17 WTBS programming and the satellite TBS Superstation programming are not always the same. Identical almost all the time but once in a great while they differ. E.g., rights to sports telecasts or old sitcoms cause the two feeds to diverge. I don’t think there is anything on their current schedule that would cause this. But I would consider WTBS to the a local Atlanta UHF station (and only the #3 UHF in the market at that) and TBS Superstation to be a satellite network.
[/ultranitpick]
Atlanta has some really fringe low power UHFs. One independent (channel 52?, 2 on cable) carries mostly religious programming and '50s sitcoms like “Love that Bob”.
KHJ - 9 in Los Angeles became KCAL - 9 after Disney bought it. It still has no network affiliation, as the other networks are busy with other stations. For many years they carried both the Dodger, Kings, and Laker games, though which gave them a good draw.
There still is a limit to how many stations a company can own. The FCC has limited it to 33 or 35 percent of the total US market. However recent Supream Court rulings have told the FCC to either justify the rule or drop it.
Plus many companies own a plurality of a station (not a majority. Say NBC owns 45%, the Mark Co owns 35% and the Acme Co owns 20%. Thus they can control a station without owning it and having it count toward their market share)
I think there are 18 broadcast channels in Chicago. Discounting the big-six, two PBS, two Spanish, and HSN - there might be as many as 7 independents in Chicago alone. Examples of these stations are religion and foreign language (not English or Spanish).
KCAL 9 is now owned by CBS, but is not a CBS affiliate. It’s a weird sort of arrangement, but both KCAL and KCBS promote each other’s newscasts.
AFAIK Channel 9 never had Dodger telecasts, but they still have the Lakers. The Kings presently have no broadcast TV contract. They are only on cable. The Angels are on KCAL as are the Ducks.