That was one of the most interesting three-part video I've seen on TH-cam. "The Big Switch" that has forever changed the history of Denver television in 1995, as far as the affiliations with networks are concerned. #TheBigSwitch
“The Big Switch” nearly happened in Nashville. When the announcement occurred, the then owners of WSMV, Channel 4, Cook-Inlet, were negotiating with a media company that was going to flip it from NBC to FOX. The only “permanent” hangup was the selling price for the station. While thankfully that didn’t happen, Meredith Corporation came in to buy Channel 4 a few years later, and it’s still the NBC affiliate to this day.
In fact, WSMV is Meredith's only NBC station today. Meredith acquired the station to keep its NBC affiliation when the company was already in a done deal with CBS which included their only other NBC outlet in Bay City (WNEM).
@Reed488 I highly suspect that this was a special produced by all three stations but on KCNC using its anchors, etc. Somewhere around here there's a promo with all three of the stations' evening news anchors but probably produced by KUSA.
And when KMGH was turning the CBS eye over to KCNC, and also when KUSA was turning the Alphabet network over to KMGH! Of course, I am talking about ABC!
@@donmccullen1973 Why wouldn't they. ABC was the bigger partner in the McGraw-Hill group. They literally flipped two of their stations, both longtime NBC outlets in California and Indiana, in the 70s. If McGraw-Hill wanted to align all their stations to one network, they'll end up immediately with ABC. They could've got NBC, but New World was in the middle of selling KNSD to NBC months before negotiating to be eaten by Fox. They could've stayed with CBS, but again, the KCNC saga.
@@redtekki Just going by the talk at the time. KGTV was their biggest station so I would agree with you. Otherwise McGraw-Hill owned only four TV stations. WRTV was the other ABC station and I think they were the one to swipe it from WTHR. Otherwise KMGH and KERO were CBS affiliates before the deal...so yeah I can see MGH made the respected deal. So ABC had leverage with MGH and thus the ABC alignment deal.
This almost happened in Detroit. When WJBK Channel 2 announced the switch to FOX, CBS was left scrambling to find an affiliate. They approached all the channels left in the Detroit market and came close to landing on the ABC affiliate. ABC actually acquired stronger VHF stations in Toledo, Ohio and Flint, Michigan just in case they lost their strong VHF affiliate in Detroit. In jthe end CBS ended up settling for a low powered UHF station (then WGPR channel 62) that it had to massively upgrade.
I wonder if NBC was still in control of the station at that time. If that is the case I am sure they wanted viewers to know where all the shows were going, and really did not care what Channel 4's ratings were like after the switch
The Funny Part is they didn't need to buy an affiliate in Philly as they had WMGM-TV out of Atlantic City witch could of been upgraded power to cover Philly
In Baltimore, 1995 wasn't the first time of musical stations In 1981, WMAR Ch. 2 went from CBS to NBC and WBAL Ch. 11 went from NBC to CBS (but will get NBC back in '95)
Game Zone by Richard Ian Brown, 32 Shazams Is the song featured in your comment? I know the comment is 14 years late, but at least you now know what the song is.
LOL love the glossing over of "AFC football", i.e. the Broncos, on Channel 9 at 4:35. Had to royally suck losing the Bronco games they had going back to, what, 1965? But they got them back just a few years later.
John Fenner Similar to Miami when NBC moved from 4 to 6 and when CBS moved to 6 to 4. Miami Dolphins games went along for the ride to the weaker channel 6, but channel 4 regained the rights to the Dolphins games at the same time KCNC regained rights to the Broncos. NBC's channel 6 transmitter was all the way in Homestead, a problem which hampered NBC until the digital transition, when channel 6 moved its transmitter to the Dade-Broward county line, where the other Miami stations are located.
That was one of the most interesting three-part video I've seen on TH-cam. "The Big Switch" that has forever changed the history of Denver television in 1995, as far as the affiliations with networks are concerned. #TheBigSwitch
Funny thing is, neary 50% of the network shows they talked about never even lasted one season. Lol
“The Big Switch” nearly happened in Nashville. When the announcement occurred, the then owners of WSMV, Channel 4, Cook-Inlet, were negotiating with a media company that was going to flip it from NBC to FOX. The only “permanent” hangup was the selling price for the station. While thankfully that didn’t happen, Meredith Corporation came in to buy Channel 4 a few years later, and it’s still the NBC affiliate to this day.
In fact, WSMV is Meredith's only NBC station today.
Meredith acquired the station to keep its NBC affiliation when the company was already in a done deal with CBS which included their only other NBC outlet in Bay City (WNEM).
@@redtekki and now Meredith is getting out of TV. Meredith is selling its TV stations to Gray Television.
@Reed488 I highly suspect that this was a special produced by all three stations but on KCNC using its anchors, etc. Somewhere around here there's a promo with all three of the stations' evening news anchors but probably produced by KUSA.
This was the time KCNC was turning the NBC peacock over to KUSA
And when KMGH was turning the CBS eye over to KCNC, and also when KUSA was turning the Alphabet network over to KMGH! Of course, I am talking about ABC!
@@thisguyhere6641 Their was talk about KMGH affiliating with NBC. Instead McGraw-Hill aligned all their stations with ABC.
@@donmccullen1973 Why wouldn't they. ABC was the bigger partner in the McGraw-Hill group. They literally flipped two of their stations, both longtime NBC outlets in California and Indiana, in the 70s. If McGraw-Hill wanted to align all their stations to one network, they'll end up immediately with ABC. They could've got NBC, but New World was in the middle of selling KNSD to NBC months before negotiating to be eaten by Fox. They could've stayed with CBS, but again, the KCNC saga.
@@redtekki Just going by the talk at the time. KGTV was their biggest station so I would agree with you. Otherwise McGraw-Hill owned only four TV stations. WRTV was the other ABC station and I think they were the one to swipe it from WTHR. Otherwise KMGH and KERO were CBS affiliates before the deal...so yeah I can see MGH made the respected deal. So ABC had leverage with MGH and thus the ABC alignment deal.
I'm sure getting the Broncos back 3 years later helped them too.
This almost happened in Detroit. When WJBK Channel 2 announced the switch to FOX, CBS was left scrambling to find an affiliate. They approached all the channels left in the Detroit market and came close to landing on the ABC affiliate. ABC actually acquired stronger VHF stations in Toledo, Ohio and Flint, Michigan just in case they lost their strong VHF affiliate in Detroit. In jthe end CBS ended up settling for a low powered UHF station (then WGPR channel 62) that it had to massively upgrade.
I wonder if NBC was still in control of the station at that time. If that is the case I am sure they wanted viewers to know where all the shows were going, and really did not care what Channel 4's ratings were like after the switch
Way late to this...
They did have info about #TheBigSwitch in special TV guides.
They were. You see the “NBC Stations Management” copyright at the end of the program at 7:44.
The Funny Part is they didn't need to buy an affiliate in Philly as they had WMGM-TV out of Atlantic City witch could of been upgraded power to cover Philly
In Baltimore, 1995 wasn't the first time of musical stations
In 1981, WMAR Ch. 2 went from CBS to NBC and WBAL Ch. 11 went from NBC to CBS (but will get NBC back in '95)
"Don't touch that dial!" Ahh, 90's-techno. How crappily awesome.
Game Zone by Richard Ian Brown, 32 Shazams
Is the song featured in your comment? I know the comment is 14 years late, but at least you now know what the song is.
KCNC-TV 4 Affilliaion Switch NBC To CBS
KUSA-TV 9 Affilliation Switch ABC To NBC
KMGH-TV 7 Affilliation Switch CBS To ABC
The eye scaring the peacock?
LOL love the glossing over of "AFC football", i.e. the Broncos, on Channel 9 at 4:35.
Had to royally suck losing the Bronco games they had going back to, what, 1965? But they got them back just a few years later.
The Broncos would return to channel 4 in 1998 when CBS snatched up the AFC from NBC.
John Fenner Similar to Miami when NBC moved from 4 to 6 and when CBS moved to 6 to 4. Miami Dolphins games went along for the ride to the weaker channel 6, but channel 4 regained the rights to the Dolphins games at the same time KCNC regained rights to the Broncos. NBC's channel 6 transmitter was all the way in Homestead, a problem which hampered NBC until the digital transition, when channel 6 moved its transmitter to the Dade-Broward county line, where the other Miami stations are located.
Yup that's true. WTVJ when they moved to 6 was short-spaced to WKMG in Orlando (Then it was WCPX but those calls are on Chicago's Ion affliate).
@@davidvelazquez9473 weren't the Dolphins blacked out most of the time?