KSTP (Channel 5) changed from NBC to ABC, which moved from KMSP (Channel 9). NBC took on WTCN (Channel 11), leaving KMSP as an independent. WCCO (Channel 4) stuck with CBS.
ABC had the top-rated shows on network TV back then: "Happy Days", "Laverne & Shirley", "Three's Company", etc. They weren't pleased with low-rated KMSP, so they made a deal with KSTP, the Hubbard-owned station that had been with NBC since they went on the air in 1948. It was considered quite the blockbuster move in the industry at the time.
NBC's best-known shows in 1979 were "Little House On The Prairie" and "The Rockford Files". They usually languished at the bottom of the prime-time ratings because of turkeys like "Supertrain" and "Waverly Wonders". The fact that they were now on a former independent like WTCN must have reflected their willingness to start from scratch.
Some of the fallout from the switch :
- To promote their new affiliation, KSTP brought in Howard Cosell to help cover the State High School Hockey Tournament with longtime North Stars announcer Al Shaver.
- Overnight broadcasting is now commonplace, but it was a novelty when KSTP started doing it in 1979. Laird Brooks Schmidt, a local comedian and schoolteacher who described himself as a "one-man group thinker", was host for a show that featured some of the most godawful movies ever made. Over at WTCN, the stuff they used to run as an independent--"The Merv Griffin Show", "The Mary Tyler Moore Show", "The Bob Newhart Show"--became night-owl fodder.
- Metromedia, which owned WTCN at the time, spent around a million dollars to build a news department from the ground up. The result was "News Center 11", which was widely panned by critics for being too fast-paced for local viewers more used to the likes of Dave Moore.
- Poor, poor, pitiful KMSP. All they did was pick up leftovers from other stations. Twins baseball. North Stars hockey. High school basketball tournaments. "The CBS Late Movie". And they did much better as an independent than as a network affiliate.
Thirty years and 500 channels later, fortunes changed for the three stations. Gannett bought WTCN from Metromedia in the 1980s, then changed the name to KARE. Today, they run neck-and-neck with WCCO in the local news wars, in spite of NBC's woeful prime time performances.
KMSP is now a Fox affiliate, its parent company having been taken over by Rupert Murdoch a few years ago. Besides "American Idol" and Vikings football, they have a significant news presence during the morning and at 9 p.m., something that could not have been imagined during the ABC days.
KSTP, whose top-rated "Eyewitness News" in the 70's was the reason ABC made the switch, is now mired in fourth place after playing musical anchors a bit too often. You think they're regretting the move?
As for the rest of us, changing networks was one thing. Changing from analog to digital TV--its deadline changed once--is quite another. Who knows what the fallout will be from that?
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