Broadcast History: Longest TV Channel, Callsign, Affiliation Combos

When looking at broadcast history, it’s interesting to track how network affiliations have changed over time in many cities.

For example, the timeline of early TV stations in Wisconsin shows the numerous changes that happened in Green Bay and Milwaukee, where affiliations were in flux as new stations signed on (and off) in the 1950s. Later, all four major networks changed channels in Green Bay in the 1990s due to an ownership change and the FOX “affiliate raids,” the latter of which also affected Milwaukee.

Even Minneapolis has seen its share of changes over the years, with only CBS on the same channel since the station signed on (and it also had a secondary ABC affiliation for its first few years).

Many stations also changed callsigns over the decades as a result of ownership changes. A few even changed channels in the early days of TV as allotments were still being sorted out.

So, which Upper Midwest stations have had the same channel (real or virtual), primary network affiliation, and callsign for the longest?

1950	WHBF/4 (Rock Island), CBS*
1952	WCCO-TV/4 (Minneapolis), CBS* **
1953	KWWL/7 (Waterloo-Cedar Rapids), NBC KFYR-TV/5 (Bismarck), NBC* WEAU-TV/13 (Eau Claire), NBC* WTMJ-TV/4 (Milwaukee), NBC* ** WGEM-TV/10 (Quincy), NBC*
1954	KCRG-TV/9 (Cedar Rapids), ABC** WHO-TV/13 (Des Moines), NBC KTIV/4 (Sioux City), NBC WKBT/8 (La Crosse), CBS*
1955	WOI-TV/5 (Ames-Des Moines), ABC**
1956	WISC-TV/3 (Madison), CBS
1957	KUMV/8 (Williston), NBC*
1958	KMOT/10 (Minot), NBC* KXMC/13 (Minot), CBS* **
1959	KXMB/12 (Bismarck), CBS* **
1960	KELO-TV/11 (Sioux Falls), CBS* **

*indicates the station also had secondary affiliations with another of the original big three networks, but it has had the same primary affiliation since the year listed
** indicates the station signed on earlier but had a different callsign, channel, or primary affiliation

So, the Upper Midwest “awards” go to:

Longest-running primary affiliation, channel, and callsign: WHBF/4 (Rock Island, CBS)
Longest-running primary affiliation on the same channel: CBS on channel 4 in Minneapolis since 1949 (originally WTCN-TV, changed to WCCO-TV in 1952)
Longest-running primary affiliation on a station: NBC on WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee since 1947 (the station moved from channel 3 to 4 in 1953)

It’s fitting that the oldest combination of channel, callsign, and network affiliation is in the Quad Cities, since it’s one of the few markets that has never had a primary affiliation change among major networks. The present-day KWQC/6 is actually eight months older than WHBF and has always been affiliated with NBC, but changed its channel in 1952 and its callsign in 1986.

The only other Upper Midwest markets that have never seen a major affiliation swap are La Crosse-Eau Claire and North Platte. La Crosse-Eau Claire had two stations for the first few decades of TV (one in each city) and North Platte still has only one full-power commercial station, with other networks carried on subchannels and low-power stations.

RELATED:

Nebraska’s timeline is coming soon!