List of former UPN affiliates

Updated on Oct 01, 2024

Edit

Comment

This is a list of stations that were affiliated with UPN in the United States at the time of network closure. UPN shut down on September 15, 2006. Former affiliates of UPN became affiliates of The CW Television Network, MyNetworkTV, another network, or reverted to independent status. The Fox-owned stations dropped UPN on August 31 or September 1, 2006.

Key:
¹ = UPN affiliate which joined The CW Television Network
² = UPN affiliate which joined MyNetworkTV
³ = UPN affiliate which became independent
⁴ = status uncertain
⁵ = UPN affiliate which joined Retro Television Network
⁶ = UPN affiliate which joined CBS and carries MNTV on DT2 subchannel
⁷ = UPN affiliate which joined FOX on 8/21
⁸ = UPN affiliate which joined ABC on 9/1
⁹ = Station has since ceased operations
¹⁰ = Station has since ceased operations on its LPTV signal, but is still in operation as a digital subchannel
¹¹ = Station lost UPN affiliation to WNLO in 2003, currently This TV affiliate
¹² = Station affiliate from 1998 to 2003, lost affiliation to WNLO in 2003, currently This TV affiliate
¹³ = WPWR-TV became a MyNetworkTV affiliate after UPN's shutdown, but 10 years later, it gained the CW affiliate.

Owned-and-operated stations

UPN stations formerly owned by Chris-Craft and those that at the close of the network were owned by CBS Corporation were sometimes considered O&Os, and several transactions have involved these stations:

Not too long after becoming a UPN O&O itself, KRRT (now KMYS) in San Antonio was sold to Jet Broadcasting in 1995, eventually becoming a WB, then MyNetworkTV, and now The CW affiliate under Sinclair ownership.

Upon Chris-Craft's exit from the television industry, its UPN stations were sold to the Fox Television Stations Group. Of those stations, San Francisco's KBHK (now KBCW) was traded to CBS Corporation, while Portland's KPTV was traded to Meredith Corporation, and is now a Fox affiliate. KMSP in Minneapolis-St. Paul then traded its UPN affiliation to WFTC for that station's Fox affiliation. Fox had acquired WFTC not long after the Chris-Craft purchase was finalized. The remaining UPN stations kept by Fox retained their UPN affiliations, but were no longer O&Os of the network - giving UPN the dubious distinction of being the only broadcast network whose stations in the three largest markets of New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago were not O&Os. These stations became O&Os of Fox's new network My Network TV, as UPN and The WB closed down order to launch The CW, and Fox announced none of their UPN stations would join The CW. In fact, Chris-Craft's former NYC station, WWOR-TV, is the second area station to have been an O&O of 2 major networks (after sister WNYW), and its former LA station, KCOP, is the first (second if counting KTLA) station in its area to be O&Oed by 2 networks.

Viacom/CBS sold off several UPN O&Os in the network's final five years. Mercury Broadcasting bought Wichita's KSCC (now KMTW) in 2001 (a newly launched station, LMA'd to Clear Channel Communications at the time, and subsequently to Newport Television and Sinclair Broadcast Group), and Houston's KTXH and Washington's WDCA were sold to Fox in the same year (as part of the aforementioned swap with KBHK). In 2005, Indianapolis' WNDY-TV and Columbus' WWHO were sold to LIN TV; Oklahoma City's KAUT was sold to The New York Times Company (who has since sold its entire television group to Local TV), and WUPL in New Orleans was sold to Belo. In September 2006, KTXH and WDCA became My Network TV O&Os.

References

List of former UPN affiliates Wikipedia

(Text) CC BY-SA