One less voice (technically)

So as you'll read on the jump, Hearst-Argyle, the owner of the ABC affiliate in town, just got the FCC's blessing to buy the CW affiliate in town.  The two have been shacking up for 10 years anyway, and it was time to make 'er an honest woman.

Kansas City's one of the few markets in the country with three TV duopolies.  That's remarkable considering that, by FCC guidelines, only one should exist in a market this size.  Any more, and you're below the FCC's magic — but completely arbitrary — threshold of eight "independent voices" in one television market.

Now we're down to six.  But it seems silly to argue that there were seven yesterday: the CW affiliate has been operated by the ABC affiliate all these years anyway.  Indeed, that close working relationship was a big reason the FCC granted the exemption to the eight-voices rule, which had already been reduced to seven last year when KCTV-5 got the go-ahead to buy My TV KSMO.

And here we find that there are two completely different ways of getting around this particular regulatory hurdle: One is to claim the station you want to buy is "failing" and won't be around for long without you (KSMO), and the other is to claim the station you want to buy is a great success ... and it's all because of you (KCWE). Smart workarounds to a dumb rule.

Owner of KMBC can acquire KCWE, government says

Hearst-Argyle had sought to win federal permission for the Channel 29 deal.

After living together for more than a decade, two local TV stations finally received the government’s blessing to get married.

KCWE-TV, currently a UPN affiliate, can be acquired by Hearst-Argyle Television, the Federal Communications Commission ruled in an order released Tuesday. Hearst-Argyle owns market leader KMBC-TV, the ABC affiliate, and had applied for an exemption to buy KCWE.

The two stations have a history that goes back to KCWE’s embryonic days. In 1995 a former Sprint executive, Robert Liepold, held the building permit for a new TV station through his entity, T.V. 32 Inc. But he had run out of money and was rapidly running out of time. Liepold hired a broker who interviewed 50 investors, none of whom expressed interest in financing his venture.

Finally, in late 1995, Hollywood power couple Sonia and David Salzman bought a minority interest in T.V. 32, and Hearst agreed to supply equipment, financing and programs to the new station. The station and Hearst signed an agreement and KCWB, as it was then known, signed on as a WB network affiliate in 1996. FCC approval of the deal this week cited Hearst’s involvement with KCWE that “enhanced both programming diversity and competition” in Kansas City.

KCWE won’t air UPN shows much longer. That network and the WB are folding, and select programs from the two will air beginning next month on the new CW network.

Liepold sold his interest in KCWE in 1999 but remains station president. “KCWE has come up and become profitable about as quickly as any station, and Hearst gets a lot of credit,” Liepold said.

Comments

[Jason]

Speaking of the CW is anyone else having a hard time stomaching those awful ads for the new network? And now we have the giant CW symbol on the bottom of the screen with Coming in September posted besides it. And then every 10 minutes we have that ugly green flash across the screen. From the cancellation of Everwood to all the other idiotic moves, the CW doesn't deserve to succeed.

[Mark Jeffries]

Yes, snipes and bugs are annoying, but the barn door is open and the horses left a long time ago. Unless you want to go back to the days of three networks, PBS and an independent on the same channels everywhere in a market and unless you want to give up your remote, snipes and bugs are not going to go away.

And if you want the FCC to regulate bugs and snipes, you might as well ask them to start regulating content, too.

And "Everwood"'s just a TV show. TV shows get cancelled. They all go away eventually, except for "Today," "Tonight," "Meet the Press" and "60 Minutes." Get over it.

And what other idiotic moves has The CW made outside of snipes and cancelling "Everwood?" Ticked over "Living With Fran," "Pepper Dennis" and "Twins" getting canned?

[Jason]

I know tv shows get cancelled all the time but this was a real boneheaded one for that network. Thats all I'm saying. And no I'm not upset by any of the other three trash I mean sitcoms that were cancelled. I just don't care much for the heads at CBS and lets face it, CBS is now calling the shots. I realize the network wants to promote itself but can't they do it in a less annoying way such as a regular sized CW moniker and a little message about it coming in september?

[Mark Jeffries]

1. Whether you like Les Moonves or not, he does run the top-rated network, so he must have something on the ball.

2. If Les wanted to be really partial to shows his company owns, he would've canned "Veronica" and renewed "Charmed" for another season. Same situation as "Everwood"/"Seventh" (which is what I assume you're steamed over). But he didn't.

Perhaps this is why The CW's decided that any new shows from either CBS Paramount or Warners will be owned 50-50 by the two companies.

[Jason]

Actually the 7th Heaven renewal doesn't really bother me that much besides the fact that they let the wb advertise it as a series finale and let the fans get all wrapped up over it. I think its good for the show to go on so it gets a better ending then that crap they showed us back in May. As for Everwood, come on at least they could've A) replaced it with Aquaman, a pilot that could've become a big hit. Instead we are now stuck with another serialized show that will likely fail (think 7th Heaven curse). B) He could've moved Everwood to Sundays at 9 in place of Top Model repeats or at least done something with this hour. Both Eve and Half and Half were valuable upn sitcoms to pair here. C) Can One Tree Hill or shift it as a midseason alternative to any of the other shows because this network will have the same problem when it comes to repeats as the wb did. D) Given Everwood a midseason slot instead of another likely to be cancelled show in Hidden Hills. When you look at the top ranked shows from the two networks, Everwood was 6th or 7th. One Tree Hill was like 20th. Veronica was like 22nd. Not sure on the actual numbers but it was close to that. As for Charmed, that show should've died 2 years ago, the fans even said that, and Veronica Mars is a great show but had no compatibility to UPN, which is why it struggled and in my mind did deserve the chance. It could still become a major hit in my mind but One Tree Hill proved this year in what for all but two months of the season was a weak time slot that it couldn't survive.

[Jason]

Oh and one final thing- sorry this is so long I have a posting problem- Les is a good executive. He makes the smart move MOST of the time but this could become a big disaster.