I remembered it firsthand when I returned to Maryland (only a week's visit) from Maine. Growing up, I remembered when WJZ 13 was ABC, WMAR 2 was CBS then NBC, and WBAL 11 was NBC, then CBS. I also knew that WBFF 45, WNUV 54, were merely independent stations. Then in 1997 when my mother, brothers and I drove from Bath, ME to Baltimore, I learned that all the stations have changed or altered dramatically. WJZ 13 is now CBS, WMAR 2 is now ABC, WBAL 11 is now NBC, WBFF 45 is now FOX, and WNUV 54 is now CW. I also remembered WDCA 20 and WTTG 5 were also both independent stations before these two stations are now owned by FOX, but they are in the Washington DC area. But Maine never had any changes with their network station affiliations since their respective inceptions. WCSH 6 has always been NBC. WMTW 8 has always been ABC. And WGME 13 has always been CBS.

What i remember about the "Big Switch of 1995"that involved 5 of the top twenty TV markets: Philadelphia, Boston, Miami-Ft. Lauderdale, Denver, Minneapolis and throw in Baltimore which has gone through this twice.

Rise and Shine, WJZ-TV 13 Baltimore's morning TV news magazine...

Yep. When the Philly and Boston switches took place, KYW and WBZ didn't do much of anything, just put up their IDs and said "KYW-TV/WBZ-TV is now your CBS station."

"Lemme get this log out of my pocket."

WMAR TV 2 in Baltimore is the only station that can say they had all 3 networks: CBS, then NBC, and now ABC.

WBFF Fox 45 is Baltimore's only station never to change it's affiliate.

Glad DC didn't have to go through all that. In fact, I remember the stations in DC making fun of it.

it was just a confusing as it was 15 years earlier when WBAL(11) and WMAR(2) switched affliates. I gew up with 2=CBS, 11=NBC, 13=ABC, then it became 2=NBC, 11=CBS, 13=ABC IN 1981, then 2=ABC, 11=NBC, 13=CBS IN 1995.

oh man i remember this cast.. oh man.. those guys were great.. i miss al sanders also and jerry turner... oh the old school...

Not long before the Westinghouse/CBS merger was concluded, The Walt Disney Company was about to complete their acquisition of Capital Cities Broadcasting (CapCities/ABC), who owned and operated the ABC network and a few ABC network affiliates, including WABC-TV 7 New York City and KABC-TV 7 Los Angeles...

I remember this. I was leaving middle school around this time.

in 1995 three group w stations change affiliates Baltimore wjz-tv,Boston wbz-tv, and Philadelphia kyw-tv all went to cbs.

I miss Don Scott😎

On one newscast not long before the switch, Marty had said that Westinghouse was also negotiating to switch all of its TV stations to FOX or NBC, but CBS signed the deal first.

When I first found out that day... I was confused... I was like... "What The fuck is going on?"

WJZ was one of the six TV stations owned by Westinghouse Broadcasting.

ABC didn’t want to do this switch as WJZ has been the longtime market leader then and now. Scripps told ABC it would switch WEWS and WXYZ to CBS unless it also switched WMAR (and two other UHF stations) to ABC. This had been the longest tenured ABC affiliate…now it’s WJLA (affiliated with ABC since 1948 when it was WMAL). As a result, Westinghouse sought one affiliation for all five of its stations…and chose CBS since it could potentially merge radio divisions (which happened).

I hated this switch I remember when Channel 2 was CBS Channel 13 was ABC and Channel 11 was NBC then Channel 2 and 11 switched, then in 1995 they messed everything up and on top of that, they had ABC soaps airing a day behind!

Actually this affiliation switch was not because of the Westinghouse-CBS merger. The two companies had signed a deal in the summer of 1994 where the Westinghouse stations that were not affiliated with CBS (KYW, WJZ, and WBZ) would switch to CBS. This deal caused some challenges because CBS owned a station in Philadelphia (WCAU), where Westinghouse also owned a station (KYW). CBS would have incurred serious tax liabilities if they had sold WCAU outright so they entered into a deal with NBC to swap some stations in exchange for WCAU. Then CBS and Westinghouse entered into a joint venture, with Westinghouse as majority owner, that would control the stations that CBS obtained from NBC as well as KYW. WJZ and WBZ were not involved in that arrangement so they switched to CBS in January 1995 as per the agreement reached the previous summer. Because of the complexity of the arrangement the trades with NBC didn’t take place until September 1995 and so KYW didn’t switch to CBS until then. Westinghouse had agreed to purchase CBS in August 1995 but the merger didn’t become final until November of that year, so WJZ was just a CBS affiliate until that deal closed and at that point it, along with the other Westinghouse stations (including those in the joint venture) became CBS O&Os.

A result of the CBS/Westinghouse merger in 1993. The merged company would take all its' owned stations CBS. That required a couple of years to have affiliation agreements redone and having CBS sell WCAU/Philadelphia to NBC. Besides Boston and Philly changing to CBS from longtime NBC commitments, the three major-net affiliates in Denver swapped out as well; Westinghouse buying KCNC and dropping NBC for CBS; Gannett picking up NBC for KUSA and ABC ending up with McGraw-Hill's KMGH.

"This is CBS!"

man i dont remember this i didnt kno they was abc at first well probably thats cuz i was born in 1990 im a youngin lol

Hmm. More than sister stations KYW 3 Philly and WBZ 4 Boston did for their CBS switches.

Thank God nothing like that happened here in DC.

WGHP Channel 8 switch from ABC to Fox in the Late Summer in 1995.

@johnissoevil I had heard (I'm from Boston) that Group W came close to selling-off WBZ Boston to NBC, but talks broke down because NBC was more interested in getting an O&O in Philadelphia, where the combined Group W/CBS had to ell either KYW or WCAU, than buying it's longtime Boston affiliate.

Westinghouse buying CBS? Don't you mean CBS buying the Westinghouse stations, including WJZ?

Wow I forgot they switched in the mid 90s...channel 23 used to be ABC because I remember watching Full House on it. What did channel 12 and 21 used to be?

WJZ-TV 13, formerly ABC, now CBS WBAL-TV 11, formerly CBS, now NBC WMAR-TV 2, formerly NBC, now ABC It was WJZ's deal with CBS/Westinghouse that started this game of "musical stations."

If I hosted my own news channel, it would be CBS and I would bring back KEWLopolis too.

Actually, Westinghouse didn't buy CBS until a year after the affiliation switches. CBS did gain minority ownership in the stations upon the deal. But Scripps' deal with ABC to switch WMAR to ABC and strip WBZ of the affiliation is what triggered the whole thing.

I predict that the next affiliation switch will be Fox on 2, ABC on 11, NBC on 24, and MyNetwork on 45.

Is that the Star Hustler intro music?

Call this two big switches from 1995, first in Baltimore on January 2, 1995, WMAR-TV 2 NBC to ABC, WBAL-TV 11 CBS to NBC, and WJZ-TV 13 ABC to CBS and only WBFF-TV Fox 45 was unaffected, and WJZ-TV is not known as CBS 13. And second in Denver on September 10, 1995, KCNC-TV 4 NBC to CBS, KMGH-TV 7 CBS to ABC, and KUSA-TV 9 ABC to NBC and only KDVR Fox 31 was unaffected. Call these the year of the two big switches.

There's something better on at 5:30am?

WJZ didnt change to all three that was WMAR channel 2

Man, was this confusing. I hope they don't switch stations again.

Better days

1/2/95 at 5am,

That same year, New World worked out a deal with FOX and E.W. Scripps worked out a deal with ABC... Disney would acquire CapCities/ABC, the parent company of ABC later that year...

WFMY and WMYV Switch Affiliations.

Who really initiated "The Big Switch" of 1995?

This was neccessary because Westinghouse who owed Group W merged with CBS.

We've got the touch on wjz 13

till this day i still don't know why they did that shit with switching the networks i hated the whole fucking thing i was so mad when it happend

Wooof to the guy with a beard!

Conversely enough, CBS affiliate WBAL Channel 11 went to NBC, and NBC affiliate WMAR Channel 2 went to ABC! #TheBigSwitch #BaltimoreMD

@TIMMF65 Matt. 7:1-Do not judge, or you too will be judged. John 8:7-Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.

WMAR Channel 2 used to be CBS.

channel 11 does what its title says NEWS marty ass should have been taking off baltimore tv when he was caught trying to pick up an undercover cop by patterson park back in the 80's thats when he took on the bald look, many forget about the toupee

fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck everyone complains about the screen gems logo, but the spinning CBS is the stuff of horrors

wjz cbs 13 owned by o&o

Freaking Marty.. has to be on Coke here

AFRAM 22

this is horrible tv, its like everyone that works there i feel sorry for. They all fresh new faces and ideas...Especially denise koch, she looks a mess !

gosh... their talent speaks for itself doesn't it. "Rise and Shine?" Should be "Rise, Shine and Change the Channel" away from the babbling idiots. I've always wondered about the sanity of my fellow Baltimoreans, since this has been "THE" local morning news team for years... Where's the news? It's taking them minutes to even get around to explaining their own network change, for God's sake.

What a STUPID move.

Get rid of local affiliates.It's a cable world now.CBS 2 NBC 4 FOX 5 ABC 7 UPN 9 WB 11 PBS 13 Make them all one station.