Editing UPN (section)

=== Station standardization ===
When the network launched, UPN began having most of its stations branded using a combination of "UPN" or "Paramount" (the latter having been used only by the network's Viacom-owned stations, some of whom adopted the "Paramount" branding prior to UPN's launch), and the affiliated station's channel number. By the late 1990s, affiliates were simply branded under the "UPN (channel number or city)" scheme (for example, Chicago affiliate WPWR-TV called itself "UPN Chicago" and New York City O&O-turned-affiliate WWOR-TV was referred to as "UPN 9", until The CW's launch was announced in January 2006).

However, most of the UPN owned-and-operated stations under Viacom/CBS Corporation branded themselves by the network/city conventions (for example, [[KPYX|KBHK-TV]]/[[San Francisco]] was branded as "UPN Bay Area", [[WKBD-TV|WKBD]]/[[Detroit]] was branded as "UPN Detroit", [[WUPA]] was branded as "UPN Atlanta" and [[WUPL]]/[[New Orleans]] was branded as "UPN New Orleans"). That type of branding did not always apply though, as for example, [[WSBK-TV]]/[[Boston]] was branded "UPN 38" and [[KMAX-TV]]/[[Sacramento, California|Sacramento]] was branded "UPN 31". [[WPKD-TV|WNPA]]/[[Pittsburgh]] originally branded itself as "UPN 19", but rebranded itself as "UPN Pittsburgh" soon after the network introduced its second and final logo in September 2002, making it one of the few that had carried both standardization styles. Many UPN-affiliated stations followed the same branding scheme (for example, [[KHII-TV|KFVE]]/[[Honolulu, Hawaii|Honolulu]] used the brand "UPN Hawaii").

This would be a continuation of the trend of networks using such naming schemes, which originated at Fox (and even earlier by the Canadian [[CBC Television|CBC]]), and was also predominately used at CBS (which has most of its owned-and-operated stations, with a few exceptions, brand using a combination of the network's name and over-the-air channel number) and The WB (with the exception of its Tribune Broadcasting-owned affiliates in Los Angeles and Chicago, and certain other stations); NBC and ABC also use similar branding schemes, but not to the same broad level outside their O&Os. While the "Big Three" networks do not require their affiliates to have such naming schemes (though some affiliates choose to adopt it anyway) and only on the network's O&Os is the style required, UPN mandated it on all stations – though in one case, [[Milwaukee]] affiliate [[WCGV-TV|WCGV]] branded as "Channel 24" from 1998 to 2001, excluding UPN imagery from its station branding (WCGV, which previously branded as "UPN 24", had disaffiliated from the network for eight months in 1998 due to a compensation dispute; it received a rare waiver from the network to air a marathon of the last half of [[Star Trek: Voyager (season 4)|season four of ''Star Trek: Voyager'']] which it had not aired in August 1998, before the fifth season's premiere in September.<ref>{{cite web |title = Sinclair Pulling More UPN Affiliations |url = http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-20115938.html |first = Joe |last = Schlosser |periodical = Broadcasting & Cable   |date = January 5, 1998 |access-date = September 2, 2015 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150924151246/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-20115938.html |archive-date = September 24, 2015 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title = UPN, Sinclair Make Up |url = http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-50228020.html |first = Steve |last = McClellan |periodical = Broadcasting & Cable   |date = August 3, 1998 |access-date = September 2, 2015 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150924155249/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-50228020.html |archive-date = September 24, 2015 }}</ref>).

One Chris-Craft/United Television-owned station, [[KMSP-TV]] in [[Minneapolis–Saint Paul]], only branded as "UPN 9" for its entertainment and network programming. Due to the station's circumstances of holding full cable carriage across the state of [[Minnesota]] and into [[The Dakotas]] as a [[superstation]], local management preferred to retain their pre-UPN "Minnesota 9" branding in some manner, as most of the UPN schedule was of low appeal to the station's rural viewers, and it was building a successful and competitive news department that did not depend on the success or failure of UPN. KMSP's news division success despite UPN affiliation was one of the pushes for Fox Television Stations to acquire United Television overall, then convert KMSP-TV to a Fox owned-and-operated station in Fall 2002. The UPN affiliation thus moved to new sister station [[WFTC]], which followed all UPN branding guidelines until Fox pulled their support for the network in January 2006.