Editing The WB (section)

==Differences between The WB and the "Big Four" networks==

===Scheduling===
At the time of its shutdown, The WB ran only two hours of primetime network programming on Monday through Fridays and five hours on Sundays, compared to the three Monday through Saturday and four Sunday primetime hours offered by the [[Big Three television networks|Big Three networks]] (unlike The WB, UPN never carried any weekend primetime programming, though it did offer a movie package to its affiliates on weekend afternoons until September 2000, when the latter was replaced with a two-hour repeat block of UPN programs). This primetime scheduling allowed for many of the network's affiliates to air local newscasts during the 10:00–11:00&nbsp;p.m. ([[Eastern Time Zone|Eastern]] and [[Pacific Time Zone|Pacific]]) time period.

The WB never ran network programming on Saturday nights – despite the fact that the network maintained a children's program block on Saturday mornings – allowing affiliates to run syndicated programs, sports, movies or network programs that were preempted from earlier in the week due to special programming, in the 8:00–10:00&nbsp;p.m. (Eastern and Pacific) time period. The network's Sunday schedule was originally three hours when The WB began programming that night in September 1995, but expanded to five hours (from 5:00 to 10:00&nbsp;p.m. Eastern and Pacific Time) in September 2002, with the creation of the "EasyView" repeat block (that block was retained by The CW, which initially adopted The WB's scheduling model until it turned Sunday programming over to its affiliates in September 2009).

In comparison to ABC and CBS, The WB also had the fewest hours devoted to daytime programming on weekdays between September 2001 (when the network dropped the weekday morning block of Kids' WB programs) and September 2006, running only two hours of programming each weekday afternoon (compared to 4½ hours on CBS and four hours on ABC) – NBC in comparison ran only three hours of daytime programming each weekday (not counting its morning news program ''[[Today (American TV program)|Today]]'') until September 2000, when it scaled back its daytime programming block to two hours. Because of these reasons, the schedules of The WB's affiliates were largely composed of [[Broadcast syndication|syndicated programming]].

===Affiliate distribution===
The WB was the only [[English language]] broadcast network that historically did not have any owned-and-operated stations. Although Tribune Broadcasting maintained an ownership stake in The WB, its stations in the three largest television markets of New York City (WPIX), Los Angeles (KTLA) and Chicago (WGN-TV) were [[network affiliate|affiliates]] of the network since Tribune did not have a controlling ownership interest in the network to allow its stations to be constituted as O&Os (by 2005, Tribune owned 22.5% of the network, while Time Warner held the controlling 77.5% interest). Time Warner did not have a station group of its own at the time (and still does not in the present day); although its [[Turner Broadcasting System]] division did own Atlanta independent station [[WPCH-TV]] (then WTBS, the local feed of then-[[superstation]] [[TBS (American TV channel)|TBS]]) at the time, but it never carried WB programming due to the network's affiliation with [[WATL (TV)|WATL]], which Tribune Broadcasting had owned from 1999 (when it acquired the station from Qwest Broadcasting, which was part-owned by Tribune) to 2006 (when it sold the station to the [[Gannett Company]], now [[Tegna, Inc.]]).

Unlike the other major networks, The WB distributed its programming in markets that did not have enough commercial television stations to support a standalone WB affiliate to cable-only outlets: the superstation feed of WGN-TV (now known as [[NewsNation]] and since converted into a general news cable channel) carried the network's programming from January 1995 to October 1999 to make The WB available primarily to areas where it did not yet have a full-time affiliate. While viewers in the Chicago area saw primetime and Kids' WB programming on separate stations until September 2004 (primetime shows on WGN-TV and children's programs on [[WCIU-TV]]), the WGN superstation feed carried the WB's entire schedule during the four-year period that it carried the network.

On September 21, 1998, The WB launched [[The WB 100+ Station Group]], an alternate national feed for small and certain mid-sized U.S. markets (generally those within the bottom 110 Nielsen media markets).<ref name="thc-wb100">{{Cite web |last=Jesse Heisiond |title=WB 100 Plus Stations Act Locally |url=http://russellmyerson.com/media/document/new_100_stations_act_locally.pdf |publisher=BPI |via=RussellMyerson.com |periodical=[[The Hollywood Reporter]] |access-date=2013-04-22 |archive-date=2016-03-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304000718/http://russellmyerson.com/media/document/new_100_stations_act_locally.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite press release |title=The WB 100+ station group hits 8 million, more than doubling its household reach since launch |date=January 15, 2002 |url=http://www.timewarner.com/newsroom/press-releases/2002/01/15/the-wb-100-station-group-hits-8-million-more-than-doubling-its |website=[[Time Warner]]}}</ref><ref name="tvweek-wb100">{{Cite web |date=September 22, 2003 |title=A Salute to The WB 100+ Station Group on its Fifth Anniversary |url=http://russellmyerson.com/media/document/russ_myerson_television_week2250.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304061500/http://russellmyerson.com/media/document/russ_myerson_television_week2250.pdf |archive-date=March 4, 2016 |via=RussellMyerson.com |periodical=TelevisionWeek}}</ref> The service – which transmitted its content via an [[IBM]]-developed [[server (computing)|data server]] network that digitally transmitted local and national advertisements, [[promo (media)|promos]], [[station identification]]s and customized [[digital on-screen graphic|logo bugs]] to each individual affiliate, with the programming feeds and accompanying data being relayed via [[communications satellite|satellite]] and stored to a wireless [[Personal computer|PC]]-based system (known as a "station in a box") – was primarily affiliated with cable-only television channels (which were mainly operated by area cable providers), though it was also carried on full-power or [[Low-power broadcasting|low-power stations]] in some markets. The WB 100+ offered its own master schedule with programs available on the syndication market that were acquired by The WB (including some feature films and [[infomercial]]s) airing outside of network programming hours; the addition of local advertisements and newscasts were at the discretion of the local distributor. Most of the stations that were part of The WB 100+ Station Group joined [[The CW Plus]] after The CW's September 2006 launch,<ref name="b&c=cwplus">{{Cite web |last=Allison Romano |date=February 24, 2006 |title=CW Creates Small-Market Service |url=http://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/news-articles/cw-creates-small-market-service/78970 |access-date=August 20, 2015 |publisher=Reed Business Information |periodical=[[Broadcasting & Cable]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Allison Romano |date=February 24, 2006 |title=The Mating Game |url=http://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/news-articles/mating-game/78993 |access-date=August 20, 2015 |publisher=Reed Business Information |periodical=Broadcasting & Cable}}</ref> though most of the cable-only affiliates that became part of The CW Plus have since been replaced by or converted into [[digital subchannel]]s carried by major network affiliates.

Of the network's cable-exclusive affiliates, "WRWB" in [[Rochester, New York]] (owned by local cable provider Greater Rochester Cablevision and its operator/successor, WB sister company [[Time Warner Cable]]), [[WISC-TV#TVW (WISC-DT2)|TVW (Television Wisconsin Network)]] in [[Madison, Wisconsin]] (owned by [[Morgan Murphy Media]], owner of local CBS affiliate [[WISC-TV]]) and [[Toledo 5|WT05]] in [[Toledo, Ohio]] (owned by [[Block Communications]], operator of Toledo-area cable provider [[Buckeye CableSystem]]) were not part of The WB 100+ Station Group, having all predated that service's launch. Like the national cable feed, their respective owners handled programming for the three channels, running their own schedule of syndicated programs during non-network hours; this model was maintained by TVW and WT05 under their subsequent affiliations: TVW became a UPN affiliate in 2001 (having been added to a subchannel of WISC the year prior) and a MyNetworkTV affiliate in 2006, while WT05 operated as a CW affiliate from 2006 until its shutdown and replacement by [[WTVG|WTVG-DT2]] in October 2014. ("WRWB" moved to a subchannel of ABC affiliate [[WHAM-TV]] in November 2006, shortly after becoming a CW affiliate.) In certain mid-sized and smaller markets, some of The WB's stations held dual affiliations with another major network – most commonly, UPN (with The WB often serving as the primary affiliation) – if there were not enough television stations to allow both networks to maintain separate affiliates (though this was also the case in a few markets where enough stations were available for a standalone affiliate).

===News programming===
News programming on The WB's affiliates was similar to Fox stations at the time in that the quantity of newscasts varied from station to station. Roughly half of The WB's approximately 200 affiliates aired a local newscast in the 10:00–11:00&nbsp;p.m. Eastern/Pacific (9:00–10:00&nbsp;p.m. Central/Mountain) time slot at some point during or throughout their affiliations with the network. Fundamentally, the newscast schedules on WB affiliates varied considerably between stations compared to those affiliated with ABC, CBS, NBC and especially Fox. Most WB affiliates generally ran a two-hour morning newscast on weekdays and/or a half-hour or hour-long 10:00&nbsp;p.m. newscast on Monday through Fridays only or all seven nights of the week; although there were a few larger market stations that maintained in-house news departments that also produced midday newscasts and had morning newscasts that began in the then-traditional 5:00–7:00&nbsp;a.m. timeslot; early evening newscasts were largely absent on most of these stations.

The WB affiliate body had fewer news-producing stations in comparison to stations aligned with the [[Big Three television networks]] (NBC, ABC and CBS) and considerably fewer than Fox (which has only around 70 stations with in-house news departments, with most of its stations outsourcing their news programming to a competitor). When the network launched in January 1995, The WB automatically gained five affiliates with functioning news departments through the initial agreement with Tribune Broadcasting, all of whom founded their news operations as either independent stations or during early affiliations with other networks, such as the [[DuMont Television Network]]: WGN-TV in Chicago, WPIX in New York City, KTLA in Los Angeles, [[KWGN-TV]] in [[Denver]] and [[WLVI|WLVI-TV]] in [[Boston]] (a fifth news-producing station owned by Tribune at the time, [[WANF|WGNX]] in Atlanta, was to become a WB charter affiliate but instead affiliated with CBS after WAGA-TV dropped that network to join Fox in December 1994, through a [[1994 United States broadcast TV realignment|groupwide affiliation deal]] between Fox and WAGA owner New World Communications).<ref>{{Cite web |last=Steve McClellan |date=November 21, 1994 |title=CBS signs WGNX Atlanta |url=http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC-IDX/94-OCR/BC-1994-11-21-Page-0008.pdf |publisher=Cahners Business Information |page=8 |periodical=Broadcasting & Cable}}</ref> [[KPLR-TV]] in [[St. Louis]] (which would not be acquired by Tribune until 2003, when it bought the station from [[ACME Communications]]) also continued to produce a 9:00&nbsp;p.m. newscast as a WB affiliate; while [[Phoenix, Arizona]]'s [[KTVK]] began running expanded newscasts shortly before joining The WB at the network's launch (it had earlier lost the ABC affiliation to [[KNXV-TV]]; The WB affiliation moved to [[KASW]], which KTVK began managing under a [[local marketing agreement]] upon its sign-on, in September 1995).

In the late 1990s, Tribune asked the company's remaining WB-affiliated stations that did not run newscasts to develop their own news departments; the only stations to do this were [[KDAF]] in [[Dallas]]–[[Fort Worth, Texas|Fort Worth]], [[KIAH|KHWB]] in [[Houston]], [[KSWB-TV]] in [[San Diego]] and [[WPHL-TV]] in [[Philadelphia]] – the first three debuted their newscasts in 1999, while WPHL had debuted a 10:00&nbsp;p.m. newscast that was produced in conjunction with ''[[The Philadelphia Inquirer]]'' in 1994, before WPHL took over production of the program in 1996. KSWB and WPHL would both shutter their news departments in 2005, outsourcing production of their 10:00&nbsp;p.m. newscasts to [[NBC]] [[KNSD|owned-and-operated]] [[WCAU|stations]] in their respective markets (KSWB restored in-house newscasts after it switched from WB successor The CW to Fox in August 2008).<ref>{{Cite news |last=Robert P. Laurence |date=September 22, 2005 |title=KSWB news changes hands; 30 to lose jobs |work=[[San Diego Union-Tribune|U-T San Diego]] |publisher=[[Copley Press]] |url=http://legacy.utsandiego.com/news/features/20050922-9999-1c22kswb.html |access-date=April 22, 2013 |archive-date=December 13, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131213191007/http://legacy.utsandiego.com/news/features/20050922-9999-1c22kswb.html |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Karla Peterson |date=July 3, 2008 |title=Fox and CW changing channels |work=U-T San Diego |publisher=Copley Press |url=http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20080703/news_1m3tvswitch.html}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Karla Peterson |date=August 25, 2008 |title='Fox 5': First the bad news and now the good news? |work=-T San Diego |publisher=Copley Press |url=http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20080825/news_1c25karla.html}}</ref> [[KNTV]] in [[San Jose, California|San Jose]] became the largest news-producing WB affiliate by market size to be owned by a company other than Tribune (and the only other affiliate of the network to produce early evening newscasts, after KTVK) after it terminated its ABC affiliation, and began carrying WB programming (in a partial simulcast with then-[[sister station]] [[KOFY-TV|KBWB-TV]]) in 2000, before affiliating with – and then ultimately being purchased by – NBC in 2002.

[[Sinclair Broadcast Group]] also operated several WB affiliates with local news departments: [[Raleigh, North Carolina|Raleigh]]'s [[WLFL]] was the only WB affiliate that the company owned which had an existing news operation at the time it joined the network (WLFL began producing a 10:00&nbsp;p.m. newscast as a Fox affiliate in 1992, six years before it joined The WB); Sinclair's [[WTTA|Tampa]], [[WNYO-TV|Buffalo]], [[WVTV|Milwaukee]], [[WSTR-TV|Cincinnati]], [[KSNV|Las Vegas]] and [[WTVZ|Norfolk]]<ref>{{Cite news |last=Larry Bonko |date=August 10, 2003 |title=WTVZ PONDERS A JUMP INTO THE 10 P.M. NEWS POOL |work=[[The Virginian-Pilot]] |publisher=[[Landmark Media Enterprises]] |url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=VP&p_theme=vp&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0FCE770A37367F10&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM}}</ref> WB affiliates began producing their own newscasts through Sinclair's local/national hybrid news format [[News Central (American TV program)|News Central]] in the early 2000s. The news departments of all seven of those stations were shut down in 2006 due to companywide cutbacks in Sinclair's news operations and the discontinuance of News Central.<ref>{{Cite web |date=March 15, 2006 |title=Sinclair cuts back on 'News Central': Live newscasts' viewership called low |url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-143246497.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924134639/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-143246497.html |archive-date=September 24, 2015 |access-date=September 1, 2015 |newspaper=[[The Baltimore Sun]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=March 13, 2006 |title=Sinclair's NewsCentral model loses stations |url=http://www.tvtechnology.com/news/0086/sinclairs-newscentral-model-loses-stations/249219 |website=TelevisionWeek}}</ref> Of the former WB affiliates that produced newscasts during their affiliation with the network, only WGN-TV, WPIX, KTLA, KDAF and KIAH (all of whom became affiliates of The CW) continue to maintain self-supporting news departments {{as of|December 2014|lc=y}} (KPLR and KWGN respectively merged their news departments with those of Fox affiliates [[KTVI]] and [[KDVR]] through a 2008 management agreement between Tribune and [[Local TV LLC|Local TV]], while WLVI's news department was shut down after Tribune sold the station to [[Sunbeam Television]] in 2006, with production of its 10:00&nbsp;p.m. newscast taken over by new [[sister station]] [[WHDH (TV)|WHDH]]).

In most markets, the local WB affiliate either outsourced news programming to an NBC, ABC or CBS station in the market (either due to insufficient funds for production of their own newscasts or in later years after the FCC permitted duopolies in markets with at least eight unique station owners in 2000, the station being operated through a legal [[Duopoly (broadcasting)|duopoly]] or [[local marketing agreement|operational agreement]] with a major network affiliate) or opted to carry syndicated programming in the hour following The WB's primetime programming. As with Fox affiliates, WB-affiliated stations whose newscasts were produced by a same-market competitor tended to have fewer programming hours devoted to news than the station producing the broadcasts.