Everything about Flagship Television totally explained
A
flagship station is the principal
station of a
television network in the
United States,
Canada and the
United Kingdom. The term is also used in radio broadcasting (see
radio flagship stations).
The phrase derives from the naval term
flagship, referring to the custom where the commanding officer of a group of naval ships would fly a distinguishing flag on his vessel. Thus, "flagship" in common parlance has come to mean the most important or leading member of a group.
In the late 1920s, network
owned-and-operated (or "O&O") radio stations in
New York City began producing live entertainment and news programs, fed by telephone lines to
network affiliates. These eventually were dubbed flagship stations.
When television networks were formed in the United States in the late 1940s and grew during the early 1950s, network-owned stations in
New York City became the production centers for programs originating on the East Coast, feeding affiliates of
ABC,
CBS, and
NBC in the eastern three-fourths of the country. Stations in
Los Angeles similarly started producing programs on the West Coast, feeding affiliates in the
Pacific Time Zone,
Alaska, and
Hawaii. Conseqently, the networks' New York stations became known as the "East Coast flagships" of their respective networks and the networks' Los Angeles stations became known as the "West Coast flagships."
ABC,
CBS, and
NBC are headquartered in New York, which is the largest television market in the U.S., so their respective New York radio and television stations are considered the overall network flagship stations. As programming schedules increased and modern technology improved transmission to affiliates, the networks set up operations centers in New York (for the East Coast feed) and Los Angeles (for the West Coast feed).
When
Fox Broadcasting Company (or "FOX") launched in
1987, it set up only one network operations center, in Los Angeles. However,
News Corporation, the FOX parent, is headquartered in New York. Its New York O&O,
WNYW, is considered the network's overall flagship while
KTTV in Los Angeles is considered the FOX West Coast flagship.
The former flagship stations of the old
WB network,
WPIX in New York and
KTLA-TV in Los Angeles, are now the flagship stations of
The CW Television Network, which began on
September 18,
2006.
The term is also used for stations that operate satellite stations in other cities. For example,
KSNW in
Wichita, Kansas is the flagship station of the Kansas State Network, a chain of
NBC affiliates in western Kansas.
While the
Public Broadcasting Service in the United States doesn't have an official flagship television station, the television industry has long considered
WNET in the New York area with that title, based on its official flagship role with PBS's predecessor,
National Educational Television.
Flagship stations of nationwide networks
United States
Note: East Coast flagships are located in the
New York City DMA, while the West Coast flagships are located in
Los Angeles.
Miami stations are listed for Univision and Telemundo due to their operations being major production bases for those networks.
Canada
Note: East Coast flagships are located in
Toronto, except for CBFT in
Montreal, while the West Coast flagships are located in
Vancouver.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Flagship Television'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://flagship__television.totallyexplained.com">Flagship (television) Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
