Summer 2026 Affiliation Switch News Reports, 7/24/2026

JOIN BROADCAST PLAZA TODAY, DISCORD'S MEDIA DISCUSSION COMMUNITY — http://bit.ly/S31MA News reports from several stations on the receiving end of the networks being dropped by competitors, all from Friday, July 24, 2026. Mentioned on two community posts Thursday, some pretty big news happened in the industry, first in a while. Nexstar renewed with CBS (but didn't announce, letting others break it instead), but six stations lost the affiliation as a result: - Albuquerque, New Mexico: CBS from KRQE to KOAT 7.4 - Birmingham, Alabama: CBS from WIAT to WVTM 13.4 - Bismarck-Minot, North Dakota: KXMB/C/D to KBMY/KMCY .2 - Greenville-Spartanburg, South Carolina: WSPA to WYFF 4.3 - Jackson, Mississippi: WJTV to WAPT 16.4 - Rapid City, South Dakota: KCLO to KNBN 21.2 Also a shocker in St. Louis, as KDNL will lose ABC after 31 years, with it moving to KMOV's subchannel on September 1. It will be mapped as "32.1" replacing the sports channel "Matrix Midwest" which will move to a new channel assignment. All of these stations will keep their existing, long-running networks on their .1 positions (so KOAT, KBMY and KMCY, and WAPT will remain with ABC; WVTM, WYFF, and KNBN will remain with NBC; and KMOV will continue with CBS). The Nexstar stations, which all except for Birmingham already have CW on a subchannel, will simply slide CW programming to the main channel, while WIAT is slated to become an independent, though the rumor is that they will likely pursue CW from Sinclair's WTTO when it becomes available. Sinclair has not yet announced its plans for KDNL. It could go independent, or simply switch to Roar or another Sinclair multicast network. KDNL has minimal local programming, likely a major reason it is losing the network. KMOV most likely would just simulcast its newscasts on ABC, but this would already be an improvement. Of course, despite negotiations taking place for weeks, we are now in an era where one week notice is sufficient for a network switch (KMOV gives us about a month at least for ABC there). All Hearst stations affected announced on-air Friday that they would be picking up CBS in these markets where Nexstar was losing it. All stations aired an identical, word-for-word statement about it on air, likely prepared by corporate. Hearst corporate itself did not issue a press release about it. The two Forum stations in the Dakotas picking it up did not mention it on air as of yet. KBMY and KMCY do not run local newscasts of their own, and KNBN straight up hasn't mentioned it. With the exception of WJTV, already posted, no other Nexstar station has addressed it on the air yet, though KRQE did post a web article. WSPA has also not yet ran a report on air or online, but did spend Friday stripping all CBS references on air and on its website. KDNL, with no newscast and minimal local staff, also has not mentioned their own loss of ABC on air yet. 0:00 - WYFF news report about gaining CBS 1:11 - WVTM news report about gaining CBS 2:19 - KOAT news report about gaining CBS 3:18 - WAPT news report about gaining CBS 4:21 - KMOV news report about gaining ABC ©2026 Hearst Television, WYFF-TV, WVTM-TV, KOAT-TV, WAPT-TV, Gray Local Media, and KMOV-TV, no copyright infringement intended. For educational and historical purposes only. We do not profit off of this video.