Re: WNDS/WBZ alliance [The REAL STORY]

["David W. Harris" <dwh@totalnetnh.net>]

There has been enough recent mention on this list of Ch. 21's one-week
affiliation with CBS that some people might actually believe it.  WNHT
was with CBS from February 1, 1988 until owner Thomas Flatley pulled the
plug on March 31, 1989--that works out to 61 weeks.

Working from memory and a few clippings, I recall a couple subsequent
serious efforts to bring CBS-TV to NH that the network turned down--once
burned, twice shy?  In 1993 a group seeking to buy WGOT (Ch. 60)
approached CBS.  A key participant was Dick Osborne, a man with plenty
of contacts at CBS Radio as president/GM of WKXL.  (After CBS said no,
the group got into serious discussions with Fox, which backed out late
in 1994 when there was talk of WMUR ditching ABC for Fox; Osborne et al.
let their option for WGOT expire when it was clear they weren't going to
get a network affiliation--an essential element for their potential
backers.)

Some time later (1995 or 1996, I think) Creativideo, operators of the
local programming channel on Continental Cablevision's Concord area
systems and of the statewide Yankee Cable Network, made a presentation
in hopes of becoming a cable-only CBS affiliate.  With a long track
record of making money producing local public affairs and sports
programming, they thought they had a good shot.

Where are they now?  WNHT is WNBU, WGOT is WPXB, Continental Cablevision
is MediaOne, Creativideo is Yankee Communications, and CBS is, well, not
quite what it used to be.  Some things you can count on, though:  WMUR
remains true to ABC and Dick Osborne remains true to WKXL.

Alisha Preston, however, is not remaining true to WKXL--that's the
second newscaster in a row that 'KXL has lost to WNDS.  Preston's
morning predecessor, Randi Goldberg, left Concord radio to do those
little newsbreak things on Ch. 50 only a few months before the local
programming was discarded in favor of home shopping stuff.  Now Preston
is off to work on Jack Heath's team.  In her stead at 'KXL is Heather
Hamel--from Rhode Island by way of Middlebury College, I am told.

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