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History

The broadcasting arm of Field Enterprises began in January 1966 with the initial sign-on of WFLD. In 1972 , Field sold a majority ownership (about 77.5 percent) of WFLD to Kaiser Broadcasting , owners of KBSC-TV in Corona, CA (serving Los Angeles ), WKBG-TV in Cambridge, MA (serving Boston , and in tandem with the '' Boston Globe ''), WKBS-TV in Burlington, N.J. (serving Philadelphia ), WKBF-TV in Cleveland , WKBD-TV in Detroit , and KBHK-TV in San Francisco . Field retained the remainder of WFLD's shares (about 22.5 percent), and in return, recieved a minority stake in Kaiser Broadcasting (also about 22.5 percent). In 1977 , Kaiser sold its majority stake of their stations, sans WKBF (which merged with WUAB in 1974 ) and KBSC (which was sold to other interests), to Field. This gave Field one-hundred percent ownership of WFLD again. The new owners also updated the look of all of the former Kaiser stations.


The beginning of the end

In 1982 , brothers Marshall Field V and Frederick W. Field, who each controlled half of Field Enterprises, got into a dispute which left them unable to work together. As a result of the dispute, Field Enterprises put their TV stations up for sale, as they opted to dissolve the company. All of their stations were sold successfully except for the Philadelphia station. Many companies offered Field money for WKBS, however, none of the bids were high enough. The Providence Journal Company, owners of rival Philadelphia independent WPHL-TV , offered to buy WKBS and merge the assets of the two stations. Their bid was still too low, so WPHL offered to buy only equipment and programming from Field if they would shut down channel 48. Field decided to go through with the deal, and on August 30 , 1983 , Field signed WKBS-TV off the air for good and surrendered the license back to the Federal Communications Commission .


What became of the stations


Footnotes:
  • 1Returned to the air in 1992 as WGTW , purchased by/affiliated with TBN in 2004

  • 2To become an affiliate of the new CW Network , through a merger of WB and UPN, scheduled for September 2006

  • 3Originally sold to Viacom Television Stations Group

  • 4Originally sold to Paramount Stations Group (later Viacom Television Stations Group following several Mergers , now part of CBS Corporation as CBS Television Stations Group ).