UPN - Station Standardization

Station Standardization

When it was launched, UPN began having most of its stations branded as "UPN" or "Paramount," then the channel number, with the call signs nearby. Also, the on air IDs in the mid 1990s were the UPN shapes evolving into the next shape then the full logo followed by a blue bar appearing, which has 2 variants. The first was on the right side with the channel number,call signs and city, then the second was the blue bar and the call letters only By the late 1990s, the call signs were minimized to be just barely readable to meet FCC requirements, and the stations were simply known as "UPN", then channel number or city (e.g., WPWR-TV in Chicago had been referred to as "UPN Chicago" and WWOR-TV in New York was referred to as "UPN 9" until The CW merger was announced in late January 2006). But most UPN O&Os under CBS branded it by network and city according to the CBS Mandate. For example, KBCW in San Francisco was branded "UPN Bay Area," WKBD in Detroit was branded "UPN Detroit" and WUPL in New Orleans was branded "UPN New Orleans."

However, that didn't always apply, as WSBK-TV in Boston was branded "UPN 38" and KMAX-TV in Sacramento was branded "UPN 31," for example. WPCW Channel 19 in Pittsburgh (formerly WNPA) originally branded itself as "UPN 19", but changed over to "UPN Pittsburgh" soon after the UPN logo change, making it one of the few that had carried both standardization styles. Many non-O&O UPN affiliates followed the same branding scheme; for example KFVE in Honolulu, during its UPN affiliation, used the brand "UPN Hawaii".

This would be a continuation of the trend for networks to do such naming schemes, originated at Fox (and even earlier at CBC in Canada), especially at CBS, who uses the CBS Mandate on almost all of their O&O stations. The WB, NBC and ABC also do similar naming schemes, but not to that extreme.

However, while the traditional "Big Three" don't require their affiliates to have such naming schemes (though some affiliates choose to adopt it anyway) and only on their O&O's is the style required, UPN mandated it on all stations (as Fox currently does), though The WB did not. In one case, though, WCGV in Milwaukee branded as Channel 24 from 1998-2001 with no UPN imagery. The station had disaffiliated from the network in 1998 for eight months (previously it was "UPN 24") in a compensation dispute.