UPN is closing in on a deal with Hearst-Argyle Television that would put the weblet back on the air in Kansas City, Mo., the nation's 31st-largest TV market.
Kansas City has been without a UPN affil since mid-January as a result of the intense competition for affiliates between weblets UPN and the WB Network, coupled with the ongoing bitterness between UPN and the fast-growing Sinclair Broadcast Group.
Now, UPN and the WB are poised to swap stations in the market, with the one-time UPN station aligning with the WB Network and vice versa.
At present, the WB is carried by KCWB, a station run under a local marketing agreement by Hearst-Argyle Television, which owns the ABC affil in the market.
Until January, UPN had been carried by Sinclair-owned KSMO. But Sinclair dropped UPN from KSMO after UPN's parent company filed a lawsuit (since dismissed) against Sinclair last fall when it announced plans to switch five of its major-market stations from the UPN fold to the WB.
KSMO is presently operating as an indie, but Sinclair is understood to have its eye on aligning the station with the WB once the weblet's affiliation agreement with Hearst-Argyle's KCWB expires this fall.
Sources say that if UPN concludes a deal with Hearst-Argyle, the WB's switch to KSMO may happen sooner. UPN would also benefit by regaining a pres-ence in a key top 35 TV market.
Elsewhere on the UPN-Sinclair battlefield, it's unclear how Sinclair's freshly inked deal to purchase Sullivan Broadcast Holdings (Daily Variety, Feb. 25) will affect UPN's affiliate status with Sullivan-owned TV stations in Buffalo and Utica, N.Y. and Dayton, Ohio.
A UPN rep said the weblet has long-term affiliation agreements with the three stations; reps for the Baltimore-based Sinclair could not be reached for comment late Wednesday.
Contact Cynthia Littleton at
cynthia.littleton@variety.com