Flagship (broadcasting)


In broadcasting, a flagship is the broadcast station which originates a television network, or a particular radio or television program that plays a key role in the branding of and consumer loyalty to a network or station. This includes both direct network feeds and broadcast syndication, but generally not backhauls. Not all networks or shows have a flagship station, as some originate from a dedicated radio or television studio.
The term derives from the naval custom where the commanding officer of a group of naval ships would fly a distinguishing flag. In common parlance, "flagship" is now used to mean the most important or leading member of a group, hence its various uses in broadcasting. The term is primarily used in TV and radio in the United States and Canada.

Examples

;Lotteries:
;Shows:
;Networks:
;Events:
A flagship radio station is the principal station from which a radio network's programs are fed to affiliates.

Network

In the United States, traditional radio networks currently operate without flagship stations as defined in this article. Network operations and those of the local owned-and-operated or affiliated stations in the same city are now separate and may come under different corporate entities.
In the U.S., CBS News Radio produces programming for distribution by Skyview Networks, but local stations WCBS and WINS in New York City and KNX in Los Angeles are operated separately from the network radio news operation, under a separate company with common shareholders, Entercom. iHeartMedia follows a similar model: flagship stations WOR/New York City and KFI/Los Angeles are both operated mostly separately from its syndication wing, Premiere Networks.
WWRL in New York City was an affiliate of the now-defunct Air America Radio and carries some of its programs but is separately owned and operated and does not produce any programs for the network. Originally, Air America Radio leased WLIB as its flagship station; the station was completely automated and produced no local programming. The network would later lease WZAA in Washington, D.C. as its lone self-operated station.
Fox Sports Radio's flagship station is KLAC in Los Angeles, with which it merged operations in 2009. SB Nation Radio is flagshipped at KGOW in Houston; one of its predecessors, Sporting News Radio, was previously flagshipped at WIDB in Chicago. CBS Sports Radio is nominally flagshipped at WFAN. ESPN Radio has no true flagship station, as it operates out of ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut; Windsor Locks-licensed WUCS serves as its de facto flagship, serving ESPN's home market of Hartford.
Nash FM, a country music network, is nominally flagshipped at WKDF in Nashville, Tennessee; its classic-leaning counterpart Nash Icon is flagshipped at WSM-FM in the same city. MeTV FM, a classic oldies/soft rock network, is flagshipped at WRME-LP in Chicago, the home base of its owner, television broadcaster Weigel Broadcasting. The Satellite Music Network networks were flagshipped at a cluster of stations in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex during their existence; KMEO, for example, served as the flagship for Unforgettable Favorites. CloudCast is flagshipped at KZOY in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, with much of its programming voicetracked from WGWE in Little Valley, New York.
Former flagship stations for now-defunct networks in American radio's "Big Four" era of the 1940s–1980s were:
;NBC Red Network:
;Mutual Broadcasting System:
In Canada, current CBC/Radio-Canada flagships are CBLA-FM in Toronto, which broadcasts in English, and CBF-FM in Montréal, which broadcasts in French. Both are former AM clear channel operations which have moved to FM.
Former flagship stations for now-defunct networks were:
While CJBC remains on-air on its original frequency, it is now an owned-and-operated station of the French-language Radio-Canada network.
The CKO network's Toronto frequency was re-issued to CBL but the namesake CKO flagship in Montréal is silent; the frequency remains vacant.

Syndication

For syndicated radio programs, it refers to the originating station from which a program is fed by satellite or other means to stations nationwide, although the show may also originate elsewhere or from a home studio via an ISDN line. Some programs such as Imus in the Morning are simulcast on television. Others are simulcasted on XM Satellite Radio and / or Sirius Satellite Radio. Flagship stations of prominent syndicated radio programs currently include:
In sports broadcasting, the flagship radio station is the sports team's primary station in the team's home market that produces game broadcasts and feeds them to affiliates. For example, WJZ-FM is the radio flagship station of the Baltimore Orioles baseball team, which feeds Orioles' games to 20 stations in Maryland and adjacent states.

Television

A flagship television station is the principal privately owned television station of a television network in the United States, Canada, Brazil, Japan, Mexico, Australia and the Philippines.
In the late 1920s, network owned-and-operated stations for radio in New York City began producing live entertainment and news programs, fed by telephone lines to affiliates. These eventually were dubbed flagship stations.
, New York City, home of WNBC, the flagship station of NBC
When television networks were formed in the United States in the late 1940s and grew during the early 1950s, network-owned stations in New York City became the production centers for programs originating on the East Coast, feeding affiliates of ABC, CBS, and NBC in the eastern three-fourths of the country. Stations in Los Angeles similarly started producing programs on the West Coast, feeding affiliates in the Pacific Time Zone, Alaska and Hawaii. Consequently, the networks' New York City stations became known as the "East Coast flagships" of their respective networks and the networks' Los Angeles stations became known as the "West Coast flagships".
However, before the 1950s, San Francisco was also considered a West Coast flagship market for the networks, with much of the CBS and NBC network's West Coast news programming originating from that city. This is seen the calls of CBS's KCBS being based in their original city of San Francisco instead of Los Angeles, while KNBR was formerly known as KNBC before the network moved those calls to KRCA-TV in Los Angeles in 1962.
ABC, CBS and NBC are headquartered in New York City, which is the largest television market in the U.S., so their respective radio and television stations in that market are considered the overall network flagship stations. As programming schedules increased and modern technology improved transmission to affiliates, the networks set up operations centers in New York City and Los Angeles. Los Angeles is the second largest television market in the U.S., and traditional home to the motion picture industry and its pool of popular talent, one of the reasons the radio networks set up operations there in the 1930s and 1940s.
This arrangement is reversed for the Fox Broadcasting Company. When Fox was launched in 1986, its network operations center was based in Los Angeles. However, Fox's parent company, News Corporation, is headquartered in New York City, along with its news division. Fox-owned WNYW in New York City is considered the network's overall flagship, while sister station KTTV in Los Angeles is considered a second flagship station.

Network

United States

Sports
In sports broadcasting, the flagship television station is the sports team's primary station in the team's home market that produces NFL preseason telecasts, along with in-season surrounding programming such as team, coach's, and pre-game/post-game shows and feeds them to affiliates. For example, WJBK in Detroit is the flagship station of the Detroit Lions Television Network, which feeds Detroit Lions pre-season football games to six stations in Michigan. However, the "sports flagship television station" is rapidly becoming a thing of the past, with the growing popularity of cable- and satellite-exclusive regional sports networks such as Fox Sports Networks and NBC Sports Regional Networks, which hold exclusive broadcast rights to several teams in their market for Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League and the National Basketball Association.
The National Football League has a different structure, as all games require over-the-air broadcast and the league and teams are generally loathe to use only a local cable broadcaster to distribute preseason and team programming. An anti-siphoning policy is also used by the league in order for local stations to bid for Monday Night Football games for over-the-air distribution when local teams play. Most of the league's teams partner with a local station or regional network of stations, which distributes team programming and weekly analysis shows featuring a team's head coach, with those stations allowed to market as a team's 'official station', often tied into preseason rights. In a lesser arrangement, Major League Baseball teams often name a local broadcast station their official weather forecasting partner and allow them to market as such.
Religious
Canadian network flagship locations vary by language. Most English-language networks eastern flagships are located in Toronto, French-language eastern flagships are located in Montreal, and West Coast flagships are located in Vancouver. CTV 2, being a secondary system to the main CTV network, maintains its eastern flagship in Barrie and West Coast flagship in Victoria. CIII-DT-41 had always been considered the flagship station of Global in Toronto despite being a technical satellite station of CIII-DT, which is licensed to Paris, Ontario. However, since July 2009, the CRTC has considered CIII-DT-41 "the originating station" of Global Ontario.
The secondary French-language networks TVA and V are not carried terrestrially in Western Canada, although they are usually available on pay television.
Network/SystemEastern flagshipWest Coast flagship
CBC TelevisionCBLT-DT CBUT-DT
CitytvCITY-DT CKVU-DT
CTVCFTO-DT CIVT-DT
CTV 2CKVR-DT CIVI-DT
GlobalCIII-DT CHAN-DT
Ici Radio-Canada TéléCBFT-DT CBUFT-DT
Omni TelevisionCFMT-DT/CJMT-DT CHNM-DT

Networks/systems with only one flagship station
Network/SystemFlagship
APTNCHTY-TV
Télé-QuébecCIVM-DT
TVACFTM-DT
TVOntarioCICA-DT
VCFJP-DT
Yes TVCITS-DT

Mexico

As of 2017, Mexico's national networks hold a nationwide virtual channel, thus all of the flagship stations mentioned below in most of the country are on the same channel on the rest of the stations in each network with some exceptions along the American, Guatemalan and Belizean border areas.
NetworkFlagshipDigital ChannelVirtual ChannelLocationOwner
Las EstrellasXEW-TDT482.1Mexico CityTelevisa
Imagen TelevisiónXHCTMX-TDT293.1Mexico CityGrupo Imagen
Foro TVXHTV-TDT494.1Mexico CityTelevisa
Canal 5*XHGC-TDT505.1Mexico CityTelevisa
Multimedios Televisión†XHAW-TDT256.1MonterreyGrupo Multimedios
Multimedios Televisión†XHTDMX-TDT116.1Mexico CityGrupo Multimedios
Azteca 7XHIMT-TDT247.1Mexico CityTV Azteca
Gala TVXEQ-TDT449.1Mexico CityTelevisa
Canal OnceXEIPN-TDT3311.1Mexico CityInstituto Politécnico Nacional
Once NiñosXEIPN-TDT3311.2Mexico CityInstituto Politécnico Nacional
Azteca 13XHDF-TDT2513.1Mexico CityTV Azteca
Canal 22XEIMT-TDT2322.1Mexico CitySecretaría de Cultura
Una Voz Con TodosXHOPMA-TDT3030.1Mexico CitySistema Público de Radiodifusión del Estado Mexicano
Ingenio TVXHOPMA-TDT3030.4Mexico CitySecretaría de Educación Pública
TV•unamXHOPMA-TDT3030.5Mexico CityUniversidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Proyecto 40XHTVM-TDT2640.1Mexico CityTV Azteca
Canal del CongresoXHHCU-TDT4545.1Mexico CityCongreso de la Unión

Notes
1 The total number of stations is including the three stations listed in the table.
2 There are 13 independent stations in Japan.

Philippines

NetworkFlagship StationCity of licenseNotes
ABS-CBNDWWX-TVQuezon City
GMADZBB-TVQuezon City
The 5 NetworkDWET-TVMandaluyong
People's TelevisionDWGT-TVQuezon City
RPN/CNN PhilippinesDZKB-TV Quezon City
IBCDZTV-TVQuezon City
Net 25DZEC-TVQuezon City
ABS-CBN Sports and ActionDWAC-TVQuezon City
GMA News TVDWDB-TVQuezon City-
5 PlusDWNB-TVMandaluyongleased from Nation Broadcasting Corporation
RJTVDZRJ-DTVMakati City
UNTVDWAO-TVQuezon City
SonshineDXAQ-TVDavao City
SonshineDWBP-TVMakati1

Note
1 Sonshine's main headquarters are in Davao City, but also has a fully owned broadcast building in Metro Manila, thus giving the Manila station equal flagship.

American syndication examples

Current

In the United States, the term "flagship station" may also be used in the broadcasting industry to refer to a station which is co-located with the headquarters of its station group and considered the company's most important station. For example, WDIV-TV in Detroit, affiliated with NBC, is the flagship station of Graham Media Group; and WGN-TV in Chicago was the flagship station of Tribune Broadcasting until it was purchased by Nexstar Media Group in 2019.
In essence, a flagship can be located in the market where the station's owner is headquartered, or in the largest market where that owner operates. For example, WSB-TV in Atlanta is the flagship of Cox Media Group, because Cox's headquarters is located in a suburb of that city. However, Cox owns WFXT in Boston, which is larger than Atlanta. The same can be said for TEGNA who lists three of its properties as its flagship stations, but also owns WFAA in Dallas, which is larger than Atlanta, Washington D.C., and Denver in terms of Media market. Likewise, prior to merging with Gannett in 2013, WFAA served as the flagship station for Belo, as its headquarters were located in Dallas.
The term is also used for stations that operate satellite stations in other cities. For example, KSNW in Wichita, Kansas is the flagship station of the Kansas State Network, a chain of NBC affiliates serving western and central Kansas as well as border areas of Nebraska.