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While the accountants move stations from column to column with the flick of a pen, the affiliation switches of the past year have left station executives with irate viewers, hefty promotion fees and some opportunities to dress up old stations in new clothes.
Witness the action in Miami and Philadelphia, where NBC and CBS swapped stations and signals on Sept. 10. The changes have set off a chain of promotions, counter-promotions and programming gambits so intense that it's "a war," says Veronica Clayton, a spokeswoman for one of the stations involved, WCAU in Philadelphia, which CBS traded to NBC. NBC has supported WCAU and its Miami O&O WTVJ (which switched to a much weaker channel), with its full cast of generals, with Jay Leno, Tom Brokaw and the Today show broadcasting from both cities. The aggressive campaigns might turn out to be the best test thus far of NBC's controversial effort to associate its stations more closely with the network's peacock. (In the NBC-Group W/CBS deal, CBS gave up its Philadelphia station to NBC in return for NBC O&Os in Denver and Salt Lake City and a stronger channel position...