In broadcasting, a flagship (also known as a flagship station or key station) 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 flagship station is primarily used in TV and radio in the United States, Canada, and the Philippines (though it is seldomly used); in the early years of radio in the United States, the term key station was used to refer to such station in a broadcast network; key station is still a valid term in television in Japan (as key kyoku; ).
Examples Lotteries Mega Millions, normally from WSB-TV in Atlanta Ohio Lottery weekday- and Saturday-evening drawings from WEWS in Cleveland Michigan Lottery from WDIV-TV in Detroit Shows Delilah from KSWD in Seattle and KDUN in Reedsport, Oregon (latter owned by Delilah) Clark Howard from WSB/WSBB-FM in Atlanta The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show from WLAC in Nashville (Clay Travis) and WOR in New York City (Buck Sexton). Live with Kelly and Mark from WABC-TV in New York City Networks Midnight Radio Network from WBAP in Dallas/Fort Worth Events Masters Tournament from WRDW-TV, as the CBS affiliate since 1956.
Radio 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 affiliate 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 (and formerly KFWB) in Los Angeles are operated separately from the network radio news operation, under a separate company with common shareholders, Audacy, Inc. iHeartMedia follows a similar model: flagship stations WOR in New York City (which it acquired in 2012) and KFI in Los Angeles are both operated mostly separately from its syndication wing, Premiere Networks (Premiere does produce some limited programming, including The Jesus Christ Show, The Tech Guy and Handel on the Law, through KFI). Premiere's The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show uses WLAC as a flagship station, as Clay Travis is based in Nashville.
WWRL in New York City was an affiliate of the now-defunct Air America Radio and carries some of its programs (along with those from other distributors) but is separately owned and operated and does not produce any programs for the network. Originally, Air America Radio leased WLIB (also in New York City) 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 (now WSFS) in Chicago. CBS Sports Radio is nominally flagshipped at WFAN (although that station does not produce programming for the network). ESPN Radio has no true flagship station, as it operates out of ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut; Windsor Locks-licensed WUCS (owned by iHeartMedia) 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-LD 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 WNBC (660 AM; now WFAN), New York City WYNY (97.1 FM; now WQHT), New York City KNBR (680 AM), San Francisco KYUU (99.7 FM; now KMVQ-FM), San Francisco Mutual Broadcasting System WOR (710 AM), New York City WGN (720 AM), Chicago KHJ (930 AM), Los Angeles
In Canada, current CBC/Radio-Canada flagships are CBLA-FM (99.1) in Toronto, which broadcasts in English, and CBF-FM (95.1) 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: CJBC (860 AM) in Toronto (CBC Dominion Network, a secondary English-language AM service) CKO in Montréal (a national chain of big-city English-language all-news stations, controlled primarily from Toronto) VONF in St. John's, Dominion of Newfoundland (Broadcasting Corporation of Newfoundland – became CBN after Newfoundland and Labrador joined Canada, its rebroadcasters included VOWN in western Newfoundland and VORG radio in Gander)
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 (as CBLA-FM 99.1) but the namesake CKO (AM) 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 are simulcast on television, while others are simulcasted on XM Satellite Radio and / or Sirius Satellite Radio. Flagship stations of prominent syndicated radio programs currently include:
Mitch Albom: WJR (760 AM)/Detroit Chuck Baldwin: WVTJ (610 AM)/Pensacola, Florida Jim Bohannon: WFED (1500 AM)/Washington, D.C. Delilah: KSWD (94.1 FM)/Seattle & KDUN (1030)/Reedsport, Oregon Steve Harvey Morning Show: WBLS (107.5 FM)/New York City Blair Garner: WKDF (103.3 FM)/Nashville, Tennessee Michael Graham: WCRN (830 AM)/Worcester, Massachusetts The Grand Ole Opry: WSM (650 AM)/Nashville, Tennessee The Sean Hannity Show: WOR (710 AM)/New York City Alex Jones: KLBJ (590 AM)/Austin, Texas The Kevin and Bean Show: KROQ (106.7 FM)/Los Angeles Lars Larson: KXL (101.1 FM)/Portland, Oregon The Tech Guy with Leo Laporte: KFI (640 AM)/Los Angeles (broadcasts from studios in Petaluma, California) The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show: WLAC (1240 AM) / Nashville, Tennessee Mark Levin: WABC (770 AM)/New York City (usually broadcasts from a home studio at Levin's residence in Loudoun County, Virginia) Paul McGuire: KBRT (740 AM)/Los Angeles Michael Medved: KTTH (770 AM)/Seattle Nights with Alice Cooper: KDKB (93.3 FM)/Phoenix, Arizona Dennis Prager: KRLA (870 AM)/Los Angeles Renfro Valley Gatherin': WRVK (1460 AM)/Mount Vernon, Kentucky Rewind with Gary Bryan: KRTH (101.1 FM)/Los Angeles Rick and Bubba: WZZK (104.7 FM)/Birmingham, Alabama The Randi Rhodes Show: WJNO (1290 AM)/West Palm Beach, Florida Rover's Morning Glory: WMMS (100.7 FM)/Cleveland, Ohio Orion Samuelson and Max Armstrong: WGN (720 AM)/Chicago The Ace & TJ Show: WHQC (96.1 FM)/Charlotte, North Carolina The Savage Nation: KSFO (560 AM)/San Francisco (show now defunct) The Bob & Tom Show: WFBQ (94.7 FM)/Indianapolis The Free Beer and Hot Wings Show: WGRD-FM (101.5 FM)/Grand Rapids, Michigan The Jason Lewis Show: KTLK (100.3 FM)/Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota On Air with Ryan Seacrest: KIIS (102.7 FM)/Los Angeles, California America's Truckin' Network: WLW (AM 700)/Cincinnati At Home With Gary Sullivan: WKRC (AM 550)/Cincinnati
Examples WXRK (92.3 FM) in New York City was the flagship station of The Howard Stern Show from 1985 until 2005. The show is now on Sirius Satellite Radio Channel 100 (a.k.a. Howard 100). WOR (710 AM) in New York City was the flagship station of the syndicated programs of Joy Browne, Jay Severin, Bob Grant, The Dolans and Joey Reynolds produced in-house with its own network; the network was shut down after Buckley Broadcasting sold the station. WGN (720 AM) in Chicago was considered the originating station for Paul Harvey's News and Comment and The Rest of the Story for the ABC Radio Network. KABC (790 AM) in Los Angeles was the home base of Larry Elder until the show ended its run in 2009. That show now originates from KRLA. WABC had been the original flagship of The Rush Limbaugh Show before Limbaugh moved to West Palm Beach, Florida and a subsidiary of Clear Channel Communications began distributing the program. KNEW was the flagship of The Savage Nation from 2003 to 2009. WNBC and WFAN were the flagships of Imus in the Morning from 1971 to 2007. He was dropped after his controversial remarks about the Rutgers University women's basketball team but picked up by WABC later that year; that station served as flagship until he retired in 2018. KPTK (1090 AM) in Seattle was the flagship of Ron Reagan's syndicated show on Air America Media before the network went bankrupt. It was one of the few shows on the network that did not originate from the network's New York City studios. WWVA (1170 AM) flagshipped the Wheeling Jamboree from 1933 until the late 2000s. It later moved to WKKX in 2009, then owned-and-operated station WWOV-LP in 2014, before cutting back from a weekly show to three episodes per year in 2016.
Sports
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 (or "O&O") 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.
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".