Fox executives sought to calm affiliates' jitters Thursday at their annual meeting in Los Angeles, but acknowledged the shake-up of TV stations isn't over.
Some station owners had expressed concern about Fox's loyalty in the wake of the network's recent deal with New World.
Fox is dumping some longtime affiliates to pick up 12 new stations with stronger broadcast signals.
"The only disappointing note is that in the big leagues, players sometimes get traded among teams," Preston Padden, president of network distribution, told station owners.
Fox Chairman Lucie Salhany, in her address, made no promises about future loyalty to affiliates, but took a sensitive tack. She said she felt "everything from pride and satisfaction to anxiety and sadness" about the recent shake-up.
Preparing for future shifts, Fox said Thursday that an outgoing Fox station will always have the option to keep the block of shows that makes up the Fox Children's Network - extending a promise that came out of the New World deal.
FCN, Padden said, "will help assure that you are in compliance with even the most aggressive interpretations of the new Children's Television Act."
Congressional hearings begin next week to further clarify the 1990 act, which called on stations to add educational programming.
Also Thursday, affiliate owners watched a taped message from President Clinton.
"When your stations broadcast shows with positive role models or highlight real-life heroes in the news," he said, "you help make America a better place to live."
Clinton lauded the Fox-CBS simulcast of the anti-violence special Kids Killing Kids and said he was "looking forward to the launch of the daily educational program for pre-school children" that Fox plans for the fall.
Today on the affiliates' plate: a speech from Fox boss Rupert Murdoch and the screening of several new fall shows.
