Low-signal KTHI was the ABC affiliate, but ABC was doing so well, NBC affiliate WDAZ (Grand Forks)/WDAY (Fargo) enticed ABC with their more powerful signal. Then NBC went to KTHI and also went from the bottom of the pack in ratings to the top with Cheers and Cosby, etc.
KXJB stayed CBS the whole time.
WDIV was when Winnipeg was getting the Detroit signal and subsequently discovered drive-by shootings.
Oops, you are partially correct. I mixed up WDIV (detroit) with WDAZ (Grand Forks). However, WDAZ became the ABC affiliate in August 1983.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WDAZ-TVIn Winnipeg, we used to get the Minneapolis affiliates for NBC and CBS, but the quality was often grainy. So in 1986, Winnipeg started to carry the Detroit channels, which were of much better quality. WDIV was the NBC affiliate, and WJBK was the CBS affiliate, IIRC. By the early 1990s, there was concern about how the Detroit stations were influencing gang activity in Winnipeg, as the news and other local programming often had gang related crime and shootings.
A decision was made by 1994 to stop carrying the Detroit channels. In it's place we had a Toledo replacement and a Minneapolis replacement, before both NBC and CBS feeds were acquired from Minneapolis. I first heard of "Devil's Night" - the day before Halloween, as it was called in Detroit, as a night people would commit petty criminal acts, and arson. I recall in one year during the early 90s, hundreds of abandoned homes in the inner city were torched, causing millions in damage.
Unsure if Winnipeg had a night like this before the Detroit channels aired here, but for a couple of years in my late teens, we bought eggs, and at the restaurant I used to work in, a bunch of cooked potatoes, and would launch them at buses, and other vehicles, for fun on October 30.