DECATUR - A push of a pair of buttons early Monday morning will change years of history and adjust the face of Central Illinois television in an unprecedented way.

A 53-year affiliation between the ABC television network and Decatur's WAND concludes when "Early Today," beginning at 4:30 a.m. Monday, airs and WAND switches affiliation to the NBC television network.

At the same time, Springfield's WICS and Champaign's WICD, both NBC affiliates today, switch to ABC.

Viewers throughout Central Illinois will still receive programming from both ABC and NBC. The stations that broadcast those networks are flipping affiliates.

"People are accustomed to certain things on certain channels," WAND program director Tracey Cole said. "The easiest way to explain it is it's the same channel with different programming."

The switch was first reported in March 2004. In spring 2004, NBC informed the Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns WICS and WICD, it was ending its affiliations with the Springfield and Dayton, Ohio, stations to pursue other stations in each market. In this market, that turned out to be WAND. LIN Broadcasting, the company that owns WAND, welcomed the change.

Since that time, the Decatur and Springfield stations have new bosses. WAND is now headed by Mike Johnston, while Johnny Faith holds the reins in Springfield.

The switch does not mean a change in physical location for either station, and the stations' locations on virtually every Central Illinois cable lineup remain the same.

Both Johnston and Faith say they have no immediate plans for personnel changes at the stations.

"ABC has just had a very hot season," Faith said. "Everybody here is excited about picking up the hottest network out there. There's been a tremendous effort here toward making it go.

"People here are just ready to see ABC programming on Sept. 5."

This is the first significant change in the Central Illinois television landscape since April 2002, when Springfield's WCFN began an affiliation with the UPN network.

Tim Cain can be reached at timcain@;herald-review.com or 421-6908.