Westinghouse balked at a deal with NBC.

Westinghouse Electric has told NBC that it wants to back out of plans to merge the two companies’ operations into a new concern that would have had 20 stations in 14 cities, plus the NBC network, NBC said. Westinghouse didn’t offer an explanation of the move. NBC said it is pursuing other means of selling five of its stations and has heard “substantial expressions of interest” for the properties.