WGN-TV
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WGN-TV is the name of a U.S. television station broadcasting from Chicago, Illinois on channel nine. It is currently the Chicago affiliate of the WB television network, and will become an affiliate of the CW beginning in September 2006.
WGN Television, from the station's inception, is the flagship television station of Tribune Company which also owns radio station WGN (720 kHz.). Tribune also owns the Chicago Tribune, whose slogan "World's Greatest Newspaper", was the basis for the call letters used by both stations. WGN is notable both as an early example of media conglomeration and as a pioneer in cable television, where it was one of the first superstations.
Tribune also operates cable news channel Chicago Land Television, better known as "CLTV". CLTV offers continuous weather updates from WGN-TV meteorologists.
History
WGN Television began test broadcasts in February 1948 and began regular programming on April 5 with the 2-hour special "WGN-TV Salute to Chicago" at 7:45 p.m.Early on, WGN-TV was affiliated with the CBS (shared with WBKB, channel four) and DuMont networks. As a sidebar to the February 1953 merger of ABC and United Paramount Theatres, WGN lost its CBS affiliation. CBS had purchased the license to operate channel four in Chicago (now WBBM-TV, which later moved to channel two), and moved all of its programming there, leaving channel nine with DuMont. When DuMont ceased operations in 1956, WGN-TV became an independent station. For much of its existence, WGN produced much of its own programming at its local studios. Notable WGN-produced programs include several incarnations of Bozo's Circus, Ray Rayner and His Friends, and Garfield Goose and Friends.
The station has also had a long association with the Chicago Cubs baseball team, which has been aired on WGN-TV since the station's inception. (The Tribune Company purchased the National League franchise in 1981.) During its history, WGN-TV has also been the over-the-air home of Chicago's American League franchise, the White Sox, the NBA's Chicago Bulls, and the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks, and has often broadcast football and basketball games of local college teams, such as Northwestern University, DePaul University, Loyola University, and other teams of the Big Ten Conference.
The station began broadcasting via satellite in 1978. This signal was picked up by many fledgling pay-cable television systems as well as directly by satellite dish owners. This continent-wide exposure elevated WGN to superstation status. Along with WOR-TV (now WWOR-TV) in New York and WTBS in Atlanta, WGN was among the first local stations to become a superstation.
Until 1979, WGN-TV was consistently the top rated independent station in Chicago. At that time, the station offered old movies, sports, off-network sitcoms, cartoons and dramas. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Phil Donahue's syndicated talk program originated from WGN-TV.
In 1978, the station became vulnerable and underestimated WFLD-TV's ability to buy top-rate shows like M*A*S*H, Happy Days, and All in the Family. As a result, WFLD (channel 32) finished ahead of WGN-TV in the ratings by the end of 1979. WGN-TV continued with its format, acquiring top-rate programming and competing with WFLD even after additional independent stations signed on.
In 1990, due to SyndEx rules, Superstation WGN's national feed began running alternate programming about half the time. It was a similar situation at WWOR-TV and the national "WWOR-EMI Service". '' In 1994, the afternoon and morning cartoons were dropped, and Bozo was moved to Sunday mornings until 2001, when the program was discontinued by WGN management. A weekday morning newscast was added in place of children's programming.
In 1995, WGN-TV aired primetime WB network programming locally but Kids' WB aired on WCIU-TV (channel 26), which had dropped its Spanish-language Univision affiliation for an English-language, general entertainment schedule. Nationally, Superstation WGN aired primetime WB network programming along with Kids' WB programming.
In 1999, the Superstation WGN national feed stopped carrying WB network and Kids' WB programming. Locally, WB network programming remained on WGN-TV and Kids' WB remained on WCIU. In 2004, WCIU dropped Kids' WB programming, so it was moved to the local WGN-TV.
On January 24, 2006, the WB and UPN networks announced that they would merge. The newly combined network would be called The CW, the letters representing the first initial of its corporate parents CBS (the parent company of UPN) and the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner. The merger will take effect on-the-air in September 2006, and WGN-TV was announced as the Chicago affiliate. The station will be branded as CW9.
WGN today
Today, Superstation WGN offers its national programming across North America without network programming. The station is available via satellite to DirecTV and Dish Network in the United States, StarChoice in Canada and cable television subscribers in both countries. Canada's other satellite provider, Bell ExpressVu, carries the local Chicago feed. In the Chicagoland area, the Superstation is not available on cable or terrestrial digital, but is available to Chicagoland DirecTV and Dish Network viewers.
Superstation WGN's national feed does not carry the WGN Morning News (it is claimed that the show was dropped from the Superstation due to "SyndEx" rules on some segments) but does air the Noon and 9 p.m. newscasts. The late local newscast is occasionally pre-empted due to special programming not allowed to air outside of the Chicago area, primetime sports cleared on the local channel but not the Superstation feed (crime drama reruns usually fill the news slot in this case), or if a movie on the Superstation runs long.
Whether or not the new CW Network will be carried on the Superstation feed has not been officially announced. However, it is doubtful that Superstation WGN will air CW programs as the network has signed affiliates which cover over 90 percent of U.S. television households.
Both the local and national feeds feature select Cubs and White Sox baseball games and air a select amount of Bulls basketball games. Due to NBA broadcast rights restrictions, most Bulls games contracted to air on WGN-TV are seen in the Chicago area only; the Superstation feed airs movies and other syndicated programming instead. The bulk of WGN-produced White Sox games, and a handful of Cubs contests, air on WCIU-TV for the Chicago market only. With the news that fellow superstation TBS Superstation is moving its national broadcasts of the Atlanta Braves to its local Atlanta WTBS-TV feed in 2008, it leaves WGN as one of the few superstations broadcasting local sports to a national audience. [link]
Hijack
On November 22, 1987, during the 9 O'Clock News sportscast, WGN-TV's analog broadcast signal was hijacked by an unknown person wearing a Max Headroom mask for approximately 25 seconds. This was only the first incident of that night involving the interruption of a television station's broadcast signal. Approximately two hours later, Chicago PBS station WTTW (channel 11) had its broadcast interrupted by the same person. WGN-TV's analog transmitter is atop the John Hancock Center and engineers were almost immediately able to thwart the video hacker by changing the studio-to-transmitter frequency, thus cutting the hacker off. Unfortunately for WTTW, its transmitter is atop Sears Tower and it was unable to stop the hacker before enduring almost two minutes of the hacker's interruption.Logos
Newscasts
- WGN Morning News - weekdays 5:00-9:00 a.m. (does not air on the Superstation feed)
- WGN News at Noon - weekdays Noon-1:00 p.m.
- WGN News at Nine - Monday-Saturday 9:00-10:00 p.m.; Sundays 9:00-9:40 p.m.
Weekend Team: Robert Jordan, Jackie Bange, Jim Ramsey (weather)
- Instant Replay (sports wrap-up) - Sundays 9:40-10:00 p.m.
External links
- [WGN-TV Official site]
- [Superstation WGN Official Site]
- [Query the FCC's TV station database for WGN-TV]
| Terrestrial television>Broadcast television in the Chicago market [(Nielsen DMA #3)] | ||
|---|---|---|
|
WBBM 2 (CBS) -
W04CQ 4 (ANC) -
WMAQ 5 (NBC) -
WLS 7 (ABC) -
WGN 9 (The WB/The CW) (The Tube on DT2) -
WTTW 11 (PBS) -
WOCK-CA 13 (MTV2) -
W13BQ 13 (DW) -
W18AT 18 / W54BK 54 (LeSEA) -
WYCC 20 (PBS) -
WWME-CA 23 (Ind) -
W24AW 24 (LeSEA) -
WCIU 26 (Ind) -
WSPY-LP 30 (A1) -
WFLD 32 (Fox) -
WWTO 35 (TBN) -
WCPX 38 (i) -
WOCH-CA 41 (Ind) -
WSNS 44 (TEL) -
WFBT-CA 48 (Ind) -
WPWR 50 (UPN/My Network TV) -
W54BE 54 (edu.) -
WYIN 56 (PBS) -
WXFT 60 (TFT) -
WJYS 62 (Ind) -
W64CQ 64 (TBN) -
WGBO 66 (UNI)
| ||
| Local cable television channels | ||
| CLTV - Comcast SportsNet Chicago - Superstation WGN | ||