WXIA-TV

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WXIA
Atlanta, Georgia
Branding	11Alive
Slogan	"The News You Expect. The Balance You Deserve."
Channels	11 (VHF) analog, 10 (VHF) digital
Affiliations	NBC NBC Weather Plus (digital 11.2 and cable only)
Owner	Gannett
Founded	September 30, 1951 (as WLTV; the call letters switched to WLWA in 1953)
Call letters meaning	We're XI(11 in Roman numerals) Atlanta or XI (11) Alive
Former callsigns	WLTV (1951-1953) WLWA-TV (1953-1962) WAII-TV (1962-1968) WQXI-TV (1968-1974)
Former affiliations	ABC (1951-1980)
Website	www.11alive.com/

WXIA-TV is the NBC television affiliate in Atlanta, Georgia. Along with WATL, it is owned by Gannett. The station's transmitter is located at 110 Arizona Avenue Northeast in Atlanta. Studios and offices are located at 1611 West Peachtree Street on the north end of Atlanta's Midtown area.

Contents 1 History 2 "11Alive" 3 1999 Weekend Meteorologist situation 4 News programming 5 Other Local Programs 6 Trivia 7 See also 8 External links

[edit] History

The station signed on the air on September 30, 1951 as WLTV, an ABC affiliate, on channel 8. It was owned by the Crosley Broadcasting Corporation. In 1953, the station changed its call letters to WLWA-TV and moved to channel 11. It was purchased in 1962 by Richard Fairbanks of Indianapolis as part of a settlement between Crosley and Fairbanks. Crosley had started WLWI-TV in Indianapolis in 1957, but Fairbanks insisted that the last VHF allocation in Indianapolis should go to a local owner. Eventually, the two companies agreed to what amounted to a trade, in which Crosley kept WLWI while Fairbanks bought WLWA. The Atlanta station's calls then became WAII-TV, using the slogan "The Eyes of Atlanta", and the calls standing for Atlanta II.

The station began calling itself "News Watch 11" in 1963 and began broadcasting news in color for the first time March 1967. The station was sold to Pacific & Southern Broadcasting in 1968 and became known as WQXI-TV (the calls were originally used on Channel 36, currently WATL, in the mid 1950's). Pacific & Southern later merged with Combined Communications. The station assumed the WXIA-TV call letters in 1974 and first used the branding 11Alive in 1976. In 1979, Combined merged with Gannett in what became the biggest media merger in history up to that time.

In 1980, WXIA became an NBC affiliate, due to market leader WSB-TV's signing with ABC. This could be traced to ratings: NBC slid to a very poor third place; meanwhile, ABC was in first place for most of the late 1970's and was seeking out stronger and better affiliates in many markets including Atlanta. So during the summer of 1980, the two stations conducted an experiment unusual for a large market: WXIA aired NBC daytime shows in the morning and ABC daytime shows in the afternoon, while WSB aired ABC shows in the morning and NBC shows in the afternoons. When the experiment was over, both stations finally swapped affiliations for good.

WXIA also airs the NBC Weather Plus service on its digital on-air signal, as well as on Comcast's digital cable system in the Atlanta area. WXIA formerly had a partnership with The Weather Channel to use their weather forecasters and provide local forecasts.

WXIA began airing their daily local newscasts in HDTV, the first Atlanta station to do so, on February 2, 2006. To signal the conversion to HD, a HD-friendly new studio from Production Design Group, Ltd. was built and graphics from Giant Octopus were created.

On June 5, 2006, Gannett agreed to purchase WATL from the Tribune Company, now affiliated with MyNetworkTV. The purchase price was $180 million. [1]. Since WATL is not among Atlanta's four largest TV stations, the FCC permitted this sale. The sale was finalized on August 7, 2006; as a result, Gannett is now the owner of Atlanta's first television duopoly, as well as duopolies in Denver and Jacksonville. WATL may take up airing NBC programs when WXIA is not able to in a news-related emergency.

[edit] "11Alive"

11Alive has been WXIA's on-air branding since 1976, when then-owner Combined Communications adopted the practice of using the word "Alive" as part of the monikers at most of their stations. The use of "Alive" in station names was popular in the mid-to-late-1970s. New York's WPIX used the legendary "11 Alive" nickname themselves from 1977 to 1986.

After Gannett acquired Combined in 1979, many of the former Combined stations stopped using "Alive" in their names, though WXIA continued calling itself "11Alive", as it was a strong brand name for their station. Fort Wayne's WPTA, another ex-Combined station, continues to call itself "21 Alive" today.

Briefly in the mid-1990s, Gannett dropped the "11Alive" moniker as part of an image makeover. Many Atlanta-area viewers, however, were angry about the change, as they would not accept WXIA as anything but "11Alive". A short time later, WXIA began calling itself "11Alive" once again.

[edit] 1999 Weekend Meteorologist situation

An unusual situation occurred in 1999. The station's former weekend weather forecaster had left, but his replacement hadn't arrived at the station yet. Four years earlier, Gannett bought WLTX in Columbia, South Carolina; 200 miles east of Atlanta. It had recently hired Jim Gandy from WIS, but Gandy could not appear on WLTX for one year under the terms of a non-compete clause in his contract. There was nothing that said Gandy couldn't work anywhere else. However, Gandy was named a consultant to the meteorological department at Gannett Television to work around the ban. Gannett hired Gandy as the temporary weather forecaster on weekends at WXIA in order to fill in until the new forecaster arrived. That, and the proximity of the two stations, permitted the two Gannett stations to share doppler radars, calling itself the "Double Doppler" at WLTX.

[edit] News programming

Weekdays:

• 11Alive News Today - 5-7AM
  • Anchored by Jill Becker and Clarence Reynolds... Weather with Flip Spiceland... Sports with Randy Waters... and On-Time Traffic with Jim Basile
• 11Alive News at Noon - NOON-12:30PM
  • Anchored by Jill Becker and Clarence Reynolds... and Weather with Flip Spiceland
• 11Alive News at 6 p.m. - 6-6:30PM
  • Anchored by Brenda Wood and Wes Sarginson... Weather with Paul Ossmann... and Sports with Fred Kalil
• The Evening News with Brenda Wood - 7-7:30PM
  • Anchored by Brenda Wood... and Weather with Paul Ossmann
• My11Alive News at Ten - 10-10:30PM (Seen on WATL)
  • Anchored by Brenda Wood and Ted Hall... Weather with Paul Ossmann... and Sports with Fred Kalil
• 11Alive News at 11 p.m. - 11-11:35PM**
  • Same as My11Alive News at Ten

Note** - Tape delayed broadcast of 11Alive News at 11 p.m. airs from 2:05-2:40AM (Monday-Thurday) and 2:35-3:10AM (Friday).

Saturdays:

• 11Alive News Saturday Today - 6-8AM
  • Anchored by ?... Weather with Chris Holcomb... and On-Time Traffic with Rob Langer
• 11Alive News at 6 p.m. - 6-6:30PM
  • Anchored by Karyn Greer ... Weather with Chris Holcomb... and Sports with Sam Crenshaw
• My11Alive News at Ten - 10-10:30PM (Seen on WATL)
  • Same as 11Alive News at 6 p.m.
• 11Alive News at 11 p.m. - 11-11:30PM
  • Same as 11Alive News at 6 p.m.

Sundays:

• 11Alive News Sunday Today - 7:30-9AM
  • Anchored by ?... Weather with Chris Holcomb... and On-Time Traffic with Esther Caspino
• 11Alive News at 6 p.m. - 6-6:30PM
  • Anchored by Karyn Greer ... Weather with Chris Holcomb... and Sports with Sam Crenshaw
• My11Alive News at Ten - 10-10:30PM (Seen on WATL)
  • Same as 11Alive News at 6 p.m.
• 11Alive News at 11 p.m. - 11-11:35PM
  • Same as 11Alive News at 6 p.m.

[edit] Other Local Programs

• Atlanta and Company - Monday-Friday 11AM-NOON
  • Hosted by Ryan Cameron and Holly Firfer
• Weekend In-Depth - Sundays 12:30-1PM
  • Hosted by Donna Lowry, Denis O'Hayer, Bill Liss, or Karyn Greer
• Sports Extra - Sundays 11:35PM-12:05AM
  • Hosted by Sam Crenshaw

Other current WXIA-TV produced shows and specials include...

• Falcons Face-To-Face, which can be seen during NFL football season.
• Falcons Game Day Live, which can be seen during NFL football season.
• Falcons Extra, which can be seen during NFL football season.
• Peach Drop, which can be seen every New Year's Eve following the 11 p.m. newscast.

Past WXIA-TV produced newscasts, shows, and specials include...

• Hello Georgia (Early-to-mid '80s until the Early '90s), which was a variety show, similar to successor shows, like Noonday, Peachtree Morning, and the current Atlanta and Company.
• Noonday (Early '90s until 1997), which was a half-hour variety show, that aired following 11Alive's midday newscast.
• Peachtree Morning (1997 until 2000), was a full-hour variety show, that aired following NBC's Today (and Later Today) show.
• Sunday Extra (2000 until 2002), which was a short lived Sunday 11:30 p.m. newscast.
• Sunday Morning Extra (2000 until 2002), which was a short lived Sunday Morning newscast, which replaced Weekend InDepth for a short time.
• Spotlight on Sports (Mid-to-late '90s until 2000), which was a sports variety show, and would later be replaced by Sports Extra.
• 11Alive News at 11:00 a.m., which replaced the Noon newscast for a short time. It lasted from 1997 until 1998.
• 11Alive News at 5:00 p.m. (Lasted until 2003), which 11Alive cancelled in favor of the popular syndicated Dr. Phil show.
• UPN Atlanta News at Ten (2004 unitl 2005), which was a short lived news share agreement with the then UPN/now CW affiliate WUPA-TV. The 10 p.m. newscast was cancelled, due to sagging ratings, and would later be replaced by the current WATL newscast.
• 11Alive News on MediaOne (Late '90s until Early 2000s), which was a short lived news share agreement with the then MediaOne/now Comcast cable network. Prior to WXIA-TV's news share agreement with the cable network, rival station WAGA-TV had a similar agreement, which was also short-lived.
• 11Alive News on PAX TV, which was a news share agreement with local PAX/i affiliate WPXA-TV re-broadcasted the 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts. It ended in 2005.

[edit] Trivia

Channel 36 signed on as WQXI-TV in 1951. The callsign was used on Channel 11 from 1968-1974. Today, Channel 11 and Channel 36 are owned by the same company, Gannett.

[edit] See also

• WXIA-TV personalities
• WQXI (AM)
• WSTR-FM
• WATL

[edit] External links

• 11Alive Homepage
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WXIA-TV