Superstation WGN

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Superstation WGN
Type	Cable and satellite network
Country	United States
Availability	USA, Canada
Slogan	It's great to be home.
Owner	Tribune Company
Launch date	1978
Website	wgnsuperstation.trb.com/

Superstation WGN is a Chicago-based American Superstation, owned by Tribune Broadcasting Company. Superstation WGN offers its national programming across North America without network programming. The Superstation is available via satellite to DirecTV and Dish Network in the United States, Star Choice in Canada and cable television subscribers in both countries (see note below regarding future Canadian carriage). Canada's other satellite provider, Bell ExpressVu, carries the local Chicago feed. In the Chicago area, the Superstation is not available on cable or terrestrial digital but is available to DirecTV and Dish Network viewers.

Contents 1 History 2 Shows Currently Airing On Superstation WGN 3 Shows Coming In The Future To Superstation WGN 4 WGN in Canada 5 Logos 6 See also 7 External links

[edit] History

In October 1978, United Video uplinked the signal of WGN-TV channel 9 in Chicago to the Satcom-3 satellite for cable and satellite subscribers nationwide. For the next 12 years, the national WGN-TV signal was the same exact signal as the Chicago-land signal.

In 1989, a new law known as Syndication Exclusivity Rights, or "SyndEx", was passed. This law means that whenever a local station has the exclusive rights to air a syndicated program in their market, it must be covered up on any out-of-town stations by the local cable company. On January 1, 1990, a special national feed of WGN was launched to avoid any blackouts, save for sports programming, similar to WWOR-TV's "WWOR EMI Service", only with fewer blackouts.

Superstation WGN's national feed does not carry the WGN Morning News (it is claimed that the newscast was dropped from the Superstation due to "SyndEx" rules on some segments) but does air the Noon and 9 p.m. newscasts. The evening newscast is occasionally pre-empted nationally due to special programming not allowed to air outside of the Chicago area, primetime sports cleared on the local Chicago 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.

Another major programming difference between the national and local Chicago feeds is that Superstation WGN does not carry CW network programming (which does appear on the Chicago feed), as that network is available in most markets around the country. The Superstation feed did carry programming from the former The WB network nationwide (which Tribune had an ownership interest in) from the network's launch in 1995, until 1999, when local station coverage was deemed sufficient enough by Time Warner and Tribune to discontinue airing The WB on the Superstation feed.

Both the local Chicago 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. Nearly half of WGN-produced White Sox games and eight Cubs games 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. [1]

[edit] Shows Currently Airing On Superstation WGN

OTHER SHOWS:

• 24
• American Idol Rewind
• America's Funniest Home Videos
• Becker
• Beverly Hillbillies
• The Cosby Show
• DaVinci's Inquest
• Even Stevens
• Farscape
• The Greg Behrendt Show
• Home Improvement
• HomeTeam
• Homicide: Life on the Street
• Lizzie McGuire
• Matlock
• Magnum, P.I.
• Maximum Exposure
• Moesha
• Scrubs
• Sex and the City
• Soul Train

[edit] Shows Coming In The Future To Superstation WGN

• Reno 911 Fall 2007
• Chapelle Show Fall 2007
• Corner Gas Fall 2007

[edit] WGN in Canada

On January 17, 2007, many cable systems in Canada switched to the local WGN feed as seen in Chicago, duplicating CW Network and many syndicated programs already available on other channels. This is a result of Shaw Broadcast Services (the main supplier of the WGN feed in Canada) switching to the local feed. It is believed that the switch was made to avoid fees required to carry Superstation WGN. Superstation WGN continues to be carried on other cable and satellite systems in Canada.

The superstations in Canada (excluding WGN) are:

• WPIX - CW New York
• WWOR - MyNetworkTV New York
• KTLA - CW Los Angeles
• WSBK - IND Boston
• WTBS - Atlanta (Atlanta's local broadcast version of TBS Superstation); some Canadian systems which do not use Shaw-provided signals utilize the national Superstation feed instead.
• KWGN - CW Denver (approved as a Canadian superstation but currently not carried by any system)

[edit] Logos

Note: The Superstation feed used the local WGN Chicago logos until 1995; see the WGN-TV article for logos between 1978-1995.

Superstation WGN logo from 2001 to 2002.

The Present Superstation WGN logo since 2002. The "S" oval was used alone at the logo's launch but the WGN call letters were re-added shortly thereafter to avoid audience confusion.

[edit] See also

• List of DirecTV channels
• List of Dish Network channels

[edit] External links

• Superstation WGN website