WGN-TV
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| WGN-TV | |
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| Chicago, Illinois | |
| Branding | WGN |
| Slogan | Chicago's Very Own Chicago's CW |
| Channels | 9 (VHF) analog, 19 (UHF) digital |
| Affiliations | CW |
| Owner | Tribune Company |
| Founded | April 5, 1948 |
| Call letters meaning | World's Greatest Newspaper (referring to its owner, the Chicago Tribune) |
| Former callsigns | None |
| Former affiliations | DuMont (1948-1956) CBS (1948-1953) Independent (1956-1995) WB (1995-2006) |
| Transmitter Power | 110 kW/415 m (analog) 645 kW/453 m (digital) |
| Website | wgntv.trb.com |
WGN-TV is a television station broadcasting from Chicago, Illinois on channel 9. It is currently the Chicago affiliate of the CW television network. WGN-TV was affiliated with the WB network from January 1995 to September 2006. The Tube, a digital music channel, broadcasts on WGN-DT digital channel 9.2 / 19.2.
WGN Television, from the station's inception, is the television flagship of the Tribune Company, which also owns radio station WGN (720 kHz.). Tribune also publishes 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. See Article: Superstation WGN
Tribune also operates cable news channel Chicagoland Television, better known as "CLTV". CLTV offers continuous weather updates from WGN-TV meteorologists.
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[edit] History
WGN Television began test broadcasts in February 1948 and began regular programming on April 5 with a two-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 4) 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 4 in Chicago (now WBBM-TV, which later moved to channel 2), and moved all of its programming there, leaving channel 9 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 the immensely popular 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.
WGN-TV telecast the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, beginning in 1953, when Fritz Reiner was the orchestra's music director. Many of the CSO's telecasts have been issued on DVD by VAI Distribution.
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 classic movies, sports, off-network sitcoms, cartoons and dramas. From 1974 until 1982, 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, weekday morning children's programming was replaced by WGN Morning News and The Bozo Show was moved to Sunday mornings until 2001, when the program was controversially discontinued by WGN management.
In 1995, WGN-TV aired primetime WB network programming in the Chicago area 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. This was done to increase coverage of the WB Network in cities that did not have enough stations for five networks.
In 1999, the Superstation WGN national feed stopped carrying WB network and Kids' WB programming. In the Chicago area, 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 Chicago area WGN-TV. This was done because of complaints from affiliates of the WB network and increased ratings in Chicago for the WB network. WB needed to be on channel-9 instead of channel-26 to take advantage of higher ratings of the Chicago market. WGN instead moves sports programs on to channel 26 to be able to show multiple games and games blacked out by league rules from the Superstation WGN.
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. On September 18, 2006, WGN-TV became The CW's Chicago affiliate.
The Chicago area feed of WGN-TV is also available in Canada to subscribers of the Bell ExpressVu and Star Choice satellite services, as well as most Canadian cable services. ExpressVu has always carried the Chicago area feed, but Star Choice and cable services used to carry Superstation WGN. This situation changed on January 17, 2007 when Shaw Broadcast Services, the primary supplier of Superstation WGN in Canada, switched to the WGN Chicago area feed. Although not confirmed by Shaw or any other provider, it is believed that the switch was made to avoid fees required to carry Superstation WGN. With this change, most cable subscribers will now have three CW stations: WGN, WPIX (same network time feed as WGN), and KTLA.
[edit] Potential Sale
In early November 2006, the Los Angeles Times reported that Tribune Company is seeking potential buyers for its stations in New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago. Tribune owns newspapers in all three cities. In New York and Los Angeles, they are operating under a temporary waiver but with the stations coming up for license renewal, the report claimed Tribune is seeking potential buyers in case they can't get a permanent waiver. This only covers Los Angeles and some other markets at present, because the Chicago and New York markets were allowed under grandfather rules, but with a sale - current rules do not allow a new owner to have both newspapers and television or radio stations in a single market area. [1]
[edit] Hijack
(See Max Headroom Pirating Incident)
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. These two stations are two of only three existing victims of what is called "broadcast signal intrusion." Subscription television network HBO is the other victim -- having its signal intercepted during a movie broadcast in April of 1986.
[edit] Newscasts
[edit] Weekdays
- WGN Morning News: 5:00-9:00 a.m. CT (airs only in Chicago area)
- WGN News at Noon: Noon-1:00 p.m. CT
- WGN News at Nine: 9:00-10:00 p.m. CT
[edit] Saturdays
- WGN News at Nine: 9:00-10:00 p.m. CT
[edit] Sundays
- WGN News at Nine: 9:00-9:40 p.m. CT
- Instant Replay (sports wrap-up): 9:40-10:00 p.m. CT
[edit] Personalities
[edit] Current On-Air Staff
WGN NEWS ANCHORS
- Jackie Bange - News at Nine Weekend
- Robin Baumgarten - Morning News
- Robert Jordan - News at Nine Weekend
- Micah Materre - News at Noon
- Tom Negovan - News
- Allison Payne - News at Nine Weeknights
- Larry Potash - Morning News
- Steve Sanders - News at Nine Weeknights
WGN NEWS REPORTERS
- Dina Bair - Medical Watch
- Ana Belaval - Around Town
- Julian Crews - features/general assignments
- Juan Carlos Fanjul (also fill-in anchor)
- Marcella Raymond - mornings/noon
- Dean Richards - Entertainment Reporter/Critic and Announcer
- Julie Unruh
- Valerie Warner - Traffic Reporter (also anchors 5-6 a.m.)
WGN WEATHER TEAM METEOROLOGISTS
- Paul Konrad - Morning News
- Tom Skilling - Chief Meteorlogist, Noon and 9 p.m. weekdays
- Tim McGill - Fill-in Meteorlogist, also seen on CLTV
- Jim Ramsey - Weekends
- Keenan Smith - Staff Meteorologist, also seen on CLTV
WGN SPORTS ANCHORS/REPORTERS
- Rich King - Weekends
- Dan Roan - Weekdays
- Pat Tomasulo, Morning News
[edit] Past News Personalities
- Mike Barz - Morning Sports Anchor (1996-2005, now at WFLD-TV)
- Cheryl Burton - Host of MBR: The Minority Business Report (1989-1990, now at WLS-TV)
- Jack Brickhouse - Legendary Sportscaster (1948-1982, deceased)
- Denise Cannon - Anchor (1982-1986)
- Susan Carlson - Traffic Reporter (1995-1998, now at WBBM-TV)
- Dan Christopher - Reporter (1970-1976)
- Jim Conway - Anchor/Reporter/Talk Show Host (1960s-1970s)
- John Drury - Anchor (1967-1970 and 1979-1984)
- Muriel Clair - Reporter (1978-2006)
- Joan Esposito - Anchor/Reporter (1980-1981)
- Bill Frink - Sports Anchor (1979-1984, deceased)
- Sid Garcia - Reporter (1987-1993, now at KABC-TV in Los Angeles)
- Pat Harvey - Anchor (1985-1989, now at KCAL-TV in Los Angeles)
- Dana Kozlov - Reporter (1996-2003, now at WBBM-TV)
- Ned Locke - Weather Anchor and Host on Bozo's Circus (1956-1976, deceased)
- Joanie Lum - Around Town Reporter (1988-2003, now at WBBM-TV)
- Marty McNeeley - Anchor/Reprorter/Off-Camera Announcer (1960s-early 1980s)
- Gary Park - Anchor (1960s)
- Rick Rosenthal - Anchor (1984-1994)
- Jim Ruddle - Anchor (1963-1968)
- Randy Salerno - Noon Anchor/Reporter (1993-2004, now at WBBM-TV)
- Alan Sealls - Meteorologist (1992-1997, now at WKRG-TV in Mobile, Alabama)
- Tom Shaer - Sports Anchor/Reporter (1983-1987)
- Wendell Smith - Sports Anchor/Reporter (1964-1972, deceased)
- Roseanne Tellez - Morning/Noon Anchor (1990-2004, now at WBBM-TV)
- Roger Triemstra - Weather Anchor (1960s-1980s)
- Jack Taylor - Anchor (1958-1970s?)
- Harry Volkman - Weather Anchor (1967-1978)
- Jim Williams - Government Reporter (1977-1992)
- Joanne Williams - Weather Anchor (1969-1972, now at WITI-TV in Milwaukee)
- Bill Weir - Morning News and Sports Anchor (1995-1998, now on Good Morning America Weekend Edition)
[edit] Trivia
- In the 2005 film The Weather Man, Nicolas Cage plays an egocentric TV meteorologist who works for the fictional WCH-6 Chicago. It was actually filmed at the WGN-TV Studios. At the time of the movie release, the station ran reports on the 9pm news with Dean Richards showing some video of production and about Tom Skilling's involvement with the movie production.
- Two other Tribune-owned stations and one formerly owned by the company have call letters named after WGN. These are: KWGN in Denver, WGNO in New Orleans and formerly owned WGNX in Atlanta (now WGCL).
- Unlike TBS, WGN often aired commercials aimed at Chicago viewers to its satellite customers.
[edit] See Also
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- WGN-TV
- Superstation WGN
- Streaming video of CBS Evening News coverage of the Max Headroom pirate incident
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WBBM 2 (CBS) - W04CQ 4 (Silent) - WMAQ 5 (NBC) - WLS 7 (ABC) - WGN 9 (The CW, The Tube on DT2) - WTTW 11 (PBS, Create on DT3) - WOCK-CA 13 (Azteca América) - W13BQ 13 (DW) - W18AT 18 / W54BK 54 (LeSEA) - WYCC 20 (PBS) - W64CQ 22 (TBN) - WWME-CA 23 (Ind) - WHVI-LP 24 (LeSEA) - WCIU 26 (Ind) - WSPY-LP 30 (A1) - WFLD 32 (Fox) - WEDE-CA 34 (Ind) - WWTO 35 (TBN) - WCPX 38 (ION) - WOCH-CA 41 (Ind) - WSNS 44 (TEL) - WFBT-CA 48 (Ind) - WPWR 50 (MNTV) - W54BE 54 (Edu. Ind) - WLFM-LP 55 (Ind) - WYIN 56 (PBS) - WXFT 60 (TFT) - WCHU-LP 61 (MTV3) - WJYS 62 (Ind) - WGBO 66 (UNI) |
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| Local cable television channels |
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WGN 9 (Chicago) - WGEM-DT 10.2 (Quincy) - WREX-DT 13.2 (Rockford) - WHOI-DT 19.2 (Peoria) - WBUI 23 (Decatur) - KGCW 26 (Burlington, IA/Quad Cities) |
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| See also: ABC, CBS, Fox, MyNetworkTV, NBC, PBS and Other Stations in Illinois | |
| Superstations in North American markets |
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United States: KTLA | KWGN | WAPA | WGN local / national | WKAQ | WPIX | WSBK | WTBS | WWOR / EMI |
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See Also: American networks | List of American Over-The-Air Networks | Local American TV Stations (W) | Local American TV Stations (K) | Canadian networks | Local Canadian TV Stations | Mexican networks | Local Mexican TV Stations | Superstations | North American TV | List of local television stations in North America |
