WGCL-TV
Encyclopedia
WGCL-TV, virtual channel
46.1 (digital channel
19) is the CBS-affiliated television station serving the Atlanta, Georgia
area. Its city of license
is Atlanta
, and the station is owned by Meredith Corporation
, making it the largest-market
CBS station not owned by the network. It was the largest affiliate of any of the original "Big Three" networks (ABC
, CBS or NBC) on analog UHF prior to the digital TV transition, and remains the largest such station to identify via PSIP with a channel number above the traditional 2-13 VHF range. The station is seen on Comcast cable channel 9 and HD channel 809 in the Atlanta area.
As of late 2009, Meredith's broadcasting division is headquartered in the WGCL facility. As a result, WGCL is the flagship television station of the company.
The station transmits from the "Richland" site near North Druid Hills from the east tower, along with several other stations. The station's digital TV signal on channel 19 formerly datacasted TV Guide On Screen for the area. WGCL has studios located on 14th Street in Midtown
in the Home Park
neighborhood, just blocks down the road from PBS affiliate WGTV
.
's Christian Broadcasting Network
. Its original broadcast callsign was WHAE-TV, which stood for "Heaven And Earth." It originally was programmed for an eight-hour broadcast day. It also had a low-budget lineup consisting of a few hours of general entertainment and another few hours of religious shows per day. It ran only religious programming on Sundays.
By 1976, the station had expanded to a 20-hour broadcast day, airing cartoons, classic sitcoms, family dramas, westerns, and religious programming (including The 700 Club
twice a day) on weekdays. Children's programming, westerns and movies were shown on Saturdays and the station continued to air strictly religious programming on Sundays until the fall of 1980. At that time, it began to run general entertainment programming during the afternoon. In 1977, it changed calls to WANX-TV, which stood for "Atlanta IN Christ (X)." It also began offering more mainstream programming. However, its programming policy was somewhat more conservative than its two main rivals at the time, WTBS (channel 17, now WPCH-TV) and WATL
). It didn't air any programming that would offend the sensibilities of its mostly fundamentalist and Pentecostal audience.
The station was bought by Chicago-based Tribune Broadcasting
in 1984. Tribune changed its call letters once again, this time to WGNX, named after then-sister station in Chicago WGN-TV
: it took WGN, and added an X from the previous callsign (essentially WGN + WANX). The 700 Club was now only broadcast once a day, before being dropped altogether until 2007, when WGCL picked it up again. The station significantly upgraded its programming, picking up more racier programming than it had aired under CBN ownership. When Tribune partnered with Time Warner
to form the new WB Network
, WGNX was slated to become the new network's Atlanta outlet upon that new network's launch in January 1995.
However, those plans were suddenly altered on May 22, 1994. On that day, New World Communications
announced an affiliation agreement with the Fox Broadcasting Company
, months after Fox won the broadcast rights to NFC football games. This resulted in most of its stations set to become Fox affiliates. One of the stations due to switch was Atlanta's longtime CBS affiliate, WAGA-TV
(channel 5). CBS needed to find a new affiliate in what had become the nation's 9th largest market, and approached all of Atlanta's major stations, including WGNX. However, neither were interested at first.
By October 1994—only a month before WAGA was slated to join Fox--CBS faced the prospect of having to pipe in WSPA-TV
in Spartanburg, WDEF-TV
in Chattanooga, WRBL
in Columbus
and WMAZ-TV
in Macon
for cable customers until it could find a new affiliate in Atlanta. Almost out of desperation, CBS made a deal to buy WVEU, a low-rated station on channel 69 with the weakest signal of Atlanta's full-power stations. Around the same time that the WB launched, another new network, the United Paramount Network (UPN
), co-owned by Paramount Pictures
/Viacom and Chris-Craft Industries
, was set to launch, with WATL as the most likely pick to be that network's Atlanta affiliate. However, CBS still wanted to affiliate with a station that people were more familiar with (and that had a functioning news department). It continued to negotiate with Tribune, who finally relented in November and allowed WGNX to become a CBS affiliate.
This move left WGNX with cartoons and sitcoms that it would no longer have time to air as a CBS affiliate, so it sold some of its syndicated programming to WVEU, which became the UPN affiliate (while WATL joined the WB), and was later sold to Viacom, who changed its calls to WUPA.
The affiliation switch became official on December 11, 1994. It would have originally occurred on November 27, but Fox, New World and CBS were still ironing out the final details. As a CBS station, it began airing more syndicated talk and reality shows; it also began calling itself "CBS46," though these references were mostly verbal; graphics continued to refer to "channel 46."
With the move to WGNX, however, CBS lost significant viewership in the northern portion of the Atlanta market. This area is somewhat mountainous, and despite its 5 million-watt analog signal, WGNX didn't penetrate nearly as far into this area as WAGA did. Much of this region was among the few areas where cable still wasn't readily available. CBS didn't return over-the-air to this area until the following August, when WNEG-TV (channel 32, now WUGA-TV) in Toccoa
joined CBS. Although it was located in the Greenville
/Spartanburg/Asheville market, WNEG served as the de facto CBS affiliate for the far northern portion of the Atlanta market until that station's sale to the University of Georgia
in 2008. By this time, increased cable and satellite availability in this area increased WGNX' footprint in the area.
Tribune began to manage the station in tandem with WATL in 1996 under a local marketing agreement
. In 1998, Tribune swapped WGNX to Meredith Corporation
in a three-way deal which saw Tribune acquire KCPQ
in Seattle from Kelly Broadcasting; that deal allowed Tribune to buy WATL outright the next year. Also around the same time, WGNX began branding as "CBS Atlanta." The station changed its calls to WGCL-TV in 2000 to reflect its new branding tagline, We're Georgia's CLear TV, along with "Clear News", a soft news concept. A few months later, WGCL was "CBS Atlanta" again, then two years later readopted the "CBS 46" moniker.
On June 20, 2007, WGCL's website underwent a redesign as part of a partnership between Meredith Corporation and Internet Broadcasting
, following the successful testing of the websites of five of its sister station
s, which had joined Internet Broadcasting the year before. WGCL's website was the sixth Meredith station website to switch from WorldNow to Internet Broadcasting. Meredith's contract with IB will expire in June 2011, and the Meredith station sites will be operated by WorldNow again. WGCL and Fox-affiliated sister station WHNS
in Greenville, South Carolina
were the first two stations to relaunch new WorldNow-operated sites on June 6, 2011.
In March 2009, Meredith announced that WGCL would begin handling the master control
operations of WSMV-TV
in Nashville, Tennessee
and WHNS in Greenville, South Carolina
. The new hub operation began operations in Fall 2009. Three other stations—KCTV
in Kansas City, Missouri
, WFSB
in Hartford, Connecticut
and WNEM-TV
in Saginaw, Michigan
—were later added to the WGCL hub; those three stations are slated to go online at the hub sometime in 2010. A similar hub is planned at sister station KPHO-TV
in Phoenix, Arizona
to handle stations in Portland, Oregon
(KPTV
and KPDX
) and Las Vegas
(KVVU-TV
). http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/189481-Meredith_Sets_Up_Atlanta_Hub.php
In late 2010, due to a lack of original content from WGCL's website, the station decided to copy and paste the "history" section off Wikipedia. It is no longer available at WGCL's website.
On March 12, 2011, WSB-TV
and WGCL-TV turned on their ATSC-M/H
signals for the first time, becoming the first stations in the Atlanta area to offer Mobile DTV broadcasts.
. The station remained on its pre-transition channel 19, using PSIP to display WGCL-TV's virtual channel
as 46.
Although the DTV Delay Act extended the mandatory shutdown of analog television
until June 12, WGCL-TV applied to the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) to end its transmissions on February 17, the original deadline. However, the station did not appear on the FCC list of such stations, which was released on February 11.
(WATC (digital channel 57) and WGTV (digital channel 8) were the other local stations on this list.) Since then, the station ran crawls that indicated that it would switch on June 12. The station applied to be an "analog nightlight" station, ending its regular programming on June 12 as required by law, but continuing to broadcast information regarding the DTV transition for an additional two weeks until June 26. (This is the same bilingual subtitled
loop, alternating in English and Spanish, as was seen on several other nightlight stations across the country.)
After this, WYGA-CA
may be allowed to increase its analog LPTV signal on adjacent
channel 45, as it was forced from channel 55 by MediaFLO
, and has been operating on special temporary authority
(STA) at very low power to protect adjacent-channel
WGCL from RF interference. WSB-TV
39 (2.x) may be also allowed to begin transmitting a co-channel digital TV fill-in translator from south of Gainesville
. Both are pending FCC approval of their applications, and WSB also filed for an STA to begin as soon as possible after WGCL ended analog transmissions. Like most CBS stations, WGCL's digital signal transmits in 1080i
high definition.
WGCL-TV has multiplexed additional digital subchannel
s on its over-the-air
transmitter
during the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship
period during select days and time periods in March. This is done in order to broadcast several basketball games in progress simultaneously carried by CBS Sports
. The subchannels, which can number as many as three, have a typical video resolution
of 480i
at 4:3 aspect ratio
. In March 2009, only one subchannel (46.2, labeled WGCLDT2) was used. Since then, no subchannels have been needed because the additional games in progress are now broadcast on TBS
and TNT due to a deal between CBS, the NCAA and Turner Networks
.
WGCL-TV also has a Mobile DTV feed of subchannel 46.1, broadcasting at 1.83 Mbit/s.
In 1989, WGNX started its first ever newscast, Channel 46 News at Ten, a nightly primetime newscast at 10 p.m. After affiliating with CBS, WGCL (as WGNX) moved the 10 p.m. newscast to 11 p.m. and added newscasts at noon and 6 p.m., as well as a short-lived 7:30 p.m. newscast. It would add on a short-lived 5 p.m. newscast, a morning newscast, and a 4 p.m. newscast as well.
On January 11, 2009, WGCL became the third station (behind WSB-TV and WXIA-TV) to broadcast its local newscasts in high definition
. With the switch to HD, WGCL has rebranded back to "CBS Atlanta", which it used in 1999 and 2002. Weekend evening meteorologist Justin Lock is currently the only meteorologist at WGCL's weather department that has earned a Seal of Approval in Broadcast Meteorology, as Lock earned a television seal of approval from the American Meteorological Society
.
Unlike most television station news operations, WGCL does not operate its own sports department; in October 2009, WGCL announced that it would shut down its in-house sports department and laid off sports anchors Gil Tyree and Mark Harmon in a cost-cutting decision; the station then outsourced sports coverage to local sports talk radio station WQXI
(790 kHz). On August 30, 2010 WGCL added an hour-long 5 p.m. newscast, this created a 2½ hour block of local news that begins with the existing hour-long 4 p.m. newscast and concludes with its 6 pm newscast. This fall, WGCL will remove their noon newscast and add an additional newscast from 9 a.m to 10 a.m.
, WAGA and WXIA-TV
. As such, WGCL has been one of CBS' weaker affiliates, despite its status as that network's largest affiliate. In contrast, WAGA was one of CBS' strongest affiliates. However, in the last three Nielsen ratings
periods, it has traded third and fourth place with WXIA-TV.
The station currently has no sports department, though one did exist in the past.
Virtual channel
In telecommunications, a logical channel number , also known as virtual channel, is a channel designation which differs from that of the actual radio channel on which the signal travels....
46.1 (digital channel
Digital television
Digital television is the transmission of audio and video by digital signals, in contrast to the analog signals used by analog TV...
19) is the CBS-affiliated television station serving the Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
area. Its city of license
City of license
A city of license or community of license, in American and Canadian broadcasting, is the community that a radio station or television station is officially licensed to serve by that country's broadcast regulator....
is Atlanta
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
, and the station is owned by Meredith Corporation
Meredith Corporation
The Meredith Corporation is a media conglomerate based in Des Moines, Iowa, USA. The company has two divisions, National Media and Local Media.-History:...
, making it the largest-market
Media market
A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area , Television Market Area , or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same television and radio station offerings, and may also include other types of media including newspapers and Internet content...
CBS station not owned by the network. It was the largest affiliate of any of the original "Big Three" networks (ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
, CBS or NBC) on analog UHF prior to the digital TV transition, and remains the largest such station to identify via PSIP with a channel number above the traditional 2-13 VHF range. The station is seen on Comcast cable channel 9 and HD channel 809 in the Atlanta area.
As of late 2009, Meredith's broadcasting division is headquartered in the WGCL facility. As a result, WGCL is the flagship television station of the company.
The station transmits from the "Richland" site near North Druid Hills from the east tower, along with several other stations. The station's digital TV signal on channel 19 formerly datacasted TV Guide On Screen for the area. WGCL has studios located on 14th Street in Midtown
Midtown Atlanta
Midtown is the second largest financial district in the city of Atlanta, Georgia, situated between the commercial and financial districts of Downtown and SoNo to the south and the affluent residential and commercial district of Buckhead to the north...
in the Home Park
Home Park (Atlanta)
Home Park is a neighborhood of Atlanta, north of Georgia Tech roughly between 10th Street, Northside Drive , 16th Street, and I-75/85 in Atlanta, Georgia...
neighborhood, just blocks down the road from PBS affiliate WGTV
WGTV
WGTV channel 8 is the metro Atlanta station and flagship for Georgia Public Broadcasting , Georgia's Public Broadcasting Service Public television network....
.
History
Channel 46 first went on the air on June 6, 1971. It was originally owned by the Continental Broadcasting Network, an arm of Pat RobertsonPat Robertson
Marion Gordon "Pat" Robertson is a media mogul, television evangelist, ex-Baptist minister and businessman who is politically aligned with the Christian Right in the United States....
's Christian Broadcasting Network
Christian Broadcasting Network
The Christian Broadcasting Network, or CBN, is a fundamentalist Christian television broadcasting network in the United States. Its headquarters and main studios are in Virginia Beach, Virginia.-Background:...
. Its original broadcast callsign was WHAE-TV, which stood for "Heaven And Earth." It originally was programmed for an eight-hour broadcast day. It also had a low-budget lineup consisting of a few hours of general entertainment and another few hours of religious shows per day. It ran only religious programming on Sundays.
By 1976, the station had expanded to a 20-hour broadcast day, airing cartoons, classic sitcoms, family dramas, westerns, and religious programming (including The 700 Club
The 700 Club
The 700 Club is the flagship news talk show of the Christian Broadcasting Network, airing in syndication throughout the United States and Canada. In production since 1966, it is currently hosted by Pat Robertson, Terry Meeuwsen, Kristi Watts, and Gordon P. Robertson, two of whom will host on any...
twice a day) on weekdays. Children's programming, westerns and movies were shown on Saturdays and the station continued to air strictly religious programming on Sundays until the fall of 1980. At that time, it began to run general entertainment programming during the afternoon. In 1977, it changed calls to WANX-TV, which stood for "Atlanta IN Christ (X)." It also began offering more mainstream programming. However, its programming policy was somewhat more conservative than its two main rivals at the time, WTBS (channel 17, now WPCH-TV) and WATL
WATL
WATL is a television station in Atlanta, Georgia, USA affiliated with MyNetworkTV. It is owned by the Gannett Company and is a sister station to WXIA-TV , Atlanta's NBC affiliate. WATL's callsign refers to ATLanta, the station's city of license, also known as "the A-T-L" for its airport code...
). It didn't air any programming that would offend the sensibilities of its mostly fundamentalist and Pentecostal audience.
The station was bought by Chicago-based Tribune Broadcasting
Tribune Broadcasting
The Tribune Broadcasting Company is a group of radio and television stations located throughout the United States which are owned and operated by the Tribune Company, a media conglomerate based in Chicago, Illinois and named for the flagship Chicago Tribune newspaper.- History :Tribune Broadcasting...
in 1984. Tribune changed its call letters once again, this time to WGNX, named after then-sister station in Chicago WGN-TV
WGN-TV
WGN-TV, virtual channel 9 , is the CW-affiliated television station in Chicago, Illinois built, signed on, and owned by the Tribune Company. WGN-TV's studios and offices are located at 2501 W...
: it took WGN, and added an X from the previous callsign (essentially WGN + WANX). The 700 Club was now only broadcast once a day, before being dropped altogether until 2007, when WGCL picked it up again. The station significantly upgraded its programming, picking up more racier programming than it had aired under CBN ownership. When Tribune partnered with Time Warner
Time Warner
Time Warner is one of the world's largest media companies, headquartered in the Time Warner Center in New York City. Formerly two separate companies, Warner Communications, Inc...
to form the new WB Network
The WB Television Network
The WB Television Network is a former television network in the United States that was launched on January 11, 1995 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. and Tribune Broadcasting. On January 24, 2006, CBS Corporation and Warner Bros...
, WGNX was slated to become the new network's Atlanta outlet upon that new network's launch in January 1995.
However, those plans were suddenly altered on May 22, 1994. On that day, New World Communications
New World Communications
New World Pictures was an independent motion picture and television production company, and later television station owner in the United States from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s...
announced an affiliation agreement with the Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
, months after Fox won the broadcast rights to NFC football games. This resulted in most of its stations set to become Fox affiliates. One of the stations due to switch was Atlanta's longtime CBS affiliate, WAGA-TV
WAGA-TV
WAGA-TV, virtual channel 5.1 is an owned-and-operated television station of the News Corporation-owned Fox Television Network and based in Atlanta, Georgia, United States...
(channel 5). CBS needed to find a new affiliate in what had become the nation's 9th largest market, and approached all of Atlanta's major stations, including WGNX. However, neither were interested at first.
By October 1994—only a month before WAGA was slated to join Fox--CBS faced the prospect of having to pipe in WSPA-TV
WSPA-TV
WSPA-TV channel 7 is the CBS-affiliated television station for western North Carolina and South Carolina. It is licensed to Spartanburg, South Carolina with its transmitter is located on Hogback Mountain southwest of Tryon, North Carolina. Owned by Media General, the station is sister to CW...
in Spartanburg, WDEF-TV
WDEF-TV
WDEF–TV channel 12 is the CBS affiliate television station for Chattanooga and the Tennessee Valley. The station, whose call letters came from its former AM and FM sister stations, is owned by Morris Multimedia. Its transmitter is located in Signal Mountain, Tennessee. Syndicated programming on...
in Chattanooga, WRBL
WRBL
WRBL, virtual channel 3 , is the CBS-affiliated television station in Columbus, Georgia. The station is owned by Media General, with studios in Columbus...
in Columbus
Columbus, Georgia
Columbus is a city in and the county seat of Muscogee County, Georgia, United States, with which it is consolidated. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 189,885. It is the principal city of the Columbus, Georgia metropolitan area, which, in 2009, had an estimated population of 292,795...
and WMAZ-TV
WMAZ-TV
WMAZ-TV, channel 13, is the CBS affiliate television station in Macon, Georgia, United States. It is owned by Gannett.-History:The station signed on for the first time on September 27, 1953, owned by Southeastern Broadcasting Company along with WMAZ radio...
in Macon
Macon, Georgia
Macon is a city located in central Georgia, US. Founded at the fall line of the Ocmulgee River, it is part of the Macon metropolitan area, and the county seat of Bibb County. A small portion of the city extends into Jones County. Macon is the biggest city in central Georgia...
for cable customers until it could find a new affiliate in Atlanta. Almost out of desperation, CBS made a deal to buy WVEU, a low-rated station on channel 69 with the weakest signal of Atlanta's full-power stations. Around the same time that the WB launched, another new network, the United Paramount Network (UPN
UPN
United Paramount Network was a television network that was broadcast in over 200 markets in the United States from 1995 to 2006. UPN was originally owned by Viacom/Paramount and Chris-Craft Industries, the former of which, through the Paramount Television Group, produced most of the network's...
), co-owned by Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
/Viacom and Chris-Craft Industries
Chris-Craft Industries
Chris-Craft Industries, Inc., formerly National Automotive Fibers, Inc., was a publicly-held American corporation traded on the New York and Pacific Stock Exchanges. It later took on the name of one of its acquisitions, Chris-Craft Boats...
, was set to launch, with WATL as the most likely pick to be that network's Atlanta affiliate. However, CBS still wanted to affiliate with a station that people were more familiar with (and that had a functioning news department). It continued to negotiate with Tribune, who finally relented in November and allowed WGNX to become a CBS affiliate.
This move left WGNX with cartoons and sitcoms that it would no longer have time to air as a CBS affiliate, so it sold some of its syndicated programming to WVEU, which became the UPN affiliate (while WATL joined the WB), and was later sold to Viacom, who changed its calls to WUPA.
The affiliation switch became official on December 11, 1994. It would have originally occurred on November 27, but Fox, New World and CBS were still ironing out the final details. As a CBS station, it began airing more syndicated talk and reality shows; it also began calling itself "CBS46," though these references were mostly verbal; graphics continued to refer to "channel 46."
With the move to WGNX, however, CBS lost significant viewership in the northern portion of the Atlanta market. This area is somewhat mountainous, and despite its 5 million-watt analog signal, WGNX didn't penetrate nearly as far into this area as WAGA did. Much of this region was among the few areas where cable still wasn't readily available. CBS didn't return over-the-air to this area until the following August, when WNEG-TV (channel 32, now WUGA-TV) in Toccoa
Toccoa, Georgia
Toccoa is a city in Stephens County, Georgia, United States located approximately from Athens and approximately northeast of Atlanta. The population was 9,323 at the 2000 census...
joined CBS. Although it was located in the Greenville
Greenville, South Carolina
-Law and government:The city of Greenville adopted the Council-Manager form of municipal government in 1976.-History:The area was part of the Cherokee Nation's protected grounds after the Treaty of 1763, which ended the French and Indian War. No White man was allowed to enter, though some families...
/Spartanburg/Asheville market, WNEG served as the de facto CBS affiliate for the far northern portion of the Atlanta market until that station's sale to the University of Georgia
University of Georgia
The University of Georgia is a public research university located in Athens, Georgia, United States. Founded in 1785, it is the oldest and largest of the state's institutions of higher learning and is one of multiple schools to claim the title of the oldest public university in the United States...
in 2008. By this time, increased cable and satellite availability in this area increased WGNX' footprint in the area.
Tribune began to manage the station in tandem with WATL in 1996 under a local marketing agreement
Local marketing agreement
In U.S. and Canadian broadcasting, a local marketing agreement is an agreement in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another licensee...
. In 1998, Tribune swapped WGNX to Meredith Corporation
Meredith Corporation
The Meredith Corporation is a media conglomerate based in Des Moines, Iowa, USA. The company has two divisions, National Media and Local Media.-History:...
in a three-way deal which saw Tribune acquire KCPQ
KCPQ
KCPQ, channel 13, is the Fox television affiliate licensed to Tacoma, Washington serving the Seattle/Tacoma television market, owned by the Tribune Company...
in Seattle from Kelly Broadcasting; that deal allowed Tribune to buy WATL outright the next year. Also around the same time, WGNX began branding as "CBS Atlanta." The station changed its calls to WGCL-TV in 2000 to reflect its new branding tagline, We're Georgia's CLear TV, along with "Clear News", a soft news concept. A few months later, WGCL was "CBS Atlanta" again, then two years later readopted the "CBS 46" moniker.
On June 20, 2007, WGCL's website underwent a redesign as part of a partnership between Meredith Corporation and Internet Broadcasting
Internet Broadcasting
Internet Broadcasting , or IB, is a provider of Websites, content and advertising revenue solution to the largest and most successful media companies in the world. IB hosts over 70 local stations' sites, and co-produced NBCOlympics.com for the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece and the 2006...
, following the successful testing of the websites of five of its sister station
Sister station
In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio and/or television stations operated by the same ownership....
s, which had joined Internet Broadcasting the year before. WGCL's website was the sixth Meredith station website to switch from WorldNow to Internet Broadcasting. Meredith's contract with IB will expire in June 2011, and the Meredith station sites will be operated by WorldNow again. WGCL and Fox-affiliated sister station WHNS
WHNS
WHNS is the Fox affiliate television station for western North and South Carolina. Licensed to Greenville, South Carolina; it is owned by the Meredith Corporation. It broadcasts its digital signal on UHF channel 21...
in Greenville, South Carolina
Greenville, South Carolina
-Law and government:The city of Greenville adopted the Council-Manager form of municipal government in 1976.-History:The area was part of the Cherokee Nation's protected grounds after the Treaty of 1763, which ended the French and Indian War. No White man was allowed to enter, though some families...
were the first two stations to relaunch new WorldNow-operated sites on June 6, 2011.
In March 2009, Meredith announced that WGCL would begin handling the master control
Master control
Master control is the technical hub of a broadcast operation common among most over-the-air television stations and television networks. It is distinct from a production control room in television studios where the activities such as switching from camera to camera are coordinated...
operations of WSMV-TV
WSMV-TV
WSMV-TV, virtual channel 4, is the NBC-affiliated television station serving the Nashville, Tennessee area. It broadcasts its digital signal on VHF channel 10. Owned by Meredith Corporation, its transmitter and tower are located adjacent to its studios on Knob Road in west Nashville, south of...
in Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
and WHNS in Greenville, South Carolina
Greenville, South Carolina
-Law and government:The city of Greenville adopted the Council-Manager form of municipal government in 1976.-History:The area was part of the Cherokee Nation's protected grounds after the Treaty of 1763, which ended the French and Indian War. No White man was allowed to enter, though some families...
. The new hub operation began operations in Fall 2009. Three other stations—KCTV
KCTV
KCTV channel 5 is the CBS-affiliated television station for the Kansas City Metropolitan Area that is licensed to the Missouri side. Owned by the Meredith Corporation, the station is sister to MyNetworkTV affiliate KSMO-TV and the two share facilities on Shawnee Mission Parkway KCTV channel 5 is...
in Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
, WFSB
WFSB
'WFSB, channel 3, is a CBS-affiliated television station located in Hartford, Connecticut, USA, owned by the Meredith Corporation. WFSB's studios and offices are located in Rocky Hill, Connecticut, and its broadcast transmitter is based on Talcott Mountain in Avon, Connecticut. Syndicated...
in Hartford, Connecticut
Hartford, Connecticut
Hartford is the capital of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960, it is the second most populous city on New England's largest river, the Connecticut River. As of the 2010 Census, Hartford's population was 124,775, making...
and WNEM-TV
WNEM-TV
WNEM-TV is the CBS-affiliated television station for the Flint/Tri-Cities market in Michigan. It is licensed to Bay City, and broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 22 . Owned by the Meredith Corporation, the station has studios on North Franklin Street in downtown Saginaw, as...
in Saginaw, Michigan
Saginaw, Michigan
Saginaw is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Saginaw County. The city of Saginaw was once a thriving lumber town and manufacturing center. Saginaw and Saginaw County lie in the Flint/Tri-Cities region of Michigan...
—were later added to the WGCL hub; those three stations are slated to go online at the hub sometime in 2010. A similar hub is planned at sister station KPHO-TV
KPHO-TV
KPHO-TV, channel 5, is a CBS-affiliate television station located in Phoenix, Arizona, USA. KPHO-TV is owned by the Meredith Corporation, and has its studios located on Black Canyon Highway in the Alhambra Village section of Phoenix, with its transmitter located on South Mountain in Phoenix...
in Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...
to handle stations in Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
(KPTV
KPTV
KPTV is the Fox-affiliated television station serving the Portland, Oregon market, which includes most of the state of Oregon and portions of Southwest Washington. KPTV is owned by the Meredith Corporation in a duopoly with MyNetworkTV affiliate KPDX , with its studios located in Beaverton and...
and KPDX
KPDX
KPDX is the MyNetworkTV-affiliate serving the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area. It broadcasts its digital signal on UHF channel 30. In addition, it is seen on channel 13 on most local cable TV systems....
) and Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
(KVVU-TV
KVVU-TV
KVVU-TV, virtual channel 5.1, is a Fox-affiliated television station serving the Las Vegas, Nevada market. It is owned and operated by Meredith Corporation. It transmits its digital signal on VHF channel 9. The station's studios and transmitter are located in Henderson, its city of license...
). http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/189481-Meredith_Sets_Up_Atlanta_Hub.php
In late 2010, due to a lack of original content from WGCL's website, the station decided to copy and paste the "history" section off Wikipedia. It is no longer available at WGCL's website.
On March 12, 2011, WSB-TV
WSB-TV
WSB-TV, virtual channel 2.1 , is the ABC affiliate in Atlanta, Georgia. It is the flagship television station of Cox Enterprises and its Cox Media Group subsidiary...
and WGCL-TV turned on their ATSC-M/H
ATSC-M/H
ATSC-M/H is a standard in the USA for mobile digital TV, that allows TV broadcasts to be received by mobile devices.....
signals for the first time, becoming the first stations in the Atlanta area to offer Mobile DTV broadcasts.
Digital transition
WGCL-TV shut down its analog signal, on June 12, 2009, as part of the DTV transition in the United StatesDTV transition in the United States
The DTV transition in the United States was the switchover from analog to exclusively digital broadcasting of free over-the-air television programming...
. The station remained on its pre-transition channel 19, using PSIP to display WGCL-TV's virtual channel
Virtual channel
In telecommunications, a logical channel number , also known as virtual channel, is a channel designation which differs from that of the actual radio channel on which the signal travels....
as 46.
Although the DTV Delay Act extended the mandatory shutdown of analog television
Analog television
Analog television is the analog transmission that involves the broadcasting of encoded analog audio and analog video signal: one in which the message conveyed by the broadcast signal is a function of deliberate variations in the amplitude and/or frequency of the signal...
until June 12, WGCL-TV applied to the Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
(FCC) to end its transmissions on February 17, the original deadline. However, the station did not appear on the FCC list of such stations, which was released on February 11.
(WATC (digital channel 57) and WGTV (digital channel 8) were the other local stations on this list.) Since then, the station ran crawls that indicated that it would switch on June 12. The station applied to be an "analog nightlight" station, ending its regular programming on June 12 as required by law, but continuing to broadcast information regarding the DTV transition for an additional two weeks until June 26. (This is the same bilingual subtitled
Subtitle (captioning)
Subtitles are textual versions of the dialog in films and television programs, usually displayed at the bottom of the screen. They can either be a form of written translation of a dialog in a foreign language, or a written rendering of the dialog in the same language, with or without added...
loop, alternating in English and Spanish, as was seen on several other nightlight stations across the country.)
After this, WYGA-CA
WYGA-CA
WYGA-LD is a low-power television station serving Atlanta, Georgia. Its city of license is Atlanta and it transmits digital TV on physical RF channel 16...
may be allowed to increase its analog LPTV signal on adjacent
Adjacent channel
In broadcasting an adjacent channel is an AM, FM, or TV channel that is next to another channel. First-adjacent is immediately next to another channel, second-adjacent is two channels away, and so forth. Information on adjacent channels is used in keeping stations from interfering with one...
channel 45, as it was forced from channel 55 by MediaFLO
MediaFLO
MediaFLO is a technology developed by Qualcomm for transmitting audio, video and data to portable devices such as mobile phones and personal televisions, used for mobile television...
, and has been operating on special temporary authority
Special temporary authority
In U.S. broadcast law, a special temporary authorization or special temporary authority is a type of broadcast license which temporarily allows a broadcast station to operate outside of its normal technical or legal parameters...
(STA) at very low power to protect adjacent-channel
Adjacent channel
In broadcasting an adjacent channel is an AM, FM, or TV channel that is next to another channel. First-adjacent is immediately next to another channel, second-adjacent is two channels away, and so forth. Information on adjacent channels is used in keeping stations from interfering with one...
WGCL from RF interference. WSB-TV
WSB-TV
WSB-TV, virtual channel 2.1 , is the ABC affiliate in Atlanta, Georgia. It is the flagship television station of Cox Enterprises and its Cox Media Group subsidiary...
39 (2.x) may be also allowed to begin transmitting a co-channel digital TV fill-in translator from south of Gainesville
Gainesville, Georgia
-Severe Weather:Gainesville sits on the very fringe of Tornado Alley, a region of the United States where severe weather is common. Supercell thunderstorms can sweep through any time between March and November, but are concentrated most in the spring...
. Both are pending FCC approval of their applications, and WSB also filed for an STA to begin as soon as possible after WGCL ended analog transmissions. Like most CBS stations, WGCL's digital signal transmits in 1080i
1080i
1080i is the shorthand name for a high-definition television mode. The i means interlaced video; 1080i differs from 1080p, in which the p stands for progressive scan. The term 1080i assumes a widescreen aspect ratio of 16:9, implying a frame size of 1920×1080 pixels...
high definition.
WGCL-TV has multiplexed additional digital subchannel
Digital subchannel
In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a means to transmit more than one independent program at the same time from the same digital radio or digital television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compression techniques to reduce the size of each individual...
s on its over-the-air
Terrestrial television
Terrestrial television is a mode of television broadcasting which does not involve satellite transmission or cables — typically using radio waves through transmitting and receiving antennas or television antenna aerials...
transmitter
Transmitter
In electronics and telecommunications a transmitter or radio transmitter is an electronic device which, with the aid of an antenna, produces radio waves. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to the antenna. When excited by this alternating...
during the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship
NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship
The NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship is a single-elimination tournament held each spring in the United States, featuring 68 college basketball teams, to determine the national championship in the top tier of college basketball...
period during select days and time periods in March. This is done in order to broadcast several basketball games in progress simultaneously carried by CBS Sports
CBS Sports
CBS Sports is a division of CBS Broadcasting which airs sporting events on the American television network. Its headquarters are in the CBS Building on West 52nd Street in midtown Manhattan, New York City, with programs produced out of Studio 43 at the CBS Broadcast Center on West 57th Street.CBS...
. The subchannels, which can number as many as three, have a typical video resolution
Display resolution
The display resolution of a digital television or display device is the number of distinct pixels in each dimension that can be displayed. It can be an ambiguous term especially as the displayed resolution is controlled by all different factors in cathode ray tube , flat panel or projection...
of 480i
480i
480i is the shorthand name for a video mode, namely the US NTSC television system or digital television systems with the same characteristics. The i, which is sometimes uppercase, stands for interlaced, the 480 for a vertical frame resolution of 480 lines containing picture information; while NTSC...
at 4:3 aspect ratio
Aspect ratio
The aspect ratio of a shape is the ratio of its longer dimension to its shorter dimension. It may be applied to two characteristic dimensions of a three-dimensional shape, such as the ratio of the longest and shortest axis, or for symmetrical objects that are described by just two measurements,...
. In March 2009, only one subchannel (46.2, labeled WGCLDT2) was used. Since then, no subchannels have been needed because the additional games in progress are now broadcast on TBS
TBS (TV channel)
TBS , stylized in the logo as tbs, is an American cable television channel owned by Time Warner that shows a variety of programming, with a focus on comedy. TBS was originally known as WTCG, a UHF terrestrial television station that broadcast from Atlanta, Georgia, during the late 1970s...
and TNT due to a deal between CBS, the NCAA and Turner Networks
Turner Broadcasting System
Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. is the Time Warner subsidiary managing the collection of cable networks and properties started and acquired by Robert Edward "Ted" Turner starting in the mid-1970s. The company has its headquarters in the CNN Center in Atlanta, Georgia. TBS, Inc...
.
WGCL-TV also has a Mobile DTV feed of subchannel 46.1, broadcasting at 1.83 Mbit/s.
Station timeline
- 1971: WHAE-TV as an independent general entertainment/religious station owned by CBNChristian Broadcasting NetworkThe Christian Broadcasting Network, or CBN, is a fundamentalist Christian television broadcasting network in the United States. Its headquarters and main studios are in Virginia Beach, Virginia.-Background:...
- 1977: Callsign change to WANX-TV
- 1984: Sold to Tribune, becoming WGNX
- 1989: WGNX begins a local news broadcast
- 1994: Switched to CBSCBSCBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
(previously on WAGA-TVWAGA-TVWAGA-TV, virtual channel 5.1 is an owned-and-operated television station of the News Corporation-owned Fox Television Network and based in Atlanta, Georgia, United States...
5) - 1995: Became known as "WGNX CBS46"
- 1999: Meredith closes on purchase of station, renamed "CBS Atlanta"
- 2000: Callsign change to WGCL-TV renamed "Clear TV"
- 2002: Renamed "CBS Atlanta" again
- 2003: Renamed "CBS46" again
- 2009: Renamed "CBS Atlanta" yet again
News operation
Currently, WGCL broadcasts a total of 32 hours of local newscasts every week (with six hours on weekdays and one hour each on weekends). Unlike most CBS affiliates, the station does not carry local newscasts in weekend morning timeslots.In 1989, WGNX started its first ever newscast, Channel 46 News at Ten, a nightly primetime newscast at 10 p.m. After affiliating with CBS, WGCL (as WGNX) moved the 10 p.m. newscast to 11 p.m. and added newscasts at noon and 6 p.m., as well as a short-lived 7:30 p.m. newscast. It would add on a short-lived 5 p.m. newscast, a morning newscast, and a 4 p.m. newscast as well.
On January 11, 2009, WGCL became the third station (behind WSB-TV and WXIA-TV) to broadcast its local newscasts in high definition
High-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
. With the switch to HD, WGCL has rebranded back to "CBS Atlanta", which it used in 1999 and 2002. Weekend evening meteorologist Justin Lock is currently the only meteorologist at WGCL's weather department that has earned a Seal of Approval in Broadcast Meteorology, as Lock earned a television seal of approval from the American Meteorological Society
American Meteorological Society
The American Meteorological Society promotes the development and dissemination of information and education on the atmospheric and related oceanic and hydrologic sciences and the advancement of their professional applications. Founded in 1919, the American Meteorological Society has a membership...
.
Unlike most television station news operations, WGCL does not operate its own sports department; in October 2009, WGCL announced that it would shut down its in-house sports department and laid off sports anchors Gil Tyree and Mark Harmon in a cost-cutting decision; the station then outsourced sports coverage to local sports talk radio station WQXI
WQXI (AM)
WQXI, "790 The Zone", is a radio station licensed to the city of Atlanta broadcasting at a frequency of 790 kHz. The station has a power of 28,000 watts in the daytime, and 1,000 watts at night. WQXI's signal is non-directional during the daytime, and directional at night...
(790 kHz). On August 30, 2010 WGCL added an hour-long 5 p.m. newscast, this created a 2½ hour block of local news that begins with the existing hour-long 4 p.m. newscast and concludes with its 6 pm newscast. This fall, WGCL will remove their noon newscast and add an additional newscast from 9 a.m to 10 a.m.
Ratings
As a CBS affiliate, WGCL has struggled in the local viewership ratings, usually ranking fourth behind WSB-TVWSB-TV
WSB-TV, virtual channel 2.1 , is the ABC affiliate in Atlanta, Georgia. It is the flagship television station of Cox Enterprises and its Cox Media Group subsidiary...
, WAGA and WXIA-TV
WXIA-TV
WXIA-TV, virtual channel 11.1 , is the NBC-affiliated television station in Atlanta, Georgia. Popularly known by its 11 Alive moniker, WXIA is owned by the Gannett Company in a duopoly with MyNetworkTV affiliate WATL...
. As such, WGCL has been one of CBS' weaker affiliates, despite its status as that network's largest affiliate. In contrast, WAGA was one of CBS' strongest affiliates. However, in the last three Nielsen ratings
Nielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
periods, it has traded third and fourth place with WXIA-TV.
Newscast titles
- Channel 46 News at Ten (1989–1994)
- WGNX News (1994–1999)
- CBS Atlanta News (1999–2000, 2002–2003, 2009–present)
- Clear News (2000–2002)
- CBS 46 News (2003–2009)
Station slogans
- Giving Atlanta a Choice! (1985–1989)
- Georgia's News at Ten (1989–1994)
- Working to Be Your New Choice (1997–1999)
- News That Clearly Matters (2000–2002)
- Atlanta's NewsChannel (2003–2004)
- Breaking News. Breaking Stories. (2004–2005)
- We Ask the Tough Questions (2008–present)
Anchors
- Brandon RudatBrandon RudatBrandon Rudat is an American, Emmy Award-winning journalist.-Professional career:Rudat started his professional career as an intern on the Today Show in New York City and a producer for WNBC's Today in New York where he covered the 9/11 terrorist attacks and aftermath...
http://www.cbsatlanta.com/story/14762892/brandon-rudat-5-14-2010 - weekday mornings Better Mornings Atlanta (5:00-7 a.m.)and (9:00-10:00 a.m.) - Tracye Hutchins - weekday mornings Better Mornings Atlanta(5:00-7 a.m.)and (9:00-10:00 a.m.)
- Stephany Fisher - weekdays at 4, weeknights at 5, 6 and 11 p.m.; also health reporter
- JaQuitta Williams - weekdays at 4, weeknights at 6 and 11 p.m.; also reporter
- Kim Fettig - weeknights at 5 p.m.; also reporter
- Guy Rawlings - weeknights starting January 2012
- Katie Brace - weekend anchor; also reporter
Storm Tracker Weather Team
- Markina Brown (AMS member; NWA member) - Chief meteorologist; weekdays at 4, weeknights at 5, 6 and 11 p.m.
- Cris Martinez (Certified Broadcast Meteorologist (CBM)) - Severe weather meteorologist;weekday mornings Better Mornings Atlanta (5:00-7 a.m.)and (9:00-10:00 a.m.)
- Jennifer Valdez (NWA member) - meteorologist; weekday mornings Better Mornings Atlanta (5:00-7 a.m.)and (9:00-10:00 a.m.), also traffic reporter
- Justin Lock (AMSAmerican Meteorological SocietyThe American Meteorological Society promotes the development and dissemination of information and education on the atmospheric and related oceanic and hydrologic sciences and the advancement of their professional applications. Founded in 1919, the American Meteorological Society has a membership...
Seal of Approval) - meteorologist;weekends.
The station currently has no sports department, though one did exist in the past.
Reporters
- Wendy Saltzman - chief investigative reporter ("Tough Questions" unit)
- Jeff Chirico - investigative reporter ("Tough Questions" unit)
- Adam Murphy - consumer investigative reporter ("Tough Questions" unit)
- Jocelyn Connell - general assignment reporter
- Hena Daniels - general assignment reporter,fill in anchor.
- Christopher King - general assignment reporter
- Michelle Marsh - general assignment reporter
- Jennifer Mayerle - general assignment reporter
- Tony McNary - general assignment reporter
- Mike Paluska - general assignment reporter
- Harry 'Pothole' Samler - general assignment reporter
- Rebekka Schramm - 4, 5 and 6 p.m. reporter
- Renée Starzyk - general assignment reporter
- Bernard Watson - general assignment reporter
- Crystal Cruz - general assignment reporter; also photographer
- Steve Kiggins - general assignment reporter; also photographer
Former on-air staff
- John DoyleJohn Doyle (announcer)John Doyle is a professional announcer whose voice was most notably used by the National Institute of Standards and Technology on their radio clock WWV, a "time and temperature" voice for the Audichron Company.and others....
, weathercaster (1997–2005, retired from broadcasting; currently doing voice-overs, working part-time as bailiff at the Gwinnett County Courthouse) - Tony HarrisTony Harris (journalist)Tony Harris is a United States television reporter and news anchor, now anchoring on Al Jazeera English. Harris was most recently a news anchor on CNN.-Life and career:...
, 5:00, 6:00, and 11:00 anchor (2003–2004, now co-anchor of CNN Newsroom) - Dagmar MidcapDagmar MidcapDagmar Midcap is a media personality originally based in Vancouver, British Columbia.A graduate of British Columbia Institute of Technology's broadcast journalism program in 1990, Midcap began her television career on WBNX-TV in Akron, Ohio, appearing on a weekly current affairs program...
, evening weather anchor/reporter (2007–2010) - Toni NealToni NealToni Neal is an Emmy Award-winning broadcaster.-Biography:She got her start as an intern at WJLB-FM in Detroit in 1992 while attending Cass Technical High School. Born in the inner city of Detroit she was place into foster care and remained there for 14 years; until she went to Alabama to attend...
, Traffic Reporter (2004) - Chau NguyenChau NguyenChau Nguyen is a former Vietnamese-American news anchor most recently seen with KHOU-TV, before stepping down in December of 2007. Chau's family fled after the fall of Saigon, South Vietnam when she was 2 years old and her family settled in Houston, Texas. She is the first Vietnamese-American to...
, general assignment reporter (?–2003, last seen at KHOU-TV Houston, and believed to no longer be in the TV business) - Jane RobelotJane RobelotJane Robelot was a co-anchor of CBS television's CBS This Morning during the early 1990s. In the 1980s she worked at WSPA-TV in Spartanburg, South Carolina, then at then-CBS-owned WCAU TV Philadelphia before moving to CBS. After working for CBS News she was the primary anchor for WGCL-TV in Atlanta...
, 5:00, 6:00, and 11:00 anchor (1999–2003, now a reporter and substitute anchor at WYFF-TV) - Lesley Tanner - general assignment reporter; also photographer