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This article is about the national version of WGN-TV. For the local Chicago television station that is affiliated with The CW, see WGN-TV. For its sister AM radio station, see WGN (AM).
WGN America
WGN America logo 2014.png
Logo used since January 20, 2014.
Launched November 1978 (1978-11)[specify][1]
Network Independent (1978–1995 and 1999–present)
The WB (1995–1999)
Owned by Tribune Broadcasting
(Tribune Media)
Picture format 1080i (HDTV)
480i (SDTV)
Slogan Chicago's Very Own (during WGN-TV news simulcasts)
Country United States
Language English
Broadcast area United States
Canada (via cable)
Headquarters Chicago, Illinois (programming);
New York City, New York (sales)
Formerly called WGN (1978–2001)
WGN Superstation (2001–2002)
Superstation WGN (2002–2008)
Sister channel(s) WGN-TV, Chicagoland Television, WGN (AM)
Website www.wgnamerica.com
Availability
Satellite
DirecTV (U.S.) 307 (HD/SD)
Dish Network 239 (HD/SD)
Cable
Verizon FiOS 68 (SD)
568 (HD)
Available on most other U.S. cable systems Consult your local cable provider for channel availability
IPTV
AT&T U-verse 180 (SD)
1180 (HD)
(not available in the Chicago area)
MTS TV 245 (SD)
1245 (HD)

WGN America is an American basic cable and satellite television channel that is owned by Tribune Broadcasting. The channel is one of several flagship properties owned by the Chicago, Illinois-based Tribune Media, which also owns the channel's former parent television station during its existence as a superstation, WGN-TV (channel 9), regional cable news channel Chicagoland Television (CLTV) and radio station WGN (720 AM).

As of February 2015, WGN America is available in approximately 72.7 million pay television households (62.4% of households with at least one television set) in the United States.[2]

Overview[edit]

WGN America carries a variety of programs consisting mainly of recent and classic off-network sitcoms, drama series and feature films, along with first-run original television series produced exclusively for the channel. Despite retaining the WGN name it borrowed from its former parent station, since December 15, 2014, it no longer carries any local, syndicated or sports programming that is carried in the Chicago market on WGN-TV. Conversely, WGN-TV does not carry WGN America's original series, outside of any special presentations of a program's series premiere (such as with the July 2013 premiere of Manhattan, which aired on WGN-TV and several other Tribune-owned stations on the night of its debut on WGN America).

WGN America broadcasts on an Eastern Time schedule (with programs shown at earlier or later times depending on the location). As such, promos for WGN America programs reference airtimes for both the Eastern and Pacific time zones (for example, America's Funniest Home Videos is promoted as airing at "6 p.m. East/3 p.m. West", a scheduling reference format used in promotions since 2008, instead of referring to both zones as "Eastern" and "Pacific"). However, the network eventually plans to launch a Pacific Time Zone feed once it completes its conversion into a conventional cable network.[3]

Availability[edit]

WGN America is available in the United States on most cable providers, as well as on Dish Network, DirecTV, AT&T U-verse, and Verizon FiOS. However, it remains unavailable on cable in portions of the western United States and much of the New England region of the northeastern United States (including portions of the New York City metropolitan area). Moreover, some cable providers in select markets where Tribune Broadcasting owns a television station do not carry WGN America on analog or digital cable.

In the Chicago metropolitan area, WGN America is not available over-the-air as a digital subchannel of WGN-TV or through pay television via WOW!, RCN, AT&T U-verse, and other providers in the city proper and its suburbs (making the channel's original programming unavailable to many in the market); although cable and satellite subscribers within the Chicago market can access WGN America, in addition to the WGN-TV broadcast signal, through Comcast Xfinity, DirecTV and Dish Network.[4][3]

The channel is also carried in Canada on select cable providers (such as Cogeco Cable), although most pay television providers in that country that previously carried WGN America now receive WGN-TV/Chicago instead as the main supplier of WGN in Canada, Shaw Broadcast Services, switched from the superstation feed to the Chicago area signal on January 17, 2007. This resulted in the duplication of CW network and many syndicated programs that are available domestically on other channels (such as fellow superstations KTLA and WSBK-TV), and effectively displaced the WGN national feed from most Canadian cable systems and satellite provider Star Choice (although Bell TV had been carrying the Chicago area signal for several years). The decision to switch to the Chicago area feed is believed to have been made in order to avoid paying fees that are required to carry the then WGN superstation feed. A few subscription television providers (such as MTS TV and Cogeco) carry both WGN America and WGN-TV Chicago. The WGN-TV feed is also carried in Canada as part of the NHL Centre Ice sports package, primarily for simulcasts of Chicago Blackhawks games.

History[edit]

As a superstation[edit]

WGN-TV goes national[edit]

In October 1978, United Video Satellite Group uplinked the signal of Chicago independent station WGN-TV (channel 9) to the Satcom-3 satellite for cable and satellite subscribers throughout the United States. For about eleven years afterward, the national WGN-TV signal carried the same programming schedule as that seen in the Chicago area; the national feed also used the same on-air branding as the Chicago area signal (which was referred to on-air at the time as either "Channel 9" or "WGN Channel 9") until 1997, when it became known as simply "WGN" outside of Chicago (although it retained the varied forms of the WGN logo wordmark until 2008). After United Video launched Prevue Guide (now TVGN) in the late 1980s, it utilized WGN's audio subcarrier channel – which was unheard by viewers – to transmit programming schedules in a 2400 bit/s data stream to local cable providers.

In 1989, the Federal Communications Commission passed the Syndication Exclusivity Rules (or "SyndEx") into law; the regulations required cable providers to black out syndicated programs shown on any out-of-market television stations that the provider carried, when a station within a television market obtains the exclusive rights to air that particular program. In response, a separate national feed of WGN-TV was launched on January 1, 1990 to avoid any potential blackouts, save for some sports programming (the feed was originally similar in structure to the now-defunct WWOR EMI Service, a superstation feed of Secaucus, New Jersey-based WWOR-TV that launched seven months after WGN-TV achieved superstation status, only with fewer programming blackouts). By the early 1990s, WGN began to increase its national coverage when many cable systems began to swap out WWOR and its New York City area rival (and sister station to WGN-TV) WPIX for the WGN superstation feed;[5][6] its distribution expanded further as it gradually gained carriage on direct broadcast satellite via DirecTV, Dish Network and Primestar during that decade.

Former logo as WGN Superstation, used from 2001 to 2002.
Former logo as Superstation WGN, used from 2002 to 2008.

On December 3, 1993, Tribune Broadcasting signed an affiliation agreement with WGN-TV/Chicago to become a charter affiliate of The WB Television Network, a joint venture between the Warner Bros. Television unit of Time Warner and the Tribune Company (which held a minority ownership stake in the network); this made the station an affiliate of a broadcast network for the first time since the August 1956 shutdown of the DuMont Television Network (WGN-TV had been a primary CBS/secondary DuMont affiliate from its sign-on in April 1948, before becoming exclusively affiliated with DuMont after CBS moved to WBKB-TV (channel 4, now WBBM-TV on channel 2) in 1953).[7] Through the agreement and Tribune's ownership interest in The WB – which resulted in most of the company's independent stations becoming charter affiliates of the network – The WB allowed the WGN superstation feed to nationally distribute its primetime (and when it was added by The WB in September 1995, children's) programming, in order to make the network available to areas of the United States that did not initially have a local affiliate.[8]

The superstation feed became a de facto national WB affiliate upon the network's January 11, 1995 launch, giving The WB an early advantage over the United Paramount Network (UPN), which declined to allow WWOR to carry its programming to areas without an affiliate. While The WB's programming was initially split between two stations in the Chicago market, WGN-TV (which aired its primetime programming), and WCIU-TV (channel 26) (which ran Kids' WB children's programming until it moved to WGN-TV in 2004), The WB's entire programming schedule was carried by the WGN superstation feed. In addition, as The WB only carried programming on Sundays when it launched and would not expand its primetime schedule to six nights a week until September 1999, the superstation feed – as with most over-the-air WB affiliates during the network's early years – filled the 8:00 to 10:00 p.m. Eastern Time slot on nights without WB network programming with either sports telecasts from WGN-TV that were cleared for national broadcast (which as The WB expanded its programming to other nights over a four-year period beginning with the launch of its Wednesday lineup in September 1995, would result in pre-emptions of the network's programs until later in the week) or movies.

In 1996, not long after WGN-TV temporarily lost rights to broadcast Chicago Bulls basketball games due to a lawsuit between the station and the National Basketball Association, the WGN superstation feed was dropped from cable systems operated by Tele-Communications, Inc. in several U.S. cities outside of the Chicago area. The move was partly made in order to make room for additional cable networks due to limited space (cable providers around the country at this time were regularly making upgrades to their headend infrastructures to allow carriage of additional channels, culminating in the adoption of digital cable in the latter part of the decade). TCI's removal of WGN had a minor complication for The WB as even though the network had been slowly adding stations to its roster at the time, it still did not have local affiliates in many medium-sized and smaller markets. Outcry from some TCI subscribers over the decision to drop WGN resulted in the cable provider later backing off plans to drop the superstation feed in five Midwestern states.[9][10] In 1997, TCI and Tribune had discussed a proposal to sell a 50% ownership stake in the WGN superstation feed to TCI and convert it into a basic cable channel (similar to what Atlanta superstation WTBS did that same year, as well as Tribune's ongoing conversion of WGN America into a basic service that started in 2014); this ultimately did not go forward.[11]

On October 7, 1999, WGN stopped carrying The WB's programming on its superstation feed at the network's request, on mutual grounds between Time Warner and Tribune that The WB had increased its national broadcast coverage (through affiliation agreements signed with local broadcast stations after its launch and the debut of a cable-only affiliate group in markets where no over-the-air affiliate was present the previous year) to the point that discontinuing the network's carriage on the superstation feed was deemed necessary. Kids' WB programming on weekday mornings and afternoons and on Saturday mornings was replaced with syndicated series, while feature films replaced The WB's primetime programs, resulting in the superstation's schedule more so resembling an independent station than a general entertainment cable network due to the presence of local programming from WGN-TV.[12][13] The removal of WB programming from the superstation feed reduced The WB's potential household audience by 10 million homes, and was cited as the reason behind the network's ratings declines during the 1999–2000 television season (The WB fell to sixth place in the Nielsen ratings that season, behind UPN), as the network lost an estimated 19% of its household audience through the decision.[14] For this reason, WGN America also did not carry any programming from The CW, when though WGN-TV is the network's charter affiliate for the Chicago market, due to the fact that The CW is widely available throughout the United States via over-the-air broadcast stations and affiliations with digital subchannels and local cable outlets (including through The CW Plus in smaller markets) when that network launched in September 2006.

In 2001, the superstation feed was rebranded as WGN Superstation, before undergoing another name change as Superstation WGN in November 2002, coinciding with the introduction of WGN-TV Chicago's current logo (to which the superstation feed used a stylized version that added an ovular die-cut "S" emblem to represent its superstation status, alongside the text logo that included WGN-TV's wordmark).

Change to WGN America[edit]

Original logo as WGN America, used from May 2008 to January 2009; the text became the sole logo from January to April 2009.
Logo used from April 2009 to June 30, 2010; the logo shown immediately below is a modified version of this logo.
Logo used from July 1, 2010 to January 19, 2014.

On May 24, 2008, Superstation WGN changed its name to WGN America (initially, the use of the WGN America name was limited to on-air promotions, as the Superstation WGN channel IDs remained in place). The new name and logo went into full-time use on May 26, 2008. The new logo was also the first used by the superstation feed to not incorporate WGN-TV's on-air logo branding in some capacity (the "WGN" text was similar in resemblance, although the "G" was not formed into an ovular arrow as it is in WGN-TV's logo), and its design featured the eyes of a female, which was used alongside the new slogan "TV You Can't Ignore".

The channel would soon begin to slowly revamp its programming lineup, starting with the introduction of the Sunday evening classic sitcom block "Out of Sight Retro Night" (which ran from August 2007 to September 5, 2010, airing weekly from 5:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. Eastern Time, with a breakaway at 10:00 p.m. Eastern for the WGN News at Nine and Instant Replay); the block featured series such as WKRP in Cincinnati, Newhart, ALF, Barney Miller and The Honeymooners – some of these programs had previously aired on WGN prior to implementation of the SyndEx rules, or even after the rules went into effect on the Chicago signal only, and in some cases, the superstation feed as well.[15] A few shows were dropped from the channel, such as former WGN staples U.S. Farm Report and Soul Train, primarily due to the dissolution of Tribune's television production and distribution unit.[16] In late July 2008, the network's logo bug was revised with the eyes element of the logo being morphed into the "WGN America" text – the eyes element remained a part of the general logo in all other uses until January 2009, when it was deemphasized in favor of using the channel's wordmark text as the primary logo.

In the fall of 2008, then-Tribune chairman/CEO Sam Zell and co-CEO Randy Michaels stated to the media during a nationwide tour promoting the Tribune properties that the company was interested in producing a late night talk show hosted by comedian Jay Leno, following the end of his initial run as host of NBC's The Tonight Show that year, by launching it on Tribune's television stations and using WGN America to broadcast the show nationally.[17] However, in December 2008, NBC agreed to a deal to let Leno host a weeknight primetime talk show at 10:00 p.m. Eastern Time, called The Jay Leno Show (which was cancelled in February 2010, due to low ratings, with Leno returning as host of Tonight one month later).

In April 2009, WGN America underwent another rebrand, with a new retro-style logo (which was given a minor update on July 1, 2010 with the rounded trapezoid containing the "WGN" letters simplified into rounded squares and the letters in the "america" wording being spaced), a new five-note sounder (which was also used on WGN radio in Chicago), new graphics, a new slogan ("Everywhere America Calls Home"), and the introduction of some original programming. The changes were made in order to increase its cable carriage outside the channel's traditional coverage area and position itself as a general entertainment network that programs to the entire nation, not just Chicago and the Midwest.[18]

Conversion to basic cable[edit]

With ownership and management changes occurring at the Tribune Company as it exited protracted Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization proceedings in December 2012 (which led to the August 2014 spin-off of its publishing division to focus on the company's broadcasting, digital media and real estate units[19]), Tribune announced plans to convert WGN America from a superstation to a conventional cable network, similar to TBS's transition to a basic cable channel in the 1990s. Ironically, it was the national TBS cable channel's separation from its parent Atlanta station WTBS in October 2007 that resulted in WGN America becoming the last remaining national superstation in the U.S. to be distributed through both cable and satellite television.

WGN America was also one of four superstations that are owned by Tribune, alongside KTLA/Los Angeles, KWGN-TV/Denver and WPIX/New York City, which are available on cable in their respective regions of the United States; on Dish Network nationally for those who subscribed to the provider's a la carte superstations tier prior to its decision to halt its sale to new subscribers in September 2013; and – with the exception of KWGN-TV in regards to carriage – on Canadian cable and satellite providers via authorization by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission as WGN-TV is and remains to this day due to providers in that country having previously substituted the national channel with the WGN-TV Chicago signal.

Plans called for WGN America to incorporate scripted original programming, to migrate from "limited basic" (or "lifeline") programming tiers (where it is carried alongside local broadcast stations and public, educational, and government access channels) to the "expanded basic" tiers of cable providers, and to adopt a retransmission consent model in future carriage agreements in which Tribune would receive revenue for the network's carriage (changing its existing model in which pay television providers carrying WGN America make royalty payments to the United States Copyright Office under compulsory license provisions for retransmitting out-of-market stations).[20][21] Matt Cherniss was appointed as the first president and general manager of WGN America and Tribune Studios, a newly formed production unit that would produce some of the network's original content, on March 19, 2013.[22][23]

The network's logo was overhauled again in January 2014, ahead of the launch of its first original scripted programs, to a simpler and neutral variant removing the flourishes of the Zell/Michaels era of Tribune ownership, and focusing more on the "WGN" call letters for branding; the new imaging was unveiled on December 19, 2013, as part of a promotional trailer for its first scripted drama series, Salem.[24] Salem and WGN America saw a major promotional push which began with Super Bowl XLVIII on February 2, where local advertising time on Tribune's fifteen Fox affiliates (including stations in Seattle and Denver, the two cities whose local NFL teams played in the game) was used to air an extended promotional ad for Salem, followed by further promotion on Tribune's other local television stations in the lead-up to the show's April 20 premiere.[25]

In a May 2014 symposium at the MoffattNathanson Media & Communications Summit, Tribune Company president and CEO Peter Liguori (a former Fox and Discovery Communications executive who joined Tribune in December 2012) stated that with its new programming strategy, about 50% of U.S. cable providers would begin offering WGN America as a conventional cable channel by the end of 2014, with all cable providers offering it as a basic cable service by around 2016. Most notably, on December 15, 2014, Tribune reached a carriage agreement with Comcast Xfinity that saw WGN America move from limited to expanded basic tiers on its systems in four markets (Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. and Seattle) the following day on December 16, while also making it available on cable in the Chicago market for the first time on the provider's systems in that area.[3][4]

Programming[edit]

Main article: List of programs broadcast by WGN America

As of 2014, WGN America's programming slate relies primarily on a variety of reruns such as How I Met Your Mother, Blue Bloods, Parks and Recreation, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, 30 Rock, Walker, Texas Ranger, In the Heat of the Night and Rules of Engagement. As is typical for cable networks, some of the shows airing on the channel are also available on other broadcast television stations throughout the United States; for much of its post-Syndex existence as a superstation, many of these programs were cleared by television syndication distributors for "full-signal" rights – therefore allowing them to air on WGN America as they do not fall under syndication exclusivity regulations (for example, although 30 Rock is syndicated to other television stations nationwide, including WGN-TV/Chicago, it is allowed to air on WGN America due to its clearance by NBCUniversal for "full-signal" carriage). However in 2013, WGN America began to acquire exclusive cable rights to programs eligible for syndication, such as Person of Interest, as part of its shift towards a conventional cable network.[26]

Feature films on WGN America are also cleared for "full-signal" carriage, as the channel runs movies from film packages distributed for local broadcast syndication by Warner Bros. Television, Disney-ABC Domestic Television, 20th Television, Sony Pictures Television, and other distributors. Movies formed much of the superstation's primetime schedule for much of its existence until the "Superstation WGN" branding era – though there have been exceptions: fewer primetime movies aired during the week during its four-year run as a cable-only affiliate of The WB from 1995 to 1999 as that network's programming expanded to additional nights, with films airing on a nightly basis again once WB programming was dropped (films were later removed from Sunday nights with the launch of the "Outta Sight Retro Night" block in 2007 and from Thursday nights between 2009 and 2010). WGN America then relegated its movie telecasts to Sunday afternoons and weekend late nights from September 18, 2010[27] until primetime films returned on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays in May 2013.

Until 2012, the channel's morning and early afternoon schedule heavily relied on reruns of television series produced between the 1960s and the early 1990s. During the early 2000s, WGN America acquired sub-run syndication rights to series that had previously aired in their original broadcast runs during the channel's affiliation with The WB, including 7th Heaven, The Wayans Bros., Sister, Sister, and The Parent 'Hood. Between 2006 and 2009, WGN America ran teen- and preteen-oriented sitcoms during mid-afternoon timeslots such as Lizzie McGuire, Even Stevens, and Sister, Sister, only for these shows to quickly be moved to overnight graveyard slots, when the show's target audiences are usually not awake, and then removed entirely shortly afterward. This was likely due to the restructuring of Tribune's television division and a distribution agreement with the Disney Channel that proved too expensive to maintain.

Original programming[edit]

On August 21, 2008, WGN America announced a partnership with Indianapolis radio station WFBQ to carry the television broadcast of The Bob & Tom Show radio program – which was originally produced for Tribune's duopoly of Fox affiliate WXIN and CW (now CBS) affiliate WTTV in that market. The program debuted on WGN America on November 3, 2008, originally airing in a standard late night slot,[28] before being moved to overnights until the television broadcast ended on September 13, 2010. On December 19, 2008, WGN America reached a deal with World Wrestling Entertainment to broadcast WWE Superstars as an hour-long weekly program, starting on April 16, 2009.[29] The program was dropped from WGN America after the April 7, 2011 telecast (it is now available on WWE's subscription-based WWE Network).

In April 2010, WGN America announced it would begin carrying Earl Pitts Uhmerikun, a television version of the radio commentary series created by Gary Burbank, which began airing that same month. Burbank had long maintained a close relationship with certain Tribune Company executives at that time, who approached him about bringing the segments to television.[30] The commentary was aired in the form of a series of 90-second segments that aired on WGN America until November 2011, usually during simulcasts of WGN-TV newscasts.

As part of WGN America's restructring, the channel began to develop original programming – some of which will be produced through Tribune Studios, a production and distribution unit formed in March 2013 to develop syndicated programs that will be seen primarily on Tribune Broadcasting's television properties (the subsidiary's predecessor, Tribune Entertainment, was a contributing supplier of syndicated programs to WGN America prior to the unit's 2007 shutdown).[22][31][23] On June 4, 2013, WGN America placed a 13-episode order for its first original scripted program, the drama series Salem (which is based around the Salem witch trials), which premiered on April 20, 2014.[32] The network debuted its first unscripted series, Wrestling with Death, on January 13, 2015.

WGN-TV programming[edit]

Newscasts[edit]

WGN America had aired news programming from WGN-TV since the Chicago signal was uplinked to satellite in 1978, with syndicated programming having since replaced most of them as a result of the channel becoming a conventional cable network. It originally aired John Drury and Newsnine, a traditional late-evening newscast which evolved into WGN-TV's current 9:00 p.m. program with its expansion to one hour in 1980. From the implementation of SyndEx in 1990, syndicated programming substituted The Nine O'Clock News/WGN News at Nine on WGN America whenever sports events not cleared to air outside the Chicago market and/or (with the exception of a period from September 13, 2010[33] to May 2013, when it filled the primetime lineup with sitcom reruns) movies intended for broadcast only on the national channel were scheduled to run past 9:00 p.m. Central Time. WGN America removed the 9:00 p.m. news simulcast outright after the January 30, 2014 edition; its companion Sunday sports highlight program Instant Replay last aired nationally on January 26 (also dropped as a result, were certain specials produced by the WGN-TV news department and many of chief meteorologist Tom Skilling's weather specials, which typically aired following half-hour abbreviated editions of the newscast).[34] Although Tribune Broadcasting CEO Matt Cherniss stated that he did not expect for the newscast's removal to cause any issues with viewers, disapproval of the move by some former Chicago residents living elsewhere in the United States resulted in the creation of a Facebook page asking for the broadcast to be returned to WGN America's schedule, citing concerns about a perceived inability to stay updated on news from the Chicago area. However, all of WGN-TV's newscasts are streamed live on WGNTV.com without geographic restrictions, although sports highlights are omitted due to rights issues with the major professional sports leagues and the station's lack of contractural streaming rights.

The WGN Midday News, which originated as the hour-long newscast Newscope in 1984, has also seen occasional – albeit, far rarer – preemptions due to Cubs or White Sox baseball games scheduled for broadcast on WGN-TV/WGN America at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time; only the 12:00 p.m. hour of the program aired nationally (despite gradually expanding to include an 11:00 a.m. hour in October 2009), before it was dropped from WGN America on December 13, 2014. The WGN Morning News aired nationally from its debut in September 1994 until September 1996 and again starting on February 3, 2014 (at which point, only the 4:00 a.m. (Central Time) hour was simulcast);[34] SyndEx rules on paid segments featured within the newscast (to which WGN-TV's sales department negotiates the appearance and the terms, under which it would be charged a national rate if the segments aired outside of the Chicago market) reportedly resulted in the initial removal of the program and prohibited the last five hours (5:00-10:00 a.m. Central Time) – although beginning on December 15, 2014, WGN American added the 5:00 a.m. hour, but restricted its broadcast in some markets with paid programming as an alternate substitute – from airing outside of Chicago when the morning news simulcast returned.

WGN America had also broadcast Nightbeat, an overnight news program that ran until 1983; as well as WGN-TV's previous weekend morning news efforts during the 1990s, both of which were dropped by the superstation feed as a result of those newscasts' cancellations: a Saturday edition that ran from 1992 to 1998 and a Sunday edition that ran from 1992 to 1994. For undetermined reasons, WGN America never cleared other local newscasts that WGN-TV has added from 2008 onward: its weeknight 5:00 p.m. newscast (which launched in September 2008 as a 5:30 p.m. newscast, and was expanded to weekends in July 2014) and the current incarnation of its weekend morning newscasts (which launched in October 2010). WGN-TV anchors referenced the WGN America simulcast at the beginning of each nationally televised newscast beginning in 2008 (until the 9:00 p.m. newscast was dropped, this excluded weekend evenings and the various pre-determined preemptions of the 9:00 p.m. newscast outside of Chicago).

Other WGN-TV programming[edit]

Aside from programming shared by both the local and national superstation feeds that have been cleared for "full-signal" carriage, other local programs shared by both feeds (in addition to newscasts) included the bi-weekly Saturday morning local public affairs programs Adelante, Chicago and People to People, which were dropped from WGN America as a result of the start of its restructuring as a conventional cable network in December 2014. WGN America also simulcast or aired on a delayed basis other Chicago-based programs produced by WGN's local programming department, such as local parades, event coverage and retrospective shows on WGN's past (including the McDonald's Thanksgiving Parade and the special Bozo, Gar and Ray: WGN TV Classics). WGN-TV/Chicago and the national superstation feed initially maintained similar programming schedules in the years after the SyndEx rules became law, running much of the same programs with limited substitutions outside of Chicago – though from the early 2000s onward (particularly since the rebrand to WGN America), WGN-TV/Chicago and the national channel shared substantially fewer common programs between the two feeds.

From 1978 to 1987 and again from 1994 to 2014, WGN America aired the Illinois Lottery's daily drawings (making it the only U.S. state lottery whose drawings, including multi-jurisdictional games, were televised nationally). The midday and evening drawings were shown daily; however if newscasts during which the drawings aired were preempted or were not provided by both WGN-TV and WGN America during the scheduled draw times, the winning numbers were instead shown as either a static full-screen or lower-third graphic. WGN America effectively acted as the default drawing broadcaster for Mega Millions (beginning with its 1998 inception as The Big Game) and Powerball (beginning when Illinois became a participant in 2011) in areas of lottery-participating states where no local station televised the drawings (the Iowa Lottery used Illinois' lottery numbers for its own daily Pick 3 and Pick 4 games as a result of the channel's widespread distribution in that state until April 2014, coincidental with WGN's ending of national carriage of lottery drawing);[35][36] both games were broadcast on their respective drawing nights (Tuesdays and Fridays for Mega Millions; Wednesdays and Saturdays for Powerball) at 10:59 p.m. Eastern Time, except during ongoing sports telecasts. The nighttime drawings (which are held at 9:22 p.m. Central Time) as well as Powerball and Mega Millions were dropped with the removal of the 9:00 p.m. news simulcast on January 31, 2014, with the midday drawings (held at 12:40 p.m. Central Time) following suit on December 15.[37]

Through WGN-TV's longtime association as the MDA Love Network station for Chicago, WGN America had simulcast the annual MDA Show of Strength (having aired the telethon in its 21½-hour format from 1979 to 2010, the six-hour evening format used in 2011 and the three-hour primetime-only format used in 2012), with the local segments featuring WGN-TV personalities included; as a result, donations to the Chicago-based segments of the telethon also came from various other parts of the United States and Canada. The MDA moved the telethon from syndication to ABC beginning with the 2013 broadcast, ending the WGN America simulcast and WGN-TV's rights to the telethon with the 2012 edition.[38]

Sports programming[edit]

See also: WGN Sports

Through 2014, WGN America aired all Chicago Cubs and White Sox Major League Baseball games and about 10 to 20 Chicago Bulls NBA games televised by WGN-TV/Chicago.[39] WGN-TV/Chicago had rights to carry additional Bulls games, as well as a number of Chicago Blackhawks NHL games; however, due to broadcast rights restrictions imposed respectively by the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League, WGN America was not allowed to carry other games from the Bulls schedule outside of those allowed to air outside the Chicago market, or any Blackhawks game that the local station carries (in the latter case due to the exclusive broadcast contracts with the NHL, such as its exclusive contract with Comcast/NBCUniversal that began in 2008). WGN America substituted games not cleared for national carriage with either movies or syndicated programming.

Certain related programming carried locally, such as the Blackhawks' victory parade following the 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs and a half-hour special paying tribute to the late Cubs player and broadcaster Ron Santo in 2011, have also not been shown on WGN America, though a few Tribune and Local TV-owned partner stations aired the funeral on their digital subchannels and the Blackhawks' victory parade was shown on the NHL Network using the WGN-TV feed.

As a side effect of Tribune's conversion of WGN America into a general entertainment cable channel, the network phased out its carriage of WGN-TV's sports telecasts, with Tribune president/CEO Peter Liguori citing limited viewership and advertising revenue generated from the sports broadcasts relative to its expense (the Cubs package cost five times as much for rights fees alone as the revenue it brought in).[40]

WGN America HD[edit]

WGN America HD is a high definition simulcast feed of WGN America, which broadcasts programming available in HD in the 1080i picture format. Original programming, select syndicated programs (such as 30 Rock, How I Met Your Mother and Law & Order: Criminal Intent) are currently broadcast in high definition on the feed. The HD feed is available regionally through Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications, Xfinity by Comcast, AT&T U-verse, Verizon FiOS and other select cable providers, and nationally through satellite providers Dish Network and DirecTV.

See also[edit]

In relation to WGN America's prior history as a cable affiliate of The WB, the following articles discuss similar cable-only affiliates of broadcast television networks:

  • The WB 100+ Station Group – a station group created by The WB in September 1998, made up of mostly locally managed cable-only television outlets in small and mid-sized U.S. markets that did not have an over-the-air affiliate, which superseded WGN America's de facto WB affiliate status for these areas
  • The CW Plus – successor of The WB 100+; a station group made up primarily of cable-only outlets that formerly served as affiliates of The WB 100+ Station Group and digital multicast channels
  • Foxnet – a similar cable-only network for markets without a Fox affiliate, that operated from 1991 to 2006
  • CTV Two Alberta – a cable-only affiliate of CTV Two in the Canadian province of Alberta
  • CTV Two Atlantic – a similar cable-only affiliate of CTV Two in Atlantic Canada
  • City Saskatchewan – a similar cable-only affiliate of the City television network in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan

References[edit]

  1. ^ WGN America profile on TheCab.tv
  2. ^ Seidman, Robert (February 22, 2015). "List of how many homes each cable network is in as of February 2015". TV by the Numbers. Zap2it. Retrieved March 14, 2015. 
  3. ^ a b c Robert Feder (December 15, 2014). "WGN America comes home to Chicago". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved January 11, 2015. 
  4. ^ a b Kent Gibbons (December 16, 2014). "WGN America Converts to Cable in Five Markets". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved January 11, 2015. 
  5. ^ "http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-9267407.html WGN gains 2.2M subs; program appeal cited.". Multichannel News (via HighBeam Research). July 16, 1990. 
  6. ^ R. Thomas Umstead (January 13, 1992). "Midwest systems switch out WWOR; cable television operators sign up WGN". Multichannel News (via HighBeam Research). Retrieved March 1, 2011. 
  7. ^ "WB network signs WGN-TV". Broadcasting & Cable (via HighBeam Research). December 6, 1993. Retrieved May 28, 2013. 
  8. ^ "Time Warner Takes Crucial Step Toward New Network Television: A pact with superstation WGN-TV gives it access to 73% of homes. Analysts say that will still leave gaps.". Los Angeles Times. December 4, 1993. Retrieved December 10, 2010. 
  9. ^ Richard Katz (December 2, 1996). "Networks on chopping block; TCI makes mincemeat of programmers' lineups". Multichannel News (via HighBeam Research). Retrieved February 24, 2011. 
  10. ^ Dave Becker (December 20, 1996). "TCI Will Retain WGN in Madison, The Superstation Will Be Available in Five States". The Wisconsin State Journal (via HighBeam Research). Retrieved March 1, 2011. 
  11. ^ Price Colman (April 28, 1997). "WGN-TV moving toward basic: superstation is discussing plan that would have TCI owning 50%". Broadcasting & Cable (via HighBeam Research). Retrieved March 1, 2011. 
  12. ^ "WGN Drops WB, Adds Movies, Sitcoms". Multichannel News (via HighBeam Research). September 20, 1999. Retrieved June 22, 2013. 
  13. ^ "Last night Dawson's last ? WGN ceases to air WB programming". The Charleston Gazette (via HighBeam Research). October 7, 1999. Retrieved June 22, 2013. 
  14. ^ "TV NOTES; A Mix for WB". The New York Times. May 17, 2000. Retrieved December 10, 2010. 
  15. ^ "Outta Sight Retro Night". WGN America/Tribune Broadcasting. Retrieved November 9, 2008. 
  16. ^ http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/columnists/chi-wed-rosenthal-28may28,0,458215.column.  Missing or empty |title= (help)[dead link]
  17. ^ Chris Pursell; Jon Lafayette (June 15, 2008). "Tribune Plans Safety Net for Stations". TV Week. 
  18. ^ "WGN America is everywhere America calls home -- Network completes re-brand and relaunches in April". The Futon Critic. April 9, 2009. 
  19. ^ Haughney, Christine; Carr, David (July 10, 2013). "Tribune Co. to Split in Two". New York Times. Retrieved July 10, 2013. 
  20. ^ "Tribune CEO Says He’s “Not Pleased” With CW’s Performance". Deadline.com. May 15, 2014. 
  21. ^ "Rate Adjustment for Satellite Carrier Compulsory License" (PDF). 
  22. ^ a b "WGN America may be channel of change for Tribune Co.". Chicago Tribune. December 9, 2012. 
  23. ^ a b "Matt Cherniss Joins Tribune As President/ GM Of WGN, Newly Formed Tribune Studios". Deadline.com. March 19, 2013. 
  24. ^ "SALEM - WGN America - Promo Teaser". YouTube via WGN America's channel. 19 December 2013. Retrieved 20 December 2013. 
  25. ^ "Tribune To Promo WGN Show On Its Fox Affils". TVNewsCheck. 30 January 2013. Retrieved 1 February 2014. 
  26. ^ "WGN America Acquires Off-Network Rights to 'Person of Interest'". The Hollywood Reporter. October 7, 2013. 
  27. ^ "WGN America Fall 2010 Schedule". Sitcoms Online. 
  28. ^ http://www.wgnamerica.com/bobandtom.html
  29. ^ "WGN America Enters the Ring". World Wrestling Entertainment. 2008-12-19. Retrieved 2008-12-19. 
  30. ^ Wake Up WGN Uhmerika! Here Comes Earl Pitts, The Cincinnati Enquirer, April 2, 2010.
  31. ^ "Tribune Re-Launching Studio With Matt Cherniss at Helm". Broadcasting & Cable. March 19, 2013. 
  32. ^ "WGN America Greenlights Its First Original Scripted Series, Brannon Braga’s ‘Salem’". Deadline.com. June 4, 2013. 
  33. ^ "WGN America Fall 2010 Schedule". Sitcoms Online. 
  34. ^ a b Robert Feder (February 5, 2014). "WGN news loses national platform". Chicago Tribune. 
  35. ^ "Pick 3: Iowa Lottery Authority Game Specific Rules" (PDF). Iowa Lottery. 
  36. ^ "Pick 4: Iowa Lottery Authority Game Specific Rules" (PDF). Iowa Lottery. 
  37. ^ Robert Channick (December 12, 2014). "WGN America dropping Illinois Lottery drawings". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved January 15, 2015. 
  38. ^ "‘MDA’ Telethon Heads to Primetime on ABC". Variety. June 17, 2013. 
  39. ^ "WGN America FAQ". WGN America/Tribune Media. Retrieved January 11, 2015. 
  40. ^ Marek, Lynne (May 30, 2014). "WGN America to drop Chicago sports". Crain's Chicago Business. Retrieved June 27, 2014. 

External links[edit]

source: https://web.archive.org/web/20150523171855/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WGN_America

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