WGN-TV
WGN-TV is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, that serves as the local outlet for The CW. It is owned and operated by the network's majority owner, Nexstar Media Group, and is sister to the company's sole radio property, WGN, a news-talk and sports station. WGN-TV's studios are located on West Bradley Place in Chicago's North Center; it is Chicago's only major commercial television station whose main studio is based outside the Chicago Loop. Its transmitter is located atop Willis Tower in the Loop.
The station began broadcasting in 1948, when it was owned by the newspaper Chicago Tribune. WGN-TV became one of the earliest superstations; on November 9, 1978, it became the second U.S. television station to be made available via satellite transmission to cable and direct-broadcast satellite subscribers nationwide. The superstation, which was later renamed WGN America, was converted into a conventional, basic cable network in December 2014, enabling it to be added to local cable providers. It was soft re-launched as NewsNation in September 2020. WGN-TV was a charter affiliate of The WB and its successor network The CW; it became an independent station in 2016 and returned to the network in 2024.
WGN-TV, WGN radio, and the now-defunct regional cable news channel Chicagoland Television were the three flagship properties of Tribune Broadcasting, until the company's purchase by Nexstar in 2019.
History
Early years (1948–1956)
On September 13, 1946, the Chicago Tribune Company applied to the Federal Communications Commission to build a television station on VHF channel 9. The FCC awarded the permit on November 8, after which the group requested to assign WGNA as the station's call sign. By January 1948, the company decided to call the station WGN-TV after WGN, which the Tribune had owned since 1924. The three-letter base call sign served as an initialism for "World's Greatest Newspaper", the Tribune tagline at the time.WGN-TV began test broadcasts on February 1, 1948, then informally opened on March 6 to broadcast the 1948 Golden Gloves boxing finals from the Chicago Stadium. Regular programming commenced at 7:45 p.m. on April 5, 1948, with a two-hour-long special, WGN-TV Salute to Chicago. The station was broadcast from WGN Radio's studios at Tribune Tower's Centennial Building annex in the Magnificent Mile district; the inaugural broadcast included dedicatory speeches from Chicago Tribune editor and publisher Robert R. McCormick, Chicago Mayor Martin Kennelly, U.S. Senator Charles W. Brooks, and Governor of Illinois Dwight Green. Performances were led by acts including musician Dick "Two Ton" Baker, comedian George Gobel, bandleader Robert Trendler, and the WGN Orchestra. Afterward, a film previewed WGN-TV's initial program offerings.
WGN-TV was the second commercial television station in Illinois; WBKB had launched two years earlier. Initially, WGN-TV operated from the Chicago Daily News Building and its transmission tower was atop the building. The station originally broadcast from 2 to 6 p.m., and from 7:30 to 10 p.m., seven days a week. It was initially an independent station, and began carrying programming from DuMont and CBS a few months after its launch.
On January 11, 1949, WGN-TV began transmitting network programming over a live coaxial feed from New York City, allowing it to carry a regular schedule of CBS and DuMont programs that could be transmitted as they aired in the Eastern Time Zone. WBKB-TV assumed primary rights to CBS programming on September 5, 1949; as a result, WGN dropped many CBS shows from its schedule. It continued to broadcast programs WBKB-TV declined to broadcast, eventually being reduced to CBS's weekday morning soap opera block by 1952. During its tenure with DuMont, WGN-TV became one of its major production centers. During the late 1940s and the early 1950s, several DuMont programs, including The Al Morgan Show, Chicago Symphony, Chicagoland Mystery Players, Music From Chicago, The Music Show, They Stand Accused, This is Music, Windy City Jamboree, and Down You Go, were produced at WGN-TV's facilities
On January 25, 1950, the WGN stations relocated to the Centennial Building, which was renovated to accommodate production and office facilities for WGN-TV. The facility included one master studio, two auxiliary studios, and a sub-basement studio situated below street level; this latter studio would allow WGN-TV-AM and WGNB to continue broadcasts in the event of a nuclear attack on Chicago. In 1953, as part of United Paramount Theatres 's merger with the American Broadcasting Company, CBS assumed ownership of WBKB-TV through a $6.75-million acquisition designed to allow UPT to acquire ABC-owned WENR-TV in compliance with FCC regulations that forbade common ownership of two television stations within the same market. CBS moved the remainder of its programming to the renamed WBBM-TV, leaving WGN-TV exclusively affiliated with the faltering DuMont. By 1954, WGN-TV expanded its broadcast schedule to 18 hours per day, running from 6 a.m. to midnight.
After McCormick died on April 1, 1955, ownership of WGN-TV-AM, the Chicago Tribune, and the News Syndicate Company properties were transferred to the McCormick-Patterson Trust, which was assigned to the Robert R. McCormick Tribune Foundation in the names of the non-familial heirs of McCormick and familial heirs of Patterson.
Independence (1956–1995)
WGN-TV was no longer affiliated with DuMont when the network ceased operations on August 6, 1956. Because the three remaining commercial broadcast networks each owned television stations in Chicago, WGN-TV became an independent station by default. Under executive vice-president and general manager Ward L. Quaal, the station adopted a general-entertainment format that became typical of other major-market independents, carrying a mix of sitcoms and drama series, feature films, cartoons, and religious programs, as well as locally produced news, public affairs, music, and children's programs. WGN-TV became more reliant on sports programming, led by its broadcasts of Chicago Cubs baseball games, and other regional collegiate and professional teams. This helped WGN-TV establish itself as an alternative to the market's three network-owned stations. After initial struggles to gain enough viewership to attract national advertisers, WGN began turning a profit by October 1957. On January 15, 1956, the station moved its transmitter facilities to a antenna on the roof of the Prudential Building and increased its effective radiated power from 120 kilowatts to the maximum of 316 kW.In March 1957, WGN began carrying programming from the NTA Film Network and served as the network's primary Chicago affiliate, showing the majority of NTA's program offerings. This relationship lasted until National Telefilm Associates discontinued the service in November 1961. On November 8, 1957, after conducting internal tests since late 1956, WGN-TV began broadcasting select programs in color, consisting mostly of syndicated programs. In January 1958, WGN-TV became the second Chicago television station to begin transmitting local programming in color. WGN-TV was also the first television station in the world to use color-capable videotape recording and playback equipment. The first live program on the station to be broadcast in color was Ding Dong School, a music-focused children's program. In 1958, WGN-TV earned a Peabody Award—the only local television station to earn the accolade—for its children's program The Blue Fairy.
On June 27, 1961, the operations of WGN-TV and WGN radio were relocated to the WGN Mid-America Broadcast Center, a two-story, complex in Chicago's North Center community. The Broadcast Center, which began hosting some local productions on January 16 of that year, was developed for color broadcasting, allowing the station to broadcast live studio shows, and Chicago Cubs and White Sox baseball games, in color. It was also designed to provide a safe location to conduct broadcasts in the event of an attack on downtown Chicago. It houses three main production soundstages and two additional soundstages that were originally used as sound-recording studios for WGN Radio. The Tribune Company repurposed the former Centennial Building facility for the newspaper Chicago American, which it used until the newspaper ceased publication in 1974. An adjacent, single-story building that housed non-production-related operations for the WGN stations was annexed to the facility, expanding the complex to, in 1966.
The Tribune Company gradually expanded its broadcasting unit, of which WGN-TV-AM served as its flagship station. In 1964, the company started Mid-America Video Tape Productions, which later became WGN Continental Productions. The group became known as the Tribune Broadcasting Company in January 1981, but retained the moniker WGN Continental as its de facto business name until 1984, and as the licensee for WGN-TV and WGN Radio thereafter.
In May 1969, the station relocated its transmitter facilities to the -tall west antenna tower of the John Hancock Center. The original Prudential Building transmitter remained in use as an auxiliary facility until the transmitter dish was disassembled in 1984. WGN-TV was a charter member of the Operation Prime Time syndication service, a consortium founded in 1976 by Al Masini and a committee of executives with 18 independent stations. This partnership allowed WGN-TV to broadcast miniseries and first-run syndicated programs that were featured on partner stations; these shows included Solid Gold, Star Search, and Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.
Movies became a more significant part of WGN's schedule during the late 1970s and early 1980s. During this period, depending on whether sports events or specials were scheduled, WGN-TV usually aired four daily features—one in the morning, and two to three films per night Monday through Friday, and between three-and-six films per day on Saturdays and Sundays. Among its regular film showcases were WGN Presents, and Action Theater, a showcase of action and adventure films. In February 1977, the station also began carrying a nightly prime time feature at 8 p.m., replacing syndicated dramas in the timeslot. The prime time films were moved to 7 p.m. in March 1980. By January 1980, when WGN became the market's second television station to offer a 24-hour schedule, the station began to air black-and-white, theatrical, and made-for-TV movies at 1 a.m., along with some syndicated programs.