WATL
Encyclopedia
WATL is a television station
in Atlanta, Georgia
, USA
affiliate
d with MyNetworkTV
. It is owned by the Gannett Company
and is a sister station
to WXIA-TV
(channel 11), 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. Television studio
s and offices are shared with WXIA and are located at One Monroe Place on the north end of midtown Atlanta
. It shares a broadcast tower with several other local stations near North Druid Hills
, just northeast of the city. WATL is one of a handful of stations to have been affiliated with both News Corporation
-owned networks, Fox and MyNetworkTV. The station can also be seen on Comcast
channel 13 and HD channel 813.
with WQXI radio
. The radio station constantly promoted its TV sister station
in an effort to build an audience. However, UHF converters were rare prior to the All-Channel Receiver Act, and programming (largely old movies, a Saturday-evening barn dance
, and shots of the radio DJ
spinning records) was nearly unwatchable. The station signed off after less than nine months on the air on March 13, 1955.
Channel 36 would remain dark
until the station was relaunched on September 8, 1969 as WATL-TV, under the ownership of U.S. Communications, a broadcaster owned by Daniel H. Overmyer. Overmyer planned on signing-on the station a few years earlier as WBMO-TV as one of the owned and operated stations of the new Overmyer Network
, which folded after a month on the air in 1967. This incarnation of WATL lasted only until March 10, 1971 and channel 36 went dark again. For about a week before it signed off, the station ran :30 second announcements with a photograph of its studios on an art card, announcing that it would soon cease operations, ending with the words "Thank You" on screen.
In a newspaper article reporting on the station's demise, it was reported that U.S. Communications spent $1 million on programming the first year, including Lost in Space
and a block of dinnertime game shows. Ted Turner
's WTCG (channel 17, later WTBS and now WPCH-TV) which had been operating a bit longer, "didn't spend a million dollars on anything" and survived. WATL was also the first station in the country to run music video
s all weekend, on a show called The Now Explosion
. Turner's first move after acquiring WTCG, the UHF station that would serve as the foundation of his media empire, was to take The Now Explosion from WATL.
On July 5, 1976, Don Kennedy
of The Popeye Club (a long-running Atlanta kids TV show on WSB-TV
) returned channel 36 to the air for good. WATL-TV had a general entertainment format typical of non-network stations, such as public domain
movies, financial news, low-budget local shows, syndicated rerun
s and cartoon
s, and a blend of CBS
, NBC
and ABC
shows pre-empt
ed from WAGA-TV
, WSB-TV and WXIA-TV, respectively. In a common practice among independent stations at the time, the station aired subscription television in the early evening from the late 1970s to about 1981.
ATL Acquisitions Group bought the station in the early 1980s. The subscription TV format moved to new sign-on WVEU (channel 69, now WUPA
) in 1982. At that time, most daytime programming now came from the Financial News Network
(now part of CNBC
). In 1984, the station was sold again, this time to Outlet Communications
. By that time, WATL was a general entertainment independent once again. WATL became one of the charter affiliates of the newly-launched Fox Broadcasting Company
in October 1986.
The "musical chairs
" of ownership continued in 1989, as Outlet sold WATL, along with WXIN
in Indianapolis
, to Chase Broadcasting. In 1992, WATL and WXIN were included in Chase's merger with Renaissance Broadcasting. Less than a year later, WATL was sold to Fox outright and channel 36 became a Fox owned-and-operated station, and the first network-owned station in Atlanta, although for only two years. (Renaissance would trade then-new sister station KDVR
in Denver to Fox in exchange for KDAF
in Dallas two years later.) Fox was in the planning stages for a news operation at the station, and WATL had even gone as far as hiring a news director. However, on May 22, 1994, New World Communications
announced an affiliation agreement with Fox, months after the network won the broadcast rights to the National Football Conference
of the National Football League
. In this deal, most of New World's stations, including WAGA, would switch over to the Fox network. As a result, Fox cancelled the plans for a newscast on WATL and put the station up for sale.
Finding itself about to lose Fox programming, WATL was then approached with an affiliation offer from CBS, which was losing WAGA as an affiliate. However WATL was not interested. At that point, it almost seemed likely that WATL would join the soon-to-launch United Paramount Network
in early 1995. Rival station WGNX (channel 46, now WGCL-TV
), then owned by Tribune Broadcasting
was already slated to join the WB Television Network
and had also turned CBS down, forcing CBS to make a deal to buy WVEU. Eventually, however, Tribune agreed to let WGNX join CBS, and WVEU became the UPN affiliate.
Fox
programming moved from WATL to WAGA on December 10, 1994. Not long after that, Fox subsequently sold the station to Qwest Broadcasting, a company partially owned by musician Quincy Jones
and Tribune Broadcasting. (Fox would not be without an owned-and-operated station in Atlanta for long, as they bought out New World in late 1996.) Although it lost the Fox affiliation, WATL kept the Fox Kids
programming, because WAGA was not interested in it. The station also affiliated with the WB in January 1995. (Since the sale to Qwest Broadcasting would not be finalized until December 14, 1995, WATL became a WB affiliate owned by Fox, a condition which lasted nearly a year.) WATL continued to air Fox Kids until 1999, when it moved to WHOT (channel 34, now WUVG). That year, Tribune sold WGNX to the Meredith Corporation
and purchased WATL outright in February 2000. Because Tribune owned a stake in the WB, WATL could have been considered to be a WB owned-and-operated station.
On January 24, 2006, CBS Corporation
(which split from Viacom at the end of 2005) and Warner Bros.
Entertainment (the Time Warner division that operates the WB) announced plans to dissolve WB and UPN, combining them to launch The CW Television Network
in September 2006. As part of this joint venture, it was announced that CBS-owned WUPA will become the CW's Atlanta affiliate. It would not have been an upset had WATL been chosen instead, however. CW officials were on record as preferring the "strongest" WB and UPN stations, and Atlanta was one of the few markets where the WB and UPN stations were both relatively strong.
WATL was originally slated to revert to independent status, but on May 15, 2006, Tribune announced that WATL would be joining MyNetworkTV
, which was formed by Fox Television Stations and its syndication division, 20th Television
.
On June 5, 2006, Tribune announced that they would sell WATL to the Gannett Company
, the owners of Atlanta's NBC affiliate WXIA-TV, for $180 million. The sale was completed on August 7, 2006, giving Gannett the first television duopoly
in Atlanta. Like most duopolies consisting of a "Big Four" affiliate and a minor network affiliate, WATL may take up responsibility as an alternate NBC affiliate by airing programs when WXIA cannot such as in a news-related emergency. WATL aired Atlanta Falcons
preseason
games in August 2008 while its sister station was committed to the 2008 Summer Olympics
.
Channel 36 introduced its new on-air branding, MyAtlTV on August 20, 2006, ahead of the September 5 debut of My Network TV (and about a month before the WB's final night on the air). Along with the new network, WATL now airs a WXIA-produced 10 p.m. weeknight HDTV news
cast, titled 11Alive News at 10 (formerly My 11Alive News at 10). This half-hour competes with the first half of WAGA TV 5's newscast at that time, while still allowing WXIA to air NBC prime time
at that hour.
Prior to the acquisition by Gannett, WATL's studios were located at One Monroe Place. When the station was acquired, WXIA management decided to move WXIA to the Monroe Place studios. During construction, WATL's studios were located with WXIA at 1611 West Peachtree Street
, behind competitor WSB.
The station now airs Fox's Saturday morning block, Weekend Marketplace
(which WAGA does not air), from 7-9am. Other programs broadcast include popular nationally-syndicated game shows Wheel of Fortune
and Jeopardy!
, which is rare for a MyNetworkTV affiliate. Because WATL airs these two shows, it does not air any sitcom repeats until 10:30 P.M.
s:
As with the same arrangement with sister stations KUSA
and KTVD
in Denver, WATL airs their main channel in upscaled
1080i rather than MyNetworkTV's default 720p
format for operational reasons, to present syndicated programming without downscaling
to the latter format, and to accommodate any NBC programming airing on WATL due to local pre-emption on WXIA.
WATL previously aired The Tube on 36.2, but after that network ceased, the digital subchannel
was deleted. The 11Alive Weather Information Zone was moved from channel 11.2 on WXIA in early December 2010, possibly in preparation for adding another network to that station. (The lower bitrate
of the low-motion weather graphics would leave more for mobile datacasting
to be done on WATL than adding the new network to WATL.) In 2011, Atlanta-based Bounce TV
began airing on September 26 (the network's first day in operation), taking the Weather Information Zone off the air for two weeks until mid October, when it was bounced back to channel 11.2 on WXIA. By coincidence, the first program aired by Bounce on its new flagship station
in place of the WIZ was the movie The Wiz
.
In late October 2011, Universal Sports
was added as channel 36.3. However it is unclear why this is so, as it already airs on WXIA-TV channel 11.3, and the network is being forced off of all TV stations at the end of the year due NBC's purchase by cable TV giant Comcast
, to prevent competition with both Universal Sports and Versus by over-the-air TV
.
convention in April 2009, the Open Mobile Video Coalition
announced that WATL would be one of the first stations to test-out new ATSC-M/H
technology for mobile DTV
, expected to be on the air by the end of 2009. It is also carrying the mobile DTV channels for WXIA, as that station is already at its maximum bitrate
carrying three channels, and because it is on VHF, while WATL's UHF channel is better suited to mobile communications.
WATL TV and its sister station, WXIA-TV have plans for mobile DTV simulcasts of their first subchannels (36.1 and 11.1 respectively), but have not yet begun transmissions.
Channel 36 signed on as WQXI-TV in 1954. The callsign was used on channel 11 from 1968 to 1974. Today, channels 11 and 36 are owned by the same company, Gannett.
Weekends
Television station
A television station is a business, organisation or other such as an amateur television operator that transmits content over terrestrial television. A television transmission can be by analog television signals or, more recently, by digital television. Broadcast television systems standards are...
in 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...
, USA
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
affiliate
Network affiliate
In the broadcasting industry , a network affiliate is a local broadcaster which carries some or all of the television program or radio program line-up of a television or radio network, but is owned by a company other than the owner of the network...
d with MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV is a television broadcast syndication service in the United States, owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a division of News Corporation...
. It is owned by the Gannett Company
Gannett Company
Gannett Company, Inc. is a publicly-traded media holding company headquartered in Tysons Corner, Virginia, United States, near McLean. It is the largest U.S. newspaper publisher as measured by total daily circulation. Its assets include the national newspaper USA Today and the weekly USA Weekend...
and is a sister station
Sister station
In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio and/or television stations operated by the same ownership....
to 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...
(channel 11), Atlanta's NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
affiliate. WATL's callsign refers to ATLanta, the station's 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....
, also known as "the A-T-L" for its airport code. Television studio
Television studio
A television studio is an installation in which a video productions take place, either for the recording of live television to video tape, or for the acquisition of raw footage for post-production. The design of a studio is similar to, and derived from, movie studios, with a few amendments for the...
s and offices are shared with WXIA and are located at One Monroe Place on the north end of midtown Atlanta
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...
. It shares a broadcast tower with several other local stations near North Druid Hills
North Druid Hills, Georgia
North Druid Hills, known alternatively as Briarcliff, is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. The population was 18,947 at the 2010 census. The center of the area is the intersection of Briarcliff and North Druid Hills roads...
, just northeast of the city. WATL is one of a handful of stations to have been affiliated with both News Corporation
News Corporation
News Corporation or News Corp. is an American multinational media conglomerate. It is the world's second-largest media conglomerate as of 2011 in terms of revenue, and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009, although the BBC remains the world's largest broadcaster...
-owned networks, Fox and MyNetworkTV. The station can also be seen on Comcast
Comcast
Comcast Corporation is the largest cable operator, home Internet service provider, and fourth largest home telephone service provider in the United States, providing cable television, broadband Internet, and telephone service to both residential and commercial customers in 39 states and the...
channel 13 and HD channel 813.
History
Channel 36 began operation on September 13, 1954 as WQXI-TV. The station, owned by UHF pioneer Robert Rounsaville, was one of about 150 UHF stations to give the new high-band spectrum a try. The TV station, which had one camera, shared a house in the northeast Atlanta area of BuckheadBuckhead (Atlanta)
Buckhead is the uptown district of Atlanta, Georgia, United States, comprising approximately the northern one-fifth of the city. Buckhead is a major commercial and financial center of the Southeast, and it is the third-largest business district in Atlanta, behind Downtown and Midtown...
with WQXI radio
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...
. The radio station constantly promoted its TV sister station
Sister station
In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio and/or television stations operated by the same ownership....
in an effort to build an audience. However, UHF converters were rare prior to the All-Channel Receiver Act, and programming (largely old movies, a Saturday-evening barn dance
Barn dance
A barn dance is any kind of dance held in a barn, but usually involves traditional or folk music with traditional dancing. It is a type of dance, originating in America and popular in Britain in the late 19th century and early 20th, derived from Schottische...
, and shots of the radio DJ
Disc jockey
A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...
spinning records) was nearly unwatchable. The station signed off after less than nine months on the air on March 13, 1955.
Channel 36 would remain dark
Dark (broadcasting)
In the broadcasting industry, dark is a term used to describe a radio station or television station that has gone off-the-air for an indefinite period of time, or as defined by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission , a "silent" station...
until the station was relaunched on September 8, 1969 as WATL-TV, under the ownership of U.S. Communications, a broadcaster owned by Daniel H. Overmyer. Overmyer planned on signing-on the station a few years earlier as WBMO-TV as one of the owned and operated stations of the new Overmyer Network
Overmyer Network
The Overmyer Network was a short-lived television network. It was intended to be a fourth national network in the United States, competing with the Big Three television networks. The network was founded by self-made millionaire Daniel H. Overmyer, who built five UHF stations from 1965-67...
, which folded after a month on the air in 1967. This incarnation of WATL lasted only until March 10, 1971 and channel 36 went dark again. For about a week before it signed off, the station ran :30 second announcements with a photograph of its studios on an art card, announcing that it would soon cease operations, ending with the words "Thank You" on screen.
In a newspaper article reporting on the station's demise, it was reported that U.S. Communications spent $1 million on programming the first year, including Lost in Space
Lost in Space
Lost in Space is a science fiction TV series created and produced by Irwin Allen, filmed by 20th Century Fox Television, and broadcast on CBS. The show ran for three seasons, with 83 episodes airing between September 15, 1965, and March 6, 1968...
and a block of dinnertime game shows. Ted Turner
Ted Turner
Robert Edward "Ted" Turner III is an American media mogul and philanthropist. As a businessman, he is known as founder of the cable news network CNN, the first dedicated 24-hour cable news channel. In addition, he founded WTBS, which pioneered the superstation concept in cable television...
's WTCG (channel 17, later WTBS and now WPCH-TV) which had been operating a bit longer, "didn't spend a million dollars on anything" and survived. WATL was also the first station in the country to run music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
s all weekend, on a show called The Now Explosion
The Now Explosion
The Now Explosion was an early experiment in music video produced in Atlanta, Georgia in 1970, more than a decade before MTV was launched. The program was televised in Atlanta on WATL and, later, WTCG-TV .- History :...
. Turner's first move after acquiring WTCG, the UHF station that would serve as the foundation of his media empire, was to take The Now Explosion from WATL.
On July 5, 1976, Don Kennedy
Don Kennedy
Donald Kennedy, , , is a radio, film and television actor whose career began in the late 1940s with a radio announcer spot on PA station WPIC....
of The Popeye Club (a long-running Atlanta kids TV show on 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...
) returned channel 36 to the air for good. WATL-TV had a general entertainment format typical of non-network stations, such as public domain
Public domain
Works are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...
movies, financial news, low-budget local shows, syndicated rerun
Rerun
A rerun or repeat is a re-airing of an episode of a radio or television broadcast. The invention of the rerun is generally credited to Desi Arnaz. There are two types of reruns—those that occur during a hiatus, and those that occur when a program is syndicated. Reruns can also be, as the...
s and cartoon
Cartoon
A cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works...
s, and a blend of CBS
CBS
CBS 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...
, NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
and 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...
shows pre-empt
Blackout (broadcasting)
Blackout usually relates to the broadcasting of sports events, television programming, that is prohibited in a certain media market.The purpose is theoretically to generate more revenue by obliging certain actions from fans, either by making them buy tickets or watch other games on TV...
ed from 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...
, WSB-TV and WXIA-TV, respectively. In a common practice among independent stations at the time, the station aired subscription television in the early evening from the late 1970s to about 1981.
ATL Acquisitions Group bought the station in the early 1980s. The subscription TV format moved to new sign-on WVEU (channel 69, now WUPA
WUPA
WUPA, channel 69, is a television station in Atlanta, Georgia. An owned and operated station of the The CW Television Network, it identifies itself as "CW 69". It is owned by CBS Corporation, which is half-owner of The CW. Founded November 10, 1980, the station is broadcast locally in...
) in 1982. At that time, most daytime programming now came from the Financial News Network
Financial News Network
The Financial News Network was a television network that operated throughout the United States during the 1980s.-Founding:Financial News Network was founded in 1981 by two men: Rodney Buchser, who had been general manager of KWHY, Channel 22 in Los Angeles and Glenn Taylor. The concept originated...
(now part of CNBC
CNBC
CNBC is a satellite and cable television business news channel in the U.S., owned and operated by NBCUniversal. The network and its international spinoffs cover business headlines and provide live coverage of financial markets. The combined reach of CNBC and its siblings is 390 million viewers...
). In 1984, the station was sold again, this time to Outlet Communications
The Outlet Company
The Outlet Company was a corporation based in Providence, Rhode Island, which owned holdings in both retail and broadcasting. The centerpieces of the group was its flagship Providence store and WJAR radio and television, also in Providence....
. By that time, WATL was a general entertainment independent once again. WATL became one of the charter affiliates of the newly-launched 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...
in October 1986.
The "musical chairs
Musical chairs
Musical chairs is a game played by a group of people , often in an informal setting purely for entertainment such as a birthday party...
" of ownership continued in 1989, as Outlet sold WATL, along with WXIN
WXIN (TV)
WXIN, channel 59, is the Fox affiliated television station in Indianapolis, Indiana. The station broadcasts its digital signal on UHF channel 45, using its former analog channel 59 as its virtual channel via PSIP...
in Indianapolis
Indianapolis
Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...
, to Chase Broadcasting. In 1992, WATL and WXIN were included in Chase's merger with Renaissance Broadcasting. Less than a year later, WATL was sold to Fox outright and channel 36 became a Fox owned-and-operated station, and the first network-owned station in Atlanta, although for only two years. (Renaissance would trade then-new sister station KDVR
KDVR
KDVR, , is the Fox-affiliated television station serving the Denver, Colorado designated market area. The station is owned by Local TV LLC, the media arm of private equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners, under a local marketing agreement with Tribune-owned CW affiliate KWGN . Its transmitter is...
in Denver to Fox in exchange for KDAF
KDAF
KDAF, virtual channel 33 , is a CW-affiliated television station serving the Dallas-Fort Worth television market area. The station is licensed to Dallas and owned by the Tribune Company with its studios located off the John W. Carpenter Freeway in northwest Dallas. The station's transmitter is...
in Dallas two years later.) Fox was in the planning stages for a news operation at the station, and WATL had even gone as far as hiring a news director. However, on May 22, 1994, 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 Fox, months after the network won the broadcast rights to the National Football Conference
National Football Conference
The National Football Conference is one of the two conferences of the National Football League . This conference and its counterpart, the American Football Conference , currently contain 16 teams each, making up the 32 teams of the NFL.-Current teams:Since 2002, the NFC has comprised 16 teams,...
of the National Football League
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
. In this deal, most of New World's stations, including WAGA, would switch over to the Fox network. As a result, Fox cancelled the plans for a newscast on WATL and put the station up for sale.
Finding itself about to lose Fox programming, WATL was then approached with an affiliation offer from CBS, which was losing WAGA as an affiliate. However WATL was not interested. At that point, it almost seemed likely that WATL would join the soon-to-launch United Paramount Network
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...
in early 1995. Rival station WGNX (channel 46, now WGCL-TV
WGCL-TV
WGCL-TV, virtual channel 46.1 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...
), then owned by 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...
was already slated to join the WB Television 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...
and had also turned CBS down, forcing CBS to make a deal to buy WVEU. Eventually, however, Tribune agreed to let WGNX join CBS, and WVEU became the UPN affiliate.
Fox
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...
programming moved from WATL to WAGA on December 10, 1994. Not long after that, Fox subsequently sold the station to Qwest Broadcasting, a company partially owned by musician Quincy Jones
Quincy Jones
Quincy Delightt Jones, Jr. is an American record producer and musician. A conductor, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. His career spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend...
and Tribune Broadcasting. (Fox would not be without an owned-and-operated station in Atlanta for long, as they bought out New World in late 1996.) Although it lost the Fox affiliation, WATL kept the Fox Kids
Fox Kids
Fox Kids was the Fox Broadcasting Company's American children's programming division and brand name from September 8, 1990 until September 7, 2002. It was owned by Fox Television Entertainment airing programming on Monday–Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings.Depending on the show, the...
programming, because WAGA was not interested in it. The station also affiliated with the WB in January 1995. (Since the sale to Qwest Broadcasting would not be finalized until December 14, 1995, WATL became a WB affiliate owned by Fox, a condition which lasted nearly a year.) WATL continued to air Fox Kids until 1999, when it moved to WHOT (channel 34, now WUVG). That year, Tribune sold WGNX to the 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:...
and purchased WATL outright in February 2000. Because Tribune owned a stake in the WB, WATL could have been considered to be a WB owned-and-operated station.
On January 24, 2006, CBS Corporation
CBS Corporation
CBS Corporation is an American media conglomerate focused on commercial broadcasting, publishing, billboards and television production, with most of its operations in the United States. The President and CEO of the company is Leslie Moonves. Sumner Redstone, owner of National Amusements, is CBS's...
(which split from Viacom at the end of 2005) and Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
Entertainment (the Time Warner division that operates the WB) announced plans to dissolve WB and UPN, combining them to launch The CW Television Network
The CW Television Network
The CW Television Network is a television network in the United States launched at the beginning of the 2006–2007 television season. It is a joint venture between CBS Corporation, the former owners of United Paramount Network , and Time Warner's Warner Bros., former majority owner of The WB...
in September 2006. As part of this joint venture, it was announced that CBS-owned WUPA will become the CW's Atlanta affiliate. It would not have been an upset had WATL been chosen instead, however. CW officials were on record as preferring the "strongest" WB and UPN stations, and Atlanta was one of the few markets where the WB and UPN stations were both relatively strong.
WATL was originally slated to revert to independent status, but on May 15, 2006, Tribune announced that WATL would be joining MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV is a television broadcast syndication service in the United States, owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a division of News Corporation...
, which was formed by Fox Television Stations and its syndication division, 20th Television
20th Television
20th Television is an American television production and syndication company that was formed in 1992 by 20th Century Fox Film Corporation, a division of the Fox Entertainment Group, part of News Corporation....
.
On June 5, 2006, Tribune announced that they would sell WATL to the Gannett Company
Gannett Company
Gannett Company, Inc. is a publicly-traded media holding company headquartered in Tysons Corner, Virginia, United States, near McLean. It is the largest U.S. newspaper publisher as measured by total daily circulation. Its assets include the national newspaper USA Today and the weekly USA Weekend...
, the owners of Atlanta's NBC affiliate WXIA-TV, for $180 million. The sale was completed on August 7, 2006, giving Gannett the first television duopoly
Duopoly (broadcasting)
In United States broadcast television and radio, duopoly is a term used to describe a single company which owns two or more stations in the same city or community....
in Atlanta. Like most duopolies consisting of a "Big Four" affiliate and a minor network affiliate, WATL may take up responsibility as an alternate NBC affiliate by airing programs when WXIA cannot such as in a news-related emergency. WATL aired Atlanta Falcons
Atlanta Falcons
The Atlanta Falcons are a professional American football team based in Atlanta, Georgia. They are a member of the South Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
preseason
Season (sports)
In an organized sports league, a season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session. For example, in Major League Baseball, one season lasts approximately from April 1 through October 1; in Association football, it is generally from August until May In an...
games in August 2008 while its sister station was committed to the 2008 Summer Olympics
2008 Summer Olympics
The 2008 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, was a major international multi-sport event that took place in Beijing, China, from August 8 to August 24, 2008. A total of 11,028 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees competed in 28 sports and 302 events...
.
Channel 36 introduced its new on-air branding, MyAtlTV on August 20, 2006, ahead of the September 5 debut of My Network TV (and about a month before the WB's final night on the air). Along with the new network, WATL now airs a WXIA-produced 10 p.m. weeknight HDTV news
News program
A news program, news programme, news show, or newscast is a regularly scheduled radio or television program that reports current events. News is typically reported in a series of individual stories that are presented by one or more anchors...
cast, titled 11Alive News at 10 (formerly My 11Alive News at 10). This half-hour competes with the first half of WAGA TV 5's newscast at that time, while still allowing WXIA to air NBC prime time
Prime time
Prime time or primetime is the block of broadcast programming during the middle of the evening for television programing.The term prime time is often defined in terms of a fixed time period—for example, from 19:00 to 22:00 or 20:00 to 23:00 Prime time or primetime is the block of broadcast...
at that hour.
Prior to the acquisition by Gannett, WATL's studios were located at One Monroe Place. When the station was acquired, WXIA management decided to move WXIA to the Monroe Place studios. During construction, WATL's studios were located with WXIA at 1611 West Peachtree Street
Peachtree Street
Peachtree Street is the main street of Atlanta. The city grew up around the street, and many of its historical and municipal buildings are or were located along it...
, behind competitor WSB.
The station now airs Fox's Saturday morning block, Weekend Marketplace
Weekend Marketplace
Weekend Marketplace is a two hour Saturday morning block of paid programming airing on Fox that began airing on January 3, 2009, replacing the 4Kids TV Saturday morning cartoon block that aired using time leased by 4Kids from Fox from 2002 until the last Saturday of 2008...
(which WAGA does not air), from 7-9am. Other programs broadcast include popular nationally-syndicated game shows Wheel of Fortune
Wheel of Fortune (U.S. game show)
Wheel of Fortune is an American television game show created by Merv Griffin, which premiered in 1975. Contestants compete to solve word puzzles, similar to those used in Hangman, to win cash and prizes determined by spinning a large wheel. The title refers to the show's giant carnival wheel that...
and Jeopardy!
Jeopardy!
Griffin's first conception of the game used a board comprising ten categories with ten clues each, but after finding that this board could not be shown on camera easily, he reduced it to two rounds of thirty clues each, with five clues in each of six categories...
, which is rare for a MyNetworkTV affiliate. Because WATL airs these two shows, it does not air any sitcom repeats until 10:30 P.M.
Digital television
The station's permanent digital channel 25 is now airing three virtual channelVirtual 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....
s:
| Channel | Label | Video | Aspect | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 36.1 | WATL-DT | 1080i | 16:9 | MyNetworkTV / main WATL programming |
| 36.2 | Bounce | 480i | 4:3 | Bounce TV |
| 36.3 | Sports | 480i | 4:3 | Universal Sports (will be removed when Universal Sports is no longer available to terrestrial television 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... in 2012) |
As with the same arrangement with sister stations KUSA
Kusa
Kusa or KUSA may refer to:* Kusa, Russia, a town in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia* Kusa, Latvia, a village in Madona District, Latvia* Kusa, Afghanistan* KUSA-TV, a television station licensed to Denver, Colorado, United States...
and KTVD
KTVD
KTVD, virtual channel 20 is a MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station based in Denver, Colorado, and is owned by the Gannett Company. The station is a sister to KUSA, Denver's NBC affiliate and is housed and operated out of KUSA's high definition studios...
in Denver, WATL airs their main channel in upscaled
Upsampling
Upsampling is the process of increasing the sampling rate of a signal. For instance, upsampling raster images such as photographs means increasing the resolution of the image....
1080i rather than MyNetworkTV's default 720p
720p
720p is the shorthand name for 1280x720, a category of High-definition television video modes having a resolution of 1080 or 720p and a progressive scan...
format for operational reasons, to present syndicated programming without downscaling
Downsampling
In signal processing, downsampling is the process of reducing the sampling rate of a signal. This is usually done to reduce the data rate or the size of the data....
to the latter format, and to accommodate any NBC programming airing on WATL due to local pre-emption on WXIA.
WATL previously aired The Tube on 36.2, but after that network ceased, the 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...
was deleted. The 11Alive Weather Information Zone was moved from channel 11.2 on WXIA in early December 2010, possibly in preparation for adding another network to that station. (The lower bitrate
Bitrate
In telecommunications and computing, bit rate is the number of bits that are conveyed or processed per unit of time....
of the low-motion weather graphics would leave more for mobile datacasting
Datacasting
Datacasting is the broadcasting of data over a wide area via radio waves. It most often refers to supplemental information sent by television stations along with digital television, but may also be applied to digital signals on analog TV or radio...
to be done on WATL than adding the new network to WATL.) In 2011, Atlanta-based Bounce TV
Bounce TV
Bounce TV is a United States television network airing on digital terrestrial television stations. Promoted as "the first 24/7 digital multicast broadcast network created exclusively for African Americans," Bounce TV launched on September 26, 2011 and features programming geared toward blacks in...
began airing on September 26 (the network's first day in operation), taking the Weather Information Zone off the air for two weeks until mid October, when it was bounced back to channel 11.2 on WXIA. By coincidence, the first program aired by Bounce on its new flagship station
Flagship station
In broadcasting, a flagship is the broadcast which originates a television network, or a particular radio show or TV show, primarily in the United States and Canada. This includes both direct network feeds and broadcast syndication, but generally not backhauls...
in place of the WIZ was the movie The Wiz
The Wiz
The Wiz: The Super Soul Musical "Wonderful Wizard of Oz" is a musical with music and lyrics by Charlie Smalls and book by William F. Brown. It is a retelling of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in the context of African American culture. It opened on October 21, 1974 at the Morris A...
.
In late October 2011, Universal Sports
Universal Sports
Universal Sports is an American television network that airs various sports, primarily those contested in the Olympic Games, including swimming, gymnastics, cycling, track and field, figure skating, skiing, bobsledding and triathlon.-Programming:...
was added as channel 36.3. However it is unclear why this is so, as it already airs on WXIA-TV channel 11.3, and the network is being forced off of all TV stations at the end of the year due NBC's purchase by cable TV giant Comcast
Comcast
Comcast Corporation is the largest cable operator, home Internet service provider, and fourth largest home telephone service provider in the United States, providing cable television, broadband Internet, and telephone service to both residential and commercial customers in 39 states and the...
, to prevent competition with both Universal Sports and Versus by over-the-air TV
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...
.
Mobile television
At the NABNational Association of Broadcasters
The National Association of Broadcasters is a trade association, workers union, and lobby group representing the interests of for-profit, over-the-air radio and television broadcasters in the United States...
convention in April 2009, the Open Mobile Video Coalition
Open Mobile Video Coalition
The Open Mobile Video Coalition is a consortium founded to advance free broadcast mobile television in the United States. It was created by TV stations to promote the ATSC-M/H television standard to consumers, electronics manufacturers, the wireless industry, and the Federal Communications...
announced that WATL would be one of the first stations to test-out new 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.....
technology for mobile DTV
Mobile TV
Mobile television usually means television watched on a small handheld device. It may be a pay TV service broadcast on mobile phone networks or received free-to-air via terrestrial television stations from either regular broadcast or a special mobile TV transmission format...
, expected to be on the air by the end of 2009. It is also carrying the mobile DTV channels for WXIA, as that station is already at its maximum bitrate
Bitrate
In telecommunications and computing, bit rate is the number of bits that are conveyed or processed per unit of time....
carrying three channels, and because it is on VHF, while WATL's UHF channel is better suited to mobile communications.
WATL TV and its sister station, WXIA-TV have plans for mobile DTV simulcasts of their first subchannels (36.1 and 11.1 respectively), but have not yet begun transmissions.
Channel 36 signed on as WQXI-TV in 1954. The callsign was used on channel 11 from 1968 to 1974. Today, channels 11 and 36 are owned by the same company, Gannett.
Station timeline
- September 1954: channel 36 signs on as WQXI-TV
- 1955: WQXI-TV signs off
- 1969: channel 36 returns to the air, for the second time, as WATL-TV
- 1971: WATL-TV signs off
- July 1976: channel 36 is reactivated, for the third time, retaining the WATL call letters
- October 1986: becomes a charter FoxFox Broadcasting CompanyFox 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...
network station, later adopted the branding "Fox 36" - December 1994: reverted back to independent status as "WATL 36" after WAGA-TV (channel 5) became Fox's new Atlanta affiliate
- January 1995: becomes a WBThe WB Television NetworkThe 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...
affiliate as "WB 36" - 2004: adopts the branding "WATL, Atlanta's WB"
- May 2006: WATL is announced as an affiliate of MyNetworkTVMyNetworkTVMyNetworkTV is a television broadcast syndication service in the United States, owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a division of News Corporation...
- June 2006: WATL debuted The Tube on its second digital subchannel (36.2)
- August 2006: sale of WATL from Tribune to Gannett, announced in June is completed; adopts the branding "MyAtlTV"
- September 2006: WATL drops its WB affiliation and becomes a MyNetworkTV affiliate; sister station WXIA-TV begins producing a 10 p.m. newscast
- December 2010: WIZ joins WATL on 36.2, leaving 11.2 on WXIA
- September 2011: Bounce TV joins WATL
Newscast titles
- My 11Alive News (2006–2008)
- 11Alive News on MyAtlTV (2008)
- 11Alive News at 10 (2008–present)
Anchors
Weeknights- Jeff Hullinger - weeknights at 10:00 p.m.
- Melissa Long - weeknights at 10:00 p.m.
- Mike Francis (AMS and NWA Seals of Approval) - chief meteorologist; weeknights at 10:00 p.m.
- Fred Kalil - sports director; weeknights at 10:00 p.m.
Weekends
- Keith Whitney - weekends at 10:00 p.m.
- Chris Holcomb (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist Seal of Approval) - meteorologist,Weekends at 10:00 p.m.
- Sam Crenshaw - sports anchor; Weekends at 10:00 p.m.