WAGA-TV

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Coordinates: 33°47′51.4″N 84°20′1.7″W / 33.797611°N 84.333806°W / 33.797611; -84.333806
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For broadcast stations that previously used the WAGA call sign, see WAGA (disambiguation).

WAGA-TV
FCC
Facility ID70689
ERP1,000 kW
HAAT332 m (1,089 ft)
Transmitter coordinates33°47′51.4″N 84°20′1.7″W / 33.797611°N 84.333806°W / 33.797611; -84.333806
Links
Public license information
Websitewww.fox5atlanta.com

WAGA-TV (channel 5) is a

Druid Hills area of unincorporated DeKalb County, just outside the Atlanta city limits (but with an Atlanta mailing
address).

History

As a CBS affiliate

WAGA-TV first began operations on March 8, 1949. The station was originally owned by

CBS Radio Network, channel 5 also carried a secondary affiliation with the DuMont Television Network from 1949 to 1956. During the late 1950s, the station was also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network.[3]
Storer sold the WAGA radio stations in 1959; however, channel 5 has, except from 1998 to 2009, retained the "-TV" suffix.

WAGA-TV was the only VHF commercial station in Atlanta that was on the same channel from its launch. Though both WSB-TV and WLTV—predecessor of

non-commercial educational use. The University of Georgia returned channel 8 to the air as WGTV, now the television flagship of Georgia Public Broadcasting
, in May 1960.

WAGA-TV studios

WAGA-TV originally broadcast from studios and

Southern mansion, a type of Colonial Revival architecture that was typical for Storer's broadcasting facilities.[6] While this design was somewhat out of place in most of Storer's other markets (which also included Toledo, Detroit, Cleveland and Milwaukee), it was a perfect fit for Atlanta. (The studio facility was used for an on-location shoot for a Matlock
episode called "The Reporter".)

WAGA's original transmitter tower was

land lease
.

In 1985, WAGA-TV and the other Storer stations were sold into a group deal to

Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after it failed to reach an agreement with the company's creditors before a court-imposed June 25 deadline. SCI Television also missed repayment of $162 million in bank loans before a June 30 deadline; as a consequence of its financial difficulties, Gillett/SCI decided to sell its broadcast holdings.[7]

On February 17, 1993, one day after SCI purchased

New World Communications. As a result of New World being headquartered in Atlanta, WAGA – which was New World's second-largest station, behind WSBK-TV, at the time the SCI purchase was completed – became the company's flagship television station.[8][9][10]

As a Fox station

Main article: 1994–1996 United States broadcast television realignment

New World Communications ownership

On May 23, 1994, as part of a broad deal that also saw News Corporation acquire a 20% equity interest in the company, New World Communications signed a long-term agreement to affiliate its nine CBS-, ABC- or NBC-affiliated television stations with Fox, which sought to strengthen its affiliate portfolio after the

WATL-TV (channel 36, now a MyNetworkTV affiliate), which the network's Fox Television Stations unit had acquired from Renaissance Broadcasting
(during its acquisition of then-WATL parent Chase Broadcasting) in 1993. Although the network already owned WATL and was in the midst of planning to launch a local news department for channel 36, Fox found the prospect to having its programming carried on a VHF station too much to resist, considering that WAGA had a stronger market position and a long-respected local news operation. (At the time, channel 5 placed second, behind WSB-TV, in total day and news viewership.) As a result, Fox decided to include WAGA in the affiliation agreement with New World and have Fox Television Stations sell WATL.

With only a few months before WAGA was set to switch to Fox, CBS needed to find a new affiliate in what had become the nation's 10th largest media market. It approached all of Atlanta's major television stations to potentially reach an agreement. However, none of them were interested at first. CBS first approached WXIA-TV; however, its then-owner Gannett Broadcasting subsequently signed a long-term affiliation deal renewing its contract with WXIA and its sister NBC affiliates in Jacksonville, Minneapolis–St. Paul and Phoenix. WSB-TV was later eliminated as an option as its Atlanta-based owner, Cox Enterprises, would reach a new long-term agreement with ABC to retain its affiliation with that network.[15][16] WATL was eventually eliminated as Qwest Broadcasting (a joint venture between music producer Quincy Jones, former NFL defensive end Willie Davis, television producer Don Cornelius, television host Geraldo Rivera, and Tribune) announced in November that it would purchase WATL from Fox Television Stations as part of a two station, $167-million deal.[17]

By September 1994, with only a little more than two months left before channel 5 was slated to join Fox, CBS faced the prospect of having to pipe in

Eastern Time
on December 10; this led into a message by then-station president and general manager Jack Sander shortly before the start of that evening's edition of Channel 5 Eyewitness News at 11:00 (which was relaunched as an hour-long prime time newscast at 10 p.m. two days later), informing viewers about the pending network changes.

WAGA-TV officially became a Fox affiliate on December 11, 1994, when the network's programming lineup moved to the station from WATL; the first Fox network program to air on the station as a full-time affiliate was

Tegna as part of a duopoly with WXIA).[27]

As with most of the other New World-owned stations affected by the affiliation agreement with Fox, WAGA-TV made little mention of the Fox logo and name in its on-air imaging at the outset. Instead, it retained the "Channel 5" branding it had used since 1991 (modified slightly from the "TV5" branding it had used for most of the 1980s). It also retained the

reality series, and also acquired some syndicated film packages
and first-run and off-network syndicated drama series for broadcast in weekend afternoon timeslots on weeks when Fox did not provide sports programming; however, the revamped programming schedule – as was the case with most of New World's other Fox stations – relegated children's programs to weekend mornings only.

With the switch from WAGA to WGNX, CBS lost significant viewership in the northern portion of the Atlanta market. Despite its five million-watt analog signal, WGNX did not penetrate nearly as far into this area as WAGA did because of the relatively mountainous terrain that is found in that part of northern Georgia. At the time, much of this region was among the few areas in the United States where cable was still not readily available. CBS did not return over-the-air to this area until

Asheville
market, WNEG served as the de facto CBS affiliate for the far northern portion of the Atlanta market as well as the Greenville–Spartanburg–Asheville market's western fringes until that station's sale to the University of Georgia in 2008. (WGNX's availability in this area increased through expanded cable and satellite distribution in subsequent years.)

Fox Television Stations ownership

On July 17, 1996, News Corporation—which separated most of its entertainment holdings into 21st Century Fox in July 2013—announced that it would acquire New World in an all-stock transaction worth $2.48 billion. The purchase by News Corporation was finalized on January 22, 1997, folding New World's ten Fox affiliates into the former's Fox Television Stations subsidiary and making all twelve stations affected by the 1994 agreement owned-and-operated stations of the network. (The New World Communications name continues in use as a licensing purpose corporation—as "New World Communications of [state/city], Inc." or "NW Communications of [state/city], Inc."—for WAGA and its sister stations under Fox ownership, extending, from 2009 to 2011, to the former New World stations that Fox sold to Local TV in 2007.)[28][29][30]

At that time, Channel 5 became the third English language network-owned commercial station in the Atlanta market (Viacom, then-owner of UPN's Atlanta station WUPA, had acquired part-ownership of that network in 1996). It was also one of two stations that switched to Fox under the New World agreement that replaced an existing Fox O&O, only to later be sold to the network itself (in

KDFW-TV had replaced KDAF
as that market's Fox station in July 1995), making Atlanta one of a handful of markets more than one station has served as an O&O of the same network. In November 1996, two months before the completion of the Fox–New World merger and at a time when other network-owned stations around the United States began adopting similar network-driven branding, WAGA-TV shortened its branding to simply "Fox 5 Atlanta" per the network's branding guidelines (with its newscasts concurrently rebranding as Fox 5 Eyewitness News, later shortened to Fox 5 News in August 1998).

On December 14, 2017, The Walt Disney Company, owner of WSB-TV's affiliated network ABC, announced its intent to buy WAGA-TV's parent company, 21st Century Fox, for $52.4 billion; the sale excluded the Fox Television Stations unit (including WAGA-TV), the Fox network, Fox News, Fox Sports 1 and the MyNetworkTV programming service, which were transferred to a separate company, Fox Corporation.[31][32]

Programming

Since it joined the network in December 1994, WAGA has only aired Fox's prime time, Saturday late night and sports programming, as well as special reports produced by Fox News. As with most of its sister stations under its former New World ownership (with the subverted exception of former sister station KTVI in St. Louis, which assumed rights to the network's children's programs in 1996 and carried the blocks until Fox stopped providing them within its schedule), Channel 5 declined carriage of the children's programming blocks that Fox carried prior to 2008, only having aired fall preview specials and network promotions for those blocks that aired within Fox's prime time lineup during that twelve-year period.

WAGA opted not to run the

paid programming block that replaced it in January 2009, Weekend Marketplace, currently airs on MyNetworkTV affiliate WATL.[33]) On September 13, 2014, WAGA-TV began carrying Xploration Station, a live-action educational program block distributed by Steve Rotfeld Productions that is syndicated primarily to Fox stations (including those owned by Fox Television Stations) on Saturday mornings.[34][35]

Sports programming

WAGA began serving as the primary television station for the Atlanta Falcons upon the team's inception in 1966, under CBS's contractual television rights to the pre-AFL merger National Football League. The station carried most regional or national Falcons game telecasts aired by CBS until its contractual rights to the National Football Conference concluded in 1993. However, the station's December 1994 switch to Fox allowed WAGA to retain its status as the Falcons' unofficial "home" station. For the 1994 season, most of the team's first fourteen games that year were aired instead on lame-duck Fox O&O WATL; with that, the 3½-month interruption in game coverage that year, due to the transfer of NFC telecast rights from CBS to Fox, is the only break in network coverage of the team by the station to date since 1966. Since the switch to Fox, both of the Falcons' Super Bowl appearances—XXXIII and LI—have been carried on the station, as both were Super Bowls to which Fox had the national television rights.

Since Fox obtained the partial (now exclusive) over-the-air

network television rights to Major League Baseball in 1996, WAGA has also carried certain Atlanta Braves games that have been regionally or nationally televised by the network during the league's regular season and postseason, including their appearance in the 1996 World Series and their victory in the 2021 World Series, which gave the city its first major sports championship since 1995. WTBS/WPCH retained the local over-the-air television rights to the Braves until 2011
.

During WAGA's run as a CBS station, it aired select Atlanta Hawks games as part of CBS' NBA coverage from 1973 to 1990, and then the Atlanta Braves from 1990 to 1993 with CBS' MLB broadcast contract (including two World Series appearances).

News operation

WAGA-TV presently broadcasts 73 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 12+1⁄2 hours each weekday, 5+1⁄2 hours on Saturdays and five hours on Sundays). In regards to the number of hours devoted to news programming, it is the highest newscast output among Georgia's broadcast television stations.

For most of its first three decades on the air, WAGA-TV was Atlanta's second-highest rated station. From the 1970s to early 2009, it had to fend off a spirited challenge from WXIA-TV, with the two stations regularly trading the number-two position in the market behind longtime leader WSB-TV. However, WXIA has never recovered from a ratings slump in 2009, and WAGA-TV has been the solid runner-up in the market since then.

WAGA's Saturday and Sunday 6 p.m. newscasts are subject to

news radio station WYAY (106.7 FM), through a partnership between WAGA and WYAY's owner Cumulus Media
struck in May 2012.

For many years as a CBS affiliate, the station called its newscasts 5 News Scene. In the 1980s, this changed to Eyewitness News. In 1992, WAGA dropped CBS This Morning through 1994 in favor of a three-hour locally produced morning news program called Good Day Atlanta.[36]

With the 1994 affiliation switch to Fox, WAGA poured more resources into its already well-respected news department. It adopted a news-intensive schedule, increasing its news programming output to nearly 40 hours a week. The station retained a news schedule similar to what it had as a CBS affiliate. However, it expanded the weeknight 6 p.m. newscasts to two hours and moved the 11 p.m. newscast to 10 p.m. and expanded it to a full hour. On January 14, 2008, WAGA debuted a new 11 p.m. newscast called Fox 5 News Edge, returning a newscast to that timeslot since the station was still affiliated with CBS.[37] On March 16, 2009, WAGA became the last major network station in the market (behind WGCL-TV, WSB and WXIA) to begin broadcasting its locally produced newscasts in high-definition.

On September 14, 2009, WAGA expanded its weekday morning newscast to five hours from 5 to 10 a.m. along with the addition of an hour-long 9 a.m. extension of the program called Good Day Xtra.[38] On April 1, 2010, WAGA expanded its morning news by an extra half-hour, with the start time moved a half-hour earlier to 4:30 am, becoming the first Atlanta station to expand its morning newscast into that slot; the extension was made to attract those who wake up go to work earlier than most; the additional half-hour competes against national early morning newscasts airing on WXIA, WGCL and WSB.[39] As of September 2010, WAGA dropped the Fox 5 Morning News and Good Day Xtra titles, in favor of using the Good Day Atlanta branding throughout the morning newscast. On September 14, 2015, the station extended its 11 p.m. newscast to one hour with the addition of a half-hour News Edge at 11:30; this made WAGA among the very few stations to extend its late newscast to midnight, and one of three Fox affiliates (Kansas City's WDAF-TV and Washington, D.C.'s WTTG being the others) to air a two-hour late local news block. On April 15, 2019, WAGA expanded Good Day Atlanta by one hour from 10 am to 11 am. On February 14, 2020, WAGA added a half-hour program titled Road to November on Fridays at 7 pm. On March 30, 2020, WAGA added an additional half-hour of weekday news from 4:30 pm to 5 pm, it later expanded to a full hour on November 16, running evening newscasts from 4 pm to 7 pm.

In 2018, $2 Tests: Bad Arrests aired, which then went on to win a

Peabody Award,[40]
presented at the 2019 awards ceremony.

Notable former on-air staff

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's signal is

multiplexed
:

Subchannels of WAGA-TV
Channel Res. Aspect Short name Programming
5.1 720p
16:9
 WAGA-HD Main WAGA-TV programming / Fox
5.2 480i MOVIES! Movies! (WGTA-DT4)
5.3
4:3
 BUZZR Buzzr
5.4 16:9 TheGrio TheGrio
5.5 CATCHY Catchy Comedy (WGTA-DT3)[41]
5.6 FOX WX Fox Weather
  Simulcast of subchannels of another station

Channel 5.2 originally was for the benefit of smaller cable providers which were taking the

standard definition digital channels use a fullscreen 640×480i format (by comparison, widescreen NTSC
DVDs use 720×480p). Channel 5.2 again went blank in late July, but continued to have the same program data as 5.1, until it was deleted entirely on December 3.

Analog-to-digital conversion

WAGA shut down its analog signal, over

broadcast engineer
from 1949, Paul B. Cram (99 years of age at the time; d. November 28, 2010), was given the duty of permanently turning off the analog transmitter live on the air at 12:30 p.m. on June 12. WSB-TV, WXIA-TV, and WATL also went off the air at the same time, with WSB and WXIA also live in their transmitter rooms like WAGA.

Out-of-market cable carriage

WAGA is carried in parts of

summer-home
residents from the Atlanta area. WSB-TV 2.1 is also carried in those counties.

In the 1970s and 1980s, WAGA once had cable carriage in Aiken and Clemson in west-central and upstate (northwestern) South Carolina.[44][citation needed] WAGA also had significant carriage on Storer and Liberty cable systems (later TCI, now Mediacom) in South Georgia during that same timeframe.

References

  1. ^ "Digital TV Market Listing for WAGA". RabbitEars.Info. Retrieved January 26, 2017.
  2. ^ "Facility Technical Data for WAGA-TV". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  3. ^ "Require Prime Evening Time for NTA Films", Boxoffice: 13, November 10, 1956
  4. The Atlanta Constitution
    . Atlanta, GA. Retrieved May 4, 2019.(subscription required)
  5. ^ "WAGA-TV Dedication". Special presentation. Atlanta, GA. June 21, 1966. 00:13 minutes in. WAGA-TV. Archived from the original on December 13, 2021. Retrieved March 19, 2017.
  6. ^ Carrollton, Betty (June 21, 1966). "New $1 million home of WAGA-TV borrows motif from Old Williamsburg". The Atlanta Constitution. Atlanta, GA. Retrieved May 4, 2019.(subscription required)
  7. ^ "SCI Television Has Trouble with Loan Payment" (PDF). Broadcasting & Cable. Cahners Business Information. July 1, 1991. p. 25. Retrieved January 18, 2019 – via World Radio History.
  8. ^ Geraldine Fabrikant (February 18, 1993). "THE MEDIA BUSINESS; Perelman Agrees to Acquire Control of SCI Television". The New York Times. Retrieved December 23, 2015.
  9. ^ "Entertainment: Tampa TV Station Sold". Los Angeles Times. February 17, 1993. Retrieved September 18, 2017.
  10. ^ "SCI Television and New World Entertainment. (to be merged into New World Group)". Mediaweek. November 29, 1993. Archived from the original on December 27, 2015. Retrieved September 18, 2017.
  11. ^ "CBS, NBC Battle for AFC Rights // Fox Steals NFC Package". Chicago Sun-Times. Adler & Shaykin. December 18, 1993. Archived from the original on November 5, 2012.
  12. ^ "COMPANY NEWS; GREAT AMERICAN SELLING FOUR TELEVISION STATIONS". The New York Times. May 6, 1994. Retrieved March 4, 2016.
  13. ^ Geoffrey Foisie (May 3, 1993). "Times Mirror sells stations, part 1. (Times Mirror Co. to sell four stations to Argyle Communications Inc.)". Broadcasting & Cable. Cahners Business Information. Archived from the original on January 9, 2016. Retrieved March 4, 2016.
  14. ^ Geoffrey Foisie (May 30, 1994). "Argyle socks away profit. (New World Communications Group Inc. acquires Argyle Television Holdings)". Broadcasting & Cable. Cahners Business Information. Archived from the original on January 9, 2016. Retrieved March 4, 2016.
  15. ^ "GE puts its money where NBC's signal is" (PDF). Broadcasting & Cable. Cahners Business Information. December 5, 1994. p. 50. Retrieved October 22, 2018 – via World Radio History.
  16. ^ Julie A. Zier (December 5, 1994). "Fog of war engulfs affiliation battles" (PDF). Broadcasting & Cable. Cahners Business Information. p. 50. Retrieved October 22, 2018 – via World Radio History.
  17. ^ Tim Jones; Mike Dorning (November 17, 1994). "Deal Boosts Minority TV Presence". Chicago Tribune. Tribune Publishing. Retrieved October 22, 2018.
  18. ^ Steve McClellan; Julie A. Zier (September 26, 1994). "CBS buys UHFs in Atlanta, Detroit" (PDF). Broadcasting & Cable. Cahners Business Information. p. 7. Retrieved October 22, 2018 – via World Radio History.
  19. ^ Bill Carter (September 24, 1994). "CBS Buys 2 UHF Stations To Serve Atlanta and Detroit". The New York Times. Retrieved October 22, 2018.
  20. ^ Steve McClellan (November 21, 1994). "CBS signs WGNX Atlanta" (PDF). Broadcasting & Cable. Cahners Business Information. p. 8. Retrieved October 22, 2018 – via World Radio History.
  21. ^ "Viacom Sells Station And Buys Another". The New York Times. Associated Press. May 12, 1995. Retrieved October 22, 2018.
  22. ^ Julie A. Zier (May 15, 1995). "Viacom takes WVEU off CBS's hands" (PDF). Broadcasting & Cable. Cahners Business Information. p. 49. Retrieved October 22, 2018 – via World Radio History.
  23. ^ "Changing Hands" (PDF). Broadcasting & Cable. Cahners Business Information. May 22, 1995. p. 48. Retrieved October 22, 2018 – via World Radio History.
  24. ^ Elizabeth Rathbun (July 17, 1995). "Viacom swaps Shreveport VHF for Atlanta UHF" (PDF). Broadcasting & Cable. Cahners Business Information. p. 46. Retrieved October 22, 2018 – via World Radio History.
  25. ^ "WAGA-TV The Big Switch" – via YouTube.
  26. ^ "WAGA-TV, Channel 5 to Start Fox Programming on Sunday, December 11" (Press release). WAGA-TV/New World Communications. PR Newswire. October 20, 1994. Archived from the original on July 5, 2017.
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  28. ^ Elizabeth A. Rathbun; Cynthia Littleton (July 22, 1996). "Murdoch claims New World" (PDF). Broadcasting & Cable. Cahners Business Information. p. 6. Retrieved July 27, 2018 – via World Radio History.
  29. ^ Brian Lowry (July 18, 1996). "New World Vision : Murdoch's News Corp. to Buy Broadcast Group". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 22, 2012.
  30. ^ "The Media Business;Murdoch's News Corp. Buying New World". The New York Times. Reuters. July 18, 1996. Retrieved October 9, 2015.
  31. ^ "Disney Buys Big Chunk Of Fox In $66.1B Deal". TVNewsCheck. December 14, 2017. Retrieved December 15, 2017.
  32. ^ "Murdoch: New Fox Interested In More Stations". TVNewsCheck. December 14, 2017. Retrieved December 14, 2017.
  33. ^ Michael Schenider (November 23, 2008). "Longform ads replace kid fare on Fox". Variety. Retrieved September 24, 2015.
  34. ^ "06/18/14: Fox to launch STEM-focused kids block; Jim Davis Q&A; return of The Powerpuff Girls; Saban launches Emojiville brand". Cynopsis Kids. Cynopsis Media. June 18, 2014. Retrieved June 19, 2014.
  35. Tribune Digital Ventures. December 18, 2013. Archived from the original
    on December 22, 2013. Retrieved June 19, 2014.
  36. ^ Carter, Bill. "THE MEDIA BUSINESS; CBS's Ruptured Ties To Affiliates. The New York Times September 14, 1992: 1.
  37. ^ WAGA Atlanta Launching 11 p.m. News, Broadcasting & Cable, November 28, 2007.
  38. ^ "Good Day Extra Debuts on WAGA-TV Today". ajc.com. Retrieved January 26, 2024.
  39. ^ WAGA-TV Fox 5 starts news at 4:30 a.m., Atlanta Journal-Constitution, April 5, 2010.
  40. ^ "The Best Stories of 2018". June 24, 2019. Retrieved February 28, 2020.
  41. ^ "Fox Television Stations To Carry Weigel Broadcasting's Decades TV Network Beginning in Q3". Deadline Hollywood. July 10, 2019. Retrieved July 11, 2019.
  42. ^ "List of Digital Full-Power Stations" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on August 29, 2013.
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  44. ^ "Search Cable". fjallfoss.fcc.gov. Retrieved January 26, 2024.

External links

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