WGN-TV
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WGN-TV (channel 9) is an
Like concept progenitor
WGN-TV, WGN radio and the now-defunct regional cable news channel Chicagoland Television (CLTV) were the three flagship properties of Tribune Broadcasting, itself part of the Tribune Media conglomerate (formerly known as the Tribune Company until August 2014), until the company's purchase by Nexstar was completed in September 2019.
History
Early years (1948–1956)
The
WGN-TV began
WGN-TV was the second commercial television station in both Chicago and Illinois to sign on, as
On January 11, 1949, WGN-TV—along with WNBQ and WENR-TV—began transmitting network programming over a live coaxial feed originating from New York City; this allowed Channel 9 to be able to carry a regular schedule of CBS and DuMont programs that could be transmitted as they aired in the
On January 25, 1950, the WGN stations relocated their operations to the Centennial Building. Renovated to accommodate production and office facilities for WGN-TV, the facility included one master (which was situated on inflated rubber bags to eliminate outside noise and vibrations) and two auxiliary studios as well as a sub-basement studio situated 75 feet [23 m] below street level that could allow WGN-TV-AM and WGNB to continue broadcasts in the event of an
After McCormick succumbed from pneumonia-related complications on April 1, 1955, ownership of WGN-TV-AM, the Chicago Tribune and the News Syndicate Company properties would transfer to the McCormick-Patterson Trust, assigned to the Robert R. McCormick Tribune Foundation in the names of the non-familial heirs of McCormick (whose two marriages never produced any children) and familial heirs of Patterson. (The trust was dissolved in January 1975, with a majority of the trust's former beneficiaries, including descendants of the McCormick and Patterson families, owning stock in the restructured Tribune Company entity—which assumed oversight of all properties previously overseen by the trust—afterward.)[29][30][31][32][33]
Independence (1956–1995)
The station disaffiliated from DuMont when the network ceased operations on August 6, 1956, amid various issues stemming from its relations with Paramount Pictures that hamstrung DuMont from expansion.
In March 1957, WGN began carrying programming from the
On June 27, 1961, the operations of WGN-TV and WGN radio were relocated to the WGN Mid-America Broadcast Center (later renamed the WGN Continental Broadcast Center and now simply referred to as WGN Studios), a two-story, 95,000-square-foot (8,826 m2) complex on West Bradley Place in Chicago's
In subsequent years, the Tribune Company gradually expanded its broadcasting unit, of which WGN-TV-AM served as its
WGN-TV was Chicago's leading independent station during the 1960s and into the 1970s, even as it gained its first four competitors on
In May 1969, the station relocated its transmitter facilities to the 1,360-foot (415 m)-tall west antenna tower of the John Hancock Center on North Michigan Avenue. The original Prudential Building transmitter remained in use as an auxiliary facility until the transmitter dish was disassembled in 1984.[78][79][80] WGN also served as a charter member of the Operation Prime Time syndication service, which was launched in 1976 as a consortium founded by Al Masini and a committee of executives with 18 independent stations (including WGN-TV, which was represented by then-station manager and WGN Continental Broadcasting Vice President Sheldon Cooper) represented by Masini's advertising sales firm TeleRep, offering a mix of miniseries as well as first-run syndicated programs that would be featured on the partner stations (including Solid Gold, Star Search and Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, all of which aired on Channel 9 during the 1980s and early 1990s).[81][82]
Movies became a more integral part of WGN's schedule during the late 1970s and early 1980s. During this period, depending on whether sports events or specials were scheduled, Channel 9 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 [Television] Presents (which aired during the late access slot weeknights from 1948 to 1995, on Saturdays until 1979 and on Sundays until 1997) and Action Theater (a showcase of action and adventure films that ran on midday Sundays from 1952 to 1956 and, later, in Saturday late access from 1979 to 2001). In February 1977, the station also began carrying a nightly prime time feature at 8 p.m., replacing syndicated dramas that had been airing in the timeslot. (The prime time films were pushed to 7 p.m. in March 1980, in accordance with the shift of its late-evening newscast into prime time). By January 1980, when WGN became the market's second television station to offer a 24-hour schedule (after WBBM-TV, which adopted such a schedule in 1976), the station began to regularly feature an overnight presentation of older black-and-white and some more recent theatrical and made-for-TV movies at 1 a.m. (later 3 a.m. by September 1983), along with a few recent first-run syndicated and older off-network syndicated programs.
Expansion into a national superstation (1978–1995)
WGN-TV began to extend its reach outside of the Chicago area beginning in the mid-1970s, when its signal began to be transmitted via
Within a week of attaining national status, WGN-TV added approximately 200 cable systems in various parts of the United States (reaching an estimated one million subscribers) to its total distribution.
As it gained national exposure, Channel 9 underestimated WFLD's ability to acquire top-rated, off-network syndicated programs. WFLD's respective owners during this timeframe—Field Communications and Metromedia, the latter of which acquired WFLD in 1982 as part of Field and partner company Kaiser Broadcasting's concurring exits from the television industry—were particularly aggressive in their programming acquisitions as they leveraged their independent stations in other major and mid-sized markets for the strongest programs among those entering into syndication. Channel 32 began strengthening its syndication slate in the fall of 1979, when it acquired the local rights to off-network series such as M*A*S*H, Happy Days and All in the Family, which helped it edge ahead of WGN-TV in the ratings by the end of that year. Not to stay outdone, after Tribune appointed Robert King to replace Sheldon Cooper (who was promoted to president and CEO of the upstart Tribune Entertainment syndication unit) as the station's general manager in 1982, WGN-TV began making its own efforts to acquire stronger first-run and off-network syndicated programs, gaining the rights to series such as Laverne & Shirley, Good Times, Little House on the Prairie and WKRP in Cincinnati. WGN's ratings improved throughout the 1980s under the stewardship of King and his successor, Dennis FitzSimons (who would later elevate to President of Tribune Broadcasting, and later to Executive Vice President and then Chairman/CEO of the Tribune Company before stepping down in 2007), firmly overtaking WFLD to again become the market's top-rated independent by the end of the decade.
WGN-TV would gain two additional UHF independent competitors over the course of eight months in the early 1980s. On September 18, 1981, Focus Broadcasting signed on
WGN and WFLD remained the market's strongest independent stations as they both had more robust programming inventories than their competitors.In August 1983, WGN-TV unveiled one of the most successful station image campaigns in the United States with the launch of the "Chicago's Very Own" campaign. (The slogan—to which the station holds the trademark rights and continues to be used[update] by WGN—is a variant of the "Chicago's Own" tagline that had been used in on-air identifications periodically since the 1960s.) Developed by Peter Marino (WGN-TV's director of promotions at the time) and Mike Waterkotte (then the creative director of now-defunct Chicago advertising agency Eisaman, Johns & Law), the campaign promotions focused on the city's people and cultural heritage as well as WGN-TV's local programming efforts, and were accompanied by an imaging theme performed by legendary
On November 22, 1987, during that evening's edition of The Nine O'Clock News, the
On May 18, 1988, the FCC reinstituted the
Among the various community projects in which the station has been involved include the WGN-TV Children's Charities, a charitable foundation established in 1990 through the Robert R. McCormick Tribune Foundation, benefitting various local organizations that help local children dealing with poverty and medical issues. On January 1, 1993, Tribune launched Chicagoland Television (CLTV), a local cable news channel that features rolling news, weather and sports content and public affairs, sports-talk and entertainment news programs, along with having formerly acted as an overflow feed for WGN's sports telecasts. Originally utilizing its own in-house staff and resources from WGN-TV and the Chicago Tribune, CLTV consolidated its operations with WGN-TV on August 28, 2009, at which time the channel's operations were relocated from its original studio facility in Oak Brook to WGN-TV's Bradley Place studios and editorial control of CLTV was turned over to Channel 9's news department.[113][114][115][116] CLTV's format soon became less reliant on live newscasts, focusing increasingly on repurposed newscasts and local programming from WGN-TV. Following its acquisition of Tribune Media, Nexstar shut down Chicagoland Television on December 31, 2019, after 27 years of operation.[117][118][119]
WB affiliation (1995–2006)
On November 2, 1993,
On December 3, 1993, Tribune reached a separate agreement with Time Warner that would allow WGN-TV to serve as The WB's Chicago affiliate and allow its companion superstation feed to act as a de facto national WB feed until the network was able to fill remaining gaps in affiliate coverage in "white area" markets that lacked a standalone independent station following its launch. In exchange, The WB agreed to reduce its initial program offerings to one night per week (from two) in order to limit conflicts with WGN's sports programming. The superstation feed, which reached 37 percent of the country by that time, would extend the network's initial coverage to 73 percent of all U.S. households that had at least one television set. (Prior to that deal, The WB had considered affiliating with WGBO-TV, which Univision would later purchase and convert into an owned-and-operated station of the Spanish-language network on December 30, 1994. United Video intended to provide an alternate feed of WGN with substitute programming for markets with a WB affiliate; however, no such measure was taken, creating network duplication in markets where over-the-air WB affiliates were forced to compete with the WGN cable feed.)[126][127][128][129] WGN-TV (and its superstation feed) became a charter affiliate of The WB when the network launched on January 11, 1995. Upon joining The WB, WGN's programming remained basically unchanged, continuing to feature syndicated programs, feature films, and locally produced shows. As The WB initially offered prime time programs only on Wednesdays at launch, Channel 9 filled the 7 to 9 p.m. time slot leading into its late-evening newscast with feature films or, from September 1995 until September 1997, programs from the ad-hoc Action Pack syndication block on nights when sports events were not scheduled to air. By the time The WB adopted a six-night-a-week schedule (running Sunday through Fridays) in September 1999, the station had relegated its prime time film presentations to Saturday nights.[130][131]
Channel 9 chose not to clear the network's Kids' WB block, in favor of airing a local morning newscast and an afternoon sitcom block on weekdays and a mix of news, public affairs and paid programs on Saturday mornings. On February 19, WCIU-TV—which had become an English-language independent full-time as a result of Univision (from which it had aired programming on a part-time basis) moving to WGBO the month prior—reached an agreement with Time Warner to carry the Kids' WB lineup as well as to take on responsibilities of airing WB programs at times when WGN was scheduled to air sporting events during prime time. (Although the network's programming was split between WGN-TV and WCIU locally beginning with the Kids' WB block's September 9, 1995, debut, the WGN superstation feed carried The WB's prime time and children's programs until the stopgap network feed was discontinued.)[132][133][134] Even as Chicago's network-owned stations began adopting network-centric station branding during the mid-to-late 1990s, WGN-TV continued to be referred to on-air as either "WGN Channel 9" or simply "Channel 9"; by 1999, the station began to be referred to mainly by the WGN call letters (as had been the case with the national feed since 1997). By that time, WGN replaced its late-night feature film presentations (except for the Saturday Action Theater showcase) with syndicated sitcoms.
During the latter half of the 1990s, most of The WB's remaining national coverage gaps began to be filled through standalone affiliations with UPN charter affiliates, leftover independents and former noncommercial stations as well as dual affiliations with various existing network outlets (mainly UPN stations) within the top-100 media markets, and through the September 1998 launch of The WeB (subsequently renamed The WB 100+ Station Group), a packaged feed of WB network and syndicated programs provided to participating cable-based affiliates in the 110 smallest markets. In January 1999, Time Warner and Tribune mutually agreed to stop relaying WB programming over the WGN superstation feed effective that fall; when this move took effect on October 6, the WGN national feed replaced The WB's prime time and children's program lineups, respectively, with movies and syndicated programs.[135][136][137][138][139] By 2002, game shows and additional talk and reality series had been added to the station's schedule, while syndicated animated series were added on weekend mornings. WGN-TV—which continued to carry the network locally—began clearing the entire WB network schedule in September 2004, when it assumed the rights to the Kids' WB lineup from WCIU-TV, effectively becoming the sole remaining station in the Chicago market to run cartoons on weekday afternoons. WGN continued to carry Kids' WB's remaining Saturday morning lineup (which initially aired on a tape-delayed basis on Sunday mornings), after The WB replaced the block's two-hour weekday afternoon slot with the Daytime WB rerun block in January 2006.
CW affiliation; split of the local and national signals (2006–2016)
On January 24, 2006, the
Channel 9 remained an affiliate of The WB until the network ceased operations on September 17, 2006; it became a charter affiliate of The CW when that network debuted the following day on September 18. WPWR, meanwhile, had disaffiliated from UPN on September 4 and began carrying MyNetworkTV programming upon that network's September 5 launch. As a CW affiliate, WGN-TV had been one of the network's higher-rated affiliates in terms of overall viewership, often drawing more viewers than Fox-owned WFLD—even in prime time, despite the latter's Fox programming. Channel 9 carried the entire CW schedule from the network's launch, including its children's program blocks (Kids' WB, The CW4Kids/Toonzai, Vortexx and One Magnificent Morning); however, from September 2013 to September 2016, WGN had aired the network's daytime talk show block—which had been reduced to one hour (from two) in September 2011—one hour earlier (at 2 p.m.) than other CW affiliates in the Central Time Zone, aligning with the block's East Coast airtime. WGN-TV gradually evolved its programming slate during the late 2000s and 2010s, adopting a news-intensive format (expanding its newscast production to 70 hours per week by 2016), and shifting its weekday daytime lineup towards mainly first-run talk and game shows during the daytime hours; as fewer film packages were offered on the syndication market, its weekend schedule also began relying less on feature films and shifted to incorporate local lifestyle and tourism programs as well as additional first-run and off-network syndicated shows.
On April 1, 2007, Chicago-based real estate investor
On December 13, 2014, Tribune converted the WGN America national feed into a conventional cable channel that would focus on acquired and original programs, containing significantly more domestic and internationally acquired programming than the channel did prior to its separation from WGN-TV, and switched from a royalty to a
Return to independence (2016–present)
On May 23, 2016, after a year of protracted negotiations pertaining to financial terms (including the share of reverse compensation that Tribune would pay to keep CW programming on those stations), Tribune Broadcasting and CW managing partner CBS Corporation reached a five-year agreement that allowed twelve of Tribune's thirteen CW-affiliated stations to remain with the network through 2021. Tribune exempted WGN-TV from the renewed agreement, intending to free up its schedule to offer an increased schedule of Chicago Cubs, White Sox, Bulls and Blackhawks games in prime time during the calendar year, thereby giving WGN over-the-air exclusivity over all sporting events it is contracted to broadcast for the first time since 1993.[157][158][159][160][161] The WB and The CW each contractually limited the number of network program preemptions, other than those caused by long-form breaking news coverage, that could occur on an annual basis; in compliance with these restrictions, WGN-TV purchased airtime on CLTV (from 1993 to 2002), WCIU-TV (from 1999 to 2015) and WPWR-TV (from 2015 to 2016) to carry certain game telecasts that the station was contracted to produce (totaling roughly 30 per year). WB and CW network programs subjected to sports-induced displacements on their regular nights were shown on a tape-delayed basis later in the week (usually in a graveyard slot or on a weekend evening timeslot not occupied by a scheduled game telecast, as neither The WB nor The CW has ever aired prime time programs on Saturdays and as The CW had embargoed providing programs on Sundays from September 2009 until October 2018).[162][163][164][165]
Concurrently, Fox announced that WPWR would take over as Chicago's CW affiliate (marking the second time that Fox Television Stations had owned a CW-affiliated station, as, under an existing contract that was already scheduled to expire before that station's conversion into a Fox O&O was announced,
Aborted sale to Sinclair Broadcast Group; sale to Nexstar Media Group
Sinclair Broadcast Group announced their purchase of Tribune Media on May 8, 2017, for $3.9 billion,[169][170] a deal publicly met with consternation among station employees due to concerns about the influence the conservative-leaning group could potentially have on WGN's news content.[171][172] In order to meet regulatory compliance, Sinclair opted to divest WGN-TV to a limited liability company controlled by Baltimore-based automotive dealer Steven Fader—who has acted as a business associate to Sinclair executive chairman David Smith—for $60 million.[173] Under the terms of the deal, Sinclair planned to operating the station through programming and sales service agreements, and would hold an option to repurchase with eight years.[174] Following public criticism of the proposed deal with Fader by FCC chairman Ajit Pai,[175][176] Sinclair abandoned the deal and disclosed it would instead acquire WGN-TV directly.[177] Despite this, the FCC instead voted to bring the merger up for a hearing by an administrative law judge,[178] prompting Tribune Media to terminate the deal on August 9, 2018, and file a breach of contract lawsuit.[179][180]
Following the collapse of the Sinclair merger, Nexstar Media Group agreed to acquire Tribune's assets on December 3, 2018, for $6.4 billion in cash and debt.[181] The transaction received approval by the FCC on September 16, 2019,[182][183] and finalized three days later.[184][185][186]
Programming
This section may contain an excessive amount of intricate detail that may interest only a particular audience. |
Locally produced programs
WGN-TV currently produces the following programs, some of which were previously rebroadcast on CLTV:
- Adelante, Chicago (English: Onward, Chicago) is a bi-weekly public affairs program (airing Saturdays every two weeks at 6:30 a.m.) that debuted on February 19, 2000, and was originally hosted by former WGN-TV assignment reporter Eddie Arruza.[187] Currently hosted by Lourdes Duarte (who also co-anchors the 4 p.m. hour of the WGN Evening News), it features topical discussions, interviews and feature segments focusing on Chicago's Hispanic community and culture.
- BackStory with Larry Potash is a half-hour historical series that premiered on October 18, 2018. Hosted by WGN Morning News anchor/assignment reporter Larry Potash and airing Saturdays at 10:30 p.m., the program looks at interesting stories pertaining to history, culture, religion and science within and outside of Chicago.[188][189]
- Living Healthy Chicago is a weekly health-focused program (airing Saturdays at 10 a.m.) that premiered in September 2011. Hosted by Jane Monzures, it features expert medical advice and health tips from local health professionals.
- People to People is a bi-weekly public affairs program (airing most Saturdays at 6:30 a.m.) that debuted in 1973, with local civil rights leader Edwin C. "Bill" Berry as its original host.[190] Currently hosted by Micah Materre (who also serves as weeknight co-anchor of the WGN Evening News and the 9 and 10 p.m. newscasts), the program community events and topical discussions focusing on the African-American community.
- WGN-TV Political Report, which airs Sundays at 9 a.m. and premiered on January 12, 2020, is a weekly political talk show in which hosts Paul Lisnek (who serves as WGN-TV's political analyst and hosted a similar daily evening program, Politics Tonight, from 2007 until CLTV's closure in December 2019) and Tahman Bradley (who serves as the station's weekend evening anchor and political reporter) provide analysis on Chicago-area and national political issues.[191]
Channel 9 became known for its heavy schedule of local programs during the period from the 1950s through the 1980s, including some influential programs:
- Charlando (transl. Chatting), a Spanish-language talk show focusing on Chicago's Hispanic and Latino community (originally airing on Saturday mornings until 1992, when it was moved to Sundays) that aired from 1964 to 1999. Peter Nuno hosted the program for its entire 35-year run before retiring from WGN-TV in December 1999.[198][199][200]
- Son of Svengoolieshowcase in 1979.
- holiday season from November 1993 until the conclusion of the program's original run.) Family Classics was revived as an occasional series on December 8, 2017, with longtime entertainment reporter Dean Richards as host.[202]
- Garfield Goose and Friends, a children's program that aired on WGN-TV from September 1955 to October 1976 (originating on WBKB/WBBM-TV and then WBKB/WLS-TV under the unpluralized title Garfield Goose and Friend from 1952 to 1955). Considered the longest-running puppet show on television, the series was hosted by Frazier Thomas as the "prime minister" to the titular clacking goose puppet (puppeteered by Roy Brown) who designated himself as "King of the United States". The WGN-TV run of the program featured a mix of puppet characters developed by Brown before and after the show's move to Channel 9 such as Romberg Rabbit, Macintosh Mouse, Christmas "Chris" Goose (Garfield's nephew) and sleepy bloodhound Beauregard Burnside III (a character named after two Civil War generals). In addition to skits, the show also featured animated shorts (such as Clutch Cargo and Space Angel) that were introduced by the camera zooming into the "Little Theater Screen", as well as educational feature segments.[203]
- Issues Unlimited, a Sunday morning public affairs program moderated by Chicago Bulletin editor and columnist Hurley Green Sr. from 1971 to 1987; the program featured a panel of local media representatives interviewing local and national newsmakers.[204]
- Ray Rayner and His Friends (originally Breakfast with Bugs Bunny from 1962 to 1964), a long-running children's program hosted by Ray Rayner from 1962 to 1980. The program featured animated shorts (including Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons), arts and crafts segments, animals (such as Chelveston the Duck, named after the military base where Rayner was stationed during World War II), science segments conducted with J. Bruce Mitchell of the Museum of Science and Industry and a viewer mail segment in which Rayner appeared alongside a talking orange dog puppet, Cuddly Dudley (voiced by Roy Brown), which was originally created by the Chicago Tribune as a promotional item.[205][206]
In addition, Channel 9 broadcasts several local events including the
The station's Bradley Place studios, in addition to housing a large number of its own programs, have also served as the production facilities for nationally syndicated programs, including
Channel 9 formerly served as the
Lottery
WGN-TV served as the originating station for the
In addition to the live drawing results, WGN also carried two lottery-produced weekly game shows. From September 16, 1989, to December 19, 1992, and from January 8 to July 2, 1994, the station aired
In September 1996, the station began carrying The Big Game multi-state drawing (replaced by
Sports programming
Throughout its history, WGN-TV has had a long association with Chicago sports, with most of the city's major professional sports franchises—particularly the Chicago Cubs, White Sox,
The Cubs and White Sox were the first teams to be carried on the station, when on April 23, 1948, WGN aired a
The Bulls began carrying their games with its inaugural season in
From November 1978 until October 2014, WGN America frequently simulcast WGN Sports broadcasts (mostly Cubs, White Sox and Bulls games) nationwide, when permitted under the station's sports contracts. (Tribune's President and CEO at the time,
On January 2, 2019, the White Sox, Bulls and Blackhawks agreed to an exclusive multi-year deal with NBC Sports Chicago to take effect that fall. This was followed on February 13 by the announcement of the formation of the Marquee Sports Network, a joint venture between the Cubs and Sinclair Broadcast Group that launched in the spring of 2020.[242][243][244][245] As a consequence of the four teams electing to move their local game telecasts off broadcast television completely in favor of airing them exclusively over regional sports networks, WGN wound down its local sports coverage throughout the spring and summer of 2019—beginning with the April 1 game between the Blackhawks and the Winnipeg Jets,[246] and continuing with its final game telecasts involving the Bulls (an away game against the New York Knicks on April 9)[247] and the Cubs (an away game against the rival St. Louis Cardinals on September 27)[248][249]—as the station's contracts with all four teams gradually expired.[250] WGN-TV's final sports telecast involving any of the station's four legacy professional sports broadcast partners was the second game of a White Sox–Detroit Tigers doubleheader at Guaranteed Rate Field on September 28, 2019.[251] However, on February 19, 2020, Chicago Fire FC announced a multi-year agreement with WGN-TV to broadcast their Major League Soccer (MLS) telecasts on the station, beginning with its March 7 match against the New England Revolution, returning regular sporting events to Channel 9 after a seven-month hiatus.[252][253][254] Those games moved to MLS Season Pass beginning in 2023, and without any NFL-style syndication rights, the 2022 season was the final season for Fire broadcasts on any television channel.[255] The deal also marks the first time in the station's 74-year history that Channel 9 will not have any local sports programming on the station.
WGN returned to The CW in small manner in 2023, when it began to broadcast weekend coverage from the now Nexstar-owned network of the controversial LIV Golf league in place of WCIU, which refused to carry it due to already-existing weekend programming commitments.[256] WGN will also air Atlantic Coast Conference football and men's basketball games instead of WCIU.[citation needed]
News operation
As of January 2020[update], WGN-TV presently broadcasts 72½ hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 12½ hours each weekday, 5½ hours on Saturdays and 4½ hours on Sundays); in regards to the number of hours devoted to news programming, it is the highest newscast output of any television station in the Chicago market and the state of Illinois, and the sixth-highest newscast output in the United States behind WAGA-TV in Atlanta, WHDH in Boston, KTVK in Phoenix, WISH-TV in Indianapolis, and WGN-TV's sister station KTLA in Los Angeles. In addition to its conventional local newscasts, the station produces two late-evening sports news programs: 'GN Sports, a half-hour sports highlight and interview program (airing nightly at 10:30 p.m.), which is co-anchored by longtime sports director Dan Roan (who joined WGN as a weekend sports anchor and sports reporter in 1984) and Jarrett Payton (son of late Chicago Bears Hall of Famer Walter Payton, and brother of former Chicago's Best host and current WFLD anchor Brittney Payton, who joined the station in 2015 as the 4 p.m. sports anchor for the WGN Evening News);[257] and Instant Replay, a 20-minute Sunday evening highlight program (airing during the final 20 minutes of the 9 p.m. newscast), which is solo anchored by Roan.
Until regular sports telecasts on WGN-TV ended in September 2019, the station's midday, early and late evening newscasts were subject to (at least, partial) preemption or delay due to local sports telecasts overrunning into that time period; from July 8, 2010, onward, CLTV had served as an alternate broadcaster of WGN-TV newscasts that were preempted by the latter's sports broadcasts and aired live half-hour editions of WGN News at Nine on nights when Channel 9 carried a sports event being held on the West Coast that started locally at 9 p.m. (An additional half-hour live newscast followed the game telecast on WGN-TV, which had originally been titled under the WGN News at Nine brand prior to the 2016 launch of its 10 p.m. newscast.)[258] The WGN-TV weather staff also provides local weather updates for WGN Radio under an agreement that began on October 13, 2008, at the conclusion of The Weather Channel's ten-year content partnership with the radio station.[259]
News department history
Although sports has been a major part of WGN-TV's identity, the station has also been well known in the Chicago area for its news programming, which, through its former co-ownership with the Chicago Tribune, has played an important role since its launch. WGN's news department—which shared operations and management with WGN Radio until the news division was split into separate departments maintained by the respective properties in 1983—began operations along with the station on April 5, 1948, with the launch of its first regular news program, the Chicagoland Newsreel, which was the first television newscast in the Chicago market to consist entirely of filmed coverage. The 15-minute broadcast—which originally aired weeknights at 6:45 p.m., with a midday edition at 11:30 a.m. being added in September 1949—was anchored by news director Spencer Allen (who had been a reporter and news writer for WGN Radio since 1938) and used a large staff of photographers and technicians, many of whom had previously worked for the Tribune; Allen also anchored a 15-minute midday news program for Channel 9, Spencer Allen and the News, from 1951 to 1953.[260]
From 1948 to 1965, WGN also produced an additional 15-minute-long newscast at 6:30 p.m., with Austin Kiplinger (to be replaced by Allen in 1953 and then by
In September 1951, Channel 9 began carrying a 15-minute late night edition of Chicagoland Newsreel that followed its late evening movie presentations (which began at 10 p.m. at the time). By 1967, the program had evolved into Night Beat, a 30-minute overnight newscast that—until it was discontinued in 1983—featured the main anchor (which had included, among others, Greyson, McNeeley, Cliff Mercer and Jack Taylor) presenting a summary of local and world news headlines as well as a brief weather forecast summary. In February 1955, the station installed a coaxial cable link from the city room of the Chicago Tribune (originally done for the early newscast, First Edition, which aired from 1954 to 1956) to allow Tribune reporters and contributors to provide information on developing stories being covered by the newspaper and the WGN news department.[261] After WGN-TV became an independent station in August 1956, the evening newscast was moved to 7 p.m.—becoming the market's first prime time newscast and often being subjected to sports-induced preemptions—before settling at 10 p.m. in September 1959, originally under the title 10th Hour News (known in later years as The Park-Ruddle News and [Jack Taylor/John Drury and] NewsNine). In May 1960, the late newscast (which, by that point, was anchored by Jim Conway, who also hosted a self-titled daytime talk show at the time) became the first local television news program in the U.S. to expand to a half-hour broadcast. Standard news updates presented by various on-staff anchors—under the title WGN Newsbreak—also ran during the late morning, early afternoon and prime time hours in-between programs.[262]
In 1965, WGN appointed the first dual-anchor team ever employed in Chicago television news, as Gary Park (who came to the station from
The WGN news department has long been one of the most respected local television news operations in the United States and has earned several journalism awards throughout its history, including
Another mainstay of WGN-TV has been
The late newscast was moved into prime time on March 10, 1980, concurrently becoming known as The Nine O'Clock News (later retitled WGN News at Nine in May 1993, as part of a uniform retitling of its newscasts under the WGN News moniker used in some promotions and report sign-offs since 1981). The shift to the 9 p.m. hour briefly made it the first hour-long prime time newscast in the Midwest and, for its first seven years in that slot, it was the Chicago market's only local television newscast at 9 p.m. Initially airing five nights a week for one hour, the revamped weeknight-only newscast was first anchored by the prior NewsNine team of Drury, Skilling, sports anchor Bill Frink and commentator Len O'Connor. On June 9 of that year, the program switched to a hybrid local-national format that incorporated the Independent Network News (INN)—a Tribune-syndicated nightly news program originating from New York sister station WPIX, which was later retitled INN: The Independent News in September 1984 and USA Tonight in January 1987—in place of the locally produced segments that had occupied the 9:30 p.m. half-hour since the March format change. After briefly being relegated to weeknights following the shift to prime time, half-hour weekend editions of the 9 p.m. broadcast were added on October 4, 1980, anchored originally by Larry Roderick and Robert Jordan.[278][279][280][281][282][283][284] By 1985, Drury (who returned to his previous role as main co-anchor at WLS-TV in late 1984) and Denise Cannon (who became the former's co-anchor in 1981 and departed at the end of 1984) were succeeded as principal anchors by Rick Rosenthal and Pat Harvey.
Since the reformatting as a prime time newscast, WGN-TV has been the ratings leader in the 9 p.m. timeslot, with or without news competition in the arena and even at times when weaker-rated shows led into the newscast, and typically holds a larger audience than the 10 p.m. newscast on WBBM-TV. The 9 p.m. newscast's dominance was to such an extent that, from 1984 until 1989 (when it was unseated by KTVU in San Francisco), it had the largest viewership of any prime time local newscast in the United States. Legitimate competition sprang up for The Nine O'Clock News on November 16, 1987, when Fox O&O WFLD consolidated the half-hour 7 and 11 p.m. newscasts that launched its full-scale news operation three months earlier into a single broadcast at 9 p.m.
WGN began programming long-form news outside its established 9 p.m. slot on September 19, 1983, when it debuted Midday Newscope, which grew out of the three-minute-long local news segments that had aired during the INN Midday Edition (which followed the newscast until that program's September 1985 cancellation) since January 1983. Originally anchored by Rick Rosenthal (who was replaced by Steve Sanders, after Rosenthal replaced Drury as 9 p.m. co-anchor in 1984), the newscast—a local version of
On January 25, 1992, the station debuted hour-long 8 a.m. newscasts on Saturdays and Sundays. To accommodate the launch of Chicago's Weekend Morning News (which marked the first major weekend morning news attempt in Chicago television and one of the only instances of a television station carrying a morning newscast on weekends without already having a weekday equivalent) and the concurring moves of Charlando and People to People to Sundays, WGN dropped three long-running religious programs—What's Nu (produced by the Chicago Board of Rabbis), Heritage of Faith (produced by
Morning news programming was extended to weekdays on September 6, 1994, with the WGN Morning News debuting as a one-hour broadcast from 7 to 8 a.m., anchored originally by Dave Eckert, Sonja Gantt and meteorologist Paul Huttner. In an effort to improve viewership, the program—which replaced children's programs (including The Bozo Show, which displaced the Sunday edition of the morning newscast) that had previously aired in that time period—was soon reformatted from a more traditional newscast to feature a mix of straight news and entertainment and lifestyle features that use a looser style similar to morning radio programs. This reformatting helped the Morning News to eventually begin beating competing local and national morning news programs—including its closest initial competitor, WFLD's Fox Thing in the Morning (now Good Day Chicago)—in the 25–54 age demographic and in total viewers. (The program would expand to two hours, extending until 9 a.m., on January 8, 1996, with a later hour-long expansion [to 10 a.m.] on September 3, 2013.) An hour-long 6 a.m. "Early Edition" of the newscast debuted on August 5, 1996; this block of the newscast would gradually expand to three hours, beginning with the addition of a 5:30 a.m. half-hour in January 2001 and ending with its July 11, 2011, extension to 4 a.m.[302][303][304][305] (The WGN Morning News became the first WGN-TV newscast to be denied clearance on the national feed in September 1996, with its forced removal reportedly being due to self-imposed exclusivity restrictions concerning the newscast's paid segments and rate charges that the station's sales department would have to pay if the segments aired nationally; simulcasts of the WGN Morning News temporarily returned to WGN America on February 3, 2014, when it began airing the 4 a.m. hour.)
In July 1996, WGN-TV began using a
WGN scored a major coup in April 2008, when it persuaded veteran WMAQ-TV and WFLD anchor
Starting under the direction of now-former news director Greg Caputo, WGN-TV spearheaded a major expansion of its news programming. In addition to the expansions of its existing newscasts, WGN first launched an early-evening newscast on September 15, 2008, when the WGN Evening News premiered as a half-hour weeknight broadcast at 5:30 p.m.[294][295] The newscast expanded to one hour (starting at 5 p.m.) on October 5, 2009, with Saturday and Sunday editions being added on July 12, 2014.[296][314] The weekday editions of the newscast were later expanded to include a second hour (starting at 4 p.m.) on September 8, 2014, and then to three hours (extending it to the 6 p.m. hour) on April 4, 2017. (The superstation feed did not clear any of the expanded newscasts up until the conversion of WGN America into a conventional cable channel.)[315][316][317][318] In 2009, WGN-TV began streaming its weekday midday and 5 p.m. newscasts live on its website. On February 22, 2010, WGN-TV became the first television station in the Chicago market to allow iPhone users to watch live streams of its newscasts; the 6 to 9 a.m. block of the WGN Morning News, the midday and 5 p.m. newscasts were initially available for streaming to iPhone users. (At present, all newscasts are streamed through the station's website and on Apple devices, though sports segments are blacked out—presented only with the audio feed—due to streaming restrictions on sports highlights imposed by the major sports leagues.)[319]
On October 5, 2015, the station restored a 10 p.m. newscast—originally only airing Monday through Friday nights—to its schedule after a 35-year absence; weekend editions of the 10 p.m. broadcast were added on January 11, 2020.[320][321][191] A secondary live sports news show, GN Sports, premiered on January 28, 2020, as the lead-out program for the weeknight 10 p.m. newscasts; co-hosted by Dan Roan and Jarrett Payton, the program focuses on sports news and highlights, feature segments and in-studio interviews in a similar format as Instant Replay, as well as including sports gaming and fantasy sports analysis. (Payton formerly co-hosted the similar CLTV program Sports Feed—alongside WGN sports reporter Josh Frydman, who serves as a GN Sports contributor—from 2015 until Nexstar shut down the cable news channel in December 2019.)[257][322][323] Weekend editions of GN Sports were added on August 14, 2021, with the Sunday broadcast replacing the cuisine and tourism program Chicago's Best (which had aired on WGN for ten years from January 2011 until August 8, 2021).[324][325][326]
Notable on-air staff
- Current staff
- Jackie Bange – weekend evening anchor
- Lourdes Duarte – weekday afternoon anchor
- Tim Joyce – weekend morning meteorologist
- Paul M. Lisnek – political analyst
- Dan Ponce – weekday morning anchor
- Dean Richards – entertainment reporter and film critic
- Former staff
- Fran Allison
- Mike Barz
- Brigid Bazlen
- Bob Bell[327]
- Steve Bell
- Lou Boudreau
- Thom Brennaman[328]
- Jack Brickhouse[329]
- Marshall Brodien[330]
- Lorn Brown[331]
- Roy Brown[332]
- Cheryl Burton[333]
- Chip Caray[334]
- Harry Caray[335]
- Susan Carlson
- Bob Collins[336]
- Bob Costas[337]
- Joey D'Auria[338]
- Merri Dee[339]
- Phil Donahue[340]
- Mike Douglas
- John Drury[341]
- Jim Durham[342]
- Judie Garcia
- Milo Hamilton[343]
- Pat Harvey[344]
- Frances Horwich
- Bill Jackson
- Bob Jordan (retired)
- Johnny "Red" Kerr[345]
- Rich King
- Wayne Larrivee[346]
- Roy Leonard[347]
- Vince Lloyd[348]
- Ned Locke[349]
- Nancy Loo
- Jim Lounsbury
- Joe McConnell[350]
- Elaine Mulqueen
- Allison Payne[351]
- Lloyd Pettit[352]
- Jimmy Piersall[350]
- Ray Rayner[353]
- Ron Rivera
- Randy Salerno
- Don Sandburg[354]
- John Schubeck[355]
- Tom Skilling – chief meteorologist (retired February 28, 2024)
- Keenan Smith[356]
- Wendell Smith[357]
- Mark Suppelsa (retired)
- Chuck Swirsky
- Jack Taylor[358]
- Roseanne Tellez[359]
- Frazier Thomas[360]
- Bob Trendler
- Robert Urich[361]
- Harry Volkman[362]
- Jenniffer Weigel
- Jim Williams[363]
- Bill Weir[364]
Technical information
Subchannels
The station's signal is
Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
---|---|---|---|---|
9.1 | 1080i | 16:9 |
WGN | Main WGN-TV programming |
9.2 | 480i | 4:3 |
Antenna | Antenna TV |
9.3 | 16:9 | Grit | Grit | |
9.4 | Rewind | Rewind TV[365][366] | ||
9.5 | TBD | TBD | ||
2.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | CBS2-HD | CBS (WBBM-TV) |
The main 2.1 subchannel of WBBM-TV is also broadcast on the WGN-TV multiplex; WBBM-TV, Chicago's high-power ATSC 3.0 (NextGen TV) station, carries WGN-TV in that format.[3]
Analog-to-digital transition
WGN-TV began transmitting a
Though not a participant in the
Canadian distribution
In April 1985, the
After United Video began offering a separate national feed of WGN upon the stateside implementation the Syndex rules in January 1990, most Canadian cable providers began to replace the Chicago signal with the superstation feed as well. (Among the country's satellite providers, Star Choice [now
On January 17, 2007, WGN's main Canadian uplink carrier,
Notes
- ^ Even though WGNB operated on 98.7 FM, the same frequency that WFMT currently does (and which Tribune later purchased in the 1960s), there is no continuity between the two stations.
- ^ WGN representatives had to amend the application to use channel 9 as its proposed channel assignment after realizing that the initial application listed VHF channel 4, which had already been assigned to Balaban and Katz Broadcasting for the fledgling WBKB-TV, as the allocation for the proposed station.
- ^ McCormick was too ill to attend the event himself; consequently, his speech was read at the ceremony by a business associate.
- U.S. Supreme Court.
- ^ WGN moved to the Pioneer Court extension on North Michigan Avenue in 1986, before eventually resuming operations at the Tribune Tower in October 2012.
- ^ Tribune sold the complex to a joint venture between local real estate firms R2 Companies and Polsky Holdings for $22.25 million on January 31, 2017, in a deal that allowed WGN-TV to lease the property for a minimum of ten years.[48][49][50][51][52][53]
- ^ Before adding Local TV's nine ABC-, NBC- and CBS-affiliated stations through that purchase, Tribune's television properties had historically consisted mainly of independent stations or, from 1995 onward, affiliates of networks that debuted after 1986 [Fox, The WB, The CW and MyNetworkTV].[72]
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External links
- Official website
- Facility details for Facility ID 69709 (K22MN-D) in the FCC Licensing and Management System (Fort Peck, MT)
- Facility details for Facility ID 55344 (K32MF-D) in the FCC Licensing and Management System (Red Lake, MN)
- Facility details for Facility ID 8876 (K33DP) in the FCC Licensing and Management System (Carlin, NV)