| Call letters | WPCH-TV |
|---|---|
| Station logo | |
| Location | Atlanta, Georgia |
| Station branding | Peachtree TV |
| Digital | 20 (UHF)Virtual: 17 (PSIP) |
| Subchannels | 17.1 - Peachtree TV |
| Affiliations | Independent| |
| Owner | Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.(a Time Warner company)(to be operated by Meredith Corporation) |
| Licensee | SuperStation, Inc. |
| Founded | September 1, 1967 |
| Airdate | September 1, 1967 |
| Callsign meaning | PeaCHtree TV(on-air branding; common place/road naming theme in Atlanta area) |
| Sister stations | Cable networks of Turner Broadcasting System |
| Former callsigns | WJRJ-TV (1967–1970)WTCG (1970–1979)WTBS (1979–2007) |
| Former channel numbers | Analog:17 (UHF, 1967–2009) |
| Effective radiated power | 1000 kW| |
| Haat | 310.3 m| |
| Facility id | 64033 |
| Coordinates | |
| Homepage | www.peachtreetv.com |
WPCH-TV, virtual channel 17, is an independent television station in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. WPCH-TV is owned by the Turner Broadcasting System, a subsidiary of Time Warner, and is the only over-the-air broadcast television station owned by Time Warner (this is despite the fact the company is half-owner of The CW Television Network, whose Atlanta affiliate is WUPA, channel 69). Known by the on-air branding of Peachtree TV, WPCH-TV has its studios and transmitter located just northeast of Atlanta.
This station was known as WTBS from August 27, 1979 until October 1, 2007, when its operations were split from the co-owned TBS. WTBS was the pioneering superstation, and its signal was carried to cable and satellite viewers throughout the United States and Canada.
On January 18, 2011 Time Warner announced that it will transfer the operations of WPCH-TV to Meredith Corporation by way of a local marketing agreement. Meredith owns WGCL-TV (channel 46), Atlanta's CBS affiliate, and the deal would give Meredith a de facto television duopoly in Atlanta. Time Warner will continue to own WPCH-TV's license. This marketing agreement with Meredith apparently also ended Turner Broadcasting's yearly sponsorship of Piedmont Park's "Screen on the Green" beginning in 2011.
WJRJ-TV was launched on a shoestring budget, with an afternoon and evening schedule (4 p.m. to 11 p.m.) filled with old movies and a few off-network reruns like Father Knows Best, The Danny Thomas Show, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Riflemen, and others, as well as a 15-minute news program. In addition to placing daily ads on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution TV page, WJRJ ran exactly one TV Guide advertisement: a half-page ad in a September 1967 issue with the headline, "Yes, Atlanta, there is a channel 17." Despite WJRJ billing itself as "Good-looking Channel 17", technical snafus were the norm in the station's early months: film broke down, slides frequently appeared backwards, and there were often long pauses when nothing appeared on screen. The station did carry a top-rated show for a few weeks: Then-CBS affiliate WAGA-TV (channel 5) ran a local movie on Wednesday night, and channel 17 stepped in to run Medical Center (the rights to which would later be owned by the station's future owners) for a time.
During an interview in 2004, Turner revealed that some of the problems that had dogged WJRJ were present in the early days at WTCG. First, when Turner bought the station, it was the only one in the Atlanta market still broadcasting exclusively in black-and-white because the previous owners had not made necessary color upgrades. Second, money was still very tight during the first couple of years that Turner owned the station. The station decided to purchase the color broadcasting equipment it needed on credit after Turner took over. However, some months had passed and Turner found himself unable to make the payments on the equipment. As a last resort (after unsuccessfully attempting to secure further financing), Turner held an on-air telethon, much in the manner of public television, to raise the money needed to pay the station's bills. Third, there was new competition in the form of new UHF station WATL (channel 36) beginning operations. Once the financial problems were settled, WTCG eventually drove WATL off the air. WTCG threw an on-air party in celebration, but they would soon have a new competitor when WHAE-TV (channel 46, now WGCL-TV) went on the air in 1971. Originally owned by Christian Broadcasting Network, that station ran a general entertainment format mixed with Christian religious programs (like CBN's flagship, The 700 Club) and competitive, but WTCG remained the leading independent in Atlanta.
Turner had a low budget in terms of programming purchases, and would bid very low on new shows offered in syndication and network stations like WAGA-TV, WSB-TV (channel 2) and WXIA-TV (channel 11) would get the best product. But due to network commitments, the three major affiliates could only keep programs for few years. Turner would then buy the shows that the major affiliates did not renew for nearly half the price of original purchase. Turner also bought most of the movie packages in this manner. The station placed an on-air emphasis on its movie library; one notable program was Academy Award Theatre, which showcased only Oscar-winning films. The sports programming included games of the Atlanta Braves, Atlanta Hawks, and Georgia Championship Wrestling, one of the roots of the later World Championship Wrestling. The sports and wrestling would become foundation blocks during the early satellite years (see below).
WTCG made its name also by producing humorous, satirical newscasts. One such newscast was 17 Update Early in the Morning, which featured usually straight-faced Bill Tush and Tina Seldin reporting the news in a mostly normal fashion, occasionally interacting with the studio crew, and with comedic sideline gags at times by another co-anchor (The Unknown Newsman) wearing a brown paper grocery bag over his head. The newscast, which often contained elements resembling that of a comedic morning drive radio show, had a several-year run between late night/early morning movie presentations from 1975 to 1979. Turner discontinued that program after a Congressional investigation took place concerning his fulfilling Federal Communications Commission public service requirements, some months before Turner would prepare to launch CNN, an all-news channel that would strive to be anything but comedic. Turner reassigned Tush to regular interview programs on WTCG and during the early years of CNN, as well as a skit comedy show between 1980 and 1982.
Another show on the WTCG lineup was hosted by the legendary R&B; singer James Brown and called James Brown's Future Shock. The show, which bore similarities to American Bandstand and Soul Train, aired late nights each Friday in the mid-1970s.
At 1 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on December 17, 1976, WTCG's signal was beamed via the Satcom 1 satellite to four cable systems in Grand Island, Nebraska; Newport News, Virginia; Troy, Alabama; and Newton, Kansas. All four cable systems started receiving the sleepy 1948 Dana Andrews and Cesar Romero film Deep Waters, which was already 30 minutes in progress. Instantly, WTCG added 24,000 more households to its viewing audience, which consisted of 675,000 households in metropolitan Atlanta. That number would grow exponentially in the next several years, with the first heaviest concentrations in the Southern United States (where WTCG's telecasts of Atlanta Braves baseball and professional wrestling were highly popular), but eventually encompassing the nation. The station, and Turner's innovation, signaled the start of the basic cable revolution. By 1978, WTCG was on cable systems in all 50 states, many of which lacked access to a local commercial independent station and in some cases even a distant one.
Programming stayed pretty similar as shows such as Brady Bunch, Beverly Hillbillies, Bewitched, I Dream Of Jeannie, Hogan's Heroes, made for TV Popeye cartoons, and other vintage shows would be purchased second and even third hand. They did manage to win bids for All In The Family and Sanford and Son however.
Through the 1980s, the station was primarily known as SuperStation WTBS, but the "W" was dropped from the branding late in the decade. In Atlanta, through the early 1990s, station promos and digital on-screen graphics referred to the station as TBS 17. Another difference was that local commercials airing locally on channel 17 would not air over the satellite feed and be substituted. Eventually, the "SuperStation" branding was dropped in 1990, and for a short while in the late-1990s, the "SuperStation" name returned without the "TBS" branding. As the 1990s and 2000s wore on, the station began to more closely resemble a basic cable network and not a superstation. Outside of Braves baseball, the only Atlanta-centric programming on WTBS by 2002 was a public affairs show on Sunday morning that was only broadcast over WTBS and not the national feed.
In 1986 Turner would buy the MGM library, giving WTBS the rights to air it. WTBS added more feature films from MGM at that point. In September 1998, due to the trend of children's shows moving more toward cable, WTBS dropped all their cartoons and now focused on comedy movies, drama movies, '80s and '90s sitcoms, and a few drama shows. Music videos were also aired from 1983 to 1992 on its late night weekend lineup branded as Night Tracks with up to 14 hours of programming (barring constant preemptions from sporting events running overtime).
In 2003, WTBS dropped most drama movies and all their drama shows and focused on comedy (sister network TNT in turn began specializing in drama by this time). The station now consisted of comedy movies and sitcoms from 1990s. At this point it was determined that WTBS should be split up. The satellite channel would be known as TBS while the over the air channel would be a commercial independent station also focused on sitcoms as well as other movies and local interest programs.
WPCH-TV broadcast 45 Atlanta Braves baseball games in 2008. Braves games are being made available to cable customers in the Southeastern U.S. (outside Metro Atlanta) by CSS. Viewers on DirecTV who are outside of the Atlanta designated market area but inside the Braves' market can see the Peachtree TV telecasts on channel 651, as well as viewers outside of the Braves' DMA who subscribe to MLB Extra Innings. Viewers with Dish Network can watch Peachtree TV on Channel 17 in the Atlanta designated market area and on one of Dish Network's sports alternate channels in the rest of the Braves' television territory.
The first regular season Braves game presented on WPCH was the team's 2008 season home opener on March 31. In that game, the Braves lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 12–11 in 11 innings.
WPCH has been the affiliate for ESPN's syndication package for the Southeastern Conference in the Atlanta metropolitan area since ESPN replaced Raycom Sports in 2009. Unlike most affiliates, this includes the full SEC football, men's basketball, and women's basketball package. The SEC games are broadcast in 1080i high definition by Peachtree TV but Comcast customers in Atlanta are only able to view the games in SD as of October 3, 2009. On October 10, 2009 Comcast customers were able to watch the SEC Network game UGA vs Tenn in HD; it is not known if this change is permanent.
Turner announced on January 18, 2011 that operations for WPCH would be taken over by Meredith Corporation, owner of CBS affiliate WGCL-TV, though Turner will retain the broadcast license. In addition, production of the station's 45 Atlanta Braves broadcasts will be transferred from Turner Sports to Fox Sports South.
Probably the first use of the WPCH call letters was for a station which operated from November 6, 1926 to June 4, 1933 in New York. The station was created as a merger of two earlier stations, WFBH and WRW, under the ownership of Concourse Radio Corporation. In the fall of 1927 the station was bought by the owners of WMCA and six years later it was merged into that station.
When WTBS became Peachtree TV, Canadian service providers were only permitted to continue carrying the Atlanta station, and not the TBS cable channel. The national cable feed that had split off from WTBS in the 1990s was technically a separate channel and was never formally approved by the CRTC as a replacement for the over-the-air Atlanta station. Indeed, in informing the CRTC of WTBS's change of call sign and branding, Turner Broadcasting apparently did not make any request to have the TBS cable channel approved in its place.
Peachtree TV continues to carry some of the same programs as TBS (albeit at different times), and hence some Canadians may continue to perceive Peachtree TV as either a renaming of, or equivalent to, the U.S. TBS service. However, WPCH does not carry flagship TBS programs such as Major League Baseball postseason coverage, or the talk shows Conan and Lopez Tonight, all of which are instead carried by other Canadian channels. As of March 11, 2011, Peachtree TV was removed from the Cogeco channel line up due to contractual issues encountered with the channel provider.
At the end of January 2009, digital subchannel 17.2 appeared, but as of February 5 it was blank, without audio or video, and soon disappeared. It is possible for TBS to be broadcast over the air along with Peachtree TV, however the station did not release any information on what it planned to do with the new channel.
After the 2009 analog television shutdown on June 12, WPCH-DT continues on its current pre-transition channel number, 20 using PSIP to display as 17.1.
The station's digital antenna is located near North Druid Hills, on a tower shared with several other FM and TV stations. Its analog antenna is located on a very large tower on the east side of the Downtown Connector, and will be dismantled within 120 days of ceasing full-time use, by October 10. This is a condition of its land lease, as it sits on property owned by Comcast, the primary cable TV competitor to Time Warner. This quirk of history is explained by the fact that it was originally the site of a different tower for WAGA-TV, which was owned by Storer Broadcasting. Storer Cable went with a different owner, and eventually was absorbed into Comcast. (See the list of Atlanta broadcast stations by location#Towers.)
The station's digital signal is at the maximum allowable power (1000 kW ERP), while its original analog signal is not. Its DTV channel 20 is diplexed with WUVG-TV 34 into a master TV antenna at a separate tower, located at 1800 Briarcliff Road NE, in Atlanta's Morningside neighborhood. The station has also applied for an analog backup facility at this location, with a corresponding construction permit dating from its original application in 2003 to transmit from the WATL digital antenna on the same tower. Two subsequent applications in 2006 to increase the power of the backup have not been ruled on . Several other TV stations are on this tower, including WUVM-LP and W23DN, and possibly WGCL-TV. WNNX is now located on this tower, sharing the same antenna with WVEE and WZGC. WKHX-FM is slightly lower on the tower, while WRFG has an application for much lower on the tower. According to the FCC database, another tower holding several other stations is located about 110 meters or 350 feet east-northeast.
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