This article is about the local Chicago television station. For the AM radio station, see
WGN (AM). For the national feed of WGN-TV, see
WGN America.
WGN-TV, virtual channel 9 (digital channel 19), is the CW-affiliated television station in Chicago, Illinois. WGN-TV has been owned and operated by the Tribune Company since its inception, and its studios and offices are located at 2501 W. Bradley Place in the North Center neighborhood of Chicago. The station's transmitter is located atop the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower).
WGN Television is one of several flagship properties owned by the Tribune Company, which also owns radio station WGN (720 AM) and publishes the Chicago Tribune, whose slogan ("World's Greatest Newspaper") was the basis for the call letters used by both stations. The Tribune Company also operates Chicago area cable news channel Chicagoland Television (CLTV), which shares resources from both WGN-TV and the Chicago Tribune.
WGN-TV is also a pioneering superstation, and continues to program an alternate feed for cable and satellite subscribers throughout the United States known as WGN America (formerly Superstation WGN). The "superstation" feed remains unavailable to Comcast, RCN, and WOW! cable subscribers and AT&T U-verse IPTV subscribers in the Chicago area, despite vastly different programming offerings. However, WGN America is available in the Chicago area on the DirecTV and Dish Network satellite services. WGN-TV was not available to DirecTV subscribers from April 1, 2012 through the evening of April 4, 2012 due to a carriage dispute. The dispute was settled less than 24 hours before the Chicago Cubs season opener on April 5, 2012. [1]
WGN's longtime slogan, "Chicago's Very Own", was the basis for a popular image campaign of the 1980s and 1990s, as performed by Lou Rawls.
WGN Television began test broadcasts in February 1948 and began regular programming on April 5 with a two-hour special, "WGN-TV Salute to Chicago", at 7:45 p.m. Early on, WGN-TV was affiliated with the CBS and DuMont networks, sharing both with WBKB (channel 4). As a sidebar to the February 1953 merger of ABC and United Paramount Theatres, channel 9 lost its CBS affiliation. CBS had purchased the license to operate channel 4 in Chicago (now WBBM-TV, which later moved to channel 2, forcing Phonevision off the air). CBS moved all of its programming to channel 4, leaving channel 9 with DuMont. For its first thirteen years on the air, WGN-TV had broadcast from the Tribune Tower at 435 North Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago.
WGN-TV soon became one of DuMont's strongest affiliates, as well as a major production center for that network. Several DuMont programs were produced from WGN-TV's facilities, including: The Al Morgan Show; Chicago Symphony; Chicagoland Mystery Players; Music From Chicago; The Music Show; They Stand Accused; This is Music; Windy City Jamboree; and Down You Go. When DuMont ceased operations in 1956, WGN-TV became an independent station. During the late 1950s, the station was also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network.[2] In 1957, WGN-TV became one of the first Chicago-area stations to begin broadcasting live programming in color. In 1961, WGN-TV and Radio moved to its present studio location on West Bradley Place in the North Center neighborhood, a move undertaken for civil defense concerns in order to provide the station a safe base to broadcast in case of a hostile attack which would target downtown Chicago.[3] WGN Radio eventually moved back to North Michigan Avenue in the Pioneer Court extension in the 1990s.
After becoming an independent, WGN-TV spent much of the next two decades as the top-rated independent station in Chicago, offering a variety of general-entertainment programs including movies, sports, off-network reruns, and children's shows. For much of its existence, channel 9 produced a large amount of its own programming at its own studios. An historic moment in Chicago's local television programming occurred when Sheldon Cooper launched a musical variety show for 13 weeks entitled The All-Time Hits featuring The Buckinghams in color. Notable WGN-TV productions included several incarnations of the immensely popular Bozo's Circus, Ray Rayner and His Friends, and Garfield Goose and Friends (which was hosted by Frazier Thomas). A popular children's educational series at the time was The Space Explorers. WGN-TV also telecasted performances of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, beginning in 1953, when Fritz Reiner was the orchestra's music director. For one month in May 1967, WGN-TV served as Chicago's affiliate of the United Network, airing The Las Vegas Show. From 1974 until 1982, Phil Donahue's syndicated talk program originated from WGN-TV. In 1975, the nationally syndicated agriculture program U.S. Farm Report debuted, originating from WGN-TV's studios.
The station began broadcasting nationally on cable in October 1978, after Tulsa, Oklahoma-based satellite uplinker United Video uplinked the station's signal via satellite.[4] This signal was picked up by many fledgling pay-cable television systems, as well as directly by satellite dish owners. This continent-wide exposure elevated WGN-TV to superstation status. Along with WOR-TV (channel 9, now WWOR-TV) in Secaucus, New Jersey and WTBS (channel 17, now WPCH-TV) in Atlanta, WGN-TV was among the first local stations to become a superstation. However, as WGN-TV gained national exposure, the station became vulnerable in the Chicago area and underestimated the ability of one of its UHF competitors, WFLD-TV (channel 32, now a Fox owned-and-operated station), to acquire top-rated programs such as M*A*S*H, Happy Days and All in the Family. As a result, WFLD finished ahead of WGN-TV in the ratings by the end of 1979. WGN-TV continued with its format, competing with WFLD and another UHF independent, WSNS-TV (channel 44; now a Telemundo station, owned by NBC Universal).
In 1980, WGN-TV debuted the first hour-long primetime newscast in the Midwest U.S. when the station expanded its half-hour 10 p.m. newscast to one hour and moved it an hour earlier to 9 p.m.; at this point, the newscast rebranded from Newsnine to The Nine O'Clock News. In 1990, due to syndication exclusivity rules, WGN-TV launched a separate national feed with alternate programming about half the time; it was a similar situation at WWOR-TV and the national "WWOR-EMI Service" feed.
In 1994, The Bozo Show was moved from weekday mornings to Sunday mornings where it remained until 2001, when the program was controversially discontinued by station management. On September 6, 1994, weekday morning children's programming was replaced by the then-hour long WGN Morning News; the newscast gradually expanded afterwards, first to two hours in January 1996, and then to three hours from 6-9 a.m. eight months later. Around that time, the Morning News was dropped by the national feed, reportedly because certain segments of the newscast were not allowed to air outside of Chicago (the national feed still airs the second hour of Midday News and the 9 p.m. newscast, however the weekend morning newscasts, the first hour of WGN Midday News and the 5 p.m. WGN Evening News do not air for undetermined reasons). The morning newscast later expanded to 3½ hours in January 2001 then to four hours starting at 5 a.m. in January 2004, to 4½ hours in August 2010, and then to its current 5 hours in July 2011.
On November 2, 1993, the Warner Bros. Television division of Time Warner and Tribune Company announced the formation of The WB Television Network, with the majority of Tribune's independent stations tapped to serve as charter affiliates;[5][6] one month later on December 3, 1993 The WB signed an affiliation agreement with WGN-TV, making Channel 9 a network affiliate for the first time since 1956.[7] As a result, WGN's national superstation feed would air both WB primetime and Kids' WB children's programming nationally, in order to make WB programming available in areas not yet served by a WB affiliate.[8] The network launched on January 11, 1995; due to Tribune's minority interest in the network, in a sense, WGN-TV became a defacto WB owned-and-operated station. In the Chicago area, WGN-TV aired WB primetime programming; the Kids' WB children's program block, however aired on WCIU-TV (channel 26), which dropped its Spanish-language Univision affiliation at the start of 1995 for an English-language general entertainment schedule. In October 1999, at the network's request, WGN's superstation feed stopped carrying WB programming; by that time, The WB felt its national distribution footprint became large enough, after signing affiliation agreements with over-the-air broadcast stations and adding cable-only affiliates in markets where no over-the-air affiliate was present to where carrying WB network programming on the superstation feed was no longer deemed necessary.
In 2000, WGN-TV upgraded its newsroom to a 29,000 sq. ft. state-of-the-art facility featuring upgraded digital equipment. In 2004, WCIU-TV dropped Kids' WB programming and it was moved to WGN-TV's Chicago area feed. That same year, WGN-TV began broadcasting Chicago Cubs and White Sox baseball and Chicago Bulls basketball home games in high definition.
On January 24, 2006, TimeWarner and CBS announced that the WB and UPN networks would merge to form a new network, The CW Television Network; on that same date, it also signed a ten-year affiliation agreement with most of Tribune's WB stations, including WGN-TV. The new network launched on September 18, 2006; the WGN America national feed does not carry any CW programming as the network has enough broadcast coverage through over-the-air stations, digital multicast channels and cable-only affiliates that carriage on WGN America is not needed. On April 2, 2007, Chicago investor Sam Zell announced plans to purchase the Tribune Company, with intentions to take the publicly traded firm private. The deal was completed on December 20, 2007. Prior to the close of the sale, WGN-TV was one of two Chicago commercial television stations (not counting network-owned stations) to have never been involved in an ownership transaction (WCIU is the other, having been owned by Weigel Broadcasting since its launch in 1964).
On July 19, 2008, WGN-TV became the third Chicago station to broadcast its newscasts in high definition, and instituted new on-air graphics (as of July 2010, WGN-TV is the first station in Chicago to broadcast all locally originated portions of its newscasts (including live field reports) in high definition, in contrast to the other major English-language news stations in Chicago who all broadcast in-studio segments in HD and live field footage in 16:9 widescreen standard definition). Several months earlier on November 1, 2007, the station also debuted Chicago's Very Own by 615 Music, as its new news music package (it is the second news theme to use the Chicago's Very Own name after a John Hegner-composed news theme, used from 1993 to 1997). On February 4, 2009, Tribune Broadcasting announced it was merging CLTV with channel 9's news department.[9]
On October 13, 2008, WGN-TV began providing weather forecasts for WGN Radio through a partnership between the two stations;[10] this came as WGN Radio ended a ten-year partnership with The Weather Channel to provide local forecasts. 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 6-9 a.m. block of the WGN Morning News, the midday and 5 p.m. newscasts are available for streaming to iPhone users.[11]
The station's digital sigal is multiplexed. In late June 2008, WGN-TV added LATV as a subchannel to its digital broadcast, as part of a two-year deal between three Tribune Broadcasting stations (KDAF in Dallas and WPIX in New York City being the other two) and LATV.[13] This subchannel originally aired The Tube Music Network until it shut down in October 2007, and then switched to a simulcast of the main WGN-TV channel with Spanish language dubs added to some of its programs in later months until the arrival of LATV. However, LATV left WGN in July 2010 and moved to a subchannel of low-power station WOCK-CD, with the 9.2 subchannel continuing to carry a still card reminding viewers that LATV was no longer carried in order to keep the channel within digital television and converter box channel maps.
In October 2010, that card was replaced with a new image featuring the logo of Antenna TV,[12] a new Tribune-owned digital multicast network which has been carried on digital subchannel 9.2 since its launch on January 1, 2011, and also on the digital tiers of most of Chicago's major cable systems.
As part of the analog television shutdown and digital conversion, WGN-TV shut down its analog transmitter on June 12, 2009, and continued to broadcast on its pre-transition digital channel 19.[14] However, through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers are displaying WGN-TV's virtual channel as 9. Also, the "WGN-TV" callsign was legally transferred from the now-defunct analog channel 9 to digital channel 19 on June 12, 2009, with the "WGN-DT" callsign being discontinued; however, WGN-TV's PSIP still identifies the main channel on 9.1 as "WGN-DT."
From June 13 to July 12, 2009, WGN-TV was simulcasting its 9 p.m. newscasts (except when sports schedules intervene) on WWME-CA's analog signal on channel 23 to provide a "lifeline" for viewers who were unprepared or had reception issues when the DTV transition was completed. Also in that month span, WWME-CA also aired the WMAQ's early morning and early evening newscasts.[15][16]
In the far northern suburbs of Chicago and rural areas north and west, WMTV (Channel 15) in Madison, Wisconsin interferes with reception of WGN, especially in Kane, Boone and McHenry Counties — both WMTV and WGN broadcast their digital signals on channel 19. The station also interferes in some portions of Berrien County and Van Buren County in Michigan with WGN's sister station WXMI (Channel 17), a Fox affiliate in Grand Rapids, which serves Western Michigan and also transmits over channel 19. WXMI maintains a digital translator station on channel 17 from Muskegon to address this interference.
WGN-TV broadcasts the entire CW network schedule (weekday daytime and primetime programming, and the Toonzai animation block on Saturday mornings; however due to the station's sports broadcast commitments, The CW's weekday daytime and primetime programs are subject to preemption should a sporting event be scheduled to air during network programming hours, resulting in the programs being rebroadcast at a later time (usually during weekend primetime, as The CW does not carry network programming on Saturday and Sunday evenings).
Outside of local newscasts, WGN-TV also broadcasts other locally produced programming: the bi-weekly news and public affairs program People to People, hosted by former midday anchor Allison Payne, covers the week's major local and national news events and community events; another bi-weekly program Adelante, Chicago, hosted by weeknight 5 p.m. anchor/reporter Lourdes Duarte, focuses on Chicago's Hispanic community covering a range of topics from education to politics, and also sometimes features musical guests, chefs and interviews with actors; both programs are also simulcast nationally on WGN America. Chicago's Best, hosted by Ted Brunson and Brittney Payton (daughter of late Chicago Bears running back Walter Payton), is a weekly half-hour food and lifestyle program focusing on Chicago's cuisine, attractions and events; the program also airs on local cable news channel CLTV.[17]
WGN-TV is the flagship station for the Illinois Lottery, and its drawings take place at WGN's West Bradley Place studios. The midday and nightly drawings (which air during the noon and 9 p.m. newscasts; if the drawing does not clear on the WGN America feed, due to sporting events not cleared nationally that would force a newscast pre-emption, then the results of the drawing will be shown before 9:30 p.m. CT), as well as the Tuesday and Friday Mega Millions and Wednesday and Saturday Powerball drawings also air nationally on WGN America, making the Illinois Lottery the only U.S. state lottery whose drawings are broadcast to a national audience.[18] WGN has aired the drawings since 1994 after acquiring broadcast rights from CBS-owned WBBM-TV, who obtained rights to the drawings from Fox-owned WFLD in 1992; that station took the rights for the drawings from WGN-TV in 1987.[19]
WGN-TV has the distinction of being one of the few CW affiliates in the country to air Live with Kelly; WLS-TV (channel 7) is the only ABC-owned station not airing the program (which is distributed by ABC's corporate cousin, Disney-ABC Domestic Television) due to its live airing of Oprah on weekdays at 9 a.m., a practice which goes back to its existence as local morning show AM Chicago. After Oprah ended its 25-year run in 2011, WLS-TV debuted the new local program Windy City Live in its timeslot, while Live remained on WGN-TV;[20] Live is expected to move to WLS-TV in September 2013, making it the last ABC owned-and-operated station to add the program.[21]
Due to SyndEx rules, WGN-TV and its superstation feed WGN America air vastly different programming, and although the program schedules between the local and national feeds were similar at first after the law was enacted, recently WGN-TV and WGN America have begun to feature not as much common programming as in years past. As of November 2010, the only "SyndEx-proof" shows shared between WGN-TV Chicago and WGN America are public affairs programs People to People and Adelante, Chicago, syndicated reruns of Curb Your Enthusiasm and Entourage, and religious programs Singsation!, Tomorrow's World and Believer's Walk of Faith with Pastor Bill Winston.
Throughout its history, WGN-TV has had a long association with Chicago sports. Perhaps with the exception of the NFL's Chicago Bears, each of the city's major professional sports franchises, along with several area collegiate teams, have had its games regularly televised over channel 9.
Appropriate for a station owned by the Tribune Company, news has played an important role on WGN-TV since the station's beginnings. WGN-TV currently broadcasts a total of 49 hours of local news per week (with 9 hours on weekdays and two hours each on Saturdays and Sundays), the most of any broadcast station in Chicago and the state of Illinois; in addition, the station airs a 20-minute sports highlight show called Instant Replay, hosted by longtime sports director Dan Roan, on Sunday nights at 9:40 p.m. WGN-TV's newscasts are well known in the Chicago area for the longevity of its on-air news staff; current news anchors Jackie Bange, Robin Baumgarten, Robert Jordan, Micah Materre, Larry Potash and Steve Sanders, reporters Dina Bair, Muriel Clair and Dean Richards, meteorologists Tom Skilling, Paul Konrad and Jim Ramsey, and sports anchors Dan Roan and Rich King have all worked for WGN-TV for ten years or more. In its weathercasts, WGN-TV shows current conditions supplied by a network of automatic observation sites across the viewing area, it is the largest television station (in terms of market size) to participate in the WeatherBug network.[22] Currently, WGN and Fox-owned WFLD are the only two major local broadcast news outlets in the Chicago area who do not broadcast their newscasts from a "street side studio."
WGN America, the national superstation feed of WGN-TV, simulcasts the noon hour of the midday newscast and the nightly 9 p.m. newscast, which due to primetime programming changes on September 13, 2010 now airs nightly on a regular basis with far fewer preemptions than in the past (national preemptions of the 9 p.m. newscast now only occur if a sports telecast is not cleared to air nationally on WGN America by WGN-TV, and the game is scheduled to run past 9 p.m. CT); the national feed does not run all of WGN's newscasts however, as WGN America has not cleared the 11 a.m. hour of the midday newscast, the weeknight 5 p.m. and weekend morning newscasts to air on the superstation feed for unknown reasons; SyndEx rules prohibiting certain segments from airing outside the Chicago area reportedly caused the removal of the WGN Morning News from the national feed in 1996 (this is the only known incidence in which Syndex rules caused the preemption of a newscast on cable systems outside of the main viewing area). Since 2008, the anchors of the noon and 9 p.m. newscasts typically reference the national simulcast prior to the top story of those newscasts (except in the event a newscast is preempted by the superstation feed, and during the weekend 9 p.m. newscasts).
In September 2008, WGN-TV debuted a half-hour early evening newscast airing from 5:30-6 p.m., competing against the national network newscasts on WBBM, WMAQ-TV and WLS-TV and extended their midday newscast by a half-hour airing from 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. On October 5, 2009 WGN expanded the early evening newscast to one hour, from 5-6 p.m. and also expanded its midday newscast to two hours, from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. On July 6, 2010 WGN-TV announced that special live half-hour editions of its 9 p.m. newscast would begin airing on sister channel CLTV in the event a sporting event being held on the west coast is set to air on WGN-TV at 9 p.m. CT, in a move to attract non-sports viewers who would normally watch the 9 p.m. newscast on Channel 9; a second half-hour newscast will air live on WGN-TV (with a simulcast on WGN America, depending on the game's national clearance) following the game. The first time this arrangement took place was on July 8, 2010 when WGN-TV aired a Major League Baseball game between the Cubs and the Los Angeles Dodgers.[23]
On August 16, 2010, WGN-TV added an additional half-hour to its weekday morning newscast, expanding to 4:30-9 a.m., becoming the third Chicago station to begin its morning newscast at 4:30 a.m., along with ABC O&O WLS-TV (which debuted a newscast in that timeslot two weeks earlier) and NBC O&O WMAQ-TV (which debuted in its current form in 2009).[24] On October 2, 2010 WGN-TV launched hour-long Saturday and Sunday morning newscasts at 6 a.m., becoming the second Tribune station to carry a weekend morning newscast (Indianapolis Fox affiliate WXIN debuted weekend morning newscasts in August 2010); WGN-TV had previously ran hour-long weekend morning newscasts on Saturdays and Sundays at 8 a.m. starting in early 1992 (unusual considering the weekday morning newscast did not debut until two years later); though they were both eventually cancelled, the Sunday edition in 1994 and the Saturday edition in 1998.[25] On July 11, 2011, the WGN Morning News expanding by an additional half-hour to a 4 a.m. start time, making the program run five hours each weekday.[26] This makes it the first station in the Chicago market and the third Tribune station (after WPIX and WXIN) to have its morning newscast start at 4 a.m.
Ratings-wise, WGN-TV has been one of The CW's stronger affiliates, often drawing more viewers than Fox-owned WFLD-TV (channel 32) even in primetime despite the latter's Fox programming. WGN-TV's 9 p.m. newscasts usually beat Fox-owned WFLD-TV's head-to-head in the ratings, despite the latter's Fox lead-in, and generally have a larger audience than CBS-owned WBBM-TV's news has at 10 p.m. The WGN Morning News is also very highly rated in the Chicago market, often coming in first place overall.[citation needed]
In the November 2010 local Nielsen ratings, WGN rose to third place (up from its previous fourth place finish in the May 2010 Nielsen ratings, moving ahead of WMAQ-TV) with a 4.9 household rating for the 9 p.m. newscast. WGN-TV's primetime programming also received a 3.3 lead-in rating to the 9 p.m. newscast for the period, a significant increase over the 1.8 lead-in rating the year before.[27]
In the February 2011 Nielsen local news ratings, the station’s 9 p.m. newscast placed a strong fourth among the Chicagoland area's late evening newscasts with a 5.3 rating share, up from a 4.5 rating during the February 2010 sweeps period, and well ahead of continually struggling last-place finisher WFLD between the two station's primetime newscasts. However, WGN had the lowest primetime lead-in rating of all the area's news stations with only a 2.2 rating share.[28]
- Notable anchors
- Weather team
In addition to providing weather forecasts for WGN-TV, the WGN Weathercenter Team also provides forecasts for the Chicago Tribune, WGN (720 kHz.) and CLTV.
- Tom Skilling (AMS Seal of Approval) - chief meteorologist; weekdays at 11 a.m. and noon, and weeknights at 5 and 9 p.m.
- Sports team
- Dan Roan - sports director; Monday-Thursdays at 9 p.m., also host of Instant Replay
- Rich King - sports anchor; Friday-Saturdays at 9 p.m., also Sunday-hursday sports reporter
- Mike Barz - morning sports anchor (1998–2005, later at Good Morning America and WFLD-TV, now at WTEV-TV and WAWS-TV in Jacksonville)
- Bob Bell - original portrayer of Bozo the Clown (1960–1984, deceased)
- Thom Brennaman - Chicago Cubs play-by-play (early 1990s; now television voice of the Cincinnati Reds on Fox Sports Ohio and Fox with MLB and NFL telecasts)
- Jack Brickhouse - legendary sportscaster (1948–1982, deceased)
- Lorn Brown - Chicago Bulls play-by-play (1976–1978, deceased)
- Roy Brown - puppeteer/actor on Bozo's Circus and The Bozo Show (1955–1994, deceased)
- Cheryl Burton - host of MBR: The Minority Business Report (1989–1990, now at WLS-TV)
- Chip Caray - Chicago Cubs play-by-play (1998–2004; now with SportSouth)
- Harry Caray - Chicago Cubs play-by-play (1981–1997, deceased)
- Bob Collins - hosted WGN-TV specials (?–?, deceased)
- Bob Costas - Chicago Bulls play-by-play (1979–1980, now lead broadcaster with NBC Sports)
- Joey D'Auria - final actor to portray Bozo the Clown on The Bozo Show (1984–2001)
- Phil Donahue - host of the syndicated talk show Donahue (1974–1982; won awards for best talk show host)
- John Drury - anchor (1967–1970 and 1979–1984, deceased)
- Jim Durham - Chicago Bulls play-by-play (1989–1991, later on ESPN)
- Milo Hamilton - Chicago Cubs play-by-play (1980–1984)
- Pat Harvey - anchor (1985–1989)
- Johnny "Red" Kerr - Chicago Bulls play-by-play (1977–1984 and 1989–2008, deceased)
- Wayne Larrivee - Chicago Bulls play-by-play (1991–2008, now radio play-by-play broadcaster for the Green Bay Packers and Big Ten Network)
- Roy Leonard - host of Family Classics (?–?)
- Vince Lloyd - Chicago Bulls, Cubs and White Sox play-by-play (?–?, deceased)
- Ned Locke - meteorologist and host on Bozo's Circus (1956–1976, deceased)
- Joe McConnell - Chicago White Sox play-by-play (1981–1985)
- Allison Payne - anchor/reporter/People to People host (1990–2011)
- Lloyd Pettit - Chicago Cubs and White Sox play-by-play (1960–1970, deceased)
- Jimmy Piersall - Chicago White Sox play-by-play (1981)
- Ray Rayner - host of Ray Rayner and His Friends/actor on Dick Tracy and Bozo's Circus (1961–1981, deceased)
- Randy Salerno - morning and noon anchor/reporter (1993–2004, later at WBBM-TV, deceased)
- Don Sandburg - actor on Bozo's Circus (?–?)
- John Schubeck - reporter (?–?, deceased)
- Keenan Smith - meteorologist (2003–2008; now at WXYZ-TV in Detroit)
- Wendell Smith - sports anchor/reporter (1964–1972, deceased)
- Chuck Swirsky - Chicago Bulls play-by-play (?–?; now Bulls radio play-by-play announcer)
- Jack Taylor - news anchor for several decades
- Roseanne Tellez - morning and noon anchor/reporter (1990–2004, now at WBBM-TV)
- Frazier Thomas - host of Garfield Goose and Friends and Family Classics/host on Bozo's Circus (1954–1979, deceased)
- Harry Volkman - meteorologist (1967–1978, later at WBBM-TV and WFLD-TV)
- Jim Williams - government reporter (1977–1992, now at WBBM-TV)
- Bill Weir - morning news and sports anchor (1995–1998, later at Good Morning America Weekend Edition, now co-host of Nightline)
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Although WGN America continues to be distributed in Canada, the Chicago area feed of WGN-TV is also carried by Bell TV and Shaw Direct satellite services, as well as most Canadian cable services, typically as part of a la carte superstation packages. Bell TV has always carried the Chicago area feed but Shaw Direct and many cable services that carried Superstation WGN switched on January 17, 2007 when Shaw Broadcast Services, a primary supplier of Superstation WGN in Canada, switched to the Chicago area feed.
As a result of its carriage by Canadian cable and satellite providers, WGN-TV provides CW network programming to most parts of Canada that are located farther away from the U.S. border and out of reach of the over-the-air signals of other CW affiliates in American cities located near the Canadian border; however, CW network programming carried by WGN-TV may be subject to simultaneous substitution rules on Canadian providers carrying the local Chicago feed. Some sports events may be blacked out on some providers as well.
The feed has created some controversy in the past few years in which WGN has begun carrying Chicago Blackhawks games. Those games remain available in Canada, meaning games on Saturday night now go directly against CBC Television's Hockey Night in Canada, which is supposed to have national exclusivity on Saturday night across Canada. The WGN Blackhawks games also sometimes show up on NHL Center Ice in Canada on some providers and they are in HD.
- WGN America - The national superstation feed of WGN-TV.
- ^ "DirecTV and Tribune Fail to Reach Deal," from The New York Times, 4/1/2012
- ^ "Require Prime Evening Time for NTA Films". Boxoffice: 13. November 10, 1956. http://issuu.com/boxoffice/docs/boxoffice_111056-1. [dead link]
- ^ http://www.chicagoarchitecture.info/Building/1334/WGN-Television.php
- ^ Birth of a Nation's Superstation: WGN executives were aghast when the channel was first put up on satellite, but the 'curse' turned into quite the blessing, Multichannel News (via HighBeam Research), April 5, 2004.
- ^ Warner Bros., Tribune Broadcasting & Jamie Kellner to Launch WB Network in 1994, TheFreeLibrary.com. Retrieved 12-10-2010.
- ^ Tribune Broadcasting Joins with Warner Bros. to Launch Fifth Television Network, TheFreeLibrary.com. Retrieved 12-10-2010.
- ^ Tribune Superstation WGN-TV to Affiliate with WB Network, TheFreeLibrary.com. Retrieved 12-10-2010.
- ^ Time Warner Takes Crucial Step Toward New Network Television: A pact with superstation WGN-TV gives it access to 73% of homes. Analysts say that will still leave gaps., Los Angeles Times, December 4, 1993. Retrieved 12-10-2010.
- ^ Tribune Broadcasting Combines WGN, CLTV, Mediaweek, February 4, 2009
- ^ WGN Radio to Partner With WGN-TV to Deliver Top Local Weather Reporting to Listeners, Tribune Company. Retrieved 12-9-2010.
- ^ WGN-TV First in Chicago to Stream Newscasts, Tribune Company, Retrieved 12-9-2010.
- ^ a b Tribune Company Launching Digital Subchannel Antenna TV Network, Chicago Tribune, August 30, 2010
- ^ "LATV, Tribune Ink Affiliate Deal". http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/media/e3i98dd689378c2fddd415b50422ca06976.
- ^ CDBS Print
- ^ "WMAQ-TV, WGN-TV partner with Weigel Broadcasting for analog 'lifeline'". Chicago Tribune. June 11, 2009. http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/towerticker/2009/06/wmaqtv-wgntv-partner-with-weigel-broadcasting-for-analog-lifeline.html.
- ^ http://www.wciu.com/about.php?section=press&releaseID=14
- ^ WGN-TV & CLTV to Premiere New Food and Lifestyle Show "Chicago's Best", ChicagoNow, March 18, 2010. Retrieved 12-15-2010.
- ^ Drawing Fact Sheet, Illinois Lottery. Retrieved 12-15-2010.
- ^ The Illinois Lottery - A History, Illinois Lottery. Retrieved 12-15-2010.
- ^ ABC 7 to replace "Oprah' with live, local morning show, WBEZ.org. Retrieved 12-15-2010.
- ^ Daytime drama: How will ABC 7 make room for Katie & Kelly?, Time Out Chicago, May 13, 2012.
- ^ WGN-TV and WeatherBug Partner to Offer Viewers Live, Neighborhood-Level Weather Reporting - On-air and Online Starting Tuesday, TheFreeLibrary.com. Retrieved 12-10-2010.
- ^ WGN News at Nine to Air on CLTV & Stream Live on WGNtv.com When Baseball on WGN-TV Starts at 9pm, Tribune Company. Retrieved 12-9-2010.
- ^ WGN Morning News to Start a Half-hour Earlier, Chicago Breaking Business.
- ^ "WGN-Ch. 9 plans new early morning weekend news". Chicago Tribune. August 23, 2010. http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/towerticker/2010/08/wgn-ch-9-plans-new-early-morning-weekend-news.html.
- ^ Attention Early Birds! WGN Morning News Starts at 4:00AM Beginning July 11, WGNTV.com, June 16, 2011.
- ^ Channel 5 drops to 4th, Chicago Sun-Times, December 2, 2010. Retrieved 12-10-2010.
- ^ Johnson-Sullivan anchor duo paying off for WBBM-Channel 2, Chicago Sun-Times, March 4, 2010.
- ^ "News Team". WGN-TV. http://www.wgntv.com/about/station/newsteam/. Retrieved 20 August 2011.
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