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Former WANX/WGNX studio torn down.

N

nightmanager

The famous "red schoolhouse' on Briarcliff Rd is no more. Drove past it this morning and saw a.big excavator sitting where the building used to be.

This building was the channel 46 studio for many years and many call sign changes until they built a new studio on 14th street.
 
MGD135 said:
They were WHAE at the start. And WATL occupied that building before until they shut down in 1971 (they'd return in 1976 from new digs in Atlanta proper).
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When they returned in 1976 with Don Kennedy at the helm, their studios were in the 1800 Peachtree Building. They were "talk TV" and I even remember Neil Boortz as part of the crew.
 
MGD135 said:
I can also remember in the earliest days of their return how they'd shut off without so much of an advance notice. They were on shaky footing back then.
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When they first came back on, the engineer I talked to (I was 14) told me stories of using hair dryers to thaw out the water pipes for the transmitter. Also, the transmitter could not be turned off which is why for the first month or two they would just go to a 36 logo all night. You are right though. At the end of the day, they would just put up the 36 slide with no mention of signing off.

The transmitter they were using in 1976 was the original transmitter that was used the first time they were on the air. Of course there was no money to rebuild it.
 
When WATL cleared network daytime shows the affiliates passed on, the shows that were tape-delayed looked like they were recorded on a home VCR on the slowest speed (SLP). Later they'd have network daytime shows bicycled to them from an affiliate and they'd replay a week of shows because tapes weren't delivered.
 
MGD135 said:
When WATL cleared network daytime shows the affiliates passed on, the shows that were tape-delayed looked like they were recorded on a home VCR on the slowest speed (SLP). Later they'd have network daytime shows bicycled to them from an affiliate and they'd replay a week of shows because tapes weren't delivered.
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Was any consideration given to picking them up off-air from Chattanooga or Macon and running them at the same time?

I know that is kind of a crude way of doing it, but if they had a high-gain antenna on a tower at the studio, it could have worked. WSVA (nor WHSV) in Harrisonburg VA did this with WMAL (now WJLA), and there were other instances. WKYH (now WYMT) Hazard KY had OTA as a backup when they could not get NBC programs via microwave from WLEX or WCYB, though the terrain made this very challenging.
 
I'm sure it was an option. I just aren't sure if it was financially viable. The daytime shows they had bicycled to them were CBS's The $25,000 Pyramid and Tattletales which, if I recall from a phone call to the station, were bicycled from WRDW in Augusta which cleared the shows as where WMAZ and WDEF did not.
 


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