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Superstation WGN to re-launch

M

MarkL

Will they take off the WGN News? What happens to Cubs baseball when their contract runs out?

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117984215.html?categoryid=14&cs=1&nid=2562

"Tribune execs also hinted at big changes to come for the company's WGN Superstation cabler. Randy Michaels, Tribune's CEO of broadcasting and interactive, said the channel would be relaunched in May; there's been speculation that the company will drop the "WGN" tag in a branding effort aimed it making it more of a national service and less rooted in its TV station sibling WGN Chicago."
 
Although I will miss Tom Skilling's forecasts, WGN news doesn't belong on the national feed. Chicago news is nothing but carjackings, murders, and the Daly family being a jack)*&^. If there was only a way to get Chicago Bears preseason games on the national WGN feed.
 
I wonder if Tribune will do the same with Denver's KWGN? Just recently I heard that KWGN is still offered nationwide on to viewers on Dish Network.

If Tribune does make KWGN strictly "Denver Only", I can't see it happening until after Democratic Convention in August.
 
It looks as though it's going the way of TBS.
 
FloydB said:
It looks as though it's going the way of TBS.
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Anout TBS? I know the topic of "national" and "local Atlanta" versions of WTBS have popped up before but even back in the early 80s when we first get then WTBS, I don't remember any local Atlanta content on there ( such as commericals, local news and so forth ). I wonder if there were two spereate feeds of WTBS even back then?
 
bk77 said:
Anout TBS? I know the topic of "national" and "local Atlanta" versions of WTBS have popped up before but even back in the early 80s when we first get then WTBS, I don't remember any local Atlanta content on there ( such as commericals, local news and so forth ). I wonder if there were two spereate feeds of WTBS even back then?
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Back in the WTCG days (late 70's) the satellite feed was identical to the OTA in Atlanta, complete with local commercials and the "Super 17" branding. Programming was pretty much like any other large market indie. WGN was the same way in the early days of the satellite feed. Ditto for WOR-TV in NYC.

WTCG was the first satellite delivered service that most cable systems offered, including mine at the time (1978.) The crystal clear reception of a station 1,200 miles away was quite amazing. Have to admit it was fun to see all the local commercials on the various superstations.
 
With a lot of TV stations starting to stream their news online the need for such a thing isn't great. That is the only thing I liked about getting out of town stations was watching their news. Now that you can do that online I don't see the point to running it over the air.

I live in Chicago and have only seen WGN Superstation at Bally's my health club. For some reason their dish network carries WGN Superstation not WGN-TV. (Hmmm I wonder if that's an error?)
 
I understand the sat services carry WGN-TV and the WGN superstation in the Chicago market. I certainly hope the newly "relaunched" WGN superstation continues to carry the news programing, including the morning news which they dropped years ago. Regarding KWGN, I recieved that station, along with the other 4 "superstations" when I had Dish network. KWGN was the best of the five and I watched almost every day---really liked their news programing...
 
I'm curious to see what this new "Superstation" or whatever it might be called will look like. I just hope they don't "half-ass" it...either eliminate the "WGN" brand entirely (and that would mean getting rid of the news, sports, and everything Chicago-centric), or they might as well keep things status quo. I understand there are still contracts and committments that still needs to be honored, but from the latest articles being published, it looks like that we will eventually see the end of WGN Television on a national basis.

On a side note, did anyone see the WGN anniversary specials on this past Sunday night...the one featuring the Cubs, and the another featuring the station itself? If not, they'll repeat them again sometime in the first week of May (one of those specials airs again on May 3rd for sure).
 
Actually Brent Butt (yes thats his real name) announced that "Corner Gas" would end its run in 2009...CTV and its sibling network COMEDY wanted the show to continue for two more years, but nope.
 
fortmill said:
I certainly hope the newly "relaunched" WGN superstation continues to carry the news programing, including the morning news which they dropped years ago.
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Until SyndEx is repealed or WGN drops the syndicated features from the morning news, it ain't gonna happen.

In any case, as long as they don't jettison the "Homicide" reruns at noon I'll be happy.
 
I think with the SyndEX rules in place, having WGN as a superstation just doesn't make financial sense, and while I enjoy watching big market news from somewhere else, you can't watch Cubs games (MLB property), you can't watch their own local programming (SyndEX), so what's the point? They might as well use the space for something else... Maybe an alternative to TVLand which seems to be going more in a reality TV direction?
 
Garrett said:
I think with the SyndEX rules in place, having WGN as a superstation just doesn't make financial sense, and while I enjoy watching big market news from somewhere else, you can't watch Cubs games (MLB property), you can't watch their own local programming (SyndEX), so what's the point? They might as well use the space for something else... Maybe an alternative to TVLand which seems to be going more in a reality TV direction?
Click to expand...

Since when can't one watch Cub (or Sox or Bulls) games on WGN? Unless, of course a particular game isn't on WGN in the first place? All Cubs & Sox games that WGN-TV carries are also on the Superstation - about 100 total games, 70 Cubs & 30 Sox. Some Bulls games and the Black Hawks next season, will only be on Channel 9 in Chicago, not on the bird.
 
Oh, I thoiught they were blocked out (like the Red Sox are when you watch WSBK), my bad. But even then, how many people in Detroit are Cubs Fan.

Wait, don't answer that... LOL.
 
Garrett said:
Oh, I thoiught they were blocked out (like the Red Sox are when you watch WSBK), my bad. But even then, how many people in Detroit are Cubs Fan.

Wait, don't answer that... LOL.
Click to expand...

The Cubs possibly have more out-of-town fans than any other team in MLB (definitely more than any other National League team) thanks to being on WGN all these years.
 
All I know is their revenue took a major spike upward both at the local Chicago AND the national superstation level when they pre-empted CW programming for the 60th anniversary specials. Anyone think the new Tribune honchos may opt out of their side of the CW sooner than later?
 
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