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WAGA
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For broadcast stations that previously used the WAGA call sign, see WAGA (disambiguation)
| WAGA | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Atlanta, Georgia | |
| Branding | Fox 5 Atlanta |
| Slogan | The Most Powerful Name in Local News |
| Channels | Analog: 5 (VHF) Digital: 27 (UHF) |
| Affiliations | Fox |
| Owner | Fox Television Stations (WAGA License, Inc.) |
| Founded | March 8, 1949 |
| Call letters meaning | W Atlanta, GeorgiA |
| Former callsigns | WAGA-TV (1949-1998) |
| Former affiliations | CBS/ABC/DuMont (1949-1951) CBS/DuMont (1951-1955) CBS (1955-1994) |
| Transmitter Power | 100 kW (analog) 1000 kW (digital) |
| Height | 328 m (analog) 332 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 70689 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | |
| Website | www.myfoxatlanta.com |
WAGA, channel 5, is an owned-and-operated television station of the News Corporation-owned Fox Broadcasting Company, based in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The station's transmitter is co-located with its studios on Briarcliff Road Northeast in DeKalb County, just west of Emory University.
Contents |
WAGA-TV first began operations on March 8, 1949. It was originally owned by Storer Broadcasting along with WAGA radio (1480 AM, now WYZE; and 102.9 MHz., now WVEE-FM). It was the second television station in Georgia, after WSB-TV. Originally a CBS affiliate, channel 5 also carried a secondary affiliation with the DuMont Television Network from 1949 to 1955. It also shared ABC with WSB-TV until WLWA-TV (now WXIA-TV) signed on in 1953. It is the only VHF commercial station in Atlanta still on its original channel.
WAGA-TV originally broadcast from studios and transmission facilities located at 1018 Peachtree Street NW. This building would later became home to pioneering superstation/leading Atlanta independent WTBS channel 17 (now WPCH-TV). Sometime in the middle 1960s, the WAGA stations moved its broadcast facilities to Briarcliff Road NE, which resembles an antebellum Southern mansion, a type of architecture that was typical for Storer's other broadcasting facilities.
For many years, the station called its newscasts 5 News Scene. In the 1980s, this changed to Eyewitness News.
In 1985, WAGA, along with the other Storer stations, was sold in a group deal to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., a New York-based private equity firm. Two years later, KKR sold the Storer stations to Gillett Communications. After bankruptcy, Gillett restructured in the early 1990s, selling several stations, and changing its name to SCI.
In 1992, WAGA began pre-empting CBS This Morning in favor of a locally produced morning show, "Good Day Atlanta". Later that year, SCI filed for bankruptcy and put its stations on the market.
In 1993, New World Communications acquired the SCI stations, including WAGA. At the time, New World happened to be based out of Atlanta. Because of this, WAGA was made the flagship station of New World for a short period of time.
In 1994, New World announced an affiliation agreement with Fox. This deal came in part because Fox had won the rights to air National Football Conference games from CBS. WAGA had been the unofficial "home" station of the NFC's Atlanta Falcons since the team's inception.
This deal resulted in most of New World's stations, including WAGA, switching to Fox beginning in September 1994. However, as in most New World markets, Fox Kids children's programming stayed on former Fox affiliate WATL-TV (channel 36), because WAGA was interested in airing more news. All but one station would retain its existing syndicated programming lineup. The lone exception was WGNX (channel 46, now WGCL-TV), which became the new CBS affiliate despite turning it down at first, and sold many of its syndicated shows over to WVEU (channel 69, now WUPA), which became a charter affiliate of the UPN network in early 1995 (eventually becoming a UPN O&O). In the meantime, WATL would become independent until 1995 when it became a charter affiliate of The WB Television Network. At that time, Fox finalized the sale of WATL to Qwest Broadcasting (which was controlled by musician Quincy Jones), which merged with WB part-owner Tribune Company in 2000.(the latter of which is now owned by Gannett Company).
The affiliation switch occurred in December 1994. At that point, WAGA's 45-year stint as a CBS affiliate came to an end. Before the switch, WAGA was the longest-tenured CBS affiliate south of Washington, D.C.; an honor now held by WBTV in Charlotte, North Carolina. As the new Fox station, WAGA began to air over 40 hours of local news a week. The 11:00 news moved to 10:00, and the station also ran first-run syndicated talk/reality shows, game shows and movies. It did not run any children's programming except for some educational shows on the weekends. Also, with the affiliation switch, WAGA remained the home station for the Atlanta Falcons, as since the Falcons play in the NFC, the station had carried most Falcons games since the team's inception. In 2005, WAGA and the Falcons celebrated 40 years together.
Early in 1997, New World sold all of its Fox affiliates, including WAGA, to Fox. Upon becoming a Fox-owned station (the second in Atlanta), the station adopted the "Fox 5" branding, per the network's branding guidelines. However, at the end of WAGA's newscast, the copyright notice says the station is still owned by "New World Communications of Atlanta" -- similar situations exist in most other ex-New World markets.
On March 26, 2007, WAGA debuted new graphics, set design, and theme music for all its daily newscasts. The news theme music is from OSI and will reflect the Fox O&O stations. The logo and graphics are similar to many other Fox O&O's across the nation.
The station's digital channel is multiplexed:
Digital channels
| Channel | Video | Aspect | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5.1 / 27.1 | 720p | 16:9 | Main WAGA programming / Fox HD |
| 5.2 / 27.2 | 480i | 4:3 | Main WAGA programming / Fox (Standard Definition) |
In 2009, WAGA-TV will leave channel 5 and move to channel 27 when the analog to digital conversion is complete.[1]
- The station's studios were used on location in the Matlock episode, "The Reporter".
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Local television stations Outlying Areas Local digital television channels Local cable/satellite television channels |
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| See also: ABC, CBS, CW, MyNetworkTV, NBC, PBS, and Other stations in Georgia |
