NBC affiliate in Atlanta
WXIA-TV
(channel 11) is a
television station
in
Atlanta, Georgia
, United States, affiliated with
NBC
. It is owned by
Tegna Inc.
alongside
MyNetworkTV
affiliate
WATL
(channel 36). The two stations share studios at One Monroe Place on the north end of
midtown Atlanta
; WXIA-TV's transmitter is located in the city's east section, near
Kirkwood
. Atlanta is the largest
television market
where the NBC station is not
owned and operated
by the network.
[2]
WXIA-TV is popularly known within the
Atlanta metropolitan area
by its longtime on-air
brand
,
11 Alive
, which the station has used since 1976.
History
[
edit
]
What is known today as WXIA-TV originally signed on the air September 30, 1951, at 5 p.m., as WLTV on
VHF
channel 8. It was the first full time
ABC
affiliate for Atlanta, taking it over from
WSB-TV
and
WAGA-TV
(channel 5), both originally primary NBC and
CBS
affiliates respectively that previously shared ABC programming as a secondary affiliation. It was the third Atlanta television station to sign-on after WSB-TV and WAGA, all signing on within a three-year time frame.
Owned and operated by a group of Atlanta businessmen organized as Broadcasting, Inc., WLTV was indirectly born from the 1950 merger of
Atlanta's two newspapers
.
The Atlanta Journal
had originally owned channel 8 as WSB-TV, while
The Atlanta Constitution
held a construction permit for channel 2 as WCON-TV. Construction had already begun on the WCON-TV facilities when the Howell family, longtime owners of the
Constitution
, sold their paper to
Cox Enterprises
, owners of the
Journal
. However, Cox had a problem. At the time, the
Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) did not permit the sale of television station construction permits, considering it "trafficking". Cox had little option but to keep the WCON-TV construction permit rather than the already-operating WSB-TV.
[3]
As such, it announced plans to move the WSB-TV intellectual unit to the stronger channel 2 facility when it was completed and sell its channel 8 license, which was acquired by Broadcasting, Inc., for $525,000. The sale was challenged by applicants for additional stations that were affected by the then-ongoing freeze on new construction permits, including
Georgia Tech
(owners of
WGST
radio)
[4]
and
Decatur
radio station owner E.D. Rivers,
[5]
in part because planned allocation changes meant that there would be no further commercial VHF stations for Atlanta, and they sought to operate the channel as well.
[6]
The FCC dismissed the complaints and approved the sale of the channel 8 license to Broadcasting, Inc., in August 1951.
[5]
Testing for the new channel 2 began on September 25, 1951,
[7]
and WSB-TV moved there on September 30. Channel 8 returned at 5 p.m. that day as WLTV.
[8]
Due to the way the transfer was structured legally, WXIA operates under the license originally granted to WSB-TV, while the current WSB-TV license dates from 1951.
[9]
Thus, the present-day channel 11 is the second-oldest broadcasting facility in the South; WSB-TV signed on in 1948, four months after
WTVR-TV
in
Richmond, Virginia
.
Several more large changes would come for WLTV in the years that followed. When the FCC lifted its freeze on new TV stations with the Sixth Report and Order in April 1952, it made several changes to television allocations and substituted channel 11 for 8 at Atlanta, modifying WLTV's license to specify channel 11.
[9]
The change coincided with the reallocation of channel 8 to
non-commercial educational
use at
Athens
and mitigated interference with
channel 9
at
Rome
. The station would not change channels until September 1953, by which time Broadcasting, Inc., had sold WLTV to
Cincinnati
-based
Crosley Broadcasting Corporation
. In line with its other television stations, Crosley changed the call letters to WLWA (often rendered as "WLW-A") on March 3, 1953.
[9]
In 1962, WLWA was purchased by
Indianapolis
businessman Richard Fairbanks, via his
WIBC, Inc.
, as part of a settlement between Crosley and Fairbanks. Crosley had started WLWI (now
WTHR
) in Indianapolis in 1957, but Fairbanks insisted that the last VHF allocation in Indianapolis should go to a local owner. Eventually, the two companies agreed to what amounted to a trade, in which Crosley kept WLWI while Fairbanks bought WLWA. The Atlanta station's call sign then became WAII-TV, using the slogan "The Eyes of Atlanta" and the calls standing for "Atlanta's 11" (II). The station was sold to Pacific & Southern Broadcasting in 1968 and on March 23 became known as WQXI-TV, aligning it with
WQXI AM
and FM (the calls had originally been used on channel 36, currently
WATL
, from 1954 to 1955). Pacific & Southern later merged with Combined Communications Corporation; the merged company could not purchase both WQXI radio and television, as the FCC had barred new radio-television combinations in top 50 markets.
[10]
The radio stations were sold to
Jefferson-Pilot Broadcasting
; as a result of the split, the station assumed the WXIA-TV call letters on December 24, 1973.
[11]
On September 20, 1976, WXIA first adopted "11 Alive" as its on-air branding, as part of Combined's practice of using the word "Alive" as part of the brand of most of their stations (two stations not owned by Combined also adopted the "11 Alive" branding that same year, then-
independent station
WPIX
(now a
CW
affiliate) in
New York City
?which used the brand until 1986, and NBC affiliate WIIC in
Pittsburgh
, now
WPXI
?which used it until 1979). In 1979, Combined merged with the
Gannett Company
in what became the largest media merger in history up to that time. Following the acquisition, most of the former Combined stations stopped using the "Alive" brand, though WXIA continued to call itself "11 Alive".
[
citation needed
]
On September 1, 1980, WXIA swapped affiliations with WSB-TV and became an NBC affiliate. This move could be traced to ratings: NBC slid to a very poor third place; meanwhile, ABC was in first place for most of the late 1970s and was seeking out affiliates with higher viewership in many markets, including Atlanta. ABC thus jumped at the chance to affiliate with longtime market leader WSB-TV. Some network daytime programs switched stations in August, before the full affiliation switch occurred. In August 1994, Gannett dropped the "11 Alive" moniker as part of the introduction of new on-air graphics for its newscasts and promos; however, the brand was so well established in Atlanta that viewer outcry forced Gannett to restore it after only a month; even so, the "11 Alive" brand was not fully restored until 1996, when the
11 Alive News
title was restored for its newscasts (which were retitled
11 News
with the removal of the "11 Alive" brand).
[
citation needed
]
On June 5, 2006, Gannett entered into an agreement to purchase WATL from the
Tribune Company
for $180 million, creating Atlanta's first television
duopoly
;
[12]
the sale was finalized on August 7, 2006. WATL occasionally airs NBC programs when WXIA is not able due to extended breaking news and severe weather coverage, or special programming. As a result of the WATL acquisition, WXIA management decided to house the combined operation at WATL's facility at One Monroe Place, leaving WXIA's longtime studios at 1611 West
Peachtree Street
; WXIA and WATL began broadcasting from the new studios on July 27, 2008.
Around the first week of October 2012, Gannett entered a
dispute
against
Dish Network
regarding
compensation
fees and Dish's AutoHop commercial-skip feature on its Hopper
digital video recorders
. Gannett ordered that Dish discontinue AutoHop on the account that it is affecting advertising revenues for WXIA and WATL. Gannett threatened to pull both stations should the skirmish continue beyond October 7 and Dish and Gannett fail to reach an agreement.
[13]
[14]
The two parties eventually reached an agreement after extending the deadline for a few hours.
[15]
On June 29, 2015, the Gannett Company split in two, with one side specializing in print media and the other side specializing in broadcast and digital media. WXIA and WATL were retained by the latter company, named
Tegna
.
[16]
On January 24, 2019, WXIA debuted a new station logo for the first time in 26 years; the "11" in the new logo is similar to
Louisville
sister station
WHAS-TV
.
[17]
Programming
[
edit
]
The station previously aired a program called
Noonday
for many years, beginning with the news at noon and at 12:30 continuing on for the rest of the hour with features, akin somewhat to the
Today Show
. This program was canceled in 1997, but the half-hour noon newscast was preceded by the hour-long
Atlanta & Company
, a program which has some similar features, but is partly
paid for by the companies featured
on it, until 2015, when the noon newscast was canceled. The program then expanded to 90 minutes, currently running from 11 to 12:30 p.m.
[
citation needed
]
Sports programming
[
edit
]
Owing to
NBC
's longstanding contract with the
International Olympic Committee
, WXIA was the local broadcaster for the
1996 Summer Olympics
held in Atlanta. It also carried the
Atlanta Braves
'
World Series
victory
the previous year
(coverage alternated between NBC and
ABC
as part of
The Baseball Network
, so WSB had Games 1, 4 and 5, while WXIA received Games 2, 3 and the clinching sixth game; all Braves games on
NBC
's
MLB
broadcast contract from
1981
to
1989
(and before that, from
1976
to
1980
with ABC's broadcast contract) and postseason games in select years from
1996
to
2000
were also broadcast on WXIA which include their
1999 World Series
appearance). WXIA also aired a Braves game in
2023
as part of a simulcast between NBC and
Peacock
's
MLB Sunday Leadoff
package. From its switch to NBC in
1980
up to
1997
, all
Atlanta Falcons
involving them playing an
AFC
team at home were aired on WXIA. Today, the station airs any Falcons contests under NBC's
Sunday Night Football
banner (afternoon games air either on
WAGA
or
WANF
). The station also provided local coverage of
Super Bowl XXVIII
, which was hosted at the
Georgia Dome
. WXIA also aired all
Atlanta Hawks
games carried through
NBC's NBA coverage
from
1990
to
2002
.
[
citation needed
]
News operation
[
edit
]
WXIA presently broadcasts 33 hours, 25 minutes of locally produced newscasts each week (with 5 hours, 35 minutes each weekday,
3
+
1
⁄
2
hours on Saturdays and two hours on Sundays). It also produces a half-hour prime time newscast at 10 p.m. for sister station WATL, which competes with the longer-running hour-long 10 p.m. newscast on Fox-owned WAGA-TV. The station's
Doppler
weather radar
site is located west of Atlanta in far southern
Cobb County
, south-southwest of
Mableton
, on the south side of
Interstate 20
not far west of
Six Flags Over Georgia
.
[
citation needed
]
The station began calling its newscasts
News Watch
in 1963 and began broadcasting news in color for the first time on March 20, 1967. From the early 1970s onward, channel 11's newscasts waged a spirited battle with WAGA for second place behind long-dominant WSB-TV. When WAGA switched to Fox in 1994, WXIA surged to become a solid
runner-up
, usually finishing well ahead of perennial third-place finisher
WGCL-TV
; however, by May 2009, WXIA's ratings had been surpassed by WGCL at noon and 11 p.m. The morning news program
Today in Atlanta
had experienced a 40% ratings drop, leaving them a very distant third behind the local morning shows on WSB and WAGA, and sometimes fourth behind WGCL.
[
citation needed
]
WXIA formerly had a partnership with
The Weather Channel
to use their weather forecasters and provide local
weather forecasts
(incidentally,
NBCUniversal
?which owns NBC through parent company
Comcast
, Atlanta's primary cable television provider?held a majority ownership stake in The Weather Channel until 2018). WXIA became the first Atlanta station to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in
high definition
on February 2, 2006. As part of the conversion to HD, a new HD-ready news set from Production Design Group, Ltd. was built and the station began using a new graphics package from Giant Octopus.
[
citation needed
]
In February 2010, WXIA began a nightly news segment, "Bull Fighters", which consists of eight reporters/anchors; the segment is usually provided by former WAGA sports reporter
Jeff Hullinger
. On April 28, 2010, a new 4:30 a.m. newscast called
Wake Up with Chesley
debuted, featuring meteorologist Chesley McNeil and travel producer Matt Holmes; in addition to news updates throughout the show, McNeil primarily gives weather updates while Holmes gives travel delays and information. On January 29, 2013, on the noon broadcast, WXIA debuted the new Gannett standardized graphics and music ("This is Home" by
Gari Media Group
); their renovated studio debuted on February 12, 2013.
[
citation needed
]
On January 29, 2015, WXIA announced that the 5 p.m. newscast would return for the first time since 2003, when
Dr. Phil
took over that time slot; that show moved to the 3 p.m. timeslot.
[18]
However, the new newscast came at the cost of ending its noon and 7 p.m. newscasts, which were replaced by an extension of
Atlanta & Company
and
Wheel of Fortune
, respectively (the latter reversing its 2007 move from WXIA to WATL). These changes went into effect on March 2, 2015.
[19]
Between July 31 and August 28, 2017, WXIA underwent a significant relaunch of its news department, mirroring a similar move that was made by Tampa Bay sister station
WTSP
in April of that same year. The station renamed its morning and late-night newscasts as
Morning Rush ATL
and
The Late Feed,
respectively. Shiba Russell, who came over from NBC O&O station
WNBC
the previous year, became the solo anchor of
Morning Rush ATL
, while Vinnie Politan became the anchor of
The Late Feed
.
[
citation needed
]
In March 2020, WXIA relaunched its noon newscast; however, it was meant to be temporary due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
.
[
citation needed
]
In June 2021, WXIA re-titled its morning and late-night newscasts once again; the former is now titled
11 Alive Morning News
and the latter, which had been renamed from
The Late Feed
to
Up Late
following Vinnie Politan's departure from the station in November 2018, returned to the previous
11 Alive News at 11
title.
[
citation needed
]
Notable former on-air staff
[
edit
]
- Roz Abrams
? anchor/reporter (1972?1980, last seen at
WCBS-TV
in
New York City
)
- Renee Chenault-Fattah
? anchor/reporter (1989?1991, last at
WCAU
in
Philadelphia
)
- Jim Huber
? weekend sports anchor (1970s?84, later with
CNN
and
Turner Sports
)
- Jeff Hullinger
? co-anchor and sports director (2010?2023, now at
GPB
)
- Walt Maciborski
? anchor/reporter (now at
KEYE-TV
in Austin)
- Steve McCoy
?
Noonday
co-host (1990?1992; formerly on
Star 94
and
B 98.5FM
)
- Steen Miles
? reporter; formerly
MARTA
spokesperson and former Georgia legislator
- Demarco Morgan
? anchor/reporter (2012?2015, now at
ABC News
)
- Stone Phillips
? reporter (1978?1979, formerly of
Dateline NBC
)
- Vinnie Politan
?
The Late Feed
anchor (August 28, 2017 ? November 2, 2018, now with
Court TV
)
[20]
- Del Rodgers
? sports anchor/reporter (1986?1997, now at
KCRA-TV
and
KQCA-TV
in
Sacramento
)
- Steve Somers
? sports anchor/reporter (1976?1978, now at
WFAN
in New York)
- Tom Sullivan
?
Atlanta & Company
co-host (2007?2009)
- Harmon Wages
? sports anchor/reporter (1979?1984)
- Monica Woods
? morning and noon meteorologist (1999?2001, now at
KXTV
in Sacramento)
Technical information
[
edit
]
Subchannels
[
edit
]
The station's signal is
multiplexed
:
Broadcast on behalf of another station
The
NBC Weather Plus
service was discontinued on December 1, 2008; however, some stations, including WXIA, continued to air national and local radar with Weather Plus branding, supplied by The Weather Channel through the end of December. In January, WXIA rebranded the channel "11Alive Weather" and kept the "L-Bar" with weather information from The Weather Channel, but shifted the remainder of the content to a local radar loop, and eliminated the
background music
that aired with it. It was later rebranded as the "11Alive Weather Information Zone" or "WIZ" in 2010, along with the weather segments during
newscasts
on the main channel. This service was also carried on
digital cable
in the Atlanta area through
Charter Spectrum
and
Comcast
.
In early December 2010, the WIZ was moved to WATL, and aired on channel 36.2, while 11.2 continued to air a static message graphic directing
over-the-air
viewers to
tune
there and re-
scan
if necessary. One month later, on January 10, the channel was removed completely from WXIA, and 11.3 became 11.2, before being reversed the following day. In 2011, Atlanta-based
Bounce TV
launched on September 26 with WATL 36.2 as its
de facto
flagship
affiliate, with the WIZ channel being restored two weeks later on 36.3. In early October, 11.2 again became
Universal Sports
and 11.3 was deleted and was reversed again a week later, with WIZ bounced back to its original channel 11.2. In November 2011, 11.3 was deleted leaving 36.3 as the sole channel for Universal Sports until it became a cable channel in 2012. Eventually, WIZ was converted from being presented using internal station weather computers to presentation and programming from
The Local AccuWeather Channel
. But an agreement with WAGA-TV and AccuWeather has made WXIA switch its programming and presentation to
WeatherNation TV
.
The station added Universal Sports at the beginning of May 2009 on channel 11.3, added it to 36.3 in October 2011, and then deleted it from 11.3 in November 2011. However, it used severe
video data compression
, which left very obvious
blurriness and pixelation
during
high-motion
scenes common in
sports
. This low-
bitrate
sacrifice protects the quality of the main HD channel and is unavoidable because Universal Sports transmits its programming via
satellite
in this highly compressed form (4.48 Mbit/s). It was therefore not originally transmitted on
sister station
WATL (virtual channel 36.3, digital channel 25) because it would look the same there, and that station's bandwidth is being used for
mobile television
(
ATSC-M/H
), including WXIA's mobile channels. Additionally,
mobile communications
work better on higher UHF
TV channels
than on low VHF ones.
In early 2018, the station added new network
Quest
on new subchannel 11.4, taking over many of WXIA-DT2's cable slots and leaving that station for the most part exclusive to over-the-air customers.
In February 2020, WeatherNation TV was replaced by a VHF simulcast of WATL on subchannel 11.2. The simulcast ended on April 5, 2021, when it was replaced with
Twist
after the network launched.
Analog-to-digital conversion
[
edit
]
WXIA-TV originally had the only VHF
allotment
for
digital television
in the area, until
WGTV
(channel 8) was moved from UHF 22 to VHF 12 (now 8). The station shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 11, on June 12, 2009, at 12:30 p.m., as part of the
federally mandated transition from analog to digital television
.
[22]
The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition VHF channel 10,
[23]
using
virtual channel
11.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Facility Technical Data for WXIA-TV"
.
Licensing and Management System
.
Federal Communications Commission
.
- ^
Nielsen DMA Rankings 2021
MediaTracks Communications
. Retrieved on February 14, 2021.
- ^
"Cox, Howell Merge: Affects Atlanta AM-TV"
(PDF)
.
Broadcasting
. March 20, 1950. p. 23
. Retrieved
February 20,
2020
.
- ^
"Tech Moves To Halt TV Sale Here"
.
Atlanta Constitution
. Associated Press. April 25, 1951. p. 6
. Retrieved
February 21,
2020
.
- ^
a
b
"FCC Authorizes Sale Of WSB-TV's Properties"
.
Atlanta Constitution
. August 10, 1951. p. 1
. Retrieved
February 21,
2020
.
- ^
"Tech Seeks To Block TV Sale"
.
Atlanta Constitution
. Associated Press. June 23, 1951. p. 2
. Retrieved
February 21,
2020
.
- ^
Jones, Paul (September 26, 1951).
"WSB's TV Tops World In Coverage"
.
Atlanta Constitution
. pp. 1,
9
. Retrieved
February 21,
2020
.
- ^
"Cox Alerts TV Industry to Major Duties In Dedicating Powerful Facilities of WSB"
.
Atlanta Constitution
. October 1, 1951. pp. 1,
3
. Retrieved
February 21,
2020
.
- ^
a
b
c
FCC History Cards for WXIA-TV
- ^
"P&S goes under wing of CCC"
(PDF)
.
Broadcasting
. April 23, 1973. pp. 22?23
. Retrieved
September 22,
2021
.
- ^
"New Call Letters For WQXI-TV"
.
The Atlanta Constitution
. December 22, 1973. p. 7-T
. Retrieved
September 24,
2021
.
- ^
"Access Denied"
.
www.11alive.com
.
- ^
Loose, Ashley (October 5, 2012).
"DISH customers may lose Gannett programming, including 12 News KPNX, over AutoHop feature"
.
KNXV-TV
. Archived from
the original
on October 11, 2012
. Retrieved
October 6,
2012
.
- ^
Vuong, Andy (October 6, 2012).
"Gannett threatening to black out stations in its dispute with Dish"
.
Denver Post
. Retrieved
October 6,
2012
.
- ^
Warner, Melodie (October 8, 2012).
"Dish, Gannett Reach New Deal"
.
The Wall Street Journal
. Retrieved
October 8,
2012
.
- ^
"Separation of Gannett into two public companies completed | TEGNA"
. Tegna
. Retrieved
June 29,
2015
.
- ^
"Atlanta station gets chunky, less lively new logo design"
.
www.newscaststudio.com
. January 24, 2019
. Retrieved
January 31,
2019
.
- ^
"11Alive takes over 5:00 time slot"
.
WXIA
. 11Alive Staff, WXIA
. Retrieved
February 11,
2015
.
- ^
"WXIA Adds 5PM Newscast, Drops Noon and 7PM Programs"
.
TVSpy
. Aneya Fernando
. Retrieved
February 11,
2015
.
- ^
Ho, Rodney (October 31, 2019).
"Exclusive: Vinnie Politan leaving 11Alive after four-plus years"
.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
. Retrieved
March 22,
2019
.
- ^
"Digital TV Market Listing for WXIA"
.
RabbitEars.Info
. Retrieved
January 26,
2017
.
- ^
List of Digital Full-Power Stations
- ^
"CDBS Print"
.
licensing.fcc.gov
. Retrieved
November 27,
2022
.
External links
[
edit
]
NBC
network affiliates licensed to and serving the state of
Georgia
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Primary*
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Secondary**
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(*) ? indicates station is in one of Georgia's primary
TV markets
(**) ? indicates station is in an out-of-state TV market, but reaches a small portion of Georgia
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Acquisitions
| |
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- 1
Owned by Tegna,
Gray Television
operates KMSB & KTTU through a
SSA
.
- 2
Owned by
American Spirit Media
, Tegna operates WUPW through a SSA.
- 3
These stations broadcast these networks on their digital subchannels.
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