Tribune Broadcasting

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tribune Broadcasting is a group of radio and television stations located throughout the United States which are owned and operated by the Tribune Company, a media conglomerate based in Chicago, Illinois.

1 History
2 Tribune-Owned Stations
- 2.1 Television Stations
- 2.2 Radio Station
3 Stations formerly owned by Tribune Broadcasting

[edit] History

The roots of Tribune Broadcasting originated with the June 1924 purchase of radio station WDAP by the Chicago Tribune. The new owners changed the station's call letters to WGN, to match the Tribune's slogan, "World's Greatest Newspaper". WGN Radio would launch a television station, on channel nine in Chicago, in April 1948. Two months later, the Tribune's sister newspaper in New York City, the Daily News, established its own television station, WPIX (channel 11).

Over the next six decades Tribune Broadcasting, originally known as WGN, Incorporated, and from 1966 to 1981 as WGN Continental Broadcasting Company, would acquire radio and television stations throughout the United States. WGN-TV and WPIX are the only stations Tribune has owned since their inceptions. Tribune also operated several local cable television systems from 1977 to 1985. In the middle 1980s, Tribune created a new division, Tribune Entertainment, to produce and distribute television programs for both domestic and worldwide syndication. Many programs offered from Tribune Entertainment are broadcast on the company's television stations.

Tribune Broadcasting is now immersed in television, with 25 stations located in 21 cities (including four duopolies), and the cable/satellite version of WGN-TV, known as Superstation WGN. In Chicago, Tribune also operates Chicago Land Television (CLTV), a cable-only news channel. WGN-AM is the company's sole remaining radio station.

From January 1995 to September 2006, Tribune Broadcasting was a partner in the WB television network, along with the Warner Bros. division of Time Warner. Tribune held an initial 12.5 percent ownership in the network at its launch, and later increased its stake to 22 percent. Most of Tribune's television properties were WB affiliates. On January 24, 2006, the WB announced that it would merge with the CBS-owned United Paramount Network to form a new programming service called The CW. All 16 WB affiliates currently owned by Tribune became affiliates of the CW on September 18, 2006, through ten-year agreements. Tribune will not have an ownership interest in the CW.

On June 19, 2006, Tribune announced an agreement to sell WCWN in Schenectady, New York to Freedom Communications for $17 million. [1] Additionally, on September 14, 2006, Tribune announced that it would sell WLVI-TV in Boston, Massachusetts to Sunbeam Television for $113 million. [2] Other sales of "non-core" properties are expected later in 2006.

[edit] Tribune-Owned Stations

[edit] Television Stations

Current DMA#	Market	Station/Channel Number	Owned Since	Current Affiliation
1.	New York City	WPIX 11	1948	CW
2.	Los Angeles	KTLA 5	1985	CW
3.	Chicago	WGN-TV 9	1948	CW
4.	Philadelphia	WPHL-TV 17	1992	MyNetworkTV
6.	Dallas - Fort Worth	KDAF 33	1997	CW
7.	Cambridge - Boston, MA	WLVI-TV 56	1994	CW (sale pending to Sunbeam Television)
8.	Washington, D.C.	WDCW 50	1999	CW
10.	Houston	KHCW 39	1995	CW
14.	Tacoma - Seattle	KCPQ 13	1999	Fox
		KMYQ 22	1998	MyNetworkTV
16.	Miami - Fort Lauderdale	WSFL 39	1997	CW
18.	Denver	KWGN-TV 2	1966	CW
20.	Sacramento - Stockton - Modesto	KTXL 40	1997	Fox
21.	St. Louis	KPLR-TV 11	2003	CW
23.	Portland, OR	KRCW-TV 32	2003	CW
25.	Bloomington - Indianapolis, IN	WTTV 4	2002	CW
		WXIN 59	1997	Fox
27.	San Diego	KSWB 69	1996	CW
28.	Waterbury - Hartford - New Haven, CT	WTXX 20	2001	CW
		WTIC-TV 61	1997	Fox
39.	Grand Rapids-Battle Creek-Kalamazoo, MI	WXMI 17	1998	Fox
41.	York-Harrisburg-Lancaster-Lebanon, PA	WPMT 43	1997	Fox
54.	New Orleans	WGNO-TV 26	1983	ABC
		WNOL-TV 38	1999	CW
56.	Schenectady-Albany-Troy, NY	WCWN 45	1999	CW (sale pending to Freedom Communications)

[edit] Radio Station

Current DMA#	Market	Station	Owned Since	Current Format
3.	Chicago	WGN-720	1924	Talk

[edit] Stations formerly owned by Tribune Broadcasting

(partial listing]}

Atlanta: WGNX-TV (now WGCL-TV), from 1984-1999; WATL-TV, from 1999-2006 [3]
Bridgeport, Connecticut: WICC-AM, from 1966-19??
Chicago: WFMT-FM, from 1968-1970
Denver: KEZW-AM; KKHK-FM (now KQMT-FM)[4]; KOSI-FM
Duluth, Minnesota: KDAL-AM, from 1960-19??; KDAL-TV (now KDLH), from 1960-1978
New York City: WPIX-FM (now WQCD), from 1966-1997
Sacramento: KGNR-AM (later KCTC-AM); KCTC-FM (later KYMX)