Fox 5 Atlanta
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

WAGA-TV (channel 5) is a
television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth's s ...
in
Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...
, Georgia, United States, serving as the market's
Fox Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush"). Twelve species ...
network outlet.
Owned and operated In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station (frequently abbreviated as an O&O) usually refers to a television or radio station owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an affiliate ...
by the network's
Fox Television Stations Fox Television Stations, LLC (stylized as FOX TV STATIONS; also known as FTS) is a group of television stations in the United States owned-and-operated by Fox Corporation. It owns LiveNOW from Fox, Fox Local, and Fox Soul. It also oversees ...
division, the station maintains studios and transmitter facilities on Briarcliff Road Northeast in the
Druid Hills Druid Hills is a community which includes both a census-designated place (CDP) in unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, United States, as well as a neighborhood of the city of Atlanta. The CDP's population was 14,568 at the 2010 census. The ...
area of unincorporated
DeKalb County DeKalb County may refer to one of several counties in the United States, all of which were named for Baron Johann de Kalb: * DeKalb County, Alabama DeKalb County is a County (United States), county in the Northeast Alabama, northeastern part ...
, just outside the Atlanta city limits.


History


As a CBS affiliate

WAGA-TV first began operations on March 8, 1949. The station was originally owned by the
Toledo, Ohio Toledo ( ) is a city in Lucas County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is located at the western end of Lake Erie along the Maumee River. Toledo is the List of cities in Ohio, fourth-most populous city in Ohio and List of United Sta ...
–based Fort Industry Company, which also operated WAGA radio (AM 590, now
WDWD WDWD (590 AM; "Faith Talk 590") is a Christian radio station in Atlanta, Georgia. It is owned by the Salem Media Group and it airs a brokered Christian talk and teaching radio format. The studios are in Buckhead Center on Peachtree Road N ...
; and WAGA-FM 103.3, now
WVEE WVEE (103.3 FM broadcasting, FM) – branded as ''V-103'' – is a commercial American radio station in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It is owned by Audacy, Inc. and airs an urban contemporary radio format. WVEE is one of the highest-r ...
), all colloquially called "Wagga". Fort Industry would later be renamed
Storer Broadcasting Storer Communications, known from 1927 to 1952 as the Fort Industry Company and from 1952 to 1983 as Storer Broadcasting, was an American media company that owned television and radio stations and cable television systems. Founded by George Butle ...
after the company's founder, George B. Storer. Channel 5 is Atlanta's second-oldest television station, signing on seven months after
WSB-TV WSB-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is the flagship television property of locally based Cox Media Group, which has owned the station since its inception, and is sister to rad ...
(then on channel 8). Originally a
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...
affiliate, owing to its radio sister's longtime affiliation with the
CBS Radio Network CBS News Radio, formerly known as CBS Radio News and historically known as the CBS Radio Network, is a radio network that provides news to more than 1,000 radio stations throughout the United States. The network is owned by Paramount Global. It ...
, channel 5 also carried a secondary affiliation with the
DuMont Television Network The DuMont Television Network (also the DuMont Network, DuMont Television, DuMont/Du Mont, or (incorrectly) Dumont ) was one of America's pioneer commercial television networks, rivaling NBC and CBS for the distinction of being first overall in ...
from 1949 to 1956. During the late 1950s, the station was also briefly affiliated with the
NTA Film Network The NTA Film Network was an early American television network founded by Ely Landau in 1956 that operated on a part-time basis, broadcasting films and several first-run television programs from major Hollywood studios. Despite attracting more ...
. Storer sold the WAGA radio stations in 1959; however, channel 5 has, except from 1998 to 2009, retained the "-TV" suffix. WAGA-TV was the only VHF commercial station in Atlanta that was on the same channel from its launch. Though both WSB-TV and WLTV—predecessor of
WXIA-TV 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 ...
(channel 11)—initially broadcast over channel 8, the
Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...
's 1952 ''Sixth Report and Order'' reallocated the frequency to
Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...
and reserved the channel for
non-commercial educational A non-commercial educational station (NCE station) is a radio station or television station that does not accept on-air advertisements (television advertisement, TV ads or radio advertisement, radio ads), as defined in the United States by the Fed ...
use. The
University of Georgia The University of Georgia (UGA or Georgia) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Athens, Georgia, United States. Chartered in 1785, it is the oldest public university in th ...
returned channel 8 to the air as
WGTV WGTV (channel 8) is a PBS member television station licensed to Athens, Georgia, United States, a legacy of the station's early years as a service of the University of Georgia (UGA). Owned by the Georgia Public Telecommunications Commission ...
, now the television flagship of
Georgia Public Broadcasting Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB) is a state network of PBS member television stations and NPR member radio stations serving the U.S. state of Georgia. It is operated by the Georgia Public Telecommunications Commission, an agency of the ...
, in May 1960. WAGA-TV originally broadcast from studios and
transmission Transmission or transmit may refer to: Science and technology * Power transmission ** Electric power transmission ** Transmission (mechanical device), technology that allows controlled application of power *** Automatic transmission *** Manual tra ...
facilities located at 1018 West
Peachtree Street Peachtree Street is one of several major streets running through the city of Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Beginning at Five Points (Atlanta), Five Points in downtown Atlanta, it runs North through Midtown Atlanta, Midtown; a few blocks afte ...
Northwest. This building would later become home to pioneering
superstation ''Superstation'' (alternatively rendered as "super station" or informally as "SuperStation") is a term in North American broadcasting that has several meanings. Commonly, a "superstation" is a form of distant signal, a broadcast television sign ...
and leading Atlanta
independent station An independent station is a broadcast station, usually a television station, not affiliated with a larger broadcast television network, network. As such, it only broadcasts broadcast syndication, syndicated programs it has purchased; brokered pr ...
WTBS (channel 17, now
WPCH-TV WPCH-TV (channel 17), branded as Peachtree TV, is a television station in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, affiliated with The CW. It is owned by locally based Gray Media alongside CBS affiliate and company flagship WANF (channel 46), and l ...
). On June 21, 1966, channel 5 opened its current facilities in Druid Hills. The studio resembles an
antebellum Antebellum, Latin for "before war", may refer to: United States history * Antebellum South, the pre-American Civil War period in the Southern US ** Antebellum Georgia ** Antebellum South Carolina ** Antebellum Virginia * Antebellum architectu ...
Southern
mansion A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word ''mansio'' "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb ''manere'' "to dwell". The English word ''manse'' originally defined a property l ...
, a type of
Colonial Revival architecture The Colonial Revival architectural style seeks to revive elements of American colonial architecture. The beginnings of the Colonial Revival style are often attributed to the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, which reawakened Americans to the arch ...
that was typical for Storer's broadcasting facilities. While this design was somewhat out of place in most of Storer's other markets (which also included Toledo, Detroit,
Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...
and
Milwaukee Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...
), it was a perfect fit for Atlanta. (The studio facility was used for an on-location shoot for a '' Matlock'' episode called "The Reporter".) WAGA's original transmitter tower was later the site of a different tower for WPCH-TV's analog channel 17 signal, and a backup for
WWWQ WWWQ (99.7 FM broadcasting, FM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Atlanta, Georgia, United States, carrying a contemporary hit radio format known as "Q99.7". Owned by Cumulus Media, WWWQ serves the Atlanta metropolitan area as the regio ...
(99.7 FM). Because Storer Cable became part of
Comcast Comcast Corporation, formerly known as Comcast Holdings,Before the AT&T Broadband, AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation, not th ...
, the tower (owned by competing cable television provider
Time Warner Warner Media, LLC ( doing business as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate owned by AT&T. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City. It was established as Time Warne ...
, along with WPCH) was to be removed by October 2009, ending the
land lease A lease is a contractual arrangement calling for the user (referred to as the ''lessee'') to pay the owner (referred to as the ''lessor'') for the use of an asset. Property, buildings and vehicles are common assets that are leased. Industrial ...
. In 1985, WAGA-TV and the other Storer stations were sold into a group deal to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR), a New York-based
private equity Private equity (PE) is stock in a private company that does not offer stock to the general public; instead it is offered to specialized investment funds and limited partnerships that take an active role in the management and structuring of the co ...
firm. Two years later in 1987, KKR sold the Storer stations to Gillett Communications. After Bankruptcy in the United States, bankruptcy, Gillett restructured in 1991, selling several stations and changing its name to SCI Television Inc. On June 26, 1991, Gillett Holdings filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after it failed to reach an agreement with the company's creditors before a court-imposed June 25 deadline. SCI Television also missed repayment of $162 million in bank loans before a June 30 deadline; as a consequence of its financial difficulties, Gillett/SCI decided to sell its broadcast holdings. On February 17, 1993, one day after SCI purchased WTVT in Tampa from Gillett Holdings in a separate agreement for $163 million, New World Pictures purchased a 51% ownership stake in SCI Television from Gillett for $100 million and $63 million in newly issued debt. The purchase was finalized on May 25, at which point, the film and television production company folded WAGA and its six sister stations—fellow CBS affiliates WTVT, WJW-TV in Cleveland, WJBK-TV in Detroit, and WITI-TV in Milwaukee; NBC affiliate KNSD in San Diego; and then-independent WSBK-TV in Boston—into a new broadcasting subsidiary, New World Communications. As a result of New World being headquartered in Atlanta, WAGA – which was New World's second-largest station, behind WSBK-TV, at the time the SCI purchase was completed – became the company's flagship television station.


As a Fox station


New World Communications ownership

On May 23, 1994, as part of a broad deal that also saw News Corporation acquire a 20% equity interest in the company, New World Communications signed a long-term agreement to affiliate its nine CBS-, ABC- or NBC-affiliated television stations with Fox, which sought to strengthen its affiliate portfolio after the National Football League (NFL) accepted the network's $1.58 billion bid for the Fox NFL, television rights to the National Football Conference (NFC) – a four-year contract that began with the 1994 NFL season – on December 18, 1993. WAGA-TV was among the stations involved in the Fox agreement, which also initially included four of New World's other existing CBS-affiliated stations – WITI-TV, WJBK-TV, WJW-TV and WTVT – and four additional stations – CBS affiliate KSAZ-TV in Phoenix, Arizona, Phoenix, ABC affiliates WBRC-TV in Birmingham, Alabama, Birmingham and WGHP in High Point, North Carolina, and NBC affiliate WDAF-TV in Kansas City, Missouri — that were part of New World's concurrent $360-million acquisition of Taft Broadcasting, Great American Communications's television properties. (The agreement would subsequently be amended to include four additional stations that New World acquired later that month from Argyle Television Holdings.) At the time, Fox's owned-and-operated and affiliate stations were mostly UHF outlets that had limited to no prior history as major network affiliates, among them its existing Atlanta outlet, WATL-TV (channel 36, now a MyNetworkTV affiliate), which the network's
Fox Television Stations Fox Television Stations, LLC (stylized as FOX TV STATIONS; also known as FTS) is a group of television stations in the United States owned-and-operated by Fox Corporation. It owns LiveNOW from Fox, Fox Local, and Fox Soul. It also oversees ...
unit had acquired from Renaissance Broadcasting (during its acquisition of then-WATL parent Chase Broadcasting) in 1993. Although the network already owned WATL and was in the midst of planning to launch a local news department for channel 36, Fox found the prospect to having its programming carried on a VHF station too much to resist, considering that WAGA had a stronger market position and a long-respected local news operation. (At the time, channel 5 placed second, behind WSB-TV, in total day and news viewership.) As a result, Fox decided to include WAGA in the affiliation agreement with New World and have Fox Television Stations sell WATL. With only a few months before WAGA was set to switch to Fox, CBS needed to find a new affiliate in what had become the nation's 10th largest media market. It approached all of Atlanta's major television stations to potentially reach an agreement. However, none of them were interested at first. CBS first approached WXIA-TV; however, its then-owner Gannett, Gannett Broadcasting subsequently signed a long-term affiliation deal renewing its contract with WXIA and its sister NBC affiliates in WTLV, Jacksonville, KARE (TV), Minneapolis–St. Paul and KPNX, Phoenix. WSB-TV was later eliminated as an option as its Atlanta-based owner, Cox Enterprises, would reach a new long-term agreement with ABC to retain its affiliation with that network. WATL was eventually eliminated as Qwest Broadcasting (a joint venture between music producer Quincy Jones, former NFL defensive end Willie Davis (defensive end), Willie Davis, television producer Don Cornelius, television host Geraldo Rivera, and Tribune) announced in November that it would purchase WATL from Fox Television Stations as part of a two station, $167-million deal. By September 1994, with only a little more than two months left before channel 5 was slated to join Fox, CBS faced the prospect of having to pipe in WRBL in Columbus, Georgia, Columbus, WMAZ-TV in Macon, Georgia, Macon, WSPA-TV in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and WDEF-TV in Chattanooga, Tennessee, for Atlanta-area cable customers until it found a new affiliate in the market. Almost out of desperation, on September 26, CBS made a deal to buy independent station WVEU (channel 69, now independent WUPA) for $46 million. However, this was only a contingency, since WVEU's signal at the time barely made it outside of Atlanta itself and its closest-in suburbs, and it barely registered as a blip in the ratings. Even after it agreed to buy WVEU, CBS still sought to move its programming to a higher-profile station. It continued to negotiate with Tribune Broadcasting to reach a deal to affiliate with longtime independent station WGNX (channel 46, now WANF), which initially turned down CBS' offer to affiliate with the station; WGNX was especially attractive for the network since channel 46 was the only non-Big Three station in the Atlanta market that had a functioning news department. That November, Tribune relented and signed a deal with CBS to convert WGNX into the network's new Atlanta affiliate. As a consequence of the WGNX deal, CBS reached an agreement to sell WVEU to Viacom (1952–2005), Viacom in a three-way deal that saw Viacom sell CBS affiliate KSLA in Shreveport, Louisiana, to Ellis Communications (owned by Atlanta-based businessman Bert Ellis) to comply with FCC ownership rules in coincidence with Viacom's divestitures of its major network-affiliated television stations to focus on its UPN charter outlets. The last CBS network program to air on WAGA was a first-run episode of ''Walker, Texas Ranger'' at 10 p.m. Eastern Time on December 10; this led into a message by then-station president and general manager Jack Sander shortly before the start of that evening's edition of ''Channel 5 Eyewitness News at 11:00'' (which was relaunched as an hour-long prime time newscast at 10 p.m. two days later), informing viewers about the pending network changes. WAGA-TV officially became a Fox affiliate on December 11, 1994, when the network's programming lineup moved to the station from WATL; the first Fox network program to air on the station as a full-time affiliate was ''Fox NFL Sunday'' at noon Eastern Time that day, leading into that afternoon's NFL doubleheader: an early game between the 1994 Tampa Bay Buccaneers season, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the 1994 Los Angeles Rams season, Los Angeles Rams and a mid-afternoon game between the 1994 San Francisco 49ers season, San Francisco 49ers and the 1994 San Diego Chargers season, San Diego Chargers. (The affiliation switch involving WAGA, WGNX and WATL was originally slated to occur on November 27, but was delayed two weeks to allow Fox, New World and CBS to iron out the final details.) Prior to the end of its 45-year affiliation with CBS, WAGA had been the network's longest-tenured affiliate south of WUSA (TV), Washington, D.C. (a title now held by Charlotte, North Carolina, Charlotte affiliate WBTV, which has carried CBS programming since it signed on the air on July 15, 1949, four months after WAGA); it was also the only station in Atlanta that did not change its primary affiliation. As a result, Atlanta became one of the few TV markets in the United States where all "Big Three" stations changed affiliations, having been affected by an earlier switch in 1980, when WSB became an ABC affiliate, and WXIA switched to NBC. WGNX concurrently took over the CBS affiliation, which necessitated the shift of a large number of the syndicated animated cartoon, cartoons, drama series and sitcoms in its inventory over to WVEU – which had become a UPN affiliate when that network launched on January 16, 1995 – as channel 46 could not continue to accommodate many of these shows due to CBS's network-dominated programming lineup; as a result, WGNX became the only Atlanta television station that did not retain its entire existing syndicated programming lineup following the switch. WATL – whose sale to Qwest Broadcasting (which, in 2000, merged with WB network part-owner, the Tribune Company), would not be finalized until December 1995 – temporarily operated as an independent station during its transition into an affiliate of upstart network The WB upon that network's launch the following month on January 11, 1995. (WATL is now owned by Tegna, Inc., Tegna as part of a Duopoly (broadcasting), duopoly with WXIA). As with most of the other New World-owned stations affected by the affiliation agreement with Fox, WAGA-TV made little mention of the Fox logo and name in its on-air imaging at the outset. Instead, it retained the "Channel 5" branding it had used since 1991 (modified slightly from the "TV5" branding it had used for most of the 1980s). It also retained the ''Eyewitness News'' moniker it had used for its newscasts since July 1981. In addition to expanding its local news offerings at the time it joined Fox, the station replaced CBS daytime and late night programs that migrated to WGNX with an expanded slate of syndicated talk shows as well as some off-network sitcoms, game shows and documentary-based reality series, and also acquired some syndicated feature film, film packages and first-run and off-network syndicated drama series for broadcast in weekend afternoon timeslots on weeks when Fox did not provide sports programming; however, the revamped programming schedule – as was the case with most of New World's other Fox stations – relegated children's programs to weekend mornings only. With the switch from WAGA to WGNX, CBS lost significant viewership in the northern portion of the Atlanta market. Despite its five million-watt analog signal, WGNX did not penetrate nearly as far into this area as WAGA did because of the relatively mountainous terrain that is found in that part of northern Georgia. At the time, much of this region was among the few areas in the United States where cable was still not readily available. CBS did not return over-the-air to this area until Toccoa's WNEG-TV (channel 32, now WGTA (TV), WGTA) joined CBS the following August. Although it was located in the Greenville, South Carolina, Greenville–Spartanburg–Asheville market, WNEG served as the ''de facto'' CBS affiliate for the far northern portion of the Atlanta market as well as the Greenville–Spartanburg–Asheville market's western fringes until that station's sale to the University of Georgia in 2008. (WGNX's availability in this area increased through expanded cable and satellite distribution in subsequent years.)


Fox Television Stations ownership

On July 17, 1996, News Corporation—which separated most of its entertainment holdings into 21st Century Fox in July 2013—announced that it would acquire New World in an all-stock transaction worth $2.48 billion. The purchase by News Corporation was finalized on January 22, 1997, folding New World's ten Fox affiliates into the former's Fox Television Stations subsidiary and making all twelve stations affected by the 1994 agreement owned-and-operated stations of the network. (The New World Communications name continues in use as a licensing purpose corporation—as "New World Communications of [state/city], Inc." or "NW Communications of [state/city], Inc."—for WAGA and its sister stations under Fox ownership, extending, from 2009 to 2011, to the former New World stations that Fox sold to Local TV LLC, Local TV in 2007.) At that time, Channel 5 became the third English language network-owned commercial station in the Atlanta market (Viacom, then-owner of UPN's Atlanta station WUPA, had acquired part-ownership of that network in 1996). It was also one of two stations that switched to Fox under the New World agreement that replaced an existing Fox O&O, only to later be sold to the network itself (in Dallas–Fort Worth, sister station KDFW-TV had replaced KDAF as that market's Fox station in July 1995), making Atlanta one of a handful of markets more than one station has served as an O&O of the same network. In November 1996, two months before the completion of the Fox–New World merger and at a time when other network-owned stations around the United States began adopting similar network-driven branding, WAGA-TV shortened its branding to simply "Fox 5 Atlanta" per the network's branding guidelines (with its newscasts concurrently rebranding as ''Fox 5 Eyewitness News'', later shortened to ''Fox 5 News'' in August 1998). On December 14, 2017, The Walt Disney Company, owner of WSB-TV's affiliated network ABC, announced its intent to buy WAGA-TV's parent company, 21st Century Fox, for $52.4 billion; the sale excluded the Fox Television Stations unit (including WAGA-TV), the Fox network, Fox News, Fox Sports 1 and the MyNetworkTV programming service, which were transferred to a Fox Corporation, separate company, Fox Corporation.


Programming

Since it joined the network in December 1994, WAGA has only aired Fox's prime time, Saturday late night and Fox Sports (United States), sports programming, as well as special reports produced by Fox News. As with most of its sister stations under its former New World ownership (with the subverted exception of former sister station KTVI in St. Louis, which assumed rights to the network's children's programs in 1996 and carried the blocks until Fox stopped providing them within its schedule), Channel 5 declined carriage of the children's programming blocks that Fox carried prior to 2008, only having aired fall preview specials and network promotions for those blocks that aired within Fox's prime time lineup during that twelve-year period. WAGA opted not to run the Fox Kids weekday and Saturday blocks when it affiliated with the network, due to the station's interest in airing syndicated shows more compatible with its expanded local news schedule on weekdays, opting only to air children's programs acquired via syndication on weekend mornings (the preemptions of Fox Kids by the New World stations led the network to change its carriage policies to allow Fox stations uninterested in carrying the block the right of first refusal to transfer the local rights to another station; by 2001, affiliates were no longer required to run the Fox Kids lineup even if Fox had not secured a substitute carrier). Fox Kids remained on WATL after it became a WB affiliate in January 1995, before moving to WHOT (channel 34, now WUVG-DT) in September 2000; its successor, 4Kids TV, FoxBox/4Kids TV, moved to WUPA in January 2002 (coinciding with WHOT's conversion into a Univision O&O), where it aired until the block was cancelled in December 2008. (The paid programming block that replaced it in January 2009, ''Weekend Marketplace'', currently airs on MyNetworkTV affiliate WATL.) On September 13, 2014, WAGA-TV began carrying ''Xploration Station'', a live-action educational program block distributed by Steve Rotfeld Productions that is syndicated primarily to Fox stations (including those owned by Fox Television Stations) on Saturday mornings.


Sports programming

WAGA began serving as the primary television station for the Atlanta Falcons upon the team's inception in 1966 Atlanta Falcons season, 1966, under CBS's NFL on CBS, contractual television rights to the pre-AFL–NFL merger, AFL merger National Football League. The station carried most regional or national Falcons game telecasts aired by CBS until its contractual rights to the National Football Conference concluded in 1993 Atlanta Falcons season, 1993. However, the station's December 1994 switch to Fox allowed WAGA to retain its status as the Falcons' unofficial "home" station. For the 1994 Atlanta Falcons season, 1994 season, most of the team's first fourteen games that year were aired instead on lame-duck Fox O&O WATL; with that, the 3½-month interruption in game coverage that year, due to the transfer of NFC telecast rights from CBS to Fox, is the only break in network coverage of the team by the station to date since 1966. Since the switch to Fox, both of the Falcons' Super Bowl appearances—Super Bowl XXXIII, XXXIII and Super Bowl LI, LI—have been carried on the station, as both were Super Bowls to which Fox had the national television rights. Since Fox obtained the partial (now exclusive) over-the-air Fox Major League Baseball, network television rights to Major League Baseball in 1996, WAGA has also carried certain Atlanta Braves games that have been regionally or nationally televised by the network during the league's regular season and Major League Baseball postseason, postseason, including their appearance in the 1996 World Series and their victory in the 2021 World Series, which gave the city its first major sports championship since 1995 World Series, 1995. WTBS/WPCH retained the local over-the-air television rights to the Braves until 2011 Atlanta Braves season, 2011. During WAGA's run as a CBS station, it aired select Atlanta Hawks games as part of NBA on CBS, CBS' NBA coverage from 1973 to 1990, and then the Atlanta Braves from 1990 to 1993 with Major League Baseball on CBS, CBS' MLB broadcast contract (including the team's 1991 World Series, 1991 and 1992 World Series, 1992 World Series appearances).


News operation

WAGA-TV presently broadcasts 73 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with hours each weekday, hours on Saturdays and five hours on Sundays). In regards to the number of hours devoted to news programming, it is the highest newscast output among Georgia's broadcast television stations. For most of its first three decades on the air, WAGA-TV was Atlanta's second-highest rated station. From the 1970s to early 2009, it had to fend off a spirited challenge from WXIA-TV, with the two stations regularly trading the number-two position in the market behind longtime leader WSB-TV. However, WXIA has never recovered from a ratings slump in 2009, and WAGA-TV has been the solid runner-up in the market since then. WAGA's Saturday and Sunday 6 p.m. newscasts are subject to broadcast delay, delay due to network sports coverage. WAGA also provided news reports and weather forecasts for news radio station WAKL (FM), WYAY (106.7 FM), through a partnership between WAGA and WYAY's owner Cumulus Media struck in May 2012. For many years as a CBS affiliate, the station called its newscasts ''5 News Scene''. In the 1980s, this changed to ''Eyewitness News''. In 1992, WAGA dropped ''CBS This Morning'' through 1994 in favor of a three-hour locally produced breakfast television, morning news program called ''Good Day Atlanta''. With the 1994 affiliation switch to Fox, WAGA poured more resources into its already well-respected news department. It adopted a news-intensive schedule, increasing its news programming output to nearly 40 hours a week. The station retained a news schedule similar to what it had as a CBS affiliate. However, it expanded the weeknight 6 p.m. newscasts to two hours and moved the 11 p.m. newscast to 10 p.m. and expanded it to a full hour. On January 14, 2008, WAGA debuted a new 11 p.m. newscast called ''Fox 5 News Edge'', returning a newscast to that timeslot since the station was still affiliated with CBS. On March 16, 2009, WAGA became the last major network station in the market (behind WGCL-TV, WSB and WXIA) to begin broadcasting its locally produced newscasts in high-definition television, high-definition. On September 14, 2009, WAGA expanded its weekday morning newscast to five hours from 5 to 10 a.m. along with the addition of an hour-long 9 a.m. extension of the program called ''Good Day Xtra''. On April 1, 2010, WAGA expanded its morning news by an extra half-hour, with the start time moved a half-hour earlier to 4:30 a.m., becoming the first Atlanta station to expand its morning newscast into that slot; the extension was made to attract those who wake up go to work earlier than most; the additional half-hour competes against national early morning newscasts airing on WXIA, WGCL and WSB. As of September 2010, WAGA dropped the ''Fox 5 Morning News'' and ''Good Day Xtra'' titles, in favor of using the ''Good Day Atlanta'' branding throughout the morning newscast. On September 14, 2015, the station extended its 11 p.m. newscast to one hour with the addition of a half-hour ''News Edge'' at 11:30; this made WAGA among the very few stations to extend its late newscast to midnight, and one of three Fox affiliates (Kansas City's WDAF-TV and Washington, D.C.'s WTTG being the others) to air a two-hour late local news block. On April 15, 2019, WAGA expanded ''Good Day Atlanta'' by one hour from 10 a.m. to 11 am. On February 14, 2020, WAGA added a half-hour program titled ''Road to November'' on Fridays at 7 p.m. On March 30, 2020, WAGA added an additional half-hour of weekday news from 4:30 p.m to 5 p.m, it later expanded to a full hour on November 16, running evening newscasts from 4 p.m to 7 p.m. In 2018, ''$2 Tests: Bad Arrests'' aired, which then went on to win a Peabody Award, presented at the 2019 awards ceremony. On February 6, 2025, WAGA-TV and Urban One, Radio One announced that the second HD Radio channel of WHTA (107.9 FM) would carry the audio of WAGA-TV's online streaming channel FoxLocal Atlanta, including simulcasts and replays of the station's news and sports programming and the talk show ''Portia''.


Notable former on-air staff

*Amanda Davis (journalist), Amanda Davis *Jeff Hullinger *Corey McPherrin *Don Naylor *Deborah Norville *Robin Roberts (sportscaster), Robin Roberts *Forrest Sawyer *Chuck Scarborough *Judy Woodruff


Technical information


Subchannels

The station's signal is Multiplex (TV), multiplexed: Channel 5.2 originally was for the benefit of smaller cable providers which were taking the 4:3, fullscreen SD signal straight from the air, and did not want problems due to the widescreen or scan conversion on 5.1; this lasted until the end of April 2009. The channel then stayed blank with no electronic program guide data for several weeks until late June, when it again had identical programming, but this time in widescreen. The 704×480i anamorphic format is unusual, as most standard definition digital channels use a fullscreen 640×480i format (by comparison, widescreen NTSC DVDs use 720×480p). Channel 5.2 again went blank in late July, but continued to have the same program data as 5.1, until it was deleted entirely on December 3. Fox Television Stations and Urban One, Radio One announced on February 5, 2025 that the audio of WAGA-TV's local newscasts and other local programming will be now simulcast on the second HD Radio channel of WHTA (107.9) for the benefit of Atlanta metro commuters. Programming replays from the station's Fox Local stream will be played during network and syndicated programming and overnights.


Analog-to-digital conversion

WAGA shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 5, on June 12, 2009, as part of the Digital television transition in the United States, federally mandated transition from analog to digital television. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 27, using virtual channel 5. The station's first chief broadcast engineer from 1949, Paul B. Cram (age 99 at the time), was given the duty of permanently turning off the analog transmitter live on the air at 12:30 p.m. on June 12. WSB-TV, WXIA-TV, and WATL also went off the air at the same time, with WSB and WXIA also live in their transmitter rooms like WAGA.


Out-of-market cable carriage

WAGA is carried in parts of Cherokee County, North Carolina, Cherokee and Macon County, North Carolina, Macon counties of western North Carolina, western North Carolina, both bordering Georgia. Cherokee is part of the Chattanooga media market of East Tennessee, Southeast Tennessee and northwest Georgia, while Macon is part of the Asheville–Greenville–Spartanburg DMA of the western Carolinas and northeast Georgia. Although outside of the must-carry obligations that apply within the Atlanta DMA, both counties are popular with visitors and summer home, summer-home residents from the Atlanta area. WSB-TV is also carried in those counties. In the 1970s and 1980s, WAGA once had cable carriage in Aiken, South Carolina, Aiken and Clemson, South Carolina, Clemson in west-central and Upstate South Carolina, upstate (northwestern) South Carolina. WAGA also had significant carriage on Storer and Liberty cable systems (later TCI, now Mediacom) in South Georgia during that same timeframe.


References


External links

*
Historic Ground
historical marker {{DEFAULTSORT:Waga-Tv 1949 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state) Buzzr affiliates Companies based in DeKalb County, Georgia Fox Broadcasting Company affiliates Fox Television Stations Movies! affiliates New World Communications television stations NFL primary television stations Roar (TV network) affiliates Television channels and stations established in 1949 Television stations in Atlanta, AGA-TV