WATL (TV)

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WATL-TV, channel 36, is a television station in Atlanta, Georgia affiliated with the WB television network. It is owned by Tribune Company, with the callsign meaning ATLanta, the station's city of license.

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History

WATL originally began operation on September 13, 1954 when it was placed on the air in a short-lived experiment in UHF television. The station signed on again on August 16, 1969 as part of U.S. Communications and operated until 1971. The station was dark until July 4, 1976 when it was signed back on by Don Kennedy of The Popeye Club (a long running Atlanta kids TV show) fame with a low-rated general entertainment format, airing some public domain movies, financial news, low-budget shows and a blend of CBS, NBC and ABC shows pre-empted from WAGA-TV (channel 5), WSB-TV (channel 2) and WXIA-TV (channel 11), respectively. The station aired subscription television in the early evening from the late 1970s to about 1981. ATL Acquisitions Group bought the station in the early 1980s. The subscription TV format moved to new sign-on WVEU (channel 69, now WUPA) in 1982 and the station was sold to Outlet Communications in 1984. By that time, WATL was a general entertainment independent once again. WATL became a charter affiliate of the new Fox television network in October 1986.

The musical chairs of ownership continued in 1989, as Outlet sold WATL (along with WXIN-TV in Indianapolis) to Chase Broadcasting. In 1992, WATL and WXIN were included in Chase's merger with Renaissance Broadcasting, and less than a year later channel 36 (and new sister station KDVR in Denver) became an Fox owned-and-operated station. Fox was in the planning stages for a news operation at the station, and WATL had even gone as far as hiring a news director. However, in May 1994, New World Communications announced its affiliation agreement with Fox, resulting in most of its stations (including Atlanta's WAGA) switching to the Fox network. As a result, Fox cancelled the plans for a newscast on WATL, and put the station up for sale. Image:WATL36 94-96 logo.gif Finding itself about to lose the Fox programming, WATL was then approached with an affiliation offer from CBS, which was losing WAGA as an affiliate. However WATL was not interested, and it almost seemed likely that WATL would join the soon-to-launch United Paramount Network in early 1995. Rival station WGNX (channel 46, now WGCL-TV), then owned by Tribune Broadcasting, was already slated to join the WB network and also turned CBS down, forcing CBS to make a deal to buy WVEU. Eventually Tribune agreed to let WGNX join CBS, and WVEU would became the UPN affiliate.

Fox programming moved from WATL to WAGA on December 10, 1994, and Fox subsequently sold the station to Qwest Broadcasting, a company partially owned by legendary musician Quincy Jones. (Fox would not be without an owned-and-operated station in Atlanta for long, as they bought out New World in late 1996.) Although it lost the Fox affiliation, WATL kept the Fox Kids programming. The station also affiliated with the new WB network in January 1995. Soon afterwards, Tribune Broadcasting began to manage WATL in tandem with WGNX under a local marketing agreement. WATL continued to air Fox Kids until 1999, when it moved to WHOT (channel 34, now WUVG). Image:WATL36 96-04 logo.gif In 1999, Tribune purchased WATL outright and sold WGNX to the Meredith Corporation. Because Tribune owns a stake in the WB, WATL can be considered to be a WB owned-and-operated station, thus making WATL the only one of the six major stations in Atlanta to have been owned by two networks (in this case, Fox and WB).

On January 24, 2006, CBS Corporation and Warner Bros. Entertainment announced plans to dissolve WB and UPN, combining them to launch the The CW in September 2006. As part of this joint venture, it was announced that CBS-owned WUPA will become the CW's Atlanta affiliate. WATL's future network affiliation (if any) is unknown.

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Station timeline

  • September 1954: WATL signs on
  • 1955: WATL signs off
  • August 1969: WATL signs on, for the second time
  • 1971: WATL signs off, again
  • July 1976: WATL signs on, for the third time
  • October 1986: becomes a charter Fox network station, later adopted the branding "Fox 36"
  • December 1994: reverted to independent status as "WATL 36" after WAGA-TV (channel 5) became Fox's new Atlanta affiliate
  • January 1995: becomes a WB affiliate as "WB 36"
  • 2004: became "WATL, Atlanta's WB"
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Transmission tower

It is on the same tower, north of Druid Hills, with:

The tower also contains construction permits for:

FM stations on the same tower are: WNNX (99.7, newly moved from the WTBS TV main analog tower), WKHX-FM (101.5) and permits for WRFG (89.3) and as well as an application for a broadcast translator from Immanuel Broadcasing Network on 101.9.

Another tower about 120 meters (400 feet) to the west holds the existing WGCL-TV (46/19), WLTM (94.9), and WKLS (96.1), and applications for translators on 89.7 and 88.9 from WAY-FM Media Group.

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External links


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