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Tribune Broadcasting
Tribune Broadcasting Company, LLC was an American media company which operated as a subsidiary of Tribune Media, a media conglomerate based in Chicago, Illinois. The group owned and operated television and radio stations throughout the United States, as well as full- or partial-ownership of cable television and national digital subchannel networks.
Tribune's broadcasting unit originated with the June 1924 purchase of Chicago, Illinois, 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" first used by Tribune in a February 1909 feature commemorating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln and then served as the newspaper's motto from August 29, 1911, until December 31, 1976.
On September 13, 1946, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted Tribune license to operate a television station on channel 9 in Chicago and then signed-on a television station in Chicago, WGN-TV on April 5, 1948, initially as a dual affiliate of CBS and the DuMont Television Network. Two months later, the Tribune's then-sibling newspaper in New York City, the Daily News, established its own television station, independent WPIX. WGN-TV became an independent outlet by 1956, and would eventually morph into a pioneering national superstation on November 9, 1978, as its signal was linked to cable and satellite customers across America.
After McCormick succumbed from pneumonia-related complications on April 1, 1955, ownership of WGN-TV-AM, the Chicago Tribune and the News Syndicate Company properties would transfer to the McCormick-Patterson Trust, assigned to the Robert R. McCormick Tribune Foundation in the names of the non-familial heirs of McCormick (whose two marriages never produced any children) and familial heirs of Patterson. The trust was dissolved in January 1975, with a majority of the trust's former beneficiaries, including descendants of the McCormick and Patterson families, owning stock in the restructured Tribune Company entity – which assumed oversight of all properties previously overseen by the trust – afterward.
In subsequent years, the Tribune Company gradually expanded its broadcasting unit, of which WGN-TV-AM served as its flagship stations, a tie forged in January 1966, when the subsidiary (sans the WPIX television and radio stations, which continued to be controlled by the Tribune-managed News Syndicate Co. before being fully integrated into the company's main station group following its 1991 sale of the Daily News) was renamed the WGN Continental Broadcasting Company.
The group became known as the Tribune Broadcasting Company in January 1981, but retained the WGN Continental moniker as its de facto business name until 1984 and as the licensee for WGN-TV and WGN Radio thereafter. The company gained its third television and second radio station in 1960, when it purchased KDAL-TV (now KDLH) and KDAL (AM) in Duluth, Minnesota, from the estate of the late Dalton LeMasurier (Tribune sold KDAL-TV in 1978 and KDAL radio in 1981); the company would later purchase KCTO (subsequently re-called KWGN-TV) in Denver from J. Elroy McCaw in 1966.
Tribune's later television purchases included those of WANX-TV (later renamed WGNX) in Atlanta and WGNO in New Orleans (both in 1983); KTLA in Los Angeles (in 1985), WPHL-TV in Philadelphia (in 1992). WLVI-TV in Boston (owned from 1994 to 2006); KHTV (now KIAH) in Houston (in 1995); KTTY (now KSWB-TV) in San Diego (in 1996); WXMI in Grand Rapids, Michigan, KCPQ and KTWB-TV (now KZJO) in Seattle (in 1998 and 1999, respectively); and WBDC-TV (now WDCW) in Washington, D.C. (in 1999). WGN-TV and WPIX were the only stations that Tribune had owned since their inceptions. Tribune also operated several local cable television systems from 1977 to 1985.
In 1993, Tribune launched Chicagoland Television (CLTV), a regional cable news channel for the Chicago area, which originally operated separately from the company's other Chicago media properties until it merged its operations with WGN-TV's news department in 2009. In November 1994, Tribune Broadcasting formed a partnership with several minority partners, including Quincy Jones, to form Qwest Broadcasting; Qwest operated as a technically separate company from Tribune (which owned stations in a few markets where Tribune-owned stations, including WATL in Atlanta, which was operated alongside Tribune-owned WGNX and WNOL-TV in New Orleans, which was also operated alongside WGNO); Tribune would later acquire the Qwest stations outright in November 1999.
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Tribune Broadcasting
Tribune Broadcasting Company, LLC was an American media company which operated as a subsidiary of Tribune Media, a media conglomerate based in Chicago, Illinois. The group owned and operated television and radio stations throughout the United States, as well as full- or partial-ownership of cable television and national digital subchannel networks.
Tribune's broadcasting unit originated with the June 1924 purchase of Chicago, Illinois, 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" first used by Tribune in a February 1909 feature commemorating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln and then served as the newspaper's motto from August 29, 1911, until December 31, 1976.
On September 13, 1946, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted Tribune license to operate a television station on channel 9 in Chicago and then signed-on a television station in Chicago, WGN-TV on April 5, 1948, initially as a dual affiliate of CBS and the DuMont Television Network. Two months later, the Tribune's then-sibling newspaper in New York City, the Daily News, established its own television station, independent WPIX. WGN-TV became an independent outlet by 1956, and would eventually morph into a pioneering national superstation on November 9, 1978, as its signal was linked to cable and satellite customers across America.
After McCormick succumbed from pneumonia-related complications on April 1, 1955, ownership of WGN-TV-AM, the Chicago Tribune and the News Syndicate Company properties would transfer to the McCormick-Patterson Trust, assigned to the Robert R. McCormick Tribune Foundation in the names of the non-familial heirs of McCormick (whose two marriages never produced any children) and familial heirs of Patterson. The trust was dissolved in January 1975, with a majority of the trust's former beneficiaries, including descendants of the McCormick and Patterson families, owning stock in the restructured Tribune Company entity – which assumed oversight of all properties previously overseen by the trust – afterward.
In subsequent years, the Tribune Company gradually expanded its broadcasting unit, of which WGN-TV-AM served as its flagship stations, a tie forged in January 1966, when the subsidiary (sans the WPIX television and radio stations, which continued to be controlled by the Tribune-managed News Syndicate Co. before being fully integrated into the company's main station group following its 1991 sale of the Daily News) was renamed the WGN Continental Broadcasting Company.
The group became known as the Tribune Broadcasting Company in January 1981, but retained the WGN Continental moniker as its de facto business name until 1984 and as the licensee for WGN-TV and WGN Radio thereafter. The company gained its third television and second radio station in 1960, when it purchased KDAL-TV (now KDLH) and KDAL (AM) in Duluth, Minnesota, from the estate of the late Dalton LeMasurier (Tribune sold KDAL-TV in 1978 and KDAL radio in 1981); the company would later purchase KCTO (subsequently re-called KWGN-TV) in Denver from J. Elroy McCaw in 1966.
Tribune's later television purchases included those of WANX-TV (later renamed WGNX) in Atlanta and WGNO in New Orleans (both in 1983); KTLA in Los Angeles (in 1985), WPHL-TV in Philadelphia (in 1992). WLVI-TV in Boston (owned from 1994 to 2006); KHTV (now KIAH) in Houston (in 1995); KTTY (now KSWB-TV) in San Diego (in 1996); WXMI in Grand Rapids, Michigan, KCPQ and KTWB-TV (now KZJO) in Seattle (in 1998 and 1999, respectively); and WBDC-TV (now WDCW) in Washington, D.C. (in 1999). WGN-TV and WPIX were the only stations that Tribune had owned since their inceptions. Tribune also operated several local cable television systems from 1977 to 1985.
In 1993, Tribune launched Chicagoland Television (CLTV), a regional cable news channel for the Chicago area, which originally operated separately from the company's other Chicago media properties until it merged its operations with WGN-TV's news department in 2009. In November 1994, Tribune Broadcasting formed a partnership with several minority partners, including Quincy Jones, to form Qwest Broadcasting; Qwest operated as a technically separate company from Tribune (which owned stations in a few markets where Tribune-owned stations, including WATL in Atlanta, which was operated alongside Tribune-owned WGNX and WNOL-TV in New Orleans, which was also operated alongside WGNO); Tribune would later acquire the Qwest stations outright in November 1999.