1080i (HDTV) (downscaled to letterboxed 480i for the SDTV feed)
Ownership
Owner
Tribune Media (1978–2019) Nexstar Media Group (2019–2021)
Parent
DT Media Group
Sister channels
WGN-TV
WGN (AM)
Antenna TV
History
Launched
November 9, 1978 (1978-11-09)[1][2]
Closed
March 1, 2021 (2021-03-01) (42 years, 3 months and 20 days)
Replaced by
NewsNation
Former names
WGN (1978–2001)
WGN Superstation (2001–2002)
Superstation WGN (2002–2008)
WGN America (2008–2021)
WGN America was an American subscription television network that operated from November 9, 1978 to February 28, 2021. The service was originally uplinked to satellite by United Video Inc. as a national feed of Chicago independent station WGN-TV, making the station's programming available to cable and satellite providers throughout the United States as the second nationally distributed "superstation" (after Atlanta station WTCG, now operating as the cable-originated TBS, which had become a national service almost two years earlier).
It maintained a nearly identical program schedule as the Chicago station, airing a variety of programming including films, syndicated series, programs intended for local broadcast in the Chicago market (including local newscasts, public affairs shows and children's programs), and sports (including Chicago Cubs and White Sox baseball, Chicago Bulls basketball, and regional collegiate events). By the 1990s, the WGN superstation feed began substituting some syndicated programs (and starting in 1996, selected sporting events) in accordance with syndication exclusivity rules implemented by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in January 1990 to reduce programming duplication between local and out-of-market television stations carried by local cable systems, and served as the national carrier of The WB (part-owned by WGN-TV founding owner Tribune Broadcasting, which would acquire the national feed from United Video in 2001) during the latter half of the decade.
WGN America was converted into a conventional basic cable network in December 2014, adding scripted original programs and removing WGN-TV's local programs from its schedule as well as making the network available on cable and satellite providers within the Chicago market. Nexstar Media Group acquired WGN America as part of its 2019 purchase of most of Tribune's assets, becoming the company's only wholly owned, national cable-originated network. The channel in its final form under the WGN branding ran a mixture of entertainment programs (consisting of comedy and drama series, and theatrical feature films) for most of the broadcast day and, beginning in March 2020, a straight-news format—via a daily national prime time newscast, NewsNation—during the evening and early overnight hours.[3] Nexstar relaunched the network as NewsNation on March 1, 2021, and plans to convert its entire schedule to a general news and discussion format by late 2024, as contracts for syndicated entertainment programs held over from the predecessor WGN America service (and originally purchased for the network by Tribune) expire.[4]
^"Cable Briefs". Broadcasting. Broadcasting Publications, Inc. December 18, 1978.
^"WGN America profile" (PDF). TheCab.tv. 2012.
^"WGN America Announces Anchor Teams and Correspondents for Prime-Time National Newscast "News Nation" Launching September 1" (PDF). WGN America (Press release). Nexstar Media Group. June 2, 2020.
^"WGN America will change its name to NewsNation, moving to compete with CNN, Fox, MSNBC". Los Angeles Times. 2021-01-25. Retrieved 2021-01-25.
WGNAmerica was an American subscription television network that operated from November 9, 1978 to February 28, 2021. The service was originally uplinked...
WGN may refer to: "World's Greatest Newspaper", former slogan of the Chicago Tribune and the namesake for the WGN broadcasting outlets in Chicago, Illinois...
WGN Sports (originally known as WGN-TV Sports from 1948 to 1993) was the programming division of WGN-TV (channel 9), an independent television station...
weekend schedule. Known for most of its history as Superstation WGN before becoming WGNAmerica in 2008, it relaunched on March 1, 2021, as a cable news network...
director at its Chicago station WGN-TV to serve as WGNAmerica's vice president of news, with the assistance of WGNAmerica Executive Vice President Sean...
appeared in Assault on Precinct 13 (2005) and was cast as Harriet Tubman in WGNAmerica period drama Underground. Beginning in 2018, Hinds stars in the Fox procedural...
The WGN Morning News is an American morning television news program airing on WGN-TV (channel 9), an independent television station and national superstation...
roles include the NBC sports drama Friday Night Lights (2009–2011), the WGNAmerica period drama Underground (2016–2017), and the HBO fantasy horror dramas...
in the Showtime series The Tudors (2009–2010) and as Anne Hale in the WGNAmerica series Salem (2014–2017). She wrote the 2021 children's book The Hatmakers...
Dutch actress. She is best known for portraying Dr. Helen Prins on the WGNAmerica drama series Manhattan (2014–2015), Emily Grace in the HBO science fiction...
at WGNAmerica". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved May 10, 2017. Otterson, Joe (May 30, 2017). "'Underground' Canceled After 2 Seasons at WGNAmerica"....
television programs currently and formerly broadcast by NewsNation and WGNAmerica, a Chicago-based cable channel. The Andy Griffith Show (1978–99) Bewitched...
The first season of Salem, an American horror–drama television series on WGNAmerica, premiered on April 20, 2014, and concluded on July 13, 2014, consisting...
Brannon Braga and Adam Simon. In the United States, it premiered on WGNAmerica on April 20, 2014 as the network's first original scripted series. Salem...
Susie Essman. The show debuted in syndication on local stations and WGNAmerica in September 2010, but was removed the following year due to low ratings...
the pilot episode of the WGNAmerica series Scalped, which filmed in New Mexico in early April, but in November, after WGN saw it, they decided to pass...
Superstars, is an American professional wrestling television program that was produced by WWE that originally aired on WGNAmerica in the United States...
Tribune Entertainment (formerly Mid-America Video Tape Productions, WGN Continental Productions, Tribune Productions and Tribune Entertainment Company)...
Beth Chapman, on CMT. His latest series, Dog's Most Wanted, aired on WGNAmerica in late 2019. Chapman was born February 2, 1953, in Denver, Colorado...
Global Information