History
Tribune Broadcasting originated with the June 1924 purchase of radio station WDAP by the newspaper 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 in Chicago, in April 1948. Two months later, the Tribune 's then-sibling newspaper in New York City, the New York Daily News, established its own television station, WPIX.
During the next six decades, Tribune Broadcasting (known originally 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.
Tribune Broadcasting now has 23 television stations located in 19 markets (including four duopolies), and the cable/satellite version of WGN-TV, known as WGN America. In Chicago, Tribune also operates Chicagoland's Television (CLTV), a cable-only news channel, and has a controlling interest in Food Network. WGN Radio is the company's sole remaining radio station, and serves as the flagship station for a regional distribution service known as the Tribune Radio Network. Its primary features are farm reports from longtime WGN agriculture broadcaster Orion Samuelson, and broadcasts of Chicago Cubs games.
From January 1995 to September 2006, Tribune Broadcasting was a partner in the WB Television Network, along with the Warner Bros. Television division of Time Warner. Tribune had an initial 12.5 percent ownership of the network at its beginning and later increased its stake to 22 percent, and most of Tribune's television properties were WB affiliates. On January 24, 2006, Time Warner announced that the WB network would merge with the CBS-owned United Paramount Network, forming a new network named the CW Television Network. All but three of Tribune's WB affiliates became affiliates of The CW on September 18, 2006, by ten-year agreements (the exceptions were in Philadelphia, Seattle, and Atlanta, due to CW affiliating with CBS-owned stations in those markets).
In April 2007, Tribune's broadcasting interests were included in the sale of the entire company to Chicago investor Sam Zell, who planned take the publicly-traded company private. The deal was completed on December 20, 2007.
On December 21, 2007, Tribune and Local TV announced plans to collaborate in the formation of an as yet unnamed "broadcast management company". This new arrangement also manages a group of stations acquired by Local TV from the Fox Broadcasting Company during the third quarter of 2008.
On August 30, 2010, Tribune announced the formation of Antenna TV, a new digital subchannel network that would feature a variety of classic television programming and movies, including programming from Sony Pictures Television and D.L. Taffner. The new service began broadcasting on January 1, 2011.
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