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WXIA-TV
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the history of the 11Alive slogan used in New York City from 1977 to 1986 see WPIX-TV
| WXIA-TV | |
|---|---|
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| Atlanta, Georgia | |
| Branding | 11Alive |
| Slogan | "The News You Expect. The Balance You Deserve." (news); "Atlanta's HD News Leader." (station) |
| Channels | Analog: 11 (VHF) Digital: 10 HDTV (VHF) |
| Affiliations | NBC NBC Weather Plus (DT2) |
| Owner | Gannett |
| Founded | September 30, 1951 |
| Call letters meaning | W XI(11 in Roman numerals) Atlanta or XI (11) Alive |
| Former callsigns | WLTV (1951-53) WLWA-TV (1953-62) WAII-TV (1962-68) WQXI-TV (1968-74) |
| Former channel number(s) | 8 (1951-1953) |
| Former affiliations | ABC (1951-80) |
| Class | Full-service television station |
| Website | www.11alive.com/ |
WXIA-TV, channel 11, is the NBC television affiliate in Atlanta, Georgia. Popularly known as 11Alive, it is owned by Gannett alongside WATL. The station's transmitter is located at 110 Arizona Avenue Northeast in Atlanta. Studios and offices are located at 1611 West Peachtree Street on the north end of Atlanta's Midtown area. WXIA is also available to Dish Network customers via to those that cannot receive NBC over-the-air in their area.
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The station signed on the air on September 30, 1951 as WLTV, an ABC affiliate, on channel 8 (the second Atlanta station on this channel after WSB-TV moved to channel 2 a year earlier). It was owned by the Crosley Broadcasting Corporation. In 1953, the station changed its call letters to WLWA-TV and moved to channel 11, with channel 8 now occupied by WGTV. It was purchased in 1962 by Richard Fairbanks of Indianapolis as part of a settlement between Crosley and Fairbanks. Crosley had started WLWI-TV (now WTHR) in Indianapolis in 1957, but Fairbanks insisted that the last VHF allocation in Indianapolis should go to a local owner. Eventually, the two companies agreed to what amounted to a trade, in which Crosley kept WLWI while Fairbanks bought WLWA. The Atlanta station's calls then became WAII-TV, using the slogan "The Eyes of Atlanta", and the calls standing for Atlanta's 11 (II)".
The station began calling itself "News Watch 11" in 1963 and began broadcasting news in color for the first time March 1967. The station was sold to Pacific & Southern Broadcasting of Phoenix, Arizona in 1968 and became known as WQXI-TV (the calls were originally used on Channel 36, currently WATL, in the mid 1950's). Pacific & Southern later merged with Combined Communications. The station assumed the WXIA-TV call letters in 1974 and first used the branding 11Alive in 1976. In 1979, Combined merged with Gannett in what became the biggest media merger in history up to that time.
On September, 1980, WXIA became an NBC affiliate, due to market leader WSB-TV's signing with ABC. This could be traced to ratings: NBC slid to a very poor third place; meanwhile, ABC was in first place for most of the late 1970's and was seeking out stronger and better affiliates in many markets including Atlanta. So during the summer of 1980, the two stations conducted an experiment unusual for a large market: WXIA aired NBC daytime shows in the morning and ABC daytime shows in the afternoon, while WSB aired ABC shows in the morning and NBC shows in the afternoons. When the experiment was over, both stations finally swapped affiliations for good.
WXIA also airs the NBC Weather Plus service on its digital on-air signal, as well as on Comcast's digital cable system in the Atlanta area. WXIA formerly had a partnership with The Weather Channel to use their weather forecasters and provide local forecasts.
WXIA began airing its daily local newscasts in HDTV, the first Atlanta station to do so, on February 2, 2006. To signal the conversion to HD, a HD-friendly new studio from Production Design Group, Ltd. was built and graphics from Giant Octopus were created.
On June 5, 2006, Gannett agreed to purchase WATL from the Tribune Company, now affiliated with MyNetworkTV. The purchase price was $180 million. [1]. Since WATL is not among Atlanta's four largest TV stations, the FCC permitted this sale. The sale was finalized on August 7, 2006; as a result, Gannett is now the owner of Atlanta's first television duopoly, as well as duopolies in Denver and Jacksonville. WATL may take up airing NBC programs when WXIA is not able to in a news-related emergency.
The station's digital channel is multiplexed:
Digital channels
| Channel | Programming |
|---|---|
| 11.1 / 10.1 | Main WXIA programming / NBC HD |
| 11.2 / 10.2 | NBC Weather Plus |
In 2009, WXIA-TV will leave channel 11 and move to channel 10 when the analog to digital conversion is complete.[1]
11Alive has been WXIA's on-air branding since 1976, when then-owner Combined Communications adopted the practice of using the word "Alive" as part of the monikers at most of their stations. The use of "Alive" in station names was popular in the mid-to-late-1970s. New York's WPIX used the legendary "11 Alive" nickname from 1977 to 1986. Pittsburgh's NBC affiliate WIIC now WPXI used the legendary "11 Alive" nickname in the mid to late 1970's.
After Gannett acquired Combined in 1979, many of the former Combined stations stopped using "Alive" in their names, though WXIA continued calling itself "11Alive," as it had established a very strong following under that name. Fort Wayne's WPTA, another ex-Combined station, continues to call itself "21 Alive" today.
In 1994, Gannett dropped the "11Alive" moniker as part of an image makeover. However, only a year later, WXIA began calling itself "11Alive" once again due to popular demand of its viewers. In its news opens, however, the station calls itself "WXIA-TV."
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Local television stations Outlying Areas Local digital television channels Local cable/satellite television channels |
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| See also: ABC, CBS, CW, Fox, MyNetworkTV, PBS, and Other stations in Georgia |