WSB-TV

WSB-TV first began broadcasting on September 29, 1948, originally broadcasting on channel 8. It is the first television station in Georgia, and only the second second station south of Washington, D.C., four months behind Richmond, Virginia's WTVR-TV (channel 6). The station was founded by James M. Cox, publisher of The Atlanta Journal, and who also owned WSB radio (AM 750 and 104.5 FM, now on 98.5 FM). Cox owned WSB AM-FM-TV under the banner of Miami Valley Broadcasting Inc., which later changed its name to the current Cox Enterprises. The station was originally a primary NBC affiliate, owing to its radio sister's longtime affiliation with NBC Radio. It also carried some ABC programming (from 1949, shared with WAGA-TV, channel 5) until 1951.

WSB-TV's move to channel 2 occurred as a consequence of the 1950 merger of the Journal and its rival, the Atlanta Constitution. Both newspapers owned broadcast properties, the WSB stations for the Journal and WCON for the Constitution. Included in the latter were AM station WCON (550 kHz), which ceased operations May 31, 1950 in favor of the clear channel WSB;[2] WCON-FM, whose 98.5 MHz frequency was retained and renamed WSB-FM;[3] and the construction permit for WCON-TV (channel 2), which before the merger had begun construction on its tower at 780 Willoughby Way that it billed as the world's tallest. The merged newspaper had essentially no choice but to keep the construction permit for WCON-TV instead of the licensed WSB-TV because, at the time, the Federal Communications Commission did not permit the sale of television station construction permits, considering it "trafficking".[4] The merged newspaper sold the channel 8 license for $525,000 to Broadcasting, Inc., a group of local businessmen, in 1951, with plans to move the WSB-TV call letters and intellectual unit to channel 2. The sale was challenged by applicants for additional stations that were affected by the then-ongoing freeze on new construction permits, including Georgia Tech (owners of WGST radio)[5] and Decatur radio station owner, E.D. Rivers,[6] in part because planned allocation changes meant that there would be no further commercial VHF stations for Atlanta and they sought to operate the channel as well.[7]

The FCC dismissed the complaints and approved the sale of the channel 8 license to Broadcasting, Inc., in August 1951.[6] In September 1951, channel 2 began broadcasting test patterns as WCON-TV—the only time the call letters were used on air—receiving reception reports from as far as 230 miles (370 km) away.[8] On September 30, WSB-TV officially moved to channel 2; channel 8 returned at 5 p.m. that day as ABC affiliate WLTV.[9] In 1953, WLTV became WLWA-TV (now WXIA-TV) and was moved to channel 11 in order to resolve interference with channel 9 at Rome, Georgia. (The channel 8 allocation was then moved to Athens and reserved for non-commercial educational use; it is now WGTV, a PBS member station, and also the flagship television station of Georgia Public Broadcasting.) In 1956, the WSB stations moved into the noted "White Columns" building, designed and built according to the Colonial Revival style, a defining characteristic of Atlanta architecture.[10] They would remain there for 43 years, until a much more modernist concrete and glass facility was built adjacent to it (on the same property) in 1998. The new building, which has been dubbed "Digital White Columns" by some, is located just off Atlanta's famed Peachtree Street, on the dead-end northern portion of West Peachtree Street which is actually east of Peachtree Street. This is near the Brookwood Hills area, and just east of the "Brookwood split", a highway interchange where the Downtown Connector splits into Interstates 75 and 85 on the north end. The older building was razed shortly after the new building was occupied. The original columns that stood on the front portico of the old building were placed in a garden area alongside the new building. Brand new white columns have been placed inside the glass-enclosed lobby of the newer building. WSB-TV is located less than one block south of the building formerly utilized by WXIA when that station moved its operations to WATL's studios in 2008.

In December 1965, WSB was the first television station in Georgia to broadcast live in color, beginning with Ruth Kent's Today in Georgia program.[11]

In 1972, the station aired the name of a murdered rape victim in violation of Georgia's shield law. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned the law in Cox Broadcasting Corp. v. Cohn in 1975.

ABC was the highest-rated network for most of the late 1970s and, at that time, was looking for stronger affiliates across the country, including Atlanta. ABC's longtime Atlanta outlet, WXIA, frequently traded second place with WAGA. However, WSB-TV was the far-and-away market leader despite being affiliated with last-place NBC. In June 1980, WSB announced that it would drop NBC and affiliate with ABC; WXIA subsequently agreed to join NBC. Some network daytime shows changed stations in August, while the full affiliation switch occurred on Sept. 1. In January 1986, the station debuted the current number "2" logo it continues to use to this day.

On March 12, 2011, WSB-TV and WGCL-TV turned on their ATSC-M/H signals for the first time, becoming the first stations in the Atlanta area to offer Mobile DTV broadcasts.

WSB-TV carries most of the ABC lineup in pattern. The station airs an alternate live feed of ABC World News Tonight at 7 p.m. (rather than 6:30 p.m. as with most ABC stations in the Eastern Time Zone) due to a longtime hour-long 6 p.m. newscast. The network's Sunday morning talk show, This Week, airs on a two-hour delay to accommodate the station's Sunday morning newscast. Prior to September 2015, WSB-TV has preempted America This Morning in favor of running another half-hour of World News Now until the start of the station's morning newscast. Syndicated programs broadcast by WSB-TV include Live with Kelly and Ryan, Right This Minute, Daily Mail TV, The Kelly Clarkson Show and Entertainment Tonight among others.

As an NBC affiliate, WSB-TV preempted programs airing from noon to 2 p.m. in favor of airing a feature film presentation during that time. It would also air at least one film from its lineup in prime time, and it would also preempt the non-NFL-related NBC Sports programs in favor of carrying still another film, plus The Lawrence Welk Show.[26] WSB-TV continued this practice as late as June 2007, when it reportedly preempted a telecast of the Pixar film Finding Nemo in favor of the Ron Howard-directed comedy Parenthood.[27]

The station was the original local television broadcaster of the relocated Atlanta Braves baseball team, carrying the games from 1966 to 1972, until the Braves telecasts moved to WTCG (now WPCH-TV) in 1973. Its sister AM station was the longtime radio flagship of the Braves, carrying the broadcasts for 38 out of the 46 years that the franchise has been in Atlanta, dating back to 1966. Ernie Johnson, Sr., a former Braves pitcher and father of his namesake Turner Sports broadcaster, with future Hall of Fame announcer Milo Hamilton (who simultaneously pulled double-duty anchoring Channel 2's sportscasts during this time) were the main announcers for what was then the largest television network in the history of baseball. WSB-TV also aired all Braves games whenever they appeared on NBC's coverage from 1966 to 1980, and then with ABC from 1981 to 1989.

WSB-TV has also been involved with the NFL's Atlanta Falcons; from 1970 to 1979, all Sunday afternoon games in which the Falcons hosted an AFC team were aired, then from 1980 to 2005, all Monday Night Football games were aired on the station. The station has Falcons games on Monday Night Football since 2006 when it moved from ABC to ESPN under a syndication arrangement, to provide a local broadcast outlet for those games. In 2000, WSB also provided local coverage of Super Bowl XXXIV, which was hosted at the Georgia Dome.

Presently, all Atlanta Hawks games on WSB-TV are broadcast through ABC's NBA broadcast contract.

WSB-TV presently broadcasts 47 hours, 25 minutes of locally produced newscasts each week (with 7 hours, 5 minutes each weekday, 5½ hours on Saturdays and 6½ hours on Sundays).

Local news programming has had a strong presence on channel 2 since its debut, and it has led the news ratings in Atlanta for as long as records have been kept. WSB-TV is one of the few Big Three affiliates to carry a midday newscast on weekends (sister stations WFTV Orlando, WSOC-TV Charlotte and WHIO-TV Dayton also offer a half-hour noon newscast on weekends).[28] In addition, WSB-TV's weekend newscast output is larger than that of Fox owned-and-operated station WAGA-TV (channel 5), which offers a larger overall weekly (and weekday) newscast output than WSB-TV.

WSB-TV became the second station in the Atlanta market (behind WXIA-TV) and the second Cox-owned station (behind Orlando's WFTV) to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition. The first HD broadcast was on September 27, 2006; during its noon broadcast. With the switch came a new HD-ready set and a graphics package designed by Giant Octopus.

In mid-November 2009, reporter Tom Jones and a cameraman escaped serious injury when the telescoping radio mast of their electronic news-gathering van (holding a microwave antenna for the remote pickup unit used for outside broadcasting) contacted 115-kilovolt high-voltage powerlines while leaving the Fulton County Jail. Georgia Power staff were surprised that anyone survived, but the two were treated for minor burns and smoke inhalation at Grady Memorial Hospital and released later in the day. The massive electric spark caused an explosion, left a crater underneath the van, arced to and broke a water main, and caused a brief power outage; the vehicle was a total loss.[29][30][31]

In August 2018, WSB-TV added two additional hours to its weekday morning newscast during Good Morning America, an expansion exclusive to its 24-hour streaming channel, WSB NOW, available on its website and apps.[32]

On September 5, 2020, WSB-TV was the first station to expand its weekend morning newscast to 5:00 a.m. in the Atlanta TV market.

In northwest Georgia, it was carried in some of the counties covered by the Chattanooga DMA: Catoosa, Dade, Murray, and Walker, but remains on line-ups in Whitfield County. WSB is carried in the far northeast Georgia counties in the Greenville/Spartanburg/Asheville DMA in Elbert, Franklin, Hart and Stephens counties.

In central Georgia, WSB-TV was available to subscribers of then-co-owned cable provider Cox Communications in the Macon area, although ABC programming was usually blacked out by another local ABC affiliate, WGXA. Given the long distance to Middle Georgia, it was likely that WSB-TV was uplinked to the AMC-10 TV satellite. WSB was also carried in Vidalia in the Savannah DMA.

In south Georgia (as far south as the Florida border), it was carried on Cox Communications, and virtually all TCI, later Mediacom systems, with the exception of the Columbus operation due to a historic lack of an ABC affiliate in the Albany media market covering southwest Georgia. Since the market's NBC affiliate WALB began carrying ABC on its 10.2 digital subchannel in 2010, WSB has been dropped by almost all systems. Given the long distance to South Georgia, it was likely that WSB-TV was uplinked to the AMC-10 TV satellite. Charter Communications also carried WSB for its subscribers in the town of Douglas in Coffee County.

In western North Carolina it is carried in the Cherokee County town of Murphy, alongside Asheville, North Carolina ABC affiliate WLOS.

In northeast Alabama, it was carried on the cable systems in Gadsden (Comcast) and Anniston (New Channel, now Sparklight) in the 80s.

• Channel 2 virtual TV stations in the United States
• Channel 32 digital TV stations in the United States

Wikimedia Commons has media related to WSB-TV.

• WSBTV.com – WSB-TV official website
• WSB-TV Newsfilm Collection from the Digital Library of Georgia
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WSB-TV