TBS (TV network)

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TBS
Type	Terrestrial and Cable network
Availability	Local Atlanta, Georgia (WTBS) USA (cable) Canada (cable)
Owner	Time Warner Inc.
Key people	Steve Koonin, EVP, COO of TBS Michael Wright, SVP Original Programming
Launch date	December 17, 1976
Past names	TBS Superstation
Website	www.tbs.com

TBS also stands for Tokyo Broadcasting System, a Japanese television network.

TBS is an American cable TV network that shows sports and variety programming with a focus on comedy. It is currently owned by Time Warner.

TBS (which originally stood for Turner Broadcasting System) was originally WTCG, a UHF terrestrial television station owned by media mogul Ted Turner that broadcast from Atlanta, Georgia, during the late 1970s. WTCG reportedly stood for "Watch This Channel Grow" (though the "TCG" officially stood for Turner Communications Group, the forerunner to Turner Broadcasting System).

Contents 1 Availability 2 History 3 Dropping the Channel 17 ID and local advertisers in markets outside of Atlanta 4 Evolution of the TBS logo 5 Turner Time 6 Programming 6.1 News 6.2 Movies 7 Sports 7.1 Baseball 7.2 Other sports 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Availability

TBS is a national cable channel, but it is not available in the Atlanta market, due to WTBS, which carries a nearly identical schedule, plus the required public affairs programming and E/I programming for children. In Canada, Shaw Broadcast Services (the primary supplier of TBS in Canada) carries the local Atlanta feed and not the SuperStation feed as seen on cable in the United States. As a result most Cable/Satellite companies carry the local feed. The reasons for this is unclear, however many speculate that it's because the local feed offers more Atlanta Braves games than the national feed. There are however some cable systems that get TBS from C-Band and thus have the National feed as seen on Cable in the United States.

[edit] History

At 1 p.m. on December 17, 1976, WTCG Channel 17's signal was beamed via the Satcom 1 satellite to its four cable systems in Grand Island, Nebraska; Newport News, Virginia; Troy, Alabama; and Newton, Kansas. All four cable systems started receiving the sleepy 1948 Dana Andrews–Cesar Romero film Deep Waters that was already in progress. The movie had started 30 minutes earlier. WTCG went from being a little television station that was available only on UHF in Atlanta to a major TV network that every household outside of the 675,000 in Atlanta was receiving coast-to-coast. WTCG became a so-called superstation and set a precedent for today's basic cable television.

HBO had moved to satellite transmissions to distribute its signal nationally in 1975, but that was a service cable subscribers were made to pay extra to receive. Ted Turner's innovation signaled the start of the basic cable revolution.

WTCG was re-launched in 1979 as WTBS. The new call letters were acquired via a monetary donation to the MIT student radio station, now WMBR.

The channel 17 transmitter is located at 1018 West Peachtree Street NW, with antenna located on a large self-supporting tower. The building at this site was once home to the studios of WAGA and later channel 17 as WJRJ. Soon after being purchased by Turner, the studios were moved to the former Progressive Club site a few blocks west.

Throughout the 1980s to the early 1990s, TBS also carried the Electra teletext service on its VBI. Electra was discontinued in 1993 due to a lack of funding.

Currently, the focus of TBS is comedy-related, focusing mostly on sitcom reruns and originally produced reality series, using the slogan "Very Funny." It is intended as a direct contrast to sister network TNT, which currently focuses on drama-related programs.

[edit] Dropping the Channel 17 ID and local advertisers in markets outside of Atlanta

Initially WTCG Channel 17 was identified as Channel 17 both locally in Atlanta as well as on cable systems outside of Atlanta. Also the same exact shows that ran locally ran nationally. In 1979, calls would be changed to WTBS and the station was known as Superstation WTBS with 17 as part of the logo.

In 1981, it was decided that the same exact shows would continue to be shown both locally and nationally but feeds would be separate. The station would be known locally in Atlanta as "Superstation 17". They also would continue to air local commercials as well. Nationally, though, the station would not mention 17 and would strictly have logos identifying them as "Superstation WTBS". All local ads would be dropped on the national feed in favor of station promos, Public Service ads, Per Inquirery Spots, and maybe some national ads. This continues to this day. Programming on WTBS has always been Syndex proof and TBS is licensed to run all programming not only for Atlanta but nationally. Most of these shows run nationally are also syndicated in local markets on respective local stations.

[edit] Evolution of the TBS logo

Over the years TBS has had several logos and name changes. From 1979 the name was SuperStation WTBS. In 1987, the "W" from the "TBS" name was dropped to emphasize the network's national programming prominence. By the fall of 1989, SuperStation TBS was renamed to TBS Superstation to reflect the strong national standing of the network. In 1991, the word Superstation was removed from the on-air logos and ads and remained that way until December 1996, when TBS celebrated its 20th anniversary the word Superstation was brought back.

[edit] Turner Time

On June 29, 1981, TBS began to use "Turner Time." ^[1] While other television offerings generally began at the top and bottom of hours, TBS decided to begin airing programs five minutes later, at :05 and :35.

By using "Turner Time," TBS programs were listed under their own time entry in TV Guide, thus providing more exposure to the channel's programming. It also encouraged channel surfers who couldn't find anything interesting to watch at the top of the hour, to still be able to watch a TBS program without missing the first few minutes. Most importantly, since shows ended five minutes later than normal, it usually encouraged viewers to continue watching TBS rather than flip to watch another program already in progress.

TBS scrapped Turner Time in 1997, and now schedules programs at the top and bottom of the hour (excluding Seinfeld on Tuesday evenings which airs at 9:15 and 9:45 p.m.). This is due to Sex and the City's length and that commercials didn't air on its original network, HBO.

[edit] Programming

Main article: List of television programs airing on TBS

[edit] News

One type of programming that TBS does not produce is news. Nevertheless, TBS did produce a twenty-minute newscast from 1975 to 1979. The program, entitled 17 Update Early in the Morning, was taped at the end of the workday and aired around 3:00 AM or 4:00 AM EST between movies. Its format was similar to NBC's Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update and, to a certain extent, Comedy Central's The Daily Show. The timeslot and the snide content was Turner's reaction to FCC's rules at the time requiring stations to carry some news and informational content -- TBS must carry them, but the FCC couldn't, and didn't, say when they must be carried, or that the news must have a serious tone. The news show was cancelled months before Turner began his serious news venture - CNN.

WTBS also began airing its own newscast called TBS Evening News which was produced by CNN.

In the Atlanta Metro area, WTBS/17 simulcasts 30-minutes of CNN Headline News at 6:00 AM ET. This is only carried in Atlanta and cable systems receiving this feed.

[edit] Movies

TBS airs movies mostly of the comedy genre due to its format, and frequently airs them interspersed with other content and commentary. Dinner and a Movie includes cooking, while Movie and a Makeover adds fashion content. TBS is sometimes criticised for editing sex, drugs and language out of their movies.

[edit] Sports

[edit] Baseball

Main articles: Braves TBS Baseball and Major League Baseball on TBS

Coverage of the formerly-Ted Turner-owned Atlanta Braves Major League Baseball team is perhaps TBS's signature program. Turner once famously tried to get Andy Messersmith to use his jersey, which was #17, to promote TBS in its early years. The back of the jersey read, "CHANNEL 17." Major League Baseball immediately stopped it because team jerseys are not supposed to have ads other than that of the jersey manufacturer.

At the 2006 MLB All-Star Game, it was announced that TBS will begin carrying a package that includes all major league teams. It will premiere in two phases, as follows:

• Starting in 2007, TBS will carry all Division Series games and one of the two League Championship Series, taking them from Fox and ESPN. In addition, TBS will carry the announcements of the All-Star teams and any possible games to determine division winners and wild card teams. Those have also been carried on ESPN.

• The following year (2008), TBS will begin airing games every Sunday of the regular season for 26 weeks in all. No team may appear on the telecasts more than 13 times.

During the 2007 transitional year, TBS will air 70 regular-season Braves games. In 2008 and thereafter, only 45 games will be shown, and no more than 13 of them (the maximum number of times TBS may show any team) will air outside of the Braves' six-state primary market area (Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee). Games will still be available in the Atlanta market on the separate WTBS channel, which may also carry the games in Canada (MLB has not usually ordered blackouts of U.S. Superstation broadcasts in Canada). ^[2] It is still unclear as to whether TBS will air the games outside Atlanta, or if the games will be sold to local over-the-air broadcast stations.

[edit] Other sports

College football games from the Big 12 and Pac-10 aired for several years.

National Basketball Association games were aired before being moved entirely to Turner Network Television; some Atlanta Hawks (also owned by Turner) games were shown on TBS until the TBS and TNT telecasts became subject to blackout within 35 miles of the home-team's arena (this restriction was dropped when TNT gained the right to be the exclusive broadcaster of any game it chose to carry).

Main articles: NBA on TBS and NBA on TNT

Professional wrestling aired on TBS from 1971-2001 under several different companies including Jim Barnett-owned Georgia Championship Wrestling (1971-1984), future rival Vince McMahon owned World Wrestling Federation (1984-1985), Bill Watts' Mid-South Wrestling, and Jim Crockett, Jr.'s Jim Crockett Promotions (1985-1988), which eventually became Turner owned World Championship Wrestling (1988-2001).

Main articles: WCW Monday Nitro, WCW Saturday Night, and WCW Thunder

In addition, select NASCAR Nextel Cup, Busch Series, and Craftsman Truck Series races were aired on TBS up to the 2000 season. For several years in the late 1990s, the only Cup races aired on TBS were the two races from Lowe's Motor Speedway, and the July race at Pocono Raceway. TBS was also the home of the post-season exhibition races held in Japan from 1996-1998. Races were switched to TNT in 2001 as part of the then-new NASCAR TV deal, although the initial plans were for TBS to carry the races. Instead, Turner decided that NASCAR would better fit TNT's "We Know Drama" slogan.

Main article: NASCAR on NBC

[edit] References

1. ^ http://cgi.superstation.com/about_us/milestone.htm
2. ^ http://atlanta.braves.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20060711&content_id=1552889&vkey=news_atl&fext=.jsp&c_id=atl

[edit] External links

• Official Site
• History of TBS