WGN-TV
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WGN is the name of a television station broadcasting from Chicago, Illinois on Channel 9. It is currently the Chicago affiliate of the Warner Brothers television network.
WGN Television, like its sister radio station WGN-AM (720 kHz), is owned by the Tribune Company, which owns the Chicago Tribune newspaper whose slogan "World's Greatest Newspaper" was the basis for the call letters used by both stations. WGN is notable both as an early example of media conglomeration and as a pioneer in cable television, where it was one of the first superstations.
History
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Early on, WGN-TV was affiliated with the DuMont Network and the CBS network. For much of its existence, WGN operated as a true independent station, producing much of its own programming at its local studios. Notable WGN-produced programs include several incarnations of Bozo's Circus, The Ray Rayner Show, and Garfield Goose. The station has also had a long association with the Chicago Cubs baseball team (currently also owned by the Tribune Company), and has often broadcast games of other Chicago sports teams.
The station began broadcasting via satellite in 1978. This signal was picked up by many fledgling pay-cable television systems as well as directly by satellite dish owners; this continent-wide exposure elevated WGN to superstation status. Along with WWOR-TV in New York and WTBS-TV in Atlanta, WGN was among the first local stations to become a superstation.
Today, WGN-TV offers its programming across North America on a superstation feed, without the WB programming. It is available via satellite to DirectTV and Dish Network in the United States, to Star Choice and Bell ExpressVu in Canada (with ExpressVu showing the local Chicago feed), and to cable television subscribers in both countries.
Hijack
On November 22, 1987, during the 9 O'Clock News sportscast, WGN's broadcast signal was hijacked by an unknown person wearing a Max Headroom mask for approximately 25 seconds. This was the only the first incident of that night involving the interruption of a television station's broadcast signal; approximately two hours later, Chicago PBS station WTTW-TV Channel 11 had its broadcast interrupted by the same person. WGN's transmitter is atop the John Hancock building and engineers were almost immediately able to thwart the video hacker by changing the Studio To Transmitter frequency, thus cutting the hacker off. Unfortunately for WTTW, its transmitter is atop the Sears Tower and it was unable to stop the hacker before enduring almost two minutes of the hacker's interruption.