WPCH-TV

WPCH-TV
Brand	Peachtree TV Atlanta News First (Newscasts) Atlanta's CW
City of License	Atlanta, Georgia
Market	Atlanta, Georgia
Channel	31.6 digital ATSC 3.0 19.6 ATSC 1.0 17 virtual Subcarriers: 17.2 (Court TV) 17.3 (Circle) 17.4 (WPCH SD) Previously: 17 analog (1967-2009) 20 digital (2000-19) 31.3 digital ATSC 1.0 (2019-21)
Network Affiliation	Current: CW Former: TBS (Superstation branding, 1979-2007) Independent (as local station, 1967-2023)
Founded	1967
Company	Gray Television (Duopoly with WANF)
President
Current Popular Non-Network Shows	The Game Family Guy Seinfeld The Big Bang Theory

WPCH-TV is the CW affiliate broadcasting in the Atlanta, Georgia market on digital channel 31.6 (ATSC 3.0) and 19.6 (ATSC 1.0), displayed on tuners as virtual 17. It is owned by Gray Television and its sister station is CBS affiliate WANF/channel 46. Its subcarriers are the diginets Circle and Court TV.

History

The station opened in September of 1967 as WJRJ-TV/channel 17 (analog), owned by Jack Rice Jr. It originally broadcast in a studio building on West Peachtree Street from where WAGA/channel 5 originally operated. When the station's license was granted in 1965, it was originally allocated for channel 46 (now occupied by WANF). A petition was filed to move the station to channel 17, which the FCC granted.

Its broadcast schedule began at 4 PM and ended at midnight, consisting of off-network reruns and movies. Its threadbare budgets were prohibitive in the station getting color capabilities, and technical gaffes were everywhere. There was nowhere to go but up, and WJRJ seized the opportunity by picking up network shows passed up by the local ABC, CBS and NBC affiliates. CBS's top-rated primetime show Medical Center was among those shows, as was NBC's popular daytime game show Jeopardy! In a curiously awkward moment, WJRJ was airing a broadcast of NBC's game show Eye Guess on March 28, 1969, when NBC broke in with the news that former president Dwight D. Eisenhower had died. Regular NBC affiliate WSB/channel 2 broke from their local movie to pick up NBC's coverage of Eisenhower's death, and for the better part of a half hour, WJRJ was simulcasting it before breaking off at 1 PM for their own movie.

Channel 17's logo during its days as WJRJ.

In 1970, WJRJ was purchased by billboard entrepreneur Ted Turner, who sought to upgrade the station. The first thing he did was to change the call to WTCG (for Turner Communications Group). Next, he bought color cameras--on credit. To help pay for them Turner held an on-air telethon. It was an uphill climb, but WTCG successfully knocked competing independent WATL/channel 36 off the air. That Christmas, 1971, they acquired pro wrestling program Georgia Championship Wrestling from WQXI/channel 11 (which today is WXIA). Ted Turner took out billboard space to tout the number of NBC shows they were picking up which WSB discarded, saying that channel 17 was "joining" NBC. WSB was not pleased and filed a lawsuit against Turner. The billboards were ultimately removed. Some time in the 1970s, Turner sought to affiliate WTCG with ABC. The network declined, not wanting to land on UHF in a big market.

In 1976, Turner began microwave beams of the station to selected southeast areas. Seeing the opportunity of expansion, that December, Turner sent signals of the station via satellite to cable systems as far as Nebraska and Kansas. The "superstation" had been born, and in 1979, the station was now WTBS, and it would be rebranded as "TBS Superstation." The Atlanta Braves baseball club became a nationwide hit through satellite exposure. In the late 1990s, Turner sold his television channels and networks to Time Warner. They had moved from a multi-housed studio building on Techwood Drive to a fully modern campus over looking the Interstate 75/85 connector freeway in downtown Atlanta. (This is where all Turner properties--TCM, Cartoon Network, TruTV, Boomerang, etc.--broadcast from.) In 1996, Time Warner bought all the Turner properties while Turner Broadcasting still held the license.

In 2007, TBS Superstation was split off over-the-air channel 17 to become a cable/satellite only channel. TBS had been available on satellite everywhere except Atlanta, where it was already on the local channel list. Channel 17 became a local-only Atlanta independent station with its call changed to WPCH, branded as "Peachtree TV." WPCH had been controlled by Meredith Corporation (owner of CBS affiliate WGCL-TV, now Gray flagship WANF-TV) through a local marketing agreement; it now operates from WANF's studio building. Turner owned the station license. WTBS is now the call sign for a low-powered station in Atlanta on channel 6.

Time Warner sold WPCH to Meredith in order to avoid FCC review over its pending merger with AT&T. Sister station WGCL produces and staffs a 9 PM newscast on WPCH, which had been the earliest newscast in primetime until WATL launched a three-hour block of WXIA-produced news in prime time on December 2, 2019. WPCH has sold their physical digital channel 20 in the 600 MHz spectrum auction and relocated to 31 on September 11, 2019. They retain 17 as their display channel. Ion affiliate WPXA/channel 14 has transmitted on RF 31; it moved to 16.

WPCH and WGCL were purchased by Atlanta-based Gray Television which is acquiring the Meredith Local Media line of stations. The FCC has approved the purchase which closed December 1, 2021. The acquisition was in question as the FCC was planning to fine Gray $500,000 for violating a term of ownership regarding their duopoly in Anchorage, Alaska. Also holding things up was a request from an antenna company in Las Vegas who is protesting Meredith's KVVU pulling the ads for their product from the station's airwaves. On August 19, 2021, WPCH became the "lighthouse station" in Atlanta for the NextGen ATSC 3.0 standard. Four other stations broadcast their ATSC 3.0 signals on WPCH's subchannel tier. WPCH's subchannels are now transmitting on the subchannel tiers of WSB (Circle) and WXIA (Court TV) while still using 17.2 and 17.3 as virtuals. To preserve service on ATSC 1.0 receivers, WPCH transmits its 1.0 signal on 19.6 which is on WGCL's subchannel tier.

In October 2022, WPCH rebranded their newscasts under the umbrella moniker Atlanta News First, falling under the management of WGCL, which changed their call at that time to WANF. On September 1, 2023, WPCH ended its tenure as an independent and became an affiliate of the CW network, which was previously on WUPA/channel 69. Paramount Global (parent company of CBS, WUPA's owner) reverted the station to independent as part of Nexstar's majority stake purchase of the CW. In 2024, The CW rebranded itself as simply "CW." dropping the definite article "the."

Previous Call Signs

Call	From	To	Notes
WJRJ	1967	1970	as independent
WTCG	1970	1979
WTBS	1979	2007	also as TBS Superstation
WPCH	2007	present	CW affiliate in 2023

ATSC 3.0 Digital programming

Virtual	Physical	Name	Programming
17.1	31.6	WPCH	CW (3.0 lighthouse)
2.1	31.8	WSB-DT	ABC
5.1	31.10	WAGA-DT	Fox
11.1	31.9	WXIA-DT	NBC
46.1	31.7	WANF-DT	CBS

ATSC 1.0 Digital programming

Virtual	Physical	Name	Programming
17.1	19.6	WPCH-DT	Main WPCH (CW, High definition)
17.2	32.4	WPCH-DT2	Circle
17.3	10.4	WPCH-DT3	Court TV
17.4	19.7	WPCH-DT	Standard definition

Current Prime-Time Schedule

Day	7:00	7:30	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00	10:30	11:00
Monday	The Big Bang Theory	Young Sheldon	Ride		Wild Cards		Atlanta News First at 10		Inside Edition
Tuesday			Crime Nation
Wednesday			Wild Cards		Family Law
Thursday			The Conners	The Conners	Son of a Critch	Children Ruin Everything
Friday			Penn & Teller Fool Us		Totally Funny Kids	Totally Funny Animals
Saturday	Last Man Standing	Last Man Standing	Atlanta Eats		Atlanta News First at 9				9-1-1
Sunday	CW Movie					The Conners			Inside Edition Weekend

External Links

Official website for WPCH-TV