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Really disappointed that WGN News at 9 is no longer being broadcast on WGN America. I hope the outcry from viewers gets them to change their mind soon.
WGN News at 9
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Makes plenty of sense to me, there can't be a large audience nationally for local Chicago news broadcasts...
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Now WGN-America is no different then the 500 other cable channels. The local news set them apart from the others. I used to like to watch the "Superstations". WGN, WTBS, WPIX, WSBK, KTLA and KWGN to see the different local news from all over the country. Now they are all gone and we get all the same crap on every cable channel. CNN and Fox News have gone the way of the Weather Channel with everything but news.
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That channel is still around?
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I remember when WGN was an independent super station. If you lived in the midwest, and in a market with no independents, WGN and WTTV (Indianapolis) were nice additions. As was WXIX from Cincinnati. But, then came "networks" first FOX, took care of WTTV and WXIX, then the WB, later CW, forced WGN to dorp the WB blcok and send out two uplinks. One for Chicago, one for everyone else. which became WGN America. The 9 O'Clock News was great to watch; Tom Skillings did a great job with the weather. The news was sloly being dropped and it is sad to see it go. I am guessing the Cubs won't be available come baseball season. If so, then they might as well call it teh Tribiune Network, making it just another cable channel of reruns and marathon blocks.
A few years ago WGN America dropped the various local Chicago programming, it was most obvious around Christmas time. No midnight mass, no Bozo and retrospective specials specials and no "Hardrock, Coco and joe"
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A few years ago WGN America dropped the various local Chicago programming, it was most obvious around Christmas time. No midnight mass, no Bozo and retrospective specials specials and no "Hardrock, Coco and joe"
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The split between WGN Chicago and WGN America occured before The WB's removal. It started in the late 80s when the Syndex rules went into effect for cable, WGN, WTBS and WOR all launched seperate cable feeds while KTLA, KWGN, WPIX and WSBK became more regional and subject to blackouts at the request of the local stations.
The only reason why they were allowed to keep The WB that long was because Tribune was a partial owner of The WB and they wanted to use WGN's cable presence to take care of markets where they still didn't have a local affiliate. By the late 90s WB had a presence in nearly every market along with the WB 100+ channel on cable to take care of the smaller markets without one.
Tribune announced plans a while back to bring original programming to WGN America. They even ran a promo for their first original series Salem during the local breaks on the Super Bowl in the markets where they own a Fox affiliate.
The only reason why they were allowed to keep The WB that long was because Tribune was a partial owner of The WB and they wanted to use WGN's cable presence to take care of markets where they still didn't have a local affiliate. By the late 90s WB had a presence in nearly every market along with the WB 100+ channel on cable to take care of the smaller markets without one.
Tribune announced plans a while back to bring original programming to WGN America. They even ran a promo for their first original series Salem during the local breaks on the Super Bowl in the markets where they own a Fox affiliate.
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The nba forced WGN america to cut back on the bulls games a few years ago. But the MLB has let them show lot's of CUBS and SOX games with loose blackout rules for years.nmetro said:
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I think WGN's deal with the Cubs might be coming to an end after next year. Hopefully not. They have been broadcasting Cubs games since 1948.
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-11-06/business/chi-chicago-cubs-wgn-tv-20131106_1_own-cable-sports-network-cubs-broadcast
And for what it's worth, I miss the Chicago news on WGN America, too. The Cubs and the news were pretty much the only 2 reasons I tuned to that channel.
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-11-06/business/chi-chicago-cubs-wgn-tv-20131106_1_own-cable-sports-network-cubs-broadcast
And for what it's worth, I miss the Chicago news on WGN America, too. The Cubs and the news were pretty much the only 2 reasons I tuned to that channel.
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There is a facebook page that has been setup for people to voice their opinion called Bring Back WGN News at Nine
Here is the WGN America primetime schedule for tonight:
7:00pm(cst) How I Met Your Mother
7:30pm(cst) How I Met Your Mother
8:00pm(cst) How I Met Your Mother
8:30pm(cst) How I Met Your Mother
9:00pm(cst) How I Met Your Mother
9:30pm(cst) How I Met Your Mother
10:00pm(cst) How I Met Your Mother
10:30pm(cst)How I Met Your Mother
Here is the WGN America primetime schedule for tonight:
7:00pm(cst) How I Met Your Mother
7:30pm(cst) How I Met Your Mother
8:00pm(cst) How I Met Your Mother
8:30pm(cst) How I Met Your Mother
9:00pm(cst) How I Met Your Mother
9:30pm(cst) How I Met Your Mother
10:00pm(cst) How I Met Your Mother
10:30pm(cst)How I Met Your Mother
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You can still stream it live right now here > http://wgntv.com/live/
+1 !!Phil T said:
Many years ago this was the reason I switched from DirecTV to Dish (Now back with DirecTV), because of the Superstation Pack. Call me weird, but I've always enjoyed watching "local" news from other cities.
I have to admit, I have only watched WGN's news a handful of times, but I did enjoy watching it when I did.
I also agree, we really don't have a 24 hours NEWS outlet on DirecTV. Aljazera America comes pretty close but DirecTV's SD picture quality is not very good. I've requested to DirecTV several times to add the HD feed of BBC World News to the lineup, but so far nothing. MAYBE when the next bird goes live it will be added, but I'm not holding my breath on it. BBC World News is the only channel I miss when I was with Comcast.
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I along with you I enjoyed watching the local news feeds. When I had my BUD (12 foot Paraclipse Dish) I used to subscribe to all the superstations just to watch local news. I remember watching those LA Freeway car chases on KTLA. Not much local news left.WB4CS said:
I currently watch a lot of live local newsfeeds on LiveStream, using my Roku box. They do carry FOX 32, Chicago live newscasts, along with many others from around the country. .
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Another Roku channel with Live local newsfeeds is Nowhere TV. It's currently a private channel but can be added very easily online.loudo said:
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There were other "local news" channels ... they didn't last.
It seems that a lot of the local news channels now show network or syndicated content most of the time they are on the air. Just pull a story off the media service and air it. Such practices would make it harder to pull together a collection of "local" newscasts as such content would not be licensed outside of each local station's market.
It seems that a lot of the local news channels now show network or syndicated content most of the time they are on the air. Just pull a story off the media service and air it. Such practices would make it harder to pull together a collection of "local" newscasts as such content would not be licensed outside of each local station's market.
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