verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . december 2007 learn how and when to remove this template message wgcl tv atlanta georgia united states branding cbs 46 general cbs 46 news newscasts slogan working for a better atlanta channels digital 19 uhf virtual 46 psip affiliations .1 cbs .2 cozi tv .3 grit owner meredith corporation first air date june 6 1971 ; 45 years ago 1971 06 06 call letters meaning georgia s clear news former slogan sister station s wpch tv former callsigns whae tv 1971 1977 wanx tv 1977 1984 wgnx 1984 2000 former channel number s analog 46 uhf 1971 2009 former affiliations independent 1971 1994 transmitter power 1000 kw height 329 m facility id 72120 transmitter coordinates 33 48 26 n 84 20 22 w 33.80722 n 84.33944 w 33.80722 ; 84.33944 coordinates 33 48 26 n 84 20 22 w 33.80722 n 84.33944 w 33.80722 ; 84.33944 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website www.cbs46.com wgcl tv virtual channel 46 uhf digital channel 19 is a cbs affiliated television station located in atlanta georgia united states . the station is owned by the meredith corporation ; meredith also operates independent station wpch tv channel 17 under a local marketing agreement with owner and time warner subsidiary turner broadcasting system . the two stations share a studio located on 14th street in northwestern atlanta ; wgcl tv s transmitter is located near north druid hills . wgcl tv is the third largest cbs affiliated station by market size wusa being the largest and khou being the second largest that is not owned and operated by the network . on air the network and news division operates under the brand cbs 46 atlanta with sharon reed and ben swann as the anchors of the local news broadcasts . contents 1 history 1.1 early history 1.2 tribune ownership and cbs affiliation 1.3 meredith corporation ownership 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 analog to digital conversion 2.3 subchannels 3 on air staff 3.1 notable current on air staff 3.2 notable former on air staff 4 references 5 external links history edit early history edit channel 46 first went on the air on june 6 1971 as whae tv standing for heaven and earth originally owned by the continental broadcasting network arm of evangelist pat robertson s christian broadcasting network . the station originally broadcast for six hours each day and offered a low budget lineup consisting of one to two hours of general entertainment programs mixed with religious programming the latter of which also constituted the entire sunday schedule . in 1972 the station expanded to an eight hour a day schedule with an additional two hours of entertainment shows daily mainly programs that higher rated stations and ted turner s wtcg passed on . by 1976 the station had expanded to a 20 hour daily schedule airing secular syndicated shows and religious programming including twice daily airings of the 700 club . in the fall of 1977 the station changed its call letters to wanx tv standing for atlanta in christ x . 1 while it began offering more secular programming around this time its programming policies were considerably more conservative than the other two major atlanta independents wtcg wtbs now wpch tv and watl channel 36 . because of robertson s beliefs it did not air any programming that would offend the sensibilities of its mostly fundamentalist and pentecostal audiences . this policy would also guide programming choices for cbn during the 1980s and 1990s . tribune ownership and cbs affiliation edit chicago based tribune broadcasting acquired channel 46 in late 1983 2 after which its call letters were changed once again on march 15 1984 this time to wgnx ; the new callsign reflected a connection with tribune s chicago flagship station wgn tv whose own callsign refers to the slogan of the chicago tribune world s greatest newspaper . 3 airings of the 700 club on the station were reduced to once per day before the show was dropped altogether until channel 46 acquired the local rights to the program again in 2007 . under tribune ownership the new wgnx significantly upgraded its programming picking up more racier programs than those allowed to air on the station under cbn ownership . the station formed a news department in 1989 airing a 10 p.m. newscast on weeknights alongside the tribune distributed syndicated newscast independent network news . on november 2 1993 time warner s warner bros. television division and the tribune company announced the formation of the wb television network . as part of the deal tribune announced its then seven independent stations including wgnx would join the new network as charter affiliates . 4 5 wgnx was slated to join the wb upon that network s launch on january 11 1995 . around the same time that the wb launched the united paramount network originally owned by chris craft industries before becoming a joint venture with paramount pictures viacom in 1996 was set to launch as a competitor to the wb with watl as the most likely choice to be that network s atlanta affiliate . however those plans were suddenly altered on may 22 1994 when new world communications signed an affiliation agreement with the fox broadcasting company months after fox won the nfl broadcast contract to run football games from the league s national football conference . most of the new world stations became fox affiliates as a result including atlanta s longtime cbs affiliate waga tv channel 5 . cbs needed to find a new affiliate in what had become the nation s ninth largest media market and approached all of atlanta s major stations including wgnx . however none of them were interested at first . by october 1994 only a month before waga tv was slated to join fox cbs faced the prospect of having to pipe in wrbl in columbus and wmaz tv in macon wspa tv in spartanburg south carolina and wdef tv in chattanooga tennessee for cable customers until it found a new atlanta area affiliate . almost out of desperation cbs made a deal to buy wveu a low rated station on channel 69 with the weakest signal of atlanta s full power stations . 6 however this was only a contingency since cbs preferred to move its programming to a higher profile station . it continued to negotiate with tribune especially since wgnx was the only non big three station in atlanta with a functioning news department . tribune relented in november and allowed wgnx to become a cbs affiliate . 7 the affiliation switch became official on december 11 1994 . it was originally slated to occur on november 27 but fox new world and cbs were still ironing out the final details . upon becoming a cbs affiliate the station began airing more syndicated talk and reality shows ; it also began branding itself as cbs46 these references were mostly verbal as on air graphics continued to refer to the station as channel 46 . it also significantly increased its news output . the move to cbs left wgnx with a large number of syndicated cartoons and sitcoms it no longer had time to air . it sold most of its syndicated programs to wveu which became the market s upn affiliate and was later sold to viacom who changed that station s callsign to wupa . the wb affiliation was ultimately taken by watl . with the switch from waga to wgnx cbs lost significant viewership in the northern portion of the atlanta market . despite its five million watt analog signal wgnx did not penetrate nearly as far into this area as waga did because of the relatively mountainous terrain that is found in that part of northern georgia . much of this region was among the few areas in the united states where cable was still not readily available . cbs did not return over the air to this area until toccoa s wneg tv channel 32 now wgta joined cbs the following august . although it was located in the greenville spartanburg asheville market wneg served as the de facto cbs affiliate for the far northern portion of the atlanta market as well as the greenville spartanburg asheville market s western fringes until that station s sale to the university of georgia in 2008 . by this time increased cable and satellite availability in this area increased channel 46 s footprint in the area . tribune began to manage the station in tandem with watl in 1996 under a local marketing agreement . meredith corporation ownership edit wgcl s logo from 2004 to 2009 . in 1998 tribune broadcasting traded wgnx to the meredith corporation in a three way deal that saw tribune acquire tacoma washington s kcpq from kelly broadcasting ; that deal allowed tribune to buy watl outright the next year . 8 around the same time wgnx changed its branding to cbs atlanta . the station changed its callsign to wgcl tv on july 4 2000 to reflect its new slogan we re georgia s clear tv along with a soft news concept called clear news . after two years wgcl rebranded as cbs atlanta again before re adopting the cbs 46 moniker only several months later . on june 20 2007 wgcl s website underwent a redesign because of a partnership between meredith and internet broadcasting following the successful testing of the websites of five of its sister stations which had joined the internet broadcasting platform the year before . wgcl s website was the sixth meredith station website to switch from being run by worldnow to internet broadcasting . meredith s contract with ib expired in june 2011 with the meredith station sites becoming operated by worldnow again . wgcl and fox affiliated sister station whns in greenville south carolina were the first meredith owned stations to relaunch with the new worldnow operated sites on june 6 2011 . in march 2009 meredith announced that wgcl would begin handling the master control operations of both whns and nashville s wsmv tv . the new master control hub began operations in the fall of 2009 . 9 three other meredith owned stations in kansas city hartford new haven and bay city michigan were later added to the wgcl hub in 2010 . meredith operates a similar hub at kpho tv in phoenix to handle its las vegas and portland stations . on march 12 2011 wgcl tv as well as wsb tv became the first stations in the atlanta area to begin offering mobile dtv broadcasts . wgcl logo used from 2009 to february 25 2014 . on january 18 2011 meredith corporation entered into a local marketing agreement with the turner broadcasting system owner of wpch tv that would result in wpch vacating its studios on techwood drive and merging its operations with wgcl at its studios in the city s home park neighborhood . 10 production of the station s 45 atlanta braves broadcasts was also transferred from turner sports to fox sports south as a result . 10 the lma with meredith ended turner broadcasting s yearly sponsorship of piedmont park s screen on the green in 2011 . ironically while wpch is the junior partner in the arrangement the station formerly known as wtcg until 1980 and wtbs from 1980 to 2004 was the stronger of the two stations until the late 1980s . the change in ownership didn t make much of a difference in wgcl s ratings . it has spent the last two decades since the affiliation switch as one of cbs weakest affiliates and has usually been the weakest big four affiliate in atlanta a significant change from the days when waga was one of the strongest cbs