the new york city television station that formerly used the slogan from 1976 to 1986 see wpix . for the pittsburgh television station that used the slogan from 1976 to 1979 see wiic . this article needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . december 2012 learn how and when to remove this template message wxia tv atlanta georgia united states branding 11 alive general 11 alive news newscasts slogan holding the powerful accountable channels digital 10 vhf virtual 11 psip iptv 1004 southern fibernet affiliations .1 nbc .2 weather info zone .3 justice network owner tegna media pacific and southern llc first air date september 30 1951 ; 65 years ago 1951 09 30 call letters meaning xi 11 in roman numerals former analog channel atlanta alive sister station s watl wmaz tv macon former callsigns wltv 1951 1953 wlwa 1953 1962 waii tv 1962 1968 wqxi tv 1968 1973 former channel number s analog 8 vhf 1951 1953 11 vhf 1953 2009 former affiliations dt1 abc 1951 1980 dt2 nbc weather plus transmitter power 80 kw height 303 m 994 ft facility id 51163 transmitter coordinates 33 45 23.9 n 84 19 54.7 w 33.756639 n 84.331861 w 33.756639 ; 84.331861 coordinates 33 45 23.9 n 84 19 54.7 w 33.756639 n 84.331861 w 33.756639 ; 84.331861 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website www.11alive.com wxia tv virtual channel 11 vhf digital channel 10 is an nbc affiliated television station located in atlanta georgia united states . the station is owned by tegna inc as part of a duopoly with mynetworktv affiliate watl channel 36 . the two stations has shared studio facilities and offices located at one monroe place on the north end of midtown atlanta ; wxia s transmitter located in the city s east section near kirkwood . on cable the station is also available on comcast channel 6 and in high definition on digital channel 806 . wxia tv is popularly known within the atlanta metropolitan area by its longtime on air brand 11 alive which the station has used since 1976 . contents 1 history 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 programming 4 news operation 4.1 notable current on air staff 4.2 notable former on air staff 5 see also 6 references 7 external links history edit the station signed on the air on september 30 1951 as wltv an abc affiliate on vhf channel 8 the second atlanta station on this channel after wsb tv moved to channel 2 a year before and was originally owned by a group of atlanta businessmen . in 1953 the station was bought by cincinnati based crosley broadcasting corporation who changed its call letters to wlwa often rendered as wlw a . this aligned their atlanta property with crosley s other television stations who took their call letters from its flagship radio station wlw . crosley then moved the station s over the air frequency to channel 11 in order to alleviate signal interference with wrom tv channel 9 in nearby rome which later moved north to chattanooga tennessee as wtvc with channel 8 being reallocated for non commercial educational use by the federal communications commission in may 1960 wgtv was started by the university of georgia on channel 8 in 1960 . in 1962 wlwa was purchased by indianapolis businessman richard fairbanks as part of a settlement between crosley and fairbanks . crosley had started wlwi now wthr in indianapolis in 1957 but fairbanks insisted that the last vhf allocation in indianapolis should go to a local owner . eventually the two companies agreed to what amounted to a trade in which crosley kept wlwi while fairbanks bought wlwa . the atlanta station s callsign then became waii tv using the slogan the eyes of atlanta and the calls standing for atlanta s 11 ii . the station was sold to pacific & southern broadcasting in 1968 and became known as wqxi tv aligning it with wqxi am and fm the calls originally used on channel 36 currently watl from 1954 to 1955 . pacific & southern later merged with combined communications . the station assumed the wxia tv call letters on december 25 1973 . in september 1976 wxia first adopted 11 alive as its on air branding as part of combined s practice of using the word alive as part of the brand of most of their stations two stations not owned by combined also adopted the 11 alive branding that same year then independent station wpix now a cw affiliate in new york city which used the brand until 1986 and nbc affiliate wiic in pittsburgh now wpxi which used it until 1979 . in 1979 combined merged with the gannett company in what became the largest media merger in history up to that time . following the acquisition most of the former combined stations stopped using the alive brand though wxia continued to call itself 11 alive . on september 1 1980 wxia swapped affiliations with wsb tv and became an nbc affiliate . this could be traced to ratings nbc slid to a very poor third place ; meanwhile abc was in first place for most of the late 1970s and was seeking out affiliates with higher viewership in many markets including atlanta . abc thus jumped at the chance to affiliate with longtime market leader wsb tv . during the summer of 1980 the two stations conducted an experiment unusual for a large market wxia aired nbc daytime shows in the morning and abc daytime shows in the afternoon while wsb aired abc shows in the morning and nbc shows in the afternoons . when the experiment was over on that same day both stations swapped affiliations full time . in august 1994 gannett dropped the 11 alive moniker as part of the introduction of new on air graphics for its newscasts and promos ; however the brand was so well established in atlanta that viewer outcry forced gannett to restore it after only a month ; even so the 11 alive brand was not fully restored until 1996 when the 11 alive news title was restored for its newscasts which were retitled 11 news with the removal of the 11 alive brand . on june 5 2006 gannett entered into an agreement to purchase watl from the tribune company for 180 million creating atlanta s first television duopoly ; 1 the sale was finalized on august 7 2006 . watl occasionally airs nbc programs when wxia is not able due to extended breaking news and severe weather coverage or special programming . as a result of the watl acquisition wxia management decided to house the combined operation at watl s facility at one monroe place leaving wxia s longtime studios at 1611 west peachtree street ; wxia and watl began broadcasting from the new studios on july 27 2008 . around the first week of october 2012 gannett entered a dispute against dish network regarding compensation fees and dish s autohop commercial skip feature on its hopper digital video recorders . gannett ordered that dish discontinue autohop on the account that it is affecting advertising revenues for wxia and watl . gannett threatened to pull both stations should the skirmish continue beyond october 7 and dish and gannett fail to reach an agreement . 2 3 the two parties eventually reached an agreement after extending the deadline for a few hours . 4 on june 29 2015 the gannett company split in two with one side specializing in print media and the other side specializing in broadcast and digital media . wxia and watl were retained by the latter company named tegna . 5 digital television edit digital channels edit the station s digital channel is multiplexed channel video aspect psip short name programming 6 11.1 1080i 16 9 wxia tv main wxia tv programming nbc 11.2 480i wxia wx weather information zone wiz 11.3 4 3 wxia jn justice network the nbc weather plus service was discontinued on december 1 2008 ; however some stations including wxia continued to air national and local radar with weather plus branding supplied by the weather channel through the end of december . in january wxia rebranded the channel 11alive weather and kept the l bar with weather information from the weather channel but shifted the remainder of the content to a local radar loop and eliminated the background music that aired with it . it was later rebranded as the 11alive weather information zone or wiz in 2010 along with the weather segments during newscasts on the main channel . this service was also carried on digital cable in the atlanta area through charter communications and comcast . in early december 2010 the wiz was moved to watl and aired on channel 36.2 while 11.2 continued to air a static message graphic directing over the air viewers to tune there and re scan if necessary . one month later on january 10 the channel was removed completely from wxia and 11.3 became 11.2 before being reversed the following day . in 2011 atlanta based bounce tv launched on september 26 with watl 36.2 as its de facto flagship affiliate with the wiz channel being restored two weeks later on 36.3 . in early october 11.2 again became universal sports and 11.3 was deleted and was reversed again a week later with wiz bounced back to its original channel 11.2 . in november 2011 11.3 was deleted leaving 36.3 as the sole channel for universal sports until it became a cable channel in 2012 . eventually wiz was converted from being presented using internal station weather computers to presentation and programming from the local accuweather channel . but an agreement with waga tv and accuweather it has made wxia switch its programming and presentation to weathernation tv . the station added universal sports at the beginning of may 2009 on channel 11.3 added it to 36.3 in october 2011 and then deleted it from 11.3 in november 2011 . however it used severe video data compression which left very obvious blurriness and pixelation during high motion scenes common in sports . this low bitrate sacrifice protects the quality of the main hd channel and is unavoidable because universal sports transmits its programming via satellite in this highly compressed form 4.48 mbit s . it was therefore not originally transmitted on sister station watl virtual channel 36.3 digital channel 25 because it would look the same there and that station s bandwidth is being used for mobile television atsc m h including wxia s mobile channels . additionally mobile communications work better on higher uhf tv channels than on low vhf ones . wxia tv and its sister station watl tv have plans for mobile dtv simulcasts of their primary subchannels 11.1 and 36.1 respectively but have not yet when begun transmissions . 7 8 analog to digital conversion edit wxia tv originally had the only vhf allotment for digital television in the area until wgtv channel 8 was moved from uhf 22 to vhf 12 now 8 . the station shut down its analog signal over vhf channel 11 on june 12 2009 at 12 30 p.m. after reporting on a concert singer miley cyrus would hold in atlanta on november 13 as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television . 9 the station s digital signal remained on its pre transition vhf channel 10 10 using psip to display wxia tv s virtual channel as 11 on digital television receivers . programming edit the station previously aired a program called noonday for many years beginning with the news at noon and at 12 30 continuing on for the rest of the hour with features akin somewhat to the today show