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"http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/United_States" class="copylinks">United States
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"http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Cable_Television" class="copylinks">Cable Network
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Time Warner Inc
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December 17 , 1976
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TBS Superstation
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http://wwwtbscom
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is a popular
American Cable TV Network that shows sports and variety programming. It is currently owned by
Time Warner .
TBS (which originally stood for
Turner Broadcasting System ) was originally , a
UHF Terrestrial Television Station owned by media mogul
Ted Turner that broadcasted from
Atlanta, Georgia , during the late
1970s . WTCG reportedly stood for "'''W'''atch '''T'''his '''C'''hannel '''G'''row" (though the "TCG" officially stood for
Turner Communications Group , the forerunner to Turner Broadcasting System).
TBS is a national cable channel, but it is not available in the Atlanta market, due to
WTBS , which carries a nearly identical schedule, plus the required
Public Affairs and educational "E/I" programming for children.
At 1 p.m. on
December 17 ,
1976 , WTCG Channel 17's signal was beamed via the
Satcom 1 Satellite to its four cable systems in
Grand Island, Nebraska ;
Newport News, Virginia ;
Troy, Alabama ; and
Newton, Kansas . All four cable systems started receiving the sleepy
1948 Dana Andrews –
Cesar Romero film ''Deep Waters'' that was already in progress. The movie had started 30 minutes earlier. WTCG went from being a little television station no one was watching to a major
TV Network that every household outside of the 675,000 in Atlanta was receiving coast-to-coast. WTCG became a so-called
Superstation and created a precedent of today's basic
Cable Television .
HBO had moved to satellite transmissions to distribute its signal nationally in
1975 , but that was a service cable subscribers were made to pay extra to receive. Ted Turner's innovation signaled the start of the basic cable revolution.
WTCG was re-launched in
1979 as . The new call letters were purchased with an equipment donation to the
MIT Student Radio station, now
WMBR .
The channel 17 transmitter is located at 1018 West Peachtree Street NW, with antenna located on a large self-supporting tower. The building at this site was once home to the studios of
WAGA and later channel 17 as WJRJ. Soon after being purchased by Turner, the studios were moved to the former Progressive Club site a few blocks west.
Throughout the 1980s to the early '90s, TBS also carried the
Electra teletext service on its
VBI . Electra was discontinued in 1993 due to a lack of funding.
Currently, the focus of TBS is comedy-related, focusing on
Sitcoms and originally produced
Reality series, using the slogan "Very Funny." It is intended as a direct contrast to sister network
TNT , which currently focuses on drama-related programs.
are from master documentation and were not aired in black & white]]
Over the years TBS has had several
Logo s and name changes. From
1979 the name was SuperStation WTBS. In
1987 the "W" from the "TBS" name was dropped to emphasize the network's national programming prominence. By the fall of
1989 SuperStation TBS was renamed to TBS Superstation to reflect the strong national standing of the network.
In
1991 the word
Superstation was removed from the on-air logos and ads and remained that way until December,
1996 when
TBS celebrated it's 20th
Anniversary the word Superstation was brought back.
On June 29, 1981, TBS began to use "Turner Time".
{Link without Title} While other television offerings generally began at the top and bottom of hours, TBS decided to begin airing programs five minutes later, at :05 and :35.
By using "Turner Time," TBS programs were listed under their own time entry in
TV Guide , thus providing more exposure to the channel's programming. It also encouraged channel surfers who couldn't find anything interesting to watch at the top of the hour, to still be able to watch a TBS program without missing the first few minutes. Most importantly, since shows ended five minutes later than normal, it usually encouraged viewers to continue watching TBS rather than flip to watch another program already in progress.
TBS scrapped Turner Time in 1997, and now schedules programs at the top and bottom of the hour.
One type of programming that TBS does not produce is news. Nevertheless, TBS did produce a twenty-minute newscast from
1975 to
1979 . The program, entitled ''17 Update Early in the Morning'', was taped at the end of the workday and aired around 3 AM or 4 AM
EST between movies. Its format is similar to
SNL 's ''
Weekend Update '' and, to a certain extent,
Comedy Central 's ''
The Daily Show ''. The timeslot and the snide content was Turner's reaction to FCC's rules at the time reqiring stations to carry some news and informational content -- TBS must carry them, but the FCC couldn't, and didn't, say when they must be carried, or that the news must have a serious tone. The news show was cancelled months before Turner began his serious news venture - CNN.
WTBS also began airing its own newscast called "TBS EVENING NEWS" which was produced by CNN.
In the Atlanta area, WTBS/17 simulcasts 30-minutes of
CNN Headline News at 6am ET. This is only carried in Atlanta and cable systems receiving this feed.
TBS airs
Movies , mostly of the comedy genre due to its format. It is often criticized for its sometimes poor and/or obvious censoring and editing of some movies. (For example, saying "Oh, shoot" while faced with
Submachine Gun s is not exactly believable
Lobby, The Matrix .) However, recently a few movies shown late at night have used some of the original cursing. TBS frequently airs movies interspersed with other content and commentary.
Dinner And A Movie includes cooking, while
Movie And A Makeover adds fashion content.
Several sports do and have aired on TBS. Coverage of the formerly-
Ted Turner owned
Atlanta Braves Major League Baseball team is perhaps TBS' signature program. Turner once famously tried to get
Andy Messersmith to use his jersey, which was #17, to promote TBS in its early years.
Major League Baseball immediately stopped it because team jerseys are not supposed to have ads other than that of the jersey manufacturer.
College Football games from the
Big 12 and
Pac-10 also air.
National Basketball Association games were aired before being moved entirely to
Turner Network Television ; some
Atlanta Hawks (also owned by Turner) games were shown on TBS until the TBS and TNT telecasts became subject to blackout in the home-team's market (this restriction was dropped when TNT gained the right to be the exclusive broadcaster of any game it chose to carry).
Professional Wrestling aired on TBS from 1971-2001 under several different companies including
Jim Barnett -owned
Georgia Championship Wrestling (1971-1984), future rival
Vince McMahon owned
World Wrestling Federation (1984-1985),
Bill Watts ' Mid-South Wrestling, and
Jim Crockett, Jr. 's
Jim Crockett Promotions (1985-1988), which eventually became
Turner owned
World Championship Wrestling (1988-2001).
In addition, select
NASCAR Nextel Cup ,
Busch Series , and
Craftsman Truck Series races were aired on TBS up to the 2000 season. For several years in the late 1990s, the only Cup races aired on TBS were the two races from
Lowe's Motor Speedway , and the July race at
Pocono Raceway . TBS was also the home of the post-season exhibition races held in Japan from 1996-1998. Races were switched to
TNT in 2001 as part of the then-new NASCAR TV deal.
