{"id":11412,"date":"2016-05-23T11:00:25","date_gmt":"2016-05-23T16:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.robertfeder.com\/?p=11412"},"modified":"2016-05-23T11:07:28","modified_gmt":"2016-05-23T16:07:28","slug":"chicagos-very-own-wgn-declares-independence-from-cw-network","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/2016\/05\/23\/chicagos-very-own-wgn-declares-independence-from-cw-network\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Chicago\u2019s Very Own\u2019 WGN declares independence from CW Network"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"WGN<\/a>

<\/a> WGN studios<\/p><\/div>\n

Tribune Media flagship WGN-Channel 9 <\/a>declared its independence Monday by dropping its affiliation after 10 years with The CW Network.<\/a><\/p>\n

Starting September 1, \u201cChicago\u2019s Very Own\u201d will return to its roots as an independent station with a fully local programming lineup. Additional news, sports and syndicated programming are expected to replace the network shows in primetime and on weekends.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The CW Network<\/p><\/div>\n

In Chicago, The CW Network will move to Fox-owned WPWR-Channel 50,<\/a> the low-rated sister station of WFLD-Channel 32. <\/a>The affiliation change is expected to shift less than $4 million in revenue, according to industry sources.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs an independent television station, we\u2019ll have the opportunity to bring more primetime baseball, basketball and hockey games to Chicago sports fans on weeknights, add some popular syndicated programming, expand our weekend morning news, and take control of all of WGN-TV\u2019s primetime advertising inventory,\u201d Larry Wert, president of Broadcast Media for Tribune Broadcasting, said in a statement Monday. \u201cImportantly, we\u2019ll also avoid having to move any games off of WGN-TV to accommodate network programming.\u201d<\/p>\n

As broadcast home of Cubs and White Sox baseball, Bulls basketball and Blackhawks hockey, WGN has the rights to more than 150 games each year. CW commitments required WGN to farm out more than 30 games a year to other Chicago stations. But not anymore.<\/p>\n

\u201cWGN is the heartbeat of local news and sports in Chicago,\u201d Greg Easterly, vice president and general manager of WGN, said in a statement. \u201cWe\u2019re very excited about the opportunities that lie ahead and the freedom of being an independent station in the nation\u2019s third-largest market.\u201d<\/p>\n

Plans are in the works to add at least one hour of news on Saturday mornings in place of CW Network children\u2019s programming now airing on WGN.<\/p>\n

\"Chicago's<\/a>

Chicago's Very Own<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cChicago\u2019s Very Own\u201d became a WB charter affiliate in 1995 and switched to CW affiliation when UPN and The WB merged to form The CW in 2006. A\u00a0joint venture between Warner Bros. Entertainment and CBS, the network includes such primetime shows as \u201cThe Flash\u201d and \u201cJane The Virgin.\u201d<\/p>\n

As WGN goes its own way, Tribune Media announced Monday it renewed CW affiliation agreements for 12 other stations, including WPIX in New York and KTLA in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are extremely pleased to continue our strong relationship with The CW Network,\u201d Peter Liguori, president and CEO of Tribune Media, said in a statement. \u201cThe primetime entertainment programming offered by The CW drives a passionate and loyal audience to our stations and we are looking forward to a lot of success.\u201d<\/p>\n

Terms of WPWR\u2019s affiliation agreement were not disclosed, but The CW lineup will provide a much-needed boost to a station that has languished in the market since Fox acquired it in 2002 from Fred Eychaner\u2019s Newsweb Corp. for $425 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe love high quality, big budget first-run prime and we love having more original programming,\u201d said Frank Cicha, senior vice president of programming for Fox Television Stations. \u201cBut most of all, we love moving to The CW the same time as \u2018Supergirl.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tribune Media flagship WGN-Channel 9 declared its independence Monday by dropping its affiliation after 10 years with The CW Network. Starting September 1, \u201cChicago\u2019s Very Own\u201d will return to its roots as an independent station with a fully local programming lineup. Additional news, sports and syndicated programming are expected to replace the network shows in... Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11412"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11412"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11420,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11412\/revisions\/11420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}