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WUVG-DT

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Coordinates:33°48′26.4″N84°20′21.5″W/ 33.807333°N 84.339306°W/33.807333; -84.339306
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WUVG-DT
CityAthens, Georgia
Channels
Branding
  • Univision 34 Atlanta;Noticias 34 Atlanta(newscasts)
  • UniMás Atlanta(DT2)
Programming
Affiliations
Ownership
Owner
History
First air date
April 18, 1989(35 years ago)(1989-04-18)
Former call signs
  • WNGM-TV (1989–1999)
  • WHOT-TV (1999–2001)
  • WUVG (2001–2003)
  • WUVG-TV (2004–2009)
Former channel number(s)
  • Analog:34 (UHF, 1989–2009)
  • Digital:48 (UHF, until 2019)
Call signmeaning
Univision Georgia
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID48813
ERP1,000kW
HAAT328 m (1,076 ft)
Transmitter coordinates33°48′26.4″N84°20′21.5″W/ 33.807333°N 84.339306°W/33.807333; -84.339306
Translator(s)35 (UHF) Athens
Links
Public license information
Websitewww.univision/local/atlanta-wuvg

WUVG-DT(channel 34) is atelevision stationlicensed toAthens, Georgia,United States, broadcasting the Spanish-languageUnivisionandUniMásnetworks to theAtlantaarea.Owned and operatedbyTelevisaUnivision,the station maintains studios on Peachtree Road NE in theBuckheadsection of Atlanta and a primary transmitter inNorth Druid Hills.

WUVG-DT was established as WNGM-TV, a station serving the Athens area, in 1989. Its focus broadened to Atlanta in the 1990s as the station was sold several times, airing home shopping, music videos, and then an independent format under the ownership ofUSA Broadcasting.It switched to Univision in January 2002, making it the first Spanish-language station in the market.

History

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WNGM-TV

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The station went on air on April 18, 1989, as WNGM-TV,[2]with thecall signstanding for "North Georgia Mountains".[3]Initially the station ran a general entertainment format withcartoons,classic and recentsitcoms,blocks ofcountry musicprogramming, old movies andsyndicatedfirst-run shows; it also aired a local newscast and magazine program focusing on north Georgia.[2]

WNGM-TV was owned by a company including the final two applicants for the channel: Georgia Mountain Corporation and Sunbelt Television, Inc., which merged their bids in 1985 and won the construction permit.[3]Its transmitter was located 60 miles (97 km) away from Atlanta, reaching Athens with a grade A signal while sending a very weak signal into easternmetro Atlanta.As a result, many syndicators sold the rights for shows that were already on the Atlanta stations to WNGM. The station provided an alternative to viewers in areas which had moderateVHFreception and poorUHFreception from Atlanta;Clarke Countyhad a cable penetration rate of 83 percent, 30 points above the national average.[3]

NGM Television Partners, the licensee, sold the station for $10 million in 1996 to Whitehead Media, which the next year formalized a time brokerage agreement under whichPaxson Communications Corporationbegan operating channel 34.[4]However, Paxson opted the next year to divest itself of extra stations in markets where it controlled more than one, such as Atlanta, where it ownedWPXA-TV.[5]The $73.5 million sale by Paxson of the operating rights and by Whitehead of the licenses for WNGM-TV andWOACinCanton, Ohio,to Global Broadcasting Systems, Inc.,[6]was terminated a month later when the buyer failed to post an escrow deposit.[7]

From 1996 until September 1, 1997, WNGM-TV aired Paxson's Infomall TVinfomercialnetwork, then switching to separate but similar home shopping programming, which was an issue at play in a cable carriage dispute withMediaOneover whether it had to be placed on a series of major Atlanta-area cable systems.[8]

"Hotlanta 34"

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In 1998,USA Broadcastingacquired WNGM for $50 million.[9]It was part of a larger deal between Paxson and USA that allowed Paxson-owned stations inNew OrleansandMemphisto make early exits from affiliation contracts with theHome Shopping Network,gave Paxson a station servingPortland, Oregon,and put USA Broadcasting in every top 10 market butDetroit.[10]After the USA acquisition, the home shopping programming was dropped and replaced with music videos fromThe Box—which led the FCC to greenlight the station's push for must-carry in the Atlanta area that August.[8]

In November 1999, WNGM was the third of four USAB stations afterMiami'sWAMI-TVto convert to USAB's new "CityVision" general entertainment format and became "Hotlanta 34" under new WHOT-TV call letters. The centerpiece of the plan was a three-year contract for the rights to telecastAtlanta Hawksbasketball.[11]The move was made afterWATL(channel 36) opted not to renew its deal because of the expanding program offerings ofThe WB.[12]However, after the format failed to take off where it was introduced and the company registered operating losses of $62 million in 2000, Diller opted to sell the stations to Univision in 2001.[13]

Univision Georgia

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While some of the stations were used to startTelefutura,a second network, the purchase gave Univision its first ever broadcast outlet in Atlanta, where the Latino population had grown by 362 percent during the 1990s.[14]Under new WUVG call letters, channel 34 changed to Spanish-language programming on January 14, 2002.[15]While local news was not immediately added, WUVG began producing a public affairs program in Spanish,Nuestra Georgia(Our Georgia), the first such program on Atlanta television since 1997.[15]

News operation

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WUVG launched its news department in April 2011, with two daily half-hour evening newscasts at 6 and 11 p.m.—branded asNoticias 34 Atlanta(News 34 Atlanta)—anchored by Amanda Ramirez (now atWLII-DT) and Gianncarlo Cifuentes.[16]The station also maintained a partnership with WGCL-TV (nowWANF) for news coverage.[17]

The station's other local program is a weekend newsmagazine,Conexión Fin de Semana.[18]

Technical information

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Subchannels

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The station's signal ismultiplexed:

Subchannels of WUVG-DT[19]
Channel Res. Aspect Short name Programming
34.1 720p 16:9 WUVG-DT Univision
34.2 UNM-HD UniMás
34.3 480i 4:3 GetTV Get
34.4 16:9 MYSTERY Ion Mystery
34.5 ShopLC Shop LC
34.6 NVSN Nuestra Visión

Translator

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WUVG-DT maintains a digital replacement translator, which supplements channel 34's coverage in the city of license, Athens.

City of license Call sign Channel ERP HAAT Facility ID Transmitter coordinates
Athens WUVG-DT (DRT) 35 13.5 kW 111.3 m (365.2 ft) 48813 33°59′35.9″N83°24′55.9″W/ 33.993306°N 83.415528°W/33.993306; -83.415528(WUVG-DT (DRT))

Analog-to-digital conversion

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WUVG shut down its analog signal, overUHFchannel 34, on June 12, 2009, as part of thefederally mandated transition from analog to digital television.[20]The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 48, usingvirtual channel34; it was later repacked to channel 18.

References

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  1. ^"Facility Technical Data for WUVG-DT".Licensing and Management System.Federal Communications Commission.
  2. ^abBatts, Mollie (April 19, 1989)."Athens television hits the airwaves".The Red and Black.RetrievedSeptember 9,2021.
  3. ^abcGoldberg, Steve (February 14, 1989)."Hometown TV coming to Athens".Atlanta Journal-Constitution.pp. 1D,9D.RetrievedSeptember 16,2021.
  4. ^"Paxson to buy TV station in N. Carolina".Miami Herald.May 1, 1996. p. 7B.
  5. ^Waresh, Julie (April 3, 1997)."Paxson selling 2 stations".p. 1D,7D.RetrievedSeptember 16,2021.
  6. ^"Paxson sales bring $150 million".Palm Beach Post.April 4, 1997. p. 1D.RetrievedSeptember 16,2021.
  7. ^"Paxson terminates pact with Global".Miami Herald.May 17, 1997. p. 1C.RetrievedSeptember 16,2021.
  8. ^ab"Memorandum Opinion & Order (DA 98-1654)".Federal Communications Commission. August 18, 1998.RetrievedSeptember 16,2021.
  9. ^"Paxson planning to buy Oregon TV station".Palm Beach Post.March 13, 1998. p. 2D.RetrievedSeptember 16,2021.
  10. ^Paxman, Andrew (March 12, 1998)."Paxson, Diller shop & swap TV outlets".Variety.RetrievedSeptember 16,2021.
  11. ^Littleton, Cynthia (September 16, 1999)."Diller will Hawk WHOT in Atlanta".Variety.RetrievedSeptember 16,2021.
  12. ^Rogers, Prentis (September 16, 1999)."WHOT to carry Hawks".Atlanta Journal-Constitution.p. G6.RetrievedSeptember 16,2021.
  13. ^McClellan, Steve (December 11, 2000)."Univision speaks Barry's lingo: $1.1B"(PDF).Broadcasting & Cable.pp. 18–19.RetrievedSeptember 7,2021.
  14. ^Druckenmiller, John (May 17, 2001)."Atlanta TV station to switch to all-Spanish".Atlanta Journal-Constitution.pp. A1,A19.RetrievedSeptember 16,2021.
  15. ^abRodriguez, Yolanda (January 14, 2002). "International Atlanta: Spanish TV station is now live on metro dial".Atlanta Journal-Constitution.pp. B1,B5.
  16. ^Brown Rodríguez, Alberto (April 14, 2011). "Univision 34 Atlanta lanza noticiero diario" [Univision 34 Atlanta launches daily newscast].MundoHispánico.p. A30.ProQuest865391146– via ProQuest.
  17. ^Miller, Mark K. (August 31, 2017)."WGCL, WUVG Form News Sharing Partnership".TVNewsCheck.RetrievedSeptember 16,2021.
  18. ^Malone, Michael (December 9, 2019)."Traffic at the Top in Atlanta Ratings Race".Broadcasting & Cable.RetrievedSeptember 16,2021.
  19. ^"Digital TV Market Listing for WUVG-DT".RabbitEars.RetrievedJanuary 26,2017.
  20. ^"DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds"(PDF).Archived fromthe original(PDF)on August 29, 2013.RetrievedMarch 24,2012.
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