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TBS also stands for Tokyo Broadcasting System, a Japanese television network.
TBS 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 WTCG, a UHF terrestrial television station owned by media mogul Ted Turner that broadcast from Atlanta, Georgia, during the late 1970s. WTCG reportedly stood for "Watch This Channel Grow" (though the "TCG" officially stood for Turner Communications Group, the forerunner to Turner Broadcasting System).

Availability

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.

History

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 that was available only on UHF in Atlanta 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 set a precedent for 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 WTBS. 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 1990s, 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.

Evolution of the TBS logo

Over the years TBS has had several logos 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 its 20th anniversary the word Superstation was brought back.

Turner Time

On June 29, 1981, TBS began to use "Turner Time." * 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.

Programming

Programs currently airing

Programs formerly airing

Original series

News

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 3:00 AM or 4:00 AM EST between movies. Its format is similar to NBC's Saturday Night Live'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 6:00 AM ET. This is only carried in Atlanta and cable systems receiving this feed.

Movies

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 guns 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.

Sports

Several sports do and have aired on TBS. Coverage of the formerly-Ted Turner-owned Atlanta Braves Major League Baseball team is perhaps TBS's 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.

Nationwide Braves telecasts on TBS will end after the 2007 season, as part of a deal that enable TBS to carry Division Series games and 26 Sunday regular series games. Other than Sundays and playoffs, Braves games will continue on TBS, but only for WTBS viewers in Atlanta, and for TBS viewers within the Braves' territory (Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee). There has been a petition created to keep the games available nationwide on TBS, presumably by an out-of-market fan who will not be able to see the games when the TBS contract takes effect.[http://www.petitiononline.com/031025/petition.html

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.

External links

Time Warner subsidiaries | American television networks | 1976 establishments | TBS network shows

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "TBS (TV network)".

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