 | |
| |
|---|---|
| City | Hardeeville, South Carolina |
| Channels | |
| Branding | Fox 28 |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
|
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| History | |
First air date | September 1, 1985 (39 years ago) (1985-09-01) |
Former channel number(s) |
|
| Independent (1985–1986) | |
Call sign meaning | Thomas G. Sonsini, vice president of founding owner American Communications & Television[1] |
| Technical information[2] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 27245 |
| ERP | 957 kW |
| HAAT | 452.1 m (1,483 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 32°2′46″N81°20′26″W / 32.04611°N 81.34056°W /32.04611; -81.34056 |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | fox28savannah |
WTGS (channel 28) is atelevision station licensed toHardeeville, South Carolina, United States, serving as theFox affiliate for theSavannah, Georgia, area. Owned bySinclair Broadcast Group, WTGS maintains transmitter facilities on Fort Argyle Road/SR 204 in westernunincorporatedChatham County, Georgia, while its studios are located in theSavannah Morning News building on Chatham Parkway in Savannah.
WTGS went on the air in 1985 as the first independent television station for Savannah and the southern Lowcountry and the lone commercial television station in southeastern South Carolina. Originally built by a Florida company, a change in federal regulations on cable carriage that took effect weeks before starting up nearly carried the station to the brink of bankruptcy. Between 1996 and 2014, operations of WTGS were related to those ofWJCL (channel 22), Savannah'sABC affiliate, by a series of operating agreements. During much of this period, WJCL produced local newscasts for air on WTGS. However, the two stations were split in 2014 when ownerLIN Media and its affiliates opted to divest WJCL and WTGS to separate entities in order to complete a merger. The two stations continue to share office space, though Sinclair later brought news production in-house in 2016. From 2016 until its cancellation in 2024, WTGS's 10 p.m. newscast was produced fromWPDE-TV inMyrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Business and Minority Coalition Broadcasters, Inc., a consortium of six investors fromCharleston, filed an application with theFederal Communications Commission (FCC) to build a new television station on channel 28 in Hardeeville (15 miles (24 km) from the allocation city of Savannah, the maximum distance permitted), which would transmit from a site onSt. Helena Island and reach audiences fromKiawah Island in the northeast to Savannah in the southwest.[3] The FCC approved the license on November 17, 1981, and it took the call sign WTGS, with a planned start date in September 1982.[4]
The WTGS construction permit was purchased in 1983 by American Communications and Television (AC&T), a company based inGainesville, Florida.[5] This cable and communications firm was making an incursion into new full-power and low-powerindependent stations across the country.[6] It was another two years before movement began in earnest to build the station, whose founding general manager and 20% owner, John Bailie, had previously built two other Southern independents:WPTY inMemphis andWAWS-TV inJacksonville.[7][1][8] Planned programming included movies and children's programming in the morning and afternoon, with few commercial interruptions;[7] Bailie stated that WTGS was the first TV station "programmed exclusively for theLowcountry".[9] The station signed on September 1, 1985, as the market's first general entertainment independent outlet.[10]
On July 19, 1985 (a few months before WTGS officially signed on), a federal judge struck down the "must-carry" rule imposed by the FCC, which required cable television operators to carry all commercial over-the-air stations within 35 miles (56 km) of its community of service. This decision was challenging for WTGS, as Bailie felt that it would cause the new station to become "squeezed out of the market".[1] By August 30, Savannah Cablevision, along with seven other local cable operators, had agreed to carry WTGS. However, Plantation Cablevision andHargray Cablevision, along with "dozens" of other local cable operators, had refused to carry WTGS.[1] WTGS was one of the first stations to pay for carriage on a cable system, leasing a channel from Savannah Cablevision for $2,000 a month (equivalent to $5,039 in 2021).[1] In particular, WTGS stated that Plantation Cablevision refused to carry the station, as they considered it to be competition; however, Plantation Cablevision stated that they did not carry WTGS due to the removal of the must-carry rule.[11] Plantation Cablevision also denied having wanted WTGS to pay for access to its cable system.[10] The controversy continued that September, when Plantation Cablevision announced a newemergency warning system forHilton Head Island. This angered Bailie, as he was concerned that those who did not subscribe to Plantation Cablevision's service would not be able to receive emergency information; WTGS decided to create its own emergency warning system instead.[12]
The same month, Bailie went toCongress at the invitation of broadcasting groups, in order to speak to congressional leaders who were concerned that the repeal of the must-carry rule would hurt independent stations such as WTGS. The next month, Bailie revisited Congress in order to comment to the House Copyright Committee about bills in consideration at the time which would reform "compulsory license" rules.[13] That same month, Plantation Cablevision was "carefully documenting requests" for WTGS to be added to its cable lineup[14] and had sent out a questionnaire to subscribers in order to measure what viewers liked and disliked about the cable system.[15] On December 27, 1985, Plantation Cablevision started to carry WTGS; the addition of WTGS removed Charleston stationsWCBD andWCIV from the lineup.[16] WTGS was a charter affiliate of Fox at its October 1986 launch.[17]
In May 1987, the station was profiled on theMacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, by which time it was so near to bankruptcy—due to its diminished ability to reach all TV homes in the region—that Bailie lived and slept in his office and drove a taxi cab the station had bought to promote the showTaxi.[18] Later that year, AC&T sold itself to new Florida-based owners, giving it an infusion of $500,000 in cash.[19] The new ownership moved the station's facilities south from Hardeeville to a site inChatham County, Georgia, which would not be limited by height restrictions on a tower and be more centrally located for advertising sales purposes.[20] The new tower was activated in February 1990.[21] AC&T sold its two remaining stations, WTGS andKOOG inOgden, Utah, to Trivest Financial Services Corporation in 1991.[22]
Licensee Hilton Head Television sold the station in 1996 for $7 million to LP Media, a company owned by Julius Curtis Lewis III. His father,Julius Curtis Lewis Jr., was the majority owner and namesake of WJCL television.[23] The two stations came under common operation at that time. Lewis sold WJCL in 1998 to Grapevine Communications of Atlanta for $19 million, and in a parallel transaction, LP Media sold WTGS to Brissette Communications, owned by Paul Brissette, for $20 million.[24] After Grapevine Communications, having purchased and changed its name to GOCOM in 1999, becamePiedmont Television Holdings (owned by Brissette), WTGS was sold to Bluenose Broadcasting, a company owned by members of the Brissette family. Parkin Broadcasting purchased WTGS for $17.5 million in 2007, in tandem withNew Vision Television acquiring WJCL—and WJCL's option to buy WTGS's assets—for the same price.[25] The two stations moved out of WJCL's longtime Abercorn Street studios to the vacant third floor of theSavannah Morning News building in 2011, establishing a content partnership with the newspaper.[26] In 2012,LIN TV Corporation purchased New Vision Television and WJCL, which included a tandem sale of WTGS and two other stations that New Vision operated—KTKA-TV inTopeka, Kansas, andWYTV inYoungstown, Ohio—to Vaughan Media.[27][28]
DuringSuper Bowl XLVIII, WTGS notably aired a two-minute long advertisement by localpersonal injury lawyer Jamie Casino, which featured athriller-styled retelling of how he stoppedrepresenting "cold-hearted villains" to avenge the shooting death of his brother Michael Biancosino in 2012, culminating with Casino digging through a grave with asledgehammer. The ad gained media attention following the game as aviral video, and while the station did not provide exact numbers, a WTGS spokesperson stated that the ad was its most expensive advertising sale in history.[29][30]
On March 21, 2014, LIN Media entered into an agreement to merge withMedia General in a $1.6 billion deal. Because Media General already owned NBC affiliateWSAV-TV (channel 3), the companies were required to sell either WSAV or WJCL to another station owner in order to comply with FCC ownership rules as well as planned changes to those rules regarding same-market television stations which would prohibitsharing agreements.[31][32][33]
On August 20, Media General announced that it would keep WSAV and sell WJCL toHearst Television. It also would swap WTGS and television stations inProvidence, Rhode Island, andGreen Bay, Wisconsin, in exchange for properties that Sinclair owned or was acquiring inColorado Springs, Colorado;Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; andTampa. Sinclair also acquired the right to purchase other WTGS assets from WTGS Television LLC.[34][35] The sale was completed on December 19.[36]
Through a news share agreement established in 1996, WJCL produced a nightly prime time newscast on WTGS for the station from 1996 to 2016. On June 1, 2016, WJCL ceased producing the newscast for WTGS, and Sinclair took production in-house.[37] The news program was produced and presented fromWPDE-TV inMyrtle Beach, using a local staff of seven.[38] Sinclair ended production of WTGS's local newscasts on May 31, 2024, replacing them with Sinclair's syndicatedThe National Desk.[39]
The station's signal ismultiplexed:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28.1 | 720p | 16:9 | WTGS-HD | Fox |
| 28.2 | 480i | Comet | Comet TV | |
| 28.3 | 4:3 | Antenna | Antenna TV | |
| 28.4 | 16:9 | TBD | TBD | |
| 28.5 | CHARGE! | Charge! |
WTGS discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, overUHF channel 28, on February 17, 2009, the original target date on which full-power television stations in the United States were totransition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (which was later pushed back to June 12, 2009).[41] The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 27 to channel 28.[42] It was thenrepacked to channel 26 in 2020.[40]
Now for a programming note. This will be our last broadcast ofFox 28 News at 10 in Savannah. Starting Monday, June 3, you can watchThe National Desk...
| Broadcast TV stations |
|  | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Channels |
| |||||||||||||||||||||
| Programming | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Acquisitions | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||