(+1) 234 567 21

December 17, 1976…WTCG Atlanta Becomes First US Satellite TV Station

•

Eyes Of A Generation.com


December 17, 1976…WTCG Atlanta Becomes First US Satellite TV Station

At 1:00 Eastern Time the afternoon of December 17, 1976, WTCG’s signal was beamed via the Satcom 1 satellite to four cable systems in Grand Island, Nebraska; Newport News, Virginia; Troy, Alabama and Newton, Kansas. The first broadcast was the 1948 film ‘Deep Waters’, which had been in progress for 30 minutes on channel 17 in Atlanta.

Instantly, WTCG went from being a small independent television station that was available only in Georgia and neighboring states to a major coast-to-coast operation. WTCG became a so-called “superstation” and set a precedent for today’s basic cable television. By 1978, WTCG was carried on cable providers in all 50 states.

WTCG became only the second US cable channel to transmit its programming via satellite; HBO was the first, on September 30, 1975 but cable subscribers were required to pay extra to receive that service. Ted Turner’s innovation signaled the start of the basic cable revolution. WTCG (for Turner Communications Group) changed its call sign to WTBS (Turner Broadcasting System) on August 27, 1979.

Below, Atlanta legend, and later national legend Bill Tush talks about those early days and the infamously insane news casts he hosted back then. What a Hoot! Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bg5S8d0UCl8

Bill Tush was a vital part of the beginning of Superstation WTBS and CNN. People in Atlanta saw something we will never see again and still talk about today….

Source

6 responses to “December 17, 1976…WTCG Atlanta Becomes First US Satellite TV Station”

  1. DDinTV

    I remember as a kid in 1979 when our local cable system in Lansing, MI added WTCG overnight. Bill Tush’s newscasts were a hoot! I think the cable company picked it up overnight-only due to the cost for the feed. WTCG/WTBS wasn’t added full-time until around 1981.

  2. Carson Cooper

    They also used to use Pat Metheny American Garage for their bumper music. Way cool!

  3. Dennis Degan

    When I worked at WRET in Charlotte (Turner’s OTHER TV station) in 1977, Tush would phone in a newscast to us that we ran just before sign-off at around 2am each night. He was always a character, even when doing this silly audio-only news headline report. Loved talking to the ‘real’ Bill Tush before and after the serious news report recording. Bill should have been a bigger star, but he stayed true to his roots and we loved him for it.

  4. Pat Alder

    Tush and his “Showbiz tonight”

  5. Vernon Swygert

    He was awesome. Loved the show. Saw him at a local Publix one day. Told him he needed his own show again. He was ready to start! Nice guy. Very funny.

  6. Michael Hayne

    Remember him so well!!!
    getting WTBS on Z Channel!

Leave a Reply