WGXA Macon (PHOTOS added)

[gartv]

April marks the 24th anniversary of WGXA-TV in Macon. Also, 2006 marks 10 years as "Fox-24".

Channel 24 signed on as an ABC affiliate in April 1982, the third network affiliate in the Macon area. Previously, ABC programing was "cherry picked" by WMAZ-13 or watched via Columbus and Atlanta stations via cable.

24 switched network affiliations with WPGA-58 and became a FOX affiliate on January 1, 1996. Also at that time, the station's daily 30 minute "News 24" at 5:30 became "Fox 24 News at 10:00", the first hour long "Live" prime time newscast in Macon.

As an ABC affiliate, WGXA's "5:30 Report" was repeated on low power WGMN channel 64 during prime time hours.

ADDED TO ORIGINAL MESSAGE: PHOTOS OF WGXA STUDIO LOCATION in Downtown Macon.

[extvtog]

It is need of some new owner with cash to put into it! Currently they struggle because of lack of funds!

[atlnewsfan03]

I'm not sure as to how long WMGT had its previous newscast product. I'm aware the 1st newscast product, unrelated to the current newscast product was cancelled in 1992. I'm not sure as to why it was canceled.

I'm aware that the station began in 1968 as WCWB. The call letters changed from WCWB to WMGT in 1983.

In 2004, WMGT brought the newscast product back after a long 12-year hiatus, and have now become the 2nd most watched newscast product in the Macon market. I guess you can say that WMGT is still getting its act together.

WGXA has been on since 1982. During the 1st 13 years, they served as an ABC affiliate. Since 1996, served as a FOX affiliate. The newscast product having little or no impact over the last 24 years. It would look like WPGA had no impact with the newscast product during its 3 years on the air. I believe WGXA would probably be better putting the newscast product on hiatus for a while.

WMAZ is still prodominant in the Macon market... 53 years later. Their newscast having the most impact.

[gartv]

All of the Macon area stations have been run with low budgets. Even WMAZ looked and operated cheaply for years because there was never an incentive to put heavy amounts of cash into the operation. Their current live trucks are at least 15 years old while reporters do drive newer Ford Explorer and Toyota 4Runner SUV's. And the recent remodeling of the news studio was the first in over a decade. And back then was nothing more than a fresh coat of paint and that dammed mural background (fake newsroom/control room photo)

When I moved here in 1994, WGXA had NO Live reporting. All news reports were recorded in the field and edited for the daily newscast. That newscast had the feel of a home video with bad lighting. And when new ownership took over they did put a little money into the operation. New vehicles replaced early 80's economy cars and the station bought a used live truck which is rarely used today.

Should WGXA take their news on hiatus? I definitely think NOT! Over the years as a FOX station they dumped their weekend and early evening newscasts. Their 10pm news is the only one in the area and the local talk show afterward is improving. One of its most popular weekly editions is "Lets Talk Law". Recently, WMAZ started a similar program.

The owners of WGXA are Piedmont Television, who owns stations around the country including WJCL ABC-22 in Savannah. Maybe they need to find a way to operate their stations by the example of the ones in their biggest markets.

One problem in this area is that it is hard to break with tradition. And people here have a tradition of watching the ONLY easily assessable TV news (ie, the strongest signal and most dependable). And that happens to be WMAZ as the only VHF (ch13) signal in town. This was always typical of smaller markets with more UHF stations than VHF. Of course with cable and local stations on satellite, this is not the concern any longer.

Much of the success of WMGT is in their timing and professionalism. They are putting on a good product and have the distinction of being the first all-digital news department in Macon. WMGT renovated a historic downtown building and moved from its little cottage at the transmitter giving them plenty of room to grow and restart its newscast with everything fresh and brand new. Also, WMGT and WMAZ have been active in the local community. WGXA and WPGA are not.

However it should be noted that WMGT's 5:30 news does NOT compete with WMAZ, who traditionally has aired reruns of Andy Griffith at 5:30 between their 5 and 6pm newscasts. WMGT does not have a 6pm news. And their 11pm news only gets as many viewers as the popular NBC program leads viewers into it. WGXA and later WPGA operated the same schedule by never having a direct competition with WMAZ at 6pm.

But, for years WMGT has given WMAZ a run for its money by running Jerry Springer and Maury in afternoons against Oprah on WMAZ. And later Judge Judy against Wheel of Fortune on WMAZ. Jerry, Judy and Maury all get strong ratings in these parts.

[atlnewsfan03]

Another idea I have in mind. WGXA go back to serving as an ABC affiliate, and WPGA become a FOX affiliate once again. I doubt very seriously that such an affiliate switch would be likely to take place... WGXA going back to its ABC roots.

I'm guessing that WMAZ is 1 of the best performing CBS affilaites, and WMGT is 1 of the best performing NBC affilaites. I'm not sure on if WGXA has performed well with ABC or FOX... and if WPGA has performed well with FOX or ABC (although they didn't have FOX affiliation for very long).

If WGXA was to see another ownership change. It would appear that the Piedmont ownership isn't really what it's cracked up to be. I'd definitely be praying and hoping that these companies not acquire ownership.

Allbritton Communications... WJLA-TV and NewsChannel 8 in Washington are in the middle of a situation, where this work organization is trying to impose boycotts on this company, and the 2 TV stations are caught in the middle of the whole ordeal.

Sinclair Broadcasting... This company has been shutting down news department operations at prominent FOX, WB, and UPN affiliates, following the NewsCentral fallout and the WB and UPN fallout. They'd end the news department operation so fast before you could say "ABC"... as in WGXA going back to its ABC roots.

Just my thoughts.

[gartv]

I don't know how long the contracts are between ABC and WPGA and WGXA/FOX. But when they made the affiliate switch in 1996 it was strongly noted that both companies had strong relationships with the networks which led to the changes back then.

WMAZ is a stong CBS affiliate because for decades, channel 13 had been the dominant station for such a large part of the state, often the only station many rural households could recieve while the other stations have signals that barely reach 40 miles from the city.

Now if anyone were to purchase a TV station here, I sure hope Clear Channel is NOT one of them becasuse they rule local radio and RUINED local radio. CC could bring a good news product to a struggling station (Mobile's NBC-15 is an example) but I'd rather see a duopoly instead.

I can't believe I just gave "cheap channel" some credit LOL!

WPGA's owner is (Lowell Register) Register communications of Macon. A local family business that also owns three radio stations that have been longtime ABC radio network affilates. Their AM stations used ABC music satalite programing for years and are now Radio Disney affiliates. And the FM station also uses ABC satalite radio services. And this family business has said that they will never sell any of its stations.

Piedmont owned many FOX affiliates before buying WGXA. They wanted to turn WGXA into a strong FOX affiliate and WGXA already had a previous relationship with FOX by carrying FOX NFL football broadcasts BEFORE WPGA signed on in 1995 as the first FOX affiliate in the Macon area. Prior to that, FOX was only available to cable subscribers.

One great thing is that WGXA and WMAZ are all feeling the pressure of WMGT putting on a news product that people ARE watching. Suddenly, now they all have to work.

Competition is great and about time in Macon.

[extvtog]

Although I do not live in Macon anymore, I would love to see WMGT's news product. I wish they had video streaming online. Also, I wish they did not get rid of their 41 in their logo. I think this may hurt them.

[gartv]

extvtog said:

Although I do not live in Macon anymore, I would love to see WMGT's news product. I wish they had video streaming online. Also, I wish they did not get rid of their 41 in their logo. I think this may hurt them.

If you live in another area, then watching "Todays MGT" News wont seem very impressive. Their staff is young and fresh out of college. You can definitely see the inexperience. but they do their very best.

Also, the news set is very cheap looking and needs an update to better reflect on their new name. the old 41 logos are still seen within the news set and on reporter's microphones. Those should be very easy to change unlike changing the graphics on their vehicles.

As for removing the 41 logo, I don't think this will hurt them. That station has all of the popular trash TV talk and court shows that get very high ratings in Macon. And since most people watch via cable, for years the public referred them as channel 5, WMGT's common cable channel position. They could have changed their name to "NBC 5" and it would probably help them more than "todays MGT".

Like "NBC-6" in Charlotte, which is really channel 36 via antenna. Or so many stations in Ft. Myers and Sarasota who named themselved after the cable channel rather than their broadcast channel.

[atlnewsfan03]

I'm aware that WMGT wasn't always known as "WMGT". From 1968 until 1983, they were known as WCWB. Since 1983, they've been known as WMGT. I wouldn't mind their being another call letter change taking place. I can picture the new call letters being WMGN. WMGN stand for "We're Middle Georgia's NBC!" Just a thought.

[extvtog]

I think WGXA should try to get Tina Hicks as an anchor for their newscasts. She is still an icon in the middle ga area. Although, it did not help WPGA, but WPGA is not as established as WGXA.

[gartv]

If anybody brought back Tina Hicks, I think she would be better as a talk host or something. I don't see her ever doing a daily newscast and staying out late in the evenings.

Also, I'm not sure about Tina Hicks still being an "icon" in Macon. I don't think anyone misses her anymore. She is nothing like Monica Kaufman as far as style or being an "icon". Tina Hicks only had the longevity to compare

I have heard many rumors that Tina Hicks really did not get along with some of her colleagues and she also may have had some health problems that led to her "retirement" from WMAZ.

She resurfaced briefly on WPGA and was replaced by another anchor for a short while until that newscast folded. WPGA heavily promoted "Tina Taylor Hicks" as a Macon Icon but nobody cared. If they did, they would have made some fuss about her disappearing form WPGA without notice or explanation.

One funny thing many noticed was in 2003 when WMAZ celebrated 50 years on the air. They produced a special program to commemorate the anniversary and brought back many former WMAZ personalities and did segments on those who were now deceased, like former weatherman Bill Powell. And all Tina Hicks got was a brief mention of her name narrated over old video of her reporting. THATS IT! That is all they mentioned of the woman who worked for WMAZ for over 25 years, 20 of those as the primary News Anchor.

And we have not heard anything from or about Tina Hicks in many years now.

[extvtog]

Good points about Tina Hicks. Thanks for posting the pics of WGXA. I have not been passed that building in years!