WANF-TV

WANF-TV
Brand	Atlanta News First
City of License	Atlanta, Georgia
Market	Atlanta, Georgia
Channel	19.3 digital ATSC 1.0 31.7 ATSC 3.0 46 virtual Subcarriers: 46.2 CoziTV 46.3 Grit TV Formerly: 46 analog (1971-2009)
Network Affiliation	CBS Formerly: Independent (1971–94)
Founded	1971
Company	Gray Television (Duopoly with WPCH)
President
Current Popular Non-Network Shows	The Insider Inside Edition
Former Call Signs	WGCL-TV, WGNX, WANX, WHAE

WANF-TV is the call sign of the CBS affiliate for Atlanta, Georgia, broadcasting over the air on digital channel 19.3 (ATSC 1.0) and 31.7 (ATSC 3.0), displayed as virtual 46. The call stands for Atlanta News First. Owned by Gray Television, it is the company's flagship station. Its sister station is CW affiliate WPCH/channel 17.

WANF-TV started in 1971 on analog channel 46 as independent WHAE and aired religious programming under the ownership of Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network. It slowly began airing more mainstream fare but rejected or altered any programming that they deemed offensive to their beliefs (no witchcraft, hypnotism, etc.). They changed calls to WANX in 1977 (they would air some college basketball games and the weekday Captain Kangaroo from CBS in 1981 as they were passed up by regular affiliate WAGA/channel 5), and then were bought by Tribune Broadcasting in 1984 and their call changed to WGNX (a hybrid of Chicago's WGN and New York's WPIX).

1985 logo as independent WGNX.

In 1994, WGNX was in line to be an affiliate of the then-new The WB network which would start up in January of 1995. But due to a shake-up caused by a deal which would make WAGA switch from their longtime affiliation with CBS to the FOX network, WGNX wound up being the market's new CBS affiliate. (The WB would wind up on WATL/channel 36.) Word has it that CBS was so ticked off at WAGA jumping ship that they wanted to purchase WGNX and move it to channel 6. The plan was scuttled due to interference issues with channel 5 and that there are two adjacent markets (Birmingham AL and Augusta GA) that already had a channel 6.

December 1994 logo upon becoming a CBS affiliate.

In 1997, channel 46 was bought by the Meredith Corporation, and in 2000 they changed calls to WGCL, using the brand "Clear TV". Their studios, in which they moved in 2000, are just west of midtown Atlanta, on 14th Street. Before that, they were in northeast Atlanta (unincorporated) in the Briarcliff Road building occupied by WATL/channel 36 in 1969.

Back when they were WHAE, channel 46 had a newscast from INN (International News Network) which was aired from that point up to when their independent status ended. At becoming a CBS affiliate, they have had trouble building a sizeable audience for their news, usually coming in fourth in the ratings against WSB, WAGA and WXIA. Their 11 PM newscast does very well, thanks to CBS's primetime lead-in. They had chucked their 5-7 AM newscast in late 2006 and replaced it with CBS Morning News, and then raised the curtain on Better Mornings, a two-hour show focusing mainly on light fare, pop culture/celebrity news as well as supplying weather and traffic reports. The early morning edition was replaced in August 2013 with 4:30, 5 AM and 6 AM editions of CBS Atlanta News which is now Wake Up, Atlanta. Better Mornings had run at 9 AM but was replaced in August 2014 with the syndicated Better show. That has since been replaced with The 700 Club. Since affiliating with CBS has WANF branded themselves first as CBS 46 (1996-1998 and 2004-09) then CBS Atlanta (1998-2000, 2001-04, 2009-14). On February 25, 2014, they rebranded themselves again as CBS 46, with their newscasts reflecting it in their titles. On September 30, 2022, CBS 46 was replaced with Atlanta News First, which also applies to WPCH during news time periods.

WANF serves as the network programming control hub for the following fellow Gray stations in the U.S.:

Call	Digital	Virtual	Network	Location
WSMV	10	4	NBC	Nashville TN
WHNS	21	21	Fox	Greenville S C
KCTV	24	5	CBS	Kansas City MO
WFSB	33	3	CBS	Hartford CT
WNEM	22	5	CBS	Flint MI

WANF began their digital transmissions on channel 19 in 1998, simultaneously with their analog 46. They shut down their analog on June 12, 2009. Meredith had been in control of independent WPCH (now a CW affiliate), which gave Meredith an ad hoc duopoly in Atlanta. Both WANF and WPCH operate from WANF's facilities west of midtown Atlanta. In April 2017, WPCH's owner, Time-Warner, sold the station to Meredith to avoid an FCC review over its merger with AT&T. (Under the AT&T banner, Time-Warner was rebranded as WarnerMedia.) This made the duopoly official for Meredith. WANF produces and staffs a 7 AM and a 9 PM newscast for WPCH, the latter of which had been the earliest newscast in primetime for the Atlanta market until December 2, 2019. On that date, WATL filled its prime time line-up with three hours of newscasts produced by sister station WXIA. WANF's 4 PM, 5 PM and 6 PM news are simulcast on WPCH. From 2012 to 2013, channel 46 had been the local station to air Atlanta Falcons pre-season games. In 2014, the station chose to not renew the agreement. The games moved to CBS-owned WUPA. In 2020, the preseason Falcons games moved to WAGA (which actually did not air as the COVID-19 pandemic canceled all preseason games).

There was word that Meredith is in talks to divest their portfolio of TV stations (Meredith Local Media). It was then reported that Gray Television, based in Atlanta, is acquiring the Meredith stations, pending FCC approval. The acquisition had been in question as the FCC is planning a half-million dollar fine on Gray over a duopoly situation in the Anchorage, Alaska market regarding owning two top-rated stations. The FCC approved the acquisition and the deal closed December 1, 2021.

On August 19, WPCH became the "lighthouse station" in Atlanta for the ATSC 3.0 (NextGen) standard. WANF transmits its ATSC 3.0 signal on WPCH's subchannel tier while to maintain ATSC 1.0 service, WPCH retransmits its ATSC 1.0 signal on channel 46's subchannel tier. On October 3, 2022, WGCL changed their call sign to WANF, which is also currently the call for a low-powered station in Jackson, Tennessee; it's a translator for Memphis NBC station WMC and is owned by Gray Television as well.

Previous Call Signs

Call	From	To	Notes
WHAE	1971	1977	as independent
WXAT			Applied for in 1975, never implemented
WANX	1977	1984
WGNX	1984	2000	Became CBS affiliate 1994
WGCL	2000	2022

Digital programming

Virtual	Physical	Name	Programming
46.1	19.3 ATSC 1.0	WANF-DT	Main WANF (CBS)
	31.7 ATSC 3.0
46.2	19.4	WANF-DT2	CoziTV
46.3	19.5	WANF-DT3	Grit TV
17.1	19.6	WPCH-DT	ATSC 1.0 High definition
17.4	19.7	WPCH-DT	Standard definition
47.1	19.8	WKTB-CD	Telemundo

WANF's subcarrier originally aired games from the NCAA March Madness basketball tournaments. The subcarrier was deactivated as CBS is sharing coverage of the tournaments with TBS, TNT and TruTV. Channel 46 has since re-started the subcarrier with CoziTV and has also launched the subcarrier Grit TV.

External Links

Official website for WANF-TV

• Query the FCC's TV station database for WANF