Tribune Broadcasting

Credits

Descriptions by
codyfinke, WizardDuck, and thehugetvfan

Captures by
mr3urious, thehugetvfan and kfc513

Editions by
thehugetvfan, MattBr, MJ2003 and kfc513

Video captures courtesy of
Broken Saw, DecadesMTS 2002 Video Vault, LogicSmash, and stevieboy247

Background

Tribune Broadcasting is the broadcasting arm of the Tribune Company, which would eventually become Tribune Media Company. It began in June 1924 when the Chicago Tribune acquired WDAP and renamed it to "WGN" in Chicago ("WGN" stands for "World's Greatest Newspaper", slogan of the company's namesake, the Chicago Tribune). It entered television in 1948 with WGN-TV in Chicago and WPIX-TV in New York (the "PIX" in WPIX is for the New York Daily News's then-slogan, "New York's Picture Newspaper"). It grew by acquiring more stations (such as Duluth's KDAL (now "KDLH") in 1960, being Tribune's first station west of the Mississippi, Denver's KCTO in 1966 (now "KWGN"), being kept by Tribune after KDAL's sale, and Los Angeles's KTLA in 1985, formerly owned by Gene Autry). From 1995 to 2006, it owned a minority interest in the now defunct The WB network. During The WB's existence, Tribune exited the radio business (excluding WGN-AM), bought out a company called Renaissance Broadcasting (no relation to Renaissance Pictures), and bought several other stations (such as Seattle's KCPQ). Many of its WB stations were sold not too long after the inception of its successor, The CW (the aforementioned stations, with one exception, all went with The CW at its launch, though two of these stations would later disaffiliate from the network; San Diego's KSWB in 2008, and WGN-TV in 2016). In 2013, Tribune Broadcasting expanded considerably through their purchase of another company, Local TV (which itself was formed from stations formerly owned by The New York Times and those formerly owned by Fox Television Stations). On May 8, 2017, Sinclair Broadcast Group reached an agreement to acquire Tribune Media Company, though by August 2018, this agreement collapsed. Afterward, on December 2, 2018, Nexstar Media Group reached its own agreement to acquire Tribune Media, this being approved on September 16, 2019 and completed three days later. Tribune Broadcasting and its television stations were folded into Nexstar afterwards.

1st Logo (1995-2008)

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Note: Prior to this logo's usage, either the copyright information is shown at the end of newscasts or the logo used for newscasts was the then-current Tribune Entertainment logo, with "ENTERTAINMENT" replaced with "BROADCASTING", after the logo's debut in 1995, most of its stations (including WPIX) continued using the copyright information at the end of newscasts until 1998 which can be seen here.

Visuals: On a purple /pink/blue background, we see "TRIBUNE" in its corporate font moving in different directions when it changes scenes of the background. Then the text:

TRIBUNE
B R O A D C A S T I N G

zooms out, and a red line is shown under "TRIBUNE" and above "B R O A D C A S T I N G". Usually, copyright information for the station appears below.

Variant: An in-credit version of the logo, which is the finished product in a small box, appeared on some stations such as KWGN; it disappeared when KWGN retired its Giant Octopus graphics in August 2008.

Technique: 2D computer effects.

Audio: The Emotional cue of Flashpoint by 615 Music. Most of the time, the ending theme of the newscast plays; for example, New York's WPIX uses Non-Stop Music's "WPIX Custom News Package".

Availability: It was seen on broadcasts of Tribune-owned stations' newscasts of the era, but starting in 2007, the next logo below debuted, beginning with WGN-TV, its flagship station, but some others still used this logo until April 2008 when those stations switched as well.

2nd Logo (2007-2011)

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Visuals: Almost the same as the previous logo, but redone. There is a changing animated background with blue and black background colors with lines and "TRIBUNE" in its corporate font, moving in different directions, looking similar to before. The text "TRIBUNE BROADCASTING", in the same style as before, sweeps up to the middle of the screen. Again, copyright information usually appears below.

Variant: An extended version exists.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: Same as its predecessor.

Availability: It debuted in 2007 when it was first used with WGN-TV, while others used the previous logo until April 2008.

3rd Logo (2011-2014)

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Visuals: In what looks like space, we see the camera fly out from top to bottom to reveal the Tribune Tower (HQ of Tribune Company) standing in clouds. Once the building/clouds are revealed, the text "TRIBUNEBROADCASTING" appears below the tower. At the end of newscasts produced by local Tribune stations, a copyright stamp appears below the words.

Trivia: This logo was made by Tribune Creative Group (the Chicago branch based at WGN), which was Tribune's in-house design unit.

Variant: There is an alternate version with a different name: "TRIBUNECREATIVEGROUP" is seen instead of the normal text with "C E N T R A LU S A" in smaller spaced out lettering under it. This only appeared on Vimeo on this video.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: A whoosh sound, accompanied by the end theme.

Audio Variants:

• The Tribune Creative Group variant and the 2013 revival of The Arsenio Hall Show only use the whoosh sound.
• On the September 11, 2013 episode of the 2013 revival of The Arsenio Hall Show, the logo was silent due to a 10-second commemorative silence for the 9/11 victims who lost their lives on September 11, 2001.

Availability: Appeared at the end of WGN-TV newscasts, The Bill Cunningham Show and the 2013 version of The Arsenio Hall Show.

4th Logo (2014-September 19, 2019)

Visuals: Several light blue and royal blue glass shards fly around on a white-gray background. The shards form a stylized "T". Below, the words

TribuneBroadcasting

fade in as the background turns completely white. Copyright information appears below.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: The end theme of the newscast.

Availability: It was used until Nexstar acquired and folded Tribune Broadcasting in 2019.