In 2008, four episodes of the series were featured on WGN America's " Outta Sight Retro Night " programming block.

As such, promos for WGN America programs reference airtimes for both the Eastern and Pacific time zones ( for example, America's Funniest Home Videos is promoted as airing at " 7 p. m. East / 4 p. m. West ", a scheduling reference format it has used in promos since 2008, used instead of referring to both zones as " Eastern " and " Pacific ").

WGN America now relies primarily on a variety of reruns, such as America's Funniest Home Videos ( from the Bergeron and Fugelsang / Fuentes era of that series ), Futurama, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Scrubs, The New Adventures of Old Christine, ' Til Death, 30 Rock, How I Met Your Mother, Walker, Texas Ranger, Matlock, Monk, Rules of Engagement and edited syndication versions of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Episodes of America's Funniest Home Videos ( from either the 2001 – present Tom Bergeron run or the 1997-1999 Daisy Fuentes-John Fugelsang run ) air in place of the WGN News at Nine in the event of a sports telecast preemption outside the Chicago market ; the 12 p. m. hour of the WGN Midday News is also occasionally preempted ( though in far rarer instances ) in the event that a Cubs or White Sox baseball game scheduled for broadcast on WGN-TV / WGN America begins at 1 p. m.

Because of WGN America's ubiquitous distribution in the state of Iowa, the Iowa Lottery thus uses Illinois ' lottery numbers for their own Pick 3 and Pick 4 games daily.

Similar restrictions by these and other sports leagues also prevent WGNTV. com from running sports highlights during live streams of WGN-TV newscasts ( unusual as most stations, including WGN-TV and WGN America's Tribune Broadcasting-owned sister stations, that simulcast their local newscasts on their websites and mobile applications are allowed to run sports highlights during live streams through these mediums ), which are replaced with a screen noting the restrictions with audio-only broadcasts of the sports segments.

In relation to WGN America's prior history as a cable affiliate of The WB, the following articles discuss similar cable-only affiliates of broadcast television networks:

* The WB 100 + Station Group-predecessor of The CW Plus ; WGN America's de facto WB affiliate status for small and mid-sized U. S. markets that did not have an in-market affiliate was superseded by this station group made up of mostly locally-managed cable-only television outlets created in September 1998 by The WB to serve these areas

Little Orphan Annie was adapted to a 15-minute radio show that debuted on WGN Chicago in 1930 and went national on NBC's Blue Network beginning April 6, 1931..

On September 6, 1994, the station dropped children's programs airing on weekday mornings, replacing them with the WGN Morning News ( which was dropped by the national feed in 1996, reportedly because certain segments of the newscast were not allowed to air outside of Chicago ; the national feed still airs the second hour of Midday News and the 9 p. m. newscast, though the first hour of WGN Midday News, the weekend morning and weeknight 5 p. m. newscasts do not air on the superstation feed for undetermined reasons ), the morning newscast gradually expanded from an hour-long program at start, to two hours in January 1996, then to three hours from 6-9 a. m. eight months later, to 3½ hours in January 2001, four hours starting at 5 a. m. in January 2004, four-and-a-half hours in August 2010 and then to its current five hours in July 2011.

As part of the agreement, WGN would carry The WB's primetime schedule ( and upon its September 1995 debut, Kids ' WB children's programming ) on its national superstation feed, in order to make the network's programming available to areas of the United States that did not yet have a locally-based WB affiliate.

A 2009 syndication package of the show, however, aired as part of " Outta Sight Retro Nights ", a flashback TV block aired Sunday nights on the national WGN America cable TV service with promos voiced by Casey Kasem, appears to have all of the original music intact, according to published references about the original release.

Through Tribune Broadcasting, the company operates 23 television stations, WGN America on national cable, and Chicago's WGN radio.

The program made its " national " debut in 2004 on Chicago's WGN-TV and its sibling station, now known as WGN America.

WGN America did not broadcast The Yule Log in 2010 and 2011, citing the economic infeasibility of devoting several hours to commercial-free programming on a national channel ; however, the program was broadcast locally by WGN-TV Chicago, and by the other Tribune-owned local stations.

However, by the start of the 2008-09 television season, the Tribune-owned stations ( including national carrier WGN America ) that had been the linchpin of the show's syndication efforts dropped the program, and many others followed suit.

Raw program listings data for national cable networks, as well as for regional and local terrestrial stations, was fed en masse from a Tulsa, Oklahoma mainframe to each EPG installation via a 2400 baud data stream on an audio subcarrier of WGN by United Video.

At that same time, Chicago-based national cable superstation WGN also began airing reruns of the sitcom, with the series airing until 2002 ( when its broadcast syndication run also ended ); ironically, both the local Chicago feed and the national superstation feed of WGN aired The Wayans Bros. in first-run form from 1995 to 1999, when WGN aired WB programming nationally to make The WB available to markets where a local affiliate did not exist ( The Parent ' Hood is one of four WB series to air on WGN in first-run and syndication form ; The Wayans Bros., 7th Heaven and Sister, Sister are the others ).

City Hall debuted in the U. S. on Superstation WGN on April 27, 2007, and released into national syndication to local stations, also as part of Da Vinci's Inquest, on November 4, 2007.

This was due to Paramount ( although Chris-Craft owned the station ) using SyndEx to keep the UPN shows off the national WWOR feed, although rival Superstation WGN ( now WGN America ) showed The WB network programming on their national feed until nationwide terrestrial coverage was deemed sufficient in 1999.

WGN in Chicago and WABD in New York were able to share programs through a live coaxial cable feed when WDTV in Pittsburgh signed on, because the station completed the East Coast-to-Midwest chain, allowing stations in both regions to air the same program at the same time, which is still the standard for U. S. television.

Games produced by WGN-TV through its WGN Sports department are not available in its superstation feed WGN America due to broadcast rights restrictions imposed by the National Hockey League.

WGN-TV in Chicago ( on the local feed only as the superstation feed stopped carrying WB programming feed in 1999 ) used the name " WGN 9 Chicago " in its ID with the WB logo within the right curve of the station's " 9 as an upside-down G " logo at the network's start, and next to a boxed " 9 " after the station's image revamp in 2002.

It is also a pioneering superstation and continues to program WGN America, an alternate feed for United States cable and satellite subscribers, which is not available to Comcast Xfinity, RCN, WOW!

Superstation WGN was swapped for the local Chicago feed on January 17, 2007.

Cable systems can also air satellite-relayed over-the-air stations originating from other areas of the United States, known as superstations ( of which there are currently only six around the country, the most prominent being WGN America, which airs some programming carried by WGN-TV in Chicago ), which for the most part are often aired in rural areas and if carried nationally, may have a separate feed carrying different programming than that of the local area feed that is SyndEx-proof ( i. e., syndicated programming that the superstation has obtained full signal rights to ) and may omit network programming from that station's network affiliation ; all superstations, except for WSBK-TV in Boston, are currently affiliated with a broadcast television network as WGN-TV, WPIX in New York City, KWGN in Denver and KTLA in Los Angeles all being affiliated with The CW and WWOR-TV in Secaucus, New Jersey affiliated with MyNetworkTV.

On satellite, channels that devote at least some of their program schedule to post-syndication reruns include Nick at Nite, TV Land, TBS, USA Network, WGN America, TV Guide Network, The Hub, Game Show Network, Boomerang, Nicktoons Network, INSP, RFD-TV, and the Hallmark Channel ; on terrestrial digital television otherwise-vacant subchannels may be used to carry Retro Television Network, Antenna TV, Me-TV, This TV or PBJ.

Until they ended their show on WGN, Steve and Johnnie continued to honor Les on Tuesday Mornings at 2: 35 AM with their segment " A Little More Les " drawing from around 30 hours of recorded conversations with Les.

WGN Television began test broadcasts in February 1948 and began regular programming on April 5 with a two-hour special, " WGN-TV Salute to Chicago ", at 7: 45 p. m.

On February 22, 2010, WGN-TV became the first television station in the Chicago market to allow iPhone users to watch live streams of its newscasts ; the 6-9 a. m. block of the WGN Morning News, the midday and 5 p. m. newscasts are intially available for streaming to iPhone users ; at present, all newscasts are streamed through the station's website and on Apple devices.

Hall worked at WGN for 40 years.

* Bob Bell ( 1978 – 1984 ) at Superstation WGN Chicago

* Joey D ' Auria ( 1984 – 2001 ) at Superstation WGN Chicago

" Skillful ", as his late WGN colleague Bob Collins called him, was consulted for the movie The Weather Man, which was set in Skilling's hometown of Chicago at a fictionalized version of WGN.

Skilling is under contract at WGN until 2022.

The Sousa Archives and Center for American Music at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign holds the WGN Radio Station Studio Orchestra Music Library and Records, 1925-1956, which consists of scripts, programs, production notes, correspondence, music library rental records, sheet music manuscripts, and music scores with annotations that document the WGN Studio Symphonic Orchestra from the 1925 to 1956.

WGN opted to leave that spot vacant for several months, while having other WGN hosts fill-in on a rotating basis, including weekend host Nick Digilio, and Bob Sirott, who formerly hosted " The Noon Show " on the same station, in addition to a weekend program that is pre-recorded with his wife, Marianne Murciano ( he also was a prominent news anchor at NBC 5 and is now at WFLD ).

The program schedules between WGN-TV / Chicago and the national superstation feed were initially similar in the years after the SyndEx rules became law, running much of the same programming with limited programming substitutions outside of Chicago ; though in recent years ( particularly since the rebrand to WGN America ), the programming differences between WGN-TV / Chicago and the national superstation feed have substantially increased with fewer common programs between the two feeds in the present day compared to years past.

*" Chicago's Very Own " ( 1983 – present ; used during WGN newscasts )

Beginning April 27, 2007, Superstation WGN began airing Da Vinci's City Hall, but it is promoted by American syndicator Program Partners as " Season 8 " of Da Vinci's Inquest, even using the same intro as that series ( which was used only late into the show's original run ) despite the fact that some of the characters seen are not present in the new series.

WGN America carries a variety of programming consisting mainly of recent and classic off-network sitcoms, drama series and feature films, along with some locally-produced programming supplied by WGN-TV / Chicago ( including televised games from Chicago's Major League Baseball and NBA sports teams, local newscasts, public affairs programs and occasional specials ).

WGN-TV / Chicago has rights to carry additional Bulls games, as well as a number of Chicago Blackhawks NHL games ; however, due to broadcast rights restrictions imposed by the National Basketball Association and National Hockey League respectively, WGN America is not allowed to carry other games from the Bulls schedule outside of the 10 games allowed to air outside the Chicago market, or any Blackhawks game that the local station carries ( in the latter case due to the NHL's exclusive contract with Comcast / NBCUniversal ).