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142-509: Red Sox fans were once described by Dennis Eckersley as the "ultimate manic-depressive fanbase." For all the excitement over the quality of play by the Red Sox, there is often a twinge of pessimism about the team, as the team's failures are typically blown out of proportion. Boston Globe columnist Charlie Pierce , among others, has attributed the self-perpetuating fatalism of the Nation to

284-528: A main street setting flocking to a TBS-branded theater, which transitions to a panning shot stopping at a couch in the front row of the theater's seating area where either a family or a couple (depending on the daypart presentation, as identified at the end of the sequence) sit down in time for the start of the film. On September 10, 1990, the word "Superstation" was removed from the cable channel's on-air branding and promotions, rebranding it as simply " TBS ", which had been used verbally in on-air promotions since

426-567: A 15-minute news program. In July 1969, Rice Broadcasting reached an agreement to merge with the Turner Communications Corporation—an Atlanta-based group owned by entrepreneur Robert E. "Ted" Turner III , who ran his late father's billboard advertising business and had also expanded his interests to include radio stations in Chattanooga, Tennessee ( WGOW ), Charleston, South Carolina ( WTMA-AM-FM ,

568-574: A 20- win season and a 50- save season in a career. Eckersley was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2004 in his first year of eligibility. He previously worked with NESN as a part-time color commentator for Red Sox broadcasts, and has also worked for Turner Sports as a game analyst for their Sunday MLB Games and MLB postseason coverage on TBS . He retired from NESN in 2022. Eckersley grew up in Fremont, California , rooting for both

710-582: A 200-mile (320 km) radius. Further changes to signal importation regulations occurred with the August 1975 passage of a policy allowing unlimited importation of distant signals either following a local " must carry " station's final daily sign-off or at 1:00 a.m. ( Eastern and Pacific Time ) and 12:00 a.m. (in all other time zones), and the December 1975 repeal of the agency's 1972 "leapfrogging" rules (which restricted cable systems from selecting

852-474: A 6–11 record with a 4.57 ERA. After the season, he checked himself into a rehabilitation clinic to treat alcoholism . Eckersley noted in Pluto's book that he realized the problem he had after family members videotaped him while drunk and played the tape back for him the next day. During his Hall of Fame speech he recalled that time in his life, saying "I was spiraling out of control personally. I knew I had come to

994-727: A CBS owned-and-operated station) in Dallas , KTVU (now a Fox owned-and-operated station) in San Francisco and KTLA (now a CW affiliate) in Los Angeles were uplinked to satellite as well, primarily being carried on a regional basis. The expansion of WTCG into a superstation would serve as the linchpin for what would later be renamed the Turner Broadcasting System to eventually launch or acquire other cable-originated channels in subsequent years, including

1136-400: A career 197–171 win–loss record, a 3.50 ERA and 390 saves. As of the end of the 2023 season, Eckersley's career saves total ranks ninth on the all-time saves list. When he retired, Eckersley had appeared in more games (1,071) than any other pitcher in major league history, though he ranks fifth all-time through the 2023 season. Eckersley's unusual delivery utilized a high leg kick along with

1278-440: A cast member on Saturday Night Live ) among its repertory cast. Starcade , a game show that ran from 1982 to 1983 (with a further run in syndication via Turner Program Services until 1984), featured contestants competing to win their very own arcade cabinet by playing various games. Other programming efforts included The Catlins (a Dynasty -style prime time soap opera which ran for two seasons from 1983 to 1985, and

1420-582: A common carrier from having involvement in program origination, Turner decided to sell SSS to former Western Union vice president of marketing Edward L. Taylor for $ 1 and sold the transmitting station to RCA American Communications . Upon the sale's consummation in March 1976, Turner reached an agreement with Taylor to have the firm uplink the WTCG signal to the Satcom 1 satellite. Turner's plans to turn WTCG into

1562-532: A crossroads in my life. With the grace of God, I got sober and I saved my life." Eckersley was traded again on April 3, 1987 , to the Oakland Athletics , where manager Tony La Russa intended to use him as a set-up pitcher or long reliever . Indeed, Eckersley started two games with the A's before an injury to then-closer Jay Howell opened the door for Eckersley to move into the closer's role. He saved 16 games in 1987 and then established himself as

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1704-404: A debate among six of the candidates in a hall at Boston University (three were no-shows, and Doris Kearns Goodwin withdrew from the race). The final election, also open to the public at the same website, was held from September 28 through October 2, 2007. The winner was Jerry Remy , a former Red Sox player and then broadcast color commentator. The following day, Remy threw out the first pitch in

1846-427: A defining list of his on-air sayings. In the spring of 2009, when regular NESN commentator Jerry Remy took time off for health reasons, Eckersley filled in for him, providing color commentary alongside play-by-play announcer Don Orsillo . Eckersley was the primary substitute for Remy when he was unavailable, including filling in for the final two months of the 2013 season , when Remy took extended time off due to

1988-598: A distant signal from among stations in the top-25 media markets beyond those closest to the licensed system). Furthermore, the Congressional passage of the Copyright Act of 1976 on October 1 of that year provided compulsory licenses to cable systems and "passive" satellite carriers, allowing them to retransmit any broadcast television station throughout the country, regardless of prior consent, without incurring copyright liability; this legislation also granted

2130-478: A distinctive monotone; he would become the voice heard during Headline News' half-hourly network IDs by the mid-1980s. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, WTBS continued to acquire second-hand programming such as made-for-TV Popeye cartoons, The Brady Bunch , The Munsters , and other programs. The station acquired reruns of All in the Family and Sanford and Son in 1979, as well as Little House on

2272-418: A dominant closer in 1988 by recording a league-leading 45 saves. Eckersley recorded 4 saves against the Red Sox in the regular season, and he dominated once more by recording saves in all four games as the A's swept the Red Sox in the 1988 ALCS. (which was matched by Greg Holland in the 2014 ALCS), but he found himself on the wrong end of Kirk Gibson's 1988 World Series home run (Eckersley himself first coined

2414-481: A grandfather, father, husband and member of Red Sox Nation." Eckersley's final Red Sox broadcast as a NESN commentator was October 5, 2022. Eckersley married his first wife Denise in 1973 and they had a daughter, Mandee Eckersley. Denise left him for Rick Manning , his then– Cleveland Indians teammate, in 1978; the affair precipitated Eckersley's trade to the Red Sox that year. Two years later, Eckersley married model Nancy O'Neil. They adopted two children together,

2556-423: A homeless person, was arrested on suspicion of abandoning her newborn in a wooded area in 18 degree weather and misleading authorities as to the infant's whereabouts. Alexandra had been homeless since 2018 and suffering from addiction and mental health issues. Italics denotes active player TBS (American TV channel) TBS (originally an initialism of Turner Broadcasting System ), stylized as tbs ,

2698-559: A lack of funding and interest. (The other partners in the venture, Zenith Electronics and Taft Broadcasting [formerly known as Taft Television & Radio Company during its earlier existence as both an electronics manufacturer and broadcaster] had respectively stopped manufacturing TV sets with teletext capability and had undergone several corporate buyouts). In the early 1990s, shows such as The Flintstones , The Brady Bunch , Scooby-Doo , The Jetsons , Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies shorts, Gilligan's Island , and others remained on

2840-485: A large rotating glass pane, which could display the TBS logo, change to or from a slogan (depending on the promotional spot) to the logo, or be used to show the airtime of programs mentioned in a specific promotion or summarize the next three programs set to air. Title sequences for movies and special presentations—which were accompanied by music incorporating variants of the "TBYes" promotional theme's signature —showed people in

2982-401: A long, pronounced sidearm throwing motion. He had pinpoint accuracy, and fellow Hall of Famer Goose Gossage said of him, "He could hit a gnat in the butt with a pitch if he wanted to.” Eckersley was aggressive and animated on the mound, and he was known for his intimidating stare and pumping his fist after a strikeout. As a starter, Eckersley was able to throw four pitches for strikes, but as

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3124-609: A massive new self-supporting transmission tower (later known as the Turner Broadcasting tower ), which, at a height of 1,031 feet (314 m), was the tallest freestanding structure ever built in Atlanta and provided Channel 17 a stronger signal than other UHF stations, which was particularly beneficial as television sets of that era were often equipped with low-sensitivity tuners and substandard antennas. Under Rice, WJRJ—the first independent station to begin operation in

3266-720: A mix of movies, sitcoms and drama series—removed all of its remaining cartoon shorts and animated series (which at the time were running under the Disaster Area banner), migrating those shows exclusively to Cartoon Network . (Many of these series also later became the core of a new channel devoted to classic cartoons, Boomerang , which launched in April 2000.) In 1999, TBS Superstation also refocused its original program offerings, removing documentaries and National Geographic specials—which were shifted over to CNN—in favor of carrying original made-for-TV movies and weekly series such as

3408-530: A national cable service were made possible through various FCC deregulatory actions on signal importation during the 1970s, among them was a cable rules package passed in March 1972 that allowed cable systems in the 100 largest markets the right to carry imported signals (including the addition of two distant signals not already available in the market), restricted cable systems in smaller markets to carrying only three network stations and one independent station (except for undefinable markets that would not be limited in

3550-477: A pay television service throughout the United States. By June 2023, this number has dropped to 71.3 million households. TBS was originally established on December 17, 1976, as the national feed of Turner's Atlanta, Georgia , independent television station , WTCG . The decision to begin offering WTCG via satellite transmission to cable and satellite subscribers throughout the United States expanded

3692-779: A pitcher at Washington, throwing a 90-mile-per-hour (140 km/h) fastball and a screwball . The Cleveland Indians selected Eckersley in the third round of the 1972 MLB draft ; he was disappointed that he was not drafted by the Giants. He made his major league debut on April 12, 1975. He was the American League Rookie Pitcher of the Year in 1975, compiling a 13–7 win–loss record and 2.60 earned run average (ERA). His unstyled long hair, moustache , and live fastball made him an instant and identifiable fan favorite. Eckersley pitched reliably over three seasons with

3834-714: A precedent for today's basic cable television and signaled the start of the revolution of basic cable programming in the United States. Soon after, an increasing number of cable television providers throughout the United States sought to carry WTCG on their systems. Within three years of WTCG achieving national status, the signals of fellow independent stations WOR-TV (now MyNetworkTV owned-and-operated station WWOR-TV ) in New York City and WGN-TV in Chicago were also uplinked to satellite for distribution as national superstations; eventually, other independents such as KTVT (now

3976-454: A purchase option that Time Warner chose to exercise on September 16. Time Warner held out on an option to acquire SSS through a common stock buyout and instead chose a cash payment citing the "strong overall financial performance of its businesses and its belief that its stock remains undervalued" in spite of price appreciation having been appreciated. The purchase gave Time Warner control over uplink responsibilities for TBS. On January 1, 1998,

4118-592: A reliever he narrowed his repertoire to two pitches; a sinker and a backdoor slider . In 1999, he ranked Number 98 on The Sporting News ' list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players. He was named to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. On January 6, 2004, he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, with 83.2% of the votes. On August 13, 2005, Eckersley's uniform number (43)

4260-506: A separate cable/satellite channel that retained the TBS name. In addition, the channel 17 changeover allowed Atlanta-area cable and IPTV subscribers—including those of Comcast and Charter Communications —that previously were only able to receive WTBS's local Atlanta signal to begin receiving the national TBS feed for the first time since the early 1980s. (Despite the separation of TBS and its former Atlanta parent station, some local television listings publications have continued to refer to

4402-801: A show among the 50 highest-rated cable programs. The channel's third late-night talk show, The Pete Holmes Show , debuted on October 28, 2013, hosted by comedian Pete Holmes (like Lopez Tonight , it could not capitalize on Conan as its lead-in and was cancelled in May 2014). On May 14, 2015, at the Turner Upfront presentation, president Kevin Reilly announced a major shift within the next few years for TBS and TNT. The expanded development slate would see TBS feature more original live-action comedies, original animated series, more late-night talk shows, and lots more of "big unscripted ideas with attitude". One of

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4544-456: A single batter, setting a record which still stands as of 2020 and surpassing the previous mark set by Lew Burdette 23 years earlier. In his 1990 season, Eckersley became the first relief pitcher in baseball history to have more saves than baserunners allowed (48 saves, 41 hits, 4 walks, 0 hit by pitch). Perhaps interestingly, rounded to three decimal places, he had the same walks plus hits per innings pitched and ERA: both were 0.614. Eckersley

4686-454: A small independent television station that regularly placed near the bottom of the ratings among Atlanta's television stations well into the 1970s and was available only in Georgia and neighboring states to a major coast-to-coast operation, pioneering the distribution of broadcast television stations via satellite transmission to pay television subscribers nationwide. Ted Turner's innovation set

4828-540: A son Jake and a daughter Alexandra. They divorced shortly after his retirement from baseball. His third wife, Jennifer, is a former lobbyist and manages Eckersley's business and charitable affairs. During the first half of his career, Eckersley had problems with alcohol; he became sober in January 1987. An MLB Network documentary about Eckersley, titled Eck: A Story of Saving , premiered on December 13, 2018. In December 2022, Eckersley's adopted daughter Alexandra,

4970-441: A time and rarely renewed their contractual rights to continue airing them, after which WTCG bought the syndicated programs second-hand at much lower rates. By the mid-1970s, The Andy Griffith Show , The Flintstones , Leave It to Beaver , The Little Rascals , My Three Sons , Star Trek , The Three Stooges , and many others were added to the station's schedule. By the time Turner acquired WTCG, most U.S. cities below

5112-806: A traditional independent station with a separate schedule exclusively catering to the Atlanta market. TBS originated as a terrestrial television station in Atlanta , Georgia that began operating on UHF channel 17 on September 1, 1967, under the WJRJ-TV call letters . That station—which its original parent originally filed to transmit UHF channel 46, before modifying it to assign channel 17 as its frequency in February 1966—was founded by Rice Broadcasting Inc. (owned by Atlanta entrepreneur Jack M. Rice, Jr., owner of locally based pay television firms Atlanta Telemeter Inc. and Home Theaters of Georgia Inc.). Rice built

5254-586: A very effective slider . On May 25, 1984, the Red Sox traded Eckersley with Mike Brumley to the Chicago Cubs for Bill Buckner , one of several mid-season deals that helped the Cubs to their first postseason appearance since 1945. He won 10 games and lost 8, with a 3.03 ERA. Eckersley remained with the Cubs in 1985, when he posted an 11–7 won-lost record with two shutouts (the last two of his career). Eckersley's performance deteriorated in 1986, when he posted

5396-537: Is an American basic cable television network owned by the Networks division of Warner Bros. Discovery . It carries a variety of programming , with a focus on comedy , along with some sports events through TNT Sports , including Major League Baseball , Stanley Cup playoffs , and the NCAA men's basketball tournament . As of September 2018, TBS was received by approximately 90.391 million households that subscribe to

5538-551: Is an American former professional baseball pitcher and color commentator . Between 1975 and 1998, he pitched in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Cleveland Indians , Boston Red Sox , Chicago Cubs , Oakland Athletics , and St. Louis Cardinals . Eckersley had success as a starter , but gained his greatest fame as a closer , becoming the first of two pitchers in major league history to have both

5680-417: Is shared with sister network Adult Swim . The channel's daytime schedule is heavily dominated by reruns of current and former network comedies, with these shows also airing in the evening and sporadically during the overnight hours. As of 2023, these programs consist of Family Matters , Friends , The Big Bang Theory , Young Sheldon , and Modern Family . Most reruns shown on TBS are broadcast in

5822-576: The Atlanta Hawks and other NBA teams, and professional wrestling including Georgia Championship Wrestling , Jim Crockett Promotions and later World Championship Wrestling ). WTBS maintained a nearly identical program schedule as the national feed, aside from FCC -mandated public affairs and educational programming that only aired on the local signal. By the early 2000s, TBS had begun to focus more intensively on comedic programming, including sitcoms and other series. On October 1, 2007, TBS

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5964-488: The Boston Red Sox for Rick Wise , Mike Paxton , Bo Díaz , and Ted Cox on March 30, 1978. Over the next two seasons, Eckersley won a career-high 20 games in 1978 and 17 games in 1979, with a 2.99 ERA in each year. However, during the remainder of his tenure with Boston, from 1980 to 1984, Eckersley pitched poorly. His fastball had lost some steam, as demonstrated by his 43–48 record with Boston. He later developed

6106-544: The Cable News Network (CNN) (launched on June 1, 1980), HLN (launched as CNN2 on January 1, 1982, and later known as CNN Headline News from 1983 to 2007), Turner Network Television (TNT) (launched on October 3, 1988), Cartoon Network (launched on October 1, 1992), Turner Classic Movies (TCM) (launched on April 14, 1994), and TruTV (folded into Turner, as Court TV , following the closure of parent Time Warner's acquisition of Liberty Media 's 50% interest in

6248-816: The Midwestern and Southeastern United States : Multi-Vue TV in Grand Island, Nebraska , Hampton Roads Cablevision in Newport News, Virginia , Troy Cablevision in Troy, Alabama , and Newton Cable TV in Newton, Kansas . At that moment, approximately 24,000 additional households began receiving the WTCG signal. The station's first national broadcast was the 1948 Dana Andrews – Cesar Romero film Deep Waters , which had been in progress for 30 minutes on channel 17 in Atlanta. With this move, WTCG would become one of

6390-486: The NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship —which it shares with Turner-owned sister channels TNT and TruTV, along with the tournament's longtime over-the-air broadcaster, CBS . During the first quarter of 2012, TBS's viewership in the 18-49 adult demographic beat all other advertiser-supported channels, in spite of the fact that TBS did not air any original programs in prime time during that period nor had it aired

6532-535: The San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics of Major League Baseball (MLB). Two of his boyhood heroes were the Giants' Willie Mays and Juan Marichal , and he later adopted Marichal's high leg kick pitching delivery. Eckersley attended Washington High School in Fremont, California . He played for the football team as a quarterback until his senior year, when he gave up football to protect his throwing arm from injury. He won 29 games as

6674-639: The U.S. Copyright Office the ability to charge cable systems royalty fees to be compensated to the owners of a copyrighted program. The station would still be subjected to program duplication restrictions covered under the original 1972 incarnation of the Syndication Exclusivity Rules (or "SyndEx"), which—prior to its repeal in July 1980—allowed television stations to claim local exclusivity over syndicated programs and required cable systems to either black out or secure an agreement with

6816-558: The " Thrilla in Manila " boxing match. In December 1975, Ted Turner unveiled plans to distribute his station over communications satellite, enabling WTCG to extend distribution of its programming to cable and C-band satellite subscribers throughout the United States, especially in markets lacking even a distant independent station. With a more cost-effective and expeditious distribution method in place than would be capable through setting up microwave and coaxial telephone relay systems across

6958-466: The "Non-Stop Comedy Block", a late-afternoon block of mostly adult-targeted comedy series that debuted in January 2002. In September 2003, TBS Superstation dropped Little House on the Prairie and other dramatic programming as a part of a format shift toward comedic programs, such as sitcom reruns, original reality television series, and theatrically released comedy films. As part of this refocusing,

7100-485: The "Sunday Morning In Front of the TV" block. Following Turner's acquisition by Time Warner, among the programming changes instituted after the merger was the addition of Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoons that were released after August 1, 1948, which began airing on TBS as well as sister channel Cartoon Network in April 1997. On September 22, 1995, Time Warner —a New York City -based media company formed in 1990 through

7242-415: The "Superstation" sub-brand was once again dropped in February 2004, with the channel reverting to being branded as simply TBS . Subsequently, on June 4, 2004, to signify the channel's new comedy programming focus, TBS introduced a new logo (designed by Publicis New York) that rendered the channel's name in lowercase and incorporated a semicircle made to resemble a mouth open as if it were laughing and adopted

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7384-544: The 1930s and 1940s, sitcoms (such as Father Knows Best , Green Acres , Hazel , I Love Lucy , and The Lucy Show ), and Japanese animated series (such as Astro Boy , Kimba the White Lion , Marine Boy , The Space Giants , Speed Racer , and Ultraman ). The station also carried sports, such as Atlanta Braves baseball, Atlanta Hawks basketball, Atlanta Flames hockey, and Georgia Championship Wrestling . WTCG also made very low bids to acquire

7526-523: The 1989 revamp of Headline News and the 1991 redesign of WTBS itself (handled by Burns' brother James). John Young, an Atlanta-area radio DJ at WZGC , became the voice of SuperStation WTBS during this time and would go on to provide promotional voiceover services for other local and national clients as a direct result of his work for the channel. Other voiceovers were handled by Turner employees, most notably music director Bill "Troll" Tullis, who generally voiced station IDs and other miscellaneous work with

7668-483: The 1994 season, the Athletics elected not to exercise a $ 4 million option on Eckersley, making him a free agent. The team indicated that it would be interested in signing him at a lower salary. Oakland signed him to a one-year contract in early April 1995. His contract was the first major league deal after a three-month signing ban resulting from a labor dispute between owners and the players union. When La Russa left

7810-483: The AL playoffs. Eckersley announced his retirement in December 1998. He commented on his career, saying, "I had a good run. I had some magic that was with me for a long time, so I know that I was real lucky to not have my arm fall off for one thing, and to make it this long physically is tough enough. But to me it's like you're being rescued too when your career's over. It's like, 'Whew, the pressure's off'." He retired with

7952-535: The AT&;T–Time Warner merger, when on February 20, 2017, the Meredith Corporation —which had assumed operational responsibilities for WPCH from Turner/Time Warner in January 2011 to form a virtual duopoly with CBS affiliate WGCL-TV (channel 46)—announced that it would acquire WPCH-TV's license assets from Turner for $ 70 million. (The sale of WPCH to Meredith received FCC approval on April 17, 2017, and

8094-495: The Athletics after the 1995 season to become the St. Louis Cardinals ' new manager, he arranged to bring Eckersley along with him. Eckersley continued in his role as closer and remained one of the league's best, with 66 saves in two seasons in St. Louis. Following the 1997 season, he signed with the Red Sox for a final season, serving as a set-up man for Tom Gordon , as Boston qualified for

8236-548: The Atlanta area on channel 17. (Promos for WTCG/WTBS programs referenced airtimes for both the Eastern and Central Time Zones until 1987, and the Eastern and Pacific time zones thereafter until 1992 and occasionally beforehand for certain scheduled live sports and event telecasts). In May 1979, Turner made a $ 25,000 donation to a group associated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to fund

8378-413: The Atlanta market since WQXI-TV (channel 36, allocation now occupied by MyNetworkTV affiliate WATL ) ceased operations on May 31, 1955—operated on a shoestring budget, general entertainment format with a schedule consisting of a few off-network reruns (such as Father Knows Best , The Danny Thomas Show , The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet and The Rifleman ) and older feature films as well as

8520-524: The Atlanta parent station changed its call letters to WTBS (for "Turner Broadcasting System", the name its parent company adopted in accordance with the callsign change). Concurrently, Turner began branding the station as " SuperStation WTBS "—the prefix word was re-rendered in mixed case in October 1980, with both "S"s capitalized—with occasional references within the logo to the channel 17 frequency in Atlanta. (Accordingly, many cable providers throughout

8662-623: The DOJ's antitrust claims in the lawsuit. The merger closed two days later on June 14, with the company becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T under the renamed parent company WarnerMedia . The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington unanimously upheld the lower court's ruling in favor of AT&T on February 26, 2019. On March 4, 2019, AT&T announced a major reorganization of its broadcasting assets, in which WarnerMedia's television properties would be divided among three divisions within

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8804-574: The FM station is now WSSX-FM ), and Jacksonville, Florida (WMBR, now WQOP )—in an all-stock transaction. Under the sale terms, Rice would acquire Turner in an exchange of stock and adopt the Turner Communications name; however, Turner would acquire about 75% of the merged company and own 48.2% of its stock, receiving 1.2 million shares of Rice stock worth an estimated $ 3 million. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted approval of

8946-570: The Indians. On May 30, 1977, Eckersley threw a no-hitter against the California Angels at Cleveland Stadium . He struck out 12 batters and only allowed two to reach base, Tony Solaita on a walk in the first inning and Bobby Bonds on a third strike that was a wild pitch . He earned his first All-Star Game selection that year and finished the season with a 14–13 win–loss record. The Indians traded Eckersley and Fred Kendall to

9088-550: The Jays won, Eckersley gave up a game-tying 2-run home run to Roberto Alomar and his team eventually lost 7–6 in 11 innings. Eckersley's numbers slipped following 1992: although he still was among the league leaders in saves, his ERA climbed sharply, and his number of saves never climbed above 36. On September 16, 1993, in a game against the Minnesota Twins , Eckersley allowed Dave Winfield 's 3,000th career hit . After

9230-612: The Philadelphia Phillies - labeling them "insufferable hypocrites". In 2004 the Boston Red Sox began offering official citizenship in Red Sox Nation. For a small fee, fans received a membership card with the words "Official Red Sox Nation Citizen" and access to additional Red Sox merchandise offers and newsletters. In the summer of 2007, the Red Sox fan site on MLB.com offered "official" citizens of RSN

9372-515: The Prairie and CHiPs in 1981. Other older shows would eventually be removed from the schedule. WTCG also mixed more movie releases from the 1950s through the 1970s into its schedule. By July 1979, WTCG/WTBS was available to 1,000 cable systems throughout the United States, with a total of 4.8 million cable subscribers receiving the signal. In 1981, Turner decided to split the WTBS satellite feed from its terrestrial signal; under this structure, all of

9514-413: The Red Sox, my family and the fans for supporting me throughout my career and through this decision and I look forward to remaining engaged with the team in a variety of capacities for years to come. During an interview with The Boston Globe , Eckersley said, "I've been thinking about this for a long time. Not that it matters, but it's kind of a round number, leaving. I started in pro ball in '72, when I

9656-492: The TBS national feed—although continuing to operate as a superstation by technicality—began operating under the conventions of a basic cable channel. At that time, the Turner Broadcasting System began to collect subscriber fees (averaging 26¢ per subscriber per month) directly from cable and satellite providers that had previously paid a 30¢-per-month licensing fee to Southern Satellite Systems for access to

9798-503: The TBS signal and a 10¢-per-month copyright fee to a federal copyright tribunal (which, in turn, paid the fee directly to program distributors) for rights to carry its programming. The additional revenue was intended to be used for programming acquisitions, particularly rights to first-run theatrical films. In exchange, TBS began to lease two minutes of advertising time per hour to multichannel subscription television providers to allow them to locally insert commercials catering to viewers in

9940-612: The Time-Warner Communications merger six years prior. (Time Warner and predecessor Warner Communications had owned an 18% interest in Turner Broadcasting since 1987, as part of a cable television industry-backed bailout of the company amid severe financial issues.) Under the terms, Turner would acquire an approximate 10% interest in Time Warner as well as oversee its cable network group—comprising

10082-409: The Turner Broadcasting System announced that WTBS would change its callsign to WPCH-TV , and would be rebranded as "Peachtree TV." The rebranded channel 17 would offer sitcoms and movies geared specifically toward the station's Atlanta audience, and would also broadcast 45 Braves baseball games starting with the team's 2008 season . The change occurred on October 1, 2007, with the national feed becoming

10224-534: The Turner Broadcasting System from its purchase of the film studio ), WTBS gained the rights to the entire MGM/UA film library (including certain acquisitions by MGM). It gave WTBS the rights to air many theatrical cartoon shorts such as Tom and Jerry , as well as shows like Gilligan's Island and CHiPs . Along with Tom and Jerry , WTBS began to run The Little Rascals , Looney Tunes / Merrie Melodies cartoons released prior to August 1948, theatrical Popeye cartoon shorts, and Three Stooges shorts under

10366-591: The Turner and Home Box Office units and its minority interests in Comedy Central and E! —and hold a position on the company's board of directors (which he retained until he stepped down from the company in February 2006) upon the merger's closure. The merger received regulatory approval on September 12, 1996; the Turner–Time Warner deal was finalized one month later on October 10, forming what at

10508-406: The WTCG signal to their lineups; by 1978, WTCG was carried on cable providers in all 50 U.S. states, reaching over 2.3 million subscribers, a total that would substantially double each year into the next decade. Because it utilized a broadcast television station as the origination point for its programming, throughout its existence as a superstation, all programs on WTCG/WTBS—which transmitted exactly

10650-629: The WarnerMedia umbrella. TBS, along with TNT, truTV and HBO would be reassigned to WarnerMedia Entertainment. The move would effectively dissolve the Turner Broadcasting System umbrella as part of a wind-down of the Turner name from the reorganized parent company's corporate structure. AT&T did not specify any timetable for the changes to take effect, although WarnerMedia had begun to remove all Turner references in corporate communications and press releases, referring to that unit's networks as "divisions of WarnerMedia". On April 8, 2022, WarnerMedia

10792-439: The acquisition on December 10, 1969, giving Turner its first television property. Soon after Turner received approval of its purchase of WJRJ-TV in January 1970, Turner changed the station's call letters to WTCG (which officially stood for Turner Communications Group, although the station used "Watch This Channel Grow" as a promotional slogan). The sale was formally completed four months later on April 6, 1970, at which time Turner

10934-403: The banner The TBS Tom & Jerry Funhouse running for either one hour or 90 minutes during the morning hours and for an hour (later, half-hour) in the afternoon from 1986 to 1995. In the late 1980s, WTBS decreased the number of movies broadcast during the day slightly and began to add sitcoms from the 1970s (such as Happy Days , The Jeffersons , Good Times , and One Day at a Time ) to

11076-522: The basis for Turner to develop Cable Music Channel , an attempt at a competitor to MTV that operated for five weeks from October 26 to November 30, 1984, and was one of the shortest-lived channels in American cable television history.) Beginning in 1991, a handful of shows (mostly movies) that were shown nationally were pre-empted in the Atlanta market in order to broadcast FCC-mandated news, public affairs , and children's programming; this continued until

11218-480: The beginning of that year. By 1992, TBS was available in 58 million households with cable and satellite television service, accounting for more than half of all homes in the United States, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands —and carried by 14,815 cable systems throughout the country. During the 1980s, WTBS focused heavily on movies—running two films during the day, and a largely movie-exclusive schedule during

11360-601: The booth. In the 2017 postseason, he worked with Brian Anderson , Joe Simpson and Lauren Shehadi . Eckersley announced his retirement from NESN on August 8, 2022. In a statement released by NESN, he said: After 50 years in Major League Baseball, I am excited about this next chapter of my life. I will continue to be an ambassador for the club and a proud member of Red Sox Nation while transitioning to life after baseball alongside my wife Jennifer, my children and my grandchildren. I’m forever grateful to NESN,

11502-461: The chance to register as candidates to become the first president of Red Sox Nation, for the 2008 season. A broad field of self-proclaimed candidates was whittled down (internally, by operators of the website) to 25, then an open-to-all online "primary" was held in August that resulted in 10 final candidates. For most of September, the ten were provided with weblogs on the website to mount their campaigns. On September 27, Tim Russert of NBC moderated

11644-666: The channel as an Atlanta station in their channel charts and/or by that station's former WTBS call letters in said charts and as an identifier in listings grids). Following the change, Canadian subscription television providers were legally required to continue carrying the local Peachtree TV signal, instead of switching to the national TBS feed. Beginning with the 2008 season , TBS began airing Major League Baseball postseason games, with regular season baseball coverage expanding to include games from other MLB teams. In November 2009, TBS debuted its first late-night talk show , Lopez Tonight , hosted by comedian George Lopez . One year later,

11786-473: The channel expanded its late-night offerings with the November 8, 2010, debut of Conan , after TBS struck a deal to give Conan O'Brien a show on the channel on the heels of his controversial exit as host of NBC 's The Tonight Show . Lopez Tonight ended its run on August 12, 2011, after it was cancelled due to a steep decline in ratings. In 2011, TBS also obtained a portion of the television rights to

11928-490: The channel in May 2006). Turner and station management treated WTCG as an "active" superstation, directly asserting national promotional responsibilities, investing in programming, and charging advertising rates at the national and local levels. This resulted in the station paying for syndicated programming at (albeit reasonably cheaper) rates comparable to other national networks, rather than merely receiving royalty payments from cable systems for programs to which it held

12070-467: The channel's national programming prominence, with the WTBS Atlanta signal continuing to use the separate "SuperStation 17" branding; this coincided with a major promotional campaign positioning the channel as "Great American Television". By 1987, SuperStation WTBS was available to 41.6 million households with a cable or satellite subscription nationwide; this total jumped to 49 million cable homes by

12212-473: The claimant station or a syndication distributor to continue carrying a claimed program through an out-of-market station. At 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time on December 17, 1976, WTCG became America's first " superstation "—independent stations distributed to cable providers throughout their respective regions, or the entire country—when its signal began to be beamed via the Satcom 1 satellite to four cable systems in

12354-472: The construction of a new transmitter, in exchange for acquiring the WTBS call letters that had been assigned to the university's Cambridge -based student radio station for use on the channel 17 license; Turner also agreed to donate an additional $ 25,000 to the group if the FCC agreed to assign the WTBS calls to Turner Communications. (MIT subsequently changed the radio station's calls to WMBR .) On August 27, 1979,

12496-634: The copyright as "passive" superstations—like WGN and WWOR, which opted to take a neutral position on their national distribution and left national promotional duties to the satellite carriers that retransmitted their signals—did. (Unlike WTCG, most other superstations had their signals redistributed without their owner's express permission under a provision in Section 111 of the Copyright Act of 1976, which allowed local cable systems to "retransmit copyrighted programming from any over-the-air stations across

12638-438: The country even carried it on channel 17 during some part of its existence as a superstation). However, the national feed continued to occasionally use the same on-air branding as the Atlanta area signal (which was referred to on-air at the time as "WTBS Channel 17") until October 1980. By 1981, the Atlanta station would be branded as "SuperStation 17", on the national feed available outside of the Atlanta area, though, references to

12780-436: The country to their subscribers under a compulsory license"). WTCG initially was identified as "Channel 17" or "Super 17" both locally in Atlanta and on cable providers outside of that area; by 1979, the station identified primarily by its call letters locally and nationally. Over time, as WTCG was also beginning to gain traction in the Atlanta market, the station also began to gain traction nationally as more cable systems added

12922-577: The early 1970s to serve such areas lacking an independent station, as many cable television systems in middle and southern Georgia and surrounding areas of the Southeastern United States —particularly Alabama , Tennessee and South Carolina —began picking up the UHF signal off-air and retransmitted the Atlanta studio/transmitter link feed to microwave relay towers (sometimes several times) back to their headends . (By June 1976, WTCG

13064-472: The entire country, Turner got his idea off the ground by founding Southern Satellite Systems (SSS)—a common carrier uplink provider based in Tulsa, Oklahoma —to serve as the station's satellite redistributor, and subsequently purchased an earth-to-satellite transmitting station to be set up outside of WTCG's Peachtree Street studios in Atlanta. In order to get around FCC rules in effect at the time that prohibited

13206-539: The evening lineup; Little House on the Prairie aired during the late mornings continuously from 1986 to 2003. Music videos also aired during its late night lineup on weekends from June 1983 to May 1992 as part of the program Night Tracks , which aired in the form of two three-hour-long blocks (later reduced to two two-hour blocks in August 1989, and then to two 90-minute blocks in the spring of 1990), barring pre-emptions from sporting events that ran over their scheduled end-time. (The success of Night Tracks served as

13348-826: The expense of blacking out or substituting non-compliant programs. On September 28, 1989, the channel's name was changed to TBS SuperStation to reflect the strong national standing of the channel. Debuting concurrently with the name change was a promotional campaign utilizing the slogan "TBYes!", featuring various stars of programs seen on TBS—including, among others, Bob Denver and Alan Hale of Gilligan's Island (as their respective characters Gilligan and Captain Jonas Grumby aka "The Skipper" ), Al Lewis of The Munsters (as his character Grandpa ), Buddy Ebsen of The Beverly Hillbillies (as his character J.D. "Jed" Clampett) and Jimmie Walker of Good Times (appearing as himself)—with graphical elements of fireworks and

13490-419: The first success stories out of this effort was the satirical news series Full Frontal with Samantha Bee , hosted by the former correspondent for Comedy Central 's The Daily Show (which served as a basis for Full Frontal ' s format). A new logo, which was previously revealed on social media six weeks prior on September 16, made its official debut on the evening of October 31, 2015. Bumpers featured

13632-432: The first television stations, and only the second U.S. broadcaster—after HBO—to be transmitted via satellite, instead of the then-standard method of using microwave relay to distribute a programming feed. Turner's decision to turn his television station into a national programming service was an expensive gamble on his part, given that he spent about $ 6 million of the $ 14 million that the station made in annual gross revenue at

13774-487: The five years and never posted an ERA higher than 2.96. He gave up five earned runs in the entire 1990 season, resulting in a 0.61 ERA. Eckersley's control, which had always been above average even when he was not otherwise pitching well, became his trademark; he walked only three batters in 57.2 innings in 1989 , four batters in 73.1 innings in 1990, and nine batters in 76 innings in 1991. Between August 7, 1989, and June 10, 1990, Eckersley appeared in 41 games without walking

13916-497: The intellectual legacy of the Puritans who settled Boston and instilled in the region's inhabitants a deep-seated Calvinist determinism . In 2010, Forbes magazine rated Red Sox Nation as the best fans in American sports, citing points such as road attendance and overall devotion to the team. However, in 2011 GQ magazine also ranked Red Sox fans the 6th worst in the United States - and 2nd worst in Major League Baseball behind only

14058-418: The logo being formed into different shapes, objects, structures, and surroundings (such as a gravestone , a flag on a submarine sandwich , and a monster eating the former logo, etc.). On October 22, 2016, AT&T announced an offer to acquire Time Warner for $ 108.7 billion, including debt it would assume from the latter, the merger would bring Time Warner's various media properties, including TBS, under

14200-487: The merger of Time Inc. and Warner Bros. corporate parent Warner Communications —reached an agreement to acquire the Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) and its associated properties (including TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network, CNN and CNN Headline News as well as Turner Entertainment ) for $ 7.5 billion; the deal would also expand Time Warner's pay television holdings, as it had owned HBO and sister premium service Cinemax as well as cable television provider Time Warner Cable since

14342-433: The murder indictment of his son, Jared . Eckersley continued to work with Orsillo's successor, Dave O'Brien , for various Red Sox games, and often worked with Remy and O'Brien in a three-man booth prior to Remy's death in 2021. Eckersley also worked with TBS as a studio analyst from 2008 to 2012. In 2013, Eckersley moved to the booth with TBS, calling Sunday games for the network and also providing postseason analysis from

14484-516: The national feed "100% blackout-free." Combined with the utilization of indemnification provisions designed to protect against monetary damages if a superstation has "a reasonable basis for concluding that[...] programing deletion is not required," this ensured that the TBS national feed would be absolved from potential blackouts necessitated by any local syndication exclusivity claims and, therefore, prevent defections by cable affiliates that indicated it would remove any distant signals rather than shoulder

14626-509: The network's look included a spiral/swirl shape (frequently positioned behind the TBS logo, presumably to depict the superstation's broadcast signal radiating outwards), as well as "Super"-branded blocks (such as Super Prime for prime time movie presentations, "Super TV" for weekday daytime films and series, and Super Weekend for film telecasts on Saturdays and Sundays). On December 17, 1997, Time Warner purchased Southern Satellite Systems from Liberty Media for $ 213 million in cash, as part of

14768-529: The new rules taking effect on January 1, 1990, Turner Broadcasting began to fill the WTBS schedule with additional programming—primarily, off-network syndicated comedy and drama series (such as The Jeffersons and Good Times ) as well as acquired film packages (consisting of both theatrical features and made-for-television films) and original programs (such as Jacques Cousteau specials, and National Audubon Society and National Geographic programs)—for which it would hold exclusive cable rights in order to make

14910-555: The nighttime hours after 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time (with exceptions made for scheduled sporting events, specials, original programs and, in the case of Sunday nights, off-network syndicated series and paid programming). At other times, mainly during the daytime hours each weekday and on weekend mornings, WTBS continued to run mostly classic sitcoms and vintage cartoons. In 1986, when Ted Turner purchased Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer / United Artists (MGM/UA, which he would sell back to previous owner Kirk Kerkorian that October due to debt incurred by

15052-407: The number of carried imported signals), and instituted leapfrogging rules that required systems importing distant independent stations from the top-25 markets to choose from one or both of the two markets closest to the provider's city of license and any systems carrying the signal of a third independent being required to pick up a UHF or, if such a station is not available, VHF station located within

15194-487: The opening game of the Red Sox' playoff series. Following Jerry Remy's election as president of Red Sox Nation, he and his vice president "Regular Rob" Crawford developed a "Red Sox Nation Five-Point Plan" to guide their first year in office. The first point of the plan called for the creation of governors to represent members of Red Sox Nation in their home states. Beginning with the six New England states, nominations were accepted through redsox.com, and from these nominations

15336-700: The phrase " walk-off home run " to describe that moment) as the A's lost to the Dodgers in 5 games. In the 1989 World Series he secured the victory in Game Two, and then earned the save in the final game of the Series, as the A's swept the San Francisco Giants in four games. Eckersley was the most dominant closer in the game from 1988 to 1992 , finishing first in the A.L. in saves twice, second two other times, and third once. He saved 220 games during

15478-549: The president and vice president appointed representatives for each state. Governors were responsible for better connecting members of Red Sox Nation within their home state to the team, as well as organizing viewing parties for Red Sox Nation members in their states and collecting feedback from their constituency. Since its inaugural season, the Governor's program has thus been disbanded. Dennis Eckersley Dennis Lee Eckersley (born October 3, 1954), nicknamed " Eck ",

15620-655: The provided information services over the feed. SSS began transmitting the United Press International (UPI) teletext news service over the national feed's VBI signal in 1979. 1981 saw the VBI signal begin to carry the Keyfax service out of Chicago. In 1985, SSS repurposed the VBI signal to transmit the Electra teletext service, Electra was transmitted over the VBI until the service was shut down in 1993 due to

15762-444: The provider's service area; as a result, the channel began to broadcast fewer Atlanta Braves regular season games to a national audience, under amended contractual agreements between Turner and Major League Baseball in conjunction with the league's cable-originated rightsholders, ESPN and Fox Sports Net/Liberty Sports , to allow TBS to continue carrying Braves telecasts nationwide. In 1998, TBS Superstation—which continued to run

15904-401: The reach of an independent station's signal that this was not an option. There were cable systems that carried three stations affiliated with each of the major commercial networks and three stations that were PBS member outlets (one station from within the home market and two stations from neighboring markets of each network). WTCG started to reach far beyond the Atlanta television market in

16046-563: The reality show Ripley's Believe It or Not! and the short-lived comedy series The Chimp Channel (a series based on the "Monkey-ed Movies" series of interstitial shorts parodying recent and classic theatrical movies with chimpanzees, voiced by human actors, in the roles). By 2001, several sitcoms from the 1980s and 1990s such as Full House , Family Matters , The Cosby Show , The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air , Friends , Seinfeld , and Home Improvement became part of TBS Superstation's schedule; many of these shows aired as part of

16188-412: The rights to syndicated programming and film packages, leaving the network-affiliated stations in the market—WAGA-TV, NBC affiliate WSB-TV (channel 2, now an ABC affiliate) and ABC affiliate WXIA-TV (channel 11, now an NBC affiliate)—to acquire the stronger shows. But, because of programming commitments that the affiliates had to their networks, those stations only kept the shows for a few years at

16330-483: The same corporate umbrella as AT&T's telecommunications holdings, including satellite provider DirecTV . Time Warner shareholders approved the merger on February 15, 2017; however, on February 28, 2017, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai announced that his agency will not review the deal, leaving the review to the U.S. Department of Justice . The merger also resulted in the full separation of TBS from former parent station WPCH (this time by ownership) in an effort to expedite

16472-539: The same schedule nationally as that seen on the local Atlanta broadcast feed—were broadcast on an Eastern Time schedule (with programs shown at earlier or, for those viewing in the Atlantic Time Zone in far eastern Canada and the Maritimes , later times depending on the location), resulting in programs being shown simultaneously in all six continental U.S. and all five Canadian time zones as they did in

16614-694: The schedule as other older shows such as The Three Stooges and Little Rascals shorts and Leave it to Beaver were dropped from the channel to make way for more sitcoms from the 1980s such as Three's Company , Who's the Boss? , Growing Pains , Family Ties , Mama's Family , and Saved by the Bell . Original animated programs such as Captain Planet and the Planeteers , 2 Stupid Dogs , and SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron were also added as part of

16756-539: The second "s" rendered in lower case). (Promotions for the channel's programming beginning at this time until 2004 often verbally referred to the national feed only as "the Superstation", a moniker that had previously been used in certain on-air promotions on an alternating basis or in conjunction with the WTBS/TBS name from its national launch as a superstation in December 1976 until December 1989). During this time,

16898-540: The shows seen on WTBS continued to air nationally over its superstation feed (in a move that preceded fellow superstations WGN-TV and WWOR-TV doing the same thing, though only after the FCC's re-implementation of the Syndication Exclusivity Rights rule in 1990). Although, separate national advertising or per inquiry ads replaced the local commercials intended for broadcast in the Atlanta area—which became exclusively carried by channel 17 locally—on

17040-480: The slogan "veryfunny." The semicircle element took on a motif with half a baseball or basketball rendered within it for Turner Sports programming. From October 1, 2004 to May 30, 2008, TBS had a block called "Too Funny to Sleep" that aired from 1:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m., and aired Mr. Show with Bob and David along with reruns of some shows from Adult Swim , such as Family Guy , Futurama , Baby Blues , The Oblongs , and Mission Hill . The refocusing

17182-436: The small station into the first nationally distributed " superstation ." With the assignment of WTBS as the broadcast station's callsign in 1979, the national feed became known as SuperStation WTBS, and later SuperStation TBS, TBS Superstation, or simply TBS. The channel broadcast a variety of programming during this era, including films, syndicated series, and sports (including Atlanta Braves baseball, basketball games involving

17324-418: The split of the TBS national feed from the Atlanta station in October 2007. In addition to offering conventional television programming over the main video-audio feed viewable to all multichannel television subscribers receiving the channel, Southern Satellite Systems transmitted two teletext services over the TBS superstation feed's vertical blanking interval (VBI) that required a special decoder to receive

17466-571: The station moved to new studio facilities a few blocks west at the former site of the Progressive Club, along with overflow offices on Williams Street, across Interstate 75/85, those facilities now house Adult Swim and Williams Street Productions. (It shared the ex-Progressive Club studios with CNN and Headline News until the latter two moved their operations into the CNN Center downtown in 1987). Early programming included movies from

17608-463: The station's over-the-air channel number were completely removed—outside of minor technical issues where local ads and promos aired erroneously on the national feed. The on-air look of the station by this time was heavily reliant on then state-of-the-art Quantel Paintbox graphics, with slick animation created by a team of in-house graphic designers, led by creative services director John Christopher Burns. He and others would develop this look further in

17750-641: The summer of 1988. On May 18, 1988, the FCC reinstated syndication exclusivity restrictions through the passage of a new version of the Syndication Exclusivity Rights Rule. This version granted cable systems and satellite carrier firms the ability to secure an agreement to air a claimed syndicated program with the claimant local rightsholder or a syndication distributor, effectively allowing for superstations to acquire national cable rights for syndicated programs (either directly or through their satellite carrier). In preparation for

17892-412: The superstation feed. The 1980s also saw WTBS begin to venture into original programming, in 1980, the station premiered Tush , a late night sketch comedy and variety series hosted and developed by comedian Bill Tush (who had hosted newsbriefs and, occasionally, movie presentations for WTBS, in addition to serving as a staff announcer), with Jan Hooks (who would later gain fame during her stint as

18034-431: The time on satellite transmission. SSS initially charged prospective cable systems 10¢ per subscriber to transmit the WTCG signal as a 24-hour channel and 2¢ per subscriber to carry it as a part-time, overnight-only service (with the intent of acting as a timeshare feed on a cable channel otherwise occupied by a local or out-of-market broadcast station during their normal sign-off period). Instantly, WTCG went from being

18176-458: The time was the largest media company in the world. In September 1996, TBS replaced religious programs and infomercials that had aired on Sunday mornings and late nights with animated series and feature films, respectively, in those time slots. On December 17, 1996, when TBS celebrated its 20th anniversary as a national service, the channel reincorporated the "Superstation" moniker into its name, rebranding as " TBS Superstation " (this time with

18318-611: The top 20 media markets lacked independent stations running general entertainment programs, and largely only had access to television stations affiliated with ABC, NBC, and CBS, along with a non-commercial educational station. Cable providers in these areas carried network-affiliated commercial and non-commercial television stations from neighboring markets—usually to serve as default outlets where one or more networks were not available locally—and if possible, an independent station (often located anywhere between 60 and 200 miles [97 and 322 km] away). Still, many places were far enough out of

18460-420: The years that followed, eventually forming the design firm Television by Design to provide services to other television stations around the country (including WXIA-TV, rival independent WGNX [channel 46, now CBS affiliate WANF ] and PBS member station WPBA [channel 30, now WABE-TV ] within the Atlanta market). Burns would leave TVbD, but continued to be employed by Turner Broadcasting for other projects, including

18602-441: Was a 17-year-old kid right out of high school. Fifty years ago ... So it's time." Following his announcement, Sean McGrail, NESN president and CEO said that NESN was "...fortunate that Dennis has been a part of our Red Sox coverage ... His unbridled passion, nuanced insights and Eck humor will be dearly missed and we are thankful for his many contributions to NESN. We wish him the best as he embarks on this next chapter of his life as

18744-491: Was assigned as licensee of WJRJ-TV. The channel 17 transmitter was originally located at 1018 West Peachtree Street Northwest (it has since been relocated to the Atlanta suburb of North Druid Hills, Georgia ), with the antenna located on the Turner Broadcasting tower . The building at this site was once home to the studios of CBS affiliate WAGA-TV (channel 5, now a Fox owned-and-operated station ) and, later, channel 17, during its first three years as WJRJ-TV. By 1980,

18886-455: Was canceled by The Disney Channel in 1985. (TBS's addition of The New Leave It To Beaver to its lineup also coincided with the original Leave it to Beaver airing in reruns on the channel, as Ted Turner felt that the former would make a good programming fit with the latter.) On September 7, 1987, the "W" from the "WTBS" callsign was dropped from the superstation's on-air branding—changing its name to SuperStation TBS —in order to emphasize

19028-531: Was carried by 95 cable systems in six Southeastern states, reaching an estimated 440,000 households). Turner began formulating plans to take WTCG national upon hearing of the groundbreaking innovation by premium cable service Home Box Office (HBO) (which would eventually become a sister property to channel 17 as a result of Time Warner's 1996 acquisition of the Turner Broadcasting System ) to retransmit its programming nationwide utilizing communications satellites beginning with its September 30, 1975, telecast of

19170-475: Was converted by Turner into a conventional basic cable network, at which time it began to be carried within the Atlanta market on area cable providers alongside its existing local carriage on satellite providers DirecTV and Dish Network . The former parent station in Atlanta was concurrently relaunched as WPCH-TV (branded as "Peachtree TV", which Turner sold to the Meredith Corporation in 2017, and later acquired by Gray Television in 2021) and reformatted as

19312-599: Was divested by AT&T and merged with Discovery Inc. to form Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD). On April 26, it was reported that WBD had suspended original scripted series development at TBS and TNT in order to evaluate the channels' strategies moving forward. At this point, TBS only had three original scripted series still airing first-run episodes, American Dad! , Chad (which itself would be dropped by WBD before its already-filmed second season made it to air; it would later be picked up by streaming service The Roku Channel ), and Miracle Workers . On May 11, Brett Weitz

19454-685: Was finalized four days later on April 21, 2017). On November 20, 2017, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit against AT&T and Time Warner in an attempt to block the merger, citing antitrust concerns surrounding the transaction. The proposed merger—which had already been approved by the European Commission and Mexican, Chilean and Brazilian regulatory authorities—was affirmed by court ruling on June 12, 2018, after District of Columbia U.S. District Court Judge Richard J. Leon ruled in favor of AT&T, dismissing

19596-518: Was intended to position its programming as a direct contrast to sister channel TNT, which had initially focused mainly around older movies and sports but moved toward and now focuses primarily on drama series and films. From April 19, 2013 to February 20, 2015, Turner began to utilize an outside-sourced four-hour block of programming on TBS late Friday nights without the "Too Funny to Sleep" branding, including Family Guy , The Oblongs , The Cleveland Show , and American Dad! . In late June 2007,

19738-570: Was officially retired by the Oakland Athletics. The baseball field at his alma mater, Washington High School , has been named in his honor. In 2017, Eckersley rejoined the Athletics as the special assistant to Dave Kaval , the team's president. Eckersley began working as a studio analyst and color commentator for the Boston Red Sox on NESN in 2002. "Eck" became known for his easy-going manner and his own baseball vernacular, with Red Sox Nation attempting to keep up via "The Ecktionary,"

19880-429: Was removed as general manager for TBS, TNT, and TruTV; the channels are now overseen by Kathleen Finch as head of U.S. Networks. As of December 2023, TBS currently airs a mix of game shows and reality shows and reruns of live-action sitcoms that were originally broadcast on the major broadcast networks. The remaining original scripted first-run program currently seen on TBS is American Dad! , which also airs on and

20022-540: Was the American League 's Most Valuable Player and Cy Young Award winner in 1992, a season in which he posted 51 saves. Only two relievers had previously accomplished the double feat: Rollie Fingers in 1981 and Willie Hernández in 1984 . In the 1992 American League Championship Series against the Toronto Blue Jays , during Game 4 in what some considered the turning point in the series that

20164-444: Was the only Procter & Gamble serial to be produced for cable television), and sitcoms Down to Earth , Rocky Road , and Safe at Home (all three of which were produced by The Arthur Company , and formed a block of first-run comedy series aimed at a family audience). In addition, from 1986 through 1989, TBS also produced more than 70 original episodes of The New Leave It To Beaver , which it picked up after that series

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