who put channel 17 in atlanta on cable and satellite

WPCH-TV, virtual channel 17 (UHF digital channel 20), is an independent television station licensed to Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The station is owned by Meredith Corporation, as part of a duopoly with CBS affiliate WGCL-TV (channel 46). The two stations share studios on 14th Street Northwest (adjacent to Laurent and Mecaslin Streets) in Atlanta's Atlantic Station district; WPCH-TV's transmitter is located near Shepherds Lane and Arnold Avenue in the Woodland Hills section of  northeastern Atlanta (near North Druid Hills). On cable, WPCH is available on Comcast Xfinity and Charter Spectrum channel 7 in the Atlanta market.

WPCH-TV

During its ownership under the Turner Broadcasting System (which owned the station from 1970 until 2017), WPCH-TV – then using the WTCG call letters – pioneered the distribution of broadcast television stations via satellite transmission to cable and satellite subscribers throughout the United States and Canada, expanding the small independent station into the first national "superstation" on December 17, 1976.

The former superstation feed – which eventually became known as simply TBS, and had maintained a nearly identical program schedule as the local Atlanta feed – was converted by Turner into a conventional basic cable network on October 1, 2007, at which time it was concurrently added to cable providers within the Atlanta market (including Comcast and Time Warner Cable) alongside its existing local carriage on satellite providers DirecTV and Dish Network. Channel 17 – which had used the WTBS callsign since 1979 – was concurrently relaunched as WPCH (branded as "Peachtree TV") and reformatted as a traditional independent station with a separate schedule exclusively catering to the Atlanta market. Although the Atlanta station is no longer available on American pay television providers outside of its home market, WPCH-TV continues to be available as a de facto superstation on most Canadian cable and satellite providers.

On October 20, 1965, 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. – filed a permit application with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to be the holder of the construction permit to build and license to operate a new television station on UHF channel 46, the third commercial UHF allocation to be assigned to Atlanta.[1] The FCC granted the permit to Rice Broadcasting on October 20, 1965. In January 1966, Rice Broadcasting chose to assign WJRJ-TV – named for Jack Rice, Jr. – as the call letters for its television station.[2][3][4] On February 21, 1966, Rice subsequently filed to modify the permit to re-allocate the proposed station to UHF channel 17. The FCC granted the frequency reallocation to channel 17 five weeks later on March 31. (The UHF channel 46 allocation would eventually be assigned to the Continental Broadcasting Network arm of the Christian Broadcasting Network, which signed on WHAE-TV [now CBS-affiliated sister station WGCL-TV] over that frequency on June 6, 1971.)[5][6]

Channel 17 first signed on the air on September 1, 1967. WJRJ-TV was the first commercial television station to sign on in the Atlanta market since the short-lived WQXI-TV (channel 36, allocation now occupied by MyNetworkTV affiliate WATL) signed on 13 years earlier on December 18, 1954; it was also the second independent station to begin operation in the market – the first since WQXI-TV ceased operations on May 31, 1955 – even though, on paper, had a large enough population to provide suitable viewership for an independent station since the mid-1960s, as well as one of the first independents to sign on in the Southeastern United States. The station's original studio and transmitter facility was located at 1018 West Peachtree Street Northwest, which had formerly served as the studios of then-CBS affiliate WAGA-TV (channel 5, now a Fox owned-and-operated station). At 1,050 feet (320 m), the tower near the Peachtree Street studio building became the third-tallest free-standing broadcast transmission tower in the United States at that time.[7][8]

WJRJ was launched on a shoestring budget, with an afternoon and evening schedule – running from 4:00 to 11:00 p.m. – filled with older movies and a few off-network reruns (such as Father Knows Best, The Danny Thomas Show, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet and The Rifleman), as well as a 15-minute news program. In addition to placing daily ads in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's television listings page, WJRJ-TV ran exactly one TV Guide advertisement: a half-page ad in a September 1967 issue of the magazine's Georgia edition with the headline, "Yes, Atlanta, there is a channel 17." Despite the fact that WJRJ had billed itself as "Good-looking Channel 17,"[9] technical snafus were the norm during the station's early months: film broke down, ID, advertising and program promotion slides frequently appeared backwards, and there were often long pauses when nothing appeared on screen. The station did carry a top-rated show for a few weeks: WAGA-TV pre-empted CBS network programming to run a movie on Wednesday nights, and channel 17 stepped in to run the drama series Medical Center (the rights to which would later be owned by eventual sister company Warner Bros.) for a time. On June 5, 1968, Rice requested to transfer majority control of the station (reducing his interest from 53.9% to 46.68%) to Rice Broadcasting president W. R. McKinsey via stock delivery through conversion of 130,000 shares in debentures at $4.75 per share. The FCC granted transfer on September 5.[10][11]

In July 1969, Rice Broadcasting announced an agreement to merge with the Turner Communications Corporation (the forerunner to the Turner Broadcasting System) – an Atlanta-based group owned by entrepreneur Robert E. "Ted" Turner III, who ran his late father's billboard business and had also owned radio stations in Chattanooga, Tennessee (WGOW); Charleston, South Carolina (WTMA-AM-FM, the FM station is now WSSX-FM); and Jacksonville, Florida (WMBR, now WBOB) – in an all-stock transaction. Under the terms of the deal, 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 FCC granted approval of the acquisition on December 10, 1969, giving Turner its first television property.[12][13][14] In January 1970, soon after Turner received approval of its purchase of the low-rated UHF outlet, Turner changed the station's call letters to WTCG, which reportedly stood for "Watch This Channel Grow" (though the "TCG" officially stood for Turner Communications Group). The sale was formally completed four months later on April 6, at which time Turner was assigned as licensee of WJRJ-TV.[15][16][17]

Upon becoming owned by Turner, WTCG initially retained its original programming format. It also moved its operations to new studio facilities located a few blocks west of the original Peachtree Street facility, to the former site of the Progressive Club. During an interview in 2004, Turner revealed that some of the problems that had dogged WJRJ were present during the early days at WTCG. First, when Turner bought the station, it was the only one in the Atlanta market that was still broadcasting exclusively in black-and-white because the previous owners had not made the necessary technical upgrades to allow the transmission of color programming. Secondly, money was still very tight during the first couple of years that Turner owned the station. The station decided to purchase the color broadcasting equipment it needed on credit after Turner took over. The station converted to color by May 1970. However, some months had passed and Turner found himself unable to make the payments on the equipment. As a last resort (after unsuccessfully attempting to secure further financing), Turner held an on-air telethon, much in the manner of the pledge drives seen on public television, to raise the money needed to pay the station's bills. Third, as it began operations in 1970, there was new competition in the form of upstart UHF station WATL (which signed on the air on August 16, 1969 as the second television station in Atlanta to occupy the channel 36 allocation). Once the financial problems were settled, WTCG eventually drove WATL off the air in April 1971, as channel 17 (as well as the economic climate of the period) ate significantly into that station's advertising revenue; channel 36 would remain dark for five years and never became a major player until it became the market's original Fox station in 1986.[18]

WTCG threw an on-air party in celebration, but it would soon have a new competitor when WHAE-TV took to the air on channel 46 in June 1971; that station originally maintained a six-hour-a-day program schedule, with Christian programs filling four hours of its schedule and low-budget secular shows filling the remaining airtime. Channel 46 gradually expanded its broadcast day, running programs for 20 hours daily by 1976. By 1974, the station had a conventional general entertainment format, with religious programs mixed in among its secular shows during morning and primetime slots (such as CBN's flagship program, The 700 Club). WHAE (which became WANX-TV in 1977) was a very competitive station, but could not beat WTCG, which remained the leading independent in Atlanta.[citation needed]

Turner had a low budget in terms of programming purchases, and would bid very low on new shows offered in syndication; network-affiliated stations WAGA-TV, WSB-TV (channel 2) and WXIA-TV (channel 11) would get the best product. But due to network commitments, the three major affiliates could only keep programs for a few years at a time. Turner would then buy the rights to the shows that the major affiliates did not renew for nearly half the price of the original purchase. Turner also bought most of the movie packages in this manner. The station's schedule placed an emphasis on its movie library; one notable program was Academy Award Theatre, which showcased films that had won or have been nominated for Academy Awards. Classic films from the 1930s through the 1950s (mostly consisting of Warner Bros. releases) were shown every day as part of the regular schedule. Many older films that had either never been telecast in the Atlanta area (such as 1935's A Midsummer Night's Dream) or had not been seen on television for a long time, made their local television debut or "comeback" on WTCG.

Channel 17's sports programming grew to include game telecasts from the Atlanta Braves, Atlanta Hawks and Atlanta Flames, as well as Georgia Championship Wrestling, one of the roots of the later World Championship Wrestling.[19][20][21] The sports and wrestling would become foundation blocks during the early satellite years (see below). Programs carried by WTCG during the period included a mix of sitcoms (such as I Love Lucy, The Andy Griffith Show, The Beverly Hillbillies and Three Stooges shorts), cartoons (such as The Flintstones and Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoons released prior to 1948) and drama series (such as Star Trek). Another show on WTCG's lineup was Future Shock, a music program hosted by R&B singer James Brown. The show, which bore similarities to American Bandstand and Soul Train, aired in late night each Friday from 1976 to 1979.[22]

Beginning in the early 1970s, many cable systems in middle and southern Georgia and surrounding states—namely Alabama, Tennessee and South Carolina—began receiving the WTCG signal via microwave relay, enabling the station to reach far beyond the Atlanta television market. Still, many places were so far from the signal of an independent television station that this was not an option. There were cable systems that carried three stations affiliated with each of the major commercial networks and three PBS stations (one station from within the home market and two stations from neighboring markets of each network).

To serve such areas lacking an independent station, Ted Turner decided to negotiate an agreement with Tulsa, Oklahoma-based Southern Satellite Systems – a common-carry uplink firm founded by Turner Communications, which divested the firm to Edward L. Taylor (a former vice president of marketing at Western Union) in December 1975 to comply with FCC rules prohibiting a common carrier from having involvement in program origination – to uplink the WTCG signal to the Satcom 1 satellite in order to distribute the station's programming to cable and satellite subscribers throughout the United States. With this move, WTCG would become one of the first television stations, and only the second U.S. broadcaster – following premium cable network HBO (an eventual sister property to channel 17 as a result of Time Warner's 1996 acquisition of the Turner Broadcasting System), which began to transmit its signal nationally via satellite on September 30, 1975[23] – to be transmitted via satellite, instead of the then-standard method of using microwave relay to distribute a programming feed.[24][25]

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 was beamed via Satcom 1 to four cable providers in the Midwestern and Southeastern United States: Multi-Vue TV's Grand Island, Nebraska, system; Hampton Roads Cablevision in Newport News, Virginia; Troy Cablevision in Troy, Alabama, and Newton Cable TV in Newton, Kansas.[26] All four cable systems started receiving the 1948 film Deep Waters, starring Dana Andrews and Cesar Romero, which was already airing in progress for 30 minutes. Instantly, WTCG added 24,000 more households to its viewing audience, which consisted of 675,000 households in metropolitan Atlanta. That number would grow in the next several years, with the first heaviest concentrations in the Southern United States (where WTCG's telecasts of Atlanta Braves baseball and professional wrestling were highly popular), with its cable coverage eventually encompassing the nation. The station, and Turner's innovation, signaled the start of the basic cable revolution. By 1978, WTCG was carried on cable providers in all 50 states, many of which lacked access to a local commercial independent station and in some cases even a distant one.[27]

WTCG's move also led Eastern Microwave, Incorporated and United Video Satellite Group, respectively, to uplink fellow independent stations WOR-TV (now MyNetworkTV owned-and-operated station WWOR-TV) in New York City and WGN-TV in Chicago to satellite by 1978, in an effort to distribute them as national superstations. Eventually, other independent stations such as KTVT (now 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 distributed on a regional basis. Programming stayed pretty similar as shows such as The Brady Bunch, The Beverly Hillbillies, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, Hogan's Heroes, made-for-TV Popeye cartoons and other vintage shows would be purchased second and even third hand; All in the Family and Sanford and Son, however, were bid for and acquired by WTCG.

In May 1979, Turner reached an agreement to acquire the WTBS call letters used by the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based educational FM radio station owned by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with the intent of re-assigning the callsign to Turner's Atlanta television station. The request was made in conjunction with a $25,000 donation by Turner to a group associated with MIT to fund a new transmitter for the radio station (now known as WMBR), which would include an additional $25,000 to the group if Turner Communications became successful in obtaining the WTBS calls from the FCC. Channel 17 changed its call letters to WTBS on August 27, 1979, at which time its parent company was accordingly renamed the Turner Broadcasting System; the station concurrently began branding as "SuperStation WTBS".[28][29][30][31] 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.[32]

In 1986, after Ted Turner's $1.5 billion purchase of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/United Artists that year ended in the studios being sold back to Kirk Kerkorian due to concerns over Turner Entertainment's debt load,[33] WTBS acquired the rights to air the studios' movies through Turner's purchase of the MGM/UA film library. Music videos also aired on the station as part of a weekend late-night lineup that ran from 1983 to 1992, Night Tracks; the program 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 running overtime.

In 1981, Turner decided to have all of the shows carried by WTBS continue to air both locally and nationally, but separated the feeds (in a move that preceded fellow superstation WGN-TV doing the same thing after the FCC's passage of the syndication exclusivity rights rule in 1989). As a result, local commercials airing in Atlanta on channel 17 would not air over the satellite feed and were substituted with separate national advertising, direct response ads or public service announcements. On September 7, 1987, the "W" in the station's call letters was dropped from the "SuperStation WTBS" branding in order to emphasize the channel's national programming prominence. In Atlanta, through the early 1990s, station promos and digital on-screen graphics referred to the station as "TBS 17".[34] The "SuperStation" branding was dropped entirely in 1990; for a short time in the late 1990s, the "Superstation" brand returned to WTBS (in concurrence with the restoration of the sub-brand on the national feed) without the "TBS" branding.

On September 22, 1995, Time Warner – a New York City-based media company formed in 1989 through the merger of Time Inc. and Warner Bros. corporate parent Warner Communications – reached an agreement to acquire the Turner Broadcasting System and its associated properties (including WTBS/TBS, CNN, TNT, Headline News and Cartoon Network as well as Turner Entertainment) for $7.5 billion; the deal would also expand Time Warner's cable television holdings, as it had owned HBO and sister premium service Cinemax as well as cable television provider Time Warner Cable since 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 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.[35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43] 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 the time was the largest media company in the world.[44][45][46]

In September 1998, due to the trend of children's programs migrating more toward cable channels such as Turner's Cartoon Network, WTBS dropped cartoons from its schedule entirely and began focusing on feature films, sitcoms from the 1980s and 1990s, and a few drama series. As the 1990s and 2000s wore on, the station began to more closely resemble a basic cable channel than a superstation. Outside of Braves baseball, the only Atlanta-centric programming seen on WTBS by 2002 was a pair of public affairs shows on weekend mornings that were only broadcast over WTBS, and were replaced on the national feed by acquired television series. In 2003, WTBS dropped a large proportion of dramatic films from its feature film slate and all of its acquired drama series, in an effort to refocus the schedule around comedy programming, consisting of comedy films and sitcoms from the 1990s. (Sister network TNT in turn began specializing in drama programs by this time.)

As WTBS shifted its programming philosophy, it was eventually determined that the station should be split up into two separate entities. The national cable channel would be known as TBS, while the over-the-air Atlanta station would remain a commercial independent station that also focused on sitcoms, as well as other movies and local interest programs. On October 1, 2007, Turner Broadcasting changed the station's call letters to WPCH-TV, and rebranded it as "Peachtree TV".[47][48] The WPCH call letters had already been used by an unrelated AM radio station in West Point (owned by iHeartMedia) on 1310 AM; they had previously been used in Atlanta by the present-day WUBL (94.9 FM, which accordingly was branded as "Peach 94.9") from 1972 to 2002. (Outside of the Atlanta area, the calls had been used by the Augusta radio station now known as WNRR [1380 AM] from 2003 to 2006, and then in the Macon area by the present-day WIHB-FM [96.5 FM] from 2006 to 2015; all three of which are also owned by iHeartMedia. Probably the first use of the WPCH call letters was by a radio station in New York City which operated from November 6, 1926 to June 4, 1933; the station was created as a merger of two earlier stations, WFBH and WRW, under the ownership of Concourse Radio Corporation; it was bought by the owners of WMCA in the fall of 1927 and was merged into that station six years later.)

As a result of the separation of channel 17 from the national feed, the national version of TBS became available to cable and satellite viewers in the Atlanta market for the first time (simultaneous to this, the national TBS network would begin broadcasting MLB games featuring all teams, not just the Braves, and the League Division and Championship Series). WPCH-TV carries classic and more recent off-network syndicated programming and movies. The relaunched station contains significantly more paid programming, programs targeted at an African American audience, and older, less expensive programming than its predecessor WTBS. It also continued to carry Atlanta Braves baseball games until 2012; since then, all Braves games became broadcast exclusively on cable via Fox Sports South and Fox Sports Southeast.

On January 18, 2011, Turner/Time Warner announced it would enter into a local marketing agreement with Des Moines-based Meredith Corporation (which has been the owner of CBS affiliate WGCL-TV since it acquired the station from Tribune Broadcasting in August 1998), under which Turner/Time Warner would retain ownership of the broadcast license while Meredith/WGCL would assume responsibility for advertising sales, marketing and promotional services and technical operations for WPCH. Channel 17 subsequently migrated its operations from the Techwood Drive facility into WGCL's studio building on 14th Street Northwest in Atlanta's Atlantic Station district.[49][50] In addition, production of the station's 45 Atlanta Braves broadcasts was transferred from Turner Sports to Fox Sports South.[49] This management agreement with Meredith apparently also ended Turner Broadcasting's yearly sponsorship of Piedmont Park's "Screen on the Green" beginning in 2011.[51]

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 the same corporate umbrella as AT&T's telecommunications holdings, including satellite provider DirecTV.[52][53][54][55] WPCH is among the very few Time Warner properties licensed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), as cable channels like CNN and broadcast television networks like The CW are not directly licensed by the FCC (though another wrinkle in the deal involved the company's send/receive satellite dishes, which were Time Warner-owned and whose licenses are under FCC purview and were reviewed in the deal with AT&T's existing infrastructure[56]). In the announcement, the companies said they were still determining which, if any, of Time Warner's FCC licenses would be assumed by AT&T.[57]

Media analysts suggested that WPCH was likely to be spun off or sold to a third party to potentially avoid an FCC review entirely, in an effort to expedite the AT&Tâ€“Time Warner merger.[58] On February 20, 2017, the Meredith Corporation announced that it will acquire the license assets of WPCH-TV from the Turner Broadcasting System for $70 million.[59][60][61][62][63][64][65] The sale received FCC approval on April 17, 2017, and was finalized four days later on April 21.[66][67][68][69]

The station's digital channel is multiplexed:

Until 2011, programs seen on WPCH were broadcast in standard definition and were entirely upconverted and shown with pillarboxing, even for movies; the only exceptions were Atlanta Braves and Southeastern Conference college football games, which were broadcast in widescreen and in high definition. On April 3, 2011, the station's telecast of the 1994 movie Forrest Gump was transmitted in 16:9 widescreen without being pillarboxed, and since then much more of the station's programming has been televised in HD.

At the end of January 2009, the station added a digital subchannel on 17.2; by February 5, it was blank, without audio or video, and was soon removed. It is possible for TBS to be broadcast over-the-air along with Peachtree TV; however, the station did not release any information on what it planned to do with the new channel. In September 2017, 17.2 returned with an SD simulcast of the main channel.

WPCH-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 17, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television.[71] The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 20,[72] using PSIP to display WPCH-TV's virtual channel as 17 on digital television receivers.

The station's digital transmitter is located near North Druid Hills, on a tower shared with several other television and FM radio stations. Its analog transmitter (also known as the Turner Broadcasting tower) was located on a very large tower on the east side of the Downtown Connector, and was dismantled in 2010. This was a condition of its land lease, as it sits on property owned by Comcast, the primary cable television competitor to Time Warner (both as a provider — as Time Warner had formerly owned Time Warner Cable until TWC's spin-off from Time Warner in 2009 — and as an owner of cable channels). This quirk of history is explained by the fact that it was originally the site of a different tower for WAGA-TV, when that station was owned by Storer Broadcasting. Storer Cable was sold to a different owner, and eventually was absorbed into Comcast (see the list of Atlanta broadcast stations by location#Towers).

The station's DTT signal is at the maximum allowable power (1,000 kW ERP), while its original analog signal was not. Its digital signal on channel 20 is diplexed with Univision O&O WUVG (channel 34) into a master broadcast antenna at a separate tower, located at 1800 Briarcliff Road Northeast, in Atlanta's Morningside neighborhood. The station had also applied for an analog backup facility at this location, with a corresponding construction permit dating from its original application in 2003 to transmit from the WATL digital antenna on the same tower. Two subsequent applications in 2006 to increase the power of the backup have not been ruled on as of  October 2007[update]. Several other television stations have their transmitters on this tower, including WUVM-LP [channel 4] and W45DX-D [channel 45], and possibly WGCL-TV. (WWWQ [92.7 FM] is now located on this tower, sharing the same antenna with WZGC [92.9 FM]; WKHX-FM [101.5] is slightly lower on the tower, while WRFG [89.3 FM] transmits from much lower on the tower.) According to the FCC database, another tower holding several other stations is located about 110 meters or 350 feet east-northeast.[73][74]

WPCH-TV is carried on most Canadian cable, satellite, fiber and IPTV providers, often being carried as part of one of the main specialty channel tiers. The station first became available in Canada in the mid-1980s (as WTBS), when the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) permitted Canadian pay television providers to begin carrying the Atlanta station, and other U.S. superstations, as premium channels packaged with Canadian pay services, such as the services now known as The Movie Network and the now-defunct Movie Central.[75] In late 1997, many service providers moved the station from a pay service to a new third tier of specialty channels.[76]

When WTBS became WPCH-TV, Canadian television providers were only permitted to continue carrying the Atlanta station, and not the TBS pay-TV channel. The national TBS subscription feed, which had been created as a separate national feed in 1981, later to be split off from WTBS in the 1990s and which for a time was carried in place of that station by some Canadian television providers, was technically a separate channel and had never been formally approved by the CRTC as an eligible-for-carriage foreign channel that could be carried as a substitute for the over-the-air Atlanta station.[77] Indeed, in informing the CRTC of WTBS' change of call sign and branding, Turner Broadcasting apparently did not make any request to have the TBS cable channel approved in its place.[78]

Until the early 2010s, WPCH continued to carry some of the same programs as TBS (albeit at different times), and as a result, some Canadians may have initially perceived Peachtree TV as either a renaming of, or equivalent to, the American TBS service.[79] However, WPCH did not carry flagship TBS programs such as Major League Baseball postseason coverage, or the talk show Conan,[80] both of which are instead carried by other Canadian channels (Sportsnet carries the MLB postseason, while Much and CTV carry Conan).

Since the rebranding, WPCH has been removed from some providers due to carriage disputes with Turner, including Videotron (which removed the station in 2009 but reinstated it in 2011) and Cogeco (which dropped it in 2011).

Syndicated programs broadcast on WPCH-TV (as of  September 2018[update]) include Rachael Ray, Divorce Court, Hot Bench, Modern Family, Black-ish, Family Guy, American Dad!, The King of Queens, Last Man Standing and Inside Edition.[81]

Channel 17 was a longtime broadcaster of Major League Baseball games featuring the Atlanta Braves under former parent Turner Broadcasting's in-house sports production firm Turner Sports. In July 1972, Ted Turner acquired the television rights to the Braves beginning with the team's 1973 season, assuming the contract from then-NBC affiliate WSB-TV (now an ABC affiliate), which had carried the franchise's games since the Braves relocated from Milwaukee in 1966. (However, WSB-TV's sister radio station, WSB [750 AM], continued to hold radio broadcast rights to the team's games for several years afterward.) The acquisition of the Braves television rights reversed the standard of MLB franchises designating originating stations, arranging their own regional carrier networks and handling advertising sales for their game telecasts. It was also particularly striking given that WTCG had experienced major profit losses ever since Turner assumed ownership of the station from Rice Broadcasting in 1970; WTCG had only then started to break even in revenue and was just beginning to become more competitive with the Atlanta market's other television stations in terms of viewership. Channel 17 aired an average of 50 Braves games per season over the first year of the contract, increasing to an average of 95 games per season by 1980.[19][20]

During the 1970s, Turner also syndicated live Braves telecasts to other television stations (mostly major network affiliates, as the region had few independents) throughout Georgia and surrounding states, including Turner-owned NBC affiliate WRET (now WCNC-TV) in Charlotte. Usually, the Sunday afternoon game and one prime time game were distributed to these stations, with mid-week game telecasts airing mainly during the summer, while the major broadcast networks were carrying reruns of their prime time shows, a normal practice among the other MLB teams during that era. Also by the mid-1970s, WTCG had already become available on many cable systems in Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina via microwave relay transmission by the mid-1970s, giving the team even further television exposure to its loyal fanbase in the South.

After Turner uplinked the station's signal via satellite, channel 17's Braves telecasts began airing nationally at the start of the 1977 season. With WTCG reaching a significant cable penetration throughout the Southern U.S. during 1978 and 1979, Turner ceased syndicating the team's game broadcasts and relegated those telecasts to the WTCG/WTBS cable feed, making the Braves the first team that did not provide live game coverage to broadcast stations outside of those within the team's home market. Coverage of the Atlanta Braves (which was formerly owned by Ted Turner) was perhaps TBS's signature program, mainly due to its viewer popularity in Georgia and neighboring states. Turner once famously tried to get Andy Messersmith to use his #17 jersey to promote Superstation WTBS in its early years (the back of the jersey read, "CHANNEL 17"). The MLB organization immediately stopped Turner from proceeding with this plan due to league regulations barring team jerseys from incorporating advertising other than that of the jersey's manufacturer.

At the 2006 MLB All-Star Game, it was announced that, beginning with the 2007 season, TBS would begin carrying a television package that includes all major league teams as well as rights to the Division Series and one of the two League Championship Series (assuming the rights from Fox and ESPN) and the announcements of the All-Star teams and any possible games to determine division winners and wild card teams (those were also carried previously on ESPN). As part of the contract, Turner Broadcasting agreed to transition its Braves telecasts to air on a regionally-exclusive basis; these changes were the impetus for the station's separation from the TBS national feed and conversion to a standalone independent station in October 2007.[82][83]

During the 2007 transitional year, TBS aired 70 regular-season Braves games. In 2008, the number of Braves telecasts was reduced to only 45 games, with TBS' former Atlanta feed, WPCH-TV, solely carrying the telecasts;[84] Turner syndicated the package to other television stations and cable channels for broadcast in the remainder of the Braves' designated market area. The final Braves game to be broadcast on TBS aired on September 30, 2007, with the first divisional playoff game airing the following day on October 1, 2007 (when the TBS/WPCH split occurred). Production of the Braves telecasts was taken over by Fox Sports South after Meredith began operating WPCH-TV, continuing to air 45 games per season. On February 28, 2013, Fox Sports South and SportSouth reached a deal with the Braves to acquire the 45-game package held by WPCH, rendering the team's game telecasts cable-exclusive beginning with the 2013 season and ending the station's 40-year relationship with the Braves.[85][47]

In October 1972, WTCG obtained the broadcast rights to broadcast NBA games involving the Atlanta Hawks (which was also owned by Ted Turner at the time) under a ten-year agreement. WTCG/WTBS and its superstation feed aired an average of 55 Hawks regular season games per season.[21][86] TBS aired the games nationwide until the telecasts became subjected to NBA blackout restrictions within 35 miles (56Â km) of the home team's arena, resulting in many Hawks away games televised by the TBS national feed being unavailable to cable providers within the designated market area of the opposing team (this restriction was dropped when TNT gained the right to be the exclusive broadcaster of any game that it chose to carry).

In the spring of 1984, WTBS reached an agreement with the NBA to broadcast games from league teams other than the Hawks beginning with the 1984–85 season; under the deal, WTBS/TBS maintained a package of approximately 55 regular season NBA games annually, with games airing on Tuesday and Friday nights.[87] From 1985 until 1989, WTBS/TBS also televised anywhere from 12 to 20 early round conference playoff games beginning with the 1985 NBA Playoffs as well as the NBA Draft.[88][89] Under a joint broadcast contract signed between Turner Broadcasting and the NBA in the summer of 1987, the rights to NBA telecasts began to be split between TBS and upstart sister network TNT beginning with the league's 1988-89 season, with TNT assuming rights to the NBA Draft and most NBA regular season and playoff games and TBS's NBA telecasts being relegated to a single game or a double-headers one night per week.[90][91] In 2001, Turner Sports signed a new television contract with the NBA, in which TNT would become Turner Broadcasting's exclusive rightsholder of NBA telecasts beginning with the 2002–03 season. (ESPN assumed TBS's portion of the league's cable television contract.)

In 1981, WTBS acquired the television rights to broadcast college football games under a special "supplemental" television contract with the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) beginning with the 1981 season, limited to games which had already not been distributed for national broadcast by other networks. Beginning with the 1982 season, under a $17.6-million deal reached between the NCAA and Turner on January 27 of that year, consisting of live Division I-AA games on Thursday nights and Division I-A games on Saturdays during the fall. With this, its national superstation feed became the first cable channel to broadcast live college football games nationwide.[92][93] Beginning in 1984, WTBS' college football coverage shifted to primarily focus on games involving teams in the Southeastern Conference (SEC). WTBS/TBS discontinued its college football contract after the 1992 season season.

WTBS/TBS resumed college football coverage in 2002 through a sub-licensing agreement with Fox Sports, which allowed the Atlanta station and superstation feed to carry college football games involving teams in the Big 12 and Pac-10 conferences, to which Fox Sports held the national cable rights; the network usually aired two games per week during the first four seasons of the contract, reduced to a single weekly game during some weeks in the 2006 season. These rights were transferred exclusively to Fox Sports and its regional sports networks beginning with the 2007 season. On July 14, 2016, WPCH announced an agreement with Kennesaw State University to carry a package of Kennesaw State Owls college football games beginning with the 2016 season.[94]

Professional wrestling aired on WTCG/WTBS from 1971 to 2001 under several different wrestling promotions. In 1971, the station served as the flagship outlet for the Jim Barnett-owned Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW), acquiring the local rights to the program from WQXI-TV (now WXIA); the program concurrently began to be recorded in a soundstage at the channel 17's now-former West Peachtree Street studios in Midtown Atlanta. When WTBS became a national superstation in 1976, Georgia Championship Wrestling became the first National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) promotion to maintain a nationally televised broadcast, a move which made many of the NWA's regional promoters unhappy; however, Barnett allayed any issues citing that he was only using Georgia-based wrestlers.

In July 1984, GCW and the promotion's television timeslot rights were acquired by the Vince McMahon-owned World Wrestling Federation (WWF; now the WWE). The replacement show, WWF World Championship Wrestling (later retitled WWF Georgia Championship Wrestling in March 1985), mainly served as a recap of matches that had previously aired on the WWF's main programms, which angered Ted Turner, who hoped that the WWF would hold first-run matches originating from the WTBS studios. The WWF iteration of the show received much lower viewership than its predecessor; this led McMahon to sell the promotion's Saturday night time slot to Jim Crockett Promotions (owned by Charlotte-based wrestling promoter Jim Crockett, Jr.), who assumed production responsibilities for the wrestling program and utilized the same set. (Crockett's program relocated to a new arena soundstage at the CNN Center in 1988.)

In 1985, Turner acquired the television rights to Mid-South Wrestling (owned by Shreveport-based promoter Bill Watts) as a WWF alternative program. Although Mid-South quickly became the highest-rated program on WTBS, Watts lost out on acquiring the two-hour Saturday timeslot occupied by the WWF, when Barnett helped broker a deal that allowed Crockett to buy the slot from McMahon and become the superstation's exclusive wrestling promotion. Through the early 1990s, the wrestling programs and Braves baseball were among basic cable's highest-rated offerings, due to heavy viewership in the Southeast.

In November 1988, TBS became the television home of World Championship Wrestling (WCW), which Turner acquired from Jim Crockett Promotions; it carried the weekly show, WCW Saturday Night, from 1992 to 2000, and was the flagship program for the WCW before Monday Nitro launched in 1995 on sister channel TNT. Another WCW show, WCW Thunder, debuted in 1998 on Thursday nights; the program was moved to Wednesdays in 2000, before it was cancelled in 2001 when TBS executive Jamie Kellner determined that wrestling did not fit the demographics of either TBS or TNT and would not be favorable enough to get the "right" advertisers to buy airtime â€“ even though Thunder was the highest-rated show on the channel at the time.[95][96]

WTCG also made its name by producing humorous, satirical newscasts. One such program was 17 Update Early in the Morning, which featured the usually straight-faced Bill Tush and Tina Seldin reporting the news in a mostly deadpan fashion, occasionally interacting with the studio crew, and with comedic sideline gags at times by another co-anchor (known as "The Unknown Newsman") wearing a brown paper grocery bag over his head. The newscast, which often contained elements resembling that of a comedic morning drive radio show, aired between late night/early morning movie presentations from 1975 to 1979. Turner discontinued that program after a Congressional investigation took place concerning his fulfillment of Federal Communications Commission public service requirements, several months before Turner would prepare to launch CNN, an all-news channel that would strive to be anything but comedic. Turner reassigned Tush to regular interview programs on WTCG and during the early years of CNN, as well as a sketch comedy show between 1980 and 1982. Standard, more serious news updates presented by the anchors of 17 Update and other on-staff anchors – under the title NewsWatch – also ran during the day in-between programs.

On July 20, 1980, CNN began producing an hour-long weeknight news program for WTBS; the TBS Evening News – which was originally anchored by David Jensen (who previously served as a host for BBC Radio 1), Kevin Christopher and meteorologist Dallas Raines – usually ran at 10:00 p.m. local time (the airtime sometimes varied depending on the movie or sports presentation that preceded it). Owing to WTBS's national superstation status, rather than focusing on local news, the program focused on national and international news headlines as well as national weather forecasts and sports headlines. The TBS Evening News was cancelled after four years as a result of low ratings due to the frequent programming delays, with the program ending after the July 20, 1984, broadcast. In addition, on July 31, 1980, WTBS also carried a 24-hour simulcast of CNN in place of its regular programming schedule; the simulcast was done in a move to help encourage subscriber demand to force cable systems to begin carrying the cable news channel.[97][98]

Upon the channel's January 1, 1982, launch, WTBS also carried simulcasts of CNN's sister channel CNN2 (later Headline News, now HLN). The channel's launch was simulcast nationwide on WTBS as well as CNN starting at 11:45 p.m. on December 31, 1981, as a preview for cable providers throughout the U.S. that had not yet reached agreements to carry CNN2. Thereafter, initially to encourage viewers to ask for the network full-time, the station also ran a half-hour simulcast of CNN2/Headline News each morning at 6:00 a.m. in the Atlanta market and at 5:30 a.m. Eastern Time in the rest of the country. (As WPCH-TV, the Atlanta station ran an hour-long simulcast block of HLN's Morning Express daily at 6:00 a.m. until the 2017 sale to Meredith, when it was replaced with a simulcast of WGCL's morning newscast.) CNN2/Headline News also assumed production responsibilities for the TBS NewsWatch segments, which began to be presented by that network's anchors. The Headline News simulcasts as well as the TBS NewsWatch segments were eventually phased out locally and nationally in 1996 following the relaxation of the FCC's public affairs programming requirements.

On October 16, 2017, WGCL began producing a nightly, hour-long prime time newscast for WPCH, under the title CBS 46 News at 9, which marked the return of a regular newscast to channel 17 (not counting the Headline News simulcasts) since the cancellation of the TBS Evening News 33 years earlier and the first full-length local newscast produced for the station. The program was first anchored by Sharon Reed and Ben Swann, who were accompanied by chief meteorologist Paul Ossmann and meteorologist Ella Dorsey, and sports director Fred Kalil.[99][100][101]

Although it holds somewhat of a traditional format, it also features heavy viewer interactivity, and features a segment in which the newscast's anchors respond to viewer comments on social media. One notable situation occurred on the December 5, 2017, edition of the newscast, in which Reed – who is African American – made an unannounced on-air address about an email sent by a female viewer, who accused Reed – whom the sender referred to as a "niger", spelling the racial slur without a second "g" – of making a racial double standard with regards to a discussion in an earlier newscast about issues of race in the mayoral election between Atlanta city councilwomen Mary Norwood (who is white) and Keisha Lance Bottoms (who is black, and whom was elected mayor with 50.4% of the vote). Reed said the viewer mischaracterized what she said in the conversation, affirming that she never suggested white people could not talk about racial issues.[102][103][104]

The WGCL newscasts are replaced with alternate content for the Canadian feed, with locally-sourced paid programming in place of its simulcast of WGCL's morning news pre-CBS This Morning, and the 9:00 a.m. hour of the locally-originated advertorial program CBS46 Atlanta Plugged In and Atlanta Eats, and ER for the 9:00 p.m. show.


who played melinda gordon's mother on ghost whisperer

Beth Gordon (portrayed by Anne Archer), Melinda's mother and Aiden's grandmother, has the ability to communicate with ghosts, but chooses not to. She never came to terms with her mother or Melinda when it came to their gifts and prefers not to speak of anything that has to do with ghosts, or her husband Tom Gordon. Before she met Tom, she was in a relationship with a man named Paul Eastman, whom she was having a baby with when he went to jail. Once he died, Beth married Tom and never told Melinda about her real father. In "Pater Familias", Paul convinces Beth to tell Melinda the truth. She is then invited to watch the tall ships come into the harbor with Melinda, Jim and their friends, Rick, Delia, and Ned. She appeared in the episodes "Melinda's First Ghost", "The Vanishing", "The Underneath", and "Pater Familias".[2]

List of Ghost Whisperer characters

The following are fictional characters from the television drama Ghost Whisperer created by John Gray.

Melinda Gordon, played by Jennifer Love Hewitt, is the protagonist of Ghost Whisperer. Melinda has been able to see ghosts since she was a little girl. Specifically, she sees ghosts who have not crossed over due to an issue that they need her help to resolve. She helps them find peace and cross over into the light. The gift has been passed on for many generations. She is married to Jim Clancy (David Conrad) and owns an antique shop, located in the fictional town of Grandview. She has many enemies who dislike her abilities, including Gabriel Lawrence (Ignacio Serricchio) and Romano (John Walcutt).

Jim Clancy, played by David Conrad is Melinda's (Jennifer Love Hewitt) husband. He is the only cast member other than Hewitt to appear in every episode.

Jim and Melinda get married and move in at the start of the first season. Jim was a paramedic and firefighter, and the two met when he rescued her from her apartment complex, which had a structural issue. Jim knew of Melinda's unique ability to communicate with ghosts at the start of the series; he helped her as much as he could, though Melinda's good friend, Andrea Marino, provided most of the aid until her death at the end of the first season. It was revealed in the pilot episode that Jim witnessed his older brother, Dan, die when they were young. After having seen Dan die and being unable to save him, Jim decides to become a paramedic. Dan attended Jim and Melinda's wedding as a ghost and conversed with Melinda during the reception.

After Melinda's near death experience during the season two finale, "The Gathering", Jim becomes worried about what else could happen to Melinda because of the ghosts. Jim also helps try to find information about Melinda's father (Tom Gordon), who might or might not be dead, as well as try to find any information about Melinda's brother, Gabe. In "Haunted Hero", Jim and Melinda welcome a returning soldier from Iraq, Matt, back to Grandview. When Matt becomes paranoid due to being haunted by his dead comrades and post-traumatic stress disorder, Jim confronts Matt in the town square and talks Matt out of trying to kill himself. Jim delivered some of his convincing argument with Matt's gun pointed at him.

In "Weight of What Was", Gabriel returns to Grandview and Jim warns him away, though not before Gabriel reveals that he is Melinda's half-brother. Jim, Rick, and Delia go in search of Melinda, who is trapped in old Grandview, which is buried under present day Grandview. Tessa, the ghost of Melinda's maternal ancestor who was also a Ghost Whisperer, helps them find Melinda by communicating with Delia and Jim. Jim also begins thinking of moving out of Grandview to attend medical school. At first, Melinda does not like the idea, but she later agrees to it. In "Deadbeat Dads", Jim admits he would like to have children someday; Jim and Melinda try to get pregnant and succeed, but Melinda loses the baby.

Near the end of "Imaginary Friends and Enemies", Jim is shot in the shoulder and rushed to the hospital, where he is immediately taken into surgery. Relieved to hear his surgery went well, Melinda is taken to his room and asks if she may stay with him until he awakens. It is implied she waits several hours, and she eventually falls asleep next to him. She wakes up to find Jim next to her, and believing him to be awake, she tells him she loves him. When Jim tells her softly he suffered an embolism; Melinda tries to get a doctor, but Jim tells her not to and says that he wants her to remember him as he is now. This causes Melinda to realize Jim is appearing to her as a ghost; his body then flatlines in the background. As doctors rush in to revive him, Melinda tearfully pleads with Jim for it not be him. Jim then says, "I will always love you, Melinda", and then his ghost disappears as Melinda sobs and the doctors are unable to revive him. His death was foreshadowed in the season premiere, when a ghost warned Melinda death might rub off on those she loves.

Jim refuses to cross over because he still loves Melinda and believes their love is what is holding him back. Even though Melinda wants Jim to stay, she knows it's selfish of her and begs him to go into the light, promising she'll be there one day. But when Jim and Melinda witness paramedics trying to revive a motorcycle accident victim named Sam Lucas, they see the ghost of the victim go into the light. Jim goes over to the body and tells Melinda it's the only way. Before Melinda can stop him, Jim's ghost enters Sam's body, thus bringing him back to "life." However, the viewers continue to see him as Jim while everyone else in the show including Melinda sees him as Sam. When Melinda says "You're back", Jim, who now believes he is Sam and has no memory as Jim, says "Do I know you?" This leads Melinda to try to prove to him who he really is, especially when pieces of Jim's memory start to show. At first, he thinks she's crazy and doesn't believe her. When Melinda is trapped underground, Jim goes to save her, but he hits his head and he has flashes of memories as Jim, thus bringing Jim fully back. When he finds Melinda, she calls him Sam to which Jim replies "Why are you calling me Sam?" Melinda then realizes Jim is back and she happily hugs him.

Later on, Melinda finds out she is pregnant again and it turns out Jim had gotten her pregnant shortly before he died. Later Melinda begins to worry about their unborn baby. She began to have nightmares and visions the baby was in danger. She was sure by the things she was being told the baby was a girl after Melinda runs into the faceless child again, who puts her hand on Melinda's tummy and says, "You can't save her. You can't." Jim reveals to Melinda he had seen her chart accidentally and knew it was a boy, although he knew they agreed not to find out, but he told her to ease her mind, so sheâ€™d see her visions and dreams were wrong. Jim and Melinda marry again at the same place they met - in front of witnesses, Eli James (best man) and Delia Banks (matron of honor), and a full gathering of spirits.

In Season 5, Melinda believes her due date is the exact date in the book, which causes doubts in Jim and the rest of the characters (Delia, Ned, and Eli). Melinda finally needs an emergency C-Section. When the baby suddenly goes into fetal distress in the operating room, the season’s first ghosts appear to Melinda. First the watcher, who warned Melinda of her child’s power and the danger he may come into, stops time to tell her Fate and Free Will will work together to decide whether or not the baby will live. The second ghost comes in the form of a young woman in a white gown. She quickly disappears and time restarts. While the baby isn’t breathing at first, he suddenly recovers to full health. Later in recovery, Melinda tells Jim they’ll name the baby Aiden Lucas, in honor of Jim’s father and Sam Lucas.

The series then jumps ahead to 2014 and the celebration of Aiden's upcoming fifth birthday. Jim is now a resident at Rockland Memorial Teaching Hospital, as Jim, and he takes the name Jim as his middle name. Ned is also in college, taking classes with Eli, while Delia has become a big realtor. There were always problems every year on Aiden's birthday. He would become strangely sick, for example. Every year a woman would visit Aiden and sing him happy birthday. The woman, Amber, had died in childbirth the night Melinda gave birth to Aiden. Amber was convinced her sonâ€™s spirit had jumped into Aiden, as he had stopped breathing shortly after he was born. Later on in the episode, it is revealed the son was actually adopted by the birth father and his wife.

Melinda helps Amber into the light and learns from the watcher that Aiden is an empath. He feels and takes on emotions of those around him. This is revealed as the reason why each year Amber would show up and he gets sick. Melinda also finds out she shares a psychic link with Aiden, which allows them to communicate with one another, though he doesnâ€™t fully understand it. Melinda and Jim decide to not tell Aiden, because they want him to have a normal life, with his own dreams. In 5.19 "Lethal Combination", Jim is caught by Dr. Mavis, a morgue coroner, snooping through the files in the hospital morgue.

Andrea Joyce Marino,[1] played by Aisha Tyler, is Melinda's (Jennifer Love Hewitt) best friend and was part of the main cast during season one. Andrea once worked in New York City, as a lawyer, until she moved to Grandview. She set up an antique store that she owns along with Melinda named "The Same As It Never Was".

Melinda even comes to trust Andrea enough to tell her about her gift of being able to communicate with earthbound spirits, or ghosts. Andrea becomes essential to the store and Melinda, because of the very fact she knows about Melinda's gift. Whenever Melinda has to run off and help a ghost, Andrea is left to keep the store. Andrea also helps Melinda with difficult crossovers removing some of the stress from Melinda's husband, Jim (David Conrad). In "The One", a plane crashes and Andrea notices Melinda is hiding something. She believes her brother Mitch died during the plane crash and Melinda is seeing his ghost.

At the end of season one, it was revealed it was Andrea who had died during the crash and not Mitch. While Andrea was not on the plane, she died because her car had been on the path the plane had crashed on. Romano attempts to prevent Andrea from crossing over into the Light and get her to join him on the Dark Side. Melinda would not allow such a horrific occurrence to happen to her friend, so she sets out to stop Romano and warn Andrea. With the help of an occult professor at Rockland University, Rick Payne, Melinda is able to help Andrea find peace and cross over into the Light. Her death was foreshadowed in Season 1, Episode 15. Romano is seen sitting in a chair in the antique store. When he disappears, a faint sound of an airplane engine is heard.

Andrea is later mentioned in "Drowned Lives", "A Grave Matter", "Delia's First Ghost" and "The Prophet". Also, while having been successfully crossed over into the Light for over a year, two ghosts taunt Melinda by calling her Andrea during "Bad Blood".

In the season four episode, "Leap of Faith", when Jim swims to rescue Melinda and hits his head, he has flashbacks of his past as Jim, and Andrea can be seen briefly when remembering his wedding with Melinda. Andrea's date of death is in the book of changes backwards and was mentioned before a flashback of the plane crash which killed her.

Delia Banks (portrayed by Camryn Manheim) joined the main cast of Ghost Whisperer at the start of season 2. She and her teenage son, Ned, lost their husband and father, Charlie, three years prior to their appearance on the show. Delia became a real estate agent after Charlie's death.

Delia meets Melinda Gordon after Melinda calls Delia about Ned's having tried to shoplift from Melinda's antique store. Delia tells Melinda about how stressful her job as a real estate agent is, so Melinda offers her a job to help work at the antique store, which Delia accepts. They begin a friendship, though Delia does not know about Melinda's gift at first. In the episode "Delia's First Ghost", Melinda has to tell Delia about her gift because Charlie's spirit is haunting her. At first Delia calls Melinda crazy, admitting she had seen Melinda talking to herself and was worried. Delia even goes as far as to tell Melinda not to expect her at work again. By the end of the episode Delia learns, with Melinda's help, Charlie is only haunting her because he wants her to be safe. While still a little skeptical of Melinda's gift, Delia tells her that she will open the shop the next morning.

Delia remains skeptical concerning Melinda's gift in season three, but discusses the various ghosts Melinda encounters to help Melinda with them. When Melinda was stalked by a lawyer, Shane, he tampered with Ned's records because Delia was trying to get him into private school. Nevertheless, when Shane was caught with Ned's records, Ned got in. In episode 5, "Weight of What Was", Delia travels along with Jim and Rick into a series of underground tunnels and alleyways from a much older Grandview to find Melinda. With the help of a ghost named Tessa, they manage to locate her and get her to safety. In "Bad Blood", Delia's need to find a rational explanation for every situation, including ones involving ghosts, is brought up. Delia tells Melinda that she will try harder to accept the notion of ghosts. In the episode "Heart and Soul", Delia's need for a rational explanation nearly destroys her relationship with Melinda, but a conversation with her son and a moment with "Sam" at a basketball court provides her with faith in Melinda's gift. She now believes Jim is living in Sam's body. Sometime within the five-year leap between seasons 4 and 5 she left working for Melinda to open a Real Estate agency next to the shop, however she is frequently seen helping Melinda in the shop at various points in the series and remains Melinda's best friend.

Ned Banks was originally portrayed by Tyler Patrick Jones, but starting with season 3 episode "Slambook!" Christoph Sanders took over the role. Ned is a nice guy who has dedicated his life to helping Melinda with the occult. He is the son of Delia and Charlie Banks. The events of his adolescence have been part of the plots of some episodes.

Ned was caught shoplifting at Melinda's antique shop, stealing Grateful Dead backstage passes. Melinda realized his behavior was the result of a spirit's urging. Ned found out Melinda's secret before his mother did when he overheard Melinda in the episode "Curse of the Ninth." He is always eager to help Melinda with her ghosts. A few episodes later, when his deceased father Charlie visits him and his mother, Melinda helps his father go into the Light. In the season three episode "No Safe Place," Ned gets into a private school.

In "Slambook," Ned (played by Christoph Sanders from then on) is on the basketball team when a ghost begins tampering with the scoreboard. In the episode "Home But Not Alone," Ned has his first girlfriend and (probably) his first kiss. In season 4, there was a plot which involved his mother suspecting him of smoking marijuana, but as it turned out, it was his mother's friend's joint. As of season five, he is a student at Rockland University. In "Dead Air" he is a host of a radio show, and has cheated on his girlfriend TJ (which he later regrets and apologizes for).

In season 5, Ned is studying Anthropology of the Occult at Rockland University. He uses his knowledge to help Melinda and Eli solve the mystery of the Shadows and Shinies, also aiding them in crossing over spirits. Ned, Melinda, and Eli take turns keeping the Book of Changes.

Rick Payne (portrayed by Jay Mohr) is a professor at Rockland University. He is a widower; his wife, Kate, died in a crane accident before his first appearance in the series.

At the beginning of season two, Melinda Gordon first seeks Rick Payne's help to save her deceased friend, Andrea Marino, who is being attacked by a dark spirit, Romano. She finds him teaching an occult class at Rockland University. She continues to seek Rick's help for various paranormal occurrences throughout the rest of the season. Rick first meets Melinda's husband, Jim Clancy, when Melinda recommends Jim talk to him about a ghost. It is in "The Night We Met" that Rick first questions Melinda about whether or not she believes she has supernatural abilities, as well as meets Melinda's close friend and co-worker, Delia Banks. It is only in the episode "Cat's Claw" that Melinda finally informs Rick of her abilities. In the season finale, Rick and Melinda are seen working very closely trying to figure out who Gabriel Lawrence, a dark Ghost Whisperer, really is. Rick, Jim, and Melinda go as far as breaking into Gabriel's home. It is also revealed Rick's wife, Kate, is a ghost who worked for the dark side but would later cross over into the Light after telling her husband a secret she had been keeping from him since she died.

The character joins the main cast in season three. At the beginning of this season, Rick appears to be worried about Melinda after her near-death experience. He also works a large deal more with Melinda on some things. In "The Weight of What Was", Rick, Jim, and Delia all travel into old Grandview to try finding Melinda. Jim and Delia are aided by a ghost named Tessa, an ancestor of Melinda's, and locate the trapped Melinda. Rick also helps Melinda search town death records for information about Tessa, who at the time Melinda believed to be Gabriel's mother, though a group of ghosts attempt to stop them from finding anything. In "Double Exposure", Rick's date and co-worker, Claudia, is haunted by a ghost who makes it so she cannot appear in any pictures.

It seems Rick had somewhat of a crush on Melinda when they first met; he was clearly embarrassed by everything he said to her, afraid it might sound stupid. The crush dissipated after he met Jim, Melinda's husband, but they remain very close friends.

Abrasive at times, Professor Rick Payne is often perceived as obnoxious on first impression, but most of the time he means well. Sarcastic and sometimes insensitive, he has a tendency to shout randomly and hates to be awakened by late night telephone calls. Even though he does not appreciate the title, he is rather well known as a genius, and spouts useless information at times. He has admitted that he talks a lot when he is nervous, but he talks a lot whether he is nervous or not. Professor Payne is quick-witted and highly intelligent, taking delight in annoying people and considers the reactions he gets from being rude amusing. He feels that he is taken for granted too often and likes to tell people so, though some believe it is only a technique to make others feel sorry for him. He has a certain charm, despite his ability to annoy even those with saintly amounts of patience, and he is a good friend to those who can stand to stick with him.

Eli James (Jamie Kennedy) was introduced in the first episode of season four.

During a building fire on the Rockland University campus on October 3, 2008, he died but was brought back, causing him to have a near death experience. It unlocked an ability which allows him to hear ghosts, but doesn't allow him to see them like Melinda. Throughout the fourth season, he adjusts to his newfound ability and starts helping her cross ghosts over. Eli also helps Melinda when she needs information from the Police.

Zoe, previous Guardian of the Book of Changes and Eli's ex-girlfriend, died after falling off the stairs in an attempt to stop a thief influenced by a Watcher. At the end of Season 4, Zoe crossed into the light (or so it seems) after telling Eli he was the next Guardian of the Book of Changes. In Season 5, it is revealed Eli is one of Ned's university lecturers. Evelyn, Eli's mother, died 7 years ago, even though in "Stage Fright" he told Melinda and Jim he was getting an autograph for his mom who watches the show which was visiting Grandview. Eli's father, Ray James, died from a heart-attack in the third episode of Season 5, "Till Death Do Us Start," which shared more shocking secrets about Eli's parents.

Eli and Melinda over time become very close friends. At first, Eli thought that Melinda was crazy (as almost everyone always does when she shares about her gift) until he realized he could do the same thing (almost). As he learns more about his gift, he becomes more and more willing to help Melinda with the hauntings and even enjoys it.

Aiden Lucas (portrayed by Connor Gibbs) is the son of Melinda Gordon and Jim Clancy. Aiden is also the grandson of Paul Eastman and Beth Gordon who are Melinda's parents and Aiden and Faith Clancy who are Jim's parents.

Aiden was born on September 25, 2009. Before his birth, the watchers predict him and tell Melinda that her son is the key if the ghost's balances shift, and he will be more powerful than she is. On the day of his birth, Melinda worries about her son's fate. During his birth, Melinda needs an emergency C-section and Aiden suddenly goes into fetal distress in the operating room. First, the watcher (Carl) warned Melinda of her child’s power and the danger he may come into, stops time to tell her Fate and Free Will will work together to decide whether or not the baby will live. He quickly disappears and time restarts. While the baby is not breathing at first, he suddenly recovers to full health. Later in recovery, Melinda tells Jim they will name the baby Aiden Lucas, after Jim’s father and the late Sam Lucas.

Years later, the family is celebrating Aiden's upcoming fifth birthday. Every year on his birthday something bad happens; Aiden strangely gets sick or something happens to Melinda or Jim. Delia and Melinda call it a birthday curse. However, Aiden is actually haunted by the ghost of the woman who died during childbirth when Melinda gave birth to Aiden. The woman believes Aiden is the spirit of her dead son and she haunts Aiden every year on his birthday.

Melinda discovers this and finds out the ghost's son, Tyler, is actually alive and safe with his real father and adoptive mother, Aiden saved Tyler earlier in a bowling accident and Melinda helped the woman go into the light. Later, Carl reveals to Melinda that Aiden is an empath and can feel other people's emotions; he would get sick on his birthday and something went wrong with his birth because of the ghost.

In addition to being an empath, Aiden is able to see and communicate with ghosts like his mother and grandparents do, and he is psychically connected to Melinda. Melinda does not tell Aiden this because she wants him to have a normal life.

Aiden is able to see things Melinda can't, namely the Shinies (which Aiden refers to as "faceless" and made of "light") and the Shadows, which can be defeated easily by the Shinies, but the Shinies are too afraid of them to do so.

Mary Ann, (played by June Squibb) - Melinda's grandmother and Aiden's great grandmother, now deceased, was a person who spoke to ghosts. It was she who gave lost spirits the title "earthbound." She helped them cross over into the Light (Heaven). Her gift was passed down to Melinda, the current "ghost whisperer." Mary Ann crossed over into the Light so she is currently a "Light" Spirit. She helps Melinda bring ghosts to peace through dreams in two episodes: "Voices" and "The Gathering". It is later revealed, in Season 3, that Melinda's maternal great-great-great-grandmother, Tessa (Amy Acker), could also communicate with ghosts and Melinda helps her cross over. When Melinda tells Tessa the fate of her daughter (in "Weight of What Was"), it is revealed that Mary Anne was the granddaughter of Julie Lee Lucas. Her married name was Patterson, according to Melinda. Melinda was in high school when her grandmother died and Melinda did not realize it until her grandmother said something about presence and then it dawned on Melinda that her grandmother was talking about her death and Melinda's loss of her grandmother.

Romano (John Walcutt), also known as "Wide Brim" (due to his outfit: black suit and black hat) was an American evil cult leader who lived in Spain, and who committed suicide along with 100 followers in 1939. The energy of the mass suicide made him powerful and strong, and he went to the Dark Side. He can be considered Melinda's true archenemy. He started to trick souls to go with him, by making them refuse to "cross over" into The Light.

When Romano first appeared on the show, his appearances were quick and mysterious, and he was usually attached to a laughing man who had, theretofore, never spoken. He always seemed to be observing Melinda. When in the episode "The One", the final episode of season one, a plane crashes outside Grandview, he attempts to gather all of the lost souls from the accident. This is the first time he declares his hatred and rivalry to Melinda, and he says he would release all "his earthbound souls" in exchange for her one soul.

Romano and Melinda confront each other verbally, each using persuasive speeches directed to the souls from the plane crash. Finally, Romano manages to get at least seven of the souls, including a stewardess who later does go into the Light in season two.

In "Love Never Dies", season two episode one, Romano tries to prevent Melinda's friend Andrea from crossing over into The Light. Melinda gathers all her strength to make Andrea cross over, and she learns with the help of Professor Rick Payne the identity of Romano. Payne also warns Melinda about Romano's real purpose: to destroy good spirits (the ones in charge of helping souls to "cross over" into The Light, such as Melinda) in order to make the dead stronger than the living, and to be endlessly powerful. According to Payne, Dark Spirit Romano would literally take over a weak soul in a weak body to make too much harm to humanity, until the last trace of joy and happiness vanished from earth. It is impossible for Romano to get closer when Melinda helps spirits to "cross over" into The Light, because there is too much love, and love is what Romano hates.

Romano last appeared in season two, episode one, when he was unsuccessful in trying to possess Andrea's soul. However, mid-season two, Melinda seems to foreshadow Romano's comeback, when Delia Banks tries on a black hat which resembles Romano's, although nothing arises from this. Melinda loosely references Romano in an episode of season five; when discussing the Shadows, she mentions that she's seen similar ghosts before, ones which didn't "cross over, so much as "cross under" much like Romano does with his followers. This reference could tell viewers that Romano ultimately became a Shadow after Andrea crossed over, and this is why he does not appear to Melinda for the rest of the series.

Delia was married to Charlie Banks (Frederic Lehne) until he died three years prior to Delia's first appearance on the show. They had a loving relationship. After a fire at the place where Charlie worked, Charlie was said to be different and more of a family man. We also learn that it was Tim who saved Charlie's life. Together with Charlie, Delia had her twelve-year-old son, Ned.[3] Charlie died after being shot.

In the episode "The Walk-In", Tim Flaherty (Thomas Wilson), a friend and co-worker of Jim's, is trying to get Delia to go out on a date with him, something Delia refuses to do. In "Delia's First Ghost", Tim tries to get Jim to tell him what Delia likes so he can impress her. Charlie, Delia's dead husband, helps him by knocking over a pot of lavender roses Delia likes. Tim also buys a motorcycle exactly like the one Charlie used to have. At the end of the episode, they are seen walking away hand in hand. He reappears in the fourth season in the episode Threshold. He is at Jim's funeral and talks about Jim before turning on an iPod with rock music which he says Jim would have wanted.[4]

Gabriel Lawrence (Ignacio Serricchio) claims to be Melinda's half-brother. He is also a "ghost whisperer". It is unclear who he inherited this gift from, since none of his parents have that gift. When he was a child, Gabriel knew he could interact with the dead, but nobody believed him, and he received psychiatric treatment in a mental health institution. Gabriel never had a living friend. In fact, all of his friends were dead, and he always hated watching them "cross over" into The Light. He managed to get out of the mental health institution by lying. He was in the same mental health institution his mother resided in.

In "The Collector" episode, Gabriel is now in his late twenties, and he has recently moved to Grandview. He mentions Grandview always brings him memories. Melinda Gordon has the opportunity to meet him, and she is amazed by the gift they have in common. Melinda warns Gabriel about a shift in the "other world": ghosts are becoming stronger. She tells him how she struggled against a very dark spirit called Romano the year before, when a plane crashed in Grandview.

However, Melinda discovers she was naive to believe in Gabriel, who had invited her to work with him in the difficult task of dealing with ghosts. Gabriel turns out to be a Ghost Whisperer from the Dark Side, and he had been gathering souls to get prepare for what "was coming", a complex prophecy of the death of a "loved one".

Gabriel, along with the dark spirits, was blocking The Light, because he was trying to make the dead stronger than the living. When Melinda, Jim Clancy, and Rick Payne break into Gabriel's house, they find out Gabriel's obsession with Melinda. He had been observing her moves for quite a long time. At the end of season two, both Gabriel and Melinda struggle against each other for the fate of living and dead.

Gabriel returns to Grandview in the third season episode "Weight of What Was", informing Melinda he is her half-brother. He hands her a package containing images of her father's family. An image in the package, in fact from Melinda's mother's past, leads Melinda to an underground church and her great-great-great grandmother, Tessa. A ghost which haunts the archives of Grandview tells Gabriel that Melinda has entered the tunnel, and Gabriel blocks the exit, preventing Melinda from escaping the way she entered. The episode ends with Gabriel speaking to Tom Gordon about what seems like a plan to get Melinda to help ghosts in a dark way. While in Grandview, he resided in a hotel under the name Gabriel Gordon. Gabriel also appears in "All Ghosts Lead to Grandview", wherein he has a brief conversation with Melinda at the end of the episode.

Thomas "Tom" Gordon (Martin Donovan) first appears in the plot in season two's finale, although he has previously appeared in some flashbacks. When Melinda "dies" in season two's finale, she confronts what appears to be an already dead Tom, who tells her she is ready to find the darkness within herself, and also tells her she has a brother, later revealed to be Gabriel. In season three, Tom has contact with both Melinda and Gabriel, manifesting himself in Melinda's dreams, and speaking as a ghost with Gabriel. It has been suggested Tom is part of the Dark Side, and he is developing a plan to get Melinda into the Dark Side.

In the penultimate episode of season three, however, Tom is found alive in Gabriel's home. Melinda later learns every time she had seen Tom's "ghost", his body had in fact been taken over by Paul Eastman, when he was trying to kill Tom. Melinda then finds out Tom actually is not her father, Paul Eastman is. After discovering this shocking truth, Melinda goes to the main square in town to think, where Tom meets her. He asks her to come back to the house she grew up in. There he gets her to go back through her memories to the night Paul Eastman had come to their house. Just then Melinda realizes Tom is actually a cold-blooded killer; she remembers Tom deliberately murdering Paul Eastman. Tom then informs her that he now has to kill her to keep his secret safe. As he tries to choke her to death, Melinda cries out to her dad, to which Tom answers, "I'm not your Dad". Melinda replies she wasn't talking to Tom but actually was asking for help from her real father. Paul Eastman then arrives and takes over Tom's body one last time, forcing him to throw himself over the staircase, effectively killing him. Soon afterwards he appears before Melinda. Tom is then pulled away by an unknown force to an unknown location.[5]

Paul Eastman (Corin Nemec) first appears in Melinda's dreams as someone who haunted her and/or wanted to haunt her. She soon discovers that he was an escaped prisoner accused of killing a child whose ghost Melinda was attempting to cross over. However, before he crosses over, the boy admits that his death was an accident, and that he had spoken to Eastman as a ghost to lead him to his body. This led to his wrongful incarceration. In the season 3 finale, it is revealed he is Melinda's biological father, not Tom Gordon. Paul set a series of "clues" to help Melinda see the truth. To quicken the process and save Melinda, he convinces her mother to tell Melinda the truth. Melinda is initially in disbelief and consoled by Tom, who convinces her to follow him to a safe place. The "safe" place is Melinda's childhood home and Paul Eastman's burial site. Once they arrive, Tom probes Melinda about her memory of Paul's death; she eventually has a flashback revealing Tom deliberately killed Paul. Tom decided he must kill Melinda to protect himself from the truth being revealed. Melinda cries out to her dad, to which Tom replies: "Don't call me Dad. I'm not your Father." Melinda answers, "I wasn't talking to you." As Tom realizes who Melinda had been calling to, Paul enters Tom's body and forces him to fall to his death. Paul talks to Melinda and her mother and says he thought that he would never be so angry with his former lover, and only hearing his daughter calling for her dad made all of his anger disappear. He then went into The Light. He has one grandson by Melinda, Aiden. In life, he apparently had the ability to speak to ghosts just like Melinda and her maternal relations, meaning that Melinda received her ability from both parents.[6]

Zoe Ramos (Jaclyn DeSantis) is Eli's ex-girlfriend and a professor at Rockland University. She knows a lot about the supernatural, because she teaches a course entitled the "Science of the Occult." Zoe and Eli had broken up because at the time he didn't share her beliefs regarding ghosts, life after death, etc. At the end of the fourth season, Eli decides to resume contact with her. Zoe helps Melinda and Eli with cases involving voodoo and vampirism (episodes "Cursed" and "Endless Love").

In season four's finale, Eli observes Zoe having lunch with a lawyer, Jeremy Bishop, and becomes very jealous. When Eli attempts the theft of an ancient book from the library of the University, Zoe tells him the true value of the book, which she has studied. Eli decides to invite Zoe out for dinner. When she fails to appear, Eli goes to Zoe's house and finds her dead. Her spirit tells Eli she died from falling down the stairs while a thief, influenced by a Watcher, entered her house to put the Book there.

After securing the Book, Eli calls to Zoe, who informs him about the Other Side. She tells him that she was the "Guardian of the Book of Changes" and, henceforth, he will need to take care of the Book. Eli agrees and realizes he still loves Zoe. After saying goodbye to Eli, Zoe goes into the light.[7]

Characters that appear as spirit guest stars:

These are some of the spirits who either did not cross over or went to the Dark Side (Hell).

Two different kinds of spirits that appear throughout the series. They are sworn enemies of each other, created by the emotions of ghosts, and feed upon others. Aiden Lucas, Melinda's son, is the only one who has the ability to see both of them while his mother and the Watchers cannot.

Beings of good who are composed of light energy. Aiden reveals, in Season 5, that the Shinies are ghost children that have crossed over into The Light. He also comments that there are more Shinies than there are Shadows, and that if they were to go to war with each other, the Shinies would win. The Shadows prevent their growing numbers by consuming still-earthbound ghost children, making the Shinies fear them. But in the episode "The Children's Parade", Aiden reveals that if he, along with the other Shinies, use their combined power, they can defeat the Shadows forever.

In previous seasons, the Shinies have already revealed their presence to Melinda without her knowing. Carl, a Watcher, tells Melinda that she is surrounded by "light beings" watching over her and they are shown all throughout Grandview, watching over her during her wedding vow renewal. In later events, Melinda notices Aiden talking to himself. But later events reveal that Aiden has the ability to see these spirits (the Shinies), which she cannot see. Cassidy Peyton, a ghost girl Melinda crossed over, becomes a Shiny after going into The Light and becomes good friends with Aiden.

Shinies are attracted to "shiny things" such as flashlights, utensils, etc. Also, the Shinies are afraid of the Shadows, as depicted in the season 5 episode "Lost in the Shadows".

In the series finale ("The Children's Parade") the Shinies, led by Aiden, destroy the Shadows once and for all.

The Shadows are ghosts who are seen as beings of darkness. Aiden reveals that the Shadows are either "broken pieces" left behind by ghosts who have crossed over or have "crossed under". Ghosts describe them as cold things and don't like to talk about them. They feed on the negative emotions of ghosts, especially ghost children, break their souls beyond repair, and feed on the rest of them.

In previous seasons, Gabriel was working for them, but since he disappeared they could no longer block The Light. They are extremely dangerous and use people, both living and dead, to gather the souls of ghost children so that they may feed; examples are President Bedford of Rockland University to get the Book of Changes, which helps Melinda, Eli and Aiden, but they killed him when he could not complete the task. Another is Greta Hansen, a woman in a wheelchair who helped the Shadows by luring children's spirits into her house (using Cassidy Peyton), but Melinda saved some spirits imprisoned by the ghost Greta.

Ravens are their symbols, and they fear lights, shiny things, and the Shinies.