The WB 100+ Station Group | |
---|---|
Launched | September 21, 1998 |
Closed | September 18, 2006 |
Network | The WB |
Owned by |
Warner Bros. Entertainment (Time Warner) Tribune Company |
Picture format | 480i (SDTV) |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Broadcast area | Nationwide (was available only in smaller media markets) |
Affiliates | (see section) |
Headquarters | Los Angeles, California |
Formerly called | The WeB (1998–1999) |
Replaced by | The CW Plus |
Timeshift service | The WB 100+ East The WB 100+ Mountain The WB 100+ Pacific |
The WB 100+ Station Group (originally called The WeB from its developmental stages until March 1999) is a defunct programming service operated by The WB Television Network – owned by the Warner Bros. Entertainment division of Time Warner, the Tribune Company and the group's founder, Jamie Kellner – comprising an affiliate group primarily made of non-broadcast local cable television outlets. Operating from September 21, 1998 to September 18, 2006, the service was intended for areas ranked below the top 100 Nielsen Media Research-designated television markets in the United States.
In addition to carrying WB programming, it also maintained a master schedule of syndicated programming that aired simultaneously on all WB 100+ affiliates outside of designated network programming time periods, essentially structuring the service as a de facto national feed of The WB. Programming and promotional services for The WB 100+ were housed at The WB's corporate headquarters in Burbank, California; engineering and master control operations were based at the California Video Center in Los Angeles.
The history of The WB 100+ can be traced back to a charter affiliation agreement reached on December 3, 1993, between The WB and Tribune Broadcasting (whose corporate parent, the Tribune Company (now Tribune Media), held minority ownership in the network), which resulted in Tribune's Chicago television flagship WGN-TV carrying The WB's prime time programming (the Kids' WB block – which debuted in September 1995, nine months after The WB's launch – would air instead on independent station WCIU-TV before moving to WGN-TV in September 2004).