Baseball’s oldest continuously operating franchise is returning to the station that once propelled it into the national sports consciousness.
Bob Hope recalls the moment Ted Turner approached him with a bold question: What would happen if Turner broadcast every Atlanta Braves game on his struggling UHF station, WTCG Channel 17? Hope, then just 24 years old and serving as the Braves’ director of public relations and promotions, responded honestly. “Well, Ted, if our teams are good, everyone will know it,” he said. “And if our teams are bad, everyone will know about that, too.”
Mission accomplished.
More than 50 years after that conversation, the Atlanta Braves—once the only Major League Baseball franchise south of the Mason-Dixon Line—are returning this season to the very station that branded them “America’s Team.”
Ted Turner’s journey into broadcasting began in 1963 when he took over his father’s outdoor advertising business. In 1969, he purchased WJRJ Channel 17 in Atlanta and soon changed its call letters to WTCG, which many believed stood for “Watch This Channel Grow.”
Turner shocked the baseball and broadcasting worlds in 1972 when he secured the rights to televise Braves games on WTCG. By 1973, fans could watch the team on Channel 17, and when Turner officially bought the Braves in 1976, he promoted Hope to vice president of marketing.
“At the time, it was unheard of for a local station to broadcast all of a team’s games,” Hope recalled. “The belief in baseball was that airing more than 20 games per season would oversaturate the market.” But Turner had a different vision. Instead of limiting broadcasts, he aimed to televise 60 to 100 games a year.
That same year, Turner launched TBS Superstation, pioneering the “Superstation” concept. In December 1976, the Federal Communications Commission granted Turner permission to broadcast Braves games via satellite, making the team the first to be nationally televised. On Dec. 17, Turner uploaded WTCG’s signal to a satellite called Satcom 1. By 1978, WTCG had become WTBS, and later Superstation TBS, marking the birth of the first professional sports franchise whose games were available nationwide.
“The idea of using a satellite took baseball by surprise,” Hope said. “Back then, teams were restricted to regional markets. But suddenly, people across the country, in cities without Major League teams, could watch the Braves.”
The nation embraced the Braves.
Under Turner’s ownership, the team won its first World Series in Atlanta in 1995. After the 1996 Olympics, Olympic Stadium was converted into Turner Field, which remained the Braves’ home until 2016.
On Oct. 1, 2007, TBS transitioned to WPCH-TV, now owned by Gray Television. In 2025, WPCH Peachtree TV will broadcast 10 Braves spring training games and 15 regular-season games.
“Returning to the past is important,” Hope said. “Baseball is built on history, and making games accessible is part of the Braves’ legacy”.
