WUVG-DT
WUVG-DT, virtual channel 34, is a Univision owned-and-operated television station serving Atlanta, Georgia, United States that is licensed to Athens, Georgia. The station is owned by the Univision Local Media subsidiary of Univision Communications. WUVG-DT's studios are located on Peachtree Road NE in the Buckhead section of Atlanta, and its transmitter is located in North Druid Hills.
On cable, the station is available in standard definition on Comcast Xfinity channel 14 and Charter Spectrum channel 15, and in high definition on Xfinity channels 814 and 1034 and Spectrum channel 715.
WUVG-DT offers a Spanish-language programming format featuring news, talk shows, dramas, movies and other first-rate Spanish programming. The station is also active in many community outreach efforts and events throughout the year including several signature hosted celebrations—the two largest being Cinco de Mayo and Fiestas Patrias in September.
History
The station went on air on April 18, 1987 as WNGM-TV with the call sign standing for North Georgia Mountains. Initially the station ran a general entertainment format with cartoons, classic and recent sitcoms, country music blocks of programming, old movies and syndicated first-run shows.The station's transmitter was located away from Atlanta, reaching Athens with a grade A signal while sending a very weak signal into eastern metro Atlanta. As a result, many syndicators sold the rights for shows that were already on the Atlanta stations to WNGM. The station provided an alternative to viewers in areas which had moderate VHF reception and poor UHF reception from Atlanta. However, the station floundered in the ratings. By late 1988, the station was running a blend of infomercials, low-rated syndicated shows and movies, and shop-at-home programming.
In 1989, after the Home Shopping Network failed to buy WVEU, it arranged for Whitehead Media to buy WNGM. The station started to air HSN's programming 24 hours a day.
In 1993, it moved its transmitter closer to Atlanta, covering the city with a grade A signal strength. This was the same radio tower as WFOX FM 97.1 and WYAY FM 106.7. Channel 34 was actually planned for this tower in 1984.
In 1996, it switched to an all-music video format as an affiliate of The Box.
The station was bought by USA Broadcasting in 1997. It became WHOT-TV in October 1999 and changes its on-air name to "Hotlanta 34". WHOT gave the Atlanta market a second true independent station, the other one being WTBS, which was at the time a nationwide superstation as well. While WUPA was a UPN station and WATL was an affiliate of The WB, they too were sort of independent stations being those networks only offered a couple hours of programming a day. WHOT added syndicated cartoons, off-network sitcoms, dramas, old movies and syndicated talk/reality shows to its lineup, and also picked up Fox Kids from WATL. This marked channel 34's return to independent status; though while the station didn't receive spectacular ratings, it was still performing decently.
In 2000, WHOT obtained the rights to Atlanta Hawks basketball games. USA then planned to expand the independent format on its remaining stations, however, due to financial problems, the plans were eventually scrapped and USA placed its group of stations up for sale. Disney/ABC were the leaders in their bid, which would have created a partnership for Cox-owned ABC affiliate WSB-TV, but Univision outbid its competition in a close race. In markets which already had Univision affiliates, the newly acquired stations became affiliates of TeleFutura, a new network started by Univision. However, WHOT was Univision's only station in Atlanta. As such, the station changed its call sign to WUVG in November 2001 and became Atlanta's Univision affiliate on January 14, 2002.
Digital television
Digital channels
The station's digital signal is multiplexed:| Channel | Video | Aspect | PSIP Short Name | Programming |
| 34.1 | 1080i | WUVG-DT | Main WUVG-DT programming / Univision | |
| 34.2 | 1080i | WUVG-DT | UniMás | |
| 34.3 | 480i | getTV | GetTV | |
| 34.4 | 480i | 16:9 | Mystery | Court TV Mystery |
Analog-to-digital conversion
WUVG shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 34, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 48, using PSIP to display WUVG's virtual channel as 34 on digital television receivers.The station airs UniMás on their digital subchannel 34.2, which is a rarity as Univision prefers their two networks to operate on two different channels rather than in multiplexed form. However, this is a legacy of analog television, the major disadvantage of sharing now being that 34.2 does not have the right to must-carry since the Federal Communications Commission failed to implement it for digital TV stations, even for cable television systems that drop almost all analog channels to supposedly make more room for digital as Comcast has done locally.
As of August 2014, UniMás on 34.2 is being broadcast over the air in 1080i HD. On March 25, 2017, Escape was moved to WSB 2.2; at that point; 34.4 went was removed, but moved back to 34.4 in late 2017.