38 years ago, the nations’ fourth network, Fox, debuted.
By Brian Allen
n April 5, 1987, thirty-eight years ago, Fox Broadcasting, then the fourth major network in the country, debuted on WATL Channel 36 (now a Tegna/Nexstar sidecar station to WXIA 11 Alive.)
At the time, WATL signed on as a charter affiliate of Fox. The previous year, it carried the first Fox program, “The Late Show with Joan Rivers.” But that wasn’t the official launch of the network. The prime time launch was this day, 38 years ago.
That Sunday night, Fox triple-pumped two half-hour shows: a new sitcom, “Married With Children” with Ed O’Neil and Katey Sagal, and a variety series, “The Tracey Ullman Show,” featuring the English comedian/actress/singer. That show contained animated vignettes that debuted the future long-running sitcom stars The Simpsons.
Drag & Drop this GIF anywhere!
Fox aired the shows three times that night. That was so viewers could “sample FBC programming without missing “60 Minutes”, “Murder She Wrote”, or the 8’ o’clock movies,” said then network president and CEO Jamie Kellner. Later that year, more shows like “21 Jump Street”, “Duet”, and “Werewolf” would join the schedule.
As the years passed, Fox would move from WATL to WAGA, formerly the home of CBS, where they would be Atlanta’s destination for NFL Football, “American Idol“ (when they were on Fox), “The Masked Singer”, and other hits to this day.
Fox was created when Rupert Murdoch bought 20th Century Fox and a cluster of television stations in several key markets and merged them to form the backbone of a fourth major network to compete with NBC, CBS, and ABC. WATL, under separate ownership, became an affiliate.
Image credit: Fox
Originally posted on Substack 4/5/26
