During the 1980s and 1990s, the Braves games on what was now WTBS garnered very high ratings, usually around a 2.0 ratings share or at times, even higher. At the time, the station referred to them as "America's team" in a promotional campaign; a likely majority of viewers watching the games resided in the Southeastern U.S. – namely in Georgia, Alabama, Florida, South Carolina and Tennessee – which were among the first states where cable providers began to carry WTCG/WTBS, as Turner Broadcasting steadily struck carriage agreements with cable and satellite providers throughout the country, and also attracted fans living in rural areas that were not within the market of a Major League Baseball franchise. The games became regionally-exclusive when Turner acquired the rights to a package of regular season games from other Major League Baseball teams and league post-season games (including the Division Series and alternating rights to the League Championship Series with Fox) for WTBS's national TBS feed; these changes were the impetus of Turner's June 2007 decision to separate WTBS from the TBS national feed and convert channel 17 locally into a standalone independent station, as WPCH-TV, on October 1, 2007. After the Meredith Corporation (owners of CBS affiliate WGCL-TV (channel 46)) entered into a local marketing agreement with the Turner Broadcasting System to operate WPCH, production of the Braves telecasts was transferred the latter company's Turner Sports division to regional sports network Fox Sports South. On February 28, 2013, Fox Sports South and SportSouth signed an agreement to acquire the 45-game package held by WPCH, rendering the team's game telecasts cable-exclusive beginning with the 2013 season, ending channel 17's 40-year relationship with the Braves. WGN-TV has had a long association with the Chicago Cubs, whose games have aired on the station since the station signed on in April 1948; the station's corporate parent, the Tribune Company (which operates WGN-TV through its Tribune Broadcasting subsidiary) purchased the National League franchise in 1981, eventually selling the team to businessman Thomas S. Ricketts in 2008. Legendary Chicago sportscaster Jack Brickhouse, the longtime sports director (and later vice president of sports programming) for WGN-TV and sister radio station WGN 720 AM), served as the play-by-play announcer for both the Chicago Cubs and White Sox until 1967, when the White Sox (for whom Brickhouse performed play-by-play duties for home games) ended their first stint on WGN-TV; Brickhouse primarily called Cubs games until his retirement from broadcasting in 1981.