WADL (TV)

WADL

Mount Clemens/Detroit, Michigan
Branding	WADL-TV 38 (general) WADL-TV 38 News (newscasts)
Slogan	Detroit's TV Station
Channels	Digital: 39 (UHF)
Affiliations	38.1 - Independent 38.2 - Antenna TV 38.3 - The Word Network
Owner	Adell Broadcasting Corporation (Kevin Adell)
Founded	September 25, 1985
First air date	May 20, 1989
Call letters' meaning	A D E L L Broadcasting
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 38 (UHF, 1989-2009) 38.4 (2011)
Former affiliations	CBS / Fox Kids (1992-2002) FoxBox (2002-2003) HSN* HSN Spree/America's Store* Shop at Home* Network One* * -- all of the above networks had been seen on the station during the 1990s and 2000s Universal Sports (2000s-2012)
Transmitter power	1000 kW
Height	170 m
Facility ID	455
Transmitter coordinates	42°33′12.2″N 82°53′14.6″W
Website	www.wadldetroit.com

WADL Channel 38 is a full-power, commercially licensed broadcast television station in the Midwestern United States. As an independent television station licensed to the town of Mount Clemens, Michigan, the station serves the entire Detroit metropolitan area. The station also serves most of the Windsor, Ontario area, as well as Flint. The station is owned locally by Adell Boradcasting and was founded by Kevin Adell and his father the late Franklin Z. Adell. The station offers a general entertianment format featuring classic sitcoms, recent sitcoms, and drama shows most of the day. Several hours a day the station runs paid programming and religious programming. Their Digital subchannel 2 offers a blend of classic sitcoms and old movies from Antenna TV. Their third subchannel offers offers Christian and religious programs from The Word Network, which they also own.

Technical information

WADL broadcasts its digital signal on UHF channel 39, operates with an ERP of 1,000 kilowatts—all as authorized by the Federal Communications Commission. WADL's transmitter which is directionally aligned, is in the vicinity of its studios and offices on Adell Drive near the area of 15 Mile Road and Gratiot Avenue. The transmitter is directional.

The station's signal reaches across Genesee, Lapeer, Livingston, Oakland, Macomb, Monroe, St. Clair, Washtenaw, and Wayne counties in Michigan, and Essex, and Lambton counties in Ontario Canada.

It is not currently seen on Cogeco Windsor, though the cable provider has expressed interest in adding the station to its digital cable lineups, pending CRTC approval.^{[citation needed]} It is available on Cogeco Cable in some rural areas of Southwestern Ontario; this is from previous cable companies in the rural Southwestern Ontario areas that were purchased by Cogeco around 2000, and the station has remained on their lineups.

While WADL is The Word Network's flagship (appearing on a digital subchannel, and programmed from WADL), the network's satellite uplink system is located at WXYZ-TV.

History

WADL began operation in 1989, after having filed for a broadcasting license on September 25, 1985. The station was founded by Kevin Adell and his father the late Franklin Z. Adell. Its original programming blocks were filled with mostly Home Shopping Network programs, religious shows and other paid programming, classic movies and hourly blocks of the syndicated music video show Hit Video USA. In 1990, it began running several hours of syndicated shows.

WADL is considered "The 5 Million Watt Powerhouse" because it has one of the strongest signals in the area. Starting in 1992, it began running CBS shows preempted by then-CBS affiliate WJBK. It also rebroadcast WJBK's 6 pm newscast, typically at 8:00 pm on the same night. Despite its relationship with WJBK, WADL barely registered as a blip on the Detroit television scene at first. Most of the stronger programming had been picked clean by Fox affiliate WKBD-TV (which, for all intents and purposes, was programmed as an independent) and independent WXON (now WMYD). There simply wasn't enough programming to go around, even for a market as large as Detroit. Channel 38 faced an additional problem in the form of CBET (channel 9), the CBC-owned station in Windsor, which owned the Detroit rights to other syndicated programs. It relied mostly on paid programming; the few entertainment shows on the schedule were barter programming.

In 1994, WJBK defected to Fox after that network struck a deal with its then-owner New World Communications. After being turned down by WKBD and WXON, CBS approached WADL for an affiliation, even though most Metro Detroit viewers hadn't even heard of the station before. However, Franklin Adell and CBS could not come to a mutual agreement. CBS eventually bought Detroit's other low-profile independent, WGPR-TV, changing its calls to WWJ-TV.

Picking children and NBC shows

On August 31, 1998, WADL would pick up Fox Kids (later FoxBox and now today's 4KidsTV) on the weekdays and weekends with programs such as Power Rangers, Batman: The Animated Series, Goosebumps, among others. They also had several syndicated children's shows like Jumanji. It was thought that the station would gradually add stronger shows but this did not happen. Previously, WKBD had aired Fox Kids even after losing its Fox affiliation. As Fox Kids ended its weekday airings on FOX in 2002, WADL continued running the revamped Fox Box until the fall of 2003, when Fox's 4Kids TV Saturday Morning lineup moved to another cross-town station, then WB affiliate WDWB (now MyNetworkTV affiliate WMYD). During this time, WADL was the only other station besides WKBD and WMYD to continuously air children's programming (until October 2007). The station aired three cartoons produced by DiC Entertainment, all designed to meet federal E/I requirements:

• Archie's Weird Mysteries - Thursdays & Fridays at 7:00 AM
• Inspector Gadget's Field Trip - Tuesdays at 7:30 AM and Wednesdays at 7:00 AM
• Sabrina's Secret Life - Mondays & Tuesdays at 7:00 AM

WADL at one point also broadcast the NBC daytime soap opera "Passions," from its premiere in 1999 until 2002, when NBC affiliate WDIV added the serial to its schedule.

Breakthrough

In September 2007, WADL had begun to acquire popular syndicated shows, such as The Nanny, Mad About You, The Jeffersons and Good Times, though keeping many religious programs and a few infomercials as well, but eliminated the remaining animated shows.

Through the years WADL has made strides towards the fulfillment of being a voice of Detroit's urban community at large. Such programming aimed at Detroit's urban community includes a weekly feature with the Mayor of Detroit and former player for the Detroit Pistons, Dave Bing.

WADL animated logo launched in 2011

In the fall of 2007, WADL was relaunched as "Detroit's Urban Station" in order to appeal to the African-American community and picking up new syndicated programming, including The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Pimp My Ride, Cribs, American Chopper, Reno 911, The Montel Williams Show, The Daily Buzz (which WKBD replaced with Judge Judy), In the Heat of the Night, Chappelle's Show, Dance Party, A Different World, Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, Sanford and Son, and others. Magnum P.I. . In 2009, shows like The Brady Bunch, I Love Lucy, Happy Days, M*A*S*H, The Jeffersons, Laverne and Shirley, among others were added. WADL continues to provide religious broadcast Mon-Fri 8AM-12 Noon and all day on Sundays. Saturday programming features a community block as well as "The Movie of the Week", Cheaters, Dance Party, and American Chopper.

In fall 2009 WADL added The Brian McKnight Show and classic episodes of Batman, Lost in Space, and Star Trek to the schedule. Fall WADL's 2010 fall line up included Curb Your Enthusiasm, Entourage, South Park and The Twilight Zone.

WADL has since cemented its standing as a major player in Detroit's television broadcasting community. WADL recognized the need to secure current programs as well as maintaining viewers that are fond of the classics. The station added to its programming lineup, Frasier, Hawaii Five-O , Deadliest Catch, Cash Cab and health and fitness guru Peter's Principles. The station also created a child and family friendly block in their Saturday rotation by adding The Three Stooges, The Adams Family, The Munsters, Curiosity Quest, Dog Tales, Animal Exploration, and Animal Rescue.

As the station grows, some programming has been shelved or replaced such as " Batman", "Dance Party" and "The Brian McKnight Show".

WADL has continued the commitment made to the community by producing and airing locally relevant programming such as " Schwartz's Law" with attorney Michael Schwartz, " Real Talk" with political activist Rev. Horace Sheffield, " Detroit Wants to Know" with Steve Hood.

On August 29, 2011, WADL announced it would be moving its Universal Sports affiliation to another subchannel to make way for Antenna TV, effective October 1, 2011..

News/Station presentation

WADL-TV announced on January 5, 2012 that they would begin airing half-hour newscasts at noon and 9 p.m. weekdays, produced by the Journal Register Company, owners of the Macomb Daily, Oakland Press, and Southgate News-Herald, in association with the Independent News Network.

Newscast titles

• (TV-2/Channel 2) Eyewitness News (1992–1994, WADL re-aired WJBK's 6 p.m. newscast at 8 p.m. until WJBK switched its affiliation from CBS to Fox)
• WADL Midday News (2012–present)
• WADL News at 9 (2012–present)

Current on-air staff

WADL-TV 38 News at 9

• Makenzi Henderson - anchor
• Eric Garlick - meteorologist
• Ryan Bass - sports reporter

Local program hosts

• Joelle Lukasiewicz - Motor City Movie Night host
• Peter Nielsen - Peter's Principles host

Digital television

WADL's operates on UHF digital channel 39, using PSIP to display its virtual channel as 38. It has the following digital subchannels. All channels are in 480i standard definition. It is using the same channel numbers after the analog to digital conversion date of June 12, 2009.

Channel	Aspect	Video	Name	Programming
38.1	4:3	480i	WADL-DT	Main WADL-TV programming
38.2	WADL-DT2	Antenna TV
38.3	WADL-DT3	The Word Network

The station's second digital channel formerly broadcasted the full schedule of Universal Sports, with infomercials filling out the remainder of the broadcast schedule (when Universal Sports programming is not aired). Since March 23, 2011, the station's third subchannel has broadcast The Word Network, a religious cable channel also founded by Franklin Z. Adell.

On October 1, 2011 WADL-TV began carrying programming from Tribune Broadcasting's digital multicast network Antenna TV on digital subchannel 38.2. Antenna TV features classic television series (primarily sitcoms) from the 1950s to the 1990s, from the program libraries of Sony Pictures Entertainment and DLT Entertainment, during the afternoon and evening hours on Monday-Saturdays and for much of the day on Sundays; feature films from the Sony library air on the network during the overnight and early morning hours. Antenna TV replaced Universal Sports on 38.2, which was bumped to a temporary subchannel (38.4) until January 2012.

See also

• Media in Detroit

External links

• WADL website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WADL
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WADL-TV
• WADL information at fccinfo.com
• WADL TV Lineup and Demographic Data
• Broadcasting & Cable article from October 2007 on WADL's revamp