WJRT-TV
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| WJRT-TV | |
|---|---|
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| Flint, Michigan | |
| City of license | Flint, Michigan |
| Branding | ABC 12 (general) ABC 12 News (newscast) |
| Slogan | Your Trusted Source for News. Your Safest Place in Bad Weather. |
| Channels | |
| Subchannels | (see article) |
| Affiliations | ABC The Local AccuWeather Channel (on DT-3) |
| Owner | Disney/ABC (Flint License Subsidiary Corporation) |
| First air date | October 12, 1958 |
| Call letters’ meaning | WJR, radio station in Detroit owned by station's founders (with T added to stand for television) |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: 12 (VHF, 1958-2009) Digital: 36 (UHF, until 2009) |
| Former affiliations | ESPN Plus (for Michigan and Michigan State football, until 2006) |
| Transmitter Power | 18.2 kW (digital) |
| Height | 286 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 21735 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | 43°13′49.5″N 84°3′31.7″W / 43.230417°N 84.058806°W |
| Website | www.abc12.com |
WJRT-TV, channel 12, (branded as ABC 12) is an ABC-owned and operated television station (O&O) in the Flint-Saginaw-Bay City, Michigan television market. Its studios are located in Flint, Michigan, with offices and newsroom for the Tri-Cities located in Saginaw. The station broadcasts with 316 kilowatts of power from a 1,000-foot tower located near Chesaning, Michigan. The station is the only one in the market owned and operated by any major network.
WJRT-TV can be seen on cable systems throughout northeastern Michigan, as far north as Alpena. At one time, it was seen on cable as far north as Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, where the Shaw system there offered WJRT-TV instead of WGTU from across the locks; in the early-2000s, Shaw replaced WJRT-TV with Detroit's WXYZ-TV.
WJRT-TV is the only station in the Flint / Tri-Cities market that is headquartered in the city of Flint who produces local content on a regular schedule. Also, with 5.5 hours of local news every weekday, it produces far more local content than any other station in the market.
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[edit] History
WJRT-TV is the only station in the market that has never changed its affiliation. WJRT-TV was founded in 1958 by Goodwill Stations, the owner of WJR in Detroit at the time. That company won out over two other companies seeking to operate channel 12, the Trebit Corp. (which owned WFDF-AM) and W.S. Butterfield Theatres, Inc. Failed plans to place the transmitter facilities in Independence Township, Michigan are part of the story of WJRT-TV's birth. Goodwill Stations took over the former WTAC-TV studios and offices after that station folded in 1954 and remains there today. When it was learned that Independence Township was in the Detroit television market, Goodwill settled on placing the channel 12 transmitters near Chesaning, Michigan; the transmitters remain there today. Once this was done, WJRT-TV went on the air on October 12, 1958, as an ABC network affiliate. WJRT-TV was the first Michigan television station outside of Detroit to go all-color in 1967.[1]
Goodwill Stations merged with Capital Cities Broadcasting (predecessor of Capital Cities Communications) in 1964, but WJRT-TV was spun off to Poole Broadcasting (owned by John Poole, a former Capital Cities stockholder) because the merged company was one VHF station over the FCC's ownership limit of the time.[2] In April 1978, WJRT-TV along with the rest of Poole Broadcasting (which included WPRI-TV in Providence, Rhode Island and WTEN in Albany, New York) were sold to Knight Ridder. As soon as the acquisition of Poole Broadcasting was finalized, Knight Ridder cut a corporate affiliation deal with ABC; however, WJRT-TV was already affiliated with ABC when Knight Ridder acquired the station. During the late 1980s, Knight Ridder decided to exit broadcasting by selling its stations to separate owners; as a result, WJRT-TV was sold to SJL Broadcast Management (the predecessor of today's Montecito Broadcast Group) in 1989.
During the 1970s WJRT-TV became Mid Michigan's highest rated television station, helped by ABC's ratings improvements during the decade. During the late 1980s and into the 1990s, WJRT-TV was usually second to WNEM-TV. However, after ABC purchased WJRT-TV (along with WTVG in Toledo, Ohio) from SJL in 1995, the station returned to the top of the Mid-Michigan ratings for primetime, where it remains today. Because Capital Cities spun the station off decades earlier, WJRT-TV was the only ABC station not part of the Capital Cities/ABC merger in 1986, although it should be noted that longtime ABC affiliates KTRK-TV in Houston and WPVI-TV in Philadelphia were part of the merger.
In 1994, New World Communications signed an affiliation deal with Fox Broadcasting Company, resulting in most of New World's stations switching affiliation to Fox. Among the stations due to switch was WJBK-TV in Detroit, a longtime CBS affiliate. To avoid being consigned to UHF in what was then the 9th-largest market, CBS heavily wooed Detroit's longtime ABC affiliate, WXYZ-TV. WXYZ-TV's owner, E.W. Scripps Company, then told ABC that unless it agreed to affiliate with Scripps-owned stations in four smaller markets, it would switch WXYZ-TV to CBS. As a contingency, ABC approached SJL about buying WTVG and WJRT-TV. Both stations' city-grade signals reached portions of the Detroit area. The deal closed on August 29, 1995.
Ironically, when ABC acquired WJRT-TV in 1995, it was reunited with its namesake radio station, WJR. WJR's owner, Capital Cities, had merged with ABC in 1986. And in 2002, WFDF (now a Detroit station), which unsuccessfully sought a channel 12 license in the 1950s, would also become a sister to WJRT-TV when ABC bought the station. However, this reunion was partially broken up, as ABC sold WJR, along with other ABC Radio properties, to Citadel Broadcasting in January, 2006.
WJRT-TV also served as the ABC affiliate of record for Lansing until WLAJ signed on in 1990.
Until the end of the 2006 college football season, WJRT-TV carried Big Ten Conference football games (usually featuring the University of Michigan or Michigan State University) from ESPN's regional sports syndicator ESPN Plus. ESPN Plus lost rights to Big Ten Conference games to Big Ten Network in 2007.
[edit] Programming
As an ABC owned station, WJRT-TV carries the full ABC television lineup, including all regional and national sports telecasts from ESPN on ABC.
Syndicated programming on WJRT-TV includes Judge Judy, Judge Joe Brown, Live with Regis and Kelly (produced by sister station WABC-TV in New York City), Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?, and The Rachael Ray Show.
[edit] Digital Television
WJRT-DT currently broadcasts with the following digital subchannel lineup:
| Channel | Name | Programming |
|---|---|---|
| 12.1 | WJRT-HD | main WJRT-TV/ABC programming in 720p |
| 12.2 | ABC12 Plus | ABC12 Plus |
| 12.3 | ABC12 Weather Channel | ABC12's 24 Hour Weather Channel / The Local AccuWeather Channel |
[edit] ABC12 Plus
ABC12 Plus is WJRT-TV's second digital subchannel. It shows extra programming, such as:
- Programs from the Live Well HD Network (note: programs from this channel on ABC12 Plus are shown in 480i standard definiton due to lack of bandwidth).
- ABC12 News simulcasts and reruns
- simulcasts of ABC World News
- simulcasts and reruns of ABC's newsmagazine shows Primetime and 20/20
- ABC12's local public affairs show Newsmakers
- the nationally syndicated show View from the Bay (produced by sister station KGO-TV in San Francisco)
- local specials
- movies
[edit] ABC12 Weather Channel
ABC12's third digital subchannel is its 24 hour weather channel. It features live Doppler weather radar 24 hours a day, interlaced with extended local weather forecasts from the ABC12 weather team, as well as national forecasts from The Local AccuWeather Channel.
[edit] Analog to Digital Conversion
WJRT-TV's original digital channel was 36, and it used PSIP to display its virtual channel as 12. After the analog television shutdown on June 12, 2009, [3] WJRT-TV relocated its digital signal to channel 12. [4][5]
[edit] Trivia
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- Brief clips from WJRT-TV newscasts, featuring then-co-anchor Sue Zelenko, appear in Michael Moore's documentary Roger & Me. Soon after the film's release, Zelenko would leave WJRT-TV to co-anchor the evening newscast at WTSP in St. Petersburg, Florida.
[edit] Newscast Lineup
Weekdays
- ABC 12 News at 5&6: 5:00-7:00 a.m.
- Anchors: Larry Elliott, Karen Gatlin
- Weather: John McMurray
- ABC 12 News at Noon: 12:00-12:30 p.m.
- Anchors: Larry Elliott, Karen Gatlin
- Weather: John McMurray
- First at Four: 4:00-5:00 p.m.
- Anchors: Terry Camp and Dawn Jones
- Weather: Leslie Toldo
- ABC 12 News at 5: 5:00-6:00 p.m.
- Anchors: Angie Hendershot, Bill Harris
- Weather: J.R. Kirtek
- Sports: Greg Molzon
- ABC 12 News at 6: 6:00-6:30 p.m.
- Anchors: Angie Hendershot, Bill Harris
- Weather: J.R. Kirtek
- Sports: Greg Molzon
- ABC 12 News at 11:00: 11:00-11:35 p.m.
- Anchors: Angie Hendershot, Bill Harris
- Weather: J.R. Kirtek
- Sports: Greg Molzon
Weekends
- ABC 12 Weekend: Saturday & Sunday Mornings: - (Saturday: 6:00-8:00 a.m., Sunday 7:00-8:00 a.m. & 9:00-10:00 a.m.)
- Anchors: Josh DeVine, Angela Brown
- Weather: Kevin Goff
- ABC 12 News at 6: - 6:00-6:30 p.m.
- Anchors: Joel Feick and Liz Dueweke
- Weather: Kevin Goff
- Sports: Ryan Slocum
- ABC 12 News at 11: - 11:00-11:30 p.m.
- Anchors: Joel Feick and Liz Dueweke
- Weather: Kevin Goff
- Sports: Ryan Slocum
- Reporters:
- Kristen Abraham
- Randy Conat
- Josh DeVine
- Kelley Dickens
- Lori Dougovito
- Liz Dueweke
- Matt Franklin
- Gabe Gutierrez
- Marc Jacobson
- Dawn Jones
- Cathy Shafran
- Rebecca Trylch
- WJRT-TV newscasts also feature segments with personnel from ABC News (for national and international stories and Tech Bytes), and Bloomberg Television (in The Bloomberg Business Report)
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.michiguide.com/dials/tv/wjrt.html
- ^ http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE2D91431F93BA25757C0A96F948260
- ^ http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf
- ^ http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/tvq?call=WJRT
- ^ FCC.gov - Appendix B: All Full Power Television Stations by DMA, Indicating Those Terminating Analog Service on or before February 17, 2009
[edit] External links
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