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WDIV-TV

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This article is about WDIV, which originally held the WWJ-TV call letters. For the television station in Detroit using that callsign since 1995, see WWJ-TV.

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WDIV-TV, virtual channel 4 (UHF digital channel 45), is an NBC-affiliated television station located in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The station serves as the flagship broadcast property of the Graham Holdings Company subsidiary Graham Media Group. WDIV maintains studio facilities – which also house the headquarters of Graham Media Group – located on West Lafayette Boulevard in Detroit (as such, WDIV-TV is the only major television station in the market whose offices and studios are located in Detroit proper, while the market's other television stations are located in Southfield), its transmitter is located on Greenfield Road in Southfield.

History

Early history

The station first signed on the air as WWDT on October 23, 1946, for one day of demonstrative programming;[1] regular programming commenced on June 3, 1947. It was the first television station in Michigan and the sixth station to sign on in the United States overall. The station was originally owned by the Detroit News, which also owned radio station WWJ (950 AM). On May 15, 1947, the television station changed its call letters to WWJ-TV, to match its radio sister. Channel 4 has always been an NBC affiliate, owing to WWJ radio's longtime affiliation with the NBC Red Network, although it aired some programs from the DuMont Television Network prior to WJBK-TV (channel 2)'s sign-on in October 1948.

Channel 4 had a number of broadcasting firsts in Michigan, including the first telecast of Detroit Tigers, Red Wings and Lions games as well as the state's first televised newscasts. WWJ-TV was the first television station in Michigan to broadcast in color in 1954. The station's studios and transmitter were originally located in the Detroit News building in downtown Detroit. In 1954, the station moved to a new 1,004-foot (306 m) transmitter at the intersection of Greenfield and Lincoln roads in Southfield. The station began broadcasting its newscasts and other locally produced programs in color in 1960, when it purchased new studio camera equipment.

Trade to The Washington Post Company

In 1969, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) began to impose restrictions on the common ownership of print and broadcast media in the same market. The combination of the Detroit News and WWJ-AM-FM-TV was given grandfathered protection from the new regulations. But by the mid-to-late 1970s, the Evening News Association (parent of the Detroit News and the WWJ stations) felt pressure to break up their holdings voluntarily. Perhaps avoiding a FCC-forced divestiture, the Evening News Association and the Washington Post Company (which owned WTOP-AM-TV in Washington, D.C.) reached an agreement to swap their flagship television stations.[2] On July 27, 1978, channel 4 changed its call letters to WDIV[3] (the call letters are derived from "D" for Detroit and "IV," representing the Roman numeral for four). Additionally, in a series of promotional announcements with news anchor Dwayne X. Riley, the new call letters were said to represent the phrase, "Where Detroit Is Vital". The WWJ-TV call sign was later adopted for use by the former WGPR-TV (channel 62), after its 1995 purchase by CBS, which had acquired WWJ radio in 1989; the current WWJ-TV is a separate entity and not related to WDIV.

Ultimately, the FCC never imposed any limitations on ownership of television station and newspapers in the same market and the exchange of stations between the Evening News Association and the Washington Post Company (which was renamed Graham Holdings Company following the sale of the Washington Post in 2013) became somewhat unique in television broadcasting.

In 1982, WDIV moved out of its facility (which had been built in 1936 for WWJ-AM and expanded in 1948 and today is known as the Walker-Roehrig Building) adjacent to the headquarters of the Detroit News and moved one block to its current broadcast facility at 550 West Lafayette Boulevard. The building has also housed the headquarters of Graham Media Group since 1997; the "Local" branding now utilized by most of the group's stations began at WDIV alongside its acquiring of flagship status in 2000. The station later became available outside the Detroit market when it was selected for inclusion on many Canadian cable providers in the late 1980s and early 1990s. WDIV's signal has been uplinked on C-band satellite since at least 1988. In 2004, the station bolstered local programming by securing broadcast rights to several Detroit Pistons basketball games (Fox Sports Detroit became the Pistons' sole broadcaster in 2008), as well as returning as the host television station for the North American International Auto Show. The station airs the auto show's charity preview, America's Thanksgiving Parade (both in high definition), The Ford Fireworks, and the charity event "The Hob-Nobble Gobble" which is held the night before the Thanksgiving parade.

On April 15, 2005, former WDIV employee John Owens was shot in the station's lobby by Epifanio Rivas, Jr., a man with a history of harassing WDIV employees. Rivas was charged with attempted murder, while Owens remained in the hospital in critical but stable condition. On November 21, 2006, Wayne County Circuit Court Judge James Callahan sentenced Rivas to 16 to 32 years in prison for the shooting; he was also sentenced to two years for a felony firearm conviction. In December 2008, WDIV began streaming its newscasts online as part of a redesign of the station's website. On June 21, 2010, the 52nd Annual Target Fireworks were produced and aired entirely in high definition. On August 6, 2010, WDIV-TV and WXYZ-TV (channel 7) became the first stations in Detroit to offer Mobile DTV feeds.

On the evening of April 14, 2011, a suitcase containing a suspected improvised explosive device was left in the WDIV studio lobby after the person who planted the device was denied entry by the station's security guard, prompting the Detroit Police Bomb Squad to evacuate the studio as well as the Doubletree Hotel, across the street. That night's 11 p.m. newscast was broadcast from the corner of Lafayette and Howard streets; the evacuation resulted in master control operations being inaccessible, preventing the broadcast or editing of news stories, and the broadcast of commercials. The station's PSIP virtual channel temporarily reverted to 45.1 (the station's physical digital channel), with HD content downconverted to 720p. The device was detonated minutes later, with police giving the all-clear at 11:15 p.m. for the news crew to re-enter the studio.[4]

Upon re-entering the studio, anchor Devin Scillian explained that WDIV has a policy of not immediately reporting bomb threats, in case they turn out to be nothing. However, because staff was barred access into the studio for the 11 p.m. newscast, an explanation as to why they were on the street, broadcasting from the station's mobile truck instead of the studio, needed to be given. The news was first reported by the Twitter and Facebook accounts of WDIV's news staff; WJBK, WXYZ-TV and WMYD (channel 20) reported on the situation while during the lockout, before the WDIV mobile truck could return to the studios from its assignments. A sweater and some empty soda cans were later found in the briefcase, which was left by a homeless man that had followed a WDIV employee in for warmth and coffee, the man was brought to Detroit Receiving Hospital for observation the next day. The Detroit Police Department and Post-Newsweek's management said that charges would not be filed, as it was "just a big misunderstanding".

Digital television

Digital channels

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming[5]
4.1 1080i 16:9 WDIV-HD Main WDIV programming / NBC
4.2 480i 4:3 WDIV-SD This TV

WDIV's second digital subchannel formally carried programming from NBC Weather Plus, which folded in November 2008. WDIV-TV also has a Mobile DTV feed of subchannel 4.1, labelled "Local 4", broadcasting at 1.83 Mbit/s.[6][7]

Analog-to-digital conversion

WDIV-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 4, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 45.[8][9] Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former VHF analog channel 4.

As part of the SAFER Act,[10] WDIV kept its analog signal on the air until June 26 to inform viewers of the digital television transition through a loop of public service announcements from the National Association of Broadcasters.

Out-of-market coverage

WDIV's over-the-air signal can be picked up as far away as Flint, Lapeer, Adrian, Toledo, and even London, Ontario. WDIV is also one of only three stations that mention Windsor and London as among their primary viewing areas, alongside WMYD and WJBK.

WDIV is carried on most cable providers in Southeast Michigan, Southwestern Ontario and Northwestern Ohio. It is also carried on several other Canadian cable providers including Rogers Cable in Ottawa, Ontario, well away from the range of its signal. It is also one of five Detroit area television stations seen in Canada on satellite provider Shaw Direct and was the original affiliate offered by CANCOM (now Shaw Broadcast Services) starting in September 1983. WDIV is also carried on some cable providers in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in communities such as Seney, Republic and Grand Marais.

CANCOM/Shaw's carriage of WDIV stretches outside of Canada with cable carriage in places as varied as far northern New York state (including Hammond and Alexandria Bay), all of Bermuda, parts of Latin America and, for a time in the early 1990s, some parts of Ireland (with a delay).[11] In addition, WDIV is carried on some cable providers in Mexico, via Shaw Broadcast Services, such the Cablemas system in Ciudad Juárez, which offers WDIV instead of fellow NBC affiliate KTSM-TV in nearby El Paso, Texas. From 1985 to circa 1998, it was the NBC affiliate carried by Cable Atlantic (now Rogers Cable) in Newfoundland and Labrador, including in St. John's, before the provider switched to the network's Boston affiliate WHDH.

Coverage on cable providers outside the Detroit-Windsor market may be subject to syndication exclusivity and network blackouts in the United States, and simsubbing in Canada.

Canadian carriage controversies

Though not in its own market, WDIV (along with WJBK and WXYZ-TV) has seen its share of controversy from afar via its carriage to much of Canada (and fringe parts of North America) via CANCOM. The presence of Detroit stations on Canadian cable providers was cited in some areas (namely the Prairie Provinces) for an uptick in crime rates in the years after their introduction due to the heavy reporting of crime stories on their newscasts. The most extreme of these cases was when community activists in Winnipeg, Manitoba allegedly cited WDIV's newscasts as the potential ignitor of the city's first drive-by shootings.[citation needed] Though totally coincidental, viewers in the Ottawa area decried WDIV's replacement of Rochester, New York's WHEC-TV when Rogers Cable switched that system's U.S. affiliates in the area from a combination of Rochester and Buffalo stations to only Detroit stations in 2003.[citation needed]

Programming

Syndicated programming

Syndicated programs carried on WDIV-TV include Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy!, The Ellen DeGeneres Show and Inside Edition. Michigan Lottery drawings are broadcast on WDIV, with weekday drawings running immediately before the station's 7:30 p.m. airing of Jeopardy!.[citation needed]

Programming preemptions

In the 1970s and 1980s, WDIV preempted one to two hours of NBC's daytime programming every day. The station also refused to air Late Night with David Letterman and its successor, Late Night with Conan O'Brien at 12:35 a.m. for many years. Instead, until 1999, the station opted to rebroadcast Jenny Jones in that timeslot. WDIV currently airs the entire NBC schedule, though while Late Night now airs at its usual time of 12:35 a.m., Last Call with Carson Daly is delayed from 1:35 a.m. to 2:35 a.m. due to an hour-long block of infomercials. WDIV has also delayed the fourth hour of Today (which nationally airs at 10:00 a.m.) since its debut, previously airing it at 11:00 a.m. due to The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The Ricki Lake Show and Rachael Ray airing at 10:00 a.m. In August 2013, WDIV began airing the fourth hour of Today at 2:00 p.m. due to the launch of the WDIV-produced local talk show Live In The D, which was placed in the 11:00 a.m. slot. The station does not carry NBC's late night rerun of the fourth hour of Today along with Mad Money, preferring to carry an encore of the 11 p.m. newscast, infomercials and syndicated programming. Conversely the station, along with all other Post-Newsweek stations, has refused to air all of NBC's televised poker programming, including Poker After Dark, the National Heads-Up Poker Championship and Face the Ace.

From 1999 to 2002, WDIV did not clear the soap opera Passions at 2:00 p.m. Instead, it aired on WADL (channel 38) at noon on a tape delay, while WDIV aired daytime talk shows at 2:00 p.m. Houston sister station KPRC-TV did this as well until August 30, 2004 when it became the last NBC station to carry Passions at 2:00 p.m. These two stations were the only NBC affiliate holdouts to the show; the issue was rendered moot when NBC canceled Passions in 2007.

NBC programming is still occasionally pre-empted for special events, including coverage of the North American International Auto Show, the annual Target Fireworks on the Detroit International Riverfront, and America's Thanksgiving Parade (whose coverage, incidentally, pre-empts the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade broadcast on the station), and on occasion, infomercials.[citation needed]

Local programs and personalities

WDIV was the launching pad for several locally produced shows that went national. The station broadcast the talk show Sonya (hosted by Dr. Sonya Freidman) live at 4 p.m. It was so popular that the station, under the banner of Post-Newsweek Stations, syndicated it on a delayed basis to USA Network (which is now co-owned with NBC under NBCUniversal). WDIV also produced the afternoon variety show The Tony Orlando Show at 4 p.m. However, the station's management canceled the program after one year to run the syndicated daytime talk show Jenny Jones.

WDIV later signed WOMC (104.3 FM) morning radio host Dick Purtan to perform live segments during a 4–5 p.m. comedy block called Purtan's People. It was followed by WOMC's Tom Ryan with a monthly special that showed B-movies with comedy skits (in which Ryan played a character known as Count Scary). This was during the heyday of NBC's late-night success Second City Television and Joe Flaherty's Count Floyd. Eventually, Count Scary was dropped by WDIV and moved on to WKBD-TV (channel 50)'s Shocktoberfest. One local program idea that almost cost the station was for a Detroit-based comedy-drama called Hamtramck, which aired only once. It created a storm of controversy with the Hamtramck community. The program's executive producer, Alan Frank, apologized to the community.

Meteorologist Chuck Gaidica hosted the Michigan Lottery's game shows and his own show. Sports director Bernie Smilovitz also hosted a couple of shows, including The Chuck and Bernie Show, which featured then Detroit Pistons coach Chuck Daly, and The Sparky and Bernie Show, which featured Detroit Tigers manager Sparky Anderson. Smilovitz also hosted Bernie's Bloopers/Weekend at Bernie's specials.

News operation

WDIV-TV Local 4 News remote van.

WDIV-TV presently broadcasts 36½ hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with six hours on weekdays, three hours on Saturdays and 3½ hours on Sundays). The station uses a Eurocopter A350 helicopter for newsgathering, which is also shared with WJBK and WXYZ-TV through a Local News Service agreement with those stations' respective owners Fox Television Stations and the E. W. Scripps Company. This helicopter features a completely digital HD video system and is quite noticeable from the ground with its large front camera pod and distinctive red paint (hence the callsign "Red Bird"). WDIV also purchases services from Metro Traffic, which provides traffic reporting from its analog SD video platform, aloft on a Bell 206 airframe. This helicopter is blue and white with a smaller camera pod. Both helicopters are operated by HeliInc, which provides aircraft services to broadcasters in many markets.

WDIV's news department operates a fleet of 14 newsgathering vehicles, including 11 standard news ENG (electronic news gathering) Ford E350 vans with two-band digital microwave transmitters and video editing platforms. One of these trucks is a dual-purpose microwave truck and digital satellite uplink package. The station has one micro-ENG E150 van capable of rapid deployment short-range broadcasts and one additional satellite uplink vehicle with a much larger 1.8 meter antenna.

News operations point their microwave trucks at three receive sites in southeastern Michigan. One is located at their transmitter site in Southfield, one in downtown Detroit and the other in the city of Ann Arbor. With the satellite uplink capabilities and the diverse receive sites, the station can easily cover any news event within the viewing area. The station is continually experimenting with new technology and its application to news gathering. It has invested heavily in video streaming products from various vendors such as StreamBox. The station has used streaming video in areas without internet access with Inmarsat BGAN services.

On January 8, 2007, the station added a half-hour late afternoon newscast at 4 p.m. In the spring of 2007, WDIV received an RTNDA Edward R. Murrow Award, one of the highest honors in broadcast journalism. "The China Syndrome", reported and produced by Devin Scillian, was named Best Documentary. On August 19, 2007, starting with the 11 p.m. newscast, WDIV became the second television station in Detroit to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition.

In recent years, WDIV's newscasts have become what may be termed sensationalistic, featuring reports by the Rescue 4 Undercover team.[citation needed] These reports often deal with sexual topics or issues of personal safety ("Is Your Favorite Movie Theater Safe?"), but scored high ratings and viewer comments for their breaking news coverage of the Tara Grant disappearance that became a murder case with the arrest of her husband, Stephen. In August 2013, WDIV dropped its noon newscast and converted it into an online-only broadcast in order to attract viewers who are at work during that timeslot. Viewer demand resulted in the station relaunching the noon newscast on the television station on January 13, 2014.[12]

News/station presentation

Newscast titles

  • WWJ-TV News (1947–1966)
  • Channel 4 News (1966–1969)
  • News 4 (1969–2000)
  • News 4 Plus Four (1977–1978)
  • News 4 Detroit (1978–1987, for all newscasts; 1987–1990, for all newscasts except the 11 p.m. broadcast)
  • Nightbeat (1987–2000; 11 p.m. newscast)
  • Newsbeat (1990–2000; used along with News 4)
  • Local First News (2000–2004)
  • Local 4 News (2005–present)

Station slogans

  • "Where the Action Is" (1969-1971)
  • "News 4: The Fastest News in Town" (1971-1973)
  • "We're 4 Detroit" (1978–1979)
  • "Go 4 It!" / "Go For It!" (1979–1988 and 1994–2000)
  • " Come Home to the Best, Only on Channel 4" (1988-1990)
  • "WDIV, the Place to Be!" (1990-1992)
  • "Where Local News Comes First" (1997–2004; also former slogan of sister station KPRC-TV in Houston)
  • "Everywhere, Every Way, Every Day" (2004–2006)
  • "The Power of 4" (2006–2008)
  • "The Big Events Station" (2006–present; used for local events)
  • "Your Breaking News Leader" (2008–present; primary news slogan)
  • "Worth Tuning In 4" (2008–present; general slogan)
  • "Worth Staying Up 4"/"Worth Waking Up 4" (2008–present; used for newscast promos for its 11 p.m. and morning newscasts)
  • "Your Weather Leader" (2008–present; weather slogan)

News team

Current on-air staff

Anchors[13]
  • Sandra Ali - weekends at 6 and 11 p.m.; also weeknight reporter and fill-in anchor
  • Evrod Cassimy - weekday mornings on Local 4 News Today from 4:30-7 a.m. and weekdays at noon
  • Karen Drew - weekdays at 11:00am, also investigative reporter and fill-in anchor
  • Steve Garagiola - weekends at 6 and 11 p.m.; fill-in anchor
  • Guy Gordon - weekday mornings on Live in the D at 11 a.m.
  • Carmen Harlan - weeknights at 5, 6 and 11 p.m.
  • Lauren Sanders - weekend mornings on Local 4 News Today
  • Devin Scillian - weeknights at 5, 5:30, 6 and 11 p.m.
  • Ruth Spencer - weekdays at 4 and weeknights at 5:30 p.m.; also consumer reporter
  • Rhonda Walker - weekday mornings on Local 4 News Today from 4:30-7 a.m. and weekdays at noon[13]
Local4Casters[13]
  • Ben Bailey (AMS and NWA Seals of Approval) - chief meteorologist; weekdays at 4 and weeknights at 5, 5:30, 6 and 11 p.m.
  • Andrew Humphrey (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; weekend mornings on Local 4 News Today and weekends at 6 and 11 p.m.
  • Brandon Roux (AMS and NWA Seals of Approval) - meteorologist; weekday mornings on Local 4 News Today from 4:30-7 a.m. and weekdays at noon; also fill-in meteorologist
  • Paul Gross (AMS Certified Consulting Meteorologist and Certified Broadcast Meteorologist Seals of Approval) - fill-in meteorologist, also weather executive producer
  • Tom Sorrells (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist and NWA Seals of Approval) - chief meteorologist; weeknights at 5:00, 6:00, 7:00 and 11:00 p.m. at sister station WKMG-TV Local 6 News
Sports team[13]
  • Bernie Smilovitz - sports anchor; weeknights at 5, 5:30, 6 and 11 p.m.
  • Jamie Edmonds - sports anchor; weekends at 6 and 11 p.m.; also host of Sports Final Edition
  • Rob Parker sports anchor ClickOnDetroit.com Sports Columnist also co-host of Sports Final Edition
Traffic[13]
  • Mike Lindeman - "Sky 4" reporter; weekday mornings on Local 4 News Morning (4:30-7 a.m.)
  • Ashlee Baracy - traffic reporter; weekday mornings (4:30-7 a.m.)


Reporters
  • Chauncy Glover - general assignment reporter
  • Will Jones - general assignment reporter
  • Jon Jordan - fashion reporter
  • Shawn Ley - general assignment reporter
  • Mara MacDonald - weeknight reporter
  • Dr. Frank McGeorge - medical contributor
  • Sean Mehan - "Morning Cam" video journalist; seen weekday mornings
  • Rod Meloni - business reporter
  • Tim Pamplin - "Night Cam" video journalist
  • Paula Tutman - weekday morning reporter
  • Roger Weber - general assignment reporter
  • Priya Mann - general assignment reporter
  • Lauren Podell - general assignment reporter
Local 4 Defenders[13]
  • Kevin Dietz - investigative reporter
  • Karen Drew - "Neighborhood Crime Tracker"
  • Hank Winchester - investigative reporter; also general assignment reporter and fill-in anchor
Local 4 Buzz[13]
  • Beth McLeod - co-host
  • Michael Ann Wolff - co-host

Notable former on-air staff

See also

References

  1. ^ WDIV Makes Television History! Travel Back In Time With Local 4 Firsts! (2004). Clickondetroit.com
  2. ^ "Two more crossowners go thataway." Broadcasting, December 12, 1977, pp. 19-21. [1][2][3]
  3. ^ [4]"WDIV advertisement." Broadcasting, July 17, 1978, pp. 19-21
  4. ^ http://www.wxyz.com/dpp/news/region/detroit/police-at-wdiv-tv-because-of-bomb-scare
  5. ^ RabbitEars TV Query for WDIV
  6. ^ http://www.rabbitears.info/market.php?request=atscmph
  7. ^ Mobile DTV Signal Map from the National Association of Broadcasters
  8. ^ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-03-24.
  9. ^ CDBS Print
  10. ^ "Updated List of Participants in the Analog Nightlight Program" (PDF). Federal Communications Commission. June 12, 2009. Retrieved June 4, 2012.
  11. ^ Matt Lauer, on NBC's The Today Show (May 2, 2007)
  12. ^ WDIV to Revive Noon News Broadcast, TVSpy, January 13, 2014.
  13. ^ a b c d e f g News Team
  14. ^ "Jim Brandstatter Biography". Detroit Sports Broadcasters Association. Retrieved 26 September 2013.
  15. ^ Kiska, Tim. From Soupy to Nuts: A History of Detroit Television. 2005. Momentum Books. ISBN#18790-94703
  16. ^ "Chris Hansen Biography". NBC News. 11 July 2012. Retrieved 26 September 2013.
  17. ^ "kiertzner4 is becoming kiertzner7 and will be on the air on 7 Action News in 9 days! Will any Detroit scandal still be going on?", posted on Twitter, October 2, 2012.
  18. ^ WDIV's Homegrown Star Leaving For WNBC in New York | Deadline Detroit, published on June 20, 2012.
  19. ^ Local 4 Defender Marc Santia leaving Detroit, heading to New York - from ClickOnDetroit.com, published June 29, 2012.
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