| WMYD | |
|---|---|
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| Detroit, Michigan - Windsor / London, Ontario |
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| City of license | Detroit |
| Branding | My TV 20 |
| Channels | Digital: 21 (UHF) |
| Subchannels | 20.1 MyNetworkTV HD 20.2 MyNetworkTV SD |
| Affiliations | MyNetworkTV ESPN Plus |
| Owner | Granite Broadcasting Corporation (WXON License, Inc.) |
| First air date | September 15, 1968 |
| Call letters’ meaning | MYNetworkTV Detroit |
| Former callsigns | WXON-TV (1968-1997) WDWB-TV (1997-2006) |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: 62 (UHF, 1968-1972) 20 (UHF, 1972-2009) |
| Former affiliations | Independent (1968-1995) ON-TV (1979-1983) The WB (1995-2006) 4Kids TV (2003-2008) Universal Sports (on DT2, October 2007-August 2008) |
| Transmitter Power | 500 kW |
| Height | 324 m |
| Facility ID | 74211 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | 42°26′52.5″N 83°10′23″W / 42.447917°N 83.17306°W |
| Website | tv20detroit.com |
WMYD is the MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station for Detroit, Michigan. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 21 from a transmitter on Eight Mile Road in Oak Park along the Wayne and Oakland County line. Owned by the Granite Broadcasting Corporation, the station has studios on Franklin Road in Southfield. Syndicated programming on WMYD includes: Family Guy, Scrubs, Friends, and House of Payne. It also carries FOX's Saturday morning infomercial block, Weekend Marketplace, that its owned-and-operated station WJBK chooses to pre-empt.
Contents |
Digital television
WMYD-DT broadcasts on UHF channel 21 using PSIP to display its virtual channel as 20 its former analog channel number. It carries MyNetworkTV programming in high definition when available. The station's second digital subchannel is a standard definition digital simulcast of its HD programming. WMYD formerly carried the World Championship Sports Network on a subchannel from October 2007 to August 2008. Since the station qualified for the nightlight clause in the DTV Delay Act, [1] it was required to keep its analog signal on for two weeks to inform viewers of the DTV transition in the United States. From February 17 to March 4, 2009, the analog signal consisted of a loop of DTV transition public service announcements while the digital channel was used for normal programming. This became Detroit's only major TV station not to terminate on the new June 12 date.
Prior to the digital TV switchover, WMYD transmitted its signal from a 1,000 foot tower located at the intersection of 11 mile and Inkster Roads in Southfield along with WTVS (channel 56) and WKBD. (Channel 50) Today, only WKBD broadcasts from that tower.
History
As an independent station
The station first took to the air on September 15, 1968 as WXON-TV broadcasting on channel 62. It moved to channel 20 in 1972 after two short-lived stations abandoned the frequency in the 1950s and 1960s. WPAG-TV in Ann Arbor was first assigned to channel 20 and started broadcasting in April 1953. [2] Little is known about WPAG except that it was owned by the same people (Washtenaw Broadcasting) who operated WPAG radio (now WTKA) and that it suspended operations in December 1957 in a futile attempt to get an allocation for channel 12. [3] That station may have also been a DuMont affiliate. [4]
In 1967, WJMY-TV in Allen Park was awarded a construction permit for channel 20 but never made it to the air except for a brief test signal one night in 1968. This consised merely of a card displaying its calls and city-of-license. Finally in November 1972, WXON took over WJMY's construction permit and shifted to channel 20 for good. WGPR-TV (now CBS O&O WWJ-TV) took over the channel 62 frequency in 1975. This station initially had its studios in Walled Lake (in southwestern Oakland County north of Novi) but later moved to its present location in Southfield. Through the 1970s, WXON aired cartoons, lower-rated sitcoms, off-network dramas, old movies, religious shows, and the annual Variety Club of Detroit telethon hosted by Soupy Sales. WXON offered live action Japanese sci-fi kids shows (dubbed into English) such as Ultraman, Johnny Sokko, and Space Giants.
ON-TV
In 1979, WXON added subscription television after 8 at night. The programming was provided by a service called ON-TV and the broadcasts were encoded in a scrambled format requiring a rented set-top box for decoding. The service was not cheap at $22.50 a month (equivalent to $65.83 in 2008 adjusted for inflation [5]). Many people, especially those living across the river in Windsor, Ontario, built their own decoder boxes and watched ON-TV for free. The network carried uncut movies, concerts, and local sports action. However, since many games began before 8 in the evening, fans missed the start of many contests. In one famous incident, the Detroit Red Wings racked up a 5-0 lead in a game against the Calgary Flames before ON-TV began its coverage. In 1982, WXON began airing ON-TV on weekend afternoons and faced a challenge from In-Home Theatre which aired 24 hours a day on what is now WPXD in Ann Arbor. Still lagging far behind WKBD-TV in the ratings, WXON dropped ON-TV on March 31, 1983 and resumed a full-service entertainment format full time. It added a number of movies to its lineup. It also acquired several barter cartoons as the children's programming business peaked in 1984-1985. WXON also brought infamous cult favorite The Ghoul back to Detroit television. As the 1980s progressed, WXON began acquiring stronger off-network sitcoms. It got a significant boost after WKBD switched to FOX as a charter affiliate on October 6, 1986. It was an established independent station by 1991 and was unaffected by the network affiliation swaps at the end of 1994. Until that year4, the station signed-off at 1 in the morning and signed back on at 5 o'clock the following morning. The station has generally gone 24/7 ever since although it has signed off and signed back on periodically during the late-1990s.
The WB
On January 15, 1995, WXON joined the The WB at its inception. Granite Broadcasting bought WXON two years later in January 1997, and on October 14 of that year, the station's call letters were changed to WDWB-TV. In 2004. the station shocked the Detroit media by becoming the new over-the-air broadcast home of the NBA's Detroit Pistons taking them from longtime home WKBD and was the broadcast home for 15 to 20 games of Detroit Tigers baseball games produced by FOX Sports Detroit. WDWB carried the full WB network schedule but after joining the network, WDWB frequently preempted programming that it rescheduled or did not air in favor of programming such as movies, Big Ten Conference basketball, the Detroit Pistons, the Detroit Tigers, and since 1999, the Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Association Labor Day telethon. Like the baseball and basketball games, the annual MDA telethon is broadcast live but since the station has no studios to accommodate, the MDA telethon is produced out of WTVS' studios in the New Center area of downtown Detroit. WDWB was the last remaining commercial television station in the Detroit market to broadcast children's programming every Monday through Friday. WTVS, a public television station, continues to broadcast such programming. The weekday afternoon kids block, known as Kids' WB, was replaced by reruns of programs such as Reba in a block known as Daytime WB.
Failed sale
In September 2005, Granite announced that WDWB and its sister station KBWB (now KOFY-TV) in San Francisco to AM Media Holdings, Inc. (a unit of Acon Investments and several key Granite shareholders) for a price rated, on WDWB's end, to around $97 million dollars. The low price (Granite had purchased the station for $175 million) was largely out of Granite wanting to cut down their debt load while keeping control of the stations. On February 15, 2006, Granite announced the restructuring of the sale considering the changing conditions of the station [6] but the sale eventually fell apart. In May 2006, the stations were sold to DS Audible for a price of about $84 million on WDWB's end. On July 18, 2006, this sale also fell apart and Granite has announced its intention to retain the station for the time being. [7] In November, Granite Broadcasting announced that it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy but would continue to operate its stations including WMYD.
MyNetworkTV
On January 24, 2006, The WB and UPN announced that they would end broadcasting and merge. The new combined network would be called The CW. The letters would represent the first initial of its corporate parents, CBS (the parent company of UPN) and the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner. On February 22, News Corporation announced that they would start up another new network called MyNetworkTV. This new service, which would be a sister network to FOX, would be operated by FOX Television Stations and its syndication division, Twentieth Television. MyNetworkTV was created in order to give UPN and WB stations, not mentioned as becoming CW affiliates, another option besides becoming independent and to compete against The CW. Like many stations about to lose The WB or UPN affiliation due to The CW, WDWB changed its on-air logo to remove the "WB". Its new logo was introduced during a Pistons-Minnesota Timberwolves basketball game on February 1. The station had also announced that they would no longer promote any WB programing.
The station changed its call letters to the current WMYD on May 7 in recognition of its future affiliation. On July 29, 2006, the new WMYD logo was introduced during a Tigers-Minnesota Twins baseball game in preparation for its switch. The station was then re-branded as "My TV 20 Detroit". During the time before the actual launch, WMYD covered up all WB branding during programming and did not carry network promos. WDWB officially became a MyNetworkTV affiliate on September 5 and WKBD joined The CW on September 18. Occasionally as time now permits, WMYD may carry network programming from FOX, NBC, or ABC should either WJBK, WDIV, or WXYZ-TV preempt for specials, breaking news stories, or any other emergency. As of now, it has not done so. In April 2008, WMYD began airing Wolfman Mac's Nightmare Sinema (now known as Wolfman Mac's Chiller Drive-In), a ninety-minute comedic "horror host" series hosted by "Wolfman" Mac Kelly, featuring vintage sci-fi and horror films, skits, and cartoons. It is the first original locally produced show of its kind to be seen in Detroit in over a decade. The program airs Saturday nights at midnight. [8]
Newscasts
Through the 1970s, WXON aired live news updates. In the 1990s, the station had a short-lived weekly news show called NewsWrap which aired late Sunday nights and also carried the All News Channel during overnight hours. On July 14, 2008, WMYD launched a weeknight 10 o'clock newscast called My TV 20 News at 10. Produced by the Independent News Network in Davenport, Iowa, the news competes with WJBK. [9] Its inaugural newscast did not start smoothly as the show opened and broadcasted the INN-produced 9 P.M. (central time) news for Quad Cities' FOX affiliate KLJB-TV for a few minutes before showing the WMYD logo for around 30 seconds. The station immediately switched to its own newscast already in progress. In a report in the Macon, Georgia Telegraph, it was announced that Independent News Network filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on December 31, 2008 and ended all news productions including those for WMYD. [10] LMG of Davenport has now taken over the accounts to continue producing news for its clients including WMYD.
My TV 20 News at 10
(Weeknights 10 to 10:30)
- Anchors:
- Nathan O'Leary
- Sunya Walls
- Weather:
- Evan Hutchinson
- Sports:
- Jeremy Moss
- Reporters:
- Greg Russell - "Screen Scene" segment producer
- Dave Leval - locally based
- Jorge Avellan - locally based
Sports
During its days as a carrier of ON-TV, WXON carried games by Detroit's major league teams, however because ON-TV signed on at 8 PM, WXON did not broadcast the starts of many games (including most infamously, a Detroit Red Wings game against the Calgary Flames where the Wings racked up a 5-0 lead before ON-TV's coverage joined in-progress).
In 2006, WMYD began carrying more sporting events on its lineup involving local teams, including Detroit Tigers baseball (produced by FSN Detroit) and Detroit Pistons basketball, although in 2007 the Tigers moved to WJBK-TV and both the Pistons and Tigers moved exclusively to FSN beginning in 2008.
WMYD added the World Championship Sports Network to its second digital subchannel on October 15, 2007 but was removed in August 2008 shortly after its rebranding to "Universal Sports" (Universal Sports has since found a new home in the Detroit area, on WADL-DT2).
References
- ^ FCC.gov Appendix B All Full Power Station By DMA, Indicating Those Terminating Analog service On Or Before February 17, 2009
- ^ St. Joseph Herald Press, 4 March 1953, p. 5
- ^ Ironwood Daily Globe, 28 December 1957, p. 2
- ^ http://www.dumonthistory.tv/a10.html
- ^ As calculated by the the US Bureau of Statistics' CPI Inflation Calculator
- ^ http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/02-15-2006/0004282523&EDATE=
- ^ http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/07-18-2006/0004398783&EDATE=
- ^ http://www.chillerdrive-in.com/
- ^ Crain's Detroit Business
- ^ Macon Telegraph: "Future of Macon TV station’s nightly newscast uncertain", 1/5/2009.
External links
| Preceded by WJMY-TV |
Channel 20 Detroit occupant 1972-present |
Succeeded by incumbent |
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