WEYI-TV
kW | |
HAAT | 393 m (1,289 ft) |
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Transmitter coordinates | 43°13′1″N 83°43′17″W / 43.21694°N 83.72139°W |
Links | |
Public license information | |
Website | nbc25news |
WEYI-TV (channel 25) is a
WEYI-TV is the oldest station in the Flint–Saginaw area. It began broadcasting on May 4, 1953, as WKNX-TV on channel 57. Owned by the Lake Huron Broadcasting Corporation and affiliated with
In 1994, WEYI aggressively relaunched and expanded its news operation, including additional newscasts and the doubling of the news team. In an unrelated move, the station switched affiliations to NBC from CBS in January 1995 after that network signed an agreement with previous NBC affiliate WNEM-TV. Channel 25 was sold four times in eight years from 1996 to 2004; during this time, the news department continued to expand. Under Barrington Broadcasting ownership, the station launched WBSF, originally as a cable- and digital-only service and later as a standalone station to bring The WB and The CW to the market.
Howard Stirk Holdings acquired WEYI in 2013 as part of the purchase of Barrington by Sinclair Broadcast Group, with which Howard Stirk stations contract for services and management. In 2023, layoffs at Sinclair led to the downsizing of the newsroom, which now only produces newscasts on weekday evenings.
History
Early years
In August 1952, the Lake Huron Broadcasting Corporation, owner of radio station
Construction moved quickly. Work was underway in early 1953, though a plan to start in March was stymied by delays in receiving equipment. Lake Huron Broadcasting built a 500 feet (150 m) tower at a studio and transmitter site in
As a UHF station, the possibility of a new station in the stronger very high frequency (VHF) band presented the possibility of financial ruin for WKNX-TV. In 1954, the FCC granted a construction permit for Flint's VHF channel 12 to Detroit radio station WJR, but this was challenged at the FCC and in the courts. Lake Huron Broadcasting emerged as one of the most vocal opponents of the proposed WJRT-TV. In 1955, it filed with the FCC, charging that WJRT had chosen a transmitter site expressly to take away its CBS affiliation.[11] The next year, it asked the FCC to designate channel 12 as belonging to the entire Flint–Saginaw–Bay City area so it could apply to move WKNX-TV there,[12] later simply applying for Flint's channel 12 itself.[13] However, the grant of channel 12 to WJRT was reaffirmed in April 1958.[14] Even though WJR in Detroit was a CBS affiliate, WJRT ultimately signed with ABC,[15] which had been a secondary affiliation for WKNX-TV.[16]
Lake Huron Broadcasting filed in 1963 to switch channel 57 with channel 25, which had been assigned to
Rust Craft, Ziff-Davis, and Television Station Partners ownership
In 1971, Lake Huron Broadcasting sold WKNX-TV to Rust Craft Broadcasting Corporation, a division of the Rust Craft Greeting Card Company that owned five other TV stations, for $1.6 million. The deal was induced by an impending proposed FCC policy that would have barred cross-ownership of AM radio stations like WKNX with television stations in the same markets; Lake Huron wished to "effectuate" the policy by making the sale.[21]
Rust Craft moved quickly to improve the station's facilities, announcing plans for extensive improvements along with its acquisition.
The new transmitter facility was activated on December 10, 1972. Studio operation did not move to Clio until January 1973 because of disputes among labor unions involved in the construction work.[26][27] Rust Craft soon found it did not need all that power. For 46 days in 1976, WEYI-TV operated at half power due to a technical fault; having received no comments from viewers then or during a January 1977 incident when utility Consumers Energy instructed major electricity consumers to reduce their energy usage, the station applied for permanent authority to reduce its power, conserving 153,000 kilowatt-hours of energy a month.[28]
In June 1977, the Ziff Corporation, parent of magazine publisher
After briefly being represented by
Even after the substantial power increase gave it a coverage area comparable to those of WNEM-TV and WJRT-TV, WEYI-TV remained stubbornly in third place for local news. In 1983, it moved its lone local newscast from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. in hopes of using CBS prime time programming as a lead-in. Instead, ratings at 11 p.m. declined; six percent of viewers watched WEYI at 11, compared to 39 percent tuning to WNEM-TV and 32 percent watching WJRT-TV.[40] By 1987, the station had reinstated an early newscast at 5:30 p.m. and a noon newscast, but the evening news shows attracted just three percent of the market's viewers, a small fraction of the viewership for the competing WNEM and WJRT offerings.[41] The 11 p.m. news was dropped in 1989 due to continued low ratings; while management at the time stated a desire to restore late news within six to eight months,[42] this never came to pass, and it was newsworthy when the station aired a late newscast for one week in August 1992 to cover the Buick Open and local elections.[43]
New newscasts, new affiliation, new ownership
In January 1994, under general manager Eric Land, WEYI made a major reinvestment in its news product. Rebranded Eyewitness News, the station more than doubled its news staff, reinstated a full-length late news program, and began hourly news updates. The revamp was considerable for the station; Doug Pullen, the media columnist for The Flint Journal, noted that viewers "may be inclined to scoff" at the news and that several of his friends laughed when told of the changes.[44][45]
In June 1994, as part of a deal with WNEM-TV owner Meredith Corporation instigated by a larger realignment of network television affiliations, CBS announced it would move its affiliation to the stronger WNEM-TV.[46] NBC was rumored to be wooing WJRT, likely leaving WEYI with ABC,[47] but Capital Cities/ABC moved to buy WJRT and WTVG in Toledo, Ohio, in October.[48] More or less by default, NBC signed an affiliation agreement with WEYI in November. NBC programming moved from WNEM-TV on January 16, 1995.[49][50]
The NBC affiliation switch provided enough of a lift in ratings that it attracted a buyer:
WEYI began broadcasting programming from The WB in overnight hours in 1999, after Superstation WGN ceased airing the network's shows nationally;[55] this ended in 2001.[56]
In 2000, WEYI debuted its first morning newscast, a half-hour program.[57] After constructing a 4,480-square-foot (416 m2) extension to its newsroom to provide adequate space for its increased staff,[58][59] the station expanded the newscast from 30 minutes to an hour in May 2001.[60] This was followed by noon and 5:30 p.m. broadcasts in 2002.[61]
LIN and Barrington ownership; launch of WBSF
In January 2002, Sunrise and
In 2004, three years after WEYI ended its secondary WB affiliation, Barrington Broadcasting acquired a channel 46 construction permit from
WEYI-TV discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over
Sale to Howard Stirk Holdings and Sinclair management
On February 28, 2013, Barrington announced that it would sell its entire group, including WEYI and WBSF, to Sinclair Broadcast Group. However, due to FCC duopoly regulations, since Sinclair already owns Fox affiliate WSMH, Sinclair transferred the license assets of WEYI to Howard Stirk Holdings (owned by founder and CEO of communications firm The Graham Williams Group, political commentator Armstrong Williams, whose Sunday morning talk show The Right Side is carried by WEYI) and of WBSF to Cunningham Broadcasting (WSMH took over the operations of both WEYI and WBSF through local marketing agreements when the deal was completed).[75] The sale was completed on November 25.[76]
Effective April 27, 2015, WEYI took over duties of producing the 10 p.m. newscast for sister Sinclair station WSMH, Fox66 News at 10. For nearly ten years prior to that date, WNEM-TV had produced WSMH's evening newscast as part of a local agreement with WSMH. The move led to the addition of 18 new news staffers.[77] In 2016, Sinclair announced that the UAW had ceased representing nearly 30 WEYI-TV employees.[78]
Sinclair announced numerous layoffs at WEYI–WSMH in March 2023, which led to a major cut in news production from the stations. The morning, 5 p.m., and weekend evening newscasts were discontinued, leaving the station to broadcast newscasts at 6 and 11 p.m.[79]
Notable former on-air staff
- Jim Brandstatter – sportscaster (1972–1975; later radio play-by-play announcer for Michigan Wolverines football)[80]
- Joe Pagliarulo – anchor, known as Joe Parker at WEYI-TV, now a conservative radio personality known as "Joe Pags"[81]
- Shaun Robinson – anchor (1989)[42]
- Ginger Zee – meteorologist (now ABC News/Good Morning America chief meteorologist)[69]
Subchannels
The station's signal is
Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
---|---|---|---|---|
25.1 | 1080i | 16:9 |
NBC | NBC |
25.3 | 480i | TBD | TBD | |
25.4 | DABL | Dabl | ||
46.1 | 1080i | CW | The CW (WBSF) |
Notes
References
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