WJBK
FCC | |
Facility ID | 73123 |
---|---|
ERP | 27.2 kW |
HAAT | 314 m (1,030 ft) |
Transmitter coordinates | 42°27′38″N 83°12′50″W / 42.46056°N 83.21389°W |
Links | |
Public license information | |
Website | www |
WJBK (channel 2) is a
WJBK's over-the-air signal covers all of Metro Detroit, along with Southwestern Ontario, Canada, surrounding the city of Windsor. The station is also carried on most cable systems in southeast Michigan, southwestern Ontario and northwest Ohio.
History
CBS affiliate (1948–1994)
WJBK-TV first signed on the air on October 24, 1948. It was the third television station to sign-on in Detroit and Michigan, after WWJ-TV (channel 4, now
At sign on, the first program broadcast by WJBK was a presentation of Lucky Pup at 6:15 p.m. that evening. The station was originally an
The station went through a number of ownership and management changes with its parent companies in the 1980s and 1990s. In 1985, the
Switch to Fox station (1994–present)
In May 1994,
WJBK became Detroit's new Fox affiliate on December 11, 1994, after the station's affiliation contract with CBS ended, ending its 45-year affiliation with that network. With the switch, regular season games of the Detroit Lions' continued to air on WJBK, although there was a brief three-month interruption in coverage due to CBS losing the NFC rights for the first three months of Fox's NFC telecasts due to WKBD airing them. After losing Fox, WKBD was briefly an independent before joining the newly launched UPN a month later.
CBS found it difficult to find a new home in Detroit. WXYZ and Cleveland sister station WEWS-TV were both heavily wooed to become CBS affiliates, but the E. W. Scripps Company signed an affiliation deal with ABC in June 1994 that renewed the network's affiliations with both stations and resulted in
With just days to go before WJBK was due to switch to Fox, CBS faced the prospect of having to import WTOL, WNEM, and WLNS on area cable providers until it could find a replacement affiliate. CBS would end up purchasing low-rated UHF
Until channel 62 built a new transmitter in 1999, WTOL served as the default CBS affiliate for most of the southern portion of the market, while WNEM served the northern portion and WLNS served the western portion.
As a result of the network switch, WJBK changed its branding from "TV 2" to "Fox 2" by the fall of 1995 (becoming one of the few New World stations that switched to the network to adhere to the network's branding conventions before Fox's buyout of New World). Fox Television Stations bought New World's ten Fox-affiliated stations, including WJBK, in July 1996;[11] the purchase was finalized on January 22, 1997, with channel 2 becoming a Fox owned-and-operated station as a result.
On December 14, 2017, The Walt Disney Company, owner of WXYZ-TV's affiliated network ABC, announced its intent to buy WJBK's parent company, 21st Century Fox, for $66.1 billion; the sale, which closed on March 20, 2019, excluded WJBK as well as the Fox network, the MyNetworkTV programming service, Fox News, Fox Sports 1, the Big Ten Network and the Fox Television Stations unit, which were all transferred to the newly-formed Fox Corporation.[12][13]
Programming
Local productions
Some of WJBK's early productions included popular children's shows. Milky's Movie Party starring Milky the
Other original WJBK children's programs included a
WJBK also produced one of Detroit's first morning talk shows, Ladies' Day with Chuck Bergeson, which aired from 1952 to 1959. The hour-long show included games, contests, and interviews with the biggest stars of the time including
With This Ring was a nationally syndicated
WJBK would also produce Sunday
From 1983 to 1986, popular WJR (760 AM) morning radio host J. P. McCarthy hosted an evening interview show with newsmakers and people of interest called JP, as well as a similar program in the early 1990s entitled In Person with J.P. McCarthy. He also previously hosted sports interview show specials through the 1970s.[18] In 1995, former WXYZ-TV news anchor Bill Bonds hosted the 11 p.m. talk/interview show, Bonds Tonight. Bonds eventually would end up anchoring and reporting on WJBK's newscasts.[14]
Past program preemptions and deferrals
Even though WJBK was one of CBS' stronger affiliates, it would preempt or reschedule some network programs. As the flagship station of Detroit Tigers baseball from the 1950s to the 1970s, it would preempt network programming to televise games. From 1970 until the early 1980s, the station would air its own local morning newscast from 7 to 8 a.m. and then Good Morning, Detroit instead of the CBS Morning News. In 1992, it chose again not to air CBS This Morning in favor of its own local newscast.[19] The station would regularly reschedule CBS' daytime game shows and it would also move the soap opera Guiding Light from its usual network airtime of 3 pm. ET to 10 am, with episodes airing on a one-day delay. WJBK would also preempt the CBS late night schedule with syndicated reruns including Cheers and late night movies until the debut of the Late Show with David Letterman in 1993, when the station cleared the show at 11:35 p.m.
After the affiliation switch, WJBK maintained its existing schedule, with the exception of the expansion of its news programming including the move and conversion of its 11 p.m. newscast to an hour-long broadcast at 10 pm. As Fox offered less network programming, especially during the daytime hours, WJBK would fill its schedule with more syndicated programs and off-network reruns. However, the station, like its fellow former New World stations, never ran the Fox Kids children's programming block. That block would remain on former Fox affiliate WKBD before eventually moving to WADL (channel 38) and then WDWB-TV (channel 20, now WMYD). In 2014, WJBK cleared Steve Rotfeld Productions' Xploration Station block, making it the first time the station has ever cleared Fox children's programming.
Sports programming
Detroit Tigers
From the 1950s to the 1970s, WJBK was a pioneer in Detroit sports broadcasting. In 1949, it was the first television station in Michigan to broadcast live Detroit Tigers baseball and Detroit Lions football games.
Detroit Pistons
WJBK also televised Detroit Pistons games from the time that the team's relocated to Detroit from Fort Wayne, Indiana in 1957, until 1972; the team's games began airing on WKBD-TV the following season. The Pistons would also air on WJBK during nationally televised games on CBS from 1973 to 1990; WJBK televised both of the first two Pistons NBA Finals championships of 1989 and 1990 (game 5 of the latter series was the last NBA game aired on CBS).
Detroit Red Wings
Detroit Lions
WJBK has had a long-standing relationship with the NFL's Detroit Lions (first with CBS, now Fox), having carried most of its games since 1956, when CBS started airing NFL games. Except for the first three months of the 1994 season (before the affiliation switch took effect), it has been the unofficial regular-season "home" station of the Lions ever since, including coverage of the team's Thanksgiving Day home games in odd-numbered years. For the first 15 weeks of the 1994 season, the games aired on lame-duck Fox outlet WKBD. However, regular season home games were subject to the NFL's local television blackout policy. This occurred five times during the Lions' winless season of 2008 when five home games were blacked out due to low ticket sales. However, in 2015, the NFL decided to lift the blackout rules on an experimental basis, meaning that Lions games were shown on Channel 2 regardless of ticket sales; this policy was continued the next season in 2016 as well, and has continued indefinitely as of 2019.
In previous years, WJBK had also televised Lions preseason games as the flagship station of the Detroit Lions Television Network and produced pregame and postgame shows. Those preseason broadcast rights were then held by WWJ-TV and then WXYZ-TV until 2015, when WJBK once again became the official preseason station of the Lions as well.
As a CBS affiliate, WJBK aired the network's coverage of Super Bowl XVI, which was hosted locally at the Pontiac Silverdome.
WJBK's sportscasters have also been team play-by-play announcers through the years with
News operation
WJBK currently broadcasts 68½ hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 11½ hours each weekday and 5½ hours each on Saturdays and Sundays); in regards to the number of hours devoted to news programming, it is the highest local newscast output among all broadcast television stations in the state of Michigan. In addition, WJBK produces a sports highlight program on Sunday nights following the 10 p.m. newscast called Sports Works (which is also the branding of the sports segments seen within its newscasts); the show is hosted by either WJBK sports director Dan Miller or sports anchor/reporter Woody Woodriffe, and typically features a roundtable discussion with members of the Detroit sports media including
WJBK operates a fleet of
In an effort to cut expenses, WJBK and WXYZ's respective owners, Fox and the E. W. Scripps Company, established an LNS in all markets where both companies own stations. The stations pool newsgathering resources and share video during coverage of general news events.
TV-2 Eyewitness News
Through much of the 1960s and 1970s WJBK's TV-2
With new management, WJBK's news department saw a resurgence by 1990 with new staff that included Sherry Margolis, Huel Perkins and the rehiring of former anchor Joe Glover. The station would also hire away news staff and talent away from top rated WXYZ including Rich Fisher, Dayna Eubanks, Catherine Lehan, Jerry Hodak and investigative reporter Vince Wade.[14] The station revised its image with a new logo, graphics, music and news set and began airing Detroit's first 4 p.m. newscast as part of a three-hour evening news block with half-hour newscasts at 4, 5 and 6 pm. At the same time, the station also became Detroit's first television station to launch a weekend morning newscast. Overall, WJBK's news ratings would not improve enough to surpass WXYZ and WDIV, which would continue to go head-to-head for first place. The station would also begin to simulcast its late newscast on WADL, which lasted until 1998. It would also be among the first television stations in the country to air obituaries in 1995 during the Detroit newspaper strike.
Fox 2 News
When WJBK switched affiliations from CBS to Fox in December 1994, the station adopted a news-intensive format. It has retained a news schedule similar to the one it had in its latter days as a CBS affiliate. The 35-minute 11 p.m. newscast was moved to 10 p.m. and expanded to an hour, and the weekday morning newscast was also expanded. The weekend 6 p.m. newscasts would also be expanded to one hour. WJBK now had a late local newscast in first place as it immediately overtook the hour-long 10 p.m. newscast that WKBD had at the time in the ratings. Eventually, WJBK would drop the 4 p.m. newscast, but the station's profile and ratings for its morning and 10 p.m. newscasts would surge with it out of direct competition from its main competitors WDIV and WXYZ.[23] In 1995, the station would hire news anchor Bill Bonds after his departure from WXYZ-TV. Bonds would fill the 11 p.m. timeslot with a news/interview show, Bonds Tonight.[14]
The newscasts were branded as Fox 2 Eyewitness News until 1997, when Fox took full ownership of the station and rebranded its newscasts as Fox 2 News. By that time, the station would also release its previous WXYZ hires. At the same time, Fox's news management brought on new talent including Dan Miller, Alan Lee and
On September 12, 2016, WJBK added an extra half-hour to its 6 p.m. newscast.[25]
Mornings
WJBK had a tradition of producing its own morning news shows instead of airing CBS' morning news programs, beginning with a 7:30 a.m. newscast in 1969. The newscast would soon expand to an hour starting at 7 am. It became a mix of news, interviews and features and would be renamed Good Morning, Detroit and eventually moved to 8 am.[18] During its run, Vic Caputo would co-anchor separately with Beverly Payne, Ken Ford and Kathy O'Brien. Payne would be the first African-American female news anchor in Detroit.[14] Good Morning, Detroit eventually became Morning Magazine, hosted by Kathy O'Brien and Gary Cubberly. In 1982, Morning Magazine was discontinued and briefly became Two's Company, also hosted by O'Brien and Cubberly. In 1992, the station preempted CBS' morning news program again when WJBK rehired Jerry Hodak from WXYZ to co-anchor Eyewitness News Morning. Just prior to that, WJBK also debuted Detroit's first weekend morning newscast, which was first anchored by former PM Magazine host Gary Cubberly. Competitor WDIV would follow with its own weekend morning newscast, as did eventually WXYZ. Since then, the station has broadcast more morning news hours than any other Detroit television station. In September 2009, the morning newscast was expanded to 5½ hours, airing from 4:30 to 10 am. In September 2011, Fox 2 News Morning expanded to 6½ hours from 4:30 to 11 am, where it joins the station's hour-long midday newscast at 11 am. WJBK has also had the longest-running midday newscast in the Detroit market, which originated in 1966 in the noon timeslot, before moving to 11 a.m. shortly after the switch to Fox.[26]
On Wednesday, May 6, 2015, WJBK's morning show became the subject of notoriety for a
In the fall of 2018, WJBK begin expanding its current morning newscasts to 8 hours with addition of half-hour starting at 4 am. On September 19, 2022, Fox 2 News Morning expanded to noon, with the midday newscast pushed back into the noon hour.Ratings
As of February 2012, WJBK's Fox 2 News Morning has consistently remained the Detroit market's highest-rated local morning newscast (6–7 a.m., 4.5 rating/17 share). After years of faltering at a distant third against WDIV and WXYZ, WJBK began to make gains in its audience growth in other newscasts. While WDIV continued to have the most-watched evening and late newscasts, WJBK's 10 p.m. news (7.5 rating/12 share) remains the highest-rated prime time newscast in Metro Detroit. Its early evening 5 and 5:30 p.m. newscasts (6.0/13) have surpassed WXYZ-TV's longtime dominant 5 p.m. newscast (5.8/13) for second place. While WJBK's 6 p.m. newscast (5.1/10) has become a very close third moving within one rating point to WXYZ's newscast in that timeslot (6.1/12). Since debuting in 2007, WJBK's 11 p.m. newscast Newsedge has been in third place overall (5.0 rating/9 share).[29]
Notable current on-air staff
- Dan Miller – sports director; also SportsWorks host
- Lee Thomas – entertainment reporter
- Rob Wolchek – "Problem Solvers" investigative and "Hall of Shame" feature reporter
Notable former on-air staff
- Bill Bonds – news anchor and interviewer (1995–1998; was top anchor at WXYZ-TV from 1964 to 1995; also anchored at KABC-TV and WABC-TV, died 2014)[14]
- Lawson J. Deming – played horror movie host Sir Graves Ghastly (1967–1983; died in 2007)[14]
- WWJ-AM; died 2012)[30]
- M. L. Elrick – investigative reporter
- Jerry Hodak – meteorologist (1965–1977) and news anchor (1992–1996; went to WXYZ-TV after each time as meteorologist and science editor, retired in 2010 after having forecasted weather longer than anyone in Detroit television)[14]
- Ray Lane – sports anchor (1961–1982; became sportscaster at WKBD-TV and for Detroit Red Wings, Pistons and Tigers games)[14]
- Charlie LeDuff – investigative reporter (2012–December 2016); contract not renewed[31]
- Joseph "J.P." McCarthy – interview show host (occasionally from 1972 to 1986; morning show host on WJR; died 1995)[14]
- Fox Sports Ohio; died 2019)
- Hard Copy)[14]
- George Noory – assignment editor/producer (mid-1970s; now host of the overnight radio show Coast to Coast AM)
- Van Patrick – sports director (1960–1974; died 1974)[14]
- Charles Pugh – anchor/reporter (1999–2009; became Detroit City Council president)
- Jeff Rossen – reporter (1998–2001; moved to WABC-TV/New York, now an NBC News correspondent)[32]
Technical information
Subchannels
The station's signal is
Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
---|---|---|---|---|
2.1 | 720p | 16:9 |
WJBK | Main WJBK programming / Fox |
2.2 | 480i | Movies! | Movies! | |
2.3 | 4:3 |
Buzzr | Buzzr | |
2.4 | 16:9 | H&I | Heroes & Icons | |
2.5 | Decades | Catchy Comedy[34] | ||
2.6 | FOX WX | Fox Weather | ||
20.3 | 480i | 16:9 | WMYD-MS | Ion Mystery (WMYD-DT3) |
Analog-to-digital conversion
WJBK began airing its digital high-definition feed, WJBK-DT, on its pre-transition UHF channel 58 starting on October 1, 1998. The station shut down its analog signal, over
As part of the
Digital television receivers continue to display the station's
Out-of-market coverage
Canada
WJBK also serves as a Fox station for other Canadian cable providers, including on
Coverage on cable providers outside the Detroit–Windsor market may be subject to
Newscasts
When WJBK became a Fox station, WGKI/WGKU (now WFQX-TV/WFUP), the Fox affiliate in Cadillac, Michigan, stopped simulcasting WKBD's 10 p.m. newscast in favor of WJBK's; this arrangement ended when WGKI began producing its own 10 p.m. newscast in 2000. In January 2007, WFQX began simulcasting WJBK's morning newscast from 6 to 8 a.m. under the title Michigan's Fox News Morning. The simulcasts were made possible with an agreement that offered northern Michigan businesses advertising opportunities during the newscast. WFQX would also air the second half of WJBK's 10 p.m. newscast following its own half-hour 10 p.m. newscast. WFQX would drop WJBK's newscasts altogether in October 2007, after the station was sold and CBS affiliate WWTV began producing WFQX's 10 p.m. and morning newscasts.
See also
References
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- ^ "Home". WJBK. Retrieved December 8, 2012.
16550 West Nine Mile Rd. Southfield, MI 48075
- ^ a b "CDBS Print". licensing.fcc.gov.
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- ^ Carter, Bill (May 24, 1994). "FOX WILL SIGN UP 12 NEW STATIONS; TAKES 8 FROM CBS". The New York Times. Retrieved October 22, 2012.
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- ^ Ortega, Roly (September 3, 2016). "A small minor newscast change... #95".
- ^ "Jerry Hodak joins WJBK-TV 2, WJBK, PRNewswire".
- ^ "A Fox News anchor said 'dry hump' live on TV and her co-host had the best reaction". Metro (UK). May 7, 2015. Retrieved May 8, 2015.
- ^ "SEE IT: Detroit TV anchor stuns co-workers, weatherman by hoping for 'dry hump day'". Daily News. New York. May 8, 2015. Retrieved May 8, 2015.
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- ^ "Fox Television Stations To Carry Weigel Broadcasting's Decades TV Network Beginning in Q3". Deadline Hollywood. July 10, 2019. Retrieved July 11, 2019.
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- ^ "Shaw Broadcast Services" (PDF).