WMYD

Infobox_Broadcast
call_letters = WMYD
city =
station_
station_slogan =
station_branding = MyTV20 Detroit
analog = 20 (UHF)
digital = 21 (UHF)
other_chs =
affiliations = MyNetworkTV
Universal Sports (DT2)
4Kids TV (children's programming)
NBC (pre-empted WDIV programming)
network =
founded =
airdate = September 15, 1968
location = Detroit, Michigan
callsign_meaning = MYNetworkTV Detroit
former_callsigns = WXON (1968-1997)
WDWB (1997-2006)
former_channel_numbers = 62 (1968-1972)
owner = Granite Broadcasting Corporation
licensee = WXON License, Inc.
sister_stations =
former_affiliations = independent (1968-1995)
ON-TV (1979-1983)
The WB (1995-2006)
effective_radiated_power = 1500 kW (analog)
500 kW (digital)
HAAT = 324 m (both)
class =
facility_id = 74211
coordinates = coord|42|26|52.5|N|83|10|23|W|type:landmark_scale:2000
homepage = [http://www.tv20detroit.com/ www.tv20detroit.com]

WMYD ("MyTV20 Detroit") is Detroit, Michigan's MyNetworkTV affiliate station, owned and operated by Granite Broadcasting. The station offers a blend of cartoons from 4Kids TV, off-network sitcoms, first-run syndicated reality/talk/court shows and first-run network programming. WMYD's transmitter is located on Eight Mile Road in Oak Park, Michigan. Its studios and offices are located on Franklin Road in Southfield, Michigan. WMYD transmits its signal from the same 1073-foot tower as WWJ-TV and WTVS' digital signal.

On cable, WMYD can be seen throughout Southeast Michigan including Detroit on Comcast channel 3, Bright House Livonia channel 6, WOW Plymouth channel 20 and Cogeco Windsor on channel 62. Although the station's website claims it is carried on Rogers London, also on 62, the channel lineups for London show that channel slot is taken up by Erie, PA's, ABC, WJET-TV. WMYD is also one of only three stations that mention Windsor and London as among their primary viewing areas, with the other two being WDIV, and WTVS.

Digital channels

After the analog television shutdown and digital conversion, which is tentatively scheduled to take place on February 17, 2009 http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf] , WMYD will continue digital broadcasts on its current pre-transition channel number, 21. [http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101231744&formid=387&fac_num=74211 CDBS Print ] ] However, through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers will display WMYD's virtual channel as 20.

History

The station first took to the air on September 15, 1968 as WXON, broadcasting on channel 62, moving to channel 20 in 1972 after two short-lived stations abandoned the frequency in the 1950s and 60s. First, WPAG-TV in Ann Arbor, Michigan was assigned to Channel 20 and started broadcasting in April 1953. [St. Joseph Herald Press, 4 March 1953, p. 5] Little is known about WPAG-TV, 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. [Ironwood Daily Globe, 28 December 1957, p. 2] WPAG-TV also may have been a DuMont affiliate [http://members.aol.com/cingram/television/dumonta10.htm] .

In 1967, WJMY-TV in Allen Park, Michigan 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, consisting 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.

The 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, an annual Variety Club of Detroit telethon hosted by Soupy Sales and live news updates. WXON offered Japanese cartoons dubbed into English such as "Ultraman", "Johnny Sokko" and "Space Giants".

ON-TV (1979-1983)

In 1979, WXON added subscription TV after 8 PM. The subscription 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 -- $22.50 a month. Many people, especially those living across the river in Windsor, Ontario, built their own decoder boxes and watched ON-TV for free. ON-TV carried uncut movies, concerts and local sports action. However, since many games began before 8 PM, fans missed the start of many contests. (In one famous incident, the hockey Detroit Red Wings racked up a 5-0 lead in a game against the Calgary Flames before ON 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 1984-85. WXON also brought The Ghoul back to Detroit TV. As the 1980s progressed, WXON began acquiring stronger off-network sitcoms. It got a significant boost after WKBD switched to Fox in 1986. It was an established independent station by 1991 and was unaffected by the network affiliation swaps at the end of 1994. Until 1994, the station signed off at 1 AM, and signed back on at 5 AM the following morning. The station has gone 24/7 since.

The WB Years (1995-2006)

On January 12, 1995, WXON joined the The WB Television Network 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 from WXON-TV 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 Net.

WDWB carried the full WB network schedule, but after joining the network, WDWB frequently preempted network 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 studio 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", a block known as "Daytime WB." The station also carries 4Kids TV on Sunday mornings, with the new branding of "MyTVKids".

From The WB To MyNetworkTV

On January 24, 2006, it was announced that CBS Corporation and Time Warner would close their respective UPN and WB networks and jointly launch the CW Network in September 2006. The network would be a 50-50 joint venture between the two companies. WDWB became a MyNetworkTV affiliate as WKBD has become sole Detroit outlet for the CW network.

Like many stations about to lose The WB or UPN affiliation due to CW, WDWB changed its on-air logo to remove "WB" from the logo. The station's new logo was introduced during a Pistons-Minnesota Timberwolves basketball game on February 1, 2006. The station has also announced that they would no longer promote any WB programing. The Station changed its call letters to WMYD on May 7 in recognition of its future affiliation.

On July 29, 2006, the new WMYD logo, shown below, was introduced during a Tigers-Minnesota Twins baseball game in preparation for WMYD's switch from the WB to MyNetworkTV in September. The station was then re-branded as "my TV20 Detroit". During the time before the actual launch, WMYD covered up all WB branding during programming and did not carry network promos.

Occasionally as time now permits, WMYD may carry network programming from Fox, NBC or ABC should either WJBK, WDIV or WXYZ, respectively, preempt for specials, breaking news stories or any other emergency.

In April 2008 WMYD began airing Wolfman Mac's Nightmare Sinema 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. [http://www.nightmaresinema.com/]

Selling WMYD

In September 2005, Granite announced the sale of WDWB and sister station KBWB (now KOFY-TV) 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. The low price (Granite had purchased the station for $175 million) was largely out of Granite wanting to cut down their debt load while wanting to keep control of the stations.

On February 15, 2006, Granite announced the restructuring of the sale considering the changing conditions of the station (see below) [http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/02-15-2006/0004282523&EDATE=] , but the sale eventually fell apart, and 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. [http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/07-18-2006/0004398783&EDATE=]

On November 2006, Granite Broadcasting announced that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, but would continue to operate its stations (including WMYD).

Newscasts

On July 14, 2008, WMYD launched its first nightly newscast, titled, "My TV 20 News at 10". Produced by the Independent News Network, the newscast will compete with that of Detroit's Fox O&O station, WJBK. [http://crainsdetroit.com/article/20080710/REG/916963521/-1 Crain's Detroit Business ] ]

Its inaugural newscast did not start smoothly -- it opened and broadcast the INN-produced 9PM (CT) newscast for the Quad Cities' KLJB-TV for a few minutes, before showing the MyTV 20 logo for around 30 seconds. The station immediately switched to its own newscast, already in progress.

In the 1990s, TV 20, when it was known as WXON, had a short-lived weekly news show called "NewsWrap", which aired late Sunday nights, and also carried the All News Channel during overnight hours.

Sports

Starting in 2006, WMYD was the local home for Detroit Pistons. However, beginning with the 2008-09 season, all Pistons games (not seen on ESPN/ABC or TNT) will now be shown exclusively on FSN Detroit [http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080319/SPORTS03/803190357/1051/SPORTS03] . Previously, the station aired a handful Detroit Tigers games in 2006 (which were produced by FSN Detroit), while the Detroit Red Wings appeared for one season in the mid-1980s.

WMYD began airing Universal Sports (formerly World Championship Sports Network) on its DT2 subchannel on October 15, 2007.

Coverage

WMYD is carried on cable systems throughout Southeast Michigan and Southwestern Ontario.

Station Presentation

Exact Timeline of Events

External links

* [http://www.tv20detroit.com/ WMYD Website]
*TVQ|WMYD
*BIA|WMYD|TV|TV

References