WLNS-TV

WLNS-TV
Lansing/Jackson, Michigan
United States
City Lansing, Michigan
Branding WLNS 6[1]
Slogan Here for You
Channels Digital: 25 (UHF)
(shared with WLAJ; to move to 14 (UHF))[1]
Virtual: 6 (PSIP)
Subchannels .1: 1080i 16:9 WLNS-HD[1]
Affiliations CBS
Owner Nexstar Media Group
(Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc.)
First air date May 1, 1950 (1950-05-01)
Call letters' meaning LaNSing[2]
Sister station(s) WLAJ[1]
Former callsigns WJIM-TV (1950-1984)[2]
Former channel number(s)
  • Analog:
  • 6 (VHF, 1950–2009)
  • Digital:
    59 (UHF, 2001–2009)
    36 (UHF, 2009–2018)
Former affiliations
  • Secondary:
  • DuMont (1950–1955)
  • ABC (1950–1958)
  • NBC (1950–1959)
  • .2:
  • tCN (2011–2012)
  • LWN (2012–2015)
  • GetTV (2016–2018)
  • .3: Ion (until 2018)
Transmitter power 483.3 kW
372 kW (CP)
950 kW (application)
Height 300 m (984 ft)
289.8 m (951 ft) (application)
Class DT
Facility ID 74420
Transmitter coordinates 42°25′13″N 84°31′25″W / 42.42028°N 84.52361°W / 42.42028; -84.52361
42°41′19″N 84°22′35″W / 42.68861°N 84.37639°W / 42.68861; -84.37639 (application)
Licensing authority FCC
Public license information: Profile
CDBS
Website wlns.com

WLNS-TV is a CBS-affiliated television station licensed to Lansing, Michigan, United States and serving the Central Lower Peninsula of Michigan. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 25 (or virtual channel 6 via PSIP) from a transmitter on Baseline Road near Rives Township's Berryville section, along the Jackson and Ingham county line. The station is owned by Nexstar Media Group, which also operates ABC/CW affiliate WLAJ, channel 53 (owned by Shield Media, LLC) through joint sales and shared services agreements. The two stations share studios on East Saginaw Street (along U.S. 127/BL I-69/M-43) in Lansing's Eastside section.

History

WJIM-TV

The station signed-on May 1, 1950 as WJIM-TV and was owned by Harold F. Gross along with WJIM radio (1240 AM), through WJIM, Inc. It is Michigan's second-oldest television station outside Detroit (behind WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids).[2] Gross had started WJIM, the oldest continually operated commercial radio station in Lansing, in 1934; both stations were named after his son Jim. According to local legend, Gross won the original radio license in a card game.

WJIM-TV originally aired an analog signal on VHF channel 6 from a transmitter from the top of a bank in Downtown Lansing before moving to its current location on Saginaw Street (known as "the country house") in 1953. Gross was skeptical of the success of television, so the new facility was designed as a motel complete with a pool in case the station did not catch on. As it turned out, the pool had very little use except for the occasional employee party.

WJIM-TV originally carried programming from all four networks: ABC, DuMont, NBC, and CBS; it was, and always has been, a primary CBS affiliate. ABC disappeared from the schedule in 1958 when WJRT-TV signed-on from Flint.[2] DuMont programming disappeared when the network ceased operations in 1956. NBC disappeared from the schedule in 1959 when WILX-TV signed-on. Thus, at the start of the fall 1959 television season, WJIM-TV was broadcasting only CBS.[2]

The local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union challenged the station's license in 1973 on allegations that Gross, whose company was by then renamed to Gross Telecasting, Inc., prevented a number of prominent political figures from appearing on WJIM-TV.[3] A Federal Communications Commission (FCC) judge ordered the license revoked in 1981. WJIM kept its license when the initial revocation was reversed by FCC in 1982. The ACLU would eventually agree to a cash settlement in 1984.[2]

WLNS

The stress of the decade-long licensing dispute made Gross decide to exit the broadcasting business. He sold WJIM-TV to Backe Communications in 1984. The station, per FCC rules at the time (which prohibited TV and radio stations in the same market, but with different ownership from sharing the same call letters) adopted its current call letters, WLNS-TV, on July 16, 1984. WJIM-AM would be sold to Liggett Communications the following year. Backe's ownership of the station was short-lived; in 1986 it sold WLNS to Young Broadcasting.[2]

WLNS-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 6, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television. The station digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 59 to UHF channel 36, using PSIP to display WLNS-TV's virtual channel as 6 on digital television receivers.[1]

Young filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in early-2009.[4] The company was subsequently taken over by its secured lenders and outsourced most of its operations to Gray Television. WLNS was not part of the management agreement because Gray already owned WILX. Young merged with Media General in November 2013.[5]

Following the other Young stations that launched the Country Network in late November 2010, WLNS added that network to its .2 subchannel in the first quarter of 2011.[6] On January 30, 2012, WLNS changed its .2 affiliation to the Live Well Network along with 7 other Young stations.[7]

Media General added GetTV to 20 of its stations' subchannels, including WLNS, in a roll out that started on February 1, 2016.[8] Media General merged with Nexstar in January 2017.[9]

In the 2016 FCC spectrum reallocation auction, Media General sold WLNS's spectrum pre-merger for $13.6 million, while expecting to negotiate a channel sharing arrangement with another station.[10] GetTV on .2 was dropped by March 6, 2018.[1] This would end up being LMA/SSA partner WLAJ.[1] On June 11, 2018, WLNS discontinued broadcasting from its Okemos transmitter and began broadcasting from WLAJ's transmitter on channel 25. It continues to appear as channel 6 via PSIP.[11] As a consequence of the channel share and the need to transmit three high-definition signals (1080i for WLNS, and 720p for WLAJ's two ABC and CW channels), the 6.3 Ion Television subchannel was discontinued (the 6.2 getTV channel had been discontinued months before).

Programming

Syndicated programming on WLNS includes The Doctors, Dr. Phil, Inside Edition and Entertainment Tonight, among others.[12]

News operation

Traditionally, WLNS had been the most watched television station in Central Michigan regularly beating rival WILX in Nielsen ratings. Sometime in the early 2000s, however, WILX overtook WLNS for the first time.

In July 2011, WLNS began airing all of its news programming from a temporary set in the station's breakroom while a new one was constructed in preparation for its own launch of HD news programing. The brand new set debuted on August 26, 2011 during the 5 p.m. newscast while HD newscasts debuted during the 5 p.m. show on October 26, 2011.

On September 12, 2011, 6 News This Morning expanded to two and a half hours and now begins at 4:30 a.m. As a result the CBS Morning News now airs at 4 a.m. locally. On April 1, 2013, WLNS began simulcasting its weeknight 6 and 11 o'clock newscasts on WLAJ. Their morning newscast started simulcasting (from 5 until 7 a.m.) on WLAJ on April 15 and includes separate, recorded cut-ins during ABC's Good Morning America.[13][14]In addition to its main studios, WLNS operates a bureau within the Jackson Citizen Patriot newsroom on South Jackson Street in downtown Jackson.

As of 2018, WLNS-TV remains the only news operation with a noontime newscast in the market.

Repeater

For many years, WLNS' programming was seen on a low-powered analog repeater, W67AJ channel 67, in Ann Arbor (which is also part of the Detroit market). This translator was owned by Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti. W67AJ's license was canceled in January 2007 by the FCC.[15]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Digital TV Market Listing for WLNS". RabbitEars.info. Retrieved June 27, 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "WLNS-TV Channel 6 Lansing". Station Listings. michiguide.com. Retrieved October 30, 2015.
  3. ↑ "Troubling Times - WLNS TV 6 Lansing Jackson Michigan News and Weather - WLNS.COM". Archived from the original on 2002-07-04. Retrieved 2002-07-04.
  4. ↑ "Young Files for Chapter 11", from televisionbroadcast.com, posted 3/4/2009
  5. ↑ "Media General, Young Now Officially One". TVNewsCheck. November 12, 2013. Retrieved November 12, 2013.
  6. ↑ "The Country Network Adds Four Young Broadcasting Stations". All Access. All Access Music Group. November 22, 2010. Retrieved October 30, 2015.
  7. ↑ Malone, Michael (January 24, 2012). "Young Broadcasting Stations Look to Live Well". Broadcasting & Cable. NewBay Media, LLC. Retrieved December 9, 2014.
  8. ↑ "GetTV Inks Distribution Pact With Media General". Multichannel News. NewBay Media. February 1, 2016. Retrieved March 6, 2018.
  9. ↑ "FCC Approves Nexstar's $4.6B Acquisition Of Media General". Deadline.com.
  10. ↑ Hansen, Logan T. (April 20, 2017). "WLNS, WLAJ, others affected by FCC auction, public results show". Jackson Citizen Patriot. MLive Media. Retrieved March 7, 2018.
  11. ↑ VanderKolk, Kevin (June 13, 2018). "Finding WLNS with your antenna". WLNS. Retrieved June 27, 2018.
  12. ↑ Hughes, Mike (October 4, 2015). "TV landscape contains endless variety". Lansing State Journal. Gannett. Retrieved December 4, 2015.
  13. ↑ "Citizen Patriot's media partner WLNS to simulcast news shows on WLAJ ABC 53 starting April 1". Citizen Patriot. MLive Media. 2013-03-28. Retrieved 2018-03-09.
  14. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-04-02. Retrieved 2013-04-02.
  15. ↑ REC Broadcast Query | REC Networks
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