WJRT-TV

On the week before May 5, 1952, Goodwill Stations, owner of WJR radio in Detroit, announced the intent of applying for four station licenses which would operate as a regional network—UHF channel 50 in Detroit, channel 11 in Toledo, Ohio, channel 12 in Flint and channel 5 in Bay City.[2] WJRT-TV was founded in 1958 by Goodwill Stations,[3] which won out over two other companies seeking to operate channel 12, the Trebit Corp. (which owned WFDF and W.S. Butterfield Theatres, Inc.) Channel 12 initially wanted to place its transmitter in Independence Township, Michigan. When it was learned that Independence Township was located in Oakland County, part of the Detroit television market, Goodwill settled on placing the tower in St. Charles Township in southwestern Saginaw County; the transmitter remains there today.

WJRT-TV went on the air on October 12, 1958, at 5 p.m., as an ABC network affiliate. As part of the winning bid for the license, the station had to produce original local programming several hours a day for 10 years. At the time the station had to fill 55 hours of programming outside of the network shows. this led to original shows like Mr. Magic and Folkswingers.[4]

Goodwill Stations took over the former WTAC-TV studios and offices after that station folded in 1954; WJRT remains there today.

Goodwill Stations merged with Capital Cities Broadcasting in 1964, but WJRT-TV was spun off to Poole Broadcasting (owned by John Poole, a former Capital Cities stockholder) because the merged company was one VHF station over the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ownership limit of the time.[5] The station was the first Michigan television station outside of Detroit to go all-color in 1967 on Labor Day which saw the launch of its Bozo show.[3][4] With the original license agreement for local shows expired in 1968, all but Bozo were replaced by 1972 with syndicated programs.[4]

In 1978, WJRT along with the rest of Poole Broadcasting (which included WPRI-TV in Providence, Rhode Island and WTEN in Albany, New York) were sold to Knight Ridder. In October 1988, the company placed its eight broadcast television stations up for sale to reduce debt and to pay a major purchase.[6] As a result, the station was sold to SJL Broadcast Management in 1989.[3]

During the 1970s, WJRT-TV became Mid-Michigan's highest-rated television station, helped by ABC's ratings improvements during the decade. During the late 1980s and into the 1990s, WJRT-TV was usually second to WNEM-TV.

In 1994, New World Communications signed an affiliation deal with Fox Broadcasting Company, resulting in most of New World's stations switching affiliation to Fox. Among the stations due to switch were CBS affiliates WJBK in Detroit and WJW-TV in Cleveland. To avoid being consigned to UHF, CBS heavily wooed both WXYZ-TV and WEWS-TV. The E. W. Scripps Company then told ABC that unless it agreed to affiliate with Scripps-owned stations in three other markets, it would switch both stations to CBS.[7] As a contingency, ABC Owned Television Stations approached SJL about buying WJRT[3] and sister station WTVG (an NBC affiliate in Toledo, Ohio) in 1995.[8] WJRT provides city-grade coverage to parts of Oakland and Macomb counties.

Soon after ABC purchased WJRT, the station returned to the top of the Mid-Michigan ratings for prime time, where it remains today. Because Capital Cities spun the station off decades earlier, WJRT-TV was the only ABC station not part of the Capital Cities/ABC merger in 1986. Longtime ABC affiliates KTRK-TV in Houston and WPVI-TV in Philadelphia were part of the merger.

Ironically, when ABC acquired WJRT in 1995, it was reunited with its namesake radio station, WJR.[3] WJR's owner, Capital Cities, had merged with ABC in 1986. And in 2002, WFDF (now a Detroit station), which unsuccessfully sought a channel 12 license in the 1950s, would also become a sister to WJRT-TV when ABC bought the station. However, this reunion was partially broken up, as ABC sold WJR, along with other ABC Radio properties, to Citadel Broadcasting in January 2006; they are now owned by Cumulus Media.

ABC12, the first in Mid-Michigan, started their digital broadcast on May 1, 2002, on channel 36.[3][9] In June 2008, the station received a construction permit for post-transition digital facilities.[3][10] In 2004 along with all the other ABC owned stations, WJRT launched ABC News Now on its digital subchannel,[11] while in 2005 all ABC stations launched AccuWeather Channel on their third subchannel.[12]

WJRT-TV discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over VHF channel 12, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 36 to VHF channel 12.[3][10]

After the return to VHF, viewers who had installed UHF receiving antennas during the transition period had the signal compromised. So on October 14, 2009, WJRT filed an application with the FCC to increase the power level from 18.2 kW to 30 kW.[13] The increase was approved in May 2011.[3]

ABC Owned Television Stations, including WJRT, launched on April 27, 2009 the Live Well Network in high definition on the stations' sub-channels alongside the AccuWeather Channel.[14]

On November 3, 2010, Broadcasting & Cable magazine announced that SJL Broadcasting, now owned by the principal owners of Lilly Broadcasting, made an agreement with Disney to buy back WJRT and WTVG, the two smallest stations in ABC's O&O portfolio. Both stations would retain their affiliations with ABC.[8] SJL teamed up with a new private equity partner, Bain Capital, whose affiliated offshoot Sankaty Advisors provided the capital for the purchases (which amounted to $13.2 million on WJRT's end of the $30 million deal). The sale was completed on April 1, 2011.[15]

WJRT's news director Jim Bleicher and General Manager Tom Bryson either retired or left the station after the sale was announced.[16] Furthermore, on April 6, 2011, less than a week after SJL taking over control of WJRT, they terminated longtime weekend anchor Joel Feick and removed longtime weeknight anchor Bill Harris from the newsdesk.[17] Harris later returned to WJRT on May 3, 2011, reporting from a homeland security training conference in Grand Rapids for the station's evening newscast.[18] Feick was later hired by competitor WEYI-TV as weekday morning news anchor.[19] On January 4, 2012, it was announced that Harris was also hired by WEYI-TV to anchor the 6 p.m. newscast, a position he began on January 30, 2012.[20]

On October 8, 2012, a one-on-one interview with Republican Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan by WJRT's Terry Camp made national news when Ryan accused Camp of "stuffing words into people's mouths" after he asked questions about inner-city crime and gun laws, then later said Camp "embarrassed himself". MSNBC host Rachel Maddow aired the segment on her show the next day and defended Camp while attacking Ryan's answers.[21] Fox News Channel host Brian Kilmeade took the opposite stance by defending Ryan and saying Camp asked "gotcha questions".[22]

On October 31, 2013, WJRT added the local version of WeatherNation to its third digital subchannel, replacing AccuWeather Channel.[1]

On July 24, 2014, SJL announced that it would sell WJRT and WTVG again, this time to its current owner, Gray Television, for $128 million—a value higher than that of their original sale to ABC.[23] Gray also owns Lansing's NBC affiliate WILX-TV. The sale was completed on September 15 and funded mostly by loans.[24]

On October 17, 2014, Gray Television announced it was adding MeTV to WJRT on 12.2, replacing Live Well Network in December 2014.[25] On August 30, 2019, added two sub channels with Weigel Broadcasting classic networks, .4 Start TV and .5 Heroes and Icons.[26] In September 2019, the station expanded its noon newscast and[27] added a national syndication news show.[28]

In October 2019, Gray TV and Opry Entertainment Group's Circle broadcast network indicated Gray TV stations (including WJRT) would be charter affiliates of the country music and lifestyle network[29] that launched on January 1, 2020[30] on WJRT's third subchannel pushing WeatherNation to its sixth subchannel.[31]

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

As part of the winning bid for the license, the station had to produce original local programming several hours a day for 10 years. At the time the station had to fill 55 hours of programming outside of the network shows. With the original license agreement for local shows expired in 1968, all but Bozo were replaced by 1972 with syndicated programs.[4] Many of the local children's series were franchised series like Bozo and Romper Room compared to WNEM's full original programs.[32]

• Mr. Magic (1960–1967) was started on air with newly hired commercial writer Earl Frank Cady was asked to come up with a children's program. After taking some magic classes, the show was launched. The show was replaced by Bozo on the day the station went to full color on Labor Day 1967.[4]
• Bozo's Big Top (1967–1979) local performed by Earl Frank Cady
• Colonel Gyro from Outer Space
• Romper Room with Miss Margie
• Theatre of Thrills (1961–67) a horror film anthology with host "Christopher Coffin" played by Farrell Reed Pasternak, a local advertising agency owner and voice-over announcer[4]

Frank Deal, the station weather forecaster, hosted a few of the locally produced shows:

• Almanac early-morning information show
• TV Bingo
• Folkswingers, an entertainment program
• Rae Deane and Friends (1961–68) was co-hosted with Rae Deane Gerkowski with Deal serving as puppet master for puppets Montgomery Lion and Dilly Mahatmashmu.[4]

WJRT News Skylink trucks.

The station produces a regular slate of newscasts plus additional afternoon hours during the week.[17] Additionally, WJRT carries a weather network, WeatherNation, on its sixth subchannel.[1][31] With the cancellation of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, the station is expanding its noon newscast to an hour starting September 9, 2019 with consumer alerts, entertainment highlights, a featured "Pet of the Day" (a companion segment to 4 p.m. "Dog of the Day" but focusing on other pets) and "Worth it Wednesday" deals segment based on Good Morning America's "Steals and Deals" segment.[27] Also in September, Gray TV stations including WJRT began carrying Full Court Press hosted by Greta Van Susteren.[28]