WWMT (channel 3) is a
television station
A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth ...
licensed to
Kalamazoo, Michigan
Kalamazoo ( ) is a city in the southwest region of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Kalamazoo County. At the 2010 census, Kalamazoo had a population of 74,262. Kalamazoo is the major city of the Kalamazoo-Portage Metropolit ...
, United States, serving
West Michigan
West Michigan and Western Michigan are terms for an arbitrary region in the U.S. state of Michigan's Lower Peninsula. Most narrowly it refers to the Grand Rapids- Muskegon-Holland area, and more broadly to most of the region along the Lower Pe ...
as an affiliate of
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...
and
The CW
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
. The station is owned by
Sinclair Broadcast Group
Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (SBG) is a publicly traded American telecommunications conglomerate that is controlled by the descendants of company founder Julian Sinclair Smith. Headquartered in the Baltimore suburb of Cockeysville, Maryland, t ...
, and maintains studios on West Maple Street in Kalamazoo; its transmitter is located in northwest
Yankee Springs Township
Yankee Springs Township is a civil township of Barry County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 4,065 at the 2010 census. The township includes Yankee Springs State Park, a popular tourist destination in the summer. The name was t ...
on Chief Noonday Road/
M-179 near Patterson Road.
History
The station signed on the air on
June 1, 1950, as WKZO-TV (the call letters standing for "Kalamazoo"). It was West Michigan's second television station to debut after WLAV-TV (channel 7, now
WOOD-TV
WOOD-TV (channel 8) is a television station licensed to Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States, serving as the NBC affiliate for West Michigan. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside Battle Creek–licensed ABC affiliate WOTV (channel 41) an ...
channel 8) and was owned by broadcasting pioneer
John Fetzer
John Earl Fetzer (March 25, 1901 – February 20, 1991) was a radio and television executive who was best known as the owner of the Detroit Tigers from 1961 through 1983. Under his ownership, the 1968 Detroit Tigers season, 1968 Tigers won the 196 ...
, along with
WKZO radio, which Fetzer had owned since 1930. It carried programming from all four networks of the time: CBS,
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
,
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
and
DuMont. However, it has always been a primary CBS affiliate owing to its radio sister's longtime affiliation with the
CBS Radio Network
CBS News Radio, formerly known as CBS Radio News and historically known as the CBS Radio Network, is a radio network that provides news to more than 1,000 radio stations throughout the United States. The network is owned by Paramount Global. It ...
.
From the start, WKZO-TV had reception problems due to the presence of
WTMJ-TV
WTMJ-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside Kenosha-licensed Ion Television station WPXE-TV (channel 55). WTMJ-TV's studios are loca ...
across
Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that o ...
in
Milwaukee
Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...
, also on analog VHF channel 3 until a shake-up of channels in Chicago, Kalamazoo, and Milwaukee in 1953. WTMJ moved to channel 4;
WBBM-TV
WBBM-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, airing programming from the CBS network. Owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division, the station maintains studios on West Washington Stre ...
in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
to move from channel 4 to channel 2 as a condition of its purchase by CBS. Although
WSBT-TV
WSBT-TV (channel 22) is a television station in South Bend, Indiana, United States, affiliated with CBS and Fox. Owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, the station maintains studios on East Douglas Avenue in Mishawaka, and its transmitter is locate ...
in
South Bend, Indiana
South Bend is a city in and the county seat of St. Joseph County, Indiana, St. Joseph County, Indiana, on the St. Joseph River (Lake Michigan), St. Joseph River near its southernmost bend, from which it derives its name. As of the 2020 United S ...
, signed on in 1952, WKZO-TV shared the southwestern part of its viewing area with WSBT-TV to the detriment of the latter until UHF reception was required on televisions.
Channel 3 lost DuMont in 1956 after that network shut down. Soon afterward, the WKZO stations moved their operations to an old car dealership on West Maple Avenue in Kalamazoo, where the station remains based to this day. In 1960, Fetzer built a new transmitter near the northern edge of
Gun Lake. The tower was located roughly halfway between Kalamazoo and
Grand Rapids
Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the second most-populated city in the state after Detroit. Grand Rapids is the ...
, allowing it to provide city-grade coverage of Grand Rapids while still being within of Kalamazoo as required by
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...
(FCC) regulations. Soon after channel 3 activated its new tower, the FCC collapsed West Michigan into one large television market. When the broadcast antenna was moved from Kalamazoo, WSBT became the default CBS channel for
Berrien and
Cass
Cass may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Cass (surname), a list of people
* Cass (given name), a list of people and fictional characters
* Big Cass, ring name of wrestler William Morrissey
* Cass, in British band Skunk Anansie
* Cass, ...
counties. WKZO then shared ABC with WOOD-TV until
WZZM
WZZM (channel 13) is a television station licensed to Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States, serving West Michigan as an affiliate of ABC. Owned by Tegna Inc., the station has studios on 3 Mile Road NW in Walker (with a Grand Rapids mailing add ...
(channel 13) signed on in 1962.
Fetzer also owned the
Detroit Tigers
The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the American League (AL) Central division. One of the AL's eight charter franchises, the club was f ...
baseball team from
1956
Events
January
* January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan.
* January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian Missionary, missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, Jim ...
to
1983
The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call.
Events January
* January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...
. During this time, channel 3 frequently preempted prime time CBS programming for Tigers baseball games, including preseason
exhibitions
An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within a cultural or educational setting such as a museum, art gallery
An art gallery is a roo ...
. In 1985, Fetzer retired and began selling off his vast broadcasting empire, which by this time included, among other holdings,
WWTV
WWTV (channel 9) is a television station licensed to Cadillac, Michigan, United States, serving as the CBS affiliate for the northern Lower and eastern Upper peninsulas of Michigan. It is owned by locally based Heritage Broadcasting Group, whi ...
in
Cadillac, Michigan
Cadillac ( ) is a city in and county seat of Wexford County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 10,371 at the 2020 census, which ranks it the third most-populated city in the Northern Michigan region after Traverse City and Alp ...
and
KOLN-TV
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 million ...
in
Lincoln, Nebraska
Lincoln is the capital city of the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Lancaster County. The city covers with a population of 292,657 in 2021. It is the second-most populous city in Nebraska and the 73rd-largest in the United Sta ...
. The FCC had grandfathered existing radio-television clusters when it barred common ownership of radio and television stations, but with Fetzer's announcement WKZO-AM-TV lost its grandfathered protection. The Fetzer television stations were initially sold to
Gillett Holdings. However, due to FCC ownership limits in effect at the time, WKZO-TV and KOLN-TV were spun off to Busse Broadcasting. On December 5, 1985, per a since-repealed FCC rule restricting TV and radio stations in the same market but with different ownership from sharing the same callsigns, Busse changed the station's call letters to the current WWMT (standing for "We're West Michigan Television"). In 1995,
Granite Broadcasting
Granite Broadcasting LLC is a broadcasting holding company in New York City which owns one television station in the United States, in Syracuse, New York. Granite was founded by W. Don Cornwell and Stuart Beck in 1988, acquired the station.
Freedom Communications
Freedom Communications, Inc., was an American media conglomerate that operated daily and weekly newspapers, websites and mobile applications, as well as ''Coast Magazine'' and other specialty publications. Headquartered at 625 N. Grand Avenue in ...
purchased WWMT in 1998 from Granite, along with sister station
WLAJ
WLAJ (channel 53) is a television station in Lansing, Michigan, United States, affiliated with ABC and The CW Plus. It is owned by Mission Broadcasting, which maintains a shared services agreement (SSA) with Nexstar Media Group, owner of CBS affi ...
in
Lansing
Lansing () is the capital of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is mostly in Ingham County, although portions of the city extend west into Eaton County and north into Clinton County. The 2020 census placed the city's population at 112,644, makin ...
.
WWMT is the second longest-tenured CBS affiliate in Michigan (behind only
WLNS-TV
WLNS-TV (channel 6) is a television station in Lansing, Michigan, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group, which provides certain services to dual ABC/ CW+ affiliate WLAJ (channel 53) under a shared services agreeme ...
in Lansing, which signed on one month earlier); its logos have used the CBS logo since the mid-1990s. In 2005, a company-wide consolidation of operations at Freedom's stations resulted in the move of WLAJ's master control and most internal operations to WWMT's facilities. This left behind a skeleton crew of six people out of what began with 80 staffers in Lansing.
Freedom announced on November 2, 2011 that it would exit from television and sell its stations, including WWMT, to the
Sinclair Broadcast Group
Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (SBG) is a publicly traded American telecommunications conglomerate that is controlled by the descendants of company founder Julian Sinclair Smith. Headquartered in the Baltimore suburb of Cockeysville, Maryland, t ...
.
The group deal closed on April 2, 2012. As a result, WWMT and WLAJ joined
Fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelve sp ...
affiliate
WSMH
WSMH (channel 66), branded on-air as Fox 66, is a television station licensed to Flint, Michigan, United States, serving as the Fox affiliate for northeastern Michigan. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, which provides certain services t ...
in
Flint
Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start fir ...
as two of the three Sinclair-owned television properties in the state of Michigan. On February 16, 2016, upon the completion of the merger between
Schurz Communications
Schurz Communications is a South Bend, Indiana-based broadband media group and cloud services provider. It owned newspapers.
History
The company was founded in 1872 by Alfred B. Miller and Elmer Crockett with the creation of the ''South Bend ...
and
Gray Television
Gray Television, Inc. is an American publicly traded television broadcasting company based in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1946 by James Harrison Gray as Gray Communications Systems, the company owns or operates 180 stations across the United St ...
, South Bend CBS affiliate WSBT-TV was spun-off to Sinclair in order to meet regulatory guidelines, allowing WWMT and WSBT to become sister operations to one another for the first time, outside of existing news video sharing agreements.
On May 8, 2017, Sinclair entered into an agreement to acquire Chicago-based
Tribune Media
Tribune Media Company, also known as Tribune Company, was an American multimedia conglomerate headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.
Through Tribune Broadcasting, Tribune Media was one of the largest television broadcasting companies, owning 39 ...
– which has owned WXMI since 1996 – for $3.9 billion, plus the assumption of $2.7 billion in debt held by Tribune. Sinclair was precluded from acquiring WXMI directly, as both it and WWMT rank among the four highest-rated stations in the Grand Rapids–Kalamazoo–
Battle Creek
Battle Creek is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan, in northwest Calhoun County, at the confluence of the Kalamazoo and Battle Creek rivers. It is the principal city of the Battle Creek, Michigan Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), which encom ...
market in total day viewership and the market has too few independently owned full-power stations to permit legal duopolies in any event. On April 24, 2018, in an amendment to the Tribune acquisition through which it proposed the sale of certain stations to both independent and affiliated third-party companies to curry the DOJ's approval, Sinclair announced that it would sell WXMI and eight other stations – Sinclair-operated
KOKH-TV in
Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, a ...
,
WRLH-TV
WRLH-TV (channel 35) is a television station in Richmond, Virginia, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. Owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, it has studios on Westmoreland Street in the North Side area of Richmond, and its transmitte ...
in
Richmond
Richmond most often refers to:
* Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States
* Richmond, London, a part of London
* Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England
* Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada
* Richmond, California, ...
,
WOLF-TV
WOLF-TV (channel 56) is a television station licensed to Hazleton, Pennsylvania, United States, serving Northeastern Pennsylvania as an affiliate of the Fox network. It is the flagship property of locally based New Age Media, LLC, and is co-ow ...
(along with LMA partners
WSWB
WSWB (channel 38) is a television station licensed to Scranton, Pennsylvania, United States, serving as the CW affiliate for Northeastern Pennsylvania. It is owned by MPS Media, which maintains a local marketing agreement (LMA) with New Age M ...
and
WQMY
WQMY (channel 53) is a television station licensed to Williamsport, Pennsylvania, United States, serving Northeastern Pennsylvania as an affiliate of MyNetworkTV. It is owned by locally based New Age Media, LLC, alongside Hazleton-licensed Fox a ...
) in
Scranton
Scranton is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, Lackawanna County. With a population of 76,328 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 U ...
/
Wilkes-Barre
Wilkes-Barre ( or ) is a city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Luzerne County. Located at the center of the Wyoming Valley in Northeastern Pennsylvania, it had a population of 44,328 in the 2020 census. It is the secon ...
,
KDSM-TV
KDSM-TV (channel 17) is a television station in Des Moines, Iowa, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. The station is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, and has studios on Fleur Drive in Des Moines; its transmitter is located in Allem ...
in
Des Moines
Des Moines () is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small part of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines, ...
and
WXLV-TV
WXLV-TV (channel 45) is a television station licensed to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States, serving as the ABC affiliate for the Piedmont Triad region. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside Greensboro-licensed MyNetworkTV ...
in
Greensboro
Greensboro (; formerly Greensborough) is a city in and the county seat of Guilford County, North Carolina, United States. It is the third-most populous city in North Carolina after Charlotte and Raleigh, the 69th-most populous city in the Un ...
/
Winston-Salem
Winston-Salem is a city and the county seat of Forsyth County, North Carolina, United States. In the 2020 census, the population was 249,545, making it the second-largest municipality in the Piedmont Triad region, the 5th most populous city in N ...
/
High Point, and Tribune-owned
WPMT
WPMT, virtual channel 43 (Ultra high frequency, UHF digital terrestrial television, digital channel 36), is a Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox-network affiliate, affiliated television station city of license, licensed to York, Pennsylvania, United ...
in
Harrisburg
Harrisburg is the capital city of the Pennsylvania, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, Dauphin County. With a population of 50,135 as of the 2021 census, Harrisburg is the List of c ...
– to
Standard Media Group (an independent broadcast holding company formed by
private equity firm
A private equity firm is an investment management company that provides financial backing and makes investments in the private equity of startup or operating companies through a variety of loosely affiliated investment strategies including leve ...
Standard General to assume ownership of and absolve ownership conflicts involving the aforementioned stations) for $441.1 million.
Three weeks after the FCC's July 18 vote to have the deal reviewed by an
administrative law judge
An administrative law judge (ALJ) in the United States is a judge and trier of fact who both presides over trials and adjudicates claims or disputes involving administrative law. ALJs can administer oaths, take testimony, rule on questions of evid ...
amid "serious concerns" about Sinclair's forthrightness in its applications to sell certain conflict properties, on August 9, 2018, Tribune announced it would terminate the Sinclair deal, intending to seek other
M&A opportunities. Tribune also filed a
breach of contract
Breach of contract is a legal cause of action and a type of civil wrong, in which a binding agreement or bargained-for exchange is not honored by one or more of the parties to the contract by non-performance or interference with the other party ...
lawsuit in the
Delaware Chancery Court
The Delaware Court of Chancery is a court of equity in the American state of Delaware. It is one of Delaware's three constitutional courts, along with the Supreme Court and Superior Court. Since 2018, the court consists of seven judges. The chie ...
, alleging that Sinclair engaged in protracted negotiations with the FCC and the DOJ over regulatory issues, refused to sell stations in markets where it already had properties, and proposed divestitures to parties with ties to Sinclair executive chair David D. Smith that were rejected or highly subject to rejection to maintain control over stations it was required to sell. The termination of the Sinclair sale agreement places uncertainty for the future of Standard Media's purchases of WXMI and the other six Tribune- and Sinclair-operated stations included in that deal, which were predicated on the closure of the Sinclair–Tribune merger.
WWMT-DT2
On April 4, 2006, WWMT announced it would affiliate with
The CW
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
on a new second
digital subchannel
In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compress ...
.
West Michigan
West Michigan and Western Michigan are terms for an arbitrary region in the U.S. state of Michigan's Lower Peninsula. Most narrowly it refers to the Grand Rapids- Muskegon-Holland area, and more broadly to most of the region along the Lower Pe ...
is one of the largest television markets where The CW was not available through over-the-air analog broadcasts and WWMT is one of the few stations the new network was awarded that had not previously been affiliated with either The WB or UPN. WXSP joined MyNetworkTV when the network launched on September 5 and WWMT did the same with The CW when it began on September 18. From that date through early-December, WWMT-DT2 was branded as "West Michigan's CW"; it has since changed its branding to "The CW 7".
Programming
Syndicated programs airing on WWMT include ''
Live with Kelly and Ryan
''Live with Kelly and Ryan'' (or simply ''Live'') is an American syndicated morning talk show hosted by Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest. Executive produced by Michael Gelman, the ''Live with...'' show formula has aired under various hosts since ...
'', ''
The Kelly Clarkson Show
''The Kelly Clarkson Show'' is an American daytime television variety talk show hosted by American singer Kelly Clarkson. It is produced and distributed by NBCUniversal Syndication Studios and features Clarkson interviewing celebrities and segm ...
'', ''
Dr. Phil
Phillip Calvin McGraw (born September 1, 1950), better known as Dr. Phil, is an American television personality and author best known for hosting the talk show '' Dr. Phil''. He holds a doctorate in clinical psychology, though he ceased rene ...
'', ''
Wheel of Fortune The Wheel of Fortune or ''Rota Fortunae'' has been a concept and metaphor since ancient times referring to the capricious nature of Fate. Wheel of Fortune may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Art
* ''The Wheel of Fortune'' (Burne-Jo ...
'', and ''
Jeopardy!
''Jeopardy!'' is an American game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead given genera ...
''; the latter three shows are distributed by
CBS Media Ventures
CBS Media Ventures, Inc. (formerly CBS Television Distribution, Inc. and CBS Paramount Domestic Television, Inc.) is an American television distribution company owned by CBS Studios, part of CBS Entertainment Group, a division of Paramount Glob ...
.
News operation
WWMT at present broadcasts 34½ hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 5½ hours each weekday and 3½ hours each on Saturdays on Sundays). Originally, WKZO was Western Michigan's highest rated television station, but lost the lead to WZZM in the mid-1970s. It has been a solid runner-up, first to WZZM and later WOTV/WOOD-TV, for most of the time since then. For a time in the mid-1990s, even though most of WWMT's fellow CBS affiliates were in third place or worse, this station was very competitive with WZZM and WOOD-TV often resulting in close
Nielsen ratings
Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...
during
sweeps
Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...
periods.
Since its city of license is Kalamazoo, the station has traditionally had a focus in the southern areas of the market (Kalamazoo and Battle Creek). To assist in story gathering efforts in these areas, it operates a bureau on Michigan Avenue West in downtown Battle Creek. On two occasions, WWMT's existence prevented WOTV, the other major station based in the southern part of the market, from establishing a local news presence. WWMT also once operated a news bureau near Grand Rapids Police headquarters due to its secondary focus on the northern half of the market (Grand Rapids and Muskegon).
Veteran news anchor Tom VanHowe began filling-in for Jeff McAtee on July 28, 2008. McAtee was on active duty serving as a
commander
Commander (commonly abbreviated as Cmdr.) is a common naval officer rank. Commander is also used as a rank or title in other formal organizations, including several police forces. In several countries this naval rank is termed frigate captain.
...
with the
United States Navy Reserve
The United States Navy Reserve (USNR), known as the United States Naval Reserve from 1915 to 2005, is the Reserve Component (RC) of the United States Navy. Members of the Navy Reserve, called Reservists, are categorized as being in either the Sele ...
.
Marketing director
A chief marketing officer (CMO), also called a global marketing officer or marketing director, or chief brand officer, is a corporate executive responsible for managing marketing activities in an organization. Whilst historically these titles may ...
Mark Bishop told the ''
Grand Rapids Press
''The Grand Rapids Press'' is a daily newspaper published in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It is the largest of the eight Booth newspapers. It is sold for $1.50 daily and $7.99 on Sunday.
AccuWeather provides weather content to the ''Grand Rapids ...
'' that "McAtee will be active in the Navy Reserve for a year or two." In November 2008, VanHowe extended his contract to continue on WWMT until at least June 2009. He continued to co-anchor the station's 5, 5:30 and 6 p.m. newscasts on weeknights. Weekday morning news anchor
Jeff Varner
Jeffrey Keith Varner (born April 16, 1966) is a former American real estate agent and television personality, a news anchor and reporter, a former entertainment reporter, and a veteran contestant on three seasons of the CBS reality television seri ...
(participant in ''
Survivor: The Australian Outback'') moved to the weeknight broadcasts alongside Judy Markee.
On September 18, 2008, WWMT began producing a nightly prime time newscast at 10 p.m. on its CW-affiliated second digital subchannel. This established a third local news option in the timeslot, competing with Fox affiliate
WXMI
WXMI (channel 17) is a television station licensed to Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States, serving West Michigan as an affiliate of the Fox network. Owned by the E. W. Scripps Company, the station maintains studios on Plaza Drive (near M-37) o ...
(channel 17)'s longer-established hour-long 10 p.m. newscast and MyNetworkTV affiliate WXSP's half-hour 10 p.m. newscast produced by WOOD-TV. Known as ''Newschannel 3 Live at 10 on The CW 7'', this program currently airs for 30 minutes featuring a separate title opening, "CW 7" labeled microphones, and a "Newschannel 3 on CW 7"
bug in the bottom right hand corner of the screen.
On April 17, 2009, WXMI became the first station in the market to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in
high definition
High definition or HD may refer to:
Visual technologies
*HD DVD, discontinued optical disc format
*HD Photo, former name for the JPEG XR image file format
*HDV, format for recording high-definition video onto magnetic tape
* HiDef, 24 frames-pe ...
. Six months later, WOOD-TV upgraded its newscasts to
16:9 widescreen
Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratios (relationship of image width to height) used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than t ...
enhanced definition (WZZM would do the same sometime in late 2009). Although not truly high definition, broadcasts matched the
aspect ratio of widescreen television sets. WWMT remained the last major station in Western Michigan with pillarboxed
4:3 standard definition newscasts until April 16, 2011 when it became the second station in the market to upgrade its local newscasts to full high definition (updated graphics were introduced along with the change).
After WLAJ's Lansing-based news operation was shut down on September 25, 2009, WWMT began producing a taped five-minute news and weather brief weeknights at 11 p.m. on that station. Known as ''ABC 3 News Update'', regional and state coverage was presented in the show since WLAJ does not maintain any news personnel at its studios. There were also recorded local weather cut-ins seen on that station weekday mornings during ''
Good Morning America
''Good Morning America'' (often abbreviated as ''GMA'') is an American morning television program that is broadcast on ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends with the debut of a Sunday edition on January 3, 1993. Th ...
''. These productions were upgraded to high definition on April 16, 2011. After WLAJ came under the ownership of Shield Media on March 1, 2013, all news programming produced by WWMT ceased airing on the Lansing station and replaced by newscasts from WLNS-TV.
In June 2011, Andy Dominianni (who had previously served as the station's morning anchor in the late 1990s) and Kate Tillotson were appointed as anchors of the 5, 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts. On April 23, 2012, WWMT became the first station in the market to expand its weekday morning newscast to 4:30 a.m. On January 19, 2013, WWMT debuted weekend morning newscasts, airing for two hours from 6–8 a.m. on Saturdays and from 7–9 a.m. on Sundays.
Technical information
Subchannels
The station's digital signal is
multiplexed
In telecommunications and computer networking, multiplexing (sometimes contracted to muxing) is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share a scarce resource - a ...
:
Analog-to-digital conversion
WWMT shut down its analog signal, over
VHF
Very high frequency (VHF) is the ITU designation for the range of radio frequency electromagnetic waves (radio waves) from 30 to 300 megahertz (MHz), with corresponding wavelengths of ten meters to one meter.
Frequencies immediately below VHF ...
channel 3, on June 12, 2009, as part of the
federally mandated transition from analog to digital television.
The station's digital signal moved from its pre-transition VHF channel 2 to channel 8 (which was formerly used for the analog signal of WOOD-TV), using
PSIP
The Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) is the MPEG (a video and audio industry group) and privately defined program-specific information originally defined by General Instrument for the DigiCipher 2 system and later extended for the A ...
to display the WWMT's
virtual channel
In most telecommunications organizations, a virtual channel is a method of remapping the ''program number'' as used in H.222 Program Association Tables and Program Mapping Tables to a channel number that can be entered via digits on a receiver's ...
as 3 on digital television receivers.
See also
*
Channel 3 virtual TV stations in the United States
*
Channel 7 branded TV stations in the United States The following television stations in the United States brand as channel 7 (though neither using virtual channel 7 nor broadcasting on physical RF channel 7):
* KNSD in San Diego, California
* KTGM in Tamuning, Guam
* WDAY-DT2 in Fargo, North Dakot ...
*
Channel 8 digital TV stations in the United States The following television stations broadcast on digital channel 8 in the United States:
* K08AK-D in Port Orford, etc., Oregon
* K08AP-D in Pateros/Mansfield, Washington
* K08AY-D in Winthrop-Twisp, Washington
* K08BO-D in Virgin, Utah
* K08CB-D ...
References
Sources
WWMT TV Channel 3 (June 13 2005). ''Michigan's Radio and TV Broadcast Guide''
External links
*
WWMT-DT2 "CW 7"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wwmt
CBS network affiliates
Comet (TV network) affiliates
Television channels and stations established in 1950
1950 establishments in Michigan
Sinclair Broadcast Group
WMT
Companies based in Kalamazoo, Michigan