WXMI (channel 17) 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 eart ...
licensed to
Grand Rapids, Michigan
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 ...
, United States, serving West Michigan as an affiliate of the
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 ...
network. Owned by the
E. W. Scripps Company
The E. W. Scripps Company is an American broadcasting company founded in 1878 as a chain of daily newspapers by Edward Willis "E. W." Scripps and his sister, Ellen Browning Scripps. It was also formerly a media conglomerate. The company is he ...
, the station maintains studios on Plaza Drive (near
M-37) on the northern side of Grand Rapids, and its transmitter is located southwest of
Middleville.
History
The station signed on the air on March 18, 1982, as an
independent station under the call sign WWMA, standing for "West Michigan's Alternative" (as it was the first locally based independent station in the market not associated with a religious organization). The station was founded and originally owned by Heritage Broadcasting Company. Approximately a year after signing on, additional shareholders bought control of the station and changed the call sign to the current WXMI on August 15, 1983. In 1987, WXMI signed an affiliation deal to become the market's Fox affiliate; it joined the network on April 9, 1987 when Fox expanded its programming offerings to include prime time programming. In 1989, the station's stock was purchased by a
New York-based company headed by Robert Dudley called Odyssey Television Partners.
Nine years later, WXMI was purchased by
Indianapolis-based
Emmis Communications
Emmis Communications is an American media conglomerate based in Indianapolis, Indiana. Emmis, based on the Hebrew word for Truth (Emet) was founded by Jeff Smulyan in 1980. Emmis has owned many radio stations, including KPWR and WQHT, which h ...
, which traded the station with sister
KTZZ
KTZZ (93.7 FM, "Z93") is a radio station broadcasting a classic rock format. Licensed to Conrad, Montana, United States, the station serves the Great Falls area. The station is currently owned by Munson Radio and features programming from West ...
in
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
to
Tribune Broadcasting
Tribune Broadcasting Company, LLC was an American media company which operated as a subsidiary of Tribune Media, a media conglomerate based in Chicago, Illinois. The group owned and operated television and radio stations throughout the United St ...
in 1998 in exchange for FM station
WQCD in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
.
Aborted acquisition by Sinclair Broadcast Group and resale to Standard Media Group
On May 8, 2017,
Hunt Valley, Maryland
Hunt Valley is an unincorporated community in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States, near the site of the Maryland Hunt Cup Steeplechase. It lies just north of the city of Baltimore, along York Road (Maryland Route 45), parallel to Interstat ...
-based
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, ...
entered into an agreement to acquire Tribune Media for $3.9 billion, plus the assumption of $2.7 billion in debt held by Tribune. Sinclair was precluded from acquiring WXMI directly, as it already owned
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 Entertainm ...
affiliate
WWMT
WWMT (channel 3) is a television station licensed to Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States, serving West Michigan as an affiliate of CBS and The CW. The station is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, and maintains studios on West Maple Street in Kal ...
(channel 3). On April 24, 2018, 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 Broadcasting Company, Fox network. Owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, it has studios on Westmoreland Street in the North Side (Richmond, V ...
in
Richmond,
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 Alle ...
in
Des Moines,
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 ...
) in
Scranton
Scranton is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Lackawanna County. With a population of 76,328 as of the 2020 U.S. census, Scranton is the largest city in Northeastern Pennsylvania, the Wyoming V ...
–
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 s ...
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 MyNetwor ...
in
Greensboro
Greensboro (; formerly Greensborough) is a city in and the county seat of Guilford County, North Carolina, United States. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, third-most populous city in North Carolina after Charlotte, North Car ...
/
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 ...
–
High Point, and Tribune-owned
WPMT
WPMT, virtual channel 43 (UHF digital channel 36), is a Fox- affiliated television station licensed to York, Pennsylvania, United States, and serving the Susquehanna Valley region (Harrisburg– Lancaster–Lebanon–York). The station is own ...
in
York, Pennsylvania
York (Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Yarrick''), known as the White Rose City (after the symbol of the House of York), is the county seat of York County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located in the south-central region of the state. The populatio ...
– 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 lev ...
Standard General to assume ownership of and absolve ownership conflicts involving the aforementioned stations) for $441.1 million.
Tribune terminated the Sinclair deal on August 9, 2018, and filed a
breach of contract lawsuit, 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 evi ...
amid "serious concerns" about Sinclair's forthrightness in its applications to sell certain conflict properties; the sale to Standard Media was also cancelled, as it was predicated on the closure of the Sinclair–Tribune merger.
Sale to Scripps
On December 3, 2018,
Irving, Texas-based
Nexstar Media Group announced it would acquire the assets of Tribune Media for $6.4 billion in cash and debt. Nexstar was precluded from acquiring WXMI directly or indirectly, as it already owned
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
affiliate
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 ...
(channel 8),
MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV (unofficially abbreviated MyTV, MyNet, MNT or MNTV, and sometimes referred to as My Network) is an American commercial broadcast television syndication service and former television network owned by Fox Corporation, operated by its ...
affiliate
WXSP-CD
WXSP-CD (channel 15) is a low-power, Class A television station licensed to Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States, serving West Michigan as an affiliate of MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside Grand Rapids–licensed NBC ...
(channel 15), and
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 en ...
–based
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 ...
affiliate
WOTV
WOTV (channel 41) is a television station licensed to Battle Creek, Michigan, United States, serving West Michigan as an affiliate of ABC. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside Grand Rapids–licensed NBC affiliate WOOD-TV (channel 8) ...
(channel 41).
On March 20, 2019, the
Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
-based
E. W. Scripps Company
The E. W. Scripps Company is an American broadcasting company founded in 1878 as a chain of daily newspapers by Edward Willis "E. W." Scripps and his sister, Ellen Browning Scripps. It was also formerly a media conglomerate. The company is he ...
announced it would purchase WXMI from Nexstar upon consummation of the merger, as part of the company's sale of nineteen Nexstar- and Tribune-operated stations to Scripps and
Tegna Inc.
Tegna Inc. (stylized in all caps as TEGNA) is an American publicly traded broadcast, digital media and marketing services company headquartered in Tysons Corner, Virginia. It was created on June 29, 2015, when the Gannett Company split into tw ...
in separate deals worth $1.32 billion;
the sale was completed on September 19, 2019.
Programming
Syndicated programming on WXMI (as of September 2020) includes ''
The Drew Barrymore Show
''The Drew Barrymore Show'' (often shortened to ''Drew'') is a first-run syndicated American talk show hosted by actress Drew Barrymore. The show is distributed by CBS Media Ventures and debuted on September 14, 2020. In April 2022, the show w ...
'', ''
The Steve Wilkos Show
For the talk show hosted by Steve Harvey, see Steve (talk show)
''The Steve Wilkos Show'' is a syndicated American tabloid talk show hosted by Steve Wilkos. The series is a spin-off of the long-running ''Jerry Springer'' show. ''The Steve Wilko ...
'', ''
Daily Mail TV'', ''
Dateline
A dateline is a brief piece of text included in news articles that describes where and when the story was written or filed, though the date is often omitted. In the case of articles reprinted from wire services, the distributing organization i ...
'', ''
Modern Family
''Modern Family'' is an American family sitcom television series created by Christopher Lloyd and Steven Levitan for the American Broadcasting Company. It ran for 11 seasons, from September 23, 2009, to April 8, 2020. It follows the lives of th ...
'', and ''
Right This Minute'' among others. WXMI is an affiliate of the
Detroit Lions Television Network The Detroit Lions Television Network is a network of seven television stations (and one cable/satellite channel) in Michigan and Ohio that broadcast the National Football League, NFL's Detroit Lions preseason games and related coverage. On May 21, 2 ...
, which airs pre-season games as well as the weekly syndicated show ''
The Ford Lions Report'' during the regular season. Since it is outside of the team's
local blackout area, it also airs all regular season games produced by
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 ...
.
News operation
WXMI presently 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 of any television station in the Grand Rapids market.
On January 11, 1999, WXMI started its news department and launched the
market
Market is a term used to describe concepts such as:
*Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand
*Market economy
*Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market
Geography
*Märket, an ...
's first prime time newscast at 10:00 p.m. It originally aired for 35 minutes on weeknights and for a half-hour on weekends. The program would expand to a full hour seven nights a week in 2004. On August 28, 2006, the station premiered the ''Fox 17 Morning News''. Originally a two-hour-long broadcast, it expanded to four hours (running from 5:00 to 9:00 a.m.) on September 15, 2008. On April 17, 2009, WXMI became the first station in West Michigan to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in
high definition; at the time, WOOD-TV and ABC affiliates
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 ...
(channel 13) and WOTV produced their newscasts in merely
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 (WWMT became the second station in the market to upgrade to HD newscasts on April 16, 2011, followed by WOOD-TV/WOTV on October 22, 2011 and finally, by WZZM on December 3, 2011). On April 20, 2011 during the weekday morning show, the station officially unveiled a new logo, graphics, music package ("The Unexpected" by
615 Music
615 Music is a broadcast production music company based in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded by Randy Wachtler. 615 Music composes television news music packages and custom image campaigns for many television networks around the world. 615 Music al ...
), and set.
On September 21, 2009, WXMI debuted an hour-long newscast at 6 p.m. that competes against half-hour newscasts on WWMT, WOOD-TV, and WZZM and their national network evening newscasts. On March 7, 2011, the station debuted an hour-long lifestyle program at weeknights 5 p.m. called ''The One Seven''; the final broadcast of the program aired only five months later on August 19, 2011. It was hosted by Michele DeSelms and Tim Doty and featured lifestyle segments, art, entertainment stories, cooking segments and some local news. The program was replaced by a traditional hour-long local newscast at 5:00 p.m. (which debuted without any promotion) on August 22, 2011. On March 2, 2013, WXMI debuted weekend morning newscasts, running for four hours from 5:00 to 9:00 a.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. The station added a nightly 11 p.m. newscast on June 2, 2014; a promo for the new newscast references the shift from the common Fox affiliate news tagline of "at 10 (o'clock) it's news, at 11 (o'clock) it's history," with the additional wording "we changed our mind." A 4 p.m. newscast debuted on September 8, 2014.
Notable former on-air staff
*
Ahmed Fareed, sports anchor (2002-2003) — now studio host/reporter at
NBCSN
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 ...
:
From August 2006 to September 2007,
The Tube aired on the station's second digital subchannel. In July 2010, the station reactivated its second
digital subchannel to carry
This TV
This TV (also known as This TV Network and alternately stylized as thisTV) is an American free-to-air television network owned by Allen Media
Broadcast Networks, LLC, part of the Allen Media Group division of Entertainment Studios. Originally f ...
, which moved to a new third subchannel on December 9 in anticipation of the December 31 launch of
Antenna TV
Antenna TV is an American digital television network owned by Nexstar Media Group. The network's programming consists of classic television series, primarily sitcoms, from the 1950s to the 1990s. Antenna TV's programming and advertising operati ...
. In October 2019, WXMI-DT3 switched to
Court TV (a network owned by Scripps sister company
Katz Broadcasting
Katz Broadcasting, LLC, doing business as Scripps Networks, is an American specialized digital multicasting network media company and a subsidiary of E. W. Scripps Company. The company owns (as of 2022) nine television networks that each carry ...
), though it was a move planned by Tribune even before WXMI's sale to Scripps.
Analog-to-digital conversion
WXMI shut down its analog signal, over
UHF channel 17, on June 12, 2009, as part of the
federally mandated transition from analog to digital television. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 19,
[CDBS Print](_blank)
/ref> 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 AT ...
to display WXMI'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 17 on digital television receivers.
Translators
In addition to its main signal, the station also operates two translators
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transl ...
, mainly to provide clear service of the station to lakeshore cities with varying terrain blocking reception of the main signal, and to address interference in farther portions of the market by former sister station WGN-TV from Chicago, which also broadcasts its digital signal on UHF channel 19. Two additional transmitters in the southern part of the market, officially classed as WXMI digital repeaters, serve the direct Kalamazoo
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 Metropoli ...
area on channel 30 from the tower of WGVU-TV
WGVU-TV, virtual channel 35 (VHF digital channel 11), is a Public Broadcasting Service ( PBS) member television station licensed to Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States. It operates a full-time satellite station, WGVK (virtual channel 52, VHF d ...
's Kalamazoo satellite
A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioi ...
WGVK, along with a second repeater licensed to Battle Creek on channel 17 transmitting from the city's south side; all four translators carry WXMI and its subchannel services, and all map via PSIP to channel 17. As of 2021, WXSP-CD also carries 17.1 in the ATSC 3.0 format. This means it is possible for a television or receiver in the Grand Rapids market receiving an over-the-air signal to map out up to six different WXMI signals in its channel map.
W42CB channel 42 completed a flash-cut to digital-only broadcasting in November 2010. W52DB on analog channel 52 was replaced by a digital signal on channel 17 in December 2010. In late June 2011, W52DB calls became W17DF-D. In mid-March, 2019, W17DF-D moved from channel 17 to channel 18.
References
WXMI TV Channel 17 (June 13, 2005). ''Michigan's Radio and TV Broadcast Guide''
WXMI.com , About The Station (June 7, 2006).
WXMI.com , WXMI News Staff (March 18, 2007).
Mlive.com , Calderon, Justice go West (August 12, 2007).
WXMI announces 6PM newscast to debut in September 2009
External links
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wxmi
Fox network affiliates
Bounce TV affiliates
TrueReal affiliates
Antenna TV affiliates
E. W. Scripps Company television stations
Television channels and stations established in 1982
Barry County, Michigan
XMI
Low-power television stations in the United States
1982 establishments in Michigan