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WXYZ-TV (channel 7) 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 ...
in
Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...
, United States, affiliated with
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 ...
. It is 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 ...
alongside independent station
WMYD WMYD (channel 20) is an independent television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside ABC affiliate WXYZ-TV (channel 7). Both stations share studios at Broadcast House on 10 Mile Road i ...
(channel 20). Both stations share studios at Broadcast House on 10 Mile Road in Southfield, where WXYZ-TV's transmitter is also located. However,
master control Master control is the technical hub of a broadcast operation common among most over-the-air television stations and television networks. It is distinct from a production control room (PCR) in television studios where the activities such as sw ...
and some internal operations are based at the studios of sister station and fellow ABC affiliate
WRTV WRTV (channel 6) is a television station in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by the E. W. Scripps Company. The station's studios are located on Meridian Street north of downtown Indianapolis, and its transm ...
in Indianapolis.


History


ABC-owned station

The station first signed on the air on October 9, 1948, with 10½ hours of programming as the second television station in both Detroit and Michigan, over a year behind WWJ-TV (channel 4, now
WDIV-TV WDIV-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States, affiliated with NBC. It serves as the flagship broadcast property of the Graham Media Group subsidiary of Graham Holdings Company. WDIV-TV maintains studio facili ...
) and 15 days ahead of
WJBK-TV WJBK (channel 2) is a television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States, airing programming from the Fox network. Owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division, the station maintains studios and transmitter facilitie ...
(channel 2). Channel 7 was also the third of ABC's five original owned-and-operated television stations to sign on, after
WABC-TV WABC-TV (channel 7) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the ABC network. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, the station maintains studios in the Lincoln Square neig ...
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 ...
and
WLS-TV WLS-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, airing programming from the ABC network. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, the station maintains studios on North Stat ...
in
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
, and before
KGO-TV KGO-TV (channel 7) is a television station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, serving as the San Francisco Bay Area's ABC network outlet. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, KGO-TV ma ...
in
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
and
KABC-TV KABC-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast of the United States, West Coast Flagship (broadcasting), flagship of the American Broadcasting Company, ABC network. ...
in
Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
. WXYZ-TV was created out of ABC-owned radio station WXYZ (1270 AM), which produced the popular radio programs ''
The Lone Ranger The Lone Ranger is a fictional masked former Texas Ranger who fought outlaws in the American Old West with his Native American friend Tonto. The character has been called an enduring icon of American culture. He first appeared in 1933 in ...
'' and ''
The Green Hornet The Green Hornet is a superhero created in 1936 by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker, with input from radio director James Jewell. Since his 1930s radio debut, the character has appeared in numerous serialized dramas in a wide variety of med ...
''. WXYZ radio personality Dick Osgood was host of WXYZ-TV's inaugural broadcast. The television station originally broadcast from studios located in the
Maccabees Building The Maccabees Building (sometimes called Wayne Tower) is a historic building located at 5057 Woodward Avenue in Midtown Detroit, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983, and is currently owned by Wayne State U ...
on
Woodward Avenue A woodward is a warden of a wood. Woodward may also refer to: Places ;United States * Woodward, Iowa * Woodward, Oklahoma * Woodward, Pennsylvania, a census-designated place * Woodward Avenue, a street in Tallahassee, Florida, which bisects th ...
in midtown Detroit, across from the
Detroit Institute of Arts The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), located in Midtown Detroit, Michigan, has one of the largest and most significant art collections in the United States. With over 100 galleries, it covers with a major renovation and expansion project comple ...
. In the 1950s, WXYZ-TV began producing a series of popular and innovative programs that featured many personalities from WXYZ radio. The station's success generated revenues large enough that it became instrumental in financially helping the then-struggling ABC network and other ABC ventures during the 1950s, including
ABC-Paramount Records ABC Records was an American record label founded in New York City in 1955. It originated as the main popular music label operated by the Am-Par Record Corporation. Am-Par also created the Impulse! jazz label in 1960. It acquired many labels befo ...
. In 1959, all of WXYZ's radio and television operations moved into new broadcast facilities at Broadcast House, at 20777 West Ten Mile Road in Southfield, where WXYZ's television operations remain. The facility was built on the site of a former farm and included three television production studios and its own free-standing broadcast tower with a single-person maintenance elevator. WXYZ began broadcasting network programs in color in 1962 and started broadcasting local programs and newscasts in color around 1964. By 1978, WXYZ-TV was the second most-dominant television station in the United States in terms of local viewership, no doubt attributable to ABC's prime-time ratings dominance and the continued success of ''Channel 7 Action News'' with lead news anchor
Bill Bonds Bill Bonds (February 23, 1932 – December 13, 2014) was an American television news anchor and reporter, best known for his work at WXYZ-TV in Detroit, Michigan. Bonds became an Action News anchorman beginning in the early 1970s. Early caree ...
. In 1979, ABC named Jeanne Findlater as WXYZ-TV's general manager. She was the first woman to hold that title at a major market television station. WXYZ-TV was carried by the
Cancom Shaw Broadcast Services (French: Services de Radiodiffusion Shaw) is the division of Canadian telecommunications company Shaw Communications that is responsible for providing and managing the distribution of television channels to cable companies ...
system from 1983 as the ABC station for Canadian cable television providers too distant to receive a border station's signal over-the-air, though later,
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 ...
station
KOMO-TV KOMO-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Seattle, Washington, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside Bellevue-licensed Univision affiliate KUNS-TV (channel 51). Both stations share studios w ...
was added to Cancom's offerings as a Pacific Time Zone alternative.


E. W. Scripps Company station

In May 1985,
Capital Cities Communications Capital Cities/ABC Inc. was an American media company. It was founded in 1985 when Capital Cities Communications purchased the much larger American Broadcasting Company. It eventually proposed a merger of equals with The Walt Disney Company and ...
, which owned Detroit radio stations WJR (760 AM) and WHYT (96.3 FM, originally WJR-FM, now
WDVD WDVD (96.3 FM) is a hot adult contemporary radio station in Detroit, Michigan. Owned and operated by Cumulus Media, WDVD's studios and offices are located in the Fisher Building in Detroit's New Center district near downtown, while its transmit ...
), announced its acquisition of ABC. In order to comply with the
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 jurisdicti ...
's (FCC) ownership limits of the time, the new Capital Cities/ABC would have to sell either WXYZ-TV or each of three radio stations that the two companies had owned – WJR, WHYT, or ABC-owned
WRIF WRIF (101.1 FM) is a commercial active rock radio station licensed in Detroit, Michigan and serving Metro Detroit as well as bordering city Windsor, Ontario, Canada. The station is currently owned by Beasley Media Group. WRIF is a grandfathered ...
(101.1 FM; the former WXYZ-FM, which was sold as part of the merger). ABC had sold WXYZ (AM) a year earlier in 1984 to the radio station's general manager, Chuck Fritz, who changed its call sign to WXYT. Upon gaining FCC approval of the merger in February 1986, the new company sold WXYZ-TV as well as Capital Cities' Tampa station
WFTS-TV WFTS-TV (channel 28), branded as ABC Action News, is a television station licensed to Tampa, Florida, United States, serving the Tampa Bay area as an affiliate of ABC. It is owned by the E.W. Scripps Company alongside Bradenton-licensed Ion Te ...
to 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 ...
. Capital Cities/ABC intended to keep channel 7 together with WJR and WHYT through a waiver of the FCC's cross-ownership rules, as a contingency in case a similar request involving ABC's New York City television flagship and Capital Cities'
Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
outlet was denied. At the time, Cozzin Communications (a broadcast group owned by stand-up comedian/actor
Bill Cosby William Henry Cosby Jr. ( ; born July 12, 1937) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and media personality. He made significant contributions to American and African-American culture, and is well known in the United States for his eccentric ...
) emerged as another prospective bidder for the station. ABC retained some of WXYZ-TV's assets, including the satellite uplink for its satellite news-gathering service ''
ABC News ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...
One''. Under Scripps ownership, WXYZ-TV retained the ABC network affiliation and continued to use ABC's (originally) proprietary ''
Circle 7 The Circle 7 logo is an often-used television station logo in the United States. Designed in the early 1960s for the American Broadcasting Company's five owned-and-operated stations (all of which broadcast on Very high frequency, VHF channel ...
'' logo. Scripps used the station's popularity as leverage for Detroit's cable providers to carry the Scripps-owned HGTV cable network, using the FCC's
retransmission consent Retransmission consent is a provision of the 1992 United States Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act that requires cable operators and other multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) to obtain permission from commer ...
rule to force local cable systems to carry HGTV. Under this rule, a television station that is carried on a cable system under
must-carry In cable television, governments apply a must-carry regulation stating that locally licensed television stations must be carried on a cable provider's system. North America Canada Under current CRTC regulations, the lowest tier of service on ...
rules can request cable systems to compensate the station for carrying it. The station was selected as the site of the first ''
Town Meeting Town meeting is a form of local government in which most or all of the members of a community are eligible to legislate policy and budgets for local government. It is a town- or city-level meeting in which decisions are made, in contrast with ...
with President
Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
'' in February 1993, which was hosted by Bill Bonds. President Clinton would address questions from audience members at WXYZ-TV's studios as well as audiences at other television stations via satellite.


1994 affiliation switch repercussions

On May 23, 1994,
New World Communications New World Pictures (also known as New World Entertainment and New World Communications Group, Inc.) was an American independent production, distribution, and (in its final years as an autonomous entity) multimedia company. It was founded in 197 ...
, the owner of then-CBS affiliate
WJBK WJBK (channel 2) is a television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States, airing programming from the Fox network. Owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division, the station maintains studios and transmitter faciliti ...
(channel 2), signed an affiliation deal with
Fox Broadcasting Company The Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps as FOX, is an Television in the United States, American Commercial broadcasting, commercial terrestrial television, broadcast television network owned by Fox C ...
. This deal, which displaced Fox from
WKBD-TV WKBD-TV (channel 50) is a television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States, affiliated with The CW. It is owned by the CBS News and Stations group alongside CBS owned-and-operated station WWJ-TV (channel 62). Both stations share studios on ...
(channel 50), prompted CBS to attempt to lure WXYZ-TV, as well as sister station
WEWS-TV WEWS-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, affiliated with ABC. It has been owned by the E. W. Scripps Company since its inception in 1946, making it one of two stations that have been built and signed on by ...
in
Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
to drop its ABC affiliation in favor of switching to CBS; WDIV was not an option for the network, as that station had a long-term affiliation contract with
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 ...
at the time. As a contingency plan, ABC approached SJL Broadcast Management (later known as Montecito Broadcast Group, now SJL Broadcasting and once again controlled by the principals of Lilly Broadcasting) about buying
Toledo, Ohio Toledo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lucas County, Ohio, United States. A major Midwestern United States port city, Toledo is the fourth-most populous city in the state of Ohio, after Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, and according ...
's
WTVG WTVG (channel 13) is a television station in Toledo, Ohio, United States, affiliated with ABC and The CW. Owned by Gray Television, the station maintains studios on Dorr Street ( SR 246) in Toledo, and its transmitter is located on Stadium Road ...
(channel 13) and
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 sta ...
's
WJRT-TV WJRT-TV (channel 12) is a television station licensed to Flint, Michigan, United States, serving as the ABC affiliate for northeastern Michigan. Owned by Allen Media Broadcasting, the station maintains studios on Lapeer Road in Flint, with of ...
(channel 12) to cover the Detroit area, in the event that WXYZ-TV became a CBS station. Both stations' city-grade signals reached portions of the Detroit area (WTVG to the south, and WJRT-TV to the north; ABC has since sold both stations). On June 16, 1994, Scripps signed a long-term deal with ABC that would keep WXYZ-TV and WEWS-TV as affiliates of the network (they remain ABC affiliates to this day). As a condition of that agreement, television stations in other cities, including
WTSP WTSP (channel 10) is a television station licensed to St. Petersburg, Florida, United States, serving the Tampa Bay area as an affiliate of CBS. The station is owned by Tegna Inc., and maintains studios on Gandy Boulevard on St. Petersburg' ...
in Tampa–
St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
,
KTVK KTVK (channel 3) is an independent television station in Phoenix, Arizona, United States. It is owned by Gray Television alongside CBS affiliate KPHO-TV (channel 5) and low-power LATV affiliate KPHE-LD (channel 44). KTVK and KPHO-TV share ...
in
Phoenix Phoenix most often refers to: * Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore * Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States Phoenix may also refer to: Mythology Greek mythological figures * Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...
and
WJZ-TV WJZ-TV (channel 13) is a television station in Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland, United States, airing programming from the CBS network. It is Owned-and-operated station, owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division, and ma ...
in
Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
, would lose their ABC affiliations to competing Scripps-owned stations (WFTS-TV,
KNXV-TV KNXV-TV (channel 15) is a television station in Phoenix, Arizona, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside CW affiliate KASW (channel 61). Both stations share studios on 44th Street on the city' ...
,
WMAR-TV WMAR-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland, United States, affiliated with American Broadcasting Company, ABC and owned by the E. W. Scripps Company. The station's studios and offices are located on York Road ( ...
) in those cities. This deal would end up causing WJZ-TV owner
Westinghouse Broadcasting The Westinghouse Broadcasting Company, also known as Group W, was the broadcasting division of Westinghouse Electric Corporation. It owned several radio and television stations across the United States and distributed television shows for syndicat ...
to sign their own affiliation deal with CBS, which affiliated with (and then purchased) UHF independent station WGPR-TV (channel 62, now
WWJ-TV WWJ-TV (channel 62) is a television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States, owned and operated by the CBS television network. Under common ownership with CW affiliate WKBD-TV under the network's CBS News and Stations group, both statio ...
), after it failed to reach deals to affiliate with WKBD-TV or the market's other independent stations, WXON (channel 20, now
WMYD WMYD (channel 20) is an independent television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside ABC affiliate WXYZ-TV (channel 7). Both stations share studios at Broadcast House on 10 Mile Road i ...
) and WADL (channel 38), the former two stations opting to respectively affiliate with
UPN The United Paramount Network (UPN) was an American broadcast television network that launched on January 16, 1995. It was originally owned by Chris-Craft Industries' United Television. Viacom (through its Paramount Television unit, which pr ...
and
The WB The WB Television Network (for Warner Bros., or the "Frog Network", for its former mascot, Michigan J. Frog) was an American television network launched on terrestrial television, broadcast television on January 11, 1995, as a joint venture be ...
instead.


Present day

WXYZ-TV has been active in several community service projects. The station received the National Community Service Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for outstanding community service in 1989. WXYZ-TV is a partner in several charitable endeavors including the
Society of Saint Vincent de Paul The Society of St Vincent de Paul (SVP or SVdP or SSVP) is an international voluntary organization in the Catholic Church, founded in 1833 for the sanctification of its members by personal service of the poor. Innumerable Catholic parishes have ...
, Operation Can Do and Detroit's annual children's
immunization Immunization, or immunisation, is the process by which an individual's immune system becomes fortified against an infectious agent (known as the immunogen). When this system is exposed to molecules that are foreign to the body, called ''non-se ...
fair. On October 4, 2006, WXYZ became the first television station in Michigan and the first Scripps-owned station to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition. WXYZ-TV became the first television station in Detroit to transmit an over-the-air digital signal, broadcasting on UHF channel 41 on September 29, 1998. The station shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 7, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal continued to broadcast on its pre-transition UHF channel 41. Through the use of
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 ...
, digital television receivers display the station'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 its former VHF analog channel 7. WJBK began using the channel 7 allocation for its digital signal after the transition. WXYZ-TV's third digital subchannel originally carried a video feed of the station's tower camera at Broadcast House. Most recently, it formerly carried Doppler7Weather, a local weather channel looping
weather radar Weather radar, also called weather surveillance radar (WSR) and Doppler weather radar, is a type of radar used to locate precipitation, calculate its motion, and estimate its type (rain, snow, hail etc.). Modern weather radars are mostly pulse- ...
, temperatures and live local radar, along with an L-Bar (similar to that used by
The Local AccuWeather Channel AccuWeather Inc. is an American media company that provides commercial weather forecasting services worldwide. AccuWeather was founded in 1962 by Joel N. Myers, then a Pennsylvania State University graduate student working on a master's degree ...
and the defunct
NBC Weather Plus NBC Weather Plus was an American weather-oriented digital broadcast and cable television network owned as a joint venture between NBC Universal and the local affiliates of the NBC television network. The service, which was broadcast in standard d ...
, though it was operated independently from either network) that showed current conditions and five-day local forecasts. On May 21, 2010, this channel was removed to prepare and utilize its channel bandwidth exclusively for
mobile television Mobile television is television watched on a small handheld or mobile device. It includes service delivered via mobile phone networks, received free-to-air via terrestrial television stations, or via satellite broadcast. Regular broadcast stan ...
, labelled as WXYZ-MH 7.3 and simulcasting 7.2/
Live Well Network Localish (formerly Live Well Network, stylized as LOCALISH) is a lifestyle TV network owned by ABC Owned Television Stations, part of Walt Disney Television, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. Localish's 24/7 channel streams on Hulu Li ...
at 1.83 Mbit/s. WXYZ-TV, along with WDIV-TV, became the first Detroit stations to offer
Mobile DTV Mobile television is television watched on a small handheld or mobile device. It includes service delivered via mobile phone networks, received free-to-air via terrestrial television stations, or via satellite broadcast. Regular broadcast stand ...
feeds on August 6, 2010. On July 12, 2012, the E. W. Scripps Company signed an affiliation agreement with Bounce TV to make WXYZ-TV the Detroit area affiliate of the network, becoming the first Scripps-owned station to affiliate with Bounce TV.


Programming


Syndicated programming

In addition to clearing the entire ABC schedule, syndicated programming on WXYZ includes '' Right This Minute'', ''
Tamron Hall Tamron Hall (born September 16, 1970) is an American broadcast journalist and television talk show host. In September 2019, Hall debuted her self-titled syndicated daytime talk show, which earned her a Daytime Emmy Award. Hall was formerly a ...
'', and ''
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 seg ...
'', among others.


Programming history

In the 1950s, WXYZ-TV created a series of widely popular locally produced children's programs. The most famous program, ''Lunch with Soupy'', launched the career of comedian
Soupy Sales Milton Supman (January 8, 1926 – October 22, 2009), known professionally as Soupy Sales, was an American comedian, actor, radio-television personality, and jazz aficionado. He was best known for his local and network children's television serie ...
. The program debuted in 1953 and was such a success that ABC moved production to Los Angeles in 1960 and aired the show nationally. Soupy also hosted a very popular late night adult comedy show during that same period in the 1950s called ''Soupy's On''. Other successful children's shows to follow would include ''Wyxie's Wonderland'' hosted by Detroit comic Marv Welch. In 1954, Bob Brickwedde (using the stage name Bob Henry) hosted the ''Nash Theater Hour'' on Thursday nights and hosted
Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...
movies featuring Deadeye and Black Bart on Saturdays as "Sheriff Bob". ''Ricky the Clown'' was hosted by professional clown and magician Irv Romig and ''The Johnny Ginger Show'' was hosted by local comic Johnny Ginger. The ''Auntie Dee Show'' hosted by
Dee Parker Dee Parker (died March 13, 2000) was an American model, singer, and actress best known for her work on local television in Detroit, Michigan. She also made recordings and performed in night clubs, with big bands, and with a symphony orchestra. E ...
was a popular children's talent show. In 1974, WXYZ-TV launched and produced another successful children's show, the nationally syndicated ''
Hot Fudge Fudge is a type of confection that is made by mixing sugar, butter and milk, heating it to the soft-ball stage at , and then beating the mixture while it cools so that it acquires a smooth, creamy consistency. In texture, this crystalline cand ...
.'' Former WXYZ-TV general manager John Pival is credited for launching several other popular innovative programs in the 1950s and 1960s including the ''World Adventure Series'' with host George Pierrot, an author on world travel and a speaker at the Detroit Institute of Arts. The program showed films about exotic locations around the world. ''The Lady of Charm'' and later ''House O' Charm'' with host Edythe Fern Melrose was a predecessor to today's
Martha Stewart Martha Helen Stewart (, ; born August 3, 1941) is an American retail businesswoman, writer, and television personality. As founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, she gained success through a variety of business ventures, encompassing pu ...
home-making programs. ''Prize Movie'' with popular host Rita Bell introduced feature films and held a viewer call-in contest (with cash prizes that started at $7) to name the title of a song she played on the air. Several music programs also aired including ''Club Polka'' and ''Club 1270''. WXYZ-TV disc jockey Ed McKenzie also brought his talents to television with ''The Ed McKenzie Saturday Party'', which featured live musical performances from such artists as
Chuck Berry Charles Edward Anderson Berry (October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017) was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist who pioneered rock and roll. Nicknamed the " Father of Rock and Roll", he refined and developed rhythm and blues into th ...
and Louis Armstrong. WXYZ-TV also had a series of popular morning shows starting with the ''Pat and Johnny Show'', hosted by WXYZ radio announcers Pat Tobin and Johnny Slagle. Later in 1966, ''The Morning Show'' debuted as a morning variety program with host Bob Hynes. The station also helped to launch the career of
Dennis Wholey Dennis Wholey (born July 2, 1939) is an American television host and producer, and the author of a number of self-help books, one of which was a ''New York Times'' bestseller. He currently hosts ''This is America & The World with Dennis Wholey'', ...
, who started his ''AM Detroit'' talk show at WXYZ before going on to
WTVS WTVS (channel 56) is a PBS member television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States, owned by the Detroit Educational Television Foundation. Its main studios are located at the Riley Broadcast Center and HD Studios in Wixom, with an addi ...
(channel 56) to host '' PBS Late Night''. The most popular and successful WXYZ morning talk show was ''Kelly & Company'', which ran from 1978 to 1995 and was hosted by a married couple who were both former members of WXYZ-TV's news staff, John Kelly (who served as news anchor) and Marilyn Turner (who served as a weathercaster). It was primarily a talk show with featured guests and a studio audience. In 1984, Turner and Kelly would also host the short-lived afternoon program, ''Good Afternoon Detroit''. The program was a pilot for other ABC-owned stations including those in New York and Chicago to launch their own ''Good Afternoon...'' shows. In 1965, the Sunday morning public affairs show ''Spotlight on the News'' debuted, with WXYZ-TV's news director Bill Fyffe as its first host. The show was later hosted by political reporter Jim Herrington and continues to air today with WXYZ-TV editorial and public affairs director Chuck Stokes as its host, writer and producer. ''Spotlight'' is now Detroit's longest-running current events television program. It has featured local and national public officials including U.S. presidents and won numerous awards. Another public affairs show that aired Sunday nights at 11:30 p.m. from 1967 to 1981 was ''Haney's People'' with host Don Haney. WXYZ-TV has also been involved in several Detroit traditions over the years, having aired special coverage of Detroit's
Thanksgiving Day Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden and ...
Parade, The North American International Auto Show Charity Preview, the annual
Woodward Dream Cruise The Woodward Dream Cruise event is an automotive enthusiast event held annually on the third Saturday of August in Metropolitan Detroit, Michigan, along Woodward Avenue, a major thoroughfare built in the early 20th century. The WDC Event spans mu ...
and the City of Detroit's celebrations of its 250th anniversary in 1951 and 300th anniversary in 2001. WXYZ's special coverage has also included the victory parades of the city's professional sports teams, most recently the Detroit Red Wings' Stanley Cup victory in
2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...
and the
Detroit Pistons The Detroit Pistons are an American professional basketball team based in Detroit. The Pistons compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division and play their home games at L ...
' NBA championship in 2004. WXYZ-TV also aired the Red Wings'
2002 Stanley Cup Finals The 2002 Stanley Cup Finals was the championship series of the National Hockey League's (NHL) 2001–02 season, and the culmination of the 2002 Stanley Cup playoffs. It was contested by the Western Conference champion Detroit Red Wings and the ...
series win, and the station provided local coverage of
Super Bowl XL Super Bowl XL was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Seattle Seahawks and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Pittsburgh Steelers to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion f ...
that was held at Ford Field. The station is also the official broadcaster of the Christmas parade in
Rochester, Michigan Rochester is a city in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 12,711 at the 2010 census. It is a northern suburb in Metro Detroit located 20 miles north of the city of Detroit. Rochester was the first European settlem ...
. In 1987, the station created and produced a weekly educational
literacy Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, hum ...
program aimed at children called '' Learn To Read'', which was based on the
audio-lingual method The audio-lingual method, Army Method, or New Key,Wilfried Decoo,. ''Speech'' November 8, 2001. is a method used in teaching foreign languages. It is based on behaviorist theory, which postulates that certain traits of living things, and in this cas ...
of literacy education, and was co-produced by
Kentucky Educational Television Kentucky Educational Television (KET) is a state network of PBS member television stations serving the U.S. Commonwealth of Kentucky. It is operated by the Kentucky Authority for Educational Television, an agency of the Kentucky state governm ...
. One of the hosts of this series was then WXYZ-TV news anchor Doris Biscoe. During Game 2 of the 2004 NBA Finals in Detroit,
Jimmy Kimmel James Christian Kimmel (born November 13, 1967) is an American television host, comedian, writer, and producer. He is the host and executive producer of ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'', a late-night talk show that premiered on ABC on January 26, 2003, ...
appeared on
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 ...
's halftime show to make an on-air plug for that night's episode of '' Jimmy Kimmel Live!''. He suggested that if the
Detroit Pistons The Detroit Pistons are an American professional basketball team based in Detroit. The Pistons compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division and play their home games at L ...
defeated the Los Angeles Lakers, "they're gonna burn the city of Detroit down ... and it's not worth it." Channel 7 officials immediately announced that night's show would not air on the station. Hours later, ABC officials pulled that night's show from the entire network. Kimmel later apologized. Also later that year, the station opted to preempt ''
Saving Private Ryan ''Saving Private Ryan'' is a 1998 American epic war film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Robert Rodat. Set during the Battle of Normandy in World War II, the film is known for its graphic portrayal of war, especially its depicti ...
'', along with the other Scripps stations (by stark contrast, WTVG and WJRT-TV, then ABC O&Os, aired the movie). In 2011, WXYZ-TV replaced WWJ-TV as the new flagship 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 ...
, assuming broadcast rights to the team's over-the-air preseason game telecasts. The agreement ended in 2015, with the telecasts being moved to WJBK.


News operation

WXYZ-TV presently broadcasts hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with seven hours each weekday, four hours on Saturdays and hours on Sundays); in addition, the station produces two half-hour sports programs that air on Sundays, the weekly sports highlight program ''7 Sports Cave'' (which airs weekly at 11 a.m.) and the Detroit Lions highlight program ''
Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...
Lions Report Live'' (which only airs during the NFL season).


History

WXYZ-TV's newscasts had long been dominant in the Detroit market's news ratings partly due to the popularity of longtime lead news anchor Bill Bonds. The station's news department started as a small operation, with short twice-a-weeknight updates anchored by previous staff announcer Lee McNew and longtime sportscaster Dave Diles. WXYZ would later gain credibility for its coverage of the 1967 Detroit race riots. In the 1970s, WXYZ-TV began an aggressive build-up of its news department by adopting many elements of the '' Eyewitness News'' format, such as the '' Cool Hand Luke'' music theme that was used by ABC's four other owned-and-operated television stations in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco. However, it opted to title its newscasts ''Action News'', since rival WJBK-TV was already using the ''Eyewitness News'' brand. Under the direction of general manager Jim Osborn and
news director A news director is an individual at a broadcast station or network or a newspaper who is in charge of the news department. In local news, the news director is typically in charge of the entire news staff, including journalists, news presenters, ...
Phil Nye, the station would lure popular news personalities from rival stations, WJBK-TV and WDIV-TV (then known as WWJ-TV) to join its already well-known anchors Dave Diles and Bill Bonds. WXYZ-TV assembled Detroit's most popular news anchors and reporters for its news staff such as John Kelly, Jac LeGoff, Al Ackerman, Marilyn Turner, Jack McCarthy, Jerry Hodak, Don Lark and Doris Biscoe. By 1973, WXYZ-TV's newscasts became the highest-rated in Detroit for the first time ever, a lead it would maintain for almost four decades. Its success was linked to the serious, controversial, opinionated hard delivery of lead anchor Bill Bonds. ABC tried to apply Bonds' success in Detroit at KABC-TV in Los Angeles in the late 1960s and again in 1975 at New York City's WABC-TV; in both cases, he was unsuccessful and soon returned to WXYZ-TV. During the 1980s and 1990s, Bonds hosted the interview segment, ''Up Front'', on WXYZ-TV's 5 p.m. newscast. During the interviews, Bonds confronted the Detroit area's public officials and newsmakers with hard-hitting and sometimes controversial questions. Bonds' hard-edge style was widely known in Detroit for both captivating viewers while repulsing others, leading Bonds to become the station's icon and its main star. In Ron Powers' book, ''The Newscasters'', Powers called Bonds "one of the six most influential news anchors in the country." However, Bonds had public battles with alcoholism which are credited with his dismissal from the station in 1995. Bonds anchored newscasts and a late night talk-show called ''Bonds Tonight'' at WJBK-TV shortly afterwards and later hosted a radio show at WXYT. Bonds returned to WXYZ-TV in 1999 to present editorials during the newscasts but left the station after only a few months. WXYZ-TV's ratings dominance was challenged by WDIV-TV in the 1980s, due in part to a change of ownership and culture at WDIV and viewers looking for an alternative to Bonds' hard-hitting style of news presentation. The two stations continue to battle for ratings to this day. In recent years, the station's news coverage received several journalism honors including two Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University awards, and the
George Foster Peabody Award The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody, honor the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in television, radio, and ...
. WXYZ-TV's ''Action News'' was named the best television newscast in the U.S. by
United Press International United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20t ...
in 1989. In the 1990s, WXYZ-TV continued to expand its morning newscast, ''Action News This Morning'' to the eventual start time of 5 a.m. This newscast had originated in the form of short news updates that aired during '' Good Morning America''. One of its longtime co-anchors was Erik Smith, who worked at Channel 7 off-and-on for over 40 years. During most of that time, Smith also reported on human-interest and entertainment stories. Smith also won acclaim for his award-winning series ''From the Heart'' which began in the late 1990s as a collection of heartwarming, historical and inspirational stories from around the Detroit area. Smith left the station in May 2010, due to a dispute with management, five days before his contract was set to expire. In 2001, WXYZ-TV debuted a 7 p.m. newscast, a move that occurred after the
September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...
when the station chose to move ABC's '' World News Tonight'' ahead by 30 minutes to 6:30 p.m. The 7 p.m. newscast became a forum for interviewing guests and newsmakers on daily issues and became a ratings success in key
demographics Demography () is the statistical study of populations, especially human beings. Demographic analysis examines and measures the dimensions and dynamics of populations; it can cover whole societies or groups defined by criteria such as ed ...
. The station also expanded its noon newscast to one hour. In 2002, WXYZ-TV entered into a news share agreement with
Viacom Viacom, an abbreviation of Video and Audio Communications, may refer to: * Viacom (1952–2006), a former American media conglomerate * Viacom (2005–2019), a former company spun off from the original Viacom * Viacom18, a joint venture between Par ...
, then-owner of WWJ-TV and
UPN The United Paramount Network (UPN) was an American broadcast television network that launched on January 16, 1995. It was originally owned by Chris-Craft Industries' United Television. Viacom (through its Paramount Television unit, which pr ...
affiliate WKBD-TV to produce WKBD's 10 p.m. newscast; this resulted in WKBD shutting down its news department, while also effectively cancelling the newscast it produced for WWJ-TV. A handful of Viacom's Detroit employees were transferred to WXYZ-TV. Viacom would also transfer the operations of its CBS News satellite news-gathering service CBS Newspath to offices at WXYZ-TV's Broadcast House studios, since WXYZ-TV would also be allowed to use the resources of CBS News. The newscast was canceled in late 2004 due to poor viewership (today, WKBD airs local news under the '' CBS News Now'' format and WWJ-TV is slated to debut ''CBS News Detroit'' either in late summer or early fall 2022). ''Action News'' continued its success with longtime anchors Diana Lewis, Robbie Timmons, meteorologist Jerry Hodak, sportscaster Don Shane and up until October 9, 2006, anchor Frank Turner, who became a successful replacement to Bill Bonds. Another addition to the news staff was anchor Stephen Clark, a former anchor at
WCBS-TV WCBS-TV (channel 2) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside Riverhead, New York–licensed independent station W ...
in New York and CBS News correspondent. Chief meteorologist Jerry Hodak was the station's primary weathercaster for at least 26 of his more than 40 years in Detroit television. In July 2010, Hodak announced his retirement from WXYZ-TV with his last broadcast occurring two months later on September 23. In 2006, WXYZ-TV also boasted the most veteran general assignment reporters in Detroit television with Cheryl Chodun, Bill Proctor, Mary Conway and Val Clark, each of whom worked at least 20 years at the station. In the November 2006 ratings period, shortly after the switch to HD, all of WXYZ-TV's newscasts placed first in their respective timeslots except at 11 p.m., which lagged behind WDIV-TV. From the November 2007 ratings period until before the May 2009 ratings period, WXYZ-TV's newscasts were #1 in each of its respective timeslots. However, it finished behind rival WDIV-TV, which took first place in the evening and late news timeslots in the May 2009 sweeps period due largely to lower ratings of shows leading into WXYZ-TV's news programs. Both WXYZ-TV and WDIV-TV have been among the country's strongest affiliates of their respective networks over the years although WDIV-TV has taken over first place in all newscast time slots since late 2009. In very recent years, however, WXYZ-TV and WJBK have been battling for second place in the 5 to 6:30 p.m. block behind WDIV-TV. WXYZ-TV's investigative unit, the "7 Investigators", gained notoriety in 2002 with chief investigative reporter Steve Wilson and his stories of financial mismanagement at the
Kmart Kmart Corporation ( , doing business as Kmart and stylized as kmart) is an American retail company that owns a chain of big box department stores. The company is headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, United States. The company was inc ...
Corporation, an undercover investigation that exposed high-pressure sales tactics used by a well-known financial firm, and confrontations with elected officials in Detroit, especially Mayor
Kwame Kilpatrick Kwame Malik Kilpatrick (born June 8, 1970) is an American former politician who served as the 72nd mayor of Detroit from 2002 to 2008. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously represented the 9th district in the Michigan House of Repres ...
. On August 7, 2008, Kilpatrick appeared in front of a judge in Wayne County Circuit Court. The hearing was called to discuss a potential violation of his bond in one of the two felony cases against him. The hearing was called after Wilson uncovered and revealed photos of the mayor in nearby Windsor, Ontario, Canada. A stipulation of the mayor's bond was that he was not to leave the country, and that he give the court 72 hours' notice if he planned to leave the state of Michigan for any reason. Mayor Kilpatrick was then ordered to spend the night in the Wayne County jail. The current team of "7 Investigators" is made up of Heather Catallo, Ross Jones, and Jim Kiertzner. On August 3, 2011, WXYZ-TV unveiled a new news set during its noon newscast, a project which the station had been working on since June 2011. The new set features new high definition cameras and monitors and a redesigned weather center under the new forecast branding "7 First Alert Weather". On October 3, 2012, Diana Lewis left WXYZ-TV after working at the station for a total of 32 years (having joined the station in 1977, before leaving in 1985 and returning to Channel 7 four years later). On January 26, 2014, WXYZ-TV discontinued the ''Sunday Sports Update'' in favor of expanding its Sunday 11 p.m. newscast to one hour. In turn, one week later on February 2, the station launched a new Sunday morning sports program, the ''7 Sports Cave''. On June 16, 2014, WXYZ-TV introduced a new 10 p.m. newscast for its new sister station, WMYD, under the name of ''7 Action News at 10 on TV 20 Detroit''. The newscast replaced an outsourced newscast with local reporters anchored by staff at former WMYD sister station
WPTA WPTA (channel 21) is a television station in Fort Wayne, Indiana, United States, affiliated with ABC, NBC, and MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Gray Television alongside CW+ affiliate WISE-TV (channel 33). Both stations share studios on Butler Road ...
in
Fort Wayne, Indiana Fort Wayne is a city in and the county seat of Allen County, Indiana, United States. Located in northeastern Indiana, the city is west of the Ohio border and south of the Michigan border. The city's population was 263,886 as of the 2020 Censu ...
. Months later, the station introduced two more hours of morning news on WMYD as well. On September 8, 2014, WXYZ-TV introduced a new 4 p.m. newscast called "The Now Detroit". On February 23, 2015, WXYZ-TV expanded into Downtown Detroit with a new street-side studio inside the Chase Tower; this new studio serves as the location for ''7 Action News at Noon'' anchored by Joanne Purtan, and other WXYZ/WMYD programs. On Wednesday, May 13, 2020, WXYZ-TV upgraded its on-air graphics for its general programming and newscasts. These graphics are being used for all Scripps TV stations.


Notable current on-air staff

*
Brad Galli Brad Galli (born 1989 in Detroit, Michigan) is a sports anchor and reporter for WXYZ-TV in Detroit. Career Brad Galli is a sports anchor at WXYZ-TV in Detroit, Michigan. He regularly covers the Detroit Red Wings, Tigers, Lions, Pistons, as well ...
– sports reporter/anchor *
Keenan Smith Keenan Smith (born October 31, 1972, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American television broadcaster who is a reporter/anchor for the morning and noon newscasts at WXYZ-TV in Detroit, Michigan. Smith joined the network around September 2010 ...
– morning and noon news anchor/meteorologist *
Faraz Javed Faraz Javed is a television journalist, presenter, and producer who has worked in the United States and United Arab Emirates for broadcasters including MTV Networks, part of Viacom Media Networks and Dubai One, Dubai Media Incorporated. Career Ja ...
– multimedia journalist and weekend morning reporter


Notable former on-air staff

*
Dennis Archer Dennis Wayne Archer (born January 1, 1942) is an American lawyer, jurist and former politician from Michigan. A Democrat, Archer served as Justice on the Michigan Supreme Court and as mayor of Detroit. He later served as president of the Amer ...
– public affairs show host (1973–1979, later
Michigan Supreme Court The Michigan Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is Michigan's court of last resort and consists of seven justices. The Court is located in the Michigan Hall of Justice at 925 Ottawa Street in Lansing, the sta ...
Justice and mayor of Detroit) *
Bill Bonds Bill Bonds (February 23, 1932 – December 13, 2014) was an American television news anchor and reporter, best known for his work at WXYZ-TV in Detroit, Michigan. Bonds became an Action News anchorman beginning in the early 1970s. Early caree ...
– longtime lead anchor of ''Action News'' (1961–1968, 1971–1975 & 1976–1995) (deceased) * Dave Diles – sports director, also worked with
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 ...
(deceased) * Johnny Ginger – host of ''The Johnny Ginger Show'' * Steve Handelsman – investigative reporter, fill-in anchor (1978–1984; now retired) *
Chris Hansen Christopher Edward Hansen (born September 13, 1959) is an American television journalist and YouTube personality. He is known for his work on ''Dateline NBC'', in particular the former segment ''To Catch a Predator'', which revolved around catc ...
– (later with
WDIV-TV WDIV-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States, affiliated with NBC. It serves as the flagship broadcast property of the Graham Media Group subsidiary of Graham Holdings Company. WDIV-TV maintains studio facili ...
and
NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's var ...
) * Jerry Hodak – chief meteorologist (retired on September 23, 2010) * Bill Proctor – longtime general assignment and investigative reporter (retired) * Bill Ratner – one of his former voice-over clients (2000s–2011?) *
Soupy Sales Milton Supman (January 8, 1926 – October 22, 2009), known professionally as Soupy Sales, was an American comedian, actor, radio-television personality, and jazz aficionado. He was best known for his local and network children's television serie ...
– host of ''Lunch with Soupy'' and ''Soupy's On'' (deceased) * Tom Shannon – morning host (1960s) *
Robbie Timmons Robbie Timmons is an retired American TV news anchor/reporter for Detroit television stations WJBK-TV and WXYZ-TV. She was the first female news anchor in American history to anchor the 6:00pm and 11:00pm broadcasts in March 1973 while anchoring t ...
(1982–2010) – longtime co-anchor of ''Action News'' at 5 (retired) * Steve Wilson – chief investigative reporter


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 ...
:


Coverage

In addition to carriage across
Southeast Michigan Southeast Michigan, also called southeastern Michigan, is a region in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan that is home to a majority of the state's businesses and industries as well as slightly over half of the state's population, most of whom are c ...
, WXYZ-TV is carried on most cable providers in Southwestern Ontario and
Northwestern Ohio Northwest Ohio, or Northwestern Ohio, consists of multiple counties in the northwestern corner of the US state of Ohio. This area borders Lake Erie, Southeast Michigan, and northeastern Indiana. Some areas are also considered the Black Swamp are ...
. Coverage on cable systems outside the Detroit/
Windsor Windsor may refer to: Places Australia * Windsor, New South Wales ** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area * Windsor, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland **Shire of Windsor, a former local government authority around Wi ...
market may be subject to syndication exclusivity rules and network blackouts in the United States and simsubbing in Canada. The station can be received from as far away as Flint, Michigan, with a good-quality antenna. It is also carried on cable in
Grand Marais, Michigan Grand Marais ( ) is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Alger County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is located within Burt Township on the shores of Lake Superior, and the community is the eastern gateway to the ...
. The station also serves several other parts of Canada as an ABC affiliate on satellite provider
Shaw Direct Shaw Direct is a direct broadcast satellite television distributor in Canada and a subsidiary of the telecommunications company Shaw Communications. As of 2010, Shaw Direct had over 900,000 subscribers. It broadcasts on Ku band from two commu ...
as well as on cable providers in several Canadian markets including Windsor,
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, Sault Ste. Marie, Sudbury and
Thunder Bay, Ontario Thunder Bay is a city in and the seat of Thunder Bay District, Ontario, Canada. It is the most populous municipality in Northwestern Ontario and the second most populous (after Greater Sudbury) municipality in Northern Ontario; its population ...
,
Saint John, New Brunswick Saint John is a seaport city of the Atlantic Ocean located on the Bay of Fundy in the province of New Brunswick, Canada. Saint John is the oldest incorporated city in Canada, established by royal charter on May 18, 1785, during the reign of K ...
, and all of
Manitoba , image_map = Manitoba in Canada 2.svg , map_alt = Map showing Manitoba's location in the centre of Southern Canada , Label_map = yes , coordinates = , capital = Winn ...
(except for areas served by Shaw's Steinbach or
Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749, ...
system, which carry
WDAZ-TV WDAZ-TV (channel 8) is a television station licensed to Devils Lake, North Dakota, United States, serving the Grand Forks area as an affiliate of ABC. It is owned by the Forum Communications Company, which also owns the ''Grand Forks Herald' ...
out of Grand Forks, North Dakota, instead) and the
National Capital Region A capital region, also called a capital district or capital territory, is a region or district surrounding a capital city. It is not always the official term for the region, but may sometimes be used as an informal synonym. Capital regions can exis ...
. WXYZ-TV was previously offered as the ABC affiliate on cable through
Cable Atlantic Cable Atlantic was a cable television provider serving much of the population of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. The company's primary owner throughout its history was Danny Williams, although ownership was shared with other i ...
(now Rogers Cable) in
Newfoundland and Labrador Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic Canada, Atlantic region. The province comprises t ...
including in St. John's from 1985 to 1997 (which has since been replaced by
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
ABC affiliate
WCVB-TV WCVB-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by Hearst Television. The station's studios are located on TV Place (off Gould Street near the I-95/ MA 128/Highland Avenue ...
). As of 2010, however, some Rogers Cable customers in Newfoundland and Labrador began receiving WXYZ-TV again along with WDIV and WWJ. Until April 2011, Comcast subscribers in
Holly ''Ilex'' (), or holly, is a genus of over 570 species of flowering plants in the family Aquifoliaceae, and the only living genus in that family. ''Ilex'' has the most species of any woody dioecious angiosperm genus. The species are evergreen o ...
, which is located within the Detroit market in northwestern
Oakland County Oakland County is a county in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is part of the metropolitan Detroit area, located northwest of the city. As of the 2020 Census, its population was 1,274,395, making it the second-most populous county in Michigan, b ...
, were unable to see much of WXYZ-TV's programming, as it was often blacked out at the request of Flint's WJRT-TV; the blackout was due to the Comcast system being tied to the Flint headend, instead of one in Oakland County or elsewhere in Detroit. That month, following complaints from Detroit stations and area viewers of being blacked out or unavailable in an area that they were supposed to serve, Comcast discontinued blackouts of the Detroit stations it already carried, added additional stations from that market and dropped many Flint– Tri-Cities area stations from that system. WJRT-TV was one of two stations retained (along with
WCMZ-TV WCMZ-TV, virtual and UHF digital channel 28, was a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) member television station licensed to Flint, Michigan, United States. It was a satellite station of Mount Pleasant-licensed WCMU-TV (channel 14) which is o ...
) as it was considered to have significant viewership in the Holly area.


See also

*
Circle 7 logo The Circle 7 logo is an often-used television station logo in the United States. Designed in the early 1960s for the American Broadcasting Company's five owned-and-operated stations (all of which broadcast on VHF channel 7), the logo, or a v ...
*
Media in Detroit As the world's traditional automotive center, Detroit, Michigan, is an important source for business news. The Detroit media are active in the community through such efforts as the ''Detroit Free Press'' high school journalism program and the Old ...


References

* * * * *


External links

* * – Bounce TV Detroit
Photos of WXYZ's news set
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wxyz-Tv XYZ-TV ABC network affiliates Bounce TV affiliates Laff (TV network) affiliates Court TV affiliates E. W. Scripps Company television stations Television channels and stations established in 1948 Companies based in Southfield, Michigan