WCWW-LD (channel 25) is a low-power television station in

South Bend, Indiana South Bend is a city in and the county seat of St. Joseph County, Indiana, on the St. Joseph River near its southernmost bend, from which it derives its name. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total of 103,453 residents and is the fourt ...

, United States, affiliated 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 ...

. It is owned by

Weigel Broadcasting Weigel Broadcasting Co. is an American television broadcasting company based in Chicago, Illinois, alongside its flagship station WCIU-TV (Channel 26), at 26 North Halsted Street in the Greektown neighborhood. It currently owns 25 television ...

alongside two other low-power stations: ABC affiliate WBND-LD (channel 57) and

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

WMYS-LD WMYS-LD (channel 69) is a low-power television station in South Bend, Indiana, United States, affiliated with MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Weigel Broadcasting (as the company's only MyNetworkTV affiliate), and is sister to ABC affiliate WBND-LD ...

(channel 69). The stations share studios on Generations Drive (near the

Indiana Toll Road The Indiana Toll Road, officially the Indiana East–West Toll Road, is a tolled freeway that runs for east–west across northern Indiana from the Illinois state line to the Ohio state line. It has been advertised as the "Main Street of the ...

) in northeastern South Bend, while WCWW-LD's transmitter is located just off the

St. Joseph Valley Parkway The St. Joseph Valley Parkway is a freeway in the U.S. states of Indiana and Michigan, serving as a bypass route around Elkhart, Mishawaka, and South Bend in Indiana and Niles in Michigan. The freeway runs to the south and west of Elkhart an ...

on the city's south side. Due to its low-power status, its broadcasting radius only covers the immediate South Bend area. Therefore, Weigel relies on paid television subscription carriage for all three of its South Bend television stations to reach the entire market. WCWW-LD is one of two CW affiliates owned by Weigel, the other being company

flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the ...

WCIU-TV WCIU-TV (channel 26) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, affiliated with The CW. It is the flagship television property of locally based Weigel Broadcasting, which has owned the station since its inception, and is sister ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

History

The station was founded on August 31, 1990 as W25BM, operating as an affiliate of the

Three Angels Broadcasting Network The Three Angels Broadcasting Network, or 3ABN, is a Christian media television and radio network which broadcasts Seventh-day Adventist religious and health-oriented programming, based in West Frankfort, Illinois, United States. Although ...

; it later changed its callsign to WYGN-LP in October 1995. On March 14, 2002, the station was transferred to its current owner,

, who had been previously broadcasting general entertainment programming on what is now WYGN-LD; it also dropped 3ABN which went to WYGN-LD, changed its callsign to WRDY-LP, and began simulcasting ABC programming from sister station WBND-LP; that fall, the station dropped the WBND-LP simulcast and affiliated with

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 broadcast television on January 11, 1995, as a joint venture between the Warner Bros. ...

, which moved to WRDY-LP from the original WMWB-LP (now WMYS-LD), and it adopted the WMWB-LP callsign previously held by channel 69 to reflect its new affiliation with the network. On March 1, 2006, Weigel officials announced that WMWB would affiliate with

, a network formed out of the struggling WB and UPN networks in partnership with the two networks' owners

Time Warner Warner Media, LLC ( traded as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City, United States. It was originally established in 1972 by ...

and

CBS Corporation The second incarnation of CBS Corporation (the first being a short-lived rename of the Westinghouse Electric Corporation) was an American multinational media conglomerate with interests primarily in commercial broadcasting, publishing, an ...

, when it premiered in September; channel 25 changed its call letters to WCWW-LP upon the network's launch on September 18, 2006. The WCWW calls had belonged to sister station WMYS, which took an affiliation with CW competitor

(which launched two weeks earlier); the two stations both have borne the WRDY and WYGN calls. In early August 2008, Weigel Broadcasting agreed to sell all three of its South Bend stations, including WCWW, to

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 ...

, the longtime owner of the local

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

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 loc ...

(channel 22), for undisclosed terms.WSBT Purchases Three Low-Power Stations
''Broadcasting & Cable'', August 4, 2008. However, in the absence of action by 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 ...

, the deal was called off in August 2009. With Weigel flagship

's assumption of the CW affiliation in Chicago on September 1, 2019, Weigel now owns both of the network's affiliates on the southern shore of

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 ...

Programming

Syndicated programming

Syndicated programming seen on WCWW-LD includes talk shows such as '' The Steve Wilkos Show'', '' The Kelly Clarkson Show'', '' The Maury Povich Show'', and ''

The Jerry Springer Show ''Jerry Springer'' is an American scripted syndicated tabloid talk show that aired from September 30, 1991 to July 26, 2018. Produced and hosted by its namesake, Jerry Springer, it aired for 27 seasons and nearly 5,000 episodes. The television ...

'', court shows such as ''

The People's Court ''The People's Court'' is an American arbitration-based reality court show, featuring an arbitrator handling small claims disputes in a simulated courtroom set. Within the court show genre, it is the first of all arbitration-based reality sty ...

'', ''

Judge Mathis ''Judge Mathis'' is an American syndicated arbitration-based reality court show presided over by Judge Greg Mathis, a former judge of Michigan's 36th District Court and Black-interests motivational speaker/activist. The courtroom series premi ...

'', '' Hot Bench'', and ''

Judge Jerry ''Judge Jerry'' is an American arbitration-based reality court show presided over by Jerry Springer, who previously hosted ''Jerry Springer'' from 1991 to 2018. The series began its run in first-run syndication on September 9, 2019, and was dist ...

'', and several syndicated sit-coms.

Newscasts

On March 19, 2012, WCWW-LD debuted a nightly half-hour prime time newscast at 10 p.m. that is produced by WBND-LD (entitled ''ABC 57 News at 10 on CW 25''). WBND also produces two hours of morning news on WCWW from 7–9 a.m. weekday mornings.

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 ...

: In July 2010, WCWW-LD launched a 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 compres ...

on 25.2 as an affiliate of

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 ...

. In September 2018, WCWW-LD's digital subchannel 25.2 replaced This TV with

Start TV Start TV is an American free-to-air television network owned as a joint venture between Weigel Broadcasting and the CBS News and Stations subsidiary of Paramount Global. Predominantly carried on the digital subchannels of its affiliated televisi ...

. This TV moved to a newly launched third subchannel. In February 2019, WCWW-LD added a high-definition simulcast of sister station WBND-LD on digital subchannel 25.4. In September 2021, WCWW-LD replaced a simulcast of WBND-LD on digital subchannel 25.4 with

MeTV MeTV, an acronym for Memorable Entertainment Television, is an American broadcast television network owned by Weigel Broadcasting. Marketed as "The Definitive Destination for Classic TV", the network airs a variety of classic television program ...

's expansion network,

MeTV Plus MeTV, an acronym for Memorable Entertainment Television, is an American broadcast television network owned by Weigel Broadcasting. Marketed as "The Definitive Destination for Classic TV", the network airs a variety of classic television program ...

. In March 2022, WCWW-LD launched a fifth digital subchannel on 25.5 as an affiliate of

Story Television Story Television is an American digital broadcast television network owned by Weigel Broadcasting that airs programming which is related to history, normally older programs which are licensed from other networks. The formation of the network w ...

Analog-to-digital conversion

On September 14, 2007, WCWW and its sister stations began broadcasting low-power digital signals. WCWW-LD broadcasts with an

effective radiated power Effective radiated power (ERP), synonymous with equivalent radiated power, is an IEEE standardized definition of directional radio frequency (RF) power, such as that emitted by a radio transmitter. It is the total power in watts that would h ...

of 25 kW on channel 25. On December 28, 2010, WCWW-LP turned off its analog signal on channel 25 because of equipment failure. On April 16, 2012, the FCC granted WCWW-LP a construction permit to move its digital frequency from channel 27 to its former analog allotment, UHF channel 25.

References

External links

WCWW-LD "The CW 25 Michiana"
{{Weigel Broadcasting Weigel Broadcasting The CW affiliates This TV affiliates Start TV affiliates CWW-LD Television channels and stations established in 1990 Low-power television stations in the United States 1990 establishments in Indiana