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WDIV-TV (channel 4) 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 ea ...
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 NBC. It serves as the
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 ...
broadcast property of the
Graham Media Group Graham Media Group (formerly Post-Newsweek Stations) is the television broadcasting subsidiary of the Graham Holdings Company. It is now headquartered in Detroit, co-locating with its local NBC affiliate WDIV-TV, after spending 10 years in Chic ...
subsidiary of Graham Holdings Company. WDIV-TV maintains studio facilities on West Lafayette Boulevard in Detroit, making it the only major television station in the market with offices and studios within the Detroit city limits. Detroit's other television stations are all based in the suburb of Southfield; WDIV's transmitter is, however, located on Greenfield Road in Southfield.


History


Early history

The station first signed on the air as WWDT on October 23, 1946, for one day of demonstrative programming; regular programming commenced on March 4, 1947. It was the first television station in Michigan and the tenth station to sign on in the United States overall. The station was originally owned by the Evening News Association, parent company of ''
The Detroit News ''The Detroit News'' is one of the two major newspapers in the U.S. city of Detroit, Michigan. The paper began in 1873, when it rented space in the rival ''Detroit Free Press'' building. ''The News'' absorbed the ''Detroit Tribune'' on Februar ...
'', along with WWJ radio (
AM 950 The following radio stations broadcast on AM frequency 950 kHz: The Federal Communications Commission categorizes 950 AM as a regional frequency. Argentina * CNN Radio Argentina in Buenos Aires * LT16 RSP in Presidente Roque Saenz Peña B ...
and FM 97.1, now
WXYT-FM WXYT-FM (97.1 MHz "97-1 The Ticket") is a commercial radio station in Detroit, Michigan, serving Metro Detroit and much of Southeast Michigan. It airs a sports radio format and is owned by Audacy, Inc. Its studios and offices are located i ...
). On May 15, 1947, the television station changed its call letters to WWJ-TV to match its radio sisters. Channel 4 has always been an NBC affiliate owing to WWJ radio's longtime affiliation with the
NBC Red Network The NBC, National Broadcasting Company's NBC Radio Network (known as the NBC Red Network prior to 1942) was an American commercial radio network which was in operation from 1926 through 2004. Along with the Blue Network, NBC Blue Network it was ...
, but also aired some programs from the
DuMont Television Network The DuMont Television Network (also known as the DuMont Network, DuMont Television, simply DuMont/Du Mont, or (incorrectly) Dumont ) was one of America's pioneer commercial television networks, rivaling NBC and CBS for the distinction of being ...
prior to WJBK-TV (channel 2)'s sign-on in October 1948. Channel 4 had a number of broadcasting firsts in Michigan including the first telecast of
Detroit Tigers The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the American League (AL) Central division. One of the AL's eight charter franchises, the club was f ...
, Red Wings and
Lions The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large cat of the genus '' Panthera'' native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; short, rounded head; round ears; and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphic; ad ...
games as well as the state's first televised newscasts. The station's studios were originally located at 600 West Lafayette, across the street from the ''Detroit News'' building in downtown Detroit (and next door to its present studio location). In 1954, the station moved its transmitter from the
Penobscot Building The Greater Penobscot Building, commonly known as the Penobscot Building, is a class-A office tower in Downtown Detroit, Michigan. Constructed in 1928, the Art Deco building is located in the heart of the Detroit Financial District. The Penob ...
in
Downtown Detroit Downtown Detroit is the central business district and a residential area of the city of Detroit, Michigan, United States. Locally, downtown tends to refer to the 1.4 square mile region bordered by M-10 (Lodge Freeway) to the west, Interstate 75 ...
to the intersection of Greenfield and Lincoln roads in Southfield. Network programming was broadcast in
color Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associ ...
starting in 1954. The station began broadcasting its newscasts and other locally produced programs in color in 1960, when it purchased new studio camera equipment. Over the years, the Evening News Association acquired several other broadcasting outlets, such as KTVY (now
KFOR-TV KFOR-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside independent station KAUT-TV (channel 43). Both stations share studios in Oklahoma C ...
) 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, and ...
, KOLD-TV in
Tucson, Arizona , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...
, and WALA-TV in
Mobile, Alabama Mobile ( , ) is a city and the county seat of Mobile County, Alabama, United States. The population within the city limits was 187,041 at the 2020 census, down from 195,111 at the 2010 census. It is the fourth-most-populous city in Alabama ...
. Eventually, the Evening News Association created Universal Communications Corporation as a holding company for its broadcasting interests, with WWJ-AM-FM-TV as the
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 ...
stations.


Trade to The Washington Post Company

In 1969, 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 ...
(FCC) began to impose restrictions on the common ownership of print and broadcast media in the same market. The combination of the ''Detroit News'' and WWJ-AM-FM-TV was given grandfathered protection from the new regulations, but by the mid-to-late 1970s, the Evening News Association was under pressure to break up its Detroit cluster voluntarily. Fearing that an FCC-forced divestiture was imminent, the Evening News Association agreed to trade WWJ-TV to the Washington Post Company in return for that company's flagship station, WTOP-TV (later WDVM-TV and now WUSA). On July 22, 1978, due to an FCC regulation in place at the time that forbade TV and radio stations in the same market but with different ownership groups from sharing the same call signs, channel 4 changed its call letters to the present WDIV-TV, for "Detroit's IV" (representing the
Roman numeral Roman numerals are a numeral system that originated in ancient Rome and remained the usual way of writing numbers throughout Europe well into the Late Middle Ages. Numbers are written with combinations of letters from the Latin alphabet, ea ...
for 4). Additionally, in a series of promotional announcements with news anchor Dwayne X. Riley, the new call letters were said to represent the phrase, "Where Detroit Is Vital". The WWJ-TV call sign was later adopted for use by the former WGPR-TV (channel 62) after its 1995 purchase by CBS, which had acquired WWJ radio in 1989 (CBS sold off its radio unit in 2017); the current
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 station ...
is a separate entity and not related to WDIV. Ultimately, the FCC never imposed any limitations on ownership of television stations and newspapers in the same market and the exchange of stations between the Evening News Association (eventually subsumed by the
Gannett Company Gannett Co., Inc. () is an American mass media holding company headquartered in McLean, Virginia, in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.Graham Holdings Company following the sale of ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...
'' in 2013) became somewhat unusual in television broadcasting. In 1982, WDIV moved out of its facility (which had been built in 1936 for WWJ radio and expanded in 1948 and today is known as the Walker-Roehrig Building) adjacent to the headquarters of the ''Detroit News'' and moved one block to its current broadcast facility at West Lafayette Boulevard. The building has also housed the headquarters of Graham Media Group since 1997; the "Local" branding now utilized by most of the group's stations began at WDIV alongside its acquiring of flagship status in 2000. The station later became available outside the Detroit market when it was selected for inclusion on many Canadian cable providers in the late 1980s and early 1990s. WDIV's signal has been uplinked on C-band satellite since at least 1988. In 2004, the station bolstered local programming by securing broadcast rights to several
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 ...
basketball games (Fox Sports Detroit—now called Bally Sports Detroit—became the Pistons' sole broadcaster in 2008) as well as returning as the host television station for the
North American International Auto Show The North American International Auto Show (NAIAS), also known as the Detroit Auto Show as of 2022 and prior to NAIAS, is an annual auto show held in Detroit, Michigan, U.S., at Huntington Place. The show was held in January from 1989 to 2019. ...
. The station airs the auto show's charity preview,
America's Thanksgiving Parade America's Thanksgiving Parade (officially America's Thanksgiving Parade presented by Gardner-White for 2020) is an annual American parade held in downtown Detroit, Michigan each Thanksgiving Day from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. EST. The tradition was ...
(both in high definition), the Ford Fireworks on the Detroit International Riverfront, and the charity event "The Hob-Nobble Gobble" which is held the night before the
Thanksgiving 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 ...
parade. On April 15, 2005, former WDIV employee John Owens was shot in the station's lobby by Epifanio Rivas, Jr., a man with a history of harassing WDIV employees. Rivas was charged with attempted murder, while Owens remained in the hospital in critical but stable condition. On November 21, 2006, Wayne County Circuit Court Judge James Callahan sentenced Rivas to 16 to 32 years in prison for the shooting; he was also sentenced to two years for a felony firearm conviction. In December 2008, WDIV began streaming its newscasts online as part of a redesign o
the station's website
On June 21, 2010, The 52nd Annual Target Fireworks were produced and aired entirely in high definition. On August 6, 2010, WDIV-TV and
WXYZ-TV WXYZ-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside independent station WMYD (channel 20). Both stations share studios at Broadcast House on ...
(channel 7) became the first stations in Detroit to offer Mobile DTV feeds. On the evening of April 14, 2011, a suitcase containing a suspected
improvised explosive device An improvised explosive device (IED) is a bomb constructed and deployed in ways other than in conventional military action. It may be constructed of conventional military explosives, such as an artillery shell, attached to a detonating mecha ...
was left in the WDIV studio lobby after the person who planted the device was denied entry by the station's security guard, prompting the Detroit Police Bomb Squad to evacuate the studio as well as the
Doubletree Hotel DoubleTree by Hilton is an American hotel chain managed by Hilton Worldwide. DoubleTree has been the fastest growing Hilton brand by number of properties since 2007, and by number of rooms from 2007 to 2015. As of December 31, 2019, it has 587 p ...
across the street. That night's 11 p.m. newscast was broadcast from the corner of Lafayette and Howard streets; the evacuation resulted in master control operations being inaccessible, preventing the broadcast or editing of news stories, and the broadcast of commercials. The station's PSIP
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 ...
temporarily reverted to 45.1 (the station's physical digital channel), with HD content downconverted to
720p 720p (1280×720 px; also called HD ready, standard HD or just HD) is a progressive HDTV signal format with 720 horizontal lines/1280 columns and an aspect ratio (AR) of 16:9, normally known as widescreen HDTV (1.78:1). All major HDTV broadcas ...
. The device was detonated minutes later, with police giving the all-clear at 11:15 p.m. for the news crew to re-enter the studio. Upon re-entering the studio, anchor
Devin Scillian Devin Scillian ( ; born January 11, 1963) is an American television journalist, musician and children's author. Broadcast career While still a student at the University of Kansas, Scillian began his television career at WIBW-TV in Topeka, Ka ...
explained that WDIV has a policy of not immediately reporting
bomb threat A bomb threat or bomb scare is a threat, usually verbal or written, to detonate an explosive or incendiary device to cause property damage, death, injuries, and/or incite fear, whether or not such a device actually exists. History Bomb threat ...
s unless there is a true threat of an explosion or loss of life. However, because staff was barred access into the studio for the 11 p.m. newscast, an explanation as to why they were on the street, broadcasting from the station's mobile truck instead of the studio, needed to be given. The news was first reported by the
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and
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accounts of WDIV's news staff; WJBK, WXYZ-TV and WMYD (channel 20) reported on the situation while during the lockout, before the WDIV mobile truck could return to the studios from its assignments. A sweater and some empty soda cans were later found in the briefcase which was left by a homeless man that had followed a WDIV employee in for warmth and
coffee Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world. Seeds of ...
; the man was brought to Detroit Receiving Hospital for observation the next day. The Detroit Police Department and Post-Newsweek's management said that no charges would be filed, calling it "just a big misunderstanding".


Programming


Syndicated programming

Syndicated programs carried on WDIV-TV include ''
Wheel of Fortune The Wheel of Fortune or '' Rota Fortunae'' has been a concept and metaphor since ancient times referring to the capricious nature of Fate. Wheel of Fortune may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Art * ''The Wheel of Fortune'' (Burne-J ...
'', ''
Jeopardy! ''Jeopardy!'' is an American game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead given genera ...
'', ''
The Jennifer Hudson Show ''The Jennifer Hudson Show'' is an American syndicated daytime talk show. Hosted by singer and actress Jennifer Hudson, the series premiered on September 12, 2022. Production In November 2021, '' Deadline'' reported that Warner Bros. Televis ...
'', '' Rachael Ray'' and ''
Inside Edition ''Inside Edition'' is an American news broadcasting newsmagazine program that is distributed in first-run syndication by CBS Media Ventures. Having premiered on January 9, 1989, it is the longest-running syndicated-newsmagazine program that is no ...
''. WDIV-TV is one of the few television stations in the United States to have aired ''Wheel'' and ''Jeopardy!'' from the beginning of their respective syndication runs in 1983 and 1984. WDIV-TV used this as leverage for its decision to pull the programs from the schedule of CBC
owned-and-operated station In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station (frequently abbreviated as an O&O) usually refers to a television or radio station owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an affiliate ...
CBET-DT in Windsor during the 2011–12 season, a year before the CBC decided to cancel their broadcasts of the shows entirely.


Programming preemptions

In the 1970s and 1980s, WDIV preempted one to two hours of NBC's daytime programming every day. The station also refused to air ''
Late Night with David Letterman ''Late Night with David Letterman'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on NBC, the first iteration of the ''Late Night'' franchise. It premiered on February 1, 1982, and was produced by Letterman's production compa ...
'' and its successor, '' Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' at 12:35 a.m. for many years, and initially did not clear the Letterman-era program at all. Instead, until 1999, the station opted to rebroadcast '' The Jenny Jones Show'' in that timeslot, along with off-network syndicated programs such as ''
Barney Miller ''Barney Miller'' is an American sitcom television series set in a New York City Police Department police station on East 6th St in Greenwich Village. The series was broadcast on ABC Network from January 23, 1975, to May 20, 1982. It was cre ...
''. During the 1978–79 season, it aired ''This Morning'', a locally based talk show hosted by Cathie Mann, in place of the game shows ''
Card Sharks ''Card Sharks'' is an American television game show. It was created by Chester Feldman for Mark Goodson- Bill Todman Productions. The game features two contestants who attempt to predict the outcome of survey questions to gain control of a ro ...
'' and ''
All Star Secrets ''All Star Secrets'' is an NBC daytime game show that aired from January 8 to August 10, 1979. A Hill-Eubanks Production, the show was hosted by co-creator Bob Eubanks and announced first by Charlie O'Donnell, but due to conflicts with his anno ...
'', while for many years, NBC's 12:30 p.m. programming was preempted in favor of a newscast. During the 1983–84 season, the newscast was expanded to an hour, preempting NBC's noon programming (most notably '' Super Password''). That season, WDIV also preempted the 1983 revival of '' Dream House'' in favor of the much more popular syndicated game show '' Tic-Tac-Dough''. From its debut until September 9, 2022, WDIV has also delayed the fourth hour of ''Today'' (which nationally airs at 10 a.m.), airing it generally at 11 a.m., save for a period from 2013 to 2015 when it aired at 2 p.m. after the launch their own local talk show ''Live In The D''. In its place, WDIV has aired ''
The Ellen DeGeneres Show ''The Ellen DeGeneres Show'' (often shortened to ''Ellen'' or ''The Ellen Show'') is an American daytime television variety comedy talk show that was created and hosted by its namesake Ellen DeGeneres. Debuting on September 8, 2003, it was pro ...
'', '' The Ricki Lake Show'' and ''Rachael Ray'' at 10 a.m., with ''Live In The D'' airing in that timeslot. The station did not carry NBC's late night
rerun A rerun or repeat is a rebroadcast of an episode of a radio or television program. There are two types of reruns – those that occur during a hiatus, and those that occur when a program is syndicated. Variations In the United Kingdom, the word ...
of the fourth hour of ''Today'' until 2019, preferring to carry an encore of the 11 p.m. newscast, paid programming, and a second run of ''Inside Edition''. Along with all other Post-Newsweek stations, WDIV refused to air any of NBC's televised poker programming, including ''
Poker After Dark ''Poker After Dark'' is an hour-long poker television program that originally aired on NBC, premiering on January 1, 2007.
'', the ''
National Heads-Up Poker Championship The National Heads-Up Poker Championship was an annual poker tournament held in the United States and produced by the NBC television network.
'' and '' Face the Ace''. From 1999 to 2002, WDIV did not clear the soap opera '' Passions'' at 2 p.m. Instead, it aired on WADL (channel 38) at noon on a day-behind basis, while WDIV aired daytime talk shows at 2 p.m.;
Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 ...
sister station
KPRC-TV KPRC-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Houston, Texas, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Graham Media Group. Its studios are located on Southwest Freeway (I-69/US 59) in the Southwest Management District (formerly Greater ...
did this as well until August 30, 2004, when it became the last NBC station to carry ''Passions'' at 2 p.m. These two stations were the only NBC affiliate holdouts to the show; the issue was rendered moot when NBC canceled the soap opera in 2007. Those same two NBC stations also never carried '' Sunset Beach''; the soap was seen on UPN affiliates
WKBD 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 ...
and KTXH, respectively. NBC programming is still occasionally preempted for special events, including the annual Ford Fireworks and America's Thanksgiving Parade (whose coverage, incidentally, preempts the live
Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is an annual parade in New York City presented by the U.S.-based department store chain Macy's. The Parade first took place in 1924, tying it for the second-oldest Thanksgiving parade in the United States wit ...
broadcast on the station, though it does carry the later tape-delayed broadcast) and on occasion, infomercials. Rebroadcasts of
movies A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmospher ...
from This TV also air several times a year in prime time on WDIV's main channel (usually on Saturday nights or immediately after
sweeps Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rati ...
periods so no new network programming is affected) to recover revenue from developing news and weather events where sustained coverage preempts commercials, and to fulfill "make goods" for local advertisers.


Local programs and personalities

WDIV was the launching pad for several locally produced shows that went national. The station broadcast the talk show ''Sonya'' (hosted by Dr. Sonya Freidman) live at 4 p.m. It was so popular that the station under the banner of Post-Newsweek Stations, syndicated it on a delayed basis to
USA Network USA Network (simply USA) is an American basic cable television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. It was originally launched in 1977 as Madi ...
(which is now co-owned with NBC under NBCUniversal). WDIV also produced the afternoon variety show ''The Tony Orlando Show'' at 4 p.m. However, the station's management canceled the program after one year to run the syndicated daytime talk show ''The Jenny Jones Show''. WDIV later signed
WOMC WOMC (104.3 FM, "104.3 WOMC") is a commercial radio station in Detroit, Michigan. It airs a classic hits radio format and is owned by Audacy, Inc. The transmitter and studios are both located on American Drive off 11 Mile Road in Southfield, M ...
(104.3 FM) morning radio host Dick Purtan to perform live segments during a 4–5 p.m. comedy block called ''Purtan's People''. It was followed by WOMC's Tom Ryan with a monthly special that showed
B-movie A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double feat ...
s with comedy skits (in which Ryan played a character known as ''Count Scary''). This was during the heyday of NBC's late-night success ''
Second City Television ''Second City Television'', commonly shortened to ''SCTV'' and later known as ''SCTV Network'' and ''SCTV Channel'', is a Canadian television sketch comedy show that ran intermittently between 1976 and 1984. It was created as an offshoot from T ...
'' and
Joe Flaherty Joseph Flaherty (born June 21, 1941) is an American actor, writer, and comedian. He is best known for his work on the Canadian sketch comedy '' SCTV'' from 1976 to 1984 (on which he also served as a writer), and as Harold Weir on '' Freaks and ...
's ''Count Floyd''. Eventually, ''Count Scary'' was dropped by WDIV and moved on to WKBD-TV (channel 50)'s ''Shocktoberfest''. One local program idea that almost cost the station was for a Detroit-based comedy-drama called ''Hamtramck'' which aired only once. It created a storm of controversy with the
Hamtramck Hamtramck ( ) is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 28,433. Hamtramck is surrounded by the city of Detroit except for a small portion that borders the fellow enclave city of Hi ...
/ Polish American community. The program's executive producer, Alan Frank, apologized to the community.
Meteorologist A meteorologist is a scientist who studies and works in the field of meteorology aiming to understand or predict Earth's atmospheric phenomena including the weather. Those who study meteorological phenomena are meteorologists in research, while t ...
Chuck Gaidica hosted the Michigan Lottery's game shows and his own show.
Sports director The title of sports director can refer to the director of a live sports broadcast. It can also refer to an individual at a television or radio station who is in charge of the sports department. Director {{Job-stub ...
Bernie Smilovitz also hosted a couple of shows including ''The Chuck and Bernie Show'' in which featured then Detroit Pistons coach
Chuck Daly Charles Jerome Daly (July 20, 1930 – May 9, 2009) was an American basketball head coach. He led the Detroit Pistons to two consecutive National Basketball Association (NBA) championships in 1989 and 1990—during the team's "Bad Boys" era—a ...
, and ''The Sparky and Bernie Show'' with Detroit Tigers manager
Sparky Anderson George Lee "Sparky" Anderson (February 22, 1934 – November 4, 2010) was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) player, coach, and manager. He managed the National League's Cincinnati Reds to the 1975 and 1976 championships, then added a third ...
. Smilovitz also hosted ''Bernie's Bloopers/Weekend at Bernie's''
blooper A blooper is a short clip from a film or video production, usually a deleted scene, containing a mistake made by a member of the cast or crew. It also refers to an error made during a live radio or TV broadcast or news report, usually in terms o ...
s specials.


Sports

WDIV was the over-the-air television flagship station of the Detroit Tigers, a relationship that lasted twenty seasons, from
1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...
to
1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nels ...
, and previously from
1947 It was the first year of the Cold War, which would last until 1991, ending with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Events January * January–February – Winter of 1946–47 in the United Kingdom: The worst snowfall in the country i ...
to 1952. During the majority of WDIV's second tenure as the Tigers' broadcast outlet,
Hall of Famers A hall, wall, or walk of fame is a list of individuals, achievements, or other entities, usually chosen by a group of electors, to mark their excellence or fame in their field. In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actual halls or muse ...
George Kell and Al Kaline served as play-by-play announcer and color analyst, respectively, on the telecasts. Bernie Smiltovitz hosted the station's pregame show, ''Tigers 'XX'' ( '84, '85, etc.) during most of WDIV's time as the TV home of the Tigers. As a result of the station's carriage of Tigers games (which usually ranged between 40 and 50 telecasts per season, the majority of them on weekends), WDIV preempted or rescheduled any affected NBC programming that was displaced. The station also carried any Tigers games when they were featured nationally as part of NBC's MLB coverage from its 1947 sign-on until
1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...
; this included
World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the Worl ...
victories in
1968 The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide. Events January–February * January 5 – " Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. * J ...
and
1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...
. WDIV and WDWB/WMYD shared the over-the-air broadcast rights to the Detroit Pistons, from
2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight ...
to
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; ...
. After the 2007–08 season, the Pistons' local telecasts became exclusive to Fox Sports Detroit. As the co-flagship of the Pistons' television network, WDIV was the local outlet that televised the " Malice in the Palace" between the Pistons and the
Indiana Pacers The Indiana Pacers are an American professional basketball team based in Indianapolis. The Pacers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The Pacers were first estab ...
on the night of November 19, 2004, which led to the most infamous brawl in NBA history near that game's conclusion; the station also aired any Pistons games via NBC's broadcast contract with the NBA from 1990 to 2002. The station has also carried the NFL's Detroit Lions, but not as an "official station" partner where it broadcast pre-season and team programming. From 1970 to
1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...
, via NBC's broadcast contract with the
American Football Conference The American Football Conference (AFC) is one of the two conferences of the National Football League (NFL), the highest professional level of American football in the United States. The AFC and its counterpart, the National Football Conference ...
, home interconference contests were aired on channel 4 (which included the Thanksgiving games in some years). Since
2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro votes to declare independence from Serbia; The 2006 ...
, Lions games are shown on the station as part of NBC's ''
Sunday Night Football Sunday Night Football may refer to: * ''NBC Sunday Night Football'', the Sunday night broadcast of American NFL games by NBC since 2006 * ''ESPN Sunday Night Football'', the Sunday night broadcast of American NFL games from 1987 to 2005 by ESPN * ...
'' package. Additionally, through NBC's broadcast contract with the NHL, Detroit Red Wings games were carried until the deal's end in
2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...
, including the team's winning run through the 2008 Stanley Cup Finals, though it often had to compete with CBC Television's CBET-DT across the river in Windsor, which also carries NHL playoff coverage.


News operation

WDIV-TV presently broadcasts 36½ hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with six hours each weekday, three hours on Saturdays and 3½ hours on Sundays). The station uses a Eurocopter A350 helicopter for newsgathering, which is also shared with WJBK and WXYZ-TV through a
Local News Service The name Local News Service refers to a variety of news resource share services all started in 2008 and 2009. It sometimes does not refer to a specific sharing service but to the category in general. Typically, these services include pooling video ...
agreement with those stations' respective owners
Fox Television Stations Fox Television Stations, LLC (FTS; alternately Fox Television Stations Group, LLC), is a group of television stations located within the United States, which are owned-and-operated by the Fox Broadcasting Company, a subsidiary of the Fox Co ...
and the E. W. Scripps Company. This helicopter features a completely digital HD video system and is quite noticeable from the ground with its large front camera pod and distinctive red paint (hence the callsign "Red Bird"). WDIV also purchases services from Metro Traffic, which provides traffic reporting from its analog SD video platform, aloft on a Bell 206 airframe. This helicopter is blue and white with a smaller camera pod. Both helicopters are operated by HeliInc, which provides aircraft services to broadcasters in many markets. WDIV's news department operates a fleet of 14 newsgathering vehicles, including 11 standard news ENG ( electronic news-gathering) Ford E350 vans with two-band digital microwave transmitters and video editing platforms. One of these trucks is a dual-purpose microwave truck and digital satellite uplink package. The station has one micro-ENG E150 van capable of rapid deployment short-range broadcasts and one additional satellite uplink vehicle with a much larger 1.8-meter antenna. On January 8, 2007, the station added a half-hour late afternoon newscast at 4 p.m. In the spring of 2007, WDIV received an RTNDA Edward R. Murrow Award, one of the highest honors in broadcast journalism. "The China Syndrome", reported and produced by Devin Scillian, was named Best Documentary. On August 19, 2007, starting with the 11 p.m. newscast, WDIV became the second television station in Detroit to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition. In August 2013, WDIV dropped its noon newscast and converted it into an online-only broadcast in order to attract viewers who are at work during that timeslot. Viewer demand resulted in the station relaunching the noon newscast on the television station on January 13, 2014. In August 2014, WDIV unveiled a new studio, designed in-house and constructed by the
Livonia, Michigan Livonia is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 95,535 at the 2020 census, which ranked it as Michigan's ninth most-populated municipality. Livonia is a part of Metro Detroit and is located about west of th ...
-based company EWI Worldwide. On November 11, 2016, Carmen Harlan retired after 38 years at the station to spend more time with her grandchildren. On September 12, 2022, WDIV expanded its noon newscast to a full hour full-time.


Notable current on-air staff

*
Devin Scillian Devin Scillian ( ; born January 11, 1963) is an American television journalist, musician and children's author. Broadcast career While still a student at the University of Kansas, Scillian began his television career at WIBW-TV in Topeka, Ka ...
– weeknights anchor


Notable former on-air staff

* Asa Aarons – consumer reporter (1990–1993, went to
WNBC WNBC (channel 4) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Linden, New Jersey–licensed Telemundo stati ...
in
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...
) * Asha Blake – weekend anchor/health reporter (1993–1996, went to
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 v ...
; later at
KWGN-TV KWGN-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Denver, Colorado, United States, airing programming from The CW. It is owned and operated by network majority owner Nexstar Media Group alongside Fox affiliate KDVR, channel 31 (and its Fort Collins ...
in
Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
and
KTLA KTLA (channel 5) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship of The CW. It is the largest directly owned property of the network's majority owner, Nexstar Media Group, and is the s ...
in
Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...
, now with
WFAA WFAA (channel 8) is a television station licensed to Dallas, Texas, United States, serving the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex as an affiliate of ABC. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside Decatur-licensed Estrella TV affiliate KMPX (channel 29), w ...
in
Dallas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...
Fort Worth Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. Accord ...
) *
Jim Brandstatter James Patrick Brandstatter (born ) is an American sports announcer. He was the radio play-by-play announcer for the Michigan Wolverines football team. He held the position of color commentator for the Detroit Lions for 31 years until the end o ...
– sports producer and reporter (1970s) * Doug Bruckner – reporter (now at '' Extra'') *
Mort Crim Mort Crim (born July 31, 1935) is an author and former broadcast journalist. Crim joined Channel 4 (soon to be named WDIV-TV) in Detroit in 1978. Crim stayed with the station 19 years before retiring from anchoring TV newscasts in 1997. Previously, ...
– news anchor/radio reporter (1978–1997, now runs Mort Crim Communications and spokesperson for Majic Windows) * Vince DeMentri – reporter (1993–1994, most recently at
WPIX WPIX (channel 11) is a television station in New York City. Owned by Mission Broadcasting, it is operated under a local marketing agreement (LMA) by Nexstar Media Group, making it a ''de facto'' owned-and-operated station and flagship of ...
in New York City) *
Carol Duvall Carol Duvall is host of the long-running ''The Carol Duvall Show'' which began on the HGTV network and later broadcast on the DIY Network. Her television career began on a children's show in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1951. A local radio station b ...
– television personality and noon anchor (1960s–1970s; left for
HGTV HGTV (an initialism for Home & Garden Television) is an American pay television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The network primarily broadcasts reality programming related to home improvement and real estate. As of February 2015, app ...
, now retired) *
Shon Gables Shon Gables is currently an evening news anchor with WANF in Atlanta Broadcasting career Gables worked as a news anchor at WCBS-TV in New York City. As co-anchor of ''CBS 2 News This Morning'' from 2003 to 2006, Gables covered many New York City ...
– morning anchor (2000–2003, left
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 City in April 2006; now with WFAA in Dallas–Fort Worth) * Chris Hansen – investigative reporter/anchor (1988–1993, later at
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 v ...
) *
Fran Harris Fran Harris (born March 12, 1965 in Dallas, Texas) is an American television personality, sportscaster, and former professional and college basketball player who has won championships in high school, in college, and in the Women's National Basket ...
– TV host and news personality (1950–1960s) * Fred Hickman – sports anchor (1984–1985, also worked at CNN and
ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
, now at WVLA-TV in Baton Rouge, LA) * Doug Hill – meteorologist (1980–1982, later at WJLA-TV in Washington, D.C., now deceased) *
Davey Marlin-Jones Davey Marlin-Jones (May 8, 1932 – March 2, 2004) was an American stage director, as well as a local television personality. He was born in Winchester, Indiana, and was known as a tireless advocate for the local stage and theatrical scene in the m ...
– film critic (1978–1987, also worked at WUSA in Washington, D.C.) (now deceased) * Fred McLeod – weekend sports anchor/host of ''Sports Final Edition'' on Sunday nights (1989–2006; later the TV play-by-play voice of the NBA's
Cleveland Cavaliers The Cleveland Cavaliers (often referred to as the Cavs) are an American professional basketball team based in Cleveland. The Cavaliers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central ...
, now deceased) * Dean Miller – news anchor (1970s), now deceased * Rob Parker – sports anchor, also co-host of ''Sports Final Edition'', now retired * Anne Thompson – reporter (1986–1997; now at NBC News as correspondent for ''
NBC Nightly News ''NBC Nightly News'' (titled as ''NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt'' for its weeknight broadcasts since June 22, 2015) is the flagship daily evening News broadcasting#Television, television news program for NBC News, the news division of the NB ...
'') * Reynolds Wolf – meteorologist (1999–2002, joined CNN; currently on
The Weather Channel The Weather Channel (TWC) is an American pay television channel owned by Weather Group, LLC, a subsidiary of Allen Media Group. The channel's headquarters are in Atlanta, Georgia. Launched on May 2, 1982, the channel broadcasts weather foreca ...
) * Van Earl Wright – sports anchor (1993–1996, was lead announcer of NBC's 2008 revival of '' American Gladiators'')


Technical information


Subchannels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed: WDIV's 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 ...
formally carried programming from NBC Weather Plus, which folded in November 2008. WDIV-TV also has a Mobile DTV feed of subchannel 4.1, labelled "Local 4", broadcasting at 1.83 Mbit/s. WDIV-DT2 is one of the few affiliates 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 ...
to have been affiliated with the network through most of its entire history, even as it was dropped in several other markets before
Allen Media Group Entertainment Studios, Inc., also known as Allen Media Group, is an American media and entertainment company based in Los Angeles. Owned and founded in 1993 by businessman Byron Allen, the company was initially involved in the production and d ...
purchased the network in 2021. On July 30, 2015, WDIV-TV became the market's affiliate for
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 ...
's MeTV network through their third subchannel. WDIV-DT3 is used as an overflow feed for network and syndicated programming if the latter is pre-empted by
breaking news Breaking news, interchangeably termed late-breaking news and also known as a special report or special coverage or news flash, is a current issue that broadcasters feel warrants the interruption of scheduled programming or current news in orde ...
and severe weather coverage on 4.1. On January 3, 2020, WDIV-TV activated a fourth subchannel, which broadcasts
Cozi TV Cozi TV (stylized on-air as COZI TV) is an American free-to-air television network owned by the NBC Owned Television Stations division of NBCUniversal. The network airs classic television series from the 1960s to the 2000s. The network ori ...
, a network owned by NBC's parent company
NBCUniversal NBCUniversal Media, LLC is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate corporation owned by Comcast and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States. NBCUniversal is primar ...
. This makes WDIV-TV the third station in the Detroit market to have been affiliated with Cozi TV, which was previously on WMYD and on WADL.


Analog-to-digital conversion

WDIV-TV signed on its digital high-definition signal on UHF 45 on March 1, 1999. The station shut down its analog signal over
VHF Very high frequency (VHF) is the ITU designation for the range of radio frequency electromagnetic waves (radio waves) from 30 to 300 megahertz (MHz), with corresponding wavelengths of ten meters to one meter. Frequencies immediately below VHF ...
channel 4 on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal continued to broadcast on its pre-transition
UHF Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter (on ...
channel 45. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former VHF analog channel 4. As part of the
SAFER Act In cryptography, SAFER (Secure And Fast Encryption Routine) is the name of a family of block ciphers designed primarily by James Massey (one of the designers of IDEA) on behalf of Cylink Corporation. The early SAFER K and SAFER SK designs share t ...
, WDIV kept its analog signal on the air until June 26 to inform viewers of the digital television transition through a loop of
public service announcement A public service announcement (PSA) is a message in the public interest disseminated by the media without charge to raise public awareness and change behavior. In the UK, they are generally called a public information film (PIF); in Hong Kong, ...
s from the
National Association of Broadcasters The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is a trade association and lobby group representing the interests of commercial and non-commercial over-the-air radio and television broadcasters in the United States. The NAB represents more than ...
. In March 2017, the station announced that it would move its physical RF channel to UHF channel 32.


Out-of-market coverage

WDIV's over-the-air signal can be picked up as far away as
Flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start ...
, Lapeer, and
Adrian Adrian is a form of the Latin given name Adrianus or Hadrianus. Its ultimate origin is most likely via the former river Adria from the Venetic and Illyrian word ''adur'', meaning "sea" or "water". The Adria was until the 8th century BC the mai ...
in Michigan, as well as
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, Ohio, Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnat ...
and even
London, Ontario London (pronounced ) is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, along the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor. The city had a population of 422,324 according to the 2021 Canadian census. London is at the confluence of the Thames River, approximat ...
. WDIV is also one of only three American stations that mention Windsor and London as among their primary viewing areas, alongside WMYD and WJBK. WDIV is carried on most cable providers in Southeast Michigan,
Southwestern Ontario Southwestern Ontario is a secondary region of Southern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario. It occupies most of the Ontario Peninsula bounded by Lake Huron, including Georgian Bay, to the north and northwest; the St. Clair River, Lake ...
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 ...
. It is also carried on several other Canadian cable providers including
Rogers Cable Rogers Cable Inc. is Canada's largest cable television service provider with about 2.25 million television customers, and over 930,000 Internet subscribers, primarily in Southern & Eastern Ontario, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador. R ...
in the
capital city A capital city or capital is the municipality holding primary status in a country, state, province, department, or other subnational entity, usually as its seat of the government. A capital is typically a city that physically encompasses t ...
of
Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the c ...
well away from the range of its signal. It is one of five Detroit area television stations seen in Canada on satellite provider Shaw Direct and was the original affiliate offered by CANCOM (now Shaw Broadcast Services) starting in September 1983. WDIV is also carried on some cable providers in the
Upper Peninsula of Michigan The Upper Peninsula of Michigan – also known as Upper Michigan or colloquially the U.P. – is the northern and more elevated of the two major landmasses that make up the U.S. state of Michigan; it is separated from the Lower Peninsula by ...
in communities such as Seney,
Republic A republic () is a " state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th ...
and Grand Marais. CANCOM/Shaw's carriage of WDIV stretches outside of Canada with cable carriage in places as varied as far northern
New York state New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. sta ...
(including Hammond and
Alexandria Bay Alexandria Bay is a village in Jefferson County, New York, United States, within the town of Alexandria. It is located in the Thousand Islands region of northern New York. The population of the village was 1,078 at the 2010 United States Census. I ...
), all of
Bermuda ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = National song , song = "Hail to Bermuda" , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , mapsize2 = , map_caption2 = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = , es ...
, parts of
Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived ...
and for a time in the early 1990s, some parts of
Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...
(with a delay).
Matt Lauer Matthew Todd Lauer (; born December 30, 1957) is an American former television news personality, best known for his work with NBC News. After serving as a local news personality in New York City on WNBC, his first national exposure was as the ne ...
, on NBC's ''
The Today Show ''Today'' (also called ''The Today Show'' or informally, ''NBC News Today'') is an American news and talk morning television show that airs weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on NBC. The program debuted on January 14, 1952. It ...
'' (May 2, 2007)
In addition, WDIV is carried on some cable providers in
Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...
, via Shaw Broadcast Services, such the
Cablemás Cablemás was a Mexican regional telecommunications company, owned by Grupo Televisa. The company had a triple play-based service, consisting on subscription television, phone line and broadband internet offered in a single package deal. The comp ...
system in
Ciudad Juárez Ciudad Juárez ( ; ''Juarez City''. ) is the most populous city in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. It is commonly referred to as Juárez and was known as El Paso del Norte (''The Pass of the North'') until 1888. Juárez is the seat of the Ju ...
, which offers WDIV instead of fellow NBC affiliate KTSM-TV in nearby
El Paso, Texas El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the seat of El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the 23rd-largest city in the U.S., the ...
. From 1985 to circa 1998, WDIV was the NBC affiliate carried by
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 province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...
including in St. John's before the provider switched to the network's
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 ...
affiliate WHDH (which was affiliated with NBC from 1995 to 2017). Coverage on cable providers outside the Detroit–Windsor market may be subject to syndication exclusivity and network blackouts in the United States and simsubbing in Canada.


See also

*
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 O ...


References


External links

*
Official ''This TV Detroit'' website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wdiv-Tv NBC network affiliates MeTV affiliates Cozi TV affiliates This TV affiliates DIV-TV Television channels and stations established in 1947 Graham Media Group 1947 establishments in Michigan National Hockey League over-the-air television broadcasters