WKBD
Encyclopedia
WKBD-TV, virtual channel
50 (digital
channel 14), (branded as CW 50) is an owned and operated
station of the CW Television Network
, based in Detroit, Michigan
. The station is owned and operated by the CBS Corporation
, and is one-half of a duopoly
with sister station WWJ-TV
(channel 62). Its studios and transmitters are located at 11 mile and Inkster Roads in Southfield, Michigan
. It currently operates with a power of 180 kW from a tower 1,000 foot in height but has filed an application to increase it to 370 kW.
WKBD-TV can be seen on most cable systems in south-east Michigan. It is carried as far north as Saginaw and Flint, and as far south as Findlay and Bowling Green, in Ohio. The WKBD-TV signal can be received over-the-air in the Flint and Lapeer areas. These areas are covered by WBSF
Channel 46 (CW) in Flint and "CW 50". In the past it also operated on cable in the West Michigan area as well including Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo.
in Milwaukee), WBID planned on broadcasting from the Cadillac Tower
in downtown Detroit. However, WBID never made it to the air—and neither did WTOH-TV in Toledo, Ohio
, Channel 79, another proposed station owned by Woodward Broadcasting. (Both WBID and WTOH planned on taking at least some programming from the failing DuMont Television Network
.) It would be another decade Detroiters would finally see programming on Channel 50.
, owned by industrialist Henry J. Kaiser
. It started as an all-sports station, predating ESPN
by some 14 years. It eventually became a typical UHF independent station running cartoons, sitcoms and old movies. WKBD has broadcasted in color since it first went on the air in 1965. Some locally produced programs such as Lou Gordon
were broadcast in black and white until the station upgraded to color studio cameras in the late 60's. (WKBD briefly went network in the spring of 1967, when it became the Detroit affiliate of the short-lived United Network
.) For many years it had an afternoon movie hosted by Detroit legend Bill Kennedy
. WKBD also produced a hard-hitting weekly talk show, The Lou Gordon Program, which was seen between the late 1960s through 1977 on all Kaiser stations (and a few non-Kaiser outlets). However, sports remained a central part of WKBD's schedule, and it was the over-the-air home for Red Wings hockey
and Pistons basketball
for many years, as well as Tigers baseball
for a decade.
, which owned WFLD-TV in Chicago
, bought a minority interest in Kaiser in 1972. Field bought the remainder of Kaiser's shares in 1977. Two years later, the station added the -TV suffix to its legal call sign. By then, WKBD was one of the leading independent stations in the country, running a typical schedule of cartoons, off-network sitcoms and old movies. Channel 50 was carried on cable systems throughout Michigan, even deep into the Upper Peninsula. At one point in the early 1980s, WKBD was the only independent station running a full time schedule of entertainment.
In 1982, Field put all its stations up for sale. However, Field had a difficult time selling WKBD-TV for the amount of money it wanted, despite its success. As a result Field was forced to hold onto channel 50 for almost two years. In late 1983, Cox Enterprises
offered to buy the station, which they did on January 30, 1984. Shortly thereafter, the station dropped the -TV suffix, becoming simply WKBD once again. The programming remained the same as before, with one notable exception: in the late 1980s WKBD began airing Late Night with David Letterman
when NBC
affiliate WDIV (channel 4) declined to clear it. This mirrored a similar situation in the mid 1970s when then-WWJ (currently WDIV) declined to air Saturday Night Live
. The first two seasons of the show originally aired in the Detroit market on WKBD.
network, later adopting the name Fox 50. However, for much of its run as a Fox station it was still programmed essentially as an independent. Owing to its large cable footprint, it was the default Fox affiliate for the Traverse City/Cadillac
/Sault Sainte Marie and Marquette
markets as well.
Channel 50 was later sold to the Paramount Stations Group
in June 1993 (the station group's owners at the time, Paramount Communications - previously Gulf+Western
- actually began as a small company located in Michigan). Even though WKBD was one of Fox's strongest affiliates, it lost the Fox affiliation to WJBK-TV (channel 2), Detroit's longtime CBS
affiliate, on December 11, 1994. This was a result of WJBK's owner, New World Communications
, making a group deal with Fox to switch the affiliation of nearly all of its stations to Fox (which then bought most New World stations in 1997).
WKBD briefly went independent again until January 1995, when it became Detroit's UPN
Owned-and-operated station
through Paramount's stake in that new network. It was the first network O&O in Detroit in ten years since ABC sold off WXYZ-TV
to Scripps, predating the sale of WGPR (now WWJ-TV
) to CBS in 1995. Channel 50's programming was unchanged from its days as a Fox affiliate except for the Prime time
programming provided by UPN. Eventually, the older sitcoms were replaced with more first-run syndicated
talk or reality shows. Fox Kids
stayed on WKBD until 1998, when it moved to WADL
(channel 38). WKBD continued to maintain a morning/afternoon cartoon block that became the "UPN Kids Disney
Block" until UPN ended cartoons in the Fall of 2003.
In 2000, Paramount's post-1994 parent Viacom
acquired CBS, a move that united channel 50 with WWJ-TV
channel 62, which CBS acquired in 1995 after losing its affiliation contract with WJBK. After the merger, WWJ-TV moved from its facilities in downtown Detroit to WKBD's Southfield
studios. Unlike the other CBS/UPN (and later CBS/CW) duopolies, WKBD is the senior partner.
networks announced they would merge into a single network called the CW
, to be owned jointly by CBS and the Warner Bros. Television
unit of Time Warner
. On the same day, the new network signed a 10-year affiliation deal with 11 of CBS' UPN stations, including WKBD. However, it is likely that WKBD would have been chosen over WB affiliate WDWB (now WMYD
) in any event, as it was the higher-rated station. WKBD continued to carry UPN programming until September 15, 2006, when UPN ceased operations. The CW commenced operations on September 18, 2006. Today, WKBD has a format primarily of first-run syndicated talk, courtroom and reality shows, some recent off-network sitcoms and CW first-run programming in prime time. Effective July 9, 2009, the station's legal call sign became WKBD-TV once again.
facility in January, 2001. As part of the analog television shutdown and digital conversion, WKBD-TV shut down its analog transmitter on June 12, 2009, and continued to broadcast on its pre-transition digital channel 14. However, through the use of PSIP
, digital television receivers display WKBD-TV's virtual channel
as 50.
in Chicago. In 1968, WKBD began newscasts at 10PM.
For much of its existence under Cox, Paramount and Viacom, WKBD produced the only television newscast in Detroit at 10 p.m. Originally a half-hour program, "The Ten O'Clock News" expanded to a full hour in 1989. After going through several name changes to coincide with the changes in ownership and network affiliations over the years, in December 2002 UPN Detroit Nightside was cancelled after nearly 15 years on the air, along with the 62 CBS Eyewitness News
at 11 which aired on sister station WWJ-TV. WXYZ-TV
, Detroit's ABC affiliate, agreed to continue producing a 10 p.m news for WKBD using WXYZ's studio and staff along with some of the former WKBD staff, but many long-time Channel 50 employees simply lost their jobs. This arrangement ended in 2005 and WKBD no longer broadcasts news at 10 p.m. The time slot was filled with off-network syndicated shows, such as repeats of sitcoms like The King Of Queens
and According to Jim
. On February 7, 2011, "First Forecast Mornings" premiered in the 7-9am time slot. The live program showcases weather, traffic and news headlines and is an updated version of the same program airing from 5-7am on sister station WWJ-TV
.
Tara Wall
, now a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee
, is a former WKBD news reporter and former host of the public affairs program "Street Beat". This program is now hosted by Detroit Free Press columnist Carol Cain and airs every other Sunday morning.
hockey telecasts from 1965 to 2003, with a 2-year hiatus in the '80s when they were on another station. Detroit Tigers
baseball games were broadcast on the station from 1994 to 2005, while Detroit Pistons
basketball games were broadcast from 1972 to May 2004. Detroit Lions
preseason football was broadcast 1992 to 1996 and again from 2004 to 2008. The station also produced occasional Pre- and Post-game shows for all four professional teams. WKBD aired special coverage of the Red Wings' Stanley Cup Celebration and parade ceremonies in 1997 and 1998, as well as carrying the final Tigers game played at Tiger Stadium on September 27, 1999. WMYD held the rights to the Pistons from 2004–2008, and WJBK occasionally aired Tigers games from 2004-2007. All three teams are now exclusively on Fox Sports Detroit
. WKBD was Detroit's first FOX
affiliate, from 1986-1994 (for much of the 1994 NFL season
, WKBD was the primary station for the Lions; the team's last game on WKBD was the December 10 game at the New York Jets
, with the games moving back to WJBK the next week).
On occasion (and regularly during preseason games), WKBD produced broadcasts of Detroit Lions
football games, as well as Detroit Pistons
basketball games, until the late 1980s when the Pistons decided to produce and distribute the games itself, with WKBD responsible for advertising. Both were simulcasted to other stations across Michigan, on a select list of affiliate stations.
On April 16, 2008, it was announced that its sister station, CBS O&O WWJ TV, will be the new home of Detroit Lions exhibition games. The departure of long time sports producer Toby Cunningham (a part of CBS' budget cuts at all its O&Os) closes the book on the storied history of sports coverage by WKBD. WWJ-TV broadcasted preseason Lions games until 2010, when WXYZ-TV was signed as their new flagship station.
, Southwestern Ontario
, and Northwest Ohio
. Outside of the Detroit area, however, most programming on WKBD is subject to Syndex territorial restrictions placed on cable systems by the local TV rights holders. During the affected programming, cable systems either switch to another channel, or place a text notice on the screen that says something like: "This channel is being blacked out due to FCC regulations."
In 1994, when Fox switched in Detroit from WKBD to WJBK, many Michigan cable systems outside the Detroit area replaced WKBD with WGKI
from Cadillac, in order to keep Fox available in the Upper Peninsula. However, in areas where Fox was already available locally, mainly in the southern and central Michigan markets (especially the Tri-Cities), much of WGKI's programming was blacked out. In 1996, some systems that dropped WKBD for WGKI brought WKBD back.
Following the launch of The CW, WKBD began to be dropped from cable systems outside of the Detroit market, in favor of local or nearest CW or MyNetworkTV affiliates. Coverage on cable systems outside the Detroit / Windsor market may be subject to SyndEx
and network blackouts
in the United States.
Virtual channel
In telecommunications, a logical channel number , also known as virtual channel, is a channel designation which differs from that of the actual radio channel on which the signal travels....
50 (digital
Digital terrestrial television
Digital terrestrial television is the technological evolution of broadcast television and advance from analog television, which broadcasts land-based signals...
channel 14), (branded as CW 50) is an owned and operated
Owned-and-operated television stations in the United States
In the United States, owned-and-operated television stations constitute only a portion of their parent television networks, due to an ownership limit imposed by the Federal Communications Commission...
station of the CW Television Network
The CW Television Network
The CW Television Network is a television network in the United States launched at the beginning of the 2006–2007 television season. It is a joint venture between CBS Corporation, the former owners of United Paramount Network , and Time Warner's Warner Bros., former majority owner of The WB...
, based in Detroit, Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
. The station is owned and operated by the CBS Corporation
CBS Corporation
CBS Corporation is an American media conglomerate focused on commercial broadcasting, publishing, billboards and television production, with most of its operations in the United States. The President and CEO of the company is Leslie Moonves. Sumner Redstone, owner of National Amusements, is CBS's...
, and is one-half of a duopoly
Duopoly (broadcasting)
In United States broadcast television and radio, duopoly is a term used to describe a single company which owns two or more stations in the same city or community....
with sister station WWJ-TV
WWJ-TV
WWJ-TV, virtual channel 62 , is the CBS-owned and operated television station in Detroit, Michigan. It is co-owned with Detroit's CW station, WKBD-TV , and the two stations share a studio in Southfield, Michigan, a Detroit suburb....
(channel 62). Its studios and transmitters are located at 11 mile and Inkster Roads in Southfield, Michigan
Southfield, Michigan
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which 0.04% is water. The main branch of the River Rouge runs through Southfield. The city is bounded to the south by Eight Mile Road, its western border is Inkster Road, and to the east it is bounded by Greenfield Road...
. It currently operates with a power of 180 kW from a tower 1,000 foot in height but has filed an application to increase it to 370 kW.
WKBD-TV can be seen on most cable systems in south-east Michigan. It is carried as far north as Saginaw and Flint, and as far south as Findlay and Bowling Green, in Ohio. The WKBD-TV signal can be received over-the-air in the Flint and Lapeer areas. These areas are covered by WBSF
WBSF
WBSF is the CW-affiliated television station for the Flint/Tri-Cities market that is licensed to Bay City. Owned by Barrington Broadcasting, the station is sister to NBC affiliate WEYI-TV and the two share studios on West Willard Road in Vienna Township along the Genesee and Saginaw County line...
Channel 46 (CW) in Flint and "CW 50". In the past it also operated on cable in the West Michigan area as well including Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo.
An early BID fails
Channel 50 in Detroit was originally allocated to WBID-TV in 1955. Owned by Max Osnos' Woodward Broadcasting (who also owned WITIWITI
WITI, virtual channel 6.1 , is the Fox-affiliated television station serving the Milwaukee, Wisconsin designated market area. The station is owned by Local TV LLC, the media arm of private equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners, with its studios are located in Brown Deer and its transmitter is...
in Milwaukee), WBID planned on broadcasting from the Cadillac Tower
Cadillac Tower
Cadillac Tower is a Beaux Arts skyscraper designed by the architectural firm of Bonnah & Chaffee located at 65 Cadillac Square in downtown Detroit, Michigan, not far from the Renaissance Center. The building's materials include terra cotta and brick. It was built in 1927 as the Barlum Tower and has...
in downtown Detroit. However, WBID never made it to the air—and neither did WTOH-TV in Toledo, Ohio
Toledo, Ohio
Toledo is the fourth most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Lucas County. Toledo is in northwest Ohio, on the western end of Lake Erie, and borders the State of Michigan...
, Channel 79, another proposed station owned by Woodward Broadcasting. (Both WBID and WTOH planned on taking at least some programming from the failing DuMont Television Network
DuMont Television Network
The DuMont Television Network, also known as the DuMont Network, DuMont, Du Mont, or Dumont was one of the world's pioneer commercial television networks, rivalling NBC for the distinction of being first overall. It began operation in the United States in 1946. It was owned by DuMont...
.) It would be another decade Detroiters would finally see programming on Channel 50.
1960s
WKBD first went on the air on January 10, 1965, under the ownership of Kaiser BroadcastingKaiser Broadcasting
Kaiser Broadcasting was the name of an entity that owned and operated broadcast television stations in the United States from 1958 to 1977.-History:...
, owned by industrialist Henry J. Kaiser
Henry J. Kaiser
Henry John Kaiser was an American industrialist who became known as the father of modern American shipbuilding. He established the Kaiser Shipyard which built Liberty ships during World War II, after which he formed Kaiser Aluminum and Kaiser Steel. Kaiser organized Kaiser Permanente health care...
. It started as an all-sports station, predating ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
by some 14 years. It eventually became a typical UHF independent station running cartoons, sitcoms and old movies. WKBD has broadcasted in color since it first went on the air in 1965. Some locally produced programs such as Lou Gordon
Lou Gordon (television commentator)
Lou Gordon was a television commentator and talk show host, newspaper columnist, radio host, and influential political reporter. Gordon was known as a flamboyant, irreverent, and controversial interviewer, based in Detroit, Michigan...
were broadcast in black and white until the station upgraded to color studio cameras in the late 60's. (WKBD briefly went network in the spring of 1967, when it became the Detroit affiliate of the short-lived United Network
Overmyer Network
The Overmyer Network was a short-lived television network. It was intended to be a fourth national network in the United States, competing with the Big Three television networks. The network was founded by self-made millionaire Daniel H. Overmyer, who built five UHF stations from 1965-67...
.) For many years it had an afternoon movie hosted by Detroit legend Bill Kennedy
Bill Kennedy (actor)
Willard "Bill" Kennedy was an American actor, voice artist, and host of the long-running Detroit-based television show, Bill Kennedy at the Movies. He began his career as a staff announcer in radio; Kennedy's voice narrates the opening of the television series Adventures of...
. WKBD also produced a hard-hitting weekly talk show, The Lou Gordon Program, which was seen between the late 1960s through 1977 on all Kaiser stations (and a few non-Kaiser outlets). However, sports remained a central part of WKBD's schedule, and it was the over-the-air home for Red Wings hockey
Detroit Red Wings
The Detroit Red Wings are a professional ice hockey team based in Detroit, Michigan. They are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League , and are one of the Original Six teams of the NHL, along with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens, New York...
and Pistons basketball
Detroit Pistons
The Detroit Pistons are a franchise of the National Basketball Association based in Auburn Hills, Michigan. The team's home arena is The Palace of Auburn Hills. It was originally founded in Fort Wayne, Indiana as the Fort Wayne Pistons as a member of the National Basketball League in 1941, where...
for many years, as well as Tigers baseball
Detroit Tigers
The Detroit Tigers are a Major League Baseball team located in Detroit, Michigan. One of the American League's eight charter franchises, the club was founded in Detroit in as part of the Western League. The Tigers have won four World Series championships and have won the American League pennant...
for a decade.
Changes in the 1970s and '80s
Field CommunicationsField Communications
Field Communications was a division of Field Enterprises, which owned the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Daily News. The company owned independent television stations in the United States, with WFLD-TV in Chicago as its largest-market station....
, which owned WFLD-TV in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, bought a minority interest in Kaiser in 1972. Field bought the remainder of Kaiser's shares in 1977. Two years later, the station added the -TV suffix to its legal call sign. By then, WKBD was one of the leading independent stations in the country, running a typical schedule of cartoons, off-network sitcoms and old movies. Channel 50 was carried on cable systems throughout Michigan, even deep into the Upper Peninsula. At one point in the early 1980s, WKBD was the only independent station running a full time schedule of entertainment.
In 1982, Field put all its stations up for sale. However, Field had a difficult time selling WKBD-TV for the amount of money it wanted, despite its success. As a result Field was forced to hold onto channel 50 for almost two years. In late 1983, Cox Enterprises
Cox Enterprises
Cox Enterprises is the successor to the publishing company founded in Dayton, Ohio, United States, by James Middleton Cox, who began with the Dayton Daily News. He was the Democratic candidate for the President of the United States in the election of 1920...
offered to buy the station, which they did on January 30, 1984. Shortly thereafter, the station dropped the -TV suffix, becoming simply WKBD once again. The programming remained the same as before, with one notable exception: in the late 1980s WKBD began airing Late Night with David Letterman
Late Night with David Letterman
Late Night with David Letterman is a nightly hour-long comedy talk show on NBC that was created and hosted by David Letterman. It premiered in 1982 as the first incarnation of the Late Night franchise and went off the air in 1993, after Letterman left NBC and moved to Late Show on CBS. Late Night...
when NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
affiliate WDIV (channel 4) declined to clear it. This mirrored a similar situation in the mid 1970s when then-WWJ (currently WDIV) declined to air Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
. The first two seasons of the show originally aired in the Detroit market on WKBD.
From Fox to UPN
In 1986, channel 50 became a charter affiliate of the FoxFox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
network, later adopting the name Fox 50. However, for much of its run as a Fox station it was still programmed essentially as an independent. Owing to its large cable footprint, it was the default Fox affiliate for the Traverse City/Cadillac
Cadillac, Michigan
Cadillac is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and is the county seat of Wexford County. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 10,000. The city is situated at the junction of US 131, M-55 and M-115...
/Sault Sainte Marie and Marquette
Marquette, Michigan
Marquette is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Marquette County. The population was 21,355 at the 2010 census, making it the most populated city of the Upper Peninsula. Marquette is a major port on Lake Superior, primarily for shipping iron ore and is the home of Northern...
markets as well.
Channel 50 was later sold to the Paramount Stations Group
Paramount Stations Group
Paramount Stations Group was a television broadcasting company that was renamed from the TVX Broadcast Group in 1991 after Paramount Pictures gained full ownership of the group. At the time, it owned several Fox affiliates and independent stations...
in June 1993 (the station group's owners at the time, Paramount Communications - previously Gulf+Western
Gulf+Western
Gulf and Western Industries, Inc., for a number of years known as Gulf+Western, was an American conglomerate.- History :Gulf and Western's prosaic origins date to a manufacturer named Michigan Bumper Co. founded in 1934, though Charles Bluhdorn treated his 1958 takeover of what was then Michigan...
- actually began as a small company located in Michigan). Even though WKBD was one of Fox's strongest affiliates, it lost the Fox affiliation to WJBK-TV (channel 2), Detroit's longtime CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
affiliate, on December 11, 1994. This was a result of WJBK's owner, New World Communications
New World Communications
New World Pictures was an independent motion picture and television production company, and later television station owner in the United States from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s...
, making a group deal with Fox to switch the affiliation of nearly all of its stations to Fox (which then bought most New World stations in 1997).
WKBD briefly went independent again until January 1995, when it became Detroit's UPN
UPN
United Paramount Network was a television network that was broadcast in over 200 markets in the United States from 1995 to 2006. UPN was originally owned by Viacom/Paramount and Chris-Craft Industries, the former of which, through the Paramount Television Group, produced most of the network's...
Owned-and-operated station
Owned-and-operated station
In the broadcasting industry , an owned-and-operated station usually refers to a television station or radio station that is owned by the network with which it is associated...
through Paramount's stake in that new network. It was the first network O&O in Detroit in ten years since ABC sold off WXYZ-TV
WXYZ-TV
WXYZ-TV, channel 7, is an ABC-affiliated television station in Detroit, Michigan, USA. WXYZ-TV is owned by the E.W. Scripps Company, and is the media company's largest-market TV station property...
to Scripps, predating the sale of WGPR (now WWJ-TV
WWJ-TV
WWJ-TV, virtual channel 62 , is the CBS-owned and operated television station in Detroit, Michigan. It is co-owned with Detroit's CW station, WKBD-TV , and the two stations share a studio in Southfield, Michigan, a Detroit suburb....
) to CBS in 1995. Channel 50's programming was unchanged from its days as a Fox affiliate except for the Prime time
Prime time
Prime time or primetime is the block of broadcast programming during the middle of the evening for television programing.The term prime time is often defined in terms of a fixed time period—for example, from 19:00 to 22:00 or 20:00 to 23:00 Prime time or primetime is the block of broadcast...
programming provided by UPN. Eventually, the older sitcoms were replaced with more first-run syndicated
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
talk or reality shows. Fox Kids
Fox Kids
Fox Kids was the Fox Broadcasting Company's American children's programming division and brand name from September 8, 1990 until September 7, 2002. It was owned by Fox Television Entertainment airing programming on Monday–Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings.Depending on the show, the...
stayed on WKBD until 1998, when it moved to WADL
WADL (TV)
WADL Channel 38 is a full-power, commercially licensed broadcast television station in the Midwestern United States. As an independent television station licensed to the town of Mount Clemens, Michigan, the station serves the entire Detroit metropolitan area. The station also serves most of the...
(channel 38). WKBD continued to maintain a morning/afternoon cartoon block that became the "UPN Kids Disney
Walt Disney Television
Walt Disney Television was the former name of the television production division of The Walt Disney Company.-History:It was formed in 1983, as the Walt Disney Pictures Television Division, the name was later shortened to Walt Disney Television in the mid-1980s...
Block" until UPN ended cartoons in the Fall of 2003.
In 2000, Paramount's post-1994 parent Viacom
Viacom
Viacom Inc. , short for "Video & Audio Communications", is an American media conglomerate with interests primarily in, but not limited to, cinema and cable television...
acquired CBS, a move that united channel 50 with WWJ-TV
WWJ-TV
WWJ-TV, virtual channel 62 , is the CBS-owned and operated television station in Detroit, Michigan. It is co-owned with Detroit's CW station, WKBD-TV , and the two stations share a studio in Southfield, Michigan, a Detroit suburb....
channel 62, which CBS acquired in 1995 after losing its affiliation contract with WJBK. After the merger, WWJ-TV moved from its facilities in downtown Detroit to WKBD's Southfield
Southfield, Michigan
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which 0.04% is water. The main branch of the River Rouge runs through Southfield. The city is bounded to the south by Eight Mile Road, its western border is Inkster Road, and to the east it is bounded by Greenfield Road...
studios. Unlike the other CBS/UPN (and later CBS/CW) duopolies, WKBD is the senior partner.
The CW in Detroit
On January 24, 2006, the UPN and WBThe WB Television Network
The WB Television Network is a former television network in the United States that was launched on January 11, 1995 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. and Tribune Broadcasting. On January 24, 2006, CBS Corporation and Warner Bros...
networks announced they would merge into a single network called the CW
The CW Television Network
The CW Television Network is a television network in the United States launched at the beginning of the 2006–2007 television season. It is a joint venture between CBS Corporation, the former owners of United Paramount Network , and Time Warner's Warner Bros., former majority owner of The WB...
, to be owned jointly by CBS and the Warner Bros. Television
Warner Bros. Television
Warner Bros. Television is the television production arm of Warner Bros. Entertainment, itself part of Time Warner. Alongside CBS Television Studios, it serves as a television production arm of The CW Television Network , though it also produces shows for other networks, such as Shameless on...
unit of Time Warner
Time Warner
Time Warner is one of the world's largest media companies, headquartered in the Time Warner Center in New York City. Formerly two separate companies, Warner Communications, Inc...
. On the same day, the new network signed a 10-year affiliation deal with 11 of CBS' UPN stations, including WKBD. However, it is likely that WKBD would have been chosen over WB affiliate WDWB (now WMYD
WMYD
WMYD is the MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station for Southeast Michigan licensed to Detroit. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 21 from a transmitter on Eight Mile Road in Oak Park along the Oakland and Wayne County line. The station can also be seen on Comcast...
) in any event, as it was the higher-rated station. WKBD continued to carry UPN programming until September 15, 2006, when UPN ceased operations. The CW commenced operations on September 18, 2006. Today, WKBD has a format primarily of first-run syndicated talk, courtroom and reality shows, some recent off-network sitcoms and CW first-run programming in prime time. Effective July 9, 2009, the station's legal call sign became WKBD-TV once again.
Digital television
WKBD was first licensed for its digitalDigital terrestrial television
Digital terrestrial television is the technological evolution of broadcast television and advance from analog television, which broadcasts land-based signals...
facility in January, 2001. As part of the analog television shutdown and digital conversion, WKBD-TV shut down its analog transmitter on June 12, 2009, and continued to broadcast on its pre-transition digital channel 14. However, through the use of PSIP
Program and System Information Protocol
The Program and System Information Protocol is the protocol used in the ATSC digital television system for carrying metadata about each channel in the broadcast MPEG transport stream of a TV station and for publishing information about television programs so that viewers can select what to watch...
, digital television receivers display WKBD-TV's virtual channel
Virtual channel
In telecommunications, a logical channel number , also known as virtual channel, is a channel designation which differs from that of the actual radio channel on which the signal travels....
as 50.
Newscasts and public affairs programming
Under Field Communications ownership, WKBD aired a brief newscast at various times of the day, typically called Newscene (or alternately News Scene), similar to that of other Field-owned stations at the time, such as WFLDWFLD
WFLD, virtual channel 32 , is the Fox owned-and-operated television station, based in Chicago, Illinois; through its parent company News Corporation, the station is owned in a duopoly with area MyNetworkTV affiliate WPWR-TV...
in Chicago. In 1968, WKBD began newscasts at 10PM.
For much of its existence under Cox, Paramount and Viacom, WKBD produced the only television newscast in Detroit at 10 p.m. Originally a half-hour program, "The Ten O'Clock News" expanded to a full hour in 1989. After going through several name changes to coincide with the changes in ownership and network affiliations over the years, in December 2002 UPN Detroit Nightside was cancelled after nearly 15 years on the air, along with the 62 CBS Eyewitness News
Eyewitness News
Eyewitness News is a style of news broadcasting used by local television stations in different markets across the United States. It refers to a particular style of television newscast with an emphasis on visual elements and action video...
at 11 which aired on sister station WWJ-TV. WXYZ-TV
WXYZ-TV
WXYZ-TV, channel 7, is an ABC-affiliated television station in Detroit, Michigan, USA. WXYZ-TV is owned by the E.W. Scripps Company, and is the media company's largest-market TV station property...
, Detroit's ABC affiliate, agreed to continue producing a 10 p.m news for WKBD using WXYZ's studio and staff along with some of the former WKBD staff, but many long-time Channel 50 employees simply lost their jobs. This arrangement ended in 2005 and WKBD no longer broadcasts news at 10 p.m. The time slot was filled with off-network syndicated shows, such as repeats of sitcoms like The King Of Queens
The King of Queens
The King of Queens is an American sitcom that originally ran on CBS from September 21, 1998, to May 14, 2007.This show was produced by Hanley Productions and CBS Productions , CBS Paramount Television ,and CBS Television Studios in association with Columbia TriStar Television , and Sony Pictures...
and According to Jim
According to Jim
According to Jim is an American sitcom television series starring Jim Belushi in the title role as a suburban father of three children. It originally ran on ABC from October 3, 2001 to June 2, 2009.-Synopsis:Jim is an abrasive but lovable suburban father...
. On February 7, 2011, "First Forecast Mornings" premiered in the 7-9am time slot. The live program showcases weather, traffic and news headlines and is an updated version of the same program airing from 5-7am on sister station WWJ-TV
WWJ-TV
WWJ-TV, virtual channel 62 , is the CBS-owned and operated television station in Detroit, Michigan. It is co-owned with Detroit's CW station, WKBD-TV , and the two stations share a studio in Southfield, Michigan, a Detroit suburb....
.
Tara Wall
Tara Wall
Tara Wall is a columnist and deputy editorial page editor for The Washington Times. She is also a CNN political contributor. Tara is a former newscaster, Republican National Committee senior advisor and George W. Bush appointee....
, now a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee
Republican National Committee
The Republican National Committee is an American political committee that provides national leadership for the Republican Party of the United States. It is responsible for developing and promoting the Republican political platform, as well as coordinating fundraising and election strategy. It is...
, is a former WKBD news reporter and former host of the public affairs program "Street Beat". This program is now hosted by Detroit Free Press columnist Carol Cain and airs every other Sunday morning.
Newscast titles
- TV-50 Newscene (1970s-1980s)
- TV-50 Ten O'Clock News (1980s-1995)
- UPN 50 Ten O'Clock News (1995–2002)
- UPN Detroit Nightside (2002)
- UPN Detroit Action News (produced by WXYZ-TVWXYZ-TVWXYZ-TV, channel 7, is an ABC-affiliated television station in Detroit, Michigan, USA. WXYZ-TV is owned by the E.W. Scripps Company, and is the media company's largest-market TV station property...
; 2002–2004)
Station slogans
- In Detroit, The Choice Is Yours, on TV 50 (1978–1983; local version of Field Communications O&O ad campaign)
- A Good Hour Ahead (used for news promotion 1989-1992)
- Your Ten O’Clock News Station (1996–1997)
- Straight To The Point (used for news promotion 1998-2004)
- You’ll Find Your Friends (1998–2000)
- It’s One Hot Number (2000–2001)
- Big (2001–2002)
- It’s All About U (2004–2005; reference to former UPN affiliation)
- U Got It! (2005–2006; reference to former UPN affiliation)
- Free To Be (2006–2007; also the slogan for The CW)
- Contagious Watching (2007–2009)
- Made in Michigan (2009–present)
Sports
WKBD produced and broadcast Detroit Red WingsDetroit Red Wings
The Detroit Red Wings are a professional ice hockey team based in Detroit, Michigan. They are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League , and are one of the Original Six teams of the NHL, along with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens, New York...
hockey telecasts from 1965 to 2003, with a 2-year hiatus in the '80s when they were on another station. Detroit Tigers
Detroit Tigers
The Detroit Tigers are a Major League Baseball team located in Detroit, Michigan. One of the American League's eight charter franchises, the club was founded in Detroit in as part of the Western League. The Tigers have won four World Series championships and have won the American League pennant...
baseball games were broadcast on the station from 1994 to 2005, while Detroit Pistons
Detroit Pistons
The Detroit Pistons are a franchise of the National Basketball Association based in Auburn Hills, Michigan. The team's home arena is The Palace of Auburn Hills. It was originally founded in Fort Wayne, Indiana as the Fort Wayne Pistons as a member of the National Basketball League in 1941, where...
basketball games were broadcast from 1972 to May 2004. Detroit Lions
Detroit Lions
The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit, Michigan. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League , and play their home games at Ford Field in Downtown Detroit.Originally based in Portsmouth, Ohio and...
preseason football was broadcast 1992 to 1996 and again from 2004 to 2008. The station also produced occasional Pre- and Post-game shows for all four professional teams. WKBD aired special coverage of the Red Wings' Stanley Cup Celebration and parade ceremonies in 1997 and 1998, as well as carrying the final Tigers game played at Tiger Stadium on September 27, 1999. WMYD held the rights to the Pistons from 2004–2008, and WJBK occasionally aired Tigers games from 2004-2007. All three teams are now exclusively on Fox Sports Detroit
Fox Sports Detroit
Fox Sports Detroit , is a regional sports network that covers local sports teams in the state of Michigan, mostly those in the Metro Detroit area. It is an owned and operated affiliate of Fox Sports Net...
. WKBD was Detroit's first FOX
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
affiliate, from 1986-1994 (for much of the 1994 NFL season
1994 NFL season
The 1994 NFL season was the 75th regular season of the National Football League. To honor the NFL's 75th season, a special anniversary logo was designed and each player wore a patch on their jerseys with this logo throughout the season...
, WKBD was the primary station for the Lions; the team's last game on WKBD was the December 10 game at the New York Jets
New York Jets
The New York Jets are a professional football team headquartered in Florham Park, New Jersey, representing the New York metropolitan area. The team is a member of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
, with the games moving back to WJBK the next week).
On occasion (and regularly during preseason games), WKBD produced broadcasts of Detroit Lions
Detroit Lions
The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit, Michigan. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League , and play their home games at Ford Field in Downtown Detroit.Originally based in Portsmouth, Ohio and...
football games, as well as Detroit Pistons
Detroit Pistons
The Detroit Pistons are a franchise of the National Basketball Association based in Auburn Hills, Michigan. The team's home arena is The Palace of Auburn Hills. It was originally founded in Fort Wayne, Indiana as the Fort Wayne Pistons as a member of the National Basketball League in 1941, where...
basketball games, until the late 1980s when the Pistons decided to produce and distribute the games itself, with WKBD responsible for advertising. Both were simulcasted to other stations across Michigan, on a select list of affiliate stations.
On April 16, 2008, it was announced that its sister station, CBS O&O WWJ TV, will be the new home of Detroit Lions exhibition games. The departure of long time sports producer Toby Cunningham (a part of CBS' budget cuts at all its O&Os) closes the book on the storied history of sports coverage by WKBD. WWJ-TV broadcasted preseason Lions games until 2010, when WXYZ-TV was signed as their new flagship station.
Out-of-market cable coverage
WKBD is available on many cable systems in Southeast MichiganSoutheast Michigan
Southeast Michigan, also called Southeastern Michigan, is a region in the Lower Peninsula of the U.S. state 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 concentrated in Metro...
, Southwestern Ontario
Southwestern Ontario
Southwestern Ontario is a subregion of Southern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario, centred on the city of London. It extends north to south from the Bruce Peninsula on Lake Huron to the Lake Erie shoreline, and east to south-west roughly from Guelph to Windsor. The region had a population...
, and Northwest Ohio
Northwest Ohio
Northwest or northwestern Ohio consists of multiple counties in the northwestern corner of the US state of Ohio. This area borders Lake Erie, southern Michigan, and eastern Indiana. Some areas in northwestern Ohio are also considered the Black Swamp area. The Toledo metropolitan area is also part...
. Outside of the Detroit area, however, most programming on WKBD is subject to Syndex territorial restrictions placed on cable systems by the local TV rights holders. During the affected programming, cable systems either switch to another channel, or place a text notice on the screen that says something like: "This channel is being blacked out due to FCC regulations."
In 1994, when Fox switched in Detroit from WKBD to WJBK, many Michigan cable systems outside the Detroit area replaced WKBD with WGKI
WFQX-TV
WFQX-TV is the Fox-affiliated television station for the northern Lower and eastern Upper Peninsulas of Michigan. Licensed to Cadillac, it broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 32 from a transmitter at studios on 130th Avenue/Dighton Road in Tustin on Grove Hill...
from Cadillac, in order to keep Fox available in the Upper Peninsula. However, in areas where Fox was already available locally, mainly in the southern and central Michigan markets (especially the Tri-Cities), much of WGKI's programming was blacked out. In 1996, some systems that dropped WKBD for WGKI brought WKBD back.
Following the launch of The CW, WKBD began to be dropped from cable systems outside of the Detroit market, in favor of local or nearest CW or MyNetworkTV affiliates. Coverage on cable systems outside the Detroit / Windsor market may be subject to SyndEx
Syndication exclusivity
Syndication exclusivity is a federal law in the United States designed to protect a local television station's rights to syndicated television programs by granting exclusive rights to the station for that program in the local market, usually defined by a station's Nielsen DMA...
and network blackouts
Blackout (broadcasting)
Blackout usually relates to the broadcasting of sports events, television programming, that is prohibited in a certain media market.The purpose is theoretically to generate more revenue by obliging certain actions from fans, either by making them buy tickets or watch other games on TV...
in the United States.
External links
- WKBD Website
- TV Ark Database: WKBD-50 UPN Detroit - Archive from Internet ArchiveInternet ArchiveThe Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
Wayback Machine - The Lou Gordon Program