WNEM-TV is the CBS-affiliated television station for the Flint/Tri-Cities market in Michigan. It is licensed to Bay City, and broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 22 (PSIPvirtual channel 5). Owned by the Meredith Corporation, the station has studios on North Franklin Street in downtown Saginaw, as well as a second newsroom in downtown Flint. Its transmitter is located on Becker Road in Robin Glen-Indiantown, in Buena Vista Township, south of Saginaw.
| |
| Bay City / Saginaw / Flint, Michigan | |
|---|---|
| Branding | TV 5 (general)
TV 5 News (newscasts) My 5 (on DT2) |
| Slogan | Coverage You
Can Count On |
| Channels | Digital: 22 (UHF) |
| Affiliations | 5.1 CBS (1995-present) |
| Owner | Meredith Corporation |
| First air date | February 16, 1954 |
| Call letters' meaning | NorthEastern Michigan Corporation |
| Sister station(s) | WNEM-AM |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog:
5 (VHF, 1954-2009) |
| Former affiliations | Primary: NBC (1954-1995)
Secondary: ABC (1954-1958) DuMont (1954-1956) UPN (1995-2006) [1][2][3] The WB (1995-2000) [1] |
| Transmitter power | 1,000 kW |
| Height | 275.3 m |
| Facility ID | 41221 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 43°28′14.6″N83°50′35.6″W |
| Website | wnem.com |
Syndicated programming on WNEM-TV includes: Jeopardy!, Wheel of Fortune, The Nate Berkus Show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, and Dr. Phil. The station also operates the area'sMyNetworkTV affiliate on a second digital subchannel. WNEM-TV is the only station in the Flint/Tri-Cities market headquartered in the city of Saginaw, and in turn focuses its local news stories on Saginaw, Bay City and Midland.
Digital programming
The station's signal is multiplexed.
| Channel | Name | Programming |
|---|---|---|
| 5.1 | WNEM-HD | main WNEM-TV programming / CBS HD |
| 5.2 | WNEM-DT2 | "My 5" (MyNetworkTV) |
| 5.3 | WNEM-DT3 | Active but blank |
Every March since the time WNEM activated its digital signal up through 2009, it temporarily activated a third digital subchannel on 5.3, used for additional NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament games. Standby title cards with a loop of the game schedules was shown between games. WNEM followed the lead of other CBS affiliates in providing "March Madness" games on additional subchannels. However, WNEM did not present a special March Madness subchannel during the 2010 tournament. 5.3 is currently activated but airs a black screen and no audio. This will not happen from 2011 on, since all games will now be televised nationally on CBS and Turner Broadcasting System owned channels.
History
Saginaw skyline as seen from the Bearinger Building with WNEM-TV's studios in the foreground.
WNEM-TV was founded by the NorthEastern Michigan Corporation, hence the call letters, on February 16, 1954 as a NBC affiliate. Originally, its main studios were located on rented space at Bishop International Airport in Flint with auxiliary studios in its city of license, Bay City. In the 1960s, it moved its main studios to the transmitter site in Indiantown. During its first four years, WNEM-TV had a secondary affiliation with ABC sharing programming from that network with WKNX-TV (channel 57, now WEYI-TV channel 25) until 1958 when WJRT-TV signed-on and took that affiliation. WNEM-TV also aired programming from DuMont until that network dissolved. The family of James Gerity, a professional violinist, bought the station in 1961[4] and sold it to the Meredith Corporation in 1969. In the mid-1980s, the station moved its primary studios to their current location in downtown Saginaw. Today, the Becker Road complex is home to Delta College's Buena Vista Campus in addition to WNEM-TV's transmitter. By the late 1980s, mirroring a trend in many other television markets, WNEM was the dominant station in Mid-Michigan, helped by NBC's then-dominant prime time lineup.
On January 16, 1995, WNEM-TV and WEYI swapped networks, and WNEM became a CBS affiliate (announced June 30, 1994).[5] The move came because Detroit's longtime CBS affiliate, WJBK, had switched to the Fox network, and CBS was unable to get WXYZ-TV or WDIV to switch networks. Eventually, the network landed on WGPR-TV (now WWJ-TV) which did not have an adequate signal to much of the Detroit market until a signal upgrade in 1999. WNEM's signal penetrated further into the northern portion of the Detroit market than did WEYI. Channel 5 provides city-grade coverage in Lapeer County and grade B coverage in St. Clair, northern Oakland, and extreme northern Macombas well as Sarnia, Ontario. Until 1999, the outer parts of the market relied on WNEM-TV, WLNS-TV in Lansing, and WTOL in Toledo, Ohio for CBS programming.
Also on January 16, 1995, WEYI took on secondary affiliations with both UPN [2][3] and The WB and aired programming from the two networks late at night.[1] The station relinquished the secondary WB affiliation in 2000 to WBSF. It dropped CBS's daytime soap operaGuiding Light in 1996 due to low ratings which made it one of two CBS stations in the nation that did not carry the program for what would turn out to be its final 13 years (the other was KOVR in Sacramento, California). However, by 2007 the show was aired instead on My5 at 10am, and stayed there for the rest of its run.
Channel 5 has also televised three home games of the local Ontario Hockey League hockey team the Saginaw Spirit. The station is an affiliate of the Detroit Lions Television Network which airs pre-season games as well as the weekly syndicated show The Ford Lions Reportduring the regular season.
WNEM-TV shut down its analog signal on June 12, 2009 [6], as part of the DTV transition in the United States. The station remained on its pre-transition channel 22 [7] using PSIP to display WNEM-TV's virtual channel as 5. However, channel 5 analog did remain on-the-air for a short period afterward with a nightlight slide with phone numbers and information about the switch.
Although Guiding Light ended its run and Tyra moved to WBSF in September 2009, WNEM opted not to air Let's Make a Deal which is being aired instead on My5. The Nate Berkus Show, replacing Martha Stewart on September 13, 2010, currently occupies the 10 am timeslot on WNEM. WNEM is one of three television stations in Michigan (WJBK in Detroit and WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids are the others) that currently do not clear their networks' entire schedules.
As of April 1, 2011, Comcast Cablevision subscribers in Holly, MI recently had WNEM-TV replaced with WWJ-TV as the main CBS network affiliate. My5 was also replaced with WMYD as the main My Network TV affiliate.
News operation
On April 24, 2006, WNEM entered into a news share agreement with Fox affiliate WSMH which resulted in a nightly prime time broadcast at 10 on that station. This came about after that station's owner, the Sinclair Broadcast Group, shut down its News Central operation as well as WSMH's news department. Originally entitled TV 5 News at 10 on Fox 66, the WNEM-produced program recently added new graphics and was renamed Fox 66 News at 10. On Monday nights during the newscast, the "Fugitive Files" segment airs. In August 2009, the station began carrying obituaries following its weekday morning, Noon and 6 o'clock shows. This service began after local major newspapers in the region including The Bay City Times, The Saginaw News, and The Flint Journal reduced publication to three times a week in June 2009. At first a free service when it was launched, WNEM began charging $100 per obituary in September 2009. Since that month, as of November 3, 2010, over 2,945 obituaries appeared on the channel and its website "obitmichigan.com".[8] WNEM became the second television in both Michigan and the United States, after WJBK, to air obituaries on a daily basis.
WNEM produces news segments for sister radio station WNEM-AM 1250. In addition to its main facilities, the station operates a Genesee County Bureau at the Wade Trim Building on Saginaw Street in Downtown Flint. This had been located in Mundy Township's Gateway Center until December 2008. The channel airs a local lifestyle magazine show called Better Mid-Michigan weekday mornings at 9 with a replay onWNEM-DT2 weeknight at 6. On weekday mornings, that station airs the nationally syndicated morning show The Daily Buzz from 6 to 9. It also broadcasts a weeknight 4 o'clock newscast known as My 5 News at 4 which is streamed live on its website. WNEM-DT2 also rebroadcasts the main channel's weeknight 6 o'clock newscast at 7. WNEM operates their own weather radar, known as "First Warn 5 Doppler", on the eastern side of MBS International Airport which is also streamed live on its website.
On October 14, 2010, WNEM began broadcasting its newscasts in a 16:9 standard definition widescreen format; becoming the second station in the market to do so behind WJRT. The WSMH shows were not included in the upgrade because they are broadcast from an older secondary set that currently lacks widescreen-capable cameras.
Newscast titles
- WNEM-TV 5 News (1970s-1980s)
- News 5 (1980s-late 1990s)
- WNEM 5 News (2000–2003)
- TV-5 News (2005–present)
Station slogans
- The Full Color Station (1960s)
- Part of Your Life (1970s)
- TV-5, Proud As A Peacock! (1979–1981, local version of NBC ad campaign)
- TV-5, Our Pride Is Showing (1981–1982, local version of NBC ad campaign)
- We're TV-5, Just Watch Us Now (1982–1983, local version of NBC ad campaign)
- TV-5 There, Be There (1983–1984, local version of NBC ad campaign)
- TV-5, Let's All Be There (1984–1986, local version of NBC ad campaign)
- When Seconds count, We're Only Minutes Behind (1985-present)
- Come Home to TV-5 (1986–1987, local version of NBC ad campaign)
- Come On Home To TV-5 (1987-1988, local version of NBC ad campaign)
- You're First With 5 (1987–1990)
- Come Home To The Best, Only on Channel 5 (1988-1990; local version of NBC ad campaign)
- WNEM, The Place To Be! (1990-1992; local version of NBC ad campaign)
- It's A Whole New Channel 5 (1992-1993; local version of NBC ad campaign)
- The Stars Are Back on Channel 5 (1993-1994; local version of NBC ad campaign)
- Together With You (1995–1999)
- Live. Local. Latebreaking. (1999–2007)
- Coverage You Can Count On (2007–present)
News team
Anchors
- Amy Andrews - weekday mornings and noon; also Better Mid-Michigan host
- Tia Ewing - weekend mornings; also weeknight reporter
- Aisha Howard - weekend evenings; also weeknight reporter
- Craig McMorris - weekday mornings; also reporter
- Sam Merrill - weeknights at 5, 6 and 11 p.m.
- Katie O'Mara - weeknights at 5, 5:30, 6, and 11 p.m.
- Carrie Sharp - weekdays at 4, weeknights at 5:30 and 10 p.m.
First Warn 5
- Darrin Bradley - chief meteorologist; weeknights at 5, 5:30, 6 and 11 p.m.
- Mike Cameron (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist and NWA Seals of Approval) - meteorologist; weekday mornings and noon; alsoBetter Mid-Michigan co-host
- Catherine Bodak - meteorologist; weekdays at 4 and fill-in weather anchor, also news reporter
- Eric Jylha - weather anchor; weekend mornings and evenings, also news reporter
Sports team
- Scot Johnson - sports director; weeknights at 6, 10:45, and 11 p.m.
- Jason Fielder - sports anchor; weekend evenings
- Darryl Sellers - sports reporter and fill-in sports anchor
- Evan Beach - sports reporter and fill-in sports anchor
- Clay Church - "Game of the Week" segment producer, seen Mondays at 10:45 p.m.
Reporters
- Liz Gelardi
- Thomas Haller - family, parenting, and relationship expert; heard on WNEM-AM 1250
- Jonathan Lowe
- Jessica Maki
- Bill Walsh
- Brian Wood
Logos
References
- ^ a b c Michiguide.com
- ^ a b UPN AFFILIATES BY STATE
- ^ a b upn.com Archived Michigan Affiliates
- ^ The Saginaw News: "Memories of Saginaw's 'Beautiful Music' spark WGER 102.5 FM Historical Society", March 6, 2011.
- ^ "Meredith Shifts Stations to CBS. New York Times June 30, 1994; p6
- ^ http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf
- ^ FCC.gov - Appendix B: All Full Power Television Stations by DMA, Indicating Those Terminating Analog Service on or before February 17, 2009
- ^ Advertising Age: "Local TV Garners Revenue From Obituaries", 19 October 2009.