WXYZ-TV
Encyclopedia
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. The station's studio/office facility and transmitter are located at Broadcast House, located at 20777 West 10 Mile Road in Southfield, Michigan
.
Its signal transmits to the Metro Detroit
area and the southeast lower Michigan
counties. It also covers neighboring Windsor, Ontario
and Toledo, Ohio
, and can be viewed on cable and satellite systems in both the United States
and Canada
. WXYZ has the strongest signal outside of Metro Detroit (compared to the other VHF Detroit television stations) near Flint
and Lapeer. Its signal can be reached with a good antenna in these areas. WXYZ includes Lapeer County
in its service area, even though the station can be viewed in Flint.
From its sign-on in 1948 until 1986, WXYZ-TV was owned and operated (O&O) by ABC, and was one of their strongest O&O stations.
in downtown Detroit, on Woodward Avenue across from the Detroit Institute of Arts
. It was the second television station in both Michigan and Detroit, after the Detroit News-owned (original) WWJ-TV (channel 4, now WDIV). Channel 7 was also the third of the five original ABC-owned and operated television stations to begin operations, after New York City
and Chicago
, and before San Francisco
and Los Angeles
. WXYZ-TV was created out of ABC-owned radio station WXYZ (1270 AM, now WXYT), which produced the popular radio programs The Lone Ranger
and The Green Hornet
. WXYZ radio personality Dick Osgood was host of WXYZ-TV's inaugural broadcast.
In the 1950s WXYZ-TV began producing a series of popular and innovative programs which featured many personalities from WXYZ radio. The station’s success generated revenues large enough that it became instrumental in financially helping the then struggling ABC network and other ABC ventures during the 1950s, including ABC-Paramount Records
. In 1959, all of WXYZ's radio and television operations moved into new broadcast facilities at Broadcast House in Southfield, Michigan
, where WXYZ's television operations remain. The facility was built on the site of a former farm and included three TV production studios and its own free standing broadcast tower with a single-person maintenance elevator.
By 1978, WXYZ-TV was the second most-dominant television station in the United States
in local viewer ratings, no doubt attributed to ABC's prime-time ratings dominance and the continued success of Channel 7 Action News
with lead news anchor Bill Bonds
. In 1979, ABC named Jeanne Findlater as WXYZ’s general manager. She was the first woman to hold that title at a large market television station.
WXYZ-TV was carried by the Cancom system from 1983 as the ABC signal for Canadian cable television systems too distant to receive a border station over-the-air, though later, Seattle station KOMO-TV
was added to Cancom's offerings as a Pacific Time Zone
alternative.
, which owned WJR
and WHYT (now WDVD
) in Detroit. In order to comply with the Federal Communications Commission
's (FCC) ownership limits of the time, the new Capital Cities-ABC would have to sell either WXYZ-TV or each of three radio stations -- WJR, WHYT, or ABC-owned WRIF
(the former WXYZ-FM, which was sold as part of the merger). ABC had sold WXYZ (AM) two years earlier in 1984 to the radio station's general manager, Chuck Fritz.
Upon gaining FCC approval of the merger in February 1986, the new company sold WXYZ-TV (and Capital Cities' WFTS-TV
in Tampa
) to the E.W. Scripps Company of Cincinnati, Ohio
. Capital Cities-ABC intended to keep channel 7 together with WJR and WHYT through a waiver of the FCC's cross-ownership rules
, as a contingency in case a similar request involving ABC's New York City TV flagship and Capital Cities' Philadelphia
outlet
was denied. At the time, another prospective bidder for the station was Bill Cosby
's Cozzin Communications. ABC did retain some of the assets at WXYZ, including the satellite uplink for its satellite news-gathering service ABC News One
. Under Scripps ownership, WXYZ-TV retained the ABC network affiliation and continued to use ABC's (originally) proprietary Circle 7 logo.
Scripps used the station's popularity as leverage for Detroit's cable providers to air the Scripps-owned HGTV
cable network. Scripps used the FCC's "retransmission consent" rule to force local cable systems to carry HGTV. Under this rule, a television station that is carried on a cable system under "must carry" rules can request cable systems to compensate the station for carrying it.
The station was selected as the site of the first Town Meeting with President Bill Clinton
in February 1993, which was hosted by Bill Bonds
. President Clinton would address questions from audience members at WXYZ's studios as well as audiences at other television stations via satellite.
A shift in affiliation in 1994 at Detroit's CBS
affiliate, WJBK-TV (channel 2), to the Fox
network prompted CBS to attempt to lure WXYZ to drop its ABC affiliation in favor of CBS. To avoid being consigned to the UHF dial in what was then among the nation's ten largest markets, CBS heavily wooed Detroit's longtime ABC affiliate, WXYZ-TV. WXYZ's owner, the E.W. Scripps Company, then told ABC
that unless it agreed to affiliate with Scripps-owned stations in four smaller markets, it would switch WXYZ to CBS. As a contingency, ABC approached SJL Broadcast Management (later known as Montecito Broadcast Group, now SJL Broadcasting once again controlled by the principals of Lilly Broadcasting) about buying Toledo
's WTVG
(channel 13) and Flint's
WJRT-TV
(channel 12) to cover the Detroit area, in the event that WXYZ became a CBS station. Both stations' city-grade signals reached portions of the Detroit area (WTVG to the south, and WJRT-TV to the north).
Eventually, Scripps signed a deal with ABC that would keep WXYZ as an ABC affiliate for the next ten years (and remains an ABC affiliate to this day). As a condition of that agreement, television stations in other cities including Tampa-St. Petersburg, Cincinnati
, Phoenix
and Baltimore
would lose their ABC affiliation to competing Scripps-owned stations in those cities. CBS moved to the UHF dial, purchasing independent station WGPR-TV (now WWJ-TV
, channel 62).
In 2002, WXYZ-TV reached an agreement with Viacom
, then-owner of WWJ-TV and UPN
affiliate WKBD-TV (channel 50), in which WKBD canceled the newscast it produced for WWJ-TV, shut down its news department, and contracted with WXYZ to produce WKBD's 10 p.m. newscast. A handful of Viacom's Detroit employees would be transferred to WXYZ. Viacom would also transfer the operations of its CBS News
satellite news gathering service CBS Newspath to offices at WXYZ’s Broadcast House, since WXYZ would also be allowed to use the resources of CBS News. The newscast was canceled in late 2004 due to poor viewership, and neither WKBD nor WWJ-TV now air any local newscasts in Detroit.
On October 4, 2006, WXYZ became the first television station in Michigan and the first E.W. Scripps owned station to broadcast all of its newscasts in widescreen high-definition
.
On September 21, 2007, Scripps announced that it reached an agreement with Equity Media Holdings to provide programming from the Retro Television Network
on a new digital subchannel starting in 2008. Known locally as RTN7, the subchannel offers classic television programs daily from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m., with infomercials during late-night hours, and sports on Saturday, if necessary.
Equity has since sold RTN to Luken Communications, LLC in June 2008 for financial reasons. Due to the broadcasting disruption of January 2009 between Equity and Luken, RTN7 has switched to the national feed, as opposed to being programmed by Equity and managed by WXYZ-TV, as in the past, starting on January 4, 2009. Equity, Luken, and WXYZ-TV have apparently managed to reach an agreement to allow WXYZ to resume local scheduelling and programming on "RTN 7", and the local feed has been back up as of January 28, 2009.
(real name, Milton Supman). The program went on the air in 1953 and was such a success that in 1960 ABC moved production to Los Angeles, and aired the show nationally. Soupy also hosted a very popular adult comedy show during that same period in the 1950s, late at night, at 11:00pm called Soupy's On, with a live band and guest stars and a lot of "pies-in-the-face"! Other successful children’s shows to follow would include Wyxie's Wonderland hosted by Detroit comic Marv Welch. In 1954 Bob Henry, (real name Bob Brickwedde) hosted the Nash Theater Hour on Thursday nights, and hosted western movies, featuring Deadeye and Black Bart on Saturday's as "Sheriff Bob". Ricky the Clown hosted by professional clown and magician Irv Romig and The Johnny Ginger Show hosted by the local comic Johnny Ginger
. The Auntie Dee Show hosted by Dee Parker was a popular children’s talent show. In 1974, WXYZ-TV launched and produced another successful children’s show, the nationally syndicated Hot Fudge.
Former WXYZ-TV general manager John Pival is credited for launching several other popular innovative programs in the 1950s and 1960s, including the World Adventure Series with host George Pierrot. The program showed films about exotic locations around the world. Pierrot was an author on world travel and a speaker at the Detroit Institute of Arts
. The Lady of Charm and later House O’ Charm with host Edythe Fern Melrose was a predecessor to today’s Martha Stewart
home-making programs. Prize Movie with popular host Rita Bell introduced feature films and held a viewer call-in contest to name the title of a song she played on the air. The cash prizes started at $7. Several music programs also aired including Club Polka and Club 1270. WXYZ disc jockey Ed McKenzie also brought his talents to TV with The Ed McKenzie Saturday Party with live musical performances from Chuck Berry
and Louis Armstrong
.
WXYZ-TV also had a series of popular morning shows, starting with the Pat and Johnny Show, hosted by two WXYZ radio announcers, Pat Tobin and Johnny Slagle. Later in 1966, The Morning Show debuted as a morning variety program with host Bob Hynes. The station also helped to launch the career of Dennis Wholey
, who started his AM Detroit talk-show at WXYZ before going on to WTVS
to host PBS Late Night. The most popular and successful WXYZ morning talk show was Kelly & Company, hosted by a married couple who were both former WXYZ news announcers, John Kelly (news anchor) and Marilyn Turner (weathercaster). The show ran at 9 a.m. weekdays from 1978 to 1995. It was primarily a talk show with featured guests and a studio audience. In 1984 Turner and Kelly would also host the short-lived afternoon program, Good Afternoon Detroit. The program was a pilot for other ABC owned stations in New York, Chicago and elsewhere to launch their own Good Afternoon... shows.
In 1965, the Sunday morning public affairs show Spotlight on the News debuted with WXYZ's news director Bill Fyffe as its first host. The show was later hosted by political reporter Jim Harrington and continues to air today with WXYZ editorial and public affairs director Chuck Stokes as its host, writer and producer. Spotlight is now Detroit's longest running current events television program. It has featured local and national public officials including U.S. Presidents, and won numerous awards. Another public affairs show that aired Sunday nights at 11:30 p.m. from 1967 to 1981 was Haney’s People with host Don Haney.
WXYZ-TV has also been involved in several Detroit traditions over the years, having aired special coverage of Detroit's Thanksgiving Day Parade, The North American International Auto Show Charity Preview', the annual Woodward Dream Cruise
and the City of Detroit's celebrations of its 250th anniversary in 1951 and 300th anniversary in 2001. WXYZ's special coverage has also included the victory parades of the city's professional sports teams, most recently the Detroit Red Wings'
Stanley Cup
victory in 2008 and the Detroit Pistons'
NBA championship in 2004. WXYZ is also the official broadcaster of the Christmas parade in Rochester, Michigan
.
In 1987, the station created and produced a weekly educational literacy
program aimed at children called Learn To Read
, which was based on the "Michigan Method
" of literacy education, with co-production by Kentucky Educational Television
. One of the hosts of this series was Doris Biscoe, then one of the anchors of Channel 7 Action News.
During Game 2 of the 2004 NBA Finals
in Detroit, Jimmy Kimmel
appeared on ABC's halftime show to make an on-air plug for that night's episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live
. He suggested that if the Detroit Pistons defeated the Los Angeles Lakers
, "they're gonna burn the city of Detroit down ... and it's not worth it." Channel 7 officials immediately announced that night's show would not air on the station. Hours later, ABC officials pulled that night's show from the entire network. Kimmel later apologized.
As of May 21, 2010, the WXYZ-TV 24/7 Weather Station that was on digital channel 7.3 has been discontinued. This digital channel that broadcast Doppler Radar and current conditions 24/7 will now be exclusive to mobile TV. Despite preempting shows for special events (i.e., Woodward Dream Cruise, etc.), WXYZ-TV is one of the few ABC affiliates in a U.S. major market that runs the entire ABC schedule. On August 6, 2010, WDIV-TV
and WXYZ-TV became the first stations in Detroit to offer Mobile DTV feeds.
In 2011, WXYZ-TV replaced WWJ-TV
as the new flagship of the Detroit Lions Television Network
.
While television station WADL
in Mt. Clemens
/Detroit
, Michigan
is The Word Network's flagship (appearing on a digital subchannel
, and programmed from WADL), the network's satellite uplink system is located at WXYZ-TV.
show Detroit 1-8-7
, as the actual local news station being portrayed on the show.
As part of the analog television shutdown and digital conversion
, WXYZ-TV shut-down its analog transmitter on June 12, 2009, and continued to broadcast on its pre-transition digital channel 41. However, through the use of PSIP
, digital television receivers will display the station's virtual channel
as 7.
After WXYZ-TV shut down its analog signal on channel 7 after over 60 years, Metro Detroit's WJBK
channel 2 moved its digital signal to the channel 7 allocation.
WXYZ-TV's third digital subchannel formerly carried Doppler7Weather, a channel looping weather radar, tempatures, and live local radar. This channel also used the L-Bar, showing current conditions on the left and five day forecasts on the bottom. On May 21, 2010, this channel was removed to prepare and utilize its channel exclusively for mobile TV.
, Southwestern Ontario
, and Northwestern Ohio. Coverage on cable systems outside the Detroit/Windsor market may be subject to syndex
and network blackouts
in the United States and simsubbing
in Canada. The station can be received from as far away as Flint, Michigan with a good-quality antenna. It is also carried on cable in Grand Marais, Michigan
.
WXYZ-TV is on all Detroit area cable
systems, including Comcast
, AT&T
, WOW!
and Bright House
, plus satellite providers DirecTV
and Dish Network
. The station also serves several other parts of Canada
as an ABC affiliate on the Shaw Direct satellite provider as well as several Canadian cable TV markets, including Windsor
, London
, Sault Ste. Marie
, Sudbury, and Thunder Bay
, Ontario
; Saint John, New Brunswick
; all of Manitoba
except for areas served by Steinbach
or Winnipeg
Shaw; and the National Capital Region
.
WXYZ-TV was previously offered as the ABC affiliate on cable through Cable Atlantic
(now Rogers Cable
) in Newfoundland and Labrador
, including in St. John's
from 1985 to 1999 (now carried by fellow ABC affiliate WCVB-TV
in Boston). As of 2010 however, some Rogers Cable customers in Newfoundland and Labrador began receiving WXYZ again, along with WDIV and WWJ.
Until April 2011, Comcast subscribers in Holly
which is located in Northwestern Oakland County
, a part of the Detroit media market, were unable to see much of WXYZ's programming, as it was often blacked out at the request of Flint
's WJRT-TV
; the blackout was due to the Comcast system being tied to the Flint headend, instead of one in Oakland County or elsewhere in Detroit. That month, following complaints from Detroit stations and area viewers of being blacked out or unavailable in an area that they were supposed to serve, Comcast discontinued blackouts of Detroit channels and added additional channels from that market and dropped many Flint/Tri-Cities channels from that system. WJRT-TV was one of two channels retained (along with WCMZ-TV), as it was considered to have significant viewership in the Holly area.
. The station’s news department started as a small operation but would gain credibility for its coverage of the 1967 Detroit Riot. In the 1970s, WXYZ began an aggressive build-up of its news department by adopting many elements of the Eyewitness News
format, such as the Cool Hand Luke
news music, that were used to strengthen news departments at ABC's four other O&O television stations in New York
, Chicago
, Los Angeles
and San Francisco
. However, it opted to call its newscast Action News
. Under the direction of general manager Jim Osborn and news director Phil Nye, the station would lure popular news personalities from rival stations, WJBK-TV and WDIV-TV
(known then as WWJ-TV), to join its already well-known anchors Dave Diles and Bill Bonds. WXYZ assembled Detroit’s most popular news anchors and reporters such as John Kelly, Jac LeGoff, Al Ackerman, Marilyn Turner, Jack McCarthy, Jerry Hodak
, Don Lark, and Doris Biscoe. The station launched a promotional campaign to introduce its new anchor team: “Bonds, Kelly, Ackerman, Turner... Channel 7's Action News Team. We got who you wanted!”
By 1973, Channel 7 Action News, for the first time ever, became the highest-rated newscast in Detroit and has held the lead ever since. Its success was linked to the serious, controversial, opinionated hard delivery of lead anchor Bill Bonds
. ABC tried to apply Bonds’ success in Detroit at KABC-TV
in Los Angeles in the late 1960s, and again in 1975 at WABC-TV
in New York; in both cases, he was unsuccessful and soon returned to WXYZ. During the 1980s and 1990s, Bonds hosted the interview segment, Up Front, on WXYZ's 5 p.m. Action News. During the interviews, Bonds confronted the Detroit area’s public officials and newsmakers with hard-hitting and sometimes controversial questions. Bonds’ hard-edge style was widely known in Detroit for both captivating viewers while repulsing others, leading Bonds to become the station's icon and its main star.
In Ron Powers' book, The Newscasters, Powers called Bonds "one of the 6 most influential news anchors in the country." However, Bonds had public battles with alcoholism
which are credited with his dismissal from the station in 1995. Bonds anchored newscasts and a late night talk-show at WJBK-TV and later hosted a radio show at WXYT-AM. Bonds returned to WXYZ-TV in 1999 to present editorials during the newscasts, but left the station after a only a few months.
WXYZ’s ratings dominance was challenged by WDIV-TV
in the 1980s. The two stations continue a head to head battle for ratings to this day. In recent years the station's news coverage received several journalism honors including the George Foster Peabody
and Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University
awards. WXYZ’s Action News was named the best TV newscast in the U.S. by United Press International
in 1989. The station also received the National Community Service Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
for outstanding community service. WXYZ is a partner in several charitable endeavors including the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul
, Operation Can-Do and Detroit's annual children's immunization fair.
In the 1990s, WXYZ continued to expand its morning newscast, Action News This Morning to the present start time of 5 a.m. This newscast started as short news updates during Good Morning America. One of its long-time co-anchors was Erik Smith who worked at Channel 7, off-and-on, for over 40 years. During most of that time, Smith also served as a reporter of human-interest and Entertainment stories for Action News. Smith also won acclaim for his award winning series From the Heart, which began in the late 1990s as a collection of heartwarming, historical and inspirational stories from around the Detroit area. Smith left the station in May 2010, due to a dispute with management, five-days before the end of his contract. Because of his popularity with viewers, it is unclear whether WXYZ-TV's high morning news ratings will survive his departure.
In 2001, WXYZ's Action News expanded again and returned to airing a 7 p.m. newscast. The move was spurred after the September 11 attacks when the station moved ABC’s World News Tonight ahead 30-minutes to 6:30 p.m.. Action News at 7 PM became a forum for interviewing guests and newsmakers on daily issues and became a ratings success in key demographics
. The station also expanded its Action News at Noon broadcast to one hour. Action News continued its success with long-time anchors Diana Lewis, Robbie Timmons, meteorologist Jerry Hodak
, sportscaster Don Shane and up until October 9, 2006, anchor Frank Turner who became a successful replacement to Bill Bonds. Another recent addition is anchor Stephen Clark, a former anchor at WCBS-TV
and CBS News
correspondent. Chief Meteorologist Jerry Hodak
was the station's primary weathercaster for at least 26 of his more than 40 years in Detroit television. On July 28, 2010, Hodak announced his retirement from WXYZ-TV which became effective September 23, 2010. In 2006, WXYZ also boasted the most veteran general-assignment reporters in Detroit TV with Cheryl Chodun, Bill Proctor, Mary Conway and Val Clark, each of whom worked at least 20 years at the station.
In the November 2006 ratings period, shortly after the switch to HD, all of WXYZ's newscasts placed first in their respective timeslots except at 11 p.m., which lagged behind WDIV. From the November 2007 ratings period until before the May 2009 ratings period, WXYZ's Action News was the number-one newscast in each of its respective timeslots. Coupled with a strong syndicated programming lineup and top-ranked ABC prime-time programming, WXYZ has been the number one-ranked station in Detroit, from sign-on to sign-off. It has remained one of ABC's strongest affiliates since the network sold the station to Scripps however, it finished behind rival WDIV, who took first place in the evening and late news timeslots in the May 2009 sweeps period due largely to lower ratings of shows leading into WXYZ's news programs. Both WXYZ and WDIV have been among the country's strongest affiliates of their respective networks over the years although WDIV has taken over first place in all newscast time slots within the past year or so.
WXYZ-TV’s Special Projects department is home to the station’s investigative and consumer reporters and producers. It gained notoriety in 2002 with Chief Investigative Reporter Steve Wilson and his stories of financial mismanagement at the Kmart Corporation
, an undercover investigation that exposed high-pressure sales tactics used by a well-known financial firm, and confrontations with elected officials in Detroit, especially Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick
.
On August 7, 2008, Mayor Kilpatrick appeared in front of a judge in Wayne County Circuit Court. The hearing was called to discuss a potential violation of his bond in one of the two felony cases against him. The hearing was called after Steve Wilson uncovered and revealed photos of the mayor in nearby Windsor, Ontario
, Canada
. A stipulation of the mayor's bond was that he was not to leave the country, and that he give the court 72 hours' notice if he planned to leave the state of Michigan for any reason. Mayor Kilpatrick was then ordered to spend the night in the Wayne County jail.
On November 30, 2009, WXYZ introduced its new graphics package for its newscast. These graphics are identical to those being utilized by all Scripps-owned stations. Also, WXYZ is the only station in Detroit to produce and air all its promos, commercials and other recordings in high definition.
On August 3, 2011, WXYZ unveiled a new studio to its viewing audience during its noon news broadacst, a project which the organization had been working on since June 2011. The new studio features new high definition cameras and monitors and a redesigned weather center under a new name: "7 First Alert Weather."
7 First Alert Weather
Sports team
Reporters
Contributors
In the late 1990s, WXYZ started to integrate the current ABC logo into the Circle 7, much like ABC O&Os across the country. WXYZ did this for general programming purposes, and for promos in relation to the ABC network. The ABC logo is to the right of the Circle 7, instead of to the left like it is for the standard ABC O&Os and affiliates across the country. The idea was suspended briefly from 2001–2004, but was brought back in early 2004.
In early 2009, the 7 ABC logo (the ABC logo integrated into the circle 7) became more prominently used with the station. Instead of being used just for general programming purposes, the 7 ABC logo is now the official logo used for the station.
On June 3, 2009, WXYZ updated its news opening, using the 7 ABC logo. On top of that, the on-screen bug used for the newscasts also displays the 7 ABC logo. The design is similar to that of sister station WEWS in Cleveland and the ABC O&Os across the country, like KABC
in Los Angeles.
On November 30, 2009, WXYZ updated its news opening again, using the same graphics package as other EW Scripps stations. The music was updated as well, giving the station an edgier feel. The 7 ABC bug is also used for the graphics package.
WXYZ has used several campaigns over the years. In the 1970s, Channel 7 used the "We've Got Who You Wanted" campaign to launch the famous news team of Bill Bonds, John Kelly, Marilyn Turner, and Al Ackerman. In the mid 1980s, WXYZ used the "Stand Up and Tell 'em You're from Detroit" campaign (based on Frank Gari's "Turn to News" package) to emphasize the station's commitment to the community.
As an ABC owned and operated station, WXYZ also localized several ABC fall campaigns in the 1970s, up until 1986. The most notable ABC fall campaign WXYZ customized was 'Still The One,' which was used in the late 1970s.
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
-affiliated television station in Detroit, Michigan
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...
, USA
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. WXYZ-TV is owned by the E.W. Scripps Company, and is the media company's largest-market TV station property. The station's studio/office facility and transmitter are located at Broadcast House, located at 20777 West 10 Mile Road 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...
.
Its signal transmits to the Metro Detroit
Metro Detroit
The Detroit metropolitan area, often referred to as Metro Detroit, is the metropolitan area located in Southeast Michigan centered on the city of Detroit which shares an international border with Windsor, Ontario. The Detroit metropolitan area is the second largest U.S. metropolitan area...
area and the southeast lower 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"....
counties. It also covers neighboring Windsor, Ontario
Windsor, Ontario
Windsor is the southernmost city in Canada and is located in Southwestern Ontario at the western end of the heavily populated Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. It is within Essex County, Ontario, although administratively separated from the county government. Separated by the Detroit River, Windsor...
and 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...
, and can be viewed on cable and satellite systems in both the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. WXYZ has the strongest signal outside of Metro Detroit (compared to the other VHF Detroit television stations) near Flint
Flint, Michigan
Flint is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and is located along the Flint River, northwest of Detroit. The U.S. Census Bureau reports the 2010 population to be placed at 102,434, making Flint the seventh largest city in Michigan. It is the county seat of Genesee County which lies in the...
and Lapeer. Its signal can be reached with a good antenna in these areas. WXYZ includes Lapeer County
Lapeer County, Michigan
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 87,904 people, 30,729 households, and 23,876 families residing in the county. The population density was 134 people per square mile . There were 32,732 housing units at an average density of 50 per square mile...
in its service area, even though the station can be viewed in Flint.
From its sign-on in 1948 until 1986, WXYZ-TV was owned and operated (O&O) by ABC, and was one of their strongest O&O stations.
As an ABC-owned station
WXYZ-TV began broadcasting October 9, 1948, from studios in the Maccabees BuildingMaccabees Building
The Maccabees Building is a historic building located in Midtown Detroit, at 5057 Woodward Avenue. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. and is currently owned by Wayne State University....
in downtown Detroit, on Woodward Avenue across from the Detroit Institute of Arts
Detroit Institute of Arts
The Detroit Institute of Arts is a renowned art museum in the city of Detroit. In 2003, the DIA ranked as the second largest municipally owned museum in the United States, with an art collection valued at more than one billion dollars...
. It was the second television station in both Michigan and Detroit, after the Detroit News-owned (original) WWJ-TV (channel 4, now WDIV). Channel 7 was also the third of the five original ABC-owned and operated television stations to begin operations, after New York City
WABC-TV
WABC-TV, channel 7, is the flagship station of the Disney-owned American Broadcasting Company located in New York City. The station's studios and offices are located on the Upper West Side section of Manhattan, adjacent to ABC's corporate headquarters, and its transmitter is atop the Empire State...
and Chicago
WLS-TV
WLS-TV, virtual channel 7, is an owned-and-operated television station of the Walt Disney Company-owned American Broadcasting Company, located in Chicago, Illinois, USA. The station operates their full power digital operations on UHF channel 44, with their digital fill-in translator on VHF channel...
, and before San Francisco
KGO-TV
KGO-TV, channel 7, is an owned-and-operated television station of the Walt Disney Company-owned American Broadcasting Company, based in San Francisco, California...
and Los Angeles
KABC-TV
KABC-TV, channel 7, is an owned-and-operated television station of the Walt Disney Company-owned American Broadcasting Company, licensed to Los Angeles, California. KABC-TV's studios are located in Glendale, California...
. WXYZ-TV was created out of ABC-owned radio station WXYZ (1270 AM, now WXYT), which produced the popular radio programs The Lone Ranger
The Lone Ranger
The Lone Ranger is a fictional masked Texas Ranger who, with his Native American companion Tonto, fights injustice in the American Old West. The character has become an enduring icon of American culture....
and The Green Hornet
The Green Hornet
The Green Hornet is an American radio and television masked vigilante created by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker, with input from radio director James Jewell, in 1936. Since his radio debut in the 1930s, the Green Hornet has appeared in numerous serialized dramas in a wide variety of media...
. WXYZ radio personality Dick Osgood was host of WXYZ-TV's inaugural broadcast.
In the 1950s WXYZ-TV began producing a series of popular and innovative programs which featured many personalities from WXYZ radio. The station’s success generated revenues large enough that it became instrumental in financially helping the then struggling ABC network and other ABC ventures during the 1950s, including ABC-Paramount Records
ABC Records
ABC Records was an American record label, founded in New York City in 1955 as ABC-Paramount Records. It originated as the main popular music label operated the Am-Par Record Corporation, the music subsidiary of the American Broadcasting Company . ABC-Paramount Records' first president was Samuel H....
. In 1959, all of WXYZ's radio and television operations moved into new broadcast facilities at Broadcast House 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...
, where WXYZ's television operations remain. The facility was built on the site of a former farm and included three TV production studios and its own free standing broadcast tower with a single-person maintenance elevator.
By 1978, WXYZ-TV was the second most-dominant television station in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in local viewer ratings, no doubt attributed to ABC's prime-time ratings dominance and the continued success of Channel 7 Action News
Action News
Action News is a local television newscast format in the United States. It was conceived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at WFIL-TV by then-news director Mel Kampmann in 1970 as a response to the "Eyewitness News" format used on rival station KYW-TV...
with lead news anchor Bill Bonds
Bill Bonds
Bill Bonds is an American television anchor and reporter, best known for his work at WXYZ-TV in Detroit, Michigan. Born in 1933, Bonds became an Action News anchorman beginning in the early 1970s.-Early career:...
. In 1979, ABC named Jeanne Findlater as WXYZ’s general manager. She was the first woman to hold that title at a large market television station.
WXYZ-TV was carried by the Cancom system from 1983 as the ABC signal for Canadian cable television systems too distant to receive a border station over-the-air, though later, Seattle station KOMO-TV
KOMO-TV
KOMO-TV, virtual channel 4, is a television station in Seattle, Washington. It is an affiliate of ABC and broadcasts on digital channel 38. KOMO-TV is the flagship station of Fisher Communications, and its studios and offices are co-located with sister radio stations KOMO , KVI , and KPLZ-FM ...
was added to Cancom's offerings as a Pacific Time Zone
Pacific Time Zone
The Pacific Time Zone observes standard time by subtracting eight hours from Coordinated Universal Time . The clock time in this zone is based on the mean solar time of the 120th meridian west of the Greenwich Observatory. During daylight saving time, its time offset is UTC-7.In the United States...
alternative.
Sale to E.W. Scripps Company
In May 1985, ABC agreed to be purchased by Capital Cities CommunicationsCapital Cities Communications
Capital Cities redirects here. For the article about the seat of a government, see Capital .Capital Cities Communications was an American media company best known for its surprise purchase of the much larger American Broadcasting Company in 1985...
, which owned WJR
WJR
WJR is a radio station in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It broadcasts a news/talk format. It is a class A clear channel station whose broadcasts can be heard throughout most of the Midwest, eastern United States and Canada at night, making it one of the most powerful radio stations in the...
and WHYT (now WDVD
WDVD
WDVD is a hot adult contemporary radio station in Detroit, Michigan, broadcasting at 96.3 MHz on the FM dial. WDVD's studios and offices are located in the Fisher Building near downtown Detroit. WDVD's transmitter is located in Oakland County in Royal Oak Township at 8 Mile Road and Wyoming Avenue...
) in Detroit. In order to comply with the Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
's (FCC) ownership limits of the time, the new Capital Cities-ABC would have to sell either WXYZ-TV or each of three radio stations -- WJR, WHYT, or ABC-owned WRIF
WRIF
WRIF — branded 101 WRIF: The RIFF — is a commercial active rock radio station licensed by the FCC to operate in Detroit, Michigan serving surrounding Metro Detroit. The station is currently owned by Greater Boston Radio, Inc. WRIF is a grandfathered Class B station with a signal equivalent to...
(the former WXYZ-FM, which was sold as part of the merger). ABC had sold WXYZ (AM) two years earlier in 1984 to the radio station's general manager, Chuck Fritz.
Upon gaining FCC approval of the merger in February 1986, the new company sold WXYZ-TV (and Capital Cities' WFTS-TV
WFTS-TV
WFTS, virtual channel 28, is the ABC affiliate television station for the Tampa-St. Petersburg, Florida market, owned by The E.W. Scripps Company. It broadcasts its digital signal on UHF channel 29. Its transmitter is located in Riverview, Florida.-History:...
in Tampa
Tampa, Florida
Tampa is a city in the U.S. state of Florida. It serves as the county seat for Hillsborough County. Tampa is located on the west coast of Florida. The population of Tampa in 2010 was 335,709....
) to the E.W. Scripps Company of Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...
. Capital Cities-ABC intended to keep channel 7 together with WJR and WHYT through a waiver of the FCC's cross-ownership rules
Concentration of media ownership
Concentration of media ownership refers to a process whereby progressively fewer individuals or organizations control increasing shares of the mass media...
, as a contingency in case a similar request involving ABC's New York City TV flagship and Capital Cities' Philadelphia
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
outlet
WPVI-TV
WPVI-TV, channel 6, is an owned-and-operated television station of the Walt Disney Company-owned American Broadcasting Company, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. WPVI has its studios located on the border between Philadelphia and Bala Cynwyd, and its transmitter is located in the...
was denied. At the time, another prospective bidder for the station was Bill Cosby
Bill Cosby
William Henry "Bill" Cosby, Jr. is an American comedian, actor, author, television producer, educator, musician and activist. A veteran stand-up performer, he got his start at various clubs, then landed a starring role in the 1960s action show, I Spy. He later starred in his own series, the...
's Cozzin Communications. ABC did retain some of the assets at WXYZ, including the satellite uplink for its satellite news-gathering service ABC News One
ABC News
ABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...
. Under Scripps ownership, WXYZ-TV retained the ABC network affiliation and continued to use ABC's (originally) proprietary Circle 7 logo.
Scripps used the station's popularity as leverage for Detroit's cable providers to air the Scripps-owned HGTV
HGTV
HGTV , is a cable-television network operating in the United States and Canada, broadcasting a variety of home and garden improvement, maintenance, renovation, craft and remodeling shows...
cable network. Scripps used the FCC's "retransmission consent" rule to force local cable systems to carry HGTV. Under this rule, a television station that is carried on a cable system under "must carry" rules can request cable systems to compensate the station for carrying it.
The station was selected as the site of the first Town Meeting with President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
in February 1993, which was hosted by Bill Bonds
Bill Bonds
Bill Bonds is an American television anchor and reporter, best known for his work at WXYZ-TV in Detroit, Michigan. Born in 1933, Bonds became an Action News anchorman beginning in the early 1970s.-Early career:...
. President Clinton would address questions from audience members at WXYZ's studios as well as audiences at other television stations via satellite.
A shift in affiliation in 1994 at Detroit's 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, WJBK-TV (channel 2), to the 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...
network prompted CBS to attempt to lure WXYZ to drop its ABC affiliation in favor of CBS. To avoid being consigned to the UHF dial in what was then among the nation's ten largest markets, CBS heavily wooed Detroit's longtime ABC affiliate, WXYZ-TV. WXYZ's owner, the E.W. Scripps Company, then told ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
that unless it agreed to affiliate with Scripps-owned stations in four smaller markets, it would switch WXYZ to CBS. As a contingency, ABC approached SJL Broadcast Management (later known as Montecito Broadcast Group, now SJL Broadcasting once again controlled by the principals of Lilly Broadcasting) about buying Toledo
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...
's WTVG
WTVG
This is about the TV station in Toledo, Ohio for the former WTVG-TV in Newark, New Jersey see WFUT-DT.WTVG, channel 13, is the ABC-affiliated television station for Northwest Ohio and licensed in Toledo, Ohio. WTVG's studios and offices are located in Toledo and its transmitter is located in...
(channel 13) and Flint's
Flint, Michigan
Flint is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and is located along the Flint River, northwest of Detroit. The U.S. Census Bureau reports the 2010 population to be placed at 102,434, making Flint the seventh largest city in Michigan. It is the county seat of Genesee County which lies in the...
WJRT-TV
WJRT-TV
WJRT-TV, channel 12, is the ABC-affiliated station for the Flint/Tri-Cities television market, owned by SJL Broadcasting. Its studios are located in Flint, Michigan, with offices and a second newsroom for the Tri-Cities located in Saginaw...
(channel 12) to cover the Detroit area, in the event that WXYZ became a CBS station. Both stations' city-grade signals reached portions of the Detroit area (WTVG to the south, and WJRT-TV to the north).
Eventually, Scripps signed a deal with ABC that would keep WXYZ as an ABC affiliate for the next ten years (and remains an ABC affiliate to this day). As a condition of that agreement, television stations in other cities including Tampa-St. Petersburg, Cincinnati
WCPO-TV
WCPO-TV, virtual channel 9 , is an ABC-affiliated television station in Cincinnati, Ohio. WCPO's studio is located in the Mount Adams neighborhood of Cincinnati, just outside of Eden Park. Its transmitter is located along Symmes Street, just south of East McMillan Street in Cincinnati.The station...
, Phoenix
KNXV-TV
KNXV-TV, is an ABC-affiliated television station in Phoenix, Arizona, broadcasting in digital on UHF channel 15. Owned by The E. W. Scripps Company, its transmitter is located on South Mountain in Phoenix....
and Baltimore
WMAR-TV
WMAR-TV, channel 2, is the ABC affiliate television station in Baltimore, Maryland, owned by the broadcasting division of the E.W. Scripps Company...
would lose their ABC affiliation to competing Scripps-owned stations in those cities. CBS moved to the UHF dial, purchasing independent station WGPR-TV (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....
, channel 62).
In 2002, WXYZ-TV reached an agreement with 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...
, then-owner of WWJ-TV and 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...
affiliate WKBD-TV (channel 50), in which WKBD canceled the newscast it produced for WWJ-TV, shut down its news department, and contracted with WXYZ to produce WKBD's 10 p.m. newscast. A handful of Viacom's Detroit employees would be transferred to WXYZ. Viacom would also transfer the operations of its CBS News
CBS News
CBS News is the news division of American television and radio network CBS. The current chairman is Jeff Fager who is also the executive producer of 60 Minutes, while the current president of CBS News is David Rhodes. CBS News' flagship program is the CBS Evening News, hosted by the network's main...
satellite news gathering service CBS Newspath to offices at WXYZ’s Broadcast House, since WXYZ would also be allowed to use the resources of CBS News. The newscast was canceled in late 2004 due to poor viewership, and neither WKBD nor WWJ-TV now air any local newscasts in Detroit.
On October 4, 2006, WXYZ became the first television station in Michigan and the first E.W. Scripps owned station to broadcast all of its newscasts in widescreen high-definition
High-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
.
On September 21, 2007, Scripps announced that it reached an agreement with Equity Media Holdings to provide programming from the Retro Television Network
Retro Television Network
The Retro Television Network is a system of television stations that airs classic television shows as well as more recently produced programs...
on a new digital subchannel starting in 2008. Known locally as RTN7, the subchannel offers classic television programs daily from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m., with infomercials during late-night hours, and sports on Saturday, if necessary.
Equity has since sold RTN to Luken Communications, LLC in June 2008 for financial reasons. Due to the broadcasting disruption of January 2009 between Equity and Luken, RTN7 has switched to the national feed, as opposed to being programmed by Equity and managed by WXYZ-TV, as in the past, starting on January 4, 2009. Equity, Luken, and WXYZ-TV have apparently managed to reach an agreement to allow WXYZ to resume local scheduelling and programming on "RTN 7", and the local feed has been back up as of January 28, 2009.
Programming history
In the 1950s WXYZ-TV created a series of widely popular locally produced children’s programs. The most famous program, Lunch with Soupy, launched the career of comedian Soupy SalesSoupy Sales
Soupy Sales was an American comedian, actor, radio-TV personality and host, and jazz aficionado. He was best known for his local and network children's television show, Lunch with Soupy Sales; a series of comedy sketches frequently ending with Sales receiving a pie in the face, which became his...
(real name, Milton Supman). The program went on the air in 1953 and was such a success that in 1960 ABC moved production to Los Angeles, and aired the show nationally. Soupy also hosted a very popular adult comedy show during that same period in the 1950s, late at night, at 11:00pm called Soupy's On, with a live band and guest stars and a lot of "pies-in-the-face"! Other successful children’s shows to follow would include Wyxie's Wonderland hosted by Detroit comic Marv Welch. In 1954 Bob Henry, (real name Bob Brickwedde) hosted the Nash Theater Hour on Thursday nights, and hosted western movies, featuring Deadeye and Black Bart on Saturday's as "Sheriff Bob". Ricky the Clown hosted by professional clown and magician Irv Romig and The Johnny Ginger Show hosted by the local comic Johnny Ginger
Johnny Ginger
Galen Grindle , better known as Johnny Ginger, was a pioneer of Detroit television.-Biography:Grindle was born in Toledo, Ohio. His parents, Ray and Edna, were a Vaudeville family act performing at the Paramount Theater in Toledo. His brother, Kenny, was a tap dancer in the family act...
. The Auntie Dee Show hosted by Dee Parker was a popular children’s talent show. In 1974, WXYZ-TV launched and produced another successful children’s show, the nationally syndicated Hot Fudge.
Former WXYZ-TV general manager John Pival is credited for launching several other popular innovative programs in the 1950s and 1960s, including the World Adventure Series with host George Pierrot. The program showed films about exotic locations around the world. Pierrot was an author on world travel and a speaker at the Detroit Institute of Arts
Detroit Institute of Arts
The Detroit Institute of Arts is a renowned art museum in the city of Detroit. In 2003, the DIA ranked as the second largest municipally owned museum in the United States, with an art collection valued at more than one billion dollars...
. The Lady of Charm and later House O’ Charm with host Edythe Fern Melrose was a predecessor to today’s Martha Stewart
Martha Stewart
Martha Stewart is an American business magnate, author, magazine publisher, and television personality. As founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, she has gained success through a variety of business ventures, encompassing publishing, broadcasting, and merchandising...
home-making programs. Prize Movie with popular host Rita Bell introduced feature films and held a viewer call-in contest to name the title of a song she played on the air. The cash prizes started at $7. Several music programs also aired including Club Polka and Club 1270. WXYZ disc jockey Ed McKenzie also brought his talents to TV with The Ed McKenzie Saturday Party with live musical performances from Chuck Berry
Chuck Berry
Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as "Maybellene" , "Roll Over Beethoven" , "Rock and Roll Music" and "Johnny B...
and Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
.
WXYZ-TV also had a series of popular morning shows, starting with the Pat and Johnny Show, hosted by two WXYZ radio announcers, Pat Tobin and Johnny Slagle. Later in 1966, The Morning Show debuted as a morning variety program with host Bob Hynes. The station also helped to launch the career of Dennis Wholey
Dennis Wholey
Dennis Wholey is an American television host and producer, and the author of a number of self-help books, one of which was a New York Times bestseller. He currently hosts This is America with Dennis Wholey, an interview program shown throughout the U.S...
, who started his AM Detroit talk-show at WXYZ before going on to WTVS
WTVS
WTVS, branded as Detroit Public TV, is the Public Broadcasting Service member Public television station in Detroit, Michigan. Broadcasting since 1955, its vision statement is "educate, entertain and inspire — in partnership with our community." The viewer supported station produces many local...
to host PBS Late Night. The most popular and successful WXYZ morning talk show was Kelly & Company, hosted by a married couple who were both former WXYZ news announcers, John Kelly (news anchor) and Marilyn Turner (weathercaster). The show ran at 9 a.m. weekdays from 1978 to 1995. It was primarily a talk show with featured guests and a studio audience. In 1984 Turner and Kelly would also host the short-lived afternoon program, Good Afternoon Detroit. The program was a pilot for other ABC owned stations in New York, Chicago and elsewhere to launch their own Good Afternoon... shows.
In 1965, the Sunday morning public affairs show Spotlight on the News debuted with WXYZ's news director Bill Fyffe as its first host. The show was later hosted by political reporter Jim Harrington and continues to air today with WXYZ editorial and public affairs director Chuck Stokes as its host, writer and producer. Spotlight is now Detroit's longest running current events television program. It has featured local and national public officials including U.S. Presidents, and won numerous awards. Another public affairs show that aired Sunday nights at 11:30 p.m. from 1967 to 1981 was Haney’s People with host Don Haney.
WXYZ-TV has also been involved in several Detroit traditions over the years, having aired special coverage of Detroit's Thanksgiving Day Parade, The North American International Auto Show Charity Preview', the annual Woodward Dream Cruise
Woodward Dream Cruise
The Woodward Dream Cruise event is a classic car event held annually on the third Saturday of August in Metropolitan Detroit, along Woodward Avenue. The WDC Event spans much of the avenue, from Pontiac through Ferndale in Oakland County, Michigan, all the way to the State Fair Grounds inside the...
and the City of Detroit's celebrations of its 250th anniversary in 1951 and 300th anniversary in 2001. WXYZ's special coverage has also included the victory parades of the city's professional sports teams, most recently the Detroit Red Wings'
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...
Stanley Cup
Stanley Cup
The Stanley Cup is an ice hockey club trophy, awarded annually to the National Hockey League playoffs champion after the conclusion of the Stanley Cup Finals. It has been referred to as The Cup, Lord Stanley's Cup, The Holy Grail, or facetiously as Lord Stanley's Mug...
victory in 2008 and the 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...
NBA championship in 2004. WXYZ is also the official broadcaster of the Christmas parade in Rochester, Michigan
Rochester, Michigan
Rochester is an affluent city in north Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan on the northern outskirts of metro Detroit. The population was 12,711 at the 2010 census...
.
In 1987, the station created and produced a weekly educational literacy
Literacy
Literacy has traditionally been described as the ability to read for knowledge, write coherently and think critically about printed material.Literacy represents the lifelong, intellectual process of gaining meaning from print...
program aimed at children called Learn To Read
Learn to Read
Learn To Read is an adult educational TV series that consists of 30 programs, hosted by entrepreneur and literacy advocate Wally Amos. Co-instructors include Doris Biscoe and Charlotte Scot. Bruce Jenner guest-starred on the first episode. This was based on 27 million Americans having almost no...
, which was based on the "Michigan Method
Audio-Lingual Method
The audio-lingual method, Army Method, or New Key, is a style of teaching used in teaching foreign languages. It is based on behaviorist theory, which professes that certain traits of living things, and in this case humans, could be trained through a system of reinforcement—correct use of a trait...
" of literacy education, with co-production by Kentucky Educational Television
Kentucky Educational Television
Kentucky Educational Television, also known as KET: The Kentucky Network, is Kentucky's non-commercial educational public television state network...
. One of the hosts of this series was Doris Biscoe, then one of the anchors of Channel 7 Action News.
During Game 2 of the 2004 NBA Finals
2004 NBA Finals
The 2004 NBA Finals was the championship round of the 2003–04 National Basketball Association season. The Finals were between the Los Angeles Lakers of the Western Conference and the Detroit Pistons of the Eastern Conference; the Lakers held home court advantage...
in Detroit, Jimmy Kimmel
Jimmy Kimmel
James Christian "Jimmy" Kimmel is an American television host and comedian. He is the host of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, a late-night talk show that airs on ABC. Prior to that, Kimmel was best known as the co-host of Comedy Central's The Man Show and Win Ben Stein's Money...
appeared on ABC's halftime show to make an on-air plug for that night's episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live
Jimmy Kimmel Live
Jimmy Kimmel Live! is an American late-night talk show, created and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and broadcast on ABC.The nightly hour-long show made its debut on January 26, 2003, following Super Bowl XXXVII. Jimmy Kimmel Live! is produced by Jackhole Productions in association with ABC Studios...
. He suggested that if the Detroit Pistons defeated the Los Angeles Lakers
Los Angeles Lakers
The Los Angeles Lakers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles, California. They play in the Pacific Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association...
, "they're gonna burn the city of Detroit down ... and it's not worth it." Channel 7 officials immediately announced that night's show would not air on the station. Hours later, ABC officials pulled that night's show from the entire network. Kimmel later apologized.
As of May 21, 2010, the WXYZ-TV 24/7 Weather Station that was on digital channel 7.3 has been discontinued. This digital channel that broadcast Doppler Radar and current conditions 24/7 will now be exclusive to mobile TV. Despite preempting shows for special events (i.e., Woodward Dream Cruise, etc.), WXYZ-TV is one of the few ABC affiliates in a U.S. major market that runs the entire ABC schedule. On August 6, 2010, WDIV-TV
WDIV-TV
WDIV-TV, virtual channel 4, is an NBC-affiliated television station based in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is owned by Post-Newsweek Stations and is the flagship station and home base of the group with the offices of the group located alongside WDIV's studios; the "Local" branding now...
and WXYZ-TV became the first stations in Detroit to offer Mobile DTV feeds.
In 2011, WXYZ-TV replaced 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....
as the new flagship of the Detroit Lions Television Network
Detroit Lions Television Network
The Detroit Lions Television Network is a network of six television stations in Michigan that broadcast the NFL's Detroit Lions preseason games as well as its weekly regular season pregame show The Ford Lions Report. As of 2011, WXYZ-TV in Detroit is the flagship station...
.
While television station 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...
in Mt. Clemens
Mount Clemens, Michigan
Mount Clemens is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 17,312. It is the county seat of Macomb County.-Early history:...
/Detroit
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...
, 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"....
is The Word Network's flagship (appearing on a digital subchannel
Digital subchannel
In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a means to transmit more than one independent program at the same time from the same digital radio or digital television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compression techniques to reduce the size of each individual...
, and programmed from WADL), the network's satellite uplink system is located at WXYZ-TV.
In popular culture
WXYZ-TV is featured on the ABCAmerican Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
show Detroit 1-8-7
Detroit 1-8-7
Detroit 1-8-7 is an American crime drama series about Detroit's leading homicide unit, created by Jason Richman for ABC. It features an ensemble cast of actors including Michael Imperioli and James McDaniel...
, as the actual local news station being portrayed on the show.
Digital television
WXYZ-TV's digital channel, 41, is multiplexed, with the following lineup:| Channel | Video | Aspect | Name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7.1 | 720p 720p 720p is the shorthand name for 1280x720, a category of High-definition television video modes having a resolution of 1080 or 720p and a progressive scan... |
16:9 16:9 16:9 is an aspect ratio with a width of 16 units and height of 9. Since 2009, it has become the most common aspect ratio for sold televisions and computer monitors and is also the international standard format of HDTV, Full HD, non-HD digital television and analog widescreen television ... |
WXYZ-HD | Main WXYZ programming / ABC |
| 7.2 | 480i 480i 480i is the shorthand name for a video mode, namely the US NTSC television system or digital television systems with the same characteristics. The i, which is sometimes uppercase, stands for interlaced, the 480 for a vertical frame resolution of 480 lines containing picture information; while NTSC... |
WXYZ-DT | Live Well Network |
As part of the analog television shutdown and digital conversion
DTV transition in the United States
The DTV transition in the United States was the switchover from analog to exclusively digital broadcasting of free over-the-air television programming...
, WXYZ-TV shut-down its analog transmitter on June 12, 2009, and continued to broadcast on its pre-transition digital channel 41. 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 will display the station'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 7.
After WXYZ-TV shut down its analog signal on channel 7 after over 60 years, Metro Detroit's WJBK
WJBK
WJBK is the Fox–owned and operated television station in Detroit, Michigan broadcasting on digital channel 7...
channel 2 moved its digital signal to the channel 7 allocation.
WXYZ-TV's third digital subchannel formerly carried Doppler7Weather, a channel looping weather radar, tempatures, and live local radar. This channel also used the L-Bar, showing current conditions on the left and five day forecasts on the bottom. On May 21, 2010, this channel was removed to prepare and utilize its channel exclusively for mobile TV.
Coverage
WXYZ is carried on most 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 Northwestern Ohio. 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 and simsubbing
Simultaneous substitution
Simultaneous substitution is a practice mandated by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission requiring Canadian cable, direct broadcast satellite and multichannel multipoint distribution service television distribution companies to substitute the signal of a foreign or...
in Canada. The station can be received from as far away as Flint, Michigan with a good-quality antenna. It is also carried on cable in Grand Marais, Michigan
Grand Marais, Michigan
Grand Marais is an unincorporated community in Burt Township, Alger County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is located on Lake Superior at and is the eastern gateway to the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore via H-58....
.
WXYZ-TV is on all Detroit area cable
Cable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
systems, including Comcast
Comcast
Comcast Corporation is the largest cable operator, home Internet service provider, and fourth largest home telephone service provider in the United States, providing cable television, broadband Internet, and telephone service to both residential and commercial customers in 39 states and the...
, AT&T
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
, WOW!
WOW! Internet Cable Phone
WOW! , is the 15th largest cable provider in the United States. It has been given accolades by Consumer Reports as the top Television and internet provider in it's 2009 telecom survey.-History:...
and Bright House
Bright House Networks
Bright House Networks is a cable television company, the seventh largest cable operator and the sixth largest traditional multiple system operator in the United States owned by Advance/Newhouse, headquartered in Syracuse, New York...
, plus satellite providers DirecTV
DirecTV
DirecTV is an American direct broadcast satellite service provider and broadcaster based in El Segundo, California. Its satellite service, launched on June 17, 1994, transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in the United States, Latin America, and the Anglophone Caribbean. ...
and Dish Network
Dish Network
Dish Network Corporation is the second largest pay TV provider in the United States, providing direct broadcast satellite service—including satellite television, audio programming, and interactive television services—to 14.337 million commercial and residential customers in the United States. Dish...
. The station also serves several other parts of Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
as an ABC affiliate on the Shaw Direct satellite provider as well as several Canadian cable TV markets, including Windsor
Windsor, Ontario
Windsor is the southernmost city in Canada and is located in Southwestern Ontario at the western end of the heavily populated Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. It is within Essex County, Ontario, although administratively separated from the county government. Separated by the Detroit River, Windsor...
, London
London, Ontario
London is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada, situated along the Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. The city has a population of 352,395, and the metropolitan area has a population of 457,720, according to the 2006 Canadian census; the metro population in 2009 was estimated at 489,274. The city...
, Sault Ste. Marie
Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario
Sault Ste. Marie is a city on the St. Marys River in Algoma District, Ontario, Canada. It is the third largest city in Northern Ontario, after Sudbury and Thunder Bay, with a population of 74,948. The community was founded as a French religious mission: Sault either means "jump" or "rapids" in...
, Sudbury, and Thunder Bay
Thunder Bay, Ontario
Thunder Bay is a city in and the seat of Thunder Bay District, Ontario, Canada. It is the most populous municipality in Northwestern Ontario, and the second most populous in Northern Ontario after Greater Sudbury...
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
; Saint John, New Brunswick
Saint John, New Brunswick
City of Saint John , or commonly Saint John, is the largest city in the province of New Brunswick, and the first incorporated city in Canada. The city is situated along the north shore of the Bay of Fundy at the mouth of the Saint John River. In 2006 the city proper had a population of 74,043...
; all of Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
except for areas served by Steinbach
Steinbach, Manitoba
Steinbach is a city of approx. 13,500 people in the southeast corner of the province of Manitoba, Canada, a short distance from the capital Winnipeg. Steinbach is the largest community in the Eastman region of Manitoba. The city is located in the R.M. of Hanover and bordered to the east by the R.M...
or Winnipeg
Winnipeg
Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...
Shaw; and the National Capital Region
National Capital Region (Canada)
The National Capital Region, also referred to as Canada's Capital Region, is an official federal designation for the Canadian capital of Ottawa, Ontario, the neighbouring city of Gatineau, Quebec, and surrounding urban and rural communities....
.
WXYZ-TV was previously offered as the ABC affiliate on cable through Cable Atlantic
Cable Atlantic
Cable Atlantic Inc. was a cable television provider serving much of the population of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador...
(now Rogers Cable
Rogers Cable
Rogers Cable Inc., a subsidiary of Rogers Communications Inc., is Canada's largest cable television service provider with about 2.25 million television customers, and over 930,000 Internet subscribers, in Manitoba, Southern & Eastern Ontario, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador.The...
) in Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada. Situated in the country's Atlantic region, it incorporates the island of Newfoundland and mainland Labrador with a combined area of . As of April 2011, the province's estimated population is 508,400...
, including in St. John's
St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador
St. John's is the capital and largest city in Newfoundland and Labrador, and is the oldest English-founded city in North America. It is located on the eastern tip of the Avalon Peninsula on the island of Newfoundland. With a population of 192,326 as of July 1, 2010, the St...
from 1985 to 1999 (now carried by fellow ABC affiliate WCVB-TV
WCVB-TV
WCVB-TV, channel 5, is a television station located in Boston, Massachusetts, owned by Hearst Television and affiliated with the ABC Television Network. WCVB-TV's studios and transmitter are co-located in Needham, Massachusetts. WCVB is also one of six Boston television stations seen in Canada by...
in Boston). As of 2010 however, some Rogers Cable customers in Newfoundland and Labrador began receiving WXYZ again, along with WDIV and WWJ.
Until April 2011, Comcast subscribers in Holly
Holly, Michigan
Holly is a village in north Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 6,086 at the 2010 census. The village is located within Holly Township. It is about south of Flint and northwest of Detroit.- Demographics :...
which is located in Northwestern Oakland County
Oakland County, Michigan
-Demographics:As of the 2010 Census, there were 1,202,362 people, 471,115 households, and 315,175 families residing in the county. The population density as of the 2000 census was 1,369 people per square mile . There were 492,006 housing units at an average density of 564 per square mile...
, a part of the Detroit media market, were unable to see much of WXYZ's programming, as it was often blacked out at the request of Flint
Flint, Michigan
Flint is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and is located along the Flint River, northwest of Detroit. The U.S. Census Bureau reports the 2010 population to be placed at 102,434, making Flint the seventh largest city in Michigan. It is the county seat of Genesee County which lies in the...
's WJRT-TV
WJRT-TV
WJRT-TV, channel 12, is the ABC-affiliated station for the Flint/Tri-Cities television market, owned by SJL Broadcasting. Its studios are located in Flint, Michigan, with offices and a second newsroom for the Tri-Cities located in Saginaw...
; the blackout was due to the Comcast system being tied to the Flint headend, instead of one in Oakland County or elsewhere in Detroit. That month, following complaints from Detroit stations and area viewers of being blacked out or unavailable in an area that they were supposed to serve, Comcast discontinued blackouts of Detroit channels and added additional channels from that market and dropped many Flint/Tri-Cities channels from that system. WJRT-TV was one of two channels retained (along with WCMZ-TV), as it was considered to have significant viewership in the Holly area.
Action News
History
WXYZ-TV’s news department has a longtime dominance of TV news in Detroit partly due to the popularity of long-time lead news anchor Bill BondsBill Bonds
Bill Bonds is an American television anchor and reporter, best known for his work at WXYZ-TV in Detroit, Michigan. Born in 1933, Bonds became an Action News anchorman beginning in the early 1970s.-Early career:...
. The station’s news department started as a small operation but would gain credibility for its coverage of the 1967 Detroit Riot. In the 1970s, WXYZ began an aggressive build-up of its news department by adopting many elements of the 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...
format, such as the Cool Hand Luke
Cool Hand Luke
Cool Hand Luke is a 1967 American prison drama film directed by Stuart Rosenberg and starring Paul Newman. The screenplay was adapted by Donn Pearce and Frank Pierson from Pearce's 1965 novel of the same name. The film features George Kennedy, Strother Martin, J.D...
news music, that were used to strengthen news departments at ABC's four other O&O television stations in New York
WABC-TV
WABC-TV, channel 7, is the flagship station of the Disney-owned American Broadcasting Company located in New York City. The station's studios and offices are located on the Upper West Side section of Manhattan, adjacent to ABC's corporate headquarters, and its transmitter is atop the Empire State...
, Chicago
WLS-TV
WLS-TV, virtual channel 7, is an owned-and-operated television station of the Walt Disney Company-owned American Broadcasting Company, located in Chicago, Illinois, USA. The station operates their full power digital operations on UHF channel 44, with their digital fill-in translator on VHF channel...
, Los Angeles
KABC-TV
KABC-TV, channel 7, is an owned-and-operated television station of the Walt Disney Company-owned American Broadcasting Company, licensed to Los Angeles, California. KABC-TV's studios are located in Glendale, California...
and San Francisco
KGO-TV
KGO-TV, channel 7, is an owned-and-operated television station of the Walt Disney Company-owned American Broadcasting Company, based in San Francisco, California...
. However, it opted to call its newscast Action News
Action News
Action News is a local television newscast format in the United States. It was conceived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at WFIL-TV by then-news director Mel Kampmann in 1970 as a response to the "Eyewitness News" format used on rival station KYW-TV...
. Under the direction of general manager Jim Osborn and news director Phil Nye, the station would lure popular news personalities from rival stations, WJBK-TV and WDIV-TV
WDIV-TV
WDIV-TV, virtual channel 4, is an NBC-affiliated television station based in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is owned by Post-Newsweek Stations and is the flagship station and home base of the group with the offices of the group located alongside WDIV's studios; the "Local" branding now...
(known then as WWJ-TV), to join its already well-known anchors Dave Diles and Bill Bonds. WXYZ assembled Detroit’s most popular news anchors and reporters such as John Kelly, Jac LeGoff, Al Ackerman, Marilyn Turner, Jack McCarthy, Jerry Hodak
Jerry Hodak
Jerry Hodak is the former Chief Meteorologist on ABC's Detroit affiliate, WXYZ-TV. Hodak studied mass communications at Wayne State University, located in Detroit, Michigan. After traveling to Orlando, Florida as a news reporter for WDBO-TV, Hodak returned to Detroit in 1967 as a weather caster...
, Don Lark, and Doris Biscoe. The station launched a promotional campaign to introduce its new anchor team: “Bonds, Kelly, Ackerman, Turner... Channel 7's Action News Team. We got who you wanted!”
By 1973, Channel 7 Action News, for the first time ever, became the highest-rated newscast in Detroit and has held the lead ever since. Its success was linked to the serious, controversial, opinionated hard delivery of lead anchor Bill Bonds
Bill Bonds
Bill Bonds is an American television anchor and reporter, best known for his work at WXYZ-TV in Detroit, Michigan. Born in 1933, Bonds became an Action News anchorman beginning in the early 1970s.-Early career:...
. ABC tried to apply Bonds’ success in Detroit at KABC-TV
KABC-TV
KABC-TV, channel 7, is an owned-and-operated television station of the Walt Disney Company-owned American Broadcasting Company, licensed to Los Angeles, California. KABC-TV's studios are located in Glendale, California...
in Los Angeles in the late 1960s, and again in 1975 at WABC-TV
WABC-TV
WABC-TV, channel 7, is the flagship station of the Disney-owned American Broadcasting Company located in New York City. The station's studios and offices are located on the Upper West Side section of Manhattan, adjacent to ABC's corporate headquarters, and its transmitter is atop the Empire State...
in New York; in both cases, he was unsuccessful and soon returned to WXYZ. During the 1980s and 1990s, Bonds hosted the interview segment, Up Front, on WXYZ's 5 p.m. Action News. During the interviews, Bonds confronted the Detroit area’s public officials and newsmakers with hard-hitting and sometimes controversial questions. Bonds’ hard-edge style was widely known in Detroit for both captivating viewers while repulsing others, leading Bonds to become the station's icon and its main star.
In Ron Powers' book, The Newscasters, Powers called Bonds "one of the 6 most influential news anchors in the country." However, Bonds had public battles with alcoholism
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
which are credited with his dismissal from the station in 1995. Bonds anchored newscasts and a late night talk-show at WJBK-TV and later hosted a radio show at WXYT-AM. Bonds returned to WXYZ-TV in 1999 to present editorials during the newscasts, but left the station after a only a few months.
WXYZ’s ratings dominance was challenged by WDIV-TV
WDIV-TV
WDIV-TV, virtual channel 4, is an NBC-affiliated television station based in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is owned by Post-Newsweek Stations and is the flagship station and home base of the group with the offices of the group located alongside WDIV's studios; the "Local" branding now...
in the 1980s. The two stations continue a head to head battle for ratings to this day. In recent years the station's news coverage received several journalism honors including the George Foster Peabody
George Foster Peabody
George Foster Peabody was a banker and philanthropist.-Early life:...
and Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University
DuPont-Columbia Award
The Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Award is an American award that honors excellence in broadcast journalism. The awards, administered since 1968 by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York City, are considered a broadcast equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize, another...
awards. WXYZ’s Action News was named the best TV newscast in the U.S. by United Press International
United Press International
United Press International is a once-major international news agency, whose newswires, photo, news film and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines and radio and television stations for most of the twentieth century...
in 1989. The station also received the National Community Service Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences or NATAS was created in 1955 to advance the arts and sciences of television. Headquartered in New York, NATAS's membership is national and the organization has local chapters around the country....
for outstanding community service. WXYZ is a partner in several charitable endeavors including the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul
Society of Saint Vincent de Paul
The St Vincent de Paul Society is an international Roman Catholic voluntary organization dedicated to tackling poverty and disadvantage by providing direct practical assistance to anyone in need. Active in England & Wales since 1844, today it continues to address social and material need in all...
, Operation Can-Do and Detroit's annual children's immunization fair.
In the 1990s, WXYZ continued to expand its morning newscast, Action News This Morning to the present start time of 5 a.m. This newscast started as short news updates during Good Morning America. One of its long-time co-anchors was Erik Smith who worked at Channel 7, off-and-on, for over 40 years. During most of that time, Smith also served as a reporter of human-interest and Entertainment stories for Action News. Smith also won acclaim for his award winning series From the Heart, which began in the late 1990s as a collection of heartwarming, historical and inspirational stories from around the Detroit area. Smith left the station in May 2010, due to a dispute with management, five-days before the end of his contract. Because of his popularity with viewers, it is unclear whether WXYZ-TV's high morning news ratings will survive his departure.
In 2001, WXYZ's Action News expanded again and returned to airing a 7 p.m. newscast. The move was spurred after the September 11 attacks when the station moved ABC’s World News Tonight ahead 30-minutes to 6:30 p.m.. Action News at 7 PM became a forum for interviewing guests and newsmakers on daily issues and became a ratings success in key demographics
Demographics
Demographics are the most recent statistical characteristics of a population. These types of data are used widely in sociology , public policy, and marketing. Commonly examined demographics include gender, race, age, disabilities, mobility, home ownership, employment status, and even location...
. The station also expanded its Action News at Noon broadcast to one hour. Action News continued its success with long-time anchors Diana Lewis, Robbie Timmons, meteorologist Jerry Hodak
Jerry Hodak
Jerry Hodak is the former Chief Meteorologist on ABC's Detroit affiliate, WXYZ-TV. Hodak studied mass communications at Wayne State University, located in Detroit, Michigan. After traveling to Orlando, Florida as a news reporter for WDBO-TV, Hodak returned to Detroit in 1967 as a weather caster...
, sportscaster Don Shane and up until October 9, 2006, anchor Frank Turner who became a successful replacement to Bill Bonds. Another recent addition is anchor Stephen Clark, a former anchor at WCBS-TV
WCBS-TV
WCBS-TV, channel 2, is the flagship station of the CBS television network, located in New York City. The station's studios are located within the CBS Broadcast Center and its transmitter is atop the Empire State Building, both in Midtown Manhattan....
and CBS News
CBS News
CBS News is the news division of American television and radio network CBS. The current chairman is Jeff Fager who is also the executive producer of 60 Minutes, while the current president of CBS News is David Rhodes. CBS News' flagship program is the CBS Evening News, hosted by the network's main...
correspondent. Chief Meteorologist Jerry Hodak
Jerry Hodak
Jerry Hodak is the former Chief Meteorologist on ABC's Detroit affiliate, WXYZ-TV. Hodak studied mass communications at Wayne State University, located in Detroit, Michigan. After traveling to Orlando, Florida as a news reporter for WDBO-TV, Hodak returned to Detroit in 1967 as a weather caster...
was the station's primary weathercaster for at least 26 of his more than 40 years in Detroit television. On July 28, 2010, Hodak announced his retirement from WXYZ-TV which became effective September 23, 2010. In 2006, WXYZ also boasted the most veteran general-assignment reporters in Detroit TV with Cheryl Chodun, Bill Proctor, Mary Conway and Val Clark, each of whom worked at least 20 years at the station.
In the November 2006 ratings period, shortly after the switch to HD, all of WXYZ's newscasts placed first in their respective timeslots except at 11 p.m., which lagged behind WDIV. From the November 2007 ratings period until before the May 2009 ratings period, WXYZ's Action News was the number-one newscast in each of its respective timeslots. Coupled with a strong syndicated programming lineup and top-ranked ABC prime-time programming, WXYZ has been the number one-ranked station in Detroit, from sign-on to sign-off. It has remained one of ABC's strongest affiliates since the network sold the station to Scripps however, it finished behind rival WDIV, who took first place in the evening and late news timeslots in the May 2009 sweeps period due largely to lower ratings of shows leading into WXYZ's news programs. Both WXYZ and WDIV have been among the country's strongest affiliates of their respective networks over the years although WDIV has taken over first place in all newscast time slots within the past year or so.
WXYZ-TV’s Special Projects department is home to the station’s investigative and consumer reporters and producers. It gained notoriety in 2002 with Chief Investigative Reporter Steve Wilson and his stories of financial mismanagement at the Kmart Corporation
Kmart
Kmart, sometimes styled as "K-Mart," is a chain of discount department stores. The chain acquired Sears in 2005, forming a new corporation under the name Sears Holdings Corporation. The company was founded in 1962 and is the third largest discount store chain in the world, behind Wal-Mart and...
, an undercover investigation that exposed high-pressure sales tactics used by a well-known financial firm, and confrontations with elected officials in Detroit, especially Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick
Kwame Kilpatrick
Kwame Malik Kilpatrick is a former mayor of Detroit, Michigan. Kilpatrick's mayorship was plagued by numerous scandals and rampant accusations of corruption, with the mayor eventually resigning after being charged with ten felony counts, including perjury and obstruction of justice...
.
On August 7, 2008, Mayor Kilpatrick appeared in front of a judge in Wayne County Circuit Court. The hearing was called to discuss a potential violation of his bond in one of the two felony cases against him. The hearing was called after Steve Wilson uncovered and revealed photos of the mayor in nearby Windsor, Ontario
Windsor, Ontario
Windsor is the southernmost city in Canada and is located in Southwestern Ontario at the western end of the heavily populated Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. It is within Essex County, Ontario, although administratively separated from the county government. Separated by the Detroit River, Windsor...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. A stipulation of the mayor's bond was that he was not to leave the country, and that he give the court 72 hours' notice if he planned to leave the state of Michigan for any reason. Mayor Kilpatrick was then ordered to spend the night in the Wayne County jail.
On November 30, 2009, WXYZ introduced its new graphics package for its newscast. These graphics are identical to those being utilized by all Scripps-owned stations. Also, WXYZ is the only station in Detroit to produce and air all its promos, commercials and other recordings in high definition.
On August 3, 2011, WXYZ unveiled a new studio to its viewing audience during its noon news broadacst, a project which the organization had been working on since June 2011. The new studio features new high definition cameras and monitors and a redesigned weather center under a new name: "7 First Alert Weather."
Newscast titles
- The Big News (1960–1964)
- Channel 7 News (1964–1968)
- The 11th Hour News (ca. 1968)
- Channel 7 News / 7 News (1968–1969)
- NewsBeat 7 / Supernews (1969)
- Channel 7 News (1970)
- WXYZ-TV 7 News (1970–1971)
- Bill Bonds with The News (1971–1972)
- Channel 7 Action News (1971–1997 and 1999–present)
- WXYZ 7 Action News (1997–1999)
Station slogans
- We Got Who You Wanted (News slogan; 1970s)
- Still the One, on Channel 7 (1977-1978; 1979-1980; local version of the ABC slogan)
- So Good to Turn To (1981–1982)
- Where Detroit Turns First (1982)
- Come on Along with Channel 7 (1982-1983; local version of the ABC slogan)
- Stand Up and Tell 'em You're From Detroit (1985–1987; based on Frank Gari's "Turn To..." series)
- Made in Detroit (1987–1991; as a production endcap for station produced shows)
- 7 Stands For News/Stands By You (1992–2003)
- The Spirit of Detroit (1996–2000; still used on occasion)
- 7 On Your Side (2003–2011)
- Taking Action for You (2011-present; news slogan)
Newscast music
- Cool Hand LukeCool Hand LukeCool Hand Luke is a 1967 American prison drama film directed by Stuart Rosenberg and starring Paul Newman. The screenplay was adapted by Donn Pearce and Frank Pierson from Pearce's 1965 novel of the same name. The film features George Kennedy, Strother Martin, J.D...
: The Tar Sequence - Lalo SchifrinLalo SchifrinLalo Schifrin is an Argentine composer, pianist and conductor. He is best known for his film and TV scores, such as the "Theme from Mission: Impossible". He has received four Grammy Awards and six Oscar nominations...
(1969–1982) - So Good To Turn To - Frank GariFrank GariFrank Gari is a popular singer and songwriter from the late 1950s and early 1960s. His best known songs as a performer are "Utopia" , "Lullaby of Love" and "Princess" , all of which hit the U.S. Top 40 in 1961. He co-wrote with Roger McGuinn the song Beach Ball for Bobby Darin...
(1982–1984) - News Series 2000 - Frank Gari (1984–1996)
- News Series 2000 Plus - Frank Gari (1991–1996)
- Spirit Of Detroit - Joe Hogue Productions (now HitPlay) (1996–2000)
- Ignitor - 615 Music615 Music615 Music is a broadcast production music company based in Nashville, Tennessee. 615 Music composes television news music packages and custom image campaigns for many television networks around the world. 615 Music also operates out of Los Angeles...
(2000–2001) - Eyewitness News - Frank Gari (2001–2009)
- Scripps TV News Music Package - MusikvergnuegenMusikvergnuegenMusikvergnuegen , sometimes abbreviated to MusikV, is a music and sound design production company located in Los Angeles, California. The company name translates into English as "enjoyment of music". It was founded by Austrian-born composer Walter Werzowa.Werzowa founded the company after achieving...
(2009–present) - Spotlight on the News - Theme Song - Sidney Howard, Lake Gennesaret SPS (2000–Present)
Movie umbrella titles
- The 4:30 MovieThe 4:30 MovieThe 4:30 Movie was a television program that aired weekday afternoons on WABC-TV in New York from 1968 to 1981. The program was mainly known for individual theme weeks devoted to theatrical feature films or made-for-TV movies starring a certain actor or actress, or to a particular genre, or to...
(1968–1977) - The 4:00 Movie (1977–1982)
- Cinema Seven (1982–present)
Current on-air staff
Anchors- Stephen Clark - weeknights at 6, 7 and 11 p.m.
- Carolyn Clifford - weeknights at 7 and 11 p.m.
- Vic Faust - weekday mornings and noon
- Michael Rosenfield - weekend mornings; also weekday field reporter
- Dave LewAllen - weekends at 6 and 11 p.m.; also weekday field reporter
- Diana Lewis - weeknights at 5 and 6 p.m.
- Glenda Lewis - weekends at 6 and 11 p.m.; also weekday field reporter 3 days a week
- JoAnne Purtan - weekdays at noon and 5 p.m.
- Anu Prakash - weekend mornings; also weekday field reporter
- Alicia Smith - weekday mornings; also fill-in noon anchor, weekday field reporter and "Don't Waste Your Money" consumer reporter
7 First Alert Weather
- Dave Rexroth (AMSAmerican Meteorological SocietyThe American Meteorological Society promotes the development and dissemination of information and education on the atmospheric and related oceanic and hydrologic sciences and the advancement of their professional applications. Founded in 1919, the American Meteorological Society has a membership...
Seal of Approval) - chief meteorologist; weeknights 5, 6, 7 and 11 p.m. - Hally Vogel (AMS Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; weekend evenings, also weekday fill-in
- Chris Edwards (AMS Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; weekend mornings, also weekday fill-in
- Keenan SmithKeenan SmithKeenan Smith is an American television broadcaster who has been the morning and noon meteorologist at WXYZ-TV in Detroit, Michigan since late September 2010...
(AMS Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; weekday mornings and noon
Sports team
- Don Shane - sports director; weeknights at 5, 6 and 11 p.m.
- Tom Leyden - sports anchor; weekends at 6 and 11 p.m., also sports reporter and Detroit Lions preseason game sideline reporter
Reporters
- Julie Banovic - general assignment reporter
- Heather Catallo - investigative reporter (The Investigators)
- Cheryl Chodun - general assignment reporter
- Val Clark - general assignment reporter
- Mary Conway - general assignment reporter; also fill-in holiday anchor
- Kimberly Craig - general assignment reporter
- Tara Edwards - general assignment reporter
- Smita Kalokhe - general assignment reporter
- Scott Lewis - investigative reporter ("The Investigators")
- Erin Nicole - traffic reporter ("Traffic Tracker 7")
- Bill Proctor - investigative reporter ("The Investigators")
- Michael Rosenfield - general assignment reporter; weekend morning anchor
- Kim Russell - general assignment reporter
- Bill Spencer - consumer and investigative reporter ("Call For Action" and "7 On Your Side")
- Tom Wait - general assignment reporter
Contributors
- Carter Evans - NYSENew York Stock ExchangeThe New York Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located at 11 Wall Street in Lower Manhattan, New York City, USA. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed companies at 13.39 trillion as of Dec 2010...
correspondent - Ramy Inocencio - NYSE correspondent
- Jeanne Yurman - NYSE correspondent
- Tom Long - film critic; also seen in The Detroit News
- Gerry Gleeson - Legal analyst
Notable former on-air staff
- Dennis ArcherDennis ArcherDennis Wayne Archer is an American lawyer and politician from Michigan. A Democrat, Archer served on the Michigan Supreme Court and as mayor of Detroit...
- 1970s public affairs show host, later mayor of Detroit - Bill BondsBill BondsBill Bonds is an American television anchor and reporter, best known for his work at WXYZ-TV in Detroit, Michigan. Born in 1933, Bonds became an Action News anchorman beginning in the early 1970s.-Early career:...
(early 1960s-1968, 1971–1975 and 1976–1995) - longtime lead anchor of Action News - Johnny GingerJohnny GingerGalen Grindle , better known as Johnny Ginger, was a pioneer of Detroit television.-Biography:Grindle was born in Toledo, Ohio. His parents, Ray and Edna, were a Vaudeville family act performing at the Paramount Theater in Toledo. His brother, Kenny, was a tap dancer in the family act...
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(1978–1984) - investigative reporter, fill-in anchor, now with WRC-TVWRC-TVWRC-TV, channel 4, is an owned and operated television station of the NBC television network, located in the American capital city of Washington, D.C...
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(AMSAmerican Meteorological SocietyThe American Meteorological Society promotes the development and dissemination of information and education on the atmospheric and related oceanic and hydrologic sciences and the advancement of their professional applications. Founded in 1919, the American Meteorological Society has a membership...
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Seal of Approval) - chief meteorologist; retired on September 23, 2010 - Chris LawrenceChris LawrenceChristopher J. Lawrence was a British former racing driver from England. Born in Ealing, London, he participated regularly in the Le Mans 24 Hours race and in two World Championship Formula One Grands Prix, driving a special Cooper-Ferrari, debuting on 16 July 1966...
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's Los AngelesLos ÁngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
bureau - Soupy SalesSoupy SalesSoupy Sales was an American comedian, actor, radio-TV personality and host, and jazz aficionado. He was best known for his local and network children's television show, Lunch with Soupy Sales; a series of comedy sketches frequently ending with Sales receiving a pie in the face, which became his...
- deceased - Steve WilsonSteve Wilson (reporter)Steve Wilson is an American news reporter. Currently running his own nonprofit investigative reporting group, he is best known for his whistleblower lawsuit with then-wife Jane Akre against WTVT in 1997 and his work as WXYZ-TV's Chief Investigative Reporter in Detroit, Michigan in the late...
- Chief Investigative Reporter
Logos and imaging
In the 1950s, WXYZ used the 'A' adent the ABC network used, with a "7" in the letter as its logo. It was similar to the logos other ABC O&O stations used at that time. In 1962, WXYZ, along with other ABC O&Os across the country, introduced the famous Circle 7 logo. The Circle 7, which is common among ABC Channel 7s, is still used to this day.In the late 1990s, WXYZ started to integrate the current ABC logo into the Circle 7, much like ABC O&Os across the country. WXYZ did this for general programming purposes, and for promos in relation to the ABC network. The ABC logo is to the right of the Circle 7, instead of to the left like it is for the standard ABC O&Os and affiliates across the country. The idea was suspended briefly from 2001–2004, but was brought back in early 2004.
In early 2009, the 7 ABC logo (the ABC logo integrated into the circle 7) became more prominently used with the station. Instead of being used just for general programming purposes, the 7 ABC logo is now the official logo used for the station.
On June 3, 2009, WXYZ updated its news opening, using the 7 ABC logo. On top of that, the on-screen bug used for the newscasts also displays the 7 ABC logo. The design is similar to that of sister station WEWS in Cleveland and the ABC O&Os across the country, like KABC
KABC-TV
KABC-TV, channel 7, is an owned-and-operated television station of the Walt Disney Company-owned American Broadcasting Company, licensed to Los Angeles, California. KABC-TV's studios are located in Glendale, California...
in Los Angeles.
On November 30, 2009, WXYZ updated its news opening again, using the same graphics package as other EW Scripps stations. The music was updated as well, giving the station an edgier feel. The 7 ABC bug is also used for the graphics package.
WXYZ has used several campaigns over the years. In the 1970s, Channel 7 used the "We've Got Who You Wanted" campaign to launch the famous news team of Bill Bonds, John Kelly, Marilyn Turner, and Al Ackerman. In the mid 1980s, WXYZ used the "Stand Up and Tell 'em You're from Detroit" campaign (based on Frank Gari's "Turn to News" package) to emphasize the station's commitment to the community.
As an ABC owned and operated station, WXYZ also localized several ABC fall campaigns in the 1970s, up until 1986. The most notable ABC fall campaign WXYZ customized was 'Still The One,' which was used in the late 1970s.