WYIN

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WYIN is a public television station in Gary, Indiana, serving the Indiana side of the Chicago, Illinois market on channel 17 as a PBS member station. Transmitting from Cedar Lake, Indiana, and with studios and offices in Merrillville, Indiana, the station offers educational programs, sports and local news. The station's main competition in the market are WTTW and WYCC, public broadcasters in the city of Chicago.

History

WYIN evolved from non-commercial station WCAE, originally licensed to the Lake Central School Corporation in St. John and airing on channel 50. That station made its debut in 1967. The school system was unable to maintain broadcast operations and the station went dark in 1984. The station's license was swapped with Metrowest Corporation's WGMI, a construction permit on channel 56 licensed to Gary that had never been built. Metrowest eventually took the channel 50 signal to air as commercial station WPWR-TV.

The non-commercial license (now reassigned to channel 56) was secured by the founding group of WYIN, who took it on the air on November 15, 1987.

In June 2010 WYIN laid off 30 percent of their staff due funding cuts that have affected the Public Broadcasting System nationwide.

Programming

Aside from airing PBS shows, the station produces Lakeshore News Tonight, a nightly newscast focusing on local issues. The newscast was previously titled 56 Nightly News. WYIN also produces Lakeshore News in Review, a newscast focusing on recalling the local news stories for each week on Sunday.

Transmitter

For many years, WYIN fought to move its transmitter to the Sears Tower or John Hancock Center, where most of the major Chicago stations have their transmitters. This was opposed by WTTW and WYCC, as it would have made WYIN a full competitor in the Chicago market while allowing them to pay less for PBS programming. WTTW also claimed this would take pledges from the station. WYIN eventually dropped its attempt to move, but did purchase a new transmitter.

In 2003, WYIN began broadcasting a digital signal on channel 17.

A lightning strike to a power transformer feeding WYIN's transmitter temporarily knocked the station off the air on June 18, 2007. [1]

There have been several instances in which the WYIN transmitter has been affected by lightning. A direct lightning strike to the analog antenna in December 2002 left the station off the air for nearly a month while a new antenna was installed atop the 1000' tower, which also houses antennas for several cellular phone suppliers including NEXTEL, wireless internet, and other clients.

The "WYIN" callsign was legally transferred from the former analog channel 56 to digital channel 17 upon completion of the DTV transition on June 12, 2009, with the "WYIN-DT" callsign being officially retired.

WYIN continues to broadcast on channel 17, using PSIP to display its virtual channel on ATSC tuners as 56.

In June 2010 WYIN laid off 30 percent of their staff due funding cuts that have affected the Public Broadcasting System nationwide.

News/Station presentation

Newscast Titles

• Indiana Nightly Report
• 56 News
• 56 Nightly News (-2006)
• Lakeshore News Tonight (2006–Present)

Logos

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  WYIN's old logo, used from 1987 until 2006
• Current WYIN logo, used since 2006
  Current WYIN logo, used since 2006

External links

• Official website
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