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WSMH
CityFlint, Michigan
Channels
BrandingFox 66; Mid Michigan Now
Programming
Affiliations
Ownership
Owner
WEYI-TV, WBSF
History
FoundedSeptember 27, 1984 (1984-09-27)
First air date
January 13, 1985
(39 years ago) (1985-01-13)
Former channel number(s)
Analog: 66 (UHF, 1984–2009)
Independent (1985–1986)
Call sign meaning
"We Show More Hits"
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID21737
ERP245 kW
HAAT365.5 m (1,199 ft)
Transmitter coordinates43°13′31″N 84°4′33″W / 43.22528°N 84.07583°W / 43.22528; -84.07583
Links
Public license information
Websitenbc25news.com

WSMH (channel 66), branded on-air as Fox 66, is a television station licensed to Flint, Michigan, United States, serving as the Fox affiliate for northeastern Michigan. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, which provides certain services to Saginaw-licensed NBC affiliate WEYI-TV (channel 25, owned by Howard Stirk Holdings) and Bay City-licensed CW affiliate WBSF (channel 46, owned by Cunningham Broadcasting) through separate shared services agreements (SSAs). However, Sinclair effectively owns WBSF as the majority of Cunningham's stock is owned by the family of deceased group founder Julian Smith.

The three stations share studios on West Pierson Road in Mount Morris Township (with a Flint mailing address); WSMH's transmitter is located on Amman Road (near Gary Road) near St. Charles, Michigan. There is no separate website for WSMH; instead, it is integrated with that of sister station WEYI-TV.

History

Flint Broadcasting Limited Partnership requested a station with the call letters WSMH,[2] which were assigned on September 27, 1984.[3] WSMH first went on the air on January 13, 1985, as an independent station with Frederick (Fritz) Mills as general manager. Mills was formerly director of national sales, UPI Media in Chicago.[4] A fire at the transmitter in April 1985 forced the station to go off the air for about one month until repairs could be made.[5] Flint Broadcasting sold the station to Gerald J. Robinson by July 1986.[6] On October 9, 1986,[7] it became a charter Fox affiliate.[5] Sinclair Broadcast Group bought the station in 1996.[5]

Per a new five-year affiliation agreement reached between Sinclair and Fox on May 15, 2012, WSMH would remain a Fox affiliate until at least December 31, 2017, although currently, its Fox affiliation remains to this day.[8]

News operation

Sinclair announced numerous layoffs at WSMH/WEYI in March 2023, which led to a major cut in news production from the stations.[9] As of April 15, 2023, WSMH presently broadcasts just five hours of locally produced newscasts each week, only airing an hour-long show at 10 p.m. WSMH no longer produces local weekend news.[10]

On October 28, 2002, WSMH started up a news department and began airing local broadcasts every night at 10.[11] Called Fox 66 News at 10, it was assisted by Sinclair's centralized news department[11] under the News Central brand. Local news originated from WSMH's studios while national news, weather, and sports aired from News Central headquarters in Hunt Valley, Maryland.[12] The station was the first Sinclair-owned property to use the News Central service and marked the first time it had ventured into the local news market.[11] In January 2006, Sinclair announced plans to end its News Central operation due to low ratings and expense.

On April 10, Sinclair announced that CBS affiliate WNEM-TV would begin producing a nightly 10 o'clock show on WSMH known as TV 5 News at 10 on Fox 66. This began airing on April 24 from WNEM's studios on North Franklin Street in Downtown Saginaw. After the final News Central broadcast on April 21, many local WSMH news employees were laid off. It had been expected that some personalities would join the WNEM-produced newscast in the future according to a press release. This was the case for former WSMH reporter David Custer who joined the WNEM news team on May 3.

The final News Central broadcast featured, in its last few minutes, clips from past shows. At the end, the studio was darkened and Jim Kiertzner and his boss left for the last time. Even after WSMH shut down its news operation, Mark E. Hyman's controversial "The Point" editorials continued to air following the end of the WNEM-produced newscasts. Hyman ended his commentaries on November 30. On May 1, 2009, the 10 o'clock news title was re-branded and the broadcast received updated graphics. Every night at 10:45, a fifteen-minute sports highlight show called Sports Extra airs. There is also a segment called "Fugitive Files" airing every week on Mondays which is a common segment offered by local news departments operated by Sinclair. Although WNEM upgraded its newscasts to 16:9 enhanced definition widescreen on October 14, 2010, the newscasts on WSMH remain in pillarboxed 4:3 standard definition because this channel lacks a modern master control facility at its separate studios to receive the newscast in widescreen.

Effective April 27, 2015, WEYI took over duties of producing the 10 p.m. newscast for sister Sinclair station WSMH, Fox 66 News at 10. Prior to April 27, WNEM-TV produced WSMH's evening newscast as part of a local agreement with WSMH.[13] Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson, a Sinclair Broadcast Group produced half-hour investigative news program, airs on the channel on Sunday morning starting October 4, 2015.[14]

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's signal is multiplexed:

Subchannels of WSMH[3]
Channel Video Aspect Short name Programming
46.3 480i 16:9 Charge! Charge!
66.1 720p FOX66 Main WSMH programming / Fox
66.2 480i 4:3 ANTENNA Antenna TV
66.3 16:9 COMETTV Comet
66.4 TheNest The Nest

On September 30, 2006, WSMH began broadcasting The Tube on its secondary subchannel.[15]

In late 2010 and early 2011 with new carriage deals by owner Sinclair, WSMH added two music video networks to its digital subchannels, TheCoolTV on 66.2 and The Country Network on 66.3.[16][17]

In late August 2012, TheCoolTV was dropped from all 32 Sinclair stations that carried the channel, including WSMH, with no replacement due to non-renewal of affiliation.[18] Sinclair signed an agreement in June 2014 which added GetTV to 33 TV markets with WSMH adding that channel on channel 66.2 effective July 2.[19]

Zuus was replaced on WSMH-DT3 by Comet on October 31, 2015.[20] In December of that year, the station replaced GetTV with Antenna TV.[21]

On October 30, 2023, Stadium was replaced on WSMH-DT4 by a new Sinclair owned TV network called The Nest.[22]

Analog-to-digital conversion

WSMH discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over UHF channel 66, on May 21, 2009. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 16,[23] using virtual channel 66.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Facility Technical Data for WSMH". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  2. ^ "Call letters Applications" (PDF). Broadcasting Magazine. Broadcasting Publications Inc. October 8, 1984. Retrieved September 11, 2017.
  3. ^ a b "Digital TV Market Listing for WSMH". Listing. RabbitEars.info. Retrieved September 12, 2012.
  4. ^ "Fates & Fortunes: Media" (PDF). Broadcasting. January 21, 1985. Retrieved September 11, 2017.
  5. ^ a b c "WSMH TV Channel 66 Flint". Station Listings. Retrieved September 12, 2012.
  6. ^ "Ownership Changes" (PDF). Broaccasting. July 7, 1986. p. 95. Retrieved September 11, 2017.
  7. ^ Thomas, Laurie; Litman, Barry R. (November 21, 1991). "Fox Broadcasting Company, Why Now - An Economic Study of the Rise of the Fourth Broadcast Network". Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media. 35 (2): 139–157. doi:10.1080/08838159109364113.
  8. ^ Sinclair Reups With Fox, Gets WUTB Option, TVNewsCheck, May 15, 2012.
  9. ^ "Sinclair Continues Layoffs". March 18, 2023.
  10. ^ "Schedule". May 26, 2023.
  11. ^ a b c "Sinclair to increase news output". Digital Spy. National Magazine Company Ltd. October 7, 2002. Retrieved July 9, 2014.
  12. ^ "Central Casting in Local News Broadcasts". Newshour. PBS. December 11, 2003. Retrieved October 20, 2015.
  13. ^ Dodson, Andrew (March 26, 2015). "WNEM TV 5 newscast on Fox 66 being replaced by WEYI 25 starting battle for 10 p.m." Flint Journal. Mlive Media Group. Retrieved October 20, 2015.
  14. ^ "Sinclair Announces "Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson" New Investigative Broadcast To Debut On October 4, 2015" (Press release). Baltimore: Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. July 13, 2015. Retrieved October 20, 2015 – via PRNewswire.
  15. ^ "Form 10-Q Quarterly Report". Yahoo!. SINCLAIR BROADCAST GROUP INC. August 14, 2006. Retrieved July 9, 2014.
  16. ^ "Sinclair links with The Country Network to fill digital TV tier". Television Business Report. August 23, 2010. Retrieved August 25, 2010.
  17. ^ "Television". Flint and Tri-Cities Radio and TV Dial Guide. Retrieved September 12, 2012.
  18. ^ Malone, Michael (January 2, 2013). "TheCoolTV Signs Up New Stations". Broadcasting and Cable. NewBay Media, LLC. Retrieved July 9, 2014.
  19. ^ "GetTV Signs Big Affiliation Deal With Sinclair". TVNewsCheck. June 23, 2014. Retrieved July 9, 2014.
  20. ^ "Sinclair to launch science fiction network on Halloween". Baltimore Sun. October 20, 2015. Retrieved November 11, 2015.
  21. ^ Lafayette, Jon (November 17, 2015). "26 More Stations Carrying Antenna TV". Broadcasting & Cable. NewBay Media, LLC. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  22. ^ "Sinclair Broadcast Group to Launch "The Nest" New Broadcast Television Network" (Press release). October 10, 2023.
  23. ^ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Retrieved March 24, 2012.
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