WJRT-TV

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WJRT-TV
Image:12WJRT.PNG
Flint, Michigan
Branding	ABC12
Slogan	Your Trusted Source For News. Your Safest Place In Bad Weather.
Channels	12 (VHF) analog, 36 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	ABC, The AccuWeather Channel on DT3
Owner	Disney/ABC
Founded	October 12, 1958
Call letters meaning	WJR, radio station in Detroit, Michigan owned by station's founders (with T added to stand for television)
Former affiliations	None
Transmitter Power	316kw
Website	www.abc12.com

WJRT-TV is the American Broadcasting Company-owned and operated television station (O&O) in the Flint-Saginaw-Bay City, Michigan television market. Its studios are located in Flint, its city of license. The station broadcasts with 316 kilowatts of power from a 1,000-foot tower located near Chesaning, Michigan.

On cable, WJRT can be seen on Comcast Flint channel 7 and Charter Tri-Cities channel 11. WJRT can be seen on cable systems throughout northeastern Michigan, as far north as Alpena. At one time, it was seen on cable as far north as Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, where the Shaw system there offered WJRT instead of WGTU from across the locks; in the early-2000s, Shaw replaced WJRT with Detroit's WXYZ-TV.

Contents 1 History 2 Newscasts and Personalities 2.1 Previous Logos 3 Miscellanea 4 External links

History

WJRT is the only station in the market to never change its affiliation. WJRT was founded in 1958 by Goodwill Stations, the owner of WJR in Detroit at the time. That company won out over two other companies seeking to operate channel 12, the Trebit Corp. (which owned WFDF-AM) and W.S. Butterfield Theatres, Inc. Failed plans to place the transmitter facilities in Independence Township, Michigan are part of the story of WJRT's birth. When it was learned that Independence Township was in the Detroit television market, Goodwill settled on placing the channel 12 transmitters near Chesaning, Michigan; the transmitters remain there today. Once this was done, WJRT went on the air on October 12, 1958, as an ABC network affiliate. WJRT was the first Michigan television station outside of Detroit to go all-color in 1967.

Goodwill Stations merged with Capital Cities Communications in 1964, but WJRT was spun off to Poole Broadcasting (owned by a former Capital Cities stockholder) due to FCC limits on television station ownership at the time. In April 1978, WJRT along with the rest of Poole Broadcasting (which included WPRI-TV in Providence, Rhode Island and WTEN in Albany, New York) were sold to Knight Ridder. During the late 1980's, Knight Ridder decided to exit broadcasting by selling its stations to separate owners; as a result, WJRT was sold to SJL Broadcast Management (the predecessor of today's Montecito Broadcast Group) in 1989.

During the 1970s WJRT became Mid Michigan's highest rated television station, helped by ABC's ratings improvements during the decade. During the late 1980s and into the 1990s, WJRT was usually second to WNEM-TV. However, after ABC (which had merged with Capital Cities in 1986) purchased WJRT (along with WTVG in Toledo, Ohio) from SJL in 1995, the station returned to the top of the Mid-Michigan ratings for primetime, where it remains today.

In 1994, New World Communications signed an affiliation deal with Fox Broadcasting Company, resulting in most of New World's stations switching affiliation to Fox. Among the stations due to switch was WJBK-TV in Detroit, a longtime CBS affiliate. To avoid being consigned to UHF in the 11th-largest market, CBS heavily wooed Detroit's longtime ABC affiliate, WXYZ-TV. WXYZ's owner, 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 about buying WTVG and WJRT. Both stations' city-grade signals reached portions of the Detroit area. The deal closed on August 29, 1995.

Ironically, when ABC acquired WJRT in 1995, it was reunited with its namesake radio station, WJR. WJR's owner, Capital Cities, had merged with ABC in 1986. And in 2002, WFDF (now a Detroit station), which unsuccessfully sought a channel 12 license in the 1950s, would also become a sister to WJRT when ABC bought the station. However, this reunion will soon be partially broken up, as ABC sold WJR, along with other ABC Radio properties, to Citadel Broadcasting in January, 2006.

WJRT also served as the ABC affiliate of record for Lansing until WLAJ signed on in 1990.

As a network O&O WJRT carries the full ABC television lineup, with the exception of Saturday afternoon Big Ten Conference football and basketball games from ESPN Plus during the fall and winter months which may force an hour of ABC Kids to air the next day. However, should ABC air a nationally-televised Saturday college football or basketball game at noon, the network game is aired on WJRT.

Newscasts and Personalities

ABC 12 News This Morning

• Karen Gatlin
• Michael J. Thorpe
• Meteorologist John McMurray

ABC 12 News at Noon

• Karen Gatlin
• Larry Elliot
• Meteorologist John McMurray

ABC 12 News First at Four

• Bisi Onile-Ere
• Terry Camp
• Meteorologist Leslie LoBue

ABC 12 News at Five

• Taryn Asher
• Larry Elliot
• Chief Meteorologist JR Kirtek
• Greg Molzon

ABC 12 News at 6 and 11

• Angie Hendershot
• Bill Harris
• Chief Meteorologist JR Kirtek
• Greg Molzon

ABC 12 News Weekend Mornings

• Josh DeVine
• Matt Franklin
• Meteorologist Kevin Goff

ABC 12 Weekends

• Shannon Johnson
• Joel Feick
• Meteorologist Kevin Goff
• Ryan Slocum

Reporters

• Cathy Shafran
• Dawn Jones
• Ilse Lujan-Hayes
• J.B. Ricks
• Jeff Piechowski
• Jennifer Borrasso
• Kevin Holmes
• Kristen Abraham
• Rebecca Trylch
• Chris Kohn
• Stephanie Diabetes

Previous Logos

WJRT logo from the early-1960s, on giveaway coffee cups.

WJRT logo from a 1971 TV Guide; this logo was used from 1965 to 1976.

WJRT "Home Country 12" logo from a 1976 TV Guide; this logo was used from 1976 to 1979, though the stars and "Home Country" slogan would be dropped by 1977.

WJRT logo from a 1987 TV Guide; this logo (and later variants) was used from about 1981 until its sale to Disney in 1995.

Miscellanea

WJRT's studios on Lapeer Road in Flint in the late-1950s, from a promotional postcard. It originally housed the defunct WTAC-TV studios. While the studios have undergone major remodeling and expansion over the years, WJRT is still there today.

Wikipedia information about WJRT-TV This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "WJRT-TV". It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer). Help contribute to Americola and edit this article.