Information AboutWxyz |
WXYZ-TV is the ABC affiliated television station in Detroit, Michigan , USA . It is owned by The E.W. Scripps Company and is Scripps' largest TV station. WXYZ-TV is among the highest-rated ABC stations in the United States. The station's operations and transmitter are located at '''''Broadcast House''''' on West 10 Mile Road in Southfield, Michigan . Its antenna transmits from its 1,001 foot (305 m) tower at 316 KW /305 M and its digital channel 41 also transmits from the same tower at 770 KW /286 M . Its signal transmits to the Metro Detroit area and the southeast lower Michigan counties. It also covers neighboring Windsor, Ontario . WXYZ-TV is on all Detroit area cable systems including Comcast , WOW! and Brighthouse and satellite providers DirecTV and Dish Network . The station also serves several other parts of Canada as an ABC affiliate on the StarChoice satellite provider and on many of that country's cable systems. HISTORY WXYZ-TV began broadcasting October 9 , 1948 , from its former studios in the Maccabees Building in Detroit, Michigan on Woodward Avenue across from the Detroit Institute Of Arts . It was the American Broadcasting Company's (ABC) third Owned And Operated (O&O) television station to begin operation and the second television station on the air in Detroit. WXYZ-TV was created out of former ABC-owned radio station WXYZ-AM (now WXYT-AM ) which produced the popular radio programs The Lone Ranger and The Green Hornet . WXYZ-AM radio personality Dick Osgood was host of WXYZ-TV's innaugural broadcast. In the 1950s WXYZ-TV began producing a series of popular and innovative programs which featured many personalities from WXYZ-AM. In fact the television 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 Records . In 1959 all of WXYZ's radio and television operations moved into new broadcast facilities at ''Broadcast House'' in Southfield, Michigan . 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. WXYZ-TV’s ''Channel 7 Action News '' with lead news anchor Bill Bonds became the highest-rated newscast in Detroit for the first time in 1973 . By 1978 WXYZ-TV was the second most-dominant television station in the United States in local viewership ratings. In 1979 ABC named Jeanne Findlater as WXYZ’s General Manager. She would be the first woman to hold that title at a large market television station. In May 1985 ABC announced it would have to divest itself of WXYZ-TV in order to merge with Capital Cities Communications . The divestiture was necessary to comply with the FCC’s ownership limits. ABC sold the station to the Cincinnati based media conglomerate The E.W. Scripps Co. in 1986 . At the time another prospective bidder for the station was Bill Cosby's Cozzin Communications. ABC did retain some of their assets at WXYZ including the satellite uplink for its satellite news-gathering service ABC News One . ABC had already sold WXYZ-AM two years earlier in 1984 to the radio station's own general manager Chuck Fritz. The station was selected as the site of the first ''Town Meeting With President Bill Clinton '' in February 1993 hosted by WXYZ-TV news anchor Bill Bonds . President Clinton would address questions from audiance members at WXYZ's studios as well as audiances at other television stations via satelitte. A shift in affiliation in 1994 at Detroit's CBS affiliate WJBK-TV to the Fox network prompted CBS to attempt to lure WXYZ to drop its ABC affiliation in favor of CBS. Eventually ABC reached a deal with WXYZ's owner The E.W. Scripps Co. , that would keep the station as Detroit's ABC affiliate for the next ten years. As a condition of that agreement television stations in other cities including Phoenix , Tampa and Baltimore would lose their ABC affiliation to competing Scripps-owned stations in those cities. CBS would end-up purchasing independent Detroit station WGPR-TV (now WWJ-TV ). WXYZ-TV's owner had previously used the station's popularity as leverage for Detroit's cable providers to air the Scripps-owned HGTV cable network. Scripps threatened to pull carriage rights of WXYZ on local cable systems if they did not also carry the, then new, Home and Garden Television channel. In 2002 WXYZ-TV reached an agreement with Viacom , owner of Detroit UPN station WKBD-TV and CBS station WWJ-TV where Viacom would shut down its news department, cancel its newscasts on WWJ-TV and contract with WXYZ to produce WKBD's 10PM 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 10 PM newscast was cancelled in late 2004 due to poor viewership and neither WKBD nor WWJ-TV now air any local newscasts in Detroit. 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 Sales (real name, Milton Supman). The program went on the air in 1953 and was such a success that ABC soon moved production to New York City and aired the show nationally. Other successful children’s shows to follow would include ''Wyxie's Wonderland'' hosted by Detroit comic Marv Welch, ''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 would launch and produce 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 would show 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 would also air 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 personalities, Pat Tobin and Johnny Slagle. Later in 1966 ''The Morning Show'' would debut 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''. That show was hosted by a married couple who were both former WXYZ news personalities, John Kelly (news anchor) and Marilyn Turner (weathercaster). The show ran at 9 AM 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 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 2002 and the Detroit Pistons' NBA championship in 2004 . The Dream Cruise is still aired on Channel 7 today. ACTION NEWS Weekdays
Saturday
Sunday
Reporters and Anchors
Investigative reporters - ''The Investigators''
Consumer reporters
Sports
Weather
Since 1997 WXYZ-TV has had its own Doppler Radar system based at Medital Airport in Canton, Michigan . Its branded as ''Doppler 7'', its previous branding was Doppler 7000. WXYZ-TV's weather department's computer generating system is supplied by the WSI Corporation . Chopper 7 WXYZ-TV's news helicopter, ''Chopper 7'' is a Bell JetRanger 206B and is leased and operated by McMahon Helicopters based at Medital Airport in Canton, Michigan . It is crewed by pilot-reporters Captain Dennis Neubacher, Captain Craig Smith and gyro-camera operator Brian Smith. Union
News history WXYZ-TV’s news department has held a longtime dominance of TV news in Detroit partly due to the popularity of former long time lead news anchor Bill Bonds . The station’s news department started as a small operation but would gain credibility for its coverage of the 1967 12th Street Riot . In the 1970s WXYZ would begin an aggressive build up of its news department. The station would adopt the Action News moniker, the '' Cool Hand Luke '' news music and other Eyewitness News style elements that were being used to build up news departments at ABC's four other O&O television stations in New York , Chicago , Los Angeles and San Francisco . Under the direction of general manager Jim Osborn and news director Phil Nye the station would lure popular news personalities from its rival stations WJBK-TV and WDIV-TV (known then as WWJ-TV) to join its already well-known anchors Dave Diles and Bill Bonds. Bonds returned in 1971 from a stint as news anchor in Los Angeles. WXYZ would assemble Detroit’s most popular news personalities such as John Kelly, Jac LeGoff, Al Ackerman, Marylin Turner, Jack McCarthy, Jerry Hodak 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 the mid 1970s WXYZ’s ''Channel 7 Action News'' would become the highest-rated newscast in Detroit. A dominance in ratings that would continue through to the present. Its success was linked to the serious, controversial, opinionated hard delivery of lead anchor Bill Bonds . ABC would try 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. But Bonds would return after each time to lead WXYZ in the news ratings. During the 1980s and 1990s Bonds would host the interview segment, ''Up Front'' on WXYZ's 5 PM ''Action News''. During the interviews Bonds would confront Detroit’s public officials and newsmakers with hard-hiting and sometimes controversial questions. Bonds’ hard-edge style was widely known in Detroit for captivating viewers and repulsing others. Bonds would become the station's icon and its main star. In the Ron Powers book, ''The Newscasters'', Powers would call Bonds, ''"One of the 6 most influential news anchors in the country."'' However, Bonds had some public battles with Alcoholism that is credited with his dismissal from the station in 1995. Bonds would go on to anchor newscasts and a late night talk-show at WJBK-TV and later host a radio show at WXYT-AM . Bonds returned to WXYZ-TV in 1999 to present editorials during the newscasts but left the station after several months to star in local TV and radio commercials. WXYZ’s ratings dominance would be challenged by Detroit NBC affiliate 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 has been awarded with several high journalism honors including the George Foster Peabody and Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University awards. WXYZ’s Action News was also named the best TV newscast in the U.S. by United Press International . The station was also recently awarded as the top television station in America 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 . The station also recently expanded its ''Action News at Noon'' broadcast to one hour. Action News continues its success with long-time anchors Diana Lewis, Robbie Timmons, meteorologist Jerry Hodak, sportscaster Don Shane and 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 correspondant. Chief Meteorologist Jerry Hodak has been the station's primary weathercaster for at least 26 of his more than 40 years in Detroit television. In 2006 WXYZ also boasts the most veteran general assignment reporters in Detroit TV with Cheryl Chodun, Bill Proctor, Mary Conway and Val Clark who all have at least 20 years each with the station. WXYZ-TV’s Special Projects department is home to the station’s investigative and consumer reporters and producers. It recently gained notoriety with ''Chief Investigative'' reporter Steve Wilson and his stories of financial mismanagement at the Kmart Corporation and confrontations with elected officials in Detroit. Former notable WXYZ news staffers
MANAGEMENT Vice president and general manager
Sales manager
Program director
News director
TRIVIA
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