WMYD

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WMYD
Detroit, Michigan
Branding	my TV20 Detroit
Channels	20 (UHF) analog, 21 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	MyNetworkTV Fox (4Kids TV)
Owner	Granite Broadcasting
Founded	September 15, 1968 (on ch.62; moved to ch.20 in 1972)
Call letters meaning	MY Network TV Detroit
Former callsigns	WXON-TV (1968-97) WDWB (1997-2006)
Former affiliations	Independent station (1968-1995) The WB (1995-2006)
Transmitter Power	1500 kW/324 m(analog) 500 kW/324 m (digital)
Website	tv20detroit.com

WMYD (my TV20 Detroit) is Detroit, Michigan's MyNetworkTV affiliate station, owned and operated by Granite Broadcasting. The station offers a blend of cartoons from 4Kids TV, off-network sitcoms, first-run syndicated reality/talk/court shows and first-run network programming. WMYD's transmitter is located on Eight Mile Road in Oak Park, Michigan. Its studios and offices are located on Franklin Road in Southfield, Michigan. WMYD transmits its signal from the same 1073-foot tower as WWJ-TV and WTVS' digital signal.

On cable, WMYD can be seen on Comcast Detroit channel 7 / Southeast Michigan channel 3, Bright House Livonia channel 6, Wide Open West Plymouth channel 20 and Cogeco Windsor channel 62.

Contents 1 History 2 ON-TV 3 The WB years 4 From The WB To MyNetworkTV 5 Selling WMYD 6 Logos 7 See also 8 External links

[edit] History

The station first took to the air on September 15, 1968 as WXON-TV, broadcasting on channel 62, moving to channel 20 in 1972 after two short-lived stations abandoned the frequency in the 1950s and 60s. First, WPAG-TV in Ann Arbor, Michigan was assigned to Channel 20 in 1954. Little is known about WPAG-TV, except that it was presumably owned by the same people who operated WPAG radio (now WTKA), and that the North American Radio-TV Station Listings guide for 1958 says that the station had suspended operations. WPAG-TV also may have been a DuMont affiliate [1].

In 1967, WJMY-TV in Allen Park, Michigan was awarded a construction permit for channel 20, but never made it to the air except for a brief test signal one night in 1968, consisting merely of a card displaying its calls and city-of-license. Finally, in November 1972 WXON took over WJMY's construction permit and shifted to channel 20 for good.

WGPR-TV (now CBS O&O WWJ-TV) took over the channel 62 frequency in 1975.

The station initially had its studios in Walled Lake (in southwestern Oakland County, north of Novi) but later moved to its present location in Southfield.

Through the 1970s, WXON aired cartoons, lower-rated sitcoms, off-network dramas, old movies, religious shows, an annual Variety Club of Detroit telethon hosted by Soupy Sales and live news updates.

[edit] ON-TV

In 1979, WXON added subscription TV after 8 PM. The subscription programming was provided by a service called "ON-TV" and the broadcasts were encoded in a scrambled format requiring a rented set-top box for decoding. The service was not cheap -- $22.50 a month (more than $40 in 2006 money, more than most modern customers pay for multi-channel satellite or cable TV.) Many people, especially those living across the river in Windsor, Ontario, built their own decoder boxes and watched ON-TV for free. ON-TV carried uncut movies, concerts and local sports action. However, since many games began before 8 PM, fans missed the start of many contests. (In one famous incident, the hockey Detroit Red Wings racked up a 5-0 lead in a game against the Calgary Flames before ON began its coverage!) In 1982, WXON began airing ON-TV on weekend afternoons and faced a challenge from "In-Home Theatre", which aired 24 hours a day on what is now WPXD in Ann Arbor.

Still lagging far behind WKBD-TV in the ratings, WXON dropped ON-TV on March 31, 1983, and resumed a full-service entertainment format full time. It added a number of movies to its lineup. It also acquired several barter cartoons as the children's programming business peaked in 1984-85. WXON also brought The Ghoul back to Detroit TV. As the 1980s progressed, WXON began acquiring stronger off-network sitcoms. It got a significant boost after WKBD switched to Fox in 1986. It was an established independent station by 1991 and was unaffected by the network affiliation swaps at the end of 1994.

[edit] The WB years

On January 12, 1995, WXON joined the The WB Television Network at its inception. Granite Broadcasting bought WXON two years later in January 1997 -- and on October 14 of that year, the station's call letters were changed from WXON-TV to WDWB-TV. In 2004 the station shocked the Detroit media by becoming the new over-the-air broadcast home of the NBA's Detroit Pistons, taking them from longtime home WKBD. It is the new broadcast home for 15 to 20 games of Detroit Tigers baseball games produced by Fox Sports Net.

WDWB carried the full WB network schedule, but after joining the network, WDWB frequently preempted network programming that it rescheduled or did not air in favor of programming such as movies, Big Ten Conference basketball, the Detroit Pistons, the Detroit Tigers, and, since 1999, the Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Association Labor Day telethon. Like the baseball and basketball games, the annual MDA telethon is broadcast live, but since the station has no studio to accommodate, the MDA telethon is produced out of WTVS' studios in the New Center area of downtown Detroit.

WDWB was the last remaining commercial television station in the Detroit market to broadcast children's programming every Monday through Friday (WTVS, a public television station, continues to broadcast such programming). The weekday afternoon kids block, known as "Kids' WB", was replaced by reruns of programs such as "Reba", a block known as "Daytime WB." The station also carries 4Kids TV on Sunday mornings.

[edit] From The WB To MyNetworkTV

On January 24, 2006, it was announced that CBS Corporation and Time Warner would close their respective UPN and WB networks and jointly launch the CW Network in September 2006. The network would be a 50-50 joint venture between the two companies. WDWB became a MyNetworkTV affiliate as WKBD will be the sole Detroit outlet for the new (to-be-launched) CW network.

Like many stations about to lose The WB or UPN affiliation due to CW, WDWB changed its on-air logo to remove "WB" from the logo. The station's new logo was introduced during a Pistons-Minnesota Timberwolves basketball game on February 1, 2006. The station changed its call letters to WMYD on May 7 in recognition of its future affiliation.

On July 29, 2006, the new WMYD logo, shown below, was introduced during a Tigers-Minnesota Twins baseball game in preparation for WMYD's switch from the WB to My Network TV in September. The station was then re-branded as 'My TV 20 Detroit.' During the time before the actual launch, WMYD covered up WB branding during the Primetime, Daytime, and Kids WB blocks with a fullcolored version of the My TV 20 Detroit logo.

Occasionally as time now permits, WMYD may carry network programming from Fox, NBC or ABC should either WJBK, WDIV or WXYZ, respectively, preempt for specials, breaking news stories or any other emergency.

[edit] Selling WMYD

In September 2005, Granite announced the sale of WDWB and sister station KBWB San Francisco to AM Media Holdings, Inc. (a unit of Acon Investments and several key Granite shareholders) for a price rated, on WDWB's end, to around $97 million. The low price (Granite had purchased the station for $175 million) was largely out of Granite wanting to cut down their debt load while wanting to keep control of the stations.

On February 15, 2006, Granite announced the restructuring of the sale considering the changing conditions of the station (see below)[2], but the sale eventually fell apart, and in May 2006 the stations were sold to DS Audible for a price of about $84 million on WDWB's end.

On July 18, 2006 this sale also fell apart and Granite has announced its intention to retain the station for the time being. [3]

[edit] Logos

WXON logo used by channel 20 from 1979 to 1995. The first WB20 logo used the "20" from this logo and placed it to the right of The WB logo.

Detroit's WB logo, used from 2003-2005. WDWB used various variations of this logo from 1997 to 2005.

TV 20 logo, used from 2/2006-7/2006

Current WMYD logo, introduced on July 29, 2006

[edit] See also

• WXON-LP

[edit] External links

• WMYD Website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WMYD
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information about Television Station WMYD
• Michiguide's Broadcast Television Database for wmyd