| Toledo, Ohio | |
|---|---|
| Branding | My 58 (for its cable television position) |
| Channels | Analog: 48 (UHF), cable 58 |
| Affiliations | MyNetworkTV America One |
| Owner | Community Broadcast Group, Inc. |
| Founded | March 23, 1987 |
| Call letters' meaning | W My Network TV (or Toledo) |
| Former callsigns | W48AP (1987-1996) WNGT-LP (1996-2006) |
| Former affiliations |
Independent / FamilyNet 1989-1990 |
| Transmitter power | 11 kW |
| Height | 131 m |
| Class | Class A |
| Website | wmnttv.com/ |
WMNT-CA channel 48 is a Low-power broadcasting TV station in Toledo, Ohio, and carries MyNetworkTV for that market. The station is a Class-A operation. While the station broadcasts on channel 48, it is seen on Toledo's Buckeye CableSystem on channel 58, hence its moniker "My 58".
WMNT is owned by WMNT-TV, LLC. through its broadcasting arm, Community Broadcast Group, Inc. Its studios are located at a shopping center in Maumee at the corner of Reynolds Road and Dussel Drive.
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The station was licensed as W48AP on March 23, 1987, with broadcasts commencing in March 1989 from studios and transmitters located at 716 North Westwood Avenue, in west Toledo. Initially, "HomeTown TV 48" carried a wide variety of locally-produced programming including a trivia quiz game show ("Trivia in Toledo" or "TnT", hosted by Jerry Millen); a current affairs and political program ("High Level Views" hosted by Chuck Schmitt); "Neighbor Talk", an interview-driven talk show hosted by general manager Bob Moore, and featuring local guests talking about topics ranging from political issues to hobbies; a nightly auction program featuring products from local merchants and hosted by Douglas Goff; broadcasts of entertainment acts from local fairs and festivals; a weekly autos and boats for sale program called "Wheels, Keels, and Deals" and a spin-off called "Homes for Sale" featuring local real property; a children's series called "Abracadabra" featuring games, activities, and ventriloquism; a variety show hosted by long-time actor and singer Johnny Ginger; local high school football and basketball games (several each week); as well as other specials and series. Programming during non-prime hours was initially provided by FamilyNet (now seen in Toledo on WLMB TV40), which featured classic movies and religious programs.
Despite the fact that TV48 was widely recognized as a pioneer of community-oriented LPTV, W48AP suffered initially in its bid for cable TV carriage as the local cablesystems did not generally grant LPTV stations space on their networks. This effectively relegated their signal to being viewed on "second TVs" and in the minority of households that did not subscribe to cable—which meant that getting advertising support was difficult. Exaccerbating the difficulties posed by lack of cable carriage, the local newspaper (The Toledo Blade, whose owners, Block Communications, also own the local cable system) refused to publish TV listings for TV48. TV48 bought small ads in the Sunday TV listings booklet, but was not able to list their programming alongside the other stations in the main listing section. However, TV48 was able to secure a cable slot on April 24, 1989 on Buckeye Cablesystem, though on channel 29B (or "B-29", as TV48 referred to it), away from the other local channels.[1] This marginalization of TV48 led to not being able to survive the expense of producing dozens of hours of local programming each week, and by 1990 TV48 had dropped the "HomeTown TV48" moniker and resorted to full-time satellite-fed programming from the short-lived STAR Television Network (featuring classic TV shows from the 1940s through 1970s as well as reruns of old game shows), and then Channel America.
As a last-ditch effort to keep the TV48 signal on the air and producing a revenue stream, in 1992 TV48 began airing pay-per-view music videos from The Box full-time (with audio simulcast from local CHR radio station WTWR-FM during periods with no videos), which lasted until 1995. Station co-founder Robert S. "Bob" Moore managed the station from its beginning until 1995. W48AP was then sold to Marty and Linda Miller, who affiliated the station with the then-new UPN network in 1995, and changed its call letters to WNGT-LP(New Generation Television) in 1996. After UPN ceased operations in September 2006, WNGT became a MyNetworkTV affiliate, and changed its call letters to WMNT-CA on September 15, 2006.
Over the years, WMNT had experienced many technical broadcast problems, with outdated equipment and signal loss when switching VTR machines. The station also has satellite pixelation often, along with Windows menus popping up on-screen from automation. The main automation consistently showed "NO SIGNAL" during prime-time programming from UPN and all hours afterward, showing that nobody was watching. The problems were never fixed, since nobody answered phones, in the downtown studios.
And while the station was under control of the Millers, the station's studio at the National City Bank Building in downtown Toledo was often left unlocked and unattended; as a result, Ralph DeNune III, who was appointed by the Lucas County Common Pleas Court to oversee the station when it was put under receivership in February 2005, appointed the Cornerstone Church to operate the station, citing that, under the Millers, anyone could simply walk in and broadcast anything they want, with the licensee (DeNune) getting all the blame. [2]
Also, through September 2006, the station used the former 'silver shapes' UPN logo on-air, with UPN's 'slanted circle' logo (the last before UPN's closure) appearing only on the station's website.
On May 26, 2007, the Toledo Blade reported that the FCC approved the transfer of WMNT to the Cornerstone Church. This ruling officially reassigns the license from DeNune to Cornerstone. The Millers had 30 days to appeal, though apparently, chose not to do so. [3] The Millers tried to regain control of the station twice during 2008, but failed each time.[4]
On July 23, 2010, Cornerstone Church filed a notification of ceasing the operations of WMNT-CA, due to technical reasons. [5] The station's analog channel 48 signal temporarily went silent on June 22 of that year.
On June 21, 2010, WMNT-CA was sold for $1.00 [6][7] to Community Broadcast Group, who signed back on WMNT-CA's analog channel 48 signal on August 27, 2010 when that group took over control of the station through a time brokerage agreement. The sale was completed on September 28 of that year.
As of August 31st, 2011... WMNT "My 48/58" appears to be disappearing in the Low Power DTV Switch, on Sept 1st, 2011. There is no current DTV application for the station [8], nor for the new company that purchased the station (Community Broadcast Group). However, plans for WMNT-CA to be on Buckeye Cablesystem, are still in place. This means "My 58" will be on cable only. It is the only Toledo market low power TV station to not submit an FCC application to acquire a DTV frequency. As a result, when WMNT-CA's analog signal goes dark for good (expected some time in 2012), Toledo will become one of the only television markets in the United States with all four of the largest networks (ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC) having primary affiliations but lacking over-the-air affiliates of both post-2006 networks (The CW and MyNetworkTV).
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