| Detroit, Michigan | |
|---|---|
| City of license | Detroit |
| Channels | Digital: 8 (VHF) Virtual: 23.1 (PSIP) Applied: 23 (UHF) |
| Affiliations | Daystar |
| Owner | Daystar Television Network (Word of God Fellowship) |
| Founded | January 4, 1989 |
| Call letters' meaning | W Univision DeTroit (after previous affiliation) |
| Former callsigns | W05BN (1989–1995) WBXD-LP (1995–2002) WBXD-CA (2002–2004) |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: 5 (VHF, 1989-2001) 35 (UHF, 2001) 23 (UHF, 2001-2010) |
| Former affiliations | The Box (1989–2000) MTV2 (2000–2004) Univision (2004-2009) |
| Transmitter power | 300 watts digital 15kW (applied) |
| Class | Digital Low-Power TV Station (-LD) |
| Facility ID | 70421 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 42° 19' 45.00" N LAT 83° 02' 25.00" W LON (Site in Canadian Border Zone) |
| Website | http://www.daystar.com/ |
WUDT-LD, in Detroit, Michigan, is a low-power affiliate of the Daystar Television Network. It operates as a digital station on channel 8 (mapped to former analog position 23), owned and operated by Daystar.
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The station took to the air on January 4, 1989, as low-power W05BN on channel 5. It then became WBXD-LP on September 1, 1995, and would later be acquired by Viacom in 2000, with the MTV2 music television network affiliation -- all of the properties have since gone to the new CBS Corporation after CBS and Viacom went their own separate ways: Viacom keeping MTV2 and WBXD, while CBS kept CW affiliate WKBD 50 and CBS UHF flagship WWJ-TV 62, the only network duopoly in Detroit (CBS also owns radio stations WWJ AM, WXYT AM/WXYT-FM, WDZH, WYCD and WOMC).
On January 30, 2001, the station moved to channel 35 and then to channel 23 on July 12, 2001. Then on June 27, 2002, the station began operating at Class-A status.
Viacom later sold WBXD-CA to Equity Broadcasting, who then proceeded to rename the station WUDT-CA. The station went from MTV2 to Univision in a matter of hours. This move occurred on November 18, 2004. Again as mentioned, Viacom and CBS split very late in 2005. Viacom kept MTV2, but all the broadcast assets went to CBS Corporation. In 2007, Equity Broadcasting was renamed Equity Media Holdings Corporation.
WUDT-CA was the first Spanish-language television station to take to the air in the state of Michigan since W66BV, Detroit's prior Univision affiliate, flipped to being a TBN network translator in the early-1990s; WUDT was also one of only three Univision network stations (with KUNS-TV in Seattle and Univision O&O WQHS-TV in Cleveland) in markets bordering Canada.
Univision's over-the-air presence in Detroit made Detroit/Windsor the only market in the United States or Canada with terrestrial stations in English, Spanish and French -- the French station is Radio-Canada affiliate CBEFT on channel 54, which rebroadcasts Toronto's CBLFT.
The station's master control was remotely originated via satellite from Equity's headquarters in Little Rock, Arkansas; Equity maintained a local news and advertising sales office at 5600 King Street in Troy. The station had limited backup signal transmission arrangements; during several instances of bad weather, the WUDT-CA transmitter has sent simply a black screen or "NO SIGNAL" message.
On March 28, 2007, Comcast added WUDT to its Detroit lineup on channel 65, replacing the network's national East Coast feed, which had been carried since the 1980s when Comcast in the Detroit area was known as Barden Cablevision, and when Univision was known as Spanish International Network (SIN).[1] However, it was never available on WOW! Detroit, Bright House Livonia or Cogeco Windsor; WOW offered the national feed instead, however, Bright House does not have the station or the network on any of its lineups in Livonia, Farmington, Novi or Redford.[2] Cogeco Windsor doesn't carry the network or the station due to restrictions set by the CRTC. Comcast has since moved the station to channel 18 in Detroit to make room for the Michigan feed of the Big Ten Network, which now occupies channel 65.
WUDT was sold at auction to the Daystar Television Network on April 16, 2009, indicating that a programming change is planned.[3] This would again lead to Detroit being without a full-time Spanish-language outlet. The sale closed around late July 2009.
In August 2009, the station began to show only a slide with the Univision logo and station identification. Around this time, Comcast replaced WUDT with the national feed. On August 26, at about 5PM, WUDT switched to Daystar.
On Tuesday April 6th 2010, WUDT switched off their analog signal and broadcasts on digital channel 8. At some point in the middle of June 2010, WUDT-LD went silent. WUDT-LD has returned to the air as of July 27, 2010.
From about 2005 until June 2008, the station presented a nightly newscast, produced and anchored in Denver, Colorado, with stories produced in the Detroit area originating from the station's offices in Troy. On June 6, 2008, Equity discontinued local newscasts at its six Univision affiliates, including WUDT. [4]
The station operates with an Effective Radiated Power of only 300 watts with a directional antenna, covering the immediate Detroit and Windsor areas, plus large parts of southern Oakland and Macomb counties and small portions of Wayne and Essex counties.
The station applied for a license to operate digitally on VHF channel 8. The application was filed and a construction permit was granted on October 10, 2007 and it expires on October 11, 2010.[5]. The station went on air shortly after. WUDT's digital signal is between the digital signal of WJBK-TV on channel 7 and CBET on channel 9, which may cause some interference. This may also cause interference with Cleveland's WJW in the southeastern areas of Essex County, which has its digital signal on channel 8 as well.
Because of reception challenges, Daystar subsequently filed an application to permit WUDT to boroadcast its digital signal on channel 23, its old analogue frequency, at 15kW, directional. The application is pending FCC approval.
As a low-power station, WUDT was not required to transition to digital television when full service stations were required to do so in 2009.
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