| Grand Rapids/Kalamazoo/ Battle Creek, Michigan |
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|---|---|
| City of license | Grand Rapids |
| Branding | WXSP The X (general) 24 Hour News 8 |
| Slogan | The TV Station With Game (general) West Michigan's News Leader |
| Channels | Analog: See below Digital: 15 (UHF) & WOOD-DT 7.2 (VHF) |
| Subchannels | 15.1 MyNetworkTV |
| Translators | See below |
| Affiliations | NBC and ABC (both alternates) |
| Owner | LIN TV Corporation (WOOD License Company, LLC) |
| Founded | July 23, 1986 |
| Call letters' meaning | WXSP: Xtreme and SPorts (for local sports coverage) WOLP: WOOD Low-Power other stations: WO + city of license initialized |
| Sister station(s) | WOOD-TV, WOTV |
| Former callsigns | W29AD (1986–1988) W15AM (1988–1995) WOWD-LP (1995–2000) WXSP-LP (2000) WXSP-CA (2000–2010) |
| Former channel number(s) | 29 (UHF analog, 1986–1988) 15 (UHF analog, 1988–2010) |
| Former affiliations | local weather (1995–2000) UPN (2000–2006) |
| Transmitter power | 15 kW 30 kW (WOOD-DT2) |
| Height | 124 m 288 m (WOOD-DT2) |
| Class | Class A |
| Facility ID | 36851 36838 (WOOD-DT2) |
| Transmitter coordinates | (WOOD-DT2) |
| Website | wxsp.com |
WXSP-CD is the Class A MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station for Southwestern Michigan, licensed to Grand Rapids. It broadcasts a standard definition digital signal on UHF channel 15 from a transmitter in Walker along Interstate 96. The station can also be seen on Charter channel 15 and Comcast channel 18. Owned by the LIN TV Corporation, WXSP is sister to NBC affiliate WOOD-TV and ABC affiliate WOTV. All three share studios on College Avenue Southeast in the Heritage Hill section of Grand Rapids.
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Syndicated programming on WXSP includes: TMZ on TV, Family Feud, Scrubs, and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Overnight, the station simulcasts WOOD-DT3, which is a live feed of the "Storm Team 8 Live Doppler Network". It may air NBC or ABC programming whenever WOOD-TV and WOTV preempt for breaking news, local specials, or the annual North American International Auto Show charity preview. However, some of the preempted ABC programs are available on WZZM-TV.
Part of WXSP's call letters comes from the word sports and for good reason. The station is known for its coverage of local sports in both the Grand Rapids and Detroit areas. It also carries the University of Michigan Wolverines and Michigan State Spartans basketball and football teams. These broadcasts give WXSP more viewership than any other programming on the channel.
In addition to its main signal and simulcast on a second digital subchannel of WOOD-TV (from a transmitter in Middleville near the Barry and Allegan County line), WXSP operates additional analog repeaters. WOBC and WOMS have construction permits to perform a flash-cut to digital. The WOHO call letters were originally used for forty years by a Toledo, Ohio radio station on AM 1470 that now uses the call sign WLQR.
Normally per Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations, low-powered stations are not eligible for must-carry requirements. However, due to WXSP's coverage of Big Ten sports along with what was considered a major network until 2009, retransmission deals allow it to be carried by both cable and satellite systems. Additionally, LIN TV has the right under the retransmission consent section of the must-carry rules to require cable systems to offer WXSP as compensation for carrying WOOD-TV and WOTV.
As a result, the channel is available on almost every cable system in the market and on DirecTV. In September 2007, ownership of LIN TV denied access to WXSP's programming to some cable companies in South-Central Michigan in a dispute over cable television revenue. The station's studio-to-transmitter link is WPOL564.
| Call letters | Channel | City of license | Transmitter location |
|---|---|---|---|
| WOBC-CA | 14 | Battle Creek | behind Family Altar Chapel on 6½ Mile Road |
| WOLP-CA | 27 | Grand Rapids | Ceased transmitting from Middleville, MI upon the sign-on of WOLP-LD |
| WOLP-LD | 41 | Grand Rapids | in Middleville near Barry and Allegan County line. Maps to virtual channels 15-3 and 15-4 shared with WOOD-TV (digital); not to be confused with sister station WOTV, which transmits on digital channel 20 and maps to PSIP 41 |
| WOMS-CD | 29 | Muskegon | Wolf Lake section of Egelston Township Repeats HD channel 15-1 and Radar channel 15-2 Grand Rapids as 29-1 and 29-2. |
| WOHO-CA | 33 | Holland | in Zeeland along I-196 |
| WOKZ-CA | 50 | Kalamazoo | at WNWN-AM 1560 studios on M-43/West Main Street in Westwood section of city |
The station signed on with an analog signal on UHF channel 29 on July 23, 1986 with the call letters W29AD. It moved to UHF channel 15 and acquired the W15AM calls on January 12, 1988. In the station's early days, it was a translator for World Harvest Television from WHME-TV in South Bend, Indiana, which is owned by LeSEA. The station eventually switched to LIN TV's Local Weather Station (LWS) format with the call sign WOWD-LP (variation on WOOD-TV). WOWD and its low-power network of repeaters aired 24-hour weather information direct from WOOD-TV's weather center. This was in an early pre-digital format comparable to the now defunct NBC Weather Plus.
The weather programming aired from the mid-1990s until WXSP's programming took over a few years later. It featured graphic displays of various conditions and forecasts as well as periodic forecasts from WOOD-TV's meteorologists. Short commercial breaks would feature local television spots as well as LWS's station identification. A format change took place when UPN was added in 2000, prompting the move of LWS to the early mornings and new calls, WXSP-LP. The call-sign WXSP-CA was acquired after it became a Class A station which meets stricter requirements than most low-powered television stations.
On January 24, 2006, The WB and UPN announced the networks would end broadcasting and merge. The new combined service would be called The CW. The letters would represent the first initial of its soon-to-be corporate parents: CBS (the parent company of UPN) and the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner. On February 22, News Corporation announced that it would start up another new network called MyNetworkTV. This new service, which would be sister to Fox, would be operated by Fox Television Stations and its syndication division Twentieth Television. MyNetworkTV was created in order to give UPN and WB stations, not mentioned as becoming CW affiliates, another option besides becoming independent. It was also created to compete against The CW.
CBS affiliate WWMT announced on April 4 that it would launch the area's CW affiliate on a new second digital subchannel. WXSP became available as a MyNetworkTV affiliate partly because the (then) WB affiliate WZPX was also an Ion Television owned-and-operated station and ran WB programming on a 22-hour delay (prime-time shows ran at 6 o'clock the night after the original broadcast and the Kids' WB Saturday block aired at 5 on Sunday mornings). As a result, Southwestern Michigan is one of the largest markets in which The CW was only available via digital subchannel/cable and on an entirely new station. It was reported that WXSP was in talks to join The CW, but due to the station's heavy reliance upon prime-time professional sports and the network's concerns over preemptive programming, the two sides could not come to an agreement.
For the final two weeks of UPN's existence, Fox affiliate WXMI aired WWE Smackdown until WWMT-DT2's launch. WXSP joined MyNetworkTV on September 5 while WWMT-DT2 signed on with The CW on September 18. On July 21, 2010, WXSP flash-cut from analog to a digital signal. The call letters were changed to WXSP-CD on August 30. In late-October 2010, LIN TV discontinued the simulcast of WXSP on WOTV-DT2, replacing it with a new digital subchannel network, TheCoolTV.
On October 21, 2007, WOOD-TV added the area's second prime-time newscast to WXSP. Known as 24 Hour News 8 at 10, it airs every night for thirty minutes and competed with a broadcast on Fox affiliate WXMI. On September 18, 2008, WWMT added the market's third 10 p.m. news to its new CW-affiliated second digital subchannel. On October 5, 2009, WOOD-TV became the second station in Southwestern Michigan to upgrade local newscasts to 16:9 enhanced definition widescreen. Although not truly high definition, broadcasts match the ratio of HD television screens. The nightly show on WXSP was not included in the upgrade because this station only airs standard-definition digital signals.
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