WEYI-TV

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WEYI-TV
Saginaw/Flint/Bay City, Michigan
Branding NBC 25
Slogan Moving Mid-Michigan Forward
Channels Analog: 25 (UHF)

Digital: 30 (UHF)

Affiliations NBC
The CW (DT2, relay WBSF)
Owner Barrington Broadcasting Company, LLC
(Barrington Flint License, LLC)
First air date April 5, 1953
Call letters’ meaning resembles EYE, referring to previous CBS affiliation; may also refer to its initial "WI25" moniker in the early-1970s
Sister station(s) WBSF
Former callsigns WKNX-TV (1953-1972)
Former channel number(s) 57 (1953-1965)
Former affiliations CBS (1953-1995)
ABC (secondary, 1953-1958)
The WB (secondary, 2000-2004)
Transmitter Power 2040 kW (analog)
193 kW (digital)
Height 395 m (analog)
356 m (digital)
Facility ID 72052
Transmitter Coordinates 43°13′0.1″N, 83°43′18.2″W
Website www.nbc25online.com

WEYI-TV, (known on the air as NBC 25), is the NBC affiliate for the Flint-Saginaw-Bay City television market. Although licensed to Saginaw, Michigan, WEYI's studios, offices, and transmitter facilities are actually located on 2225 West Willard Road in Vienna Township, near Clio, Michigan, on the Genesee (south) side of the Genesee / Saginaw county line. (On the Saginaw (north) side of the line, the road is known as Gary Road.) From its 1359-foot (414-meter) tower (the second largest structure in Michigan), WEYI operates with an effective radiated power of 2040 kilowatts.

On cable, WEYI can be seen on Comcast Flint channel 6 and Charter Tri-Cities channel 4. WEYI-HD can be seen on Comcast digital cable channel 232 in the Flint market.

[edit] History

The station is one of the nation's earliest UHF television stations, signing on as CBS affiliate WKNX Channel 57 in April 1953. In 1965, the station changed channel numbers from 57 to 25, and in 1972 the station relocated to its current studios. The move was so that channel 25 would serve Flint, Saginaw and Bay City, just like WNEM and WJRT -- prior to 1972, Flint's official CBS affiliate was Lansing's WJIM-TV. At the same time, new owners Rust Craft Broadcasting changed the station's call letters to WEYI to reflect the station's CBS affiliation.

In 1979, Ziff-Davis acquired the Rust Craft stations through a merger. In 1983, WEYI along with then sister stations WROC-TV in Rochester, New York, WRDW-TV in Augusta, Georgia and WTOV-TV in Steubenville, Ohio were sold to Television Station Partners, which then sold WEYI, WROC and WTOV to Smith Broadcasting in 1996. In 1997, the WEYI license was transferred to Smith Broadcasting subsidiary Sunrise Television, which later merged with the LIN TV Corporation in 2002. In May 2004, the station's current owners, Barrington Broadcasting, acquired the station. WEYI was Barrington's first station in Michigan; in March 2006, they would be joined by Northern Michigan's WPBN & WTOM, Marquette's WLUC-TV and, to a degree, Toledo's WNWO-TV as part of Barrington's family of stations in Michigan, following Barrington's purchase of those stations from Raycom Media.

In 1995, WEYI and WNEM-TV traded network affiliations, resulting in WEYI becoming an NBC station. In 2004, WEYI launched Mid-Michigan's WB (WBSF), a station affiliated with The WB Television Network available on cable and through WEYI's digital signal. The deal was made primarily because WKBD declined to carry Detroit Pistons basketball, switching instead to WMYD, which is not available on most mid-Michigan cable systems. WBSF is now the CW46 and after the construction of a new tower in 2007, is available on all cable systems and by analog signal as well.

[edit] See also

WBSF

[edit] External links