WFQX-TV
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| WFQX-TV / WFUP | |
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| WFQX: Cadillac / Traverse City, Michigan WFUP: Vanderbilt, Michigan |
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| Branding | Fox 33 Fox 33 News |
| Slogan | Northern Michigan's News Leader |
| Channels | Analog: WFQX: 33 (UHF) WFUP: 45 (UHF) |
| Translators | W43CM Pickford W61CR Sault Ste. Marie |
| Affiliations | Fox |
| Owner | Cadillac Telecasting Company (SSA with Heritage Broadcasting Group) |
| First air date | WFQX: October of 1989 WFUP: January 11, 1993 |
| Call letters’ meaning | WFQX: refers to Fox WFUP: Fox Upper Peninsula |
| Sister station(s) | WWTV |
| Former callsigns | WFQX: WGKI (1989-2000) WFUP: WGKU (1992-2000) WFVX (2000-2003) |
| Former affiliations | UPN (secondary, 1995-2006) |
| Transmitter Power | WFQX: 776 kW (analog) 500 kW (digital) WFUP: 851 kW |
| Height | WFQX: 297 m (analog) 393 m (digital) WFUP: 324 m |
| Facility ID | WFQX: 25396 WFUP: 25395 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | WFQX: (analog) (digital) WFUP: |
| Website | www.fox33.com |
WFQX-TV is the Fox-affiliated television station for the northern Lower and eastern Upper Peninsulas of Michigan. Licensed to Cadillac, the station broadcasts an analog signal on UHF channel 33 from a transmitter located northeast of Tustin in northern Osceola County. WFQX broadcasts a digital signal on UHF channel 47 from a transmitter located east of Kalkaska.
As with other network affiliates in this vast rural area, the station operates a full-time satellite, WFUP. Licensed to Vanderbilt, this station broadcasts an analog signal on UHF channel 45 with no digital simulcast. WFUP's transmitter is located about 8 miles WNW of Vanderbilt on Hudson Lookout in Charlevoix County.
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[edit] Overview
Unlike other network affiliates in Northern Michigan, the WFQX & WFUP combination is not known on-air as "Fox 33&45". The stations are simply known on-air as Fox 33 (there is no logo for WFUP either). Aside from legal identification, there is no on-air mention that WFUP exists. WFQX is owned by Cadillac Telecasting but is operated through a shared services agreement (SSA) by Heritage Broadcasting Group (the owner of area CBS affiliate WWTV and its full time satellite, WWUP). WFQX is operated out of WWTV's studios on 130th Avenue in Tustin. The station broadcasts 24/7 although overnights are filled with home shopping and other paid programming. WFQX also airs a large number of infomercials and religious paid programs such as Believer's Voice of Victory and Walking By Faith.
[edit] History
The station began broadcasting in October of 1989. Its call letters, WGKI, were named from founder Gary Knapp, a former DJ and television personality. Despite its limited reach, WGKI was shown on local cable systems. Prior to WGKI, northern Michigan received Fox programming on cable from WKBD in Detroit. In WGKI's early years, the station was extremely low-budget. This was shown in the station's use of 1970s-era electronic graphics for their first few years of broadcasting.
Due to the growing popularity of the Fox network and shows such as The Simpsons and Married With Children, the station quickly grew. The on-screen graphics were modernized and the station started to use higher-quality video equipment. In the early-1990s, the station launched several repeaters in the eastern Upper Peninsula unreached by the station's signal. By the mid-1990s, WFQX moved into permanent studios that were built southeast of Cadillac. On January 11, 1993, Gary Knapp launched WGKU-TV in Vanderbilt as a full-time satellite of WFQX. That station's signal reached the Gaylord and Petoskey areas.
When Fox moved to WJBK in 1994, WGKI started using that station's resources. The move also disallowed rival WKBD from distributing Detroit Red Wings and Tigers games to WGKI. Knapp made a station promo explaining the situation between WGKI, WKBD, and WJBK. When the Fox affiliation switch in Detroit was made, WGKI replaced WKBD on cable systems in central Michigan and the eastern Upper Peninsula. This was done so viewers without a local Fox station would maintain access to the network's programming. As a consequence, WGKI also expanded into parts of the Flint, Lansing, Grand Rapids, and Detroit markets via cable carriage. As a result, some cable viewers especially in Bay City, Saginaw, and the Thumb found out that most of WGKI's programming, especially those from Fox programs, were being blacked out by request of the local Fox affiliate. Soon after, many cable systems outside the northern Lower and eastern Upper Peninsulas either dropped WGKI or brought back WKBD.
On January 15, 1995, WGKI became a secondary affiliate of the new UPN network. The station aired the network's shows outside of prime time. In 1999, WGKI increased its ERP from 219 kW to 774 kW, significantly increasing its coverage area. In 2000, Knapp retired and sold his stations to Rockfleet Broadcasting for $12 million dollars. Part of the deal called for channels 33 and 45 to change their call letters. Channel 33 became WFQX and channel 45 became WFVX. The latter station later became WFUP. The WFVX calls were moved to a former sister station based in Bangor, Maine, WFVX-LP.
On January 24, 2006, The WB and UPN announced that they would cease broadcasting and merge. The new network would be called The CW, the letters representing the first initial of its corporate parents: CBS (the parent company of UPN) and the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner. On February 22, News Corporation announced that they would start up another new broadcast network called MyNetworkTV. This new network, 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.
MyNetworkTV began broadcasting on September 5, 2006. WFQX dropped its secondary UPN affiliation when The CW launched on September 18. The area's cable-only WB affiliate "WBVC" became affiliated with The CW. Currently, there is no MyNetworkTV affiliate in northern Michigan. The nearest affiliate is WNEM-DT2 from the mid-Michigan television market. However, it can only be seen on Charter cable channel 9 in the nearby Alpena television market.
On February 10, 2007, WFQX upgraded its digital signal to begin broadcasting all Fox programming in high definition for over-the-air viewers. Until that point, the station broadcasted a low-power HDTV signal in the Cadillac area. It was also, and continues to be, offered on Charter digital cable channel 783. On May 10, it was announced that Rockfleet Broadcasting was planning to sell WFQX to Cadillac Telecasting. The FCC approved the sale in late-October. After this approval, Cadillac entered into a shared services agreement (SSA) with Heritage Broadcasting Group (owner of WWTV). At that point, WFQX began to be operated by WWTV. WFQX closed its studios and moved its operations into the WWTV facilities. It has been announced with the coming switch to digital broadcasting, WFUP will shut down completely on or before February 19, 2009.
[edit] Repeaters
WFQX and WCMU-TV are the only stations in the northern Michigan market that offer repeaters. Although listed with the FCC, W54CR channel 54 is currently silent.
| Call letters | Channel | City of license | Transmitter location |
|---|---|---|---|
| W43CM | 43 | Pickford | Rockview |
| W54CR | 54 | Traverse City | west of the city |
| W61CR | 61 | Sault Ste. Marie | northwest of Dafter |
[edit] News operation
As WGKI, the station simulcasted WKBD's 10 P.M. news. At some point, the simulcasts ended. In 2000, WFQX launched a news department and began producing a weeknight 10 o'clock newscast. From the start, it was plagued by the lack of basic resources such as reporters and engineering upkeep. At its peak, the news team was made up of three people with Erin Russ anchoring and reporters Jenna McWilliams and Shainna Ziegler. The weather was pre-taped and fed via satellite from AccuWeather in State College, Pennsylvania. As a result, WFQX was criticized for being too late when severe weather was an issue. Meteorologist Jim Kosek was the primary on-air talent.
On January 8, 2007, WJBK (Detroit's Fox owned-and-operated affiliate), started simulcasting parts of its weekday morning news on WFQX. It ran from 6 to 8 A.M. on the station and was known as Michigan's Fox News Morning. The simulcast was possible because of a cooperative arrangement between the two stations that offered local advertising opportunities to northern Michigan businesses. On February 5, WFQX began to simulcast the second half of WJBK's weeknight 10 o'clock news from 10:30 until 11 P.M.
After the sale of WFQX to Cadillac Telecasting, the station's news department was shut down. Starting on October 31, WWTV began producing the weeknight 10 o'clock news. At this point, the weeknight 10:30 o'clock simulcast of WJBK's news stopped airing. On January 7, 2008, there was a significant expansion of local news on WFQX. The station now airs a two hour long extension of WWTV's morning news at 7 A.M. In addition, WWTV launched a weeknight 7 o'clock news on WFQX. On January 14, the WJBK morning news simulcast was dropped. There is no weekend local news on WFQX.
[edit] News team
Michigan This Morning on Fox 33
(Weekday Mornings 7 to 9 A.M.)
- Anchors:
- Robyn Haines
- Scott Michael Trager
- Weather:
- Kevin Usealman
- Entertainment:
- Kelly Downey
- Reporter:
- Kalee Iacoangeli
- Photojournalist:
- Corey Adkins
Fox 33 News at 7 and 10
(Weeknights 7 to 7:30 and 10 to 10:30 P.M.)
- Anchors:
- Jodi Hathaway
- Ben Kwan
- Weather:
- Tom O'Hare
- Sports:
- Aaron Mills
- Reporter:
- Ryan Raiche (based in Traverse City)
WFQX features additional news personnel from WWTV. See that article for a complete listing.
[edit] External links
- WFQX-TV / WFUP "Fox 33"
- WWTV / WWUP-TV "9&10 News"
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WFQX-TV
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WFQX-TV
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WFUP
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WFUP-TV
- Query the FCC's TV station database for W43CM
- Query the FCC's TV station database for W54CR
- Query the FCC's TV station database for W61CR
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