WNEM-TV

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WNEM-TV
Bay City / Saginaw / Midland / Flint, Michigan
City of license	Bay City
Branding	TV 5 My 5 (on DT2)
Slogan	Coverage You Can Count On
Channels	Analog: 5 (VHF) Digital: 22 (UHF)
Affiliations	CBS MyNetworkTV (on DT2)
Owner	Meredith Corporation
First air date	February 16, 1954
Call letters’ meaning	North Eastern Michigan Corporation
Former affiliations	ABC (1954-1958) DuMont (1954-1956) The WB (1995-2000) UPN (1995-2006) all secondary NBC (primary, 1954-1995)
Transmitter Power	100 kW (analog) 1,000 kW (digital)
Height	305 m (analog) 275.3 m (digital)
Facility ID	41221
Transmitter Coordinates	43°28′14.6″N, 83°50′35.6″W
Website	wnem.com

WNEM-TV, channel 5, is the CBS-affiliated television station for Mid-Michigan, licensed to Bay City. Its transmitter is located on Becker Road in Indiantown. Owned by the Meredith Corporation, the station has studios on North Franklin Street in downtown Saginaw. On cable, WNEM can be seen in Flint on Comcast channel 5 and in the Tri-Cities area on Charter channel 7.

Service on Dish Network for the region is also available. In addition to being offered over-the-air, WNEM-HD is seen on Comcast digital cable channel 233. The station operates the area's MyNetworkTV affiliate on its second digital subchannel. Known on-air as My 5, it can also be seen on Comcast channel 4 and Charter channel 6.

[edit] History

WNEM was founded by its namesake (the Northeastern Michigan Corporation) on February 16, 1954 as a NBC affiliate. Originally, its main studios were located at Bishop International Airport in Flint with auxiliary studios in its city of license, Bay City. In the 1960s, it moved its main studios to the transmitter site in Indiantown, an unincorporated community just east of Saginaw. During its first four years, WNEM had a secondary affiliation with ABC, sharing programming from that network with WKNX-TV channel 57 (now WEYI-TV, channel 25) until 1958 when WJRT-TV signed on and took the affiliation. WNEM also aired programming from DuMont until that network dissolved.

Gerity bought WNEM in the late-1950s and sold it to the Meredith Corportation in 1969. In the mid-1980s, the station moved its primary studios to their current location in downtown Saginaw. Today, the Becker Road complex is home to Delta College's Buena Vista Campus in addition to WNEM's transmitter. By the late-1980s, mirroring a trend in many other television markets, WNEM was the dominant station in Mid-Michigan. However, on January 16, 1995, WNEM & WEYI traded networks and WNEM became a CBS affiliate. Also, WNEM gained secondary affiliation with both UPN & The WB and aired programming from the two networks late at night. The station relinquished the secondary WB affiliation in the early-2000s to WBSF.

WNEM dropped CBS's daytime soap opera Guiding Light in 1996 due to low ratings making it one of two CBS stations in the nation that do not carry the program (the other is KOVR in Sacramento, California). WNEM has also televised three home games of the local OHL hockey team, the Saginaw Spirit.

[edit] WNEM-DT2 "My 5"

On January 24, 2006, UPN and The WB announced that they cease broadcasting and merge. The new combined network would be called The CW. The letters would represent 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 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 to give UPN and WB stations, not mentioned as becoming CW affiliates, another option besides becoming independent, as well as to compete against The CW.

It was later revealed that WB affiliate WBSF would become the CW affiliate for the region. After that, WNEM released plans to create a new second digital subchannel to become the area's MyNetworkTV affiliate. In August of 2006, WNEM unveiled a new logo and branding for the digital subchannel, My 5. There is no separate web address for WNEM-DT2 at the moment (there is only a separate page on the WNEM website). Programming on WNEM-DT2 consists of primetime MyNetworkTV programmming and syndicated shows like Oprah, Tyra and Dr. Phil. Guiding Light, a CBS soap opera dropped by WNEM in 1996, returned to the market on My 5. As a result, all CBS programs are now cleared in the Mid-Michigan area. My 5 also broadcasts Detroit Pistons games and related specials. The station airs Fearless Music on Saturday nights at Midnight. It also carries Big Time Wrestling on early Saturday and Sunday mornings at 2. They are the only affiliate to carry the program.

When it launched, My 5 replaced Detroit's WDIV on Flint-area Comcast cable systems and Detroit's WKBD on Tri-Cities Charter cable systems. The station is also seen on Charter cable systems in the Alpena market (also replacing WKBD). However, the main WNEM channel is not seen on that system due to WBKB-TV which is based in Alpena. WNEM-DT2 is the nearest MyNetworkTV affiliate for the northern Michigan television market (the Traverse City / Cadillac DMA). Currently, that area does not have an affiliate of its own. Access to the station is only offered on Charter cable systems in areas of the Alpena television market that overlap with the northern Michigan DMA.

[edit] News operation

According to Nielsen ratings, WNEM still has the highest-rated news operation in Mid-Michigan. Since April 24, 2006, the station has been producing a nightly 10 o'clock newscast on Fox affiliate WSMH. This practice is possible because of a news share agreement between the two stations. On Monday nights during the 10 o'clock broadcast, the Fugitive Files segment airs. In addition, WNEM produces news segments for sister radio station WNEM-AM 1250. The station operates a Genesee County Bureau at Gateway Centre in Flint.

In December of 2008, this bureau will move to a new location in the first floor of the Wade Trim Building on Saginaw Street in downtown Flint. WNEM broadcasts Better Mid-Michigan on weekday mornings at 9. It is repeated on My 5 at 6 P.M. On weekday mornings, WNEM-DT2 airs the nationally syndicated morning show, The Daily Buzz, from 6 to 9. During the week, that station broadcasts a newscast at 4 P.M. This production is known as My 5 News at 4. It can be viewed live on WNEM's website. The station operates their own weather radar. Known as "First Warn 5 Doppler", it is broadcasted via live streaming video on the station's website.

[edit] News team

WNEM's weeknight 5:30 and 10 o'clock anchors.

Anchors

• Jocelyn Connell - weekday mornings and Noon
  • Better Mid-Michigan co-host
• Bill Walsh - weeknights at 4
  • weekend evenings
  • reporter
• Erica Donerson - weeknights at 4, 5:30, and 10
• Sam Merrill - weeknights at 5, 5:30, 6, 10, and 11
• Katie O'Mara - weeknights at 5, 6, and 11
  • "Buckle Your Baby" spokesperson
• Craig McMorris - weekday mornings
  • reporter
• Adrienne Broaddus - weekend mornings
  • reporter
• Amy Andrews - weekends evenings
  • reporter

First Warn 5 Meteorologists

• Darrin Bradley - Chief seen on weeknights
• Chris Gloninger (Certified Broadcast Meteorologist) - weeknights at 4
• Mike Cameron - weekday mornings and Noon
  • Better Mid-Michigan co-host
• Cindy Althoff - weekends
• Eric Jylha - fill-in
  • reporter

Sports

• Scot Johnson - Director seen on weeknights at 6, 10, and 11
  • host of Sports Extra
• Jason Fielder - weekend evenings
  • sports reporter
• Darryl Sellers - sports reporter
  • fill-in sports anchor

Reporters

• Kim Russell - Genesee County Bureau
• Bill Walsh
• Brian Wood
• Jay Brandow
• Julie Banovic
• Adrienne Broaddus
• Randy Wimbley

[edit] Logos

WNEM logo in 1958 from a TV Guide ad with NBC's xylophone logo and ABC's "a" logo because WNEM aired programs from both networks during the 1950s. The "hand" logo would be used under Gerity ownership until the sale to Meredith in 1969.	Short-lived WNEM logo used from about 1969 until 1971 on a promotional coffee cup.	WNEM logo from a 1977 Detroit Tigers schedule. WNEM carried Tigers games through the mid-1980s. The "5" in this logo was used in various forms from 1971 to 2004 and used at other Meredith stations like KPHO-TV, KCTV, former sister WTVH, and from 1985 onward at KVVU.	WNEM logo from 1984 from a TV Guide ad with NBC's Be There slogan.
WNEM logo from 1996. Variant of above logo.	Variant from 1996 with the slogan "Together, TV 5 and You".	WNEM logo from 1997 with the "TV" part dropped. Variations of this logo were used until 2004 when it was replaced with the current logo.	WNEM logo from 2004 to the present.
Current logo for WNEM-DT2 My 5.

[edit] External links

• WNEM-TV/DT "TV 5"
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WNEM-TV
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WNEM-TV