WEYI-TV (branded NBC25) is the NBC-affiliated television station for the Flint/Tri-Cities market that is licensed to Saginaw. The station broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 30 from a 193 kilowatt, 356 metres (1,168 ft) high transmitter at its studios on West Willard Road in Vienna Township (which uses the Clio ZIP code) along the Genesee and Saginaw County line.

Owned by Barrington Broadcasting, the station is sister to CW affiliate WBSF and the two share studios. The station can also be seen on WBSF's second digital subchannel (virtual channel 46.2). Syndicated programming on WEYI includes: Inside Edition, Entertainment Tonight, The Dr. Oz Show, and Ellen.

Digital television [link]

Analog-to-digital transition [link]

WEYI-TV shut down its analog signal on June 12, 2009, ^[1] as part of the Digital television transition in the United States. The station remained on its pre-transition channel 30 ^[2] using PSIP to display its virtual channel as 25. Also, WBSF became available on a separate digital signal on channel 46.^[3] However, it is still available on WEYI's digital subcarrier.

History [link]

Channel 25 is one of the nation's oldest UHF stations. It debuted on April 5, 1953 as WKNX-TV on channel 57. It was owned by Lake Huron Broadcasting along with WKNX radio (AM 1210, now WNEM at AM 1250), and was a CBS affiliate. It also shared ABC with DuMont affiliate WTAC-TV and then-NBC affiliate WNEM-TV (now sister to the former WKNX radio). When WTAC-TV shut down in 1954, WKNX-TV and WNEM-TV shared ABC until WJRT-TV signed on in 1958. It moved to the stronger channel 25 in 1965.

In 1972, WKNX-TV was sold to Rust Craft Broadcasting, who changed the call letters to the current WEYI-TV. Soon afterward, the station moved to its current tower and studios in Vienna Township. The new tower significantly improved its coverage in Flint while still being within 15 miles of Saginaw as required by Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations. Prior to 1972, the southern side of the Flint/Saginaw/Bay City market got a better signal from Lansing's WJIM-TV (now WLNS-TV). In 1979, Rust Craft merged with Ziff-Davis.

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. On January 16, 1995, WEYI and WNEM-TV traded network affiliations, resulting in WEYI becoming an NBC station. This came as part of the larger U.S. television network affiliate switches of 1994 that saw CBS' longtime affiliate in adjacent Detroit, WJBK, switch to Fox. CBS was having trouble getting a replacement affiliate in Detroit. Since WNEM provides city-grade coverage to much of the northern portion of the Detroit market, CBS persuaded WNEM's owner, Meredith Corporation, to switch to CBS. Mid-Michigan is the only known market where the CBS affiliation moved from a relatively weak UHF station to a higher-rated VHF station during this period.

In early-January 1996, Television Station Partners sold WEYI, WROC, and WTOV to Smith Broadcasting (WRDW went to what is today Gray Television). In 1997, the WEYI license was transferred to Smith Broadcasting subsidiary Sunrise Television, which later merged with the LIN TV Corporation in 2002. The Sunrise-LIN merger briefly made WEYI a sister station to fellow NBC affiliate WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids and ABC affiliate WOTV in Battle Creek. In May 2004, WEYI became one of the founding stations of its current owner, Barrington Broadcasting. In March 2006, it was joined by Northern Michigan's WPBN/WTOM, Marquette's WLUC-TV, and (to a degree) Toledo, Ohio's WNWO-TV as part of Barrington's family of stations in and around Michigan following Barrington's purchase of those stations from Raycom Media.

In 2004, Barrington Broadcasting launched WB affiliate WBSF which was offered over-the-air on WEYI-DT2 and cable. The deal was made primarily because WKBD declined to carry Detroit Pistons basketball after the games switched to WMYD which is not available on most Mid-Michigan cable systems. WBSF signed-on an over-the-air analog signal in 2006 not long after becoming the CW affiliate for Mid-Michigan.

Controversies [link]

WEYI was blamed for forcing competing NBC affiliate WDIV from Detroit off of Comcast's Flint system (which serves most of Genesee County) as well as starting the syndication exclusivity controversy on Comcast Flint. WDIV was once available on Comcast's Flint system. However in 2004, WEYI filed a complaint with the FCC claiming it was losing NBC viewers to WDIV, most likely due to that station's new high definition picture. (according to WEYI's website, it still uses Betacam equipment and none of its local or syndicated programming is currently in HD).^[4] The FCC ruled in favor of WEYI ^[5] and for a brief period national NBC programs on WDIV were unavailable on Comcast Flint. Eventually in August 2006, Comcast Flint removed WDIV from the system completely, replacing it with the new local MyNetworkTV affiliate WNEM-DT2.

Since then, several Flint affiliates filed similar complaints with their Detroit-affiliated counterpart stations (WJRT-TV against WXYZ-TV, WBSF against WKBD, and WSMH against WJBK). However, the Detroit affiliates remain on Comcast Flint with blackouts continuing. The blackouts also affected Comcast subscribers in Holly which is located in Northwestern Oakland County, a part of the Detroit media market. Until April 2011, Comcast viewers in that area received programming from the Flint headend instead of one in Oakland County or elsewhere in Detroit; that month, Comcast discontinued blackouts of Detroit channels and added additional channels from that market, but dropped many Flint/Tri-Cities channels from that system, including WEYI, retaining only WJRT and WCMZ-TV. The changes were in response to complaints from Detroit stations and area viewers of being blacked out or unavailable in an area that they were supposed to serve.

Newscasts [link]

WBSF once aired a weeknight newscast known as The 7 O'Clock News on CW 46 which was produced by WEYI. This production was canceled in April 2008. Unlike most NBC affiliates in the Eastern Time Zone, this station does not air local news during the weekday midday hours or weeknight 5 o'clock hour.

Newscast titles [link]

• TV-25 News (1960s-1980s)
• 25 News (1980s-early 1990s)
• WEYI-witness News (early-mid 1990s)
• NBC 25 News (late 1990s-2002 and 2006–present)
• NewsCenter 25 (2002–2006)

Station slogans [link]

• "Get Ready for 25" (1990–1991, localized version of CBS ad campaign)
• "Moving Mid-Michigan Forward" (2006–2008)

Notable former on-air staff [link]

• Dave Kinchen - reporter/weather anchor now at (WTXF-TV). ^[6]

References [link]

External links [link]

• WEYI-TV "NBC 25"
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WEYI-TV