WJRT-TV
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WJRT-TV is the American Broadcasting Company-owned and operated television station (O&O) in the Flint-Saginaw-Bay City, Michigan television market. Its studios are located in Flint, its city of license. The station broadcasts with 316 kilowatts of power from a 1,000-foot tower located near Chesaning, Michigan.
On cable, WJRT can be seen on Comcast Flint channel 7 and Charter Tri-Cities channel 11. WJRT can be seen on cable systems throughout northeastern Michigan, as far north as Alpena. At one time, it was seen on cable as far north as Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, where the Shaw system there offered WJRT instead of WGTU from across the locks; in the early-2000s, Shaw replaced WJRT with Detroit's WXYZ-TV.
History
WJRT is the only station in the market to never change its affiliation. WJRT was founded in 1958 by Goodwill Stations, the owner of WJR in Detroit at the time. That company won out over two other companies seeking to operate channel 12, the Trebit Corp. (which owned WFDF-AM) and W.S. Butterfield Theatres, Inc. Failed plans to place the transmitter facilities in Independence Township, Michigan are part of the story of WJRT's birth. When it was learned that Independence Township was in the Detroit television market, Goodwill settled on placing the channel 12 transmitters near Chesaning, Michigan; the transmitters remain there today. Once this was done, WJRT went on the air on October 12, 1958, as an ABC network affiliate. WJRT was the first Michigan television station outside of Detroit to go all-color in 1967.
Goodwill Stations merged with Capital Cities Communications in 1964, but WJRT was spun off to Poole Broadcasting (owned by a former Capital Cities stockholder) due to FCC limits on television station ownership at the time. In April 1978, WJRT along with the rest of Poole Broadcasting (which included WPRI-TV in Providence, Rhode Island and WTEN in Albany, New York) were sold to Knight Ridder. During the late 1980's, Knight Ridder decided to exit broadcasting by selling its stations to separate owners; as a result, WJRT was sold to SJL Broadcast Management (the predecessor of today's Montecito Broadcast Group) in 1989.
During the 1970s WJRT became Mid Michigan's highest rated television station, helped by ABC's ratings improvements during the decade. During the late 1980s and into the 1990s, WJRT was usually second to WNEM-TV. However, after ABC (which had merged with Capital Cities in 1986) purchased WJRT (along with WTVG in Toledo, Ohio) from SJL in 1995, the station returned to the top of the Mid-Michigan ratings for primetime, where it remains today. ABC bought WJRT to ensure that it would stay with the network after WNEM joined CBS. The station continues to rank as a strong second place to WNEM for local newscast ratings.
Ironically, when ABC acquired WJRT in 1995, it was a reunion of sorts with its namesake radio station, WJR. WJR's owner, Capital Cities, had merged with ABC in 1986. And in 2002, WFDF, which unsuccessfully sought a channel 12 license in the 1950s, would also become a sister to WJRT when ABC bought the station. However, this reunion will soon be partially broken up, as ABC sold WJR, along with other ABC Radio properties, to Citadel Broadcasting in January, 2006.
WJRT also served as the ABC affiliate of record for Lansing until WLAJ signed on in 1990.
As a network O&O WJRT carries the full ABC television lineup, with the exception of Saturday afternoon Big Ten Conference football and basketball games from ESPN Plus during the fall and winter months which may force an hour of ABC Kids to air the next day. However, should ABC air a nationally-televised Saturday college football or basketball game at noon, the network game is aired on WJRT.
Previous Logos
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WJRT logo from the early-1960s, on giveaway coffee cups.
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WJRT logo from a 1971 TV Guide; this logo was used from 1965 to 1976.
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WJRT "Home Country 12" logo from a 1976 TV Guide; this logo was used from 1976 to 1979, though the stars and "Home Country" slogan would be dropped by 1977.
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WJRT logo from a 1987 TV Guide; this logo (and later variants) was used from about 1981 until its sale to Disney in 1995.
Miscellanea
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WJRT's studios on Lapeer Road in Flint in the late-1950s, from a promotional postcard. It originally housed the defunct WTAC-TV studios. While the studios undergone some remodelling over the years, WJRT is still there today.
