WJBK

CBS affiliate (1948–1994)

WJBK-TV first signed on the air on October 24, 1948. ^[6] It was the third television station to sign-on in Detroit and Michigan, after WWJ-TV (channel 4, now WDIV-TV) and WXYZ-TV (channel 7)—all of which have signed on in a 14-month timeframe. Despite Detroit being a major television market, it only accommodated three VHF allocations due to being shortspaced between Flint (channel 12) and Saginaw (channel 5) to the north; Lansing (channels 6 and 10) to the west; Toledo (channels 11 and 13) to the south; and Cleveland (channels 3, 5 and 8); Windsor, Ontario (channel 9); and London, Ontario (channel 10) to the east. For this reason, WJBK was assigned the final VHF channel in Detroit.

At sign on, the first program broadcast by WJBK was a presentation of Lucky Pup at 6:15 p.m.. The station was originally an affiliate of both CBS and the DuMont Television Network. It was originally owned by Fort Industry Broadcasting, owned by George B. Storer and then based in nearby Toledo, Ohio. Fort Industry, which would later be renamed Storer Broadcasting, also owned WJBK radio (1500 AM, now WLQV), and 93.1 WJBK-FM (now WUFL). The station originally operated from Detroit's Masonic Temple until 1956, when its operations were moved to a purpose-built studio facility on Second Avenue in Detroit's New Center section, which would be occupied by PBS member station WTVS for nearly 40 years ^[7] and is now being reconstructed for use as headquarters for the nonprofit Midnight Golf Program. ^[8] WJBK-TV would eventually become an exclusive CBS affiliate by 1955, when Windsor, Ontario-based CKLW-TV (channel 9, now CBC O&O CBET-DT) became a DuMont affiliate. WJBK first broadcast in color around 1956. In 1970, the station moved to its current broadcast facilities on West Nine Mile Road in Southfield. ^[9] Like most studio facilities built by Storer during that time, it resembles a Southern antebellum mansion.

The station went through a number of ownership and management changes with its parent companies in the 1980s and 1990s. In 1985, the equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) acquired Storer Communications, Incorporated in a leveraged buyout. Storer spurned offers from Knight-Ridder Newspapers, Tele-Communications, Inc. and Scripps-Howard Broadcasting Co., though Scripps-Howard would successfully acquire cross-town rival ABC owned and operated station WXYZ-TV in 1986 after the ABC-Capital Cities Communications merger was approved by federal regulators. KKR then sold all of the Storer broadcast assets, including WJBK, to Gillett Communications in 1987, after an attempt to sell the stations to Lorimar-Telepictures in 1986 failed. When Gillett went bankrupt in 1992, it reorganized the ownership of its television stations into SCI Television. The following year, in 1993, SCI was acquired by the film and television production company New World Communications.

Switch to Fox station (1994–present)

In May 1994, News Corporation, then-parent of the Fox network, purchased a 20% ownership stake (amounting to a $500 million investment) in WJBK's owner New World Communications. Fox made the investment to comply with their winning bid for the broadcast rights to the NFL's National Football Conference. ^[10] Fox outbid CBS for the NFL broadcast rights on the condition that it would improve the network's affiliate coverage in the larger television markets. As a result of Fox's investment, New World agreed to switch the network affiliations of most of the company's stations, including WJBK, to Fox. ^[11] While WKBD-TV (channel 50) had been the Fox affiliate in Detroit since the network debuted on October 9, 1986, and had grown to be one of the network's strongest affiliates, Fox still considered WJBK a far-more desirable affiliation prospect on the strength of its VHF signal and the station's longtime news department.

WJBK became Detroit's new Fox affiliate on December 11, 1994, after the station's affiliation contract with CBS ended, ending its 45-year affiliation with that network. With the switch, regular season games of the Detroit Lions' continued to air on WJBK, although there was a brief three-month interruption in coverage due to CBS losing the NFC rights for the first three months of Fox's NFC telecasts due to WKBD airing them. After losing Fox, WKBD was briefly an independent before joining the newly launched UPN a month later.

CBS found it difficult to find a new home in Detroit. WXYZ and Cleveland sister station WEWS-TV were both heavily wooed to become CBS affiliates, but the E. W. Scripps Company signed an affiliation deal with ABC in June 1994 that renewed the network's affiliations with both stations. WDIV was not an option as that station was in the middle of a long-term affiliation contract with NBC at the time. As a result, CBS was forced to deal with the market's lower-rated UHF outlets, none of which had the kind of signal penetration that WJBK had. As a contingency plan, CBS signed a long-term affiliation deal with WTOL in Toledo, Ohio; which provides city-grade coverage to most of Detroit's southern suburbs and grade B coverage of Detroit itself. It also persuaded Mid-Michigan's longtime NBC affiliate, WNEM-TV, to switch to CBS; WNEM provided stronger coverage of Detroit's outer northern suburbs than did the market's longtime CBS affiliate, WEYI-TV.

With just days to go before WJBK was due to switch to Fox, CBS faced the prospect of having to import WTOL, WNEM, and WLNS on area cable providers until it could find a replacement affiliate. CBS would end up purchasing low-rated UHF independent station WGPR-TV (channel 62, now WWJ-TV) in September 1994. The last CBS network program to air on WJBK was a first-run episode of Walker, Texas Ranger at 10 p.m. Eastern Time on December 10, 1994; channel 2 officially became a Fox affiliate the next day, when the network's programming lineup moved to the station from WKBD; the first Fox network program to air on the station as a full-time affiliate was Fox NFL Sunday at noon that day, which led into that afternoon's NFL doubleheader: an early game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Los Angeles Rams and a mid-afternoon game between the San Francisco 49ers and the San Diego Chargers. Former Fox affiliate WKBD briefly became an independent station before becoming a charter affiliate of UPN in January 1995.

Until channel 62 built a new transmitter in 1999, WTOL served as the default CBS affiliate for most of the southern portion of the market, while WNEM served the northern portion and WLNS served the western portion.

As a result of the network switch, WJBK changed its branding from "TV 2" to "Fox 2" by the fall of 1995 (becoming one of the few New World stations that switched to the network to adhere to the network's branding conventions before Fox's buyout of New World). Fox Television Stations bought New World's ten Fox-affiliated stations, including WJBK, in July 1996; ^[12] the purchase was finalized on January 22, 1997, with channel 2 becoming a Fox owned-and-operated station as a result.

On December 14, 2017, The Walt Disney Company, owner of WXYZ-TV's affiliated network ABC, announced its intent to buy WJBK's parent company, 21st Century Fox, for $66.1 billion; the sale, which closed on March 20, 2019, excluded WJBK as well as the Fox network, the MyNetworkTV programming service, Fox News, Fox Sports 1, the Big Ten Network and the Fox Television Stations unit, which were all transferred to the newly-formed Fox Corporation. ^{[13] [14]}

Local productions

Some of WJBK's early productions included popular children's shows. Milky's Movie Party starring Milky the Clown, played by magician Clarence R. Cummings Jr., was one of the station's first locally produced children's programs from 1950 to 1955. The program featured a mix of cartoons and westerns with Cummings performing magic tricks with other acts in front of a live audience. Cummings would eventually take the Milky character to WXYZ-TV and the former WWJ-TV (now WDIV). ^[15]

Other original WJBK children's programs included a cowboy-themed show with Sagebrush Shorty, played by ventriloquist Ted Lloyd, with his sidekick dummy Skinny Dugan that aired from 1956 to 1960, featuring a mix of children's activities and various other characters that interacted with Lloyd. ^[15] That program was followed by another WJBK children's favorite, Jungle-La with wildlife expert "B'wana" Don Hunt, that aired from 1960 to 1963. Hunt with his sidekick chimpanzee Bongo Bailey hosted cartoons and taught viewers about various wildlife. Hunt moved to Africa in 1964 and managed a wildlife preserve in Kenya responsible for saving some species from extinction. ^[16] After airing first on the former WWJ-TV and CKLW-TV, performer Art Cervi would obtain the Bozo the Clown franchise for Detroit and perform the character at WJBK beginning in 1975. During its run at the station, the program would be syndicated from WJBK to cities including New York City, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Wichita, Kansas. ^[17]

WJBK also produced one of Detroit's first morning talk shows, Ladies' Day with Chuck Bergeson, which aired from 1952 to 1959. The hour-long show included games, contests, and interviews with the biggest stars of the time including Lucille Ball and Red Skelton. Bergeson also hosted other WJBK shows in the 1950s including Your TV Golf Pro and The Name Game. ^[15] From 1967 to 1983, Sir Graves Ghastly, played by actor Lawson J. Deming, hosted WJBK's assorted sci-fi and horror movies on Saturday afternoons; the humorous character became a popular figure in Detroit television. Deming had originally come to the station as a puppeteer and voice actor for the children's program Woodrow the Woodsman when that show moved from Cleveland's WKYC-TV to WJBK in 1966. In addition to playing the character in Cleveland, he also played Sir Graves on WTOP-TV in Washington, D.C. at the same time. ^[18]

With This Ring was a nationally syndicated religious program produced at the studios of WJBK from the early 1970s through the mid-1990s. The weekly 15-minute show hosted by Roman Catholic priest Raymond Schlinkert featured lectures and advice about marriage and family life. The program was syndicated to several other U.S. commercial stations, usually shown immediately following the station's sign-on or before sign-off on Sundays.

WJBK would also produce Sunday public affairs/interview shows over the years including Focus Detroit, hosted by reporters Woody Willis and Beverly Payne in 1973; ^[19] Sunday in Detroit, hosted by news anchor Kathy O'Brien, would air around 1980 and WJBK business reporter and news anchor Murray Feldman also hosted a Sunday business and financial program in the mid-1990s called Moneywise. WJBK produced a local version of the syndicated program PM Magazine from 1978 to the mid-1980s. The show changed titles over the years eventually becoming known as PM Detroit – it also had various hosts included Ronnie Klemmer, Lorrie Kapp, Gary Cubberly and Mattie Majors. ^[19] The station was also the Detroit home and active participant for comedian Jerry Lewis' annual MDA Labor Day Telethon for several years.

From 1983 to 1986, popular WJR (760 AM) morning radio host J. P. McCarthy hosted an evening interview show with newsmakers and people of interest called JP, as well as a similar program in the early 1990s entitled In Person with J.P. McCarthy. He also previously hosted sports interview show specials through the 1970s. ^[19] In 1995, former WXYZ-TV news anchor Bill Bonds hosted the 11 p.m. talk/interview show, Bonds Tonight. Bonds eventually would end up anchoring and reporting on WJBK's newscasts. ^[15]

Past program preemptions and deferrals

Even though WJBK was one of CBS' stronger affiliates, it would preempt or reschedule some network programs. As the flagship station of Detroit Tigers baseball from the 1950s to the 1970s, it would preempt network programming to televise games. From 1970 until the early 1980s, the station would air its own local morning newscast from 7 to 8 a.m. and then Good Morning, Detroit instead of the CBS Morning News . In 1992, it chose again not to air CBS This Morning in favor of its own local newscast. ^[20] The station would regularly reschedule CBS' daytime game shows and it would also move the soap opera Guiding Light from its usual network airtime of 3 pm. ET to 10 am, with episodes airing on a one-day delay. WJBK would also preempt the CBS late night schedule with syndicated reruns including Cheers and late night movies until the debut of the Late Show with David Letterman in 1993, when the station cleared the show at 11:35 p.m.

After the affiliation switch, WJBK maintained its existing schedule, with the exception of the expansion of its news programming including the move and conversion of its 11 p.m. newscast to an hour-long broadcast at 10 pm. As Fox offered less network programming, especially during the daytime hours, WJBK would fill its schedule with more syndicated programs and off-network reruns. However, the station, like its fellow former New World stations, never ran the Fox Kids children's programming block. That block would remain on former Fox affiliate WKBD before eventually moving to WADL (channel 38) and then WDWB-TV (channel 20, now WMYD). In 2014, WJBK cleared Steve Rotfeld Productions' Xploration Station block, making it the first time the station has ever cleared Fox children's programming.

Sports programming

News operation

WJBK currently broadcasts 68½ hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 11½ hours each weekday and 5½ hours each on Saturdays and Sundays); in regards to the number of hours devoted to news programming, it is the highest local newscast output among all broadcast television stations in the state of Michigan. In addition, WJBK produces a sports highlight program on Sunday nights following the 10 p.m. newscast called Sports Works (which is also the branding of the sports segments seen within its newscasts); the show is hosted by either WJBK sports director Dan Miller or sports anchor/reporter Woody Woodriffe, and typically features a roundtable discussion with members of the Detroit sports media including Sean Baligian, formerly of WDFN (1130 AM); Bob Wojnowski from the Detroit News ; Pat Caputo from the Oakland Press and WXYT-FM (97.1) and Tony Ortiz from WXYT-FM.

WJBK operates a fleet of Ford E350 ENG vehicles with microwave transmission and video editing capabilities. The station also has (SNG) mobile satellite uplink capability. For aerial news coverage, WJBK shares a Eurocopter AS350BA A-star news helicopter with WXYZ-TV and WDIV-TV as part of a Local News Service agreement. The aircraft has HD video capability and goes by the call sign "Red Bird" (although WJBK brands the helicopter as "SkyFox"). In 2009, WJBK and WXYZ-TV expanded the LNS agreement to allow the sharing of local news video.

In an effort to cut expenses, WJBK and WXYZ's respective owners, Fox and the E. W. Scripps Company, established an LNS in all markets where both companies own stations. The stations pool newsgathering resources and share video during coverage of general news events. ^[23] While the news department primarily focuses its local news coverage on southeastern Michigan, it also provides coverage of larger stories in southwestern Ontario, northern Ohio and the rest of Michigan.

Fox 2 News

When WJBK switched affiliations from CBS to Fox in December 1994, the station adopted a news-intensive format. It has retained a news schedule similar to the one it had in its latter days as a CBS affiliate. The 35-minute 11 p.m. newscast was moved to 10 p.m. and expanded to an hour, and the weekday morning newscast was also expanded. The weekend 6 p.m. newscasts would also be expanded to one hour. WJBK now had a late local newscast in first place as it immediately overtook the hour-long 10 p.m. newscast that WKBD had at the time in the ratings. Eventually, WJBK would drop the 4 p.m. newscast, but the station's profile and ratings for its morning and 10 p.m. newscasts would surge with it out of direct competition from its main competitors WDIV and WXYZ. ^[24] In 1995, the station would hire news anchor Bill Bonds after his departure from WXYZ-TV. Bonds would fill the 11 p.m. timeslot with a news/interview show, Bonds Tonight. ^[15]

The newscasts were branded as Fox 2 Eyewitness News until 1997, when Fox took full ownership of the station and rebranded its newscasts as Fox 2 News. By that time, the station would also release its previous WXYZ hires. At the same time, Fox's news management brought on new talent including Dan Miller, Alan Lee and Monica Gayle from Seattle, as well as Rob Wolchek from Fresno, California. By 1998, the station would bolster its image by improving its investigative and consumer advocate unit and branding it as The Problem Solvers. It also adopted a slogan complementary to Detroit's working class heritage, "News That Works for You". On September 24, 2007, WJBK relaunched an 11 p.m. newscast, using the NewsEdge format originally used by Fox Tampa station WTVT. It also changed its logo, graphics and news theme to an image that became standard on the Fox O&O stations. In April 2008, the station became the first Fox-owned station (and the third television station in Detroit) to broadcast its news programming in high definition.

On September 12, 2016, WJBK added an extra half-hour to its 6 p.m. newscast. ^[26]

Subchannels

The station's signal is multiplexed:

Analog-to-digital conversion

WJBK began airing its digital high-definition feed, WJBK-DT, on its pre-transition UHF channel 58 starting on October 1, 1998. The station shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 2, on June 12, 2009, per the U.S. Digital Television transition federal mandate. In concurrence, the station's digital signal switched to its assigned post-transition VHF channel 7 ^{[5] [37]} which was until that day occupied by WXYZ-TV's analog signal. WJBK was assigned its post-transition digital signal on May 7, 2007.^{[ citation needed ]}

As part of the SAFER Act, ^[38] WJBK kept an analog signal on the air for two additional weeks until June 26 to inform viewers of the digital television transition through a loop of public service announcements from the National Association of Broadcasters.

Digital television receivers continue to display the station's virtual channel as its former VHF analog channel 2. WJBK is the only American television station in the Detroit–Windsor television market that broadcasts its digital signal on the VHF band. Canadian station CBET-DT, broadcasting from McGregor, Ontario, is on VHF channel 9. All other Detroit–Windsor DTV stations are on the UHF band, which includes channels 14 to 36 after the FCC repack.

Canada

WJBK also serves as a Fox station for other Canadian cable providers, including on Rogers Cable in the Canadian capital of Ottawa, Ontario. It was also one of five Detroit television stations seen in Canada on satellite provider Shaw Direct. As of April 2009, Shaw Broadcast Services (formerly CANCOM) replaced WJBK's signal with Rochester, New York Fox affiliate WUHF. ^[39] As a CBS affiliate, WJBK was carried on Cable Atlantic (now Rogers Cable) in Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia from 1985 until it affiliated with Fox in 1994. Both provinces are now served by Boston CBS O&O WBZ-TV.

Coverage on cable providers outside the Detroit–Windsor market may be subject to syndex and network blackouts in the United States and simsubbing in Canada.

Newscasts

When WJBK became a Fox station, WGKI/WGKU (now WFQX-TV/WFUP), the Fox affiliate in Cadillac, Michigan, stopped simulcasting WKBD's 10 p.m. newscast in favor of WJBK's; this arrangement ended when WGKI began producing its own 10 p.m. newscast in 2000. In January 2007, WFQX began simulcasting WJBK's morning newscast from 6 to 8 a.m. under the title Michigan's Fox News Morning. The simulcasts were made possible with an agreement that offered northern Michigan businesses advertising opportunities during the newscast. WFQX would also air the second half of WJBK's 10 p.m. newscast following its own half-hour 10 p.m. newscast. WFQX would drop WJBK's newscasts altogether in October 2007, after the station was sold and CBS affiliate WWTV began producing WFQX's 10 p.m. and morning newscasts.