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|---|---|
| City | Lansing, Michigan |
| Channels | |
| Branding | WLNS 6;6 News |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations | 6.1:CBS |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| WLAJ | |
| History | |
First air date | May 1, 1950 (1950-05-01) |
Former call signs | WJIM-TV (1950-1984)[1] |
Former channel numbers |
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Call sign meaning | Lansing[1] |
| Technical information[2] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 74420 |
| ERP | 950kW |
| HAAT | 289.8 m (951 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 42°41′19″N84°22′35″W / 42.68861°N 84.37639°W /42.68861; -84.37639 |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | www |
WLNS-TV (channel 6) is atelevision station inLansing, Michigan, United States, affiliated withCBS. It is owned byNexstar Media Group, which provides certain services to dualABC andCW+ affiliateWLAJ (channel 53) under ashared services agreement (SSA) withMission Broadcasting. WLNS-TV and WLAJ share studios on East Saginaw Street in Lansing'sEastside section; through achannel sharing agreement, the stations transmit using WLAJ's spectrum from a tower on Van Atta Road inOkemos, Michigan.
The station began test broadcasts on March 1950, and made its official broadcast on May 1 of the same year,[3][4] as WJIM-TV and was owned by Harold F. Gross along withWJIM radio (1240 AM), through WJIM, Inc. It is Michigan's second-oldest television station outside Detroit (behindWOOD-TV inGrand Rapids).[1] Gross had started WJIM, the oldest continuously operated commercial radio station in Lansing, in 1934; both stations were named after his son Jim. According to local legend, Gross won the original radio license in a card game.
WJIM-TV originally carried programming from all four networks of the day:ABC,DuMont,NBC, and CBS.[5] However, it was, and always has been, a primary CBS affiliate. ABC disappeared from the schedule in 1958 whenWJRT-TV signed on fromFlint.[1] DuMont programming disappeared when the network ceased operations in 1956.[6] NBC disappeared from the schedule in 1959 whenWILX-TV signed on. Thus, at the start of the fall 1959 television season, WJIM-TV was broadcasting only CBS.[1]
On September 2, 1973, the SundayDetroit Free Press published the first piece of an investigation byDavid Cay Johnston into news blackouts and manipulations ordered by Gross with follow-up reports continuing for three years.[7] Two years later,The New York Times examined the case.[8]
The local chapter of theAmerican Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) challenged the station's license in 1973 alleging that Gross, whose company was by then renamed Gross Telecasting, Inc., prevented a number of prominent political figures from appearing on WJIM-TV.[9] AFederal Communications Commission (FCC) judge ordered the license revoked in 1981.[10] WJIM kept its license when the initial revocation was reversed by the FCC in 1982. The ACLU would eventually agree to a cash settlement in 1984.[1]
The stress of the decade-long licensing dispute led Gross to end his half-century in the broadcasting business. He sold WJIM-TV to Backe Communications in July 13, 1984.[5] The station, per FCC rules at the time (which prohibited TV and radio stations in the same market, but with different ownership, from sharing the same call letters) adopted its current call letters, WLNS-TV, on July 16, 1984.[11] WJIM-AM-FM was sold to Liggett Broadcasting in 1993, netting Gross a handsome return on his original investment.[12] Backe's ownership of the station was short-lived; in March 1986, WLNS was sold toYoung Broadcasting for $72 million.[13]
In May 1994, Detroit CBS affiliateWJBK announced that it wouldswitch its affiliation toFox as part of a deal between the network andNew World Communications.[14] CBS heavily pursuedWXYZ-TV as a replacement affiliate, but theE. W. Scripps Company renewed the station's affiliation with ABC one month later in exchange for switching the affiliations of three of itssister stations—KNXV-TV inPhoenix,WFTS-TV inTampa andWMAR-TV inBaltimore—to the network.[15]WDIV was not an option as that station was still in a long-term contract with NBC at the time, whileWKBD-TV (which was about to lose Fox),WADL, andWXON were not interested in affiliating with CBS. With just weeks to go before WJBK was due to join Fox, CBS still had yet to find a new affiliate in Detroit. Facing the prospect of having to pipe in WLNS-TV, Flint affiliateWNEM-TV, andToledo affiliateWTOL for cable subscribers, CBS agreed to purchase independent station WGPR-TV (nowWWJ-TV), which became an affiliate of the network on December 11, 1994. WLNS-TV served as the default CBS affiliate for the western portion of the Detroit market until WWJ-TV built a new transmitter in 1999.
WLNS-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 6, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United Statestransitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station digital signal relocated from its pre-transitionUHF channel 59 to UHF channel 36, usingvirtual channel 6.[16]
Young filed forChapter 11 bankruptcy protection in early-2009.[17] The company was subsequently taken over by its secured lenders and outsourced most of its operations toGray Television. WLNS-TV was not part of the management agreement because Gray already owned WILX. Young merged withMedia General in November 2013.[18]
Following the other Young stations that launchedThe Country Network in late November 2010, WLNS-TV added that network to its .2 subchannel in the first quarter of 2011.[19] On January 30, 2012, WLNS-TV changed its 6.2 affiliation to theLive Well Network along with 7 other Young stations.[20]
Media General addedGetTV to 20 of its stations' subchannels, including WLNS-TV, in a roll out that started on February 1, 2016.[21] Media General merged with Nexstar in January 2017.[22]
In the 2016 FCCspectrum reallocation auction, Media General sold the over-the-air spectrum of WLNS-TV for $13.6 million, while expecting to negotiate a channel sharing arrangement with another station.[23] GetTV on .2 was dropped by March 6, 2018, to prepare for the channel share;[16] this would end up being SSA partner WLAJ.[16] On June 11, 2018, WLNS-TV discontinued broadcasting from its transmitter inOkemos and began broadcasting from WLAJ's transmitter on channel 25; it continues to appear as virtual channel 6.[24] This created a situation where the senior partner in an operating agreement transmits on the spectrum of its junior partner.
As a consequence because of the channel share and the need to transmit three television signals in high definition (1080i for WLNS, and 720p for WLAJ's two ABC and CW channels), the 6.3Ion Television subchannel was discontinued. In 2020, WLNS/WLAJ moved its digital channel to channel 14 and resumed transmitting from the Okemos transmitter location.[25]
As of 2021, WLNS-TV presently broadcasts 29 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with five hours each weekday, and two hours each on Saturdays and Sundays).
Traditionally, WLNS-TV had been the most watched television station in Central Michigan regularly beating rival WILX inNielsen ratings. Sometime in the early 2000s, however, WILX overtook WLNS-TV for the first time.
In July 2011, WLNS-TV began airing all of its news programming from a temporary set in the station's breakroom while a new one was constructed in preparation for its own launch of HD news programing. The brand new set debuted on August 26, 2011, during the 5 p.m. newscast while HD newscasts debuted during the 5 p.m. show on October 26, 2011.
On September 12, 2011,6 News This Morning expanded to two and a half hours and now begins at 4:30 am. As a result, theCBS Morning News now airs at 4 a.m. locally. On April 1, 2013, WLNS-TV began simulcasting its weeknight 6 and 11 o'clock newscasts on WLAJ. Their morning newscast started simulcasting (from 5 to 7 am) on WLAJ on April 15 and includes separate, recorded cut-ins during ABC'sGood Morning America.[26][27] In addition to its main studios, WLNS-TV operates a bureau within theJackson Citizen Patriot newsroom on South Jackson Street in downtown Jackson.
WLAJ and WLNS-TV broadcast from a tower on Van Atta Road inOkemos.[2]
| License | Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WLAJ | 53.1 | 720p | 16:9 | WLAJ-DT | ABC |
| 53.2 | The CW Plus | ||||
| WLNS-TV | 6.1 | 1080i | WLNS-TV | CBS |
Starting in 1982, WLNS-TV's programming was seen on alow-power analogrepeater,W67AJ (channel 67) inAnn Arbor (which is also part of the Detroit market). This translator broadcast from a transmitter atop theHarlan Hatcher Graduate Library on the campus of theUniversity of Michigan, but was owned byEastern Michigan University inYpsilanti. W67AJ went silent in January 2006, and its license was canceled a year later by the FCC.[28]
Broadcast television stations by affiliation in the state ofMichigan | ||
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Includes stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of Michigan | ||
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** Owned by third parties but operated by Nexstar through various agreements. | ||
