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| City | South Bend, Indiana |
| Channels | |
| Branding | WNDU 16;16 News Now |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
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| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| History | |
First air date | July 15, 1955 (70 years ago) (1955-07-15) |
Former channel numbers |
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Call sign meaning | Notre Dame University (former owner) |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 41674 |
| ERP | 650kW |
| HAAT | 310.4 m (1,018 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 41°36′20″N86°12′46″W / 41.60556°N 86.21278°W /41.60556; -86.21278 |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | www |
WNDU-TV (channel 16) is atelevision station inSouth Bend, Indiana, United States, affiliated withNBC. Owned byGray Media, it maintains studios on the campus of theUniversity of Notre Dame, the station's founding owner, alongState Road 933 on South Bend's north side; its transmitter is located southeast of theSt. Joseph County Fairgrounds on the city's south side.
The station's studios also house production facilities for the syndicatedagricultural news programsAgDay andU.S. Farm Report, the former of which is broadcast locally by WNDU-TV; WNDU-TV's weather department provides the forecasts seen on those shows.
![[icon]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWiki_letter_w_cropped.svg) | This sectionneeds expansion with: Further information on the history of WNDU-TV. You can help byadding to it.(November 2012) |
The station first signed on the air on July 15, 1955, as a project of Notre Dame presidentTheodore Hesburgh,[2] originally broadcasting on UHF channel 46. WNDU-TV was owned by the Michiana Telecasting Corporation,[3] a subsidiary of theUniversity of Notre Dame. The station took its call letters from WNDU radio (1490 AM and 92.9 FM, nowWNDV-FM), which were also owned by the university until 1998. However, like its radio sisters, it operated as a full-fledgedcommercial station rather than anon-profitpublic broadcaster (which is standard, and much like fellow NBC affiliateKOMU-TV inColumbia, Missouri, was and still is; after WNDU-TV was sold, this left KOMU andWVUA-CD/WVUA inTuscaloosa, Alabama, as the only commercial TV stations owned by a university). On September 29, 1957, to much fanfare, WNDU-TV moved to UHF channel 16.[4]
The station immediately took the NBC affiliation fromWSJV (channel 28) and has been with the network ever since. WNDU-TV's early broadcast schedule included programs likeRomper Room and the first local telecast of aNotre Dame football game. WNDU aired the children's programSesame Street from 1970 until February 1974, when non-commercialPBSmember stationWNIT (channel 34) signed on the air. From 1967 to 1986, WNDU airedBeyond Our Control, a locally producedsketch comedy program, which was presented as part of the station's involvement in theJunior Achievement program.[5]
The studio atState Road 933 and Dorr Road opened in 1982.[6]
On October 18, 1995, as a result of the affiliation changes in the South Bend market, WSJV switched toFox (it disaffiliated from Fox in 2016 and is now a primaryHeroes & Icons-affiliated station) and W58BT signed on as anABC affiliate; it eventually becameWBND. WNDU was one of the two stations that retained its network affiliation (the other wasWSBT-TV, which retained its affiliation withCBS).
On November 24, 2005, the University of Notre Dame entered into an agreement to sell the station toGray Television for $85 million in an all-cash deal, with the university placing the money received from the sale in anendowment.[7] The sale closed on March 5, 2006, after which theFederal Communications Commission granted Gray a cross-ownership waiver for WNDU andGoshen-based newspaperThe Goshen News. This was necessary because the FCC prohibits the common ownership of a newspaper and a television station in the same market (Gray eventually spun off theTimes and four other newspapers the following year into a new company called Triple Crown Media, which was subsequently merged with Host Communications).[8] WNDU-TV was named station of the year by the Indiana Broadcasters Association for 2015 and 2016.[9][10]
In September 2015, Gray Television announced that it would purchaseSchurz Communications for $442.5 million; Schurz had owned WSBT-TV since it began broadcasting in December 1952. Despite WSBT-TV's higher ratings, Gray kept WNDU and sold WSBT-TV to expedite approval of the deal;[11][12] on October 1, 2015, Gray announced that WSBT-TV would be swapped toSinclair Broadcast Group forWLUC-TV inMarquette, Michigan.[13][11][12][14] The FCC approved the sale on February 12, 2016;[15] the transaction would be completed four days later.[16]
On February 1, 2021, Gray Television announced its intent to purchaseQuincy Media, owner of Heroes & Icons affiliate WSJV, for $925 million in a cash transaction.[17] As WSJV is lower ranked than the top four stations in ratings in the South Bend market, Gray sought a failing station waiver to permit common ownership of both WSJV and WNDU-TV. The sale was completed on August 2.[18]
As an NBC affiliate, WNDU-TV is the home station for the network's broadcast ofNotre Dame football home games. It produces and airs its own pregame show,Countdown to Kickoff, which airs prior to every Notre Dame football home game broadcast on NBC. The station also airsreruns ofInside Notre Dame Football andInside Notre Dame Basketball, a review show of Notre Dame athletic teams that is produced byFighting Irish Media at the University of Notre Dame.[19]
Due to an increased focus on news programming, WNDU-TV made room for a three-hour Saturday morning newscast in 1994,[20] by airing NBC's teen-oriented program blockTNBC in early hours of Saturday and Sunday mornings to fulfillE/I guidelines. WNDU currently airs the network'sThe More You Know programming block for two of the three hours on Saturday with the final hour airing on Sundays at 7 a.m. In addition, the station's primary channel preempts theSaturday edition ofToday for its Saturday morning newscast with the program airing on its seconddigital subchannel instead; the primary channel airs the Sunday edition ofToday on a one-hourdelay in order to accommodate its Sunday morning newscast. Prior to its move toPeacock on September 12, 2022, WNDU aired the soap operaDays of Our Lives one hour later than most NBC affiliates at 2 p.m. local time.
Under Notre Dame's ownership, WNDU opted not to air certain NBC programs out of concerns over inappropriate content. Such shows included the animated seriesGod, the Devil and Bob (for content offensive to the religious values of the university) and theAmerican version of theBritishsitcomCoupling (due to the program's sexual content). The latter series instead aired on WSBT-DT2, then South Bend'sUPN affiliate, on Thursday nights after UPN programming. Neither show was renewed for a second season. The station also aired the Notre Dame commencement address ofPresidentBarack Obama in full on May 17, 2009 (four years after the university sold the station), in lieu of the first half of aStanley Cup Playoff game.
WNDU-TV broadcasts a total of38+1⁄2 hours of local newscasts each week (with6+1⁄2 hours each weekday, four hours on Saturdays and two hours on Sundays). WNDU-TV used a helicopter for its news-gathering purposes from the 1980s through 2006.[citation needed] Past news anchors include Mike Collins[21] and siblings Maureen and Terry McFadden.[22][23] Past reporters include Mark Peterson,[24]Tom Rinaldi,Hannah Storm, andAnne Thompson.
The station has had a weather department for most of its existence; its first chief meteorologist was Dick Addis,[25] who worked at the station from 1965[26] until his retirement in 2001;[25] other weather staff has included Cindi Clawson, Gordy Young, Frank Waugh, and Mike Hoffman.[27][28] The station also has a sports department, often coveringNotre Dame sports;[29] past sports staff includes Jeff Jeffers,[30]Jack Nolan,[31] and Chuck Freeby.[29]
On April 21, 2010, starting with its noon newscast, WNDU became the second television station in the South Bend market (behind WSBT-TV) to begin broadcasting its local newscasts inhigh definition.[32]
On September 4, 2018, WNDU debuted a 4 p.m. newscast.[33]
As of 2024[update], there were twelve people on the news team and five on the weather team, in addition to there being a sports journalist team.[34]
The station's signal ismultiplexed:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | WNDU | NBC |
| 16.2 | 720p | 365BLK | 365BLK | |
| 16.3 | 480i | Antenna | Antenna TV | |
| 16.4 | WNDU | Off-air card | ||
| 16.5 | IonPlus | Ion Plus | ||
| 16.6 | Oxygen | Oxygen | ||
| 16.7 | GetTV | Get |
WNDU began broadcasting its digital signal on channel 42 in December 1998, becoming the first TV station in the South Bend market to do so.[36][37][38]
WNDU's second digital subchannel formerly carried astandard-definitionsimulcast of the station's main channel (with limited programming substitutions for shows preempted on the main channel for local programming); the subchannel became affiliated with Antenna TV on July 1, 2013.
On October 1, 2024, WNDU announced thatChicago Sports Network, the television home of theChicago Bulls,Chicago Blackhawks, andChicago White Sox, would affiliate with its second and fourth subchannels.[39] On June 6, 2025, followingComcast's carriage agreement with CHSN, it was announced that the network would leave the station on June 9 at midnight.[40] At that time, a static card was displayed on both CHSN subchannels informing the viewer that the network had shut down its over-the-air service (interrupting a replay of anNBA game between theLos Angeles Lakers andChicago Bulls from March 27 of that year), and the main CHSN subchannel switched to 365BLK a day later (despite WSJV already carrying the network at the time; following the station's sale toSinclair Broadcast Group, the latter's 365BLK subchannel was replaced withThe Nest on July 30). The card continued to be seen on the overflow subchannel until a week later when it was changed to a "New Programming Coming Soon" card, with the EPG title being "WNDU Programming".
WNDU-TV ended regular programming on its analog signal, overUHF channel 16 on February 17, 2009, the original target date on which full-power television stations in the United States were totransition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (which was later pushed back to June 12, 2009). The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 42,[41][42] usingvirtual channel 16.
As part of theSAFER Act,[43][better source needed] WNDU-TV kept its analog signal on the air until March 3 at 7 p.m. to inform viewers of the digital television transition through a loop ofpublic service announcements from theNational Association of Broadcasters.
Broadcast television stations by affiliation in the state ofIndiana | ||
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Includes stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of Indiana | ||
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