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| Channels | |
| Branding | Fox 2 Detroit;Fox 2 News |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
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| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| History | |
First air date | October 24, 1948 (76 years ago) (1948-10-24) |
Former call signs | WJBK-TV (1948–1998) |
Former channel number(s) |
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Call sign meaning | Derived from former sister station WJBK radio (nowWLQV) |
| Technical information[3] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 73123 |
| ERP | 27.2 kW |
| HAAT | 314 m (1,030 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 42°27′38″N83°12′50″W / 42.46056°N 83.21389°W /42.46056; -83.21389 |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | www |
WJBK (channel 2) is atelevision station inDetroit, Michigan, United States.Owned and operated by theFox network through itsFox Television Stations division, the station maintains studios and transmitter facilities on West 9 Mile Road in the Detroit suburb ofSouthfield.[4][5]
WJBK's over-the-airsignal covers all ofMetro Detroit, along withSouthwestern Ontario, Canada, surrounding the city ofWindsor. The station is also carried on most cable systems insoutheast Michigan, southwestern Ontario andnorthwest Ohio.
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, nowWDIV-TV) andWXYZ-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 betweenFlint (channel 12) andSaginaw (channel 5) to the north;Lansing (channels6 and10) to the west;Toledo (channels11 and13) to the south; andCleveland (channels3,5 and8); Windsor, Ontario (channel 9); andLondon, 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 ofLucky Pup at 6:15 p.m.. The station was originally anaffiliate of bothCBS and theDuMont 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 renamedStorer Broadcasting, also owned WJBK radio (1500 AM, nowWLQV), and 93.1 WJBK-FM (nowWUFL). The station originally operated from Detroit'sMasonic Temple until 1956, when its operations were moved to apurpose-built studio facility on Second Avenue in Detroit'sNew Center section, which would be occupied by PBS member stationWTVS 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, nowCBC 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 Southernantebellum mansion.
The station went through a number of ownership and management changes with its parent companies in the 1980s and 1990s. In 1985, theequity firmKohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) acquired Storer Communications, Incorporated in aleveraged buyout. Storer spurned offers fromKnight-Ridder Newspapers,Tele-Communications, Inc. andScripps-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, toGillett Communications in 1987, after an attempt to sell the stations toLorimar-Telepictures in 1986 failed. When Gillett wentbankrupt 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 companyNew World Communications.
In May 1994,News Corporation, then-parent of theFox 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 thebroadcast rights to theNFL'sNational Football Conference.[10] Fox outbidCBS for the NFL broadcast rights on the condition that it would improve the network's affiliate coverage in the largertelevision markets. As a result of Fox's investment, New World agreed toswitch the network affiliations of most of the company's stations, including WJBK, to Fox.[11] WhileWKBD-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 theDetroit 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 launchedUPN 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-ratedUHF 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 UHFindependent station WGPR-TV (channel 62, nowWWJ-TV) in September 1994. The last CBS network program to air on WJBK was a first-run episode ofWalker, 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 wasFox NFL Sunday at noon that day, which led into that afternoon's NFL doubleheader: an early game between theTampa Bay Buccaneers and theLos Angeles Rams and a mid-afternoon game between theSan Francisco 49ers and theSan 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, theMyNetworkTV programming service,Fox News,Fox Sports 1, theBig Ten Network and the Fox Television Stations unit, which were all transferred to the newly-formedFox Corporation.[13][14]
Some of WJBK's early productions included popular children's shows.Milky's Movie Party starring Milky theClown, 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 ofcartoons andwesterns 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 acowboy-themed show with Sagebrush Shorty, played byventriloquist 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 sidekickchimpanzee 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 theBozo 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 andWichita, 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 includingLucille Ball andRed Skelton. Bergeson also hosted other WJBK shows in the 1950s includingYour TV Golf Pro andThe Name Game.[15] From 1967 to 1983,Sir Graves Ghastly, played by actorLawson J. Deming, hosted WJBK's assorted sci-fi andhorror movies on Saturday afternoons; the humorous character became a popular figure in Detroit television. Deming had originally come to the station as apuppeteer and voice actor for the children's programWoodrow 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 onWTOP-TV in Washington, D.C. at the same time.[18]
With This Ring was a nationally syndicatedreligious program produced at the studios of WJBK from the early 1970s through the mid-1990s. The weekly 15-minute show hosted byRoman 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 Sundaypublic affairs/interview shows over the years includingFocus 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 calledMoneywise. WJBK produced a local version of the syndicated programPM Magazine from 1978 to the mid-1980s. The show changed titles over the years eventually becoming known asPM 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 comedianJerry Lewis' annualMDA Labor Day Telethon for several years.
From 1983 to 1986, popularWJR (760 AM) morning radio hostJ. P. McCarthy hosted an evening interview show with newsmakers and people of interest calledJP, as well as a similar program in the early 1990s entitledIn Person with J.P. McCarthy. He also previously hosted sports interview show specials through the 1970s.[19] In 1995, former WXYZ-TV news anchorBill Bonds hosted the 11 p.m. talk/interview show,Bonds Tonight. Bonds eventually would end up anchoring and reporting on WJBK's newscasts.[15]
Even though WJBK was one of CBS' stronger affiliates, it would preempt or reschedule some network programs. As the flagship station ofDetroit 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 localmorning newscast from 7 to 8 a.m. and thenGood Morning, Detroit instead of theCBS Morning News. In 1992, it chose again not to airCBS 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 operaGuiding Light from its usual network airtime of 3 pm. ET to 10 am, with episodes airing on aone-day delay. WJBK would also preempt theCBS late night schedule with syndicatedreruns includingCheers and late nightmovies until the debut of theLate 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 theFox Kids children's programming block. That block would remain on former Fox affiliate WKBD before eventually moving toWADL (channel 38) and then WDWB-TV (channel 20, nowWMYD). In 2014, WJBK clearedSteve Rotfeld Productions'Xploration Station block, making it the first time the station has ever cleared Fox children's programming.
From the 1950s to the 1970s, WJBK was a pioneer in Detroit sports broadcasting. In 1949, it was the first television station in Michigan to broadcast live Detroit Tigers baseball and Detroit Lions football games.[9] From 1953 to 1974, WJBK served as the first flagship station of theTigers Television Network with games broadcast on stations throughout Michigan, northern Indiana, and northwest Ohio.[21] In the 1960s, longtime Tigers broadcaster and former playerGeorge Kell hosted the pregame showTigers Warm Up on the field during batting practice.[22] During the2007 season, the station aired some regular season Tigers games produced by Fox Sports Detroit. In2025, the Tigers announced that WJBK would simulcast 10 games fromFanDuel Sports Network Detroit (the former Fox Sports Detroit), including the home opener on April 4.[23] WJBK also airs Tigers games nationally throughFox's MLB package (including the Tigers'2006 and2012 World Series appearances); WJBK also aired select Tigers games featured on CBS' MLB coverage from 1990 to 1993.
WJBK also televisedDetroit Pistons games from the time that the team's relocated to Detroit fromFort Wayne, Indiana in 1957, until 1972; the team's games began airing on WKBD-TV the following season. The Pistons would also air on WJBK during nationally televised games onCBS from 1973 to 1990; WJBK televised both of the first two Pistons NBA Finals championships of 1989 and 1990 (game 5 of the latter series was the last NBA game aired on CBS).
Detroit Red WingsNHL games, produced again by Fox Sports Detroit, would also be aired on the station from2003 to2007. In March 2007, WJBK began broadcasting Red Wings games in high definition. A package of five Red Wings games, all simulcasts from FanDuel Sports Network Detroit, would return to the station in2025.[24] Previously the Red Wings aired on the station various times between 1956 and 1980 through broadcast rights held byCBS and again from 1995 to 1999 throughFox's contract with the NHL; this included the team'sStanley Cup Finals victories in1997 and1998.
WJBK has had a long-standing relationship with the NFL's Detroit Lions (first with CBS, now Fox), having carried most of its games since 1956, when CBS started airing NFL games. Except for the first three months of the1994 season (before the affiliation switch took effect), it has been the unofficial regular-season "home" station of the Lions ever since, including coverage of the team'sThanksgiving Day home games in odd-numbered years. For the first 15 weeks of the 1994 season, the games aired on lame-duck Fox outlet WKBD. However, regular season home games were subject to theNFL's local television blackout policy. This occurred five times during theLions' winless season of 2008 when five home games were blacked out due to low ticket sales. However, in 2015, the NFL decided to lift the blackout rules on an experimental basis, meaning that Lions games were shown on Channel 2 regardless of ticket sales; this policy was continued the next season in2016 as well, and has continued indefinitely as of2019.
In previous years, WJBK had also televised Lions preseason games as the flagship station of theDetroit Lions Television Network and produced pregame and postgame shows. Those preseason broadcast rights were then held by WWJ-TV and then WXYZ-TV until 2015, when WJBK once again became the official preseason station of the Lions as well.
As a CBS affiliate, WJBK aired the network's coverage ofSuper Bowl XVI, which was hosted locally at thePontiac Silverdome.
WJBK's sportscasters have also been team play-by-play announcers through the years withVan Patrick doing Tigers, Lions andNotre Dame Football games.Ray Lane would be paired withHall of Fame announcerErnie Harwell on Tigers' radio broadcasts from 1967 to 1972; and current sports directorDan Miller performs radio play by play for the Lions.
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 calledSports 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 includingSean Baligian, formerly ofWDFN (1130 AM);Bob Wojnowski from theDetroit News;Pat Caputo from theOakland Press andWXYT-FM (97.1) andTony Ortiz from WXYT-FM.
WJBK operates a fleet ofFordE350ENG vehicles withmicrowave transmission andvideo editing capabilities. The station also has (SNG) mobilesatellite uplink capability. For aerial news coverage, WJBK shares aEurocopter AS350BA A-star newshelicopter with WXYZ-TV and WDIV-TV as part of aLocal News Service agreement. The aircraft hasHD video capability and goes by thecall 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.[25] While the news department primarily focuses its local news coverage onsoutheastern Michigan, it also provides coverage of larger stories in southwestern Ontario, northern Ohio and the rest of Michigan.
Through much of the 1960s and 1970s WJBK'sTV-2Eyewitness News dominated the newscast ratings in the Detroit market.[26] This began withnews anchor Jac LeGoff and grew when LeGoff was paired with newscaster John Kelly. Other popular longtime Detroit television personalities including Joe Weaver,Jerry Hodak, Van Patrick and Marilyn Turner would also be a part of WJBK's ratings success. The station's ratings would begin to wane in the mid-1970s after then-ABC O&O WXYZ-TV hired away WJBK's andWWJ-TV's top talent, including Kelly and Turner and eventually LeGoff and Hodak.[26] WJBK's newscasts remained competitive in the 1970s with a new stable of talent including anchors Joe Glover, Robbie Timmons, Harry Gallagher, Murray Feldman andTerry Murphy. The station also had correspondents in bureaus at the DetroitCity-County Building (Louis Miller), the Michigan state capital in Lansing and Washington, D.C.[19] Nationally syndicated radio hostGeorge Noory was even a news producer at WJBK from 1974 to 1978, before becoming anews director at stations inMinneapolis andSt. Louis.[27] However, by 1980, the station's news ratings steeply declined with the growing dominance of WXYZ. Also by this time WDIV's new owners,Post-Newsweek Stations, were making aggressive changes to bolster its station's image and ratings from third place. By 1982, management at WJBK replaced most of the staff, which sank the station's news ratings further into third place, from where it would almost never recover.[26]
With new management, WJBK's news department saw a resurgence by 1990 with new staff that included Sherry Margolis, Huel Perkins and the rehiring of former anchor Joe Glover. The station would also hire away news staff and talent away from top rated WXYZ including Rich Fisher, Dayna Eubanks, Catherine Lehan, Jerry Hodak and investigative reporter Vince Wade.[15] The station revised its image with a new logo, graphics, music and news set and began airing Detroit's first 4 p.m. newscast as part of a three-hour evening news block with half-hour newscasts at 4, 5 and 6 pm. At the same time, the station also became Detroit's first television station to launch a weekend morning newscast. Overall, WJBK's news ratings would not improve enough to surpass WXYZ and WDIV, which would continue to go head-to-head for first place. The station would also begin to simulcast its late newscast on WADL, which lasted until 1998. It would also be among the first television stations in the country to air obituaries in 1995 during the Detroit newspaper strike.
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.[26] 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 asFox 2 Eyewitness News until 1997, when Fox took full ownership of the station and rebranded its newscasts asFox 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 andMonica Gayle from Seattle, as well asRob Wolchek from Fresno, California. By 1998, the station would bolster its image by improving its investigative and consumer advocate unit and branding it asThe 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 theNewsEdge format originally used by FoxTampa stationWTVT. 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.[28]
WJBK had a tradition of producing its own morning news shows instead of airing CBS' morning news programs, beginning with a 7:30 a.m. newscast in 1969. The newscast would soon expand to an hour starting at 7 am. It became a mix of news, interviews and features and would be renamedGood Morning, Detroit and eventually moved to 8 am.[19] During its run, Vic Caputo would co-anchor separately with Beverly Payne, Ken Ford and Kathy O'Brien. Payne would be the first African-American female news anchor in Detroit.[15]Good Morning, Detroit eventually becameMorning Magazine, hosted by Kathy O'Brien and Gary Cubberly. In 1982,Morning Magazine was discontinued and briefly becameTwo's Company, also hosted by O'Brien and Cubberly. In 1992, the station preempted CBS' morning news program again when WJBK rehired Jerry Hodak from WXYZ to co-anchorEyewitness News Morning. Just prior to that, WJBK also debuted Detroit's first weekend morning newscast, which was first anchored by formerPM Magazine host Gary Cubberly. Competitor WDIV would follow with its own weekend morning newscast, as did eventually WXYZ. Since then, the station has broadcast more morning news hours than any other Detroit television station. In September 2009, the morning newscast was expanded to 5½ hours, airing from 4:30 to 10 am. In September 2011,Fox 2 News Morning expanded to 6½ hours from 4:30 to 11 am, where it joins the station's hour-long midday newscast at 11 am. WJBK has also had the longest-running midday newscast in the Detroit market, which originated in 1966 in the noon timeslot, before moving to 11 a.m. shortly after the switch to Fox.[29]
On Wednesday, May 6, 2015, WJBK's morning show became the subject of notoriety for ablooper, wherein an anchor hoped the middle day of the week, which is often referred to as "hump day", would have clear skies, and turn out to be a "dry hump day".[30][31] In the fall of 2018, WJBK begin expanding its current morning newscasts to 8 hours with addition of half-hour starting at 4 am. On September 19, 2022,Fox 2 News Morning expanded to noon, with the midday newscast pushed back into the noon hour.
As of February 2012, WJBK'sFox 2 News Morning has consistently remained the Detroit market's highest-rated local morning newscast (6–7 a.m., 4.5 rating/17 share). After years of faltering at a distant third against WDIV and WXYZ, WJBK began to make gains in its audience growth in other newscasts. While WDIV continued to have the most-watched evening and late newscasts, WJBK's 10 p.m. news (7.5 rating/12 share) remains the highest-rated prime time newscast inMetro Detroit. Its early evening 5 and 5:30 p.m. newscasts (6.0/13) have surpassed WXYZ-TV's longtime dominant 5 p.m. newscast (5.8/13) for second place, while WJBK's 6 p.m. newscast (5.1/10) has become a very close third moving within one rating point to WXYZ's newscast in that timeslot (6.1/12). Since debuting in 2007, WJBK's 11 p.m. newscastNewsedge has been in third place overall (5.0 rating/9 share).[32]
The station's signal ismultiplexed:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2.1 | 720p | 16:9 | WJBK | Fox |
| 2.2 | 480i | Movies! | Movies! | |
| 2.3 | 4:3 | Buzzr | Buzzr | |
| 2.4 | 16:9 | H&I | Heroes & Icons | |
| 2.5 | Decades | Catchy Comedy[38] | ||
| 2.6 | FOX WX | Fox Weather | ||
| 20.3 | 480i | 16:9 | WMYD-MS | Ion Mystery (WMYD-DT3) |
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, overVHF channel 2, on June 12, 2009, per theU.S. Digital Television transition federal mandate. In concurrence, the station's digital signal switched to its assigned post-transition VHF channel 7[5][39] 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 theSAFER Act,[40] 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 ofpublic service announcements from theNational Association of Broadcasters.
Digital television receivers continue to display the station'svirtual 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 fromMcGregor, Ontario, is on VHF channel 9. All other Detroit–Windsor DTV stations are on the UHF band, which includes channels 14 to 36 after theFCC repack.
WJBK also serves as a Fox station for other Canadian cable providers, including onRogers Cable in the Canadian capital ofOttawa, Ontario. It was also one of five Detroit television stations seen in Canada on satellite providerShaw Direct. As of April 2009,Shaw Broadcast Services (formerly CANCOM) replaced WJBK's signal withRochester, New York Fox affiliateWUHF.[41] As a CBS affiliate, WJBK was carried onCable Atlantic (now Rogers Cable) inNewfoundland and Labrador andNova Scotia from 1985 until it affiliated with Fox in 1994. Both provinces are now served byBoston CBS O&OWBZ-TV.
Coverage on cable providers outside the Detroit–Windsor market may be subject tosyndex and networkblackouts in the United States andsimsubbing in Canada.
When WJBK became a Fox station, WGKI/WGKU (nowWFQX-TV/WFUP), the Fox affiliate inCadillac, 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 titleMichigan'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 affiliateWWTV began producing WFQX's 10 p.m. and morning newscasts.
16550 West Nine Mile Rd. Southfield, MI 48075
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