michigan united states branding abc 12 1 abc 12 news .2 metv mid michigan .3 abc 12 weathernation slogan your trusted source your weather source channels digital 12 vhf virtual 12 psip subchannels .1 720p 16 9 wjrt hd .2 480i 4 3 wjrt d2 .3 480i 4 3 wjrt d3 affiliations .1 abc .2 metv .3 weathernation 1 owner gray television gray television licensee llc first air date october 12 1958 ; 58 years ago 1958 10 12 call letters meaning derived from former sister radio station wjr plus television sister station s wtvg former channel number s analog 12 vhf 1958 2009 digital 36 uhf until 2009 former affiliations .2 abc news now 2004 2009 lwn 2009 2014 .3 accuweather 2005 2013 transmitter power 30 kw height 286 metres 938 ft facility id 21735 transmitter coordinates 43 13 49.5 n 84 3 31.7 w 43.230417 n 84.058806 w 43.230417 ; 84.058806 coordinates 43 13 49.5 n 84 3 31.7 w 43.230417 n 84.058806 w 43.230417 ; 84.058806 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website abc12.com wjrt tv channel 12 is the abc affiliated station for the flint tri cities television market owned by gray television . its studios are located on lapeer road in flint michigan with offices and a second newsroom for the tri cities located in saginaw . the station broadcasts its multiplexed digital signal with 30 kilowatts of power from a 286 metre high 938 ft tower located on burt road near bishop road in albee township michigan . wjrt tv is the only station in the flint tri cities market that is headquartered in the city of flint and in turn tends to focus its local news stories on flint and genesee county with a secondary emphasis on the tri cities . contents 1 history 1.1 goodwill stations 1.2 various owners 1.3 abc owned station 1.4 2nd sjl ownership 1.5 gray tv station 2 original programming 2.1 news 3 references 4 external links history edit goodwill stations edit wjrt tv was founded in 1958 by goodwill stations the owner of wjr in detroit at the time . 2 that company won out over two other companies seeking to operate channel 12 the trebit corp. which owned wfdf and w.s. butterfield theatres inc. channel 12 initially wanted to place its transmitter in independence township michigan . when it was learned that independence township was located in oakland county part of the detroit television market goodwill settled on placing the tower in st. charles township in southwestern saginaw county ; the transmitter remains there today . citation needed wjrt tv went on the air on october 12 1958 at 5 pm as an abc network affiliate . as part of the winning bid for the license the station had to produce original local programming several hours a day for 10 years . at the time the station had to fill 55 hours of programming outside of the network shows . this led to original shows like mr. magic and folkswingers . 3 goodwill stations took over the former wtac tv studios and offices after that station folded in 1954 ; wjrt remains there today . citation needed various owners edit goodwill stations merged with capital cities broadcasting in 1964 but wjrt tv was spun off to poole broadcasting owned by john poole a former capital cities stockholder because the merged company was one vhf station over the federal communications commission fcc ownership limit of the time . 4 the station was the first michigan television station outside of detroit to go all color in 1967 on labor day which saw the launch of its bozo show . 2 3 with the original license agreement for local shows expired in 1968 all but bozo were replaced by 1972 with syndicated programs . 3 in 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 . in october 1988 the company placed its eight broadcast television stations up for sale to reduce debt and to pay a major purchase . 5 as a result the station was sold to sjl broadcast management in 1989 . 2 during the 1970s wjrt tv 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 tv was usually second to wnem tv . citation needed abc owned station edit in 1994 new world communications signed an affiliation deal with fox broadcasting company resulting in most of new world s stations switching affiliation to fox . among the stations due to switch was wjbk tv in detroit a longtime cbs affiliate . to avoid being consigned to uhf in what was then the ninth largest market cbs heavily wooed detroit s longtime abc affiliate and former o & o wxyz tv . wxyz s owner e.w. scripps company then told abc that unless it agreed to affiliate with scripps owned stations in four smaller markets it would switch wxyz to cbs . 6 as a contingency abc owned television stations approached sjl about buying wjrt 2 and sister station wtvg toledo ohio in 1995 . 7 wjrt provides city grade coverage to parts of oakland and macomb counties . soon after abc purchased wjrt the station returned to the top of the mid michigan ratings for prime time where it remains today . because capital cities spun the station off decades earlier wjrt tv was the only abc station not part of the capital cities abc merger in 1986 . longtime abc affiliates ktrk tv in houston and wpvi tv in philadelphia were part of the merger . citation needed ironically when abc acquired wjrt in 1995 it was reunited with its namesake radio station wjr . 2 wjr s owner capital cities had merged with abc in 1986 . and in 2002 wfdf now a detroit station which unsuccessfully sought a channel 12 license in the 1950s would also become a sister to wjrt tv when abc bought the station . however this reunion was partially broken up as abc sold wjr along with other abc radio properties to citadel broadcasting in january 2006 . citation needed abc12 the first in mid michigan started their digital broadcast on may 1 2002 on channel 36 . 2 8 in june 2008 the station received a construction permit for post transition digital facilities . 2 9 in 2004 along with all the other abc owned stations wjrt launched abc news now on its digital subchannel 10 while in 2005 all abc stations launched accuweather channel on their third subchannel . 11 wjrt tv discontinued regular programming on its analog signal over vhf channel 12 on june 12 2009 the official date in which full power television stations in the united states transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate . the station s digital signal relocated from its pre transition uhf channel 36 to vhf channel 12 . 2 9 after the return to vhf viewers who had installed uhf receiving antennas during the transition period had the signal compromised . so on october 14 2009 wjrt filed an application to the federal communications commission fcc to increase the power level from 18.2 kw to 30 kw . 12 the increase was approved in may 2011 . 2 abc owned television stations including wjrt launched on april 27 2009 the live well network in high definition on the stations sub channels alongside the accuweather channel . 13 2nd sjl ownership edit on november 3 2010 broadcasting & cable magazine announced that sjl broadcasting now owned by the principal owners of lilly broadcasting made an agreement with disney to buy back wjrt and wtvg the two smallest stations in abc s o & o portfolio . both stations are expected to retain their affiliations with abc . 7 sjl teamed up with a new private equity partner bain capital whose affiliated offshoot sankaty advisors provided the capital for the purchases which amounted to 13.2 million on wjrt s end of the 30 million deal . citation needed the sale was completed on april 1 2011 . 14 unfortunately both abc12 s news director jim bleicher and general manager tom bryson either retired or left the station after the sale was announced . 15 further more on april 6 2011 less than a week after sjl taking over control of wjrt they terminated longtime weekend anchor joel feick and removed longtime weeknight anchor bill harris from the newsdesk . 16 harris later returned to wjrt on may 3 2011 reporting from a homeland security training conference in grand rapids for the station s evening newscast . 17 feick was later hired by competitor weyi tv as weekday morning news anchor . 18 on january 4 2012 it was announced that harris was also hired by weyi tv to anchor the 6 pm newscast a position he began on january 30 2012 . 19 on october 8 2012 a one on one interview with republican vice presidential candidate paul ryan by abc12 s terry camp made national news when ryan accused camp of stuffing words into people s mouths after he asked questions about inner city crime and gun laws then later said camp embarrassed himself . msnbc host rachel maddow aired the segment on her show the next day and defended camp while attacking ryan s answers . 20 fox news channel host brian kilmeade took the opposite stance by defending ryan and saying camp asked gotcha questions . 21 on october 31 2013 wjrt added the local version of weathernation to its third digital subchannel replacing accuweather channel . 22 wjrt news skylink trucks . gray tv station edit on july 24 2014 sjl announced that it would sell wjrt and wtvg again this time to gray television for 128 million a value higher than that of their original sale to abc . 23 gray also owns lansing s nbc affiliate wilx tv . the sale was completed on september 15 and funded mostly by loans . 24 on october 17 2014 gray television announced it was adding metv to wjrt on 12.2 replacing live well network in december 2014 . 25 metv was then added on november 17 2014 26 going by the name metv mid michigan 27 the same name used by an unrelated fox affiliate in lansing wsym tv . original programming edit as part of the winning bid for the license the station had to produce original local programming several hours a day for 10 years . at the time the station had to fill 55 hours of programming outside of the network shows . with the original license agreement for local shows expired in 1968 all but bozo were replaced by 1972 with syndicated programs . 3 many of the local children s series were franchised series like bozo and romper room compared to wnem s full original programs . 28 mr. magic 1960 1967 was started on air with newly hired commercial writer earl frank cady was asked to come up with a children s program . after taking some magic classes the show was launched . the show was replaced by bozo on the day the station went to full color on labor day 1967 . 3 bozo s big top 1967 1979 local performed by earl frank cady colonel gyro from outer space romper room with miss margie theatre of thrills 1961 67 a horror film anthology with host christopher coffin played by farrell reed pasternak a local advertising agency owner and voice over announcer 3 frank deal the station weather forecaster hosted a few of the locally produced shows almanac early morning information show tv bingo folkswingers an entertainment programming rae deane and friends 1961 68 was co hosted with rae deane gerkowski with deal serving as puppet