WLNS-TV
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| WLNS-TV | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Lansing, Michigan | |
| Slogan | Your News Leader |
| Channels | 6 (VHF) analog, 59 (UHF) digital |
| Translators | W67AJ (67, UHF) Ann Arbor, Michigan |
| Affiliations | CBS |
| Owner | WLNS: Young Broadcasting W67AJ: Eastern Michigan University |
| Founded | May 1, 1950 |
| Call letters meaning | Lansing |
| Former callsigns | WJIM-TV (1950-84) |
| Former affiliations | NBC (secondary 1950-59), ABC (secondary 1950-58), DuMont (secondary 1950-1956)[1] |
| Website | WLNS.com |
WLNS-TV is the CBS television affiliate serving the Lansing/Jackson, Michigan television market in the United States. It broadcasts its analog signal on VHF channel 6, and its digital signal on UHF channel 59 from a 1,004-foot transmitter located midway between East Lansing and the town of Williamston.
The station also relays its broadcasts on W67AJ (channel 67), a low-power repeater in Ann Arbor, owned by Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti. Its audio signal can also be heard on 87.7 FM in many parts of southern and central Michigan, since the audio signals of all television stations located on channel 6 are on the same frequency as 87.7 FM.
The station's studio facility is also home to the operations of the market's My Network TV affiliate, WHTV.
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[edit] History
WLNS signed on the air on May 1, 1950 as WJIM-TV, owned by Harold F. Gross along with WJIM-AM 1240. It is Michigan's second-oldest station outside of Detroit (behind Grand Rapids' WOOD-TV). Gross had started WJIM-AM, the first radio station in Lansing, in 1934, and both stations were named after his son Jim. It originally broadcast from the top of a bank in downtown Lansing before moving to its current location on Saginaw Street (known as "the country house") in 1953.
WJIM-TV carried programming from all four major networks, though it was and always has been a primary CBS affiliate. ABC disappeared from the schedule in 1958 when WJRT-TV signed on from Flint; it served as Lansing's default ABC affiliate until WLAJ signed on in 1990. NBC disappeared from the schedule in 1959 when WILX-TV signed on. DuMont programming disapeared when that network ceased operations in 1956, leaving WJIM with just CBS. The local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union challenged the station's license in 1973, on allegations that Gross prevented a number of prominent political figures from appearing on his station, among other accusations. [2] An FCC judge ordered WJIM's license revoked in 1981--only the second time a station has had its license revoked for violating the FCC's fairness guidelines. The first instance was WLBT-TV in Jackson, Mississippi; which lost its license in 1969 due to its blatant bias against the Civil Rights Movement. Unlike WLBT, however, WJIM kept its license after the initial revocation was reversed by a three-member review board at the FCC in 1982. The ACLU agreed to a cash settlement in 1984.
The stress of the licensing dispute led Gross to sell the station to Unicom Inc, a unit of Forstmann Little, d.b.a. Backe Communications, at which point the station adopted its current call letters of WLNS. Unicom's ownership of the station was short-lived as in 1986 they sold WLNS and WKBT in La Crosse, Wisconsin to its current owner, Young Broadcasting (however, WKBT has since been sold to QueenB Television, a subsidiary of Morgan Murphy Stations).
[edit] Flint
WJIM doubled as Flint's CBS affiliate for many years, as its signal--the second-strongest in Michigan at the time it signed on--decently covers the city and surrounding Genesee County. In 1972, Saginaw's then-CBS affiliate WEYI-TV moved its studios and transmitter to Clio, just north of Flint. Until the early 1980s, Flint was served by two CBS stations, though during the 1980s, WJIM/WLNS chose to concentrate more on Lansing. Comcast dropped WLNS in Flint as a result. WLNS can be seen in Saginaw County as well with a good receiver.
[edit] WLNS6 News Staff
[edit] Anchors
- WLNS6 News this Morning:
Greg Adeline
Lauren Thompson
- WLNS6 News at Noon:
Greg Adeline
Lauren Thompson
- WLNS6 News at Five:
Sheri Jones
- WLNS6 News at Six:
Sheri Jones
Dave Akerly
- WLNS6 News at 11:
Sheri Jones
Dave Akerly
- WLNS6 News This Morning Weekends:
Jeff Campbell
- WLNS6 News 6 & 11 Weekends:
Ann Emerich
[edit] Meteorologists
- WLNS6 News this Morning and 6 News at Noon:
Jake Dunne
- WLNS6 News at 5, 6, and 11:
David Young (chief meteorologist)
- WLNS6 News This Morning Weekends:
Karen Kuszynski
- WLNS6 News 6 & 11 Weekends:
Rob Dale
[edit] Sports
- WLNS6 News at 6 and 11:
Fred Heumann
- WLNS6 News weekends:
Lisa Byington or Charlie Marlow
- Sunday Sports Overtime:
Lisa Byington
Charlie Marlow
- The 5th Quarter:
Fred Heumann
Lisa Byington
Charlie Marlow
Friday nights at 11:15pm during high school football and basketball season
[edit] Previous Logos
 WJIM-TV logo from a TV Guide ad in 1976. Note the "Flint" in the cities served. This logo (and variations thereof) was used from the early-1970s to its sale to Bakke in 1984. |
 WLNS logo from a TV Guide ad in 1987. This logo, now mentioning only "Lansing", was in use from the mid-1980s to the late-1990s. |
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- WLNS.com
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WLNS-TV
- Query the FCC's TV station database for W67AJ
| Broadcast Television in the Lansing/Jackson market (Nielsen DMA #110) | ||
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WLNS 6 (CBS) - WILX 10 (NBC) - WHTV 18 (MyNetworkTV) - WKAR 23 (PBS) - W27CN 27 (TBN / TCT) - WPXD 31 (i) - WZPX 43 (i) - WSYM 47 (Fox) - WLAJ 53 (ABC/The CW on DT2) |
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| Local cable television channels | ||
