It will be interesting to see how much of a ratings impact, if any, that it will have.

I remember back around 2005, WWJ’s slogan was “CBS Detroit, where no news is good news!”

MJ Vancouver wrote:

It will be interesting to see how much of a ratings impact, if any, that it will have.

I remember back around 2005, WWJ’s slogan was “CBS Detroit, where no news is good news!”

zed wrote:

=12pxWDIV Local 4 seems to have a lock on the #1 ratings spot in Detroit for many years and the news product from FOX 2 WJBK and WXYZ 7 is also top notch. I doubt a new competitor, even if it poaches some talent from the established newsrooms will have a significant impact... but I wish CBS 62 good luck!!!

TV ratings are probably irrelevant for this initiative - everything that they are going to do sounds like it's going to be digital/streaming first. The streaming numbers/revenue are where it's at. I don't think CBS News Detroit has any aspirations of being #1 on television. The planned simulcast of CBS News Detroit on WWJ (and possibly WKBD) are probably going to be looked at as a promotional tool only.

Some in the Detroit-Windsor-London area and those who receive Motown stations on their cable and sat systems, may find this overview of the Detroit TV news landscape of interest. Each station is profiled in separate takes, along with a preview of what WWJ's returning newscast will look like. 

Local News Close-Up: Full Speed Ahead in Motor City

When I would visit my parents in Oakville, they had a Shaw satellite dish which received NBC/CBS/ABC from the Motor City [PBS was WNED, FOX was WUHF] I could never understand how a major market CBS affilliate had no local 6pm and 11pm newscast.

mace wrote:

When I would visit my parents in Oakville, they had a Shaw satellite dish which received NBC/CBS/ABC from the Motor City [PBS was WNED, FOX was WUHF] I could never understand how a major market CBS affilliate had no local 6pm and 11pm newscast.

Back in 1994, there were four commercial television stations in Detroit producing news - WJBK, WDIV, WXYZ, and WKBD. WJBK was the CBS affiliate and WKBD was the Fox affiliate; they merely produced a 10:00pm newscast. There was also WGPR-TV, a small independent station that signed on in the 1970s. WJBK snagged the Fox affiliation in December 1994 as part of a deal that saw numerous CBS affiliates flip to Fox (others included WJW in Cleveland and WAGA in Atlanta), and with WKBD already signed up with the new UPN network starting in January 1995, CBS had to scramble to get an affiliate in Detroit. They ended up with WGPR, which had no news department. Somewhere along the line, CBS bought WGPR and WKBD outright, and using the resources of WKBD’s limited existing news department, tried to establish news on WGPR - which became WWJ. But Detroit wasn’t exactly a prosperous TV market in the 90s, and up against WDIV and WXYZ, as well as the dramatically upgraded local news output on WJBK after it was bought by Fox, WWJ/WKBD just couldn’t make a dent in the ratings and they gave up on local news.

It also didn’t help that CBS was not doing well as a network in the late 90s, so their lead-in prime time programming likely hampered local news ratings at 11:00.

That’s the Coles Notes version of why CBS Detroit has had no local newscast for the past 20 years.

Last edited by MJ Vancouver (December 14, 2022 9:16 pm)

paterson1 wrote:

I receive five Detroit stations in Kitchener.   Other than CBS Detroit, the others seem to be carrying less and less network programming, other than prime time and football.  

Fox and WDIV are very heavy local news and lifestyle programming or some syndicated/infomercial shows daytime .  Even on NBC's Today show, lots of availabilities for local advertisers.  Seems that national ads during the daytime have become less important.  In fact recently I watched the last 45 minutes of the Today Show on WDIV and all the ads were local.

I don't know if this is happening in other markets like Buffalo or elsewhere but it is interesting and certainly a factor in Detroit. 

I thought they did not carry Detroit stations in Kitchener. I stayed at a hotel in Kitchener and they had the Buffalo stations instead of the Detroit ones. Which service provider carries the Detroit stations?

MJ Vancouver wrote:

Back in 1994, there were four commercial television stations in Detroit producing news - WJBK, WDIV, WXYZ, and WKBD. WJBK was the CBS affiliate and WKBD was the Fox affiliate; they merely produced a 10:00pm newscast. There was also WGPR-TV, a small independent station that signed on in the 1970s. WJBK snagged the Fox affiliation in December 1994 as part of a deal that saw numerous CBS affiliates flip to Fox (others included WJW in Cleveland and WAGA in Atlanta), and with WKBD already signed up with the new UPN network starting in January 1995, CBS had to scramble to get an affiliate in Detroit. They ended up with WGPR, which had no news department. Somewhere along the line, CBS bought WGPR and WKBD outright, and using the resources of WKBD’s limited existing news department, tried to establish news on WGPR - which became WWJ. But Detroit wasn’t exactly a prosperous TV market in the 90s, and up against WDIV and WXYZ, as well as the dramatically upgraded local news output on WJBK after it was bought by Fox, WWJ/WKBD just couldn’t make a dent in the ratings and they gave up on local news.

It also didn’t help that CBS was not doing well as a network in the late 90s, so their lead-in prime time programming likely hampered local news ratings at 11:00.

That’s the Coles Notes version of why CBS Detroit has had no local newscast for the past 20 years.

There usually isn't a lot of network switching that goes on. WIVB (then WBEN) has been a CBS affiliate in Buffalo ever since it signed on in the late 40s. WGR was supposed to be an ABC affiliate, but when NBC O&O (owned and operated) Channel 17 bombed out because of its UHF signal, Channel 2 took the NBC network, leaving ABC to the next newcomer, WKBW. But at least things have stayed relatively stable in Buffalo all these years.

I can only imagine how hard it was to get used to in Rochester when WROC Channel 8, a longtime NBC affiliate and WHEC, forever CBS on Channel 10, switched networks in 1989.

But the all-time champ for network jumping has to go to Miami. Think of the confusion for viewers when WTVJ channel 4, the eternal CBS affiliate, went to NBC and then moved to Channel 6! Problem was there already was a channel 6 in the city, so that moved over to channel 4, changing its problematic call letters from WCIX to WFOR and taking on CBS shows.

As if that wasn't enough, WSVN, the NBC affiliate on Channel 7, then took on WCIX's former Fox network status, making it a three way swap in the market starting Jan. 1, 1989. Imagine if you were trying to figure out which station was showing your favourite program when that happened. I believe the three-way swap was one of the largest of its kind in TV history. I pity the people at TV Guide trying to list all that!