WXII-LD (channel 12) is a

low-power television station Low-power broadcasting is broadcasting by a Radio broadcasting#Station, broadcast station at a low transmitter power output to a smaller service area than "full power" stations within the same region. It is often distinguished from "micropower ...

in Cedar, Michigan, United States, serving the

Traverse City Traverse City ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Grand Traverse County, although it partly extends into Leelanau County. The city's population was 15,678 at the 2020 census, while the four-county Traverse C ...

–

Cadillac Cadillac Motor Car Division, or simply Cadillac (), is the luxury vehicle division (business), division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM). Its major markets are the United States, Canada and China; Cadillac models are ...

area with programming from

Cozi TV Cozi TV (stylized on-air as COZI TV) is an American free-to-air television network owned by the NBC Owned Television Stations division of NBCUniversal. The network airs classic television series from the 1950s to the 2000s. The network originat ...

and

MyNetworkTV MyNetworkTV (stylized as mynetworkTV; unofficially abbreviated MNT or MNTV) is an American commercial broadcast television syndication service and former television network owned by Fox Corporation, operated by its Fox Television Stations ...

. Owned by Bridge Media Networks, it is

sister A sister is a woman or a girl who shares parents or a parent with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to ref ...

to Lake City-licensed

NewsNet NewsNet (stylized as NEWSnet) was an American news-oriented free-to-air television network and newscast production company owned by Bridge News, LLC, which itself is owned by Manoj Bhargava's Bridge Media Networks. The network was structured ...

flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of navy, naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically ...

WMNN-LD WMNN-LD (channel 26) is a low-power television station licensed to Lake City, Michigan, United States, serving the Cadillac–Traverse City area as an affiliate of the home shopping network ShopHQ. It is owned by Bridge Media Networks alongside ...

(channel 26). Both stations share studios on West 13th Street in

, while WXII-LD's transmitter is located west of downtown

near Harris and Cedar Run roads. Despite having a digital signal of its own, WXII-LD is only 1.5 kW whereas WMNN-LD is 15 kW, so WXII-LD is

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of "simultaneous broadcast") is the broadcasting of programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultaneously) ...

over WMNN-LD's third

digital subchannel In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compress ...

(26.3) to expand its over-the-air reach.

History

On December 12, 1996, the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...

(FCC) issued a

construction permit Planning permission or building permit refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. House building permits, for example, are subject to bu ...

for a low-power television station on

UHF Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter ...

channel 51 in Pinconning, Michigan with the call sign W51CS. In 2001, the permit was moved to VHF channel 12 in Traverse City under call letters W12CX. In 2003, the call letters were changed to WLLZ-LP. From 1980 to 1996, the WLLZ calls were used by an

album oriented rock Album-oriented rock (AOR, originally called album-oriented radio) is an FM radio format created in the United States in the late 1960s that focuses on the full repertoire of rock albums and is currently associated with classic rock. US radi ...

FM radio station broadcasting on 98.7 in the

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

area, nicknamed "Detroit's Wheelz" (later

Smooth Jazz Smooth jazz is commercially oriented crossover jazz music. Although often described as a "genre", it is a debatable and highly controversial subject in jazz music circles. As a radio format, however, smooth jazz radio became the successor to e ...

WVMV "V98.7" and now top-40 "AMP Radio"

WDZH WDZH (98.7 FM, "Alt 98-7") is a commercial radio station licensed to Detroit, Michigan and serving the Metropolitan Detroit radio market in Southeastern Michigan. It is owned by Audacy, Inc. and airs an alternative rock radio format. The st ...

). After the FM station dropped the call letters, they were used for several years on an AM station in the market, and were picked up by Channel 12 after the AM station dropped them in 2003. WLLZ's owner at the time, P & P Cable Holdings, is known for picking up calls discarded by other Michigan radio and television stations for use on their own stations. WLLZ-LP signed on in January 2004 as an affiliate of

Urban America Television Urban America Television (UATV) was an over-the-air television broadcast network in the United States targeted towards Black Americans. According to the company's website, the network had 70 affiliate stations. UATV claimed to have had a reach o ...

. It added

America One America One was an American television network established in 1995 by USFR Media Group through its America One Television subsidiary.

programming to its schedule in Summer 2004. WLLZ became a full affiliate of the network in May 2006 when Urban America Television ceased operations. In June 2008, the station was added to

Charter A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the ...

digital Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits. Businesses *Digital bank, a form of financial institution *Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) or Digital, a computer company *Digital Research (DR or DRI), a software ...

channel 202 throughout the northern Lower Peninsula. It moved to the basic tier on channel 72 in December 2008 and has now moved to channel 11 in 18 counties on Charter cable. Also in December 2008, WLLZ became a primary affiliate of MyNetworkTV; the station was then branded as "My TV 12". Until then, there was no local affiliate in the northern Michigan

market Market is a term used to describe concepts such as: *Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand *Market economy *Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market *Marketing, the act of sat ...

. On May 15, 2009, WLLZ discontinued an affiliation with The Sportsman Channel (which was phasing out its over-the-air affiliations) and added RTV, with America One programming significantly reduced (though not eliminated). Previously from 2007 until 2008,

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

affiliate

WPBN-TV WPBN-TV (channel 7) and WTOM-TV (channel 4) are television stations licensed respectively to Traverse City and Cheboygan, Michigan, United States, serving as the NBC affiliates for the northern Lower and eastern Upper peninsulas of Michigan ...

(channel 7) carried RTV on a second digital subchannel. This was dropped in favor of a simulcast of

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

affiliate WGTU (channel 29). Due to its low-powered status, WLLZ was exempt from switching to digital-only broadcasting on June 12, 2009. The station discontinued their affiliation with America One in 2015, when it merged with Youtoo TV into Youtoo America, allowing a contractual out of that agreement. With the start of the 2015–16 season, WLLZ has wound down carrying nearly all of their syndicated programming, with Cozi TV being carried most of the day and MyNetworkTV on weeknights. On November 1, 2017, the FCC approved the sale of WLLZ-LP to Freelancer Television Broadcasting, Inc. On December 4, 2017, the sale to Freelancer Television Broadcasting was completed, making it a sister station to

; the station then modified its branding to "MI TV 12". It changed its call sign to WXII-LP on December 21, 2017. On April 23, 2019, the FCC granted WXII-LP a construction permit to operate a digital companion channel on UHF channel 30. In the meantime, digital over-the-air access to this station had been being provided through a simulcast over a

of co-owned station WMNN-LD; that simulcast continued post-transition to improve this station's over-the-air reach and also to feed local cable systems. On September 14, 2021, WXII-LP commenced digital operations and the FCC changed this station's call sign to WXII-LD to reflect this station's new digital operations. Concurrent with the launch of this station's digital operations, a simulcast of sister station WMNN-LD, which carries programming from

, was added as a second subchannel. The subchannel was removed in August 2024 after the shutdown of NewsNet. On January 13, 2022, Freelancer Television Broadcasting's portfolio, including NewsNet, WMNN-LD, and WXII-LD, were sold to investor Manoj Bhargava, with Eric Wotila retaining 10% ownership in the new company Bridge News, LLC. Under the terms of the deal, Bridge News would operate the stations via a time brokerage agreement with Freelancer Television Broadcasting. The sale was consummated on March 24.

News programming

Until May 2009, WLLZ aired ''INN National News'', a newscast produced by

Independent News Network News HUB (formerly known as Independent News Network) is a production company based in Little Rock, Arkansas, which syndicates "localized" news programs for broadcast television stations in the United States, that have budgets limiting their ...

Davenport, Iowa Davenport ( ) is a city in Scott County, Iowa, United States, and its county seat. It is situated along the Mississippi River on the eastern border of the state. Davenport had a population of 101,724 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 cen ...

from America One. It also carried a video simulcast of an hour of radio station WMKT's morning show hosted by Greg Marshall. The simulcast was discontinued in early 2011. In late 2017, following the station's callsign switch to WXII-LP, sister station WMNN-LD began producing 90-second news updates for channel 12 that aired during prime time over the first commercial break aired each hour. News programming expanded in March 2018, when WMNN-LD began producing hour-long 7:00 and 11:00 p.m. newscasts for the station each weeknight. The early newscast competes against a half-hour newscast produced by CBS affiliate

WWTV WWTV (channel 9) and WWUP-TV (channel 10) are television stations licensed respectively to Cadillac and Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, United States, serving as the CBS affiliates for the northern Lower and eastern Upper peninsulas of Michiga ...

(channel 9) that airs on Fox affiliate WFQX-TV (channel 32), while the 11:00 p.m. competes against longer-established late night newscasts on WWTV (and its

Sault Ste. Marie Sault Ste. Marie may refer to: People * Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, a Native American tribe in Michigan Places * Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada ** Sault Ste. Marie (federal electoral district), a Canadian federal electora ...

satellite WWUP, channel 10), and WPBN-TV (and its Cheboygan satellite WTOM-TV, channel 4) as well as a pre-recorded broadcast on the latter's sister ABC affiliate, WGTU (and Sault Ste. Marie satellite WGTQ, channel 8).

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's signal is

multiplexed In telecommunications and computer networking, multiplexing (sometimes contracted to muxing) is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share a scarce resource— ...

References

External links

* {{MNTV Michigan 2004 establishments in Michigan Cozi TV affiliates XII-LD MyNetworkTV affiliates Television channels and stations established in 2004 XII-LD