WHPS-CD, virtual and UHF digital channel 15, is a low-powered Class A

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the eart ...

serving

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

, Michigan, United States that is

licensed A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...

to Highland Park. The station is owned by HME Equity Fund II. The station broadcasts from its studios at the corner of Victor and Brush Streets (near the intersection of

Woodward Avenue A woodward is a warden of a wood. Woodward may also refer to: Places ;United States * Woodward, Iowa * Woodward, Oklahoma * Woodward, Pennsylvania, a census-designated place * Woodward Avenue, a street in Tallahassee, Florida, which bisects th ...

and the

Davison Freeway M-8 is a state trunkline highway in the U.S. state of Michigan lying within the cities of Detroit and Highland Park. Much of it is the Davison Freeway, the nation's first urban depressed freeway, which became a connector between the Lodge ( ...

) in Highland Park, with its transmitter located near Burt Road and Capitol Avenue in the Weatherby section of Detroit, shared with radio stations

WMUZ-FM WMUZ-FM (103.5 MHz) is a commercial FM radio station licensed to Detroit, Michigan. It is owned by Crawford Broadcasting and is known as ''The Light''. Most hours, WMUZ-FM has a Contemporary Christian music format. In late mornings and durin ...

and

WCHB WCHB (1340 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Royal Oak, Michigan, and serving the Detroit metropolitan area. It broadcasts an urban gospel radio format and is owned by Crawford Broadcasting. The station is a reporter to Billboa ...

. WHPS-CD is available nationwide through online streaming and on Roku and

Xfinity Comcast Cable Communications, LLC, doing business as Xfinity, is an American telecommunications company and division of Comcast Corporation used to market consumer cable television, internet, telephone, and wireless services provided by the c ...

channel 91 in Highland Park, Hamtramck, and most of Detroit (except for the southern portion of the Detroit neighborhood of Boynton). Until December 4, 2014, the then-W33BY was also the only remaining American station in the Metro Detroit area to still broadcast only in analog. On April 23, 2014, the station had announced that

LocusPoint Networks LocusPoint Networks LLC was an owner of television stations in the United States. The company is 99% owned by The Blackstone Group. After selling off most of their in 2017 and 2018 in the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) spectrum auction a ...

was beginning procedures to purchase it, making it a sister station to

WDWO-CD WDWO-CD (channel 18) is a low-power, Class A television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States, affiliated with the Spanish-language network Visión Latina. The station is owned by Innovate Corp., and maintains a transmitter on West 11 ...

(channel 18) and potential sister to

WUDT-LD WUDT-LD (channel 23) is a low-power television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States, owned and operated by the Daystar Television Network. The station's transmitter is located at 8 Mile and Meyers Road in suburban Oak Park. History The ...

(channel 23), if that station is allowed to be sold from Daystar to LocusPoint. The sale closed successfully.

Background

WHPS-CD was the

area's first Black-owned TV station since WGPR (channel 62, now

WWJ-TV WWJ-TV (channel 62) is a television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States, owned and operated by the CBS television network. Under common ownership with CW affiliate WKBD-TV under the network's CBS News and Stations group, both statio ...

) became a

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

affiliate. The station was owned until 2015 by R.J. Watkins, who, between 1988 and 1996, hosted and produced a dance program for WGPR-TV, ''

The New Dance Show ''The New Dance Show'' is a television series in Detroit, Michigan, which ran on WGPR-TV 62 (now a CBS affiliate known as WWJ-TV) and W68CH 68 (now WHPS-CD 15). Hosted by R.J. Watkins, ''The New Dance Show'' was a local version of ''Soul Train' ...

'', which moved to WHPS-CD in 1995, and reruns still air on the station at various evening timeslots. The station's television airtime is occupied mostly by phone-in talk shows (most are radio simulcasts), fashion shows,

televangelism Televangelism ( tele- "distance" and "evangelism," meaning " ministry," sometimes called teleministry) is the use of media, specifically radio and television, to communicate Christianity. Televangelists are ministers, whether official or self-pr ...

, paid advertisements, and a children's show called K.E.Y.S. Kids, which encourages kids to "Enjoy Yourselves Without Drugs". WHPS-CD, WHPR-FM, and WVIE, a Virgin Islands radio station owned by Watkins, are also streamed online via their website. WHPS-CD is also on Roku. WVIE-FM has been simulcast on 33.3 since November 7, 2015. And WHPR-FM has been simulcast on 33.2 since November 8, 2015. In December 2015, the simulcast of 33.1 on 33.4 was replaced with The Dream Network.

History

The station started out as W68CH on channel 68 in early 1995, and branded itself as "TNVC-Channel 68" and later "UHF 68, Highland Park". The station "moved" to W33BY in November 2001, but the station still operated on both channels. This continued until August 2002, when 33 and 68 carried separate schedules. Channel 68 would close down for good in September 2003. However, as of July 2006, TVguide.com still shows the station as on the air, carrying a schedule separate from W33BY. As of current, however, the FCC database has no listings for W68CH, or any channel 68, in the Detroit area. Viewers in the area have confirmed that channel 68 is no longer broadcasting, and hasn't for quite some time. They later filed a construction permit to

flash cut A flash cut, also called a flash cutover, is an immediate change in a complex system, with no phase-in period. In the United States, some telephone area codes were split or overlaid immediately, rather than being phased in with a permissive dia ...

channel 33 to a digital signal, broadcasting at 4 kW from facilities at its studios in Highland Park. The permit was to expire September 1, 2015, the date on which all low-powered television stations in the United States must convert to digital or close down, as per the

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

's digital conversion plan. The station converted to digital operations on December 4, 2014, and was licensed by the FCC for digital operation on January 29, 2015. When W33BY converted to digital, it was given a total of 4 subchannels. 33.1 was broadcast in

720p 720p (1280×720 px; also called HD ready, standard HD or just HD) is a progressive HDTV signal format with 720 horizontal lines/1280 columns and an aspect ratio (AR) of 16:9, normally known as widescreen HDTV (1.78:1). All major HDTV broadcast ...

, with the other 3 subchannels being

480i 480i is the video mode used for standard-definition digital television in the Caribbean, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Philippines, Laos, Western Sahara, and most of the Americas (with the exception of Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay). The ...

simulcasts with a 4:3 aspect ratio. However, on November 7, 2015, a simulcast of WVIE with a slide saying "W33BY DETROIT" was added to 33.3. On November 8, 2015, WHPR-FM was added to 33.2, and The Dream Network" was added to 33.4. 33.4 was however, reverted to a simulcast of 33.1 again in May 2016. On August 3, 2018, the station changed its call letters to WHPS-CD.

Digital channels

The station's digital 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 - a ...

: As part of the

spectrum auction A spectrum auction is a process whereby a government uses an auction system to sell the rights to transmit signals over specific bands of the electromagnetic spectrum and to assign scarce spectrum resources. Depending on the specific auction form ...

, W33BY-D moved to UHF 15 as WHPS-CD (initially proposed as W15EC-D).

References

External links

Official website
* {{Other Michigan Stations HPS-CD LocusPoint Networks HPS-CD Television channels and stations established in 1995 1995 establishments in Michigan Highland Park, Michigan

Background

History

Digital channels

See also

References

External links