WDNI-CD (channel 19) is a low-power,

Class A television station The class A television service is a system for regulating some low-power television (LPTV) stations in the United States. Class A stations are denoted by the broadcast callsign suffix "-CA" (analog) or "-CD" (digital), although very many analog -C ...

Indianapolis, Indiana Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Mari ...

, United States, affiliated with the Spanish-language

Telemundo Telemundo (; formerly NetSpan) is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television network owned by NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, a division of NBCUniversal, which in turn is owned by Comcast. It provides content nationally with pr ...

network. The station is owned by the Radio One subsidiary of

Urban One Urban One, Inc. (formerly Radio One) is a Silver Spring, Maryland-based American media conglomerate. Founded in 1980 by Cathy Hughes, the company primarily operates media properties targeting African Americans. It is the largest African-American- ...

as its only broadcast television property. WDNI-CD's studios are located at Urban One's Indiana headquarters on East St. Joseph Street in

downtown Indianapolis Downtown Indianapolis is a neighborhood area and the central business district of Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. Downtown is bordered by Interstate 65, Interstate 70, and the White River, and is situated near the geographic center of Ma ...

, and its transmitter is located on North Hawthorne Lane and 23rd Street (south of

I-70 Interstate 70 (I-70) is a major east–west Interstate Highway in the United States that runs from I-15 near Cove Fort, Utah, to a park and ride lot just east of I-695 in Baltimore, Maryland, and is the fifth-longest Interstate in the c ...

) on the city's near-northeast side.

History

Early history

The station first signed on the air on March 7, 1989 as W53AV, broadcasting on UHF channel 53; founded by Hoosier Radio and TV, it was branded on-air as either "WAV53" or as "Hoosier TV 53". The station aired a variety of programming including

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...

movies and

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

games from the Cincinnati Reds; it also carried the

wrestling Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat ...

program '' ECW Hardcore TV'' on Sunday evenings. For a brief period in the early 1990s, the station served as an affiliate of the defunct

Network One Network One was a small "independent" network, consisting of mostly low-powered television stations, scattered across the Continental United States, similar to Urban America Television, America One, or the better-known Ion (formerly PAX). The ...

, and during the mid-1990s carried music programming (primarily in the overnights) from MuchUSA (now Fuse). Local personality Bill Shirk also hosted certain programs seen on the station. In 1999, the station moved its allocation to UHF channel 65 and changed its callsign to W65DW.

As "Indy's Music Channel"

The station was purchased by Radio One in 2000, which changed its call sign to the lettered WDNI-LP the following year; at the same time, WDNI rebranded as ''Indy's Music Channel'', adopting a

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device ...

format focused on the

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream or commerci ...

, hip-hop, R&B, dance and heavy metal genres. The station's weekday programming featured music shows such as ''Drive Time'' with Reka; ''The Tease'' with host (and music director) Deacon; ''The Main Attraction'' with Scotty Davis; ''Max Hits'' with Mikey V; ''Free Style with JJ''; ''The Rock Block'' with Rusty; ''The List'' with Stick; ''Hip Hop Rhythm & Vibes'' with Jay Rio and ''The After Party'' with DJ Wrekk1. The station also produced ''The Amos Brown Show'', an hour-long locally produced weekday

talk show A talk show (or chat show in British English) is a television programming or radio programming genre structured around the act of spontaneous conversation.Bernard M. Timberg, Robert J. Erler'' (2010Television Talk: A History of the TV Talk Sh ...

that spotlighted notable figures in

Central Indiana The geography of Indiana comprises the physical features of the land and relative location of U.S. State of Indiana. Indiana is in the north-central United States and borders on Lake Michigan. Surrounding states are Michigan to the north and no ...

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

community; the program was discontinued in 2007. Religious programming under the banner "IMC Goes to Church" aired for much of the day on Sundays. In 2009, the station relocated its signal to UHF channel 19.

Switch to Telemundo

On March 6, 2013, Radio One announced that it had signed an agreement with

to affiliate with WDNI-CD, making it the first television station in the Indianapolis market to carry programming from a major commercial Spanish-language network since WIIH-CA (channel 17) discontinued its affiliation with

Univision Univision () is an American Spanish-language free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. It is the United States' largest provider of Spanish-language content. The network's programming is aimed at the Latino public and includes ...

in January 2009. WDNI-CD's affiliation switch to Telemundo became official on March 11, 2013.Telemundo replaces Indy's Music Channel on Channel 19
''

Indianapolis Star Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of U.S. state and territorial capitals, state capital and List of U.S. states' largest cities by population, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat, seat of ...

'', March 11, 2013. WDNI-CD blacked out Telemundo's first ever Spanish-language coverage of the

Indianapolis 500 The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, and commonly called the Indy 500, is an annual automobile race held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indi ...

in 2022 to prevent Central Indiana viewers from attempting to watch the race live before the tape-delayed broadcast on

WTHR WTHR (channel 13) is a television station in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside low-power, Class A MeTV affiliate WALV-CD (channel 46). Both stations share studios on North Meridian ...

, as per the requirements of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

News operation

WDNI-CD presently shows seven hours of locally produced newscasts (more like a public affairs format) each week (with one hour daily); the station currently does not produce any traditional newscasts other than periodic local weather updates and forecasts. The newscast that the station produces is the hour-long public affairs program ''En Contexto'', which airs weekend mornings at 9:00 a.m. and weekday mornings at 5:00 a.m.; the program is hosted by Luis Navarro, who served as a special assignment reporter and main weather forecaster for WIIH's 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts during that station's tenure as a Univision affiliate.

Technical information

Subchannels

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 ...

Analog-to-digital conversion

The station shut down its analog signal and flash-cut its digital signal into operation on UHF channel 19 in February 2009. Because the

Federal Communications Commission 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 jurisdicti ...

(FCC) granted a license upgrade to Class A status after it transitioned to digital-only broadcasts, WDNI's call letters were not given an "-LD" or "-CA" suffix, but rather the then-rarely used "-CD" suffix.

References

External links

Official website

Telemundo website

TeleXitos website
* {{Urban One African-American history of Indiana Telemundo network affiliates TeleXitos affiliates Mass media in Indianapolis Urban One stations DNI-CD Low-power television stations in the United States Television channels and stations established in 1989 1989 establishments in Indiana Spanish-language television stations in Indiana