WHNE-LD
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WHNE-LD (channel 3) is a low-power television station in
Detroit, Michigan 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 ...
, United States, affiliated with TheGrio TV. Owned and operated by Bridge Media Networks, the station has studios and
transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which i ...
located in
Oak Park, Michigan Oak Park is a city in Oakland County, Michigan, Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population of Oak Park was 29,560. As a northern suburb of Metro Detroit, Oak Park shares its sout ...
.


History


Early history

The station was originally owned by P&P Cable Holdings as W52CU and was licensed to Pinconning. P&P sold many of its stations and
construction permit Planning permission or developmental approval refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. It is usually given in the form of a building perm ...
s to NTN Saginaw, W52CU was one of these. W52CU never signed on in Pinconning. In late 2005, Tait Broadcasting acquired W52CU and relocated the station to Flint, where it signed on as WHNE-LP on channel 32. The WHNE calls were originally used on
radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...
in the Detroit area; first from 1973 to 1978 on what is now
WCSX WCSX (94.7 FM) is a classic rock radio station licensed to Birmingham, Michigan, serving Metro Detroit and owned by Beasley Broadcast Group. WCSX's transmitter is in suburban Oakland County in Royal Oak Township near the intersection of 8 Mile R ...
(94.7 FM). Until May 2006, WHNE was affiliated with
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 ...
; WHNE switched to America One after UATV suspended operations.


Tower relocation to Holly, digital operations

In 2010, the station relocated to a digital signal on channel 26, as WHNE-LD, now located at its new tower location. The directional antenna was designed to protect low-power WLPC-LP operating on channel 26 in Detroit. WLPC-LP had a construction permit to move to digital channel 40. After receiving the construction permit for its new tower site on channel 26, the station applied for additional power, which was granted after approval from the FCC and its Canadian counterpart, the
CRTC The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC; french: Conseil de la radiodiffusion et des télécommunications canadiennes, links=) is a public organization in Canada with mandate as a regulatory agency for broadcasti ...
. On December 28, 2011, the station returned to the air, broadcasting from a transmitter tower near
Holly ''Ilex'' (), or holly, is a genus of over 570 species of flowering plants in the family Aquifoliaceae, and the only living genus in that family. ''Ilex'' has the most species of any woody dioecious angiosperm genus. The species are evergreen o ...
at the East Holly Road and Interstate 75 (Exit 98) interchange, on UHF 26, and with a PSIP of 26.1 along with four sub channels. The transmitter had a directional antenna pattern mainly to the northwest towards Flint and the southeast towards
Pontiac Pontiac may refer to: *Pontiac (automobile), a car brand *Pontiac (Ottawa leader) ( – 1769), a Native American war chief Places and jurisdictions Canada * Pontiac, Quebec, a municipality **Apostolic Vicariate of Pontiac, now the Roman Catholic D ...
, with its reception area covering both cities.


Move to Detroit

Coincidentally, shortly after the station was nearly ready to transmit with increased power, the CRTC switched CHWI-DT-60 in
Windsor, Ontario Windsor is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, on the south bank of the Detroit River directly across from Detroit, Michigan, United States. Geographically located within but administratively independent of Essex County, it is the souther ...
to channel 26. This left WHNE no other choice but to apply for a different channel to avoid any co-channel interference with CHWI. The only channel found to use was UHF 20, which was previously occupied by the analog signal of
WMYD WMYD (channel 20) is an independent television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside ABC affiliate WXYZ-TV (channel 7). Both stations share studios at Broadcast House on 10 Mile Road in ...
in Detroit, which switched to digital on UHF channel 21. So WHNE filed an application to relocate its transmitter to WMYD's tower in Oak Park and to broadcast on channel 20, focusing on the
Metro Detroit The Detroit metropolitan area, often referred to as Metro Detroit, is a major metropolitan area in the U.S. State of Michigan, consisting of the city of Detroit and its surrounding area. There are varied definitions of the area, including the ...
area, changing its city of license to Detroit. On March 27, 2012, the station was granted a construction permit to move to UHF channel 20 in Oak Park at 15 kW. In order to avoid a potential PSIP/virtual channel conflict with CHWI-DT-60, the station applied to the FCC to use 14 for its virtual channel, on April 30, 2014. On September 21, 2014, the station returned to the air for testing at its new Oak Park facility, transmitting signal which covered much of the Metro Detroit area and nearby portions of Windsor and Essex County. From September 21, 2014 until sometime in 2015, WHNE-LD was an affiliate of
Soul of the South Network Soul of the South Television (sometimes referred to as SSN TV) is an African-American-focused regional broadcast network owned by SSN Media Group, LP. It primarily broadcasts in the Southern United States and secondarily in other high African-Ame ...
on 14.1. However, it was removed from the station when the network filed for bankruptcy in 2015 and couldn't pay most of its affiliates. On November 22, 2015, the station added SonLife to 14.5. Until then, subchannel 14.5 was an affiliate of both Corner Store TV and Jewelry TV. In April 2016, the station launched a website and added LATV to 14.1, becoming Detroit's only over-the-air non-English television station since
WUDL-LD WUDL-LD, virtual channel 19 (UHF digital channel 35), is a low-powered television station licensed to Detroit, Michigan, United States. The station is owned by the DTV America subsidiary of HC2 Holdings. The station's transmitter is located i ...
dropped the
TBN Enlace USA Enlace is a Latin American Christian-based broadcast television network. The network primarily broadcasts faith-based programming targeted to the Hispanic community. Enlace's primary headquarters are in San José, Costa Rica, with studios, office ...
service on that station's 47.5 subchannel along with all other
Trinity Broadcasting Network The Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) is an international Christian-based broadcast television network and the world's largest religious television network. TBN was headquartered in Costa Mesa, California, until March 3, 2017, when it sold its ...
-related networks on other subchannels of that station after Regal Media sold it to King Forward, Inc. in 2015. In May 2017, LATV was replaced with infomercials. Light TV was added to 14.1 on August 24, 2017.


The move to low VHF

May 25, 2018 saw WHNE-LD receive its post-repack channel frequency: VHF 3, with an effective radiated power of 3 kW. Signals on the low VHF band (channels 2 thru 6) travel better than signals on other bands, but require longer antennas (approximately 8 feet long) to receive due to the longer wavelength, and are especially prone to interference from electrical appliances and, especially in the case of metro Detroit, industrial noise. Interference had very little, if any, effect on analog signals, but can obliterate digital signals, which is compounded by WHNE's low power. As a result, the required move was met with negative backlash before it even happened. WHNE-LD would sign off from channel 20 for the final time on March 13, 2020, vacating the frequency for
Detroit Public Television WTVS (channel 56) is a PBS member television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States, owned by the Detroit Educational Television Foundation. Its main studios are located at the Riley Broadcast Center and HD Studios in Wixom, with an addit ...
. The station was delayed from signing back on at VHF 3 due to its new antenna being delayed during shipping due to the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
temporarily closing the ports in
Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
, where the antenna parts were purchased from, as detailed in their station's
Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
page. The station managed to find an alternate source for its antenna parts by March 20, however, and planned to resume broadcasting by April 3 or 4, 2020, with a new station branding as TV-3 (with a PSIP of 3.x), but actually ended up returning on April 1.


Sale to Bridge Media Networks

On September 29, 2022,
NEWSnet NewsNet (stylized as NEWSnet) is an American news-oriented free-to-air television network and newscast production company owned by Bridge News, LLC, which itself is owned by Bridge Media Networks. The network is structured to broadcast a tight ...
's parent company Bridge Media Networks (backed by 5-hour Energy creator
Manoj Bhargava Manoj Bhargava (born 1953) is an Indian Americans, Indian American billionaire businessman and philanthropist. He is the founder and CEO of Innovations Ventures LLC (Doing business as, dba Living Essentials LLC), the company known for producing ...
) announced it would acquire WHNE-LD for $1.65 million. Upon the completion of the transaction, Bridge would make WHNE-LD the second NEWSnet owned-and-operated station in Michigan (the first being flagship
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 the East Coast flagship of the 24/7 headline news service NEWSnet. It is owned and operated by ...
hannel 26 licensed to Lake City and serving the Traverse City-Cadillac DMA). The sale was consummated on November 28.


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 ...
:


References


External links

* {{Other Michigan Stations HNE-LD Television channels and stations established in 1996 Low-power television stations in the United States TheGrio affiliates NewsNet affiliates GetTV affiliates Heartland (TV network) affiliates Retro TV affiliates