WUDT-LD (channel 23) 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 ...

Detroit, Michigan 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 ...

, United States,

owned and operated In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station (frequently abbreviated as an O&O) usually refers to a television or radio station owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an affiliate ...

by the

Daystar Television Network The Daystar Television Network commonly known as Daystar Television or just Daystar, is an American evangelical Christian-based religious television network owned by the Word of God Fellowship, founded by Marcus Lamb in 1993. Daystar is headqu ...

. The station's transmitter is located at 8 Mile and Meyers Road in suburban Oak Park.

History

The station took to the air on January 4, 1989, as low-power W05BN on channel 5. It then became WBXD-LP on September 1, 1995, reflecting its affiliation with, and ownership by, The Box, which was acquired by

Viacom Viacom, an abbreviation of Video and Audio Communications, may refer to: * Viacom (1952–2005), a former American media conglomerate * Viacom (2005–2019), a former company spun off from the original Viacom * Viacom18, a joint venture between Pa ...

in 1999 and merged into its

MTV2 MTV2 (formerly M2) is an American pay television Cable television, channel owned by the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global, through PMN’s MTV Entertainment Group Subdivision. The channel launched initially as an all-music ...

in 2001. The sale to Viacom put WBXD under the same ownership as

UPN The United Paramount Network (UPN) was an American broadcast television network that operated from 1995 to 2006. It was originally a joint venture between Chris-Craft Industries (later sold to News Corporation)'s subsidiary, United Television, ...

station

WKBD WKBD-TV (channel 50), branded as CW Detroit 50, is a television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States, affiliated with The CW. It is owned by the CBS News and Stations group alongside WWJ-TV (channel 62), a CBS owned-and-operated station. ...

(channel 50) and, after Viacom's merger with

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

WWJ-TV WWJ-TV (channel 62) is a television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is owned and operated by the CBS television network through its CBS News and Stations division, alongside WKBD-TV (channel 50), an affiliate of The CW. The two ...

(channel 62). On January 30, 2001, the station moved to channel 35 and then to channel 23 on July 12, 2001. Then on June 27, 2002, the station began operating at class A status, giving it the call sign WBXD-CA. Viacom sold WBXD-CA to Equity Broadcasting in November 2004. The new owners renamed the station WUDT-CA, and made the station an affiliate of

Univision Univision () is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television, 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 L ...

. In 2007, Equity Broadcasting was renamed Equity Media Holdings Corporation. WUDT-CA was the first Spanish-language television station to take to the air in the state of

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

since W66BV, Detroit's prior Univision affiliate, became a TBN translator in the early-1990s. During its time with Univision, WUDT was also one of only three stations affiliated with the network (along with

KUNS-TV KUNS-TV (channel 51) is a television station licensed to Bellevue, Washington, United States, serving the Seattle area as an affiliate of The CW. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside American Broadcasting Company, ABC affiliate KOM ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

and Univision O&O WQHS-TV in

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

) in markets bordering Canada. Univision's over-the-air presence in Detroit made Detroit/ Windsor the only market in the United States or Canada with terrestrial stations in English, Spanish and French—the French station was

Radio-Canada Radio-Canada may refer to: * CBC/Radio-Canada, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation *Ici Radio-Canada Télé, the CBC's main French-language television network *Ici Radio-Canada Première Ici Radio-Canada Première (formerly Première Chaîne) i ...

owned-and-operated station CBEFT on channel 35, a former originating station which rebroadcast

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

CBLFT-DT CBLFT-DT (channel 25) is an Ici Radio-Canada Télé station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, which broadcasts programming to the province's Franco-Ontarian population. It is part of a twinstick with CBC Television flagship CBLT-DT (channel 5). The ...

before going dark in 2012. WUDT's master control was remotely originated via satellite from Equity's headquarters in

Little Rock, Arkansas Little Rock is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Arkansas, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The city's population was 202,591 as of the 2020 census. The six-county Central Arkan ...

. Equity maintained a local news and advertising sales office at 5600 King Street in

Troy Troy (/; ; ) or Ilion (; ) was an ancient city located in present-day Hisarlik, Turkey. It is best known as the setting for the Greek mythology, Greek myth of the Trojan War. The archaeological site is open to the public as a tourist destina ...

. The station had limited backup signal transmission arrangements; during several instances of bad weather, WUDT-CA often broadcast either a black screen or a "NO SIGNAL" message. On March 28, 2007,

Comcast Comcast Corporation, formerly known as Comcast Holdings,Before the AT&T Broadband, AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation, not th ...

added WUDT to its Detroit lineup on channel 65, replacing the network's national East Coast feed, which had been carried since the 1980s when Comcast in the Detroit area was split up between several companies (for example, it was known as Barden Cablevision in Detroit proper and Inkster; Cablevision Industries in Dearborn;

Continental Cablevision Comcast MO Group, Inc. (formerly MediaOne Group, Inc.) is a telecommunications company created by US West Inc. in 1998 following US West's acquisition of Boston-based Continental Cable. The company combined Continental with Wometco/GTC, which U ...

in Southfield,

Dearborn Heights Dearborn Heights is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. An inner-ring suburb of Detroit, Dearborn Heights is located about west of downtown Detroit. The city shares a small border with Detroit, and is considered a bedroom c ...

, Madison Heights and Hazel Park; Harron Cable in

Port Huron Port Huron is a city in and seat of government of St. Clair County, Michigan, United States. The population was 28,983 at the 2020 census. The city is bordered on the west by Port Huron Township, but the two are administered autonomously. Por ...

; Omnicom in far western Wayne County (including Canton Charter Township) and Hamtramck;

Maclean Hunter Maclean-Hunter (M-H) was a Canadian communications company, which had diversified holdings in radio, television, magazines, newspapers and cable television distribution. History The company began in 1887, when brothers John Bayne Maclean and Hu ...

in many

Downriver Downriver is a region of the Detroit metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Michigan covering 18 municipalities in Wayne County, south of Detroit, along the western shore of the Detroit River. Etymology The name derives from the fact that the ...

communities; and TCI in several Oakland County suburbs and the Downriver communities of

Lincoln Park Lincoln Park is a park along Lake Michigan on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois. Named after US president Abraham Lincoln, it is the city's largest public park and stretches for from Grand Avenue (500 N), on the south, to near Ardmore Avenu ...

, Riverview, Woodhaven, Trenton and

Gibraltar Gibraltar ( , ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory and British overseas cities, city located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Bay of Gibraltar, near the exit of the Mediterranean Sea into the A ...

), and when Univision was known as the Spanish International Network (SIN). However, it was never available on WOW! Detroit, Bright House

Livonia Livonia, known in earlier records as Livland, is a historical region on the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea. It is named after the Livonians, who lived on the shores of present-day Latvia. By the end of the 13th century, the name was extende ...

, Wyandotte Municipal Services or

Cogeco Cogeco Inc. is a Canadian telecommunications and media company. Its corporate offices are located at 1 Place Ville-Marie in Montreal, Quebec. The company is structured into three strategic business units (SBU); Cogeco Connexion, Breezeline (p ...

Windsor; WOW continued to carry the national feed instead, while Bright House does not have the station or the network on any of its lineups in Livonia, Farmington, Novi or Redford, and Wyandotte Municipal Services also does not carry the station or the network on its lineup in the city of Wyandotte. Cogeco Windsor does not carry Univision in any form due to restrictions set by the

CRTC The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC; ) is a public organization in Canada tasked with the mandate as a regulatory agency tribunal for various electronic communications, covering broadcasting and telecommunic ...

. Comcast later moved the station to channel 18 in Detroit to make room for the Michigan feed of the

Big Ten Network Big Ten Network (BTN) is an American sports network based in Chicago, Illinois. The channel is dedicated to coverage of College athletics, collegiate sports sanctioned by the Big Ten Conference, including live and recorded event telecasts, news ...

, which now occupies channel 65. Due to the 2008 bankruptcy of Equity Broadcasting, WUDT was sold at auction to the

on April 16, 2009; the sale closed in July 2009. In August 2009, the station began to show only a slide with the Univision logo and

station identification Station identification (ident, network ID, channel ID or bumper (broadcasting), bumper) is the practice of radio and television stations and broadcast network, networks identifying themselves on-air, typically by means of a call sign or brand na ...

. Comcast immediately removed WUDT from its lineup and reverted to carrying the national Univision feed. On August 26, at about 5 p.m., WUDT switched to Daystar. This left Detroit without a full-time Spanish-language outlet. On April 6, 2010, WUDT switched off its analog signal and broadcast on digital channel 8. At some point in mid-June 2010, WUDT-LD went silent, returning to the air as of July 27, 2010. Daystar reached a deal to sell WUDT-CD, along with WSVT-CD in

Tampa, Florida Tampa ( ) is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. Tampa's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and t ...

, to LocusPoint Networks in December 2012. The deal will make it a sister station to two other Detroit stations, WDWO-CD (which LocusPoint acquired in March 2013) and W33BY (which LocusPoint acquired in April 2014). In the meantime, in May 2013, Daystar surrendered the class A status for WUDT and three other stations. On December 15, 2014,

Ion Media Networks Ion Media, LLC (formerly known as Paxson Communications Corporation and Ion Media Networks) is a subsidiary of the E.W. Scripps Company that operates the linear broadcast networks Ion Television, Ion Mystery, and Ion Plus. Prior to its acquisi ...

, the owners of WPXD-TV, reached a deal to donate its

translator station A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater (two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tran ...

W48AV (channel 48) in St. Clair Shores to Daystar. As part of the transaction, Daystar requested a special temporary authority for it to relocate to UHF 23, the same channel as WUDT-LD; this was granted.

News

From 2005 until June 2008, the station presented a nightly newscast, produced and anchored in

Denver, Colorado Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

, with stories produced in the Detroit area originating from the station's offices in Troy. On June 6, 2008, Equity discontinued local newscasts at its six Univision affiliates, including WUDT.

Trivia

* WUDT was the largest of Equity's three television stations in Michigan. Equity also owned and operated

Retro Jams Retro Jams was a music video network that played music videos from the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s, with the vast majority of clips used in the public domain to reduce and avoid performance and rights fees. Established in 2007, it was own ...

affiliate WUHQ-LP in

Grand Rapids Grand Rapids is the largest city and county seat of Kent County, Michigan, United States. With a population of 198,917 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 200,117 in 2024, Grand Rapids is the List of municipalities ...

and dual-

Fox Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush"). Twelve species ...

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 ...

affiliate WMQF in Marquette (now

WZMQ WZMQ (channel 19) is a television station licensed to Marquette, Michigan, United States, serving the Central and Western Upper Peninsula of Michigan as a dual affiliate of MeTV and CBS. Owned by Lilly Broadcasting, the station maintains st ...

). WUHQ would also be sold to Daystar, with WMQF being sold to a Wisconsin company, MMMRC, LLC. * Equity would also acquire another former MTV2 station, WBWX-CA, now

WUMN-LP WUMN-LD (channel 21) is a low-power television station licensed to Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, serving the Twin Cities area as an affiliate of the Spanish-language network Univision. Owned by Manoj Bhargava, Bridge Media Networks, th ...

channel 13 in

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

, also a Univision affiliate. WUMN, along with its sister station, Telefutura affiliate WTMS-CA, channel 7, would be sold to Silver Point Capital. WUMN is owned today by the Media Vista Group, while WTMS had ceased operations. * Equity's presence was felt elsewhere in Detroit as

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

WXYZ-TV WXYZ-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States, affiliated with American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside independent station WMYD (channel 20). The two stations shar ...

began its service of the

Retro Television Network Retro TV (stylized as retrotv), formerly known as Retro Television Network, is an American broadcast television network owned by Get After It Media. The network mainly airs classic television sitcoms and drama series from the 1950s through t ...

, which began broadcasting starting in the spring of 2008 as RTN7. Equity (which once owned RTN) and the

E. W. Scripps Company The E. W. Scripps Company, also known as Scripps, is an American broadcasting company founded in 1878 as a chain of daily newspapers by Edward Willis "E. W." Scripps and his sister, Ellen Browning Scripps. It was also formerly a media conglom ...

made the deal official on September 21, 2007. Shortly after WXYZ launched RTN7, the network was sold to Luken Communications, LLC (now

Get After It Media Get After It Media LLC, formerly known as Luken Communications and Reach High Media Group, is a privately owned American broadcast holding company, based in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which owns or operates around 80 television stations in the Unit ...

). RTN, later reacronymed "RTV", was seen on WXYZ-TV until 2011, when it was replaced with the Live Well Network.

Technical information

The station operates with an

effective radiated power Effective radiated power (ERP), synonymous with equivalent radiated power, is an IEEE standardized definition of directional radio frequency (RF) power, such as that emitted by a radio transmitter. It is the total power in watts that would ha ...

of 15

kilowatt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...

s with a directional antenna, covering the immediate Detroit and Windsor areas, plus large parts of southern

Oakland Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major West Coast port, Oakland is ...

and Macomb counties and small portions of Wayne and

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

counties.

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— ...

: The station applied for a license to operate digitally on VHF channel 8. The application was filed and a construction permit was granted on October 10, 2007 and it expires on October 11, 2010. The station went on air shortly after. WUDT's digital signal was between the digital signals of

WJBK-TV WJBK (channel 2) is a television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States. Owned and operated by the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox network through its Fox Television Stations division, the station maintains studios and transmitter facilities ...

on channel 7 and CBET-DT on channel 9, which may cause some interference. This may also cause interference with Cleveland's WJW in the southeastern areas of Essex County, which has its digital signal on channel 8 as well.

Analog-to-digital conversion

Because of reception challenges, Daystar subsequently filed an application to permit WUDT to broadcast its digital signal on channel 23, its old analog frequency, at 15 kW, directional. The application was granted by the FCC on January 17, 2012, with the construction permit expiring September 1, 2015. As a low-power station, WUDT was not required to transition to

digital television Digital television (DTV) is the transmission of television signals using Digital signal, digital encoding, in contrast to the earlier analog television technology which used analog signals. At the time of its development it was considered an ...

when full service stations were required to do so in 2009; however, all low-powered stations, including WUDT, must make the transition by September 1, 2015. On May 3, 2012, the station moved back to UHF 23, increasing power substantially from 300 to 15,000 watts. On May 10, 2012, the station upgraded to class A digital status, becoming WUDT-CD; a year later, Daystar elected to revert the station to a traditional low-power license. At some point in May 2015, WUDT-LD went silent, having been merged into its now-sister station, W48AV-D, which has since switched to digital operations as a Daystar station. While WUDT-LD's license remains active (and both remain owned by Daystar via its Word of God Fellowship subsidiary), though W48AV-D's license would be cancelled in 2016, with the station re-assuming the identity of WUDT-LD.

References

External links

Univision - WUDT 23 Detroit
''(Archive.org cache, as of August 23, 2007)''
FCCinfo.com information on WUDT-LD
{{Daystar stations UDT-LD UDT-LD Television channels and stations established in 1989 1989 establishments in Michigan Daystar Television Network stations