Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
WBND-LD
WBND-LD (channel 57) is a low-power television station in South Bend, Indiana, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is owned by Weigel Broadcasting (as the company's only ABC affiliate), and is sister to CW affiliate WCWW-LD (channel 25) and MyNetworkTV affiliate WMYS-LD (channel 69). The three stations share studios on Generations Drive (near the Indiana Toll Road) in northeastern South Bend; WBND-LD's transmitter is located just off the St. Joseph Valley Parkway on the city's south side.
Due to its low-power status, its broadcasting radius only covers the immediate South Bend area. Therefore, Weigel relies on paid television subscription carriage for all three of its South Bend television stations to reach the entire market.
The station signed on the air on October 18, 1995, the date that longtime ABC station WSJV (channel 28) became Michiana's new Fox affiliate, as W58BT, originally broadcasting on UHF channel 58. However, from the beginning, it branded itself under the fictional call letters "WBND", relegating mentions of its legal call sign to station identifications, and signed on as the area's new ABC affiliate in Michiana. Prior to the launch, Fox won the rights to NFL football games starting with the 1994 season, and the network signed an affiliation agreement with Quincy Newspapers to have WSJV join Fox on April 21, 1995; prior to this, some Fox programming (including its NFL game telecasts) had been airing on CBS affiliate WSBT-TV (channel 22), while the network's full schedule was only available on cable via network-owned WFLD from Chicago or WFFT from Fort Wayne (on the Indiana side), and WXMI from Grand Rapids or, until late 1994, WKBD from Detroit (on the Michigan side). ABC approached WNDU-TV (channel 16) and WSBT, but both had firm affiliation deals with NBC and CBS, respectively. The only other viable choice was WHME-TV (channel 46), but that station's owner, religious broadcaster LeSEA, never even considered putting it up for sale or taking a network affiliation.
With just weeks to go before WSJV was due to join Fox, it appeared that ABC would be left without an affiliate in Michiana. Facing the prospect of piping in network-owned WLS-TV in Chicago, WPTA in Fort Wayne, and WOTV in Battle Creek, Michigan, for cable viewers, ABC agreed more or less by default to sign an affiliation deal with W58BT. This was the second 11th-hour affiliation deal Weigel had reached as a result of the massive network switches of 1994–95; sister station WDJT-TV in Milwaukee (by coincidence, also on channel 58) had become a CBS affiliate under similar circumstances in 1994.
Weigel would have preferred to sign on the station in December, when it planned to bring a new transmitter online that would have increased channel 58's footprint to a 40-mile (64 km) radius of South Bend. However, ABC officials insisted that the swap be made on the day WSJV joined Fox. Due in part to the rush to get ready for the switch, the station's 2,000-watt transmitter suffered a partial failure on the morning of October 18, rendering it almost unviewable. However, Weigel managed to keep ABC programming available via W69BT, which became a satellite of W58BT. The transmitter was fixed within a few days.
By the end of that year, the station changed its call letters to WBND-LP. During the late 1990s, the station carried UPN programming outside of network hours as a secondary affiliate. The station relocated to UHF channel 57 in 2002, after WSJV received approval from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to use channel 58 for its digital signal. In 2003, the station's UPN affiliate ended with that network's move to WSBT-TV's second digital subchannel, known as "UPN Michiana", which programmed the network in regular prime time hours.
Ultimately, WBND would outlast WSJV, when in August 2016, "SBT2" (which had carried an independent format after UPN's demise) assumed the market's Fox affiliation from WSJV as "Fox Michiana". WSJV then positioned themselves to try to sell their broadcast spectrum in the 2016 auction, but were ultimately unsuccessful, and now carries Weigel's Heroes & Icons network on their main channel.
In early August 2008, Weigel Broadcasting agreed to sell all three of its South Bend stations, including WBND, to Schurz Communications, founding owner of WSBT-TV, for undisclosed terms. If this sale had been approved by the FCC, WBND's operations would have been moved into WSBT's new facility in Mishawaka (which opened in November 2008) and it may have resulted in the WDJT-produced newscast on channel 57 being replaced by simulcasts of WSBT-TV's newscasts. However, after the FCC failed to approve the deal within a year, Weigel and Schurz walked away from the deal in August 2009.
Hub AI
WBND-LD AI simulator
(@WBND-LD_simulator)
WBND-LD
WBND-LD (channel 57) is a low-power television station in South Bend, Indiana, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is owned by Weigel Broadcasting (as the company's only ABC affiliate), and is sister to CW affiliate WCWW-LD (channel 25) and MyNetworkTV affiliate WMYS-LD (channel 69). The three stations share studios on Generations Drive (near the Indiana Toll Road) in northeastern South Bend; WBND-LD's transmitter is located just off the St. Joseph Valley Parkway on the city's south side.
Due to its low-power status, its broadcasting radius only covers the immediate South Bend area. Therefore, Weigel relies on paid television subscription carriage for all three of its South Bend television stations to reach the entire market.
The station signed on the air on October 18, 1995, the date that longtime ABC station WSJV (channel 28) became Michiana's new Fox affiliate, as W58BT, originally broadcasting on UHF channel 58. However, from the beginning, it branded itself under the fictional call letters "WBND", relegating mentions of its legal call sign to station identifications, and signed on as the area's new ABC affiliate in Michiana. Prior to the launch, Fox won the rights to NFL football games starting with the 1994 season, and the network signed an affiliation agreement with Quincy Newspapers to have WSJV join Fox on April 21, 1995; prior to this, some Fox programming (including its NFL game telecasts) had been airing on CBS affiliate WSBT-TV (channel 22), while the network's full schedule was only available on cable via network-owned WFLD from Chicago or WFFT from Fort Wayne (on the Indiana side), and WXMI from Grand Rapids or, until late 1994, WKBD from Detroit (on the Michigan side). ABC approached WNDU-TV (channel 16) and WSBT, but both had firm affiliation deals with NBC and CBS, respectively. The only other viable choice was WHME-TV (channel 46), but that station's owner, religious broadcaster LeSEA, never even considered putting it up for sale or taking a network affiliation.
With just weeks to go before WSJV was due to join Fox, it appeared that ABC would be left without an affiliate in Michiana. Facing the prospect of piping in network-owned WLS-TV in Chicago, WPTA in Fort Wayne, and WOTV in Battle Creek, Michigan, for cable viewers, ABC agreed more or less by default to sign an affiliation deal with W58BT. This was the second 11th-hour affiliation deal Weigel had reached as a result of the massive network switches of 1994–95; sister station WDJT-TV in Milwaukee (by coincidence, also on channel 58) had become a CBS affiliate under similar circumstances in 1994.
Weigel would have preferred to sign on the station in December, when it planned to bring a new transmitter online that would have increased channel 58's footprint to a 40-mile (64 km) radius of South Bend. However, ABC officials insisted that the swap be made on the day WSJV joined Fox. Due in part to the rush to get ready for the switch, the station's 2,000-watt transmitter suffered a partial failure on the morning of October 18, rendering it almost unviewable. However, Weigel managed to keep ABC programming available via W69BT, which became a satellite of W58BT. The transmitter was fixed within a few days.
By the end of that year, the station changed its call letters to WBND-LP. During the late 1990s, the station carried UPN programming outside of network hours as a secondary affiliate. The station relocated to UHF channel 57 in 2002, after WSJV received approval from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to use channel 58 for its digital signal. In 2003, the station's UPN affiliate ended with that network's move to WSBT-TV's second digital subchannel, known as "UPN Michiana", which programmed the network in regular prime time hours.
Ultimately, WBND would outlast WSJV, when in August 2016, "SBT2" (which had carried an independent format after UPN's demise) assumed the market's Fox affiliation from WSJV as "Fox Michiana". WSJV then positioned themselves to try to sell their broadcast spectrum in the 2016 auction, but were ultimately unsuccessful, and now carries Weigel's Heroes & Icons network on their main channel.
In early August 2008, Weigel Broadcasting agreed to sell all three of its South Bend stations, including WBND, to Schurz Communications, founding owner of WSBT-TV, for undisclosed terms. If this sale had been approved by the FCC, WBND's operations would have been moved into WSBT's new facility in Mishawaka (which opened in November 2008) and it may have resulted in the WDJT-produced newscast on channel 57 being replaced by simulcasts of WSBT-TV's newscasts. However, after the FCC failed to approve the deal within a year, Weigel and Schurz walked away from the deal in August 2009.