WJRT-TV

WJRT-TV (channel 12) is a television station licensed to Flint, Michigan, United States, serving as the ABC affiliate for northeastern Michigan. Owned by Allen Media Group, the station maintains studios on Lapeer Road in Flint, with offices and a second newsroom for the Tri-Cities in Saginaw. Its transmitter is located on Burt Road in St. Charles Township, northeast of Chesaning.

In May 1952, Goodwill Stations, owner of WJR radio in Detroit, announced the intent of applying for four station licenses which would operate as a regional network: channel 50 in Detroit, channel 11 in Toledo, Ohio, channel 12 in Flint and channel 5 in Bay City. TV outlets would eventually appear on all four of these channels in these cities, but only one was actually founded by Goodwill Stations: WJRT-TV, in 1958. Goodwill won out over two other companies seeking to operate channel 12: the Trebit Corporation (which owned WFDF), and W. S. Butterfield Theatres, Inc. WPAG-TV, airing on Channel 20 in Ann Arbor, also considered moving to Channel 12, but Goodwill already held the construction permit for WJRT. WPAG-TV initially wanted to place its transmitter in Independence Township, Michigan; however, since Independence Township was located in Oakland County, part of the Detroit television market, Goodwill instead placed the tower in St. Charles Township in southwestern Saginaw County, where the transmitter remains today.

WJRT-TV went on the air on October 12, 1958, at 5 p.m. It has been an ABC network affiliate since its inception. As part of the winning bid for the license, the station had to produce several hours of original local programming each day for ten years. At the time the station had to fill 55 hours of programming outside of the network shows. This stipulation led to the creation of original shows, including Mr. Magic and Folkswingers.

Goodwill Stations took over the former WTAC-TV studios and offices at 2302 Lapeer Road in Flint, after that station folded in 1954; WJRT remains there today.

Goodwill Stations merged with Capital Cities Broadcasting in 1964, but WJRT-TV was spun off to Poole Broadcasting (owned by John Poole, a former Capital Cities stockholder) because the merged company was one VHF station over the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ownership limit of the time. The station was the first Michigan television station outside of Detroit to go all-color in 1967 on Labor Day which saw the launch of its Bozo show. With the original license agreement for local shows expired in 1968, all but Bozo were replaced by 1972 with syndicated programs.

In 1978, WJRT along with the rest of Poole Broadcasting (which included WPRI-TV in Providence, Rhode Island, and WTEN in Albany, New York) were sold to Knight Ridder. In October 1988, the company placed its eight broadcast television stations up for sale to reduce debt and to pay a major purchase. As a result, the station was sold to SJL Broadcast Management in 1989.

During the 1970s, WJRT-TV became Mid-Michigan's highest-rated television station, helped by ABC's ratings improvements during the decade. During the late 1980s and into the 1990s, WJRT-TV was usually second to WNEM-TV.^{[citation needed]}

In 1994, New World Communications signed an affiliation deal with Fox Broadcasting Company, resulting in most of New World's stations switching affiliations to Fox, including Phoenix's CBS affiliate, KSAZ-TV. CBS secured a replacement affiliate in that market via a larger deal with the Meredith Corporation, owner of NBC affiliate WNEM, that also saw WNEM switching from NBC to CBS. NBC was rumored to be courting SJL about either purchasing WJRT and WTVG, their existing affiliate in Toledo, Ohio, or securing a long-term affiliation deal for both stations. As a result, Capital Cities/ABC agreed to purchase both WJRT and WTVG for $155 million in October 1994, effectively preserving their affiliation in Flint and gaining a VHF affiliate in Toledo. Former CBS affiliate WEYI-TV took the NBC affiliation dropped by WNEM.