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WZZM
WZZM (channel 13) is a television station licensed to Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States, serving West Michigan as an affiliate of ABC. Owned by Tegna Inc., the station has studios on 3 Mile Road NW in Walker (with a Grand Rapids mailing address), and its transmitter is located in Grant, Michigan.
Channel 13 was inserted into Grand Rapids in 1961; station spacing rules of the time required that the transmitter be to the north of the city, closer to Muskegon. The station went on the air in November 1962 under interim operating authority; four companies jointly owned the station until West Michigan Telecasters was granted the permanent license in 1964 and bought out the others' interim holdings in 1965. Because of the transmitter site restriction, the station did not and does not provide adequate coverage of the southern portion of the market, namely Kalamazoo and Battle Creek. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the station sought translators to serve those cities, only to have the proposals turned down in order to protect a new station on channel 41 in Battle Creek, WUHQ-TV (now WOTV), which also broadcasts ABC but with separate non-network programming. An attempt to combine WZZM-TV and WUHQ-TV failed in 1991, and WOTV is today co-owned with WOOD-TV, the market's NBC affiliate. Satellite television providers Dish Network and DirecTV provide both stations across the entire market, and WZZM is also on cable in Battle Creek.
In local news, the station had a highly regarded news department from the 1960s through the 1980s; its original news director stayed on for the first 25 years of its history. While the station continues to be competitive, particularly in the Grand Rapids area northward, coverage shortfalls in the south and the aggregate nature of the television market have made WOOD-TV the overall market news leader since the 1990s. The station maintains a lit weather ball displayed near its Walker studios.
In 1959, the Atlas Broadcasting Company was organized to pursue the addition of a third very high frequency (VHF) station in West Michigan. It applied to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), proposing the addition of channel 13 to Grand Rapids. The station would transmit from an area near Muskegon, north of Grand Rapids, where it would be appropriately spaced to WSPD-TV in Toledo, Ohio, and WREX-TV in Rockford, Illinois; FCC regulations required the transmitter to be located at least 170 miles (274 km) from competing stations on that frequency. Atlas also proposed moving WWTV in Cadillac to channel 9, where it would still be appropriately spaced to CKLW-TV in Windsor, Ontario. The FCC approved this allocation change in 1961; it replaced channel 9 in Alpena with channel 6. The placement of the channel at Grand Rapids attracted interest even before the insertion was final. By the end of 1960, three groups had incorporated with an eye toward filing for channel 13, including West Michigan Telecasters—consisting of 24 shareholders with Lewis V. Chamberlain, Jr. as president—whose final application was filed in October 1961. One of the shareholders was L. William Seidman, then on the board of directors of Grand Valley State College and later chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Some of the stockholders were from Muskegon; the group promoted the northerly transmitter site as a bonus, noting that there were no local stations in Muskegon and that other communities such as Grand Haven and Holland were also underserved. West Michigan was one of six applicants to file by the end of 1961, alongside Atlas (which also owned Grand Rapids–area radio station WMAX); Grand Broadcasting Company, which counted former WLAV and WLAV-TV owner Leonard Versluis among its stockholders as well as former FCC counsel Mary Jane Morris; Major Television Company; MKO Broadcasting Company; and Peninsular Broadcasting Company.
In its order assigning channel 13 to Grand Rapids, the FCC indicated its willingness to accept proposals for interim operating authority to hasten the construction of the station. This meant that the comparative hearing process and construction would run in parallel. Days after filing its permanent bid, West Michigan Telecasters also proposed interim operating authority. Major and Atlas both withdrew in August 1962; the four remaining contenders formed Channel 13, Grand Rapids, Inc., which received interim authority that same month. The interim station originally chose the call letters WIIM-TV, but WJIM-TV in Lansing objected, resulting in the choice of WZZM as the call sign. Construction rapidly proceeded, and from studios in the Pantlind Hotel downtown, WZZM made its first broadcast on November 1, 1962, an ABC affiliate from the start.
While WZZM was on the air, the applicants wrangled at the FCC over permanent authority to run it. In May 1963, an FCC hearing examiner gave Grand Broadcasting Company the nod in his initial decision, citing its superior integration of ownership and management, a comparative criterion analyzing the involvement of owners in station operations. The FCC itself, however, instead selected West Michigan Telecasters in April 1964, citing its principals' involvement in civic affairs and research into local public service programming. The company then settled with the other applicants, ultimately paying them between $360,000 and $390,000 apiece, and on January 25, 1965, it became the sole owner of WZZM. After the award, West Michigan Telecasters proceeded with its plans to build a studio in Muskegon.
After a plan to merge with Basic Communications Inc. and Eccentric magazine in Birmingham, Michigan, fell through, West Michigan Telecasters merged with two publishing companies in 1969 to form Synercom Communications Corporation. In 1971, WZZM-TV finally left the Pantlind and moved to purpose-built studios. The 38,500-square-foot (3,580 m2) facility also housed WZZM-FM, which West Michigan Telecasters had acquired in 1966, and the station's production arm. Synercom then spun West Michigan Telecasters and the WZZM stations out as its own company in 1973, including Elinor Bunin Productions, a New York City film production house.
West Michigan Telecasters entered into an agreement to sell WZZM-TV to Wometco Enterprises for $14 million in 1976, with WZZM-TV becoming Wometco's fourth television property. The acquisition closed in January 1978; WZZM-FM was split from the television station by West Michigan Telecasters and sold to separate interests. Wometco was then taken private in a leveraged buyout by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) in 1984.
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WZZM
WZZM (channel 13) is a television station licensed to Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States, serving West Michigan as an affiliate of ABC. Owned by Tegna Inc., the station has studios on 3 Mile Road NW in Walker (with a Grand Rapids mailing address), and its transmitter is located in Grant, Michigan.
Channel 13 was inserted into Grand Rapids in 1961; station spacing rules of the time required that the transmitter be to the north of the city, closer to Muskegon. The station went on the air in November 1962 under interim operating authority; four companies jointly owned the station until West Michigan Telecasters was granted the permanent license in 1964 and bought out the others' interim holdings in 1965. Because of the transmitter site restriction, the station did not and does not provide adequate coverage of the southern portion of the market, namely Kalamazoo and Battle Creek. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the station sought translators to serve those cities, only to have the proposals turned down in order to protect a new station on channel 41 in Battle Creek, WUHQ-TV (now WOTV), which also broadcasts ABC but with separate non-network programming. An attempt to combine WZZM-TV and WUHQ-TV failed in 1991, and WOTV is today co-owned with WOOD-TV, the market's NBC affiliate. Satellite television providers Dish Network and DirecTV provide both stations across the entire market, and WZZM is also on cable in Battle Creek.
In local news, the station had a highly regarded news department from the 1960s through the 1980s; its original news director stayed on for the first 25 years of its history. While the station continues to be competitive, particularly in the Grand Rapids area northward, coverage shortfalls in the south and the aggregate nature of the television market have made WOOD-TV the overall market news leader since the 1990s. The station maintains a lit weather ball displayed near its Walker studios.
In 1959, the Atlas Broadcasting Company was organized to pursue the addition of a third very high frequency (VHF) station in West Michigan. It applied to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), proposing the addition of channel 13 to Grand Rapids. The station would transmit from an area near Muskegon, north of Grand Rapids, where it would be appropriately spaced to WSPD-TV in Toledo, Ohio, and WREX-TV in Rockford, Illinois; FCC regulations required the transmitter to be located at least 170 miles (274 km) from competing stations on that frequency. Atlas also proposed moving WWTV in Cadillac to channel 9, where it would still be appropriately spaced to CKLW-TV in Windsor, Ontario. The FCC approved this allocation change in 1961; it replaced channel 9 in Alpena with channel 6. The placement of the channel at Grand Rapids attracted interest even before the insertion was final. By the end of 1960, three groups had incorporated with an eye toward filing for channel 13, including West Michigan Telecasters—consisting of 24 shareholders with Lewis V. Chamberlain, Jr. as president—whose final application was filed in October 1961. One of the shareholders was L. William Seidman, then on the board of directors of Grand Valley State College and later chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Some of the stockholders were from Muskegon; the group promoted the northerly transmitter site as a bonus, noting that there were no local stations in Muskegon and that other communities such as Grand Haven and Holland were also underserved. West Michigan was one of six applicants to file by the end of 1961, alongside Atlas (which also owned Grand Rapids–area radio station WMAX); Grand Broadcasting Company, which counted former WLAV and WLAV-TV owner Leonard Versluis among its stockholders as well as former FCC counsel Mary Jane Morris; Major Television Company; MKO Broadcasting Company; and Peninsular Broadcasting Company.
In its order assigning channel 13 to Grand Rapids, the FCC indicated its willingness to accept proposals for interim operating authority to hasten the construction of the station. This meant that the comparative hearing process and construction would run in parallel. Days after filing its permanent bid, West Michigan Telecasters also proposed interim operating authority. Major and Atlas both withdrew in August 1962; the four remaining contenders formed Channel 13, Grand Rapids, Inc., which received interim authority that same month. The interim station originally chose the call letters WIIM-TV, but WJIM-TV in Lansing objected, resulting in the choice of WZZM as the call sign. Construction rapidly proceeded, and from studios in the Pantlind Hotel downtown, WZZM made its first broadcast on November 1, 1962, an ABC affiliate from the start.
While WZZM was on the air, the applicants wrangled at the FCC over permanent authority to run it. In May 1963, an FCC hearing examiner gave Grand Broadcasting Company the nod in his initial decision, citing its superior integration of ownership and management, a comparative criterion analyzing the involvement of owners in station operations. The FCC itself, however, instead selected West Michigan Telecasters in April 1964, citing its principals' involvement in civic affairs and research into local public service programming. The company then settled with the other applicants, ultimately paying them between $360,000 and $390,000 apiece, and on January 25, 1965, it became the sole owner of WZZM. After the award, West Michigan Telecasters proceeded with its plans to build a studio in Muskegon.
After a plan to merge with Basic Communications Inc. and Eccentric magazine in Birmingham, Michigan, fell through, West Michigan Telecasters merged with two publishing companies in 1969 to form Synercom Communications Corporation. In 1971, WZZM-TV finally left the Pantlind and moved to purpose-built studios. The 38,500-square-foot (3,580 m2) facility also housed WZZM-FM, which West Michigan Telecasters had acquired in 1966, and the station's production arm. Synercom then spun West Michigan Telecasters and the WZZM stations out as its own company in 1973, including Elinor Bunin Productions, a New York City film production house.
West Michigan Telecasters entered into an agreement to sell WZZM-TV to Wometco Enterprises for $14 million in 1976, with WZZM-TV becoming Wometco's fourth television property. The acquisition closed in January 1978; WZZM-FM was split from the television station by West Michigan Telecasters and sold to separate interests. Wometco was then taken private in a leveraged buyout by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) in 1984.