NBC affiliate in South Bend, Indiana
WNDU-TV
(channel 16) is a
television station
in
South Bend, Indiana
, United States, affiliated with
NBC
. It is owned by
Gray Television
alongside
Elkhart
-licensed
Heroes & Icons
affiliate
WSJV
(channel 28). The two stations share studios on the campus of WNDU-TV's founding owner the
University of Notre Dame
along
State Road 933
on South Bend's north side; WNDU-TV's transmitter is located southeast of the
St. Joseph County
Fairgrounds on the city's south side.
The station's studios also house production facilities for the syndicated agricultural news programs
AgDay
and
U.S. Farm Report
, the former of which is broadcast locally by WNDU-TV; WNDU-TV's weather department provides the forecasts seen on those shows.
History
[
edit
]
| This section
needs expansion
with: Further information on the history of WNDU-TV. You can help by
adding to it
.
(
November 2012
)
|
The station first signed on the air on July 15, 1955, originally broadcasting on UHF channel 46. WNDU-TV was owned by the Michiana Television Corporation, a subsidiary of the
University of Notre Dame
. The station took its call letters from WNDU radio (
1490 AM
and 92.9 FM, now
WNDV-FM
), which were also owned by the university until 1998. However, like its radio sisters, it operated as a full-fledged
commercial
station rather than a
non-profit
public broadcaster
(which is standard, and much like fellow NBC affiliate
KOMU-TV
in
Columbia, Missouri
, was and still is; after WNDU-TV was sold, this left KOMU and
WVUA-CD/WVUA
in
Tuscaloosa, Alabama
, as the only commercial TV stations owned by a university). In 1957, to much fanfare, WNDU-TV moved to UHF channel 16.
The station immediately took the NBC affiliation from
WSJV
(channel 28) and has been with the network ever since. WNDU-TV's early broadcast schedule included programs like
Romper Room
and the first local telecast of a
Notre Dame football
game. WNDU aired the children's program
Sesame Street
from 1970 until February 1974, when non-commercial
PBS
member station
WNIT
(channel 34) signed on the air. From 1967 to 1986, WNDU aired
Beyond Our Control
, a locally produced
sketch comedy
program, which was presented as part of the station's involvement in the
Junior Achievement
program.
[2]
The studio at
State Road 933
and Dorr Road opened in 1982.
[3]
On October 18, 1995, as a result of the affiliation changes in the South Bend market, WSJV switched to
Fox
(it disaffiliated from Fox in 2016 and is now a primary
Heroes & Icons
-affiliated station) and W58BT signed on as an
ABC
affiliate; it eventually became
WBND
. WNDU was one of the two stations that retained its network affiliation (the other was
WSBT-TV
, which retained its affiliation with
CBS
).
On November 24, 2005, the University of Notre Dame entered into an agreement to sell the station to
Gray Television
for $85 million in an all-cash deal, with the university placing the money received from the sale in an
endowment
.
[4]
The sale closed on March 5, 2006, after which the
Federal Communications Commission
granted Gray a cross-ownership waiver for WNDU and
Goshen
-based newspaper
The Goshen News
. This was necessary because the FCC prohibits the common ownership of a newspaper and a television station in the same market (Gray eventually spun off the
Times
and four other newspapers the following year into a new company called Triple Crown Media, which was subsequently merged with Host Communications).
[5]
WNDU-TV was named station of the year by the Indiana Broadcasters Association for 2015 and 2016.
[6]
[7]
In September 2015, Gray Television announced that it would purchase
Schurz Communications
for $442.5 million; Schurz had owned WSBT-TV since it began broadcasting in December 1952. Despite WSBT-TV's higher ratings, Gray kept WNDU and sold WSBT-TV to expedite approval of the deal;
[8]
[9]
on October 1, 2015, Gray announced that WSBT-TV would be swapped to
Sinclair Broadcast Group
for
WLUC-TV
in
Marquette, Michigan
.
[10]
[8]
[9]
[11]
The FCC approved the sale on February 12, 2016;
[12]
the transaction would be completed four days later.
[13]
On February 1, 2021, Gray Television announced its intent to purchase
Quincy Media
, owner of Heroes & Icons affiliate WSJV, for $925 million in a cash transaction.
[14]
As WSJV is lower ranked than the top four stations in ratings in the South Bend market, Gray sought a failing station waiver to permit common ownership of both WSJV and WNDU-TV. The sale was completed on August 2.
[15]
Programming
[
edit
]
As an NBC affiliate, WNDU-TV is the home station for the network's broadcast of
Notre Dame football home games
. It produces and airs its own pregame show,
Countdown to Kickoff
, which airs prior to every Notre Dame football home game broadcast on NBC. The station also airs
reruns
of
Inside Notre Dame Football
and
Inside Notre Dame Basketball
, a review show of Notre Dame athletic teams that is produced by
Fighting Irish Media
at the University of Notre Dame.
[16]
Due to an increased focus on news programming, WNDU-TV made room for a three-hour Saturday morning newscast in 1994,
[17]
by airing NBC's teen-oriented program block
TNBC
in early hours of Saturday and Sunday mornings to fulfill
E/I
guidelines. WNDU currently airs the network's
The More You Know
programming block for two of the three hours on Saturday with the final hour airing on Sundays at 7 a.m. In addition, the station's primary channel preempts the
Saturday edition
of
Today
for its Saturday morning newscast with the program airing on its second
digital subchannel
instead; the primary channel airs the Sunday edition of
Today
on a one-hour
delay
in order to accommodate its Sunday morning newscast. Prior to its move to
Peacock
on September 12, 2022, WNDU aired the soap opera
Days of Our Lives
one hour later than most NBC affiliates at 2 p.m. local time.
Programming controversies
[
edit
]
Under Notre Dame's ownership, WNDU opted not to air certain NBC programs out of concerns over inappropriate content. Such shows included the animated series
God, the Devil and Bob
(for content offensive to the religious values of the university) and the
American version
of the
British
sitcom
Coupling
(due to the program's sexual content). The latter series instead aired on WSBT-DT2, then South Bend's
UPN
affiliate, on Thursday nights after UPN programming. Neither show was renewed for a second season. The station also aired the Notre Dame commencement address of
President
Barack Obama
in full on May 17, 2009 (four years after the university sold the station), in lieu of the first half of a
Stanley Cup Playoff
game.
News operation
[
edit
]
WNDU-TV broadcasts a total of
38
+
1
⁄
2
hours of local newscasts each week (with
6
+
1
⁄
2
hours each weekday, four hours on Saturdays and two hours on Sundays). WNDU-TV used a helicopter for its news-gathering purposes from the 1980s through 2006.
[
citation needed
]
On April 21, 2010, starting with its noon newscast, WNDU became the second television station in the South Bend market (behind WSBT-TV) to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in
high definition
.
[18]
On September 4, 2018, WNDU debuted a 4 p.m. newscast.
[19]
As of 2024
[update]
, there were twelve people on the news team and five on the weather team, in addition to there being a sports journalist team.
[20]
Notable former on-air staff
[
edit
]
Technical information
[
edit
]
Subchannels
[
edit
]
The station's signal is
multiplexed
:
WNDU's second digital subchannel formerly carried a
standard-definition
simulcast
of the station's main channel (with limited programming substitutions for shows preempted on the main channel for local programming); the subchannel became affiliated with Antenna TV on July 1, 2013.
Analog-to-digital conversion
[
edit
]
WNDU-TV discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over
UHF
channel 16 on February 17, 2009, the original target date on which full-power television stations in the United States were to
transition from analog to digital broadcasts
under federal mandate (which was later pushed back to June 12, 2009). The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 42,
[22]
[23]
using
virtual channel
16.
As part of the
SAFER Act
,
[24]
WNDU-TV kept its analog signal on the air until March 3 at 7 p.m. to inform viewers of the digital television transition through a loop of
public service announcements
from the
National Association of Broadcasters
.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Facility Technical Data for WNDU-TV"
.
Licensing and Management System
.
Federal Communications Commission
.
- ^
TV Guide
: "One Vice President Resigned Because He Was Failing Algebra", June 9?15, 1973.
- ^
"New News Center"
.
South Bend Tribune
. June 27, 1982.
- ^
WNDU to be sold to Gray Television
,
South Bend Tribune
, November 24, 2005.
- ^
Gray Closes on WNDU Sale
,
Broadcasting & Cable
, March 6, 2006.
- ^
"WNDU earns Station of the Year award"
. Archived from
the original
on March 30, 2019
. Retrieved
February 23,
2017
.
- ^
"2016 Awards ? Indiana Broadcasters Association"
. Archived from
the original
on February 24, 2017
. Retrieved
February 23,
2017
.
- ^
a
b
"Schurz Communications to sell WSBT and other TV, radio stations"
.
South Bend Tribune
.
Schurz Communications
. September 14, 2015
. Retrieved
September 14,
2015
.
- ^
a
b
Kuperberg, Jonathan (September 14, 2015).
"Gray Acquiring TV, Radio Stations from Schurz for $442.5 Million"
.
Broadcasting & Cable
.
NewBay Media
. Retrieved
September 14,
2015
.
- ^
"Gray Television Sells Some, Buys Some"
.
TVNewsCheck
. NewsCheck Media. October 1, 2015
. Retrieved
October 1,
2015
.
- ^
Allen, Kevin (November 2, 2015).
"WSBT Radio Group will have a new owner, again"
.
South Bend Tribune
. Schurz Communications
. Retrieved
January 9,
2016
.
- ^
FCC Approves Gray-Schurz TV Station Deal
.
Broadcasting & Cable
, February 12, 2016, Retrieved February 13, 2016.
- ^
Gray Closes Schurz Acquisition, Related Transactions, And Incremental Term Loan Facility
Press Release,
Gray Television
, Retrieved February 16, 2016.
- ^
Goldsmith, Jill (February 1, 2021).
"Gray Television Acquires Quincy Media For $925 Million In Cash"
.
Deadline Hollywood
. Retrieved
February 21,
2021
.
- ^
Howell Jr., Hilton (August 2, 2021).
"Gray Television Closes Quincy Acquisition"
.
Gray Television
.
Globe Newswire
. Retrieved
August 2,
2021
.
- ^
"Notre Dame Athletics | The Fighting Irish"
.
Notre Dame Fighting Irish - Official Athletics Website
.
- ^
"Times-Union - Google News Archive Search"
.
news.google.com
. Retrieved
November 11,
2017
.
- ^
"NewsCenter 16 now broadcasting in HD"
.
- ^
Ortega, Roly (August 24, 2018).
"Small minor newscast changes… #223"
.
The Changing Newscasts Blog
. Retrieved
October 7,
2018
.
- ^
"Meet the Team"
. WNDU-TV
. Retrieved
March 2,
2024
.
- ^
"RabbitEars TV Query for WNDU"
.
rabbitears.info
.
- ^
"DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds"
(PDF)
. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on August 29, 2013
. Retrieved
March 24,
2012
.
- ^
"CDBS Print"
.
licensing.fcc.gov
.
- ^
"UPDATED List of Participants in the Analog Nightlight Program"
(PDF)
. Federal Communications Commission. June 12, 2009
. Retrieved
June 4,
2012
.
External links
[
edit
]
|
---|
Reception of low-power stations may vary by location and some stations may only be viewable with
cable television
|
Stations
|
- WYGN-LD
(10.1
3ABN
, 10.2
Hope
, 10.3 3ABN Radio, 10.4 Radio 74)
- WNDU-TV
(16.1
NBC
, 16.2
ANT
, 16.3
The365
, 16.4
Outlaw
, 16.5
Defy
, 16.6
Oxygen
, 16.7
Get
)
- WEID-LD
(18.1
Daystar
, 18.2 Daystar Espanol, 18.3 Daystar Reflections)
- WSBT-TV
(22.1
CBS
, 22.2
Fox
, 22.3
Charge!
)
- WCWW-LD
(25.1
CW
, 25.2
Start
, 25.3
This
, 25.4
MeTV+
, 25.5
Story
, 25.12 Info)
- WSJV
(28.1
H&I
, 28.2
Crime
, 28.3
Ion Mystery
, 28.4
Court
, 28.5
Quest
, 28.6
Bounce
, 28.7
Dabl
)
- WNIT
(34.1
PBS
, 34.2 WNIT 2, 34.3
PBS Kids
, 34.4 Weather, 34.5 Edu.)
- WHME-TV
(46.1
Rel.
Ind.
, 46.2
Ion
, 46.3
Grit
, 46.4
Laff
, 46.5
QVC
, 46.6
HSN
)
- KPDS-LD
(49.1
Law & Crime
, 49.2
Scripps News
, 49.3 Info, 49.4
Ion
, 49.5 blank, 49.6 blank)
- WBND-LD
(57.1
ABC
, 57.2
MeTV
, 57.3
Movies!
)
- WMYS-LD
(69.1
MNTV
, 69.2
TMD
from
WYTU-LD1
Milwaukee
, 69.3
Catchy
, 69.4
Nuestra Vision
)
|
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|
NBC
network affiliates licensed to and serving the state of
Indiana
|
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Primary*
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Secondary**
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(*) ? indicates station is in one of Indiana's primary
TV markets
(**) ? indicates station is in an out-of-state TV market, but reaches a small portion of Indiana
|
NBC
network affiliates licensed to and serving the state of
Michigan
|
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Primary*
| |
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Secondary**
| |
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(*) ? indicates station is in one of Michigan's primary
TV markets
(**) ? indicates station is in an out-of-state TV market, but reaches a small portion of Michigan
1
WPBN's signal is rebroadcast on WTOM; WGTU's signal is rebroadcast on WGTQ; both WGTU and WGTQ carry WPBN's programming on a digital subchannel.
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