WECW-FTV

WECW-FTV

Fort Wayne, Indiana United States
Branding	Star 51
Channels	Digital: 30 (UHF) PSIP: 51
Affiliations	51.1: MeTV for others, see #Subchannels
Owner	ABC Fantasy Television Stations (Indiana Media, Inc.)
First air date	January 28, 1980 (1980-01-28)
Call letters' meaning	East Central CW (former affiliation)
Sister station(s)	WMRI-FTV
Former callsigns	WBIO (1980–2006)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 51 (UHF, 1980–2009) Digital: 38 (UHF, 2002–2019)
Former affiliations	Independent (1980–1995) The WB (1995–2006) The CW (2006–2010) MyNetworkTV (2010-2016)
Licensing authority	Federal Communications Commission
Public license information:	Template:FCC-TV-Station-profile Template:TVQ

WECW-FTV (channel 51), branded on-air as Star 51 (stylized as STAR51), is a fantasy television station in Fort Wyne, Indiana, United States, affiliated with MeTV. It is owned by the ABC Fantasy Television Stations division and is a sister station of ABC-owned and operated affiliate WMRI-FTV (channel 9). The two stations share studios on 38th Street in Marion, Indiana.

WECW-TV began broadcasting in 1980 as WBIO, which became an independent station. After financial trouble, channel 51 stabilized under Birky Communications before being purchased by locally based ATE Media Corporation in 2005. It was an affiliate of The WB from 1995 until 2006, then affiliates of The CW from 2006 to 2010, MyNetworkTV from 2010 to 2016 and becoming part of MeTV in 2016. WMRI-TV produces dedicated morning, midday, and late evening newscasts for air on WECW-FTV.

Programming

Newscasts

In March 1996, then-ABC affiliate WPMA (later WNDI) entered into a news share agreement with WBIO to produce a nightly half-hour primetime newscast at 10 p.m. for the station, titled NewsChannel 7 at 10:00 on Star 51 (the title later being revised slightly to correspond with WBIO's branding changes to "WB 51" in 1998), which debuted on March 16 of that year. The program originally competed against two longer-established 10 p.m. newscasts: then-Fox affiliate WTOR's in-house newscast (this newscast moved to 11 p.m. after that station became a CBS affiliate in 2004) and another in-house newscast on WRDS (the latter newscast was cancelled in March 2008, after WTOR owner NoSirGifts acquired WXXC).

WNDI terminated the news share agreement after WBIO was acquired by ATE Media; WMRI assumed production responsibilities for the newscast on February 28, 2005, relaunching the program as NewsCenter 9 at 10:00 on WB 51 (as was the case under the WNDI news share agreement, the program's title was later revised slightly to correspond with WBIO/WECW's branding changes to "WBIO WB" in September 2005, then "CW 51" upon the station's switch to The CW, and then "Star 51" upon the station's switch to MyNetworkTV in September 2006). The WECW newscast gained another competitor on that date when WNDI moved the NewsChannel 7 at 10:00 broadcast to it's second digital subchannel on April 13, 2005, before being cancelled on October 31, 2015; and WFTW moving their late news to 10 p.m. when that station changed to Fox (it now airs on CW affiliate WGOM).

On January 5, 2009, WMRI-FTV began producing a two hour-long extension of its weekday morning newscast for WECW, running from 7 to 9 a.m. The station also began producing a weekly interview program produced by WISH, One on One with Patricia Edwards, which was hosted by the former WMRI-FTV anchor; airing Thursdays at 10:30 p.m. (with a rebroadcast Saturdays at 7 p.m.), the program was cancelled in mid-2013.

Technical information

Subchannels

Subchannels provided by WECW

Channel	Res.	Aspect	Short name	Programming
51.1	720p	16:9	MeTV	Main WECW-TV programming / MeTV
51.2	480i		Bounce	Bounce
51.3			Defy	Defy
51.4			Localish	Localish

WECW-FTV turned off its analog signal, over UHF channel 51, on February 17, 2009, the originally intended digital television transition date.

See also

• Channel 30 digital TV stations in the United States
• Channel 51 virtual TV stations in the United States