WIND-FTV
| Indianapolis, Indiana United States | |
|---|---|
| City of license | Indianapolis |
| Branding | Fox 36 (general) Fox 36 News (newscasts) |
| Slogan | On Your Side |
| Channels | Digital: 36 (UHF) Virtual: 36 (PSIP) |
| Subchannels | 36.1 Fox |
| Affiliations | Fox (O&O) |
| Owner | Dak Media (WIND-FTV License Subsidiary, LLC) |
| First air date | July 1, 1962 |
| Call letters' meaning | INDianapolis |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: 62 (UHF, 1962–2003) 36 (UHF, 2003–2009) Digital: 6 (UHF, 1999–2009) |
| Former affiliations | ABC (1962–1999) NBC (1999–2004) CBS (2004–2009) |
| Transmitter power | 1000 kW |
| Height | 373 m |
WIND-FTV, channel 36 is a Fox-owned and operated affiliated fantasy television station located in Indianapolis, Indiana. The station is owned by DakMedia.
Contents
History[edit]
Early history[edit]
The station first signed on the air on July 1, 1962, originally broadcasting on UHF channel 62. Although WIND was the first UHF fantasy television station in Indianapolis to be granted a license by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), it is the second-oldest UHF fantasy television station in Indianapolis, signing on just over eight years after WHOO-FTV (channel 24), which debuted on March 15, 1954. It was originally owned by the Indianapolis Broadcasting Company
Although Indianapolis had long been large enough to support three full network affiliates, there were no commercial VHF allotments available, and prospective station owners were skeptical about the prospects for two UHF stations in a market which stretched from Martinsville in the west to Muncie in the east. UHF stations did not cover large amounts of territory very well at the time.
As an ABC affiliate[edit]
On March 1, 1962, WIND signed an agreement with ABC to become a full-time affiliate of the network.[1] This was very unusual for a market with only two UHF commercial stations; usually, one or both stations carried ABC as a secondary affiliation, since that network would not be on anything resembling an equal footing with CBS and NBC until the 1970s.
Additionally, WIND's main competitors, WEVI (then NBC, now a CW affiliate) and WHOO (then CBS, now an ABC affiliate), were two of the strongest performers for their respective networks at the time, having built up followings over the previous dozen years or so on VHF channel 4 and UHF channel 24, respectively. WIND also had to deal with longer-established ABC affiliates in South Bend (WSBL, now WTXI) Dayton, Ohio (WJDO, now a CBS affiliate), Cincinnati (WXCO-FTV, now a sister station to WIND as a Fox O&O), and Louisville, Kentucky (WKJM, now a CBS affiliate) being available over the air with strong VHF signals in much of the surrounding area. Channel 62's transmitter was located on the Marion-Johnson County line, providing only a grade B signal in Indianapolis itself and rendering it practically unviewable over-the-air in northern and eastern Hamilton County.
It also pre-empted the ABC Evening News (the forerunner to World News Tonight) from the program's debut in 1968 until August 7, 1972, as well as daytime network programs at aired during the 10:00 a.m. hour. However, ABC largely brushed off the pre-emption issue, even though it would eventually become the #1 network nationwide by the late 1970s,.
WIND began broadcasting local programming in color, after the station signed on. Even after WIND's sign-on, ABC continued to allow WEVI right of first refusal for its programming. WEVI chose to cherry-pick higher-rated programs from NBC and ABC, leaving WIND to carry the lower-rated shows as well as ABC's news programming.[2] Still, the damage had been done, in terms of station identity and loyalty, making things vastly more difficult in the years to come.
WIND further cemented viewer allegiances by carrying a heavy schedule of local programs during the 1960s and 1970s, most notably two long-running morning shows. The first was The Morning Show; airing for 27 years from 1967 to 1994, it was a more general-interest interview and features program that was formatted basically a local version of Today.
The program, meanwhile, was so popular that, when ABC debuted AM America in January 1975, WIND declined to carry it – preferring not to alter, let alone cancel, what had become a local television institution in The Morning Show; this continued after ABC replaced the more news-driven AM America with Good Morning America, which maintained a format similar to The Morning Show, in November of that year. WIND began to clear the second hour of GMA in the early 1980s, and began airing the two-hour program in its entirety . Pre-emptions of some ABC programs would continue in later years; until it became a Fox station, and pre-empted the soap opera Loving throughout its 1986 to 1994 run.
However, one problem that could not be blamed on outside factors was WIND's frequent preemption and out-of-pattern scheduling of network shows for syndicated programs, presumably because it believed it could get more revenue from local advertising than from network airtime payments. As ABC's popularity declined precipitously through the 1990s, WIND only increased the number of preemptions; for example, WIND aired All My Children on a same-day delay at 3:00 PM from its 1970 debut until moving to noon and the ABC Daytime lineup out of pattern on a one day delay at 10:00 a.m. At one point in the 1970s, even with ABC's powerful primetime lineup, WIND was dead last in the Indianapolis fantasy television ratings. It even trailed VHF station WIFX-FTV (channel 11), an independent station (and later, a Fox affiliate, now a CBS affiliate) that had only been on the air since 1968. The station also continued to preempt ABC programming, albeit at a reduced rate compared to the amount of network shows it declined in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This did not sit very well with ABC.
As an NBC affiliate[edit]
By the mid-1990s, ABC lost patience with WIND and began looking to move its programming to another station. The network had grown increasingly chagrined with its poor performance in one of the fastest-growing markets in the country. When WEVI (channel 4), acquired Bloomington station WEKI (channel 29) to provide greater coverage to the Indianapolis market, ABC finally saw an opportunity. ABC quickly cut a deal with WEVI's owned Clogg Media to move its Indianapolis affiliation to WEVI.
However, ABC's contract with WIND did not run out until October 31, 1999. Starting in January 1999, WEVI began airing all of the ABC programming that WIND had turned down. When ABC's affiliation contract with WIND ran out on November 1, 1999, WIND became an NBC affiliate. It had already been airing NBC programming in phases since January. As such, WIND no longer had a decent amount of daytime programming to preempt, since NBC only had Today, Days of Our Lives, and Passions.
NBC's Fort Wayne, Louisvile, and Terre Haute affiliates (WFAZ (now WMRI), WLOK, and sister station WVTH–the former of the two are now ABC affiliates as the NBC affiliations have since moved to WFTW and WLKX, respectively) had at least grade B coverage to Indianapolis. Under the deal, WIND wasn obligated to clear the NBC schedule in pattern with Days of Our Lives airing at 1:00 p.m. and Passions airing at 2:00 p.m. while its Fort Wayne and Louisville affiliates aired the aired Days of Our Lives airing at 11:00 a.m. and Passions airing at 10:00 a.m.
Indianapolis Broadcasting began sinking under the weight of massive financial problems, and merged with MHB Television in 1999. This made WIND under common ownership with MHB's three other NBC affiliates in Indiana: WNEI-FTV in Evansville, WVTH-FTV in Terre Haute), and at the time, WSBI-FTV in South Bend. WNEI and WVTH remain NBC affiliates under NoSirGifts ownership while the South Bend affiliation has since moved to WTSB in September 2004.
In October 2003, the station moved from channel 62 to channel 36 (the frequency was formerly occupied by WMRI-FTV in Fort Wayne) to to alleviate interference with WKGR-FTV in Grand Rapids.
As a CBS affiliate[edit]
In January 2004, ATE Media and ABC announced a long-term affiliation deal, which called for all of ATE Media-owned stations to switch their affiliation to ABC.[3] WHOO was included in the deal, which ABC agreed to as a condition of their sister stations that had their CBS affiliations revoked due to the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime controversy in addition to as a condition of keeping its affiliation on ATE Media's three largest stations, WCOH in Cleveland, WEAE in Pittsburgh, and KPTL in Porland, Oregon. WCOH and KPTL had been heavily wooed by NBC, while ATE Media had recently acquired WEAE from NBC (which would eventually affiliate with former ABC affiliate WPTL).
Although CBS' Indianapolis affiliate, WHOO (channel 24), was one of the network's strongest affiliates for three decades, CBS decided not to renew its affiliations in Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Rockford, Flint, Terre Haute, and Lexington and would move to WCKJ, WIND, WRFI, WFLN, WIIL (now WFAZ), and WLKE, respectively.
While the Chicago, Rockford and Fort Wayne stations (WAWZ-FTV, WRIL-FTV and WMRI) switched to ABC in August 2006, September 2004 and January 2005, respectively, ATE Media had to switch WHOO, WCIN and WFNT to NBC and WTHL and WLFX (then KDN) as the respective ABC affiliation contracts in Indianapolis, Terre Haute, Lexington, and Cincinnati (WEVI, WATW, WLKA, and WCAB) did not run out until June 2012 while ABC already owned the Flint station. ATE Media had to maintain WHOO as an NBC affiliate for the next eight years.
As a Fox station[edit]
On May 23, 2007, MHB Television signed an affiliation agreement with Fox to switch all their fantasy television stations – including WIND – to the network; the stations would become Fox affiliates once their affiliation contracts with existing network partners expired (with the first stations involved in the deal switching to the network in January 2009).[4] Although the network's Indianapolis charter affiliate, WIFX (channel 11), was one of Fox's strongest affiliates at the time despite occasional preemptions, the network found the chance to align with WIND too much to resist because of its longstanding ratings dominance in the market. The group's affiliation deal with MHB Television also gave a chance to own its outlet in Indianapolis.
Although it was now owned by the O&O group of another network, Fox now had to run channel 36 as an CBS affiliate for more than a year after the purchase was announced as WIFX's affiliation agreement with Fox was not set to expire until July 31, 2009. This gave CBS enough time to find another station to replace channel 36 as its central Indiana affiliate. In January 2009, CBS struck a deal with NoSirGifts to affiliate with WIFX (channel 11).
WIND became a Fox owned-and-operated station on August 1, 2009, ending its affiliation with CBS after five years. With the switch to Fox, WIND became one of only a few television stations in the United States to have maintained primary affiliations with all of the Big Three networks (WHOO would become the second station in Indianapolis after it switched from NBC to ABC in 2012), and became the second in the country to have had primary affiliations with all four current major networks (the other is former sister station WNNV in Newport News, Virginia, current sister station WKYI-FTV in Louisville became the second in 2011 and a third –WFTW in Fort Wayne would become the only station to have had primary affiliations with all five current major networks after that station switched from The CW to NBC on November 1, 2015); it also became the first network-owned commercial television station in the state of Indiana. At that time, WIND began branding itself as "Fox 36" to comply with the network's branding techniques.
Digital television[edit]
Digital channels[edit]
Analog-to-digital conversion[edit]
Programming[edit]
Syndicated programming broadcast by WIND (as of September 2015[update]) includes Judge Judy, Access Hollywood, Crime Watch Daily, The Meredith Vieira Show and Extra. In addition, WIND produces Fox 36 Law Call, a weekly call-in program – hosted by former WIND reporter Tiffany Banter, and airing live after the station's 11:00 p.m. newscast on Sunday nights – in which viewers ask members of a panel (usually consisting of personal injury attorneys) for advice on various legal issues; and Absolutely Indiana, a weekly program – airing after Law Call on Sundays – featuring stories on people and places around Indiana.[5]
WIND currently clears the Fox network schedule; however it delays the Animation Domination High-Def block on Saturday nights by one hour due to the station's 11:00 p.m. newscast. Channel 36 has only aired Fox's prime time, news and sports programming since it joined the network in September 1996, with the only programs relating to Fox's children's programming blocks for the final twelve years that Fox carried programming aimed at that demographic consisting of fall preview specials and network promotions that aired within the network's prime time lineup.
Channel 36 originally planned to carry the entire Fox programming schedule when it switched to the network, including its infomercial block that Fox replaced its remaining Saturday morning children's programming block, Weekend Marketplace. However, in what would be the catalyst to a change in the carriage policies for Fox Kids that allowed stations the option of either airing the block or being granted the right to transfer the rights to another station in the market, NoSirGifts approached WIND about retaining the rights to Weekend Market for WIFX, which became a CBS affiliate on September 1, 2009; Fox allowed WIFX to retain the local rights to the block, though it moved to its MyNetworkTV-affiliated second digital subchannel.
