WNLD

**WNLD**, virtual and UHF digital channel 12, is a New Line Network owned-and-operated station serving Detroit, Michigan, United States. The station is owned by the New Line Stations subsidiary of Warner Bros. Entertainment.

WNLD maintains studio facilities located at 15666 Noecker Way near Reeck Road (south of Goddard Road and east of Allen Road) in Southgate, and it's transmitter on Lincoln Drive between Interstate 696 (Reuther Freeway) and Greenfield Road in Southfield.

## History

### Early years

WNLD signed on on January 22, 1968. WNLD initially leased studio space in the First National Building in downtown Detroit. Originally, in addition to it's New Line programming, WNLD also produced a significant amount of
local programming that ranged from music and variety to daytime talk, sports, agriculture, current affairs and documentaries.

In 1970, WNLD also became the first station in Michigan to launch a 90-minute early evening newscast, from 5 to 6:30 PM. WNLD originally branded as *WNLD, Channel 12*, and in 1975 it began branding as *Detroit's TV12*. On September 1, 1975, WNLD opened it's current studio building on what was then Carbidex Road (the then-address was 15666 Carbidex Road) and began using Al Ham's *Move Closer to Your World* as it's news theme.

A 1985 funding crunch decimated all locally produced programs by WNLD and fellow New Line O&Os except for most news, even though WNLD was among the network's most successful stations. The 90-minute early evening newscast, by then known as *TV12 Twilight Newscap*, remained as well as late and weekend news programs, but the music (including *Detroit Video Sounds*, WNLD's answer to MTV), variety, and morning news programs were all canceled. In 1990, in order to fund the purchasing of a 52% stake in the television production company RHI Entertainment (now Sonar Entertainment), New Line reduced WNLD's news operation to a single 15-minute newscast at 10 PM.

Only three reporters remained at WNLD. The station started airing at 6 PM *New Line Evening News*, an out-of-market and Eastern Time Zone-specific renaming of Central Time-based WCNL's newscast, *Live at 5* (the *New Line Evening News* name was quickly applied to this newscast within the Chicago market as well).

### The Detroit Project

With an editorial and tech staff of about 32, New Line began adding newscasts to WNLD in pilot project form. New operating methods and new technologies were introduced. This meant videojournalists (cross-skilling) multi-skilling, and the use of non-linear editing technology (AVID newscutters and air-play for news item playback). The Detroit Committee was also formed. This group made up of managers and union reps oversaw the progress of the "project" and dealt with issues that arose on an almost weekly basis. The new methods of the operation paved way for some of the new language in the collective agreements reached when New Line was acquired by the Turner Broadcasting System in 1994 before being acquired by Warner Bros. in 1996.

Detroit was not only in the spotlight in New Line, but also eventually Turner Broadcasting and then Warner Bros., and was also of interest to many other broadcasters and union leaders across the United States. By 1992, WNLND presented the half-hour *Detroit at 5:30*, anchored by Velma French, at 5:30 p.m., and the 90-minute prime-time newscast *Detroit Prime* (WNLND would continue to show the Chicago-based *New Line Evening News* at 6 p.m.). The *Move Closer to Your World* theme was also revived, but it was removed again in November 1998 after New Line started requiring all of the network's O&Os to use the same music themes.

In 1992, WNLND's longtime street, Carbidex Road, was renamed Noecker Way in honor of the station's first general manager, Al Noecker. In the mid-1990s, Turner Broadcasting and later Warner Bros. made significant investments into the New Line Network and it's O&Os.

### Sale of studio

On September 8, 2014, it was announced that Time Warner would be selling its Noecker Way studio complex to a Toledo, Ohio-based developer for $1,425,000. New Line will continue its operations at the complex, leasing 13,000 square feet of the 32,000 square-foot complex from the developer on a ten-year lease. While employees would relocate out of areas not leased by Time Warner, the transition is not expected to be noticed by viewers and listeners.

On March 8, 2017, at around 1:50 p.m., heavy winds sent two large trees through the windows of the studio complex and caused significant damage. All of the station's employees were evacuated and the building had it's power temporarily cut and was shut down until tree-clearing crews were called in to remove the trees. WNLD ran an automated feed of New Line programming for an hour and a half (consisting of *OMG! Fashion* and the first half-hour of an encore repeat of *Denver Fire*), before going dark for about 80 minutes; a satellite relay with WCNL was then established late that afternoon during the final ten minutes of
 a *Supreme Court* encore repeat, and their newscasts were aired in
 place of WNLD's own evening newscasts (with the WCNL anchors acknowledging the expanded audience in the introduction and the Detroit
area added to the weather maps to compensate) until New Line Stations master control operators were able to reestablish a link from the New Line Center to Noecker Way in order to allow the resuming of broadcasting from the studio after most damage was repaired at 2:15 a.m. early the following day.

### Website history

* wnld.newline.com (1996-2000)
* newline12detroit.com (2000-2006)
* news.newlinenetwork.com/detroit (2006-present)

## Gallery

WNLD's logo from 1968-1973.WNLD's logo from 1973-1978.WNLD's logo from 1978-1985.WNLD's logo from 1985-1987.WNLD's logo from 1987-1997.WNLD's logo from 1997-2001.WNLD's logo from 2001-2011.
## Digital television

### Analog-to-digital conversion

WNLD shut down its analog signal at 11:58 a.m. on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate, and flash-cut its digital signal into operation on VHF channel 12 three minutes later at 12:01 p.m., relocating from its pre-transition UHF channel 42.

## News operation

WNLD presently broadcasts 28 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (5 hours on weekdays, and one hour on Sundays). The 11 PM and Saturday 6 PM timeslots simulcast equivalent newscasts from Chicago sister station WCNL.

On October 2, 2000, evening news programming on WNLD and other New Line Network O&Os were reduced to a half-hour each early evening. On this same date, WNLD's newscasts were now referred to under the *New Line News 12* banner, in line with New Line Stations' new standardization plan. With the introduction of *New Line Live* (which began at WNLD before it went national), New Line's new hybrid hour-long early evening newscast at 5 p.m. made its debut, preceding the newly-renamed *New Line News 12 at 6*. National news segments originated from the studios of Los Angeles sister station KNLN and were anchored by Daryl Bell, with the Detroit segment broadcast from the WNLD studios presented by Faye Byrd.

Velma French would move to Chicago to anchor the Chicago segment there; she would later move to New York to co-anchor with Colin Barrett on New Line Network's morning newscast, *New Line Sunrise*. As a result of the early evening news change, New Line's local news operations faced some layoffs – especially WNLD, which terminated ten of its 29 news staffers. Prior to the 2006 format change, *New Line Live* was last locally anchored by Megan Mitchell with Doyle Watson from a state-of-the-art news set inside the WNLD newsroom.

On January 9, 2006, under New Line's ambitious O&O programming expansion initiative, *New Line Live* was cut to a half-hour at 5 PM.

On November 30, 2006, New Line announced plans to discontinue *New Line Live* in February 2007, in favor of 90-minute long early evening local newscasts on its stations. While sister station KNLN Los Angeles kept the *New Line Live* title, WNLD retained the *New Line News 12 at 6* brand rather than returning to its original *New Line News 12 Twilight Newscap* title. Megan Mitchell would continue as lead anchor, with Darnell Jordan on sports and Viola Hubbard reporting on weather and traffic.

In September 2009, most New Line stations began to carry a 120-minute block of local news from 5 to 7 p.m. Eastern Time each weeknight; however, WNLD opted to keep its 90-minute newscast, *New Line News 12 at 5*/*5:30*/*6* (depending on time) from 5 to 6:30 p.m. In addition to the main prime-time 10 p.m. newscast, *New Line News 12 at 10*, WNLD introduced a half-hour 11 p.m. newscast, *New Line News 12 Late Night*, immediately following the 10 p.m. newscast on October 26, 2009. On July 3, 2012, Mitchell announced that she would take a leave of absence for a
 year, as she was adopting a baby girl.

On September 2, 2013, WNLD finally followed the lead of it's
sister stations by expanding its early evening newscast as well to 120 minutes from 5 to 7 p.m., while it discontinued its 11 p.m. newscast in turn (due to competition from CBS owned-and-operated station WDET, ABC owned-and-operated station WGHP-TV, NBC affilate WWDT, and independent station WGPR-TV); this differed from most New Line O&Os in other markets where stations carry both a 120-minute early and 90-minute late evening newscast; in lieu of its own 11 p.m. newscast, WNLD simulcasts the 10 p.m. Central newscast from WCNL instead following WNLD's own hour-long 10 p.m. Eastern newscast. Lola Hines, who previously worked the breaking news desk on New Line News Network, became anchor of the expanded newscast; she replaced Margaret Nichols (who became anchor during Mitchell's maternity leave) as anchor. Hines would herself eventually leave the station by 2016.

### News theme history

* September 1, 1975-1990, 1992-October 31, 1998: Move Closer To Your World (Mayoham Music)
* November 1, 1998-present: Magnum (V.1, V.2, V.3) (615 Music)