WBYF-TV

Logo used since the sign on of the station

**WBYF-TV** (virtual channel 25, physical channel 9) is a television station licensed to Alpena, Michigan, airing programming from the ABC network. The station, along with Fox affiliate WBYM-TV, are owned by the ABC Media Group. The station’s offices and studios, along with its master control and transmitter, are centralized out of the AMG Northeast Michigan studios in Presque Isle.

## History

### Original affiliate under WBKA, January 2013-2022

On January 24, 2013, WBKA channel 11 announced that its DT3 subchannel would join ABC, to provide an ABC affiliate in all of Alpena. Viewers would need to rescan to receive the channel when it launched and provided ABC programming to all viewers living in Alpena and surrounding areas. Until January 3, 2022, it also aired a morning newscast for only 3 hours a day.

Sometime around January 2018, it began to simulcast WBKA's full suite of newscasts in a manner with the rest of the subchannels on WBKA.

### AMG takeover and channel 25 sign on, 2022-present

Just before 11:00pm Eastern Time that evening on January 3, 2022, the USTV Networks company, which was in the process of revamping and converting LSN to a basic cable network, announced its intention to sign on 5 television stations on channels 18, 25, 31, 35, and 43. The next day, Nexstar and Tegna announced they had agreed to sign on channel 18 (which went to Nexstar and became an NBC affiliate), and channels 35 and 43 (which went to Tegna and became CW and MyNet affiliates). This left USTV the process to sign on channels 25 and 31, who then announced it would affiliate channels 25 and 31 with ABC and Fox.

Ultimately, USTV announced on January 10, 2022, that channels 25 and 31 would launch at the end of WBKA’s current agreement with ABC (May 31, 2022) and Fox (July 31, 2022). The last ABC program to air on WBKA-DT2 was an episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live, and the last Fox program to air on WBKA-DT4 was an episode of Dateline.

On October 10, 2022, both stations launched a combined news operation called **Alpena Newsbeat**, which provided a 30-minute news bulletin, a 15-minute weather bulletin, a 10-minute sports bulletin, and a 5-minute stocks bulletin.

On December 16, 2023, both stations announced new branding set to take effect on January 8, 2024. In addition, WBYM announced a new local gameshow set to air on January 1, 2023.

## Digital signal

The station’s digital signal is multiplexed:

 25.2
 25.3
 25.4

Both stations have signed on after the June 12, 2009, digital transition, WBYF’s being May 31, 2022. WBYF and WBYM also carry the AMG TV Plus extension network, which airs live sports and other programming pre-empted by the two stations.

## News

WBYF and WBYM air the Alpena Newsbeat combined news operation for 64 hours (ABC only) and 143 hours (Fox only) per week, airing newscasts at the following times:

* 4:30-7am (ABC only, Breakfast Television Alpena) and 4:30-9am (Fox only, same name)
* 12nn (ABC and Fox, Alpena Newsbeat at Noon)
* 6pm (ABC and Fox, Alpena Newsbeat Tonight)
* 11pm (ABC and Fox, Alpena Newsbeat Late)

The stations also produce a French-language morning newscast airing at the same time as Breakfast Television Alpena (called Telematin Chaines 25 et 31) and a 6pm newscast in German (called Nachricht 25 und 31).