CBS To Relaunch News Department At Detroit Station, 20 Years After Shutting It Down

ViacomCBS VIAC is relaunching the news department for WWJ-TV, the CBS affiliate in Detroit, 20 years after it was shut down.

What Happened: WWJ-TV is the only major network owned-and-operated station that does not have its own news department. According to a Variety report, the station will get a news department in either the late summer or early fall of 2022.

“We view this as an unprecedented opportunity to start from scratch at a large-market, network-owned station and build the newsroom of the future — where we focus first on streaming and then have our content flow like water across our linear broadcast, digital and social media platforms,” said Wendy McMahon, president and co-head of CBS News and Stations.

See Also: Benzinga Live: How To Play FOMC Meeting $$$

Why It Happened: WWJ-TV first went on the air in 1975 as the independent station WGPR, and it made history as the first U.S. television station that was wholly owned by an African American media company. But the station was plagued for years by low viewership numbers, problems with its broadcast signal and a tight operating budget.

The station was acquired by CBS in 1995 for $24 million after the network’s Detroit outlet, WJBK, changed its affiliation to Fox FOX. WGPR was given the new call letters WWJ, which was used by CBS’ all-news radio station in Detroit.

After the first merger between CBS and Viacom in 1999, the latter’s Detroit station WKBD began producing a newscast for WWJ, which never had its own news department. WKBD was shuttered in 2002, leaving WWJ without an evening newscast, although it produced a morning newscast from 2009 to 2012 with headlines, weather and traffic culled from the Detroit Free Press and WWJ Radio.

WWJ — which is being branded as “CBS 62” as part of its content upgrade — will offer a 24/7 streaming service featuring live local news coverage from 4 a.m. to 11:35 p.m. daily. The station will also broadcast live CBS News Detroit newscasts 40 hours per week during the early morning, midday, early evening and late news time periods.

“The time has come for our Detroit employees and the communities served by CBS 62 to have a full-fledged news department that utilizes the latest advances in newsgathering and streaming technology and a team of multi-skilled journalists who will be embedded in neighborhoods across the market,” said Adrienne Roark, president of CBS Stations.