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WLAJ is the ABC-affiliated television station for the Central Lower Peninsula of Michigan that is licensed to Lansing. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 25 (or virtual channel 53.1 via PSIP) from a transmitter, on Baseline Road near Rives Township's Berryville section, along the Jackson and Ingham County line. Owned by Shield Media, the station is operated through joint sales and shared services agreements by Media General as a sister outlet to CBS affiliate WLNS-TV. The two stations share studios on East Saginaw Street/BL I-69/M-43 in Lansing's Eastside section (along U.S. 127). Syndicated programming on WLAJ includes ''Family Feud'', ''The Ellen DeGeneres Show'', ''Maury'', and ''The Wendy Williams Show'', among others. ==History== WLAJ began broadcasting on October 13, 1990, operating from a converted appliance store. The station was originally owned by Joel Ferguson, the founding owner of the market's first independent station, WFSL-TV (now Fox affiliate WSYM-TV). Ferguson had used the proceeds from the sale of WFSL to launch WLAJ. Before 1990, Lansing had been one of the biggest markets in the United States without a full-time ABC affiliate, even though it had been large enough to support three full network affiliates since at least the 1960s. WJRT-TV in Flint served as the default station for the area from its 1958 sign-on until WLAJ debuted, and WFSL had briefly carried a few ABC programs as well. Other parts of the market received ABC from WUHQ-TV (now WOTV) in Battle Creek and WXYZ-TV in Detroit. As a condition to the station receiving an ABC affiliation, its transmitter had to be located so that there was minimum overlap between the WJRT and WLAJ signals. Ferguson eventually sold a half-stake in WLAJ to Granite Broadcasting in 1996. Granite had the option of buying out the rest of WLAJ, which it exercised six months later after a brief court battle when the owners of the transmitter site tried to stop the sale from taking place. The station was sold to Freedom Communications in 1999. In 2005, a company-wide consolidation of operations at its stations resulted in the move of WLAJ's master control and most other internal operations to the studios of sister station WWMT in Kalamazoo. This left behind a skeleton crew of six people out of what began with eighty staffers in Lansing. Additionally, WWMT's President and General Manager, James Lutton, took over the same capacity at WLAJ after the departure of Ross Reardon. In September 1998, alongside the launch of The WB 100+, WLAJ began operating a cable-only affiliate of The WB which was part of the national service. This was available exclusively on Comcast channel 30, had its own logo, and used the "WBL" call sign in a fictional manner. From 2002 until 2006, the internal operations (such as advertising sales) of UPN affiliate WHTV were housed at WLAJ's studios. That station then relocated to the WLNS facility after entering into a joint sales agreement with WLNS' then-owner Young Broadcasting. On January 24, 2006, The WB and UPN announced that the networks would end broadcasting and merge. The new combined network would be called The CW. The letters would represent the first initial of its corporate parents: CBS (the parent company of UPN) and the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner. On February 22, News Corporation announced that it would start up another new network called MyNetworkTV. This new service, which would be a sister network to Fox, would be operated by Fox Television Stations and its syndication division Twentieth Television. MyNetworkTV was created in order to give UPN and WB stations, not mentioned as becoming CW affiliates, another option besides becoming Independent. It was also created to compete against The CW. MyNetworkTV was launched on September 5 and former UPN affiliate WHTV joined the network. This left WBL to affiliate with The CW via The CW Plus, a service similar to The WB 100+, on September 18. On that date, WLAJ created a new second digital subchannel to simulcast WBL and offer non-cable subscribers access to The CW. That channel then began using the WLAJ-DT2 call letters in an official manner and relocated to Comcast channel 5. On September 24, 2007, WLAJ was re-branded as "ABC 3" since most Lansing-area cable providers carry it on channel 3. The logo introduced at that time featured the number "53" but emphasized its cable slot ("3") more than the over-the-air channel. WOTV used a similar logo at the time. On April 7, 2008, a new image makeover including a new logo, similar to WWMT's, but with the hidden "5" like the previous logo was launched. It eventually dropped the hidden "5". WLAJ was unusual for airing ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'' at 5 o'clock instead of her traditional 4 p.m. timeslot. The series ended on May 25, 2011, and ''Ellen'' replaced ''Oprah'' on WLAJ. WLAJ also aired ESPN Plus' Big Ten college football coverage until the launch of the Big Ten Network. While most ABC affiliates in Michigan saw their college football coverage reduced to primarily the network's games, WLAJ and WLAJ-DT2 have in recent years become the Lansing affiliate of the Central Michigan University Chippewas and the Western Michigan University Broncos. Today, whenever a football game involving either CMU or WMU kicks off at noon the game airs on WLAJ as a lead-in to ABC's college football coverage. All other CMU and WMU football games air on WLAJ-DT2. Freedom announced on November 2, 2011 that it would bow out of television and sell its stations, including WLAJ, to the Sinclair Broadcast Group. The deal closed on April 2, 2012, but only six months later (on October 11), Sinclair filed to sell WLAJ to Shield Media (owned by White Knight Broadcasting Vice President Sheldon Galloway). After the sale's completion, the station then entered into shared services and joint sales agreements with Young Broadcasting-owned WLNS. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted its approval of the assignment of license on December 4 and the sale was consummated on March 1.〔http://licensing.fcc.gov/prod/cdbs/pubacc/Auth_Files/1525554.pdf〕〔https://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101543781&formid=905&fac_num=36533〕 Consummation of the transaction resulted in Young controlling four of the six largest English-language network affiliates in Lansing (CBS, ABC, The CW, and MyNetworkTV). The stations carrying the other two (NBC and Fox) remain separate operations although those two outlets have a news share agreement in place. On April 1, 2013, WLAJ's master control moved from WWMT's studios to the WLNS facility in Lansing. Most internal operations moved to WLNS as well. WLAJ also shut down its local advertising sales office and former news studio on South Pennsylvania Avenue. In effect, the move reunited WHTV's intellectual unit with WLAJ since the former station was once housed at the ABC outlet's studios. However, WLNS technically operated WHTV through a separate outsourcing arrangement from WLAJ that was already established.〔http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/62846/young-piecing-together-triopoly-in-lansing〕〔http://www.wlns.com/story/20533324/wlaj-station-contact-information〕 In August 2013, WLAJ returned to branding itself as "ABC 53" using the updated ABC logo. Young Broadcasting would merge with Media General on November 12, 2013. As a result of these changes, WHTV announced that it would not renew its operational outsourcing agreement with WLNS.〔http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/document/view?id=7520938710〕 In July 2014, WHTV entered into a new local marketing agreement with WSYM (then owned by the Journal Broadcast Group) and relocated its advertising sales operation to that outlet's studios.〔http://www.jrn.com/fox47news/news/sports/New-Brand-Coming-to-FOX-47-Partner-Station-My18-Launching-this-September-269377541.html〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「WLAJ」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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