WILX-TV - History

History

The station signed-on March 15, 1959 and was owned by Jackson Telecasters along with WJCO radio (AM 1510, now WJKN). The company was half-owned by Lansing Broadcasting along with WILS-AM 1320.

WILX shared the analog VHF channel 10 frequency with WMSB, an educational station owned by Michigan State University. That outlet was originally WKAR-TV, broadcasting on UHF channel 60. However, it had difficulty getting viewers because television sets were not required to have UHF tuning until 1964. Viewers had to buy an expensive converter to watch WKAR and the picture was not clear even with one. Looking for a way to increase its viewership, MSU agreed to share channel 10 with WILX. As such, WMSB was located on MSU's campus in East Lansing while WILX was licensed to Onondaga with studios in Jackson, the market's second largest city. However, both stations shared the same tower and transmitter in Onondaga.

WILX was on-the-air for 70 percent of the broadcast day, including all of prime time. In the event breaking news occurred, or a sporting event, or special on NBC was scheduled during WMSB's time, that station would often give its time to WILX. This arrangement continued until WKAR changed broadcasting frequencies to UHF channel 23 in 1972. WILX was later sold to Figgie Communications. The station went through several more ownership changes (Adams Television, Brissette Broadcasting, Forward Communications, and Benedek Broadcasting) before it was acquired by current owner Gray Television.

Unlike most (then) two-station markets, WILX did not take a secondary affiliation with ABC. This was because WJRT-TV in Flint decently covered most of Lansing. Meanwhile, Jackson and Hillsdale would not get a clear signal from ABC until WUHQ-TV (now WOTV) signed-on from Battle Creek in 1971. The area would not have an ABC affiliate of its own until WLAJ launched in 1990.

For many years, WILX's main studios were on Springport Road in Jackson while it operated a newsroom in Downtown Lansing. In the early 1960s, it maintained one-camera studios in Battle Creek and Lansing, which originated two-minute local news segments from those cities during the late evening news broadcasts. In the early-1990s under the ownership of Brissette Broadcasting, the station's operations were consolidated into its current studio complex in Lansing on American Road. WILX-TV shut down its analog signal, on February 17, 2009, returning to channel 10.