History
The station was assigned the call letters of WSMH on September 27, 1984. WSMH signed on in March 1985 as an independent station. A fire at the transmitter in April 1985 force the station to go off the air for about 1 month until repairs could be effected. On October 6, 1986, it became a charter Fox affiliate. Sinclair Broadcast Group bought the station in 1996. From 1990 to 1997, WSMH was the Mid-Michigan provider of the now defunct syndication package Disney Afternoon.
The retransmission agreement between the Sinclair Broadcast Group and Comcast was set to expire on February 5, 2007. An extension was granted twice so the sides could negotiate. During the talks, Comcast stated that it would not pay cash for retransmission rights but were willing to give free commercial time to WSMH in exchange for retransmission rights. On March 9, Sinclair and Comcast signed a new deal to extend retransmission rights for four years to expire on March 1, 2011.
WSMH shut down its analog signal and became digital exclusive on May 21, 2009.
Per a new five-year carriage agreement reached between owner Sinclair Broadcast Group and the Fox Broadcasting Company on May 15, 2012, WSMH will remain a Fox affiliate until at least December 31, 2017.
In late 2010 and early 2011 with new carriage deals by owner Sinclair, WSMH added two music video networks to its digital subchannels, TheCoolTV on 66.2 and The Country Network on 66.3.
On the afternoon of August 31, 2012, TheCoolTV was dropped from all 32 Sinclair stations that carried the channel, including WSMH, with no replacement.
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