WLAJ-DT2 - History

History

The station signed-on as "WBL" in September 1998 alongside the launch of The WB 100+. WLAJ provided advertising sales and promotional opportunities to this outlet which was originally seen on Comcast channel 30 and had its own logo. Since it was a cable-exclusive outlet, the call sign was not officially recognized by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The arrangement was established during a period when The WB deployed various network stations outside the top 100 markets as cable-only channels.

On January 24, 2006, The WB and UPN announced that the two networks would end broadcasting and merge. The new combined service would be called The CW. The letters would represent the first initial of 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 launched on September 5 at which point former UPN affiliate WHTV joined the network. This left "WBL" to affiliate with The CW through The CW Plus (a national programming service similar to The WB 100+) on September 18. WLAJ then created a new second digital subchannel to simulcast WBL and offer over-the-air viewers access to the new network. As a result of the addition, this station began using the WLAJ-DT2 call sign in an official manner and also relocated to the more desirable channel 5 slot on Comcast systems.

On December 4, 2012, WLAJ (and this CW-affiliated subchannel) was sold from the Sinclair Broadcasting Group to Shield Media, LLC (owned by White Knight Broadcasting Vice President Sheldon Galloway). Shield then entered into certain shared services and joint sales agreements with Young Broadcasting (owner of WLNS). At some point in February 2013, WLAJ moved from its separate offices and original studios on South Pennsylvania Avenue into the WLNS facility.

In addition, master control and most other internal operations of WLAJ (and this CW-affiliated subchannel) moved from the studios of Sinclair-owned WWMT in Kalamazoo to WLNS' facility. 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 operates WHTV through a separate outsourcing arrangement from WLAJ. The individual web addresses of itself and this CW-affiliated subchannel were changed to redirects of WLNS's website.

From September 24, 2007 until September 25, 2009, WLAJ produced a weeknight prime time newscast at 10 on this CW-affiliated digital subchannel. The half-hour program, known as ABC 3 News Live at 10 on CW 5, competed with a sixty minute local newscast seen every night on Fox outlet WSYM-TV (which has all of its news programming produced by NBC outlet WILX-TV). There is no word whether WLNS will bring back a newscast to WLAJ-DT2 even though as of April 1, 2013, the CBS outlet is simulcasting weekday news broadcasts on the main ABC station.