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|---|---|
| City | Saginaw, Michigan |
| Channels | |
| Branding | NBC 25; Mid Michigan Now |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
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| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| Operator | Sinclair Broadcast Group |
| WBSF, WSMH | |
| History | |
First air date | May 4, 1953 |
Former call signs | WKNX-TV (1953–1972) |
Former channel number(s) |
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Call sign meaning | refers to prior CBS affiliation and eye logo |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 72052 |
| ERP | 300 kW |
| HAAT | 393 m (1,289 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 43°13′1″N 83°43′17″W / 43.21694°N 83.72139°W |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | nbc25news |
WEYI-TV (channel 25) is a television station licensed to Saginaw, Michigan, United States, serving the Great Lakes Bay Region of Central Michigan as an affiliate of NBC. Owned by Howard Stirk Holdings, WEYI-TV is operated by Sinclair Broadcast Group via a shared services agreement (SSA) alongside Flint–licensed Fox affiliate WSMH (channel 66), owned by Sinclair, and Bay City–licensed CW affiliate WBSF (channel 46), owned by Cunningham Broadcasting and operated by Sinclair under a separate SSA. The three stations share studios on West Pierson Road in Mount Morris Township (with a Flint mailing address); WEYI-TV's transmitter is located in Vienna Township along the Genesee–Saginaw county line.
WEYI-TV is the oldest station in the Flint–Saginaw area. It began broadcasting on May 4, 1953, as WKNX-TV on channel 57. Owned by the Lake Huron Broadcasting Corporation and affiliated with CBS, the small local station did not provide primary service to the Flint area for its first two decades of operation. The station moved to the lower channel 25 in 1965. It was purchased in 1972 by the broadcasting division of the Rust Craft Greeting Card Company; Rust Craft changed the call letters to WEYI-TV and built a new studio and high-power transmitter facility near Clio, significantly improving the station's coverage. Rust Craft was purchased by Ziff-Davis in 1979, followed by a leveraged buyout of most of the Ziff-Davis station group in 1982 that formed Television Station Partners. However, by this point, the station was an entrenched distant third in local news ratings; by 1989, the station only had one regular daily newscast.
In 1994, WEYI aggressively relaunched and expanded its news operation, including additional newscasts and the doubling of the news team. In an unrelated move, the station switched affiliations to NBC from CBS in January 1995 after that network signed an agreement with previous NBC affiliate WNEM-TV. Channel 25 was sold four times in eight years from 1996 to 2004; during this time, the news department continued to expand. Under Barrington Broadcasting ownership, the station launched WBSF, originally as a cable- and digital-only service and later as a standalone station to bring The WB and The CW to the market.
Howard Stirk Holdings acquired WEYI in 2013 as part of the purchase of Barrington by Sinclair Broadcast Group, with which Howard Stirk stations contract for services and management. In 2023, layoffs at Sinclair led to the downsizing of the newsroom, which now only produces newscasts on weekday evenings.
- ^ "Facility Technical Data for WEYI-TV". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.