WLAJ

WLAJ

Lansing–Jackson, Michigan United States
City	Lansing, Michigan
Channels	Digital: 14 (UHF), shared with WLNS-TV Virtual: 53
Branding	ABC 53 Lansing CW5 (53.2)
Programming
Affiliations	53.1: ABC 53.2: CW+
Ownership
Owner	Mission Broadcasting, Inc.
Operator	Nexstar Media Group via SSA
Sister stations	WLNS-TV
History
Founded	March 8, 1982 (1982-03-08)
First air date	October 13, 1990 (34 years ago) (1990-10-13)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 53 (UHF, 1990–2009) Digital: 51 (UHF, 2002[1]–2015);[2] 25 (UHF, 2015[3]–2020)
Call sign meaning	Lansing and Jackson[4]
Technical information[5]
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	36533
ERP	950 kW
HAAT	289.8 m (951 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	42°41′19″N 84°22′35″W / 42.68861°N 84.37639°W / 42.68861; -84.37639
Links
Public license information	Public file LMS
Website	www.wlns.com/my-abc-is-wlaj/

WLAJ (channel 53) is a television station in Lansing, Michigan, United States, affiliated with ABC and The CW Plus. It is owned by Mission Broadcasting, which maintains a shared services agreement (SSA) with Nexstar Media Group, owner of CBS affiliate WLNS-TV (channel 6), for the provision of certain services. WLAJ and WLNS-TV share studios on East Saginaw Street on Lansing's Eastside; the stations transmit using WLAJ's spectrum from a tower on Van Atta Road in Okemos, Michigan.

WLAJ went on the air in 1990, though the construction permit had been awarded in 1981. The dormant permit was bought by Joel Ferguson, a Lansing developer and politician who had previously started WSYM-TV (channel 47) in 1982. Though channel 47 was the Lansing area's third station, the ABC network refused to grant it an affiliation to protect existing ABC affiliates in Detroit, Flint, and Battle Creek. WLAJ won the ABC affiliation in part because its signal pattern was designed to avoid overlap. The station started airing local newscasts shortly after signing on, but the newscasts failed to attract viewers and were discontinued after 17 months. Under the management of Granite Broadcasting and for most of the ownership of Freedom Communications, WLAJ produced local newscasts featuring more unconventional formats but could not pull viewers from the dominant WLNS-TV and WILX-TV, and the last independent newscast effort was discontinued in September 2009.

Sinclair Broadcast Group acquired Freedom in 2012 but spun WLAJ off to Shield Media, which in turn entered into the shared services agreement with WLNS-TV. Channel 53 began airing simulcasts of that station's morning and evening newscasts. Mission Broadcasting, a company known for operating stations on behalf of Nexstar, acquired WLAJ from Shield in 2020.