WDAY-TV

callsign	WDAY-TV
city	Fargo, North Dakota
branding	WDAY; WDAY News, The News Leader WDAY X (6.3)
digital	21 (UHF)
virtual	6
affiliations	6.1: ABC for others, see
country	United States
airdate	May 28, 1953
location	Fargo, North Dakota Moorhead, Minnesota
callsign meaning	taken from former sister radio station WDAY, which was randomly assigned by the FCC‡R1R‡
former channel numbers	Analog: 6 (VHF, 1953–2009)
owner	Forum Communications Company
sister stations	WDAZ-TV
former affiliations	NBC (1953–1983) CBS (secondary, 1953−1954) DuMont (secondary, 1953−1955) ABC (secondary, 1953–1959)
erp	1,000 kW
haat	322 m
facility id	22129
coordinates	47.00778°N, -97.20083°W
licensing authority	FCC
website	https://www.wday.com/

WDAY-TV (channel 6) is a television station in Fargo, North Dakota, United States, affiliated with ABC. It serves as the flagship television property of locally based Forum Communications Company, which also owns The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead. WDAY-TV's studios are located on South 8th Street in downtown Fargo, and its transmitter is located near Amenia.

Semi-satellites

WDAY-TV serves one of the largest geographic viewing areas of any station in the United States. It consists of all of North Dakota as well as northwestern Minnesota, northern South Dakota, eastern Montana, southern Manitoba, Canada including Winnipeg, and far western Ontario, Canada including Kenora. It covers this region with a network of three full-power semi-satellites: WDAZ-TV (channel 8) in Grand Forks, KBMY (channel 17) in Bismarck, and KMCY (channel 14) in Minot, which itself is a semi-satellite of KBMY.

History

The construction on the transmitter tower began on March 1953.[3] WDAY-TV began test broadcasts on May 28, 1953,[4] and officially started its daily schedule on June 1, 1953, as the second television station in North Dakota (after KCJB-TV, now KXMC-TV, in Minot) and the first in Fargo and the eastern part of the state.[5][6] It was owned by a group of Fargo investors led by Norman Black, owner and publisher of The Forum. It took its call letters from WDAY radio, which was owned by The Forum from 1935 to 2024. Black bought the remaining shares in 1958.[7]

It originally carried programming from all four networks of the day–CBS, NBC, ABC and DuMont.[8] However, it was a primary NBC affiliate owing to its radio sister's long affiliation with NBC radio. It lost CBS to KXJB-TV (channel 4) in 1954, lost DuMont later in 1955 as that network was winding up operations, and lost ABC in 1959 when KXGO-TV (channel 11, now KVLY-TV) signed on. In 1983, WDAY-TV swapped affiliations with channel 11, then known as KTHI-TV, and became an ABC affiliate.

Although it was apparent that Fargo and Grand Forks were going to be a single market, channel 6 did not cover the northern portion of this vast market very well. It was required to conform its signal to protect CBC Television's Winnipeg station, CBWT, which took to the air on channel 6 a year after WDAY-TV signed on. As a result, it was barely viewable in northern Grand Forks and could not be seen at all in much of the northern part of the market. To solve this problem, it signed on WDAZ-TV in 1967 as a semi-satellite for the northern portion of the market.

WDAY-TV and WDAZ-TV began operating cable-only WB affiliate "WBFG" in 1998. WDAY/WDAZ replaced The CW Plus successor of "WBFG" with the Justice Network (which moved from 6.4) on new digital broadcast subchannels WDAY 6.2 and WDAZ 8.2 on September 12, 2016, and WDAY'Z Xtra (which launched in 2013) on digital subchannel 6.3 in the Fargo area and 8.3 in the Grand Forks area. WDAY-DT4 returned to the air in 2017 as an affiliate of Ion Television.

WDAY-TV is one of the westernmost stations in the country whose call sign begins with W. Most stations west of the Mississippi River begin with K; however, WDAY radio signed on in 1922, a year before the U.S. government moved the K-W boundary from the state borders between 102 and 104 degrees West longitude (including the North Dakota–Montana border) to the Mississippi River.

News operation and programming

WDAY-TV presently broadcasts 36 1/2 hours of locally produced newscasts and other programming each week (with 6 1/2 hours each weekday, 2 1/2 hours on Saturdays, and two hours on Sundays). WDAY's newscasts have traditionally led the ratings in the Fargo–Grand Forks market.

WDAZ once had a larger news presence, as it aired separate 5 p.m., 6 p.m., 10 p.m., and weekend newscasts, with the only WDAY newscast airing being the morning First News. WDAZ's weekend news was taken over by WDAY in 2011 and its 5 p.m. weekday newscast was taken over in July 2014.[15][16] The decision to replace the 5 p.m. broadcast was met with an immediate backlash from viewers, including those who circulated a petition on Change.org demanding that Forum restore the local 5 p.m. news to WDAZ.[17]

On February 22, 2012, WDAY-TV began broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition. KBMY and KMCY began airing some of WDAY's newscasts in 2014.

WDAY-TV signs off briefly in the overnight hours; as a result, ABC's overnight news program, World News Now, is not broadcast. The station goes off the air at 3:37 a.m. and signs on again at 4 a.m. to broadcast America This Morning.

In August 2016, WDAY-TV launched a half-hour prime time newscast on its second and third subchannels called WDAY Xtra News at 9. It is simulcast on WDAZ's subchannels in Grand Forks, as well as KBMY/KMCY's subchannels in the Bismarck–Minot market.

On September 11, 2017, WDAY-TV launched a 4 p.m. weekday newscast that is simulcast on sister station WDAZ. It was the first afternoon newscast ever to air in the market.[18]

On November 30, 2018, it was announced that WDAZ would merge its news department with that of WDAY-TV, resulting in the cancellation of WDAZ's separate 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts, effective December 21. General manager Joshua Roher cited "changes to distribution of television, emerging technologies and economic factors in our area" as reasons for the consolidation, in a statement to the Grand Forks Herald. WDAY-TV continues to maintain a news bureau and sales office in Grand Forks.[19][20]

On September 5, 2021, WDAY-TV launched a Sunday morning newscast that is simulcast on sister stations WDAZ and KBMY/KMCY. It was the first Sunday morning newscast to air in the market.

Past on-air staff

Ed Schultz

WDAY-TV

Semi-satellites

WDAZ-TV

KBMY/KMCY

History

WDAY X

News operation and programming

Past on-air staff

Technical information and subchannels

Analog-to-digital conversion

See also

External links

References