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| City | Onondaga, Michigan |
| Channels | |
| Branding | WILX 10; News 10 |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
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| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| History | |
First air date | March 15, 1959 |
Former channel number(s) |
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Call sign meaning | Derived from WILS radio and television |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 6863 |
| ERP | 30 kW |
| HAAT | 298.5 m (979 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 42°26′33″N 84°34′21″W / 42.44250°N 84.57250°W |
| Translator(s) | WLNM-LD 29.1 Lansing |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | www |
WILX-TV (channel 10) is a television station licensed to Onondaga, Michigan, United States, serving as the NBC affiliate for the Lansing area. Owned by Gray Television, the station maintains studios on American Road (near I-96) in Lansing, and its transmitter is located in Onondaga. It is also rebroadcast on WLNM-LD (channel 29) in the immediate Lansing area.
Channel 10 was assigned to Onondaga in 1954, triggering a battle among five groups from Lansing and Jackson which sought the channel. Two of them had operated unsuccessful UHF stations in the Lansing area: radio station WILS and Michigan State University (MSU), owner of WKAR-TV (channel 60). The two groups jointly presented the Federal Communications Commission with a proposal to share time between the school and a commercial TV station. After several years of legal battles at the FCC and in Michigan court, channel 10 began broadcasting on this basis on March 15, 1959. The commercial station was WILX-TV, an NBC affiliate owned by the Television Corporation of Michigan with its main studio in Jackson. It leased the transmitter facility from MSU, which operated an educational station for 38 hours a week as WMSB. The arrangement lasted more than 13 years and was ended in 1972, when MSU built the present WKAR-TV on channel 23.
Television Corporation of Michigan sold WILX-TV to A-T-O Communications, later Figgie Communications, in 1978, in the first of five sales in 25 years. The station, long an also-ran in market news ratings, made its first credible showing by poaching sportscaster Tim Staudt from leading station WJIM-TV (channel 6). WILX-TV pulled nearly even, though it continued to be hamstrung by the increasing split of station personnel and resources between Lansing and Jackson. After channel 6 poached two senior executives from channel 10 in 1986, the station's news ratings decreased during the ownership of Adams Communications and Brissette Broadcasting. Under those two companies, the station migrated its operation to Lansing in two phases between 1990 and 1993.
WILX overtook WLNS for the first time in the final months of Benedek Broadcasting ownership before Gray acquired the station in 2002. Its local newscasts have continued to be competitive in the market.
- ^ "Facility Technical Data for WILX-TV". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.