WMYD

Key takeaways

WMYD belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect WMYD to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of WMYD from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

WMYD (channel 20), branded as The Spot – Detroit 20, is an independent television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside ABC affiliate WXYZ-TV (channel 7). The two stations share studios at Broadcast House on 10 Mile Road in Southfield; WMYD's transmitter is located on Eight Mile Road in Oak Park. Founded in 1968 as WXON on channel 62 and relocated to channel 20 in 1972, the station was an independent focusing primarily on syndicated programs and classic reruns. It made an ill-fated foray into subscription television (STV) from 1979 to 1983, broadcasting a pay service under the ON TV brand that was dogged by a poor relationship with the station and signal piracy issues exacerbated by Detroit's proximity to Canada. After it folded, WXON continued as an independent station and emerged as the second-rated independent in its market, affiliating with The WB in 1995. Granite Broadcasting purchased WXON in 1997 and renamed it WDWB. However, its high debt load motivated several attempts to sell the station, one of which fell apart after The WB merged with UPN to form The CW but did not include WDWB as an affiliate. The station then became WMYD, aligned with MyNetworkTV and airing its programming for 15 years. In 2014, Scripps purchased WMYD and added local newscasts from the WXYZ-TV newsroom. As Detroit's ATSC 3.0 (NextGen TV) station, WMYD is used in automotive-related tests of the transmission technology. It was Detroit's affiliate for The CW from 2023 to 2024 and beginning in 2026 will be the primary broadcaster of Detroit Pistons basketball.

History

The channel 62 years At the end of January 1965, Aben Johnson, majority owner of a chemical manufacturing company and with several real estate holdings, filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to build a television station on channel 44 in Pontiac, in Oakland County. After an overhaul of the FCC's UHF table of allocations, Johnson amended his application to specify channel 62 in Detroit. A construction permit for the station was issued on October 7, 1965, and assigned the call sign WXON that December. Johnson also held construction permits for stations in Hammond, Indiana, and Akron, Ohio, which he called the Action Network and proposed to focus on programming for teen audiences. He considered a Detroit radio station as well before learning how saturated the market was. After three years, WXON began broadcasting on September 15, 1968. While it had originally proposed to broadcast from Southfield, where a new UHF transmission facility was being built for WKBD-TV (channel 50) and three other stations, Johnson bowed out and built his own transmitter facility and studio at 14 Mile and Decker roads in Walled Lake. Syndicated reruns and movies were joined by Rae Dean and Friends, a series of children's puppets conducted by Frank Deal and previously seen on WJRT-TV in Flint. The small facility, with its lower costs of operation, also produced commercials seen on other local TV stations; a revival of Robin Seymour's Swingin' Time, a dance show that had been canceled by CKLW-TV in Windsor, Ontario; and a syndicated wrestling program, Big Time Wrestling. However, the station's signal coverage of Detroit itself proved poorer than expected.

Move to channel 20 In an unusual circumstance, a full transmitter facility for channel 20 at Southfield had been built, but the station slated to use it had failed to start. In 1964, United Broadcasting Company had purchased the construction permit for WJMY, which had briefly broadcast from Allen Park from 1962 to 1963 but was no longer on the air. United proposed to return it to the air with a focus on specialty ethnic programs from the new Southfield UHF mast, but planned dates came and went without any activity, including an announced May 1969 groundbreaking on studios. However, United faced increasing legal scrutiny that primarily centered around issues at its radio and television stations in Washington, D.C., WOOK and WFAN-TV, and extended to several other properties. After a sale of WJMY to United Artists fell through, in December 1970, United filed to sell the construction permit for WJMY to WXON—which had reportedly lost $136,000 in its first two years of operation because of the deficient signal in the full market—with the purpose of moving WXON to channel 20. Land mobile radio users protested the proposal, asking for the fallow channel 20 to be turned over for their use, but the FCC approved the deal in June 1972, finding that United's inability to utilize the improved WJMY-TV facility was due to its own financial troubles. Johnson announced the station would relocate its studios from Walled Lake and floated the possibility of changing the call sign. In November 1972, WXON went off channel 62 and remained off the air for a month to effectuate the change to channel 20. Broadcasting resumed on channel 20 on December 9. Several new shows were added with the channel change, including The 700 Club. In 1975, the city of license for the station was changed from Allen Park to Detroit, and the studios were moved to the transmitter site in Southfield. Through the 1970s, WXON primarily focused on syndicated output. It did, however, bring late-night horror movie cult favorite The Ghoul Show back to Detroit television after WKBD had canceled his show in 1976; The Ghoul would air in two stints on the station, from 1977 to 1979 and again for several years in the early 1980s. Though Gordon Castelnero, who wrote a 2006 book on local TV programming in Detroit, characterized WXON as producing "virtually no local programming to speak of" outside The Ghoul during the 1970s, there were other shows. Twice during the decade, it aired a television version of the long-running Middle East Melodies radio show, which featured guests as well as belly dancers.

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Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with WMYD

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what WMYD claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to WMYD before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about WMYD ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of WMYD

In research: WMYD appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses WMYD in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: WMYD is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1968 establishments in Michigan, ATSC 3.0 television stations, Antenna TV affiliates, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for WMYD outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study WMYD in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what WMYD means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain WMYD out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is WMYD in simple terms?

WMYD (channel 20), branded as The Spot – Detroit 20, is an independent television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is owned by the E.

Why does WMYD matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study WMYD?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on WMYD.