WSJV (channel 28) is a television station licensed to Elkhart, Indiana, United States, serving the South Bend area as an owned-and-operated station of the digital multicast network Roar. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside dual CBS/Fox affiliate WSBT-TV (channel 22). The two stations share studios on East Douglas Avenue in Mishawaka and transmitter facilities on Ironwood Road in southern South Bend. WSJV began broadcasting in 1954 as the NBC and ABC affiliate for the Elkhart–South Bend area, losing NBC to WNDU-TV (channel 16) when that station started in 1955. It broadcast on channel 52 before moving to channel 28 in 1958. After Fox acquired the rights to National Football League games in 1994, it began looking for new affiliates in markets where it had none, with South Bend the largest such market. Quincy Newspapers then switched the station from ABC to Fox. In 2016, Quincy sold the programming rights and Fox affiliation to WSBT-TV, where Fox became a subchannel. Since then, WSJV has broadcast national digital multicast television networks. Gray Television successfully petitioned the FCC to let it keep WSJV when it acquired Quincy in 2021 and traded it to Sinclair in 2025. WSJV serves as the market's ATSC 3.0 (NextGen TV) host station, with four other commercial stations in the market each broadcasting some of WSJV's subchannels in ATSC 1.0 format on its behalf.
History
Truth Publishing Company ownership The Truth Publishing Company, publisher of The Elkhart Truth and owner of WTRC radio (1340 AM and 100.7 FM), applied to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for a new television station on Elkhart's ultra high frequency (UHF) channel 52 in May 1953. The FCC granted the company a construction permit on June 3, 1953, approving the second station in the South Bend–Elkhart area. Construction began in late 1953; the station was located southwest of Elkhart. In November, the station signed to become an affiliate of ABC. WSJV began broadcasting on March 20, 1954; a test pattern had gone out on March 15 and 16 before the new antenna suffered a fault that required emergency repairs and postponed the planned March 17 sign-on date. Power was increased twelvefold in November when a new transmitter was installed. The station originally aired programs from ABC, NBC, and the DuMont Television Network; NBC affiliated with the new WNDU-TV the next year, while DuMont wound down operations. In 1957, the FCC approved the assignment of lower UHF channels to WSBT-TV (from channel 34 to 22) and WSJV (from channel 52 to 28); it had already allowed WNDU-TV to switch from channel 46 to 16. This required a relocation of UHF channel assignments among several localities in Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan. For WSJV, the change also brought a relocation of the tower site from Elkhart to a location near Mishawaka. The channel switch took place on February 14, 1958; it was the last of the three stations to move to the lower channel it was assigned. The station began to broadcast in color on October 7, 1963, with three ABC color programs being broadcast every week. After the station invested in purchasing color tape and film equipment, WSJV began broadcasting non-network programs in color in 1966, five years after ABC began airing some of its programs in color in 1961. In 1968, the station bought two color television cameras and began airing all of its locally produced shows in color. Local programs from the station's early years included Kidsville, U.S.A. and two shows featuring puppet DD Donovan. Truth Publishing also expanded its operation in television by buying WKJG radio and television in Fort Wayne in 1957; the Fort Wayne outlets were sold in 1971. The station group was promoted as the Communicana Group.
Quincy Newspapers ownership In 1974, Truth Publishing sold WSJV for $3.2 million to Quincy Newspapers Inc. (QNI) of Quincy, Illinois; it retained the radio stations, which continued to operate for a time from the same building. At the time, Quincy's only television property was WGEM-TV in its home city. The sale earned Truth Publishing a tax certificate from the FCC because it broke up cross-ownership of the South Bend cable system, which was founded by the three major commercial stations in the market. In 1976, the station debuted an 11 p.m. newscast, having previously only broadcast local news at 6 p.m. On April 3, 1988, the station's tower was partially toppled by a windstorm. The station began broadcasting at reduced power the next day, but a replacement mast was not put into service until November. WSJV began airing weekend newscasts for the first time in its history in 1992; the station had previously only aired weeknight newscasts at 6 and 11 p.m., which news director and 20-year employee Larry Ford believed had severely hurt its local image and contributed to its status as a distant third in Michiana television news. The move came after Don Fuller, a charter station employee who had been general manager for WSJV since 1965, retired that year. Under Ford's replacement, Jim Parisi, the station added a 5 p.m. newscast featuring an interactive news format soliciting feedback from viewers by telephone and email, the first such newscast in the United States; Parisi, who co-anchored, could read emails live on air from a computer placed on the news set. The station also debuted a half-hour morning local newscast and sought to increase its presence in areas of the market beyond Elkhart so as to reduce the perception it was "an Elkhart station".
Affiliation switch to Fox
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