WNDU TV

History

The station first signed on the air on July 15, 1955, originally broadcasting on UHF channel 46. WNDU-TV was owned by the Michiana Television Corporation, a subsidiary of the University of Notre Dame. The station took its call letters from WNDU radio (1490 AM, now WDND at 1620 AM and 92.9 FM, now WNDV-FM), which were also owned by the university until 1998. However, like its radio sisters, it is a full-fledged commercial station rather than a public broadcaster. In 1957, to much fanfare, WNDU-TV moved to UHF channel 16.

The station immediately took the NBC affiliation from WSJV (channel 28) and has been with the network ever since. WNDU-TV's early broadcast schedule included programs like Romper Room and the first local telecast of a Notre Dame football game. WNDU aired the children's program Sesame Street from 1970 to 1974 until non-commercial PBS member station WNIT (channel 34) signed on the air. From 1967 to 1986, WNDU aired Beyond Our Control, a locally produced sketch comedy program, which was presented as part of the station's involvement in the Junior Achievement program.

In September of 1995, as a result of the affiliation changes in the South Bend market, WSJV and W58BT (by then WBND-LD) swapped affiliations. WSJV switched to Fox and W58BT joined ABC and eventually became WBND, WNDU was one of the two stations that retained its network affiliation (the other was WSBT-TV, which retaining its affiliation with CBS).

On November 24, 2005, the University of Notre Dame entered into an agreement to sell the station to Gray Television for $85 million in an all-cash deal, with the university placing the money received from the sale in an endowment. The sale closed on March 5, 2006, after which the Federal Communications Commission granted Gray a crossownership waiver for WNDU and Goshen-based newspaper The Goshen News. This was necessary because the FCC prohibits the common ownership of a newspaper and a television station in the same market (Gray eventually spun off the Times and four other newspapers the following year into a new company called Triple Crown Media, which was subsequently merged with Host Communications). WNDU-TV was named station of the year by the Indiana Broadcasters Association for 2015 and 2016.

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

WNDU's second digital subchannel formerly carried a standard-definition simulcast of the station's main channel (with limited programming substitutions for shows preempted by WNDU 16.1 for local programming); the subchannel became affiliated with Antenna TV on July 1, 2013.

Analog-to-digital conversion

WNDU-TV shut down its analog signal over UHF channel 16 at 7 p.m. on March 3, 2009, after a voluntary nightlight period following the original date on which full-power television stations in the United States were set to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (which was later rescheduled for June 12, 2009). The station officially went off the air with a station notice, followed by the national anthem and then the last words were, "This was WNDU-TV Channel 16, South Bend" followed by static. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 42, using PSIP to display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 16.

Programming

Syndicated programming seen on WNDU includes Access Hollywood, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Rachael Ray and Inside Edition. As an NBC affiliate, it is the home station for the network's broadcast of Notre Dame football home games. The station also airs reruns of Inside Notre Dame Football and Inside Notre Dame Basketball, a review show of Notre Dame athletics teams that is produced and originally aired by the Fighting Irish Media at the University of Notre Dame.

Due to an increased focus on news programming, WNDU-TV made room for a three-hour Saturday morning newscast in 1994, by airing NBC's teen-oriented program block TNBC in early hours of Saturday and Sunday mornings to fulfill E/I guidelines. WNDU currently airs the network's The More You Know programming block for three of the four hours on Saturday with the final hour airing on Sundays at 7:00 AM. In addition, the station's primary channel preempts the weekend editions of Today for its weekend morning newscasts with the program airing on its second digital subchannel instead.

Programming controversies

Under Notre Dame's ownership, WNDU opted not to air certain NBC programs out of concerns over inappropriate content. Such shows included the animated series God, the Devil and Bob (for content offensive to the religious values of the university) and the American version of the British sitcom Coupling (due to the program's sexual content). The latter series instead aired on WSBT-DT2, then South Bend's UPN affiliate on Thursday nights after UPN programming. The station also aired the Notre Dame commencement address of President Barack Obama in full on May 17, 2009, in lieu of the first half of an NHL playoff game.

News operation

WNDU-TV broadcasts a total of 31 hours of local newscasts each week (with five hours on weekdays, four hours on Saturdays and two hours on Sundays). WNDU-TV used a helicopter for its news-gathering purposes from the 1980s through 2006.

On April 21, 2010, starting with its 12 noon newscast, WNDU became the second television station in the South Bend market (behind WSBT-TV) to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition.

The current main news team consists of Maureen and Terry McFadden as the main weekday news anchors, Mike Hoffman as the chief meteorologist, and Angelo DiCarlo as the sports director.

Notable former on-air staff