WJYS

WJYS (channel 62) is an independent television station licensed to Hammond, Indiana, United States, serving the Chicago area. It is one of two commercial television stations in the Chicago market to be licensed in Indiana (alongside MyNetworkTV owned-and-operated station WPWR-TV [channel 50] in Gary). Owned by Millenial Telecommunications, Inc., WJYS maintains studio facilities on South Oak Park Avenue in Tinley Park, Illinois, and its transmitter is located atop the Willis Tower.

WJYS
CityHammond, Indiana
Channels
BrandingWJYS, The Way
Programming
Affiliations
Ownership
OwnerMillenial Telecommunications, Inc.
History
First air date
March 2, 1991 (1991-03-02)
Former channel number(s)
  • Analog: 62 (UHF, 1991–2009)
  • Digital: 36 (UHF, until 2019)
Call sign meaning
Original owners Joseph and Yvonne Stroud[1]
Technical information[2]
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID32334
ERP140 kW
HAAT510 m (1,673 ft)
Transmitter coordinates41°52′44″N 87°38′8″W
Links
Public license information
Websitewjystv.net

History

The station first signed on the air on March 2, 1991. It originally operated as a 24-hour-a-day home shopping station.[3] In 1994, WJYS became more of a general entertainment station, picking up a number of syndicated programs.[4] These shows included Laverne & Shirley, The Rifleman, The Odd Couple, Little House on the Prairie, Gunsmoke, Highway to Heaven and Matlock, along with older movies and anime programming, plus the Hoosier Lottery game show Hoosier Millionaire. By 1997, channel 62 was running infomercials and religious programming most of the day and by 2000, most of the entertainment shows were gone from the station. Today, WJYS offers both religious and secular paid programming.

Programming

The station's schedule primarily features local, national and international religious programming, along with paid programming (including long-form direct response, automobile dealer programs, and shows advertising local businesses). WJYS' locally-produced programs include Horace Smith, Salem Baptist Church, Charis Bible College, Triedstone Baptist Church, the jazz trio show Yvonne's Piano, Haitian Relief with Steve Munsey and Emmy Award-winning music show JBTV. WJYS also produced local commercials for Chicago State University.

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Subchannels of WJYS[5]
Channel Res. Aspect Short name Programming
62.1 480i4:3WJYS-DTMain WJYS programming
62.2 PRISM-6Jewelry TV
62.3 PRISMQVC
62.4 HRTLNDHeartland
62.5 PRISM-3QVC
62.6 PRISM-4Canal de la Fe (Spanish religious)
62.7 JTVJewelry TV
62.8 EVINEHSN
62.9 16:9HSN
62.10 4:3MCTVWEDE-CD (Religious independent)
  Simulcast of channels of another station

Analog-to-digital conversion

WJYS shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 62, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal continued to broadcast on its pre-transition UHF channel 36.[6] Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 62, which was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition.

Unlike the analog transmitter once located in Tinley Park, WJYS-DT has a transmitter atop the Willis Tower on channel 36, allowing for greater signal coverage.[7] The WJYS signal during the analog television era reached approximately 7.5 million people in the Chicago metropolitan area, expanding to nearly 11 million households across Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan following the June 2009 digital transition as its digital transmitter facilities on Willis Tower replicated the coverage area of the major broadcast stations in the market.

References
  1. Boyd, Roger (January 15, 1989). "62 says: 'Just stay tuned'". The Times. p. A-3. Retrieved April 11, 2021.
  2. "Facility Technical Data for WJYS". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  3. Kennedy Melia, Marilyn (October 1, 1993). "Sell-Avision View Shopping Channels With a Critical Eye". Chicago Tribune.
  4. Nidetz, Steve (November 30, 1994). "10 p.m. viewers tune back to WBBM, but WLS is still No. 1". Chicago Tribune.
  5. "RabbitEars TV Query for WJYS". RabbitEars. Retrieved September 8, 2015.
  6. "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on August 29, 2013. Retrieved March 24, 2012.
  7. Polar Plot linked to the FCC database for WJYS.
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