WMSH-TV The G & E Religious and Educational Broadcasting Corporation obtained a construction permit for a new television station on channel 46 in South Bend on April 10, 1973. The allocation had previously been used by
WNDU-TV, when that station signed on the air on July 15, 1955; WNDU moved to its present channel 16 in 1957. G & E, representing 618 churches, took the call letters WMSH-TV and broke ground on studio facilities on May 27. The transmitter site would be located separately from the studios due to potential interference to WSBT radio. Intended to begin on September 1, 1973, channel 46 instead began telecasting in late July or on August 3, 1974. Within less than a year of telecasting, financial problems developed at G & E. The station had a total of $2.5 million in debt against $1.8 million in assets. A court placed the company into receivership, after which 14 creditors sued to force channel 46 into bankruptcy. Three months later, two investors who held $18,000 in station-issued bonds sued G & E for selling securities without being registered with federal or state authorities, as well as omissions in statements made by the company; Secretary of State
Larry Conrad then charged G & E head George McQueen with criminal misrepresentation. Citing lack of funds, WMSH-TV went silent September 2, 1975. The bankruptcy case stretched into 1976 as several buyers expressed interest.
WHME-TV In January 1977, rumors began to circulate that the Lester Sumrall Evangelistic Association was in negotiations to buy WMSH-TV from its trustee,
Elkhart attorney Gordon MacKenzie. The rumors would be confirmed in March when the $496,000 sale was announced. Sumrall closed on the purchase on July 21, and the newly renamed WHME-TV signed on the air on September 10, 1977; the station ran mostly religious programs, along with a blend of classic
cartoons,
sitcoms from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, and some
drama series. Cameras from the Sumrall stations in
Indianapolis and
Miami were brought to South Bend, as WMSH did not have any color cameras. By 1978, the station ran cartoons from 7 to 9 a.m. on weekdays. WHME ran Christian programs such as
The PTL Club,
The 700 Club, and locally produced Christian programs from 9 a.m. to about 1 p.m.
Secular general entertainment programs ran from 1 to 7 p.m. Then after 7 p.m., WHME ran repeats of
The PTL Club,
The 700 Club and some of the religious shows that aired on Sundays, along with locally produced Christian programs. Saturdays consisted of Christian-themed children's programs until 9 a.m., a blend of secular cartoons and sitcoms until noon or 1 p.m., and some other
family-friendly programs until 5 p.m. Christian programming continued after 6 p.m. Saturday nights and all day on Sundays (featuring
televangelists such as
Jerry Falwell,
Jimmy Swaggart and
Oral Roberts, as well as the
Catholic Mass from
Notre Dame). The station began broadcasting on a 24-hour schedule by 1980. By the early 1980s, morning cartoons returned to WHME, and throughout most of the 1980s and into the early 1990s, the station aired regular children's programs on weekdays, including reruns of
The Flintstones,
Rocky and Bullwinkle,
Underdog, and
Alvin and the Chipmunks. The station later added both
The Wonderful World of Disney during the late 1980s and later
The Disney Afternoon animation block by the early 1990s. WHME-TV also aired the nationally syndicated evening news program,
Independent Network News. By the early 1990s, more sitcoms from the 1970s and 1980s were added onto the schedule. Throughout much of 1994 and 1995, WHME carried
60 Minutes as a result of
CBS affiliate
WSBT-TV (channel 22) losing its rights to carry the program as a result of WSBT carrying both
Fox programming and
Chicago Bears football. On May 27, 1996, WHME began carrying the
Kids' WB program block within its afternoon lineup when W12BK channel 12, now
WYGN-LD, switched to being a translator of ABC affiliate
WBND-LP channel 58, but unlike other LeSEA-owned stations, it declined to carry prime time programming from the block's parent network,
The WB (which instead affiliated with W69BT channel 69 in October 1999, now
WMYS-LD, and later moved to WMWB-LP channel 25, now
WCWW-LD). In the early 2000s, WHME decreased the number of cartoons on its schedule and replaced them with more sitcoms and drama series. In August 2024, WHME and Indianapolis sister station
WHMB-TV switched their primary channels to Univision. Despite the switch, the station still airs religious programming on Sunday mornings during off-network hours. ==Sports programming==