Goodwill Stations In May 1952, Goodwill Stations, owner of
WJR radio in
Detroit, announced the intent of applying for four station licenses which would operate as a regional network: channel 50 in Detroit, channel 11 in
Toledo, Ohio, channel 12 in Flint and channel 5 in
Bay City. TV outlets would eventually appear on all four of these channels in these cities, but only one was actually founded by Goodwill Stations: WJRT-TV, in 1958. Goodwill won out over two other companies seeking to operate channel 12: the Trebit Corporation (which owned
WFDF), and
W. S. Butterfield Theatres, Inc.
WPAG-TV, airing on Channel 20 in Ann Arbor, also considered moving to Channel 12, but Goodwill already held the
construction permit for WJRT. WPAG-TV initially wanted to place its transmitter in
Independence Township, Michigan; however, since Independence Township was located in
Oakland County, part of the Detroit television market, Goodwill instead placed the tower in St. Charles Township in southwestern
Saginaw County, where the transmitter remains today. WJRT-TV went on the air on October 12, 1958, at 5 p.m. It has been an ABC network affiliate since its inception. As part of the winning bid for the license, the station had to produce several hours of original local programming each day for ten years. At the time the station had to fill 55 hours of programming outside of the network shows. This stipulation led to the creation of
original shows, including
Mr. Magic and
Folkswingers. Goodwill Stations took over the former
WTAC-TV studios and offices at 2302 Lapeer Road in Flint, after that station folded in 1954; WJRT remains there today.
Various owners Goodwill Stations merged with
Capital Cities Broadcasting in 1964, but WJRT-TV was spun off to Poole Broadcasting (owned by John Poole, a former Capital Cities stockholder) on July 29, 1964, because the merged company was one VHF station over the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ownership limit of the time. The station was the first Michigan television station outside of Detroit to go all-
color in 1967 on
Labor Day which saw the launch of its
Bozo show. As a result, the station was sold to
SJL Broadcast Management in 1989. NBC was rumored to be courting SJL about either purchasing WJRT and
WTVG, their existing affiliate in
Toledo, Ohio, or securing a long-term affiliation deal for both stations. As a result,
Capital Cities/ABC agreed to purchase both WJRT and WTVG for $155 million in October 1994, effectively preserving their affiliation in Flint and gaining a VHF affiliate in Toledo. Former CBS affiliate
WEYI-TV took the NBC affiliation dropped by WNEM. Soon after ABC purchased WJRT, the station returned to the top of the Mid-Michigan ratings for prime time, where it remains today. When ABC acquired WJRT in 1995, it was reunited with its namesake radio station, WJR. In June 2008, the station received a construction permit for post-transition digital facilities.
2nd SJL ownership On November 3, 2010,
Broadcasting & Cable magazine announced that
SJL Broadcasting, now owned by the principal owners of Lilly Broadcasting, made an agreement with
Disney to buy back WJRT and WTVG, the two smallest stations in ABC's O&O portfolio. Both stations would retain their affiliations with ABC. SJL teamed up with a new private equity partner,
Bain Capital, whose affiliated offshoot Sankaty Advisors provided the capital for the purchases (which amounted to $13.2 million on WJRT's end of the $30 million deal). The sale was completed on April 1, 2011.
Sales to Gray Television and Allen Media Group On July 24, 2014, SJL announced that it would sell WJRT and WTVG again, this time to
Gray Television, for $128 million—a value higher than that of their original sale to ABC. Gray also owns
Lansing's NBC affiliate
WILX-TV. The sale was completed on September 15 and funded mostly by loans. On May 3, 2021, Gray announced it would acquire the Local Media stations of
Meredith Corporation for $2.7 billion. As Meredith was the owner of WNEM-TV and both stations rank among the top four in terms of total viewers, Gray intended to keep WNEM and sell WJRT to a third party. On July 14, Gray announced it would sell WJRT to Allen Media Group, a subsidiary of
Byron Allen's
Entertainment Studios, which had also acquired several
Quincy Media stations through Gray. The sale was completed on September 23, effectively separating it from WTVG after 30 years as sister stations. On June 1, 2025, amid financial woes and rising debt, Allen Media Group announced that it would explore "strategic options" for the company, such as a sale of its television stations (including WJRT). ==Programming==