Analog shutdown - WMYD-TV20 Detroit and KICU-TV36 San Francisco - February 17, 2009 · 2:07am Nov 1st, 2018
On February 17, 2009, WMYD-TV20 Detroit's analog signal went off the air . . . with some problems. At the first try, they cued audio of the station's president and general manager Sarah Norat-Phillips explaining the DTV transition, but the screen displayed an episode of STILL STANDING. They tried again sometime later, but the opposite ended up being the case. It finally ended up switching to a loop of the DTVAnswers.com message at midnight, and stayed at that loop until March 4. WMYD-TV was one of only three stations in Detroit to go digital before June 12.
Channel 20 began life as WXON-TV on channel 62 (now occupied by CBS O&O WWJ-TV) on September 15, 1968. WXON-TV moved to channel 20 in 1972. In 1979, it became the Detroit affiliate of an experimental pay-TV service called ONTV (losing the affiliation on March 31, 1983). WXON became a charter affiliate of the WB on January 11, 1995, and became WDWB when the station was purchased by Granite Broadcasting, who owned it at the time of the DTV transition. On May 7, 2006, the station changed its callsign to WMYD, after assuming the MyNetworkTV affiliation. Eight years later, it became owned by the E.W. Scripps Company alongside ABC station WXYZ.
An equally lesser analog shutoff came from San Francisco, via KICU-TV, channel 36. Before the switch into the DTV Nightlight video, we see ads for Verizon, the movie FIRED UP! (Rotten Tomatoes: 23%), Wienerschnitzel, Slim-Fast, Paver Pro and a sex line (well, the analog signal DID go off close to midnight), along with promos for SEINFELD, BAY AREA NEWS AT 7, and COPS, the end credits of the evening's episode of THE BERNIE MAC SHOW, and part of the intro to that evening's episode of COMICS UNLEASHED WITH BYRON ALLEN.
KICU is San Francisco's longest continously operating UHF station, and its longest-serving independent. On October 9, 1967, it signed on as KGSC-TV, offering off-network shows, talk shows, religious shows, public affairs shows, and all-night movie shows with the likes of MST3K types Old Sourdough and Chief Wachikanoka, played by Andy Moore and Gary Ferry, who had originated the characters on KEMY-TV (now KOFY-TV). In 1981, the station was sold to Buffalo Bills owner Ralph Wilson of Detroit, Michigan, who renamed it to the current KICU-TV that March. Its IDs during the '80s frequently featured a seductive voiceover from a woman named Doda: "I see you, San Francisco. You're watching the perfect 36 ... KICU, San Jose." KICU-TV was sold to Cox Enterprises in late November of 1999, and the resulting duopoly between that station and Fox affiliate KTVU was completed in March 2000. In the summer of 2014, Fox traded WFXT in Boston and WHBQ-TV in Memphis to Cox, and in exchange received KICU-TV and KTVU.
