16 Facts About WISH-TV

WISH-TV is a television station in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States, affiliated with The CW.

WISH-TV originally operated as a primary ABC affiliate with a secondary affiliation with DuMont Television Network and NBC.

WISH-TV originally transmitted its signal from a tower it shared with WISH radio; the following year, the station constructed a 1,000-foot transmitter tower, which allowed the station to improve its signal coverage in the market.

Conversely that same year, WISH-TV lost the ABC affiliation to WTTV; this resulted in WLBC-TV, channel 49 in Muncie serving as the de facto ABC affiliate for the northern part of the market as WTTV's signal did not extend very far north outside of Indianapolis's northern suburbs as its transmitter was located farther south than the market's other stations.

LIN was headquartered in Indianapolis for many years, with WISH-TV serving as that company's flagship television property; the company eventually moved its headquarters to Providence, Rhode Island in the late 1990s, resulting in WPRI-TV replacing WISH as LIN's flagship station.

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In 1995, WISH-TV relocated its transmitter to a new tower built in the Augusta section of Indianapolis.

WISH-TV signed on its digital signal on VHF channel 9 on December 17,1998; two days later on December 19, the station broadcast its first program in high definition when it broadcast an NFL game telecast in the format.

In 2002, WISH-TV began handling the master control operations of WANE-TV and fellow sister station WLFI-TV in Lafayette.

WISH-TV aired Indiana Pacers games from their absorption into the NBA from 1976 until 1990, through CBS' NBA broadcast contract.

In 1963, WISH-TV became the first television station in the market to provide extensive live coverage of a major local news event, when it covered the deadly explosion at the Fairgrounds Coliseum.

WISH-TV's newscasts were the highest-rated in the Indianapolis market from the mid-1980s until WTHR overtook it for the No 1 position in 2002.

In 1990, WISH-TV implemented the "24-Hour News Source" concept that was originally developed that year by WEWS-TV in Cleveland; the format, which began spreading to other television stations nationwide around that timeframe, involves the production of 30-second news updates that air at or near the top of every hour during local commercial break inserts – even during primetime network and overnight programming – in addition to the station's long-form newscasts in regularly scheduled timeslots.

However, as of June 4,2018, WISH-TV has dropped the 24-Hour moniker from its newscast name.

On February 28,2005, shortly after LIN TV announced its purchase of channel 23, WISH-TV took over production of WNDY's 10 pm newscast from WTHR, which had produced the program from its inception on March 16,1996; this partnership expanded to include an hour-long extension of WISH's weekday morning newscast at 7 am, which debuted on January 5,2009.

On September 8,2008, WISH-TV became the second television station in Indiana to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition; the WNDY newscasts were included in the upgrade.

When it became an affiliate of The CW on January 1,2015, WISH-TV became one of three CW affiliates in the Eastern Time Zone with a fully functioning independent news department.