WPAG-TV


WPAG-TV was a television station in Ann Arbor, Michigan assigned to Channel 20 from 1953-1957.
WPAG-TV signed-on April 3, 1953, making it both Washtenaw County's first TV station and the first UHF station in Michigan.
WPAG-TV was owned by the same people who operated WPAG radio. Art Greene and Edward Baughn were listed as both owning 50% of the station's stock ; studios were located in downtown Ann Arbor, in the same building as the radio station. As of 1955, WPAG-TV broadcast during the evening hours only, from 6pm to 11:30pm, although they did sometimes operate in the afternoon hours to carry Detroit Tigers games, apparently as a backup to WJBK-TV in Detroit.
WPAG-TV was nominally an independent station, but is believed to have been at least a part-time DuMont affiliate. After the demise of DuMont, the station allowed the University of Michigan to supply educational programming. In later years, ABC provided such programs as The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet and Sky King; the station also added a five-minute local newscast on weeknights, featuring WPAG radio's Dave Prince reading wire service copy. Channel 20 even managed a ten-fold increase in power in late 1955, but there were still few UHF viewers in the expanded 30- to 40-mile coverage radius around Ann Arbor.
On December 31, 1957, WPAG-TV suspended operations after a failed attempt to get an allocation for Channel 12 in Flint, Michigan, with the ownership claiming to have lost $145,680 over the previous four years. The license for Channel 20 was later assigned to WJMY-TV in Allen Park, which broadcast for eight months in 1962-63; they later aired a series of test signals in the late 1960s before finally giving up their license in 1970. WMYD-TV has held the frequency since 1972.
After WPAG's demise, Ann Arbor would not see another TV station for a generation; WUOM-TV, to be operated by University of Michigan, was assigned a construction permit for Channel 26 in 1953, but never made it to the air. Finally, in 1981, independent WRHT signed on; they are now WPXD, an affiliate of Ion Television.