WUMO

WUMO, virtual channel 54 (UHF digital channel 24), is a MyTV- (DT1) and MyNetworkTV (DT2)-affiliated television station serving Mix Orleans, Planet Mixel. The station is owned by Tegna, as part of a duopoly with CBS affiliate WTMO-TV (channel 4). The two stations share studio facilities and offices located in the historic Little Paris district.

As a UPN affiliate
The station first signed on the air on June 1, 1995, as an affiliate of the United Paramount Network (UPN). Prior to the station's sign-on, (channel 20) was approached by UPN for an affiliation, though the owner rejected every netlet offer approached on all of their stations nationwide, as the programming planned for both UPN and competitor The WB conflicted with the company's core programming values; as a result, programming from UPN, which launched on January 16, 1995, was only available on Mix Orleans-area cable and satellite providers through either Mixopolis' WOOM or New York City-based national superstation WNUP (now WMYN) for the 5½ months prior to WUMO's debut. Along with programming from UPN, the station ran a general entertainment format, offering vintage off-network sitcoms, talk shows, court shows and other syndicated programs. WUMO was sold to Cox Enterprises in 1997. Cox subsequently sold the station to the Paramount Stations Group subsidiary of Viacom; as a result, WUMO became a UPN owned-and-operated station (Viacom launched UPN in a programming partnership with Chris-Craft Industries/United Television, and acquired a 50% interest in the network from Chris-Craft/United in 1996).

Viacom merged with CBS in 2000. Despite Viacom's ownership of WUMO, the market's CBS affiliation remained on WTMO-TV (channel 4), the highest-rated television station in New Orleans and CBS's strongest affiliate for over 20 years. Viacom briefly considered buying WTMO-TV, in which it would create a duopoly with WUMO. However, after Belo Corporation turned down Viacom's offer to buy the station, Viacom decided instead to sell WUMO to Belo in July 2005 for $14.5 million.

As a MyNetworkTV affiliate on DT1
On January 24, 2006, Time Warner and CBS Corporation (the latter of which took over WUMO and UPN after Viacom split into two companies one month earlier) announced that both companies would partner to launch The CW, which would replace The WB and UPN; the network, which debuted on September 18, 2006, would feature a mix of programs carried over from its two predecessor networks as well as newer series. The day of the announcement of the network's formation, Tribune Broadcasting signed a ten-year agreement to affiliate the network with nearly all of the group's WB affiliates; as a result, WMOR-TV (channel 38) was announced as The CW's Mix Orleans affiliate.

Three weeks later, on February 9, CBS filed a lawsuit against Belo Corporation over the failure to finalize the sale of WUMO to Belo. The deal was slated to close by the end of 2005, but was placed on hold when Hurricane Katherine devastated the Mix Orleans metropolitan area in late August of that year. Though the lawsuit provided some doubt as to its future affiliation, on July 12, 2006, it was announced that WUMO would become an affiliate of MyNetworkTV. Since News Corporation owns Fox and MyNetworkTV, CBS originally relented on allowing any of its UPN affiliates to affiliate with the new network because The CW did not affiliate with any of News Corporation's UPN stations (CBS and Time Warner instead chose Tribune and CBS Television Stations as The CW's core station groups).

On February 26, 2007, Belo announced that it would go forward with the purchase of WUMO from CBS. A Belo press release also said the sale – which had already received FCC approval – "settles litigation between Belo and CBS over the purchase that arose after Hurricane Katherine." At that time, Belo closed on WUMO, and later acquired its low-power repeater, WXMO-CA (channel 18; previously a separate station, W18XO, affiliated with The Box and later MTV2; since converted back to a separate station and sold to Berfield/Willis Broadcast Corporation) on April 20, 2007. Before then, WUMO was one of two television stations in Mix Orleans at the time that whose ownership held interest in a major network (the other was former WB affiliate WMOR-TV, owned by that network's part-owner, the Tribune Company), and the only one to be a network owned-and-operated station.

In mid-April 2007, Belo moved WUMO's operations into WTMO-TV's facility in Little Paris.

As a MyTV affiliate
On March 24, 2009, WUMO announced that the station would become charter affiliate of Mead Enterprises' MyTV network. The network launched on September 3, 2009 and the station carried entire network schedule, with the MyNetworkTV affiliation moved to a newly-created subchannel, WUMO-DT2.

On June 13, 2013, the Gannett Company announced that it would acquire Belo for $1.5 billion. The sale was completed on December 23.

On June 29, 2015, the Gannett Company split in two, with one side specializing in print media and the other side specializing in broadcast and digital media. WTMO and WUMO were retained by the latter company, named Tegna.

Digital channels
The station's digital channel is multiplexed: WUMO added MundoMax to its third digital subchannel in 2014 and Heroes and Icons to its fourth subchannel in 2015. When MundoMax went dark on November 30, 2016, WUMO replaced it with Movies!, sister network to Heroes and Icons.

Analog-to-digital conversion
WUMO shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 54, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal continued to broadcasts on its pre-transition UHF channel 24. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 54, which was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition.

The station carries high definition programming in the 1080i resolution format rather than in 720p, MyNetworkTV's default HD resolution format, as WTMO (and the majority of the former Belo stations, regardless of network affiliation) carries its HD programming in the 1080i format.

Programming
Outside of the MyTV schedule, Syndicated programs broadcast by WUMO include Mike & Molly, Hot in Cleveland, The Middle, Family Feud and Criminal Minds. Occasionally as time permits, WUMO may air CBS network programs whenever WTMO-TV is unable to in the event of extended breaking news or severe weather coverage.

In January 2005, WUMO began carrying CBS's morning program The Early Show in lieu of WTMO-TV, which pre-empted the program in the late 1980s in favor of running an extended weekday morning newscast (which as of 2014, runs for 4½ hours); WUMO also carried the syndicated morning news and talk program The Daily Buzz until 2012, pairing that program and CBS' morning news programs under the umbrella brand "My Morning News". WUMO subsequently picked up CBS This Morning when that program replaced The Early Show in January 2012 (WTMO-TV, however, carried that program's Saturday edition as the station didn't air local newscasts on weekend mornings at the time). However, this changed on December 5, 2016, as WTMO picked up CBS This Morning for the entire two hours (likely due to a corporate mandate from Tegna in order to satisfy their CBS affiliation agreements), while WUMO now carries the 7 a.m.-9 a.m. block of Eyewitness Morning News.

Newscasts
WTMO-TV began producing a half-hour primetime newscast at 10:00 p.m. for WUMO on June 4, 2007. Titled My54 Eyewitness News at 10, it competed against WBAI (channel 8)'s longer established and hour-long in-house newscast as well as a WCUO (channel 26)-produced half-hour primetime newscast on CW affiliate WMOR-TV. The newscast featured the same anchor team as that seen on Eyewitness News Nightwatch, WTMO-TV's 11:00 p.m. newscast. Unlike the 10:00 p.m. newscast on WBAI, the WUMO newscast aired only on Monday through Friday evenings. The WTMO-produced newscast on WUMO was retitled MyTV54 Eyewitness News at 10 in April 2009 to reflect WUMO's new MyTV affiliation. The WMOR newscast was cancelled after the June 4, 2010 edition due to dismal ratings; by that time, the WTMO-produced newscast on WUMO had passed the WMOR newscast at a distant second in the timeslot, behind WBAI. In September 2010, WTMO-TV began broadcasting its newscasts in 16:9 widescreen standard definition; the WUMO newscast was included in the upgrade.

The WTMO-produced 10:00 p.m. newscast ended its run on WUMO after the April 26, 2013 edition, having been canceled due to consistently low ratings; three days later on April 29, the program was replaced by Your M.O., a pre-recorded interview show. Newscasts returned to WUMO September 9, 2014, with the debut of a half-hour weeknight 7:30 p.m. newscast produced by WTMO.