List of Wayne Cablevision channels (Michigan, August 1981)

Parent Page: List of Retro Cable lineups in the United States

In August of 1981, Wayne Cablevision customers in Allen Park, Brownstown Township, Ecorse, Flat Rock, Grosse Ile, Melvindale, River Rouge, Rockwood, Southgate and Taylor, Michigan had access to the following channels. Wayne Cablevision was at that time a subsidiary of Toronto-based Maclean Hunter, which also owned Metro Cablevision which serviced Center Line and East Detroit (now Eastpointe) in Macomb County and Detroit Cablevision in the city of Detroit -- the lattermost later rebranding as Barden Cablevision with the help of businessman Don Barden. Wayne Cablevision and Metro Cablevision later took on the generic Maclean Hunter Cable TV name by 1990. All of Maclean Hunter's Canadian operations were sold to Rogers Communications in 1994 while all of it American operations, including the now-former Wayne Cablevision, were sold to Comcast around the same time, which handles cable television installations throughout much of Metro Detroit, only now through Xfinity.

Legend

• CALL — The call letters of an over-the-air television station in bold text.
• CABLE — Cable channels in regular text.
•  ##  — Over-the-air channel number for stations within the Detroit television market, according to current laws by the FCC and mapping of markets by Nielsen Media Research. Also, some stations may service areas outside of the television market as well.
•  ##  — Over-the-air channel number for distant out-of-market stations, including regional and national "superstations", according to current laws by the FCC and mapping of markets by Nielsen Media Research.
• Network affiliated stations will have the network's logo (of the corresponding era) next to them and independent stations are unmarked.

Market

The Detroit television market includes 9 counties in Michigan with market hubs in bold text, though its stations also service 3 counties in Ontario, Canada, those counties and areas are NOT officially part of the market:

• Michigan:
  • Counties: Lapeer, Livingston, Macomb, Monroe, Oakland, Sanilac, St. Clair, Washtenaw and Wayne
  • Cities: Allen Park, Ann Arbor, Auburn Hills, Bloomfield Hills, Brighton, Capac, Carleton, Chelsea, Clawson, Dearborn, Detroit, Dexter, Dundee, Eastpointe, Ecorse, Farmington Hills, Ferndale, Flat Rock, Fowlerville, Grosse Pointe Woods, Harper Woods, Highland Park, Howell, Imlay City, Inkster, Lapeer, Livonia, Luna Pier, Madison Heights, Marine City, Melvindale, Metamora, Monroe, Mount Clemens, Northville, Novi, Oak Park, Pontiac, Port Huron, Port Sanilac, Riverview, Rochester Hills, Romulus, Saline, Southfield, Southgate, Sterling Heights, St. Clair Shores, Taylor, Utica, Warren, Waterford, Wixom, Woodhaven, Wyandotte and Ypsilanti
• Ontario:
  • Counties: Essex, Chatham-Kent and Lambton
  • Cities: Amherstburg, Belle River, Charlemont, Chatham, Dawn Valley, Deerbrook, Elmstead, Emeryville, Essex, Haycroft, Kennedy Acres, Kingsville, LaSalle, Leamington, Oil City, Oil Springs, Petrolia, Point Edward, Sarnia, Tecumseh, Thornyhurst, Tilbury, Wallaceburg, Wheatley and Windsor

Lineup

Sources: Facebook and Newspapers.com* (1, 2, 3, 4)
*Paid subscription to "Publisher Extra" may be required for some sections

CH#	Name	Notes
2	2  WJBK-TV Detroit	Currently a Fox network owned-and-operated station (since 1997), owned by Fox Television Stations (WJBK-TV became the Fox affiliate in a major mass-affiliation deal starting in 1994, sending its former CBS affiliation to then-independent  62  WGPR-TV, which CBS acquired outright in 1995, renaming it WWJ-TV, while also making former Fox affiliate (and now CW affiliate)  50  WKBD-TV an independent once again (briefly) until the launch of the UPN television network (also a network O&O) in January of 1995, initially only an affiliate, Fox acquired both the station and then-owner New World Communications directly and outright in 1997, making WJBK-TV a network owned-and-operated station with the "-TV" suffix removed from the call letters, now as WJBK in 1998)
3	TV3 (Local Cable Access)	Defunct
4	4  WDIV-TV Detroit	Then and now, still an NBC affiliate, owned by Graham Media Group (WDIV is the oldest active television in the state of Michigan, having signed on in March of 1947 as WWDT)
5	50  WKBD-TV Detroit	Now a CW network-owned station, owned by Paramount Global (WKBD would briefly become an independent station once again before joining UPN as a charter O&O after its Fox affiliation moved to  2  WJBK in late 1994, sending the latter's CBS affiliation to WGPR, now network O&O and sister station  62  WWJ-TV, WKBD would reinstate the "-TV" suffix (as WKBD-TV once again) in 2009 after having previously dropped it from its call letters in 1984, disaffiliated from The CW in September of 2023 before reaffiliating in September of 2024, Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery own a combined 25 percent stake in the network, but it is operated entirely and solely by its majority owner, Nexstar Media Group)
6	56  WTVS Detroit	Still a PBS member station, owned by the Detroit Educational Television Foundation
7	7  WXYZ-TV Detroit	Then and now, still an ABC affiliate, now owned by The E. W. Scripps Company (An ABC O&O at the time, WXYZ-TV was one of the original ABC network O&Os, alongside WABC-TV in New York City, KABC-TV in Los Angeles, WLS-TV in Chicago and KGO-TV in San Francisco (all of which are also on  7 ), that was before WXYZ was sold (along with then-independent station (also an ABC affiliate today)  28  WFTS-TV in Tampa, Florida) to Scripps as divestitures of the Capital Cities-ABC merger in 1986, also sister to independent station  20  WMYD, then known as WXON in 1981)
8	Cable News Network	CNN in Atlanta, an American multinational news channel, owned by Warner Bros. Discovery
9	9  CBET Windsor, ON, CAN	Then and now, still, a CBC network O&O, owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
10	32  CICO Windsor, ON, CAN	A repeat transmitter of CICA in Toronto, as CICO-DT-32, now on channel 19 (The network's name has since been shortened to only TVO, CICA is also on  19 )
11	17  WTBS Atlanta, GA	The direct OTA feed at the time, now as WPCH-TV (now a CW affiliate), owned by Gray Television (Both the station and the TBS network (short for Turner Broadcasting System), were separated from each other in 2007, TBS today, is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, Gray also owns and operates CBS affiliate  46  WANF and Telemundo affiliate  47  WKTB-CD)
12	62  WGPR-TV Detroit	CBS affiliate since 1994, O&O since 1995 as WWJ-TV (Was the first African-American owned and operated television station in the United States, also part of duopoly with CW affiliate  50  WKBD-TV, owned by Paramount Global)
13	9  WOR-TV New York, NY	Moved to Secaucus, New Jersey in 1983 and now a MyNetworkTV O&O as WWOR-TV (Owned by Fox Television Stations as part of a duopoly with Fox network flagship  5  WNYW)
14	Cable Guide	Defunct
15	Bulletin Board	Defunct
16	Cinemax Guide	Defunct, merely a guide for Cinemax movies
17	Cinemax	Sister and companion network to HBO, owned by Warner Bros. Discovery (A premium pay subscription channel with mainstream, independent and original shows, movies and documentaries)
18	Showtime Guide	Defunct, merely a guide for Showtime movies and shows
19	Showtime	A premium pay-subscription channel owned by Paramount Global
20	HBO Guide	Defunct, merely a guide for HBO shows and movies
21	Home Box Office	A premium subscription network, still operates today by its acronym HBO (Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, Home Box Office is still used as the network's legal corporate name)
22	UPI/Slo-Scan	United Press International/Static Images
23	USA Network	Then and now, a general entertainment and sports channel, now owned by NBCUniversal
24	Nickelodeon	Today owned by Paramount Global, schedule then and now, still consists of programming towards children and teenagers up to 18 years of age
25	20  WXON Detroit	An independent station once again, as WMYD, owned by The E. W. Scripps Company in a duopoly with ABC affiliate and former network O&O  7  WXYZ-TV (The station had previous affiliations with The WB (1995-2006) as WXON-TV and later WDWB and MyNetworkTV (2006-2021) before becoming an independent station once again before joining The CW in November of 2023 only to revert back to independent status in September of 2024)
26	PTL	The network folded in 1989 and was relaunched in 2015, owned by televangelist Jim Bakker
27	CBN	CBN Cable Network was spun off by the Christian Broadcasting Network and operates today as Freeform, owned by The Walt Disney Company
28	78  CBEFT Windsor, ON, CAN	Moved to channel 54 in 1983 after channels 70-83 were removed from the TV band, ceased operations in August of 2012 (At the time a standalone station, CBEFT was converted into a semi-satellite of  25  CBLFT Toronto -- in turn a rebroadcaster of  9  CBOFT Ottawa by 1991, was the French-language sister/counterpart of CBC O&O  9  CBET, both owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, also known in French as La Société Radio-Canada)
29	Sports/Financial	Defunct, likely a teletext channel with sports news and scores and financial news and headlines
30	Time & Weather	Defunct, likely a teletext channel with current time and date and weather forecasts (Predating the launch of The Weather Channel by nine months)
31	ESPN	A 24-hour channel devoted to local, regional, national and international sports (Owned as a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company at 80% and Hearst Communications at 20%)
32	Weather Radar	Defunct, likely a fullscreen weather radar from the National Weather Service (Predating the launch of The Weather Channel by nine months)
33	AP News	Defunct, likely a teletext newswire service from the Associated Press
34	PA-1 Public Access	Defunct, a local cable access channel
35	ED-1 Educational Access	Defunct, a local cable access channel
36	MUN-1 Municipal Access	Defunct, a local cable access channel