Heroes & Icons

Heroes & Icons (H&I) is an American digital broadcast television network owned by Weigel Broadcasting. Primarily carried on the digital subchannels of its affiliated television station in most markets, it primarily airs classic television series from the 1950s through the 2000s, with a focus on action/adventure, westerns, crime dramas, sci-fi, and superhero oriented programming.

Heroes & Icons

Type	Digital broadcast television network
Branding	H&I
Country	United States
Availability	Nationwide, via OTA digital TV (U.S. coverage: 60%)[1]
Slogan	All Eyes on H&I
Headquarters	Chicago, Illinois
Owner	H&I National Limited Partnership[2] (Weigel Broadcasting)
Key people	Neal Sabin (Vice Chairman, Weigel Broadcasting)
Launch date	September 28, 2014 (2014-09-28)
Picture format	480i (SDTV)
Callsigns	H&I
Affiliates	List of affiliates
Official website	www.handitv.com

The network operates from Weigel Broadcasting's headquarters on North Halsted Street in Chicago, Illinois, and is essentially an offshoot of MeTV – a general classic TV digital network also owned by Weigel.[3]

History

The network was soft launched with limited advanced promotion on September 28, 2014, on the digital subchannels of Weigel-owned stations WWME-CD (channel 23.2) and WCIU-TV (channel 26.4) in Chicago, and WMLW-TV (channel 49.3) in Milwaukee. Heroes & Icons was created at the request of the affiliates of Weigel's existing networks, in order to increase their programming options.[3]

The network also launched in the South Bend, Indiana market, along with the major cable providers in the Chicago and Milwaukee markets (including Comcast Xfinity, RCN and Time Warner Cable) using existing carriage.[3] Weigel opted to soft launch H&I in order to fine-tune its schedule, along with adding additional programming to the fledgling network.[4] With the network having settled on a more stabilized schedule, Weigel moved the Heroes & Icons affiliation in Milwaukee to the third subchannel of CBS affiliate WDJT-TV (channel 58) on March 5, 2015, with This TV – which previously occupied the 58.3 space – moving to WMLW-DT3 in its place.[5] Fox Television Stations expanded its relationship with Weigel beyond Movies!, adding it to eleven of their stations in the fourth quarter of 2015.[6] A list of 2019 Nielsen ratings published by Variety indicated that Heroes & Icons averaged 196,000 viewers in prime time, up 18% from the 2018 average.[7]

Programming

Much like its sister network, MeTV, Heroes & Icons' program schedule relies primarily on television series from the programming libraries of CBS Television Distribution, NBCUniversal Television Distribution and 20th Television, and also includes some feature film content. H&I targets a more niche audience than MeTV, carrying programming aimed at a generally male audience – featuring a mix of action series, police procedurals, Westerns, science fiction, fantasy and military-themed programs (including several series that have previously aired on MeTV).[3]

In addition to carrying acquired programming, Heroes & Icons also carried an early morning simulcast of TouchVision (a multi-platform news service based out of Weigel's Chicago headquarters) from September 29, 2014 to January 14, 2016.[8][9] The network also carries a three-hour block of children's programming on Sunday mornings in order to fulfill educational programming requirements mandated by the Federal Communications Commission.[3][10]

On Monday, February 8, 2016, first run syndicated shows, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess, debuted on the network weeknights in early evening hours (6 and 7 PM).[11] The "All Star Trek" programming block was launched on July 24, 2016 with all five live action Star Trek shows in sequence from the beginning on Sunday plus on Monday through Friday.[12] As of September 3, 2018, The Day Shift block stripped shows during the week from 11 am to 7 PM with a show per day Monday through Friday: Nash Bridges, House, M. D., JAG, Monk and Numb3rs,[13][14] thus replacing Hercules and Xena.

The "Action Sunday!" block began on February 9, 2020, featuring Adventures of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Sheena, Relic Hunter, Mutant X, Beastmaster, Highlander and War of the Worlds. As of July 5, 2020, the Sunday block was replaced the classic TV show The Untouchables, starring Robert Stack. However, Adventures of Superman and Batman both remain airing on this channel.

Affiliates

As of July 2016, Heroes & Icons has current affiliation agreements with television stations in 63 media markets encompassing 33 states, covering 69.21% of the United States.[15] The network is carried on the digital subchannels of television stations in most of its markets (with current exceptions including St. George, Utah O&O KCSG, which has widespread cable and satellite coverage in the Salt Lake City market and throughout Utah, and Evansville, Indiana affiliate WTSN-CD, which both carry the network on their primary digital channels). The network is also carried on cable television providers through their digital tiers at the discretion of the affiliate's parent station in certain markets.

In South Bend, Indiana, where Weigel Broadcasting owns three television stations (ABC affiliate WBND-LD, CW affiliate WCWW-LD and MyNetworkTV affiliate WMYS-LD), the network is instead carried by former Fox affiliate WSJV through an agreement with that station's owner Quincy Media (it took over the main signal on October 1, 2016 as that station was under consideration to sell its spectrum in that year's spectrum auction, though it ultimately remained on the air). The network added additional stations by early December 2014, which in addition to WSJV, included KCSG in the Salt Lake City market (a station Weigel eventually purchased in 2017) and a digital subchannel of Des Moines CBS affiliate KCCI.[10]

On September 18, 2015, Weigel signed an affiliation agreement with Fox Television Stations to carry the network on subchannels of the group's Fox and MyNetworkTV owned-and-operated stations in eleven markets (including New York City, Los Angeles, Dallas, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.), beginning in the fourth quarter of 2015. Once all of the stations involved in the agreement affiliated with the network, H&I will expand its coverage to 52% of all U.S. households and availability in eight of the 10 largest Nielsen markets.[6] Weigel also maintains a secondary agreement with Spectrum to carry the network nationwide on that cable service, slotting the network's national feed on systems where a terrestrial affiliate does not exist or isn't under contract to be carried.

Current affiliates

City of license/market	Station[15]	Virtual channel	Primary affiliation	Owner	Date of affiliation	Notes
Alabama
Anniston (Birmingham)	WGWW	40.1	-	Howard Stirk Holdings	October 1, 2015	Replaced Heartland as primary affiliate; maintains secondary affiliation with ABC
Montgomery	WALE-LD	17.6	Justice Network	Woods Communications Company	August 11, 2015
Tuscaloosa (Birmingham)	WSES	33.1	-	Howard Stirk Holdings	October 1, 2015
Alaska
Anchorage	KYES-TV	5.3	MyNetworkTV	Gray Television	October 1, 2018	Soft launch on 9/21/2018.
Arizona
Phoenix	KSAZ-TV	10.3	Fox	Fox Television Stations	November 1, 2015
Tucson	KTTU	18.3	MyNetworkTV	Tegna
California
Los Angeles	KCOP	13.4	MyNetworkTV	Fox Television Stations	October 1, 2015
	KVME-TV	20.1	-	Venture Technologies Group	January 3, 2018
Fresno	KAIL	7.3	MyNetworkTV	Aperio Communications, LLC
Monterey	KMBY-LD	19.1	-	Cocola Television
San Francisco–Oakland–San Jose	KTLN-TV	68.1	-	Weigel Broadcasting	April 17, 2019
Stockton–Sacramento	KQCA	58.2	MyNetworkTV	Hearst Television	October 1, 2018
Colorado
Denver	KHDT-LD	26.2	Movies!	Syncom Media Group, Inc.
Colorado Springs–Pueblo	KRDO-TV	13.3	ABC	News-Press & Gazette Company	May 1, 2017
Glenwood Springs	KREG-TV	3.1	-	Weigel Broadcasting	July 2017
District of Columbia
Washington, D.C.	WDCA	20.3	MyNetworkTV	Fox Television Stations	October 3, 2015
Florida
Fort Myers	WBBH-TV	20.2	NBC	Waterman Broadcasting
Jacksonville	WFOX-TV	30.3	Fox	Cox Media Group	June 3, 2015
Miami	WPLG	10.3	ABC	BH Media	January 2018
Orlando (Daytona Beach)	WRBW	65.3	MyNetworkTV	Fox Television Stations	October 1, 2015
Panama City	WECP-LD	18.3	CBS	Gray Television	January 2017
Tampa (Saint Petersburg/Clearwater)	WTVT	13.4	Fox	Fox Television Stations	November 1, 2015
Georgia
Bainbridge (Tallahassee)	WTLH	49.1	-	New Age Media	April 30, 2018
Perry/Macon	WPGA-TV	58.2	Independent	Register Communications	2017
Toccoa/Atlanta (Athens)	WGTA	32.2	MeTV	Marquee Broadcasting
Hawaii
Honolulu, Hawaii	KITV	4.5	ABC	SJL Broadcasting	March 11, 2019
Idaho
Boise	KRID-LD	22.3	NewsMax TV		March 2, 2017	Began formally broadcasting on March 20, 2017
Pocatello/Idaho Falls	KPIF	15.2	MeTV	Pocatello Channel 15, LLC	October 2, 2017
Illinois
Chicago	WWME-CD	23.2	MeTV	Weigel Broadcasting	September 28, 2014[3]	Flagship station
	WCIU-TV	26.4	CW		December 29, 2014	Full-power simulcast of WWME-CD2
Harrisburg	WSIL-TV	3.2	ABC	Quincy Media	January 3, 2018
Rockford	WFBN-LD	35.1	Telemundo (on DT2)	Weigel Broadcasting	mid-2016	Replaced TouchVision
Springfield, Illinois (St. Louis, MO)	WODK-LD	45.2	Cozi TV	DTV America	Dec 2016 or Jan 2017	Station is licensed to Springfield but transmits from suburban St. Louis; it does not transmit any signal to Springfield.
Indiana
Evansville	WTSN-CD	20.1	-	Evansville Low Power Partnership
Elkhart (South Bend)[3]	WSJV	28.1		Quincy Media	2016	Formerly a Fox affiliate
Indianapolis	WUDZ-LD	28.2	Buzzr	DTV America	December 8, 2015
Iowa
Cedar Rapids	KCRG	9.4	ABC	Gray Television	March 1, 2019
Des Moines	KCCI	8.3	CBS	Hearst Television	December 2014	Subchannel maintains secondary affiliation with MyNetworkTV, pre-empting H&I prime time programming on weeknights[10]
Kansas
Hutchinson	KWCH-DT	12.3	CBS	Gray Television	June 2017
Topeka	WIBW-TV	13.3			February 28, 2019
	KCMN-LD	42.2	Decades	DTV America Corporation
Kentucky
Hazard	WYMT-TV	57.2	CBS	Gray Television	January 2017
Louisville	WBNA	21.6	Independent	Evangel World Prayer Center	July 2015
Louisiana
Alexandria	KBCA	41.1	-	Wilderness Communications	July 1, 2015	Switched to 41.1 from 41.3 in September 2016 when the CW moved to a subchannel of NBC's KALB-TV due to an agreement between CW and Gray Television
Columbia/Monroe/El Dorado	KMLU	11.2	MeTV	Legacy Broadcasting	January 2018
Lafayette/New Iberia/Baton Rouge	KDCG-CD & KLWB	22.1 & 50.2		Delta Media Corporation	July 1, 2015	replaced Antenna TV
New Orleans	WUPL	54.3	MyNetworkTV	Tegna
Maine
Poland Spring (Portland)	WPXT	51.2	The CW	Hearst Television
Dedham (Bangor)	WBGR-LD	33.2	MeTV	James McLeod(Maine Family Broadcasting, Inc.)	September 2019
Maryland
Salisbury	WGDV-LD	32.3	Azteca America	Marquee Broadcasting
Massachusetts
Boston	WSBK-TV	38.2	MyNetworkTV	CBS Television Stations	October 6, 2016
Michigan
Detroit	WJBK	2.4	Fox	Fox Television Stations	November 1, 2015
Flint	WJRT	12.5	ABC	Gray Television	August 30, 2019
Kalamazoo	WLLA	64.3	MeTV	Christian Broadcasting Ministries	June 1, 2020	Replaced RetroTV (now on 64.5)
Lansing	WILX-TV	10.2	NBC	Gray Television	October 1, 2016	Replaced WeatherNation TV
Marquette	WZMQ	19.5	MeTV	Lilly Broadcasting
Roscommon	WURO-LD	18.1	^1	M33 Media LLC	March 2017
Minnesota
Chisholm, Minnesota	KRII-TV	11.3	NBC	Quincy Media	March 2017	Subchannel maintains secondary affiliation with MyNetworkTV, pre-empting H&I prime time programming on weeknights[16][17]
Duluth, MN-Superior, WI	KBJR-TV	6.3
Minneapolis–St. Paul	KSTP-TV	5.7	ABC	Hubbard Broadcasting
Rochester	KTTC	10.3	NBC	Quincy Media	March 2015[18]	Also carried on translator W50DR-D in La Crosse, Wisconsin.
Missouri
Poplar Bluff	KPOB	15.2	ABC	Quincy Media	January 3, 2018	Full-power satellite of WSIL
St. Louis	KNLC	24.3	MeTV	Weigel Broadcasting	Dec 12, 2017[19]
Nebraska
Omaha	WOWT	6.3	NBC	Gray Television	January, 2019
Nevada
Las Vegas	KHSV	21.1	-	Howard Stirk Holdings
New Jersey
Secaucus (New York City)	WWOR-TV	9.4	MyNetworkTV	Fox Television Stations	October 3, 2015
New Mexico
Hobbs (Albuquerque)	KUPT	29.1	-	Ramar Communications	February 2015
Albuquerque	KUPT-LD	16.3	Movies!
Santa Fe (Albuquerque)	KASA-TV	29.1	Telemundo		January 2017
New York
Albany	WNYA	51.4	MyNetworkTV	Hubbard Broadcasting	June 1, 2019
Buffalo	WBBZ-TV	67.2	MeTV	Phil Arno	March 2017
Rochester	WHEC-TV	10.5	NBC	Hubbard Broadcasting	May 2019
Saranac Lake	WYCI	40.1	-	Cross Hill Communications	2017
North Carolina
Charlotte	WJZY	46.5	Fox	Nexstar Media Group	October 1, 2015
Fayetteville	WIRP-LD	27.4	Estrella TV	DTV America	2017
Greenville	WTMH-LD	21.3	Heartland	Tutt Media Group	August 15, 2015	Replaced Tuff TV on DT3.
	WTMQ-LD	29.3
Washington (Greenville)	WITN-TV	7.5	NBC	Gray Television
Wilmington	WTMV-LD	39.3	Heartland	Tutt Media Group	August 15, 2015	Replaced Tuff TV on DT3.
North Dakota
Bismarck	KNDB	24.1	-	BEK Sports Network	July 2015
Minot	KNDM	26.1				Satellite of KNDB
Fargo	KVLY-TV	11.4	NBC	Gray Television	September 12, 2016
	KXJB-LD	30.3/28.3	CBS
Ohio
Cincinnati	WXIX-TV	19.2	FOX	Gray Television	January 1, 2020
Cleveland	WBNX-TV	55.4	Independent	Winston Broadcasting Network	December 30, 2015
Oklahoma
Tulsa	KMYT-TV	41.4	MyNetworkTV	Cox Media Group
Pennsylvania
Allentown (Philadelphia)	WFMZ-TV	69.3	Independent	Maranatha Broadcasting Company
Erie, Pennsylvania	WSEE-TV	35.4	CBS	Lilly Broadcasting	March 4, 2019
Jeannette (Pittsburgh)	WPCW	19.2	The CW	CBS Television Stations
Puerto Rico
Añasco	W33CY-D	33.1	-	TV Red de Puerto Rico, Inc.
South Carolina
Charleston	WGWG	4.1	-	Howard Stirk Holdings	August 1, 2015	Replaced ZUUS Country
Columbia	WOLO-TV	25.5	ABC	Bahakel Communications	January 1, 2019	Replaced Start TV which moved to 25.2, replacing This TV
Greenville-Spartanburg	WDKT-LD	31.5	GEB Network	CAROLINA CHRISTIAN BROADCASTING
Tennessee
Jackson	WYJJ-LD	27.5	Antenna TV MyNetworkTV	DTV America Corporation
Kingsport	WAPK-CD	36.4	MeTV	Holston Valley Broadcasting Group
Knoxville	WBXX-TV	20.3	The CW	Gray Television
Nashville	WJFB	44.2	MeTV	HC2 Holdings
Texas
Amarillo	KEYU	31.2	Telemundo	Gray Television	2018
Austin	KBVO	14.3	MyNetworkTV	Nexstar Media Group	October 29, 2018
Dallas–Fort Worth	KDFI	27.4		Fox Television Stations	November 15, 2015
Houston	KPRC-TV	2.3	NBC	Graham Media Group	December 1, 2015	Replaced LATV, vacant since 2012
Lubbock	KLBB-LP	48.2	MeTV	Ramar Communications
Odessa	KTLE-LD	7.7	Telemundo	Gray Television	2017
Snyder	KABI-LD	42.1	-	Ramar Communications
San Antonio	KSAT-TV	12.4	ABC	Graham Media Group	January 2019
Utah
Salt Lake City	KTVX	4.4 (30.7)	ABC	Nexstar Media Group	November 1, 2018	Replaced a standard definition simulcast of KUCW
Cedar City/St. George	KCSG	8.4 (14.6)	MeTV	Weigel Broadcasting	September 29, 2014	Replaced MeTV as primary affiliation.
Virginia
Roanoke/Lynchburg	WDBJ	7.2	CBS	Gray Television	September 1, 2018
Washington
Bellingham	KVOS	12.1	-	Weigel Broadcasting		Also serving Vancouver and Victoria, British Columbia, and much of Canada via Cable and Satellite.
Seattle	KFFV	44.3	MeTV
Spokane	KXLY	4.3	ABC	Morgan Murphy Media
West Virginia
Weston	WDTV	5.3	CBS	Gray Television	February, 2019
Wisconsin
Eau Claire	WEAU	13.6	NBC	Gray Television	October 2015	Replaced Antenna TV, which moved to channel 13.2
Green Bay	WBAY-TV	2.4	ABC		February 1, 2019[20]
Janesville (Madison)	WIFS	57.3	Ion Life	Byrne Acquisition Group, LLC
Milwaukee	WMLW-TV	49.3	Independent	Weigel Broadcasting	September 29, 2014 (moved from WDJT-DT3 to WMLW-DT3 on January 8, 2018)[5]
Wausau	WZAW-LD	33.4	Fox	Gray Television

Former affiliates

Market	Station	Channel	Owner	Years of affiliation	Status
San Francisco–Oakland–San Jose	KICU-TV	36.4	Fox Television Stations	November 2015 - May 2019	Now a Decades affiliate
Bridgeport, Connecticut (New York)	WZME	43.1	NRJ TV, LLC	2015-2016	Now a Sonlife Broadcasting Network affiliate
Chicago, Illinois	WWME-CA (Analog)	23 (Analog)	Weigel Broadcasting	March–September 2015	Analog signal was terminated due to FCC mandate on September 1, 2015
Danville (Roanoke/Lynchburg)	WFFP-TV	24.2	Liberty University	2015–2018	Affiliation moved to WDBJ following WFFP-TV's sale to Gray Television
Hagerstown (Washington, D.C.)	WDVM-TV	25.1	Nexstar Media Group	July 1, 2016 - July 1, 2019	Now an independent station.
Poland Springs (Portland, Maine)	WMTW	8.2	Hearst Television	2015-2018	Now a MeTV affiliate
Racine, Wisconsin (Milwaukee)	WMLW-TV	49.3	Weigel Broadcasting	2014–2015[3]	This TV moved from WDJT-DT3 in channel map shuffle
Springfield, Illinois (St. Louis, MO)	WODK-LD	45.2	DTV America	Dec 2016 - Jan 2018	Contract terminated upon Weigel's assumption of ownership of KNLC and move to KNLC-DT3; station transmits from St. Louis antenna farm and has no signal radius into the Springfield market proper.
Wausau, Wisconsin	WSAW-TV	7.3	Gray Television	2014–2015	Now a simulcast of Fox affiliate WZAW-LD
Albany, New York	WNYT	13.3	Hubbard Broadcasting	December 29, 2015- June 1, 2019	Now a Start TV affiliate

References

1. Buckman, Adam (July 26, 2016). "Diginets Keep Growing, Despite Auction Cloud". TVNewsCheck. NewsCheck Media. Retrieved November 7, 2016.
2. "H&I TV Network". H&I. © 2020 H&I National Limited Partnership
3. Robert Channick (September 29, 2014). "Weigel Broadcasting launches cop show digital TV network". Chicago Tribune. Tribune Publishing. Retrieved September 30, 2014.
4. "News & Notes: Felicia Middlebrooks; WOJO; WVIX/WVIV; WMVP/WSCR; James VanOsdol; Weigel Broadcasting; WGN-TV; More". Chicagoland Radio & Media. September 30, 2014. Retrieved January 26, 2015.
5. Chris Foran (March 4, 2015). "Weigel flips channels for This TV, Heroes & Icons formats". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Journal Media Group. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
6. Lafayette, Jon (September 18, 2015). "Fox Stations Agree to Carry Heroes & Icons". Broadcasting & Cable. NewBay Media. Retrieved September 16, 2016.
7. Schneider, Michael (26 Dec 2019). "Most-Watched Television Networks: Ranking 2019's Winners and Losers". Variety. Retrieved March 6, 2020.
8. Marek, Lynee (January 14, 2016). "Weigel backed TV outlet TouchVision shutters". Crain's Chicago Business. Retrieved January 28, 2016.
9. Feder, Robert (January 15, 2016). "TouchVision ends as noble failure". RobertFeder.com. Retrieved January 28, 2016.
10. Michael Malone (December 2, 2014). "Weigel Launches Cop Show Net Heroes & Icons". Broadcasting & Cable. NewBay Media. Retrieved January 26, 2015.
11. "Heroes & Icons Diginet To Add 'Hercules' And 'Xena'". TVNewsCheck. January 27, 2016. Retrieved March 3, 2017.
12. Greeley, Paul (July 5, 2016). "Five Original 'Star Trek' Programs Airing Together". TV News Check. NewsCheckMedia. Retrieved September 16, 2016.
13. Govoni, Nick (September 4, 2018). "H&I TELEVISION NETWORK DEBUTS 'HOUSE,' 'MONK' and 'NUMB3RS'". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved February 11, 2020.
14. "2 new digital subchannels coming this weekend to north central Wisconsin". WSAW. October 21, 2019. Retrieved February 11, 2020. Each weekday, H&I presents The Day Shift, 9 hours of back to back episodes of contemporary drama from 10:00 AM until 7:00 PM.
15. "Stations for Network - Heroes & Icons". RabbitEars. Retrieved October 1, 2014.
16. RabbitEars TV Query for KBJR
17. RabbitEars TV Query for KRII
18. "New local broadcast channel coming to KTTC 10.3". KTTC. Quincy Media. February 12, 2015. Retrieved February 28, 2015.
19. "NLEC Notice of move to sub channel 24.2". Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved December 15, 2017.
20. "WBAY TV-2 adds H&I and Start TV to channel line up". January 25, 2019. Retrieved January 25, 2019.

External links

• Official website