Heartland Diginet Launches On WHNE Detroit

The Heartland Network, Luken Communications’ country music and lifestyle multicast network, has made its debut in Detroit market (DMA 14) on Tait Broadcasting’s WHNE-LD (ch. 14.12). WHNE already broadcasts Luken’s Retro TV on ch. 14.7.

Jim Lebrato, Tait Broadcasting’s CEO, said: “WHNE TV 14 is excited to bring Heartland’s country-flavored lineup of shows to Detroit viewers for the first time ever. There’s nothing else out there quite like Heartland and we know its programming lineup will keep Detroit’s country audience entertained around the clock.”

Station Manager Bob Naismith added: “We’re particularly excited about welcoming Heartland personality Stacy Newman back to her hometown. Metro Detroit (Brighton) born and bred, Newman now hosts Heartland’s first original series, More Than the Music.”

Joel Wertman, president of Luken Communications, said: “This spring has been very good to Heartland. Detroit is just the first of a string of new markets we’re set to announce and it’s fitting that we kick off our latest launches in Stacy Newman’s hometown. Our whole team is excited to partner with our friends at Tait Broadcasting to bring another one of our channels to the Detroit market.”

Heartland, currently reaching more than 27.5 million TV homes in addition to a Roku audience, features programming composed of syndicated and first-run shows along with digitally restored content pulled from the vaults of Music Row.