WLAJ (channel 53) is a television station in Lansing, Michigan, United States, affiliated with ABC and The CW Plus.

The dormant permit was bought by Joel Ferguson, a Lansing developer and politician who had previously started WSYM-TV (channel 47) in 1982.

Sinclair Broadcast Group acquired Freedom in 2012 but spun WLAJ off to Shield Media, which in turn entered into the shared services agreement with WLNS-TV.

Benko Broadcasting was owned by two brothers, one of whom was a judge in Sanilac County; F&S Comm/News, primarily owned by former Lansing city councilman Joel Ferguson and business partner Sol Steadman; and Kare-Kim Broadcasting Corporation, whose primary stakeholder, Donald Haney, was a television personality in Detroit.

[13] In lieu of a hearing proceeding, the parties settled: Benko reimbursed Kare-Kim for $29,900 in expenses pursuing its application and came away with the permit in an agreement approved that December.

[15] Later, Charles McLravy, former owner of Lansing radio station WILS, became a stakeholder in Benko Broadcasting and built a transmitter building and 100 feet (30 m) of tower.

[16] One of the reasons channel 36 had initially attracted interest was that there was no in-market ABC affiliate in Lansing, which was the largest market so unserved.

[19] When the construction permit for channel 47 was awarded, the FCC dismissed a protest by WUHQ-TV, which sought to establish translators in Jackson and Lansing.

On March 10, 1989, Benko Broadcasting filed to sell the WLAJ construction permit to Lansing 53, Inc., a company owned by Joel Ferguson.

In its first ratings test, the November 1990 Arbitron survey, WLAJ's newscasts attracted less than 1% of the audience compared to 17% for WLNS and 14% for WILX.

[34] Less than two months after instituting Saturday newscasts for the first time,[35] WLAJ discontinued 53 Newsbeat on April 3, 1992, and replaced it with simulcast local news from WXYZ-TV in Detroit.

Ferguson cited the dismal ratings, cost savings, and WXYZ's superior coverage of news events, including the Michigan state capitol;[36] Dave Hoger of the Jackson Citizen Patriot noted that the newscast never quite rose to the level of its on-air presentation and that viewers had become very accustomed to the news on WLNS or WILX.

[37] Wilson was the only holdover, as his contract could not be dropped;[36] he stayed to record a sportscast inserted over the WXYZ newscast at 6:15 p.m.,[38] only to depart weeks later for Detroit's WJBK.

[43] Granite did not immediately buy WLAJ, valued at $19.4 million, because of the signal overlap between the Lansing and Kalamazoo stations.

[50] A Jackson County judge ruled that Granite had met the conditions of creditworthiness necessary to force Tompkins to agree to the transaction.

[58] The station expanded its early-evening news to an hour in October 2008[59] but reversed course and discontinued all longform local newscasts in September 2009, citing continued low ratings.

[60] Freedom announced on November 2, 2011, that it would bow out of television and sell its stations, including WLAJ, to the Sinclair Broadcast Group.

[61] The deal closed on April 2, 2012; on October 11, Sinclair filed to sell WLAJ to Shield Media (owned by White Knight Broadcasting vice president Sheldon Galloway) for $14.4 million.

[65][66][67] WHTV, whose owner Spartan-TV objected to the WLAJ arrangement amid possible fears it would be pushed out,[64] signed a new agreement with WSYM-TV in July 2014.