KFIZ-TV

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages) This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "KFIZ-TV" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (May 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) This article possibly contains original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations. Statements consisting only of original research should be removed. (May 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

KFIZ-TV

Independent (primary) NET/PBS (secondary)

KFIZ-TV,

Given the expense of broadcast quality equipment at the time, KFIZ-TV had to operate with severe limitations. Initially, only programming on 16mm film could be shown in color. Its three studio cameras were black and white, as was its only video tape machine. Later, two color cameras were purchased from International Video Corporation, as well as a color video tape machine (albeit in a non-standard 1" helical-scan format). Thus the only video taped programs that could be broadcast in color were locally produced.

The transmitter was located north of Fond du Lac near the

.

A significant amount of local programming was produced outside of the studio (local sports, civic events, etc.). This required cameras, associated control equipment, and (later) the 1" helical-scan video tape machine to be removed from the studio and put in the station's truck.

For live remote broadcasts, the truck was equipped with a

. If the site was too far away, the truck's signal would be sent to the transmitter (due to its height and height above average area terrain). An engineer would need to be posted at the transmitter to switch input between master control and the remote site.

Some of its programming was relayed from the over-the-air signal of

Video Tape Machine with color capabilities. Using the over-the-air system forced KFIZ to schedule such programming at the same time as Milwaukee stations.

For part of the day, the station simulcast educational programming from WHA-TV in Madison.

Fond du Lac is located equidistant from Milwaukee, Madison and

, which was looking for a way to get programming from its educational television station, WHA-TV, into those cities. UW-Madison signed a contract with RK Communications calling for channel 34 to simulcast WHA-TV for part of its broadcast day.

When the owners of RK Communications decided to sell the entire company, the combination of what was now simply the Reporter and KFIZ-AM-TV lost its grandfathered protection, forcing RK Communications to sell the newspaper and broadcasting properties to separate buyers. While buyers were found for the newspaper and the radio station, there were no takers for the money-losing TV station. Earlier, the station had lost significant revenue when the Wisconsin Educational Communications Board decided to turn WHA-TV into a statewide public television network (what evolved into Wisconsin Public Television, now PBS Wisconsin). WPNE-TV in Green Bay was the first spoke in the network, launching on September 12, 1972. Fond du Lac is part of the Green Bay market, and WPNE's sign-on took away a considerable part of the station's broadcast day and its revenue. Under the circumstances, KFIZ-TV went off the air on November 30, 1972.^[2] KFIZ-TV's former antenna and transmitter were subsequently sold to PBS member station WNIT in South Bend, Indiana, a station which was founded in December 1972 and first went on the air in February 1974, also on channel 34.^[4]

References