WEAU
This article needs to be updated.(August 2021) |
kW | |
HAAT | 615.5 m (2,019 ft) |
---|---|
Transmitter coordinates | 44°39′50″N 90°57′41″W / 44.66389°N 90.96139°W |
Translator(s) | see § Translators |
Links | |
Public license information | |
Website | www |
WEAU (channel 13) is a
History
WEAU-TV signed-on December 17, 1953, under the ownership of Central Broadcasting Company. This ownership group was led by a predecessor to
The station initially broadcast from a tower immediately behind the WEAU studios on South Hastings Way in Eau Claire. A new tower, approximately 1,000 feet (300 m) tall, was built in the same location in 1956 44°39′50″N 90°57′41″W / 44.66389°N 90.96139°W before an approximately 2,000-foot (610 m) tower was constructed near Fairchild in 1966. The tower in Eau Claire is now topped by the digital transmitter of rival ABC affiliate WQOW (channel 18).
Morgan Murphy sold off WEAU radio in 1959; in 1962, it sold WEAU-TV to The
In 1984, Racine-born George N. Gillett Jr. purchased the Post Corporation stations, including WEAU-TV, making it a sister station to Milwaukee's WITI for a short time. WAXX and WAYY were spun off to Central Communications at the same time, and in 1985, the two radio stations moved out of the WEAU building to a new facility behind its parking lot. Despite being under separate ownership, WEAU continued to provide weather forecasting services for WAXX and WAYY as well as other stations purchased by Central Communications (which included WEAU's original radio properties, WEAQ and WIAL, in addition to WECL and WDRK) until December 31, 2001. WEAU resumed providing weather services to those same six stations, now under the ownership of Maverick Media, on September 11, 2006.
Gillett began defaulting on some of his purchases in the late-1980s culminating in 1990 when he sold WEAU to Busse Broadcasting, owner of KOLN in Lincoln, Nebraska and KGIN in Grand Island, Nebraska (and at one point also owned WWMT in Kalamazoo, Michigan and KOKH-TV in Oklahoma City). In 1998, Gray Communications Systems (which was subsequently renamed Gray Television) and Cosmos Broadcasting (the broadcasting division of the Liberty Corporation which was later merged into Raycom Media and itself sold to Gray) teamed up to purchase the Busse stations with WEAU going to Cosmos and KOLN/KGIN going to Gray. Cosmos then traded WEAU back to Gray in exchange for WALB (Gray's original flagship station) in Albany, Georgia (that station returned to Gray in 2019 after WALB's last owner Raycom merged with Gray). Technology was the highlight of the following decade as WEAU-DT, which originally transmitted on channel 39, signed-on April 30, 2002, with the digital transmitter located at the top of the tower in Fairchild.
The station turned off its analog transmitter at 12:30 p.m. on February 16, 2009. At around 1 o'clock, WEAU's digital signal relocated from channel 39 to channel 13. On October 1, 2012, WEAU dropped the "-TV" suffix from its call sign.[7] The transmission tower for WEAU was the tallest structure in the state of Wisconsin topping out at 2,000 feet (610 m), or over 500 feet (150 m) taller than the Empire State Building. The tower was shared with former sister radio station WAXX. On March 22, 2011, this tower collapsed during an intense winter storm that brought a mixture of terrible weather conditions.[8] A replacement tower was completed by December 15, 2011, and broadcasts resumed on UHF channel 38 in late December.
In 2024, WEAU-TV (NBC) and sister station WECX (The CW) will air 10 Milwaukee Bucks games as part of an agreement with Weigel Broadcasting. NBC will air 4 games, while The CW will air the other 6.[9]
News operation
WEAU tends to focus its local news coverage on Eau Claire and the Chippewa Valley, with a secondary emphasis on La Crosse.[citation needed]
WEAU constructed its own
On August 28, 2006, WEAU entered into a news share agreement with
WLAX/WEUX features a majority of WEAU's on-air team except for maintaining a separate weeknight meteorologist and weekend news anchor (although they can fill in on the NBC outlet when needed). Fox 25/48 News at 9 originates from a secondary set at WEAU's studios and is fed to the WLAX/WEUX facility through a fiber-optic link. On August 5, 2011, WEAU upgraded its newscasts to high definition level. However, the WLAX/WEUX newscasts were not included in the change because they were produced from a secondary set that lacked HD cameras. As of fall 2015, Fox 25/48 News is broadcast in high definition.
Notable former on-air staff
- Craig Coshun – BS WisconsinBroadcaster/Big Ten Play-By-Play Announcer; WEAU Reporter/Anchor: 1988–90
- Chippewa Falls), 2007–2011; WEAU Anchor/Reporter: mid 1990s–2005
- Cameron Sanders – CNN Correspondent & Host of public radio's Marketplace; WEAU Reporter: 1979–80
Technical information
Subchannels
The station's digital signal is
Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
---|---|---|---|---|
13.1 | 1080i | 16:9 |
WEAUHD | NBC |
13.2 | 480i | COZI | Cozi TV | |
13.3 | MeTV | MeTV | ||
13.4 | MOVIES | Movies! | ||
13.5 | Defy | Defy TV | ||
13.6 | OUTLAW | Outlaw TV | ||
14.10 | WECXSD | The CW Plus (WECX-LD) |
Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
---|---|---|---|---|
14.1 | 720p | 16:9 |
WECX-HD | The CW Plus |
14.2 | 480i | HandI | Heroes & Icons | |
14.3 | StartTV | Start TV | ||
14.4 | MeTV | MeTV | ||
13.10 | 1080i | WEAU-HD | NBC (WEAU) |
Translators
City of license | Callsign | Translating | Channel | ERP | HAAT
|
Facility ID | Transmitter coordinates |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Eau Claire | WECX-LD | 14 | 10.1 kW | 474.9 m (1,558 ft) | 185705 | 44°39′50″N 90°57′41″W / 44.66389°N 90.96139°W | |
W33DH-D | WECX-LD | 33 | 15 kW | 123.5 m (405 ft) | 184506 | 44°48′0.0″N 91°27′57.0″W / 44.800000°N 91.465833°W | |
La Crosse |
W34FC-D | 34 | 327 m (1,073 ft) | 35676 | 43°48′23″N 91°22′3″W / 43.80639°N 91.36750°W |
From July 2020 to September 13, 2021, WEAU was rebroadcast via a Digital Replacement Translator in the La Crosse area on RF channel 30.[13][14][15][16]
References
- ^ "TV Guide: Northwest Edition".
- ^ "Facility Technical Data for WEAU". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
- ^ Telecasting Yearbook-Marketbook 1954 (PDF). 1954. p. 319. Retrieved March 26, 2011.
- ^ "Require Prime Evening Time for NTA Films", Boxoffice: 13, November 10, 1956
- ^ "For the Record" (PDF). Broadcasting. January 21, 1963. Retrieved March 26, 2011.
- ^ "For the Record" (PDF). Broadcasting. September 26, 1977. Retrieved March 26, 2011.
- ^ "Call Sign History". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved October 2, 2012.
- ^ "WEAU 13 tower collapses in Fairchild". WEAU-TV. Retrieved March 23, 2011.
- ^ Knox, Heather (February 9, 2024). "Catch the Milwaukee Bucks on WEAU". WEAU. Retrieved February 10, 2024.
- ^ RabbitEars TV Query for WEAU
- ^ a b "WEAU 13 News is offering new channels starting August 2; rescan required". Archived from the original on August 16, 2021.
- ^ RabbitEars TV Query for WECX-LD
- ^ "AVS Forum - LaCrosse / Wausau, WI - HDTV, post #1737".
- ^ "AVS Forum - LaCrosse / Wausau, WI - HDTV, post #1815".
- ^ "New Digital Replacement Translator Construction Permit Application". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission. May 30, 2018. Retrieved June 26, 2019.
- ^ "LaCrosse / Wausau, WI - HDTV".
External links
- Official website
- WEAU Television Tower at Structurae
- "Listing 1033664". Antenna Structure Registration database. U.S. Federal Communications Commission.