WVTV

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Coordinates: 43°5′48″N 87°54′18″W / 43.09667°N 87.90500°W / 43.09667; -87.90500
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WVTV
Facility ID74174
ERP1,000 kW
HAAT318 m (1,043 ft)
Transmitter coordinates43°5′48″N 87°54′18″W / 43.09667°N 87.90500°W / 43.09667; -87.90500
Links
Public license information
Websitecw18milwaukee.com

WVTV (channels 18 and 24) is a

I-41/US 45 interchange on Milwaukee's northwest side; its transmitter is located on North Humboldt Boulevard in Milwaukee's Estabrook Park neighborhood as part of the Milwaukee PBS
tower.

WVTV operates a second

incentive auction
.

History

Early years

WVTV is the second-oldest continuously operating station in Milwaukee. The station first signed on the air on October 3, 1953, as WOKY-TV, broadcasting on UHF channel 19. It was owned by

Roman numeral
for 19) on February 27, 1955. It then moved into WCAN's former studio on North 27th Street, where it remained until being sold by CBS less than four years later.

This made the station the first network owned-and-operated station in the Milwaukee market. WXIX's tenure as a CBS O&O, however, was not successful. Only a small percentage of television sets in the Milwaukee area were even capable of receiving UHF stations at the time, as set manufacturers were not required to equip televisions with UHF tuners until 1964 as a result of the 1961 passage of the All-Channel Receiver Act. Those viewers not lucky enough to get a signal from WBBM-TV in Chicago, WISC-TV in Madison, or WBAY-TV in Green Bay were forced to rely on expensive UHF converters to watch channel 19, and even then the picture quality left a lot to be desired. However, unlike many early UHF stations, it managed to survive into the All-Channel era.

The station moved to channel 18 in 1958 in a

WXIX and WUHF calls now reside with Fox affiliates in Newport, Kentucky (part of the Cincinnati market), and Rochester, New York
, respectively.

As an independent station

The WKY Television System, based in

drama series, sports, and movies. Like its Gaylord stablemates, channel 18 focused on programming geared to Milwaukee's outer suburbs and rural areas, as opposed to the more urban fare presented by Milwaukee's other stations. Longtime staples on WVTV included Hee Haw (which was produced by sister division Gaylord Entertainment), The Lawrence Welk Show as well as syndicated reruns of Green Acres and The Andy Griffith Show. The station also aired All Star Wrestling
during the 1970s and 1980s.

The station aired the CBS version of The Merv Griffin Show after WISN-TV (channel 12) rejected it. After Griffin was canceled by CBS, WVTV aired The Dick Cavett Show, which had been preempted by WITI; interestingly enough, a majority of ABC shows WITI had passed during its tenure with the network was picked up by WVTV until the secondary arrangement deal between the parties ended in 1972. The station also aired The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson from 1984 to 1988, due to WTMJ-TV (channel 4) being denied permission by NBC to air the program in a later timeslot so that it could air syndicated programs after its late evening newscast.

As

the Dakotas. This resulted in the station rebranding as "Super 18, Wisconsin's Superstation" in 1987. WVTV was also the longtime home of the Milwaukee Brewers (1981–1988; 1993–1997), Milwaukee Bucks (1976–1988; 1994–1999), Big Ten Conference men's basketball, and area college sports teams. The station was carried on Green Bay area cable providers until June 2007, when WWAZ-TV (channel 68, now WIWN) replaced it for a short time before terminating analog operations the next year and a four-year build-out of digital operations in Milwaukee.[5] Despite its status as one of the strongest independent stations in the country, channel 18 turned down an offer by the fledgling Fox Broadcasting Company for an affiliation in 1986. Most of the smaller markets in WVTV's cable footprints had enough stations to provide a local Fox affiliate at the outset, which made the prospect of WVTV as a multi-market Fox affiliate unattractive to Gaylord. Sister station KSTW passed on the Fox affiliation for Seattle–Tacoma for this reason. The Fox affiliation went to six-year-old upstart WCGV-TV
.

WVTV continued to be the leading independent station in the market until Fox came into its own, resulting in a boost in WCGV's ratings. The station's ownership went into a state of flux after Gaylord began easing out of the television business (except for its stake in The Nashville Network). In 1994, Gaylord entered into a local marketing agreement with WCGV, which was owned by Abry Communications. Although WCGV was the senior partner, the two stations' operations were merged at WVTV's original studio facilities.

WVTV was originally tapped to be a charter affiliate of

New World/Fox affiliation deal in 1994 shifted network affiliations in many markets; Gaylord was able to reach an affiliation deal with CBS to switch KSTW and KTVT to the network. Locally, the deal included WITI, which would switch from CBS to Fox in December 1994. After being turned down by WISN-TV and WTMJ-TV, CBS approached WVTV. However, WVTV turned the offer down as well. CBS then aligned itself with then low-profile independent WDJT-TV (channel 58). When The WB launched in January 1995, Milwaukee became the second-largest market in the country without an affiliate. Milwaukee viewers were forced to watch The WB's programming on cable through Chicago-based WGN-TV, which was then carrying the network nationally (although the station could also be received via antenna in the southern edges of the Milwaukee market). By this time, channel 18 was airing more syndicated talk shows during the day, and aired first-run syndicated programming such as Xena: Warrior Princess and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys
in primetime under the branding "VTV Prime".

On July 24, 1995, Gaylord sold WVTV to

Glencairn Ltd. Glencairn had tried to buy WVTV a year earlier, but the sale had fallen through. A few months earlier, Sinclair Broadcast Group had become WCGV's owner as a result of the company's merger with Abry. Glencairn, in turn, was owned by a former Sinclair executive. For all intents and purposes, Sinclair owned both stations even though FCC rules forbade duopolies
at the time. Sinclair further circumvented the rules by continuing the LMA.

Affiliation with The WB

WVTV continued to be an independent station for two more years, with The WB pushing for more national distribution beyond the

Tribune Company's broadcast stations and WGN-TV's superstation. Sinclair struck a large affiliation deal with The WB for several of the UPN affiliates and independent stations it either owned or controlled on May 19, 1997, an agreement which included WVTV.[6]
WVTV finally picked up the WB affiliation the same day and changed its on-air branding to "WB 18"; the following January, WCGV disaffiliated from UPN as a part of the same agreement. With The WB's drive to have stations in other markets take the network and pushing market exclusivity for those stations, Sinclair made the decision to begin winding down carriage agreements with providers outside of the Milwaukee and Green Bay markets, ending WVTV's status as a regional superstation. Sinclair also wanted to push viewership to WCGV, though it soon restored its UPN affiliation in August 1998 due to a ratings plunge and a conciliatory agreement to restore the network between UPN and Sinclair.

WVTV finally became wholly owned by Sinclair in 2000, after a long legal battle between Sinclair and Jesse Jackson and his Rainbow/PUSH coalition about the racial issues of one concern holding two broadcast licenses in a market. Jackson argued that Glencairn ownership was making an end-around by passing itself off as a minority-owned company (its president, Edwin Edwards, was black) when it was really an arm of Sinclair, and used the LMA to gain control of the station.[7][8] By this point, however, the FCC had overturned regulations that had disallowed television duopolies, and the sale to Sinclair went through despite these objections.

Switch to The CW

WVTV's first CW logo from September 18, 2006, until the restoration of the "Super 18" branding in January 2016.

Following

logo bug
was changed the week before to the "CW18" logo while promoting the network's pending launch.

On June 28, 2007, Time Warner Cable began carrying WVTV's high definition digital signal on its southeastern Wisconsin systems on digital channel 1018, along with WCGV on channel 1024 (formerly 518 and 524, respectively, before an October 2009 channel remapping), after Sinclair and Time Warner struck a compensation agreement for the stations.[11] Charter Communications, the other major cable provider in the area, reached a compensation agreement in April 2007, but the HD signal was not added until June 9, 2009, when the station began to air on digital channel 618 throughout Charter's southeastern Wisconsin systems.

July 2010 flooding incident and studio move

On July 22, 2010, the Milwaukee area experienced a major

standard definition
and did not display digital on-screen bugs at all due to damage to the station's high definition broadcasting equipment for most of the following month. HD programming was restored on August 20, 2010.

Because the flooding caused irreparable damage to the building, forcing most operations for the stations up to transition to smaller facilities on the second floor of the building, Sinclair immediately began a search for new facilities for WVTV and WCGV, which would allow locally produced and syndicated programs to be broadcast in high definition full-time without the complexities of rewiring an older and flood damaged studio and master control facility. On June 6, 2012, Sinclair received approval from the Milwaukee Common Council's Zoning, Neighborhoods and Development Committee to move to an existing building near the

studio/transmitter link tower, with full Common Council approval coming a week later on June 12. The stations moved to the new building in December 2013, with the new master control coming online in the last week of the month.[12][13][14]

From June 2012 until the end of December 2013, the engineering and master control of WVTV/WCGV transmitted

16:9
syndicated programming in full screen, but in standard definition as a stopgap solution until the move to the new studios. Upon the opening of the new master control, all syndicated programming available in the format now is aired in high definition.

Current station status

The studio facility for both WVTV's main CW channel and "My24" in October 2022, with the monument sign in front of WVTV's entrance displayed on the left separately.
logo after revert back from Super 18 branding, 2017-2024

Despite its long broadcasting history, WVTV has been one of The CW's weaker affiliates in terms of viewership. In the past, Sinclair put more promotional effort into WCGV. While this trend dated back to the mid-1990s, it became more pronounced from 2006 onward, as WCGV's affiliation with MyNetworkTV allowed more experimentation with its schedule. Both stations have seen their talk-heavy daytime lineups struggle against the classic television programming of Weigel's WBME-CD (channel 41), which is one of the flagships of the MeTV network.[15] Despite this, WVTV and all of Sinclair's CW stations were renewed in a long-term agreement with the CW on July 9, 2015, which keeps the network on the station in the long term.[16] By the 2014–15 season, Sinclair had settled on having WVTV's daytime schedule dependent on talk show programming, while WCGV featured a mixed schedule of court shows, sitcoms and lifestyle programming, with WVTV's ratings eventually stabilizing as The CW has found better success in later seasons.

Beginning in the fall of 2015, former

voiceover announcer, replacing various centralcasted voices which had come out of Sinclair's various national deals with announcers for their stations.[17]

On January 18, 2016, tying into the launch of the new CW/DC Comics series Legends of Tomorrow and Sinclair's growing emphasis of using local heritage brandings of their stations rather than generic "network/channel number" brandings, the station was rebranded as Super 18, The CW, reviving the branding it used from 1987 to 1995. (WVTV reinstated the "CW 18" branding in September 2017, mainly in order to streamline its promotions with those of Sinclair's other CW affiliates.)

On May 8, 2017, Sinclair entered into an agreement to acquire

Brown Deer facility).[18]

On July 18, 2018, the FCC voted to have the Sinclair–Tribune acquisition reviewed by an

Delaware Chancery Court, alleging that Sinclair engaged in protracted negotiations with the FCC and the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division over regulatory issues, refused to sell stations in markets where it already had properties, and proposed divestitures to parties with ties to Sinclair executive chair David D. Smith that were rejected or highly subject to rejection to maintain control over stations it was required to sell.[25][26][27][28][29][30]

On March 11, 2025, it was reported that Sinclair would sell five TV stations, including WVTV, to Rincon Broadcasting, led by Todd Parkin.[1]

Programming

Because of non-preemptable coverage of the 2008 Summer Olympics on NBC affiliate WTMJ-TV, WVTV aired two Green Bay Packers preseason games against the San Francisco 49ers and Denver Broncos respectively on August 16 and 22 of that year, a role previously taken by Ion Television station WPXE-TV (channel 55) during the 2004 preseason.[31]

Newscasts

From 1979 to 1986, WVTV aired local news and weather updates running in varying lengths of between two and five minutes between programs.[32] In 1989, the station formed a full-time news department and began producing an hour-long primetime newscast called The 9 O'Clock Nightly News, which was anchored by Liz Talbot and Duane Gay. Shortly after entering into the LMA with WCGV in 1994, WVTV decided to discontinue the 9 p.m. newscast. Duane Gay would then move on to WISN-TV, where he continued on as a reporter, even after being diagnosed with a vicious form of soft tissue cancer in 1997; Gay would continue to work for channel 12 in any capacity he physically could, and spoke well of his time at WVTV until he died on April 26, 2005.[33]

Newscasts returned to the station in August 2003 with the launch of WB18 News at 9, an hour-long program which featured a mix of local news stories from staff at WVTV's facility (anchored by Lisa Fielding on weeknights, and Tami Hughes on weekends), and national and international reports, weather forecasts and sports segments from Sinclair's News Central local/national hybrid operation based at the company's headquarters on Beaver Dam Road in Hunt Valley, Maryland. It also aired The Point, a controversial one-minute conservative political commentary feature, that was a requirement of all Sinclair-owned stations that aired newscasts (regardless of whether it carried the News Central format or not). The program was reduced to a half-hour in September 2005 due to ratings issues, and was eventually discontinued[34] on March 31, 2006, due to cutbacks in Sinclair's news operations companywide, which included the disbandment of its News Central division.

As of 2013, Terry Gaughan, general manager of WVTV and WCGV, has said there are no plans to relaunch a news operation;[12] although the station has inquired the market's existing news-producing stations about entering into a news share agreement. WVTV began to carry Sinclair's national morning newscast The National Desk in January 2021, then the late primetime edition in September 2021.[35] Currently the station's local programming output is limited to the public affairs program Connect MKE which airs several times a week on both WVTV subchannels. The program was previously known as Our Issues Milwaukee from 2013 until the end of 2021.

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's signal is

multiplexed, with the former WCGV channels numbered with virtual channel
24:

Subchannels of WVTV[36]
Channel Res. Aspect Short name Programming
18.1 1080i
16:9
 CW 18 The CW
24.1 720p My 24 MyNetworkTV
24.2 480i COMET Comet
24.3 Charge! Charge!
24.4 CHSN
  • Blackhawks
    games only)

On June 23, 2014, Sinclair Broadcast Group and

getTV, which included WVTV for the Milwaukee market and came online the afternoon of July 3. Sony leased the channel space on 18.2 for their network.[37] Charter added WVTV-DT2 to their systems on December 2, 2014, which is carried on channel 179. The network was dropped on January 2, 2018, one week ahead of WCGV merging their channels onto WVTV's spectrum as part of Sinclair's sale of WCGV's spectrum back to the FCC in the 2016 auction. WCGV's existing channel numbers were retained.[38] WIWN
(channel 68) eventually picked up getTV in late March 2018 for their fourth subchannel.

A

Descriptive Video Service for CW programming, along with the Spanish dub available for their program Jane the Virgin
.

Analog-to-digital conversion

On February 2, 2009, Sinclair told cable and satellite television providers via e-mail that regardless of the exact

UHF channel 18, at 9 a.m. on that date. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 61, which was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition, to its analog-era UHF channel 18 for post-transition operations.[40][41]

As part of the

SAFER Act,[42] WVTV kept its analog signal on the air until March 4 to inform viewers of the digital television transition through a loop of public service announcements from the National Association of Broadcasters
. As WVTV was the only Milwaukee station that did not retain its pre-transition digital channel, the station's digital transmitter and antenna have been continually undergone tuning adjustments since the transition to improve reception.

References

  1. ^ a b "Assignments". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission. March 10, 2025. Retrieved March 10, 2025.
  2. ^ Drew, Michael H. (April 10, 1966). "Milwaukee Studio Notes". The Milwaukee Journal. p. TV Screen 10.
  3. ^ "Facility Technical Data for WVTV". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  4. ^ "Billboard". October 30, 1954.
  5. ^ Warren Gerds column: Mr. Monk gets a bobble-head, Fourth of July marathon, Green Bay Press-Gazette, July 2, 2007.
  6. ^ WB woos and wins Sinclair, Broadcasting & Cable, July 21, 1997.
  7. ^ PUSH pushing FCC over Sinclair/Glencairn, Broadcasting & Cable, July 13, 1998.
  8. ^ Glencairn's dicey LMAs, Broadcasting & Cable, March 29, 1999.
  9. CNNMoney.com
    , January 24, 2006.
  10. ^ UPN and WB to Combine, Forming New TV Network, The New York Times, January 24, 2006.
  11. ^ "It's 'like birthin' a baby,' but Fox News hosts say morning show's gelling". Archived from the original on September 29, 2007.
  12. ^ a b Dudek, Duane (March 22, 2013). "New boss at WVTV, WCGV speaks language of experience". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Retrieved March 22, 2013.
  13. ^ Daykin, Tom (June 6, 2012). "Plans for TV stations to relocate win approval". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Retrieved June 12, 2012.
  14. ^ "City of Milwaukee - File #: 111482". Substitute ordinance relating to the Second Amendment to a Detailed Planned Development known as Park Place, Stage 14, for installation of a transmission structure and satellite dishes, on land located on the north side of West Calumet Road, east of West Park Place, in the 5th Aldermanic District. City of Milwaukee, Legistar Database. February 28, 2012. Retrieved June 12, 2012.
  15. ^ Lafayette, Jon (September 7, 2011). "Me-TV Signs With Stations in New Markets; New affiliates bring coverage to 60% of U.S." Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved September 8, 2011.
  16. PRNewswire
    . July 9, 2015. Retrieved January 14, 2016.
  17. ^ Kirchen, Rich (October 15, 2015). "Carole Caine bouncing back with multiple gigs, including OnMilwaukee.com, Channel 18". The Business Journal of Milwaukee. Retrieved January 14, 2016.
  18. ^ "FCC Form 315 June 2017 - COMPREHENSIVE EXHIBIT". Federal Communications Commission and Sinclair Broadcasting Group. July 26, 2017. Retrieved June 30, 2017.
  19. ^ Shields, Todd (July 16, 2018). "Sinclair and Tribune Fall as FCC Slams TV Station Sale Plan". Bloomberg News. Retrieved July 19, 2018.
  20. ^ Neidig, Harper (July 16, 2018). "FCC chair rejects Sinclair-Tribune merger". The Hill. Capitol Hill Publishing Corp. Retrieved August 9, 2018.
  21. ^ Feder, Robert (July 16, 2018). "FCC throws Sinclair/Tribune deal in doubt". RobertFeder.com. Retrieved August 9, 2018.
  22. ^ Hart, Benjamin (July 16, 2018). "FCC Throws Wrench Into Sinclair Media Megadeal". New York. New York Media, LLC. Retrieved August 9, 2018.
  23. ^ Lee, Edmund (July 18, 2018). "Sinclair Tries to Appease F.C.C., but Its Tribune Bid Is Challenged". The New York Times. Retrieved August 9, 2018.
  24. Baltimore Sun
    . Tronc. Retrieved August 9, 2018.
  25. News Corp.
    August 9, 2018.
  26. ^ Miller, Mark K. (August 9, 2018). "Tribune Kills Sinclair Merger, Files Suit". TVNewsCheck. NewsCheck Media.
  27. Tronc
    .
  28. ^ Lee, Edmund; Tsang, Amie (August 9, 2018). "Tribune Ends Deal With Sinclair, Dashing Plan for Conservative TV Behemoth". The New York Times.
  29. ^ Lafayette, Jon (August 9, 2018). "Tribune Ends Deal with Sinclair, Files Breach of Contract Suit". Broadcasting & Cable. NewBay Media.
  30. ^ Fung, Brian; Romm, Tony (August 9, 2018). "Tribune withdraws from Sinclair merger, saying it will sue for 'breach of contract'". The Washington Post. Nash Holdings LLC.
  31. ^ "The CW Milwaukee".
  32. ^ "YouTube". YouTube. Retrieved May 4, 2022.
  33. ^ "JS Online: Gay shared illness with viewers". September 29, 2007. Archived from the original on September 29, 2007.
  34. ^ "Distinctive WMSE-FM turns 25 this week". Archived from the original on April 14, 2006.
  35. ^ Malone, Michael (November 11, 2013). "Market Eye: Milwaukee Has Issues". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved January 14, 2014.
  36. RabbitEars.info
    . Retrieved January 6, 2025.
  37. ^ "GetTV Signs Big Affiliation Deal With Sinclair," from TVNewsCheck, June 23, 2014
  38. ^ Foran, Chris (January 2, 2018). "Get TV and Grit channels to drop from local TV lineup". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Retrieved January 3, 2018.
  39. ^ Hearn, Ted (February 2, 2009). "Sinclair Sticks To Feb. 17 Analog Cutoff". Digital Video Report. Retrieved February 24, 2009.
  40. ^ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on August 29, 2013. Retrieved March 24, 2012.
  41. ^ Channels 6 and 58 join other major stations delaying digital conversion, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, February 9, 2009.
  42. ^ "UPDATED List of Participants in the Analog Nightlight Program" (PDF). Federal Communications Commission. June 12, 2009. Retrieved June 4, 2012.
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