| WISN-TV | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Milwaukee | |
| Branding | WISN 12 (general) 12 News (newscasts) |
| Slogan | Leading the Way with Important Local Coverage (news) WISN 12: Start Here (general) |
| Channels | Digital: 34 (UHF) |
| Affiliations | ABC (1954-1961 and since 1977) |
| Owner | Hearst Television, Inc. (WISN Hearst Television, Inc.) |
| First air date | October 27, 1954 |
| Call letters’ meaning | The WISconsin News (former Milwaukee Hearst newspaper that merged with The Milwaukee Sentinel) |
| Former callsigns | WTVW (1954-1955) |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: 12 (VHF) (1954-2009) |
| Former affiliations | CBS (1961-1977) DuMont (secondary 1954-1955) |
| Transmitter Power | 316 kW (analog) 863 kW (digital) |
| Height | 303 m (analog) 263.1 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 65680 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | 43°6′42.1″N 87°55′42.3″W / 43.111694°N 87.928417°W |
| Website | www.wisn.com |
WISN-TV is a television station located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Its signal covers most of southeastern Wisconsin and parts of northeastern Illinois, including Racine, Kenosha, Sheboygan and Waukesha. WISN is an affiliate of the ABC television network. Its transmitter is located within Lincoln Park in the northeastern part of Milwaukee, with WDJT (Channel 58)'s tower nearby. WISN is one of three flagship stations of Hearst Television and the second-oldest television station to remain with the company in all of its various iterations.
Former sister radio stations WISN (1130) and WQBW-FM (formerly WLTQ-FM, 97.3) are now owned by Clear Channel, and all ties between the stations and Channel 12 were severed as of July 27, 2009, when a weather/news carriage agreement began with WITI (Channel 6) at the end of a longtime agreement with WISN to provide forecasts to Clear Channel's six local stations [1]. After the expiration of that deal, WISN-TV now provides news, weather and sports content to the four-station Milwaukee cluster of Saga Communications [2].
Contents |
History
WISN first signed on the air on October 27, 1954 with the call letters WTVW and branded itself as Wisconsin's TeleVision Window. By 1955 it had changed to WISN, after being bought by the Hearst Corporation, who transferred the call letters from their radio station, WISN (AM). The former WTVW calls are now used on the Fox affiliate on channel 7 in Evansville, Indiana. The station was originally affiliated with both ABC and DuMont.[3] When DuMont ceased operations in 1956, WISN-TV was left with just ABC.
WTVW's transmitter building was built under a tent, as rains threatened to delay construction. After the building was finished, a second tent was erected, and used for live automobile commercials, until it collapsed one day in early 1955.
In 1958, WISN-TV became the flagship of the short-lived local Badger Television Network, a three-station television network in Wisconsin. The other two stations were WFRV-TV (Green Bay channel 5), and WKOW-TV (Madison channel 27).[3] Programs broadcast by the network included Homemaker's Holiday, a quiz show hosted by Charlie Hanson; Good Housekeeping, hosted by Trudy Beilfuss; and Pretzel Party, a variety program originally hosted by Larry Clark. All three programs originated from WISN-TV's studios. During March 1958, the network also aired Senate Investigating Committee hearings during late-night hours. The Badger Network was launched in January 1958 and ceased operations on August 8 of that year.[3]
Hearst kept WISN-TV and WISN (AM) in 1962 after they sold the Milwaukee Sentinel to Journal Communications that year (owners of the Milwaukee Journal), due to Journal already owning WTMJ-TV (Channel 4) and WTMJ (AM) (620).
In 1961, WISN would undergo an affiliation switch. CBS, then carried by WITI, desired to affiliate with WISN, since the station's radio stations were already affiliated with the network. As a result, WISN and WITI swapped affiliations on April 2, 1961. During that tenure, WISN cleared most of the CBS shows, even though by the early 1970s it would drop "Search for Tomorrow" so it could expand its talk show "Dialing for Dollars" in the daytime and pre-empt or delay several prime-time programs for Marquette University and Milwaukee Bucks basketball games.
The switch was reversed in 1977. WITI's owner at the time, Storer Broadcasting, had a bitter relationship with ABC, stemming from the network's departure from Storer's San Diego UHF station, KCST, a station the network was forced de facto to affiliate with after KCST fought successfully to have ABC affiliation stripped from Tijuana, Mexico-based XETV. At the same time, Storer had a strong relationship with CBS in other markets where they owned stations. Hence, they dropped ABC from WITI to take the CBS affiliation from WISN. Without hesitation, WISN aligned with ABC again, by then the top network in the country, and the home network of Milwaukee-set sitcoms Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley, which were the top two A.C. Nielsen-rated programs at the time of the exchange. WISN even used Happy Days character Arthur Fonzerelli to herald its return to ABC with the slogan "Happy Days are Here Again" in ad and print campaigns leading up to the switch, which occurred on Sunday, March 27, 1977 at 6PM (CT) after the conclusion of the United Cerebral Palsy Telethon. To this day, WISN is one of ABC's most successful affiliates, and bills itself thus in promotions.
Longtime anchor Jerry Taff retired in May 2005, and WISN began to climb in the ratings. It success stems from hiring popular local anchors and reporters released from other stations, a stronger ABC schedule, and a period of change at rival WTMJ due to weaker NBC ratings and newsroom changes. The station's biggest acquisition from WTMJ was the dean of Milwaukee television journalism, Mike Gousha in late 2007, a year after he retired as the anchor of WTMJ's main newscasts in order to focus on a new position as a distinguished fellow in law and public policy at Marquette University.[4] Gousha currently analyzes political events for the station with other political experts, and hosts UpFront with Mike Gousha, a Sunday morning program which is a mix of the interview segments familiar to viewers of his former WTMJ program Sunday Night, and local political analysis.[5] The show has been syndicated to other stations statewide by Hearst.
Although Hearst-owned stations in several other markets broadcast local news in HD, it is currently unknown if and when WISN will launch newscasts in this format. WISN was the first commercial station in the market to produce an HDTV broadcast, airing the Summerfest "Big Bang" fireworks show in the format on June 29, 2006. [6] Milwaukee Public Television assisted WISN in the production of the broadcast, and have continued to do so each year since, with additional help from sister stations KCRA and WCVB in later years.
Digital television
WISN-TV discontinued their analog broadcasting at 8:30am on June 12, 2009 coming out of a Good Morning America local news brief with a station history narrated by Jerry Taff, followed by a still of digital transition information staying on the air until 12 noon. WISN's digtal channel retained their pre-transition channel number, 34, and immediately took the WISN-TV calls from the former analog channel. [7] [8] However, through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display WISN's virtual channel as 12. The signal space for channel 12 was subsequently re-used by CBS for owned-and-operated WBBM-TV in Chicago for their digital signal.
Programming
Channel 12 clears all of the ABC schedule, except for ABC Kids airings of the Power Rangers series since September 2006 due to lack of E/I content; the station unusually aired Kim Possible and Power Rangers SPD early Monday mornings before World News Now in the 2005-2006 season for the same reason.
The station airs most of the highest-rated programs in syndication, with Live with Regis and Kelly after Good Morning America, Martha before the ABC soap opera lineup, and Dr. Phil and Oprah paired up in mid-afternoons together. Entertainment Tonight airs before primetime, and Access Hollywood airs after the 10 p.m. newscast. Channel 12 also airs Green Bay Packers Monday Night Football games originating on ESPN [9] simulcasting the 720p ESPNHD feed. The same arrangement was in place for the 2007 NFL Network game against the Dallas Cowboys at Texas Stadium the Thursday after Thanksgiving.
On September 8, 2008, Channel 12 became the first Milwaukee station to air non-network syndicated HD programming daily, and now carries Dr. Phil, Oprah, and Entertainment Tonight (all from CBS Paramount Domestic Television) in 720p HD, along with Regis and Kelly from ABC/Disney. Later in the year, the station became the first in the market with HD tape-delay and character generator capabilities. On April 21, 2009, the station transitioned to the Hearst HD graphics package and a permanent pillarboxing with the station logo in the left pilliar and calls in the right for standard definition programming [10], but has not of yet broadcast their newscasts in high definition.
WISN also makes the claim based on Nielsen Media Research numbers that it is among the top-rated ABC affiliates in the nation (an honor that was shared with fellow ABC station WPTA-TV in Fort Wayne, IN), which is based on market size and household ratings percentages. [11] In fact, the three highest-rated ABC affiliates in the nation are all Hearst stations (WISN, plus KOCO in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and KMBC in Kansas City, Missouri).
"One of America's Leading ABC Stations" had been the station's slogan until September 24, 2007, when in conjunction with ABC's new image campaign, Channel 12 launched the new "Start here" slogan, which signified both Channel 12's broadcast channel and the station's website, which was relaunched in August 2007 to move away from Hearst Argyle's "LocalChannel" strategy to focus on WISN's local content and emphasize the station's call letters in the web address. The top-rated station claim remains in visual use on the station, but is no longer voiced out.
Notable programming
- In 1977, WISN launched the "Hello Milwaukee" promos, praising the City of Milwaukee through a montage of videos and a song specially commissioned and written for WISN by Frank Gari.
- WISN was the flagship station for the Wisconsin Lottery from the agency's inception in 1989, playing host to the state lottery drawings and the weekly Wisconsin Lottery Money Game game show (later known as The Super Money Game Show). The lottery discontinued the Money Game at the end of 2003 due to budget cuts, and televised drawings at the same time, moving the drawings to the state lottery offices in Madison. WISN continues to announce the lottery numbers on-screen after being drawn in a bottom-screen ticker during Entertainment Tonight (on Saturday, during the station's 6:00pm newscast and Sunday's 6:30pm ABC programming) and Access Hollywood (or ET Weekend and the 10:30pm newscast on Saturday and Sunday, respectively), and also broadcasts most Powerball drawings with a jackpot over $125,000,000 (WMLW (Channel 41) airs all Powerball drawings).
News Operation
WISN has added more newscasts to their schedule over the last two years, and is unusual in programming hour-long newscasts Saturday at 6 p.m., and Sunday at 10 p.m.. The station also begins all their morning newscasts at 5 a.m., seven days a week, a point made in all of their promotions for what is called 12 News This Morning.
Currently, WISN is the only television station in the market to carry a weekly podcast on their website, 12 News Reporter's Notebook, which features the station's reporting staff and anchors talking about the major local and national stories of the week. WISN also hosts their video stories on YouTube as part of a content agreement between Hearst-Argyle and YouTube.
WISN 12 Personalities
Current On-Air Talent
(as of August 2009)
Current Anchors
- Shelby Croft - weeknights at 6PM
- Mike Miller - Saturdays at 5 and 6, Sundays at 5:30 and weekends at 10PM (also reporter)
- Kathy Mykleby - weeknights at 5 and 10PM
- Jason Newton - weekend mornings "12 News This Morning" (also reporter)
- Patrick Paolantonio - weekday mornings "12 News This Morning"
- Terry Sater - weeknights at 6PM
- Toya Washington - weeknights at 5 and 10PM
- Portia Young - weekday mornings "12 News This Morning"
Reporters
- Mike Anderson - general assignment reporter (formerly anchor)
- Nick Bohr - general assignment reporter
- Kyler Burgi - morning reporter
- Brendan Conway - general assignment reporter
- Joyce Garbaciak - contributing news correspondent
- Mike Gousha - political analyst (also contributing anchor and host of UpFront with Mike Gousha)
- Colleen Henry - investigative reporter
- Marianne Lyles - general assignment reporter
- Matt Salemme - "NewsChopper 12" reporter
- Kent Wainscott - investigative and political reporter
Hearst Television Washington Bureau
- Sally Kidd - Washington D.C. bureau reporter
- Nikole Killion - Washington D.C. bureau reporter
- Laurie Kinney - Washington D.C. bureau reporter
Weather Watch 12
- Mark Baden (AMS Seal of Approval) - Chief Meteorologist; weeknights at 5, 6 and 10PM
- Jeremy Nelson (AMS Seal of Approval) - Meteorologist; Saturdays at 5 and 6, Sundays at 5:30 and weekends at 10PM (also fill-in)
- Lyra O'Brien (AMS Seal of Approval; NWA Member) - Meteorologist; weekend mornings "12 News This Morning"
- Sally Severson - Meteorologist; weekday mornings "12 News This Morning"
Sports Team
- Dan Needles - Sports Director; weeknights at 6 and 10PM
- Andy Kendeigh - Sports Anchor; Saturdays at 5 and 6, Sundays at 5:30 and weekends at 10PM
- Stephanie Sutton - sports reporter
Former On-Air Talent
- Marty Burns-Wolfe - anchor (retired)
- Jason DeRusha - anchor (2000-2003; currently at WCCO-TV in Minneapolis-St. Paul)
- Tammy Elliott - anchor (2003-2006; currently at WFRV-TV in Green Bay, Wisconsin)
- Duane Gay - anchor/reporter (1993-April 26, 2003; deceased)
- Joe Gehl - weather forcaster; (currently at KEYT-TV in Santa Barbara, California)
- Vince Gibbens - anchor (1978-81; later anchored at rival WITI-TV in Milwaukee and WBAL-TV in Baltimore; deceased in 1995)
- Eleanor Hayes - anchor (1984-1987); currently at WBNS-TV in Columbus, Ohio
- John Hogan - anchor (1967-1971); later anchored at WDIV-TV in Detroit, Michigan and WTLV-TV in Jacksonville, Florida; deceased (2000)
- Jessica Jallings - anchor (?-2004)
- Joel Kleefisch - anchor (1994-2004; currently the Republican member of the Wisconsin State Assembly in the 38th Assembly District since 2004)
- Rebecca Kleefisch - anchor (?-2004; left to be a full-time Mom)
- Dan Lewis - anchor (1982-1984; currently an anchor for KOMO-TV in Seattle, Washington)
- John Malan - weather forcaster (1979-1993) now at WTMJ-TV
- DeMarco Morgan - anchor (currently at WNBC-TV in New York)
- Harvian ("Bunny") Raasch-Hooten - anchor and former news director (1974-1982; currently on the Board of Directors at Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra)
- Shaun Robinson - anchor (currently co-anchor of Access Hollywood)
- Tom Sutton - sportscaster (1981-2003; retired)
- Jerry Taff - anchor (1979-2005; retired)
- Ben Tracy - anchor (currently a correspondent for CBS News in Los Angeles, California)
News/station presentation
Newscast titles
- Eyewitness News (Early 1970s-1977)
- Channel 12 Action News (1977-1985; the station's consumer news/investigation segments continue to be called "Action 12")
- Channel 12 News (1985-2000)
- WISN 12 News (2000-present)
Station slogans
- Hello Milwaukee (1977-1985; during period station used Frank Gari's "Hello News")
- You'll Love it on Channel 12 (1985-1986; localized version of ABC ad campaign)
- Together, We're Making a Difference (1989-1996)
- Your 24-Hour News Service (1989-1996)
- Live. Local. Latebreaking. (1996-2004)
- Leading the Way with Important Local Coverage (2004-present; news)
- One of America's Leading ABC Stations (2004-2007)
- WISN 12: Start Here (2007-present; non-news programming, localized version of current ABC ad campaign)
This film, television or video-related list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it with reliably sourced additions.Logos
WISN is one of a few select stations which uses permanent digital logo bugs of their station logo in all of their programming (excepting paid programming), including ABC network programs, both in standard definition and high definition.
 This has been the main TV logo for WISN since 1976, and is used in this straight form on their newscasts and as the station's logo bug on the station's HD feed during ABC programming. |
WISN's 'contemporary 12' logo, used as the station ID at the start of their newscasts, entertainment programming, and as the network-generated logo bug on ABC network programs coming out of commercial. |
 The title screen for WISN 12 News |
References
- ^ http://www.jsonline.com/entertainment/tvradio/51627887.html
- ^ http://www.jsonline.com/entertainment/tvradio/52029337.html
- ^ a b c Golembiewski, Dick (2008). Milwaukee Television History: The Analog Years. Marquette University Press. pp. 213-270. ISBN 0-87462-055-4.
- ^ Michael R. Gousha - Distinguished Fellow in Law and Public Policy
- ^ UpFront with Mike Gousha
- ^ http://www.themilwaukeechannel.com/aboutwisn12/9369238/detail.html
- ^ http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf
- ^ CDBS Print
- ^ http://www.wisn.com/packers/index.html
- ^ http://www.milwaukeehdtv.org/forums/showpost.php?p=51744&postcount=5
- ^ http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=435344
External links
- WISN-TV Official Homepage
- WISN-TV logos through the years
- History of Milwaukee television
- Hearst-Argyle Television
- WISN's Channel on YouTube
- "Reporter's Notebook Podcast" in the iTunes Store Podcast Directory
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WISN
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WISN-TV
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