WMLW-TV
kW | |
HAAT | 316.4 m (1,038 ft) |
---|---|
Transmitter coordinates | 43°6′42″N 87°55′50″W / 43.11167°N 87.93056°W |
Translator(s) | WDJT-TV 58.3 Milwaukee |
Links | |
Public license information | |
Website | cbs58 |
WMLW-TV (channel 49) is an
Even though WMLW-TV is licensed as a full-power station, it
History
As WJJA
The station first signed on the air on January 27, 1990, as WJJA, operating as an affiliate of the Home Shopping Network (
When
Throughout the 1990s and into the 2000s, WJJA continued to air Shop at Home programming, while also airing FCC-required
On May 16, 2006, Shop at Home parent E. W. Scripps Company announced that the network would suspend operations, effective June 22 of that year.[2] However, the network's liquidation sale ended one day early on June 21, and WJJA switched to Jewelry Television in the meantime. Shop at Home resumed operations on June 23 after Jewelry Television purchased some assets relating to that network, and began to air a split schedule of programming, with JTV in the morning and afternoon hours, and Shop at Home during the evening hours.[3] Shop at Home eventually shut down again in March 2008, and WJJA's last month under Kinlow ownership featured a 24-hour schedule of Jewelry Television programming.
On August 1, 2007, Weigel Broadcasting announced its intention to purchase WJJA.[4] The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted approval for the transfer in mid-September 2007, though the license and financial transfers between the two parties, along with the poor condition of the station's transmitter tower in the southeastern Milwaukee County suburb of Oak Creek[5] took months longer to settle before Weigel could take full control of the station.
As WBME-TV (MeTV Milwaukee)
On April 21, 2008, Weigel assumed full control of the station, and at 12:30 pm, Jewelry Television was replaced by a
MeTV was originally launched in Milwaukee on WDJT
The station activated a new digital transmitter on the Weigel tower in Milwaukee's Lincoln Park on October 20, 2008[11] to better serve the entire market, while the analog signal continued to transmit from Oak Creek until the end of analog television service on June 12, 2009. On October 30, the simulcast on WDJT-DT3 ended to make way for This TV, a new network from Weigel and MGM Television focusing on movies and classic television series, leaving MeTV to broadcast exclusively on WBME,[12][13] confining the signal to within the inner ring of the Milwaukee metro area.[14] MeTV has been successful in Milwaukee on WBME, outrating daytime programs seen on the Sinclair Broadcast Group duopoly of WVTV (channel 18) and WCGV-TV (channel 24) as of September 2011.[15]
On November 22, 2010, Weigel announced that they would take the MeTV concept national and compete fully with the
Channel 49 becomes WMLW-TV
On August 7, 2012, WMLW and WBME swapped channel allocations. The WMLW callsign (whose "-CA" suffix was changed to a "-TV" suffix with the swap) and its syndicated and brokered programming inventory moved from low-power channel 41 to full-power channel 49, while the WBME calls and MeTV programming moved to low-power channel 41 as WBME-CA. The switch to the full-power channel 49 signal allowed WMLW to begin broadcasting its programming in high definition for the first time. The swap also resulted in WBME taking over the 58.2 subchannel that WDJT-TV previously used to relay WMLW's signal as a low-power station.[18] WMLW retained Racine & Me on the channel 49 schedule under the same title, with a move to Saturday mornings and upgrade to HD telecasts.
In September 2013, WMLW's main channel and subchannel feeds moved exclusively to Time Warner Cable's digital tier as that provider begins the transition to an all-digital system by 2015, requiring a
On September 15, 2014, WMLW changed its on-air brand to "The M" (" ... and The M means Milwaukee."),[19] in imitation of Chicago sister station WCIU-TV, "The U".
Programming
From September 2004 to December 28, 2008, WMLW carried the children's programming block offered by Fox, 4Kids TV (formerly Fox Kids and later, FoxBox), due to Fox affiliate WITI declining to carry the block, taking over for WCGV-TV when that station chose not to continue carrying it. WMLW aired the 4Kids lineup on Sundays at 8 am, one day and one hour later than its usual Saturday timeslot for most of the Central Time Zone, and did not pick up the replacement Weekend Marketplace infomercial block from Fox at the start of 2009, which remains unseen in the Milwaukee market, though WITI took the new Xploration Station block from Fox in September 2014.
The station currently carries a three-hour block of syndicated E/I programming on Saturday mornings (along with Weigel's Green Screen Adventures) to fulfill the station's E/I programming requirements. The majority of the station's paid programming airs early on weekdays, Saturday morning and most of Sunday morning.
Sports programming
To attract cable providers during its days as a non-must carry low-power station, WMLW formerly pursued a strong sports lineup to lure them to carry the station, though this has been drawn down as most college and professional teams in the area have partnered with
Prior to 2011, the station aired Labor Day coverage of the
From 2008 to 2012, the men's final for each US Open that year (all delayed to Monday afternoon due to weather conditions on Saturday or Sunday afternoons and in 2011, earlier days) was aired on WMLW; as the second Monday in September is traditionally the debut date for new and returning syndicated programming, WDJT passed along the tennis coverage to launch their new series, though in 2011 most of WDJT's syndicated programming moved up their season starts to a day later to compensate. The 2013 men's final was pre-scheduled in advance for the second Monday in September, and WMLW again carried it in lieu of WDJT. In 2014, however, all syndicated programming on WDJT moved their premiere dates to the Tuesday after, allowing WDJT to carry the men's final for the first time in six years without preempting any new programming; this turned out to be the last year CBS would have to work around the issue with the tournament's move entirely to ESPN in 2015 (and the tournament's main stadiums eventually receiving retractable roofs).
In August 2016, WMLW sublicensed two games produced by the Green Bay Packers preseason television network from WTMJ-TV, which could not air those games due to
In 2024, WMLW parent company Weigel Broadcasting announced an agreement to broadcast 10 Milwaukee Bucks games during the 2023–24 NBA season. All 10 games will air on WMLW, though the February 23 game will be simulcast on sister network WDJT-TV and the March 4 game will be aired in Spanish by sister network WYTU-LD.[20]
Milwaukee Brewers
From 2007 until the end of the 2011 season, WMLW was the over-the-air broadcaster of the Milwaukee Brewers' regular season baseball games (along with a Brewers/Cubs spring training game),[21] the first time the team aired its non-nationally televised games on broadcast television locally since Fox Sports Wisconsin (now Bally Sports Wisconsin) became the team's exclusive broadcaster in 2005. Several of the games in the package were aired on WMLW due to Fox Sports Wisconsin's contractual priority to carry Milwaukee Bucks basketball and prevent programming conflicts inside of the Milwaukee market.
The telecasts were produced by Fox Sports Wisconsin and
This arrangement was discontinued after the 2011 season due to several factors, including the Brewers wanting to maintain a full schedule of games in high definition, and Fox Sports Wisconsin desiring to maintain near-full exclusivity over telecasts for their own network, along with the 2011 NBA lockout allowing Fox Sports Wisconsin to add the rights for the 15-game package to their schedule in lieu of the loss of sixteen Bucks games due to the stoppage. Fox Sports Wisconsin also launched a second "plus" channel statewide to deal with Bucks/Brewers conflicts in April 2012, making a licensing deal with a second broadcaster unnecessary.
Spanish sister station WYTU continues to carry several Sunday home Brewers games a year with Spanish-language play-by-play, though under a separate production and announce team which uses Bally Sports Wisconsin's camera positions.
Other previous sports rights
Previously, the station carried
Other rights included the
Newscasts
In September 2008, WMLW-CA began to air The Daily Buzz, a program previously unseen in Milwaukee as Sinclair Broadcast Group, until their acquisition spree began in 2012, did not air the morning show on any of its stations; the station dropped the program in September 2010 and replaced it with the Canadian talk program Steven and Chris. The Daily Buzz returned to the station's schedule in September 2012, with the broadcast of the 6 a.m. hour of the program, before being removed once again in September 2013 to make way for the Weigel-produced First Business, which moved from WDJT to WMLW when that station expanded its weekday morning newscast to 4:30 am, along with Right This Minute and a move of Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns to the 6 a.m. hour. The Daily Buzz eventually began to air on WCGV in September 2014 until its unexpected April 2015 termination. First Business ended on December 26, 2014. Business First with Angela Miles, a syndicated program using most of the same personnel as First Business, was launched in the fall of 2015 and is carried by WVTV locally.
In October 2007, when Fox affiliate WITI could not air its own 9 p.m. newscast in its regular time slot because of its broadcast of the 2007 World Series, WDJT's news department decided to test out a 9 p.m. newscast to air WMLW on those nights. The program, titled CBS 58 News at 9 on WMLW, became a permanent part of WMLW's schedule on January 1, 2008. The show initially featured the same anchors as channel 58's 5 and 10 p.m. newscasts (though its anchors are part of WDJT's reporting staff),[22] although WITI has since solved the pre-emption problem by using that station's Antenna TV subchannel and live webstream to air its primetime newscast on nights when it is subject to preemption. Some breaking news coverage from WDJT is simulcast on WMLW, along with severe weather alerts. With the conversion to high definition in August 2012, WMLW's newscast immediately also began to be carried in HD that same day. On January 18, 2015, the 9 p.m. newscast was expanded to a full hour, displacing Inside Edition to the early morning hours.[23]
Beginning in September 2014, WMLW began to carry newscasts in the 5 p.m. hour on weekends, carried either alone or in a simulcast with WDJT depending on whether
Technical information
Subchannels
License | Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
WBME-CD | 41.1 | 720p | 16:9 |
WBME-HD | MeTV |
WMLW-TV | 49.1 | WMLW-HD | Independent | ||
49.2 | 480i | Movies! | Movies! | ||
49.3 | H and I | Heroes & Icons | |||
49.4 | Catchy | Catchy Comedy | |||
49.5 | MeTV+ | MeTV Toons (soon) |
During its time on WDJT-DT3, MeTV served as a
In early January 2009, Weigel added its
On December 31, 2009, Weigel switched WYTU-LP to WBME's schedule on analog channel 63.[27] The analog signal eventually went off the air by January 2013, with the license canceled the next month.
On August 8, 2011, the backers of
On March 3, 2015, Weigel moved This TV to WMLW's third subchannel to consolidate their owned subchannel networks onto WDJT, and shuffled H&I onto WDJT-DT3.[30]
On May 15, 2021, Bounce TV became exclusive in the market to stations owned by sister operations Scripps and
Analog-to-digital conversion
WMLW-TV's
In some areas of the market on days with strong tropospheric propagation across Lake Michigan, the signal of WHME-TV from South Bend, which is also on digital channel 48, can overwhelm WMLW's lower power signal, while WMLW causes interference with the former station. WHME has thus filed a tentative construction permit with the FCC to move back to their former analog channel, 46, though signal conflict issues with Weigel's Milwaukee operations would remain as Channel 46 also carries WDJT's digital signal.
Spectrum sale and channel sharing
On April 13, 2017, the results of the FCC's 2016
Sinclair, Weigel Broadcasting, and Milwaukee PBS all decided on a switch date of January 8 for their various local spectrum moves, and WMLW will move to WBME-CD's bandwidth at 5 a.m. that morning. WMLW and Bounce will remain on their existing 49.1 and 49.2 positions, with the WYTU-LD market-wide simulcast moving to WDJT-DT4, and Decades to WMLW-DT4. This TV was moved from the channel share and onto WYTU-LD2. In addition, WMLW's main signal is now rebroadcast on WDJT-DT3 to serve all viewers in the market over-the-air, in a reduced standard definition simulcast which remains in widescreen format.[36] WBME-CD will continue to carry MeTV on 41.1, along with the 58.2 market-wide simulcast.[37] Since the spectrum auction, most of Weigel's acquisitions since 2017 have directly used WMLW's "TV-49, Inc." holding company to purchase those stations.
References
- ^ "Facility Technical Data for WMLW-TV". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
- ^ "Scripps ceasing Shop At Home operations" (Press release). May 16, 2006. Archived from the original on November 17, 2007. Retrieved October 28, 2007.
- ^ Cuprisin, Tim (June 22, 2006). "Without Couric, 'Today' flies high". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
- ^ Malone, Michael (April 25, 2008). "Weigel Broadcasting Closes on WJJA Milwaukee". Broadcasting & Cable.
- ^ Kirchen, Rich (March 7, 2008). "Channel 49's tower condition delays sale". The Business Journal of Milwaukee.
- JSOnline. Archived from the originalon April 25, 2008. Retrieved April 21, 2008.
- JSOnline. Archived from the originalon April 25, 2008. Retrieved April 21, 2008.
- JSOnline. Archived from the originalon May 3, 2008.
- JSOnline. Archived from the originalon May 13, 2007. Retrieved April 21, 2008.
- ^ Cuprisin, Tim (February 10, 2008). "TV goes all-local on the storm, but with limited visibility of wider world". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Archived from the original on October 6, 2008. Retrieved April 21, 2008.
- ^ "Service Area Map". Federal Communications Commission.
- ^ "not found".
- ^ "Here are the latest channels available over the air in the Milwaukee area". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. June 16, 2009.
- ^ "Viewers with digital converter, antenna asked to rescan for new linup". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. October 30, 2008.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Rosenthal, Phil (November 22, 2010). "Tower Ticker: THE MEDIA BUSINESS IN CHICAGO AND BEYOND". Chicago Tribune.
- ^ Updates on Me-TV National Network, Plus Local Me-TV/Me-Too; Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of December 13, 2010), Sitcoms Online, December 10, 2010
- Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. Archived from the originalon July 22, 2012. Retrieved July 23, 2012.
- ^ Kabelowsky, Steve (September 15, 2014). "Weigel changes up WMLW, launches "The M"". OnMilwaukee. Retrieved April 7, 2016.
- ^ "WMLW The M to air 10 premium Milwaukee Bucks games". WMLW. January 28, 2024.
- ^ "JS Online: HR for Brewers' viewers". Archived from the original on February 18, 2007. Retrieved May 16, 2007.
- ^ "Another 9 O'clock News Competitor". December 3, 2007.
- ^ Foran, Chris (January 13, 2015). "WDJT expands 9 p.m. newscast on WMLW to a full hour". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Retrieved January 14, 2016.
- RabbitEars.info. Archivedfrom the original on August 22, 2023. Retrieved August 22, 2023.
- ^ Cuprisin, Tim (February 10, 2008). "Channel 58's new 'sub-channel' a sign of the coming digital revolution". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
- ^ "Obama urges Congress to delay digital transition amid coupon shortage". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. January 8, 2009.
- ^ "CBS 58 simulcast for over the air Channel 63 to end". Journal Times. December 30, 2009. Retrieved January 26, 2024.
- ^ Lieberman, David (August 9, 2011). "Bounce TV Goes To Weigel Broadcasting in Chicago And Milwaukee". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved August 9, 2011.
- ^ "Facebook status: We can't wait to launch our new "Movies! Milwaukee" network on August 4!". WISN-TV via Facebook. July 25, 2014. Retrieved July 30, 2014.
- ^ Foran, Chris (March 4, 2015). "Weigel flips channels for This TV, Heroes & Icons formats". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Retrieved March 5, 2015.
- ^ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on August 29, 2013. Retrieved March 24, 2012.
- ^ "DA-09-1063A2" (PDF).
- ^ "FCC Broadcast Television Spectrum Incentive Auction Auction 1001 Winning Bids" (PDF). April 13, 2017. Retrieved April 14, 2017.
- ^ "Spectrum Auction Channel Changes in the Upper Midwest". Upper Midwest Broadcasting, Northpine.com. April 13, 2017. Retrieved April 14, 2017.
- ^ Jessell, Harry (September 12, 2017). "Weigel Moving Into Los Angeles, St. Louis". TVNewsCheck. Retrieved September 12, 2017.
- ^ Foran, Chris (January 4, 2018). "Some of Milwaukee's over-the-air TV lineups will change Monday". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Retrieved January 9, 2018.
- ^ "WMLW Milwaukee - Milwaukee Television Re-pack". Retrieved December 9, 2017.