WFRV-TV
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| WFRV-TV / WJMN-TV | |
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| WFRV: Green Bay, Wisconsin WJMN: Escanaba, Michigan |
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| Branding | Channel 5 Channel 3 |
| Slogan | Working for You |
| Channels | Analog: WFRV: 5 (VHF) WJMN: 3 (VHF) |
| Affiliations | CBS |
| Owner | Liberty Media Corporation (WFRV and WJMN Television Station, Inc.) |
| First air date | WFRV: May 21, 1955 WJMN: October 7, 1969 |
| Call letters’ meaning | WFRV: Wisconsin's Fox River Valley WJMN: Jane Morton Norton |
| Former callsigns | WNAM-TV (1955-195?) |
| Former channel number(s) | 42 (1955-195?) |
| Former affiliations | ABC (1955-1959) NBC (1959-1983) ABC (1983-1992) Secondary: DuMont (1955) |
| Transmitter Power | WFRV: 100 kW (analog) 1000 kW (digital) WJMN: 100 kW (analog) 989 kW (digital) |
| Height | WFRV: 341 m (analog) 364 m (digital) WJMN: 363 m (analog) 327 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | WFRV: 9635 WJMN: 9630 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | WFRV: (analog) (digital) WJMN: |
| Website | www.wfrv.com |
- WJMN-TV redirects here. For other uses, see WJMN.
WFRV-TV, channel 5, is a CBS affiliate based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The station is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Liberty Media Corporation and operates as "WFRV and WJMN Television Station, Inc.". The station's studios are located in Green Bay, and its transmitter is in De Pere, Wisconsin. WFRV's signal is rebroadcasted over satellite station WJMN-TV (channel 3) in Escanaba, Michigan.
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[edit] Early history
The station began as WNAM-TV Channel 42 in Neenah, Wisconsin on May 21, 1955. It soon moved to Green Bay, changed its frequency to Channel 5 and changed its call letters to fit the phrase "Wisconsin's Fox River Valley" as known today as WFRV-TV. It started as an ABC affiliate before switching to NBC in 1959. As an NBC affiliate, it became the first station in Northeast Wisconsin to broadcast in color.
Among the station's claims is that it was the first to cover a live lunar eclipse, in 1959, when a studio camera was wheeled into the parking lot and aimed at the moon.
The station changed affiliations again in 1983, when it became an ABC affiliate for the second time, with NBC going to WLUK (Channel 11).
The station's original owners sold the station to the Morton Norton family of Kentucky, owners of Louisville, Kentucky's WAVE, in the mid-1960s.
[edit] WJMN (Channel 3)
In 1969, a satellite station, WJMN-TV began operation on Channel 3 in Escanaba, Michigan; the station also serves Iron Mountain, Marquette and the rest of the western part of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. WJMN airs Channel 5's entire schedule, except for UP-specific weather and news cut-ins, ads and differing promotions identifying the station as Channel 3, time-adjusted for the Eastern Time Zone. The transmitter for WJMN is located 26 miles north of Escanaba and 4 miles south of the town of Trenary in Masonville Township. WJMN's antenna is 1310 feet high, which made it the second tallest TV transmitter in the state of Michigan after WWTV-TV 9 in Cadillac upon its completion.
WJMN-TV is not related to the Clear Channel-owned WJMN (FM) in Boston, Massachusetts.
[edit] Later History and WFRV Today
Orion Broadcasting, the Mortons' company, merged with Cosmos Broadcasting (a subsidiary of The Liberty Corporation) in 1981. A few years later, WFRV/WJMN were sold to the Murphy and McNally families, owners of Minneapolis-St. Paul's WCCO-TV (Channel 4) and WCCO-AM (830). CBS then acquired all four stations in 1992 when the families sold the stations. New FCC rules had allowed networks to own more stations, so CBS decided to keep WFRV/WJMN and convert them to CBS stations, which in 2005 were in the No. 69 market nationally. With this move, WBAY (Channel 2) became Green Bay's ABC affiliate. The move also made WFRV/WJMN among the few stations in the U.S. to have been an affiliate of all of the "Big Three" television networks - ABC, NBC and CBS.
The station no longer follows the CBS Mandate branding due to their breaking off from CBS Corporation, although their graphics remain the same. Previously, the graphics used on its newscasts were green and gold, as a connection to the Green Bay Packers. On July 10, 2006, they unveiled a blue and yellow graphic scheme as well as new sets to coincide with the return of former anchor Tammy Elliott. In the summer of 2007, the station slowly transitioned from branding as CBS 5 and CBS 3, and began to go back to identifying as Channel 5 and Channel 3 as they had done previously before 2003.
In 2003, the stations became the first in the Green Bay market to broadcast digitally.
On February 13, 2007, CBS Corporation announced that they would sell WFRV and WJMN to Liberty Media for $170 million [1].
The sale was completed on April 18, 2007, [2], however the station's site continued to be maintained by CBS Television Stations Digital Media Group until May 14, 2007, when Liberty launched a redesigned website for the station powered by Inergize Digital Media (then a subsidiary of Clear Channel Communications, now a division of Newport Television). The site also incorporates an expanded page for WJMN, focused on UP-specific weather and news; previously the page had only contained the Michigan Associated Press wire service section and weather, and was not highlighted on the CBSTVSDMG version of the site.
[edit] WFRV-TV Logo History
 1992-1996 |
 1996-2001 |
 Briefly 2001 |
 2001-2003 |
 2003-2006 |
 2006-present |
 Combination image of WFRV and WJMN's current logos from the station's sign-on sequences. |
[edit] Channel 5 News Team
[edit] News Anchors
- Erin Davisson
- Tammy Elliott
- Lisa Malak
- Tom Zalaski
- Chelly Boutott
- Paul Evansen
- Wendy Neuberger
[edit] Reporters
- Olga Halaburda
- Terry Kovarik
- Angenette Levy
- Donald Robinson
[edit] Storm Team 5 Weather
- Tom Mahoney - Chief Meteorologist
- Dave Miller
- Dana Tyler
- Justin Steinbrinck
- Rebecca Schuld
[edit] Sports
- Larry McCarren, sports director, Packers Radio Network color commentator and former Green Bay Packers center
- Burke Griffin
- Ryan Popkey
- Nick Goddard
[edit] Past Personalities
- Jay Johnson (anchor 1982-1987, went to WLUK TV to 1996, then elected to Congress)
- Tom Milbourn (anchor; now works for WLUK-TV)
- Don Noe (meteorologist, late 1970s; originator of animated weather maps; recently retired from WPLG in Miami, Florida)[3][4]
- Kris Schuller (now with Wisconsin Department of Transportation)
- Glen Loyd (now spokesman for the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection)
[edit] References
- Channel 5 hits Big 5-0. Green Bay News-Chronicle article. Retrieved on November 12, 2005.
[edit] External links
- WFRV Website
- WJMN Page on WFRV.com
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WFRV
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WJMN
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WFRV-TV
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WJMN-TV
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