WACY-TV

WACY is the MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station for Northeastern Wisconsin's Fox River Valley licensed to Appleton. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 27 (PSIP virtual channel 32) from a transmitter in Glenmore's Shirley section. The station can also be seen on CenturyLink and Time Warner Cable channel 13. There is a high definition signal offered on CenturyLink digital channel 132. Owned by Ace TV Incorporated, WACY is operated through a local marketing agreement (LMA) by Journal Communications as sister to NBC affiliate WGBA-TV. The two share studios on North Road along Airport Drive/WIS 172 in Ashwaubenon (with a Green Bay postal address). Syndicated programming on WACY includes: The Simpsons, Two and a Half Men, George Lopez, and My Name Is Earl.

Digital programming

History

As WXGZ

The station signed-on WXGZ-TV in 1984 and was the first television station to be based out of Appleton. It operated under the ownership of Appleton Midwestern Television (APTV). The Appleton Post-Crescent reported on January 31 the station went on-the-air with testing but formally launched programming on March 7. The station was Independent during its first three years showing off-network sitcoms and syndicated programming. WXGZ was a charter affiliate for Fox beginning on October 6, 1986 when The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers premiered. WXGZ was the first station in the Green Bay/Appleton market to begin broadcasting in stereo and identified itself on-air as "Super 32" after making this change.

Some viewers may remember "Oscor the Clown" (a.k.a. Wayne Lowney) who was the mascot of the WXGZ children's lineup and a Sunday morning show starting in 1986 called Oscor's Place. ^[1] The major sponsor for the show was Chuck E. Cheese's forerunner brand Showbiz Pizza. In addition, the station heavily promoted its broadcast of Star Trek: The Next Generation which was one of the first major television shows to be aired in first-run syndication. The station ran into financial problems by November 1991 and APTV ended up declaring bankruptcy.

After an unsuccessful search for a new buyer for the station or more financing, WXGZ was forced to sign-off permanently on the night of February 14, 1992 ending its history with a half-hour retrospective featuring on-air and behind-the-scenes footage at the station. WXGZ's announcer, Ed Myers, said the last of the staff's goodbyes on behalf of General Manager Roy Smith and then the station was closed. WGBA took over the Fox affiliation the next morning. The station's license was left in the hands of a holding company from March until August 1992 at which point it was bought by Ace TV Incorporated. Analog channel 32 remained off-the-air for two years with occasional word the station was intended to begin broadcasting again "in the near future".

As WACY

UPN era (1995-2006)

WXGZ's license to operate was put to use in 1994. Ace TV, still owner of WXGZ's license, changed the call letters to WACY and used the Ace of Spades as the station's logo. It was put back on-air with the help of WGBA which arranged to put WACY on solid financial footing by creating a local marketing agreement where WGBA would program this station allow it to use WGBA's studios and sell ad time for the station. WACY relaunched as an Independent station (airing mostly syndicated and regional and local sports programming) for a short time before becoming a charter UPN affiliate on January 16, 1995. It also held a secondary off-hours affiliation with The WB. In late-1994, the station also began to air local programming.

One of the most durable programs was called Who, What, When, Where. The show was hosted by Jim C. Hoffman and Dan Davies who (at that time) were hosting shows on Public-access television cable in Oshkosh. The series featured various interviews, advertisements (notably Ron and Lloyd's supermarket and WNAM-AM 1280), and entertainment sketches performed by Davies. The show changed its name to N.E.W. Now (with "N.E.W." standing for the station's coverage area, Northeastern Wisconsin, commonly abbreviated as "N.E.W.") in early-1997. Occasionally, a special interview was conducted for the Green Bay audience in accordance with the agreement between WACY and WGBA. N.E.W. Now eventually ended in 1997. A new show It's the Law, hosted by Oshkosh lawyer George W. Curtis, began operation in 1999 (Hoffman produced the new series). Another local program of note was Polka, Polka, Polka airing Sunday mornings from a Manitowoc supper club/dance hall.

In August 1995, WGBA became the area's NBC affiliate after WLUK-TV switched affiliation to Fox. Due to this, WACY took most of WGBA's children programs to air throughout the day and decided to change over to an all day children programming format under the branding "Wacky 32". The schedule ran from 6-11 a.m. and 1-5 p.m. (11 a.m.-1 p.m. was filled with general programming and infomercials) and consisted of various programming lineups, including UPN Kids and The Disney Afternoon as well as syndicated product such as Garfield and Friends, Scooby Doo, Dennis the Menace, and Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog along with some educational and informational-compliant programs like The New Zoo Revue. WACY also aired Kids' WB on-pattern in the mornings and afternoons and aired Pokémon in its one-season syndicated run before it became a part of Kids' WB. The lineup contained local continuity from "Cuddles the Clown".

That programming strategy continued until 1999 when by then the effect of the rules on children's advertising and competition from cable networks like Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon made it hard for broadcast stations to financially justify airing children programming more than necessary. The station also lost its secondary WB affiliation after ACME Communications bought WPXG (now WCWF) from Paxson Communications in that same year converting it from Pax to a primary WB affiliate. Kids' WB then moved to that station and WACY began to move towards a general programming direction. The station continued to air UPN's Disney's One Too children's block weekdays until its discontinuation in September 2003 by the network.

In 2004, Journal Communications (owner of Milwaukee's WTMJ-TV) announced plans to buy WGBA for $43.2 million and the sale closed in October of that year. WGBA and WACY had an ongoing LMA with the former providing studio space, weather coverage, staff for high school football games, and other facilities. Journal said at the time of the purchase, it would continue the agreement and agreed to buy WACY should the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ever change its bylaws to allow the purchase. Currently, the Green Bay DMA does not have enough full-power commercial television stations to legally permit a duopoly. However in September 2010, WLUK owner LIN TV Corporation exercised an option to purchase CW affiliate WCWF from ACME Communications, and asked for a "failing station waiver" which would allow LIN to own WLUK and WCWF, which is possible if the petitioner can prove the station is in an economically non-viable position. Because WCWF was hampered for years by several factors, including low cable carriage and an analog signal originating more towards their city of license, Suring than Green Bay), the waiver was granted in February 2011. It is unlikely however Journal could argue the same for WACY, as ACE TV has maintained the license without incident since 1995 and WACY has always transmitted from Glenmore, making a failing station waiver difficult to attain.

MyNetworkTV era (2006-)

On January 24, 2006, The WB and UPN announced the two networks would end broadcasting and merge into The CW Television Network, co-owned between UPN owner CBS Corporation and The WB's Time Warner. Though there was a slight chance CW affiliation would go to WACY, WIWB was by default the choice for the affiliation due to that station's owners have a deep relationship with WB management, up to one of the board members having been a past network president of the WB. Thus, WACY took the affiliation with MyNetworkTV on March 22 ^[2] and began distancing itself from UPN immediately after the end of the 2005-06 television season, only airing the first hour of network programming after early June (except for Friday nights), and replacing the second hour with paid programming.

WACY discontinued airing UPN on September 4 (since MyNetworkTV would launch the next night) leaving WIWB to finish the network's run in Green Bay by airing Veronica Mars on Saturday nights and WWE Friday Night SmackDown on Sunday afternoon until the network's end. WACY began to use its MyNetworkTV branding "My New 32" in late-July 2006 with the "new" standing for both the new network and Northeast Wisconsin. The new logo is also the first time since WACY's sign-on that no elements of the Ace of Spades appear. The call letters are played down in favor of "My New 32, Green Bay/Appleton" (a version of the logo with "Appleton/Green Bay" instead appears on-screen at the top of the hour because of FCC requirements that the city of license appear first in a visual identification). The station's graphics are less elaborate and glossy than other Journal-owned stations due to utilization of default MyNetworkTV graphics and imaging package.

In the past, the station aired a high school football game of the week on Friday nights in the fall featuring local teams and, in 2007, began broadcasting selected University of Wisconsin–Green Bay men and women basketball games. All sports broadcasts featured WGBA's sports anchors and the telecasts used the in-house camera system from the arena where the game was played instead of station-owned cameras. The broadcasts of high school games were discontinued in 2008 in a lean period where both WGBA's news and sports staff were drastically cut back due to budget concerns, a period where heavy amounts of paid programming also filled both station's daytime schedules to recover lost revenue. The decision was also due to the unresolvable conflicts sure to happen with the return of Smackdown in October 2008 to the station on Friday nights via WWE's new programming agreement with MyNetworkTV. However with the departure of Smackdown in 2010 to cable's Syfy, the station returned to broadcasting Friday night high school football in August 2011, under the new title N.E.W. Sports Showdown. ^[3]

A late-night feature that had been airing on weekends was the "Ned the Dead" movie program. While the show moved around the schedule, it was most recently seen Saturday nights at 11. The show featured a B-movie from the 1950s (usually sci-fi or horror) with "Ned" doing wraparounds and comic relief. Steve Brenzel, the actor who played Ned, is also spokesperson for local furniture/appliance chain Van Vredee's, who sponsored the program. As of March 21, 2009, the "Ned the Dead" show began to de-emphasize the "Chiller Theater" title (referencing the old black and white horror films) and instead involved additional sketches by Ned and his colorful troupe of sidekicks. Color low-budget films were added including titles never aired on the show before. ^[4] The program last aired on December 12, 2010. ^[5]

References

External links

• WACY "My New 32"
• WGBA-TV "NBC 26"
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WACY