| Madison, Wisconsin | |
|---|---|
| City of license | Janesville, Wisconsin |
| Branding | Madison's CW |
| Slogan | "TV To Talk About" |
| Channels | Digital: 32 (UHF) |
| Subchannels | 57.1 |
| Affiliations | The CW |
| Owner | ACME Communications, Inc. (sale to Byrne Acquisition Group pending)[1] (ACME Television Licenses of Madison, LLC) |
| First air date | 1999[2] |
| Call letters' meaning | The WB (former network) University of Wisconsin (located in Madison) |
| Former callsigns | WHPN-TV (1999-2002) |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: 57 (1999-2009) |
| Former affiliations | UPN (1999-2002) The WB (2002-2006) |
| Transmitter power | 200 kW |
| Height | 387 m |
| Facility ID | 26025 |
| Website | MadisonsCW.com |
WBUW (digital channel 32 or virtual channel 57) is a television station affiliated with The CW. Though licensed to Janesville, Wisconsin, the station is branded as Madison's CW, and serves all of Madison, south-central Wisconsin, and portions of Northern Illinois. The station's transmission tower is located on Madison's southwest side.
WBUW's daily schedule consists mainly of network programming from The CW; syndicated fare such as The Insider and TMZ on TV; and reruns of such shows as Friends, How I Met Your Mother, and The Office. WBUW also carries the young-skewing morning show The Daily Buzz, a program produced by WBUW's current owner, ACME Communications.
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The original construction permit for Channel 57 was granted on May 2, 1998 with the call letters WJNW, however, the station did not sign on until July 5, 1999 as WHPN-TV. With a transmitter located approximately ten miles west of Janesville, the station served as the UPN affiliate for both the Madison and Rockford, Illinois TV markets.
In 2002, WHPN was purchased by ACME Communications, a station group run by Jamie Kellner, a founder of The WB Television Network and former CEO of that network and TBS. In conjunction with the sale, WHPN changed affiliations to The WB in August 2002 and adopted the WBUW call letters (while Madison's former WB affiliate, WISC-owned cable channel WB14, took the UPN affiliation and "UPN14" branding).
In 2004, WBUW moved its transmitter to its current location in the Greentree neighborhood of Madison's southwest side, sharing space on a new tower with WMTV (Channel 15); this move extend WBUW's coverage throughout south-central Wisconsin.
In March 2006, WBUW was confirmed [3] as Madison's CW Network affiliate, effective September 2006. WBUW did not change its call letters to fit its new affiliation, nor did the other former WB stations owned by ACME Communications (in an effort to avoid audience confusion during the network realignment).
On February 17, 2009, WBUW officially transitioned to exclusive digital transmission on digital channel 32 (or PSIP virtual channel 57.1), with the analog channel 57 serving as a "nightlight" (broadcasting a loop of digital transition instructionals) until signing off for good the first week of March 2009.
On December 13, 2011, ACME announced it would sell WBUW to Byrne Acquisition Group, a move that is part of ACME's gradual exit from the TV business. The deal (which is pending FCC approval and is expected to close in the 2nd quarter of 2012) would give the Byrne Group its second TV property; the company already owns low-power station W48CX in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.[1]
In September 2003, WBUW entered the local news race with The WB57 Nine O'Clock News, a 35-minute, Monday-thru-Friday newscast produced in partnership with the news operations at local NBC station WMTV. The newscast was geared toward The WB's younger-skewing audience, with a fast-paced format (stories were rarely more than 1 or 2 minutes in length), a large emphasis on entertainment and lifestyle features, nightly e-mail contests and sweeps-month "free gas giveaways," and in-studio performances by local musicians during Friday editions of the newscast. Despite these efforts, the newscast never gained ratings ground against 9PM newscasts on WMSN and UPN14; as a result, The WB57 Nine O'Clock News ended its run in December 2005, with WBUW ending its news-share relationship with WMTV and returning syndicated programming to the time slot.[4][5]
At the beginning of 2007, local WBUW content resumed in the form of "Buzzed Into Madison." Airing daily during The Daily Buzz (usually around 20 minutes after each hour), "Buzzed Into Madison" features "positive" (the station's term) stories on Madison-area news, events, and personalities as well as features with station sponsors. The success of "Buzzed into Madison" would lead The Daily Buzz's producer, WBUW parent ACME Communications, to allow other Daily Buzz affiliates time to insert their own local content if they so desire.[6] Emmy Fink served as the original host and producer of "Buzzed into Madison" from the feature's 2007 launch until her departure from WBUW in June 2011.[7] Since that time, "Buzzed" has been airing on a limited basis, with weekly entertainment previews from the Isthmus newspaper and, beginning in the fall of 2011, a series of "junior reporters" from area schools (one reporter per month).
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