WMLW-CA

WMLW-CA, channel 41 (Digital channel 13), is a LPTV independent television station located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Its transmitter is located in Milwaukee's Lincoln Park. The station is owned and operated by Weigel Broadcasting, which also owns Milwaukee's CBS affiliate WDJT (Channel 58).

Despite the station's low-power 'Class A' status, WMLW has made deals with local area cable systems such as Time Warner Cable and Charter Communications to air the station, which extends the coverage area throughout the entire market, in addition to the station's programming being carried on a digital subchannel of WDJT on Channel 58-2 in 480i standard definition.

History

WMLW had been around one way or another since the early 1980s on low-power translator stations, Channel 55 as W55AS at first, then by 1989, moving to Channel 65 as W65BT. The station has been owned by Weigel since signing on. Until the late 1990s the channel would air the Stock Market Observer during the trading day (7am-5pm), which was produced by sister station WCIU (Channel 26) in Chicago; in fact, the station launched as a full translator of WCIU, receiving that station via a microwave link between WCIU's Sears Tower transmitter and a receiving dish atop the First Wisconsin/Firstar Center, and was Weigel's first successful attempt since trying to acquire the Channel 49 license in Racine in 1965 to establish a station in Milwaukee. At night a mix of home shopping, infomercials, religion, the Spanish language Univision network (before the launch of W46AR in 1990) and low-cost programming was scheduled. The channel was watched by few because of low cable carriage and better TV choices in the Milwaukee market, along with Weigel having to establish WDJT's presence in the market, especially after receiving CBS affiliation in late 1994.

In 1999, Weigel obtained construction permits for new channel positions in the wake of having to move its Milwaukee low-power operations (which included then-Univision station W46AR (Channel 46), now Telemundo affiliate WYTU-LP (Channel 63)) to accommodate the HDTV signal for WDJT on Channel 46, along with the start-up of Weigel's new Lincoln Park transmitter for WDJT and the low-power stations, which united the company's transmission operations into one facility. Towards the end of September 2000, the programming from Channel 65 moved to the new Channel 41 under the callsign W41CI; onscreen identification became 'TV-41'.

In the first year, the station improved its programming, airing Weigel/Bridge Information Systems' WebFN financial news service during the day, and entertainment at night. The America One network aired through the overnights and mornings (also to fulfill educational/informational program requirements), and news cut-ins from Channel 58 would air all day. Then in the middle of November 2001, Channel 41 would acquire LPTV status, allowing it to have a lettered call sign, which would end up being WMLW-LP.

In 2002, the station began shifting to more of a true independent station, with the WebFN venture folding in the wake of the dot-com crash, freeing up the 7am-5pm timeslot for other programming. Weigel acquired more shows for the station and found itself in a unique position as Milwaukee's only true independent television station.

Sinclair co-owned WVTV and WCGV decided to focus more on their WB and UPN (currently The CW and My Network TV) programming instead of occasional sports coverage (which often pre-empted the network schedules, much to the annoyance of the local fanbases of each of the two network's shows; WCGV retained broadcast rights for the Bucks) until the end of the 2006-07 season), and took themselves out of the race for local college and high school sports rights; there was also a lack of interest on the part of FSN North, which wanted to focus on teams with statewide interest, not just within the Milwaukee metro area. Thus, Weigel decided to use Channel 41 in order to take the rights for these sports and use the lure of the teams to have cable companies carry the station, knowing that it would be the only way to make Channel 41 a viable player in Milwaukee broadcasting.

Time Warner was strongly opposed to adding Channel 41 to their lineups across Southeastern Wisconsin, arguing that the station wasn't full-power and the sports were only a lure to add another unneeded station to their lineups. This came after must-carry rules pushed them to air religious station WWRS-TV (Channel 52), and move Madison's PBS affiliate, WHA-TV, to digital cable to free up a basic channel. Weigel then encouraged viewers to call and write Time Warner and Charter to add the station to their lineups in the wake of being the Milwaukee station that would air the WIAA high school basketball championships, using promotions on WDJT and in local newspapers to send the message.

After much campaigning, Charter would add WMLW to their basic tier of service (Channel 8 in most cities, Channel 21 in Sheboygan), with Time Warner airing the station at first only over digital cable, allowing the WIAA coverage to be seen on cable on some level. A compromise would later be reached between Weigel and Time Warner as a part of WDJT retransmission consent negotiations, and the station would become a part of the basic package throughout Time Warner's area, moving from TW Channel 741 to TW Channel 7 in the fall of 2003. After finding cable carriage, the station began to identify only by the WMLW call letters and rarely mentioned the channel number except in a few promotions, and visually in FCC-required identifications.

WMLW would stop airing America One after 2002, and began programming the entire day shortly thereafter. In mid-September 2003, WMLW became a 'Class A' television station and legally identifies as WMLW-CA.

Local musical artist Pat McCurdy is the songwriter and singer of the station's jingle and theme song, wmlw means Milwaukee. The station had a minor logo change in December 2010, keeping the same general theme but with a font change.

The call letters "WMLW" were also utilized from 1982 to August 1989 by the current day WJJO (94.1) in Watertown, with the calls standing for mellow as part of that station's then-soft rock format.

Digital television

Digital television

Currently, the station's digital signal can be seen on WDJT's subchannel, channel 46-2 (58-2), and launched their digital channel with the calls WMLW-LD (for "low power digital") on Channel 13 in mid-December 2007. The simulcast on WDJT-DT2 remains due to channel 13's poor signal coverage at present to protect Grand Rapids' WZZM-TV, which is receivable across Lake Michigan and has a transmitter closer to the Michigan lakeshore than other Grand Rapids stations. As WZZM moved their digital signal from channel 39 back to channel 13 in June 2009, these reception issues remain, and WDJT-DT2 for all intents and purposes is the signal which takes priority in station identification sequences and is utilized as the signal source for cable and satellite services.

At the beginning of 2009, Weigel proposed to move WMLW's analog signal to channel 24 in order to reduce interference from WGBA-TV (Channel 26) from Green Bay, which has their digital signal on channel 41 ^[1], along with WIFR (Channel 23) from Rockford, Illinois, also on digital channel 41. The move is possible since the former Milwaukee analog occupant of channel 24, WCGV, ceased analog operations in early March 2009 ^[2]. No further action has been taken on this application however, and it is assumed WMLW's analog operations will end on channel 41 once analog service is ended either by FCC action or exhaustion of the analog transmitter (as Weigel has done once their South Bend low-power stations reached end-of-life on their analog transmitters).

Programming

General entertainment

The station, being an independent, relies heavily on syndicated programming, including sitcoms, game shows and courtroom programming, along with second next-day or next-week runs of programming aired on WDJT, of which Inside Edition, Jeopardy! and The Doctors make up the network's mid-morning schedule, along with The Insider after the 9pm newscast.

The station's court shows include Judge Mathis and The People's Court, along with episodes from the Tom Bergeron era of America's Funniest Home Videos. Game shows aired are Family Feud, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, and Cash Cab, while in the late afternoon the Tyler Perry sitcoms Meet the Browns and House of Payne air, along with two episodes of 3rd Rock from the Sun, and the station's highly-promoted double run of The Big Bang Theory before primetime. A second run of Dr. Phil airs before the 9pm newscast.

In late night, WMLW's schedule consists of a double run of repeats of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, two episodes of 'Til Death sandwiched between a double run of Everybody Hates Chris and South Park, followed by a second run of the Tyler Perry sitcoms, then lower-tier syndicated programming such as Who Wants to Date a Comedian? and E! True Hollywood Story.

Weekends outside of sports rights are devoted mainly to syndicated second-run dramas like Heartland (the 2007 CBC series), Cold Case, Law & Order, NUMB3RS, Without a Trace and Criminal Minds, along with weekend runs of the station's sitcoms and some second-run cable reality television such as Dog the Bounty Hunter.

Previously, the station used to broadcast classic sitcoms and dramas before the rise of Weigel's Me-TV format, but slowly removed most of them from their lineup by the fall of 2008 with the full launch of sister station WBME-TV (Channel 49)'s Me-TV iteration for mostly new or recent programs, though the station continues to air Cheers at 6am weekdays.

From September 2004 until December 28, 2008, WMLW also carried the children's programming block offered by the Fox network, 4Kids TV (formerly Fox Kids/FoxBox), due to Fox affiliate WITI (Channel 6) declining to carry the block, taking over for WCGV-TV when they let their carriage lapse. WMLW aired the 4Kids lineup on Sunday mornings at 8:00, one day and one hour later than its usual Saturday timeslot for most of the 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.

The station currently carries a three-hour block of syndicated E/I programming on Saturday mornings (along with Weigel's Green Screen Adventures) to suffice the station's E/I programming requirements. The majority of the station's paid programming airs early on Saturday morning, most of Sunday morning, and weekday mornings at 4:30am.

Sports programming

WMLW justifies being carried by the area's cable systems with a strong sports lineup, consisting of Marquette Golden Eagles (with rights shared with TWC Sports 32) and UW–Milwaukee Panthers men's and women's college basketball, which are broadcast by either a local announce team and camera crew or coverage from ESPN + or the Horizon League's internal broadcasting unit. The station also broadcasts other Big East Conference games (including college football, despite Marquette's lack of a program in that sport), along with the coach's shows of all the college sports teams mentioned above, the aforementioned WIAA tournaments, and some sports talk programs such as Sidelines from Madison's tvw.

Previously before 2011, the station aired Labor Day coverage of the US Open from CBS, because of WDJT's commitment as the local affiliate for Jerry Lewis' annual MDA telethon, along with the first three hours of the show in primetime so WDJT could carry CBS programming. In 2011, WITI aired the telethon instead in its new six-hour primetime format.

From 2008-2011, the men's final for each US Open that year (all delayed to Monday afternoon due to weather conditions on Sunday afternoon 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 in order 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 station carries a postgame show for any Packer games carried by CBS and Channel 58, using WDJT's sports staff, along with other sports analysis shows under the title The Sports Fanatics.

Milwaukee Brewers

Weigel Broadcasting acquired the right to air fifteen Milwaukee Brewers regular seasons baseball games (along with a Brewers/Cubs spring training game) in the 2007 season [1], the first time the team aired games non-nationally on a local broadcast station since Fox Sports Wisconsin became the team's exclusive broadcaster in 2005. Several of the games in the package aired on WMLW due to Fox Sports Wisconsin's contractual priority to carry Milwaukee Bucks basketball and prevent programming conflicts.

The telecasts are produced by Fox Sports Wisconsin and are simulcast on that network outside of the Milwaukee market, and retain the look of the network (except for WMLW microphone flags and a lack of the FSBREWERS bug in the upper right-hand corner, and adaptation of graphics to fit WMLW's 4:3 frame rather than FSN's usual 16:9-optimized presentation), while WMLW/WDJT sell ad time during the games. A few games are added to the WMLW package every year depending on early-season weather postponements and the team's standing in the pennant race later in the season.

The same arrangement of fifteen regular season games and three spring training games has been in place for subsequent seasons ^[3], along with a WDJT-produced postgame show called The Final Out. As WMLW currently broadcasts only in 480i on their LD signal, these games are not available in high definition, neither on WMLW or Fox Sports Wisconsin. Spanish sister station WYTU also carries several Sunday games a year with Spanish language play-by-play, though under a separate production and announce team which uses Fox Sports Wisconsin's camera positions.

Previous sports rights

Previously, the station carried ESPN Plus's regional college football and basketball packages for the Big Ten Conference, which included Wisconsin Badger games, until 2007, when the new Big Ten Network launched in late August 2007, as part of a ten year exclusivity deal between the Big Ten Conference, ABC and ESPN went into effect. All non-network Badger sports now air on BTN.

Newscasts

In September 2008, the station began to air The Daily Buzz, a program previously unseen in Milwaukee as Sinclair does not carry that morning show on any of their stations, but discontinued carrying it in September 2010 to air the Canadian program Steven and Chris that season.

In October 2007, during the 2007 World Series when Fox affiliate WITI could not air their 9 p.m. newscast in its regular time slot because of the games, WDJT's news department decided to test out a 9 p.m. newscast airing on WMLW on those nights. The station decided to make the arrangement permanent and began to air the newscast on January 1, 2008, under the title CBS 58 News at 9 on WMLW. The show features Channel 58's 10pm news team ^[4], although WITI has since solved the pre-emption problem by using their Antenna TV subchannel to air the 9pm news on pre-emption nights. Some breaking news from WDJT is simulcast on WMLW, along with the station's weather warnings and alerts.

CBS 58 News at 9 on WMLW
(weeknights 9-9:30 p.m.)

• Anchors:
  • Michele McCormack
  • Paul Piaskoski
• Weather:
  • Mark McGinnis
• Sports:
  • Evan Fitzgerald

WMLW-CA features additional news personnel from WDJT. See that article for a complete listing.

References

External links

• Home page
• History of Milwaukee television
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WMLW
• Emergency Alert System Test on WMLW