WBUW

WBUW
Madison, Wisconsin
United States
City of license Janesville, Wisconsin
Branding CW 57
Slogan "TV NOW"
Channels Digital: 32 (UHF)
Virtual: 57 (PSIP)
Subchannels 57.1 The CW
Affiliations The CW (2006-present)
Owner Byrne Acquisition Group, LLC
First air date 1999[1]
Call letters' meaning The WB (former affiliation) + University of Wisconsin–Madison
Former callsigns WHPN-TV (1999-2002)
Former channel number(s) Analog:
57 (UHF, 1999-2009)
Former affiliations UPN (1999-2002)
The WB (2002-2006)
Transmitter power 200 kW
Height 387 m
Facility ID 26025
Transmitter coordinates 43°3′3″N 89°29′13″W / 43.05083°N 89.48694°W
Licensing authority FCC
Public license information: Profile
CDBS
Website cw57.tv/

WBUW (digital channel 32 or "CW 57") is a television station affiliated with The CW. Licensed to Janesville, Wisconsin, the station serves all of Madison, south-central Wisconsin, and portions of Northern Illinois. WBUW is owned by Byrne Acquisition Group, and has offices and studios at 2814 Syene Road on Madison's far south side and transmits a high-definition video signal from a tower located on Madison's southwest side.

WBUW's daily schedule consists mainly of network programming from The CW; first-run syndicated fare such as The Insider, OK TV, and TMZ; and reruns of such shows as Family Guy, How I Met Your Mother, and The Office. The station also airs information programming, sporting events, and sponsored programs of local interest.

History

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/digital subchannel 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.

WBUW's logo under the "Madison's CW" branding (2006-2012)

In March 2006, WBUW was confirmed [2] as Madison's affiliate of The CW Television Network, the result of the WB and UPN networks amalgamating; WBUW was one of eight ACME-owned WB affiliates who joined The CW as a group in September 2006.

On December 13, 2011, ACME announced it would sell WBUW to Byrne Acquisition Group, a move that was part of ACME's gradual exit from the TV business.[3] The deal was approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and consummated in February 2012 (one quarter ahead of schedule),[4][5] and gave the Byrne Group its second TV property (after low-power station W48CX in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina). By November 2012, on-air changes at WBUW would include a gradual rebranding (from "Madison's CW" to "CW 57") and a master control upgrade to accommodate local and syndicated programming produced in high-definition.

Local news and features

In September 2003, WBUW launched The WB57 Nine O'Clock News, a 35-minute, Monday-thru-Friday newscast produced in partnership with the news operations at NBC affiliate WMTV. The newscast was geared toward The WB's younger-skewing audience, with a fast-paced format (lead stories were rarely more than 1 or 2 minutes in length), a large emphasis on entertainment and lifestyle features, nightly e-mail contests, sweeps-month "free gas giveaways," and in-studio performances by local musicians during Friday editions of the newscast. The WB57 Nine O'Clock News never gained ratings ground against competing newscasts on WMSN and UPN14; as a result, WBUW cancelled the newscast and its news-share relationship with WMTV in December 2005, with syndicated programming being returned to the time slot.[6][7]

At the beginning of 2007, local content on WBUW resumed in the form of "Buzzed Into Madison." Airing each day during WBUW's broadcasts of The Daily Buzz (usually around 20 minutes after each hour), the "Buzzed Into Madison" vignettes included "positive" (the station's term) features on Madison-area news, events, and personalities, as well as features with and promotions from station sponsors. The success of "Buzzed into Madison" would lead ACME Communications, The Daily Buzz's then-producer (and WBUW's then-owner), to permit other Daily Buzz affiliates to insert their own local segments if they so desired.[8] Emmy Fink served as the original host and producer of "Buzzed into Madison" from the feature's 2007 launch until her June 2011 departure from WBUW.[9] "Buzzed" would air on a limited basis after that, with content including entertainment previews from the Isthmus newspaper and a series of "junior reporters" from area schools (one reporter per month during the 2011-2012 academic year).

After the Byrne Group took over WBUW in 2012, the station's local content would expand to mirror that of sister station W48CX; as a result, a notable portion of "CW57's" weekly schedule is devoted to locally-oriented discussion programs, sporting events, and other content featuring sponsoring businesses from Madison and Southern Wisconsin. Such past and current programs have included:

Current features
Past features

Digital television

Digital channel

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming[10]
57.1 1080i 16:9 WBUW-HD Main WBUW programming / The CW

Analog-to-digital conversion

WBUW shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 57, on February 17, 2009, the original date in which full-power television in the United States were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (which was later pushed back to June 12, 2009). The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 32.[11] Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 57, which was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition. With the analog channel 57 serving as a "nightlighting" (broadcasting a loop of digital transition instructionals) until signing off for good the first week of March 2009.

References

  1. ↑ The exact sign-on date in 1999 is unclear; the Broadcasting and Cable Yearbook says June 28, while the Television and Cable Factbook says July 5.
  2. ↑ "Channel 57 Officially Now CW Affiliate", from Capital Times, March 10, 2006
  3. ↑ Malone, Michael (December 13, 2011). "Byrne Grabs Acme's Madison CW Station". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved December 14, 2011.
  4. ↑ Consent to License Assignment (File# BALCDT-20111220AEX), posted by FCC 2/10/2012
  5. ↑ "Acme to Byrne Madison TV deal is done". Television Business Report. February 22, 2012. Retrieved February 24, 2012.
  6. ↑ "From Campus to Capital", from Broadcasting & Cable, June 9, 2006
  7. ↑ "Why Local News Is in a Sharing Mood", from Broadcasting & Cable, August 4, 2006
  8. ↑ "Catching a Homespun Buzz", from Broadcasting & Cable, March 3, 2008
  9. ↑ "New host selected for 'Discover Wisconsin,'" from Wisconsin State Journal, 6/16/2011
  10. ↑ RabbitEars TV Query for WBUW
  11. ↑ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-03-24.

External links