WSAW-TV

WSAW-TV

Wausau/Rhinelander, Wisconsin
Branding	NewsChannel 7 My TV Wausau (DT2)
Slogan	Your Local News and Weather Authority
Channels	Digital: 7 (VHF) Virtual: 7 (PSIP)
Subchannels	7.1 CBS 7.2 MyNetworkTV & Jewelry TV 7.3 Heroes & Icons
Translators	42 (UHF) W42DH-D Sayner/Vilas County
Network	CBS
Owner	Gray Television (Gray Television Licensee, LLC)
Founded	October 23, 1954
Call letters' meaning	phonetically short for WauSAu, Wisconsin; also similar to original calls
Sister station(s)	WEAU, WMTV
Former callsigns	WSAU-TV (1954-1981)
Former channel number(s)	7 (VHF analog, 1954-2009) 40 (UHF digital) Translator: 57 W57AR Sayner/Vilas County (UHF analog)
Former affiliations	All secondary: DuMont (1954-1956) NBC (1954-1965) ABC (1954-1966) DT3: AccuWX
Transmitter power	72 kW
Height	373 m
Class	DT
Facility ID	6867
Transmitter coordinates	44°55′14.2″N 89°41′28.7″W / 44.920611°N 89.691306°W / 44.920611; -89.691306

WSAW-TV is the CBS-affiliated television station for North-Central Wisconsin's Northern Highland. Licensed to Wausau, it broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 7 from a transmitter on Rib Mountain. ^[1] Owned by Gray Television, the station has studios on Grand Avenue/U.S. 51 in Wausau. Syndicated programming on WSAW includes Inside Edition, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire among others.

To serve the Northwoods area of Northern Wisconsin, it operates a digital fill-in translator in Sayner (W42DH-D) that also covers Eagle River. This airs a high definition signal on UHF channel 42 (or virtual channel 7.1 via PSIP) from a transmitter on Razorback Road in unincorporated Vilas County (north of Sayner). The low-powered repeater also serves the western portion of Michigan's Upper Peninsula although the broadcasting radius is limited to Marenisco and Watersmeet.

Digital channels

History

The station launched on October 23, 1954 as WSAU-TV and was a sister station to WSAU-AM 550 and the original WSAU-FM 95.5 (now WIFC). It was originally owned by a consortium of North-Central Wisconsin newspapers that also included the Wausau Daily Tribune-Herald. Channel 7 originally operated from the Plumer Mansion, a Richardsonian Romanesque-style building, that was located on North 5th Street in Wausau and torn down in 1972 one year after the station moved to its current home.^[3]

The Plumer Mansion's castle-like exterior and a suit of armor displayed in the mansion inspired the station's graphic designer, Sid Kyler, to design a medieval-style "7" logo along with an accompanying cartoon mascot, the fully armored knight "Sir Seven." ^[4] The logo and mascot served as representations of the station for several decades. Sometime in the 1960s, the station's original owners sold it to Forward Communications. Forward sold off channel 7 in 1981 and the station adopted its current calls, WSAW-TV. By the late-1980s, WSAW's logo would change to a square-style "7" which would be replaced by a stylized version of the circle 7 logo in 2006.

It has been affiliated with CBS since its beginning although the station did have secondary affiliations with DuMont (until that network expired in 1956), ABC (until WAOW signed-on in 1965), and NBC (until WAEO launched in 1966). On September 5, 2006, WSAW added MyNetworkTV to a second digital subchannel. Its broadcasts have been digital-only since before midnight on February 16, 2009 when the analog sign-off featured a "good night" from Sir Seven.^[5] On April 2, 2011, WSAW became the first station in the market to broadcast local newscast in high definition.^[6] With the switch to HD came a revamp of their news set and new graphics.^[7]

References

• From Transdiffusion: A look at WSAW from the early-1980s and how it compares to British television
• The history of channel 7

External links

• WSAW-TV "NewsChannel 7" (can be entered into mobile device for wireless access)
• WSAW-DT2 "My TV Wausau"
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WSAW-TV
• Query the FCC's TV station database for W42DH-D