WIFS (TV)

WIFS
Madison, Wisconsin
United States
City Janesville, Wisconsin
Branding Wisconsin's 57 (general)
WI57 (alternate)
Slogan "Your Home for Local"
Channels Digital: 32 (UHF)
Virtual: 57 (PSIP)
Subchannels 57.1 Independent
57.2 Movies!
57.3 Heroes & Icons
57.4 ASN
57.5 QVC
Affiliations Independent (2016–present)
Owner Byrne Acquisition Group, LLC
Founded April 26, 1989
First air date July 5, 1999 (1999-07-05)[1]
Call letters' meaning WIsconsin's Fifty-Seven
Former callsigns WHPN-TV (1999–2002)
WBUW (2002–2016)
Former channel number(s) Analog:
57 (UHF, 1999–2009)
Former affiliations UPN (1999–2002)
The WB (2002–2006)
The CW (2006–2016)
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 / 43.05083; -89.48694
Licensing authority FCC
Public license information: Profile
CDBS
Website wi57.tv

WIFS (digital channel 32 or virtual channel 57) is an Independent television station licensed to Janesville, Wisconsin, United States and serving Madison, south-central Wisconsin, and portions of Northern Illinois. The station is owned by Byrne Acquisition Group, operates from 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.

History

As a network affiliate

The station's original construction permit was granted on May 2, 1998 with the call letters WJNW. After a few delays and an aborted attempt to become Wisconsin's first digital-only broadcast TV outlet, the station, now under the WHPN call sign, would begin analog broadcasting on channel 57 in the Summer of 1999, with partial test airings occurring the week before the station's full-time launch on July 5, 1999.[2][3] The location of its then-transmitter, outside the Rock County community of Evansville, accorded WHPN to serve as the UPN affiliate for both the Madison and Rockford TV markets. Prior to WHPN's launch, UPN programming in Madison had aired on CBS affiliate WISC-TV on a secondary basis.

In the spring of 2002, after WHPN's owners had declared bankruptcy, the station's assets were acquired by ACME Communications, a station group run by Jamie Kellner, a founder of The WB network and former CEO of that network and TBS.[4] Though they would not close on the acquisition until the end of 2002,[5] ACME took over operations immediately through a local marketing agreement. The most evident change resulting from ACME's takeover was a network affiliation swap with WISC-owned cable channel/digital subchannel TVW the final week of August 2002; at that time, TVW became Madison's UPN affiliate, while WHPN joined The WB and adopted a new call sign, WBUW (an acknowledgement to its new affiliation and Madison's University of Wisconsin).

In 2004, WBUW moved its transmitter to its current location, a new tower located on property owned by Gray Television and next to Gray-owned WMTV in the Greentree neighborhood of Madison's southwest side.[6] The stronger signal the new tower provided WBUW allowed the station's coverage reach to extend throughout south-central Wisconsin and well into Northern Illinois, allowing WBUW to remain Rockford's default WB affiliate until the launch of The CW in September 2006, when Rockford's WREX-TV (channel 13) added The CW to its secondary subchannel.

WBUW's logo under the "Madison's CW" branding (c. 2006-2012)
WBUW's final logo as a CW affiliate (c. 2014-2016)

In March 2006, WBUW was confirmed as Madison's affiliate of The CW, the result of the WB and UPN networks amalgamating.[7] WBUW, branded as "Madison's CW," was one of eight ACME-owned WB affiliates who joined The CW as a group at the network's September 2006 launch.

On December 13, 2011, ACME announced a deal to sell WBUW to Byrne Acquisition Group; the $1.8 million transaction was part of ACME's gradual exit from the TV business[8][9] (ACME would formally dissolve at the end of 2016).[10] The deal, which was approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and consummated in February 2012,[11][12] gave the Byrne Group its second TV property (after low-power station "WHHI-TV" in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina). The Byrne Group would rebrand WBUW from "Madison's CW" to "CW 57" later in 2012. It would also subsequently upgrade the station's master control to accommodate local and syndicated high-definition; expand its locally-focused content (see below); and add two digital subchannels in the summer of 2015 (two more channels would be added during the first quarter of 2017).

As an independent station

An affiliation agreement announced by The CW and Gray Television in December 2015 included the addition of the network to the DT2 subchannel of Gray-owned Madison NBC affiliate WMTV.[13] WMTV-DT2 formally joined The CW on September 12, 2016, when WBUW's 10-year affiliation deal with the network, reached by then-owner ACME Communications at the network's 2006 launch, reached its expiration.[14][15] The September 10 airing of the CW's One Magnificent Morning E/I block (ending with Calling Dr. Pol) was the final network programming on WBUW. (Penn & Teller: Fool Us, airing the night before, was the final CW prime time show on the station.)

On-air wise, WBUW would begin its post-CW transition during the first quarter of 2016, when it first applied a simple "Channel 57" brand to its local programming. During its last week as a CW affiliate, it unveiled a new, permanent brand of "Wisconsin's 57," and would adopt a new call sign to go along with that brand — WIFS — on December 1, 2016. "Wisconsin's 57" operates as an independent station, retaining its mix of locally-produced and syndicated programming and utilizing the latter to fill the prime time void left by The CW's departure.

Programming

WIFS' programming schedule includes syndicated series The Insider, TMZ, Friends, Family Guy, and Bones. The station also carries live college football and basketball broadcasts from the ACC Network and Chicago Bears preseason football,[16] along with tape-delayed broadcasts of Madison Radicals ultimate and Notre Dame Fighting Irish football.

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.[17] Geared toward The WB's younger, female-skewing audience, the newscast offered what WBUW station manager Tom Keeler called "a different energy" than that found on other newscasts in Madison.[18] Presented with anchors standing in a desk-free studio, WBUW's newscast featured a fast-paced format (most stories lasted no more than 30-to-60 seconds in length) that largely emphasized entertainment and lifestyle features. Nightly e-mail contests and sweeps-month "free gas giveaways" were also included, as were in-studio performances by local musicians during Friday editions of the newscast. Never gaining notice against competing 9PM newscasts on WMSN-TV and UPN14, WBUW cancelled The WB57 Nine O'Clock News and its news-share relationship with WMTV in December 2005 and returned syndicated programming to the time slot.[19][20]

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.[21] 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.[22] "Buzzed" would air on a limited basis after that, with content including entertainment previews from the Isthmus newspaper and, during the 2011-2012 academic year, a series of "junior reporters" from area schools, with a different student reporter each month. (Emmy Fink would resurrect "Buzzed Into Madison" for Madison CBS affiliate WISC-TV in Summer 2016.)[23]

When it acquired what was then WBUW in 2012, The Byrne Group would begin a gradual yet noticeable expansion of the station's local content. Today, notable portions of WIFS' weekly schedule mirror that of its South Carolina sister station, with airings of locally-oriented discussion programs, sporting events, and other content that mainly feature station sponsors and other Madison- and Southern Wisconsin-based businesses, along with area community and non-profit organizations. Such past and current WIFS-produced programs have included the following:

Current regular features
Sports broadcasts

Tape-delayed, in-their-entirety broadcasts of the following sporting events:

Past features

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital channel is multiplexed:

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming[27]
57.1 1080i 16:9 WIFS-HD Main WIFS programming
57.2 480i Movies Movies!
57.3 Hero Heroes & Icons
57.4 ASN ASN Channel
57.5 4:3 QVC QVC

Analog-to-digital conversion

WIFS (as WBUW) shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 57, on February 17, 2009, the original target date in which full-power television stations 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.[28] 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.

As part of the "nightlight", broadcasting a loop of digital transition instructions 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. ↑ "Station's air time nears after two years of delays," from Wisconsin State Journal, 5/21/1999 (via HighBeam Research, accessed 8/25/2016)
  3. ↑ "WHPN/57 On Air Monday," from The Capital Times, 6/30/1999 (via HighBeam Research, accessed 8/25/2016)
  4. ↑ "Janesville TV station to be sold," from Milwaukee Business Journal, 4/2/2002
  5. ↑ "Acquisition of Madison TV station completed," from Milwaukee Business Journal, 1/2/2013
  6. ↑ "Lights change color depending on time of day," from Madison.com, 5/16/2006
  7. ↑ "Channel 57 Officially Now CW Affiliate", from Capital Times, March 10, 2006
  8. ↑ "Acme Selling WBUW Madison, Wis.," from TVNewsCheck, 12/13/2011
  9. ↑ Malone, Michael (December 13, 2011). "Byrne Grabs Acme's Madison CW Station". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved December 14, 2011.
  10. ↑ Press release from ACME Communications dated 12/20/2016
  11. ↑ Consent to License Assignment (File# BALCDT-20111220AEX), posted by FCC 2/10/2012
  12. ↑ "Acme to Byrne Madison TV deal is done". Television Business Report. February 22, 2012. Retrieved February 24, 2012.
  13. ↑ Kuperberg, Jonathan (15 December 2015). "Gray TV, The CW Ink Affiliate Agreement Extension, Add 4 New Stations". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved 16 December 2015.
  14. ↑ Source: WMTV Engineering on Twitter (posted 9/9/2016)
  15. ↑ ACME Communications 10-K filing for 2007 on WikInvest (accessed 8/7/2016)
  16. ↑ List of Chicago Bears preseason stations from ChicagoBears.com (accessed 8/7/2016)
  17. ↑ "NBC 15 and WBUW 57 Team Up for Local News in Madison, Wisconsin," news release from Globe NewsWire, 6/26/2003
  18. ↑ "The Changing Faces of TV News," from Wisconsin State Journal, 1/23/2005
  19. ↑ "From Campus to Capital", from Broadcasting & Cable, June 9, 2006
  20. ↑ "Why Local News Is in a Sharing Mood", from Broadcasting & Cable, August 4, 2006
  21. ↑ "Catching a Homespun Buzz", from Broadcasting & Cable, March 3, 2008
  22. ↑ "New host selected for 'Discover Wisconsin,'" from Wisconsin State Journal, 6/16/2011
  23. ↑ "Buzzed Into Madison" on Channel3000.com (accessed 8/2016)
  24. ↑ Source: Wisconsin's 57 on Facebook (posted 3/14/2017)
  25. ↑ Workout Wisconsin official website
  26. ↑ "Open Seating" on Facebook
  27. ↑ RabbitEars TV Query for WIFS
  28. ↑ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-03-24.
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