WCGV-TV (channel 24) was a
television station
A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth ...
in
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at th ...
, United States, which operated from 1980 to 2018. In its latter years, it was owned by
Sinclair Broadcast Group
Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (SBG) is a publicly traded American telecommunications conglomerate that is controlled by the descendants of company founder Julian Sinclair Smith. Headquartered in the Baltimore suburb of Cockeysville, Maryland, t ...
as an affiliate of
MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV (unofficially abbreviated MyTV, MyNet, MNT or MNTV, and sometimes referred to as My Network) is an American commercial broadcast television syndication service and former television network owned by Fox Corporation, operated by its ...
; it had common ownership with
CW affiliate
WVTV
WVTV (channel 18) is a television station in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States, affiliated with The CW and owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group. The station's studios are located on Calumet Road in the Park Place office park near the I-41/US 45 ...
(channel 18). WCGV-TV's operations were last housed at WVTV's studio facilities on Milwaukee's northwest side; the station's transmitter was located on the
Milwaukee PBS
Milwaukee PBS is the collective brand for two Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) member television stations licensed to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States: WMVS (channel 10) and WMVT (channel 36). Both stations are owned and operated by the Milw ...
tower on North Humboldt Boulevard in Milwaukee's Estabrook Park neighborhood.
Established in 1980 as an independent station with part-time
subscription television
Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichannel television providers, but ...
operation, WCGV-TV served as the first
Fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelve sp ...
affiliate for Milwaukee from 1987 to 1994. It then affiliated with
UPN
The United Paramount Network (UPN) was an American broadcast television network that launched on January 16, 1995. It was originally owned by Chris-Craft Industries' United Television. Viacom (through its Paramount Television unit, which prod ...
after it lost the Fox affiliation in a national realignment. After UPN was merged into The CW in 2006, it was aligned with MyNetworkTV.
On January 8, 2018, WCGV-TV's
broadcast license
A broadcast license is a type of spectrum license granting the licensee permission to use a portion of the radio frequency spectrum in a given geographical area for broadcasting purposes. The licenses generally include restrictions, which vary ...
was surrendered after Sinclair sold the station's spectrum in the 2016
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...
(FCC)
incentive auction
The 2016 United States wireless spectrum auction, officially known as Auction 1001, allocated approximately 100 MHz of the United States Ultra High Frequency (UHF) spectrum formerly allocated to UHF television in the 600 MHz band. The spe ...
. At that time, the station's programming continued as subchannels of WVTV, continuing to use virtual channel 24. What was WCGV-TV's primary subchannel continues under the WVTV license as "My 24".
History
Establishment
WCGV-TV first signed on the air on March 24, 1980, under the ownership of B&F Broadcasting from the former North 27th Street facilities of then-
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...
affiliate
WITI
Witiness Chimoio João Quembo (born 26 August 1996), known as Witi, is a Mozambican professional footballer who plays for Portuguese club C.D. Nacional as a winger.
Club career
Born in Beira, Witi began his career with Sporting Club da Be ...
(channel 6), which had moved to a new facility in
Brown Deer two years earlier in 1978. At the time, it operated as an
independent station
An independent station is an independent radio or terrestrial television station which is independent in some way from broadcast networks. The definition of "independence" varies from country to country, reflecting governmental regulations, market ...
and ran
religious programs, older
movies
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
,
cartoons
A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved over time, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of images ...
and
drama series
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-gen ...
during the day, along with select CBS and
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
programs that WITI and
WTMJ-TV
WTMJ-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside Kenosha-licensed Ion Television station WPXE-TV (channel 55). WTMJ-TV's studios are loca ...
(channel 4) declined to air (such as the 1983 ''
Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour
''The Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour'' is an American television panel game show that combined two panel games of the 1960s and 1970s – ''Match Game'' and ''Hollywood Squares'' – into an hour-long format.
The series ran from October 31, ...
'' and ''
CBS Late Night
''The CBS Late Movie'' is a CBS television series (later known as ''CBS Late Night'') during the 1970s and 1980s. The program ran in most American television markets from 11:30 p.m. ( ET/ PT) until 2:30 a.m. or later, on weeknights. A ...
''). It also produced a two-hour local afternoon
talk program called ''Tempo 24'', which aired from 1980 to 1981. At night, the station ran programming from
subscription television
Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichannel television providers, but ...
service
SelecTV, which required a decoder box and a monthly subscription to view; SelecTV ran mostly first-run feature films, although Friday nights/early Saturday mornings outside of FCC-designated
safe harbor
A safe harbor or harbour is literally a "place of shelter and safety, esp. for ships". It is used in many contexts:
Film and television
* Safe harbor (broadcasting), established in 1978 in the US, the time period in a television schedule during wh ...
hours consisted of
adult programming from
The Playboy Channel.
WCGV dropped SelecTV in 1984 once
Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable, Inc. (TWC) was an American cable television company. Before it was acquired by Charter Communications on May 18, 2016, it was ranked the second largest cable company in the United States by revenue behind only Comcast, opera ...
launched its Milwaukee area operations and brought traditional premium cable networks (such as
HBO
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...
and
Showtime
Showtime or Show Time may refer to:
Film
* ''Showtime'' (film), a 2002 American action/comedy film
* ''Showtime'' (video), a 1995 live concert video by Blur
Television Networks and channels
* Showtime Networks, a division of Paramount Global w ...
) to the area. It gradually became a more serious ratings contender against Milwaukee's leading independent, future
sister station
In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement.
Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...
WVTV
WVTV (channel 18) is a television station in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States, affiliated with The CW and owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group. The station's studios are located on Calumet Road in the Park Place office park near the I-41/US 45 ...
(channel 18). The station was branded simply as "TV-24". By then, the station had been acquired by Arlington Broadcasting, which also owned
WTTO
WTTO (channel 21) is a television station licensed to Homewood, Alabama, United States, serving the Birmingham area as an affiliate of The CW. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside MyNetworkTV affiliate WABM (channel 68) and ABC aff ...
in
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
, WQTV (now
WBPX-TV
WBPX-TV (channel 68) is a television station in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, airing programming from the Ion Television network. It is owned by the Ion Media subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company, which also owns Woburn-licensed ...
) in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
and
KNXV-TV
KNXV-TV (channel 15) is a television station in Phoenix, Arizona, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside CW affiliate KASW (channel 61). Both stations share studios on 44th Street on the city's e ...
in
Phoenix
Phoenix most often refers to:
* Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore
* Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States
Phoenix may also refer to:
Mythology
Greek mythological figures
* Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...
; the latter two stations were later sold off.
Fox affiliation
On March 15, 1987, WCGV joined the infant network
Fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelve sp ...
in time for the network's April 5 prime time launch, later taking the branding of "Fox 24". The station joined Fox on the condition that it be allowed to preempt ''
The Late Show The Late Show may refer to:
Books
* ''The Late Show'' (book), a 2017 book by Michael Connelly
Film
* ''The Late Show'' (film), a 1977 film
* ''Late Show'', a 1999 German film by director Helmut Dietl
Music
* ''The Late Show'' (Eddie "Loc ...
'', which by the time WCGV acquired the affiliation had lost
Joan Rivers
Joan Alexandra Molinsky (June 8, 1933 – September 4, 2014), known professionally as Joan Rivers, was an American comedian, actress, producer, writer and television host. She was noted for her blunt, often controversial comedic persona—heavi ...
as its host and was not doing well in the ratings. The station also wanted to maintain as much of its existing schedule as possible, as WCGV had success counterprogramming the major network affiliates with a 10 p.m. block of two episodes of ''
The Bob Newhart Show
''The Bob Newhart Show'' is an American sitcom television series produced by MTM Enterprises that aired on CBS from September 16, 1972, to April 1, 1978, with a total of 142 half-hour episodes over six seasons. Comedian Bob Newhart portrays a psy ...
'' every weeknight until 1989, when it was replaced by the syndicated ''
Arsenio Hall Show
''The Arsenio Hall Show'' is an American syndicated late-night talk show created by and starring comedian Arsenio Hall.
There have been two different incarnations of ''The Arsenio Hall Show''. The original series premiered on January 3, 1989, ...
''. From September 1993 until December 1994, the station also carried CBS' ''
Late Show with David Letterman
The ''Late Show with David Letterman'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on CBS, the first iteration of the The Late Show (franchise), ''Late Show'' franchise. The show debuted on August 30, 1993, and was produced by ...
'' on a half-hour
delay
Delay (from Latin: dilatio) may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''Delay 1968'', a 1981 album by German experimental rock band Can
* ''The Delay'', a 2012 Uruguayan film
People
* B. H. DeLay (1891–1923), American aviator and acto ...
in lieu of WITI, which refused to carry the show due to better ratings for reruns of ''
M*A*S*H
''M*A*S*H'' (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) is an American media franchise consisting of a series of novels, a film, several television series, plays, and other properties, and based on the semi-autobiographical fiction of Richard Hooker.
The ...
'' in the timeslot.
By 1988, the station scored a major coup by acquiring the broadcast rights to the
Milwaukee Brewers
The Milwaukee Brewers are an American professional baseball team based in Milwaukee. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division. The Brewers are named for t ...
and the
Milwaukee Bucks
The Milwaukee Bucks are an American professional basketball team based in Milwaukee. The Bucks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The team was founded in 1968 ...
, both previously seen on WVTV. In the late 1980s, Arlington Broadcasting was sold and became known as HR Broadcasting (as in
Hal Roach
Harry Eugene "Hal" Roach Sr.Randy Skretvedt, Skretvedt, Randy (2016), ''Laurel and Hardy: The Magic Behind the Movies'', Bonaventure Press. p.608. (January 14, 1892 – November 2, 1992) was an American film and television producer, director, a ...
Studios, of ''
Little Rascals/Our Gang'' fame). By the end of the 1980s, WCGV had pulled almost even with WVTV in the ratings.
WCGV and Birmingham's WTTO were purchased by Abry Communications in 1990. The station continued with its general entertainment format, along with Fox programs. WCGV entered into a
local marketing agreement
In North American broadcasting, a local marketing agreement (LMA), or local management agreement, is a contract in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another party. In essence, it is a sort of lease or tim ...
with WVTV (then owned by
Gaylord Broadcasting
Ryman Hospitality Properties, Inc. () is a hotel, resort, entertainment, and media company named after National Historic Landmark the Ryman Auditorium, built as a tabernacle by Captain Thomas G. Ryman in 1892 and later the home of the Grand Ole ...
) in 1994. Although WCGV was the senior partner, the combined operation was based at WVTV's original studio facility near North 35th Street and
Capitol Drive.
UPN affiliation
In early 1994, WITI was named as the market's new Fox affiliate as a result of a deal between the station's owner
New World Communications
New World Pictures (also known as New World Entertainment and New World Communications Group, Inc.) was an American independent production, distribution, and (in its final years as an autonomous entity) multimedia company. It was founded in 197 ...
and Fox as part of the network's decision to upgrade affiliates in certain markets after it acquired the
broadcast rights to the
National Football Conference
The National Football Conference (NFC) is one of the two conferences of the National Football League (NFL), the highest professional level of American football in the United States. The NFC and its counterpart, the American Football Conference ...
of the
NFL
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...
. For a short time between September and November
1994
File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...
, the station carried
Green Bay Packers
The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. It ...
games in the market through the network's NFC package as a lame-duck affiliate, though without any pre-game programming, the only break in network coverage by WITI of the team since the 1977 affiliation switch between WISN and WITI, which took place in the off-season.
WCGV lost the Fox affiliation and briefly became an independent station again on December 4, 1994. However, it passed on the CBS affiliation that WITI had dropped as a result of the switch (which went to
WDJT-TV
WDJT-TV (channel 58) is a television station in Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States, affiliated with CBS. It has been owned by Weigel Broadcasting since its inception (and is the company's only CBS affiliate), and is sister station, s ...
, channel 58). Instead, it became a charter affiliate of the United Paramount Network (
UPN
The United Paramount Network (UPN) was an American broadcast television network that launched on January 16, 1995. It was originally owned by Chris-Craft Industries' United Television. Viacom (through its Paramount Television unit, which prod ...
) on January 16, 1995, following a pattern in which many former Fox affiliates in markets where New World owned a station decided to join either UPN or fellow upstart network
The WB
The WB Television Network (for Warner Bros., or the "Frog Network", for its former mascot, Michigan J. Frog) was an American television network launched on broadcast television on January 11, 1995, as a joint venture between the Warner Bros. ...
if they did not join a
Big Three network displaced due to the affiliation switches. Around this time, the station changed its branding to "UPN 24", with a generic logo consisting of the station's call letters and channel number beneath the
primary color
A set (mathematics), set of primary colors or primary colours (see American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, spelling differences) consists of colorants or colored lights that can be mixed in varying amounts to produce a gamu ...
UPN "shapes" logo of that time.
In 1995,
Sinclair Broadcast Group
Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (SBG) is a publicly traded American telecommunications conglomerate that is controlled by the descendants of company founder Julian Sinclair Smith. Headquartered in the Baltimore suburb of Cockeysville, Maryland, t ...
acquired WCGV and the other properties owned by Abry's television station group. WVTV was purchased by
Glencairn Ltd. (which was headed by former Sinclair executive Edwin Edwards). The Smith family, owners and founders of Sinclair owned 97% of Glencairn's stock, so Sinclair effectively owned both stations. Glencairn was involved in similar deals, owning eleven stations that were all operated by Sinclair under LMAs. This arrangement prompted
Jesse Jackson
Jesse Louis Jackson (né Burns; born October 8, 1941) is an American political activist, Baptist minister, and politician. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as a shadow U.S. senator ...
and his
Rainbow/PUSH
Rainbow/PUSH is a Chicago-based nonprofit organization formed as a merger of two nonprofit organizations founded by Jesse Jackson; Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity) and the National Rainbow Coalition. The organizations pursue socia ...
coalition to bring forward litigation, citing their concerns on racial issues in the face of one entity holding two broadcast licenses in a single market. The
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...
eventually fined Sinclair $40,000 in 2001 for illegally controlling Glencairn.
On January 5, 1998, WCGV/Sinclair decided to drop the UPN affiliation over ratings and monetary issues, as did several other Sinclair stations in other markets after the company signed a lucrative affiliation deal with The WB (which included WVTV; the station affiliated with The WB on May 19,1997 prior to WCGV dropping UPN) to shift several stations from UPN. For eight months, the station reverted to being an independent station, though the only effect on the station's schedule was the replacement of UPN programming with syndicated film packages during prime time and Saturday afternoons, and paid programming in place of
UPN Kids
''UPN Kids'' was an American children's programming block that aired on UPN from September 10, 1995 to September 5, 1999. Airing on Sunday mornings, the block aired for one hour (10:00 to 11:00am), then two hours the following year (9:00 to 11: ...
on Sunday mornings. A few local cable providers brought in the network's
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
area affiliate
WWOR-TV
WWOR-TV (channel 9) is a television station licensed to Secaucus, New Jersey, United States, serving the New York City area as the Flagship (broadcasting), flagship of MyNetworkTV. It is owned-and-operated station, owned and operated by Fox Te ...
to keep UPN programming available in the Milwaukee area, but for the most part the network was only seen on cable systems on the fringe of the market via
WACY-TV
WACY-TV (channel 32) is an independent television station licensed to Appleton, Wisconsin, United States, serving the Green Bay area. It is owned by the E.W. Scripps Company alongside NBC affiliate WGBA-TV (channel 26). Both stations share stu ...
in
Appleton and
WPWR-TV
WPWR-TV (channel 50) is a television station licensed to Gary, Indiana, United States, broadcasting the MyNetworkTV programming service to the Chicago area. It is one of two commercial television stations in the Chicago market to be licensed in I ...
from
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
; viewers could also choose to pull those stations over-the-air via antenna, along with the network's off-hours affiliation on
WOOD-TV
WOOD-TV (channel 8) is a television station licensed to Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States, serving as the NBC affiliate for West Michigan. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside Battle Creek–licensed ABC affiliate WOTV (channel 41) an ...
/
WOTV
WOTV (channel 41) is a television station licensed to Battle Creek, Michigan, United States, serving West Michigan as an affiliate of ABC. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside Grand Rapids–licensed NBC affiliate WOOD-TV (channel 8) an ...
across the lake in
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County, Michigan, Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the List of municipalities in Mi ...
. Otherwise, most providers had dropped
WWOR's "superstation" cable feed years before due to uninteresting programming replacing the main signal after
SyndEx laws came into place, and the cable feed had been discontinued by satellite distribution rights holder
Advance Entertainment Corporation
Advance Publications, Inc., doing business as Advance, is an American media company owned by the descendants of S.I. Newhouse Sr., Donald Newhouse and S.I. Newhouse Jr. It owns a large number of subsidiary companies, including Condé Nast, an ...
a year earlier to increase distribution for
Animal Planet
Animal Planet (stylized in all lowercase since 2018) is an American multinational pay television channel owned by the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks unit of Warner Bros. Discovery. First established on June 1, 1996, the network is primarily dev ...
.
However, WCGV did see a viewership decline without a network affiliation. It also received complaints from vocal ''
Star Trek
''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into vari ...
'' fans who had to pull in ''
Voyager'' via over-the-air antenna from those out-of-market stations, switch to the
Dish Network
DISH Network Corporation (DISH, an acronym for DIgital Sky Highway) is an American television provider and the owner of the direct-broadcast satellite provider Dish, commonly known as Dish Network, and the over-the-top IPTV service, Sling TV. A ...
or
PrimeStar
PrimeStar was a U.S. direct broadcast satellite broadcasting company formed in 1991 by a consortium of cable television system operators ( TCI Satellite Entertainment Group, Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications, Comcast and MediaOne) and GE Ame ...
satellite services for their "superstation" packages, or acquire the episodes through
tape trading
Tape trading is an unofficial method of distribution of musical or video content through the postal system, which was prominent in the 1980s and 1990s. Although most commonly used to distribute and publicize limited-release musical demo tapes in ...
. Sinclair would eventually reverse its decision and come to terms with the network, resulting in WCGV rejoining UPN on August 4. On November 8 of that year, WCGV made up for the preemptions by airing an all-day ''Voyager'' marathon, showing the thirteen episodes making up the last half of
season four
A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pola ...
that WCGV was not able to air during the second half of the 1997–98 season, with the permission of UPN and
Paramount Television
The original incarnation of Paramount Television was the name of the television production division of the American film studio Paramount Pictures, that was responsible for the production of Viacom television programs, until it changed its name ...
. WWOR was dropped from the few area cable systems it was on within days of the re-acquisition of WCGV's UPN affiliation.
Despite the reconciliation, the station continued to omit the mention of UPN from its own branding, and called itself "Channel 24" until the start of the 2001–2002 television season, when it brought back the "UPN 24" branding (one of only a small number of UPN stations to do so, as UPN branding was required by the network). WVTV became wholly owned by Sinclair in 2000, after the FCC overturned regulations that had prohibited television station
duopolies.
WITI never held an interest in carrying any of Fox's children's programming after it joined that network due to existing local home showcase programming on Saturday mornings, and wanting to have traditional syndicated programming lead into its weekday local news programming; therefore,
Fox Kids
Fox Kids (originally known as Fox Children's Network and later as the Fox Kids Network; stylized as FOX KIDS) was an American children's block programming, programming block and branding for a slate of international children's television channel ...
continued to air on WCGV for ten years after the affiliation switch (which included the station continuing to maintain a ''Fox 24 Kids Club'' through most of these years). However, as time went on, WCGV began to use its own logo
bug to cover all Fox logos, and advertised the block sparingly at the behest of UPN (which had its own children's block airing on the station up until it was discontinued in 2003, including a period of time where both blocks were carried back-to-back on weekdays). The station declined to renew the children's block, later known as
Fox Box and then 4Kids TV, after the fall of 2004, and subsequently 4Kids TV moved to independent
WMLW-CA (channel 41), where it aired on Sunday mornings until it ended on December 28, 2008.
MyNetworkTV affiliation
On March 2, 2006, Sinclair announced that channel 24 would become the Milwaukee affiliate of
MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV (unofficially abbreviated MyTV, MyNet, MNT or MNTV, and sometimes referred to as My Network) is an American commercial broadcast television syndication service and former television network owned by Fox Corporation, operated by its ...
, which was created by
Fox Television Stations
Fox Television Stations, LLC (FTS; alternately Fox Television Stations Group, LLC), is a group of television stations located within the United States, which are owned-and-operated by the Fox Broadcasting Company, a subsidiary of the Fox Corp ...
and
Twentieth Television
20th Television (formerly 20th Century Fox Television, 20th Century-Fox Television, and TCF Television Productions, Inc.) is an American television production company that is a division of Disney Television Studios, part of The Walt Disney Comp ...
in the wake of the January 24, 2006 announcement that UPN and The WB would cease operations in September 2006, and merge into one network,
The CW
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
. WCGV's WB-affiliated sister station WVTV was named as Milwaukee's CW affiliate two months later on May 2, 2006. This resulted in the Milwaukee duopoly becoming one of five MyNetworkTV/CW duopolies owned and/or controlled by Sinclair at the time (the other four are
KVMY/
KVCW
KVCW (channel 33) is a television station in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States, affiliated with The CW and MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside NBC affiliate KSNV (channel 3). Both stations share studios on Foremaster Lan ...
in
Las Vegas
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...
,
WABM
WABM (channel 68) is a television station in Birmingham, Alabama, United States, affiliated with MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside Homewood-licensed CW affiliate WTTO (channel 21) and low-power ABC affiliate WB ...
/WTTO in Birmingham, Alabama,
WUXP/
WNAB
WNAB (channel 58) is a television station in Nashville, Tennessee, United States, affiliated with the digital multicast network Dabl. It is owned by Tennessee Broadcasting, which maintains an outsourcing agreement with Sinclair Broadcast Group, ...
—itself part of a
virtual triopoly with Fox affiliate
WZTV
WZTV (channel 17) is a television station in Nashville, Tennessee, United States, affiliated with Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox and The CW. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside MyNetworkTV affiliate WUXP-TV (channel 30); it is also ...
—in
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the List of muni ...
, and
WRDC
WRDC (channel 28) is a television station licensed to Durham, North Carolina, United States, serving the Research Triangle area as an affiliate of MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside Raleigh-licensed CW affiliate WLFL ...
/
WLFL
WLFL (channel 22) is a television station licensed to Raleigh, North Carolina, United States, serving the Research Triangle area as an affiliate of The CW. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside Durham-licensed MyNetworkTV affiliate W ...
in
Raleigh
Raleigh (; ) is the capital city of the state of North Carolina and the seat of Wake County in the United States. It is the second-most populous city in North Carolina, after Charlotte. Raleigh is the tenth-most populous city in the Southeas ...
–
Durham, North Carolina
Durham ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Durham County, North Carolina, Durham County. Small portions of the city limits extend into Orange County, North Carolina, Orange County and Wake County, North Carol ...
).
In the interim two weeks between the beginning of MyNetworkTV's and the end of UPN's existence in early to mid-September, WCGV continued to show select UPN programs on Sunday afternoons, airing ''
Friday Night SmackDown
''WWE SmackDown'', also known as ''Friday Night SmackDown'' or simply ''SmackDown'', is an American professional wrestling television program produced by WWE that as of currently airs live every Friday at 8 p.m. ET on Fox. Fox Deportes sim ...
'', followed by ''
Girlfriends'', ''
Everybody Hates Chris
''Everybody Hates Chris'' is an American television semi-autobiographical sitcom that is inspired by the memories of the teenage years of comedian Chris Rock. The show is set from 1982 to 1987, although Rock himself was actually a teenager from ...
'' and ''
All of Us
''All of Us'' is an American sitcom television series that premiered on the UPN network in the United States on September 16, 2003, where it aired for its first three seasons. On October 1, 2006, the show moved to The CW, a new network formed by ...
'' from 12–5 p.m., all which were renewed by The CW and moved to channel 18. WCGV is one of the few stations in the country to have been affiliated with both News Corporation-owned networks, Fox and MyNetworkTV.
WCGV-TV carried the 2017
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series
The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). The series began in 1949 as the Strictly Stock Division, and from 1950 to 1970 it was known as the Grand National Division. In 1971, ...
Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race
The Bass Pro Shops Night Race is a NASCAR Cup Series stock car race held at Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tennessee. It is one of two NASCAR Cup Series races held at Bristol, the other being the Food City Dirt Race, but it is by far the more ...
at
Bristol Motor Speedway
Bristol Motor Speedway, formerly known as Bristol International Raceway and Bristol Raceway, is a NASCAR short track venue located in Bristol, Tennessee. Constructed in 1960, it held its first NASCAR race on July 30, 1961. Bristol is among the m ...
from
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
on August 19, 2017 for WTMJ, which was committed to a preseason Green Bay Packers football game.
July 2010 flooding incident and studio move
On July 22, 2010, the Milwaukee area experienced a major
flash flood
A flash flood is a rapid flooding of low-lying areas: washes, rivers, dry lakes and depressions. It may be caused by heavy rain associated with a severe thunderstorm, hurricane, or tropical storm, or by meltwater from ice or snow flowing o ...
ing event which caused major damage in several parts of
Milwaukee County
Milwaukee County is located in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. At the 2020 census, the population was 939,489, down from 947,735 in 2010. It is both the most populous and most densely populated county in Wisconsin, and the 45th most populous coun ...
. The studios of WVTV/WCGV are located a half-mile south of Lincoln Creek and the building and technical equipment belonging to the stations suffered major damage, forcing channels 18 and 24 off the air for the majority of the time after 6 p.m. on July 22 until the early morning of July 24; the two stations, once they returned to the air, had their programming fed into their
master control
Master control is the technical hub of a broadcast operation common among most over-the-air television stations and television networks. It is distinct from a production control room (PCR) in television studios where the activities such as switc ...
facilities via another unknown Sinclair master control. For both stations, this resulted in most of the station's
paid programming
Paid or PAID may refer to:
* ''Paid'' (1930 film), an American film starring Joan Crawford
* ''Paid'' (2006 film), a Dutch film
*''Personality and Individual Differences'', a journal
See also
* Paide, the capital of Järva County, Estonia
* P ...
and other timeslots where the Sinclair facility did not have an episode of a particular series within the schedule replaced with reruns of ''
Coach
Coach may refer to:
Guidance/instruction
* Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities
* Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process
** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers
Transportation
* Co ...
'' and advertisements were replaced with
direct response
Direct marketing is a form of communicating an offer, where organizations communicate directly to a pre-selected customer and supply a method for a direct response. Among practitioners, it is also known as ''direct response marketing''. B ...
national advertising. Both stations eventually resumed local operations later during the week of July 25, but broadcast in
480i
480i is the video mode used for standard-definition digital television in the Caribbean, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Philippines, Laos, Western Sahara, and most of the Americas (with the exception of Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay). The ''480 ...
standard definition
Standard-definition television (SDTV, SD, often shortened to standard definition) is a television system which uses a resolution that is not considered to be either high or enhanced definition. "Standard" refers to it being the prevailing sp ...
and did not display digital on-screen bugs at all due to damage to the station's high definition broadcasting equipment for most of the following month. HD programming was restored on August 20, 2010.
Because the flooding caused irreparable damage to the building, Sinclair immediately began a search for new facilities for WCGV and WVTV, which would allow locally produced and syndicated programs to be broadcast in high definition full-time without the complexities of rewiring an older and flood damaged studio and master control facility. On June 6, 2012, Sinclair received approval from the Milwaukee Common Council's Zoning, Neighborhoods and Development Committee to move to an existing building near the
41/
145 145 may refer to:
*145 (number), a natural number
*AD 145, a year in the 2nd century AD
* 145 BC, a year in the 2nd century BC
*145 (dinghy), a two-person intermediate sailing dinghy
* 145 (South) Brigade
* 145 (New Jersey bus)
See also
* List of ...
Interchange on Milwaukee's northwest side on Calumet Road in the Park Place office park and install receiving satellite dishes, generators and a
studio/transmitter link
A studio transmitter link (or STL) sends a radio station's or television station's audio and video from the broadcast studio or origination facility to a radio transmitter, television transmitter or uplink facility in another location. This is ...
tower, with full Common Council approval coming a week later on June 12. The stations moved to the new building in December 2013, with the new master control coming online in the last week of the month.
From June 2012 until the end of December 2013, the engineering and master control of WVTV/WCGV transmitted
16:9 syndicated programming in full screen, but in standard definition as a stopgap solution until the move to the new studios. Upon the opening of the new master control, all syndicated programming available in the format now is aired in
high definition.
Spectrum sale and unofficial channel share with WVTV
On April 13, 2017, the results of the FCC's 2016
spectrum auction
A spectrum auction is a process whereby a government uses an auction system to sell the rights to transmit signals over specific bands of the electromagnetic spectrum and to assign scarce spectrum resources. Depending on the specific auction form ...
were announced, with Sinclair successfully selling the UHF spectrum for WCGV for $84.3 million. At first, it was expected that WCGV's channels would be merged onto WVTV's spectrum in a formal channel-sharing agreement, by which Sinclair would continue to retain both licenses on one multiplex. However, at the time, Sinclair was
attempting to acquire Tribune Media
Tribune Media Company, also known as Tribune Company, was an American multimedia conglomerate headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.
Through Tribune Broadcasting, Tribune Media was one of the largest television broadcasting companies, owning 39 ...
, owner of WITI. It would not have been able to hold three licenses, but surrendering the WCGV-TV license would have allowed Sinclair to purchase WITI without regulatory scrutiny.
Sinclair,
Weigel Broadcasting
Weigel Broadcasting Co. is an American television broadcasting company based in Chicago, Illinois, alongside its flagship station WCIU-TV (Channel 26), at 26 North Halsted Street in the Greektown neighborhood. It currently owns 25 television sta ...
, and
Milwaukee PBS
Milwaukee PBS is the collective brand for two Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) member television stations licensed to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States: WMVS (channel 10) and WMVT (channel 36). Both stations are owned and operated by the Milw ...
decided on a switch date of January 8 for their various local spectrum moves, and WCGV left the airwaves at 5 a.m. that morning. At that time,
getTV
getTV is an American digital multicast television network owned by the Sony Pictures Television Networks subsidiary of Sony Pictures Television. Originally formatted as a movie-oriented service, the network has since transitioned into a genera ...
was dropped from a subchannel of WVTV to make way for the addition of "My 24" (24.1) and Comet (24.2) as WVTV subchannels, and
Grit (carried as WCGV's third subchannel) was discontinued. However, the station has retained the existing channel 24 numbering for the "My 24" and Comet subchannels while losing the WCGV call sign for WVTV-DT2. The transition to a subchannel was properly coordinated, and resulted in no major change to its carriage position or channel on the majority of the market's cable systems and streaming providers such as
YouTube TV
YouTube TV is an American streaming television service operated by YouTube, a wholly owned subsidiary of Google. Announced on February 28, 2017, the virtual multichannel video programming distributor offers a selection of live linear channel f ...
and
Hulu
Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television serie ...
's Live TV service, with only a few small systems consolidating the station onto a lower subchannel tier.
Ultimately, the merger with Tribune (and with it, Sinclair's acquisition of WITI) was called off due to a number of issues on August 8, 2018, leaving WVTV as Sinclair's only Milwaukee over-the-air asset. In another deal, Sinclair would acquire a majority stake in the
Fox Sports Networks
Fox Sports Networks (FSN), formerly known as Fox Sports Net, was the collective name for a group of regional sports channels in the United States. Formed in 1996 by News Corporation, the networks were acquired by The Walt Disney Company on Mar ...
in the fall of 2019, and with it, Fox Sports Wisconsin (now
Bally Sports Wisconsin
Bally Sports Wisconsin (BSWI) is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group, and operates as an affiliate of Bally Sports. Operating as the "Wisconsin" sub-feed of Fox Sports North until 2007, the channel was known as Fox ...
).
Though the wind-down of WCGV did not allow the acquisition of WITI, the smooth transition of the station's main schedule to a WVTV subchannel resulted in Sinclair repeating the technique in a number of their markets to consolidate affiliations onto stations directly owned by Sinclair rather than its sidecar companies, especially with its Fox affiliates in major markets.
Programming
Syndicated programming featured on WVTV-DT2 includes ''
Divorce Court
''Divorce Court'' is an American court show that revolves around settling the disputes of couples going through divorces. The show has had four separate runs, all in first-run syndication. Since the debut of the original series in 1957, it is ...
'', ''
Celebrity Page
''Celebrity Page'' (formerly ''OK!TV'', that is based on the magazine of the same name) is an American syndicated entertainment news program. The series is co-produced with Dotdash Meredith (formerly ''OK!'' US parent company American Media), ...
'', ''
Access Daily
''Access Hollywood'', formerly known as ''Access'' from 2017 to 2019, is an American weekday television entertainment news program that premiered on September 9, 1996. It covers events and celebrities in the entertainment industry. It was created ...
'', ''
Lauren Lake's Paternity Court
''Lauren Lake's Paternity Court'' (originally known as Paternity Court) is a nontraditional court show in which family lawyer and legal analyst Lauren Lake heard and ruled on paternity cases and rendered DNA test results.
The show was produced ...
'', ''
Last Man Standing'' and ''
The Simpsons
''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, ...
'' (which has aired on the station since 1989; channel 24 ran first-run episodes of the series until it lost the Fox affiliation in December 1994, while syndicated reruns of ''The Simpsons'' have aired on the station since it entered into off-network syndication in September 1994). Sinclair's
Ring of Honor
Ring of Honor (ROH) is an American professional wrestling promotion based in Jacksonville, Florida. The promotion was founded by Rob Feinstein on February 23, 2002, and was operated by Cary Silkin from 2004 until 2011, when the promotion was so ...
wrestling promotion airs on Saturday nights on channel 24. The station also airs locally originated
brokered programming
Brokered programming (also known as time-buy and blocktime) is a form of broadcast content in which the show's producer pays a radio or television station for air time, rather than exchanging programming for pay or the opportunity to play spot comm ...
on late Saturday evenings, including the ''Pro Wrestling Report'', ''414 Video Spotlight'', and ''The Nerd Show'', which are produced by the purchasers of the time at other studio facilities in the area. For the 2013–14 television season, the station aired weekday afternoon films, replacing repeats of ''
Jerry Springer
Gerald Norman Springer (born February 13, 1944) is a British-American broadcaster, journalist, actor, producer, former lawyer, and politician. He hosted the tabloid talk show ''Jerry Springer'' between September 30, 1991 and July 26, 2018, an ...
'' and ''
Maury'', which were replaced the next season by syndicated sitcoms. In 2014, the station began to air the national morning show ''
The Daily Buzz
''The Daily Buzz'' (occasionally abbreviated ''"theDBZ"'') is a nationally syndicated news and infotainment program. The show premiered as a 3-hour weekday morning television show on September 16, 2002, initially airing on 10 stations owned and ...
'' on a two-hour delay from its national broadcast, which had previously been carried sporadically by
WMLW-TV
WMLW-TV (channel 49) is an Independent station (North America), independent television station licensed to Racine, Wisconsin, United States, serving the Milwaukee area. It is owned by Weigel Broadcasting alongside CBS affiliate WDJT-TV (channe ...
; notably until the show was sold off in 2013 by former owner and competing station group
ACME Communications
ACME Communications was a U.S.-based broadcasting company that was involved in operations of television stations and programming from the late 1990s to the year of 2013.
Company profile
ACME Communications was co-founded by Chairman and origina ...
during its wind-down of operations, most Sinclair stations had never carried it. The sudden mid-April 2015 cancellation of ''The Daily Buzz'' forced channel 24 to quickly purchase barter lifestyle programming to fill the two hours vacated by the program.
On Saturdays, channel 24 airs MyNetworkTV's Thursday night lineup during football season or a syndicated film in prime time, as MyNetworkTV does not air programming on weekend evenings. The station had continued to air Milwaukee Bucks games, sharing rights with Fox Sports Wisconsin until the end of the 2006–07 season, when the team's games became cable-exclusive.
The station airs
E/I programming from
Litton Entertainment
The Hearst Media Production Group (formerly Litton Syndications and Litton Entertainment) is an American media and production company based in New York City, New York as a division of the Hearst Television subsidiary of Hearst Communications, with ...
's ''Go Time'' block of programming formerly seen on Litton's Saturday morning network blocks, along with ''
Wild America'' to fulfill the minimum amount of educational programming content required by the FCC. Channel 24 was the last true Milwaukee commercial station (Religious station WVCY, although technically a commercial licensee, does not solicit advertising) to sign off the air during the overnight hours, doing so for 4½ hours on early Monday mornings until March 10, 2008, when the station adopted a full 168-hour weekly schedule (although the early Monday morning schedule consists entirely of paid programming due to the lack of a ''Shepherd's Chapel'' program to air on Mondays); WVCY switched to a 24-hour programming schedule itself in January 2010. In the summer of 2020, WVTV-DT2 began to air ''
Opry Live'' on a tape delay Saturday nights, a program which airs on
Gray Television
Gray Television, Inc. is an American publicly traded television broadcasting company based in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1946 by James Harrison Gray as Gray Communications Systems, the company owns or operates 180 stations across the United St ...
's subchannel network
Circle
A circle is a shape consisting of all points in a plane that are at a given distance from a given point, the centre. Equivalently, it is the curve traced out by a point that moves in a plane so that its distance from a given point is const ...
, as Circle does not yet have an affiliation in the Milwaukee market.
Sports programming
In late August 2010, the station began to air a live
high school football
High school football (french: football au lycée) is gridiron football played by high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both countries, but its popularity is declining, part ...
game telecast under the title ''
Allstate
The Allstate Corporation is an American insurance company, headquartered in Northfield Township, Illinois, near Northbrook since 1967. Founded in 1931 as part of Sears, Roebuck and Co., it was spun off in 1993 but still partially owned by S ...
Thursday Night Lights'' every Thursday evening as part of Sinclair's push for more local programming on its MyNetworkTV affiliates; these games are also traditionally aired as a radio "Game of the Week" over the web via
WTMJ Radio's website, though both the WCGV and WTMJ broadcasts are not cross-promoted. The later broadcasts during the season were presented in the 480i
widescreen
Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratios (relationship of image width to height) used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than t ...
format. For the 2011–12 season, the franchise was further extended to also cover Thursday night
high school basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...
games throughout the winter. In the fall of 2011, channel 24 also began to carry
college basketball
In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...
games distributed by
Raycom Sports
Raycom Sports is an American producer of sports television programs. It is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, and owned and operated by Gray Television.
It was founded in 1979 by husband and wife, Rick and Dee Ray. In the 1980s, Raycom ...
'
ACC Network
ACC Network (ACCN) is an American multinational subscription-television channel owned and operated by ESPN Inc. Dedicated to coverage of the Atlantic Coast Conference, it was announced in July 2016 and launched on August 22, 2019. The channel o ...
, which was the first program outside of network shows that the station has presented in high definition, and began to carry ACC
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
games the next season. In 2013, the station became the Milwaukee outlet for the Monday night show ''
Locker Room
A locker is a small, usually narrow storage compartment. They are commonly found in dedicated cabinets, very often in large numbers, in various public places such as locker rooms, workplaces, elementary schools, middle and high schools, trans ...
'', an unofficial Packers football analysis program produced by
Green Bay's
WFRV-TV
WFRV-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Green Bay, Wisconsin, United States, affiliated with CBS. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, the station maintains studios on East Mason Street in Green Bay, and its transmitter is located north of Mor ...
. 2014 saw channel 24 become the Milwaukee outlet for Sinclair's internally run
American Sports Network
American Sports Network (ASN) was a sports brand owned by the U.S. television station owner Sinclair Broadcast Group through its Sinclair Networks subsidiary. Formed in July 2014, the multicast network component of ASN produced broadcasts of sp ...
(now
Stadium
A stadium ( : stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand o ...
) package of college sports. Currently, Stadium has no host station in the market (though it is easily available through several streaming venues without cost), and channel 24 only carries the few
Milwaukee Panthers men's basketball
The Milwaukee Panthers men's basketball team is an NCAA Division I college basketball team competing in the Horizon League for the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. They play their home games at UW–Milwaukee Panther Arena in Milwaukee, Wisco ...
games which are cleared on Stadium as part of their broadcast agreement with the
Horizon League
The Horizon League is an 11-school collegiate athletic conference in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I, whose members are located in and near the Great Lakes region.
The Horizon League founded in 1979 as the Midw ...
, along with Saturday afternoon college football games beginning with the 2019 season after the move of all ACC rights to
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
's
ACC Network
ACC Network (ACCN) is an American multinational subscription-television channel owned and operated by ESPN Inc. Dedicated to coverage of the Atlantic Coast Conference, it was announced in July 2016 and launched on August 22, 2019. The channel o ...
. In the summer of 2018 the station began to carry weekend home games for the
Midwest League
The Midwest League is a Minor League Baseball league established in 1947 and based in the Midwestern United States. A Class A league for most of its history, the league was promoted to High-A as part of Major League Baseball's 2021 reorganizat ...
's
Wisconsin Timber Rattlers
The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers are a Minor League Baseball team of the Midwest League and the High-A affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers. They are located in Grand Chute, Wisconsin, a town on the outskirts of Appleton, Wisconsin, Appleton in the Fox ...
, the
Grand Chute-based Class A affiliate for the Brewers. The games are produced by sister station
WLUK-TV
WLUK-TV (channel 11) is a television station in Green Bay, Wisconsin, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside Suring-licensed CW affiliate WCWF (channel 14). Both stations share studi ...
in Green Bay and air on
WCWF in that market. The fall of 2018 saw a further expansion of local sports coverage when the station began to carry weekend home games involving the
American Hockey League
The American Hockey League (AHL) is a professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary Minor league#Ice hockey, developmental league for the National Hockey League (NHL). Since the 2010–11 AHL se ...
's
Milwaukee Admirals
The Milwaukee Admirals are a professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League (AHL). They play in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States, at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Panther Arena. They are affiliated with the NHL's Nashvil ...
, the first time the team's games were broadcast on television (not counting
Bradley Center
The Bradley Center (also known as the BMO Harris Bradley Center under sponsorship agreements) was a multi-purpose arena located on the northwest corner of North Vel R. Phillips Ave. and West State Streets in downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United ...
-provided highlights to newscasts) since the early 90s.
Technical information
Subchannels
As mentioned above, the station shares WVTV's bandwidth and is officially recognized as a WVTV subchannel (including within
station identification
Station identification (ident, network ID or channel ID or bumper) is the practice of radio and television stations and broadcast network, networks identifying themselves on-air, typically by means of a call sign or brand name (sometimes known, ...
s, where it simply identifies as "WVTV Milwaukee" like 18.1; if going by actual physical channel without PSIP intervention, channel 24's three channels are 27.4, 27.5 and 27.6), but retains its own
multiplexed
In telecommunications and computer networking, multiplexing (sometimes contracted to muxing) is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share a scarce resource - a ...
channel map as channel 24:
On March 23, 2006, Sinclair announced that it signed an affiliation deal with
music video
A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...
network
The Tube to carry it on the
digital subchannel
In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compress ...
s of many of the group's stations. The channel launched on WCGV's 24.2 subchannel on June 15, 2006. On
December 31
It is known by a collection of names including: Saint Sylvester's Day, New Year's Eve or Old Years Day/Night, as the following day is New Year's Day. It is the last day of the year; the following day is January 1, the first day of the followin ...
, The Tube was dropped by WCGV due to new E/I regulations put into effect by the FCC and The Tube not immediately inserting E/I programming within its schedule, effectively putting the burden on local stations to carry such programs; the network ceased operations on October 1, 2007, due to several factors likely including the discontinuance of the Sinclair carriage deal. None of the market's cable television providers ever carried 24.2 during its affiliation with The Tube.
On June 28, 2007, Time Warner Cable began carrying WCGV's digital signal locally on digital channel 524 (which has since moved to channel 1024), along with WVTV on digital channel 518 (which has since moved to channel 1018), after Sinclair and Time Warner came to a compensation agreement for the stations.
Charter Communications
Charter Communications, Inc., is an American telecommunications and mass media company with services branded as Spectrum. With over 32 million customers in 41 states, it is the second-largest cable operator in the United States by subscribers, ...
, the market's other major cable provider, came to a compensation agreement in April 2007, but the HD signal was not added until June 9, 2009, when the HD signal began to air over digital channel 614 on Charter's
southeastern Wisconsin systems.
In August 2010, Sinclair signed a groupwide affiliation deal with The Country Network (which rebranded as ZUUS Country in July 2013), a digital subchannel network featuring
country music
Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...
videos, to the 28 of the company's stations. WCGV relaunched its 24.2 subchannel as an affiliate of The Country Network on October 26, 2010 (the subchannel's E/I programming is handled at the network level). Charter Communications began carrying the subchannel on
digital cable
Digital cable is the distribution of cable television using digital data and video compression. The technology was first developed by General Instrument. By 2000, most cable companies offered digital features, eventually replacing their previou ...
channel 964 on February 9, 2011 (currently 188), with Time Warner Cable following suit on September 27, 2011, placing it on digital channel 988. ZUUS's programming was replaced by that of the new Sinclair/
MGM
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...
joint venture network
Comet
A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ar ...
on
October 31
Events Pre-1600
* 475 – Romulus Augustulus is proclaimed Western Roman Emperor.
* 683 – During the Siege of Mecca, the Kaaba catches fire and is burned down.
* 802 – Empress Irene is deposed and banished to Lesbos. Conspi ...
, 2015. The Country Network eventually was re-established after a split with ZUUS and returned to Milwaukee via a subchannel of
WTSJ-LP (channel 38) in late 2016.
On
January 1
January 1 or 1 January is the first day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 364 days remaining until the end of the year (365 in leap years). This day is also known as New Year's Day since the day marks the beginning of the yea ...
, 2015, WCGV launched Grit on their third subchannel, which was added to Charter systems on channel 178 on March 10, 2015. It was discontinued on January 8, 2018 upon the channel sharing with WVTV taking effect; WTMJ-TV took it for their fourth subchannel nearly immediately as described above.
Analog-to-digital conversion as WCGV-TV
On
February 2
Events Pre-1600
* 506 – Alaric II, eighth king of the Visigoths, promulgates the Breviary of Alaric (''Breviarium Alaricianum'' or ''Lex Romana Visigothorum''), a collection of "Roman law".
* 880 – Battle of Lüneburg Heath: King ...
, 2009, Sinclair told cable and satellite television providers via e-mail that regardless of the exact
mandatory switchover date to digital-only broadcasting for full-power stations (which Congress rescheduled for June 12 days later), the station would shut down its analog signal on the original transition date of February 17. WCGV shut down its analog signal, over
UHF
Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter (on ...
channel 24, on that date. The station's digital signal continued to broadcasts on its pre-transition UHF channel 25.
[CDBS Print](_blank)
/ref> Through the use of PSIP
The Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) is the MPEG (a video and audio industry group) and privately defined program-specific information originally defined by General Instrument for the DigiCipher 2 system and later extended for the A ...
, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel
In most telecommunications organizations, a virtual channel is a method of remapping the ''program number'' as used in H.222 Program Association Tables and Program Mapping Tables to a channel number that can be entered via digits on a receiver's ...
as its former UHF analog channel 24.
As part of the SAFER Act
In cryptography, SAFER (Secure And Fast Encryption Routine) is the name of a family of block ciphers designed primarily by James Massey (one of the designers of IDEA) on behalf of Cylink Corporation. The early SAFER K and SAFER SK designs share ...
, WCGV kept its analog signal on the air until March 4 to inform viewers of the digital television transition through a loop of public service announcement
A public service announcement (PSA) is a message in the public interest disseminated by the media without charge to raise public awareness and change behavior. In the UK, they are generally called a public information film (PIF); in Hong Kong, ...
s from the National Association of Broadcasters
The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is a trade association and lobby group representing the interests of commercial and non-commercial over-the-air radio and television broadcasters in the United States. The NAB represents more than ...
.
References
External links
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wcgv-Tv
CGV-TV
Television channels and stations established in 1980
1980 establishments in Wisconsin
Television channels and stations disestablished in 2018
2018 establishments in Wisconsin
Defunct television stations in the United States