WNFL (1440
AM) is an American
all-sports radio station located in
Green Bay, Wisconsin
Green Bay is a city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The county seat of Brown County, it is at the head of Green Bay (known locally as "the bay of Green Bay"), a sub-basin of Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the Fox River. It is above sea lev ...
. The station is locally owned and operated by
Midwest Communications
Midwest Communications is a Wausau, Wisconsin-based radio broadcasting company. It owns 82 radio stations located primarily within the Midwest United States, in Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Illinois and ...
, which owns six other stations in Northeast Wisconsin. WNFL simulcasts the programming of
WRNW
WRNW (97.3 FM) is a sports radio station in Milwaukee, Wisconsin owned and operated by iHeartMedia. WRNW's studios are located with iHeartMedia's other Milwaukee operations in rural-suburban Greenfield, with their transmitter located with the ...
in
Milwaukee
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. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...
from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays. The station is also an affiliate of
Fox Sports Radio
Fox Sports Radio is an American sports radio network. Based in Los Angeles, California, the network is operated and managed by Premiere Networks in a content partnership with Fox Corporation's Fox Sports division and iHeartMedia, parent company ...
, carrying much of their line-up for the remainder of the day and on weekends. It airs one minute news updates from
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 Entertainm ...
at approximately 45 minutes past the hour. In addition to the station's sports-talk offerings, WNFL airs
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 ...
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
play-by-play and local high school
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 ...
and basketball games.
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 ...
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...
games during the work week are also on WNFL, with night and weekend games on sister station
WTAQ
WTAQ (1360 AM) and WTAQ-FM (97.5 FM) are conservative news/talk-formatted radio stations, licensed to Green Bay, Wisconsin (AM) and Glenmore, Wisconsin (FM), that serve the Green Bay and Appleton- Oshkosh areas. The stations are owned by Mid ...
.
Former programming on the station included
''The Steve Czaban Show'' and the station's local ''Maino & Nick'' (John Maino and Nick Vitrano) show.
WNFL's studios and
transmitter
In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which i ...
are located on Bellevue Street in the Green Bay suburb of
Bellevue Bellevue means "beautiful view" in French. It may refer to:
Placenames
Australia
* Bellevue, Western Australia
* Bellevue Hill, New South Wales
* Bellevue, Queensland
* Bellevue, Glebe, an historic house in Sydney, New South Wales
Canada ...
. Weather updates are provided by the "FOX 11 Severe Weather Lab" at
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 ...
.
History
The
Green Bay Press-Gazette
The ''Green Bay Press-Gazette'' is a newspaper whose primary coverage is of northeastern Wisconsin, including Green Bay. It was founded as the ''Green Bay Gazette'' in 1866 as a weekly paper, becoming a daily newspaper in 1871. The ''Green Ba ...
built WJPG – a
daytimer
A clear-channel station is an AM radio station in North America that has the highest protection from interference from other stations, particularly concerning night-time skywave propagation. The system exists to ensure the viability of cross-coun ...
– in 1947 and it began broadcasting with 1000 watts of power on 810
kHz
The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that on ...
on December 12, 1947. Nighttime service was added in the station's early ears, and WJPG changed AM frequencies from 810 to 1440 kHz on May 24, 1951. Daytime power was increased to 5,000 watts on June 16, 1954.
WJPG was a
CONELRAD
CONELRAD (''Control of Electromagnetic Radiation'') was a method of emergency broadcasting to the public of the United States in the event of enemy attack during the Cold War. It was intended to allow continuous broadcast of civil defense informa ...
authorized radio station, meaning that if CONELRAD were activated, WJPG would remain on the air and transmit emergency information. A CONELRAD alarm was incorrectly sent to the WJPG control station on the evening of November 5, 1959.
The message sent to the control station was "This is an air defense radio alert", rather than what should have been sent for a test, "This is an air defense line check." Northeast Wisconsin's three television stations (WFRV, WLUK, and WBAY) and radio stations WBAY and WJPG were all taken offline for 20 minutes as they prepared to implement CONELRAD alert procedures, until the error was realized and the alert preparation was reversed.
WJPG changed its call letters to WNFL on August 7, 1967, several months after the
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 ...
won
Super Bowl I
The first AFL–NFL World Championship Game (known retroactively as Super BowlI and referred to in contemporaneous reports, including the game's radio broadcast, as the Super Bowl) was an American football game played on January 15, 1967, at the ...
.
WNFL changed ownership several times until 1996, when
Midwest Communications
Midwest Communications is a Wausau, Wisconsin-based radio broadcasting company. It owns 82 radio stations located primarily within the Midwest United States, in Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Illinois and ...
acquired the station, along with sister stations
WNCY
WNCY-FM (100.3 FM, "Y100") is an American commercial country music formatted radio station licensed to Neenah- Menasha, Wisconsin, that serves the Green Bay and Appleton- Oshkosh areas. WNCY is owned and operated by Midwest Communications, wh ...
and
WYDR
WYDR (94.3 FM, "94.3 Jack FM") is a radio station broadcasting a variety hits music format, licensed to both Neenah and Menasha, Wisconsin (giving it and sister station WNCY-FM a rare dual cities of license situation) and transmitting from High ...
(then WROE).
WNFL personalities
*Mark Daniels: "WNFL Sports Report" anchor and high school sports play-by-play
*Doug Higgins: Weekend weather (from WLUK-TV)
*Pete Petoniak: Morning/early-afternoon weather (from WLUK-TV)
*Patrick Powell: Late-afternoon/evening/overnight weather (from WLUK-TV)
*Jason Hillery: Program Director
References
External links
FCC History Cards for WNFL*
Midwest Communications
*
*
{{Milwaukee Bucks Radio Network
NFL
Sports radio stations in the United States
Midwest Communications radio stations