WVCY-TV (channel 30) is a

religious Religion is usually defined as a social system, social-cultural system of designated religious behaviour, behaviors and practices, morality, morals, beliefs, worldviews, religious text, texts, sacred site, sanctified places, prophecy, prophecie ...

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

television station 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, owned by locally based

VCY America VCY America, is a traditional, evangelical, conservative Christian ministry based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The VCY America Radio Network maintains a format of Christian talk and teaching, as well as traditional Christian music through its broadc ...

, Inc. The station's studios are located on West Vliet Street in Milwaukee. Through a channel sharing agreement with

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 ...

owned-and-operated station In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station (frequently abbreviated as an O&O) usually refers to a television or radio station owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an 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), WVCY-TV transmits using WITI's spectrum from an antenna on East Capitol Drive (just north of

WIS 190 State Trunk Highway 190 (often called Highway 190, STH-190 or WIS 190) is a state highway (US), state highway in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. It runs east–west in southeast Wisconsin from Pewaukee, Wisconsin, Pewaukee to Shorewood ...

) in Shorewood.

History

The station first signed on the air on January 11, 1983; it has operated as a religious station since its sign-on.

Attempted purchase by CBS

On May 23, 1994, Fox signed an affiliation deal with

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 ...

to shift the network affiliations of the company's stations in 12 markets to Fox starting in the fall of 1994. Locally, the deal included WITI, which would switch 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 Entertainmen ...

to Fox in December 1994. With only months to find an affiliate, CBS approached WVCY's owners to purchase the station and make it an

of that network. Offers to affiliate with the network had already been turned down by

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 ...

affiliate

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),

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

affiliate

WISN-TV WISN-TV (channel 12) is a television station in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States, affiliated with ABC. Owned by Hearst Television, it is the second-oldest television station to remain with the company in all of its various iterations behind f ...

(channel 12, which had been affiliated with CBS from 1961 to 1977),

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; which had earlier been a CBS owned-and-operated station in the 1950s),

WCGV-TV WCGV-TV (channel 24) was a television station in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States, which operated from 1980 to 2018. In its latter years, it was owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group as an affiliate of MyNetworkTV; it had common ownership with ...

(channel 24) and WJJA (channel 49, now

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 ...

). The board of VCY America, along with station founder and VCY America chairman

Vic Eliason Victor Carl "Vic" Eliason (May 14, 1936 – December 5, 2015) was an American evangelical clergyman who founded the VCY America Radio Network, a conservative Christian radio, Christian broadcasting Christian ministry, ministry, based in Milwaukee, ...

, decided to reject the offer and retain ownership of the station, resulting in CBS then aligning itself with then low-profile independent

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), which had also initially declined an offer to affiliate with CBS, just days before WITI switched to Fox.

Programming

Although WVCY operates under a commercial license, the station chooses not to accept advertising and asks for viewer support through donations via the station, purchases through its religious bookstore in

Wauwatosa Wauwatosa (; known informally as Tosa; originally Wau-wau-too-sa or Hart's Mill) is a city in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 48,387 at the 2020 census. Wauwatosa is located immediately west of Milwaukee, and is a pa ...

and associated online store, and appeals on VCY America Radio instead for funding. Unlike other religious television stations, it does not carry

Contemporary Christian music Contemporary Christian music, also known as CCM, Christian pop, and occasionally inspirational music is a genre of modern popular music, and an aspect of Christian media, which is lyrically focused on matters related to the Christian faith and s ...

programming, or

signs and wonders Signs and wonders refers to experiences that are perceived to be miraculous as being normative in the modern Christian experience, and is a phrase associated with groups that are a part of modern charismatic movements and Pentecostalism. This ...

televangelists Televangelism ( tele- "distance" and "evangelism," meaning "ministry," sometimes called teleministry) is the use of media, specifically radio and television, to communicate Christianity. Televangelists are ministers, whether official or self-proc ...

(such as

Benny Hinn Toufik Benedictus "Benny" Hinn (born 3 December 1952) is an Israeli Christian televangelist, best known for his regular "Miracle Crusades"—revival meeting or faith healing summits that are usually held in stadiums in major cities, which are l ...

). The station is unique for carrying a top-of-the-hour text

weather forecast Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology to predict the conditions of the atmosphere for a given location and time. People have attempted to predict the weather informally for millennia and formally since the 19th centu ...

as part of its

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, ...

, a practice long discontinued by most commercial television stations. The station aired programming from FamilyNet (the current day

Cowboy Channel The Cowboy Channel (formerly FamilyNet) is an American cable television network in over 42 million cable and satellite homes, which carries Western lifestyle, Western and rodeo sports. The network was founded in 1979 as the National Christian Net ...

) from before the network's 2009 purchase by a company owned by televangelist

Robert A. Schuller Robert Anthony Schuller (born October 7, 1954) is an American author, televangelist and pastor. He is the only son of Crystal Cathedral founders Robert H. Schuller and Arvella Schuller. He was formerly a minister on the ''Hour of Power'' weekly ...

and subsequent 2013 conversion into a secular classic television and rural living service by the Rural Media Group, reflecting that network's previously religious roots; FamilyNet shows and films airing on WVCY show the network's pre-2008 logo, suggesting they were recorded before then and retained in the station's tape archive for later use. VCY America's radio network has also discontinued programs or affiliations in the past that have changed to more "mainstream" religious views or have financial appeals that go beyond the conservative views of VCY, and both television and radio operations refuse any programming featuring modern Contemporary Christian music. WVCY-TV also carries a disclaimer on

CBN News The Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) is an American Christian media production and distribution organization. Founded in 1960 by Pat Robertson, it produces the long-running TV series ''The 700 Club'', co-produces the ongoing '' Superbook'' a ...

broadcasts stating that CBN's views are not those of VCY America. A limited amount of programming from the

Christian Television Network Christian Television Network (CTN) is a non-profit broadcast television network of small owned-and-operated stations (O&O) that broadcasts religious programming. It is based in Largo, Florida (with a mailing address of Clearwater), and the flagshi ...

also airs on the station. WVCY also carries some government hearings and presidential speeches, along with simulcasts of state political debates and the

State of the State address The State of the State Address is a speech customarily given once each year by the governors of each of the states of the United States, although the terminology for this speech differs for some states: in Iowa, the speech is called the Condition of ...

produced by the state's

public television Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...

organizations, and is the last commercial station in the state to continue to program weekday afternoon children's programming, a block that includes a rotation of series including ''

Davey and Goliath ''Davey and Goliath'' is a Christian clay-animated children's television series, whose central characters were created by Art Clokey, Ruth Clokey, and Dick Sutcliffe, and which was produced first by the United Lutheran Church in America and la ...

'', ''Becky's Barn'' and ''Sunshine Factory''. Besides

Wisconsin Public Television PBS Wisconsin (formerly Wisconsin Public Television or WPT) is a state network of non-commercial educational television stations operated primarily by the Wisconsin Educational Communications Board and the University of Wisconsin–Madison. It c ...

's stations during school recesses and vacations, WVCY was the final commercial station in the state until the start of 2010 to

sign off A sign is an object, quality, event, or entity whose presence or occurrence indicates the probable presence or occurrence of something else. A natural sign bears a causal relation to its object—for instance, thunder is a sign of storm, or me ...

the air on a nightly basis.

Technical information

Subchannel

Analog-to-digital conversion

WVCY-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 30, on February 17, 2009, the original date in which full-power television stations in the United States were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal continued to broadcasts on its pre-transition UHF channel 22. 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 as its former UHF analog channel 30. The station does not broadcast any

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 ...

services and broadcasts its main feed in a

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 ...

format, meaning current-day programming filmed in widescreen high-definition is carried in a reduced

letterboxed Letterboxing is the practice of transferring film shot in a widescreen aspect ratio to standard-width video formats while preserving the film's original aspect ratio. The resulting videographic image has mattes (black bars) above and below ...

format.

Spectrum sale and WITI channel sharing arrangement

On April 13, 2017, the results of the

FCC 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 ...

'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 VCY America successfully selling the UHF spectrum for WVCY for $76.3 million. WVCY did not leave the air, arranging to share a channel with then

Tribune Broadcasting Tribune Broadcasting Company, LLC was an American media company which operated as a subsidiary of Tribune Media, a media conglomerate based in Chicago, Illinois. The group owned and operated television and radio stations throughout the United Sta ...

-owned

(now a

- owned station), with the existing WVCY schedule retained under their existing numbering and identification as channel 30.1 and being associated under the WVCY calls. Along with three other stations in the market, WVCY transitioned to their new arrangement on January 8, 2018. The proceeds from the spectrum sale have since been used to expand VCY's radio presence nationwide, with several station acquisitions in major markets, including the

Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex The Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, officially designated Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, is a conurbated metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. state of Texas encompassing 11 counties and anchore ...

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 ...

, and

Albuquerque Albuquerque ( ; ), ; kee, Arawageeki; tow, Vakêêke; zun, Alo:ke:k'ya; apj, Gołgéeki'yé. abbreviated ABQ, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Its nicknames, The Duke City and Burque, both reference its founding in ...

Translator

WVCY-TV operates one

translator Translation is the communication of the Meaning (linguistic), meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The ...

in northern Wisconsin:

Former sister stations

WVCY formerly had a sister station in the Green Bay market, Suring-

licensed A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...

WSCO (channel 14), which VCY America owned from 1993 to 1997. That year, VCY sold WSCO to Paxson Communications (the forerunner to

Ion Media Networks Ion Media (formerly known as Paxson Communications Corporation and Ion Media Networks) was an American broadcasting company that owned and operated over 71 television stations in most major American markets (through its television stations group ...

) in order to concentrate on its Milwaukee operations (that station is now WCWF, which serves as Green Bay's CW affiliate). In 1980, VCY was granted a

construction permit Planning permission or developmental approval refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. It is usually given in the form of a building perm ...

to operate a station on UHF channel 43 in Tomah under the callsign WVCX-TV, which would serve the

La Crosse La Crosse is a city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of La Crosse County, Wisconsin, La Crosse County. Positioned alongside the Mississippi River, La Crosse is the largest city on Wisconsin's western border. La Crosse's populat ...

/ Eau Claire market. However, that construction permit expired in 1985. In 2008, VCY acquired W04CW (channel 4) in Tigerton/

Marion Marion may refer to: People *Marion (given name) *Marion (surname) *Marion Silva Fernandes, Brazilian footballer known simply as "Marion" *Marion (singer), Filipino singer-songwriter and pianist Marion Aunor (born 1992) Places Antarctica * Mari ...

, an area located between Green Bay and Wausau well outside of the Milwaukee market, which is used as a repeater of WVCY's programming. On July 18, 2012, VCY America was granted a digital broadcast license for W26EE-D (

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 ...

26 / virtual 30) in

Wittenberg, Wisconsin Wittenberg is a village in Shawano County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 1,081 at the 2010 census. The village is located within the Town of Wittenberg. History In 1886, the Wittenberg Indian School was established by the Norweg ...

.Application Search Details
fcc.gov. Accessed July 19, 2012 W04CW's license was returned for cancellation on February 5, 2019.

References

External links

WVCY-TV official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wvcy-Tv Independent television stations in the United States Religious television stations in the United States Television channels and stations established in 1983 1983 establishments in Wisconsin VCY-TV VCY America stations