WITI
Encyclopedia
WITI, virtual channel
6.1 (digital channel
33), is the Fox
-affiliated television station
serving the Milwaukee, Wisconsin
designated market area. The station is owned by Local TV LLC, the media arm of private equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners, with its studios are located in Brown Deer
(though with a Milwaukee address) and its transmitter
is located in Shorewood, Wisconsin
. The station broadcasts its digital signal on UHF channel 33 using its former analog assignment of channel 6 as its virtual digital channel via PSIP.
WITI is a more news-intensive Fox station with about 40 hours a week of locally-produced newscasts, as well as first-run prime time, late night and sports programming from Fox. It also runs off-network sitcoms, talk shows, reality shows and court shows.
(FCC) license granted on June 11, 1955. The station began broadcasting on May 21, 1956, and was originally licensed to the North Shore suburb of Whitefish Bay
on a technicality in order to address short-spacing concerns with WOC-TV
of Davenport, Iowa
before the FCC fully finessed spacing among television stations in different markets. WITI was an independent station, as CBS
owned WXIX
on UHF Channel 19 to carry their programming; in October 1956, the station affiliated with the NTA Film Network
, which provided the station with 52 20th Century Fox
films and syndicated programming. Among the programs aired by WITI were The Passerby, Man Without a Gun
, and This is Alice
.
From 1956 to 1959 WITI used the DuMont
Vitascan
color system for its local TV programs. Vitascan required a completely darkened set with a single strobe light, causing eye strain. The situation was difficult for the on-air talent, according to Sid Armstrong, who worked at WITI as a news reporter during the station's early years. The station switched to monochrome cameras when it moved to the building on North 27th Street.
bought WITI in hopes of affiliating the station with the CBS
network, which at the time owned WXIX. As the disadvantages of UHF became clear, CBS eventually was compelled to move over to the more popular VHF band. Thus, CBS sold WXIX to a local party, and WITI became a CBS affiliate on April 1, 1959. At that time, WITI moved from its original facility in Mequon to the former WCAN-TV/WXIX studios on N. 27th Street (later used from 1980 to 1994 by WCGV channel 24).
In 1961, CBS decided to affiliate with WISN-TV
, since its radio sisters had long been affiliates with CBS. As a result, WITI and WISN swapped affiliations, and WITI became an ABC
affiliate on April 2, 1961. In 1963 the FCC allowed WITI to change their city of license to Milwaukee, and the station began to transmit from Shorewood in the same year, bringing it onto equal footing with Milwaukee's traditional broadcasting powerhouses.
WITI carried the first few seasons of the Milwaukee-set sitcom Happy Days
, as well as its spin-off Laverne & Shirley
from 1974-77 as an ABC affiliate (the rights to both shows are now owned by CBS).
) won a long battle to strip San Diego's ABC affiliation from Tijuana, Mexico-based XETV
(channel 6). At the same time, Storer had a strong relationship with CBS; three of Storer's stations (WJW in Cleveland
, WJBK
in Detroit
and WAGA
in Atlanta
) were among CBS' strongest affiliates. In the winter of 1976, Storer cut a deal to move Milwaukee's CBS affiliation to WITI. Without hesitation, WISN aligned with ABC, then the top network in the country. The switch occurred on March 27, 1977. In 1978, the station would move to new studios at the northwest corner of North Green Bay and Brown Deer Roads in Brown Deer, just outside Milwaukee.
George N. Gillett Jr.
bought most of the Storer stations, including WITI. After a series of mergers and bankruptcies, New World Communications
bought channel 6 in 1993, despite rumors of CBS buying the station (along with WITI's sisters that carried CBS).
. The reasoning went beyond the switching of all New World stations to Fox, because the station had carried Green Bay Packers
games since 1977 from CBS, which up to 1994 had the National Football Conference
(NFC) contract for NFL games; by switching affiliations, except for a period of three months in 1994 (when WCGV was still the Fox affiliate), WITI was able to remain the 'home station' of the Packers since Fox held the NFC contract (even though the Packers stopped playing games in Milwaukee after 1994), and continued to maintain airing the highest-rated broadcasts in market history with the team's winning appearances in Super Bowl XXXI
(Fox's first Super Bowl
broadcast), the 2010 NFC Championship Game, and Super Bowl XLV
. CBS had to scramble to find a new affiliate, eventually landing on low-rated WDJT-TV
(channel 58).
In the fall of 1995, the station became known as "Six is News" throughout the day in order to highlight the station's newly-expanded news schedule. Conversely during Fox prime time hours, the station was promoted as "Fox is Six" to try to build an audience for the growing network on the stronger Milwaukee station. (A similar move took place with WJW in Cleveland, which branded itself "ei8ht is News" and "Fox is ei8ht," playing off an old station logo.)
In 1996, Fox's Television Stations Group
bought WITI and the remaining New World stations outright, and after the approval of the sale in January 1997, the station was rebranded as "FOX SIX" for all programming and station promotions, with the channel number still fully spelled out. Channel 6 officially became "Fox 6" in April 1998 with the introduction of the "Milwaukee's Newscenter" set.
In 2006, WITI celebrated its 50th anniversary with an hour-long prime time special ("50 Years and Counting") in April and vignettes aired throughout the year, beginning on New Year's Day
.http://www.myfoxmilwaukee.com/myfox/pages/ContentDetail?contentId=721792
After the station installed a new graphics and control switcher on the morning of September 29, 2007 http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=667943, the station finally switched to the current red/white/blue color scheme of Fox O&O's, along with news graphics. However only the coloring and minor graphical flourishes of the logo changed, and it did not take on the vertical stacking look of other Fox station logos; this is most likely because the current horizontal logo form was heavily integrated into the "Milwaukee's Newscenter" set. In late May 2008, Studio A was renovated. The iconic blue floor was painted black, upgrades were made to the studio's lighting
, and the set was updated with a new desk, new monitor, and new Duratrans
. During this time Wake-Up received its own set in Studio B.
More emphasis on the station's website has been inserted into newscasts since the beginning of the 2007-08 season, including online chats during newscasts and sports programming, and a webcam in each studio turned on 24/7 to give viewers a behind the scenes look into the station's newscasts, along with early establishments of social networking compliments on Facebook
and Twitter
.
On June 13, 2007, Fox's parent company, News Corporation
, revealed plans to sell WITI and other owned and operated stations. On December 22, 2007, Fox announced that it had entered into an agreement to sell WITI and seven other Fox O&O stations to Oak Hill Capital Partners' Local TV LLC. The sale was closed on July 14, 2008. Subsequently, WITI pre-empted a Fox program for the first time in its history nine months after the purchase on March 31, 2009, the only episode of Osbournes: Reloaded
ever to air, and pushed it back to air at 1:05 a.m. due to what the station saw as inappropriate content; the station replaced the program with a discussion program about the effects of drug abuse
on southeastern Wisconsin teens.
On January 28, 2009, WITI switched its website to a design which is a result of the Local TV LLC and Tribune Company
broadcast management agreement and features Tribune Interactive's design. The site's web address was relocated to Fox6Now.com, mainly for address length concerns (the Fox6.com domain remains owned by current San Diego CW
affiliate XETV
, though it currently is not in use even as a redirect). With this the station has established a deep relationship with Chicago's WGN-TV
, sharing video and stories with that station, although they still maintain a relationship with Fox's Chicago O&O WFLD
via Fox News's affiliate service. The station also aired a tornado relief telethon from WHNT-TV
, a sister Local TV station in Huntsville, Alabama
on May 6, 2011 over TV6.2.
is located in Shorewood, Wisconsin
and stands 1078 feet tall. It was completed in August 1962 and was briefly the tallest free-standing tower in the world.
The station's studios are located in the city of Brown Deer
at the intersection of Green Bay Road and Brown Deer Road. The building contains at least two studios. Studio A houses the station's primary news set, and studio B houses the set for the Fox 6 Wake-Up News. In May 2008, a new Wake-Up set was constructed in Studio B with the old Wake-Up "living room" set, an area used for guest performances, and the Ask Gus set was dismantled. The front lobby and newsroom are also utilized for auxiliary studios depending on the broadcast involved, and until 1996 the lobby was set up to broadcast the station's local coverage of the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon
on Labor Day, when WITI decided to discontinue airing it and it moved to WDJT. In 2011 the station re-acquired rights to the telethon in its new modified six-hour one evening format, which will only require that night's Fox network programming to be delayed to air overnight.
As part of the analog television shutdown and digital conversion, WITI shut down its analog transmitter on the evening of June 12, 2009 and began a two-week analog "nightlight" operation, and continued to broadcast on its pre-transition digital channel 33. Digital television receivers display WITI's virtual channel
as 6 through the use of PSIP
. Until midnight of June 25, the analog signal featured the National Association of Broadcasters
nightlight loop of converter box instructions in English and Spanish, with several interruptions in the interim for weather emergencies.
On July 23, 2009, the station launched its own Retro Television Network
digital subchannel
on 6.2 after various testing of the channel with a drastically different schedule from the network's default grid due to the presence of Weigel Broadcasting
's Me TV
service on WBME-TV (Channel 49), which held much of the rights for what would usually be RTV programming in the Milwaukee market. Charter Communications added the station for its southeastern Wisconsin households over digital cable channel 967 on August 11, 2009, followed by Time Warner Cable
on October 13, 2009 over digital channel 991.
On late December 31, 2010, WITI-DT2 was switched from RTV to Tribune Broadcasting
's Antenna TV
network (a part of Tribune's co-management agreement with Local TV's stations), and was rebranded as TV 6.2, using a modified version of WITI's "TV 6" logomark from 1974 until 1995, when the station was rebranded as Fox is Six/Six is News. RTV programming remains available to some northern portions of the Milwaukee market via Green Bay
's WBAY-DT3
and outlying cable systems carrying that station.
The station uses the subchannel to air WITI's regular 9 p.m newscasts during Fox Sports
or extended Fox movie pre-emption situations and it also simulcasts severe weather coverage from 6.1, including closings and weather warning graphics. The subchannel also aired coverage of the December 2010 funeral of Chicago Cubs
legend Ron Santo
from WGN-TV
. It previously aired a same day encore of Real Milwaukee at 8 p.m. weeknights.
During the era of analog TV, the audio for stations on channel 6 was available by tuning to 87.7 MHz
; this is no longer possible due to the nature of digital TV, even for stations that actually continued to use channel 6. While at least one station offered a separate broadcast on 87.7, WITI took a more direct though experimental approach to restore its TV audio, having it restored in August 2009 to an HD Radio
subchannel of WMIL-FM
via a content agreement with WMIL owner Clear Channel Communications
. A purchase of HD Radio equipment or having a car stereo equipped with an HD Radio receiver is required to listen to this broadcast.
The digital channel ran at a lower power until early November 2009 due to the antenna being located lower on the WITI Tower than the former analog antenna (this setup during the digital transition was common among all Fox O&O/Local TV LLC-sold stations which transmit from a traditional tower rather than from atop a skyscraper due to cost concerns; the station had transmitted their first HD signal in a low-power form from their STL
tower in Brown Deer until installation of HD equipment on the main tower in late 2004). That antenna was removed in September, with the digital antenna moved up in October, causing some interruptions in over-the-air service, along with affecting the operations of WUWM
(89.7), which is a tenant on the WITI Tower. The station then hinted at launching its local news and programming in high definition before the end of 2009, and began to broadcast newscasts and local programming first with the Milwaukee downtown Christmas parade on November 21, 2009 (with training and equipment assistance from Milwaukee Public Television
), and then the newscasts on December 5, 2009 beginning with the 9 p.m. newscast.
and was used as a test station for many of those series. However with the 2010 season, this has been abandoned and Twentieth programming makes up only a small portion of the station's syndicated schedule, which includes The Wendy Williams Show
and Anderson
, along with Divorce Court
and Judge Alex
. After 2 p.m. WITI double-runs Swift Justice with Jackie Glass
, Judge Joe Brown and Judge Judy
, with TMZ on TV
leading into primetime after the 6 p.m. newscast, while late night consists of a double-run of station stalwart Seinfeld
split by Extra
, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
, My Name is Earl
King of the Hill
and COPS
. Weekends consist of reruns of Grey's Anatomy
and House
and syndicated film packages, with Edgemont
and Entertainment Studios
programming meant for children used to receive E/I
credit. The station carries all syndicated series which offer their programming in the format in high definition.
WITI had also aired episodes of M*A*S*H since the 1977 CBS/ABC affiliation switch, first within its CBS
series run and then on into syndication
. WISN-TV
channel 12 originally aired syndicated M*A*S*H reruns at 5 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. and then later at 11 p.m. along with other varied time periods when M*A*S*H originally sold in syndication. WITI gained syndication rights to the show in the 1990s after a long and successful run on WISN. At the time when WITI was an ABC affiliate, in the early 1970s it pre-empted The Dick Cavett Show
in favor of old movies, it was shown instead on WVTV-TV when it was an independent station
at the time, also they pre-empted All My Children
in favor of the noon news. The show was taken off the schedule in September 2007 to make way for the move of the noon news to 11 a.m. and a replay of TMZ on TV, but was returned in February 2008. The station ended carrying the series in September 2009, likely due to Local TV's ownership.
As was the case with many of the stations acquired from New World, WITI has never aired Fox's children's block in either the Fox Kids
or 4Kids TV
iterations. The block stayed with WCGV for ten years after WITI took the Fox affiliation and in September 2004 moved to independent station WMLW-CA
channel 41, where it ended in December 2008. Subsequently WITI has refused to carry the current Saturday morning Weekend Marketplace
infomercial
block, along with both WCGV and WMLW, and it is unseen in the Milwaukee market.
On September 7, 2010 WITI debuted a new morning news program called Real Milwaukee, the show is hosted by WITI anchors Katrina Cravy and Nicole Koglin, former WMCS
radio host Cassandra McShepard, and meteorologist Rob Haswell and also includes a “roving reporter," Tony Clark in the field, showcasing interesting people and places in Milwaukee. The news talk show, which airs after Fox 6 Wake-Up News at 9 a.m., is produced by the FOX 6 News Department and is similar to the non-traditional 8am hour of FOX 6 Wake Up. The program takes on current events and issues from the community and in October, 2010, two shows included Tom Barrett (Wisconsin candidate for Governor-D) and Rebecca Kleeyfisch (Wisconsin candidate for Lt. Governor-R) as guests for both hours. The program has also dedicated an entire hour to the issue of breast cancer awareness. The station has made it clear that it will not be an equal competitor to WTMJ's The Morning Blend and not feature paid demonstration segments by local businesses like Blend does.
From the time WITI became a Fox O&O station in the mid-1990s, the station has put more emphasis on its local newscasts; it has more or less maintained a newscast schedule similar to an ABC, CBS or NBC affiliate, along with additional newscasts from 7-9 a.m. and 5:30-6 p.m. on weekdays and the hour-long nightly primetime newscast at 9 p.m. The station is also one of a steadily growing number of Fox stations with a newscast in the traditional late news timeslot (in WITI's case, 10 p.m. Central time), in addition to the primetime 9 p.m. newscast, along with one of the few to continue their existing Big Three-era 10 p.m. newscast after the affiliate switch, and one of a handful of Fox stations to run a 10 p.m. (or 11 p.m.) newscast seven nights a week. The station's newscasts usually place a strong third in the ratings behind WTMJ and WISN
, both of whom fight it out for first place, though the morning newscast, Fox 6 Wake-Up News, is very competitive with the national network shows, and occasionally comes in first in the ratings because of the program's local focus.
On December 3, 2007, the noon newscast on weekdays moved to 11 a.m. Two days prior to that, the Saturday morning Wake-Up broadcast was expanded to two hours beginning at 7 a.m., and the Sunday morning broadcast was also moved to 7 a.m., but remained one hour long. In addition, Gus Gnorski's DIY program on Saturday mornings, Ask Gus, was put on hiatus, with Gnorski's segments merged into the Saturday morning Wake-Up broadcasts and his former studio becoming the new home of Wake-Up in May 2008. After March 28, 2009, the Saturday morning Wake-Up and 6 p.m. Saturday newscasts were suspended. The Sunday morning Wake-Up and 5 p.m. Sunday newscasts were suspended the following day. On April 4, Ask Gus returned as reruns. The show was expected to continue, however Gnorski's medically-necessitated retirement put an end to these plans. The how-to program ended its original 15-year run on November 24, 2007.
WITI also took advantage of the fact that the audio for Channel 6 could be heard on an FM
radio on 87.7 FM
, mentioning often during its morning newscasts, station promotions, and breaking news events that listeners could 'Listen to Fox 6 in your car'. With the end of analog television service on June 12, 2009 and the end of the nightlight loop on June 30, 2009 (though the nightlight loop was interrupted twice in those two weeks for severe weather coverage), the anomalous audio service on 87.7 was also discontinued.
However, the feature was restored in early August 2009 on the HD3 HD Radio
subchannel of WMIL-FM
(106.1), as Channel 6 came to an agreement with the six-station cluster of Clear Channel
radio stations to provide them weather forecasts and news stories as of July 27, 2009, along with news updates for the LCD billboard network of Clear Channel Outdoor
in the area; a forecast-only content agreement between Channel 6 and Entercom Communications
's three local stations and occasional check-in during WakeUp on WXSS
's and WSSP
's morning shows continues without any audible forecasts from Fox 6 meteorologists. The HD Radio subchannel makes WITI one of a few former Channel 6 analog signals in the nation to restore their station audio legally, as Albany, New York
's WRGB
attempted a subcarrier audio service after the digital transition that was subsequently pulled on FCC request. Station anchor Ted Perry is also a regular guest on the "Dave & Carole Morning Show" on Saga Communications
classic rock
station WKLH
(96.5) under his own personal time.
On December 5, 2009, WITI became the second station in Milwaukee (behind WTMJ-TV), and the third station in the state (the first being Madison
's WISC-TV
) to air their newscasts in HD. WITI is the first and (as of June 28, 2011) only station in Milwaukee to broadcast all locally-originated portions of its newscasts including live field reports in high definition (WTMJ has a mix of live trucks that can do HD or only 16:9 SD video and chopper is 4:3 SD stretched while WISN airs only studio video in HD and most field footage in 16:9 SD).
In February 2010, WITI extended its weekday morning "WakeUp News" newscast to 4½ hours, now running from 4:30-9 a.m, with WISN following into a 4:30am start in September 2010 when ABC pushed broadcast of America This Morning to an earlier timeslot. On November 16, 2010 WITI announced that after a two-year absence, it would resume its weekend morning edition of "WakeUp News" beginning on April 2, 2011, airing for two hours from 7-9 a.m. on both Saturday and Sunday mornings (the weekend early evening newscasts have not returned as of yet).
Fox 6 Storm Center
Sports team
Reporters
Real Milwaukee
Virtual channel
In telecommunications, a logical channel number , also known as virtual channel, is a channel designation which differs from that of the actual radio channel on which the signal travels....
6.1 (digital channel
Digital terrestrial television
Digital terrestrial television is the technological evolution of broadcast television and advance from analog television, which broadcasts land-based signals...
33), is the Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
-affiliated television station
Television station
A television station is a business, organisation or other such as an amateur television operator that transmits content over terrestrial television. A television transmission can be by analog television signals or, more recently, by digital television. Broadcast television systems standards are...
serving the Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee is the largest city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, the 28th most populous city in the United States and 39th most populous region in the United States. It is the county seat of Milwaukee County and is located on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. According to 2010 census data, the...
designated market area. The station is owned by Local TV LLC, the media arm of private equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners, with its studios are located in Brown Deer
Brown Deer, Wisconsin
Brown Deer is a village in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, United States. It is a suburb of Milwaukee. The population was 11,999 at the 2010 census...
(though with a Milwaukee address) and its transmitter
WITI TV Tower
The WITI Tower in Milwaukee, Wisconsin was completed in August 1962 and was briefly the tallest free-standing tower in the world, rising . For many years, it was the tallest free-standing tower in the United States...
is located in Shorewood, Wisconsin
Shorewood, Wisconsin
Shorewood is a village in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 13,763 at the 2000 census. Howell Raines of The New York Times said in 1979 that "[t]his maplestudded town on Lake Michigan dotes on its reputation as Milwaukee's most liberal suburb."-Geography:Shorewood is...
. The station broadcasts its digital signal on UHF channel 33 using its former analog assignment of channel 6 as its virtual digital channel via PSIP.
WITI is a more news-intensive Fox station with about 40 hours a week of locally-produced newscasts, as well as first-run prime time, late night and sports programming from Fox. It also runs off-network sitcoms, talk shows, reality shows and court shows.
Early history
WITI's call letters stand for "Independent Television, Inc.," the corporation that originally owned the Federal Communications CommissionFederal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
(FCC) license granted on June 11, 1955. The station began broadcasting on May 21, 1956, and was originally licensed to the North Shore suburb of Whitefish Bay
Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin
Whitefish Bay is a village in Milwaukee County in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The population was 13,508 as of the 2005 census.-Geography:Whitefish Bay is located at ....
on a technicality in order to address short-spacing concerns with WOC-TV
KWQC-TV
KWQC-TV, virtual channel 6 , is the NBC-affiliated television station for the Quad Cities television market . It is licensed to Davenport and is owned by Young Broadcasting...
of Davenport, Iowa
Davenport, Iowa
Davenport is a city located along the Mississippi River in Scott County, Iowa, United States. Davenport is the county seat of and largest city in Scott County. Davenport was founded on May 14, 1836 by Antoine LeClaire and was named for his friend, George Davenport, a colonel during the Black Hawk...
before the FCC fully finessed spacing among television stations in different markets. WITI was an independent station, as CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
owned WXIX
WVTV
WVTV is a television station located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA and serves as Southeast Wisconsin's The CW Television Network affiliate. The station broadcasts from the Milwaukee Public Television tower on Milwaukee's northeast side with WMVS/WMVT, along with WCGV , WVTV's sister station...
on UHF Channel 19 to carry their programming; in October 1956, the station affiliated with the NTA Film Network
NTA Film Network
The NTA Film Network was an early American television network founded by Ely Landau in 1956. The network was not a full-time television network like CBS, NBC, or ABC. Rather, it operated on a part-time basis, broadcasting films and several first-run television programs from major Hollywood studios...
, which provided the station with 52 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
films and syndicated programming. Among the programs aired by WITI were The Passerby, Man Without a Gun
Man Without a Gun
Man Without a Gun is a western television series produced by 20th Century Fox television and presented in first-run syndication in the United States from 1957 to 1959...
, and This is Alice
This is Alice
This is Alice was an early American television program starring nine-year-old Patty Ann Garrity. The program aired from 1958 to 1959 on the NTA syndicated network....
.
From 1956 to 1959 WITI used the DuMont
DuMont Television Network
The DuMont Television Network, also known as the DuMont Network, DuMont, Du Mont, or Dumont was one of the world's pioneer commercial television networks, rivalling NBC for the distinction of being first overall. It began operation in the United States in 1946. It was owned by DuMont...
Vitascan
Vitascan
Vitascan was an early color television camera system developed by American television equipment manufacturer DuMont Laboratories. Development began in 1949 and the product was released on an experimental basis in 1956...
color system for its local TV programs. Vitascan required a completely darkened set with a single strobe light, causing eye strain. The situation was difficult for the on-air talent, according to Sid Armstrong, who worked at WITI as a news reporter during the station's early years. The station switched to monochrome cameras when it moved to the building on North 27th Street.
First CBS affiliation, then switch to ABC
On August 8, 1958, Storer BroadcastingStorer Broadcasting
Storer Broadcasting, Inc. was an American company which owned several television and radio stations in the northeast United States. It was incorporated in Ohio in 1927, and sold its broadcasting properties in 1983.-1920s—1940s:...
bought WITI in hopes of affiliating the station with the CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
network, which at the time owned WXIX. As the disadvantages of UHF became clear, CBS eventually was compelled to move over to the more popular VHF band. Thus, CBS sold WXIX to a local party, and WITI became a CBS affiliate on April 1, 1959. At that time, WITI moved from its original facility in Mequon to the former WCAN-TV/WXIX studios on N. 27th Street (later used from 1980 to 1994 by WCGV channel 24).
In 1961, CBS decided to affiliate with WISN-TV
WISN-TV
WISN-TV, virtual channel 12.1 , is a television station located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin serving as an affiliate of the ABC television network. Its signal covers most of southeastern Wisconsin and parts of northeastern Illinois, including Racine, Kenosha, Sheboygan and Waukesha...
, since its radio sisters had long been affiliates with CBS. As a result, WITI and WISN swapped affiliations, and WITI became an ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
affiliate on April 2, 1961. In 1963 the FCC allowed WITI to change their city of license to Milwaukee, and the station began to transmit from Shorewood in the same year, bringing it onto equal footing with Milwaukee's traditional broadcasting powerhouses.
WITI carried the first few seasons of the Milwaukee-set sitcom Happy Days
Happy Days
Happy Days is an American television sitcom that originally aired from January 15, 1974, to September 24, 1984, on ABC. Created by Garry Marshall, the series presents an idealized vision of life in mid-1950s to mid-1960s America....
, as well as its spin-off Laverne & Shirley
Laverne & Shirley
Laverne & Shirley is an American television situation comedy that ran on ABC from January 26, 1976, to May 10, 1983...
from 1974-77 as an ABC affiliate (the rights to both shows are now owned by CBS).
Second CBS affiliation
The switch between WISN and WITI was reversed in 1977. WITI's owner at the time, Storer Broadcasting, had a bitter relationship with ABC. In 1975, Storer-owned KCST-TV in San Diego (channel 39, now KNSDKNSD
KNSD is the NBC television station based in San Diego, California. It is owned by a joint venture of NBCUniversal and LIN TV . However, because NBCUniversal has majority control, KNSD is run as an NBC owned and operated station...
) won a long battle to strip San Diego's ABC affiliation from Tijuana, Mexico-based XETV
XETV
XETV is a television station licensed to Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico, serving as the CW Television Network affiliate for the San Diego, California area across the international border in the United States...
(channel 6). At the same time, Storer had a strong relationship with CBS; three of Storer's stations (WJW in Cleveland
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
, WJBK
WJBK
WJBK is the Fox–owned and operated television station in Detroit, Michigan broadcasting on digital channel 7...
in Detroit
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...
and WAGA
Waga
Waga is an isolated small town in Colombo District, Sri Lanka. Administrated by Seethawaka Pradeshiya Sabha , it is part of the Padukka Divisional Secretary's Division. The town can be reached on road from Colombo via A4 road, turning off at either Meepe near Padukka or at Kaluaggala near Hanwella...
in Atlanta
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
) were among CBS' strongest affiliates. In the winter of 1976, Storer cut a deal to move Milwaukee's CBS affiliation to WITI. Without hesitation, WISN aligned with ABC, then the top network in the country. The switch occurred on March 27, 1977. In 1978, the station would move to new studios at the northwest corner of North Green Bay and Brown Deer Roads in Brown Deer, just outside Milwaukee.
George N. Gillett Jr.
George N. Gillett Jr.
-Biography:George Gillett graduated from Lake Forest Academy in 1956. He attended Amherst College and is a graduate of Dominican College in Racine, Wisconsin....
bought most of the Storer stations, including WITI. After a series of mergers and bankruptcies, New World Communications
New World Communications
New World Pictures was an independent motion picture and television production company, and later television station owner in the United States from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s...
bought channel 6 in 1993, despite rumors of CBS buying the station (along with WITI's sisters that carried CBS).
As a Fox station
In early December 1994, WITI dropped its CBS affiliation and became an affiliate of FoxFox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
. The reasoning went beyond the switching of all New World stations to Fox, because the station had carried Green Bay Packers
Green Bay Packers
The Green Bay Packers are an American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The Packers are the current NFL champions...
games since 1977 from CBS, which up to 1994 had the National Football Conference
National Football Conference
The National Football Conference is one of the two conferences of the National Football League . This conference and its counterpart, the American Football Conference , currently contain 16 teams each, making up the 32 teams of the NFL.-Current teams:Since 2002, the NFC has comprised 16 teams,...
(NFC) contract for NFL games; by switching affiliations, except for a period of three months in 1994 (when WCGV was still the Fox affiliate), WITI was able to remain the 'home station' of the Packers since Fox held the NFC contract (even though the Packers stopped playing games in Milwaukee after 1994), and continued to maintain airing the highest-rated broadcasts in market history with the team's winning appearances in Super Bowl XXXI
Super Bowl XXXI
Super Bowl XXXI was an American football game played on January 26, 1997, at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana to decide the National Football League champion following the 1996 regular season. The National Football Conference champion Green Bay Packers defeated the American...
(Fox's first Super Bowl
Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is the championship game of the National Football League , the highest level of professional American football in the United States, culminating a season that begins in the late summer of the previous calendar year. The Super Bowl uses Roman numerals to identify each game, rather...
broadcast), the 2010 NFC Championship Game, and Super Bowl XLV
Super Bowl XLV
Super Bowl XLV was an American football game between the American Football Conference champion Pittsburgh Steelers and the National Football Conference champion Green Bay Packers to decide the National Football League champion for the 2010 season. The game was held at Cowboys Stadium in...
. CBS had to scramble to find a new affiliate, eventually landing on low-rated WDJT-TV
WDJT-TV
WDJT-TV, channel 58, is the CBS-affiliated television station located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin broadcasting on UHF digital channel 46, that displays WDJT's virtual channel as its former analog channel assignment of 58 via PSIP...
(channel 58).
In the fall of 1995, the station became known as "Six is News" throughout the day in order to highlight the station's newly-expanded news schedule. Conversely during Fox prime time hours, the station was promoted as "Fox is Six" to try to build an audience for the growing network on the stronger Milwaukee station. (A similar move took place with WJW in Cleveland, which branded itself "ei8ht is News" and "Fox is ei8ht," playing off an old station logo.)
In 1996, Fox's Television Stations Group
Fox Television Stations Group
Fox Television Stations, Inc. 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 Entertainment Group, part of News Corporation...
bought WITI and the remaining New World stations outright, and after the approval of the sale in January 1997, the station was rebranded as "FOX SIX" for all programming and station promotions, with the channel number still fully spelled out. Channel 6 officially became "Fox 6" in April 1998 with the introduction of the "Milwaukee's Newscenter" set.
In 2006, WITI celebrated its 50th anniversary with an hour-long prime time special ("50 Years and Counting") in April and vignettes aired throughout the year, beginning on New Year's Day
New Year's Day
New Year's Day is observed on January 1, the first day of the year on the modern Gregorian calendar as well as the Julian calendar used in ancient Rome...
.http://www.myfoxmilwaukee.com/myfox/pages/ContentDetail?contentId=721792
After the station installed a new graphics and control switcher on the morning of September 29, 2007 http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=667943, the station finally switched to the current red/white/blue color scheme of Fox O&O's, along with news graphics. However only the coloring and minor graphical flourishes of the logo changed, and it did not take on the vertical stacking look of other Fox station logos; this is most likely because the current horizontal logo form was heavily integrated into the "Milwaukee's Newscenter" set. In late May 2008, Studio A was renovated. The iconic blue floor was painted black, upgrades were made to the studio's lighting
Stage lighting instrument
Stage lighting instruments are used in stage lighting to illuminate theatrical productions, concerts, and other performances taking place in live performance venues. They are also used to light television studios and sound stages.Many stagecraft terms vary between the United States and the United...
, and the set was updated with a new desk, new monitor, and new Duratrans
Duratrans
A duratrans is an element used in some television news sets and theater designs. Duratrans are most often used to create the backgrounds that appear behind news presenters or anchors. If it is used in a theatre the backgrounds would appear behind the actors, actresses, and other talent respectively...
. During this time Wake-Up received its own set in Studio B.
More emphasis on the station's website has been inserted into newscasts since the beginning of the 2007-08 season, including online chats during newscasts and sports programming, and a webcam in each studio turned on 24/7 to give viewers a behind the scenes look into the station's newscasts, along with early establishments of social networking compliments on Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
and Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
.
On June 13, 2007, Fox's parent company, News Corporation
News Corporation
News Corporation or News Corp. is an American multinational media conglomerate. It is the world's second-largest media conglomerate as of 2011 in terms of revenue, and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009, although the BBC remains the world's largest broadcaster...
, revealed plans to sell WITI and other owned and operated stations. On December 22, 2007, Fox announced that it had entered into an agreement to sell WITI and seven other Fox O&O stations to Oak Hill Capital Partners' Local TV LLC. The sale was closed on July 14, 2008. Subsequently, WITI pre-empted a Fox program for the first time in its history nine months after the purchase on March 31, 2009, the only episode of Osbournes: Reloaded
Osbournes: Reloaded
Osbournes Reloaded is a short-lived 2009 variety show that aired its only episode on Fox. The show was hosted by The Osbournes — Ozzy, Sharon, Jack and Kelly — and premiered Tuesday March 31 on Fox following American Idol. Fremantle Media North America, the producers of American Idol, produced the...
ever to air, and pushed it back to air at 1:05 a.m. due to what the station saw as inappropriate content; the station replaced the program with a discussion program about the effects of drug abuse
Drug abuse
Substance abuse, also known as drug abuse, refers to a maladaptive pattern of use of a substance that is not considered dependent. The term "drug abuse" does not exclude dependency, but is otherwise used in a similar manner in nonmedical contexts...
on southeastern Wisconsin teens.
On January 28, 2009, WITI switched its website to a design which is a result of the Local TV LLC and Tribune Company
Tribune Company
The Tribune Company is a large American multimedia corporation based in Chicago, Illinois. It is the nation's second-largest newspaper publisher, with ten daily newspapers and commuter tabloids including Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Hartford Courant, Orlando Sentinel, South Florida...
broadcast management agreement and features Tribune Interactive's design. The site's web address was relocated to Fox6Now.com, mainly for address length concerns (the Fox6.com domain remains owned by current San Diego CW
The CW Television Network
The CW Television Network is a television network in the United States launched at the beginning of the 2006–2007 television season. It is a joint venture between CBS Corporation, the former owners of United Paramount Network , and Time Warner's Warner Bros., former majority owner of The WB...
affiliate XETV
XETV
XETV is a television station licensed to Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico, serving as the CW Television Network affiliate for the San Diego, California area across the international border in the United States...
, though it currently is not in use even as a redirect). With this the station has established a deep relationship with Chicago's WGN-TV
WGN-TV
WGN-TV, virtual channel 9 , is the CW-affiliated television station in Chicago, Illinois built, signed on, and owned by the Tribune Company. WGN-TV's studios and offices are located at 2501 W...
, sharing video and stories with that station, although they still maintain a relationship with Fox's Chicago O&O WFLD
WFLD
WFLD, virtual channel 32 , is the Fox owned-and-operated television station, based in Chicago, Illinois; through its parent company News Corporation, the station is owned in a duopoly with area MyNetworkTV affiliate WPWR-TV...
via Fox News's affiliate service. The station also aired a tornado relief telethon from WHNT-TV
WHNT-TV
WHNT-TV is the CBS-affiliated television station for the Tennessee Valley area of North Alabama that is licensed to Huntsville. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 19 from a transmitter on Monte Sano. Owned by Local TV, the station has studios on Holmes Avenue Northwest in...
, a sister Local TV station in Huntsville, Alabama
Huntsville, Alabama
Huntsville is a city located primarily in Madison County in the central part of the far northern region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Huntsville is the county seat of Madison County. The city extends west into neighboring Limestone County. Huntsville's population was 180,105 as of the 2010 Census....
on May 6, 2011 over TV6.2.
Broadcasting facilities
The WITI TV TowerWITI TV Tower
The WITI Tower in Milwaukee, Wisconsin was completed in August 1962 and was briefly the tallest free-standing tower in the world, rising . For many years, it was the tallest free-standing tower in the United States...
is located in Shorewood, Wisconsin
Shorewood, Wisconsin
Shorewood is a village in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 13,763 at the 2000 census. Howell Raines of The New York Times said in 1979 that "[t]his maplestudded town on Lake Michigan dotes on its reputation as Milwaukee's most liberal suburb."-Geography:Shorewood is...
and stands 1078 feet tall. It was completed in August 1962 and was briefly the tallest free-standing tower in the world.
The station's studios are located in the city of Brown Deer
Brown Deer, Wisconsin
Brown Deer is a village in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, United States. It is a suburb of Milwaukee. The population was 11,999 at the 2010 census...
at the intersection of Green Bay Road and Brown Deer Road. The building contains at least two studios. Studio A houses the station's primary news set, and studio B houses the set for the Fox 6 Wake-Up News. In May 2008, a new Wake-Up set was constructed in Studio B with the old Wake-Up "living room" set, an area used for guest performances, and the Ask Gus set was dismantled. The front lobby and newsroom are also utilized for auxiliary studios depending on the broadcast involved, and until 1996 the lobby was set up to broadcast the station's local coverage of the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon
Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon
The MDA Labor Day Telethon is an annual telethon in the United States to raise money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association . The first MDA telethon was during the Thanksgiving Day weekend of 1952 and titled Party for MDA. It has been held annually since 1966...
on Labor Day, when WITI decided to discontinue airing it and it moved to WDJT. In 2011 the station re-acquired rights to the telethon in its new modified six-hour one evening format, which will only require that night's Fox network programming to be delayed to air overnight.
WITI-DT
| Channel | Video | Aspect Aspect ratio The aspect ratio of a shape is the ratio of its longer dimension to its shorter dimension. It may be applied to two characteristic dimensions of a three-dimensional shape, such as the ratio of the longest and shortest axis, or for symmetrical objects that are described by just two measurements,... |
Programming |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6.1 | 720p 720p 720p is the shorthand name for 1280x720, a category of High-definition television video modes having a resolution of 1080 or 720p and a progressive scan... |
16:9 16:9 16:9 is an aspect ratio with a width of 16 units and height of 9. Since 2009, it has become the most common aspect ratio for sold televisions and computer monitors and is also the international standard format of HDTV, Full HD, non-HD digital television and analog widescreen television ... |
Main WITI-TV programming / FOX |
| 6.2 | 480i 480i 480i is the shorthand name for a video mode, namely the US NTSC television system or digital television systems with the same characteristics. The i, which is sometimes uppercase, stands for interlaced, the 480 for a vertical frame resolution of 480 lines containing picture information; while NTSC... |
4:3 | Antenna TV Antenna TV Antenna TV is an American digital broadcast television network, primarily featuring classic television series from the 1950s to the 1990s, along with some feature films. It is owned by Tribune Broadcasting, a division of the Chicago-based Tribune Company... "TV 6.2" |
As part of the analog television shutdown and digital conversion, WITI shut down its analog transmitter on the evening of June 12, 2009 and began a two-week analog "nightlight" operation, and continued to broadcast on its pre-transition digital channel 33. Digital television receivers display WITI's virtual channel
Virtual channel
In telecommunications, a logical channel number , also known as virtual channel, is a channel designation which differs from that of the actual radio channel on which the signal travels....
as 6 through the use of PSIP
Program and System Information Protocol
The Program and System Information Protocol is the protocol used in the ATSC digital television system for carrying metadata about each channel in the broadcast MPEG transport stream of a TV station and for publishing information about television programs so that viewers can select what to watch...
. Until midnight of June 25, the analog signal featured the National Association of Broadcasters
National Association of Broadcasters
The National Association of Broadcasters is a trade association, workers union, and lobby group representing the interests of for-profit, over-the-air radio and television broadcasters in the United States...
nightlight loop of converter box instructions in English and Spanish, with several interruptions in the interim for weather emergencies.
On July 23, 2009, the station launched its own Retro Television Network
Retro Television Network
The Retro Television Network is a system of television stations that airs classic television shows as well as more recently produced programs...
digital subchannel
Digital subchannel
In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a means to transmit more than one independent program at the same time from the same digital radio or digital television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compression techniques to reduce the size of each individual...
on 6.2 after various testing of the channel with a drastically different schedule from the network's default grid due to the presence of Weigel Broadcasting
Weigel Broadcasting
Weigel Broadcasting is an American locally based television broadcasting company. The company is based in downtown Chicago, Illinois, alongside its flagship station WCIU-TV , at the apt address of 26 North Halsted Street in the Greektown neighborhood.- History :The company was founded by Chicago...
's Me TV
Me TV
Me TV is a branding used for the following television entities:* Me-TV , a brand of classic television programming, owned by Weigel Broadcasting* ME:TV, a former weekday programming block on Nickelodeon...
service on WBME-TV (Channel 49), which held much of the rights for what would usually be RTV programming in the Milwaukee market. Charter Communications added the station for its southeastern Wisconsin households over digital cable channel 967 on August 11, 2009, followed by Time Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable is an American cable television company that operates in 28 states and has 31 operating divisions...
on October 13, 2009 over digital channel 991.
On late December 31, 2010, WITI-DT2 was switched from RTV to Tribune Broadcasting
Tribune Broadcasting
The Tribune Broadcasting Company is a group of radio and television stations located throughout the United States which are owned and operated by the Tribune Company, a media conglomerate based in Chicago, Illinois and named for the flagship Chicago Tribune newspaper.- History :Tribune Broadcasting...
's Antenna TV
Antenna TV
Antenna TV is an American digital broadcast television network, primarily featuring classic television series from the 1950s to the 1990s, along with some feature films. It is owned by Tribune Broadcasting, a division of the Chicago-based Tribune Company...
network (a part of Tribune's co-management agreement with Local TV's stations), and was rebranded as TV 6.2, using a modified version of WITI's "TV 6" logomark from 1974 until 1995, when the station was rebranded as Fox is Six/Six is News. RTV programming remains available to some northern portions of the Milwaukee market via Green Bay
Green Bay, Wisconsin
Green Bay is a city in and the county seat of Brown County in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, located at the head of Green Bay, a sub-basin of Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the Fox River. It has an elevation of above sea level and is located north of Milwaukee. As of the 2010 United States Census,...
's WBAY-DT3
WBAY-TV
WBAY-TV is the ABC television affiliate in Green Bay, Wisconsin, broadcasting on UHF digital channel 23 from a transmitter located in the town of Ledgeview, Wisconsin, and master control based in its building in downtown Green Bay...
and outlying cable systems carrying that station.
The station uses the subchannel to air WITI's regular 9 p.m newscasts during Fox Sports
Fox Sports (USA)
Fox Sports is a division of the Fox Broadcasting Company . It was formed in 1994 with Fox's acquisition of broadcast rights to National Football League games...
or extended Fox movie pre-emption situations and it also simulcasts severe weather coverage from 6.1, including closings and weather warning graphics. The subchannel also aired coverage of the December 2010 funeral of Chicago Cubs
Chicago Cubs
The Chicago Cubs are a professional baseball team located in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the Central Division of Major League Baseball's National League. They are one of two Major League clubs based in Chicago . The Cubs are also one of the two remaining charter members of the National...
legend Ron Santo
Ron Santo
Ronald Edward Santo was an American professional baseball player and long-time radio sports commentator. He played in Major League Baseball from 1960 to 1974, most notably as the third baseman for the Chicago Cubs. A nine-time All-Star, he was a powerful hitter who was also a good defensive...
from WGN-TV
WGN-TV
WGN-TV, virtual channel 9 , is the CW-affiliated television station in Chicago, Illinois built, signed on, and owned by the Tribune Company. WGN-TV's studios and offices are located at 2501 W...
. It previously aired a same day encore of Real Milwaukee at 8 p.m. weeknights.
During the era of analog TV, the audio for stations on channel 6 was available by tuning to 87.7 MHz
87.7 FM
-In North America:*87.75 MHz, a frequency-modulated audio subcarrier used by all NTSC-M analog channel 6 television stations**For a listing of channel 6 television stations that promote their audio feeds as their primary signal, advertising as being on 87.7 FM, see :Category:Channel 6 radio...
; this is no longer possible due to the nature of digital TV, even for stations that actually continued to use channel 6. While at least one station offered a separate broadcast on 87.7, WITI took a more direct though experimental approach to restore its TV audio, having it restored in August 2009 to an HD Radio
HD Radio
HD Radio, which originally stood for "Hybrid Digital", is the trademark for iBiquity's in-band on-channel digital radio technology used by AM and FM radio stations to transmit audio and data via a digital signal in conjunction with their analog signals...
subchannel of WMIL-FM
WMIL-FM
WMIL-FM is a country music-formatted radio station in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, licensed to Waukesha, Wisconsin. They are known on-air simply as "FM 106.1". WMIL is owned by Clear Channel Communications....
via a content agreement with WMIL owner Clear Channel Communications
Clear Channel Communications
Clear Channel Communications, Inc. is an American media conglomerate company headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It was founded in 1972 by Lowry Mays and Red McCombs, and was taken private by Bain Capital LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP in a leveraged buyout in 2008...
. A purchase of HD Radio equipment or having a car stereo equipped with an HD Radio receiver is required to listen to this broadcast.
The digital channel ran at a lower power until early November 2009 due to the antenna being located lower on the WITI Tower than the former analog antenna (this setup during the digital transition was common among all Fox O&O/Local TV LLC-sold stations which transmit from a traditional tower rather than from atop a skyscraper due to cost concerns; the station had transmitted their first HD signal in a low-power form from their STL
Studio/transmitter link
A studio-transmitter link sends a radio station's or television station's audio and video from the broadcast studio to a radio transmitter or television transmitter in another location....
tower in Brown Deer until installation of HD equipment on the main tower in late 2004). That antenna was removed in September, with the digital antenna moved up in October, causing some interruptions in over-the-air service, along with affecting the operations of WUWM
WUWM
WUWM is a radio station in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is owned and operated by the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee College of Letters and Science and licensed to the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System...
(89.7), which is a tenant on the WITI Tower. The station then hinted at launching its local news and programming in high definition before the end of 2009, and began to broadcast newscasts and local programming first with the Milwaukee downtown Christmas parade on November 21, 2009 (with training and equipment assistance from Milwaukee Public Television
Milwaukee Public Television
For information on Channels 10 and 36 individually, see WMVS and WMVTMilwaukee Public Television is the branding name for the alliance between two Milwaukee based Public Broadcasting Service public television affiliates: WMVS, Channel 10, and WMVT, Channel 36...
), and then the newscasts on December 5, 2009 beginning with the 9 p.m. newscast.
Programming
WITI under their former iteration as a Fox O&O almost exclusively aired syndicated programming from Twentieth TelevisionFox Television Studios
Fox Television Studios, Inc. is the TV production arm of the News Corporation's Fox Entertainment Group, as well as being the production arm of Fox and a production arm of 20th Century Fox Television, Inc., itself a division of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation...
and was used as a test station for many of those series. However with the 2010 season, this has been abandoned and Twentieth programming makes up only a small portion of the station's syndicated schedule, which includes The Wendy Williams Show
The Wendy Williams Show
The Wendy Williams Show is a syndicated talk show hosted by Wendy Williams that premiered on July 14, 2008, as six-week sneak peek, in Detroit, Dallas, Los Angeles, and New York City. The test run was picked up for a full season that began its run on July 13, 2009 in over 70% of the country in...
and Anderson
Anderson (TV series)
Anderson is an American first-run syndicated talk show that is hosted by CNN anchorman Anderson Cooper, who also serves as co-producer in his first foray into daytime talk television. The show debuted on September 12, 2011, and is distributed by Warner Bros...
, along with Divorce Court
Divorce Court
Divorce Court is a judge show about cases which only involve divorcing couples. Out of the shows currently airing in the court-themed genre, Divorce Court is the oldest...
and Judge Alex
Judge Alex
Judge Alex is a United States syndicated courtroom television show that debuted September 12, 2005. The host/arbitrator is the Hon. Alex Ferrer, a former police officer, lawyer, and Florida judge. The show was produced in Houston at the television studios of Fox's KRIV , as was previously done with...
. After 2 p.m. WITI double-runs Swift Justice with Jackie Glass
Swift Justice With Nancy Grace
Swift Justice with Jackie Glass is a syndicated court program hosted by Judge Jackie Glass....
, Judge Joe Brown and Judge Judy
Judge Judy
Judge Judy is an American court show featuring former family court judge Judith Sheindlin arbitrating over small claims cases in small claims court...
, with TMZ on TV
TMZ on TV
TMZ on TV, or simply TMZ and TMZTV, is an American syndicated entertainment and gossip news television show that premiered on September 10, 2007. The program is generally aired on Fox, The CW and MyNetworkTV affiliates, though a majority of the stations that carry the series are Fox affiliates...
leading into primetime after the 6 p.m. newscast, while late night consists of a double-run of station stalwart Seinfeld
Seinfeld
Seinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself...
split by Extra
Extra (TV series)
Extra is an American entertainment television news program covering events and celebrities which debuted on September 5, 1994 in syndication. It is produced at Victory Studios in Glendale, California by Telepictures Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television Distribution...
, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is an American television sitcom that premiered on FX on August 4, 2005. New episodes continue to air on FX, with reruns playing on Comedy Central, general broadcast syndication, and WGN America—the first-ever cable-to-cable syndication deal for a sitcom...
, My Name is Earl
My Name Is Earl
My Name Is Earl is an American television comedy series created by Greg Garcia that was originally broadcast on the NBC television network from September 20, 2005, to May 14, 2009, in the United States...
King of the Hill
King of the Hill
King of the Hill is an American animated dramedy series created by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels, that ran from January 12, 1997, to May 6, 2010, on Fox network. It centers on the Hills, a working-class Methodist family in the fictional small town of Arlen, Texas...
and COPS
COPS (TV series)
Cops is an American documentary/reality television series that follows police officers, constables, and sheriff's deputies during patrols and other police activities...
. Weekends consist of reruns of Grey's Anatomy
Grey's Anatomy
Grey's Anatomy is an American medical drama television series created by Shonda Rhimes. The series premiered on March 27, 2005 on ABC; since then, seven seasons have aired. The series follows the lives of interns, residents and their mentors in the fictional Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital in...
and House
House (TV series)
House is an American television medical drama that debuted on the Fox network on November 16, 2004. The show's central character is Dr. Gregory House , an unconventional and misanthropic medical genius who heads a team of diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in...
and syndicated film packages, with Edgemont
Edgemont (TV series)
Edgemont is a Canadian television series that aired from 2001 to 2005. It revolved around the everyday dealings of teenagers in Edgemont, a fictitious suburb of Vancouver, British Columbia....
and Entertainment Studios
Entertainment Studios
Entertainers with Byron Allen is a television magazine interview series hosted by Byron Allen which usually airs in low-profile weekend timeslots in syndication, such as early afternoons against competing sports events on other stations a television station knows they will not compete well...
programming meant for children used to receive E/I
E/I
E/I, which stands for "educational and informative," refers to a type of children's television programming shown in the United States. The Federal Communications Commission requires that every full-service Terrestrial television station in the U.S. show at least three hours of these television...
credit. The station carries all syndicated series which offer their programming in the format in high definition.
WITI had also aired episodes of M*A*S*H since the 1977 CBS/ABC affiliation switch, first within its CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
series run and then on into syndication
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
. WISN-TV
WISN-TV
WISN-TV, virtual channel 12.1 , is a television station located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin serving as an affiliate of the ABC television network. Its signal covers most of southeastern Wisconsin and parts of northeastern Illinois, including Racine, Kenosha, Sheboygan and Waukesha...
channel 12 originally aired syndicated M*A*S*H reruns at 5 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. and then later at 11 p.m. along with other varied time periods when M*A*S*H originally sold in syndication. WITI gained syndication rights to the show in the 1990s after a long and successful run on WISN. At the time when WITI was an ABC affiliate, in the early 1970s it pre-empted The Dick Cavett Show
The Dick Cavett Show
The Dick Cavett Show has been the title of several talk shows hosted by Dick Cavett on various television networks, including:* ABC daytime ...
in favor of old movies, it was shown instead on WVTV-TV when it was an independent station
Independent station
An independent station is in the category of television terminology used to describe a television station broadcasting in the United States or Canada that is not affiliated with any television network....
at the time, also they pre-empted All My Children
All My Children
All My Children is an American television soap opera that aired on ABC from January 5, 1970 to September 23, 2011. Created by Agnes Nixon, All My Children is set in Pine Valley, Pennsylvania, a fictitious suburb of Philadelphia. The show features Susan Lucci as Erica Kane, one of daytime's most...
in favor of the noon news. The show was taken off the schedule in September 2007 to make way for the move of the noon news to 11 a.m. and a replay of TMZ on TV, but was returned in February 2008. The station ended carrying the series in September 2009, likely due to Local TV's ownership.
As was the case with many of the stations acquired from New World, WITI has never aired Fox's children's block in either the Fox Kids
Fox Kids
Fox Kids was the Fox Broadcasting Company's American children's programming division and brand name from September 8, 1990 until September 7, 2002. It was owned by Fox Television Entertainment airing programming on Monday–Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings.Depending on the show, the...
or 4Kids TV
4Kids TV
4Kids TV was a Saturday morning television programming block on the Fox Broadcasting Company. The block was part of the Fox Network schedule...
iterations. The block stayed with WCGV for ten years after WITI took the Fox affiliation and in September 2004 moved to independent station WMLW-CA
WMLW-CA
WMLW-CA, channel 41 , is a LPTV independent television station located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Its transmitter is located in Milwaukee's Lincoln Park...
channel 41, where it ended in December 2008. Subsequently WITI has refused to carry the current Saturday morning Weekend Marketplace
Weekend Marketplace
Weekend Marketplace is a two hour Saturday morning block of paid programming airing on Fox that began airing on January 3, 2009, replacing the 4Kids TV Saturday morning cartoon block that aired using time leased by 4Kids from Fox from 2002 until the last Saturday of 2008...
infomercial
Infomercial
Infomercials are direct response television commercials which generally include a phone number or website. There are long-form infomercials, which are typically between 15 and 30 minutes in length, and short-form infomercials, which are typically 30 seconds to 120 seconds in length. Infomercials...
block, along with both WCGV and WMLW, and it is unseen in the Milwaukee market.
On September 7, 2010 WITI debuted a new morning news program called Real Milwaukee, the show is hosted by WITI anchors Katrina Cravy and Nicole Koglin, former WMCS
WMCS
This article is about the radio station, for the school, see West Memphis Christian SchoolWMCS is an African-American-oriented talk and music radio station in Milwaukee, Wisconsin...
radio host Cassandra McShepard, and meteorologist Rob Haswell and also includes a “roving reporter," Tony Clark in the field, showcasing interesting people and places in Milwaukee. The news talk show, which airs after Fox 6 Wake-Up News at 9 a.m., is produced by the FOX 6 News Department and is similar to the non-traditional 8am hour of FOX 6 Wake Up. The program takes on current events and issues from the community and in October, 2010, two shows included Tom Barrett (Wisconsin candidate for Governor-D) and Rebecca Kleeyfisch (Wisconsin candidate for Lt. Governor-R) as guests for both hours. The program has also dedicated an entire hour to the issue of breast cancer awareness. The station has made it clear that it will not be an equal competitor to WTMJ's The Morning Blend and not feature paid demonstration segments by local businesses like Blend does.
News operation
WITI broadcasts a total of 54½ hours of local news a week (9½ hours on weekdays, and 3½ hours each on Saturdays and Sundays), for the most local newscasts of any television station in the Milwaukee market and the entire state of Wisconsin. The news programming on WITI ranges from a traditional 10 p.m. newscast, to a 90-minute early evening news block, to an hour long feature-driven 9 p.m. newscast, to 5½ hours (4:30-10 a.m.) of weekday morning newscasts and Real Milwaukee.From the time WITI became a Fox O&O station in the mid-1990s, the station has put more emphasis on its local newscasts; it has more or less maintained a newscast schedule similar to an ABC, CBS or NBC affiliate, along with additional newscasts from 7-9 a.m. and 5:30-6 p.m. on weekdays and the hour-long nightly primetime newscast at 9 p.m. The station is also one of a steadily growing number of Fox stations with a newscast in the traditional late news timeslot (in WITI's case, 10 p.m. Central time), in addition to the primetime 9 p.m. newscast, along with one of the few to continue their existing Big Three-era 10 p.m. newscast after the affiliate switch, and one of a handful of Fox stations to run a 10 p.m. (or 11 p.m.) newscast seven nights a week. The station's newscasts usually place a strong third in the ratings behind WTMJ and WISN
WISN-TV
WISN-TV, virtual channel 12.1 , is a television station located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin serving as an affiliate of the ABC television network. Its signal covers most of southeastern Wisconsin and parts of northeastern Illinois, including Racine, Kenosha, Sheboygan and Waukesha...
, both of whom fight it out for first place, though the morning newscast, Fox 6 Wake-Up News, is very competitive with the national network shows, and occasionally comes in first in the ratings because of the program's local focus.
On December 3, 2007, the noon newscast on weekdays moved to 11 a.m. Two days prior to that, the Saturday morning Wake-Up broadcast was expanded to two hours beginning at 7 a.m., and the Sunday morning broadcast was also moved to 7 a.m., but remained one hour long. In addition, Gus Gnorski's DIY program on Saturday mornings, Ask Gus, was put on hiatus, with Gnorski's segments merged into the Saturday morning Wake-Up broadcasts and his former studio becoming the new home of Wake-Up in May 2008. After March 28, 2009, the Saturday morning Wake-Up and 6 p.m. Saturday newscasts were suspended. The Sunday morning Wake-Up and 5 p.m. Sunday newscasts were suspended the following day. On April 4, Ask Gus returned as reruns. The show was expected to continue, however Gnorski's medically-necessitated retirement put an end to these plans. The how-to program ended its original 15-year run on November 24, 2007.
WITI also took advantage of the fact that the audio for Channel 6 could be heard on an FM
Frequency modulation
In telecommunications and signal processing, frequency modulation conveys information over a carrier wave by varying its instantaneous frequency. This contrasts with amplitude modulation, in which the amplitude of the carrier is varied while its frequency remains constant...
radio on 87.7 FM
87.7 FM
-In North America:*87.75 MHz, a frequency-modulated audio subcarrier used by all NTSC-M analog channel 6 television stations**For a listing of channel 6 television stations that promote their audio feeds as their primary signal, advertising as being on 87.7 FM, see :Category:Channel 6 radio...
, mentioning often during its morning newscasts, station promotions, and breaking news events that listeners could 'Listen to Fox 6 in your car'. With the end of analog television service on June 12, 2009 and the end of the nightlight loop on June 30, 2009 (though the nightlight loop was interrupted twice in those two weeks for severe weather coverage), the anomalous audio service on 87.7 was also discontinued.
However, the feature was restored in early August 2009 on the HD3 HD Radio
HD Radio
HD Radio, which originally stood for "Hybrid Digital", is the trademark for iBiquity's in-band on-channel digital radio technology used by AM and FM radio stations to transmit audio and data via a digital signal in conjunction with their analog signals...
subchannel of WMIL-FM
WMIL-FM
WMIL-FM is a country music-formatted radio station in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, licensed to Waukesha, Wisconsin. They are known on-air simply as "FM 106.1". WMIL is owned by Clear Channel Communications....
(106.1), as Channel 6 came to an agreement with the six-station cluster of Clear Channel
Clear channel
A clear-channel station is an AM band Radio station in North America that has the highest protection from interference from other stations, particularly concerning night-time skywave propagation. Usually known as class A stations since 1982, they are occasionally still referred to by their former...
radio stations to provide them weather forecasts and news stories as of July 27, 2009, along with news updates for the LCD billboard network of Clear Channel Outdoor
Clear Channel Outdoor
Clear Channel Outdoor , is a company controlled by Clear Channel Communications and is one of the world's largest outdoor advertising corporations. The company is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona and has operations in six of the seven continents....
in the area; a forecast-only content agreement between Channel 6 and Entercom Communications
Entercom Communications
Entercom Communications Corporation is the fourth-largest broadcasting company in the United States. As of November 2009, Entercom operates 110 radio stations in 23 markets across the United States....
's three local stations and occasional check-in during WakeUp on WXSS
WXSS
WXSS-FM is a top 40 radio station in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The station was created and is programmed by Brian Kelly. It is licensed to Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. They are known as "103.7 Kiss FM" and are owned by Entercom, along with WMYX-FM and WSSP. KISS FM has taken 3rd place for the past 4...
's and WSSP
WSSP
WSSP is a Milwaukee-based sports talk station owned by Entercom.The station is the secondary home station for any play-by-play sports coverage on WTMJ-AM which conflicts with another event; for instance the Milwaukee Bucks air on WSSP if a Milwaukee Brewers game airs. If a Green Bay Packers game...
's morning shows continues without any audible forecasts from Fox 6 meteorologists. The HD Radio subchannel makes WITI one of a few former Channel 6 analog signals in the nation to restore their station audio legally, as Albany, New York
Albany, New York
Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...
's WRGB
WRGB
WRGB, channel 6, is a television station located in Schenectady, New York, USA. WRGB is owned by Freedom Communications, and is the CBS affiliate for the Albany-Schenectady-Troy television market...
attempted a subcarrier audio service after the digital transition that was subsequently pulled on FCC request. Station anchor Ted Perry is also a regular guest on the "Dave & Carole Morning Show" on Saga Communications
Saga Communications
Saga Communications is a broadcasting company that owns and operates stations in 26 markets in the United States. The company, which is based in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan, primarily operates radio stations , but it also operates 9 television stations Saga Communications is a broadcasting...
classic rock
Classic rock
Classic rock is a radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format features music ranging generally from the late 1960s to the late 1980s, primarily focusing on the hard rock genre that peaked in popularity in the...
station WKLH
WKLH
WKLH is a classic rock-formatted radio station in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The station is owned by Saga Communications.-History:The station received its Federal Communications Commission license on November 30, 1955...
(96.5) under his own personal time.
On December 5, 2009, WITI became the second station in Milwaukee (behind WTMJ-TV), and the third station in the state (the first being Madison
Madison, Wisconsin
Madison is the capital of the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Dane County. It is also home to the University of Wisconsin–Madison....
's WISC-TV
WISC-TV
WISC-TV is the CBS affiliate television station for Madison, Wisconsin. The station is the flagship of Madison-based Morgan Murphy Media, and has been affiliated with CBS since its launch on June 24, 1956...
) to air their newscasts in HD. WITI is the first and (as of June 28, 2011) only station in Milwaukee to broadcast all locally-originated portions of its newscasts including live field reports in high definition (WTMJ has a mix of live trucks that can do HD or only 16:9 SD video and chopper is 4:3 SD stretched while WISN airs only studio video in HD and most field footage in 16:9 SD).
In February 2010, WITI extended its weekday morning "WakeUp News" newscast to 4½ hours, now running from 4:30-9 a.m, with WISN following into a 4:30am start in September 2010 when ABC pushed broadcast of America This Morning to an earlier timeslot. On November 16, 2010 WITI announced that after a two-year absence, it would resume its weekend morning edition of "WakeUp News" beginning on April 2, 2011, airing for two hours from 7-9 a.m. on both Saturday and Sunday mornings (the weekend early evening newscasts have not returned as of yet).
Newscast titles
- Milwaukee Newsreel (1956–1961)
- The Six O'Clock Report/The Ten O'Clock Report (1961–1966)
- TV-6 News (1966–1984)
- 24 Hours (10 p.m. newscast; 1966–1977)
- TV-6 Eyewitness NewsEyewitness NewsEyewitness News is a style of news broadcasting used by local television stations in different markets across the United States. It refers to a particular style of television newscast with an emphasis on visual elements and action video...
(1977–1984) - The TV-6 News (1984–1995, WITI used this newscast after the switch from CBS to FOX)
- Six is News (1995–1997)
- Fox Six News (1996–1999)
- Fox 6 News (1999–present)
Station slogans
- Your Kind of People (1969–1970 and 1980s)
- The Winners (1970–1971)
- Today is a New Day (1971–1972)
- You Can Count on Us (1978)
- You Sure Look Like a Winner (1980)
- Fox is Six (general) / Six is News (news; 1995–1997)
- Just You Watch the Best (2006–2008; general slogan)
- The Most Powerful Name in Local News (2007–2011; news slogan)
- So Fox 6 (2008–present; local version of Fox promotional campaign)
- Because It Matters (2011–present)
Current on-air staff (as of November 2011)
Anchors- Sharita Erves - weekend mornings "Weekend WakeUp News"; also weeknight reporter
- Ben Handelman - weekend mornings "Weekend WakeUp News"; also weeknight reporter
- Brad Hicks - Monday-Thursdays at 6 and 9, and Fridays at 5, 5:30, 6, 9 and 10 p.m.
- Tami Hughes - Saturdays at 9 and 10 p.m ; also weeknight reporter
- Nicole Koglin - weekday mornings "WakeUp News"
- Kim Murphy - weekday mornings "WakeUp News"
- Shawn Patrick - weekday mornings "WakeUp News"
- Ted Perry - Monday-Thursdays at 5 and 5:30, Sundays at 9, and Sunday-Thursdays at 10 p.m.
- Anne StateAnne StateAnne M. State is an American television news anchor at WITI-TV in Milwaukee, WI and was one of the two principal news anchors at WBBM-TV in Chicago from 2008 to 2010.- Early life and education :...
- Monday-Thursdays at 6 and 9, and Fridays at 5, 5:30, 6, 9 and 10 p.m. - Mary Stoker SmithMary Stoker SmithMary Stoker Smith is an American television news reporter and anchor.- Biography :Mary Stoker Smith grew up in La Crosse, Wisconsin...
- Monday-Thursdays at 5 and 5:30, Sundays at 9, and Sunday-Thursdays at 10 p.m. - Beverly Taylor - Monday-Thursdays at 11 a.m., and Saturdays at 9 and 10 p.m.; also weeknight reporter
Fox 6 Storm Center
- Vince Condella (AMSAmerican Meteorological SocietyThe American Meteorological Society promotes the development and dissemination of information and education on the atmospheric and related oceanic and hydrologic sciences and the advancement of their professional applications. Founded in 1919, the American Meteorological Society has a membership...
Certified Broadcast MeteorologistCertified Broadcast MeteorologistCertified Broadcast Meteorologist is a rating for meteorologists given by the American Meteorological Society.The Certified Broadcast Meteorologist program was established to raise the professional standard in broadcast meteorology and encourage a broader range of scientific understanding,...
and NWANational Weather AssociationThe National Weather Association is an American professional association with a mission to support and promote excellence in operational meteorology and related activities...
Seals of Approval) - chief meteorologist; Monday-Thursdays at 5, 5:30, 6 and Sunday-Thursdays at 9 and 10 p.m. - Rob HaswellRob HaswellRobert Elmer Kitchener Haswell is a broadcast meteorologist, television and radio personality and speaker in both Canada and the United States....
(AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist and NWA Seals of Approval; CMOS-endorsed weathercaster) - meteorologist; weekday mornings "Wake-Up News" - Brittney Sager - meteorologist; weekend mornings "Weekend WakeUp News", and Mondays and Fridays at 11 a.m.
- Justin Zollitsch (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist and NWA Seals of Approval) - meteorologist; Tuesday-Thursdays at 11 a.m., Fridays at 5, 5:30, and 6 p.m., and Friday-Saturdays at 9 and 10 p.m.
Sports team
- Tom Pipines - sports director; Sunday-Thursdays at 9 and 10 p.m.
- Jen Lada - sports anchor; Friday-Saturdays at 9 and 10 p.m., also weeknight sports reporter
- Tim Van Vooren - sports anchor; weeknights at 5 and 6 p.m.; also sports reporter
Reporters
- Chip Brewster - general assignment reporter
- Bret Buganski - weekend morning reporter
- Katrina Cravy - "Contact 6" consumer reporter
- Brandon Cruz - general assignment reporter; also fill-in sports anchor/reporter
- Angelica Duria - weekday morning reporter
- Laura Langemo - weekday morning reporter
- Mike Lowe - political reporter; also fill-in anchor
- Doug Luzader - Fox News Washington D.C. correspondent
- Bryan Polcyn - investigative reporter
- Henry Rosoff - general assignment reporter
- Jeremy Ross - general assignment reporter; also fill-in anchor
- Jenna Sachs - general assignment reporter
- Myra Sanchick - general assignment reporter
- Wendy Strong - business reporter
- Justin Williams - general assignment reporter
Real Milwaukee
- Tony Clark - "roving reporter"
- Katrina Cravy - co-host
- Rob Haswell - co-host
- Nicole Koglin - co-host
- Cassandra McShepard - co-host
Notable former on-air staff
- Bart Adrian - former meteorologist; retired October 22, 2010. Now teaches at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
- Tom SkillingTom SkillingThomas Ethelbert Skilling, III , known on-air as Tom Skilling, is a popular meteorologist in Chicago, Illinois. He is the chief meteorologist for the weekday midday, 5 and 9 p.m. newscasts at CW affiliate and national cable superstation WGN-TV .-Early beginnings:Skilling began his career in...
- meteorologist (1975–1978; now chief meteorologist at WGN-TVWGN-TVWGN-TV, virtual channel 9 , is the CW-affiliated television station in Chicago, Illinois built, signed on, and owned by the Tribune Company. WGN-TV's studios and offices are located at 2501 W...
in Chicago, Illinois) - Clarice TinsleyClarice TinsleyClarice Tinsley is an American broadcast journalist. In November 1978, she moved to the Dallas/Fort Worth area to anchor the ten o'clock news for KDFW. In 1979 the six o'clock news was added to her duties. Prior to KDFW, she spent three years working for WITI-TV in Milwaukee...
- anchor/reporter/monthly public affairs show host (1975–1978; now at KDFW-TV in Dallas-Fort Worth)