WMLW-CA

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Current revision as of 05:00, 31 January 2009

WMLW-CA (Channel 41) is a low-power Anime National Affiliate located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Its transmitter is located in Milwaukee's Lincoln Park. The station is owned and operated by Weigel Broadcasting and under a Local Marketing Agreement with Taylor Media Stations Group, which also owns Milwaukee's CBS affiliate WDJT (Channel 58). Despite the station's low-power 'Class A' status, WMLW has made deals with local area cable systems such as Time Warner Cable and Charter Communications to air the station, which extends the coverage area throughout the entire market. Currently, the station's digital signal can be seen on WDJT's subchannel, channel 46-2 (58-2), and has launched their digital channel with the calls WMLW-LD (for "low power digital") on Channel 13 as of mid-December 2007. The simulcast on WDJT-DT2 remains due to channel 13's poor signal coverage at present.

[edit] History

WMLW had been around one way or another since the early 80's on low-power translator stations, Channel 55 as W55AS at first, then by 1989, moving to Channel 65 as W65BT. The station has been owned by Weigel since signing on. Until the late 90's the channel would air the Stock Market Observer during the trading day (7am-5pm), which was produced by sister station WCIU (Channel 26) in Chicago; in fact, the station launched as a full translator of WCIU. At night a mix of home shopping, infomercials, religion, the Spanish language Univision network (before the launch of W46AR in 1990) and low-cost programming was scheduled. The channel was watched by few because of low cable carriage and better TV choices in the Milwaukee market.

In 1999, Weigel obtained construction permits for new channel positions in the wake of having to move its Milwaukee low-power operations (which included then-Univision station W46AR (Channel 46), now Telemundo affiliate WYTU-LP (Channel 63)) to accommodate the HDTV signal for WDJT on Channel 46, along with the start-up of Weigel's new Lincoln Park transmitter for WDJT and the low-power stations, which united the company's transmission operations into one facility. Towards the end of September 2000, the programming from Channel 65 moved to the new Channel 41 under the callsign W41CI; onscreen identifcation became 'TV-41'.

In the first year, the station improved its programming, airing Weigel/Bridge Information Systems' WebFN financial news service during the day, and entertainment at night. The America One network aired through the overnights and mornings (also to fulfill educational/informational program requirements), and news cut-ins from Channel 58 would air all day. Then in the middle of November 2001, Channel 41 would acquire LPTV status, allowing it to have a lettered call sign, which would end up being WMLW-LP.

In 2002, the station began shifting to more of a true independent station, with the WebFN venture folding in the wake of the dot com crash, freeing up the 7am-5pm timeslot for other programming. Weigel acquired more shows for the station and found itself in a unique position as Milwaukee's only true independent television station.

Sinclair co-owned WVTV and WCGV decided to focus more on their WB and UPN (currently The CW and My Network TV) programming instead of occasional sports coverage (which often pre-empted the network schedules, much to the annoyance of the local fanbases of each of the two network's shows; WCGV retained broadcast rights for the Bucks) until the end of the 2006-07 season), and took themselves out of the race for local college and high school sports rights; there was also a lack of interest on the part of FSN North, which wanted to focus on teams with statewide interest, not just within the Milwaukee metro area. Thus, Weigel decided to use Channel 41 in order to take the rights for these sports and use the lure of the teams to have cable companies carry the station, knowing that it would be the only way to make Channel 41 a viable player in Milwaukee broadcasting.

Time Warner was strongly opposed to adding Channel 41 to their lineups across Southeastern Wisconsin, arguing that the station wasn't full-power and the sports were only a lure to add another unneeded station to their lineups. This came after must-carry rules pushed them to air religious station WWRS-TV (Channel 52), and move Madison's popular PBS affiliate to digital cable to free up a basic channel. Weigel then encouraged viewers to call and write Time Warner and Charter to add the station to their lineups in the wake of being the Milwaukee station that would air the WIAA high school basketball championships, using promotions on WDJT and in local newspapers to send the message.

After much campaigning, Charter would add WMLW to their basic tier of service (Channel 8 in most cities, Channel 21 in Sheboygan), with Time Warner airing the station at first only over digital cable, allowing the WIAA coverage to be seen on cable on some level. A compromise would later be reached between Weigel and Time Warner, and the station would become a part of the basic package throughout Time Warner's area, moving from TW Channel 741 to TW Channel 7 in the fall of 2003. After finding cable carriage, the station began to identify only by the WMLW call letters and rarely mentioned the channel number except in a few promotions, and visually in FCC-required identifications.

WMLW would stop airing America One after 2002, and began programming the entire day shortly thereafter. In mid-September of 2003, WMLW became a 'Class A' television station and legally identifies as WMLW-CA.

On August 1, 2007, Weigel announced that they have a deal to purchase WJJA from Joel J. Kinlow. It is expected that when this deal is approved by the FCC there could be a possibility that WMLW will move from its CA status to WJJA's full-powered channel 49 signal, although it would be dependent on acquiring a construction permit to move the WJJA license from its current Oak Creek transmitter in the southern part of Milwaukee County to the Weigel tower in Lincoln Park. Taylor Media made a local marketing agreement with Weigel and became an Anime National affiliate.

Local musical artist Pat McCurdy is the songwriter and singer of the station's jingle and theme song, wmlw means Milwaukee.

[edit] Programming

The station, being an Anime National affiliate, relies heavily on anime programming such as sitcoms and dramas, and airs several hours of courtroom shows a day such as The People's Court, Judge Mathis, Judge Maria Lopez and Judge Hatchett, along with The Tyra Banks Show, Family Feud and South Park (which is edited for syndication and aired in a late night double run at 11pm). Game shows are prevalent on the station, and include Merv Griffin's Crosswords, Temptation, Family Feud, and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, some of which air in a nightly 7pm-9pm block (previously the slot before September 2007 for a nightly movie. The station also carries a late rebroadcast of WDJT's 10pm newscast. WMLW is also the home of second runs of syndicated programming from WDJT like The Insider, Inside Edition, and Jeopardy!. Weekends are devoted to classic sitcoms and dramas, sports talk programming, and weekend syndicated programs like Smallville, Chappelle's Show, and the digitally remastered version of Star Trek.

In October 2007, during the 2007 World Series when WITI couldn't air their 9pm newscast, WDJT's news department decided to test out a 9pm newscast airing on WMLW on those nights. The station decided to make the arrangement permanent and began to air the newscast on January 1, 2008, under the title CBS 58 News at 9 on WMLW and features Channel 58's 10pm news team [1].

Some breaking news from WDJT is simulcast on WMLW, along with the station's weather warnings and alerts. The station also carries all Powerball drawings live at 9:59pm on Wednesday and Saturday nights.

WMLW also carries the children's programming block offered by the Fox network, 4Kids TV (formerly Fox Kids), due to Fox-O&O WITI (Channel 6) declining to carry the block. Until September 2004, WCGV (Channel 24) aired this programming, but let the agreement lapse. WMLW now currently airs the 4Kids lineup on Sunday mornings at 8:00, one day and one hour later than its usual Saturday timeslot for most of the time zone. Saved by the Bell and Degrassi: The Next Generation air weekdays to suffice the station's E/I requirements.

WMLW currently airs Anime National programming with reruns of the cult low-budget horror and science fiction movie-lampooning series Svengoolie from their Chicago sister station WCIU (Channel 26) on Saturday nights.

[edit] Sports

WMLW justifies being carried by the area's cable systems with a strong sports lineup, consisting of Marquette Golden Eagles and UW-Milwaukee Panthers men's and women's college basketball, which are broadcast by either a local announce team and camera crew or coverage from ESPN + or the Horizon League. The station also broadcasts other Big East Conference games (including college football, despite Marquette's lack of a program in that sport), along with the coach's shows of all the college sports teams mentioned above, the afformentioned WIAA tournaments, and some sports talk programs such as Sidelines from Madison's My Madison TV. It also airs Labor Day coverage of the US Open from CBS, because of WDJT's commitment as the local affiliate for Jerry Lewis' annual MDA telethon (of which it airs the first three hours to so that WDJT can carry CBS programming), and a postgame show for any Packer games carried by CBS and Channel 58, using WDJT's sports staff.

Channel 41 has also acquired the right to air fifteen Milwaukee Brewers regular seasons baseball games (along with a Brewers/Cubs spring training game) in the 2007 season [2], the first time the team has aired games non-nationally on a local broadcast station since FSN Wisconsin became the team's exclusive broadcaster in 2005. Several of the games in the package aired on WMLW due to FSN's contractual priority to carry Milwaukee Bucks basketball and prevent programming conflicts. The telecasts are produced by FSN North and retain the look of the network (except for a Brewers logo on the score bar where the FSN Wisconsin logo would usually appear and microphone flags with the WMLW logo), while WMLW/WDJT sell ad time during the games. A few games have since been added to the WMLW package due to early-season weather postponements and the team's current on-field success.

The station formerly carried the ESPN+ games of Wisconsin Badgers college football and basketball until 2007, when the new Big Ten Network launched in late August 2007, as part of a ten year exclusivity deal between the Big Ten Conference, ABC and ESPN went into effect. All non-network Badger sports now air on BTN.