WVTV's 50th Anniversary!

[Dick Nitelinger]

For those of you who don't know, WVTV traces its lineage all the way back to 3 October 1953, when Milwaukee's third TV station, WOKY-TV went on the air on channel 19. Earlier that year (7 September) Milwaukee's second TV station, WCAN-TV went on the air.

In October of 1954, Bartell Broadcaster's sold WOKY-TV to CBS. They pulled WCAN-TV's affiliation, and owner Lou Poller agreed to sell his new facility at 5445 N. 27th St. to CBS . In exchange, he got WOKY-TV's facilities, which he never used. Using the WOKY-TV license, and WCAN-TV's facilities, CBS changed the calls to WXIX and began broadcasting on 27 February 1955.

CBS convinced the FCC to switch Milwaukee's UHF frequencies, and WXIX moved to channel 18 on 27 August 1958.

CBS sold the station to Cream City Broadcasting on 27 March 1959. On 1 April, its programs shifted to WITI. WXIX went dark until 20 July, when it began broadcasting as an independent station. Its calls changed to WUHF on 1 January 1963 after an ownership restructuring, and to WVTV after that group sold the station to Gaylord Broadcasting on 8 June 1966.

Sinclair Broadcast group acquired the station in 1994, but since they owned WCGV-TV, and FCC rules at the time prohibited them from owning more than one station in a metro market area, they sold it to Glencairn, Inc., which was owned by the mother of Sinclair's CEO and a former employee.
Glencairn enetered into an agreement in which Sinclair would run the station.

 After the FCC relaxed those rules, Sinclair was able to acquire the station in 2001.

Ownership and call letter changes aside, the station's history goes back 50 years this fall!

- Dick

[John L]

I assume thou, then WCAN-TV and WCGV-TV are considered 2 different stations.  I suppose, since ch. 25, now ch. 24 was dark for at least 25 years.

-John L.

[Dick Nitelinger]

John,

That's correct. Poller held license or CP (I'm not exactly sure which) for sometime after WCAN-TV went dark. I'm not sure exactly when he lost it, but suspect that it was in February-March of 1960, when the FCC told the holders of unused CP's that they had 30 days to inform them that the station's would really be built or have the CP's revoked. The folks who had a CP for channel 30 lost theirs at the same time.

- Dick

[John L]

I actually wonder if Sinclair Broadcasting will observe and announce, perhaps run some old classic TV shows as part of a 50th anniversary special?

Thou they do list on their website that WVTV signed on the air in 195? as a CBS affiliate.

I remember very well when WTMJ-TV celebrated 40 years on a December Saturday in 1987 they aired old classic TV shows including "Dobie Gillis", etc.  I have that on 3 VHS videotapes somewhere, but if I remember right the quality is not to great since it was done on a front load VCR which had lots of useage. I should try taking a lokk at those tapes again.  They were recordings of WTMJ-TV's 40th anniversary and they interrupted that whole Saturday of NBC Network programming airing old TV shows.

-John L.

[Dick Nitelinger]

John,

I saw that. I actually gave a friend there a timeline of the station's history, but someone neglected that it was originally WOKY-TV.

I saw WTMJ-TV's 35th anniversary show. It was VERY good. They have some old Du Mont shows preserved there, such as a copy of Captain Video.

I don't know that Sinclair has any plans to celebrate its anniversary, but I've been wrong before.

- Dick

[John L]

That was 35 years???  I thought it was 40 years, 1987.  They started on Dec 3, 1947, right?  Therefore the 35th ann would have been in 1982, which was before I started working full time and where I was at now, because we were discussing at work about the weekend when WTMJ-TV ran old time TV shows.

-John L.

[Dick Nitelinger]

John,

It was December of 1982 - a Saturday if I recall correctly. I don't recall them doing anything for the 40th, but they may have.

- Dick

[Ron Kurer]

"From Black & White to Satellite WTMJ-TV's 40th Anniversary" ran on Channel 4 in 1987. I have the whole evening on Beta tapes. The shows included Boston Blackie, Tombstone Territory, Mr. Peepers, Mr. District Attorney, Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts and a local show called It's a Draw. I haven;t watched them in a while, so I'm not sure how the tapes have held up.

[Kevin Arnold]

You should think about burning those to DVD before the format dies completely.

[Ron Kurer]

I probably will. I have to check them out first. I haven't fired up the old Beta machine in quite some time...

[midwesterntv]

I currently have a clip from WTMJ's 50th anniversary on my site, milwaukee.dylanwilbur.com

I am working on putting up more clips from the video, which features several segments done on December 3, 1997, as well as some old promos that were attached to the end of the tape which can be found on my site (Hello Milwaukee, News Force) as well as the credits from Bill Carlsen's retirement.

[Dick Nitelinger]

Happy 50th Birthday WVTV!

[John L]

When they signed on Oct. 3, 1953 they signed on as an independent, didn't they? Or where they CBS right away? I thought WCAN-TV was CBS until 1958, then ch. 18 was CBS for less then a year before WITI-TV picked up CBS.

-John L.

[Dick Nitelinger]

John,

The entire story, of course, can be found at:

http://www.milwaukee-horror-hosts.com!

WOKY-TV and WOKY radio were both affiliated with ABC. WOKY-TV was also affiliated with Du Mont. You're correct, WCAN-TV had just gone on the air a month earlier and was the primary CBS affiliate.

The folks at channel 12 (WTVW) snatched the ABC and Du Mont affiliations a year later, and WOKY-TV was sold to CBS. As I mention in another thread, CBS cancelled WCAN-TV's affiliation and purchased their facilities.

Thus CBS changed the call letters to WXIX, and used the WCAN-TV facilities (new studios at 5445 North 27th St., tower and transmitter located atop the Schroeder Hotel) and WOKY-TV's license.

- Dick   :wave: