Channel 41 emerges from low-power limbo

[Tom Snyder]

Another article sent to us by Rich Kirchen, managing editor of The Business Journal Serving Greater Milwaukee.

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Channel 41 emerges from low-power limbo
Rich Kirchen

In September 2000, Channel 41 premiered in Milwaukee as a low-power television station that carried low budget reruns like "The Munsters," campy horror flicks via the "Svengoolie Movie," the short-lived Web FN business news and syndicated shows including "Queen Latifah."

The station boasted a decent signal for a low-power outlet -- owner Weigel Broadcasting of Chicago says it covers 80 percent of metro Milwaukee -- but viewers in many parts of town couldn't receive it. Furthermore, Channel 41 wasn't available on Time Warner Cable, which connects to more than 60 percent of households in southeastern Wisconsin.

Viewer frustration with the station's limited reach peaked during the 2001-2002 college basketball season, when Channel 41 negotiated for the rights to carry many Big Ten and Conference USA men's basketball games including Marquette University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. At one point, the station's management urged its sports viewers to contact the cable company on its behalf. Time Warner was under no obligation to add the station to its lineup under Federal Communications Commission rules.

Fast forward to this week, when Channel 41 was delivered from low-power obscurity.

Time Warner and the station announced the Channel 41 is joining the standard tier of cable stations, effective Jan. 29. Equally important was Time Warner's placement of the station on Channel 7, which puts it in the same neighborhood as Milwaukee's NBC, CBS, Fox, ABC and PBS affiliates. Channel 7 has been the home of Shop NBC, which will shift to cable Channel 78.

"We'll be in the surf zone," said Jim Hall, general manager of WMLW (Channel 41), as well as Weigel's other Milwaukee stations, CBS affiliate WDJT-TV (Channel 58) and Telemundo affiliate WYTU-LP (Channel 63).

Channel 41 and Channel 63 gained initial entry to Time Warner Cable about a year ago, but only for customers with digital cable equipment, which represent less than half of Time Warner's 420,000 metro subscribers. Even then, the stations were stuck well beyond most viewers' "surf zones" at Channels 741 and 763.

Under the new arrangement, not only will Channel 41 move to Time Warner's front row of local channels, the Tele-mundo station will switch to a better cable slot at Channel 66. Charter Communications, which covers some areas of greater Milwaukee, had previously agreed to carry WMLW.
Local angle

Time Warner's Milwaukee management decided to offer the stations on standard cable to bolster its local programming, said Bev Greenberg, vice president of public affairs. She pointed to Channel 41's sports programming, which includes not only Marquette and UW-Madison, but also University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee basketball and state high school sports.

Other programming on the station includes reruns of sitcoms "Just Shoot Me," "Roseanne" and "Will and Grace," primetime movies and syndicated shows such as "Ricki Lake" and "5th Wheel."

The only period of the day when Channel 41 registers a Nielsen rating is during prime time, when it gets a 1 rating, representing about 8,000 households.

Channel 41's ability to climb into cable's standard tier, let alone capture a prime cable slot, is a major coup for any low-power station, said John Kompas, a Butler-based low-power-television consultant. Time Warner is notorious for not granting low-power stations access to its lineup, he said.

Weigel was apparently able to provide compelling enough programming -- especially local sports -- to convince Time Warner to insert Channel 41 into its roster, Kompas said. Weigel also benefits from the buying power of its CBS station, Channel 58, for better syndicated programming than many low-power stations can afford, he said.

Weigel's shrewdest strategy so far has been to tie up the college sports contract with ESPN Regional college games that no other broadcast station wanted. Weigel signed on to run the games through at least the 2004-2005 season.

Weigel's Milwaukee stations were placed under a new corporate name last year, Madison Halsted L.L.C., but are still owned by Howard Shapiro of Chicago, Hall said.
Limited promotion

The initial promotion for Channel 41's new cable prominence will appear on sister station Channel 58, Hall said. Weigel has no immediate plans for promoting the station in other media, he said. WMLW has hired an advertising sales manager, a position that had been vacant, he said.

Channel 41 clearly has upgraded its attractiveness to advertisers with its new cable spot and may see some incremental growth in commercial revenue, said Greg Clausen, executive vice president and director of media for ad agency Cramer-Krasselt, Milwaukee. However, the station will need to add more programs like "Will and Grace" and "Just Shoot Me" that appeal to a broader audience, he said.

"They're going to get some people wandering by and stopping, but then it's up to the programming to make them stick," Clausen said.

RICH KIRCHEN is the managing editor of The Business Journal Serving Greater Milwaukee. He can be reached at (414) 278-7788 or rkirchen@bizjournals.com.

[Snard]

Originally posted by Tom Snyder
Another article sent to us by Rich Kirchen, managing editor of The Business Journal Serving Greater Milwaukee.

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Channel 41 emerges from low-power limbo
Rich Kirchen

In September 2000, Channel 41 premiered in Milwaukee as a low-power television station that carried low budget reruns like "The Munsters," campy horror flicks via the "Svengoolie Movie," the short-lived Web FN business news and syndicated shows including "Queen Latifah."

Just a quick note/reminder for all Three Stooges fans - WMLW also carry's Rich Koz's "Stooge-a-Palooza" show every week, currently on from 10pm to midnight on Saturdays. He shows 5 uncut and uninterrupted Stooge short subjects during each show, centered around a particular theme. One of his highlights is that he has access to the entire 190 short library, and shows them all.

I'm a Stooge fan, and I'm looking forward to the station moving to channel 7, so I can record these shows via my TV tuner card without an audio/video cable snaking across the room from my cable box.

BTW, I quoted the above text from the article, because Stooge-a-Palooza host Rich Koz is also none other than Svengoolie. That show still appears once in a while on WMLW, but hasn't been on much during the basketball/football season.

[John L]

Question is;

  Is WMLW-LP going to be carried over all of TWC in Southeastern Wiscosnin, or is it just the Immediate Milwaukee area???

  Because our TVG no longer notes about WMLW-LP and WYTU-LP, and also nothing on my bill.

  Someone pointed out that it will ONLY cover TWC North and South shore tiers and not Muskego, or any other TWC system.

-John L.

[mhz40]

Originally posted by John L
[clip]Question is;

  Is WMLW-LP going to be carried over all of TWC in Southeastern Wiscosnin, or is it just the Immediate Milwaukee area???
-John L. [/clip]

As I mentioned in a previous post:
If you 'see' ShopNBC on channel 7 now, it will be replaced by WMLW on the 29th.  If you see programming other than ShopNBC on channel 7 now, you will still be able to see the programming of WMLW, but will need to be a digital subscriber to do so.

[John L]

Originally posted by mhz40
As I mentioned in a previous post:
If you 'see' ShopNBC on channel 7 now, it will be replaced by WMLW on the 29th.  If you see programming other than ShopNBC on channel 7 now, you will still be able to see the programming of WMLW, but will need to be a digital subscriber to do so.

Sounds good.  yes I have Shop NBC on ch. 7 right now.

I can get WMLW-LP both analog and digital OTA, but I rather get it off analog cable since my computer receives the analog and digital.  My pc with the Hauppage Win-TV-D card connected to a outdoor antenna, power amp and rotor.  Whats neat is I've gotten other DTV signals other than Milwaukee.  I've gotten a few channels from Chicago and Madison.

-John L.

[Dick Nitelinger]

Just a tiny bit of housekeeping folks:

WMLW became a "Class A" station (giving it frequency protection) back in September. As such, the calls are now WMLW-CA.

- Dick

:wave:

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