WITI's 50th Anniversary

[Dick Nitelinger]

Copyright 2005, Dick Golembiewski

May marks the golden anniversary of yet another Milwaukee television station, as WITI began broadcasting on 21 May 1956. Oddly enough, the station owes its existence to a long-time competitor.

The Hearst Corp. owned two newspapers in Milwaukee in the 1920's. It owned the morning paper, The Milwaukee Sentinel, as well as The Wisconsin News, which came out in the afternoon. The School of Engineering of Milwaukee (now MSOE – my alma mater) had started a radio station, WIAO, which began broadcasting on 22 September 1922. In 1924, The Wisconsin News began broadcasting on the station on a part-time basis. In 1925, the station's call letters were changed to WSOE. In 1928, the station's call letters were changed to WISN. The call letters were taken from the newspaper. The station was operated six days a week by The School of Engineering in conjunction with The Wisconsin News. One day it shared time with Marquette University's station, WHAD. Federal law later forbade schools from associating with commercial radio stations, and The School of Engineering divested itself of its interest in WISN. The Wisconsin News  ceased publishing during The Great Depression, but Hearst kept the call letters.

In the FCC television committee's second report (1939), it pointed out that only the lower channels (1-7) were developed due to power limitations. (19 channels had been made available for TV at the time.) Hearst showed little interest in operating a television station in Milwaukee, even though The Journal Co., had been experimenting for some time, and had applied for, and received a construction permit for a commercial television station in September of 1941 (the second issued by the FCC). That station was to operate on channel 3, which at the time was on 66-72 MHz. With the outbreak of WWII, all new television construction was frozen by the Defense Communication Board.

Although the Allied Powers were victorious in Europe, it looked like the war against Japan would go on for some time. New radio construction, which had been permitted on a case-by-case basis by the Defense Communication Board, was frozen in January of 1945, as the resources would be needed for the war effort. Despite that atmosphere, Hearst applied for a construction permit to operate a commercial television station on channel 4 (at the time 78-84 MHz) on 13 June 1945. At the time there were no regulations which attempted to eliminate adjacent channel interference.

With the dropping of the two atomic bombs in August of 1945, WWII came to an abrupt end. The FCC made plans to lift he freeze on new radio and TV stations. First it had to adopt new regulations and standards of good engineering practice for FM and television. (Pending were 486 FM, 25 educational radio, and 125 TV applications.)

In September of 1945, the FCC released its draft rules and regulations for post-war television and assigned New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, seven channels each. Channels were also assigned to 33 other cities. Milwaukee was assigned channels 3, 5, 8 and 10. Madison was also assigned channel 3. After a hearing on 4 October, the FCC issued a revised assignment table. To eliminate possible co-channel interference, Madison was assigned channel 6 instead of channel 3. Milwaukee lost a channel and was assigned channels 3, 8 and 10. After further discussion, the Commission adopted new assignments on 21 November 1945. Milwaukee gained a channel back, and received channels 3, 6, 8 and 10. Madison received channel 9. Those assignments became effective on 25 February 1946. New channel frequency allocations became effective on 1 March 1946. Only 13 VHF channels were now allocated to TV. Channel 3 was now 60-66 MHz. FM moved to 88-108 MHz (between TV channels 6 and 7), and TV channel 1 was now in what had been the FM band. The FCC admitted that thirteen channels might be insufficient, and that television might eventually have to be moved to the UHF portion of the spectrum. Compounding the uncertainty was CBS' submission of a proposal for UHF, color system in September of 1946. The Journal Co. and Hearst, like many other broadcasters, waited to see where in the frequency spectrum the FCC would allocate television before investing further. The Journal Co. returned its construction permit, and Hearst withdrew its application. Nationwide, 80 of 158 applications were withdrawn by the end of 1946.

On 6 December 1946, The Journal Co. applied for another commercial television license. On 24 January 1947, the FCC issued them a construction permit. In March of 1947, the FCC rejected the CBS color, UHF proposal. That was seen as the "go" signal for B&W, VHF television.

On 3 December 1947 WTMJ-TV began broadcasting on channel 3. It was the first television station in the state of Wisconsin, and the eleventh in the nation. Once WTMJ-TV started broadcasting, residents began purchasing television receivers. Broadcasting reported that by 1 April 1948, 2050 sets had been installed - of which 74 percent were in private homes. Radio stations, not knowing if television would replace them as primary broadcast outlets, jumped on the bandwagon. The Wisconsin Broadcasting System, Inc. (owners of WFOX radio) applied for a construction permit for channel 8 on 16 March 1948. Hearst Radio, Inc. (which had filed an application for channel 4 in June of 1945) filed an application for channel 10 on 24 March. The Kapital City Broadcasting Co. of Des Moines, Iowa applied for channel 6 on 12 April. (One of the company's principals had a construction permit for an FM station in Milwaukee, WMIL, and transferred it to Kapital.) WEXT, Inc. (Owned by the Bartell Brothers, who later changed the frequency and the call letters to WOKY) also applied for channel 6 on 12 April. Finally, Milwaukee Broadcasting Co. (WEMP) applied for channel 6 on 21 May.

Consolidated hearings were scheduled by the FCC for 29 July. Prior to the hearings, Kapital Broadcasting amended its application to change the name of the applicant to Majestic Broadcasting Co. Since there were three applicants for channel 6, Milwaukee Broadcasting Co. petitioned the FCC "for leave to amend its application to specify channel 6 or such other channel as may be available for assignment in area in lieu of request for channel 6 only". That petition was denied on 23 July. Also denied was a petition by the Midwest Broadcasting Co. (owner of WMAW - later WCAN - radio) asking for a continuance of the hearings. It is likely that was because Midwest intended to apply for one of the available channels.

Just prior to the start of the hearings, Majestic Broadcasting asked the FCC to dismiss its application for channel 6. That it did without prejudice. After the first round of hearings, several petitions were filed with the FCC: WEXT, Inc. asked the FCC to dismiss its application for channel 6. The FCC granted that petition on 10 September 1948. That left three channels and three unopposed applicants. All three were granted a joint petition for an indefinite continuance of the consolidated TV hearings, which had been scheduled for 8 September, and asked that the FCC immediately grant them construction permits. The Commission was considering the request when other factors intervened.

The FCC proposed new channel allocations in 1948, but those were still inadequate to provide coverage across the entire country. (Milwaukee's allocations wouldn't have changed. Madison would have received two channels, rather than one.) On 6 May of that year, the Commission eliminated channel 1 from the TV spectrum and allocated it to land mobile, emergency services. There simply weren't enough available channels to meet the demand.

Adding to the controversy were comments from the FCC's acting chief engineer, in which he opined that channels 2-6 would be deleted from the television spectrum and assigned to land mobile use, that channels 7-13 would be used for "low-definition" television, and that the then untested UHF band would eventually be used for "high-definition", color TV. Broadcasters, as well as consumers were concerned that their investments in equipment might be negated.

The FCC held hearings on 20-23 September 1948 re: the use of the UHF band as a way of adding to the television frequency spectrum and as such increase the number of channels available. In order to allow time for study, it froze all television license applications as of 30 September 1948. The freeze should have lasted only a short time, but was extended because of the Korean War as well as the FCC's distraction with color television standards. The freeze occurred before the FCC could grant the other three Milwaukee VHF channels.

On 1 July 1952, the freeze on new TV licenses was lifted by the FCC. It provided for 617 VHF, 1436 UHF, and 242 educational/non-commercial licenses. Eleven of the latter were assigned to Wisconsin. The FCC also set three different broadcast zones with different mileage separation and antenna height regulations. The commission adopted a policy of intermixing VHF and UHF channels in the same markets. Milwaukee received VHF channels 4, 10 and 12, and UHF channels 19, 25 and 31. Channel 10 was designated as educational. Hearst immediately re-filed its application for channel 10 - even though it was now assigned for educational use.

(End of Part I)

[Dick Nitelinger]

(Part II)

Copyright 2005, Dick Golembiewski

Hearst asked the FCC to reconsider its decision to allocate the channel for educational use. Hearst and the Wisconsin Broadcasting System, Inc. also asked that additional channels be assigned to Milwaukee. The FCC rejected both requests on 20 November 1952. For the first time, the FCC heard oral arguments in a license matter, when it heard Hearst's petition to have channel 10 assigned to commercial rather than educational use on 16 February 1953.

On 19 March 1953, Hearst requested that the FCC rehear its petition. The Commission turned down that request on 31 March.

In early October of 1953, Hearst put forward a plan to request that a fourth VHF channel be assigned to the Milwaukee area (Ch. 6), and that plan was endorsed by the Milwaukee Common Council on 6 October 1953. The plan allocated the channel to the village of Whitefish Bay, and required the FCC to swap channels in Green Bay, Wisconsin and Marquette, Michigan in order to avoid interference. (Green Bay had been assigned channel 6, and had two applicants, while Marquette, had been assigned channel 5, but had no applicants.) WCAN-TV and WOKY-TV protested the resolution. Hearst indicated that if the channel was allocated by the FCC, it would drop its application for channel 10. Less than a week later, the FCC proposed rule making to amend its channel assignments and add channel 6 to Whitefish Bay. Hearst then requested a continuance of its case before the U.S. Court of Appeals re: the FCC's refusal to change channel 10's classification from educational to commercial, while it waited for the FCC's decision on the assignment of channel 6. (Whitefish Bay was chosen, as locating the station there would meet the FCC's requirement that 170 miles separate stations on the same channel.)

The Ultra High Frequency Television Association was incorporated in October of 1953, specifically to lobby for such stations. Lou Poller, president of WCAN-TV in Milwaukee (channel 25) became the association's president, and their first effort was to block the assignment of channel 6 to Milwaukee. They filed an objection with the FCC, as did WCAN-TV.  (UHF stations were generally at a disadvantage in markets where there was strong VHF competition. UHF transmitters available at the time didn't have the same power, and the owners of existing receivers had to purchase converters in order to receive a UHF signal. Lou Poller had amended his application from channel 12 to channel 25 in order to get on the air quickly. Because there were four applicants for channel 12 (the only VHF channel available for commercial use as WTMJ-TV was assigned channel 4), it looked like it would be at least two years before the hearings before the FCC would be concluded, the construction permit assigned, and a station ready to operate. Under those circumstances, Poller thought that a UHF station might be able to establish itself strongly enough to compete. The addition of another VHF channel to the market would upset that balance.)

Other objections were filed by WOC-TV of Davenport, Iowa (Now KWQC), and WJIM-TV of Lansing, Michigan (now WLNS). WOC-TV was on channel 5 at the time; WJIM-TV on channel 6. Hearst formally replied to the objections filed to its proposal on channel 6 on 21 November 1953.

On 4 December 1953, the FCC allotted channel 6 to the village of Whitefish Bay. (In doing so, it pointed out that the location of the new station would comply with its regulations re: separation. It also rejected arguments by WCAN-TV and The Ultra High Frequency Television Association that the table of channel assignments couldn't be changed.) The same day, Cream City Broadcasting, Inc. turned in its construction permit for channel 31 (Cream City operated radio station WMIL, and had received the CP on 19 August 1953.) and filed an application for channel 6. On 7 December, Hearst filed an application for the same channel.

The Ultra High Frequency Television Association filed a protest with the FCC asking it to reconsider its assignment of channel 6 to Milwaukee. The UHFTA argued that the assignment of another VHF channel to a city defeated the Commission's original purpose in intermixing UHF and VHF channels in the same markets, and had the potential to destroy the investment made by UHF station owners - without the benefit of a public hearing.

On 8 January 1954, Independent Television, Inc., headed up by Holeproof Hosiery Co. president Jack Kahn, applied for channel 6. The same week, WCAN-TV asked the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington to order the FCC to revoke its assignment of channel 6 to Whitefish Bay. Lou Poller complained that the FCC had made its assignment decision without giving those objecting a chance to be heard. He also claimed that the assignment of the channel to Whitefish Bay was a ruse, which was being used to get around the 170-mile separation rule, and that Hearst intended to locate the station in Milwaukee. He also claimed to have lost money because advertisers either cancelled or had not renewed contracts because Hearst (WISN) salesmen had told them that they would receive the assignment and would begin broadcasting on VHF within 60 days. A week later, WCAN-TV asked the court to issue a temporary injunction preventing the FCC from assigning channel 6 to the area. Hearst and Cream City Broadcasting, Inc. both objected.

On 20 January 1954, the District of Columbia circuit court of appeals denied WCAN-TV's motion for a temporary injunction restraining the FCC from allocating channel 6 to Whitefish Bay. The FCC proceeded with plans to hold hearings on the applications from Hearst, Cream City Broadcasting, Inc., and Independent Television, Inc. Such hearings were contingent on the court of appeals' final ruling on the matter. At the same time, WCAN-TV asked the FCC to dismiss Hearst's application for channel 6, claiming that it did not intend to locate the station in Whitefish Bay, but rather would locate its studios in Milwaukee, and its transmitter and tower on land it recently acquired in the town of Granville. Lou Poller also claimed that if Hearst was granted channel 6, his station would lose its CBS affiliation, as WISN had a clause in its contract which gave it the right of first refusal should it operate a television station in the area. He also claimed that antitrust laws might be violated as Hearst owned WISN and The Milwaukee Sentinel. In addition, he claimed that the assignment of another VHF station to the area would cost his station advertising revenue.

The last week of April, 1954, the FCC agreed to allow WCAN-TV to participate in hearings on channel 6. However, it refused to dismiss Hearst's application. At the same time, it questioned the engineering qualifications of Cream City Broadcasting.

The Ultra High Frequency Television Association proposed that the FCC freeze new VHF grants until exiting UHF stations were well-established.

In late May of 1954, the FCC delayed hearing the applications for channel 6, while it considered various motions. Cream City Broadcasting, Inc. and Independent Television, Inc. asked for more information re: Hearst's broadcasting activities. At the same time, Hearst sought to have the Midwest Broadcasting Co. (WCAN-TV) removed from the hearings. Cream City and Independent countercharged that each had filed applications in bad faith: Independent's attorney had also represented the Ultra High Frequency Television Association, and as such Cream City suggested that its late application might have been designed to obstruct the proceedings. A stock holder in Cream City had been an administrative assistant to Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy (who had actively urged the FCC to adopt Hearst's proposal to assign another VHF channel to the area). As such, Independent suggested that Cream City's application (which had been submitted without adequate details re: its financing) would be withdrawn in order to allow Hearst an immediate grant. (Two weeks earlier, Cream City asked the FCC to dismiss Independent's application, as it had been notarized by a party with an interest in the matter. Independent claimed that the Wisconsin law cited by Cream City only applied to banks.)

On 9 June 1954, the FCC's broadcast bureau filed objections to Midwest Broadcasting's petition to broaden the hearings for channel 6 to include Hearst's affiliation contract with CBS, as well as Cream City Broadcasting's petitions re: Independent Television Inc.'s application. The Bureau asked that the petitions be dismissed.

On 29 July 1954, the FCC rejected Cream City Broadcasting's petition to dismiss the application of Independent Television, Inc. on the grounds that its application was improperly notarized. The Commission ordered that the documents be notarized a second time. The FCC also rejected Cream City's request for an inquiry into whether Independent had filed its application in "good faith". At the same time, it denied a motion by Midwest Broadcasting which proposed that it investigate whether the three applicants for channel 6 intended to primarily serve Whitefish Bay or Milwaukee. It also denied Hearst's petition that it reconsider its decision to allow Midwest to intervene in the hearings.

On 27 October, WTVW, owned and operated by the Milwaukee Area Telecasting Co., began broadcasting on channel 12.

In early November of 1954, the three applicants for channel 6 announced that they were attempting to negotiate a merger in order to avoid lengthy hearings. That same month, the Hearst Corp. entered into negotiations to purchase WTVW (Ch.12).

Despite objections from the chairman of the board of WTVW's parent company the FCC approved the sale of WTVW to the Hearst Corp. on 4 March 1955. Hearst then dropped its application for channel 6.

(End of Part II)

[Dick Nitelinger]

(Part III)

Copyright 2005, Dick Golembiewski

On 22 April 1955, Cream City Broadcasting, Inc. asked the FCC to dismiss its application for channel 6 after reaching an agreement with Independent Television, Inc. In consideration, Independent agreed to reimburse Cream City for a portion of its engineering and legal expenses once a construction permit was granted. (Earlier, the FCC had questioned Cream City's television engineering abilities.)

Approval for a fourth VHF frequency in the area, to be awarded to Independent Television, Inc., was recommended by an FCC examiner on 11 June 1955. On 29 June, a construction permit was granted to the group, which began broadcasting as WITI from facilities located on North Port Washington and West Donges Bay Roads on 21 May 1956. At that time, it was an independent station, with no network affiliation. WITI was the first station to use the Du Mont "Vitascan" color system. Although designed to work with the NTSC electronic color system, it was short-lived, and WITI broadcast primarily in black and white.

Despite owning UHF station WXIX (Which had started out as WOKY-TV in 1953, and was later sold to CBS in October of 1954. It began broadcasting as WXIX in February of 1955, using the license of WOKY-TV and the facilities of WCAN-TV which it also purchased.), CBS desired to affiliate with a VHF station. It estimated at the time that only 20% of the television sets in the area were capable of receiving a UHF signal. In anticipation of that move, Storer Broadcasting of Miami, FL, purchased WITI on 8 August 1958 for $4.4 million. Several offers had been made for the station the previous year, including one by The Meredith Publishing Co. of Des Moines, Iowa. In a letter to Storer management, the FCC asked if they intended to set advertising rates for WITI in combination with its other stations. Storer had operated WVUE in Wilmington, Delaware as an independent station, but had discontinued operations for financial reasons. The FCC wanted to know how Storer intended to operate WITI as an independent station if they couldn't make WVUE work. Officially, CBS stated that intended to continue operating WXIX, while Storer stated that it would seek a network affiliation for WITI should one become available.

In its response, Storer indicated that it would not set its advertising rates for WITI in combination with its other radio and TV stations, unless forced to do so by its competition (Hearst and CBS). It also stated that although it had failed to operate both WVUE and WGBS-TV successfully as independents, it had learned from those experiences. It also pointed out that the competitive situation was different in those markets than it was in Milwaukee. Nonetheless, most observers believed that Storer wanted to affiliate WITI with CBS.

In anticipation of affiliating with WITI, CBS sold WXIX for $50,000 on 27 March 1959, to Cream City Broadcasting, Inc., headed by WMIL radio owner Eugene Posner. The station's last broadcast day as a CBS-owned station was 31 March 1959, with all programming shifted to WITI the following day at the former WCAN/WXIX studios on North 27th St. Milwaukee then briefly became an all-VHF city. WITI's frequency had been issued to the Village of Whitefish Bay, but since it was now located within the city of Milwaukee, it applied to the FCC to assign channel 6 there. The request was granted on 30 July 1959. (In that way, the station was listed in the Milwaukee market in trade publications.)

On 2 April 1961, WISN-TV and WITI swapped affiliations, with WITI becoming the ABC affiliate, and WISN-TV the CBS. CBS had WISN radio as its local outlet, and had wanted to affiliate with WISN-TV as well.

In 1961, WITI received FCC approval for a new tower. The original location was to have been on an acre at the rear of the "Pig 'N' Whistle drive-in on East Capitol Drive. That site proved to be inadequate (The original plan was to build new studios at the location as well as a tower and transmitter.), and the station optioned a 2 acre parcel of land a few hundred feet north. In August of 1962, construction of a 1078 foot tower at East Capitol Drive and Estabrook Parkway was completed. It was formally dedicated on 9 October 1962. WTMJ-TV and WISN-TV both had towers located nearby, and by locating their tower in the same area, WITI made it easy for viewers to orient their VHF antennas in the same general direction. Since there was no room for guy wires on the property, the tower was self-supporting, and was, at the time, the tallest structure of its type. WITI was looking for a way to make the tower a Milwaukee landmark, and in October of 1963, the station received permission from the Shorewood village board to install lights on it. Shortly thereafter, approximately 2000, 25 Watt lights were installed. Station manager Roger LeGrand coined the phrase "Milwaukee's Tower of Light". An architect who lived 1400 ft. north of the tower filed an objection, citing Shorewood's illuminated sign ordinance, which prohibited such signs over fifty square feet. He also argued that the lighted tower was an infringement on the "aesthetic rights" of Shorewood residents who lived nearby. The lights stayed on until the energy crisis of 1973-74, and were finally removed in 2003.

At 1:30 p.m. on 5 March 1963, WITI experimented with a process developed in Austria called Telcon, which produced a "color effect" on black & white sets. For 60 seconds a channel 6 identification card was shown surrounded by pulsating diagonal lines. Some viewers reported seeing yellow, purple and green lines on their sets. The station continued the experiment the rest of the week.

(End of Part III)

[Dick Nitelinger]

(Part IV)

Copyright 2005, Dick Golembiewski

On 27 April 1977, WITI and WISN-TV again swapped affiliations, with WISN-TV reverting to ABC and WITI to CBS.

In 1983, Storer Broadcasting became Storer Communications, Inc. (SCI).

On 21 May 1986, Lorimar Telepictures offered to buy WITI from Storer. The deal collapsed in November of that year.

In late 1987, Racine native George Gillett, Jr. purchased WITI and five other stations from SCI.

Gillett Holdings (after a corporate bankruptcy in 1992) later merged with Wometco Broadcasting. They then merged with New World Entertainment to form New World Communications in December of 1993.

Milwaukee television had its first major shake-up in years in 1994, when WITI elected to drop its affiliation with CBS, and instead affiliate with the Fox Network. (Fox's parent, News Corporation, had acquired a 20 percent interest in New World Communications.)

News Corporation (Fox) acquired New World Communications in January of 1997, and as a result became the new owner of WITI.

Born in the heat of the VHF-UHF battle of the 1950's, WITI (originally the calls were WITI-TV) has been an independent, CBS affiliate (twice), an ABC affiliate, and finally first an affiliate of, and now an O&O of Fox. From the short-lived Du Mont Vitascan color system, to Milwaukee's "Tower of Light", it has provided many interesting features over the years.

In 2007, we look forward to the 50th anniversary of WMVS!

- Dick  :OnAir:

Milwaukee Horror Hosts and TV History

[Tom Snyder]

Hey Dick! Thanks a million for this great bit of Milwaukee Media history!

[Dick Nitelinger]

Tom,

You're welcome.

It's an interesting story. It started out as an attempt by Hearst to get another VHF channel for the area. They wound up buying channel 12 instead. WCAN-TV president Lou Poller got caught in it all, and wound up out of business as a result. He was absolutely right about his inability to compete once channel 6 was assigned here - especially after losing the CBS affiliation. Then CBS wound up on VHF some years later!

Cream City turned in their CP for channel 31 as owning a VHF was more attractive. (In addition the higher frequencies require more power and are subsequently more expensive.) They wound up losing to Independent, which entered the competition at the 11th hour. Of course, Cream City eventually bought channel 18!

This one has been a fascinating story.

- Dick

[John L]

I have been noticing ads on WITI-TV with Carl Zimmerman talking about WITI history until Perry interrupts him to hold his breath until 9:00 pm this Sunday January 29th, 2006 at 9:00 pm.  I believe they will be looking back to the history of WITI-TV when it first went on the air in 1956.

-John L.

[techguy1975]

I have been noticing ads on WITI-TV with Carl Zimmerman talking about WITI history until Perry interrupts him to hold his breath until 9:00 pm this Sunday January 29th, 2006 at 9:00 pm.  I believe they will be looking back to the history of WITI-TV when it first went on the air in 1956.

-John L.

Perry's People is a segment in the 9:00 news, usually only about 5-7 minutes or so..  They've been running alot of station ID's promoting the fact they are now 50, I wonder if they will have some kind of special closer to the actual anniversary date

[Dick Nitelinger]

I can only say that as I understand it, this Sunday's segment should be very interesting.

- Dick