WLUK-TV

WLUK-TV

Green Bay/Fox Cities, Wisconsin
Branding	Fox 11 (general) Fox 11 News (newscasts)
Slogan	Your Station for Balanced News and Severe Weather Coverage
Channels	Digital: 11 (VHF) Virtual: 11 (PSIP)
Subchannels	11.1 Fox
Translators	W40AN-D 40 Escanaba, MI
Owner	LIN Media (LIN of Wisconsin, LLC)
First air date	1954
Call letters' meaning	LUcKy Eleven (original on-air slogan)
Sister station(s)	WCWF
Former callsigns	WMBV-TV (1954–1959)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 11 (VHF, 1954–2009) Digital: 51 (UHF, ?–2009)
Former affiliations	NBC (1954–1959, 1983–1995) ABC (1959–1983)
Transmitter power	40 kW
Height	384 m
Facility ID	4150
Transmitter coordinates	44°24′32″N 87°59′31″W
Website	fox11online.com

WLUK-TV is the Fox-affiliated television station for the Fox River Valley area and Northeastern Wisconsin. Licensed to Green Bay, Wisconsin, the station broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 11 from a transmitter on Scray's Hill in Ledgeview; the station also broadcasts in Upper Michigan from digital translator W40AN-D (channel 40), licensed to Escanaba, Michigan and transmitting from a tower in Wells Township.

WLUK is owned by LIN Media and is the sister station to CW affiliate WCWF, which WLUK has operated since 2010 and has been co-owned since April 2011; the stations share studios on Lombardi Avenue (U.S. 41 Bus) in Green Bay.

History

Early years with NBC and ABC

WLUK signed on September 11, 1954 as NBC affiliate WMBV-TV, the station was originally licensed to Marinette, Wisconsin. The station was owned by William Walker and was largely constructed from the assets of a failed NBC affiliate in Oshkosh, WOSH-TV. By 1959, it changed its city of license to Green Bay and its call sign to the current WLUK-TV (in reference to its then on-air slogan "Lucky 11"). WLUK first broadcast network programs in color in 1959 and local programs were broadcast in color starting in 1965. The station also switched affiliations with WFRV-TV, becoming an ABC affiliate. In 1960, the station was sold to Morgan Murphy Stations. Five years later in 1965, WLUK was sold to Post Corporation (a small media chain not affiliated with The Washington Post Company or its Post-Newsweek Stations division), whose properties included the nearby Appleton Post-Crescent and a sister station in Marquette, Michigan, WLUC-TV. In 1966, WLUK built a new studio and office building on Highland Avenue (now known as Lombardi Avenue). It aired some local entertainment programs, including a Saturday night polka show and a daily children's cartoon show using the franchised Bozo the Clown character.

In 1983, WLUK reclaimed the NBC affiliation, when WFRV switched to ABC. In 1984, Gillett Broadcasting bought the station, but turned around and sold it in 1987 to Burnham Broadcasting, in order to purchase the KKR stations. In 1994, Burnham Broadcasting sold most of its stations (WLUK, KHON-TV in Honolulu, WVUE in New Orleans and WALA-TV in Mobile) to SF Broadcasting, who in turn announced that the four stations would become Fox affiliates. Savoy Communications and Fox shared ownership in SF Broadcasting; Fox originally had voting stock, but opted not to retain it prior to the sale of the stations becoming final. A fifth Burnham station, Bakersfield, California's KBAK-TV, was excluded from the SF deal and was instead spun off to a new company formed by several former Burnham executives.

As a Fox affiliate

The WLUK-TV facility in 2007, before expansion.

Present day image of WLUK's facility, with the building since expanded to accommodate a news and content center and signage altered to recognize its sister station, WCWF. An "Oneida Nation Walk of Legends" monument to Packers player Jerry Kramer stands on the building's front lawn.

WLUK became a Fox affiliate in August 1995, swapping affiliations with WGBA-TV (although the station had never really identified with the NBC network, only using the NBC Peacock sparingly in station advertising). Like most former "Big Three" network affiliates that switched to Fox during that time, WLUK picked up almost no syndicated programming from WGBA, though it was unnecessary because of WGBA's local marketing agreement with WACY-TV; WGBA's programming largely moved to that station instead.

Because of Fox's 1994 acquisition of television rights to the NFL's National Football Conference, the switch made WLUK the unofficial "home" station of the Green Bay Packers, which became a major ratings draw. Unlike the New World Communications stations that converted to Fox affiliates, WLUK carried Fox Kids programming, running it one hour earlier on weekday afternoons from 1 to 4 p.m. The station ran Fox Kids until the weekday block ended in December 2001 (when it had been pushed back to as early as 10 a.m.), and its successor Saturday morning children's blocks known as Fox Box and later 4KidsTV until the latter block ended nationally in December 2008, when 4Kids Entertainment and Fox parted ways due to a contract dispute. By the time 4Kids TV ended its run, Fox permanently discontinued providing network-supplied children's programming, replacing it with the infomercial block Weekend Marketplace.

Since channel 11 joined Fox, Packer football games have routinely drawn an 80% share of the viewing audience – far and away the highest-rated programs in the market. SF sold WLUK and the other three Fox affiliates in 1997 to Silver King/USA Broadcasting. Emmis Communications purchased the station along with WVUE, KHON and WALA, in 1998. Emmis put all of its stations up for sale early in 2006, with LIN TV later emerging as the buyer of WLUK. On June 4, 2010, LIN TV entered into shared services and local sales agreements with WIWB. WLUK began to provide technical, engineering, promotional, administrative and other operational support services for CW affiliate WIWB (now WCWF), with advertising sales services under a related but separate joint sales agreement. That station moved its operations into WLUK's studios that August; LIN purchased WCWF outright in April 2011, under a failing station waiver, creating the Green Bay market's first legal television station duopoly.

Digital television

Digital channel

Channel	Video	Aspect	PSIP Short Name	Programming
11.1	720p	16:9	WLUK HD	Main WLUK-TV programming / Fox

Analog-to-digital conversion

WLUK-TV shut down its analog transmitter on June 12, 2009 as part of the digital television transition, and moved its digital signal from its pre-transition UHF digital channel 51 to its former VHF analog channel 11. On August 17, 2011, the station increased its transmitter power from 17.19 kW to 40 kW. Prior to this, Madison Fox affiliate WMSN-TV had broadcast its digital signal on channel 11, so WLUK had to decrease its transmitter power; when WMSN moved their digital channel to the UHF band to address reception issues in the Madison area, WLUK applied to the FCC to increase power once again.

Retransmission controversies

Until April 2008, WLUK's high definition signal was only available over-the-air as the station had maintained edicts going back to its ownership under Emmis not to allow local cable or satellite providers to broadcast its digital signal without paid retransmission consent. LIN TV continued to apply this policy after its purchase of the Emmis stations and eventually extended it further to the remainder of its existing stations. Station officials kept their stance against local pay television providers defending the station's stance on WLUK's website and in on-air promotions. The first provider to carry WLUK-DT was Dish Network as part of a March 13, 2008 carriage agreement with LIN TV. Originally, the signal was to be added in May 2008, but Dish began offering HD feeds of the Green Bay stations early on April 16, surprised viewers with WLUK carried on channel 5163. DirecTV followed on June 8.

With retransmission agreements firmed up with the satellite providers, LIN TV began to pursue the market's major cable providers for new deals. Charter was the first to be affected with its carriage agreement with WLUK expiring on July 1. By June 11, Charter and LIN reached a new agreement under undisclosed terms and WLUK-DT began to be carried on digital channel 611 shortly thereafter, AT&T U-Verse struck an agreement to carry the digital signal on June 30, 2008, while Comcast's Manitowoc system offered compensation to carry WLUK-DT on June 12 on digital channel 234. This left Time Warner Cable as the lone holdout in the area to carry the HD feed as the provider and LIN TV had not come to an agreement nationally.

With no success from either viewer pressure or contentious negotiations, the system was forced to pull WLUK from its systems on October 3, 2008. Time Warner quickly offered free antennas for customers to receive the station. WLUK encouraged viewers to switch to Dish Network and U-Verse in order to continue to watch the station in some form. In the month that followed, the ratings of LIN TV stations affected by the Time Warner dispute plunged, while viewers complained about the loss of Green Bay Packers and MLB Playoff games on WLUK.

By the time of the World Series, Time Warner Cable made an odd but creative move to allow its viewers to watch the 2008 World Series by offering Fox Sports en Espanol on basic cable, which carried the Series in Spanish while encouraging viewers to turn down the Spanish play-by-play audio and listen to the game in English on ESPN Radio affiliate WDUZ. Eventually the two companies came to a new carriage agreement on October 29, and WLUK's analog signal was restored on the same day with WLUK-DT being added on digital channel 712 (currently 1012) shortly thereafter, giving the station's digital signal full cable and satellite carriage on par with the other "Big Three" network affiliates.

On March 5, 2011, WLUK was removed from Dish Network as LIN and Dish could not come to terms on a new carriage agreement, and was restored when a new agreement was reached on March 12. WCWF remained unaffected as LIN's purchase of that station had not yet been finalized and was under the terms of their pre-WLUK SSA carriage agreement negotiated with ACME Communications.

Programming

WLUK carries the entire Fox network programming schedule (including the network's Saturday morning infomercial block Weekend Marketplace). Syndicated programs on the station includes Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy!, Judge Judy, Judge Joe Brown, 30 Rock and King of the Hill. The station is one of the few in the nation to use the 1970s NBC drama Little House on the Prairie to fulfill their educational and informational content obligations; the show has aired at 1 p.m. weekdays since September 2000.

In September 2008, the station launched a locally produced lifestyle show in the 9 a.m. timeslot on weekdays called Living with Amy. The program is hosted by former Good Day Wisconsin anchor Amy Hanten and features cooking and paid business spotlight segments, with the cooking segments mainly sponsored by local supermarket chain Festival Foods, which has made a recipe compilation book featuring previous Living with Amy recipes available in-store.

News operation

WLUK-TV presently broadcasts 37 hours of local newscasts each week (with six hours on weekdays and 3½ hours each on Saturdays and Sundays); in regards to the number of hours devoted to news programming, it is the highest local newscast output among the Green Bay market's broadcast television stations and the second-highest among Wisconsin's television stations (behind Milwaukee Fox affiliate WITI, which carries 52 hours each week). However, as is standard with Fox stations that carry early evening weekend newscasts, WLUK's Saturday and Sunday 5 p.m. newscasts are subject to preemption due to network sports coverage.

In addition to their main facilities, the station operates a Valley Newsroom on West College Avenue in Appleton along U.S. 41. The station has its own weather radar, known as "Fox 11 StormTrackerX", at their main studios. The station also maintains a tower camera on their Doppler tower known as the "Lambeau Cam" which is mainly pointed in the direction of the stadium.

The station dropped its nightly newscast in 1967 and did not resume regular local news broadcasts until 1971. However, WLUK did occasionally run documentaries and sports programs to fulfill Federal Communications Commission (FCC) public-service regulations as well as a weekly commentary by John Torinus, the editor of the Post-Crescent. After gaining the Fox affiliation in August 1995, this station expanded its local news offerings: in its first year with the network, local news ran on weekdays from 6 to 8 a.m., 5 to 6:30 p.m., and 9 to 10:30 p.m. The 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts were eventually dropped by the early 2000s, while the morning newscast expanded over time to four hours.

In 2007 (during Fox's coverage of the Major League Baseball League Championship Series), WLUK's 9 p.m. newscast began to air over a leased access channel on Time Warner Cable on nights in which Fox broadcasts sports programming or movies during the primetime hours that run into the 9 p.m. timeslot on channel 11; WCWF took over carriage of the preempted/delayed 9 p.m. newscasts in October 2010, as a result of the SSA between WCWF and WLUK. On June 5, 2007, WLUK replaced WGBA as the provider of weather updates for the 11-station Midwest Communications radio cluster in Green Bay/Fox Cities and Sheboygan. In 2009, a new addition to the Lombardi Avenue studios was completed to expand the station's newsroom space, and is known as the "Fox 11 Digital Content Center".

Channel 11 was also the first local television station in the market to have full featured iOS and Android Market applications (for mobile phones and tablets), and the only one utilizing Yahoo! Widgets (for Internet-connected television). In March 2012, the station's newscasts were moved into the Content Center as the station prepared its studio and facilities for high definition broadcasting, and began construction of an HD-optimized news set. Beginning with the 5 p.m. newscast on April 23, 2012, WLUK became the third station in the Green Bay-Appleton market to broadcast its local news programming in high definition. The station uses the AFD #10 flag to present their newscasts in letterboxed widescreen for viewers watching on traditional 4:3 sets.

News/station presentation

Newscast titles

• Look What's Happening (1968)
• TV-11 News (1971–1983)
• NewsCenter 11 (1983–1990)
• News 11 (1990–1995)
• Fox 11 News (1995–present)

Station slogans

• "Lucky Eleven" (1960s–early 1970s)
• "Closer to Your World" (mid-late 1970s, complete with a hot air balloon promo commercial filmed locally)
• "News People...In Touch with You" (late 1970s–early 1980s)
• "The News Station" (early-mid-1980s)
• "The Spirit of Wisconsin" (1990–1995)
• "Your Hometeam" (1995–2001)
• "More Local. More Often." (2001–2006)
• "Your Station for Balanced News and Severe Weather Coverage" (2006–present)

News team

Current on-air staff

Anchors/hosts

• Amy Hanten - host of Living with Amy; also weekday morning cooking and entertainment feature reporter
• Angela Kelly - weekend mornings on Good Day Wisconsin (7–9 a.m.); also weekday reporter
• Mark Leland - weekends at 5 and 9 p.m.; also weekday reporter
• Rachel Manek - weekday mornings on Good Day Wisconsin (5–9 a.m.)
• Tom Milbourn - weeknights at 5 and 9 p.m.
• Michelle Melby - weeknights at 5 and 9 p.m.
• Laura Smith - weekends at 5 and 9 p.m.
• Krista Fogelsong - weekday mornings on Good Day Wisconsin (7–9 a.m.); also weekend reporter

Fox 11 Weather

• Pete Petoniak (AMS and NWA Seals of Approval) - director of meteorology/anchor; weekday mornings on Good Day Wisconsin (5–9 a.m.)
• Patrick Powell (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist Seal of Approval) - chief meteorologist; weeknights at 5 and 9 p.m.
• Phil DeCastro - meteorologist; weekends at 5 and 9 p.m.
• Doug Higgins (NWA Seal of Approval) - meteorologist/anchor; weekend mornings on Good Day Wisconsin (7–9 a.m.), also "Higgins Hints" segment producer

Sports team

• Drew Smith - sports director; weeknights at 5 and 9 p.m., also heard on WDUZ-AM 1400/WDUZ-FM 107.5
• Justin Felder - sports anchor; weekends at 5 and 9 p.m., also sports reporter
• Jude Wilbers - sports reporter and fill-in sports anchor

Reporters

• Emily Deem - weekday morning reporter
• Chad Doran - general assignment reporter
• Robert Hornacek - special assignment reporter
• Scott Hurley - "Web Watch" feature reporter; also website producer
• Ben Krumholz - general assignment reporter
• Beth Jones - general assignment reporter
• Bill Miston - general assignment reporter
• Eric Peterson - general assignment reporter
• Kelly Schlicht - general assignment reporter

Former on-air staff

• Reggie Aqui - reporter and anchor (1998–1999; later working for CNN and now at KGW/Portland, Oregon)
• Jay Johnson - anchor (1982–1987, previously at WFRV-TV; elected to represent the 8th District in the U.S. House from 1997–1999 and was US Mint Director from 2000–2001; died on October 17, 2009)
• Kyra Phillips (now co-host of CNN's afternoon edition of CNN Newsroom)
• Bill Weir (current co-anchor for ABC's Nightline, former co-anchor of GMA Weekend and sports anchor of WGN Morning News)

Out-of-market carriage

In the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, WLUK is only available over-the-air in Menominee County and via a low powered digital translator in Escanaba. Despite this, WLUK was formerly carried by Charter Communications in the West and Central Upper Peninsula, along with WLUC-DT2 except in Gogebic County which is covered by the signal of Duluth, Minnesota's Fox affiliate KQDS-TV and the Eastern Upper Peninsula which is covered by WWUP-DT 10.2 (a standard definition digital simulcast of Cadillac, Michigan's WFQX-TV). WLUK can also be seen on Charter in Ludington, Michigan, across Lake Michigan from the Green Bay area.

Removal from out-of-market cable providers

On September 4, 2012, WLUK's signal was removed by Charter Communications systems in the Upper Peninsula and Marquette, and from systems in Sheboygan County, Lomira (both with WITI in-market) and Montello (part of the Madison market served by WMSN-TV) on September 27, 2012. This was due not to either the station or LIN removing access to the station, but contractual agreements by the Fox network itself which disallow signal duplication of network programming by an out-of-market signal despite the station's longtime service to each area, a source of controversy already in other duplicative market areas in the past. WITI added the weekly Packer's wives show The Better Half produced by WLUK on Friday mornings to their Friday afternoon schedule for the Milwaukee market. WLUK continues to present the forecasts on Midwest Communications's Sheboygan radio stations despite the loss of coverage on that city's cable provider.

External links

• WLUK-DT "Fox 11"
• WLUK-DT mobile
• WCWF "Wisconsin's CW"
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WLUK-TV
• Query the FCC's TV station database for W40AN-D