Weigel Broadcasting
Weigel Broadcasting is an American locally based television broadcasting company. The company is based in downtown Chicago, Illinois, alongside its flagship station WCIU-TV (Channel 26), at 26 North Halsted Street in the Greektown neighborhood.
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[edit] History
The company was founded by Chicago broadcasting veteran John Weigel, whose career dated back to the 1930s. With $1,000 of his own money, and another $1,000 from his attorney, Daniel J. McCarthy, Weigel bought the broadcasting license for what became the first UHF television station in the Chicago area. WCIU signed on the air on February 6, 1964.
Over the years, the company began to acquire and also launch new stations in the adjacent markets of Milwaukee and South Bend, Indiana, at first by placing WCIU translators in those markets to gain a foothold in each market, before programming the stations independently. Weigel would end up an unexpected benefactor of the Fox affiliate switches of 1994, as their full-power independent station WDJT-TV in Milwaukee ended up with the CBS affiliation late that year, while WBND-LP became the home of ABC programming in South Bend the next year when the original stations of the networks in each market switched to Fox.
Also in that same year, WCIU dropped the Spanish-language Univision network and became Chicago's only true full-power independent station when WGN and WPWR joined The WB and UPN networks respectively, while WGBO became a Univision O&O, allowing the station to pursue sports rights and syndicated programming not previously available and giving WCIU some strength in the market.
In July 2008, Weigel announced the creation of This TV, a national subchannel network, operated as a joint venture of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Weigel.[1]
In early August 2008, Weigel Broadcasting agreed to sell all three of its South Bend stations, WBND-LP, WCWW-LP and WMYS-LP, to Schurz Communications, the longtime owner of the local CBS affiliate WSBT-TV, for undisclosed terms.[2] However, in the absence of action by the Federal Communications Commission, the deal was called off in August 2009.[3]
Weigel Broadcasting is launching You and Me This Morning, a program that features entertainment news.[4][5]
At the end of 2009, Broadcasting & Cable gave Weigel Broadcasting its first annual Multi-Platform Broadcaster of the Year award. The company makes efficient use of digital TV's multicast capabilities, with one main channel and four subchannels for WCIU in Chicago, and Me-TV and This TV on subchannels nationwide.[6]
On November 22, 2010, Weigel announced that they would take the Me-TV concept national and compete fully with RTV and Antenna TV, while complementing its successful sister network This TV.[7][8]
On December 1, 2010, WCIU dropped their FBT foreign broadcasting digital subchannel (with some of that programming eventually to be moved to Polnet Communications' WPVN-CA) and is currently airing a simulcast of WCIU-TV on WCIU digital subchannel 26.2. The new digital subchannel, The U Too, was officially launched on January 5, 2011. The new digital network will be airing on WCIU digital subchannel 26.2, replacing Me-TV, which moved to WCIU digital subchannel 26.3 on December 15, 2010, and mainly consists of other purchased programming without room on the main WCIU schedule, second runs of WCIU programming or programming burned off due to low ratings.[9][10]
On January 4, 2011, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Weigel Broadcasting announced plans to distribute Me-TV nationwide.[11][12]
[edit] Stations owned by Weigel Broadcasting
Most of the stations are categorized into separate limited partnerships for licensing purposes.
| Current DMA# | Market | Station-Channel-(Digital) | Current Affiliation | Official Licensee |
| 3. | Chicago, Illinois | WCIU-TV 26 (26.11, 27)[13] | Independent | "WCIU-TV Limited Partnership" |
| The U Too (26.21)[9][10][13] | Independent | "WCIU-TV Limited Partnership" | ||
| WWME-CA 23 (26.31, 394)[13] | Me-TV national feed | "Channel 23 Limited Partnership" | ||
| WMEU-CA 48 (26.41, 32)[13] | MeToo (locally programmed) | "WCIU-TV Limited Partnership" | ||
| This TV (26.51)[13] | MGM and Cookie Jar programming | "WCIU-TV Limited Partnership" | ||
| Bounce TV (26.61) | African-American programming | "WCIU-TV Limited Partnership" | ||
| 132. | Rockford, Illinois | WFBN-LP 33 (35) | Me-TV Coming Soon | Weigel Broadcasting Company |
| 34. | Milwaukee, Wisconsin | WMLW-CA 41 (13, 58.22) | Independent | "Channel 41/63 Limited Partnership" |
| WBME-TV 49 (48) | Me-TV national feed Bounce TV | "TV-49, Inc." | ||
| WDJT-TV 58 (46) | CBS | "WDJT-TV Limited Partnership" | ||
| This TV (58.32) | MGM and Cookie Jar programming | "WDJT-TV Limited Partnership" | ||
| Shorewest TV (58.4) | Real estate listings and programming from Milwaukee-area real estate agency Shorewest Realtors |
"WDJT-TV Limited Partnership" (time-lease by Shorewest Realtors) |
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| WYTU-LD 63 (17, 49.43, 5) | Telemundo | "Channel 41/63 Limited Partnership" | ||
| 89. | South Bend, Indiana | WCWW-LP 25 (27) | CW | "WCWW-TV Limited Partnership" |
| This TV (25.2) | MGM and Cookie Jar programming | "WCWW-TV Limited Partnership" | ||
| WBND-LP 57 (49) | ABC | "WBND-TV Limited Partnership" | ||
| Me-TV (57.2) | Independent | "WBND-TV Limited Partnership" | ||
| WMYS-LP 69 (23) | MyNetworkTV | Weigel Broadcasting Company |
[edit] Weigel Networks
[edit] Notes
1Carried on a digital subchannel of WCIU
2Carried on a digital subchannel of WDJT
3Carried on a digital subchannel of WBME
4WWME's low-power analog channel 23 simulcasts WCIU's The U Too programming while its digital signal carries Me-TV
5WYTU's low-power analog channel 63 simulcasts WBME's Me-TV programming while its digital signal carries Telemundo
[edit] References
- ^ MGM Launches This TV Network, MGM Mediaroom, July 28, 2008
- ^ WSBT Purchases Three Low-Power Stations, Broadcasting & Cable, August 4, 2008
- ^ Malone, Michael; John Eggerton (August 24, 2009). "WSBT South Bend Deal Fizzles Absent FCC Action". Broadcasting & Cable. http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/328731-WSBT_South_Bend_Deal_Fizzles_Absent_FCC_Action.php. Retrieved August 25, 2009.
- ^ Weigel Launching Morning Content Mix, Broadcasting & Cable, July 7, 2009
- ^ Weigel's WCIU Getting Into A.M. News Fray -- In A Small, Unconventional Way, Chicago Tribune, July 6, 2009
- ^ Dickson, Glen (2009-12-21). "Weigel Maximizes DTV Pipe". Broadcasting & Cable. http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/441108-Weigel_Maximizes_DTV_Pipe.php?rssid=20065&q=digital+tv. Retrieved 2010-01-13.
- ^ Weigel Broadcasting Taking Me-TV National, Chicago Tribune, November 22, 2010
- ^ Weigel Broadcasting's Me-TV Goes National, Broadcasting & Cable, November 23, 2010
- ^ a b WCIU Parent Weigel to Drop Foreign Subchannel, Launch The U Too, Chicago Tribune, October 5, 2010
- ^ a b WCUU Launches The U Too Subchannel, Broadcasting & Cable, October 5, 2010
- ^ MGM, Weigel Taking Me-TV Nationwide, Broadcasting & Cable, January 4, 2011
- ^ MGM Launches Classic TV Service to Roar Like the Fonz, Los Angeles Times, January 4, 2011
- ^ a b c d e http://www.wciu.com/files/channel_grid.pdf
[edit] External links
- WCIU official page, contains corporate information
- The U Too website
- Me TV Network website
- This TV website
- Bounce TV website
- John Weigel - Man of UHF
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