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For the related radio station with the same call letters, see WTMJ (AM)

WTMJ-TV, digital channel 28 (virtual channel 4.1); branded as "Today's TMJ4", is the NBC-affiliated television station located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and the flagship station of the Journal Broadcast Group. Its signal covers most of southeastern Wisconsin and parts of northeastern Illinois, including Racine, Kenosha, Sheboygan and Waukesha. Its transmitter is located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin approximately 8 miles (13 km) north of downtown Milwaukee, with the station's studios located directly south on Capitol Drive; this facility is known as "Radio City". WTMJ-TV transmits its signal from an antenna 1,045 feet (319 m) in height.

The station also provides engineering assistance for ION Television affiliate WPXE-TV (channel 55); previously WPXE aired WTMJ newscasts on a half-hour delay in the evening and shared some programming with Channel 4, however this deal was ended in July 2005. It is the only station in the Milwaukee market to have never switched its primary network affiliation in its history. The station also maintains a news and weather content agreement with its associated radio stations; WTMJ Radio and WLWK-FM (which are also both based at Radio City), also partners with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the newspaper which founded the station, with news stories seen in the Journal Sentinel and to provide weather forecasts; as such, an auxiliary studio is maintained by the station in the newspaper's State Street headquarters and is used for a regular segment called "JSOnAir", which is featured during the station's 3 p.m. newscast.

History

The Journal Company's first television license was granted in September 1931 for experimental station W9XD, using a low-definition electromechanical system. The station conducted field tests from 1931 to 1933, before converting its facilities to experimental high-fidelity apex radio unit W9XAZ in 1934. Its license was withdrawn by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 1938 as part of an effort to limit licenses to stations actively engaging in the development of television. No publicly announced television programming was broadcast by W9XD during this experimental period.

The Journal Company obtained in September 1941 one of the first commercial television construction permits issued by the FCC, under the call letters WMJT (Milwaukee Journal Television), and built a new broadcast facility by August 1942. But the U.S. War Production Board halted the manufacture of television and radio broadcasting equipment for civilian use from April 1942 to August 1945, suspending the company's television plans.

On December 3, 1947 WTMJ-TV (WTMJ standing for The Milwaukee Journal) went on the air, becoming the first commercial television station in Wisconsin, the fourth commercial station in the Midwest and the fifteenth commercial station to go on the air in the United States. When the station began broadcasting in 1947, there were only 500 television sets in Milwaukee, jumping to 2,050 by the following April.[1] WTMJ had affiliated with the NBC television network since sign on, although it also carried programming from CBS, ABC, and Du Mont before those networks had their own affiliated stations in Milwaukee.[2] WTMJ is the only station in Milwaukee to be affiliated with the same network since it signed on. It is currently NBC's second-longest tenured affiliate, behind only KSD-TV (now KSDK) in St. Louis (which had signed on in January of that year).

WTMJ originally transmitted on channel 3 and shifted to Channel 4 on July 11, 1953 to avoid interference with Kalamazoo, Michigan's WKZO-TV (now WWMT), which is nearly directly across Lake Michigan. This was a part of the FCC's complete revision of the Table of Channel Assignments as issued in its Sixth Report and General Order issued on April 14, 1952. This move forced the CBS affiliate on channel 4 in Chicago (now WBBM-TV), the first commercially-licensed TV station outside the Eastern Time Zone to move to channel 2. It had done so on July 5.

WTMJ was one of the first stations in the country to purchase color equipment, and in December 1953, it broadcast the color television program Amahl and the Night Visitors from NBC, when only two prototype color sets existed in Milwaukee. The city's first color TV sets were sold in March 1954, and by July 1954 WTMJ broadcast its first local color program originating from its studios, The Grenadiers, becoming the third local station in the U.S. with live color capability.[3] By November 1, 1956, all locally produced WTMJ-TV programs were in color. About 3000 color sets existed in Milwaukee in February 1957.

On April 7, 2009, WTMJ became the first station in Milwaukee, and the second in Wisconsin (behind WISC-TV in Madison, WI) to convert its newscasts and programs to high definition. It began with a soft launch starting with that day's Live at Daybreak newscast.[4]

The ownership remains under Journal Broadcast Group. As such, WTMJ is one of the few non-O&O television stations in the country that has had the same callsign, owner and primary network affiliation throughout its history. In August 2004 Green Bay's NBC affiliate, WGBA-TV (Channel 26), was bought by Journal and became a sister station to WTMJ, along with LMA partner WACY-TV.

Digital television

Channel Programming
4.1 WTMJ-TV
4.2 Storm Team 4 TV
4.3 TheCoolTV, powered by 94-5 Lake FM

Analog to digital conversion

As part of the analog television shutdown and digital conversion, WTMJ-TV shut down its analog transmitter on June 12, 2009 at 12 noon (with a short two-hour nightlighting period after), and continued to broadcast on its pre-transition digital channel 28.[5] However, through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers currently display WTMJ-TV's virtual channel as 4.

Storm Team 4 TV

On March 1, 2006, WTMJ launched its local version of the NBC Weather Plus service called TMJ4 Weather Plus, a 24-hour weather channel which featured a mix of local/national forecasts and weather and WTMJ's meteorologists. The station airs over DTV Channel 4-2, and on Time Warner Digital Cable over Channel 999 throughout Southeastern Wisconsin under an exclusivity agreement which precludes Charter Communications, the other main local cable provider, to carry it or TheCoolTV. In June 2006, the station changed its weather branding on the main newscasts from "Storm Team 4" to "TMJ4 Weather Plus", as had most NBC stations airing the service. With the November 2008 end of the Weather Plus service, the weather branding has returned to using the former "Storm Team 4" name; the subchannel also took on the same branding as the Storm Team 4 Channel on January 1, later to be renamed "Storm Team 4 TV".

As of mid-December 2009, Storm Team 4 TV no longer uses the Weather Plus system, switching to national programming and graphics software from The Local AccuWeather Channel.

TheCoolTV

WTMJ began carrying TheCoolTV on 4.3 in early July 2009, becoming the first full-power station to carry the network as a digital subchannel; it has since begun to be carried by stations in the Sinclair and LIN TV groups, and in November 2010 by Green Bay sister WGBA. The station features music videos and concert programming which is customized by WTMJ. TheCoolTV is co-branded with WTMJ-TV's FM radio sister, WLWK-FM, which airs a random music format.

Programming

WTMJ broadcasts all of NBC's schedule, with the exception of some older made-for-TV movies bought by Channel 4 which are used to pre-empt NBC movies or Saturday night programming for additional local advertising revenue several times a year. However, this practice is nothing new, for it also had a reputation of pre-empting or delaying a handful of NBC shows in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s (NBC's Daytime gameshow and soap opera lineup, moving Sanford and Son to Saturday nights in the 1970s and airing the syndicated Fame in place of Gimme a Break! and Mama's Family on Thursday nights during the 1983-1984 TV season were examples of this). But its most controversial move would come in 1979 when it asked NBC permission to delay The Tonight Show to 11 pm so it could carry reruns of Maude. It tried again in 1984, attempting to ask for a Tonight Show move to 11:30 pm so it could air reruns of Trapper John, M.D. after the late news starting in September of that year. NBC refused again, and the program was moved to then-independent WVTV (Channel 18), where it aired at 10:30 pm from September 1984-September 1988, when WTMJ decided to cede to NBC and air the program at its regular time. The station also delayed Late Night with Conan O'Brien to 12:05 am from the program's beginning in 1993 until 2001.

WTMJ decided to pre-empt the entire run of the primetime poker game show Face the Ace in August 2009, replacing the series with station-slotted paid programming, the first time any Milwaukee station has pre-empted a significant portion or all of an entire primetime network series since the early 1990s. It is unknown if moral objections by WTMJ management (as sister station WGBA carried the series) or ratings concerns played into the pre-emption.

The station's sole syndicated programs are Better on weekdays and late weekend evenings and weekend runs of The Unit and Stargate Atlantis repeats, Hispanics Today, and The Outdoorsman, by far being the station with the lowest amount of syndicated shows in the market. WTMJ had been the long-time Milwaukee home for Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! from their premieres in the early 1980s until fall 2005, when both shows moved to WDJT-TV, and was the first station to air Oprah until an en-masse deal with Hearst's television stations in 1994 moved the show to WISN. WTMJ (and WPXE during the LMA years) had aired Martha Stewart's Martha Stewart Living and then Martha until September 2007, when Martha moved to WISN.

Currently WTMJ airs Today in two segments; the original 7 am–9 am block, followed by The Morning Blend, then the final two hours of Today from 10 am–noon, leading into the relocated hour-long Live at Noon newscast and Days of Our Lives, which moved to 1 pm on September 10, 2007.

The station is also the 'official station' of the Green Bay Packers for the Milwaukee market, giving it rights to air the team's non-nationally televised preseason games. WTMJ airs shows involving the team, including the head coach's weekly show, which airs on Tuesday nights at 6:30. Because of the Summer Olympic Games occurring in 2004 and 2008, which are not allowed any pre-emptions by the network, WTMJ has sub-licenced some preseason games to other stations; in 2004 to then-LMA partner WPXE, and in 2008 to CW affiliate WVTV (Channel 18).[6]

The Morning Blend

The station produces a locally-produced program called The Morning Blend, which premiered on September 12, 2006 at 10 a.m., and now airs at 9 a.m. after Today's expansion to four hours. The show is hosted by Tiffany Ogle and former WITI morning news anchor Molly Fay. Original co-host Alison de Castro (who originally reported for WISN) left the program in October 2009 due to a family move to Chicago, and Ogle (a Miss Minnesota 2004 and former commercial actress) took over co-hosting duties with Molly Fay. This was WTMJ's first attempt at a local show besides news or public affairs since 1979, when the short-lived A New Day aired, co-hosted by 1973 Miss Wisconsin/Miss America winner (and current The 700 Club co-host) Terry Meeuwsen and KGO-TV & AM/San Francisco newsman/radio host (and former WTMJ TV reporter) Pete Wilson (now deceased).[7]

The format for "The Morning Blend" was derived from WFLA-TV in Tampa's Daytime program, one of the first shows to launch this morning program format. WTMJ's version features a mix of paid and unpaid segments. All segments which promote a certain product or company are clearly disclaimed on air, and the show's talent has no connection to WTMJ's newsroom. Also, the sales and advertising departments produce the show, while the news department has no interest in the program. The hosts of The Morning Blend do not report any news, ceding any breaking events to the news staff in the news studio, and the show is pre-empted in such cases the news takes up the full hour (such as a weather emergency).[8] In June 2008, the program also began to air on sister station WGBA in Green Bay due to that station cutting some morning news programming, also at 9 a.m. The show competed with Fox affiliate WLUK-TV (channel 11)'s Living with Amy.WGBA has since replaced The Morning Blend with syndicated programs.

The format and Morning Blend branding has since been adapted by several other Journal stations; Fox sister station WFTX-TV in Fort Myers-Naples, Florida in mid-2009, and in late April 2010 on two additional sister stations, ABC affiliate KGUN-TV in Tucson, Arizona (airing weekdays at 11 a.m.) and on CBS affiliate KMTV in Omaha, Nebraska (airing weekdays at 9 a.m). KTNV in Las Vegas premiered its version of the show in early July 2010.

News operation

Currently, WTMJ broadcasts a total of 40½ hours of local news each week (with seven hours on weekdays, three hours on Saturdays and 2½ hours on Sundays), the second-highest newscast output in the Milwaukee market and the state of Wisconsin (behind Fox affiliate WITI). WTMJ-TV is one of the very few Big Three affiliates in the United States to produce 35+ hours a week of local newscasts, and is the only station in the Milwaukee market to carry a weekday noon newscast (WISN and WDJT do not carry a midday newscast at all, while WITI's midday newscast airs an hour before WTMJ's). WTMJ is also one of ten television stations that air consumer reports from John Matarese of ABC affiliate WCPO in Cincinnati.

Since the launch of the extended Today Show in September 2007, the station's programming focus has shifted very heavily towards local news, as replacement syndicated programming for Martha, Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! after their moves to other stations in the market, and the August 2008 ending of Montel have failed to spark viewer interest outside of local/network hours. As of September 8, 2008, the station launched a 3 pm news hour, and before then on August 25, extended the 6 p.m. newscast to a full hour (except Tuesday nights for Mike McCarthy's coach's show during the NFL season) before NBC primetime with the move of Extra to WITI's late night schedule, giving the station eight hours of local news every weekday[9] tying WITI's daily news output.

On April 11, 2011 the station dropped the 6:30 p.m. newscast, replacing it with Access Hollywood, which moved to WTMJ from WISN after that station began airing an hour-long 10pm newscast in January 2011. A consequence of this was WISN moving longtime 10:30 p.m. slotholder Access Hollywood to 12:30am, and program producer NBCUniversal Television Distribution asking for an early release from their contract so that the show could move to 6:30 p.m. on WTMJ. Access previously aired on WTMJ at 11:35 p.m. from its 1995 debut, until the move of Conan to the network mandated slot in 2000; the new agreement also allows WTMJ to begin carrying Access Hollywood Live in the 2 p.m. slot in the fall of 2011. [10]

Daybreak, Live at 6:00 and Live at 10:00 are available on Time Warner Cable's VOD service, "Wisconsin on Demand 411" throughout southeastern Wisconsin, two hours after each program's original airing and for three days after. Also available through this service are specific WTMJ reports, I-Team investigations and consumer stories, along with Sunday public affairs program Sunday Insight with Charlie Sykes. The station also utilizes and promotes Time Warner Cable's Start Over for its locally-based programs, allowing viewers to restart a program from the beginning if they tune in late in a program.

Some of WTMJ's morning and noon newscasts aired on Green Bay sister station WGBA-TV (Channel 26) beginning on July 14, 2008, after that station ended its own newscasts at 5 am, 9 am, and the first half-hour of the noon newscast. The simulcasting ended early 2009 due to viewer disinterest in Milwaukee-focused news. The station also began to provide forecasts to that station during weekend newscasts. All sportscasts are provided by WTMJ; station staff continues to film video and freelance announcers (some formerly with WGBA) provide commentary for Green Bay sporting events on WGBA. WGBA relaunched a local morning newscast in January 2011.

Since April 7, 2009, WTMJ has broadcasted all of its newscasts in HD. With the change to HD came new music, High Velocity from 615 Music and new graphics from Renderon Broadcast Design, the main graphics company for all Journal Broadcast Group stations.[11] Studio shots are in the format, while two of the station's live units are equipped for the format, with the remainder of the news equipment and "Chopper 4" outputting in digital widescreen upconverted for HD broadcast.

News/station presentation

WTMJ was formerly known as "News 4 Milwaukee", and then shortened down to "News 4", with the late news known as "News 4 Tonight at 10". The newscast name was changed to "Newschannel 4" from 1990 until July 1992, when the "Today's TMJ4" imaging was inaugurated during coverage of the 1992 Summer Olympics. The first generation of the branding lasted until July 2004 and the 2004 Summer Olympics, when a modern and glassy image campaign fit for HDTV was launched, which since has been established on the rest of Journal's stations, with some font and branding differences depending on market. The 'sailboat 4' logo was retired, and the music for the station became more elaborate and grand, though the former theme was retained. Currently, the station brands its news as Live at [Time of Day], with the morning newscast going by the title Live at Daybreak.

Newscast titles

  • Let's Look at the News (1947–1948)
  • News and Views (1948)
  • Around the Town with the WTMJ-TV Cameraman (1949)
  • News Caravan (6 p.m. newscast; 1949–1956)
  • Milwaukee Gas Light Company Newsreel (10 p.m. newscast; 1950–1954)
  • Weather and News (1957–1966)
  • Channel 4 Report (1966–1968)
  • News 4 (1966–1978 and 1986–1990)[12]
  • News 4 Milwaukee (1978–1986)[13]
  • News 4 Tonight at 10 (10 p.m. newscast; 1986–1990)
  • NewsChannel 4 (1990–1992)
  • Today's TMJ4 (1992–present;[14] incorporated Live at xx:00 titling for all newscasts in 2004[15])

Station slogans

  • "TV-4, Proud As A Peacock!" (1979-1981; local version of NBC ad campaign)
  • "TV-4, Our Pride Is Showing" (1981-1982; local version of NBC ad campaign)
  • "We`re Channel 4, Just Watch Us Now" (1982-1983; local version of NBC ad campaign)
  • "Channel 4 There, Be There" (1983-1984; local version of NBC ad campaign)
  • "Channel 4, Let`s All Be There"
  • "Come Home to Channel 4" (1986-1987; local version of NBC ad campaign)
  • "Come on Home to Channel 4" (1987-1988; local version of NBC ad campaign)
  • "Channel 4, Milwaukee's Team" (1988–1992; used with Frank Gari's "Pride Inside" image campaign)
  • "Milwaukee's 24-Hour News Channel" (1990–1992; WISN-TV also used a "24 Hour News Source" format from 1989–1996)
  • "WTMJ, The Place To Be!" (199?-199?; local version of NBC ad campaign)
  • "Real Life, Real News; Today's TMJ-4" (1992–1994)[16]
  • "The Stars Are Back on TMJ-4" (1993-1994; local version of NBC ad campaign)
  • "Touch Today's TMJ-4" (1994–2004)
  • "Breaking News, Accurate Weather" (2004–2009)
  • "Trust Today's TMJ-4" (2004–present)

Today's TMJ4 on-air staff

Current on-air staff[17]

Anchors
  • Charles Benson - Sundays at 5 and 10 p.m.; also weekday reporter
  • Steve Chamraz - weekdays at 3, 3:30, 4, and 4:30 p.m.; also 10 p.m. reporter and investigative reporter
  • Courtny Gerrish - weekdays at 3, 3:30, 4 and 4:30 p.m.
  • Mike Jacobs - weeknights at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.
  • Susan Kim - weekday mornings "Live at Daybreak"
  • Carole Meekins - weeknights at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.
  • Tom Murray - weekend mornings "Live at Daybreak"; also weekday reporter
  • Diane Pathieu - weekdays at noon; also morning reporter
  • Vince Vitrano - weekday mornings "Live at Daybreak" and noon
  • Shelley Walcott - Saturdays at 6, and weekends at 5 and 10 p.m.; also weekday reporter
Storm Team 4
  • John Malan (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist Seal of Approval) - chief meteorologist; weeknights at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.
  • Michael Fish - meteorologist; Saturdays at 6, and weekends at 5 and 10 p.m.
  • Brian Gotter (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; weekdays at noon, 3, 3:30, 4 and 4:30 p.m.
  • Jesse Ritka - meteorologist; weekend mornings "Live at Daybreak"
  • Scott Steele (AMS Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; weekday mornings "Live at Daybreak"
Sports team
  • Lance Allan - sports director; weeknights at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.
  • Rod Burks - sports anchor; Saturdays at 6, and weekends at 5 and 10 p.m.
  • Jessie Garcia - sports reporter; also from The Mike McCarthy Show
Reporters
  • Lacey Crisp - general assignment reporter
  • Lauren Leamanczyk - general assignment reporter
  • Melissa McCrady - general assignment reporter
  • Caitlin Morrall - morning traffic reporter
  • Jay Olstad - general assignment reporter
  • Heather Shannon - general assignment reporter
  • Jermont Terry - general assignment reporter
  • Mick Trevey - general assignment reporter
Chopper 4[18]
  • Joshua Mock - helicopter pilot
  • Mark Was - photojournalist
The Morning Blend
  • Molly Fay - co-host
  • Tiffany Ogle - co-host

Notable former on-air staff

Logos

The first station logo was used from 1962-1967.

The second station's logo used from 1967–1975 and again in early 1977 to promote conversion to color; has some similarities to the future 'Sailboat 4'.

The station's 1976 logo, used to salute the Bicentennial.

The 'Tube 4', was used from mid-1977 until 1980.

This was the first station logo that used the 'Sailboat 4 logo'. It did not have the NBC peacock until May 8, 1986. This logo was used from 1980-1992.

The final logo used the 'Sailboat 4 logo'. This was the first Today's TMJ4 logo that had the 'Sailboat 4 logo' which is seen in the logo before that. This logo began in 1992 and ended in 2004.

This logo is the current logo that has been used since July 2004. The current logo has the NBC peacock.

Station cameo appearances

  • WTMJ's logo is shown on the top of the scoreboard in the 1989 film Major League, which was filmed at Milwaukee County Stadium; the stadium was used as a stand-in for Cleveland's Municipal Stadium, where the Cleveland Indians played at the time the film was produced. The Indians are also interviewed by a WTMJ reporter, which for the purpose of continuity in the film, was a Cleveland TV station.
  • WTMJ is also announced in the final scene of the final episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 as Mike Nelson and the robots are sitting in a Milwaukee-area apartment on a Saturday afternoon, when The Crawling Eye comes on TV, the first movie seen on the nationally syndicated version of MST3K.

Further reading

  • Dick Golembiewski, Milwaukee Television History: The Analog Years, Marquette University Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0874620559.

References

  1. ^ Chicago television stations were powerful enough to be received in Milwaukee, hence the existence of television sets there before WTMJ-TV.
  2. ^ WTMJ discontinued CBS programming in September 1953 and ABC and DuMont programming in October 1953.
  3. ^ Ed Reitan, Local Television Stations with Early Live Color Capability, 2006.
  4. ^ http://www.jsonline.com/entertainment/tvradio/42638767.html
  5. ^ CDBS Print
  6. ^ The Cw Milwaukee
  7. ^ Tim Cuprisin, Notch another one up for Blu-ray in high-definition DVD formats war, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, July 26, 2007.
  8. ^ http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=481824
  9. ^ ,JS Online: Talking politics is a no-no at the table, but on the radio it boosts ratings
  10. ^ http://onmilwaukee.com/movies/articles/tvmoves.html
  11. ^ TMJ4 Debuts HD Newscasts
  12. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSasxrKbMmU
  13. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrBG26X-H4A
  14. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4imlcVa9TEc
  15. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUu1qw154Qw
  16. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YE43X0GgI_U
  17. ^ TMJ Profiles, TodaysTMJ4.com. Retrieved 11-23-2010.
  18. ^ http://www.todaystmj4.com/news/local/100747349.html

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