WKOW

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WKOW is the ABC-affiliated television station for Madison, Wisconsin. The station broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 26 (PSIP virtual channel 27) from a transmitter in the city's Middleton Junction section; the station is also available on Charter Cable systems in the Madison market (SD channel 7 and HD channel 607). Owned and operated by Quincy Newspapers, WKOW has studios on Tokay Boulevard on Madison's west side. Programming on WKOW includes the ABC lineup, local news, and syndicated programming including The Doctors, Ellen, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, and Live with Regis and Kelly.

History

The station launched on June 30, 1953 as WKOW-TV, an affiliate of CBS television and sister station to WKOW-AM (1070). The station's call sign was an acknowledgment to Wisconsin's dairy industry, and featured a smiling bovine (or cow) alongside the emphasized "K-O-W" of the call sign. WKOW-AM and -TV originally shared studios on Tokay Boulevard on Madison's west side (WKOW-TV is still based at Tokay today). WKOW-TV remained with CBS until joining ABC in 1956, when CBS moved to the new WISC-TV. (ABC had been with WMTV; WKOW-AM remained with CBS Radio.) From January to August of 1958, WKOW was part of the short-lived, Wisconsin-oriented Badger Television Network, alongside Milwaukee's WISN-TV and Green Bay's WFRV-TV

By 1974, Terry Shockley took over control of WKOW and its fellow sister stations that were part of the Wisconsin Television Network (which included WAOW in Wausau and WXOW in La Crosse). Also during the 1970s, WKOW-TV was broken up from WKOW-AM in accordance with the FCC's "one to market" policy of that era; as a result, WKOW-AM fell under new ownership and became WTSO, although it would remain at Tokay Boulevard alongside WKOW-TV through the 1980s and 1990s until becoming part of the Clear Channel Communications cluster, where it is today an all-sports station. (For a time in the 2000s, WKOW-TV supplied weather updates to the Clear Channel stations. As of October 2010 however, the station is no longer involved with WTSO or other Madison Clear Channel stations in any way.)

In 1986, Shockley sold WKOW-TV and its Wausau and La Crosse sister stations to Sharad Tak, whose Tak Communications would later purchase KITV in Honolulu, Hawaii and WGRZ-TV in Buffalo, New York. In the wake of the 1986 group deal, Shockley formed a new company, Shockley Communications Corporation, as a holding company for the radio stations which Shockley retained. Tak filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1991 and later went into receivership. As part of Tak Communications' bankruptcy sale, Shockley repurchased the four Wisconsin stations in 1995 (WKOW, WAOW, WXOW, and Eau Claire's WQOW). In June 2001, WKOW and its Wisconsin sister stations were acquired from Shockley by Quincy Newspapers, who own the stations today.

Digital Broadcasting

On October 29, 1998, WKOW launched high definition broadcasts on digital channel 26, becoming at the time the smallest United States television station to launch HD broadcasts. WKOW would eventually add 2 digital subchannels, adding RTV on channel 27.2 in December 2008 and This TV on channel 27.3 in March 2009. RTV would be replaced by the similarly-formatted MeTV on July 1, 2011, the result of an affiliation deal with MeTV and WKOW owner Quincy Newspapers.

WKOW discontinued analog broadcasting at 1PM on February 17, 2009 and moved to full-time over-the-air digital transmission. WKOW now broadcasts digital programming in the following manner:

Channels (physical/virtual)	Video	Aspect	Cable Channel	Programming
26.1/27.1	720p	16:9	7/607	main WKOW programming/ABC (HD)
26.2/27.2	480i	4:3	967	WKOW-DT2 "MeTV 27.2 Madison" (SD)
26.3/27.3	480i	4:3	966	WKOW-DT3 "This TV Madison" (SD)

Occasionally, WKOW's programming commitments will prompt the station to move programming from its main channel to one of its digital subchannels. For example, due to an August 21, 2010 commitment to a Green Bay Packers pre-season game, WKOW moved that night's live ABC NASCAR broadcast from channel 27.1 to 27.2, pre-empting RTV programming for the evening.

News operation

File:Wkow news 2011.png

News open.

WKOW debuted a news department on the first day of its broadcasting in Summer 1953. Local news, weather, and sports were seen in the initial shows. In 1999, the station began to produce, through a news share agreement, the market's first nightly prime time newscast on Sinclair-owned Fox affiliate WMSN-TV ("Fox 47 News at 9"); the newscast originates from secondary studios at WMSN, and although it features WKOW personnel in the broadcasts, WMSN maintains separate weeknight news and sports anchors, as well as using theme music and graphics packages that are found on other Sinclair stations and that are different from that on WKOW's newscasts. Airing 7 nights a week, the WMSN newscast is one of two prime-time newscasts in the Madison market. (WISC-TV subchannel TVW has aired prime-time news since 2004; a third station, WBUW, had their own 9PM newscast from 2003 until 2005.)

On October 26, 2010, WKOW became the third station in Madison to upgrade newscasts to high definition, following WISC-TV and WMTV. The WMSN broadcasts, however, are still in 4:3 standard definition, as that station does not yet have the HD cameras or equipment needed to air local or syndicated HD programming.

News team

Anchors

• John Beard - weekday mornings
• Elishah Oesch - weekday mornings
• Greg Jeschke - weeknights at 5, 6, 6:30, and 10
• Sabrina Hall - weeknights at 6:30
• Julie Lund - Sunday through Friday nights at 9 om WMSN
• Julia Fello - Saturdays at 9 on WMSN and multimedia journalist (also "Fox Focus on Health" segment producer)
• Teresa Mackin - Weekends

27 Storm Track Meteorologists

• Brian Olson (NWA and AMS Seals of Approval) - weeknights at 5, 6:30, and 9
• Bob Lindmeier (AMS Seal of Approval) - weeknights at 6 and 10
• Laurie Mercurio (AMS Seal of Approval) - weekday mornings
• Evan Hutchinson - weekends

Sports

• Jake Zimmermann - Director seen weeknights at 6, 6:30, and 10
• Matt Zahn - weeknights at 9
• Jamie Hersch - weekend evenings
• Russ Owens - sports reporter

Reporters

• Lysée Mitri - weekend morning content producer and weekday multimedia journalist
• Tony Galli - investigative
• Derek Staahl - producer
• Colby Robertson
• Greg Neumann
• Trevor Thompson
• Teresa Mackin

External links

• Official website for WKOW
• WKOW mobile
• WKOW-DT3 "This TV Madison"
• WMSN-TV "Fox 47"
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