WLUK-TV

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WLUK-DT, channel 11 is a Fox Network affiliate in Green Bay, Wisconsin, serving Northeastern Wisconsin and, through translator and cable coverage, parts of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. WLUK is owned by LIN TV Corporation, and has its main transmitter located on Scray's Hill in neighboring De Pere, Wisconsin.

WLUK runs a general entertainment schedule consisting of Fox Network entertainment and sports programming, syndicated shows and reruns. The station is news-intensive, running about 30 hours of news programming per week, including Good Day Wisconsin and the market's only current 9pm newscast. The station also produces a weekday mid-morning lifestyle show, Living with Amy with former GDW anchor Amy Hanten. The show competes with WGBA's The Morning Blend, produced out of Milwaukee by sister station WTMJ.

History

WLUK signed on the air on September 11, 1954, as WMBV-TV, an NBC affiliate licensed to Marinette. The station was owned by William Walker and largely constructed from the assets of a failed NBC affiliate in Oshkosh, WOSH-TV Channel 48. By 1959 it changed its city of license to Green Bay and its call sign to the current WLUK (for its then on-air slogan, "Lucky 11"). It also switched affiliations with WFRV-TV, resulting in WLUK 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 Post-Newsweek) whose properties included the nearby Appleton Post-Crescent and a Marquette, Michigan sister station in WLUC-TV (Channel 6). In 1966, WLUK built a new studio and office building at 787 Highland Avenue (now known as Lombardi Avenue). The station dropped its nightly newscast in 1967 and did not return to regular newscasts until 1971, though it ran occasional documentaries and sports programs to fulfill FCC public-service regulations, as well as a weekly commentary by the editor of the Post-Crescent, John Torinus. WLUK did do some local entertainment programming, 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 WLUK, selling it in 1987 to Burhnam Broadcasting in order to become owner of the KKR stations.

In 1994, Burnham Broadcasting sold all of its stations--WLUK, KHON-TV in Honolulu, WVUE in New Orleans and WALA-TV in Mobile, Alabama--to SF Broadcasting, who in turn announced that the four stations would become Fox affiliates. (Savoy Communications and Fox shared ownership in SF Broadcasting. Originally Fox would have voting stock but this was changed prior to the stations' sale becoming final.) WLUK became a Fox affiliate in August 1995, swapping affiliations with WGBA-TV. WLUK also expanded its local news; in its first year under Fox, local news ran from 6-8 a.m., 5-6:30 p.m., and 9-10:30 p.m. Because of Fox's 1994 purchase of National Football Conference television rights, the switch made WLUK the unofficial "home" station of the Green Bay Packers, a major ratings draw. Over the last decade, Packer football games have routinely drawn an 80 percent share of the audience, far and away the highest-rated programs in the market.

SF sold WLUK along with 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. LIN Broadcasting bought WLUK early in 2006 as Emmis put all of its stations up for sale.

WLUK programming has been rebroadcast over a number of translators along the northern fringe of its viewing area. W40AN in Escanaba, Michigan, which replaced W72AJ, is the only one left in operation, viewable around the communities of Escanaba, Gladstone, Rapid River, and Bark River, Michigan. W75AE once served the Iron Mountain, Michigan area.

WLUK is carried by Charter Communications on all its cable systems in Michigan's Upper Peninsula along with Marquette's own Fox channel WMQF-TV except in Gogebic County which is covered by KQDS-TV in Duluth, Minnesota, and Chippewa and Mackinac Counties, which are covered by translators of WFQX-TV in Cadillac, Michigan. WLUK-TV can also be seen on Charter Communications in the town of Ludington, MI, across Lake Michigan from the Green Bay area.

On May 18, 2007, LIN TV announced that it was exploring strategic alternatives that could result in the sale of the company.[1]

On June 4, 2007, WLUK introduced a new website, based on the "MyFox" O&O look which has been licensed from Fox Television Stations Group's interactive division. The other LIN-owned Fox stations---WNAC, WVBT, WALA and WUPW---have also introduced new MyFox sites, followed by KASA a month and a half later.

One day later, on June 5, WLUK replaced WGBA as the official provider of weather updates for Midwest Communications radio stations in Green Bay/Fox Cities and Sheboygan. FOX 11 Severe Weather Lab updates can be heard on WIXX, WNCY, WNFL, WOZZ, WROE, WTAQ, WZBY, WBFM, WHBL, WXER, and WHBZ.

Internet availability

The station also provides some of its material over the Internet, as it has its own page for viewing some of its content on YouTube. They also reiterate their slogan, "Your online media source for balanced news and severe weather coverage," General Manager Jay Zollar invites comments and criticism of the station's newscasts via email with a pre-taped message at the close of all of the station's newscasts.

Retransmission Controversies

However, until April 2008, the only available means to watch WLUK's high definition signal was via antenna over the air, as the station had maintained edicts going back to their ownership under Emmis not allowing local cable or satellite providers to broadcast their station's digital television signals without paid retransmission consent. LIN TV continued to apply this policy after their purchase of the Emmis stations and eventually extended it further to the remainder of their existing stations. Zollar and other station officials kept their stance against the local providers, defending the station's stance on WLUK's website and in promotions which aired on the station.

The first provider to carry WLUK-DT was Dish Network, as part of a March 13, 2008 agreement with LIN TV [1]. Originally the signal was to come on the air sometime in May 2008, but Green Bay local HD stations were offered early by the provider, launching on April 16, 2008 [2] on Channel 5163. DirecTV followed on June 8 [3]. With retransmission agreements firmed up with the satellite providers, LIN TV began to pursue the dominant local cable providers for new deals.

Charter Communications was the first to be affected, with their carriage agreement with WLUK expiring on July 1. The station began to air news ticker scrolls during programming to advise viewers of the fact, and negotiations did break down on June 4. They did restart soon though, and by June 11, Charter and LIN TV came to a new agreement under undisclosed terms [4], and WLUK-DT was launched on Charter's Channel 611 shortly thereafter [5]. AT&T's new U-Verse service made an agreement to carry the digital signal on June 30, 2008 [6], while Comcast's lone northeastern Wisconsin system in Manitowoc offered compensation to carry WLUK-DT on June 12 on Channel 234[7].

This left Time Warner Cable as the lone standout in the area to carry the DT signal, as they and LIN TV had not come to an agreement nationally. The ticker strategy was reused to pressure viewers into forcing Time Warner to come to an agreement, but with no success from either viewer pressure or contentious negotiations, the system was forced to pull WLUK from their systems at midnight on October 3, 2008 [8], and quickly offered free antennas to customers to receive the station, while WLUK employed their website and Zollar to tell their side of the story [9], while encouraging viewers to switch to Dish Network and U-Verse to continue to watch the station in some form [10]. In the month that passed, the ratings of LIN TV stations affected by the Time Warner dispute plunged [11], while viewers complained about the loss of Green Bay Packers games and the MLB Playoffs. By the time of the World Series, Time Warner made an odd but creative move to allow their viewers to watch the 2008 World Series on their system, offering Fox Sports en Espanol on basic cable, which carried the Series in Spanish, while encouraging viewers to turn down the Spanish call and listen to the game in English on local ESPN Radio affiliate WDUZ-AM/FM (1400/107.5) [12][13].

Eventually, the two entities finally came to a paid compensation agreement on October 29 [14], and WLUK's analog signal was restored on the same day, with WLUK-DT being placed on Channel 712 shortly thereafter [15], giving the station's digital signal full cable and satellite carriage on par with the other Big Three network affiliates.

WLUK Studios

FOX11 News

Anchors

  • Pete Petoniak - Good Day Wisconsin, 5a-9a
  • Rachel Manek - Good Day Wisconsin, 5a-9a
  • Amy Hanten - Living with Amy, 9a-10a
  • Tom Milbourn - Weeknights, 5p and 9p
  • Michelle Melby - Weeknights, 5p and 9p
  • Angela Kelly - Weekends, Good Day Wisconsin
  • Doug Higgins - Weekends, Good Day Wisconsin
  • Mark Leland - Weekends, 5p and 9p
  • Laura Smith - Weekends, 5p and 9p

Reporters

  • Cara Artman
  • Dr. Alan Cherkasky - Medical Breakthroughs
  • Cameron Clark
  • Becky DeVries
  • Lou Hillman
  • Robert Hornacek
  • Scott Hurley
  • Monica Landeros
  • Angela Kelly
  • Evan Perrault
  • Alison Struve
  • Lindsay Veremis

Severe Weather Lab

  • Pete Petoniak - Good Day Wisconsin 5a-9a - Director of Meteorology
  • Patrick Powell - 5PM & 9PM - Weeknights - Chief Meteorologist
  • Doug Higgins - Weekends
  • Andrew Thut

SportsCenter

  • Drew Smith - Sports Director (also a sideline reporter during NFL on Fox Packer home games)
  • Tom Ristow
  • Paige Pearson

Past Personalities

Nationally known alumni

News/Station Presentation

Newscast Titles

  • FOX11 News (1996-present)

Station Slogans

  • Your Station for Balanced News and Severe Weather Coverage (2006-present)

News Themes

External links

References

  1. ^ http://www.sys-con.com/read/518786.htm
  2. ^ http://www.foxcitieshd.com/node/664 surprised viewers
  3. ^ http://www.foxcitiestv.com/node/866
  4. ^ http://www.foxcitiestv.com/node/879
  5. ^ http://connect.charter.com/cas/Portal/content/SETs/2008/june/2500WLUKTV.aspx?u=null%40email.net&a=View&s=12482&b=812
  6. ^ http://www.foxcitiestv.com/node/895
  7. ^ http://www.foxcitiestv.com/node/885
  8. ^ http://www.foxcitiestv.com/node/1091
  9. ^ The site was redesigned during the dispute, thus links to all videos and statements by the station are unavailable.
  10. ^ http://www.foxcitiestv.com/node/1147
  11. ^ http://www.buffalonews.com/494/story/477367.html
  12. ^ http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/10/22/twc-wisconsin-offers-world-series-to-lin-tv-area-customers/
  13. ^ http://www.foxcitiestv.com/node/1164
  14. ^ http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6610386.html?desc=topstory
  15. ^ http://www.foxcitiestv.com/node/1175

Template:LIN TV

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