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WGBA-TV is the NBC-affiliated television station for Northeastern Wisconsin's Fox River Valley licensed to Green Bay. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 41 (PSIP virtual channel 26) from a transmitter in the Shirley section of De Pere. The station can also be seen on Time Warner Cable and CenturyLink channel 7. There is a high definition signal offered on CenturyLink digital channel 126 and Time Warner Cable digital channel 1007. Owned by the Journal Broadcast Group, the station also operates MyNetworkTV affiliate WACY-TV, which was fully purchased from Ace TV Inc. in October 2012 after a local marketing agreement (LMA) which had lasted eighteen years.

The two share studios on North Road along Airport Drive/WIS 172 in Ashwaubenon (with a Green Bay postal address). Syndicated programming on WGBA includes: Inside Edition, Access Hollywood, Family Feud, and America's Funniest Home Videos.

Digital television

Channel Video Aspect Programming
26.1 1080i 16:9 Main WGBA-TV programming / NBC
26.2 480i 4:3 Me-TV

After the analog television shutdown and digital conversion, WGBA continued to broadcast its digital signal on channel 41 and continues to identify via PSIP as virtual channel 26.[1]

The station's digital signal is multiplexed. WGBA's subchannel is carried on Time Warner Cable's Northeastern Wisconsin systems over digital channel 994. Some Time Warner markets where both WTMJ and WGBA are transmitted to viewers instead air WTMJ's Live Well Network subchannel, depending on where an individual market falls in terms of ACNielsen classifications, though those systems also already carry Me-TV flagship WBME-CD from Milwaukee on the basic lifeline tier under must-carry rules. In some of these portions this means that WTMJ's Live Well subchannel duplicates the same Live Well programming airing on WBAY-DT3.

The subchannel previously carried TheCoolTV. On September 7, Journal and Weigel Broadcasting announced that WGBA would carry the classic television network Me-TV beginning October 1, 2011.[2][3] Me-TV replaced TheCoolTV on 26.2, as Journal has brought a lawsuit against TheCoolTV's parent company for non-payment of services; WTMJ-TV, along with Journal's other stations dropped the network on October 1, 2011 to carry Live Well Network or Me-TV, depending on market.[4][5][6]

Translators

In addition to its main signal, WGBA operates two translators to extend the station's coverage northward. The translators are a remnant of the analog era when it was Green Bay's only major UHF commercial television station. The station in fact had to keep a post office box address open for years and advertise an offer of a free pamphlet describing installation of a UHF television antenna to interested viewers until the early 1990s. During that period, residents of Northern Door County and the southern portion of Michigan's Upper Peninsula could easily receive the three Green Bay network stations on VHF and WFRV semi-satellite WJMN-TV from Escanaba, Michigan, along with PBS member station WNMU from Marquette, Michigan, but not WGBA and Wisconsin Public Television's WPNE-TV (Channel 38).

WKTI-CA channel 22 is officially licensed as a Class A station; this is reflected in its call sign. This translator was known as W22BW prior to November 27, 2012;[7] Journal is using the Sturgeon Bay station to warehouse the WKTI calls to prevent re-use by a competitor in the Milwaukee market; the calls were used from 1974 until 2008 on now-sister FM radio station WLWK-FM (94.5) in Milwaukee, and were previously warehoused on former sister station WWAM (1040) in Powell, Tennessee, which serves the Knoxville market, until December 2012, when that station was sold to local interests.

Before it became an NBC affiliate, WGBA was repeated in Michigan's Upper Peninsula on W02AM channel 2 in Gwinn, W09BA channel 9 in Felch, W49AF channel 49 in Crystal Falls, and W56BF channel 56 in Iron Mountain. The last translator was encrypted and part of the now-defunct over-the-air cable system in the area.

Call letters Channel City of license Transmitter location
WKTI-CA 22 Sturgeon Bay north of downtown
W31BK 31 Menominee, Michigan northeast of downtown

History

The station signed-on as WLRE on December 31, 1980 broadcasting an analog signal on UHF channel 26. The call letters stood for station co-founder Lyle R. Evans. It was the Green Bay market's second Independent outlet, after the short-lived KFIZ-TV Channel 34 in Fond du Lac from 1968 to 1972, as well as the first new commercial station to sign-on in Green Bay itself in 25 years. In late-1984, the station's partnership was dissolved in a bankruptcy court in which investors lost money. In 1985, it was bought by Family Group Broadcasting Incorporated for only pennies on the dollar. On October 3 of that year, the call letters were changed to WGBA-TV.[8] The station, then known on-air as "TV 26", was well known in its early years for children programming host "Cuddles the Clown" who stayed with the station until it acquired an NBC affiliation and moved to WACY before retiring.

In the wake of a bankruptcy, Green Bay's original Fox affiliate WXGZ went dark February 14, 1992. WGBA became the new affiliate the following day changing its identification to "Fox 26". In 1994 during the first year of NFL on Fox, the station had to contract with ABC affiliate WBAY-TV to do a pregame show before Green Bay Packers games since it lacked a local sports department. WGBA relaunched WXGZ with Ace TV though a local marketing agreement in June 1994. That station became a charter affiliate of UPN and changed its call letters to WACY-TV in 1995.

WGBA became an NBC affiliate in August 1995 in the wake of WLUK-TV's switch to Fox after an ownership change and the network's acquisition of the NFL's National Football Conference contract enabling the station to be the Packers' home station. WGBA then became known on-air as "NBC 26". As an NBC affiliate, it struggled to find a constant identity. Green Bay's other three stations have been on-the-air since the 1950s and had loyal audiences. Relief did not come until October 2004 when the Journal Broadcast Group bought it for $43.2 million after Aries Telecommunications sold the station. Journal had long wanted a station in Northeastern Wisconsin alongside its flagship station, WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee, that market's NBC affiliate and dominant news station.

The purchase also included the LMA with WACY. Although Journal has wanted to buy WACY outright, this had been unlikely since Green Bay has only six full-power stations (not enough to legally permit a duopoly). However in September 2010, WLUK owner LIN TV Corporation exercised an option to purchase CW affiliate WCWF from ACME Communications, and asked for a "failing station waiver" which would allow LIN to own WLUK and WCWF, which is possible if the petitioner can prove the station is in an economically non-viable position. Because WCWF was hampered for years by several factors, including low cable carriage and an analog signal originating more towards their city of license, Suring than Green Bay, the waiver was granted in February 2011. Journal eventually pleaded for the failing station waiver for WACY at the beginning of 2012, though instead using that station's dark period between 1992 and 1994 when the Ace TV LMA began that the station was unable to survive on its own without the production and control assistance of WGBA. Because of this, the FCC allowed the full sale of WACY to Journal at the beginning of September 2012.

Since being acquired by Journal, WGBA and WTMJ have become close sister stations and now share the same news theme and graphics package. The stations share resources which allows WGBA to use WTMJ's resources for breaking news, live events, and sports coverage. This became more evident in 2008 when WGBA outsourced sports and weekend weather reports to WTMJ and simulcasted WTMJ's morning and noon newscasts for a short time. Prior to November 2010, WGBA did not utilize any subchannel services at all and never associated with NBC Weather Plus. The station finally launched a new second digital subchannel in that month carrying TheCoolTV (an automated music video network) which began airing on the WTMJ subchannel since the summer of 2009. The establishment of WGBA-DT2 marks the second commercial station in the market to launch a subchannel service after WBAY. TheCoolTV was replaced with Me-TV on October 1, 2011.[3]

Packers partnership

On March 2, 2012, the Green Bay Packers and Journal announced that WTMJ would be retained as the Official Packers Station in the Milwaukee market after the expiration of the previous agreement, and that WGBA would become the official station for the team in the Green Bay market beginning in August 2012, replacing former partner WFRV-TV (Channel 5).[9] WGBA will thus carry the majority of the team's preseason schedule (the games continue to be produced by CBS Sports with their announcers and crews, with the NBC Sunday Night Football graphics package used instead due to WTMJ & WGBA's NBC affiliation), along with the Mike McCarthy Show on Tuesday evenings before primetime, and the Inside Lambeau program on Sunday nights, along with other official team programming. The first preseason game of 2012 was a national ESPN game against the Chargers on August 9 and aired on WBAY-TV, thus precluding a situation where NBC's non-preemptable coverage of the 2012 Summer Olympics would have forced WGBA to move that game to WACY instead. In addition the station also held the rights to the September 13 Thursday Night Football game of the Packers–Bears rivalry broadcast on cable/satellite on NFL Network, a network unavailable to much of the Green Bay market at the time due to conflicts with Time Warner Cable (three weeks later Time Warner added the network to their systems); this unusually forced the season seven finale of America's Got Talent to air the same night over WACY (the station's first move of NBC programming to that station in a pre-emption situation), and re-air after Saturday Night Live on September 15 on WGBA due to the pre-emption.

Larry McCarren, who had been the sports director at WFRV until the loss of the Packers contract in March 2012, along with budget cuts at that station, went over to Journal in July 2012; however he was only able to do short Packer analysis segments through the 2012 season on-air for WTMJ and WGBA, along with blogging on WTMJ's site, due to a one-year non-compete clause, but continued his duties as color commentator over Journal's Packers Radio Network. With the expiration of the NCC, McCarren will assume sports director duties for WGBA on April 1, 2013.[10] [11]

News operation

File:Wgba news open.png
Nightly news open at 6.

During NBC coverage of the 1996 Summer Olympics, WGBA established a news department and began airing local newscasts every night at 6 and 10. Current Fox Business Network journalist Ashley Webster was the station's first News Director and weeknight anchor. Eventually as the operation grew, the station added shows in other dayparts.

WGBA's newscasts have consistently rated a distant fourth in the market, behind WBAY, WLUK and WFRV. Ratings have not improved much since the Journal purchase, even with the ties to WTMJ's well-respected news department. On June 3, 2008, Journal announced WGBA's sports department would shut down and the sports team, Ted Stefaniak and John Burton, would be laid-off by the company. All sports segments now pre-taped in advance originate from WTMJ's facilities (on East Capitol Drive/WIS 190 in Milwaukee's Far North Side section) using its personnel. WGBA's staff continues to film sports video and freelance announcers (some formerly with this station) provide commentary for Green Bay sporting events.[12]

On July 14, 2008 due to low ratings and inconsistent viewership, WGBA discontinued its weekday morning show and noon newscast while letting go some of its staff. In place of those shows, WTMJ's Live at Daybreak and Live at Noon newscasts were simulcasted on this station with local weather cut-ins from WGBA in Green Bay. In January 2009, the weekday morning simulcast was cancelled and turned into a WGBA-produced rolling weather block called Non-Stop Weather. WTMJ's weekday noon broadcast later moved to WACY in order to allow WGBA's carriage of paid programming, which for a time in 2008, filled some of the station's early afternoon schedule due to syndicated program cancellations or low ratings. The midday news on WACY and paid programming on WGBA were eventually dropped as well.

On April 7, 2009, WTMJ became the first station in Milwaukee to upgrade local broadcasts to high definition. However, until April 2012, the pre-taped nightly sports and weekend weather segments originating from WTMJ were broadcast in 4:3 standard definition.[13] On July 24, it was announced some of WGBA's reporter and photojournalist jobs would be eliminated and the remaining staff would be retrained as "one man band" videojournalists handling reporting, camera work, and editing stories themselves. In September 2009, Bonnie Kirschman was let go and she was the final employee to remain with WGBA's news operation since the 1996 launch.

In mid-August 2009, the weekday morning weather block was canceled entirely with Better moving to the 5 a.m. hour followed by encores of the previous night's NBC 26 News Live at 10 broadcast and Early Today before Today. On January 10, 2011, WGBA brought back a weekday morning show under the slightly revised title of NBC 26 News Today from a new morning-exclusive set. In addition to its main studios, the station operates a Fox Cities Bureau in Downtown Appleton on West College Avenue. WGBA operates its own weather radar at the main facilities in Ashwaubenon. In August 2012 the Valley News operation was officially terminated, which had been in existence since July 1996. On April 7, 2012, WGBA upgraded its local newscasts to 16:9 widescreen. With WLUK-TV having upgraded to high definition newscasts on April 23, WGBA is now the only remaining station in the Fox River Valley to continue to air its local newscasts in widescreen rather than true high definition.

National attention on the internet

In 2012, NBC26 became a national center of attention twice, with two of its video segments from NBC26 Today going viral on the internet.

In January, a video went viral showing meteorologist Brian Niznansky getting pranked on-air into saying, "I love lamp," a line from the movie Anchorman. As of October 2012, the video has nearly 2 million views on YouTube. The prank was featured on several news sites, including on the front page of MSN at one point.

In September, on the day following the controversial 2012 Green Bay Packers–Seattle Seahawks game, the station did a segment on NBC26 Today with a "replacement weather guy," poking fun at the NFL replacement referees. Tom Legener, the floor director at WGBA, was seen on-air forecasting a thunderblizzard hurricane, with a temperature of -200 degrees at 7:00 a.m. and 346 degrees at noon. The video went viral, and as of October 2012, the video has nearly 600,000 views on YouTube. It was featured on various news sites, including CNN, ESPN, Yahoo!, and MSN.

Station slogans

  • "The Great Entertainer" (1980–1985) 'as WLRE-TV'
  • "Where Local News Comes First" (2000–2002)
  • "Going Places" (2002–2004)
  • "See for Yourself" (2004–2009; general slogan)
  • "You Ask. We Investigate." (2004–2009; news slogan, still used as secondary)
  • "In Your Corner" (2009–present)
  • "NBC 26, More Colorful." (2011–present; local version of NBC ad campaign)

Current on-air staff[14]

+ denotes personnel based at WTMJ

Anchors

  • Cassandra Duvall- weekend anchor; also weeknight reporter
  • Jennifer Dodd - weekday mornings NBC 26 News Today
  • Stacy Engebretson - weeknights at 6 and 10 p.m.
  • Kasey Hott - weeknights at 5 p.m. also weeknight reporter
  • Bob Healey - news director; also fill-in anchor


NBC 26 Precision Weather Team

  • Cameron Moreland - (AMS Seal of Approval) chief meteorologist; weeknights at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.
  • Brian Niznansky - meteorologist; weekday mornings NBC 26 News Today
  • + Michael Fish - meteorologist; Saturdays at 6, Sundays at 5 and weekends at 10 p.m.
  • + Brian Gotter - fill-in meteorologist
  • + John Malan - fill-in meteorologist; also WTMJ chief meteorologist
  • + Jesse Ritka - meteorologist; weekend morning cut-ins
  • + Scott Steele - fill-in meteorologist

Sports

  • Larry McCarren - sports director and Packers reporter (not on-air yet; to debut in March 2013 when non-compete contract with WFRV-TV expires)
  • Dan Koob - sports reporter
  • + Lance Allan - WTMJ sports director; weeknights at 6 and 10 p.m.
  • + Rod Burks - sports anchor; Saturdays at 6, Sundays at 5 and weekends at 10 p.m.; also sports reporter
  • + Jessie Garcia - sports reporter and fill-in sports anchor

Videojournalists

  • Deandra Corinthios ; also fill-in anchor
  • Jonathon Gregg
  • Brian Miller
  • Alex Hagan
  • Brooke Hafs

Contributors

  • + Melinda Myers - "Melinda's Garden Moment" segment producer

References

  1. ^ CDBS Print
  2. ^ Where to Watch Me-TV: WGBA
  3. ^ a b Lafayette, Jon (7 September 2011). "Me-TV Signs With Stations in New Markets; New affiliates bring coverage to 60% of U.S." Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved 8 September 2011. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  4. ^ "Channel 4 owner sues 'The Cool TV' for $257k". The Business Journal, Milwaukee. 2 September 2011. Retrieved 13 September 2011. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  5. ^ "Channel 4 dropping 'The Cool TV' for lifestyle network". The Business Journal, Milwaukee. 12 September 2011. Retrieved 13 September 2011. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  6. ^ Cuprisin, Tim (13 September 2011). "Get ready for another round of Charlie Sheen". OnMilwaukee.com. Retrieved 13 September 2011.
  7. ^ "Call Sign Changes" (PDF). Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
  8. ^ http://www.fccinfo.com/CMDProEngine.php?sCurrentService=TV&tabSearchType=Appl&sAppIDNumber=596813&PHPSESSID=27f736e089acabb7eb90d1e8778b2c6a
  9. ^ Wolfley, Bob (2 March 2012). "Packers and Journal Broadcast Group announce partnership deal". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Retrieved 3 March 2012.
  10. ^ "Larry McCarren returns to TV". Your Midwest Media.
  11. ^ Kirchen, Rich (18 March 2013). "McCarren will return to anchoring sports on Green Bay TV". The Business Journal (Milwaukee). Retrieved 19 March 2013. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  12. ^ http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080603/GPG05/80603041/1978
  13. ^ TMJ4 Debuts HD Newscasts
  14. ^ NBC26 News Team, nbc26.com. Retrieved 11-23-2011.

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