WCGV-TV

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WCGV-TV
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Branding	My 24
Channels	24 (UHF) analog, 25 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	My Network TV, The Tube (on digital subchannel 24-2, currently suspended)
Owner	Sinclair Broadcast Group (officially WCGV-TV, Inc.)
Founded	March 24, 1980
Call letters meaning	Wisconsin's Choice for Great Viewing
Former affiliations	Independent (1981-1987, 1/1998-8/1998) Fox (1987-1994), Fox Kids/4Kids TV (1990-2004) UPN (1995-1/1998, 8/1998-9/2006) CBS & NBC (secondary, 1981-1995)
Website	ThatTVWebsite.com (combined site for WVTV/WCGV/The Tube Milwaukee)

WCGV-TV (Channel 24) is a television station located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, affiliated with MyNetworkTV. Its signal covers most of southeastern Wisconsin, including the cities of Racine, Kenosha, Sheboygan and Waukesha. The station is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group as part of a duopoly in Milwaukee with WVTV, and the station's transmitter site is on Milwaukee's northwest side.

Contents 1 History 1.1 As an Independent (1980-1987) 1.2 Fox Affiliation (1987-1994) 1.3 UPN Affiliation (1995-2006) 1.4 MyNetworkTV (2006- ) 1.5 The Tube Music Network 2 Trivia 3 External links

[edit] History

[edit] As an Independent (1980-1987)

WCGV signed on the air on March 24, 1980. It was owned by B&F Broadcasting. At the time, it ran religious shows, old movies, cartoons, and drama shows during the day. At night, the station ran a pay-TV service called SelecTV, a premium movie service whose programming was scambled over the air; subscribers needed to buy a converter box to see first-run movies or, on Friday nights, adult programming from The Playboy Channel.

However, as cable TV became widespread, WCGV dropped the pay TV service in 1983, and eventually became a more serious contender against now-sister station WVTV for the title of the area's leading independent station. The station was known simply as 'TV-24'. By then the station was owned by Arlington Broadcasting, which also owned WTTO Channel 21 Birmingham.

[edit] Fox Affiliation (1987-1994)

On March 15, 1987, WCGV joined Fox at the last minute after turning down the network offer in 1986, becoming 'Fox 24'. The station joined on the condition that it be allowed to pre-empt Joan Rivers' late night talk show. By 1988, the station scored a major coup by acquiring the air rights to the Milwaukee Brewers and the Milwaukee Bucks, both previously seen on now-sister station WVTV. At this time, the station was based in studios on N. 27th St. which were formerly the home of WITI (Channel 6) until WITI's move to newer studios in Brown Deer in 1978. In the late 1980's Arlington Broadcasting was sold and became known as HR (as in Hal Roach Studios, of Little Rascals/Our Gang fame) Broadcasting.

WCGV along with WTTO Birmingham came under the ownership of Abry in 1990. The station continued with the general entertainment format along with Fox shows. WCGV entered into a local marketing agreement with Gaylord's WVTV in 1994. The two stations also merged operations, and WCGV moved into WVTV's studios at N. 35th St. and Capitol Drive.

[edit] UPN Affiliation (1995-2006)

WITI-TV became the new Fox affiliate in 1994 as a result of a deal between its owner (New World Communications) and Fox. WCGV lost the Fox affiliation that November; however, it did not take the CBS affiliation dropped from WITI (which went to WDJT-TV), as the station would become a charter UPN affiliate in January 1995, following a pattern in which many former Fox affiliates in markets where New World owned a station decided to join either UPN or fellow upstart network WB. At this time the station was identified as "UPN 24", with a generic logo consisting of the station's call letters and channel number next to the primary color UPN 'shapes' logo of that time.

In 1995, Abry would be acquired by Sinclair making them the owners of WCGV, WTTO, and other Abry stations. WVTV was purchased by Glencairn Corp. (which was owned by a former Sinclair executive). This arrangement, however, prompted Jesse Jackson and his Rainbow/PUSH coalition to bring forward litigation, citing their concerns on racial issues in the face of one entity holding two broadcast licenses in a market. (WVTV finally became fully owned by Sinclair in 2000, after the FCC overturned the rules that had prohibited duopolies.)

In January 1998, WCGV/Sinclair decided to drop the UPN affiliation over ratings and monetary matters. For eight months, the station returned to being independent. However, it saw its ratings drop without the network. It also received complaints from vocal Star Trek fans who had to watch Voyager on stations from other markets. The station reversed its decision, and re-affiliated with UPN on August 4. Three months after reaquiring the UPN affiliation, WCGV made up for the pre-emptions by airing an all-day Voyager marathon, showing all 13 episodes missed over the last half of the 1997-98 season, with UPN's blessing. However, the station continued to omit the mention of UPN from its own branding, and called itself "Channel 24" until the beginning of the 2001-2002 TV season, when it readopted the "UPN 24" branding.

WITI was not interested in airing Fox Kids programming after it became a Fox station; therefore, Fox Kids continued to air on WCGV for ten years after the affiliation switch (which included the station having a Fox 24 Kids Club through most of these years). However, as time went on, WCGV began to use its own logo bug to cover all Fox logos, and advertise the block sparingly on UPN's behest (which had its own children's block airing on the station up until its end in 2003). The station declined to renew the children's block, now known as Fox Box/4Kids TV, after the fall of 2004, and subsequently 4Kids TV moved to independent WMLW (Channel 41), where it now airs Sunday mornings.

[edit] MyNetworkTV (2006- )

On March 2, 2006 Sinclair announced that Channel 24 was to be the Milwaukee affiliate for MyNetworkTV, which was created by Fox Television Stations Group in the wake of the January 24, 2006 announcement that the UPN and WB networks would cease operations in September 2006, and merge into one network, The CW. Sister station WVTV, the former WB affiliate, is Milwaukee's CW affiliate. This resulted in the Milwaukee duopoly becoming one of five My Network TV/CW duopolies owned and/or controlled by Sinclair; the other four are KVMY/KVCW in Las Vegas, Nevada, WABM/WTTO in Birmingham, Alabama, WUXP/WNAB in Nashville, Tennessee and WRDC/WLFL in Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina.

In the interim two weeks between the beginning of MyNetworkTV and UPN's end in early to mid-September, WCGV still showed select UPN programming on Sunday afternoons, airing Friday Night Smackdown, followed by Girlfriends, Everybody Hates Chris, All of Us from 12pm-5pm, all which were renewed by The CW and moved to Channel 18.

Currently, Channel 24's weekday schedule consists of mostly syndicated off-network sitcoms such as That 70s Show, Becker and The Simpsons, which airs at 6pm and 10pm, along with many former UPN sitcoms in their off-network runs. WCGV also airs repeats of Maury and Jerry Springer in mid-afternoons (WVTV airs the first-run episodes). In contrast, WVTV has a more diverse schedule, with talk shows, dating shows, and more popular sitcoms such as Friends, Sex and the City, and Everybody Loves Raymond.

During the weekend, the station airs off-network dramas like 24, The Shield, and ER. On Sunday evenings, the one evening MyNetworkTV does not program, Channel 24 airs the syndicated Cold Squad/Stone Undercover crime drama block. The rest of the weekend features a variety of movies, sitcoms, dramas, and syndicated poker tournaments. The station also continues to air Milwaukee Bucks games, sharing rights with FSN North; however at the end of the 2006-07 season, the Bucks, like the Brewers, will become FSN-exclusive [1].

The station currently airs very little children's programming, with only Sabrina: The Animated Series, Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century, and Trollz carried on weekday mornings to fulfill minimum FCC educational/informational programming requirements.

[edit] The Tube Music Network

On March 23, 2006, Sinclair announced that it would start multicasting The Tube onto the digital subcarriers of many of its stations across the country. The channel launched on WCGV's DT2 subchannel on June 15, 2006 [2]. On December 31st, The Tube was dropped by WCGV due to new E/I regulations put into effect by the FCC. There is speculation that all Sinclair stations have dropped The Tube due to breach of contract [3].

[edit] Trivia

• WCGV is one of a handful of stations to have been affiliated with both News Corporation-owned networks, Fox and My Network TV.

[edit] External links

• Official Station Website (shared with WVTV)
• History of Milwaukee television
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WCGV