WLUK-TV

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WLUK-TV
Green Bay, Wisconsin
Branding	FOX11
Slogan	Your Station For Balanced News And Severe Weather Coverage
Channels	11 (VHF) analog, 51 (UHF) digital
Translators	40 W40AN Escanaba, Michigan
Affiliations	Fox
Owner	LIN TV
Founded	September 11, 1954
Call letters meaning	LUcKy Eleven (1st Slogan)
Former callsigns	WMBV-TV (1954-59)
Former affiliations	NBC (1954-59 and 1983-95), ABC (1959-83)
Website	www.wluk.com/

WLUK "FOX11" is a Fox affiliate in Green Bay, Wisconsin and serves the northeastern Wisconsin area as well as Menominee County in the southern tip of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. WLUK also serves Appleton, Oshkosh and the Fox River Valley, with news, talk shows and syndicated fare. It is also home to a locally produced morning show, "Good Day Wisconsin." Its transmitter is located in De Pere, Wisconsin.

The station is owned by LIN Television. It runs a general entertainment format consisting of local and national news, Fox network programming, sports, talk/reality/court shows and syndicated reruns. The station is news intensive running about 30 hours a week of news.

Contents 1 History 2 WLUK-DT 2.1 High-Definition Broadcasting 2.2 Exclusion From Cable and Satellite Providers 3 Station Logo History 4 Past Themes 5 Newscasts 6 WLUK-TV/DT 11 *** FOX 11 NEWS 6.1 FOX11 News Anchors 6.2 FOX11 Reporters 6.3 FOX 11 Severe Weather Lab 6.4 FOX 11 SportsCenter 7 Nationally known alumni 8 Locally known alumni 9 External links

[edit] 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. It also switched affiliations with WFRV-TV, resulting in WLUK becoming an ABC affiliate. In 1960 the station was sold to Morgan Murphy Stations.

In 1965 Post Corporation, a small media chain (not affiliated with Post-Newsweek) bought WLUK. Post Corporation owned the nearby Appleton Post-Crescent, some weekly newspapers and three TV stations. During this time, in 1966, WLUK built a new studio and office building at 787 Lombardi (formerly Highland) Avenue. In 1983, WLUK reclaimed the NBC affiliation when WFRV switched to ABC. In 1984, Gillett Broadcasting bought WLUK. In 1987 in order to become owner of the KKR stations Gillett would sell WLUK to Burnham Broadcasting.

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. SF Broadcasting was partly owned by Savoy Communications and partly owned by Fox. Originally Fox would have voting stock but this was changed prior to the sale being final. Because of Fox's recent purchase of National Football Conference television rights, the switch gave WLUK the largest share of network coverage of the Green Bay Packers, a major ratings draw. This comes after Fox wanted to upgrade its affiliation to VHF in certain major markets. As a result, New World Communications affiliated most of their stations with the network between late 1994 and mid-1995 under this deal. New World would later merge with Fox Television Stations Group in 1997.

WLUK became a Fox affiliate on Labor Day of 1995, swapping affiliations with WGBA-TV. Unlike most New World (to become Fox owned-and-operated stations), WLUK would run Fox Children's Network shows an hour earlier and a day behind on weekdays. It 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. This was a major change from the late 1960s, when the station did not carry a newscast of its own. It had dropped its newscasts in 1967, running occasional documentaries and sports programs. It also ran a weekly commentary by the editor of the Post-Crescent newspaper], John Torinus. The station returned to regular newscasts in 1971.

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 their stations up for sale the previous year.

WLUK-TV 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. W40AN is viewable around the communities of Escanaba, Gladstone, Rapid River, and Bark River, Michigan. W75AE once served the Iron Mountain, Michigan area.

WLUK-TV is carried by Charter Communications on all its cable systems in Michigan's Upper Peninsula 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.

[edit] WLUK-DT

[edit] High-Definition Broadcasting

WLUK now broadcasts programming digitally to Northeast Wisconsin on channel 51. Fox network programming, including its nightly prime-time lineup, sporting events like Green Bay Packers football games, Major League Baseball Playoffs, World Series games, and NASCAR races are broadcast in widescreen 720p High-Definition and Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound, when available. Syndicated shows like Judge Judy and Seinfeld, as well as its local news programs, are broadcast at standard television resolution. WLUK-DT is only available "over-the-air" to viewers with a UHF antenna.

[edit] Exclusion From Cable and Satellite Providers

WLUK is the only Green Bay-based major-network affiliate not to have its digital signal carried on local cable systems or DirecTV, a stance which dates back to an Emmis corporate directive which effected several other markets. Station officials, including Vice President and General Manager Jay Zollar, have vehemently and publicly defended their position on this matter, both in a policy statement on their website and in direct e-mail responses to viewers. WLUK maintains that cable operators require digital-cable service to receive its digital signal, at a "significant additional charge" to the subscriber, from which WLUK receives no compensation. However it is possible to view local HD channels on cable without leasing a cable box, if the HDTV's digital tuner is QAM compatible.

On November 21, 2006, DirecTV launched local high-definition channels to the Green Bay market. As of the end of the 2006, LIN Television has not completed negotiations with DirecTV to carry the channel. WLUK also removed references to availability of WLUK-DT on satellite providers from their HDTV FAQ, which had previously stated "DirecTV or DISH satellite providers have come to terms with WLUK… both companies offer an option that enables you to receive over the air HD signals from local broadcasters."

[edit] Station Logo History

Logo used by WLUK from 1992 to 1995, prior to the FOX affiliation switch.

Purple, gray and white logo used by WLUK from August 1995 until 1997. Currently unavailable.

Logo used by WLUK from 1997-2000.

Logo used by WLUK from 2000-present.

[edit] Past Themes

• Hello News (1983 to 1985)
• Cool Hand Luke (1985 to 1990)
• News Series 2000 (1990 to 1995)
• Fox '95 (1995 to 2001)
• News Matrix (2001 to present)

[edit] Newscasts

• FOX11 Good Day Wisconsin 5:00-9:00AM [Mon-Fri]
• FOX11 NEWS at FIVE 5:00-6:00PM
• FOX11 NEWS at NINE 9:00-10:00PM

[edit] WLUK-TV/DT 11 *** FOX 11 NEWS

[edit] FOX11 News Anchors

• Pete Petoniak - Good Day Wisconsin 5a-9a
• Rachel Manek - Good Day Wisconsin 5a-9a
• Amy Hanten-Good Day Wisconsin 5a-9a
• Tom Milbourn - FOX 11 NEWS at FIVE and NINE - Weeknights
• Michelle Melby - FOX 11 NEWS at FIVE and NINE - Weeknights
• Mark Leland - FOX 11 NEWS at FIVE and NINE - Weekends

[edit] FOX11 Reporters

• Dr. Alan Cherkasky - FOX 11 Medical Breakthroughs
• Lauren Cook - FOX 11 News
• Becky DeVries - FOX 11 News
• Robert Hornacek - FOX 11 News
• Scott Hurley - FOX 11 News
• Monica Landeros - FOX 11 News
• Jay Olstad - FOX 11 News
• Laura Smith - FOX 11 News

[edit] FOX 11 Severe Weather Lab

• Pete Petoniak - Good Day Wisconsin 5a-9a - Director of Meteorology
• Patrick Powell - FOX 11 NEWS at FIVE and NINE - Weeknights - Chief Meteorologist
• Doug Higgins - FOX 11 NEWS at FIVE and NINE - Weekends
• Tara Hastings

[edit] FOX 11 SportsCenter

• Drew Smith - FOX 11 Sports Dircetor
• Tom Ristow - FOX 11 Sports
• Zach Wells - FOX 11 Sports

[edit] Nationally known alumni

• Bill Weir - Good Morning America Weekend Edition host,
• Stanley Siegel - Station's news "host" in 1971-72, hosted local talk show in New York later in the decade.
• Kyra Phillips - Co-host of CNN's afternoon edition of CNN Newsroom.

[edit] Locally known alumni

• Heather Surat
• Marti Spitell
• Tara Arnold

[edit] External links

• FOX 11 WLUK-TV
• WLUK FOX 11 and the HD Position
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WLUK-TV
• Query the FCC's TV station database for W40AN