WLUK-TV
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| WLUK-TV | |
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| Green Bay, Wisconsin | |
| Branding | Fox 11 |
| Slogan | Your Station For Balanced News And Severe Weather Coverage |
| Channels | Analog: 11 (VHF) |
| Translators | W40AN Escanaba MI |
| Affiliations | Fox |
| Owner | LIN TV Corporation (LIN of Wisconsin, LLC) |
| First air date | 1954[1] |
| Call letters’ meaning | LUcKy Eleven (1st Slogan) |
| Former callsigns | WMBV-TV (1954-1959) |
| Former affiliations | NBC (1954-1959) ABC (1959-1983) NBC (1983-1995) |
| Transmitter Power | 316 kW (analog) 500 kW (digital) 17kW (post-transition) |
| Height | 384 m (analog) 365 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 4150 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | (analog) (digital) |
| Website | www.myfoxnewisconsin.com |
WLUK "Fox 11" 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.
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[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. The station dropped its nightly newscast in 1967 and did not return to news until 1971. It ran occasional documentaries and sports programs to fulfill FCC public-service regulations. It also ran a weekly commentary by the editor of the Post-Crescent, John Torinus. WLUK did do some local 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. 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. WLUK became a Fox affiliate on Labor Day of 1995, swapping affiliations with WGBA-TV. 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. Because of Fox's recent 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-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 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.
[edit] 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 You Tube. They also reiterate their slogan, "Your online media source for balanced news and severe weather coverage," as well as in a video on that You Tube page from the station's general manager, inviting people to send him e-mails if they disagree, "and we will respond to them."
[edit] Retransmission negotiations with Charter Communications
LIN TV and Charter Communications, the other major cable provider in the Green Bay area are currently negotiating a new retransmission consent agreement, as the current one expires on June 30, 2008 nationwide, but LIN TV has stated negotiations are currently at an impass as of June 5, 2008 [2] [3], putting carriage of WLUK on those systems in jeopardy. It is unknown currently if talks will restart before the June 30 deadline.
[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, or to HD subscribers of DirecTV or Dish Network satellite service.
When television stations are required to cease analogue transmission in February 2009, WLUK will broadcast their digital signal on channel 11, their current VHF channel.
[edit] Retransmission Controversies
Until April 2008, WLUK was the only Green Bay-based major-network affiliate not to have its digital signal carried on local cable systems or satellite television provider, 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's possible to view local HD channels on cable without leasing a cable box, if the HDTV's digital tuner is QAM compatible.
On March 13, 2008, LIN Television and Dish Network announced a deal for high-definition retransmission, even though Dish Network had yet to launch local high definition channels in the Green Bay market. After announcing that Green Bay's local HD channels would be available in May 2008, Dish Network surprised viewers on April 16, 2008 by offering them early. WLUK also confirmed availability on Dish Network on their website. WLUK HD is currently available on Dish Network channel 5163.
On June 4, 2008, LIN had announced that retransmission negotiations with local cable operator Charter Communications had broken down and threatened to pull its programming off Charter's cable lineup entirely unless a deal was reached by June 30, 2008. According to WLUK's website, "If an agreement cannot be reached when the current contract expires on June 30, 2008, we expect Charter to pull WLUK-TV FOX 11 off its cable system and deprive viewers of local news, weather, and popular sports and entertainment programming."
On June 9, 2008, LIN Television announced a deal with satellite operator DirecTV, which would include both analog and high-definition versions of WLUK. Until then, WLUK was the only major-network affiliate in the Green Bay market unable to reach a deal for their HD signal with DirecTV after the satellite service launched high-definition local channels in the market on November 21, 2006.
[edit] Station Logo History
 Logo used by WLUK from 1992 to 1995, prior to the FOX affiliation switch. |
 Logo used by WLUK from 1995-1997 |
 Logo used by WLUK from 1997-1999. |
 Logo used by WLUK from 1999-present. |
[edit] Past Themes
- "Hello News" by Gari Communications, Inc. (1983 to 1985)
- "Cool Hand Luke: The Tar Sequence" by Lalo Schifrin (1985 to 1990)
- "News Series 2000" by Gari Communications, Inc. (1990 to 1995)
- "Fox '95" by Stephen Arnold Music (1995 to 2001)
- "News Matrix" by Stephen Arnold Music (2001 to 2008)
- "Viral" by 360 Music (2008 to present)
[edit] FOX11 News Staff
[edit] Anchors
- Pete Petoniak - Good Day Wisconsin, 5a-9a
- Rachel Manek - Good Day Wisconsin
- Amy Hanten-Good Day Wisconsin
- 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
[edit] Reporters
- Cara Artman
- Dr. Alan Cherkasky - Medical Breakthroughs
- Cameron Clark
- Becky DeVries
- Lou Hillman
- Robert Hornacek
- Scott Hurley
- Monica Landeros
- Angela Kelly
- Evan Perrault
- Lindsay Veremis
[edit] Severe Weather Lab
- Pete Petoniak - Good Day Wisconsin 5a-9a - Director of Meteorology
- Patrick Powell - 5PM & 9PM - Weeknights - Chief Meteorologist
- Doug Higgins - Weekends
- Tara Hastings
[edit] SportsCenter
- Drew Smith - Sports Director (also a sideline reporter during NFL on Fox Packer home games)
- Tom Ristow
- Paige Pearson
[edit] Past Personalities
- Terri Barr (now works for WISC-TV in Madison, Wisconsin)
- John Chandik (retired)
- Jack Jones
- Glen Loyd (now spokesman for the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection)
- John Maino (now works for WNFL)
- Jason Pool (deceased)
- Brad Spakowitz (now works for WBAY-TV)
- Marti Spittell-Ziegelbauer (now a consultant for Frank Magid & Associates in Cedar Rapids, Iowa)
- Heather Surat (now works for WYOW-TV in Eagle River, Wisconsin)
- Ray Wheeler (retired)
[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] External links
- MyFox Northeast Wisconsin
- WLUK FOX 11 and the HD Position
- WLUK profile on FoxCitiesTV.com
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WLUK-TV
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WLUK-TV
[edit] References
- ^ The Broadcasting and Cable Yearbook says September 11, while the Television and Cable Factbook says August 9.
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