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| Broadcast area | Greater Milwaukee |
| Frequency | 620kHz |
| Branding | 620 WTMJ |
| Programming | |
| Format | News/talk |
| Affiliations | |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| WGKB,WKTI | |
| History | |
First air date | May 15, 1922; 102 years ago (1922-05-15) |
Former call signs |
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Former frequencies |
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Call sign meaning | The Milwaukee Journal |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 74096 |
| Class | B |
| Power |
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Transmitter coordinates | 42°42′28.07″N88°3′57.3″W / 42.7077972°N 88.065917°W /42.7077972; -88.065917 |
| Translator(s) | 103.3 W277CV (Milwaukee) |
| Repeater(s) | 94.5 WKTI-HD2 (Milwaukee) |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | wtmj |
WTMJ (620kHz) is acommercial radio station inMilwaukee, Wisconsin. Owned byGood Karma Brands, the station has anews/talk radio format. Itssign-on dates back to 1922 and for most of its history it was owned byThe Milwaukee Journal newspaper. On weekdays, it airs news blocks duringdrive time, local talk shows in middays, sports in the evening and syndicated shows in late nights. It is theflagship station forMilwaukee Brewers baseball andMilwaukee Bucks basketball.
By day, it transmits 50,000 watts, the maximum for AM radio stations in the United States. At night, to avoid interference to other stations, it reduces power to 10,000 watts. In addition, it broadcasts on 250-wattFM translator W277CV at 103.3MHz.
The station was first licensed, with the sequentially assigned call letters WCAY, on May 15, 1922. It was owned by the Kesselman O'Driscoll Company, a music house located at 517–519 Grand Avenue (now Wisconsin Avenue) in Milwaukee. It was initially authorized to broadcast on the "entertainment" wavelength of 360 meters (833 kHz).[2][3] On May 24, 1923, WCAY was reassigned to 1150 kHz.[4][3] The next year ownership was transferred to the Milwaukee Civic Broadcasting Association.[5]
The station license was briefly allowed to lapse in 1925,[6] but it was quickly relicensed as WKAF to the WKAF Broadcasting Co., located at 130 Second Street.[7] The station was now jointly owned by Kesselman-O'Driscoll Co., the Hotel Antlers (the studio location), and station engineer H. L. Ford. WKAF's first regular broadcast was held on October 20, 1925.[8]
On April 20, 1927, WKAF was purchased byThe Milwaukee Journal for $16,350. TheJournal changed the call sign to WTMJ on May 10 to reflect the newspaper's name.[9][10][11] Station facilities were upgraded, including the building of a new transmitter site inBrookfield, west of Milwaukee. The new WTMJ also affiliated with theNBC Red Network.[12]
TheJournal already had extensive experience with radio broadcasting. On May 1, 1922, it had sponsored the debut program on WAAK, Milwaukee's first radio station, which was owned by the local division of theGimbel'sdepartment store chain.[13] On January 24, 1925, the newspaper entered into an agreement as a joint, and dominant, partner in the operation of Marquette University's station, WHAD, which limited the university's programming to just one and one-half-hour on Friday evenings. The newspaper's operations at WHAD ended on August 15, 1927, with the university returning to full responsibility for the station.[14] WTMJ aired afull service format featuring a mixture of music, news, talk and local personalities along with sports play-by-play, as well as dramas, comedies and other programs from NBC.
WTMJ made its debut broadcast on July 25, 1927.[15][11] That day's broadcast featured music by the WTMJ Orchestra and included aremote broadcast featuring Bill Carlsen's orchestra. (Carlsen was later hired by WTMJ and went on to becomeWisconsin's most widely known radio and television weather forecaster.) On September 11, 1927, WTMJ was assigned to 1020 kHz.[9] WTMJ also began broadcastingUniversity of Wisconsin Badgers football games that year.[16]
On November 11, 1928, as part of a major nationwide allocation under the provisions of theFederal Radio Commission'sGeneral Order 40, WTMJ was reassigned to its current frequency of 620 kHz. In November 1929, WTMJ broadcast aGreen Bay Packers game for the first time.[12][17]
WTMJ was indirectly involved with the installation of the first directional antenna by a radio station in the United States. In 1929 a joint operation in Clearwater, Florida, WFLA-WSUN, was also assigned to 620 kHz.[18] WTMJ immediately complained that at the initial power allocation the Florida stations were causing significant interference to WTMJ's coverage, especially at night. WFLA-WSUN turned to the engineering community to determine whether a then-theoretical concept of a directional antenna could be installed to reduce the Florida station's signal toward Milwaukee. This led to the successful development in 1932 of the first modern AM directional antenna system.[19] (WFLA moved to 970 kHz in 1941, withWSUN taking its place in Tampa, followed by the current-dayWDAE)
In 1942, a new facility,The Milwaukee Journal's Radio City, opened for WTMJ and its FM sister station, W55M (later WMFM andWTMJ-FM), in addition to the yet-to-come WTMJ-TV. An article in the trade magazineBroadcasting reported that the building was the "first ever designed to house all three types of broadcasting".[20]
A 1944 survey byThe Milwaukee Journal found WTMJ to be the most popular radio station in Milwaukee, especially for local morning showTop of the Morning and NBC radio'sThe Hour of Charm in evenings. WTMJ had gross advertising revenue of over $1.2 million.[21]Gordon Hinkley began a near three-decade career with WTMJ in 1951, starting as a staff announcer and host of the Sunday morningbeautiful music showInvitation to Beauty.[22]
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Beginning in 1961, WTMJ promoted Hinkley to host its morning drive programTop O' the Morning and call-in talk showAsk Your Neighbor.[22]Top O' the Morning was the highest rated morning show in Milwaukee for five straight Arbitron surveys from summer 1977 to summer 1978.[24] Hinkley hostedTop O' the Morning until 1984.[22]
In 1968, WTMJ started broadcasting Milwaukee Bucks games. They have been the flagship of theMilwaukee Bucks Radio Network ever since the inception of the franchise.
In1971, WTMJ began broadcastingMilwaukee Brewers games.WEMP broadcast the inaugural Brewers season the previous year. WTMJ temporarily lost the Brewers to rivalWISN in 1981 and 1982.[25]
Having been the most popular station in localArbitron ratings, WTMJ tiedTop 40 stationWKTI in the top ratings spot in by spring 1990.[26]
By the summer of 1990, most of the music shows had been discontinued. WTMJ began to be listed as a news/talk station in theArbitron ratings.[27]In 1993, WTMJ hired two new talk show hosts, liberalJay Marvin and conservativeCharlie Sykes.[28][29] Sykes joined WTMJ from rival WISN.[29] Marvin left forWLS in Chicago after seven months.[28]
Also in 1993, WTMJ lost the production rights to Wisconsin Badgers sports broadcasts because an employee submitted the bid for the rights minutes after the deadline had passed. Though the station no longer originated the network, it continued to be the network flagship underLearfield Communications, the new rightsholders.[16][30]
WTMJ was granted permission in 1995 to upgrade to 50,000 watts days and 10,000 watts nights from a newdirectional antenna. It uses a six-tower array, located inUnion Grove, south of Milwaukee.[31]
In November 1997, WTMJ switched its national news provider fromCBS toABC. WTMJ returned to CBS on October 1, 2001.[32]
In 2002, Sykes and fellow WTMJ host Jeff Wagner led a campaign to recallMilwaukee County ExecutiveTom Ament, who was embroiled in scandal for abusing the county pension system; Ament controversially retired at the end of February 2002, rather than resign.[33][34]
In 2013, WTMJ made changes to its programming and management. In March, Journal Communications fired program director Joe Scialfa, who had been with the station for 14 years beginning as producer for the Charlie Sykes show.[35] That November, WTMJ elected not to renew its contract with the University of Wisconsin, thus ending over eight decades of broadcasting Wisconsin Badgers sports by 2014.WOKY andWRIT became the new Milwaukee affiliates for the Wisconsin sports network effective in the 2014–15 season.[30][36]
Journal Communications and theE. W. Scripps Company announced on July 30, 2014, that the two companies would merge to create a new broadcast company under the E.W. Scripps Company name that will own the two companies' broadcast properties, including WTMJ, WTMJ-TV, and WKTI-FM. The deal separated the WTMJ stations from theJournal Sentinel after nine decades, as the two companies' newspapers were spun off into a separate company under theJournal Media Group name (that company merged withGannett itself in April 2016).
Both WTMJ Radio and WTMJ-TV eventually partnered with theMilwaukee Business Journal after the sale for business coverage. The transaction was completed on April 1, 2015; E.W. Scripps will also continue to originate the Packers and Brewers radio networks.[37]
Sykes hosted his final show on WTMJ on December 19, 2016, nearly a month after theelection ofDonald Trump as U.S. president.[38] In an essay forThe New York Times, Sykes said: "The conservative media is broken and the conservative movement deeply compromised."[39]
On February 22, 2018, WTMJ begansimulcasting on a monaural FM translator, W277CV at 103.3 MHz. It has its transmitter on the WTMJ-TV/WKTI tower.[40]
The transmitter, formerly individually licensed to Frank Glass McCoy and leased to Scripps (who owns the physical tower and transmitter assets) and operated by Good Karma Brands, was formerly licensed toWaukegan, Illinois, and translated Kenosha public radio stationWGTD before the move of the translator to Milwaukee.[41][42] McCoy sold the translator license to Auslator, LLC in May 2019.
| Call sign | Frequency | City of license | FID | ERP (W) | Class | Transmitter coordinates | FCC info |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| W277CV | 103.3 FM | Milwaukee, Wisconsin | 156555 | 250 | D | 43°5′29″N87°54′7.3″W / 43.09139°N 87.902028°W /43.09139; -87.902028 (W277CV) | LMS |
Additionally, the station is simulcast at 88.5 FM within the campus ofAmerican Family Field, allowing fans attending Brewers games to listen to the radio play-by-play of the game without thebroadcast delay presented both by the satellite delay to WTMJ's studios, and for regulatory reasons.[43]
On July 27, 2018, as part of its exit from radio, Scripps announced the sale of WTMJ and WKTI toGood Karma Brands. The stations became part of a cluster withESPN Radio affiliateWAUK.[44]Morgan Murphy Media and other local groups have made investments in Good Karma Brands to back the purchase.[45] Good Karma took control of WTMJ and WKTI on November 1, 2018, thus separating the AM station from its TV cousin for the first time.[46] Shortly after, WTMJ'sHD Radio transmitter was taken out of service as the station had since established an FM translator.
After trailing other stations, including iHeartMedia news/talk station WISN, for the first three months of 2021, WTMJ returned to the top of Milwaukee radio ratings in April 2021.[47] On October 27, 2021, the Green Bay Packers announced that it would end its longtime association with WTMJ at the end ofthe season, withWRNW taking over the rights in 2022; production of the broadcasts had been transferred from WTMJ to the team in 2018.[48] WTMJ's final Packers broadcast was theNFC Divisional game, a 13–10 loss to theSan Francisco 49ers on January 22, 2022.[49]
On September 28, 2022, WTMJ, WKTI and WGKB departed Radio City for new showcase studios based inThe Avenue MKE, within the Third Street Market Hall, two blocks from where it first broadcast as WCAY only a few months after the license's centennial.[50]
With hourly news updates fromABC News Radio, WTMJ airs news programming in morning and afternoon drive times. During the midday, the station airs live, local talk shows with Jeff Wagner and Steve Scaffidi. In the evenings, WTMJ has a three-hour sports talk showWTMJ Nights followed bynationally syndicated programs in late night hours includingThe Ramsey Show,Rich Valdés America at Night,Our American Stories with Lee Habeeb andThis Morning, America's First News with Gordon Deal.[51][52]
During weekends the station airs a mixture of local how-to programming, talk shows, local sports talk programs, sports play-by-play and national talk shows, for instanceThe Truth About Your Future with Ric Edelman andCompass Media Networks'This Weekend with Gordon Deal, in addition to ABC News'Perspective news magazine, theCBS News Weekend Roundup, and CBS's podcastThe Takeout with Major Garrett.[51]
WTMJ has broadcast theMilwaukee Bucksbasketball team andMilwaukee Brewersbaseball team for most of their histories.[17] From 1929 to 2021, WTMJ served as the flagship radio station for theGreen Bay Packers football team.
For eighty years, WTMJ was based at 720 EastCapitol Drive in Milwaukee, in anArt Deco facility known as "Radio City" in tribute to theNew York complex of the same name.
WTMJ and WKTI are the two primary entry points in southeastern Wisconsin for the state'sEmergency Alert System (EAS) alerts.[53] WTMJ's transmitter site is in Union Grove.
As of February 22, 2018, WTMJ'sHD Radio simulcast on WKTI-HD2 (launched after Scripps' assumption of ownership) is broadcast within the core Milwaukee metro region bytranslator W277CV (103.3 FM), which is licensed to Milwaukee and transmits from the WTMJ-TV/WKTI tower just north of Radio City.
WTMJ broadcasts with 50,000 watts during daytime hours, and 10,000 watts during nighttime from a six-tower site in Union Grove, south of Milwaukee. Its daytime signal can be heard in much of eastern Wisconsin and as far away as Chicago.[16] Four towers are used during the day, providing city-grade coverage to most of eastern Wisconsin (includingMadison and Green Bay) and northern Illinois, with most of the Chicago area getting at least a grade B signal. At night, power is fed to all six towers in a directional pattern, concentrating the signal in Milwaukee, Green Bay, and Chicago.
The station also regularly rates outside the Milwaukee market, doing so inSheboygan despite that city being within its own radio market.[54]
| International | |
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| National | |
