 | This article needs to beupdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(August 2021) |
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First air date | October 24, 1954 (71 years ago) (1954-10-24) |
Former call signs | WSAU-TV (1954–1981) |
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Call sign meaning | phonetically short for "Wausau, Wisconsin"; also similar to original calls |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 6867 |
| ERP | 72kW |
| HAAT | 373 m (1,224 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 44°55′14.2″N89°41′28.7″W / 44.920611°N 89.691306°W /44.920611; -89.691306 |
| Translator(s) | W21DS-D 21 (UHF)Sayner/Vilas County, WI |
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Public license information | |
| Website | www |
| Satellite station | |
| WYOW | |
| City | Eagle River, Wisconsin |
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| Founded | January 4, 1997 |
Former channel numbers | Analog: 34 (UHF, 1997–2009) |
Call sign meaning | disambiguation of former parent station WAOW |
| Technical information[2] | |
| Facility ID | 77789 |
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| HAAT | 163 m (535 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 45°46′29.9″N89°14′56.1″W / 45.774972°N 89.248917°W /45.774972; -89.248917 |
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Public license information | |
WSAW-TV (channel 7) is atelevision station inWausau, Wisconsin, United States, affiliated withCBS,MyNetworkTV,MeTV,Fox andThe CW Plus. It is owned byGray Media alongsidelow-powerFox affiliateWZAW-LD (channel 33). The two stations share studios on Grand Avenue/US 51 in Wausau; WSAW-TV's transmitter is located onRib Mountain.[3]
To serve the Northwoods area of Northern Wisconsin, it operates a digital fill-intranslator inSayner (W21DS-D) that also coversEagle River. This station broadcasts onUHF channel 21 (also mapping tovirtual channel 7) from a transmitter on Razorback Road in unincorporatedVilas County (north of Sayner). The low-power repeater also serves the western portion ofMichigan'sUpper Peninsula although the broadcasting radius is limited toMarenisco andWatersmeet.
The station launched on October 24, 1954, as WSAU-TV, a sister station toWSAU radio (550 AM) and the original WSAU-FM (95.5, nowWIFC; the currentWSAU-FM is on 99.9 FM). It was originally owned by two groups who merged their applications in hearing: the radio station and the Wisconsin Valley Television Corporation, a consortium of North-Central Wisconsin newspapers that also included theWausau Daily Record-Herald.[4] Channel 7 originally operated from the Plumer Mansion, aRichardsonian Romanesque-style building, that was located on North 5th Street in Wausau and torn down in 1972 one year after the station moved to its current home.[5]
The Plumer Mansion'scastle-like exterior and asuit of armor displayed in the mansion inspired the station's graphic designer, Sid Kyler, to design a medieval-styleblackletter "7" logo along with an accompanying cartoon mascot, the fully armored knight "Sir Seven".[6] The logo and mascot served as representations of the station for several decades. Wisconsin Valley expanded withWMTV inMadison and radio stationWKAU inKaukauna. In 1965, Wisconsin Valley purchased its first media holding outside of the state,KVTV inSioux City, Iowa; as a consequence of doing business in other states, the firm renamed itself Forward Communications in January 1967.[7]
Forward sold off WSAU and WIFC radio in 1980. Since the radio station retained the WSAU call sign, Forward immediately applied to change channel 7's call sign to the similar-sounding WSAW-TV.[8] The WSAW-TV call sign became effective on March 8, 1981.[9]
It has been affiliated with CBS since its beginning although the station did have secondary affiliations withDuMont (until that network expired in 1956),ABC (untilWAOW signed-on in 1965), andNBC (untilWAEO [now WJFW-TV] launched in 1966). On September 5, 2006, WSAW added MyNetworkTV to a seconddigital subchannel.[citation needed]
WSAW-TV shut down its analog signal, overVHF channel 7, at 11:55 pm on February 17, 2009,[10] the original target date on which full-power television stations in the United States were totransition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (which was later pushed back to June 12, 2009); the station concluded its analog broadcasts with a sign-off message from Sir Seven.[11] The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transitionUHF channel 40 to its analog era VHF channel 7.[12] On April 2, 2011, WSAW became the first station in themarket to broadcast local newscast in high definition.[13] With the switch to HD came a revamp of their news set and new graphics, along with a return of Sir Seven as the station's mascot in a newly CGI-rendered form.[14]
On July 1, 2015, Gray bought the non-license assets of the market's Fox affiliateWFXS-DT (channel 55, owned by Davis Television,LLC). Due toFederal Communications Commission (FCC) ownership restrictions, a new low-power station (WZAW-LD, channel 33) was established to become the area's Fox affiliate. All of WFXS's program streams including WFXS's existing virtual channel numbering were then moved to the low-power outlet. Subsequently, WFXS ceased broadcasting after nearly sixteen years on-the-air and its studios on North 3rd Street in Wausau were shut down.[15]
In consenting to the interference that would be caused by WZAW operating underspecial temporary authority on channel 31 (the same RF channel as WFXS) rather than its licensed channel 33, Davis Television stated that it would return the WFXS license to the FCC for cancellation following the sale.[16] In August 2015, WSAW launched a prime time newscast on the Fox outlet known asWZAW News at 9. This half-hour broadcast offers direct competition toWAOW's thirty-minute, weeknight-only news airing at the same time on itsCW digital subchannel (which aired on WFXS before July 1, 2015).
On October 1, 2015, the station began using its new studio. It was the first upgrade in a decade and took months to finish. The new studio includes two new state-of-the art sets: one each for WSAW and WZAW.[17] Eventually, the WZAW-LD simulcast on WSAW's third subchannel was upgraded to high definition to provide full-market access to Fox programming in HD.
On February 1, 2021, Gray announced that they would purchaseQuincy Media's radio and TV properties for $925 million.[18] At the time, Quincy owned WAOW in the market, so Gray had agreed to divest WAOW and its Wisconsin sister stations toAllen Media Group for $380 million on April 29 in order to satisfy FCC requirements.[19] WSAW added The CW as a subchannel on August 2, 2021.[20]
WSAW presently broadcasts22+1⁄2 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with4+1⁄2 hours each weekday, and two hours each on Saturdays and Sundays).
The stations' signals aremultiplexed:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
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| 7.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | CBS | CBS |
| 7.2 | 480i | MeTV+ | MyNetworkTV/MeTV | |
| 7.3 | 720p | FOX | Fox (WZAW-LD) | |
| 7.4 | CW | CW+ (WYOW) | ||
| 7.5 | 480i | Quest | Quest | |
| 7.6 | Outlaw | Outlaw |
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7.10 | 1080i | 16:9 | WSAW-DT | CBS (WSAW-TV) |
| 33.10 | 720p | Fox | Fox (WZAW-LD) | |
| 34.1 | WYOW-DT | The CW Plus |
| City of license | Callsign | Channel | ERP | HAAT | Facility ID | Transmitter coordinates |
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| Sayner | W21DS-D | 21 | 15 kW | 138 m (453 ft) | 167156 | 46°01′55.0″N89°31′49.0″W / 46.031944°N 89.530278°W /46.031944; -89.530278 (W21DS-D) |
Broadcast television stations by affiliation in the state ofWisconsin | ||
|---|---|---|
Includes stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of Wisconsin | ||
| ABC | ||
| CBS | ||
| Fox | ||
| NBC | ||
| The CW | ||
| Ion Television | ||
| Independent | ||
| PBS |
| |
| Religious | ||
| Spanish | ||
| Other | ||
| ATSC 3.0 | ||
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Broadcast television stations by affiliation in the state ofWisconsin | ||
|---|---|---|
Includes stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of Wisconsin | ||
| ABC | ||
| CBS | ||
| Fox | ||
| NBC | ||
| The CW | ||
| Ion Television | ||
| Independent | ||
| PBS |
| |
| Religious | ||
| Spanish | ||
| Other | ||
| ATSC 3.0 | ||
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