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WEAU

Eau Claire–La Crosse, Wisconsin United States
City	Eau Claire, Wisconsin
Channels	Digital: 17 (UHF) Virtual: 13
Branding	WEAU 13; CW Eau Claire La Crosse (on 14.10)
Programming
Affiliations	13.1:NBC 14.10:CW+ for others, see§ Subchannels
Ownership
Owner	Gray Media (Gray Television Licensee,LLC)
History
First air date	December 17, 1953 (1953-12-17)
Former call signs	WEAU-TV (1953–2012)[1][2]
Former channel numbers	Analog: 13 (VHF, 1953–2009) Digital: 39 (UHF, 2002–2009), 13 (VHF, 2009–2011), 38 (UHF, 2011–2020)
Former affiliations	All secondary:[3] DuMont (1954–1956) CBS (1954−c. 1958) ABC (1954−1970) NTA (1956–1961)
Call sign meaning	Eau Claire
Technical information[4]
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	7893
ERP	740kW
HAAT	615.5 m (2,019 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	44°39′50″N90°57′41″W / 44.66389°N 90.96139°W /44.66389; -90.96139
Translator(s)	see§ Translators
Links
Public license information	Public file LMS
Website	www.weau.com

WEAU (channel 13) is atelevision station licensed toEau Claire, Wisconsin, United States, serving theLa Crosse–Eau Clairemarket as an affiliate ofNBC andThe CW Plus. The station is owned byGray Media, and maintains studios on South Hastings Way /US 53 Business inAltoona (with an Eau Clairepostal address); its transmitter is located north ofFairchild, near theEau Claire–Clark county line.

WEAU-TV signed-on December 17, 1953, under the ownership of Central Broadcasting Company. This ownership group was led by a predecessor toMorgan Murphy Media and also included theEau Claire Leader-Telegram along with WEAU radio (790 AM, nowWEAQ at 1150 AM, and 94.1 FM, nowWIAL).^[5] It has always been a primary NBC affiliate but initially carried programs fromCBS,ABC, andDuMont. The station later lost DuMont following that network's shutdown in 1956, CBS when La Crosse and Eau Claire were mixed into one giant market in 1958 (with La Crosse'sWKBT becoming the market's CBS affiliate), and ABC whenWXOW (channel 19) signed on in 1970. During the late-1950s, the station was also briefly affiliated with theNTA Film Network.^[6] One of the first well-known personalities on WEAU was "Sheriff Bob" Dawson who hosted a children's show during the 1950s and 1960s.

The station initially broadcast from a tower immediately behind the WEAU studios on South Hastings Way in Eau Claire. A new tower, approximately 1,000 feet (300 m) tall, was built in the same location in 195644°39′50″N90°57′41″W / 44.66389°N 90.96139°W /44.66389; -90.96139 before an approximately 2,000-foot (610 m) tower was constructed near Fairchild in 1966. The tower in Eau Claire is now topped by the digital transmitter of rival ABC affiliateWQOW (channel 18).

Morgan Murphy sold off WEAU radio in 1959; in 1962, it sold WEAU-TV to ThePost Corporation ofAppleton (Morgan Murphy would later purchase rivalWKBT, channel 8). WEAU's departure from radio proved short-lived as The Post Corporation purchasedChippewa Fallsradio station WAXX (1150 AM) in 1963,^[7] and two years later, established a new WEAU-FM at 100.7 (moving to 104.5 when the Fairchild tower was built) which largely simulcasted WAXX'scountry music format. WEAU-FM's call letters were switched toWAXX-FM in 1977,^[8] and in 1978, the country format was moved exclusively to WAXX-FM with the AM station becomingWAYY (which later moved to 790 AM in a swap with WEAQ).

In 1984,Racine-bornGeorge N. Gillett Jr. purchased the Post Corporation stations, including WEAU-TV, making it a sister station toMilwaukee'sWITI for a short time. WAXX and WAYY were spun off to Central Communications at the same time, and in 1985, the two radio stations moved out of the WEAU building to a new facility behind its parking lot. Despite being under separate ownership, WEAU continued to provideweather forecasting services for WAXX and WAYY as well as other stations purchased by Central Communications (which included WEAU's original radio properties, WEAQ and WIAL, in addition toWECL andWDRK) until December 31, 2001. WEAU resumed providing weather services to those same six stations, now under the ownership of Maverick Media, on September 11, 2006.

Gillett began defaulting on some of his purchases in the late-1980s culminating in 1990 when he sold WEAU to Busse Broadcasting, owner ofKOLN inLincoln, Nebraska and KGIN inGrand Island, Nebraska (and at one point also ownedWWMT inKalamazoo, Michigan andKOKH-TV inOklahoma City). In 1998, Gray Communications Systems (which was subsequently renamed Gray Television) and Cosmos Broadcasting (the broadcasting division of theLiberty Corporation which was later merged intoRaycom Media and itself sold to Gray) teamed up to purchase the Busse stations with WEAU going to Cosmos and KOLN/KGIN going to Gray. Cosmos then traded WEAU back to Gray in exchange forWALB (Gray's original flagship station) inAlbany, Georgia (that station returned to Gray in 2019 after WALB's last owner Raycom merged with Gray). Technology was the highlight of the following decade as WEAU-DT, which originally transmitted on channel 39, signed-on April 30, 2002, with the digital transmitter located at the top of the tower in Fairchild.

The station turned off its analog transmitter at 12:30 p.m. on February 16, 2009. At around 1 p.m., WEAU's digital signal relocated from channel 39 to channel 13. On October 1, 2012, WEAU dropped the "-TV" suffix from itscall sign.^[9] The transmission tower for WEAU was the tallest structure in the state of Wisconsin topping out at 2,000 feet (610 m), or over 500 feet (150 m) taller than theEmpire State Building. The tower was shared with former sister radio station WAXX. On March 22, 2011, this tower collapsed during an intensewinter storm that brought a mixture of terrible weather conditions.^[10] A replacement tower was completed by December 15, 2011, and broadcasts resumed on UHF channel 38 in late December.

In2024, WEAU and WECX-LD aired 10Milwaukee Bucks games as part of an agreement withWeigel Broadcasting.^[11]

WEAU tends to focus its local news coverage on Eau Claire and the Chippewa Valley, with a secondary emphasis on La Crosse.^{[citation needed]}

WEAU constructed its ownDoppler weather radar in 1979, becoming the first television station in the market to have its own device and no longer rely on delayed data from theNational Weather Service. It premiered a 5 o'clock weeknight newscast on September 14, 1981. A satellite truck to provide live remote broadcasts came into use by 1983. The station was met with tragedy in September 1991 when weeknight news anchor Cindy Schott died unexpectedly. Her death was later the subject of a story onReal Life with Jane Pauley andDateline NBC. WEAU resorted to a solo anchor format for the 6 and 10 p.m. news (John Froyd) following Schott's death but returned to a co-anchor format for their weeknight 10 o'clock program (Pat Kreitlow and Judy Clark) in August 1998 upon Froyd's retirement.

On August 28, 2006, WEAU entered into a news share agreement withFox affiliatesWLAX/WEUX (then owned byGrant Broadcasting System II). The arrangement resulted in those stations airing a weeknight prime time newscast produced by this NBC outlet. Known asFox 25/48 News at 9, the half-hour broadcast would eventually be expanded to weekends starting January 20, 2007.

WLAX/WEUX features a majority of WEAU's on-air team except for maintaining a separate weeknightmeteorologist and weekend news anchor (although they can fill in on the NBC outlet when needed).Fox 25/48 News at 9 originates from a secondary set at WEAU's studios and is fed to the WLAX/WEUX facility through a fiber-optic link. On August 5, 2011, WEAU upgraded its newscasts to high definition level. However, the WLAX/WEUX newscasts were not included in the change because they were produced from a secondary set that lacked HD cameras. As of fall 2015,Fox 25/48 News is broadcast in high definition.

• Craig Coshun –FanDuel Sports Network Wisconsin Broadcaster/Big Ten Play-By-Play Announcer; WEAU Reporter/Anchor: 1988–90
• Pat Kreitlow –Wisconsin State Senator, 23rd District (D-Chippewa Falls), 2007–2011; WEAU Anchor/Reporter: mid 1990s–2005
• Cameron Sanders –CNN Correspondent & Host of public radio'sMarketplace; WEAU Reporter: 1979–80

The station's digital signal ismultiplexed:

From July 2020 to September 13, 2021, WEAU was rebroadcast via a Digital Replacement Translator in the La Crosse area on RF channel 30.^{[15][16][17][18]}

• Official website
• WEAU Television Tower atStructurae
• "Listing 1033664".Antenna Structure Registration database. U.S.Federal Communications Commission.

• 1953 establishments in Wisconsin
• Cozi TV affiliates
• The CW affiliates
• Gray Media
• Heroes & Icons affiliates
• MeTV affiliates
• Movies! affiliates
• NBC affiliates
• Start TV affiliates
• Television channels and stations established in 1953
• Television stations in Wisconsin

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