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| History | |
First air date | June 24, 1956 (69 years ago) (1956-06-24) |
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Call sign meaning | Wisconsin |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 65143 |
| ERP | 46.9kW |
| HAAT | 469.2 m (1,539 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 43°3′21″N89°32′6″W / 43.05583°N 89.53500°W /43.05583; -89.53500 |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | www |
WISC-TV (channel 3) is atelevision station inMadison, Wisconsin, United States, affiliated withCBS andMyNetworkTV. It is theflagship television property of locally basedMorgan Murphy Media, which has owned the station since its inception. WISC-TV's studios are located on Raymond Road in Madison, and its transmitter is located on South Pleasant View Road in Madison's Junction Ridge neighborhood.
WISC-TV first took to the airwaves on June 24, 1956, taking over Madison's CBS affiliation fromWKOW-TV (which retainedABC affiliation). It was originally a sister station to WISC radio (1480 AM, nowWLMV at 1480 andWOZN at 1670 AM).[2] Both were owned by Morgan Murphy Stations, the broadcasting division of the Evening Telegram Company ofSuperior, Wisconsin. That company still owns channel 3 today, though it sold off its print interests in 2003 and moved its headquarters to Madison. It has since changed its trade name to Morgan Murphy Media.
Despite being the state's second largest market, Madison was a "doughnut" market as it was sandwiched between other markets where primary VHF signals were already assigned–Milwaukee (channels4,6,10, and12) to the east,Wausau–Rhinelander (channels7,9, and12) andGreen Bay (channels2,5, and11) to the north,Chicago (channels2,5,7,9, and11) to the southeast,Rockford (channel 13) to the south, andLa Crosse–Eau Claire (channels8 and13) to the west. Having the market's only VHF signal gave channel 3 a distinct advantage—and market leadership—over UHF competitors WKOW andWMTV, a position that the station has enjoyed for much of its history, even after the advent of cable television put the competitors on equal footing. (WISC's former slogan, "Wisconsin's Leadership Station", played upon that advantage.)
WISC-TV has been affiliated with CBS since its launch, though it was also briefly affiliated with theNTA Film Network during the late 1950s.[3] In January 1995, WISC-TV began maintaining a secondary affiliation withUPN, carrying tape-delayed overnight airings of the network's prime time programming following CBS's late-night lineup; this arrangement ended in July 1999, when Media Properties Inc. signed onJanesville-licensed WHPN-TV (channel 57, nowIon Television affiliateWIFS) as Madison's first full-time UPN outlet. (WISC would resume its relationship with UPN in 2002 through its cable/digital subchannel, TVW; seebelow.)
In 1998, WISC-TV partnered withInternet Broadcasting Systems to become the first TV station in the region, and one of the first in the country, to have a dedicatednews website, "Channel 3000".[4]
WISC-TV commemorated its 50th anniversary in June 2006, which merited a congratulatory mention byDavid Letterman on hisLate Show broadcast of June 22, 2006 (its first program, he quipped, wasGood Morning,Cheddar).
WISC-DT2, branded as"TVW", is theMyNetworkTV-affiliated seconddigital subchannel of WISC-TV.Over the air, it broadcasts in720p high definition on channel 3.2.
The channel launched on January 1, 1996, as "WiSC2", a primarily cable-only general entertainment sister channel of WISC-TV. It was not initially available onMarcus Cable (acquired byCharter Communications in January 1999) in the immediate Madison area, instead being carried on cable systems serving some of the city's outlying suburbs and via alow-power broadcast transmitter, a situation that severely limited its potential audience early on. The channel maintained a format modeled after general entertainmentindependent stations, running a mix ofsyndicatedsitcoms, drama series, talk shows andgame shows; children's programming (including some off-network cartoons); a limited schedule of local news and community affairs programs; regional sporting events (includingMilwaukee Bucks basketball games carried by the team's then-originating broadcast affiliate,WVTV); and an early-morning simulcast of Bloomberg Information Television (renamedBloomberg Television in 1997).
In 1998, the channel—which was concurrently renamed the Television Wisconsin Network (TVW), named after the Murphy-owned licensee of WISC-TV, Television Wisconsin, Inc.—became the Madison-area affiliate ofThe WB; this made it one of only three local cable-only WB affiliates, alongsideWT05 inToledo, Ohio (now operating as a CW affiliate on a subchannel of local ABC affiliateWTVG), and "WRWB" inRochester, New York (now operating as a CW affiliate on a subchannel of local ABC affiliateWHAM-TV), that operated independently from and predated the existence of the small-marketWB 100+ Station Group launched by the network that September. Dating to the network's January 1995 launch, The WB had only been available locally on Marcus Cable and other local cable systems through thesuperstation feed of Chicago affiliateWGN-TV (relaunched asNewsNation in February 2021, and which dropped WB programming nationally in October 1999) and via Milwaukee affiliate WVTV (then available throughout Wisconsin as a regionalsuperstation), which began to gradually let existing carriage agreements with cable providers outside of the Milwaukee DMA lapse after it affiliated with the network in May 1997. The affiliation was critical in getting Marcus/Charter to finally add TVW to its Madison-area lineup. TVW carried the full WB schedule (although it aired the network's Sunday night lineup on a one-hour delay), along with a mix of syndicated programs,Wisconsin Badgers sports, and locally produced programs produced by Channel 3 and Charter.
In September 2000, WISC—upon launching itsdigital signal on UHF channel 50—began providing a simulcast of TVW on digital subchannel 3.2, making it among the first permanent digital subchannels in modern American digital broadcast television and allowing over-the-air reception of the channel to the then-few area residents that had a digital-capableHDTV set. To reflect its channel position on Charter's Madison-area systems, TVW—which was retained as its official identification—began branding as "WB14" in September 2001. On August 26, 2002, WISC-DT2—which, accordingly, adopted "UPN14" as its branding—became the market's UPN affiliate as part of an affiliation swap with WHPN—which concurrently changed its calls to WBUW—that was tied to the April 2 sale of the latter toACME Communications (a station group founded by WB co-founder and former network presidentJamie Kellner),[5] thus allowing area viewers who neither had a cable or satellite subscription nor an HDTV set (and therefore, lacked access to TVW's broadcast and cable feeds) to watch WB network programs for the first time.
On March 8, 2006, Morgan Murphy Media confirmed that WISC-DT2 would become the Madison-area charter affiliate of MyNetworkTV, developed as a joint venture between then-News Corporation subsidiariesFox Television Stations and20th Television (the former is now owned byFox Corporation; the latter has since been integrated intoDisney Media Distribution as a result ofDisney's2019 acquisition of most of21st Century Fox's assets) and announced on February 22 to primarily serve as a network option for UPN and WB stations that were not chosen to affiliate withThe CW (co-founded by their then-respective parents,CBS Corporation andTime Warner, to replace both networks).[6][7][8] WISC-DT2—which changed its on-air branding to "My Madison TV" on August 7—officially joined MyNetworkTV upon its launch on September 5; however, it continued to air UPN prime time programming on a tape-delayed basis (from midnight to 2 a.m.) until that network ceased broadcasting on September 15. (WBUW switched to The CW when that network debuted on September 18, the day after The WB ceased operations.)
As a MyNetworkTV affiliate, along with syndicated programs, WISC-DT2 airedcollege sports from theMid-American andSoutheastern conferences (viaESPN Plus), occasional Badgers hockey broadcasts (viaWisconsin Public Television, which also aired statewide over Charter's "Xtra" service on channel 87 outside of the Madison market) and high school sports (under the "PrepMania" banner) as well as local programs including the music seriesUrban Theater and the sports panel discussion programSidelines (which also aired in the Milwaukee and Green Bay markets onTime Warner Cable Sports 32/Spectrum Sports). On July 1, 2009, WISC-DT2 reverted to the former "TVW" brand, accompanied by new blue/white/black circular logo; the rebranding was meant to emphasize a connection to Madison and Wisconsin in the channel's programming.[9] In February 2019, TVW acquired the rights to selected syndicated programs and most of the locally produced programming—including the Saturday nighthorror movie showcaseBordello of Horror andTalk Wisconsin (previously titledTalk of the Town before the showrelocated)—that had been displaced from WIFS after it converted into anIon Plus affiliate with little advanced notice to its viewers on February 1.[10][11][12][13]
Unlike most CBS affiliates, WISC is one of a handful of CBS affiliates to airpaid programming on weekdays, providing an hour-long block of infomercials at 9 a.m. to compensate for the lack of available syndicated programming or a local newscast to fill that hour. WISC was home toESPN Plus broadcasts of Wisconsin Badger sports before the syndicator's relationship with theBig Ten Conference ended in 2007. WISC also serves as an affiliate of theChicago Bears pre-season television network.
WISC-DT2 is also designated by WISC to carry CBS network programs that the station must preempt to accommodate extendedbreaking news orsevere weather coverage or special event programming on its main channel, and airstape-delayed rebroadcasts of WISC's regularly scheduled weekday newscasts (usually) immediately after their initial telecast on channel 3.1 as well as hourly weather updates presented by the station's "First Warn Weather" team.
In2024, WISC-TV aired 10 Milwaukee Bucks games as part of an agreement withWeigel Broadcasting andBally Sports Wisconsin. These games originated from Weigel's Milwaukee CBS affiliateWDJT-TV and independent stationWMLW-TV and utilize Bally Sports commentators and production personnel. Three games aired on the station's main CBS channel, with the remaining games on WISC-DT2.[14]
WISC presently broadcasts35+1⁄2 hours of local newscasts each week (with three hours each weekday and2+1⁄2 hours each on Saturdays and Sundays).[citation needed] In addition to its normal morning, noon, 5, 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts, WISC airsNews 3 Now Live at Four, a one-hour newscast which is largely devoted to non-headline news and features that focus on the community and the people of Madison, Dane County, and south-central Wisconsin.Live at Four originally aired at 5 p.m., but moved to 4 p.m. in October 2015 to expand to one hour.
In January 2004, WISC-TV began producingUPN14 News at Nine for TVW, a five-minute news update featuring local and national headlines as well as a brief weather segment. In September 2005, the program expanded into a half-hour broadcast (asNews 3 at 9 on UPN14, subsequently revised to account for TVW/WISC-DT2's later branding changes);News 3 at 9 ended its seven-year run on December 31, 2011, after WISC entered into a news share arrangement withFox affiliateWMSN-TV (channel 47) to assume production responsibilities for that station's 9 p.m. newscast (which had been produced by WKOW since its premiere in 1999) effective January 1, 2012.[15]
On October 26, 2008, WISC-TV began producing all its newscasts in totalhigh-definition video, becoming the first commercial TV station in Wisconsin to do so.[16] The station had produced occasional news features in HD since the beginning of 2008. In April 2011, WISC began offering free on demand segments of their newscasts on theRoku digital video player.[17]
On February 3, 2019, following CBS's telecast ofSuper Bowl LIII, WISC-TV introduced a new studio, and rebranded its newscasts fromNews 3 toNews 3 Now, introducing a sonic and graphicaldesign language that would be then rolled out across all Morgan Murphy Media stations; the new branding was intended to reflect the station's digital operations, as well as an emphasis on "engag[ing] deeper with our story content".[18]
The station's signal ismultiplexed:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | WISC | CBS |
| 3.2 | 720p | TVW | MyNetworkTV | |
| 3.3 | 480i | DABL | Dabl | |
| 3.4 | QVC | QVC | ||
| 3.5 | HSN | HSN | ||
| 3.6 | SCRIPPS | Grit |
WISC-TV ended regular programming on its analog signal, overVHF channel 3, at 12:30 p.m. on February 17, 2009, 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's digital signal remained on its pre-transitionUHF channel 50, usingvirtual channel 3.[21]
The analog channel 3 continued to serve as a "nightlight", broadcasting a loop of digital transition information and instructions in addition to any local news programming and emergency information, until signing off for good the final week of March 2009.
On April 13, 2017, the results of theFederal Communications Commission (FCC)'s 2016spectrum auction were announced, with Morgan Murphy successfully selling the UHF spectrum for WISC for just under $50 million. WISC would move their spectrum from UHF channel 50 to VHF, taking the former digital channel 11 position held by WMSN-TV before a return to UHF in November 2010.[22][23]
Broadcast television stations by affiliation in the state ofWisconsin | ||
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Includes stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of Wisconsin | ||
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