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| Channels | |
| Branding | TMJ4 |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
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| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| WPXE-TV | |
| History | |
First air date | December 3, 1947 (1947-12-03) (commercial license; previously experimental from 1931–1947) |
Former channel numbers |
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Call sign meaning | TheMilwaukee Journal, derived fromWTMJ |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 74098 |
| ERP | 1,000 kW |
| HAAT | 304.6 m (999 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 43°5′29″N87°54′7″W / 43.09139°N 87.90194°W /43.09139; -87.90194 |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | www |
WTMJ-TV (channel 4) is atelevision station inMilwaukee, Wisconsin, United States, affiliated withNBC. It is owned by theE. W. Scripps Company alongsideKenosha-licensedIon Television stationWPXE-TV (channel 55). WTMJ-TV's studios are located onCapitol Drive (WIS 190) in Milwaukee (anArt Deco facility that is known as "Radio City", in tribute to theNew York complex of the same name),[2] and its transmitter is located approximately four miles (6.4 km) north of downtown Milwaukee.
From its inception until October 31, 2018, WTMJ-TV was asister station toWTMJ radio (620 AM) andWKTI (94.5 FM). The radio stations are now owned byGood Karma Brands and departed Radio City for a studio within theThird Street Market Hall in early 2022, but continue to share some operations (including a long-term weather forecasting agreement and engineering staff) with Scripps and WTMJ-TV. In January 2021, WTMJ-TV became a sister station to WPXE-TV, after Ion and its stations were purchased by Scripps; it had previously been operated by WTMJ-TV under ajoint sales agreement (JSA) from 2000 to 2005.
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TheJournal Company (owner of theMilwaukee Journal, which was consolidated with theMilwaukee Sentinel in 1995 to become theMilwaukee Journal Sentinel) was granted its first television stationlicense in September 1931 for W9XD. The experimental station used a low-definitionelectromechanical system to transmit its signal, and conducted field tests from 1931 to 1933; in 1934, Journal converted W9XD's facilities to experimental high-fidelityapex radio unit W9XAZ in 1934. Its license was withdrawn by theFederal Communications Commission (FCC) in 1938 as part of an effort to limit broadcast licenses to stations that would actively engage in the development of television. No publicly announced television programming was broadcast by W9XD during this experimental period.
The Journal Company obtained one of the firstconstruction permits issued by the FCC for a commercial television station on December 7, 1941, under the call letters WMJT (for "Milwaukee Journal Television"), and built a new broadcast facility to transmit its signal by August 1942. However, the company's television plans were suspended when the U.S.War Production Board halted the manufacturing of television and radio broadcasting equipment for civilian use from April 1942 to August 1945, in order for such equipment to be allocated for use by the military duringWorld War II.
The station's call sign was later modified to WTMJ-TV (referencingThe Milwaukee Journal), which first signed on the air on December 3, 1947,[3] originally broadcasting onVHF channel 3. In addition to being the first commercial television station to sign on the air in Wisconsin, the fourth such station to sign on in theMidwestern United States and the 15th to launch in the United States, WTMJ was also the first station located outside of theEastern Time Zone to be affiliated with a major broadcast television network. At the time it began operations, there were only 500 television sets in Milwaukee; that number would jump to 2,050 by the following April. The existence of television sets in Milwaukee before WTMJ-TV even debuted was because the city is close enough toChicago that television stations from that market could be and still are viewable in Milwaukee; therefore, residents in southeastern Wisconsin had access to WBKB-TV (nowWBBM-TV), which signed on from Chicago in 1946 as the first commercially licensed television station outside of the Eastern Time Zone.
At its official sign-on, it was one of several flagship media properties owned by Journal, which in addition to theJournal newspaper, also owned radio stationWTMJ (1020 AM, now on 620 AM). In 1959, these properties were joined by WTMJ-FM (nowWKTI on 94.5). WTMJ-TV has been affiliated withNBC since its sign-on, owing to its radio sister's longtime affiliation with theNBC Red Network; although, it also initially carried programming fromCBS,ABC and theDuMont Television Network. It lost its secondary affiliation with CBS whenWCAN-TV (channel 25, now defunct) signed on in September 1953, and lost access to ABC and DuMont programming when WOKY-TV (channel 19, nowCW affiliateWVTV on channel 18) made its debut one month later. WTMJ is the only television station in Milwaukee to have been affiliated with the same network throughout its history, and is currently NBC's second-longest tenured affiliate, behind onlyKSDK inSt. Louis (which signed on as KSD-TV eleven months earlier in January 1947).
On July 11, 1953, WTMJ-TV moved to VHF channel 4, in order to alleviate interference with WKZO-TV (nowWWMT) inKalamazoo,Michigan, which is located nearly directly acrossLake Michigan. The relocation of the station's channel allocation was a part of the FCC's complete revision of its Table of Channel Assignments, as issued in theSixth Report and General Order issued by the agency on April 14, 1952. This move forced the CBS O&O on channel 4 in Chicago, WBBM-TV, to be reassigned to VHF channel 2; WBBM had moved to that frequency six days before WTMJ's channel relocation on July 5, 1953.
WTMJ-TV was one of the first television stations in the United States to purchasecolor equipment to transmit and produce programming in the format; in December 1953, it broadcast NBC'scolor telecast ofAmahl and the Night Visitors, when only two prototype color sets existed in Milwaukee. The first color television sets in the city were sold in March 1954; by July of that year, WTMJ became the third television station in the U.S. with live color capability, when it broadcast its first local color program that originated from its studios,The Grenadiers.[4] About 3,000 color sets existed in Milwaukee in February 1957.
Over time, Journal gradually expanded its television chain, acquiring, among other stations,KTNV-TV inLas Vegas (acquired in 1979);KIVI-TV inBoise, Idaho (acquired in 2002);KMTV-TV inOmaha andKGUN-TV inTucson, Arizona (both acquired in 2005);WGBA-TV andWACY-TV inGreen Bay (the former being acquired in August 2004, with the latter operated under alocal marketing agreement until Journal acquired it outright in 2012); andWTVF inNashville (acquired in 2012).
WTMJ inaugurated the "Today's TMJ4" brand on July 25, 1992, coinciding with the start of NBC's coverage of that year'sSummer Olympics (variants of this brand, whether they incorporated the last three letters of the call sign or not, were later used by other stations such asKTHV inLittle Rock and WTMJ sister station KIVI-TV in Boise). The first generation of the "TMJ4" branding lasted until August 13, 2004, on the date NBC began its coverage of the2004 Summer Olympics, as part of a graphical overhaul that resulted in the retirement of the "sailboat 4" logo that had been in use by the station since 1980. "Today's" was dropped from the branding on February 25, 2020, as part of a corporate roll-out of new news graphics.
In 2000, Journal entered into a joint sales agreement (JSA) withKenosha-licensedWPXE-TV (channel 55), resulting indirectly from NBC's partial ownership interest in WPXE owner Paxson Communications (forerunner toIon Media) and a related management agreement with that network'sowned-and-operated stations. Under the JSA, the two stations shared certain programs, while WTMJ handled advertising sales services for channel 55; the agreement also allowed WPXE to air rebroadcasts of channel 4's 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts on a half-hour delay, and WPXE moved its operations to the WTMJ studios.[5][6] Though the agreement was slated to last 10 years,[7] Paxson Communications terminated all joint sales agreements involving its stations on July 1, 2005, concurrent with the rebranding of the Pax network as i: Independent Television (nowIon Television).[8] However, WTMJ continues to provide engineering assistance for WPXE-TV.
Due to adispute between the cable provider and Journal Communications, WTMJ-TV was removed fromTime Warner Cable'ssoutheastern Wisconsin systems at midnight on July 25, 2013, four days before the provider's agreement with Journal was set to expire on July 30;[9] the dispute between the companies also affected Journal-owned stations in four other markets (WGBA-TV and WACY-TV in Green Bay, KMTV-TV in Omaha andKMIR-TV inPalm Springs, California);[10]The Local AccuWeather Channel andLive Well Network subchannels were pulled from TWC's systems two weeks earlier on July 10 as they were not protected under thesweeps rule that prohibits cable providers from pulling the main signal of a carried station (such as WTMJ 4.1) during such ratings periods, including that occurring in July.[11] On August 15,GSN replaced WTMJ on its designated channel 4 slot, whileStarz Kids & Family replaced the two subchannels ondigital channels 994 and 999, before being replaced by theHallmark Movie Channel in September.[12]
On August 8, a group of Time Warner Cable subscribers filed aclass action lawsuit against the provider in a Wisconsin District Court under grounds ofbreach of contract.[13] Journal Broadcast Group claimed on its website that TWC was distracted due to its dispute withCBS Corporation (which resulted in the removals ofCBS Television Stations outlets in select markets and theShowtime Networkspremium channel suite nationwide, until it signed a new agreement on September 2, 2013).[14] Journal also asked state authorities to intervene in the dispute.[15]
WTMJ was restored at 7 p.m. on September 20, 2013, as a result of a new carriage agreement between Journal and TWC. WTMJ was relocated to cable channel 2 (GSN remained on channel 4). WTMJ's high definition feed stayed on digital channel 1004, with Journal executives citing that the HD slot was more important than the declining analog and standard definition viewership. In theRacine, Kenosha andPlymouth areas, WTMJ was placed on channel 83 while Time Warner sought a lower channel slot.[16] This also left WTMJ's subchannels off Time Warner systems, making them only receivable over-the-air as they are not carried onCharter Communications's legacy systems pre-Time Warner Cable merger,DirecTV andDish Network.[17]
In the winter of 2014, Journal made several management changes to split responsibilities between its radio and television division. Some of the changes included the appointments of Debbie Turner (executive vice president andgeneral manager at WTVF) as the company's vice president of television, Steve Wexler (executive vice president of Journal's Milwaukee radio and television properties) as executive vice president for the company's radio division, and Joe Poss (general manager of Journal's Green Bay duopoly of WGBA/WACY) as WTMJ-TV's general manager. Janet Hundley (longtime assistantnews director at ABC O&OWLS-TV in Chicago) was also hired as the station's news director in May 2014, following the resignation of Bill Berra.[18][19][20]
On July 30, 2014, the E. W. Scripps Company announced that it would acquire Journal Communications in an all-stock transaction. The combined firm would retain their broadcast properties—including WTMJ-TV and its AM and FM radio siblings—with the print assets beingspun off as Journal Media Group.[21] The deal was approved by the FCC on December 12, 2014,[22] with shareholders of the two companies approving it on March 11, 2015;[23] the merger/spin-off between Journal and Scripps formally closed on April 1 (Journal Media Group would be subsequently acquired by theGannett Company—which spun off its own broadcasting and digital media properties intoTegna Inc. three months after the Journal split was completed, in order to focus on its newspapers—in August 2015). Through its ownership by Journal, WTMJ had been one of the few television stations in the country not owned by a major network that had the same call sign, owner and primary network affiliation throughout its history; it was also the last major television station in the Milwaukee market to be locally owned.
E. W. Scripps and Time Warner Cable announced a new multi-year carriage agreement on February 1, 2016 (well ahead of the2016 Summer Olympics), that includes WTMJ.[24] With this agreement, Scripps also obtained carriage for WTMJ's subchannels as of April 4, 2016, which took the channel 990 and 991 slots on area Time Warner systems.
On September 24, 2020, a consortium made up of Scripps andBerkshire Hathaway announced the proposed purchase of Ion Media for $2.65 billion, including WPXE-TV.[25] The sale was completed on January 7, 2021, with WPXE-TV becoming a sister station to WTMJ-TV.
On March 1, 2006, WTMJ-TV launched adigital subchannel on virtual channel 4.2 asTMJ4 Weather Plus, a 24-hour weather channel featuring a mix of local and national current conditions and forecasts as well as local weather updates from the station'smeteorologists; until the July 2013 dispute with Journal, it was previously carried on Time Warner Cable digital channel 999. The subchannel originally served as an affiliate ofNBC Weather Plus; three months after it was launched, in June 2006, WTMJ rebranded its weather department from "Storm Team 4" to "TMJ4 Weather Plus", integrating the network brand into its weather branding in compliance with Weather Plus' recommended standardizations for its affiliated NBC stations. After NBC Weather Plus was discontinued in November 2008, the former "Storm Team 4" brand was restored as its universal weather branding; the subchannel itself rebranded as theStorm Team 4 Channel on January 1, 2009, and was later renamed "Storm Team 4 TV". In mid-December 2009, Storm Team 4 TV became an affiliate of The Local AccuWeather Channel. Uniquely, the station shared the market's AccuWeather affiliation withPBSmember station (andMilwaukee PBS flagship)WMVS (channel 10), which broadcasts a non-commercial version of the AccuWeather Channel on its 10.4 (currentlyWMVT-DT3) subchannel.
In mid-December 2014 with the operations of Local AccuWeather winding down as AccuWeather refocused its television efforts on itscable-satellite channel, WTMJ converted the 4.2 subchannel to awidescreen format, and reformatted it to incorporate additionaltraffic camera loops, feature segments and anews ticker to the new internally originated setup as "TMJ4 Plus", using website partnerWorldNow's "channel in a box" coordinating automation technology.[26]
On September 28, 2015, as part of an agreement that Scripps signed withKatz Broadcasting on May 18 in which WTMJ would affiliate with two of Katz's three multicast networks (MyNetworkTV affiliateWCGV-TV (channel 24) had previously carriedGrit over their DT3 channel through a separate agreement with that station's owner,Sinclair Broadcast Group, as described below in the section for WTMJ-DT4), WTMJ fully discontinued TMJ4 Plus and converted WTMJ-DT2 into an affiliate ofLaff.[27]
In March 2021,Bounce TV was launched on 4.2, while Laff moved to 4.6.
In early July 2009, WTMJ launched digital channel 4.3 as an affiliate ofTheCoolTV, becoming the first full-power station to carry themusic video and concert programming-focused network as a digital subchannel; it was later carried by stations owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group (except for WVTV (channel 18) and WCGV-TV locally due to WTMJ's carriage of the network) andLIN TV; WTMJ's Green Bay sister station WGBA also added TheCoolTV in November 2010. The subchannel, which locally had its on-air playlist customized by WTMJ, was co-branded with WTMJ-TV's sister radio station WLWK-FM (now WKTI), which then had a format spanning a variety of decades. In September 2011, Journal Communications filed a $257,000 lawsuit against TheCoolTV's parent company Cool Music Network, LLC, alleging non-payment of broadcast services since before June 2011.[28]
Because of the dispute, WTMJ replaced TheCoolTV with the Live Well Network on October 1 (WGBA, meanwhile, replaced it withMeTV on that date).[29][30] WTMJ eventually converted the channel's aspect ratio to480i widescreen, optimized for16:9 displays, in line with LWN's default screen presentation; select Live Well programming (consisting ofMotion andDeals) was broadcast in high definition during Saturday late night slots on the station's main channel until the network was removed. On January 12, 2015, one week before Live Well Network was to originally discontinue operations entirely (its distribution would instead be relegated exclusively toABC Owned Television Stations outlets after a three-month reprieve from its planned nationwide shutdown), it was replaced on WTMJ-DT3 with the NBC-owned subchannel serviceCozi TV.
Through the same agreement with Katz Broadcasting under which the station affiliated WTMJ-DT2 with Laff, WTMJ-TV was listed as a future affiliate ofEscape.[27] It was not added right away, as WTMJ's agreement with NBC to carry Cozi had not yet expired and the station did not want to compromise picture quality with a fourth subchannel before a latermultiplexer upgrade. Instead, WTMJ andDTV America'sWTSJ-LP (channel 38) arranged a trade where Escape was carried on that station's third subchannel until November 2016, then was removed until January 1, 2017, when WTMJ's Cozi affiliation expired. WTMJ picked up Escape that day, with WTSJ taking Cozi for their third subchannel on January 15. Cozi then established another affiliation on June 22, 2017, withWIWN (channel 68.1), acquiring the Charter legacy carriage it never was able to with WTMJ. The network was rebranded as Court TV Mystery on September 30, 2019, to take advantage of the latter's brand equity; it rebranded again to Ion Mystery in February 2022.
WTMJ launched their fourth subchannel in mid-December 2017, though it started with only a blank image merely to activate the channel. It began to carry Grit in early March 2018, after WCGV-TV (channel 24) left the air on January 8, 2018, and merged their two other existing subchannels onto WVTV due to the spectrum auction. This left Grit andgetTV without a channel in the market (getTV eventually moved to WIWN-DT4), and Scripps decided to consolidate the network onto WTMJ after their purchase of Katz Broadcasting, the parent of Escape, Grit and Laff (along with Bounce TV, which will remain withWMLW-TV for the time being).[31]
In late April 2019, WTMJ was revealed as launching a fifth digital subchannel for Katz's relaunch ofCourt TV on May 8, 2019.[32]
After several years of eschewing syndicated programming to ramp up their news schedule on weekdays, WTMJ began to carry syndicated shows again during the 3 p.m. hour (which, during its final years under Journal, was filled by an hour-long newscast that led off its evening news lineup) under Scripps ownership. During the weekends,Alliant Energy Powerhouse and thebrokeredreligious programTime of Grace are carried; the latter is carried by many stations in Milwaukee and throughout Wisconsin in varying timeslots under the same arrangement.[33] Another program the station produces outside of news is the brokeredNew Home Building Today on Sunday mornings, which is usually produced by a local homebuilder with the assistance of WTMJ's advertising/sales department to sell a home and/or subdivision plot.
WTMJ had been the long-time Milwaukee home for the nighttime syndicated version ofWheel of Fortune beginning in 1984 (replacing the nighttimeFamily Feud, which moved to WITI for the final season of its first incarnation; WITI, in turn, aired the first season of nighttimeWheel) andJeopardy! from its 1984 premiere; both shows moved to CBS affiliateWDJT-TV (channel 58) in September 2005. It was also the first station to airThe Oprah Winfrey Show from the program's 1986 syndication launch until a group-wide distribution deal withHearst Broadcasting resulted in it being moved to ABC affiliateWISN-TV (channel 12) in September 1993 until the show's ending in May 2011. WTMJ (and WPXE, during the run of its LMA with Journal) had airedMartha Stewart Living and thenThe Martha Stewart Show until September 2007, when the latter program moved to WISN. Like NBC flagshipWNBC inNew York City, WTMJ airedIt's Showtime at the Apollo afterSaturday Night Live for its entire 21-year run, withSoul Train (another long-running syndicated staple since 1972, when it joined the station's lineup) following that show until its own end in 2006.
From the 1960s to the 1990s, preemptions on the station were more common (examples include those involving NBC's daytimegame show andsoap opera lineup;Sanford and Son airing on Saturday nights instead of Fridays during the1973–74 season, in which the sitcom's normal time slot was occupied by the second half-hour ofThe Lawrence Welk Show;[34] and its removal ofGimme a Break! andMama's Family from the schedule in favor of the syndicated dramaFame on Thursday nights during the1983–84 season).[35] Until 1974, WTMJ-TV aired a movie on nights whenThe Midnight Special wasn't airing; this preemptedThe Tomorrow Show.[34] Although NBC had long been less tolerant of preemptions of its programming than the other networks, it usually did not raise objections to those made by WTMJ, since it has been one of the network's strongest affiliates. NBC was also helped by then-independent station WVTV often picking up NBC programs declined by channel 4 for their own schedule, with WCGV also doing so when that station signed on in March 1980.
The station's most controversial move came in 1979 when it asked NBC for permission todelayThe Tonight Show to 11 p.m., in order to air reruns ofMaude in the talk show's 10:30 slot; although the network vetoed the move (even though itsBirmingham affiliateWAPI-TV/WVTM-TV had aired the program on delay from the time it clearedTonight in 1967 until 1996), WTMJ went ahead and did it anyway[36] as it was already running a promotional campaign forMaude and began delayingTonight to 11 p.m. that September. It tried again in 1984, wanting to moveTonight to 11:30 p.m., in order to air reruns ofTrapper John, M.D. after the 10 p.m. newscast starting that September. NBC, already not happy with WTMJ moving the program to 11 p.m., refused again, and opted to contract WVTV to carry the program instead, airing it at 10:30 p.m. from September 1984 to September 1988, when WTMJ gave in to airing the program in its network-designated timeslot.
The station also delayedLate Night with Conan O'Brien to 12:05 a.m. from the program's September 1993 debut until September 2001, and airedDays of Our Lives at 2 p.m. (one of the program's alternate network timeslots), before moving it to the network-standard 1 p.m. slot on September 10, 2007, to replace the canceledMontel Williams Show. (The soap opera moved exclusively to the network's streaming servicePeacock effective September 12, 2022, withNBC News Daily taking over its 1 p.m. timeslot.) WTMJ airedpaid programming in place of the low-rated prime timepoker game showFace the Ace for its entire run starting in August 2009, marking the first time any Milwaukee station preempted a significant portion or the entirety of a prime time network series (other than for extended news coverage) since the early 1990s.
The Morning Blend is a localtalk show format originated by former parent company Journal Broadcast Group and presently owned by the E. W. Scripps Company that first premiered in Milwaukee on WTMJ-TV on September 12, 2006 (originally airing at 10 a.m., the program moved to its current 9 a.m. slot in September 2007). As of 2015[update], the WTMJ version is currently hosted by Tiffany Ogle (who replaced original co-host – and former WISN reporter—Alison de Castro, after she left the program in October 2009 to relocate with her family to Chicago) and Molly Fay (formerly a morning anchor at WITI). The show—which derived its format from that ofDaytime on fellow NBC affiliateWFLA-TV inTampa—features a mix of paid and unpaid segments, with all segments promoting a certain product or company featuring on-air disclaimers to denote the segment has been leased by a particular advertiser. The program is produced through WTMJ's advertising sales department; as such, news segments are not provided by its hosts, with breaking news or severe weather coverage ceded to the station's news staff instead.[37] In June 2008,The Morning Blend began airing on Green Bay sister station WGBA, also at 9 a.m., after that station dropped its morning newscasts (WGBA has since carriedToday in pattern for its full four hours).
The Morning Blend is WTMJ's first attempt at a local program that was not news orpublic affairs-based since the short-livedA New Day premiered in 1979; that program was co-hosted byTerry Meeuwsen (now co-host ofThe 700 Club) and news anchor/radio host (and former WTMJ-TV reporter)Pete Wilson.[38] TheMorning Blend format and branding then was adapted by most of WTMJ's fellow Journal stations, and has now been added to several of its new Scripps sisters.
WTMJ-TV has served as Milwaukee's "official station" of theGreen Bay Packers since the mid-1990s, giving it rights to air the team's non-nationally televised preseason games; in addition to the team's existing television broadcasters elsewhere in Wisconsin, the game telecasts are shared with sister stations WGBA in Green Bay and KMTV-TV in Omaha through a March 2012 broadcasting agreement between the Packers and former station parent Journal Broadcast Group.[39] WTMJ holds the broadcast rights to the weeklycoaches show (which airs Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m. during theNFL season) and other shows involving the team (such as the team's Sunday morning pre-game analysis programPackers Today). As part of the deal,Packers Radio Network color commentatorLarry McCarren (who resigned as sports director at Green Bay CBS affiliateWFRV-TV in March 2012) now also serves as a Packers analyst for WTMJ and WGBA; until McCarren became WGBA's sports director upon the end of hisnon-compete clause with WFRV in April 2013, his segments appeared during thePackers Extra sports segment from the WTMJ set. McCarren resigned his sports director duties at WGBA at the end of March 2015 to solely focus on his Packers duties. In 2017, Scripps also began to air the "Family Night" scrimmage before the pre-season, which had previously been produced as a joint effort between the state's Fox affiliates under a separate contract.
Because of theSummer Olympics, which are not allowed any preemptions by the network except for urgent breaking news and severe weather, WTMJ sublicensed some preseason games to then-LMA partner WPXE-TV in 2004 and to CW affiliate WVTV in 2008 (the 2012 opening preseason game against theSan Diego Chargers that occurred during the Olympics was anESPNMonday Night Football broadcast carried by WISN, which averted the need for sublicensing any games that season). Beginning with the2024 Summer Olympics, WPXE-TV resumed its role as the backup station for Packers preseason football in Olympic years, carrying the team's Family Night scrimmage and the first preseason game inCleveland against theBrowns that year.[40] Regular season games televised over-the-air locally are split betweenWITI (channel 6; throughFox'srights to the team's parent division, theNational Football Conference), and WDJT-TV (for select games televised byCBS in which the Packers play against anAmerican Football Conference (AFC) opponent), with WTMJ carrying non-preseason games via NBC'sSunday Night Football on occasions when a game involving the Packers is scheduled, even if the game is a Peacock exclusive. In 2016, Weigel's independent station, WMLW-TV (channel 49) sublicensed and carry the second and third preseason games of that season due to 2016 Olympics coverage, making it unique in carrying two streams of the game (English and Spanish) over the same channel, as WMLW-DT4 simulcastTelemundo affiliate and Packers preseason Spanish carrierWYTU-LD (channel 63). WTMJ has also aired Packer games through NBC's NFL broadcast contracts from 1970 to 1997 (airing all interconference home contests in those years, when NBC held the AFC broadcast contract) and since 2006 for Sunday night games.
The station aired the team's first London appearance in theNFL International Series on October 9, 2022, against theNew York Giants atTottenham Hotspur Stadium, in a simulcast withNFL Network.[41]
WTMJ-TV served as the original local television outlet for theMilwaukee Brewers,[42] carrying at least 25 to 40 of theMajor League Baseball team's games each season—mostly involving those played on the road—from1970 to1980. Among the broadcasters who worked on the WTMJ Brewers telecasts includedMerle Harmon,Jim Irwin (who also worked as a sportscaster at WTMJ-AM during this time, as well as serving the radio voice of the Packers andWisconsin Badgers football),Eddie Doucette (then also the radio and television voice of theMilwaukee Bucks),Mike Hegan (who later became a longtime announcer for theCleveland Indians), and current primary Brewers radio play-by-play announcer and Milwaukee nativeBob Uecker. The team chose to move its telecasts to WVTV starting with the1981 season,[43] because that station (which was not affiliated with a network at the time) offered to televise more games per season than what WTMJ was able to do, due to Channel 4's NBC programming commitments.
The station also televised selectedMilwaukee Braves games during their final four seasons of play in the city, before the team relocated toAtlanta after the1965 season.[44] Prior to 1962, the Braves had a long-held policy not to televise its games, on the perception that it would negatively affect attendance, which ironically played a part in the franchise moving to Milwaukee from Boston after the 1952 season.
In addition, the station aired any Milwaukee Braves or Brewers games that were part of NBC's MLB broadcast contract from 1953 to 1989 (with exception of 1966 to 1969 when Milwaukee had no MLB club), including the Brewers' appearance in the1982 World Series.
WTMJ-TV aired select Milwaukee Bucks games via theNBA on NBC from1990 to2002 and beginning in2025.
WTMJ-TV currently broadcasts 34 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with5+1⁄2 hours each weekday,3+1⁄2 hours on Saturdays and three hours on Sundays). WTMJ's newscast ratings had generally finished first place among the market's television news outlets for most of the 1990s and early 2000s. Since the 2010s, WITI, WISN and WTMJ have competed and finished first in selected ratings periods.
WTMJ-TV maintains a news and weather content agreement with sister radio stations WTMJ and WKTI (all three stations are based out of the Radio City studio). Until the newspaper and television station were separated in the split of Journal Communications' properties into Scripps and Journal Media Group in 2015 (and the year-later purchase of theJournal Sentinel by Gannett), the station also partnered with theMilwaukee Journal Sentinel to provide news stories and weather forecasts seen in the newspaper; WTMJ-TV maintained an auxiliary studio in theJournal Sentinel's State Street headquarters for a regular segment on its now-defunct 3 p.m. newscast called "JSOnAir". The station, along with WTMJ radio currently maintains a content agreement with theMilwaukee Business Journal for reporting of business-related stories, with the television side partnering with the paper as of April 18, 2017, after waiting out an existing television partnership with Fox affiliate WITI which previously precluded an immediate partnership.[45][46] With the end of the 2016-17 academic year, the station's final link with theJournal Sentinel was severed with the cancellation ofPreps Plus, a Sunday nighthigh school athletics "week in review" show produced by the newspaper for 25 years based on their coverage banner of the same name, in favor of WTMJ's own Friday night high school sports rundown,Friday Night Frenzy.
WTMJ-TV was formerly a partner with Time Warner Cable in offering their original programming and news on a delayed basis throughvideo on demand before those features were discontinued with changes in that provider's strategy after the merger into Spectrum, and Scripps offering their own apps on mobile devices anddigital media players to carry that content.
AfterToday expanded to four hours in September 2007, WTMJ began shifting its programming focus very heavily towards local news, as replacement syndicated programming forMartha,Wheel of Fortune andJeopardy! after all three programs moved to other area stations, andMontel's August 2008 departure from syndication failed to spark viewer interest outside of local/network hours. On August 25, 2008, afterExtra moved to WITI, the station expanded its 6 p.m. newscast to one hour (although it reverted to a half-hour on Tuesday nights during the NFL season due toMike McCarthy's coaches show in the past); this was followed on September 8 by the debut of an hour-long newscast at 3 p.m.,[47] which featured segments including "Ask the Experts", an interactive "sound off" segment incorporating viewer calls andsocial media contributions, and a "hot topics" section which features WTMJ radio afternoon host Jeff Wagner among the regular panelists. Green Bay sister station WGBA-TV added simulcasts of WTMJ's morning and noon newscasts on July 14, 2008, with WGBA producing local weather inserts using its own meteorologists in place of the WTMJ-produced weather segments. The simulcast ended in early 2009, due to viewer disinterest in Milwaukee-focused news (WGBA relaunched a local morning newscast in January 2011). WTMJ also began to produce forecasts for WGBA to air during its weekend newscasts. Until April 2013, when Larry McCarren became WGBA's sports director, all sports segments on WGBA were produced by WTMJ.
On April 7, 2009, WTMJ became the first television station in Milwaukee and the second in Wisconsin (behind CBS affiliateWISC-TV inMadison) to begin broadcasting its local newscasts and other local programming inhigh definition.[48] With the conversion, a new music package (High Velocity by615 Music) and graphics from Renderon Broadcast Design (the main graphics company for all Journal Broadcast Group stations, which has also developed Scripps' standardized graphics packages since 2008) was introduced.[49] Segments broadcast from the main studio and news video from the field are presented in the format, as with most of the station's live units and skycam system. The rest of the station's skycams are equipped for digital widescreen and upconverted for HD broadcast in WTMJ's production control room. On August 13, 2012, WTMJ moved all newscasts from Studio A to a temporary set in Studio D to make way for the construction of a new set; the new main news set in Studio A was launched on September 9, 2012, during the 5 p.m. newscast.
The station dropped its 6:30 p.m. newscast on April 11, 2011, replacing it withAccess Hollywood (which previously aired on WTMJ from its September 1995 debut until it movedLate Night to its network-mandated 11:35 p.m. slot in 2000;Access moved to WTMJ after WISN expanded its 10 p.m. newscast to one hour in January 2011, the consequence of this being WISN moving the newsmagazine from its longtime 10:30 p.m. slot to 12:30 a.m. and NBCUniversal Television Distribution asking for an early release from its contract in order to move to WTMJ).[50] On February 4, 2013, the station debuted the locally produced newsmagazineWisconsin Tonight in the 6:30 p.m. timeslot (which airs on digital channel 4.2 twice a week during Packers season due to its broadcasts ofPackers Live on Mondays and the Packers coach's show on Tuesdays;Access Hollywood moved to 1:35 a.m., before it moved to WITI on September 8, 2014, in an 11:35 p.m. slot; its companion talk showAccess Hollywood Live was restored by WTMJ in the 2 p.m. slot on September 15, 2014).[51] In October 2014, WGBA debuted its own version ofWisconsin Tonight that incorporates some content from WTMJ, airing on nights when it does not air Packers-related programming. On January 20, 2014, WTMJ officially expanded the weekday editions ofLive at Daybreak (now known asTMJ4 News Today) to 4:30 a.m., becoming the last of the market's four television news outlets to expand their morning newscasts to the slot; it had effectively begun to do so two weeks earlier due to that month'srecord cold temperatures requiring early coverage of school and business closings.[52] On January 21, 2016,Wisconsin Tonight was replaced with Scripps' station-wide conceptThe Now. It switched from the final Journal-instituted graphics package to the then-current Scripps corporate package on May 5, 2016, again switching the current Scripps package in early March 2020. A month earlier, longtime anchor Carole Meekins had resigned her 10 p.m. weeknight anchor duties to focus on a new Sunday morning program featuring positive news stories,Positively Milwaukee, an effort which grew out of a segment hosted by former anchor Bill Taylor in the 1990s.[53]
The 3 p.m. newscast ended on September 11, 2015, and was replaced the following Monday (September 14) by the freshman syndicated lifestyle talk showFABLife (which only lasted one season); the replacement of the newscast with syndicated programming was planned before the Scripps acquisition was announced.[54] On September 19, the Saturday morning newscast was moved to 5–7 a.m. (having previously aired from 8 to 10 a.m. afterToday, which it aired live at 6 a.m.); the Sunday morning newscast was also moved to 5–7 a.m. andMeet the Press is aired live from NBC's Eastern Time Zone feed rather than on a one-hour tape delay as the station has done for years and to allow better scheduling flow to allow the station to meeteducational programming quotas (throughNBC's children's program block) on weekends when heavy sports preemptions occur, as well as to allowPackers Today to air in the hour before the network pre-game shows during the NFL season. Before the aforementioned reductions, Channel 4 was one of the fewBig Three stations in the United States that had a weekly news programming total exceeding 40 hours (which is more common with news-producing affiliates of the post-1986 broadcast networks, such as Fox affiliate WITI locally).
The station was one of three Milwaukee television stations that operated a news helicopter.[55] The helicopter, Chopper 4, was based atLawrence J. Timmerman Airport. In June 2005, then-reporter Vince Vitrano was worried that he might miss the first pitch for a media-league softball game and was dropped off by Chopper 4.[56][57] The helicopter was retired in December 2018 leaving WISN 12 Chopper as the last remaining news helicopter in Milwaukee and the entire state of Wisconsin.
On April 6, 2020, the 3 p.m. newscast made a temporary return to WTMJ's schedule, withKelly Clarkson being moved back an hour to 2 p.m. andThe List being placed on hiatus in favor of the Scripps national programCoronavirus: The Rundown (RightThisMinute airs a second episode before the late-night repeat ofKelly; the show's new daily episode has pushed to that timeslot), in order to report local developments related to theCOVID-19 pandemic; the 4 p.m. newscast was regularly preempted since mid-March by a combination of the city/county of Milwaukee's daily combined coronavirusteleconference and theWhite House Coronavirus Task Force briefing (the former has now shifted to a 2 p.m. Tuesday/Thursday schedule). During the pandemic,Days of Our Livesde facto regularly aired split into two portions on the station, with the state of Wisconsin's teleconference occurring during the soap. As of mid-June 2020, the 3 p.m. newscast shifted to 3:30 p.m. with the return ofThe List to regular production, then was discontinued as of April 2, 2021, returning the station's afternoon schedule to its pre-March 2020 state.
The station's signal ismultiplexed:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | WTMJ | NBC |
| 4.2 | 480i | BOUNCE | Bounce TV | |
| 4.3 | GRIT | Grit | ||
| 4.4 | LAFF | Laff | ||
| 4.5 | MYSTERY | Ion Mystery | ||
| 4.6 | QVC2 | QVC2 | ||
| 4.7 | ShopLC | Shop LC |
On June 15, 2015, WTMJ added asecond audio program (SAP) feed to its main channel to allow the transmission ofDescriptive Video Serviceaudio description andSpanish-language translations for NBC network programs; it became the last major network affiliate in the market to incorporate an SAP feed before the FCC's expansion of its requirements for television stations to feature audio description to media markets outside of the 25 largest (including Milwaukee) on July 1.
WTMJ-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 4, at noon on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United Statestransitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal continued to broadcast on its pre-transitionUHF channel 28,[59][60] usingvirtual channel 4.
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 | ||
| ||
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 | ||
| ||
