WLAX serves the southern portion of the La Crosse-Eau Claire market. It operatesWEUX (channel 48), licensed toChippewa Falls, as a full-time satellite for Eau Claire and the market's northern portion. WEUX has offices onWIS 93 in Eau Claire and a transmitter southeast ofColfax.
WLAX in La Crosse went on the air in November 1986, after two sales of the permit, as the originalindependent station in the market. It joined Fox shortly afterward.Family Group Broadcasting, which put the station on the air, attempted to build the Eau Claire station as a satellite of WLAX, but fell into bankruptcy before it could do so. Aries Telecommunications ofGreen Bay bought WLAX and the WEUX construction permit in 1991, and was able to build out and sign on WEUX in 1993.Grant Broadcasting acquired the pair in 1996, and Nexstar acquired Grant's stations in 2014. The stations air a 9 p.m. local newscast produced by localNBC affiliateWEAU.
Channel 25 had been assigned to La Crosse since 1966 and almost saw use in the late 1960s when two groups proposed to start a second station in the city afterWKBT.Midcontinent Broadcasting Company was approved in December 1967 to build a satellite of itsMadison station,WKOW-TV, in La Crosse.[3] WKOW and La Crosse radio stationWKTY had both applied for channel 19, causing WKOW to shift its application to channel 25 before WKTY withdrew after the WKOW-TV grant, citing its inability to obtain network affiliation given that the WKOW station would provide La Crosse with its first full-timeABC service. WKOW then sought to move its station,WXOW-TV, back to channel 19.[4]
No party filed for channel 25 until 1980, when a group of local investors under the name Quarterview Inc. applied for channel 25.[5] While some of the same investors built local radio stationWISQ (100.1 FM),[6] the permit was granted in 1982.[7] Quarterview did not build the station. It sold the permit in 1984 to TV-26 Inc., owner ofWLRE-TV inGreen Bay.[8] That station then filed for bankruptcy reorganization and was purchased, along with the channel 25 construction permit, byFamily Group Broadcasting in 1985.[8]
Family Group handled the construction process. The call sign on the permit was changed from WWQI to WLAX; land was purchased at the La Crosse market antenna farm inLa Crescent, Minnesota (though it ultimately used an existing tower[9]); and programming was purchased for the firstindependent station in the market.[8] After delays, WLAX signed on on November 10, 1986.[10]
The addition of a channel 48 station atChippewa Falls had been planned since the mid-1980s. Pat Bushland of Bushland Radio Specialties, owner of radio stationWCFW, was first to apply for the station in 1984.[11] Family Group Broadcasting then also filed for the channel in September 1986;[12] helped by its favorablecomparative hearing status as not already owning a station in Chippewa Falls, it prevailed in a settlement with Bushland in 1987 and announced plans to build it as a satellite of WLAX.[13] Family Group struggled to find an antenna site. In 1988, the company switched to a proposed location nearColfax only to face rejection from theFederal Aviation Administration. Meanwhile, the company's finances were unraveling. In 1989, the company filed forChapter 7 bankruptcy. Two attempts, one before and one after the bankruptcy, to sell the station group to Krypton Broadcasting fell through. In February 1990, Aries Telecommunications agreed to buy part of the company: WLAX, the WEUX construction permit, and WGBA-TV (the former WLRE-TV). However, the sale took most of the year to be completed after one of Family Group's creditors, television programming supplierMCA Television, objected to the repayment plan only to be overruled by a bankruptcy judge.[14][15]
After the deal was consummated in October 1991,[16] theFederal Communications Commission (FCC) approved a key modification of the WEUX construction permit, allowing construction to finally proceed at a site nearLafayette.[17] The station finally began broadcasting on February 9, 1993, as a straight simulcast of WLAX. Bushland later told theEau Claire Leader-Telegram that he had hoped channel 48 would be a more local station, not merely a pass-through for WLAX. Previously, viewers in Eau Claire, Chippewa Falls, and other locations in the market's northern portion had to rely on cable to watch Fox programming.[18] A new tower was built for WEUX at Colfax in 1995, housing a new transmitter facility broadcasting at the increased effective radiated power of 1.5 million watts.[19]Grant Broadcasting acquired WLAX/WEUX from Aries in 1996.[20]
Both stations discontinued analog broadcasts on February 17, 2009. While thenational digital TV transition was delayed to June, all of the major commercial stations in La Crosse and Eau Claire converted on the original airdate.[21]
After WEAU's tower atFairchild collapsed in an ice storm in March 2011, WLAX allowed WEAU to use one of its subchannels for over-the-air operations in the market's southern portion until WEAU's tower was rebuilt the following January. The northern portion relied on a subchannel ofWQOW in Eau Claire during this time. The subchannels brought NBC programming to the few viewers in the market without access to cable or satellite until WEAU brought its own tower back online.[22]
On November 6, 2013,Nexstar Broadcasting Group announced that it would purchase the Grant stations, including WLAX/WEUX, for $87.5 million.[23] The sale was completed on December 1, 2014.[24][25]
WLAX and WEUX broadcast two shared channels (Fox andAntenna TV) as well as two uniquediginets each fromScripps Networks. In 2016, when Nexstar reached a group deal for carriage of the then-Katz Broadcasting diginets,[29] separate offerings were launched from each transmitter.[30]
^"Madison Firm Gets OK For TV Station Here".The La Crosse Tribune. La Crosse, Wisconsin. December 15, 1967. p. 17.Archived from the original on February 18, 2023. RetrievedFebruary 18, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
^"Court Appeal Likely In WKTY's TV Bid".The La Crosse Tribune. La Crosse, Wisconsin. March 25, 1968. p. 1.Archived from the original on February 18, 2023. RetrievedFebruary 18, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
^"Television station sought by group".The La Crosse Tribune. La Crosse, Wisconsin. May 8, 1980. p. 27.Archived from the original on February 18, 2023. RetrievedFebruary 18, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
^abcFlor, Elizabeth (April 9, 1986)."Fall sign-on slated for TV station".The La Crosse Tribune. La Crosse, Wisconsin. p. 1,6.Archived from the original on February 18, 2023. RetrievedFebruary 18, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
^"New La Crosse TV station is on the air".The La Crosse Tribune. La Crosse, Wisconsin. November 11, 1986. p. 13.Archived from the original on February 18, 2023. RetrievedFebruary 18, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
^Stetzer, Rod (November 30, 1990)."FCC considers Chippewa TV station".Leader-Telegram. Eau Claire, Wisconsin. p. 4D.Archived from the original on February 17, 2023. RetrievedFebruary 17, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
^Stetzer, Rod (March 13, 1992)."FCC grants permit to WEUX owners".Leader-Telegram. p. 1A.Archived from the original on February 17, 2023. RetrievedFebruary 17, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
^Stetzer, Rod (February 9, 1993)."New TV station finally on the air".Leader-Telegram. Eau Claire, Wisconsin. p. 1A,2A.Archived from the original on February 17, 2023. RetrievedFebruary 17, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
^"WEUX building new tower".Leader-Telegram. August 18, 1995. p. 1B.Archived from the original on February 17, 2023. RetrievedFebruary 17, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
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