WCWF (channel 14) is a television station licensed to Suring, Wisconsin, United States, serving the Green Bay area as an affiliate of The CW. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside Fox affiliate WLUK-TV (channel 11). The two stations share studios on Lombardi Avenue (US 41) on the line between Green Bay and Ashwaubenon; WCWF's transmitter is located on Scray Hill in Ledgeview.
History The station launched on February 22, 1984, as religious independent station WSCO-TV, under the ownership of Northeastern Wisconsin Christian Television Incorporated. The station's former analog transmitter was located outside of the unincorporated Oconto County community of Krakow, north of Pulaski on WIS 32. Financial problems would force the station off the air by 1987; VCY America would purchase the station's license that yearPublic Notice Comment on File# BALCT-19861114KF from the fcc.gov website and return it to the air by 1993 as a sister station to Milwaukee's WVCY-TV with religious and home shopping programming. On April 30, 1997, Paxson Communications (now Ion Media Networks) purchased the station"M&I takes the cash to Amoco stations", "Everybody's Business" column from The Business Journal of Milwaukee, May 30, 1997 and converted it to a paid programming format under Paxson's inTV service. On August 31, 1998, WSCO became a charter owned-and-operated station of Pax TV (later i: Independent Television, now Ion Television) under the new call sign WPXG (for "Pax Green Bay").
On June 2, 1999, Paxson sold WPXG to ACME Communications; the station immediately became a primary WB affiliate and changed its call sign to WIWB, originally branded as "WB 14" and later "Wisconsin's WB" (The WPXG-TV callsign has been moved to a TV station in Manchester, New Hampshire). Before it joined the network, WB programming in Northeastern Wisconsin was previously seen either through cable providers that carried Chicago-based superstation WGN and/or Milwaukee's WVTV or during off hours on UPN affiliate WACY-TV (channel 32; Kids' WB programming aired as part of WACY's children's lineup). WIWB also continued to air Pax programming in the mornings, overnights and weekends for a few years after ACME's purchase was finalized; it would drop that network by 2004, at which time the station's programming lineup adopted a more general entertainment format that was heavily reliant on sitcom reruns and court shows, in addition to WB programming. Pax TV's successor, Ion Television, would not return to the market over-the-air until November 2015, when WBAY-TV launched it on their DT3 subchannel.
On January 24, 2006, the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner and CBS Corporation announced that the two companies would shut down The WB and UPN and combine the networks' respective programming to create a new "fifth" network called The CW.'Gilmore Girls' meet 'Smackdown'; CW Network to combine WB, UPN in CBS-Warner venture beginning in September, CNNMoney.com, January 24, 2006.UPN and WB to Combine, Forming New TV Network, The New York Times, January 24, 2006. Due to ACME's ownership by former WB executive Jamie Kellner, WIWB's pursuit of the CW affiliation was assumed to be a formality. Indeed, on March 9, 2006, ACME Communications affiliated most of their stations with The CW, including WIWB.Source: 3/9/2006 press release by ACME Communications posted on NASDAQ GlobeNewsWire The station officially joined the network upon its September 18, 2006, launch. Prior to that date, it temporarily carried not only WB programs, but also shows from UPN after WACY-TV dropped UPN before that network's closure to join MyNetworkTV. At the time, ACME decided not to change the callsigns of any of their WB-to-CW affiliates to avert any further confusion from the launch of the two new networks.
On June 4, 2010, LIN TV Corporation, owner of Green Bay's Fox affiliate WLUK-TV, as part of an agreement with ACME Communications in three markets where both companies owned stations, announced that it would begin to operate WIWB through separate shared services and joint sales agreements; WLUK would provide WIWB with technical, engineering, promotional, administrative and other operational support services, as well as joint advertising sales for the two stations. As part of its agreements with ACME, LIN TV had the option to purchase WIWB, an option it exercised in September 2010, purchasing not only WIWB but another CW station in a similar arrangement, Dayton, Ohio's WBDT. LIN TV included in its license transfer request to the Federal Communications Commission a "failing station waiver", an indication that the station was in an economically non-viable position and that FCC should relax ownership limits that apply to the Green Bay market so that Channel 14 could stay on the air; that limit (found in CFR§73.3555(b)(2) of the FCC's rules) permits ownership duopolies in markets with at least eight full-power stations, whereas Green Bay has only seven (Journal Communications would also seek a waiver in its 2012 purchase of WACY-TV, which has been operated through Journal-owned WGBA-TV since 1994).
In April 2011, the FCC approved the ownership transfer of WCWF from ACME to LIN TV, also applying the requested failing station waiver. Additionally, the FCC denied a petition from Time Warner Cable, the dominant cable provider in Northeast Wisconsin; the FCC dismissed as speculative TWC's claims that higher retransmission fees for WCWF, when paired with those for WLUK, would result from LIN TV's purchase of the station, and that LIN's collective retransmission plans for both stations did not violate FCC rules. The sale of WCWF to LIN was consummated on May 20, 2011.
Almost immediately after taking control of WIWB, LIN TV would make changes at the station, starting with relocating its operations from the Parkview Plaza strip mall in suburban Ashwaubenon to WLUK's studios on Lombardi Avenue. During August and September 2010, the station would undergo changes in both on-air branding (from "Wisconsin's CW" to "CW14") and call sign (from WIWB to WCWF). Also in the fall of 2010, WCWF would upgrade syndicated programming to high-definition (which already occurs on WLUK), while both WCWF and WLUK would begin hourly cross-promotions of each other's programming. In mid-November 2010, WCWF's website was switched from being managed by ACME's webhost, Desert Bloom Productions, to LIN Media Interactive (LIN Media's branding for EndPlay, formerly Fox Interactive Media).
On March 21, 2014, LIN Media entered into an agreement to merge with Media General in a $1.6 billion deal. Because Media General already owned ABC affiliate WBAY-TV (which was acquired in 2013 as part of Media General's merger with Young Broadcasting), the companies were required to sell either WLUK or WBAY to another station owner in order to comply with FCC ownership rules as well as planned changes to those rules regarding same-market television stations which would prohibit sharing agreements.TV Station Mega Merger: Media General, LIN Set $1.6 Billion Deal from Variety (March 21, 2014)Media General acquiring LIN Media for $1.6 billion, Los Angeles Times, March 21, 2014.Media Gen/LIN To Sell/Swap In Five Markets, TVNewsCheck, March 21, 2014.
On August 20, 2014, Media General announced that it would keep WBAY and sell WLUK and WCWF, along with WJAR in Providence and WTGS in Savannah, to Sinclair Broadcast Group in exchange for Sinclair stations in Tampa Bay (WTTA), Harrisburg (WHTM) and Colorado Springs (KXRM-TV and KXTU-LD). As part of its acquisition, Sinclair announced it would seek a continuation of the FCC rules waiver allowing the joint ownership of WCWF and WLUK. WHTM's sale of Media General was explored nearly two months earlier, and it was completed, nearly three months before the Media General/LIN deal was completed. The sale was completed on December 19.Sinclair Broadcast Group Closes on Certain Station Acquisitions and Divestitures with Media General , Press Release, Sinclair Broadcast Group, Retrieved December 19, 2014
Programming WCWF is used as a "shadow station" for WLUK programming preempted due to extended breaking news or severe weather coverage, or network programming (mainly sports events) that overruns into or is scheduled to preempt regular programs; for example, 9 p.m. newscasts on WLUK that are preempted for Fox Sports broadcasts will air on WCWF (in prior years, WLUK leased access on a Time Warner Cable channel for its preempted newscasts).Warren Gerds column from Green Bay Press-Gazette, October 12, 2010
Sports programming Beginning in 2016, the station acquired local rights to the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association state basketball and hockey championships as part of Quincy Media's statewide network of stations, taking over from longtime partner WACY-TV. Since March 2016, WCWF has aired two NBA on ABC games during the first weekend in March in lieu of WBAY, which instead carries its annual telethon for local cerebral palsy research and medical care.
In the summer of 2018, the station began to carry weekend home games for the Midwest League's Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, the Grand Chute–based Class A affiliate for the Brewers. The games are produced by WLUK for WCWF, and also air on WVTV-DT2 in Milwaukee.
Locally-produced content From December 2008 to June 2010, WIWB featured Daily Buzz inserts called "Buzzed Into the (920)" (named for the telephone area code for Green Bay and the Fox Cities). "Buzzed" was patterned after then-sister station WBUW's "Buzzed Into Madison" and featured an on-air presenter (originally Kristen Rietz, later Kari Merchant) profiling positive stories and features on news, events, businesses and personalities in the Green Bay/Fox Cities area. "Buzzed Into the (920)" was dropped when WLUK took over WCWF's operations, although past installments are still available on the feature's YouTube channel.
Existing local content on WCWF, in addition to the occasional WLUK news broadcast, includes a Sunday morning airing of the polka music show Polka, Polka, Polka. LIN Media, after taking control of WCWF, would add severe weather bulletins; the weekly prep football highlight show High School GameTime in August 2011;"Prep football scene includes new weekly show," from Green Bay Press-Gazette, August 15, 2011 and, in late 2011, CW 14 Focus, a Sunday morning local public affairs program that debuted in order to fulfill local programming requirements; it is hosted by WLUK reporter Robert Hornacek.
Also added in 2011 was the position of "CW 14 Star", who represents the station on-air, online, and at community events. Maria Parmigiani was selected as the first "Star" during the first quarter of 2011, earning the job after an audition process, an appearance on WLUK's Good Day Wisconsin, and an online voting process."Presenting the CW 14 Star!" from cw14online, March 2, 2011 Parmigiani was succeeded by Katie Phernetton in 2013 after a similar audition and selection process."Announcing the next CW 14 Star!," from cw14online, March 27, 2013
Technical information Subchannels The station's ATSC 1.0 channels are carried on the multiplexed signals of other Green Bay television stations: + Subchannels provided by WCWF (ATSC 1.0)RabbitEars TV Query for WLUKRabbitEars TV Query for WFRVRabbitEars TV Query for WBAYRabbitEars TV Query for WACY Subchannel Short name Programming ATSC 1.0 host 14.1 1080i WCWF-CW The CW WLUK-TV 14.2 480i Comet Comet WFRV-TV 14.3 Charge! Charge! WBAY-TV 14.4 Nest The Nest WACY-TV 14.5 QUEST Quest
Analog-to-digital conversion