WSAW-TV
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| History | |
First air date | October 23, 1954 |
Former call signs | WSAU-TV (1954–1981) |
Former channel number(s) |
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Call signmeaning | phonetically short for "Wausau, Wisconsin"; also similar to original calls |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 6867 |
| ERP | 72kW |
| HAAT | 373 m (1,224 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 44°55′14.2″N89°41′28.7″W/ 44.920611°N 89.691306°W |
| Translator(s) | W21DS-D 21 (UHF)Sayner/Vilas County, WI |
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Public license information | |
| Website | www |
| Satellite station | |
| WYOW | |
| City | Eagle River, Wisconsin |
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| History | |
| Founded | January 4, 1997 |
Former channel number(s) | Analog:34 (UHF, 1997–2009) |
Call signmeaning | disambiguation of former parent station WAOW |
| Technical information[2] | |
| Facility ID | 77789 |
| ERP |
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| HAAT | 163 m (535 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 45°46′29.9″N89°14′56.1″W/ 45.774972°N 89.248917°W |
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Public license information | |
WSAW-TV(channel 7) is atelevision stationinWausau, Wisconsin,United States, affiliated withCBSandThe CW Plus.It is owned byGray Televisionalongsidelow-powerFoxaffiliateWZAW-LD(channel 33). The two stations share studios on Grand Avenue/US 51in Wausau; WSAW-TV's transmitter is located onRib Mountain.[3]
To serve the Northwoods area of Northern Wisconsin, it operates a digital fill-intranslatorinSayner(W21DS-D) that also coversEagle River.This station broadcasts onUHFchannel 21 (also mapping tovirtual channel7) from a transmitter on Razorback Road inunincorporatedVilas County(north of Sayner). The low-power repeater also serves the western portion ofMichigan'sUpper Peninsulaalthough the broadcasting radius is limited toMareniscoandWatersmeet.
History[edit]
The station launched on October 23, 1954, as WSAU-TV, a sister station toWSAU radio(550 AM) and the original WSAU-FM (95.5, nowWIFC;the currentWSAU-FMis on 99.9 FM). It was originally owned by two groups who merged their applications in hearing: the radio station and the Wisconsin Valley Television Corporation, a consortium of North-Central Wisconsin newspapers that also included theWausau Daily Record-Herald.[4]Channel 7 originally operated from the Plumer Mansion, aRichardsonian Romanesque-stylebuilding, that was located on North 5th Street in Wausau and torn down in 1972 one year after the station moved to its current home.[5]
The Plumer Mansion'scastle-like exterior and asuit of armordisplayed in the mansion inspired the station's graphic designer, Sid Kyler, to design a medieval-styleblackletter"7" logo along with an accompanying cartoon mascot, the fully armored knight "Sir Seven".[6]The logo and mascot served as representations of the station for several decades. Wisconsin Valley expanded withWMTVinMadisonand radio stationWKAUinKaukauna.In 1965, Wisconsin Valley purchased its first media holding outside of the state,KVTVinSioux City, Iowa;as a consequence of doing business in other states, the firm renamed itself Forward Communications in January 1967.[7]
Forward sold off WSAU and WIFC radio in 1980. Since the radio station retained the WSAU call sign, Forward immediately applied to change channel 7's call sign to the similar-sounding WSAW-TV.[8]The WSAW-TV call sign became effective on March 8, 1981.[9]
It has been affiliated with CBS since its beginning although the station did have secondary affiliations withDuMont(until that network expired in 1956),ABC(untilWAOWsigned-on in 1965), andNBC(untilWAEO[now WJFW-TV] launched in 1966). On September 5, 2006, WSAW added MyNetworkTV to a seconddigital subchannel.Its broadcasts have beendigital-onlysince before midnight on February 16, 2009, when the analog sign-off featured a "good night" from Sir Seven.[citation needed]On April 2, 2011, WSAW became the first station in themarketto broadcast local newscast in high definition.[10]With the switch to HD came a revamp of their news set and new graphics, along with a return of Sir Seven as the station's mascot in a newly CGI-rendered form.[11]
On July 1, 2015, Gray bought the non-license assets of the market's Fox affiliateWFXS-DT(channel 55, owned by Davis Television,LLC). Due toFederal Communications Commission(FCC) ownership restrictions, a new low-power station (WZAW-LD, channel 33) was established to become the area's Fox affiliate. All of WFXS's program streams including WFXS's existing virtual channel numbering were then moved to the low-power outlet. Subsequently, WFXS ceased broadcasting after nearly sixteen years on-the-air and its studios on North 3rd Street in Wausau were shut down.[12]
In consenting to the interference that would be caused by WZAW operating underspecial temporary authorityon channel 31 (the same RF channel as WFXS) rather than its licensed channel 33, Davis Television stated that it would return the WFXS license to the FCC for cancellation following the sale.[13]In August 2015, WSAW launched a prime time newscast on the Fox outlet known asWZAW News at 9.This half-hour broadcast offers direct competition toWAOW's thirty-minute, weeknight-only news airing at the same time on itsCWdigital subchannel (which aired on WFXS before July 1, 2015).
On October 1, 2015, the station began using its new studio. It was the first upgrade in a decade and took months to finish. The new studio includes two new state-of-the art sets: one each for WSAW and WZAW.[14]Eventually, the WZAW-LD simulcast on WSAW's third subchannel was upgraded to high definition to provide full-market access to Fox programming in HD.
News operation[edit]
WSAW presently broadcasts22+1⁄2hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with4+1⁄2hours each weekday, and two hours each on Saturdays and Sundays).
Technical information[edit]
The stations' signals aremultiplexed:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | CBS | CBS |
| 7.2 | 480i | MeTV+ | MyNetworkTV/MeTV | |
| 7.3 | 720p | FOX | Fox(WZAW-LD) | |
| 7.4 | CW | CW+(WYOW) | ||
| 7.5 | 480i | Quest | Quest | |
| 7.6 | Outlaw | Outlaw |
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7.10 | 1080i | 16:9 | WSAW-DT | CBS(WSAW-TV) |
| 33.10 | 720p | Fox | Fox(WZAW-LD) | |
| 34.1 | WYOW-DT | The CW Plus |
Translators[edit]
| City of license | Callsign | Channel | ERP | HAAT | Facility ID | Transmitter coordinates |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sayner | W21DS-D | 21 | 15 kW | 138 m (453 ft) | 167156 | 46°01′55.0″N89°31′49.0″W/ 46.031944°N 89.530278°W |
References[edit]
- ^"Facility Technical Data for WSAW-TV".Licensing and Management System.Federal Communications Commission.
- ^"Facility Technical Data for WYOW".Licensing and Management System.Federal Communications Commission.
- ^"TV Query Results -- Video Division (FCC) USA".transition.fcc.gov.Archivedfrom the original on March 5, 2023.RetrievedMarch 5,2023.
- ^"Agree on Merger of TV Interests, WSAU Sale to Valley Television Corp".Wausau Daily Record-Herald.Wausau, Wisconsin. March 29, 1954. p. 1.RetrievedMay 28,2022– via Newspapers.com.
- ^"Site of the Plumer Mansion - Wausau, Wisconsin".wikimapia.org.
- ^Behrens, Matt."The History of NewsChannel 7".WSAW.Archived fromthe originalon February 1, 2016.
- ^"TV Corporation Has New Name".Wausau Daily Herald.Wausau, Wisconsin. January 9, 1967. p. 7.RetrievedMay 28,2022– via Newspapers.com.
- ^"FCC approval pending: Forward sells two local radio stations".Wausau Daily Herald.Wausau, Wisconsin. November 22, 1980. p. 3.RetrievedMay 28,2022– via Newspapers.com.
- ^FCC History Cards for WSAW-TV
- ^Levin, Phil."NewsChannel7 Newscasts Now in HD".WSAW.Archived fromthe originalon July 23, 2011.
- ^DesRivieres, John.""Sir 7" is Coming Back to Newschannel 7 ".WSAW.Archived fromthe originalon July 23, 2011.
- ^"Gray in 4 New Deals, Closes 3 Earlier Ones".TVNewsCheck.July 1, 2015.Archivedfrom the original on March 5, 2023.RetrievedJuly 1,2015.
- ^Raff, Robert (June 9, 2015)."Interference Consent"(PDF).CDBS Public Access.Federal Communications Commission.RetrievedJuly 3,2015.
- ^Caldwell, Sean (October 1, 2015)."WSAW, WZAW debut new, state-of-the-art Wausau studios".WSAW-TV.Archivedfrom the original on March 5, 2023.RetrievedMarch 5,2023.
- ^ab"RabbitEars.Info".rabbitears.info.
- ^ab"Facebook".www.facebook.com.
- ^ab"TitanTV Programming Guide".Archived fromthe originalon October 12, 2017.RetrievedSeptember 17,2023.
- From Transdiffusion: A look at WSAW from the early-1980s and how it compares to British television
- The history of channel 7