WDJT-TV

In 1983, Harry C. Powell, Jr., a Florida man, successfully petitioned the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to add a new allocation for ultra high frequency (UHF) channel 58 in Milwaukee. Powell stated that he intended to apply for a license with the help of a Knoxville, Tennessee, consulting firm if the commission approved.[3] With channel 58 now allocated to Milwaukee, the commission took applications for the station, ending with a 13-party field which included Powell, five applicants residing in Knoxville, and several groups consisting of local investors. One of these groups included then-state senator Gary George.[4] This field thinned quickly to six applicants and then to two in October.[1] In March 1985, the FCC rejected another applicant and issued a decision in favor of TV 58 Limited, a minority-owned firm headed by Debra M. Jackson and Milwaukee media veteran John Torres, who had worked for multiple radio stations and local Spanish-language newspaper La Guardia.[5] Debra Jackson originally suggested naming the station WJMT—Torres's initials—but the designation was not available, thus the selection of WDJT-TV, combining both their initials.[1]

TV 58 Limited faced financial trouble from the start when it agreed to pay out settlements to other applicants, including George, in exchange for them withdrawing their applications.[6] A new burden surfaced when Jackson was diagnosed with a terminal illness—dying in January 1987—and the lenders that had originally committed interim financing backed out of their deals.[1] In February 1986, one of the applicants with which TV 58 Limited had settled forced the company into involuntary bankruptcy.[1] The Carley Capital Group of Madison negotiated to provide funding to keep the business afloat,[7] but it withdrew by early August, and a new company entered the picture: Weigel Broadcasting, the Chicago-based owner of WCIU-TV in that city.[8] Torres agreed to sell controlling interest in the station to Weigel, while the call letters were retained.[9]

WDJT-TV signed on from studios and transmitter in the Marc Plaza Hotel downtown.

Weigel, in association with Torres, spent the next two years trying to put WDJT-TV on the air. Weigel proposed construction of facilities in various suburbs, including Glendale,[10] where it was rebuffed twice in two years,[11] and Germantown, where the village rejected Weigel's plans. Objections to the proposed 1,000-foot (300 m) tower called it unsightly.[12] To get the station on the air, Weigel instead decided to locate at a downtown site with a lengthy TV history: the Marc Plaza Hotel. The antenna on the original mast atop the building—first used as a transmitting site by early UHF station WCAN-TV in 1953[13] and at the time utilized by low-power outlet W08BY—was replaced in October in preparation for the station's launch.[9]

After a $2.3 million expenditure,[14] WDJT-TV began broadcasting on November 10, 1988. Known as "Classic 58", it presented a mix of older sitcoms and movies with a family orientation, a programming philosophy favored by Torres.[15] The next year, Weigel also launched W46AR, a low-power station carrying Univision, giving it three signals in the area along with a preexisting WCIU translator, W65BT, and WDJT-TV.[16] The station also resurrected The Bowling Game, a bowling program that had previously enjoyed an 11-year run on established Milwaukee independent WVTV (channel 18) and continued on channel 58 until 1993.[16][17]

At the station's launch, Torres served as the vice president of operations;[9] he later sued Weigel for forcing him out of the company by having him sell to an affiliated company, a case that resulted in an out-of-court settlement.[18][19] A Delaware court ruled in favor of Torres in a case involving undervaluation of his stock in the partnership in 1993.[20]

The station's programming of syndicated shows and movies was bolstered by a variety of network programs not aired by the networks' Milwaukee affiliates; in late 1990, WDJT-TV was airing America Tonight from CBS, Loving and Match Game from ABC, and four shows from NBC.[21] In 1992, WDJT-TV put itself on the map by teaming up with WITI, then the CBS affiliate in Milwaukee, to air nonstop coverage during the trial of Jeffrey Dahmer, a serial killer from Milwaukee, thus making it available to non-cable homes in the Milwaukee area and allowing WITI to air its normal programming.[22] The trial coverage was credited by station management with making people aware that there was even a station on channel 58 in the first place; at times during the weeks-long trial, 15 to 20 percent of Milwaukee TV homes were tuned to WDJT-TV, and it also was added to at least one cable system as a result at a time when must-carry rules were not in effect.[23] Local programming efforts included the first locally produced children's TV program in Milwaukee in decades: SeaToons with Captain Al Gee, which presented segments between cartoons weekday mornings but lasted only eight weeks.[24][20]

WDJT-TV, with its smaller presence, was rarely mentioned in the same breath as its more established competitors: independent WVTV and Fox affiliate WCGV-TV (channel 24). For example, a 1992 feature in The Milwaukee Journal on independent television programming consigned channel 58 to one lone mention.[25] Its signal was less powerful than those of channels 18 and 24; the Marc Plaza transmitter effectively limited channel 58's coverage area to Milwaukee itself and its inner-ring suburbs.[26] On cable systems, it was on high channel positions, including channel 29 in Milwaukee and channel 48 on Warner Cable systems in suburban areas.[27]

On May 23, 1994, Fox announced an agreement with New World Communications in which most of New World's stations would become affiliates of that network. Among those due to switch affiliations was Milwaukee's WITI.[28] The deal, which triggered a years-long realignment process in cities nationwide, left CBS needing a new affiliate in the Milwaukee market. It approached NBC affiliate WTMJ-TV and ABC affiliate WISN-TV (which had previously carried CBS from 1961 to 1977), but each renewed their existing contracts.[29] This left three commercial independent or soon-to-be-independent stations operating in Milwaukee as potential CBS affiliates: WVTV, WCGV-TV (about to lose Fox), and WDJT-TV.[30]

The year before, Gaylord Broadcasting, owner of WVTV, had signed a local marketing agreement to allow WCGV-TV, then owned by ABRY Communications, to handle its programming functions.[31] WCGV-TV moved into WVTV's building, from which it had produced a 9 p.m. local newscast until 1993.[30] The week the New World deal was announced, however, Sinclair Broadcast Group of Baltimore closed on its previously agreed purchase of WCGV-TV.[26][32] Though this would normally have made WCGV-TV a frontrunner to be the CBS affiliate,[29] Sinclair owned no major network affiliates at the time but three Fox affiliates and two independents.[32] CBS had an hourlong conversation with Sinclair representatives in early June, but Sinclair president David D. Smith repeatedly stated his lack of interest in aligning his station with the network;[29] this stance was reaffirmed in early October.[33]

Sinclair's lack of interest in the available CBS affiliation left one other viable partner—WDJT-TV—but CBS first made a longshot attempt to purchase another local station. It offered to buy Christian television station WVCY-TV, owned by Wisconsin Voice of Christian Youth, for $10 million to convert it into its new Milwaukee affiliate. The deal was rebuffed on grounds that the offer was "unreasonably low" and that a sale to a network would be a hypocritical "act of consummate irresponsibility".[34][35]

By the end of September, talks with WDJT-TV had also broken down. On September 30, Weigel announced it would no longer pursue a CBS affiliation, saying it could not wait any further to firm up the station's future direction. Weigel president Howard Shapiro noted that the station had already entered into preliminary conversations about telecasting Milwaukee Brewers baseball and would implement promotional and program purchasing strategies for its existing independent lineup.[36] It was also starting the process of fixing its comparatively weak transmitting facility by conducting a site search; it had asked to share space on WISN-TV's tower and was rebuffed.[37] However, ownership and management did not completely preclude the possibility of CBS affiliating with WDJT-TV; Shapiro noted that "nothing is irretrievable".[36] Even as the station inquired about affiliating with The WB, general manager Bill Le Monds stated on October 7, "You never turn off anything."[38] The station also stepped in to carry The Late Show with David Letterman, which WITI had not aired live since its debut and which WCGV-TV had been airing.[39]

By the start of November, Milwaukee was the only market affected by the New World-Fox deal that had not secured a replacement CBS affiliate. Even though CBS had been forced to buy a second-tier station in Detroit and nearly had to do so in Atlanta to replace a New World-owned station, the network was at least assured of having affiliates in those cities once the outgoing affiliates switched to Fox. Tony Malara, head of affiliate relations for CBS, noted that time was becoming of the essence with WITI due to switch to Fox on December 11. Of Milwaukee, he said, "It certainly isn't a market where we have a plethora of choices. But the fact of the matter is that it's not necessarily the quantity, but who's available to do what and what kind of agreement, what kind of relationship can you establish?"[40] With just two weeks to go before WITI was due to switch to Fox, the possibility increased that there might not be any CBS affiliate at all in Milwaukee.[41] CBS was prepared to have Milwaukee cable systems pipe in nearby CBS-owned stations, WBBM-TV in Chicago and WFRV-TV in Green Bay, as a stopgap.[42]

On November 28, Howard Shapiro met for the first time with Malara in New York City.[43] On December 6, Shapiro and Malara jointly announced that WDJT-TV would join CBS on December 11—five days later—under a 10-year deal, a request of Weigel to allow the time needed to build out the station's facilities to a status commensurate with a major-network affiliate.[43] The deal came as a relief even at WITI, where officials were hoping for a CBS affiliate to be announced to help guide viewers to relocated programs through both a station helpline and print advertising.[44] The deal also saw more CBS programs being aired in Milwaukee, as WDJT-TV agreed to air all of its programs in pattern;[43] for instance, WITI had not aired CBS This Morning for months and preempted Face the Nation.[27] Some 30 percent of the station's syndicated program inventory was displaced by CBS network programming, with some shows moving to W65BT (now WBME-CD channel 41) and others to overnight time slots.[45] As many expected with any move of CBS off VHF in Milwaukee, the network's ratings did fall precipitously. In January 1995, the CBS Evening News drew a 1.4 rating and 3 percent share of the audience, a far cry from the 9.9 rating and 17 share in January 1994 on WITI.[46]

While WDJT-TV signed with CBS in time to ensure the continued over-the-air availability of CBS programming in Milwaukee, its facilities were inadequate to reach the entire market and did not approach the scope of a network-affiliated operation that projected to hire 60 additional people.[48] In late December 1994, the station wrote to Milwaukee County officials suggesting three county parks as locations for a new 1,200-foot (370 m) transmission tower.[49] The proposed Lincoln Park site met with opposition from WISN, which claimed that the near-colocation of its mast and that which WDJT-TV sought to build would cause engineering and safety issues.[50] A judge ruled in favor of WISN and issued a preliminary injunction, claiming a second tower would violate WISN's land use agreement with Milwaukee County.[51] Several nearby residents also objected, concerned about environmental impacts to the park.[52] Despite these objections, the FCC dismissed WISN's petition to deny and approved the tower site in May 1996, finding that WISN was unable to prove there would be new interference and that the concerns of neighbors did not justify a denial.[53]

Weigel's Milwaukee studio center in West Allis

While the station had hoped to begin broadcasting full-length newscasts by the end of 1995, the station was behind on setting up the city's fourth news department because it wanted to confirm a tower site before it selected a location for new studios.[54] While WDJT-TV initially maintained its downtown offices for sales and administrative personnel,[55] local news debuted on March 18, 1996,[56] from facilities in the former Allis-Chalmers complex in West Allis belonging to television production company The Enterprise, Ltd.[57][58] The total investment in the news operation came to $10 million.[55]

Additionally, the new transmitter facility was activated in November 1996, giving channel 58 a coverage area comparable to the other major Milwaukee stations. The dispute with WISN-TV continued, forcing the station to install a $500,000 steel bridge over nearby Lincoln Creek just to access the tower because WISN-TV would not permit WDJT-TV's engineers to cross its land.[59] A further technical improvement making the station more accessible came in 1998, when most local cable systems moved WDJT from higher positions to the lower channel 5.[60]

Despite improvements in the technical facility, news, syndicated programming, and positioning, WDJT-TV has continued to trail its competitors in local ratings since becoming an affiliate.[61] In 2001, for instance, it struggled to retain viewers for its newscasts after CBS network programs, and its 6 p.m. local newscast finished seventh or even eighth in the market.[62] The station did have success with some new syndicated programs, notably the 2005 acquisition of game shows Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune as a lead-in to prime time programming, which in turn boosted ratings for the CBS prime time lineup.[63]

In July 2010, a flash flooding event caused damage to the Lincoln Park transmitter facility, leaving the station unable to normally broadcast for three days. While local cable systems received a direct feed from the studios and were unaffected, WTMJ-TV broadcast the station as a subchannel,[64] reciprocating after a 2009 lightning strike disabled WTMJ-TV's transmitter and Weigel offered the station the use of a WBME subchannel temporarily.[65]

In the late 2000s, Weigel began adding digital subchannels to WDJT-TV, a preview of what would later become one of its most important businesses. Aside from a simulcast of WMLW-CA, then only broadcast in analog, the first unique subchannel offering on that station was MeTV, which debuted in March 2008.[66] Soon after, Weigel purchased WJJA-TV, then a small station primarily airing home shopping programming, and relaunched it as WBME-TV, moving MeTV there.[67] When that transition was completed, the subchannel was freed up, and WDJT-TV was then among the first carriers of This TV, a new diginet launched from the start as a national service by Weigel and MGM on November 1, 2008.[68][69]

Two subchannel ventures involving WDJT-TV have been local, not national, services. In 2009, Weigel brokered subchannel 58.4 to Shorewest Realtors of Brookfield, Wisconsin, which since 2005 had been producing a local cable channel showing real estate listings.[70][71] Shorewest TV ceased broadcasting over the air in 2013 as the real estate agency concentrated on its website, including a new streaming channel.[72] The subchannel was then used to launch TouchVision, a loop of news and weather information produced under a separate company led by former radio and Tribune Company executive Lee Abrams.[73] This continued until 2015, when Weigel instead opted to use the subchannel to launch its new national service Decades.[74]

• Dawn Mitchell – sports anchor/reporter[90]
• Tammie Souza – chief meteorologist[91]

The station's digital signal is multiplexed with standard-definition versions of the main feeds of WBME-CD, WMLW-TV, and WYTU-LD, as well as Weigel's Start TV diginet, which are only broadcast at low power on their originating stations.

WDJT-TV shut down its analog signal on channel 58, at 11:59 p.m. on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal continued to broadcasts on its pre-transition channel 46, using virtual channel 58.[93] For the rest of 2009, WYTU-LP served as an analog simulcast of WDJT-TV's main subchannel.[94][95]