WTMJ-TV - History

History

The Journal Company's first television license was granted in September 1931 for experimental station W9XD, using a low-definition electromechanical system. The station conducted field tests from 1931 to 1933, before converting its facilities to experimental high-fidelity apex radio unit W9XAZ in 1934. Its license was withdrawn by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 1938 as part of an effort to limit licenses to stations actively engaging in the development of television. No publicly announced television programming was broadcast by W9XD during this experimental period.

The Journal Company obtained on December 7, 1941 one of the first commercial television construction permits issued by the FCC, under the call letters WMJT (Milwaukee Journal Television), and built a new broadcast facility by August 1942. But the U.S. War Production Board halted the manufacture of television and radio broadcasting equipment for civilian use from April 1942 to August 1945, suspending the company's television plans.

On December 3, 1947 WTMJ-TV (WTMJ standing for The Milwaukee Journal) went on the air, becoming the first commercial television station in Wisconsin, the fourth commercial station in the Midwest and the fifteenth commercial station to go on the air in the United States. When the station began broadcasting in 1947, there were only 500 television sets in Milwaukee, jumping to 2,050 by the following April. WTMJ had affiliated with the NBC television network since sign on, although it also carried programming from CBS, ABC, and Du Mont before those networks had their own affiliated stations in Milwaukee. WTMJ is the only station in Milwaukee to be affiliated with the same network since it signed on. It is currently NBC's second-longest tenured affiliate, behind only KSD-TV (now KSDK) in St. Louis (which had signed on in January of that year).

WTMJ originally transmitted on channel 3 and shifted to Channel 4 on July 11, 1953 to avoid interference with Kalamazoo, Michigan's WKZO-TV (now WWMT), which is nearly directly across Lake Michigan. This was a part of the FCC's complete revision of the Table of Channel Assignments as issued in its Sixth Report and General Order issued on April 14, 1952. This move forced the CBS affiliate on channel 4 in Chicago (now WBBM-TV), the first commercially-licensed TV station outside the Eastern Time Zone to move to channel 2. It had done so on July 5.

WTMJ was one of the first stations in the country to purchase color equipment, and in December 1953, it broadcast the color television program Amahl and the Night Visitors from NBC, when only two prototype color sets existed in Milwaukee. The city's first color TV sets were sold in March 1954, and by July 1954 WTMJ broadcast its first local color program originating from its studios, The Grenadiers, becoming the third local station in the U.S. with live color capability. By November 1, 1956, all locally produced WTMJ-TV programs were in color. About 3000 color sets existed in Milwaukee in February 1957.

On April 7, 2009, WTMJ became the first station in Milwaukee, and the second in Wisconsin (behind WISC-TV in Madison, WI) to convert its newscasts and programs to high definition. It began with a soft launch starting with that day's Live at Daybreak newscast.

The ownership remains under Journal Broadcast Group. As such, WTMJ is one of the few non-O&O television stations in the country that has had the same callsign, owner and primary network affiliation throughout its history. In August 2004 Green Bay's NBC affiliate, WGBA-TV (Channel 26), was bought by Journal and became a sister station to WTMJ, along with LMA partner WACY-TV.