History
The original construction permit for Channel 57 was granted on May 2, 1998 with the call letters WJNW, however, the station did not sign on until July 5, 1999 as WHPN-TV. With a transmitter located approximately ten miles west of Janesville, the station served as the UPN affiliate for both the Madison and Rockford, Illinois TV markets.
In 2002, WHPN was purchased by ACME Communications, a station group run by Jamie Kellner, a founder of The WB Television Network and former CEO of that network and TBS. In conjunction with the sale, WHPN changed affiliations to The WB in August 2002 and adopted the WBUW call letters (while Madison's former WB affiliate, WISC-owned cable channel WB14, took the UPN affiliation and "UPN14" branding).
In 2004, WBUW moved its transmitter to its current location in the Greentree neighborhood of Madison's southwest side, sharing space on a new tower with WMTV (Channel 15); this move extend WBUW's coverage throughout south-central Wisconsin.
In March 2006, WBUW was confirmed as Madison's CW Network affiliate, effective September 2006. WBUW did not change its call letters to fit its new affiliation, nor did the other former WB stations owned by ACME Communications (in an effort to avoid audience confusion during the network realignment).
On February 17, 2009, WBUW officially transitioned to exclusive digital transmission on digital channel 32 (or PSIP virtual channel 57.1), with the analog channel 57 serving as a "nightlight" (broadcasting a loop of digital transition instructionals) until signing off for good the first week of March 2009.
On December 13, 2011, ACME announced it would sell WBUW to Byrne Acquisition Group, a move that was part of ACME's gradual exit from the TV business. The deal was approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and consummated in February 2012 (one quarter ahead of schedule), and gave the Byrne Group its second TV property (after low-power station W48CX in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina). By November 2012, on-air changes at WBUW would include a gradual rebranding (from "Madison's CW" to "CW 57") and a master control upgrade to accommodate high-definition syndicated programming.
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