WISE-DT2 - History

History

Originally established in 2005, WISE-DT2 was part of NBC Weather Plus and known on-air as "Indiana's NewsCenter Weather Plus". The 24-hour weather channel provided local and national weather forecasts segments. On January 24, 2006, The WB and UPN announced the two networks would end broadcasting and merge into The CW. On February 22, News Corporation announced it would start up another new network called MyNetworkTV. This new service, which would be sister to Fox, would be operated by Fox Television Stations and its syndication division Twentieth Television. MyNetworkTV was created in order to give UPN and WB stations not mentioned as becoming CW affiliates another option besides becoming an independent station. It was also created to compete against The CW.

CBS affiliate WANE-TV offered UPN on a second digital subchannel. The Fort Wayne affiliate of The WB was cable-only "WBFW" (provided through The WB 100+) with promotional and advertising duties performed by WPTA. It was announced in March that "WBFW" would affiliate with The CW via The CW Plus (a similar operation to The WB 100+). WPTA decided to create a new second digital subchannel to simulcast "WBFW" and offer access to CW programming for over-the-air viewers. On September 18, The CW debuted on that station which began using the WPTA-DT2 calls officially. On September 5, 2006, WISE-TV moved NBC Weather Plus from this second digital subchannel to WISE-DT3 in order for it to become the area's MyNetworkTV affiliate.

In June 2011, it was announced that WISE-DT2 would join Fox beginning August 1, 2011 taking the affiliation from then-current outlet WFFT-TV (owned by the Nexstar Broadcasting Group). The switch was the result of a dispute over retransmission consent fees between Nexstar and Fox. Upon the switch, the station shifted MyNetworkTV to secondary status on WISE-DT2 and began airing the two-hour weeknight programming block from 10:30 p.m. until 12:30 a.m. The first Fox program to air on WISE-DT2 was Hell's Kitchen. With the addition of high definition capabilities to this station, WISE-DT3 (which featured 24-hour national NBC Plus and local "The VIPIR Channel" weather programming) moved to WPTA's third digital subchannel (currently home to "Indiana's NewsCenter Now"). It is unknown if the two services will be merged in anyway or one will be dropped. Negotiations are under way to provide an HD feed of WISE-DT2 on area cable providers. The station was upgraded to a 720p high definition signal on June 27.

On July 25, 2011 Nexstar Broadcasting filed an antitrust lawsuit against Granite Broadcasting, claiming the company is trying to monopolize ad sales through its shared services agreement with WPTA (owned by Malara Broadcasting) and the five network affiliations that are shared between WPTA and WISE (WPTA already carries ABC and CW programming, while in addition to the Fox and MyNetworkTV programming on its second digital subchannel, NBC is carried on WISE-TV's primary channel). Nexstar sought a judgment that would force either WPTA-TV or WISE-TV to give up at least one of the three Big Four affiliations it had. This lawsuit was settled on February 5, 2013, resulting in a reversal of the 2011 switch as Fox agreed to bring that network's local affiliation back to WFFT; Fox programming moved to WFFT from WISE-DT2 on March 1, with MyNetworkTV once again becoming the subchannel's sole network affiliation. The last Fox program to air on WISE-DT2 was American Idol.