Weigel Broadcasting

Weigel Broadcasting Company (a.k.a. Weigel[1] ) is an American television broadcasting company based in Chicago, Illinois, alongside its flagship station WCIU-TV (Channel 26), at 26 North Halsted Street in the Greektown neighborhood. It currently owns 18 television stations. The building (or headquarters) was where Green Screen Adventures was filmed.

Contents

 * 1History
 * 1.1Network expansion
 * 1.2Weigel expands beyond the Great Lakes region
 * 2Major assets
 * 2.1Television stations
 * 2.2Television networks
 * 2.3Radio station
 * 3References
 * 4External links

History[edit]
The company was founded by Chicago broadcasting veteran John Weigel, whose career dated back to the 1930s. With $1,000 of his own money, and another $1,000 from his attorney, Daniel J. McCarthy, Weigel bought the broadcasting license for what became the first UHF television station in the Chicago area. WCIU signed on the air on February 6, 1964. One year later, in 1965, the company was the subject of a successful hostile takeover at the hands of the Shapiro family.[2]

Over the years, the company began to acquire and also launch new stations in the adjacent markets of Milwaukee and South Bend, at first by placing WCIU translators in those markets to gain a foothold in each market, before programming the stations independently. Weigel would end up an unexpected beneficiary of the television industry realignment of 1994-95. Full-power independent station WDJT-TV in Milwaukee, which had only signed on five years earlier, ended up with the CBS affiliation in late 1994. WBND-LP became the home of ABC programming in South Bend the next year. In both cases, the longtime affiliates of the networks in those markets — WITI in Milwaukee and WSJV in South Bend — switched to Fox, and the Weigel-owned stations secured 11th-hour affiliation deals after no other viable replacement affiliates surfaced.

Also in that same year, WCIU dropped the Spanish-language Univision network and became Chicago's only true full-power independent station when WGN-TV and WPWR-TV joined The WB and UPN networks respectively, while WGBO-TV became a Univision-owned station. These changes allowed WCIU to pursue sports rights and syndicated programming not previously available, ultimately giving WCIU some strength in the market.

Weigel's MeTV format originated as a programming block that debuted on January 6, 2003 on television station WFBT-CA (channel 23) in Chicago, Illinois, an independent station that otherwise featured an ethnic programming format.[3]

In April 2008, Weigel completed the purchase of WJJA-TV in Racine, Wisconsin, which gave the company its second full-power station in the Milwaukee market. The station carried a local version of MeTV for four years before it and the independent format of low-power WMLW-CA were switched around in August 2012, becoming WMLW-TV.

Network expansion[edit]
In July 2008, Weigel announced the creation of This TV, a national subchannel network, operated as a joint venture with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.[4]

In early August 2008, Weigel agreed to sell all three of its South Bend stations, WBND-LP, WCWW-LP and WMYS-LP, to Schurz Communications, the longtime owner of the local CBS affiliate WSBT-TV, for undisclosed terms.[5]  However, in the absence of action by the Federal Communications Commission, the deal was called off in August 2009.[6]

Weigel launched You and Me This Morning, a Interstitial program lifestyle news program in fourth quarter (fall) 2009 on WCIU-TV's first two subchannels.[7] [8]

At the end of 2009, Broadcasting & Cable gave Weigel its first annual Multi-Platform Broadcaster of the Year award. The company makes efficient use of digital TV's multicast capabilities, with one main channel and four subchannels for WCIU in Chicago, and MeTV and This TV on subchannels nationwide.[9]

On November 22, 2010, Weigel announced that they would take the MeTV concept national and compete fully with RTV and Antenna TV, while complementing its successful sister network This TV.[10] [11]

On December 1, 2010, WCIU dropped their FBT foreign broadcasting digital subchannel (with some of that programming eventually to be moved to Polnet Communications' WPVN-CA) and is currently airing a simulcast of WCIU-TV on WCIU digital subchannel 26.2. The new digital subchannel, The U Too, was officially launched on January 5, 2011. The new digital network will be airing on WCIU digital subchannel 26.2, replacing MeTV, which moved to WCIU digital subchannel 26.3 on December 15, 2010, and mainly consists of other purchased programming without room on the main WCIU schedule, second runs of WCIU programming or programming burned off due to low ratings.[12] [13]

On January 4, 2011, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Weigel announced plans to distribute MeTV nationwide.[14] [15]

On January 28, 2013, Weigel entered into a partnership with Fox Television Stations to create a new digital subchannel network called [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movies! Movies!], which is expected to debut on all of Fox's owned-and-operated stations in the spring of 2013.[16]  On May 13, 2013, Weigel announced that Tribune Broadcasting would take over operations of This TV on November 1, and that the channel would move to a WGN-TV subchannel following the changes.<sup id="cite_ref-17">[17] <sup id="cite_ref-18">[18]

On July 1, 2013, Weigel premiered the new subchannel service TouchVision, which provides a rolling news and information service designed for television, mobile and tablet platforms starting on WDJT-DT4, after Milwaukee real estate agency Shorewest Realtors ended their time-lease on the channel space to concentrate on an Internet on-demand channel instead. TouchVision was based out of Weigel's Chicago facilities under the LLC "Think Televisual", and was run by former radio and Tribune executive Lee Abrams and Brandon Davis.<sup id="cite_ref-19">[19]  TouchVision ceased operations on January 14, 2016.<sup id="cite_ref-20">[20] <sup id="cite_ref-21">[21]

On September 29, 2014, Weigel launched Heroes & Icons a new digital subchannel which specializes in reruns of classic television series and films. Heroes & Icons, abbreviated H&I, aims to attract a generally male audience with shows from the genres of action, police, detective, western, science fiction, superhero, and war and military.

On October 21, 2014, Weigel and CBS announced the launch of a new digital subchannel service called Decades, scheduled to launch on all CBS O&O stations in 2015. The channel will be co-owned by Weigel and CBS, with Weigel being responsible for distribution to stations outside CBS Television Stations. It will air programs from the extensive library of CBS Television Distribution, including archival footage from CBS News.<sup id="cite_ref-22">[22]

Weigel expands beyond the Great Lakes region[edit]
On July 19, 2017, Weigel agreed to acquire Cedar City, Utah station KCSG for $1.1 million.<sup id="cite_ref-23">[23]  The sale will convert the station in a H&I owned-and-operated station, though the possibility of Weigel's other networks being contained to it is also possible. It was Weigel's first station purchase outside of a state along Lake Michigan, as all of its properties are in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin. This sale closed December 5, 2017.<sup id="cite_ref-24">[24]

On September 8, 2017, it was announced that Weigel agreed to purchase Los Angeles, California station KAZA-TV for $9 million.<sup id="cite_ref-25">[25]  The same day also saw the announcement of the purchase of KNLC in St. Louis, a religious station holding a commercial license, for $3.75 million.<sup id="cite_ref-26">[26]  All three purchases are being made through its LLC for WMLW, which sold its spectrum in the 2016 FCC auction and return to airing via low-power station WBME-CD.<sup id="cite_ref-27">[27]  KNLC's former owners continue to maintain a right to the station's second subchannel to carry their schedule as a part of the sale to Weigel.

On October 18, 2017, Weigel agreed to acquire KAXT-CD and KTLN-TV, in San Francisco and KVOS-TV and KFFV in Seattle, from OTA Broadcasting in a $23.2 million deal.<sup id="cite_ref-fcc-saletoweigel_28-0">[28]  The Seattle deal was completed, while the San Francisco completion took until April 15, 2019, as both KAXT-CD and KTLN-TV are involved in a spectrum transition resulting from the 2016 FCC auction.

Television stations[edit]
Stations arranged alphabetically by state and by city of license. Most of the stations are categorized into separate limited partnerships for licensing purposes, with many of Weigel's post 2017 deals using the WMLW limited partnership as a direct result of the profits from that station's spectrum sale.

Television networks[edit]

 * Decades (launched in 2015; joint venture with CBS Broadcasting, Inc.)
 * Heroes & Icons (launched in 2014)
 * MeTV - Memorable Entertainment Television (launched in 2003)
 * Movies! (launched in 2013; joint venture with Fox Television Stations)
 * Start TV (launched In 2018; joint venture with CBS Broadcasting, Inc.)

Radio station[edit]

 * WRME 87.7FM - branded as "MeTV FM" (Chicago, Illinois; local marketing agreement with Venture Technologies Group)<sup id="cite_ref-29">[29]  (also broadcasts TV signal on analog TV channel 6)

References[edit]

 * 1) ^ "Weigel Broadcasting Co." www.weigelbroadcasting.com.
 * 2) ^ John Weigel - Man of UHF, The Video Veteran/Chicago Television
 * 3) ^ Robert Feder (January 3, 2003). "'ME-TV' joins 'The U' on Weigel's local menu". Chicago Sun-Times. Sun-Times Media Group. Archived from the original on June 29, 2014. Retrieved August 31, 2012 – via HighBeam Research. (preview of subscription content)
 * 4) ^ "MGM, Weigel Launching This TV Diginet". TVNewsCheck. NewsCheck Media. July 28, 2008. Retrieved April 6, 2016.
 * 5) ^ "WSBT Purchases Three Low-Power Stations". Broadcasting & Cable. Reed Business Information. August 4, 2008.
 * 6) ^ Malone, Michael; John Eggerton (August 24, 2009). "WSBT South Bend Deal Fizzles Absent FCC Action". Broadcasting & Cable. NewBay Media. Retrieved August 25,2009.
 * 7) ^ "Weigel Launching Morning Content Mix". Broadcasting & Cable. NewBay Media. July 7, 2009. Retrieved April 6, 2016.
 * 8) ^ Rosenthal, Phil (July 6, 2009). "Weigel's WCIU Getting Into A.M. News Fray – In A Small, Unconventional Way". Chicago Tribune. Tribune Publishing. Retrieved April 6,2016.
 * 9) ^ Dickson, Glen (December 21, 2009). "Weigel Maximizes DTV Pipe". Broadcasting & Cable. NewBay Media. Retrieved January 13, 2010.
 * 10) ^ Weigel Broadcasting Taking Me-TV National, Chicago Tribune, November 22, 2010
 * 11) ^ Weigel Broadcasting's Me-TV Goes National, Broadcasting & Cable, November 23, 2010
 * 12) ^ Rosenthal, Phil (October 5, 2010). "WCIU Parent Weigel to Drop Foreign Subchannel, Launch The U Too". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved January 29, 2017.
 * 13) ^ WCUU Launches The U Too Subchannel, Broadcasting & Cable, October 5, 2010
 * 14) ^ MGM, Weigel Taking Me-TV Nationwide, Broadcasting & Cable, January 4, 2011
 * 15) ^ MGM Launches Classic TV Service to Roar Like the Fonz, Los Angeles Times, January 4, 2011
 * 16) ^ "Fox O&Os, Weigel Launch Movies! Digi-Net". Broadcasting & Cable. NewBay Media. January 28, 2013. Retrieved May 17, 2013.
 * 17) ^ Malone, Michael (May 14, 2013). "Tribune Replaces Weigel As Partner on This TV". Broadcasting & Cable. NewBay Media. Retrieved May 17, 2013.
 * 18) ^ Good Times for Digi-Nets...But We've Seen This Movie Before, B&C, 5 August 2013, Retrieved August 6, 2013
 * 19) ^ Theilman, Sam (July 8, 2013). "Abrams, Saslow Prepare to Launch News Network This Month". AdWeek. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved July 9, 2013.
 * 20) ^ Marek, Lynne (January 14, 2016). "Weigel-backed TV outlet TouchVision shutters". Crain's Chicago Business. Crain Communications. Retrieved January 17, 2016.
 * 21) ^ Feder, Robert (January 15, 2016). "TouchVision ends as a noble failure". RobertFeder.com. Retrieved January 17, 2016.
 * 22) ^ Malone, Michael (October 21, 2014). "CBS Stations, Weigel Partner on Oldies Digi-Net Decades". Broadcasting & Cable. NewBay Media. Retrieved October 23, 2014.
 * 23) ^ Application for consent to Assignment of Broadcast Station Construction Permit or License - Federal Communications Commission
 * 24) ^ "Consummation Notice". Federal Communications Commission. December 5, 2017. Retrieved December 9, 2017.
 * 25) ^ Application for consent to Assignment of Broadcast Station Construction Permit or License - Federal Communications Commission
 * 26) ^ Holleman, Joe (September 12, 2017). "Larry Rice sells KNLC television station for $3.75 million". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Lee Enterprises. Retrieved September 13, 2017.
 * 27) ^ Jessell, Harry (September 12, 2017). "Weigel Moving Into Los Angeles, St. Louis". TVNewsCheck. NewsCheck Media. Retrieved September 12, 2017.
 * 28) ^ "Application For Consent To Assignment Of Broadcast Station Construction Permit Or License (KVOS-TV/KFFV)". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. October 24, 2017. Retrieved October 25, 2017.
 * 29) ^ Feder, Robert (February 9, 2015). "Weigel Broadcasting to Launch Oldies on '87.7 MeTV FM'". Robert Feder. Retrieved February 10, 2015.

External links[edit]

 * Official website
 * MeTV website
 * MeTV FM website
 * John Weigel - Man of UHF
 * WCIU Website