WFRV-TV

WJMN-TV in Escanaba, Michigan operates as a semi-satellite of WFRV serving as the CBS-affiliated television station for the Central Upper Peninsula of Michigan. This station broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 48 from a transmitter four miles south of Trenary, Michigan in Masonville Township. As WFRV/WJMN is Liberty's only broadcast operation, master control and all internal operations for both stations originate from WFRV's Green Bay facilities. WJMN however does maintain an advertising sales office in Marquette [1].

History
The station began as WNAM-TV on UHF channel 42 in Neenah / Menasha on May 21, 1955 as sister to the radio station with the same calls. In the late-1950s, they moved their license to Green Bay and studios to Little Chute. It also changed their frequency to VHF channel 5 while adopting its present call letters WFRV-TV which stand for Wisconsin's Fox River Valley. It started as an ABC affiliate before switching to NBC in 1959. As an NBC affiliate, it became the first station in Northeastern Wisconsin to broadcast in color. In 1958, WFRV became an affiliate of the short-lived local Badger Television Network, a three-station television network in Wisconsin. The other two stations were WISN-TV in Milwaukee and WKOW-TV in Madison. The Badger Network was launched in January 1958 and ceased operations on August 8 of that year. [2]

This station's claims include the first to cover a live lunar eclipse in 1959 when a studio camera was wheeled into the parking lot and aimed at the moon. Local newscasts were broadcast in color starting in 1965. WFRV changed affiliations again in 1983 when it became an ABC affiliate for the second time with NBC going to WLUK-TV. Their original owners sold the station to the Norton family of Kentucky, owners of Louisville's WAVE, in the mid-1960s. In the days before cable and satellite distribution of terrestrial broadcast signals, the other Green Bay stations had their transmitters on Scray's Hill in the Ledgeview section of Glenmore southwest of Green Bay. This is one of the highest points of land in the area. However, WFRV had its original transmitter further south from a legacy of its original days in Neenah. Since antennas had to be turned towards the less convenient direction of Outagamie County rather than the more central Brown County to receive channel 5, this put the station at a severe disadvantage. Accordingly, the Mortons asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to relocate channel 5's transmitter to Glenmore.

WJMN-TV began operations on October 7, 1969 and was the result of an agreement between the Nortons and the FCC. When WFRV wanted to move its transmitter to Glenmore, it had to address short-spacing issues from WMAQ-TV in Chicago. This was because every channel allocation in the Green Bay and Wausau markets in the analog age were shared by a Chicago television station. As part of the agreement to transmit from Glenmore, WFRV launched WJMN in Escanaba to serve Michigan's under served Upper Peninsula which at that time only had WLUC-TV in Marquette (then sister station to WLUK) as the only commercial station serving the area.

Orion Broadcasting, the Nortons' company, merged with Cosmos Broadcasting (a subsidiary of The Liberty Corporation) in 1981. A few years later, WFRV was sold to the Murphy and McNally families owners of WCCO-AM-TV in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minneapolis-St._Paul Minneapolis-St. Paul], however Channel 5 would continue to use the Norton-era "5" logo in the font style seen on other Norton stations until 2001. CBS then acquired the stations in 1992 when the families sold them. By that time, new FCC rules had allowed networks to own more stations, so CBS decided to keep WFRV and convert it a CBS station, which in 2005, was in the 69th market nationally. With this move, it swapped affiliations with the area's longtime affiliate WBAY-TV. The move also made WFRV among the few stations in the United States to have been an affiliate of all of the big three television networks.

The station no longer follows the CBS Mandate branding since being sold from the CBS Corporation although their graphics remain the same. Previously, the one used on their newscasts were green and gold as a connection to the Green Bay Packers. In 2002, the station became the first in the Green Bay market to broadcast digitally. On July 10, 2006, they unveiled a blue and yellow graphic scheme as well as new set to coincide with the return of former anchor Tammy Elliott. On April 16, 2007, Liberty Media completed an exchange transaction with CBS Corporation pursuant to which Liberty Media exchanged 7.6 million shares of CBS Class B common stock valued at $239 million dollars for a subsidiary of CBS that held WFRV and approximately $170 million in cash. [3]

The sale was completed on April 18 [4] however their website continued to be maintained by CBS Television Stations Digital Media Group until May 14 when Liberty launched a redesigned site for the stations powered by Inergize Digital Media (then a subsidiary of Clear Channel Communications now a division of Newport Television). In Summer 2007, the station slowly transitioned from branding as "CBS 5" and began to go back to identifying themselves as "Channel 5" as they had done previously before in 2003.

In September 2008, WFRV became the first to upgrade their master control to allow it to air and record high definition programming from the network and syndication. Oprah, Ellen, and Entertainment Tonight are currently aired in HD and a character generator allows the station to place 16:9 weather and news crawls over the programming. [5] It transitioned to digital-only broadcasting during a Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson commercial break around Midnight on February 17, 2009 then aired a loop of nightlight programming until March 3 when their analog service was completely discontinued. As of October 2009, WFRV now has the capability to create and air 16:9 advertising, promotions, and news graphics. Although the station still uses standard definition cameras for the time being, their graphics now display in the 16:9 format with weather conditions filling the pillarbox space during newscasts currently. In April 2010, WFRV/WJMN redesigned its Web site through Broadcast Interactive Media.

In addition to their main studios on East Mason Street in Green Bay, the station also has a Fox Valley bureau on Patriot Drive near the US 41 freeway in Little Chute which also has a second Doppler weather radar tower to provide extended radar coverage for the station's weather operation.

News team
WFRV's primary studios and weather radar in Green Bay.Their Fox Valley Bureau and weather radar.Anchors Storm Team 5 Meteorologists Sports Reporters Photojournalists
 * Wendy Kuschel - Sunday through Thursday mornings
 * Erin Davisson - weekdays at Noon and 6
 * Tammy Elliott - weeknights at 5 and 10
 * Tom Zalaski - weeknights at 6 and 10
 * Chelly Boutott - Friday mornings, weekends and reporter
 * Tom Mahoney (AMS Seal of Approval) - Chief seen weeknights at 5 and 6
 * Dave Miller (AMS Seal of Approval) - weeknights at 10
 * Justin Steinbrinck (AMS Seal of Approval) - Sunday through Thursday mornings
 * Dana Tyler (AMS Seal of Approval) - Friday mornings, weekends
 * Larry McCarren - weeknights at 6 and 10
 * Inside Lambeau co-host and Larry McCarren's Locker Room host
 * Burke Griffin - weekend evenings and Inside Lambeau co-host
 * High School Sports Xtra host
 * Ryan Popkey - reporter and photographer
 * producer and fill-in anchor
 * Nick Goddard - reporter
 * Mike Austin - Agriculture
 * Olga Halaburda
 * Terry Kovarik
 * Donald Robinson
 * Jenna Sachs
 * Millaine Wells
 * Justin Dubois
 * Scott Giese
 * Mark Phinney
 * Jason Roemaat
 * Mike Vandersnick

Past on-air staff

 * Lance Allan - now Sports Director at WTMJ-TV
 * Jay Johnson - anchor 1982–1987 (went to WLUK-TV until 1996)
 * elected to represent the 8th District in the U.S. Housef rom 1997-1999 and was US Mint Director from2000-2001. Deceased October 17, 2009
 * Glen Lloyd -worked for WLUK and then as a spokesman for the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture Trade and Consumer Protection until his 2009 retirement
 * Tom Milbourn - became anchor at WLUK
 * Don Noe - meteorologist late-1970s (originator of animated weather maps)
 * recently retired from WPLG in Miami, Florida) [6] [7]
 * Rob Stafford - later at Dateline NBC and now weekend anchor at WMAQ-TV
 * Kris Schuller - became WisDOT spokesperson
 * Mary Smits - later went to WBAY, where she became anchor; now retired
 * Paul Evansen
 * Jim Cline
 * Lois Thome
 * Jack Boston
 * Paul Youngblood
 * Tim Blotz - currently weekend evening anchor at KMSP Minneapolis-St, Paul, MN.
 * Fred Wagner
 * Don Sidney
 * Lisa Malak - went to work in health care public relations.
 * Rebecca Schuld - now at WBAY-TV.

[edit] Newscast titles

 * The World Today and The World Tonight (mid-1960s)
 * Report to Wisconsin (1967-1971)
 * Channel 5 Eyewitness News (1971-2001)
 * NewsChannel 5 (2001-2003)
 * CBS 5 News (2003-2007)
 * Channel 5 News (2007-present)

[edit] Station slogans

 * "5 Country Is Your Country" (1970s)
 * "Channel Five Proud As A Peacock" (1979-1981)
 * "The Best News Of All" (mid 1980s)
 * "The Look of a Leader!" (mid 1990s)
 * "Your News Source" (2001-2003)
 * "Working for You" (2003-2007)
 * "Where The News Starts With You" (2007-present)