Author Topic: WOF, J! moving in Green Bay (Read 16549 times)

DrBear · « **on:** August 22, 2005, 02:13:30 PM »

Heard today that WLUK, the Fox affil in Green Bay, is picking up Jeopardy! and Wheel as of Sept. 12. Both had been on WFRV, the CBS-owned station, since they began syndication.

No word yet on what WFRV plans to run in replacement or when during the day WLUK will run it. It had run J at 3:30 (leading in to Oprah) and WOF at 6:30 (with Tuesday preemptions during Packer seasons for a local show).

This comes the same day WLUK was sold by Emmis to LIN.

StevensM · « **Reply #1 on:** August 22, 2005, 03:02:40 PM »

Those shows are moving to a different station in Milwaukee as well. Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune currently air at 3:30PM and 6:30PM, respectively, on WTMJ 4, our NBC affiliate owned and operated by the Journal Broadcast Group.

As of next season, the two shows are moving to our local CBS affiliate, WDJT 58, after WTMJ 4 was outbid in its effort to keep the shows for the next few seasons. The two shows will air in the 6:00-7:00PM block. I don't know what order they'll air in, though I'm thinking it's likely they'll want to keep Wheel of Fortune in the same time slot, putting Jeopardy! at 6:00PM.

WhammyPower · « **Reply #2 on:** August 22, 2005, 03:06:18 PM »

[quote name=\'StevensM\' date=\'Aug 22 2005, 02:02 PM\']I don't know what order they'll air in, though I'm thinking it's likely they'll want to keep Wheel of Fortune in the same time slot, putting Jeopardy! at 6:00PM.

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Indeed. See my LiveJournal post.

uncamark · « **Reply #3 on:** August 22, 2005, 04:38:54 PM »

Interesting, considering that it would supposedly be in Viacom's best interests to keep those shows on their owned station and that "Wheel" and "J!" aren't exactly "Foxified" programming (and KW will still be in the CBS family when the Viacom-CBS split occurs--I'm guessing that Paramount TV may even be renamed King World).

As for Milwaukee, is this WDJT throwing around more money or Today's TMJ trying to dump older demo shows? (WDJT is owned by Weigel Broadcasting, who owns Chicago true indie WCIU, home of "Feud" in the Windy City.)

FOXSportsFan · « **Reply #4 on:** August 22, 2005, 05:01:44 PM »

One of my close pals is actually an intern/occasional prompter operator for CBS 58 in Milwaukee. He sent me some Wheel and Jeopardy promo gear as a birthday present. The thing is, as I understand it, the station is a hopeless cause. It gets literally only a few thousand viewers. Being on Channel 58 on your dial doesn't help. Hence, they're on most cable systems as channel 5 to allow for more folks to see em. The notion then of course would be, rebrand to CBS 5, right? Well, a former employee took the website url for the rebrand and the whole thing was not to be. Long story short: WDJT picks up two great shows. Great, but that doesn't help their "moneymaker", the news operation. No matter how many awards they get for being the AP's best newscast (VO guy Al Vanik mentions that in the news open), they ain't getting the ratings of Milwaukee giants WISN-12 and Today's TMJ 4 where it counts, their news operations.

StevensM · « **Reply #5 on:** August 22, 2005, 06:13:02 PM »

[quote name=\'uncamark\' date=\'Aug 22 2005, 03:38 PM\']As for Milwaukee, is this WDJT throwing around more money or Today's TMJ trying to dump older demo shows?

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I don't know. I would think that having the two top syndicated shows on the top network in the area would be a good thing. The news reported that WDJT won a bidding battle with WTMJ for the shows. Here's a statement from WTMJ from a few years ago.

"We decided not to renew the three programs," says Channel 4 spokeswoman Mary Alice Tierney. "They're terrific shows. 'Jeopardy' and 'Wheel,' in particular, have been on our air for more than 20 years. We and our viewers have two more years of a great run with them."

A bit ambiguous, I would say. I guess it's not possible that WDJT did indeed outbid WTMJ since they need viewers.

DjohnsonCB · « **Reply #6 on:** August 22, 2005, 07:38:39 PM »

[quote name=\'FOXSportsFan\' date=\'Aug 22 2005, 04:01 PM\']The thing is, as I understand it, the station is a hopeless cause. It gets literally only a few thousand viewers. Being on Channel 58 on your dial doesn't help. Hence, they're on most cable systems as channel 5 to allow for more folks to see em. The notion then of course would be, rebrand to CBS 5, right?

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What is this, 1962? I had SO HOPED that by now--heck, by 30 years ago--that UHF had been embraced by most folks as a natural part of the channel dial, that it didn't matter if your NBC, ABC or CBS station was on broadcast channel 5 or 65, so long as you *had* one in your area. Every TV made since May 1964 has had built-in UHF tuning...which folks in some cities had been watching regularly since 1953. Cable was supposed to help over-the-air UHF even more, and even if one doesn't have cable, don't they have a strong UHF antenna on their roof?

In Kansas City, WoF and J! come on KSHB-41, and they don't seem to be suffering. My mom always watches WoF, and as far as she's concerned, it's on Channel 13 (cable).

clemon79 · « **Reply #7 on:** August 22, 2005, 08:06:25 PM »

[quote name=\'DjohnsonCB\' date=\'Aug 22 2005, 04:38 PM\']What is this, 1962? I had SO HOPED that by now--heck, by 30 years ago--that UHF had been embraced by most folks as a natural part of the channel dial, that it didn't matter if your NBC, ABC or CBS station was on broadcast channel 5 or 65, so long as you *had* one in your area.
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People love their Channel Up / Channel Down buttons, tho. And if that means that it's a nuisance to go to Channel 58 when the other major networks are in the single digits and low teens, then they're gonna take a hit because of that.

TimK2003 · « **Reply #8 on:** August 22, 2005, 10:11:46 PM »

[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Aug 22 2005, 07:06 PM\']People love their Channel Up / Channel Down buttons, tho. And if that means that it's a nuisance to go to Channel 58 when the other major networks are in the single digits and low teens, then they're gonna take a hit because of that.

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I had thought I had read somewhere that there is a move to reduce the number of UHF channels once again. For you young whippersnappers, UHF used to encompass channels 14 thru 83. Then channels 70 thru 83 were shaved off and I thought the number of UHF channels was going to go below channel 55 at least.

If that scenario is indeed true and with the new digital channels that will replace the old analog channels in the next decade, then the question of where on the dial should be moot as the channels should be much closer together. Most TVs in the last 15 years can be set to automatically find and save local channels, so really there should be no difference on where they are on the dial -- much like radio nowadays.

johnnya2k3 · « **Reply #9 on:** August 23, 2005, 12:34:35 AM »

Anyway, over in New Orleans, Wheel and Jeopardy after spending so many years at WWL will be moving to WVUE Fox 8 this fall as well.

Jonathan Allen

DrBear · « **Reply #10 on:** August 23, 2005, 08:32:58 AM »

All of which makes me wonder if there weren't a batch of long-term contracts that ended this year, opening rights for bidding.

sshuffield70 · « **Reply #11 on:** August 23, 2005, 08:46:47 AM »

Considering that ours is going to Viacom from Belo after 18 years, I'd say that's a good assertion.

uncamark · « **Reply #12 on:** August 23, 2005, 12:05:58 PM »

[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Aug 22 2005, 07:06 PM\'][quote name=\'DjohnsonCB\' date=\'Aug 22 2005, 04:38 PM\']What is this, 1962? I had SO HOPED that by now--heck, by 30 years ago--that UHF had been embraced by most folks as a natural part of the channel dial, that it didn't matter if your NBC, ABC or CBS station was on broadcast channel 5 or 65, so long as you *had* one in your area.
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People love their Channel Up / Channel Down buttons, tho. And if that means that it's a nuisance to go to Channel 58 when the other major networks are in the single digits and low teens, then they're gonna take a hit because of that.

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The area under channel 13 has long been considered beachfront property for cable channels. Everyone wants it because that's where a lot of people stick around. That's why in Chicago Fox has a contractual agreement that WFLD 32 will be placed on channel 12 and WPWR 50 on channel 8 (under the old owners, WPWR used to put in their ads "Channel 8 on Most Cable Systems"). The two big Spanish-language stations get below 13 positions--Telemundo WSNS 44 on 4, Univision WGBO 66 on 6 (notice the synchronicity in the channel assignment). Indie WCIU 26 pitched for and got channel 13. WMAQ 5, WLS 7, WGN 9 and WTTW 11 stay where they are. The Trib may have in their contracts that their local news channel CLTV is on 10, right next to their WGN.

The three remaining channels? Due to interference problems, WBBM 2 had to be moved to 22, 1 on digital tiers is the On Demand channel and recently for whatever reason Comcast moved TV Guide Channel and C-SPAN off of the high profile 2 and 3 slots (especially interesting, since they set the boxes so that the first time you turn them on, you always get TVGC) and up into the 90s, replacing them with what are basically infomercial channels. There will now be a chorus of "WHA?"

clemon79 · « **Reply #13 on:** August 23, 2005, 01:24:23 PM »

[quote name=\'uncamark\' date=\'Aug 23 2005, 09:05 AM\']The area under channel 13 has long been considered beachfront property for cable channels. Everyone wants it because that's where a lot of people stick around.
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Seattle's no different. The WB station, UHF channel 20, airs on cable 10. And KONG, the sister station to KING (get it? King Kong? HAH!

) is positioned as "KONG 6/16".

Back home, the one that jumped out at me the most was KBHK, which I never got in Monterey, but picked up when I moved to San Jose for college. They position now as "UPN44, Bay Area Cable 12."

And the stations I worked for, which were 35 and 46 over UHF, were on 3 and 5 respectively on the local cable dial.

Dbacksfan12 · « **Reply #14 on:** August 23, 2005, 01:52:31 PM »

[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Aug 23 2005, 12:24 PM\']Seattle's no different. [/quote]
Neither is the Des Moines area. KPWB23 airs on many different numbers, in my home town it was 17...and FOX17 aired on channel 6...PAX39 aired on 10...we have yet to receive a UPN affiliate.