WSAW-TV

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WSAW-TV

Wausau/Rhinelander, Wisconsin United States
City	Wausau, Wisconsin
Channels	Digital: 7 (VHF) Virtual: 7
Branding	NewsChannel 7 My TV Wausau (DT2) Fox WZAW (DT3) Central Wisconsin CW (DT4)
Programming
Affiliations	7.1: CBS 7.2: MyNetworkTV/MeTV 7.3: Fox 7.4: CW+ 7.5: Quest 7.6: Circle
Ownership
Owner	Gray Television (Gray Television Licensee, LLC)
History
First air date	October 23, 1954 (67 years ago) (1954-10-23)
Former call signs	WSAU-TV (1954–1981)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 7 (VHF, 1954–2009) Digital: 40 (UHF, until 2009) Translators: 57 & 42 W57AR/W42DH Sayner/Vilas County, WI
Former affiliations	All secondary: DuMont (1954–1956) ABC (1954–1965) NBC (1954–1966) DT3: AccuWX Heroes & Icons
Call sign meaning	phonetically short for "Wausau, Wisconsin"; also similar to original calls
Technical information
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	6867
Class	DT
ERP	72 kW
HAAT	373 m (1,224 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	44°55′14.2″N 89°41′28.7″W / 44.920611°N 89.691306°W / 44.920611; -89.691306
Translator(s)	W21DS-D 21 (UHF) Sayner/Vilas County, WI
Links
Public license information	Profile LMS
Website	www.wsaw.com

WYOW

Semi-satellite of WSAW-TV
Eagle River–Rhinelander, Wisconsin United States
Channels	Digital: 28 (UHF) Virtual: 34 (PSIP)
Branding	see WSAW-TV infobox
Programming
Affiliations	7.10: CBS 33.10: Fox 34.1: CW+
Ownership
Owner	Gray Television (Gray Television Licensee, LLC)
Sister stations	see WSAW-TV infobox
History
Founded	January 4, 1997
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 34 (UHF, 1997–2009)
Former affiliations	Analog/DT1: ABC (via WAOW; 1997–2021) Secondary: Fox (NFL games; 1997–1999) DT2: CW+ (2006−2021) DT3: RTV (2008–February 2009) Fox (via WFXS-DT; February−March 2009) This TV (March 2009−?) Decades (until 2021) DT4: Court TV (until 2021) DT5: Justice Network (until 2021)
Call sign meaning	disambiguation of former parent station WAOW
Technical information
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	77789
ERP	70 kW 80 kW (application)
HAAT	163 m (535 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	45°46′29.9″N 89°14′56.1″W / 45.774972°N 89.248917°W / 45.774972; -89.248917
Links
Public license information	Profile LMS

WSAW-TV, virtual and VHF digital channel 7, is a CBS-affiliated television station licensed to Wausau, Wisconsin, United States, and serving north-central Wisconsin, including Rhinelander. Owned by Atlanta-based Gray Television, it is a sister station to low-powered Fox affiliate WZAW-LD, channel 33 (which WSAW-TV simulcasts in high definition on its third digital subchannel). The two stations share studios on Grand Avenue/US 51 in Wausau; WSAW-TV's transmitter is located on Rib Mountain.^[1]

To serve the Northwoods area of Northern Wisconsin, it operates a digital fill-in translator in Sayner (W21DS-D) that also covers Eagle River. This station broadcasts on UHF channel 21 (also mapping to virtual channel 7 via PSIP) from a transmitter on Razorback Road in unincorporated Vilas County (north of Sayner). The low-powered repeater also serves the western portion of Michigan's Upper Peninsula although the broadcasting radius is limited to Marenisco and Watersmeet.

History[]

The station launched on October 23, 1954, as WSAU-TV and was a sister station to WSAU radio (550 AM) and the original WSAU-FM (95.5, now WIFC; the current WSAU-FM is on 99.9 FM). It was originally owned by a consortium of North-Central Wisconsin newspapers that also included the Wausau Daily Record-Herald. Channel 7 originally operated from the Plumer Mansion, a Richardsonian Romanesque-style building, that was located on North 5th Street in Wausau and torn down in 1972 one year after the station moved to its current home.^[2]

The Plumer Mansion's castle-like exterior and a suit of armor displayed in the mansion inspired the station's graphic designer, Sid Kyler, to design a medieval-style blackletter "7" logo along with an accompanying cartoon mascot, the fully armored knight "Sir Seven."^[3] The logo and mascot served as representations of the station for several decades. Sometime in the 1960s, the station's original owners sold it to Forward Communications. Forward sold off channel 7 in 1981 and the station adopted its current calls, WSAW-TV on March 8.

It has been affiliated with CBS since its beginning although the station did have secondary affiliations with DuMont (until that network expired in 1956), ABC (until WAOW signed-on in 1965), and NBC (until WAEO [now WJFW-TV] launched in 1966). On September 5, 2006, WSAW added MyNetworkTV to a second digital subchannel. Its broadcasts have been digital-only since before midnight on February 16, 2009 when the analog sign-off featured a "good night" from Sir Seven.^[4] On April 2, 2011, WSAW became the first station in the market to broadcast local newscast in high definition.^[5] With the switch to HD came a revamp of their news set and new graphics, along with a return of Sir Seven as the station's mascot in a newly CGI-rendered form.^[6]

On July 1, 2015, Gray bought the non-license assets of the market's Fox affiliate WFXS-DT (channel 55, owned by Davis Television, LLC). Due to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ownership restrictions, a new low-powered station (WZAW-LD channel 33) was established to become the area's Fox affiliate. All of WFXS' program streams including WFXS's existing PSIP channel numbering were then moved to the low-powered outlet. Subsequently, WFXS ceased broadcasting after nearly sixteen years on-the-air and its studios on North 3rd Street in Wausau were shut down.^[7]

In consenting to the interference that would be caused by WZAW operating under special temporary authority on channel 31 (the same RF channel as WFXS) rather than its licensed channel 33, Davis Television stated that it would return the WFXS license to the FCC for cancellation following the sale.^[8] In August 2015, WSAW launched a prime time newscast on the Fox outlet known as WZAW News at 9. This half-hour broadcast offers direct competition to WAOW's thirty-minute, weeknight-only news airing at the same time on its CW digital subchannel (which aired on WFXS before July 1, 2015).

On October 1, 2015, the station began using its new studio. It was the first upgrade in a decade and took months to finish. The new studio includes two new state-of-the art sets: one each for WSAW and WZAW.^[9] Eventually, the WZAW-LD simulcast on WSAW's third subchannel was upgraded to high definition to provide full-market access to Fox programming in HD.

News operation[]

WSAW presently broadcasts 22½ hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 4½ hours each weekday, and 2 hours each on Saturdays and Sundays).

Technical information[]

The stations' digital signals are multiplexed:

WSAW subchannels[]

WYOW subchannels[]

Translators[]

City of license	Callsign	Channel	ERP	HAAT	Facility ID	Transmitter coordinates
Sayner	W21DS-D	21	15 kW	138 m (453 ft)	167156	46°01′55.0″N 89°31′49.0″W / 46.031944°N 89.530278°W / 46.031944; -89.530278 (W21DS-D)

References[]

• From Transdiffusion: A look at WSAW from the early-1980s and how it compares to British television
• The history of channel 7

External links[]

• Official website
• BIAfn's Media Web Database — Information on WSAW-TV