. witi milwaukee wisconsin united states branding fox 6 milwaukee general fox 6 news newscasts tv 6.2 witi dt2 subchannel slogan this is the place general when it matters to you it matters to us ; fox 6 news because you matter news the weather experts weather channels digital 33 uhf virtual 6 psip fm hd radio audio wmil fm 106.1 hd3 affiliations .1 fox .2 antenna tv owner tribune broadcasting witi license llc first air date may 21 1956 ; 60 years ago 1956 05 21 call letters meaning independent television inc. original owner former channel number s analog 6 vhf 1956 2009 former affiliations independent 1956 1959 cbs 1959 1961 1977 1994 abc 1961 1977 transmitter power 980 kw height 289 m facility id 73107 transmitter coordinates 43 5 26.1 n 87 53 50.1 w 43.090583 n 87.897250 w 43.090583 ; 87.897250 witi licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website www.fox6now.com witi virtual channel 6 uhf digital channel 33 is a fox affiliated television station located in milwaukee wisconsin united states . the station is owned by the tribune broadcasting subsidiary of tribune media . witi maintains studio facilities located on north green bay road wis 57 in brown deer though the studios carry a milwaukee postal address and its transmitter is located on east capitol drive just north of highway 190 in shorewood . contents 1 history 1.1 early history 1.2 first tenure with cbs and switch to abc 1.3 second tenure with cbs 1.4 as a fox station 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.1.1 witi dt2 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 programming 3.1 local programming 4 news operation 4.1 notable current on air staff 4.2 notable former on air staff 5 references 6 external links history edit early history edit the station first signed on the air on may 21 1956 operating as an independent station ; it was originally owned by independent television inc. to whom the channel 6 license was granted by the federal communications commission fcc on june 11 1955 . the station was originally licensed to the north shore village of whitefish bay on a technicality in order to address short spacing concerns with davenport iowa station woc tv now kwqc tv which also broadcast on channel 6 before the fcc fully finessed spacing among television station signals in different markets . in october 1956 the station affiliated with the nta film network which provided the station with 52 films from the 20th century fox library and syndicated programs . among the nta programs aired by witi were the passerby man without a gun and this is alice . 1 upon moving to their 27th street studios witi began using rca tk 11 monochrome cameras . from 1956 to 1959 witi used the dumont vitascan color system which required a completely darkened set with a single strobe light causing eye strain for its locally produced programs . the situation was difficult for the on air talent according to sid armstrong who worked at witi as a news reporter during the station s early years . 1 the station switched to monochrome cameras when it moved to the north 27th street facility . 2 first tenure with cbs and switch to abc edit on august 8 1958 storer broadcasting purchased witi in hopes of affiliating the station with cbs . storer had very good relations with cbs ; company founder george storer was a member of the cbs board and most of its stations were cbs affiliates . at the time cbs owned a local uhf station wxix channel 18 now wvtv as part of a corporate effort to determine if uhf station operation and ownership would be successful . once the disadvantages of being on a uhf frequency became clear in the days before all channel tuning cbs wrote off the experiment as a failure . the network concluded it was better to have its programming on a vhf station even if it was only an affiliate . cbs sold wxix to cream city broadcasting president gene posner ; witi tv then began its first stint as a cbs affiliate on april 1 1959 . at that time witi moved from its original studio facility in mequon to wxix s former studios on north 27th street in milwaukee which were later used by wcgv tv from 1980 to 1994 . storer also applied to move the channel 6 allocation from whitefish bay to milwaukee ; the request was granted on july 30 1959 . 3 in 1961 cbs decided to affiliate with wisn tv channel 12 as its sister radio station had been a longtime affiliate of the cbs radio network . as a result witi tv and wisn tv swapped networks channel 6 became an abc affiliate on april 2 1961 . 4 in august 1962 the station moved to its current 1 078 feet 329 m transmission tower located in shorewood ; for a short time the transmitter had been the tallest free standing tower in the world . the tower went into operation in 1963 finally putting witi s signal on equal footing with milwaukee s other television stations . as a result of being the area s abc affiliate witi carried the first few seasons of the milwaukee set sitcom happy days as well as its spin off laverne & shirley from 1974 to 1977 . second tenure with cbs edit during the 1975 76 season abc emerged as the highest rated broadcast network in the united states . however storer broadcasting had developed a bitter relationship with the network . back in 1973 kcst tv now knsd won a long battle to strip the san diego market s abc affiliation from tijuana mexico based xetv tv . storer purchased kcst the following year but abc was not happy with being forced to surrender an affiliation with vhf station xetv in favor of uhf outlet kcst . perhaps in protest of abc moving its san diego affiliation from kcst to vhf station kgtv storer announced on september 26 1976 that it would re affiliate witi tv with cbs . 5 without hesitation wisn tv aligned with abc officially reversing the earlier 1961 affiliation swap ; 6 the two stations switched networks once again on march 27 1977 . in 1978 witi moved its operations to a new facility located on north green bay road wisconsin highway 57 in brown deer just outside milwaukee ; the upstart wcgv tv channel 24 which would eventually air programming from cbs that witi refused purchased witi s former studios and used them from 1980 until 1994 . after storer broadcasting was bought out by kohlberg kravis roberts in 1985 the station underwent a series of ownership changes . kkr sold the stations to racine native george n. gillett jr. s gillett communications in 1987 ; shortly thereafter sci television was spun off from gillett to acquire the stations after the latter company filed for bankruptcy . after gillett defaulted on some of its financing agreements in the early 1990s its ownership was restructured and the company was renamed sci television . eventually sci ran into fiscal issues and filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1993 . new world communications purchased witi and the other sci stations in 1993 . as a fox station edit on december 18 1993 fox outbid cbs for the rights to the nfl s national football conference television package . 7 fox then signed a long term station affiliation and program development deal with new world communications on may 23 1994 which resulted in fox affiliating with most of the company s big three network affiliates effective that fall . 8 witi affiliated with fox on december 11 1994 with fox nfl sunday as the first fox program to be broadcast on channel 6 leading into that year s chicago bears green bay packers game at lambeau field ; 9 cbs which nearly resorted to importing affiliates from out of market due to its struggle finding a new milwaukee station affiliated with low profile independent station wdjt tv channel 58 . the market s original fox affiliate wcgv briefly became an independent station before affiliating with upn in january 1995 . the switch allowed witi to retain its status as milwaukee s home station for the green bay packers . witi has aired most packers games since returning to cbs in 1977 albeit with a three month interruption due to cbs losing the nfc rights the games instead aired on wcgv for the first three months of fox s nfc telecasts as a lame duck affiliate but without any pre game programming . it also carried the team s thursday night football games involving the packers from nfl network locally early on in that package s life before it began simulcasts on cbs 2014 & 2015 along with nbc starting in 2016 . notably the station is the only one in the market never to hold the local broadcast rights for milwaukee brewers baseball coverage though the team has appeared since 1990 on the station through major league baseball s national contracts with cbs and now fox . in the fall of 1995 witi dropped its longtime branding as tv 6 which it adopted in 1974 as an abc affiliate and began branding itself as six is news in order to emphasize the station s newly expanded news schedule . conversely fox network programming on the station was promoted as fox is six to try to build an audience for the growing network on the stronger milwaukee station cleveland sister station wjw used a very similar branding technique at that same period branding itself as ei8ht is news and fox is ei8ht playing off the on air branding that the station used as a cbs affiliate during the 1960s and 1970s . fox television stations bought ten new world stations including witi in july 1996 ; 10 the purchase was finalized on january 22 1997 making witi the first owned and operated station of a major network in milwaukee since cbs owned woky tv wxix now wvtv from 1954 to 1959 . witi then changed its branding to fox six using a logo resembling that used by the nfl on fox at the time on january 26 coinciding with fox s first super bowl telecast super bowl xxxi in which the packers defeated the new england patriots . witi officially rebranded as fox 6 in april 1998 with the introduction of the milwaukee s newscenter set ; a weather deck located outside of the station s studios also began to be used around this time providing an outdoor setting for forecast segments . on december 22 2007 fox which had earlier announced its intentions to sell the stations on june 13 sold witi and seven other fox o & o stations 11 12 to the oak hill capital partners subsidiary local tv ; the sale was finalized on july 14 2008 . 13 in 2008 the tribune company formed a management company to operate local tv s stations as well as the company s own station group ; the management agreement resulted in the sharing of newsgathering resources between witi and tribune s television flagship wgn tv in the adjacent chicago market although channel 6 still shares news footage and other resources with that market s fox o & o wfld through the fox newsedge affiliate service . this agreement also resulted in witi also airing a may 6 2011 tornado relief telethon from huntsville alabama sister station whnt tv over digital subchannel 6.2 . 14 on july 1 2013 tribune acquired the local tv stations outright for 2.725 billion ; 15 the sale was completed on december 27 . 16 17 digital television edit digital channels edit the station s digital channel is multiplexed channel video aspect psip short name programming 18 6.1 720p 16 9 witi dt main witi programming fox 6.2