for other stations with similar branding see action news . wbay tv green bay wisconsin united states branding wbay tv 2 general action 2 news newscasts slogan coverage you can count on channels digital 23 uhf virtual 2 psip subchannels 2.1 abc 2.2 stormcenter 2 24 7 2.3 ion television affiliations abc primary 1992 present ; secondary 1953 1955 owner media general sale to gray television pending young broadcasting of green bay inc. first air date march 17 1953 ; 63 years ago 1953 03 17 call letters meaning wisconsin green bay former channel number s analog 2 vhf 1953 2009 former affiliations primary cbs 1953 1992 secondary nbc 1953 1954 dumont 1953 1956 1 nta 1956 1961 dt3 retro television network 2008 2012 live well network 2012 2015 transmitter power 1000 kw height 372 m facility id 74417 transmitter coordinates 44 24 34.6 n 88 0 6.7 w 44.409611 n 88.001861 w 44.409611 ; 88.001861 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website wbay.com wbay tv virtual channel 2 uhf digital channel 23 is an abc affiliated television station located in green bay wisconsin united states . the station is owned by media general . the station s studios are located on south jefferson street in downtown green bay across from the historic brown county courthouse and its transmitter is located in ledgeview shared with the transmitters of wisconsin public television station wpne tv and wisconsin public radio station wpne 89.3 fm . contents 1 history 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 stormcenter 2 24 7 2.2 2.3 ion television 2.3 2.3.1 end of live well network and launch of ion television 2.4 analog to digital conversion 3 programming 3.1 telethon 3.2 sunday mass 4 news operation 4.1 notable former on air staff 5 references 6 external links history edit studios in 2007 . wbay tv first signed on the air on march 17 1953 as the second television station in wisconsin after wtmj tv in milwaukee . it was originally owned by the norbertine order of priests whose abbey is in nearby de pere . the priests run st. norbert college in de pere and already operated wbay radio 1360 am now wtaq in green bay and whby radio in appleton . like wtmj when that station started in 1947 as the only station in the market wbay originally carried programming from all four networks of the day channel 2 was a primary cbs affiliate with secondary affiliations with nbc abc and dumont . nbc moved to marinette s wmbv tv channel 11 now wluk tv when it signed on in 1954 with wnam tv channel 42 now wfrv tv channel 5 from neenah taking the abc affiliation upon its 1955 debut . with the shutdown of dumont in 1956 wbay was left as an exclusive cbs affiliate and remained the only station licensed to green bay proper until the 1959 relocation of wluk to the city . channel 2 upgraded its transmitter and began broadcasting network programming in color around 1959 ; locally produced programs were broadcast in color starting in 1966 . the station s studios in downtown green bay were built in 1924 as a former knights of columbus clubhouse and later was turned into a private roman catholic high school during the great depression when the norbertines took over the building . the former gymnasium auditorium is now called the wbay auditorium and is used as the studio for the station s cerebral palsy telethon . during the early years of wbay it served as the main studio until 1954 when an addition was built behind the main building . the auditorium has also been used for local theatrical productions . the station s newsroom is in the basement of the building in an area that originally held a swimming pool and bowling alley . the wbay building also served as the home of the wbay radio stations now wtaq and wixx which were later purchased by midwest communications in the late 1970s but remained in the building until midwest built a combined green bay operations facility company headquarters in 2007 and a news weather sharing agreement was maintained between wbay tv and its former radio sisters for many years before it was discontinued in favor of an agreement with wluk tv . as a cbs affiliate wbay tv benefited from that network s coverage of national football league games primarily those of the green bay packers . the station carried its first packers game a few months after signing on and continued to air most packers games until 1991 by virtue of cbs holding the rights to the packers conference the national football conference . packers games drew up to a 90 percent share of the audience during the team s championship era of the 1960s under vince lombardi and the station carried the team s coaches show the vince lombardi show . the station also originated the team s exhibition game coverage from the 1960s to 2002 with some exceptions . main anchor bill jartz has been lambeau field s pa system announcer since the start of the 2005 2006 season . the station continued to air monday night football packer games originating from espn beginning with the move of mnf to cable starting with the 2006 until the 2015 season . for the 2016 season wluk tv the packers primary home by virtue of fox presently holding the rights to the nfc acquired the syndication rights to the espn games under a multi year agreement . 2 barring the packers going to the playoffs as a wild card low division winning seed and being selected for espn s wild card game which would be simulcast by abc it is possible that wbay may not carry a packers game during an nfl season for the first time in its 63 year history . in 1974 wbay was sold to nationwide communications which operated the station until 1993 when it was sold to young broadcasting along with its two abc affiliated sisters wate tv in knoxville tennessee and wric tv in richmond virginia . in 1991 cbs purchased the assets of midwest television to acquire its long dominant affiliate in minneapolis saint paul wcco tv . midwest also owned channel 2 s longtime competitor wfrv . cbs considered wbay a strong affiliate and tried to sell wfrv and in escanaba michigan satellite station wjmn tv after the deal with midwest closed . however after fcc rules were relaxed at the time to allow one company to own more stations the network decided to keep the two stations as a result and switched wfrv wjmn to cbs in 1992 cbs sold wfrv wjmn to liberty media in 2007 the stations are now owned by the nexstar broadcasting group . after it was announced that wfrv would join cbs channel 2 then decided to take wfrv wjmn s abc affiliation ; wbay management insisted that the change take place on or near the anniversary of its sign on date march 17 . since that date fell on a tuesday in 1992 wfrv and wbay swapped networks on march 15 which fell on a sunday . the station formerly pre empted the first hour of the abc lineup 7 8 p.m. central on tuesday evenings during the football season to carry the local program tuesday night touchback which was formerly known as monday night countdown before it was moved in 2007 because of dancing with the stars and the departure of monday night football from abc for most of the 2000s the slot was among the lowest rated on abc s primetime schedule as was the case with the pre mnf timeslot . programs normally seen during that hour then aired later on early wednesday morning after jimmy kimmel live during the football season . however in november 2009 this was changed temporarily due to viewer feedback involving the pre emption of the series premiere of v which forced that program to be aired after the saturday 10 p.m. newscast ; for the remainder of november v aired at 7 p.m. while tuesday night touchback pre empted the insider and aired before prime time in a truncated half hour format . tnt has not aired since the 2011 12 season and the station now airs abc s tuesday night s programming in pattern . wbay was one of seven young owned stations whose management and operations were handled by gray television as part of a proposed takeover of young broadcasting by its secured creditors a plan tentatively approved by a new york bankruptcy judge on july 22 2009 ; it was approved in late april 2010 3 . under gray management this made it a semi sister station in wisconsin to nbc affiliates wmtv in madison and weau in eau claire and cbs affiliate wsaw in wausau . the gray management agreement ended in 2012 as young returned to some financial stability and the pursuit of a sale partner . in late january 2010 the station stopped signing off during the early morning hours on saturdays and sundays after a major transmitter problem forced the station to reconsider this mode of operation . wbay was the last commercial station in the state to start broadcasting 24 hours a day daily the former off hours on wbay s main signal are now taken up by a simulcast of its stormcenter 2 24 7 subchannel . on june 6 2013 young broadcasting announced that it would merge with media general . the sale was approved on november 8 and consummated on november 12 . 4 at that time it became both media general s first station in wisconsin and the upper midwest and the company s northernmost asset . on march 21 2014 lin media entered into an agreement to merge with media general in a 1.6 billion deal . because lin already owned fox affiliate wluk tv and cw affiliate wcwf channel 14 with wbay and wluk ranking among the four highest rated stations in the green bay market in total day viewership the companies were required to sell either wbay or wluk to another station owner in order to comply with fcc ownership rules as well as planned changes to those rules regarding same market television stations which would prohibit sharing agreements . 5 6 7 on august 20 2014 media general announced that it would retain wbay trading wluk and wcwf to sinclair broadcast group as part of several exchanges between other broadcast groups . 8 on january 27 2016 media general announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by nexstar broadcasting group . 9 10 because nexstar owns wfrv the new company will be required to sell that station or wbay to another owner . on june 3 2016 it was announced that nexstar would keep wfrv and sell wbay to gray television for 270 million . it will represent a reunion of sorts as gray previously managed the station when young was encountering financial difficulties but this time gray will acquire the station outright . that will also make wbay a sister station to adjacent market stations wsaw tv and wzaw ld in wausau wmtv in madison and weau tv in eau claire who were semi sister stations from 2007 to 2012 and wluc tv in marquette which gray acquired more recently . 11 12 the station sponsors the yearly wbay boat show and the wbay rv and camping show both held in the winter months at the brown county arena shopko hall along with a boy scout door to door food drive scouting for food in the fall . digital television edit digital channels edit the station s digital signal is multiplexed channel video aspect psip short name programming 13 2.1 720p 16 9 wbay hd main wbay tv programming abc 2.2 480i wbay wx stormcenter 2 24 7 2.3 wbayion ion television wbay utilizes