branding wisn 12 general wisn 12 news newscasts slogan leading the way with important local coverage news wisn 12 one of america s leading abc stations general channels digital 34 uhf virtual 12 psip subchannels see article affiliations abc 1954 1961 and since 1977 owner hearst television wisn hearst television inc. first air date october 27 1954 ; 61 years ago 1954 10 27 call letters meaning the wisconsin news former milwaukee newspaper owned by hearst that merged with the milwaukee sentinel former callsigns wtvw 1954 1955 former channel number s analog 12 vhf 1954 2009 former affiliations primary cbs 1961 1977 secondary dumont 1954 1955 transmitter power 1 000 kw height 302.7 m facility id 65680 transmitter coordinates 43 6 42.1 n 87 55 42.3 w 43.111694 n 87.928417 w 43.111694 ; 87.928417 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website www.wisn.com wisn tv virtual channel 12 digital channel 34 is an abc affiliated television station located in milwaukee wisconsin united states . the station is owned by the hearst television subsidiary of the hearst corporation and is one of the group s three flagship stations alongside wcvb tv in boston and wbal tv in baltimore as well as the second oldest television station to remain with the company in all of its various iterations . wisn maintains studio facilities located at north 19th street on the west end of the marquette university campus and its transmitter located in lincoln park in the northeastern part of milwaukee next to the weigel broadcasting tower which is used by cbs affiliate wdjt tv channel 58 and its sister stations . contents 1 history 1.1 first tenure with abc 1.2 switch to cbs 1.3 second tenure with abc 1.4 summer 2012 time warner cable carriage dispute 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 programming 3.1 sports programming 4 news operation 4.1 notable former on air staff 5 references 6 external links history edit first tenure with abc edit the station first signed on the air on october 27 1954 as wtvw for its on air slogan wisconsin s television window . wtvw s transmitter building was built under a tent as rain had threatened to delay construction . after the building was finished a second tent was erected and used for live automobile commercials until it collapsed one day in early 1955 . in early 1955 the station was purchased by the hearst corporation publishers of the milwaukee sentinel and owners of wisn radio 1130 am ; the new owners changed channel 12 s call letters to wisn tv after its radio sister whose calls were derived from now defunct newspaper the wisconsin news which merged with the sentinel ; 1 the wtvw calls are now used by the cw affiliated station in evansville indiana . the station originally operated as a primary abc affiliate with a secondary dumont affiliation . 2 wisn tv lost the dumont affiliation when that network ceased operations in 1956 leaving it exclusively with abc . in january 1958 wisn tv became the flagship station of the badger television network a three station network serving wisconsin that also included wfrv tv in green bay and wkow tv in madison . 2 programs broadcast by the network included homemaker s holiday a quiz show hosted by charlie hanson ; good housekeeping hosted by trudy beilfuss titled after the hearst magazine of the same name ; and pretzel party a variety program originally hosted by larry clark . all three programs originated from wisn tv s studios . during march 1958 the network also aired senate investigation committee hearings during late night hours . the network ceased operations on august 8 1958 . 2 wisn tv and wisn radio would gain an fm radio sister when hearst signed on wisn fm 97.3 now wrnw in 1961 . wisn tv s main logo since the switch to abc was announced in 1976 used solely for news imaging from 2006 to 2012 . it returned into use as the main logo on all programming on september 17 2012 paired with the wisn calls to the left in hearst s trademark bank gothic font which has been used by the station since 1994 for various elements . the abc circle logo is added to the station generated bug for syndicated programming . wisn s contemporary 12 logo used from 2006 as the station id at the start of its newscasts entertainment programming and as the logo bug used during abc network programs . slowly fading from use after the station s september 2012 re imaging . switch to cbs edit in 1961 cbs decided to affiliate with wisn tv as its sister radio station had been a longtime affiliate of the cbs radio network . as a result storer broadcasting owned witi tv channel 6 and wisn swapped networks channel 12 switched its affiliation to cbs and channel 6 became an abc affiliate on april 2 1961 . 3 during its tenure with the network wisn tv cleared most cbs programs ; although by the early 1970s it would pre empt search for tomorrow in order to expand its daytime talk show dialing for dollars and would pre empt or delay several primetime programs to run marquette university and milwaukee bucks basketball games . hearst sold the milwaukee sentinel to journal publishing the publishers of the milwaukee journal in 1962 retaining wisn tv and wisn radio . the journal also competed with the sentinel both of which were eventually consolidated into the milwaukee journal sentinel in 1995 in broadcasting as owners of wtmj radio 620 am and wtmj tv channel 4 which journal operated until april 1 2015 when journal and e.w. scripps company merged and split their assets into the broadcast specific scripps company and publishing operations into the short lived journal media group which is in the process of merging with gannett . second tenure with abc edit on september 26 1976 cbs announced it was moving its milwaukee affiliation back to witi tv . 4 storer broadcasting had much better relations with cbs than it reportedly had with abc ; weeks earlier abc opted to drop storer s san diego station kcst tv from the network after a four year dispute stemming from kcst s successful battle to strip that market s abc affiliation from xetv tv in nearby tijuana mexico . meanwhile abc had become the top rated television network in the united states thanks in large part to two milwaukee set sitcoms happy days and laverne & shirley . wisn tv and abc agreed to a new affiliation contract about a month later ; 5 the two stations swapped networks once again on march 27 1977 . wisn even used happy days star henry winkler in character as arthur fonzie fonzarelli to herald its return to abc with the slogan happy days are here again in on air and print campaigns leading up to the switch . to this day wisn tv has been one of abc s most successful affiliates and bills itself as such in its own promotions . around the same time the station was the first which utilized newscast composer frank gari s hello news package which included an imaging song individualized to each market s city ; in this case hello milwaukee which remains well remembered and remains used in various ways by wisn tv to the present day and was cited as one of the factors in driving viewers to the station in the late 70 s and allowing it to be competitive . 6 for most of its years with abc the station did not include the network s logo next to theirs branding solely with the channel number and or call letters vocally and visually outside of network created radio promos which listed the station as 12 abc until 2012 when the network began to contractually require the abc logo be included with any affiliate s logo redesign . in november 2014 the station unveiled their current logo with the call letters beneath the long used 12 logo form and the abc logo on the right side of the 12 number mark the first with the abc logo blended in for all uses including for news and entertainment programming and ending a long run where the station s call letters were rendered in bank gothic font . vocally the station remains wisn 12 . the station is among the few in the nation which has their logo in a transparent bug at all times including abc network and news programming though not during commercial breaks or paid programming . channel 12 was the first commercial station in the market to produce a high definition broadcast airing the summerfest big bang fireworks show in hd on june 29 2006 . 7 milwaukee public television assisted wisn tv in the production of the broadcast and have continued to do so each year since with additional help from sister stations in sacramento and boston in later years . hearst sold wisn radio and what by then became wltq to clear channel communications in 1997 . all ties between wisn tv and its former sister radio stations were severed when a longtime agreement with channel 12 to provide forecasts for wisn am and the then wqbw now wrnw and four others within clear channel s milwaukee radio cluster ended on july 27 2009 though wrnw continues to transmit from wisn tv s tower as witi began its own weather news content agreement with the stations . 8 wisn tv then began a news content agreement with saga communications for its five area radio stations wklh whqg wjmr fm wjyi and wnrg fm . 9 due to the now separate ownership of the two stations wisn tv s news staff disclaim both on air and through their social networking channels that the station has no connections with wisn radio s conservative talk format other than sharing the same call letters a point of contention and confusion during events such as live shots at the wisconsin state capitol for the 2011 state budget debate . 10 summer 2012 time warner cable carriage dispute edit as hearst and time warner cable entered into a retransmission consent dispute that resulted in hearst s stations being removed from twc s systems in certain markets on july 10 2012 wisn was not immediately removed from its milwaukee area systems in an eleventh hour announcement as the direct fiber connection between wisn and twc is also provided by the cable provider to charter communications which serves outer portions of the market such as western waukesha county and most of washington fond du lac and sheboygan counties under a side agreement between the providers which twc and hearst were contractually obligated to honor . 11 it was the only hearst station to remain on twc during the dispute but with both start over video on demand and the ability to record station programming to twc dvrs completely removed . 12 charter then tried to pursue a different method of transmitting wisn s signal to remove itself as an intermediary from the dispute 13 and was able to make the arrangements by july 12 14 allowing wisn s removal from time warner cable one day later with wisn s sd and hd channel slots replaced with hallmark movie channel . the dispute was resolved on july 19 returning the station to twc s systems that evening . digital television edit digital channels edit the station s digital channel is multiplexed channel video aspect psip short name programming 15 12.1 1080i 16 9 wisn tv main wisn tv programming abc 12.2 480i wisn sd movies wisn is one of several hearst owned stations that broadcasts its digital signal in the 1080i high definition format instead of abc s preferred 720p resolution format . wisn s hearst owned sister abc affiliates wcvb tv in boston wmur tv in