media founded 1964 headquarters chicago illinois united states key people neal sabin vice chairman norman shapiro president kyle walker vice president of technology products television broadcasting owner norman shapiro majority shareholder website www.wciu.com weigel broadcasting company a.k.a. weigel broadcasting is an american television broadcasting company based in chicago illinois alongside its flagship station wciu tv channel 26 at 26 north halsted street in the greektown neighborhood . contents 1 history 1.1 network expansion 2 major assets 2.1 television stations 2.2 television networks 2.3 radio station 3 references 4 external links history edit the company was founded by chicago broadcasting veteran john weigel whose career dated back to the 1930s . with 1 000 of his own money and another 1 000 from his attorney daniel j. mccarthy weigel bought the broadcasting license for what became the first uhf television station in the chicago area . wciu signed on the air on february 6 1964 . one year later in 1965 weigel broadcasting was the subject of a successful hostile takeover at the hands of the shapiro family . 1 over the years the company began to acquire and also launch new stations in the adjacent markets of milwaukee and south bend at first by placing wciu translators in those markets to gain a foothold in each market before programming the stations independently . weigel would end up an unexpected beneficiary of the television industry realignment of 1994 95 . full power independent station wdjt tv in milwaukee which had only signed on five years earlier ended up with the cbs affiliation in late 1994 . wbnd lp became the home of abc programming in south bend the next year . in both cases the longtime affiliates of the networks in those markets witi in milwaukee and wsjv in south bend switched to fox and the weigel owned stations secured 11th hour affiliation deals after no other viable replacement affiliates surfaced . also in that same year wciu dropped the spanish language univision network and became chicago s only true full power independent station when wgn tv and wpwr tv joined the wb and upn networks respectively while wgbo tv became a univision owned station . these changes allowed wciu to pursue sports rights and syndicated programming not previously available ultimately giving wciu some strength in the market . weigel s metv format originated as a programming block that debuted on january 6 2003 on television station wfbt ca channel 23 in chicago illinois an independent station that otherwise featured an ethnic programming format . 2 in april 2008 weigel completed the purchase of wjja tv in racine wisconsin which gave the company its second full power station in the milwaukee market . the station carried a local version of metv for four years before it and the independent format of low power wmlw ca were switched around in august 2012 becoming wmlw tv . network expansion edit in july 2008 weigel announced the creation of this tv a national subchannel network operated as a joint venture with metro goldwyn mayer . 3 in early august 2008 weigel broadcasting agreed to sell all three of its south bend stations wbnd lp wcww lp and wmys lp to schurz communications the longtime owner of the local cbs affiliate wsbt tv for undisclosed terms . 4 however in the absence of action by the federal communications commission the deal was called off in august 2009 . 5 weigel broadcasting launched you and me this morning a interstitial program lifestyle news program in fourth quarter fall 2009 on wciu tv s first two subchannels . 6 7 at the end of 2009 broadcasting & cable gave weigel broadcasting its first annual multi platform broadcaster of the year award . the company makes efficient use of digital tv s multicast capabilities with one main channel and four subchannels for wciu in chicago and metv and this tv on subchannels nationwide . 8 on november 22 2010 weigel announced that they would take the metv concept national and compete fully with rtv and antenna tv while complementing its successful sister network this tv . 9 10 on december 1 2010 wciu dropped their fbt foreign broadcasting digital subchannel with some of that programming eventually to be moved to polnet communications wpvn ca and is currently airing a simulcast of wciu tv on wciu digital subchannel 26.2 . the new digital subchannel the u too was officially launched on january 5 2011 . the new digital network will be airing on wciu digital subchannel 26.2 replacing metv which moved to wciu digital subchannel 26.3 on december 15 2010 and mainly consists of other purchased programming without room on the main wciu schedule second runs of wciu programming or programming burned off due to low ratings . 11 12 on january 4 2011 metro goldwyn mayer and weigel broadcasting announced plans to distribute metv nationwide . 13 14 on january 28 2013 weigel entered into a partnership with fox television stations to create a new digital subchannel network called movies which is expected to debut on all of fox s owned and operated stations in the spring of 2013 . 15 on may 13 2013 weigel announced that tribune broadcasting would take over operations of this tv on november 1 and that the channel would move to a wgn tv subchannel following the changes . 16 17 on july 1 2013 weigel premiered the new subchannel service touchvision which provides a rolling news and information service designed for television mobile and tablet platforms starting on wdjt dt4 after milwaukee real estate agency shorewest realtors ended their time lease on the channel space to concentrate on an internet on demand channel instead . touchvision was based out of weigel s chicago facilities under the llc think televisual and was run by former radio and tribune executive lee abrams and brandon davis . 18 touchvision ceased operations on january 14 2016 . 19 20 on september 29 2014 weigel launched heroes & icons a new digital subchannel which specializes in reruns of classic television series and films . heroes & icons abbreviated h & i aims to attract a generally male audience with shows from the genres of action police detective western science fiction superhero and war and military . on october 21 2014 weigel and cbs announced the launch of a new digital subchannel service called decades scheduled to launch on all cbs o & o stations in 2015 . the channel will be co owned by weigel and cbs with weigel being responsible for distribution to stations outside cbs television stations . it will air programs from the extensive library of cbs television distribution including archival footage from cbs news . 21 major assets edit television stations edit most of the stations are categorized into separate limited partnerships for licensing purposes . city of license market station channel tv rf owned since network affiliation official licensee chicago illinois wwme cd 23 39 1992 metv heroes & icons dt2 channel 23 limited partnership wciu tv 26 27 1964 independent independent the u too dt2 metv dt3 heroes & icons dt4 bounce tv dt5 wciu tv limited partnership wmeu cd 48 32 2004 independent the u too 11 12 weigel broadcasting company rockford illinois wfbn ld 35 35 1989 independent telemundo dt2 weigel broadcasting company milwaukee wisconsin wbme cd 41 24 1983 metv channel 41 63 limited partnership wmlw tv 49 48 2008 independent bounce tv dt2 this tv dt3 telemundo dt4 tv 49 inc. wdjt tv 58 46 1988 cbs metv dt2 heroes & icons dt3 decades dt4 wdjt tv limited partnership wytu ld 63 17 1989 telemundo channel 41 63 limited partnership south bend indiana wcww ld 25 25 2002 the cw this tv dt2 wcww tv limited partnership wbnd ld 57 34 1990 abc metv dt2 movies dt3 wbnd tv limited partnership wmys ld 69 39 1987 mynetworktv telemundo dt2 decades dt3 weigel broadcasting company television networks edit decades joint venture with cbs broadcasting inc. launched may 25 2015 heroes & icons launched september 29 2014 metv memorable entertainment television movies joint venture with fox television stations radio station edit 87.7 fm analog television channel 6 metv fm on wrme lp chicago ; local marketing agreement with venture technologies group 22 references edit john weigel man of uhf the video veteran chicago television robert feder january 3 2003 . me tv joins the u on weigel s local menu . chicago sun times . retrieved august 31 2012 . preview of subscription content mgm weigel launching this tv diginet . tvnewscheck . july 28 2008 . retrieved april 6 2016 . wsbt purchases three low power stations broadcasting & cable august 4 2008 malone michael ; john eggerton august 24 2009 . wsbt south bend deal fizzles absent fcc action . broadcasting & cable . retrieved august 25 2009 . weigel launching morning content mix . broadcasting & cable . newbay media llc . july 7 2009 . retrieved april 6 2016 . rosenthal phil july 6 2009 . weigel s wciu getting into a.m. news fray in a small unconventional way . chicago tribune . retrieved april 6 2016 . dickson glen 2009 12 21 . weigel maximizes dtv pipe . broadcasting & cable . retrieved 2010 01 13 . weigel broadcasting taking me tv national chicago tribune november 22 2010 weigel broadcasting s me tv goes national broadcasting & cable november 23 2010 a b wciu parent weigel to drop foreign subchannel launch the u too chicago tribune october 5 2010 a b wcuu launches the u too subchannel broadcasting & cable october 5 2010 mgm weigel taking me tv nationwide broadcasting & cable january 4 2011 mgm launches classic tv service to roar like the fonz los angeles times january 4 2011 fox o & os weigel launch movies digi net . broadcasting & cable . january 28 2013 . retrieved may 17 2013 . malone michael may 14 2013 . tribune replaces weigel as partner on this tv . broadcasting & cable . retrieved may 17 2013 . good times for digi nets ... but we ve seen this movie before b & c 5 august 2013 retrieved august 6 2013 theilman sam july 8 2013 . abrams saslow prepare to launch news network this month . adweek . retrieved july 9 2013 . marek lynne january 14 2016 . weigel backed tv outlet touchvision shutters . crain s chicago business . retrieved january 17 2016 . subscription required help . feder robert january 15 2016 . touchvision ends as a noble failure . robertfeder.com . retrieved january 17 2016 . subscription required help . malone michael october 21 2014 . cbs stations weigel partner on oldies digi net decades . broadcasting & cable . retrieved october 23 2014 . feder robert february 9 2015 . weigel broadcasting to launch oldies on 87.7 metv fm . robert feder . retrieved february 10 2015 . external links edit metv website metv fm website john weigel man of uhf wciu website v t e weigel broadcasting network affiliated stations wbnd ld abc wdjt tv cbs wcww ld cw wmys ld mntv wytu ld wfbn ld tmd 1 o & o metv stations wbme cd2 wwme cd3 independent stations the u too wciu tv wmeu cd wmlw tv wrme lp4 national subchannel networks decadesjv heroes & icons2 metv movies jv current programming svengoolie former programming first business green screen adventures defunct touchvision 1carried on a digital subchannel of wmlw & wmys . 2carried on a digital subchannel of wdjt and wmeu . 4 owned by venture technologies group ; programmed by weigel under an lma . retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title weigel broadcasting & oldid 743337321 categories television broadcasting companies of the united statescompanies based in chicagoweigel broadcastinghidden categories pages containing links to subscription only content navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history