states branding local 5 general local 5 news hd newscasts slogan keeping it local channels digital 39 uhf virtual 5 psip subchannels 5.1 cbs 5.2 bounce tv affiliations cbs 1992 present owner nexstar broadcasting group nexstar broadcasting inc. first air date december 10 1953 ; 62 years ago 1953 12 10 as wnam tv june 1 1955 1955 06 01 as wfrv call letters meaning wisconsin s fox river valley sister station s wjmn tv wlax weux former callsigns wnam tv 1953 1955 former channel number s analog 42 uhf 1953 1955 5 vhf 1955 2009 former affiliations primary abc 1953 1959 1983 1992 nbc 1959 1983 secondary dumont 1953 1955 nta 1956 1961 transmitter power 1 000 kw height 364 m facility id 9635 transmitter coordinates 44 20 1 n 87 58 56 w 44.33361 n 87.98222 w 44.33361 ; 87.98222 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website www.wearegreenbay.com wfrv tv virtual channel 5 uhf digital channel 39 is a cbs affiliated television station located in green bay wisconsin united states . the station is owned by the nexstar broadcasting group . wfrv s studios are located on east mason street in the city of green bay and its transmitter is located north of morrison . wfrv also operates semi satellite wjmn tv virtual channel 3 uhf digital channel 48 which is licensed to escanaba michigan and covers the central upper peninsula of michigan . wfrv wjmn s master control and all internal operations for both stations originate from wfrv s green bay facilities ; wjmn does maintain an engineering operation and an advertising sales office in marquette . 1 contents 1 history 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 programming 3.1 sports programming 4 news operation 4.1 ratings 4.2 notable former on air staff 5 references 6 external links history edit the station signed on the air on december 10 1953 as abc affiliate wnam tv originally broadcasting on uhf channel 42 from neenah and serving as sister to the radio station with the same call sign . by the late 1950s the station had moved its city of license to green bay operating from studios in little chute . on june 1 1955 after a few months of inactivity the station would also change its frequency to vhf channel 5 its callsign to wfrv and in 1959 network affiliation to nbc in 1958 the station was also part of the short lived badger television network alongside milwaukee s wisn tv and madison s wkow tv . 2 wfrv s early claims to fame included being the first television station in northeastern wisconsin to broadcast in color in 1958 doing so after joining nbc the first station to cover a live lunar eclipse in 1959 a studio camera was wheeled to the station parking lot and aimed at the moon and green bay s first color local news broadcasts beginning in 1965 . in the mid 1960s wfrv was acquired by the norton group a company owned by the norton family of kentucky who also owned louisville s wave the norton group would change its name to orion broadcasting by 1969 . one of the norton group s early decisions was to move wfrv s transmitter which was still located further south of green bay and closer to the fox valley a legacy from its original days in neenah and as such put wfrv at a disadvantage to other green bay stations . the nortons would gain permission from the federal communications commission to move channel 5 s transmitter to scray s hill in the ledgeview section of glenmore located just south of green bay one of the highest geographical points in the area and the longtime home to other green bay broadcast transmitters . on october 7 1969 wfrv expanded into the upper peninsula of michigan by signing on semi satellite wjmn tv in escanaba . wjmn s creation was the result of the norton group s earlier agreement with the fcc to move wfrv s tower as the station had to address short spacing issues with another station on vhf channel 5 chicago s wmaq tv every analog channel allocation in the green bay and wausau media markets was shared by a chicago television station . as part of the agreement to transmit from glenmore orion broadcasting launched wjmn so that wfrv s service to the u.p. and far northeastern wisconsin could continue and so that a second station in central upper michigan could be added before wjmn wluc tv was the only commercial station serving the u.p. . orion broadcasting would merge with cosmos broadcasting a subsidiary of the liberty corporation in 1981 . two years later in april 1983 wfrv would affiliate with abc for the second time nbc would move to wluk tv channel 11 . later in the 1980s wfrv was sold to midwest radio and television owned by the murphy and mcnally families who also owned the wcco stations in minneapolis st. paul . the murphys and mcnallys would announce a sale of midwest to cbs in the summer of 1991 ; the sale was completed in early 1992 . cbs had been affiliated with wbay tv channel 2 for almost 40 years and was unwilling to sever ties with one of its strongest and longest standing affiliates . it put wfrv and wjmn on the market but was unable to find a buyer . however in 1992 the fcc relaxed its ownership restrictions leading cbs to keep wfrv and move its programming there . on march 15 of that year wfrv became become a cbs owned and operated station with the abc affiliation moving to wbay . this swap would make wfrv one of the few stations in the united states to be affiliated with all of the big three television networks abc nbc and cbs during its lifetime . by 2001 wfrv would change its longtime orion broadcasting era logo used since the mid 1970s for an earlier version of its current logo . one year later in 2002 wfrv would become the first station in the green bay market to begin broadcasting a digital signal . by 2003 wfrv would adopt the mandated branding cbs dictated for its stations identifying itself as cbs 5 and adopting a green and gold logo to reflect its connection to the green bay packers wfrv would begin airing packers preseason broadcasts in 2003 . the station s current blue and yellow logo and graphic scheme was unveiled on july 10 2006 along with a new news set to coincide with the return to the station of former reporter anchor tammy elliott . the week of april 16 18 2007 liberty media a media company unrelated to the liberty corporation completed an exchange transaction with cbs corporation pursuant to which liberty media exchanged 7.6 million shares of cbs class b common stock valued at 239 million for a subsidiary of cbs that held wfrv and approximately 170 million in cash . 3 4 as part of the transaction liberty media acquired wfrv and wjmn becoming the only over the air television properties to be owned by the company . in may 2007 operations of the stations websites would move from cbs television stations digital media group to a redesigned site powered by inergize digital media then a subsidiary of clear channel communications now a division of nexstar . by summer 2007 wfrv would drop the cbs mandate slowly transitioning from cbs 5 to simply channel 5 its branding before 2003 . on april 7 2011 nexstar broadcasting group announced it would acquire wfrv and wjmn tv from liberty media . 5 the 20 million deal was approved by the fcc on june 28 2011 6 and closed three days later on july 1 when nexstar tapped joseph denk to become vice president and general manager of both stations ; 7 denk replaced perry kidder who announced his retirement shortly after the sale was announced kidder had spent 37 years with wfrv and wjmn . 8 the website url and operations of wfrv and wjmn also changed to nexstar s in house format they had been maintained by broadcast interactive media since april 2010 ; in the case of wfrv the web address changed from wfrv.com to wearegreenbay.com . 9 on january 23 2012 wfrv was rebranded as local 5 a branding style which originated with post newsweek stations now graham media group and which has since been adapted by several of nexstar s operations . wjmn continued to be branded as channel 3 until it launched its in house news operation in april 2014 as most stories in wfrv s newscasts were not local to upper michigan . on january 27 2016 media general announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by nexstar . 10 11 because media general owns wbay the new company will be required to sell that station or wfrv to another owner . on june 3 2016 it was announced that nexstar would keep wfrv and its quad cities sister station whbf tv and sell media general stations wbay and its quad cities sister station kwqc tv to gray television for 270 million . 12 13 digital television edit digital channels edit the station s digital signal is multiplexed channel video aspect psip short name programming 14 5.1 1080i 16 9 wfrv hd main wfrv tv programming cbs 5.2 480i 4 3 bounce bounce tv in september 2008 wfrv became the first station in the green bay fox cities market to upgrade its master control to accommodate high definition broadcasts of pre recorded syndicated programming . 15 by october 2009 wfrv gained the capability to create and air 16 9 advertising promotions and news graphics though standard definition cameras were used for newscasts until their june 2011 conversion to high definition ; before that newscast upgrade graphics were displayed in the 16 9 format with weather conditions filling the left and right pillarbox spaces during 4 3 formatted newscasts . the station launched bounce tv on their second subchannel in late august 2016 as part of a group deal made between bounce tv s parent company and nexstar ; with the launch it will became the final station in the green bay market to launch a subchannel service . it had not previously as few compelling choices existed during wfrv s liberty media ownership and nexstar eschewed subchannels for many years in most cases before 2016 . 16 analog to digital conversion edit wfrv tv shut down its analog signal over vhf channel 5 at midnight occurring within a commercial break during the late late show with craig ferguson on february 17 2009 the original target date in which full power television stations in the united states were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate which was later pushed back to june 12 2009 . the station s digital signal remained on its pre transition uhf channel 39 . 17 through the use of psip digital television receivers display the station s virtual channel as its former vhf analog channel 5 . as part of the safer act 18 wfrv kept its analog signal on the air until march 3 to inform viewers of the digital television transition through a loop of public service announcements from the national association of broadcasters . programming edit in addition to local news programming and its local morning program local 5 live wfrv s weekday schedule includes only one syndicated program steve harvey although it was formerly the ellen degeneres show before it moved to wluk in september 2014 ; other syndicated programs seen on wfrv s weekend schedule include the tim mccarver show discover wisconsin and reruns of the good wife . the station s reliance on local programming outside of network hours over syndicated programs which air for a limited number of hours each weekday on