WDJT-TV

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WDJT-TV
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Branding	CBS58 Milwaukee
Channels	58 (UHF) analog, 46 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	CBS (since 1994)
Owner	Weigel Broadcasting (WDJT-TV, LP)
Founded	1988
Call letters meaning	Debra Jackson and John Torres (original license holders)
Former affiliations	Independent (1988-94)
Website	cbs58.com

WDJT-TV is a television station located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is an affiliate of the CBS television network. Its transmitter is located in Milwaukee, and its signal covers most of southeastern Wisconsin, including Racine, Kenosha, Sheboygan and Waukesha. WDJT usually goes by its nickname of "CBS 58" in its broadcast promos.

[edit] History

WDJT's former logo, used from March 1996-September 2001. This logo continues to be used for the station's morning newscast, with the '58' outline remaining and the CBS eye turned into a sun figure.

Aformentioned "Morning News Express" logo

WDJT signed on the air on November 29, 1988 as an independent station. Its call letters were selected in honor of its original owners, Debra Jackson and John Torres (Weigel had taken control of the license after Jackson passed away before the station took to the air, and Torres decided to partner with Weigel for financial backing). At that time, its programming fare consisted of second-hand reruns of sitcoms, first-run syndicated shows that was sold on a barter basis and a movie library that was second rate. Viewers enjoyed it anyway, and it gave WDJT a unique slogan, "Milwaukee's Classic TV Station." By 1990 the station became more competitive with WVTV and WCGV for top-rated first-run syndicated fare.

The Milwaukee television market was in for a major shakeup in 1994 when New World Communications announced that its stations (including Milwaukee's WITI) would become Fox affiliates. That prompted CBS to look for a new affiliate in Milwaukee. The network was turned down by WTMJ, WISN (who was affiliated with CBS from 1961 to 1977), WVTV (which ironically was a CBS O&O in the 1950s), WCGV, and WJJA, and then made an aborted attempt to buy WVCY before Channel 30's ownership group decided not to sell and keep their religious format.

With days to go before the switch, and the threat of having to arrange for CBS signals to be imported in for cable customers via Madison, Chicago and Green Bay, the network finally affiliated with WDJT several days before WITI was to switch, arranging quickly to get the word out in local papers, radio and television in the week before the switch took place on December 1, 1994, with the first CBS program airing on Channel 58 being 60 Minutes.

As WDJT had not expected to go to CBS, a hastily-made logo with the CBS eyemark to the left of WDJT's italic Times New Roman '58' of the time in red (and later yellow) was the station's logo for the next year and a half, along with a neutral imaging campaign using default CBS graphics while Channel 58 built their news department and worked to look for upgraded studio facilities.

WDJT's CBS affiliation caused major shuffles among area cable systems as they worked to quickly add Channel 58 to their systems; it took until March 1995 for some Marcus Cable (the precursor to Charter Communications) cities to carry WDJT.

Channel 58 launched its news operation from new studios on N. 60th Street in West Allis in the former Allis-Chalmers complex (exactly on the western border of Milwaukee) in early 1996. Previously the station's studio and transmitter were located on the top floors of what was then the Marc Plaza Hotel (now the Hilton Milwaukee City Center), with the transmitter in Lincoln Park going online in 1998.

[edit] Ownership

WDJT-TV is owned by Chicago, Illinois's Weigel Broadcasting, a local broadcasting company that also owns several other stations, including Chicago's WCIU and WWME-CA, South Bend, Indiana's WBND-LP, WCWW-LP and WMYS-LP, Milwaukee's Spanish-language station WYTU (Channel 63) and LPTV independent Milwaukee station WMLW-CA (Channel 41), which also airs on WDJT's digital channel as Channel 46-2. The digital channel is also subdivided into four other feeds in March during CBS coverage of the NCAA Basketball Tournament to show all of the games.

[edit] Station Management

• General Manager: Jim Hall
• Operations Manager: Cheryl Lenzo
• News Director: Grant Uitti
• Chief Engineer: Dan Dyer
• Production Manager: Bryan Hughes
• Promotions Manager: Dale Palecek
• Graphics Supervisor: Brian Hoffmeier

[edit] News Information

Though the station has the lowest rated newscast in the market, WDJT has used their low expectations to experiement with presentation of their news. The morning newscast emphasizes short news summaries, traffic information and constant weather updates, while the late CBS 58 Ten at Ten newscast places their weather segment within the first ten minutes of the show, along with a full local/national news summary. WDJT in the past has won regional Emmy awards, along with honors from the Associated Press for best newscast presentation. The station also uses WMLW as an additional outlet for weather warnings and breaking news coverage.

With the experience of Chicago sister station WCIU (Channel 26) in their corner to create interesting station promos, the station also has used their promos to poke fun at the personalities on other local stations, especially the weather departments. In the promos, a formerly loyal viewer tells the competing meteorologist that they're leaving them for the weather coverage on Channel 58 (A Dear John letter to WTMJ's John Malan, for instance).

The station also had a 'Make the Switch' campaign in summer 2005 in anticipation of Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune moving from WTMJ to WDJT, using a 'moving truck/workers' theme where the workers would make fun of Channel 4's misfortune of losing the game shows to them just after Ken Jennings boosted the ratings for Jeopardy!. This has proved to work well, as the game shows kept their audience after the switch and place between second and third in the ratings between 6pm and 7pm on Channel 58, while Extra on Channel 4 at 6:30pm places fourth in its timeslot.

[edit] Newscast Lineup

• CBS58 Morning News Express - 5 a.m.-7 a.m. Monday-Friday
• CBS58 News at Five - 5 p.m.-5:30 p.m. Monday-Saturday
• CBS58 News at 5:30 - 5:30 p.m.-6 p.m. Sunday
• CBS58 News Ten at Ten - 10 p.m.-10:35 p.m. Seven Nights a Week

Rebroadcasts of the 10 p.m. newscast are seen at 12:30 a.m. on WMLW.

[edit] News Staff

• Managing Editor: Herman Ward
• Anchors: Mike Strehlow, Paul Piaskoski, Keith Meka, Rebekah Wood, Danielle Notingham, Michelle McCormack
  • Chief Photographer: Tom Gifford
• Reporters: Heather Sirat, Ashleigh Barry, Alina Machado, Ingrid Kelley, Jim Winchester, Diane Moca, Yamilet Virgin, Jae Miller
• Sports:
  • 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. Sports Anchor:
  • Weekend Sports Anchor:
  • Sports Anchor/Reporter: Brandon Cruz, Ryan Nolan, Chris Francis
• Weather:
  • 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. Meteorologist: Mark McGinnis
  • Weekend Meteorologist: Brien Allen
  • AM Meteorologist: Chris McGinness

[edit] Trivia

• WDJT is Wisconsin's only UHF CBS affiliate.
• Channel 58 has the third-highest CBS affiliate channel assignment, lower than only WVNS (59) in Lewisburg, West Virginia and WWJ-TV (62) in Detroit, a CBS O&O which also affiliated with the network at the last minute in the 1994 New World switch.
• The station also gathers news for CBS Radio in Milwaukee, as no area radio station currently carries CBS Radio News (WTMJ-AM (620) converted to ABC Radio in 2005, while WISN-AM (1130) airs Fox News Radio).

[edit] External links

• CBS 58 Homepage
• History of Milwaukee television
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WDJT