WEAU-TV

Infobox_Broadcast
call_letters = WEAU-TV
city =
station_
station_slogan = Western Wisconsin's First Choice
station_branding = TV-13 (general)
WEAU 13 News (newscast)
analog = 13 (VHF)
digital = 39 (VHF)
subchannels = 13.1 NBC
13.2 NBC Weather Plus
other_chs =
affiliations = NBC
network =
founded =
airdate = December 17, 1953
location = Eau Claire, Wisconsin
callsign_meaning = EAU Claire
former_callsigns =
former_channel_numbers =
owner = Gray Television, Inc.
licensee = Gray Television Licensee, Inc.
sister_stations =
former_affiliations = All secondary:
CBS, ABC, DuMont (1954-1956) [http://www.ellwanger.tv/collect/tvg/eds/old/nw.html]
effective_radiated_power = 316 kW (analog)
500 kW (digital)
23kW (post-transition)
HAAT = 607 m (analog)
585.1 m (digital)
class =
facility_id = 7893
coordinates = coord|44|39|49.5|N|90|57|41.3|W|type:landmark_scale:2000
homepage = http://www.weau.com/

WEAU-TV is an NBC television affiliate based in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, which serves much of western Wisconsin. Its transmitter is located in Fairchild, Wisconsin. [ [http://www.fybush.com/sites/2006/site-060310.html A selection from a decade of visits to tower and studio sites in the Northeast and beyond ] ]

WEAU-TV uses the slogan "TV-13: Western Wisconsin's First Choice For News, Weather And Sports".

History

WEAU signed on the air on December 17th, 1953 as an NBC affiliate. The station initially broadcast from a tower immediately behind the TV station's building at 1907 South Hastings Way in Eau Claire. A new tower, approximately-1,000 ft. tall, was built in the same location in 1956 coord|44|39|50|N|90|57|41|W|, before an approximately-2,000 ft. tower was constructed near Fairchild, WI, in 1966. The 1,000 ft. tower in Eau Claire is now topped by the digital transmitter for WQOW.

One of the first well-known personalities on WEAU was "Sheriff Bob" Dawson, who hosted a kids show from the 1950s-1960s.

In the 1960s, WEAU-TV purchased a radio station from Chippewa Falls, WAXX-AM 1150, then started an FM station, WEAU-FM, initially at 100.7 on the FM dial, and later moved to 104.5. WAXX-AM switched to a country format in the mid-60s, and eventually, WEAU-FM simulcast WAXX-AM's signal. By the mid-70s, WEAU-FM's call letters were switched to WAXX FM, and in 1978, the country format was moved exclusively to WAXX-FM. WAXX-AM's call letters were switched to WAYY-AM. The WEAU-TV news, weather & agriculture departments were used for reports on WAXX-FM & WAYY-AM.

WEAU constructed a weather radar in 1979, the first TV station in the La Crosse/Eau Claire market with their own radar. The radar received a graphics upgrade in 1998 and 2006. The station adopted their news ID "NewsCenter 13" around 1979/80. WEAU premiered their 5pm newscast on September 14, 1981, with Geoff Welch as anchor. The first telecast featured a report from then-WEAU reporter Scott Cohn, later a correspondent for CNBC. A truck to provide live remote broadcasts came into use in 1983.

WAXX-FM/WAYY-AM were sold to the new Central Communications in 1984, and in 1985, the two stations moved out of the WEAU building to a new facility behind the back parking lot of WEAU. Despite being under separate ownership, WEAU continued to provide weather services for WAXX & WAYY, as well as additional stations purchased by Central Communications (WIAL, WECL-FM, WDRK-FM & WEAQ-AM), until December 31, 2001. WEAU resumed weather services to those same six stations, now under the ownership of Maverick Media, on September 11, 2006.

Prior to 1984, WEAU was owned by The Post Corporation. That year, George N. Gillett Jr. purchased the Post Corporation stations, including WEAU. When Gillett began defaulting on some of his purchases in the late 1980s, he sold WEAU to Busse Broadcasting in 1990. Busse retained ownership until 1998, when it traded WEAU to Gray Communications Systems (which was subsequently renamed Gray Television) in exchange for WALB (Gray's original flagship) in Albany, Georgia. That station would then be transferred to Cosmos Broadcasting, the broadcasting division of The Liberty Corporation (which has since been merged into Raycom Media).

A new news set and music package debuted in August, 1984, and WEAU first used weeknight co-anchors (Jim Mertens & Michelle Magadance) in June, 1986. Another new news set & music package debuted in April, 1988. WEAU was met with tragedy in September, 1991, when primetime news anchor Cindy Schott died unexpectedly. The death was later the subject of a story by Dateline NBC. Five years later, in November, 1996, long-time morning meteorologist Jim Riggs died of cancer.

WEAU changed their news music in 1992, their logo in the summer of 1994, and later changed their set in March, 1997. WEAU had returned to a solo anchor for the 6pm & 10pm news (John Froyd) following the death of Cindy Schott, but returned to a co-anchor format for the 10pm news (Pat Kreitlow & Judy Clark) in August, 1998, upon Froyd's retirement. New news music was also debuted at that time. Another new logo, along with a slight change to the background of the news set, was unveiled in January, 2001.

Technology was the highlight of the following decade, as WEAU's digital channel, WEAU-DT 13.1, signed-on April 30, 2002, with the digital transmitter located at the top of the WEAU Tower, in Fairchild, WI. Meanwhile, SkyCam 13, located on a small mast atop WEAU's building, debuted in March, 2003. A second SkyCam, located atop the RCU corporate headquarters building in downtown Eau Claire, debuted in May, 2007. New music started in the summer of 2002, and in September, 2004/ 2007, the station received a new news set, with background & graphics modification in August, 2006.

A WEAU-produced 9pm newscast for WLAX/WEUX premiered on August 28, 2006, known as "Fox News At 9," and using WEAU personnel for the anchor slots. The newscast is simulcast on WEAU-DT 13.2. The subchannel otherwise airs 24/7 Weather, a local weather channel featuring WEAU meteorologists which debuted on WEAU-DT 13.2 on October 2, 2006. Wisconsin Journal, a weekend feature show, debuted in October 2006. Longtime News Director John Hoffland retired on February 2, 2007, having served in that position for 23 years; he was replaced by Glenn Mabie. A Sunday 10:30pm half-hour sports show, SportScene Sunday, premiered on April 1, 2007. A weekly Friday morning show based on consumer electronics called Technology Spot, premiered on September 7th, 2007 at 10:00am. New news music & open graphics debuted in early October, 2007. John Hoffland is named News Director again in January 2008.

In 2008, the station switched its branding from "NewsCenter 13" to "WEAU 13 News."

WEAU 13 News Team

News Anchors

*Judy Clark: WEAU 13 News Today at 10am & Weeknights at 5 & 6pm
*Sarah Stokes: Weeknights at 10pm and Wisconsin Journal Sat. 6:30 a.m./Sun. 9:30 a.m.
*Chris Herzog: Anchor/Managing Editor
*Salina Heller: Weekday Mornings at 5am
*Andrew Fefer: Weekday Mornings at 5am
*Andrew Fefer: Weekdays at Noon
*Meghan Kulig: Weekends

kyWarn 13 Meteorologists

*Nate Larscheid: (Chief Meteorologist) Weeknights
*Mark Holley: Mornings & Noon
*Ashley Baylor: Fox News at 9
*Kurt Kotenberg: Weekends & Weekends on Fox News at 9

TV-13 Sports Team

*Bob Gallaher: (Sports Director) Weeknights
*Gregg Kvatek: Fox News at 9 Sports Anchor Weeknights, WEAU Sports Anchor/Reporter
*Matt Queen: Weekends

Former On-Air Personalities:

Notables

*Scott Cohn: CNBC Senior Correspondent; WEAU Reporter: 1981-82
*Craig Coshun: FSN North Broadcaster/Big Ten Play-By-Play Announcer; WEAU Reporter/Anchor: 1988-90
*Bill Hudson: WCCO-TV Reporter/Morning Co-Anchor; WEAU Reporter: 1981-83
*Rob Kreibich: Wisconsin Assemblyman, 93rd District (R-Eau Claire), 1993-2007; WEAU Reporter: late 1980s-1992
*Pat Kreitlow: Wisconsin State Senator, 23rd District (D-Chippewa Falls), 2007-present; WEAU Anchor/Reporter: mid 1990s-2005

Anchors

*Barry Robinson: 1950s-1970s
*Tom Jensen: 1966-72
*Lyle Johnsen: 1970s (the first true anchor; before this, only one person at a time was at the desk)
*Mike Rindo: 1978-86, 1989-91
*Scott Cohn: (Weekend Anchor 1981, 5pm Anchor 1982)
*Jim Mertens: early 1980s-1989 (Weeknight Co-Anchor 1986-89)
*Michelle Magadance: 1983-89 (Weeknight Co-Anchor 1986-89)
*Cindy Schott: 1985-1991 (Weeknight Co-Anchor 1989-91) (died September 11, 1991)
*John Froyd: 1991-98
*Matt Lechner: late 1990s-2004 (Weekend Anchor 1999-2004)
*Jennifer Rupnow: 2000-2004 (Sunrise and Noon Anchor)
*Chris Earl: 2005-2008 (Sports 1998-1999)

Weather

*Howard Trickey: 1950s-1960s (Sketched while he reported the weather)
*John Digmann: ?-1973
*Tim Cannon: 1973-?
*Debi France: late 1970s
*Joe Dandrea: 1980-82 (Chief Meteorologist 1980-82)
*Tom Magnuson: 1980-84 (Chief Meteorologist 1982-84)
*John Wendel: 1982-88 (Chief Meteorologist 1984-88)
*Jim Riggs: 1982-96 (died November, 1996)
*Bruce King: 1987-2001
* [http://www.kare11.com/company/bios/talent_article.aspx?storyid=126225 Don Moldenhauer] : 1988-93 (Chief Meteorologist 1988-93)
*Scott Shaw: 1993-98 (Chief Meteorologist 1993-98)
*John Jedda: 1998-2006 (Chief Meteorologist 1998-2006)

ports

*Jim Crandell: late 1960s-1985 (Sports Director 1970s-1985)
*Dave Carlson: early 1980s-2000 ("TV-13 Outdoors" host 1982-2000)
*Rick Foy: early 1980s-1988 (Sports Director 1985-88)
*Bob Brainerd: 1984-92 (Sports Director 1988-92)
*Rod Ketter: 1990-97 (Sports Director 1992-97)
*Jack Eich: 1977-81 (Sports Reporter/Anchor 1977-81)

News/Station Presentation

Newscast Titles

*"The Robinson Report" (1953-1973)
*"TV-13 News" (1973-1977)
*"NewsCenter 13" (1977-2008)
*"WEAU News 13" (2008-Present)

tation Slogans

*"Western Wisconsin's First Choice" (1988-present)

Logos

References

External links

* [http://www.weau.com/ WEAU-TV website]
*Structurae|id=s0014030|title=WEAU Television Tower
*ASR|key=598749|number=1033664
*http://www.fybush.com/sites/2006/site-060310.html
*TVQ|WEAU-TV
*BIA|WEAU|TV|TV