WLAX

name1

WLAX

city1

La Crosse, Wisconsin

branding

Fox 25/48

digital1

33 (UHF)

virtual1

affiliations

25.1/48.1: Fox for others, see

airdate1

November 10, 1986

country

United States

callsign meaning1

La Crosse, with "Crosse" represented as an X

former callsigns1

WWQI (CP, 1982–1985)

former channel numbers1

Analog: 25 (UHF, 1986–2009) Digital: 17 (UHF, 2004–2020)

owner

Nexstar Media Group

licensee

Nexstar Media Inc.

erp1

1,000 kW

haat1

295 m

facility id1

2710

coordinates1

43.80444°N, -91.37217°W

licensing authority

FCC

website

https://www.wiproud.com

name2

WEUX

city2

Chippewa Falls–Eau Claire, Wisconsin

digital2

21 (UHF)

virtual2

airdate2

February 9, 1993

callsign meaning2

Eau Claire Fox

former channel numbers2

Analog: 48 (UHF, 1993–2009) Digital: 49 (UHF, 2006–2019)

erp2

600 kW

haat2

225.5 m

facility id2

2709

coordinates2

44.95667°N, -91.66778°W

WLAX (channel 25) in La Crosse, Wisconsin, and WEUX (channel 48) in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, are television stations serving as the Fox affiliates for western Wisconsin. They are owned by Nexstar Media Group.

WLAX serves the southern portion of the market, while WEUX operates as a full-time satellite for Eau Claire and the market's northern portion. WLAX maintains studio facilities at Interchange Place in La Crosse and a transmitter in La Crescent, Minnesota. WEUX has offices on WIS 93 in Eau Claire and a transmitter southeast of Colfax.

WLAX in La Crosse went on the air in November 1986, after two sales of the permit, as the original independent station in the market. It joined Fox shortly afterward. Family Group Broadcasting, which put the station on the air, attempted to build the Eau Claire station as a satellite of WLAX but fell into bankruptcy before it could do so. Aries Telecommunications of Green Bay bought WLAX and the WEUX construction permit in 1991 and was able to build out and sign on WEUX in 1993. Grant Broadcasting acquired the pair in 1996, and Nexstar acquired Grant's stations in 2014. The stations air a 9 p.m. local newscast produced by local NBC affiliate WEAU.

History

Construction of WLAX

Channel 25 had been assigned to La Crosse since 1966 and almost saw use in the late 1960s when two groups proposed to start a second station in the city after WKBT. Midcontinent Broadcasting Company was approved in December 1967 to build a satellite of its Madison station, WKOW-TV, in La Crosse.[1] WKOW and La Crosse radio station WKTY had both applied for channel 19, causing WKOW to shift its application to channel 25 before WKTY withdrew after the WKOW-TV grant, citing its inability to obtain network affiliation given that the WKOW station would provide La Crosse with its first full-time ABC service. WKOW then sought to move its station, WXOW-TV, back to channel 19.[2]

No party filed for channel 25 until 1980, when a group of local investors under the name Quarterview Inc. applied for channel 25.[3] While some of the same investors built local radio station WISQ (100.1 FM),[4] the permit was granted in 1982.[5] Quarterview did not build the station. It sold the permit in 1984 to TV-26 Inc., owner of WLRE-TV in Green Bay.[6] That station then filed for bankruptcy reorganization and was purchased, along with the channel 25 construction permit, by Family Group Broadcasting in 1985.

Family Group handled the construction process. The call sign on the permit was changed from WWQI to WLAX; land was purchased at the La Crosse market antenna farm in La Crescent, Minnesota (though it ultimately used an existing tower[7]); and programming was purchased for the first independent station in the market. After delays, WLAX signed on on November 10, 1986.[8]

Construction of WEUX

The addition of a channel 48 station at Chippewa Falls had been planned since the mid-1980s. Pat Bushland of Bushland Radio Specialties, owner of radio station WCFW, was first to apply for the station in 1984.[9] Family Group Broadcasting then also filed for the channel in September 1986;[10] helped by its favorable comparative hearing status as not already owning a station in Chippewa Falls, it prevailed in a settlement with Bushland in 1987 and announced plans to build it as a satellite of WLAX.[11] Family Group struggled to find an antenna site. In 1988, the company switched to a proposed location near Colfax only to face rejection from the Federal Aviation Administration. Meanwhile, the company's finances were unraveling. In 1989, the company filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Two attempts, one before and one after the bankruptcy, to sell the station group to Krypton Broadcasting fell through. In February 1990, Aries Telecommunications agreed to buy part of the company: WLAX, the WEUX construction permit, and WGBA-TV (the former WLRE-TV). However, the sale took most of the year to be completed after one of Family Group's creditors, television programming supplier MCA Television, objected to the repayment plan only to be overruled by a bankruptcy judge.[12]

Modern history

Both stations discontinued analog broadcasts on February 17, 2009. While the national digital TV transition was delayed to June, all of the major commercial stations in La Crosse and Eau Claire converted on the original airdate.[19]

After WEAU's tower at Fairchild collapsed in an ice storm in March 2011, WLAX allowed WEAU to use one of its subchannels for over-the-air operations in the market's southern portion until WEAU's tower was rebuilt the following January. The northern portion relied on a subchannel of WQOW in Eau Claire during this time. The subchannels brought NBC programming to the few viewers in the market without access to cable or satellite until WEAU brought its own tower back online.[20]

On November 6, 2013, Nexstar Broadcasting Group announced that it would purchase the Grant stations, including WLAX/WEUX, for $87.5 million.[21] The sale was completed on December 1, 2014.[22]

History

Construction of WLAX

Construction of WEUX

Modern history

Newscasts

Technical information

WLAX subchannels

WEUX subchannels

External links

References