WKBT-DT (channel 8) is a

television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth's s ...

licensed to

La Crosse, Wisconsin La Crosse ( ) is a city in La Crosse County, Wisconsin, United States, and its county seat. Positioned alongside the Mississippi River, La Crosse is the largest city on Wisconsin's western border. La Crosse's population was 52,680 as of the 202 ...

, United States, serving the La Crosse– Eau Claire

market Market is a term used to describe concepts such as: *Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand *Market economy *Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market *Marketing, the act of sat ...

as an affiliate of CBS and

MyNetworkTV MyNetworkTV (stylized as mynetworkTV; unofficially abbreviated MNT or MNTV) is an American commercial broadcast television syndication service and former television network owned by Fox Corporation, operated by its Fox Television Stations ...

. Owned by Morgan Murphy Media, the station maintains studios on South 6th Street in downtown La Crosse, and its transmitter is located on Silver Creek Road in Galesville, Wisconsin.

History

WKBT signed-on August 1, 1954, as a sister station to WKBH radio (AM 1410, now WIZM). In the

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally as ...

, the "T" for "television" replaced the "H" to differentiate the stations. It originally carried programming from all four major networks (CBS,

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

, ABC, and DuMont) but has always been a primary CBS affiliate. It lost DuMont after that network shut down in 1956 and lost NBC in 1958 after La Crosse and Eau Claire were collapsed into a single

. WKBT then shared ABC with NBC affiliate WEAU-TV (channel 13, based in Eau Claire) until

WXOW WXOW (channel 19) is a television station in La Crosse, Wisconsin, United States, affiliated with American Broadcasting Company, ABC and owned by Allen Media Group. The station's studios and transmitter are located on Houston County, Minnesota, C ...

(channel 19) signed-on from La Crosse in 1970. On April 16, 1965, during the worst of the famous 1965 flood, the downtown La Crosse building that housed both WKBT and WKBH burned to the ground; WKBT would rebuild its current building on the same site. WKBT was sold to Harold F. Gross, a businessman from

Lansing, Michigan Lansing () is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Michigan. The most populous city in Ingham County, Michigan, Ingham County, parts of the city extend into Eaton County, Michigan, Eaton County and nort ...

, in 1970, who owned WJIM-AM- FM- TV in that city. Gross Telecasting sold both stations to Backe Communications in 1984, following a licensing dispute involving WJIM-TV (which changed its call letters to WLNS-TV). Backe sold both stations to

Young Broadcasting Young Broadcasting, LLC was an American media company that owned or operated 12 television stations in 10 markets with a total U.S. television household coverage of 5.9%. The company was formerly known as Young Broadcasting Inc. and was the out ...

in 1986. In March 2000, Young sold WKBT to current owner Morgan Murphy Media (ironically, the founding original owner of WEAU-TV from 1953 to 1962). Throughout its history, WKBT's news operation has tended to favor their news coverage on their home city of La Crosse,

Winona, Minnesota Winona ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Winona County, Minnesota, United States. Located in bluff country on the Mississippi River, its most noticeable physical landmark is Sugar Loaf (Winona, Minnesota), Sugar Loaf. The population was 2 ...

, and the Coulee Region, with a secondary emphasis on Eau Claire and the

Chippewa Valley The Chippewa Valley is a valley in Wisconsin, US. History The valley was first inhabited by the Ojibwe and colonized by German and Scandinavian immigrants. The region also has a large Hmong community. While the term "Chippewa Valley" technic ...

, ceding to WEAU's geographical strength overall in Eau Claire. However, WKBT's weather coverage is balanced equally to cover the entire market. Galesville WKBT tower

WKBT's transmitter, in Galesville, is located about north of the channel 8 studios in order to provide a clear signal to the entire market. If put up next to Chicago's

Willis Tower The Willis Tower, formerly and still commonly referred to as the Sears Tower, is a 110-storey, story, skyscraper in the Chicago Loop, Loop community area of Chicago in Illinois, United States. Designed by architect Bruce Graham and engineer F ...

(formerly known as the

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co., commonly known as Sears ( ), is an American chain of department stores and online retailer founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosen ...

Tower), the WKBT transmitter would surpass the upper roof and fall just about short of the highest antenna on top. On January 30, 2006, WKBT signed-on a new second

digital subchannel In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compress ...

to serve as the market's UPN affiliate. Class A station KQEG-CA had previously dropped its affiliation with the network at the end of the previous week. As a result of UPN and

The WB The WB Television Network (shortened to The WB, stylized as "THE WB", and nicknamed the "Frog Network" and/or "The Frog" for its former mascot Michigan J. Frog) was an American television network that ran from 1995 to 2006. It launched on ter ...

merging in September 2006, ABC affiliate WXOW (and its

semi-satellite A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater (two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or trans ...

WQOW WQOW (channel 18) is a television station in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, United States, serving the Chippewa Valley as an affiliate of American Broadcasting Company, ABC. Owned by Allen Media Group, the station has studios on Friedeck Road in Eau Clai ...

) gained

The CW The CW Network, LLC (commonly referred to as The CW or simply CW) is an American commercial broadcast television network which is controlled by Nexstar Media Group through a 75% ownership interest. The network's name is derived from the firs ...

affiliation on digital subchannels. This was a result of their association with The WB through a

cable Cable may refer to: Mechanical * Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof * Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...

-only station ("WBCZ" on channel 15) through The WB 100+. Meanwhile, WKBT-DT2 joined the other new broadcast network, MyNetworkTV.

News operation

WKBT presently broadcasts 34 hours of local newscasts each week (with six hours each weekday and two hours each on Saturdays and Sundays).

Controversies

Jennifer Livingston fat shaming

In October 2012, WKBT was in the national spotlight when morning news anchor Jennifer Livingston addressed a viewer who criticized her about her weight and issued an on-air commentary about

bullying Bullying is the use of force, coercion, Suffering, hurtful teasing, comments, or threats, in order to abuse, aggression, aggressively wikt:domination, dominate, or intimidate one or more others. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. On ...

and being a

role model A role model is a person whose behaviour, example, or success serves as a model to be emulated by others, especially by younger people. The term ''role model'' is credited to sociologist Robert K. Merton, who hypothesized that individuals compa ...

EAS intrusion incident

In the afternoon of February 11, 2013, WKBT-DT's

Emergency Alert System The Emergency Alert System (EAS) is a Emergency population warning, national warning system in the United States designed to allow authorized officials to broadcast emergency alerts and warning messages to the public via Cable television, cable ...

was hijacked, airing a false Local Area Emergency message over the station's regular programming warning viewers of a

zombie apocalypse Zombie apocalypse is a subgenre of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction in which society collapses due to overwhelming swarms of zombies. Usually, only a few individuals or small bands of human survivors are left living. There are many d ...

. Multiple other television stations had their EAS system hijacking with the same message on the same day, including

KRTV KRTV (channel 3) is a television station in Great Falls, Montana, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside KTGF-LD (channel 50), the local NBC affiliate, and is part of the Montana Television Network ...

Great Falls, Montana Great Falls is the List of cities and towns in Montana, third most populous city in the U.S. state of Montana and the county seat of Cascade County, Montana, Cascade County. The population was 60,442 according to the 2020 United States census, 2 ...

, WBUP and WNMU in

Marquette, Michigan Marquette ( ) is the county seat of Marquette County, Michigan, Marquette County and the largest city in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, United States. Located on the shores of Lake Superior, Marquette is a major port known primarily for shippin ...

, and KENW in

Portales, New Mexico Portales () is a city in and the county seat of Roosevelt County, New Mexico, United States. Its population was 12,280 at the 2010 census. Portales is located near the larger city of Clovis, and Cannon Air Force Base, a major contributor to ...

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's signal is

multiplexed In telecommunications and computer networking, multiplexing (sometimes contracted to muxing) is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share a scarce resource— ...

WKBT added digital subchannel 8.2 in January 2006, a channel originally affiliated with UPN before joining

the following September; it launched with only a weekend's notice after KQEG-CD's UPN disaffiliation in the wake of the announcement of the UPN–WB merger into The CW. The station would add a second subchannel, affiliated with

Ion An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge. The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by convent ...

in January 2017; a third subchannel, affiliated with

Dabl Dabl () is an American digital multicast television network owned by the CBS Media Ventures subsidiary of Paramount Global and operated by Weigel Broadcasting. Dabl launched in September 2019 with a female-targeted lifestyle format. It aired r ...

, signed on in September 2019.

Analog-to-digital conversion

On March 28, 2003, WKBT signed on its digital signal on

UHF Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter ...

channel 41. The station has been digital-only since February 17, 2009. In the summer of 2011, WKBT became the first station in the market to air newscasts in 16:9 enhanced definition

widescreen Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratio (image), aspect ratios (relationship of image width to height) used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ...

Translators

References

External links

WKBT "News 8"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wkbt-Dt 1954 establishments in Wisconsin CBS affiliates Dabl affiliates Ion Television affiliates Morgan Murphy Media stations MyNetworkTV affiliates Television channels and stations established in 1954 KBT-DT