WACY
WACY is a
television station in
Wisconsin with studios at 1391 North Road,
Green Bay, Wisconsin, and a transmitter some 25 miles (40 km) southwest in the town of
Glenmore, Wisconsin. WACY is currently affiliated with the
UPN network, and will affiliate with
My Network TV upon that network's launch in September 2006.
WXGZ era: 1984-1992
The station began as WXGZ in
1984, and was the first television station to be based out of Appleton, under the ownership of Appleton Midwestern Television. The
Appleton Post-Crescent reported on January 31, 1984 that the station was on the air with tests; the station formally launched programming on March 7, 1984. For the station's first three years, it station was
independent, showing off-network sitcoms and syndicated programming.
WXGZ was a charter affiliate for
Fox beginning in
1987. WXGZ was the first station in the Green Bay-Appleton television market to begin broadcasting in
stereo, and identified itself as
Super 32 after making this change. Some viewers may remember
Oscor the Clown (a.k.a. Wayne Oscor), who was the mascot of the station's children's lineup and a Sunday morning show starting in approximately 1986 called
Oscor's Place [
1]. The major sponsor for the show was
Chuck E. Cheese's forerunner brand,
Showbiz Pizza.
The station ran into financial problems by November of 1991 however, and APTV ended up having to declare bankruptcy. After an unsuccessful search for a new buyer for the station or more financing, WXGZ was forced to sign off permanently on
February 14,
1992, ending their history with a half hour program with a history of the station and photos of staff saying their goodbyes before the general manager of WXGZ closed the station.
WGBA (Channel 26) would then take over the Fox affiliation for Green Bay/the Fox Cities the next day.
The station's license was left in the hands of a holding company from March to August of 1992, at which time it was bought by Ace TV, Inc. Channel 32 remained off the air for two years, with occasional word that the station was intended to begin broadcasting again "in the near future".
WACY era: 1992-present
WXGZ's license to operate was at last put to use in 1994. Ace TV, still owner of WXGZ's license, changed the call letters to WACY, using the
Ace of Spades as the station's logo. The station was put back on the air with the help of WGBA, which arranged to put WACY on solid financial footing by creating a
local marketing agreement where they would program Channel 32, allow WACY to use WGBA's studios, and sell ad time for the station.
WACY relaunched as an independent station (airing mostly syndicated programming) for a short time, before becoming a charter
UPN affiliate in
January 1995, along with a secondary off-hours affilation with
The WB.
In late 1994, the station began to air local programming also. One of the most durable programs was called
Who, What, When, Where. The show was hosted by Jim C. Hoffman and Dan Davies, who (at that time) were hosting shows on
public access cable in
Oshkosh. The series featured various interviews, advertisements (notably Ron and Llyod's supermarket and
WNAM radio), and entertainment sketches performed by Davies. The show changed its name to
N.E.W. Now in early 1997. Occasionally, a special interview was conducted for the
Green Bay,
Wisconsin audience, in accordance with the agreement between WACY and WGBA.
N.E.W. Now ended in 1997. A new show, "It's the Law", hosted by
Oshkosh lawyer George E. Curtis began operation in 1999; Hoffman produced the new series. Another local program of note was
Polka, Polka, Polka, which aired Sunday mornings from a
Manitowoc supper club/dance hall.
In August 1995, WGBA became the market's
NBC affiliate after
WLUK (Channel 11) switched affilation to Fox. Due to this, WACY took most of Channel 26's childrens programs to air throughout the day and decided to change over to an all day children's programming format, under the branding
WACKY 32. The schedule ran from 6am-11am and 1pm-5pm (11am-1pm was filled with general programming and infomercials), and consisted of various programming lineups, including
UPN Kids,
The Disney Afternoon, syndicated product such as
Garfield and Friends,
Scooby Doo,
Dennis the Menace and
Sonic the Hedgehog, along with some
educational and informational-compliant programs like
The New Zoo Revue. WACY also aired
Kids' WB on-pattern in the mornings and afternoons, and aired
Pokémon in its one-season syndicated run before it became a part of Kids' WB. The lineup contained local continuity from Cuddles the Clown.
This programming strategy continued until
1999, when by then the effect of the rules on children's advertising and competition from cable networks like
Cartoon Network and
Nickelodeon made it hard for broadcast stations to financially justify airing children's programming more than necessary. The station also lost their secondary WB affiation after
ACME Communications bought
WIWB (then WPXG, Channel 14) from
Paxson Communications in that same year, converting it from
PAX TV to a primary WB affiliate. Kids' WB then moved to Channel 14, and WACY began to move towards a general programming direction. The station continued to air UPN's
Disney's One Too children's block weekdays until its discontinuation in September 2003 by the network.
Currently the station runs a weekday lineup outside of network hours made up of mostly off-network sitcoms, court shows, and other programs such as
South Park and
COPS, along with mostly infomercials in the overnights and morning hours. Movies make up a majority of the weekend schedule.
The station also airs a high school football game of the week on Friday nights in the fall featuring local teams.
A late-night feature on weekends is the "Ned the Dead" movie program. While it has moved around the schedule a lot, it can currently be seen Saturday nights around 10 pm. The show features a B movie from the fifties (usually scifi or horror) with "Ned" doing wraparounds and comic relief. The actor who plays Ned also is the spokesperson for Van Vredee's, a local appliance store. The store sponsors the "Ned the Dead" show.
WACY has a transmitter for
analogue TV on channel 32 (1050 kilowatts; 578-584 MHz) and a
digital television channel 59 (1000kW; 740-746 MHz).
In 2004,
Journal Broadcast Group (owners of
Milwaukee's
WTMJ-TV (Channel 4)). announced plans to buy WGBA for $43.2 million, and the sale closed in October of that year. WGBA and WACY have a local marketing agreement with WGBA providing studio space, weather coverage, staff for the high school football games, and other facilities. Journal Communications said at the time of the purchase it would continue the agreement and has agreed to buy WACY should the
Federal Communications Commission change its bylaws to allow the purchase.
My Network TV
On March 22, 2006, Journal and WACY
announced that they will take the
My Network TV affiliation when this new network, Fox's second network, launches in September
2006. Current WB affiliate
WIWB (Channel 14), will affiliate with
The CW, a merger of The WB and UPN networks.
As of
June 5, WACY has begun to pre-empt many UPN shows; the second hour of their Monday-Wednesday night schedules and the entire Thursday lineup (except
Everybody Hates Chris) have been replaced with
infomercials. According to the station's general manager, the station will no longer carry any UPN programming as of September 5th, the start of My Network TV, meaning
Friday Night Smackdown will not air for the two weeks in the Green Bay market before it moves to WIWB/The CW.
The Friday night editions of
Desire and
Fashion House will air after Channel 32's high school football coverage on that night.
Channel 32 began to use the My Network TV branding in late July 2006, and is now called
My new 32, with the "new" standing for both the new network and the station's coverage area, northeastern Wisconsin (commonly abbreviated as N.E.W.).
Image:WACY 1995-2001 Logo.PNG|The first WACY/UPN-era logo, used from January 1995-August 2001. In the short period where WACY was independent, the logo was the same without the UPN logo.Image:WACY 2001-2002 Logo.png|Second UPN logo, used from August 2001-August 2002.Image:WACY-TV.jpg|Last UPN logo, used from August 2002-July 2006.Image:WACY MyNet Logo.png|WACY's current logo, inagurated in late July 2006, using the My new 32 branding.*
Official site*
WACY program guide
