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WJFW-TV
WJFW-TV (channel 12) is a television station licensed to Rhinelander, Wisconsin, United States, serving the Wausau area as an affiliate of NBC. The station is owned by Rockfleet Broadcasting and maintains studios on County Road G (along WIS 17) in Rhinelander. WJFW-TV is broadcast from a primary transmitter in Starks, Wisconsin, and translator W27AU-D on Mosinee Hill, serving the immediate Wausau area.
Channel 12 went on the air as WAEO-TV on October 20, 1966. It was built by and named for Alvin E. O'Konski, a United States congressman and broadcaster. The station was off the air for nearly 10 months, from November 1968 to September 1969, after a small plane crashed into its tower at Starks, collapsing onto the studio building below; it rebuilt its studios in Rhinelander.
In 1979, WAEO-TV was sold to Seaway Communications in a "distress sale" to end a proceeding that challenged the station's broadcast license. It was the first such distress sale—in which a station facing an FCC proceeding was sold at less than market value to a minority-controlled buyer—and made WAEO-TV the first fully minority-owned network affiliate on the VHF band. The station's call letters were changed to WJFW-TV in 1986, a year after Seaway Communications principal Jasper F. Williams died in a plane crash. In the late 1980s, the station began a push to increase its presence in the Wausau area by opening a news bureau and the Mosinee Hill translator, though it continues to be perceived as a Northern Wisconsin station and lags well behind the two Wausau-based stations, WSAW-TV and WAOW, in local news ratings. Rockfleet Broadcasting acquired Seaway in 1998.
I spent $1,500 for an antenna at my house in Mercer. It was the biggest all around, and I would invite friends in for a Packer game. They'd have the ball on the one-yard line, and you should have heard my friends scream when the blasted thing faded out.
In 1963, Alvin E. O'Konski, a United States congressman, received a construction permit to build a new station at Hurley, Wisconsin, using channel 12, then allotted to Ironwood, Michigan. O'Konski had a track record in broadcasting. Until 1958, he owned Wausau radio station WOSA. In the 1950s, he had held and surrendered a permit for a Wausau TV station and asked the FCC to assign channel 9 to Wausau.
He then changed his plans and asked the Federal Communications Commission to move the station to Rhinelander. Even at this point, he proposed to name the station WAEO-TV, using his initials. O'Konski claimed that resorts in the region were seeing declining bookings due to lack of local TV service and said that a station would stimulate the economically depressed Rhinelander area. Instead of simply shifting the Hurley construction permit to Rhinelander, in December 1964, the FCC moved the channel and instructed O'Konski to refile for it, which also allowed others to apply. The application was made in February 1965 for the channel, and it was granted on June 18.
WAEO-TV began broadcasting on October 20, 1966. The studios were located near the 1,710 feet (520 m) tower, one of the tallest in use at that time. From the start, WAEO-TV was an NBC affiliate. When Congress was not in session, O'Konski served as newsreader and made editorial comments during the program. Because of the station's northerly location, Wausau was on the fringe of its coverage area. Nearby Rib Mountain impeded clear reception of the station.
On November 17, 1968, three Michigan deer hunters were flying home from a hunt in light snowfall when their small aircraft struck a guy wire of the WAEO-TV tower at Starks. The plane crashed into the tower, killing the men, and the tower collapsed to the ground. Most of the mast collapsed on the studios at the site, virtually destroying the building; a station engineer working inside broke his arm when the roof caved in. The mayor of Rhinelander, Al Taylor, invited channel 12 to set up temporary facilities at a city-owned building. More people could have been killed had a touring German boys' choir not canceled its plans to tape a program due to the weather or had O'Konski not been in Green Bay for a speaking engagement. In the wake of the collapse, state aviation officials called on federal authorities to expedite projects to improve the visibility of broadcasting towers.
WJFW-TV
WJFW-TV (channel 12) is a television station licensed to Rhinelander, Wisconsin, United States, serving the Wausau area as an affiliate of NBC. The station is owned by Rockfleet Broadcasting and maintains studios on County Road G (along WIS 17) in Rhinelander. WJFW-TV is broadcast from a primary transmitter in Starks, Wisconsin, and translator W27AU-D on Mosinee Hill, serving the immediate Wausau area.
Channel 12 went on the air as WAEO-TV on October 20, 1966. It was built by and named for Alvin E. O'Konski, a United States congressman and broadcaster. The station was off the air for nearly 10 months, from November 1968 to September 1969, after a small plane crashed into its tower at Starks, collapsing onto the studio building below; it rebuilt its studios in Rhinelander.
In 1979, WAEO-TV was sold to Seaway Communications in a "distress sale" to end a proceeding that challenged the station's broadcast license. It was the first such distress sale—in which a station facing an FCC proceeding was sold at less than market value to a minority-controlled buyer—and made WAEO-TV the first fully minority-owned network affiliate on the VHF band. The station's call letters were changed to WJFW-TV in 1986, a year after Seaway Communications principal Jasper F. Williams died in a plane crash. In the late 1980s, the station began a push to increase its presence in the Wausau area by opening a news bureau and the Mosinee Hill translator, though it continues to be perceived as a Northern Wisconsin station and lags well behind the two Wausau-based stations, WSAW-TV and WAOW, in local news ratings. Rockfleet Broadcasting acquired Seaway in 1998.
I spent $1,500 for an antenna at my house in Mercer. It was the biggest all around, and I would invite friends in for a Packer game. They'd have the ball on the one-yard line, and you should have heard my friends scream when the blasted thing faded out.
In 1963, Alvin E. O'Konski, a United States congressman, received a construction permit to build a new station at Hurley, Wisconsin, using channel 12, then allotted to Ironwood, Michigan. O'Konski had a track record in broadcasting. Until 1958, he owned Wausau radio station WOSA. In the 1950s, he had held and surrendered a permit for a Wausau TV station and asked the FCC to assign channel 9 to Wausau.
He then changed his plans and asked the Federal Communications Commission to move the station to Rhinelander. Even at this point, he proposed to name the station WAEO-TV, using his initials. O'Konski claimed that resorts in the region were seeing declining bookings due to lack of local TV service and said that a station would stimulate the economically depressed Rhinelander area. Instead of simply shifting the Hurley construction permit to Rhinelander, in December 1964, the FCC moved the channel and instructed O'Konski to refile for it, which also allowed others to apply. The application was made in February 1965 for the channel, and it was granted on June 18.
WAEO-TV began broadcasting on October 20, 1966. The studios were located near the 1,710 feet (520 m) tower, one of the tallest in use at that time. From the start, WAEO-TV was an NBC affiliate. When Congress was not in session, O'Konski served as newsreader and made editorial comments during the program. Because of the station's northerly location, Wausau was on the fringe of its coverage area. Nearby Rib Mountain impeded clear reception of the station.
On November 17, 1968, three Michigan deer hunters were flying home from a hunt in light snowfall when their small aircraft struck a guy wire of the WAEO-TV tower at Starks. The plane crashed into the tower, killing the men, and the tower collapsed to the ground. Most of the mast collapsed on the studios at the site, virtually destroying the building; a station engineer working inside broke his arm when the roof caved in. The mayor of Rhinelander, Al Taylor, invited channel 12 to set up temporary facilities at a city-owned building. More people could have been killed had a touring German boys' choir not canceled its plans to tape a program due to the weather or had O'Konski not been in Green Bay for a speaking engagement. In the wake of the collapse, state aviation officials called on federal authorities to expedite projects to improve the visibility of broadcasting towers.
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