WLAX

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][13]

After the deal was consummated in October 1991,[14] the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved a key modification of the WEUX construction permit, allowing construction to finally proceed at a site near Lafayette.[15] The station finally began broadcasting on February 9, 1993, as a straight simulcast of WLAX. Bushland later told the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram that he had hoped channel 48 would be a more local station, not merely a pass-through for WLAX. Previously, viewers in Eau Claire, Chippewa Falls, and other locations in the market's northern portion had to rely on cable to watch Fox programming.[16] A new tower was built for WEUX at Colfax in 1995, housing a new transmitter facility broadcasting at the increased effective radiated power of 1.5 million watts.[17] Grant Broadcasting acquired WLAX/WEUX from Aries in 1996.[18]

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][23]

WLAX subchannels

WEUX subchannels