WACY-TV (channel 32), branded as The Spot – Green Bay 32, is an independent television station licensed to Appleton, Wisconsin, United States, serving the Green Bay area. It is owned by the E.W. Scripps Company alongside NBC affiliate WGBA-TV (channel 26). The two stations share studios on North Road near Airport Drive/WIS 172 in the Green Bay suburb of Ashwaubenon; WACY-TV's transmitter is located in the Shirley section of Glenmore, Wisconsin.
History Early history and troubles The station first signed on the air on March 7, 1984, as WXGZ-TV, and was the first television station licensed to and based out of Appleton; it was originally owned by Appleton Midwestern Television. The station's original studio was located on North Marshall Road, southwest of the Interstate 41/WIS 441 interchange on Appleton's north side. The Post-Crescent reported on January 31 that the station began operations by testing its signal, although it formally began programming on March 7. WXGZ originally operated as an independent station during its first three years, showing off-network sitcoms and other syndicated programming. On October 6, 1986, under the "Super 32" moniker, WXGZ became a charter affiliate of the Fox network. However, like most early Fox affiliates, the station continued to essentially program itself as an independent station. The network's only program at the time was the late night talk program The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers; prime time programming followed in 1987. After joining Fox, WXGZ became the first station in the Green Bay–Appleton television market to begin broadcasting in stereo.
A noted local personality on WXGZ was "Oscor the Clown" (played by Wayne Lowney), who served as the mascot of the WXGZ children's lineup and hosted a Sunday morning program starting in 1986 called Oscor's Place, a show whose major sponsor was Chuck E. Cheese's predecessor brand, ShowBiz Pizza Place. Outside of Fox programming, WXGZ was noteworthy for airing the successful first-run syndicated programs Star Trek: The Next Generation and The Arsenio Hall Show.
By November 1991, Appleton Midwestern Television ran into financial problems and declared bankruptcy. After an unsuccessful search for a new buyer for the station or more financing, WXGZ was forced to sign-off permanently on the night of February 14, 1992, ending its eight-year history with a half-hour retrospective featuring on-air and behind-the-scenes footage at the station. WXGZ staff announcer Ed Myers and general manager Roy Smith said the last of the station's goodbyes, after which WXGZ closed operations at midnight. The next morning, fellow independent station WGBA-TV (channel 26) became the market's new Fox affiliate, and acquired some of WXGZ's syndicated programming inventory (including Arsenio and Star Trek: The Next Generation).
After WXGZ's shut down, the station's license was left in the hands of a holding company from March to August 1992, at which point it was bought by Ace TV Incorporated, a corporation solely owned by Shirley A. Martin. Channel 32 remained off-the-air for two years with occasional word that the station intended to begin broadcasting again "in the near future".
Revival as WACY-TV WXGZ's license to operate was put back into use in June 1994. License holder Ace TV put WXGZ back on the air with the help of WGBA and its then-owner Aries Telecommunications, who arranged to put WXGZ on solid financial footing through the entrance of a local marketing agreement with Ace TV, allowing WGBA to operate and program WXGZ through its studios and sell advertising time for the station.
At the outset, programming on WXGZ (whose logo was an ace of spades as a nod to its owner) consisted of second-run airings of off-network reruns (including such series as Gunsmoke, St. Elsewhere and Newhart), along with select airings of Milwaukee Brewers baseball and Milwaukee Bucks basketball games (which WGBA previously aired but no longer had room to run due to its own commitments with Fox). By the fall of 1994, first-run syndicated programming would be included on WXGZ's schedule, including Family Feud and programming from the Prime Time Entertainment Network syndication service. On January 16, 1995, WXGZ became a charter affiliate of the United Paramount Network (UPN). The station also maintained a secondary affiliation with The WB for the network's first four years before WIWB (channel 14, now WCWF) became the Green Bay market's WB affiliate in June 1999.
By August 1995, the station – which would change its call sign that month to WACY-TV – benefited from WGBA's affiliation switch to NBC (due to WLUK-TV, channel 11, joining Fox). With WGBA now committed to NBC and its programming lineup, programs that WGBA no longer had room to broadcast were moved over to WACY, including some syndicated programming (most notably reruns of The Simpsons) and daytime children's programming. With this move, WACY adopted the "WACkY 32" branding for its kids' lineup (running roughly 6–11 a.m. and 1–5 p.m.), which over the years would include Garfield and Friends, Scooby-Doo, Dennis the Menace, Pokémon, Sailor Moon and Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog; programs from the UPN Kids, BKN and The Disney Afternoon blocks (as well as from Kids' WB as the Green Bay television market did not have a full-time WB affiliate); and educational and informational-compliant programs like The New Zoo Revue. The live character "Cuddles the Clown" provided host continuity for "WACkY 32" programming. The station's children's lineup would dwindle over the years, thanks in part to increased cable competition from cable channels such as Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon and the decreased financial justification of airing a more-than-necessary amount of children's programming, although it would continue to air UPN's Disney's One Too until the network discontinued its daily children's block in 2003. After that, WACY would rely on general syndicated entertainment and infomercials for its daytime lineup.
One of WACY's most durable programs was called Who, What, When, Where, a show hosted by Oshkosh public-access television personalities Jim C. Hoffman and Dan Davies. Who, What, When, Where featured various interviews, advertisements (notably Ron and Lloyd's supermarket and WNAM radio), and entertainment sketches performed by Davies. The show would be rechristened N.E.W. Now (for "North East Wisconsin") in early 1997, its last year on the air. Later local shows on WACY included the legal affairs show It's the Law, produced by Hoffman and hosted by Oshkosh attorney George W. Curtis, and the Sunday morning polka music show Polka, Polka, Polka, which originated from a Manitowoc supper club/dance hall (Polka, Polka, Polka now airs on WCWF).
In 2004, Milwaukee-based Journal Communications (owner of that city's WTMJ-TV), purchased WGBA from Aries Telecommunications for $43.25 million. As part of the deal, Journal would take over the local marketing agreement with WACY, as well as acquire the option to purchase channel 32 from Ace TV if the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ever relaxed or waived its media ownership rules to allow the purchase."Journal Communications' Broadcast Group Completes Acquisition of Green Bay Television Station," press release from Journal Communications, July 10, 2004 (via The Free Library)
MyNetworkTV affiliation (2006–2022)
On February 22, 2006, News Corporation announced the launch of a new "sixth" network called MyNetworkTV, which would be operated by Fox Television Stations and its syndication division Twentieth Television. MyNetworkTV was created to compete against another upstart network that would launch at the same time that September, The CW (an amalgamated network that was originally consisted primarily of UPN and The WB's higher-rated programs) as well as to give UPN and WB stations that were not mentioned as becoming CW affiliates another option besides converting to independent stations.News Corp. Unveils MyNetworkTV, Broadcasting & Cable, February 22, 2006. WACY reached a turning point with the pending loss of UPN programming, as a result of the shutdown of the network and The CW's launch. The CW chose WIWB as its Green Bay affiliate, as that station's then-owner ACME Communications had a deep relationship with WB management (ACME's founder Jamie Kellner was a former president of The WB). On March 22, 2006, WACY announced that it would affiliate with MyNetworkTV, bringing channel 32's affiliation with a Fox-owned network full-circle.
After the 2005–06 television season ended, WACY began distancing itself from UPN, reducing its carriage of the network's programming on Monday through Thursdays to only one hour per night during the summer of 2006, with infomercials filling the dropped second hour. WACY severed ties with UPN completely on September 4 (the night prior to MyNetworkTV's debut), leaving WIWB to air the balance of UPN programming as a transitional secondary affiliation alongside its WB shows (including weekend airings of Veronica Mars and WWE Friday Night SmackDown).
After affiliating with MyNetworkTV, WACY adopted a new branding in late-July 2006, becoming "My New 32"—with "New" referring to both the "new" network, and as an abbreviation of "Northeast Wisconsin"—and in the process downplaying the WACY call sign (aside from official station identification) and abandoning the ace of spades logo that the station used in some form since its return to the air in 1994.
As far back as the latter years of WACY's UPN affiliation, the station aired a weekly high school football game featuring local schools on Friday nights in the fall (billed as Friday Night Thunder), with select University of Wisconsin–Green Bay men's and women's basketball games added in 2007. All sports broadcasts on WACY featured WGBA's sports anchors, while visual presentation depended on the in-house camera system from the arena where the game was played instead of station-owned cameras. The broadcasts of high school games were discontinued in 2008, in part due to the addition of SmackDown to MyNetworkTV's Friday night lineup and also due to a lean financial period for the stations during the Great Recession, at a time when WGBA's news and sports staff were cut back due to budget concerns, WTMJ began to take control of several of WGBA's newscasts, and infomercials occupied portions of WACY's programming schedule. Sports broadcasts would return to WACY in August 2011 under the N.E.W. Sports Showdown banner, featuring both high school sports as well as St. Norbert College athletics (added in 2011) from the archives of Green Bay Press-Gazette, April 6, 2011 and Wisconsin Timber Rattlers baseball (added in the spring of 2013 until 2017, returned/revived in 2024)."Timber Rattlers Announce 2013 TV Broadcast Schedule," press release from Wisconsin Timber Rattlers via OurSportsCentral, February 18, 2013
A late-night feature that aired on WACY's weekend lineup was the movie program Ned the Dead. Hosted by the ghoulish "Ned" (played by local actor and radio personality Steve Brenzel), the show – which began on WLUK-TV in the 1980s as Ned the Dead's Chiller Theater before eventually moving to WACY – featured presentations of B-movies (mainly sci-fi or horror features from the 1950s), with "Ned" providing wraparound segments of comic relief. Over the years, Ned would move toward airings of low-budget color films and additional segments of Ned and his colorful troupe of sidekicks."Green Bay fixture Ned the Dead likes show's makeover," from Green Bay Press-Gazette archives Though Ned the Dead would move around WACY's schedule during its time on the station, the show aired mainly at 11 p.m. on Saturdays and was sponsored by the Van Vredee's chain of local furniture/appliance stores (Brenzel serves as the stores' spokesperson). Ned the Dead ended its WACY run on December 12, 2010.
2012 full purchase of station by Journal