WISE-TV
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Fort Wayne, Indiana United States |
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| Branding | Fort Wayne CW |
| Slogan | Dare to Defy |
| Channels |
Digital: 18 (UHF) Virtual: 33 (PSIP) |
| Subchannels | 33.1 CW+ 33.2 Live Max Radar |
| Affiliations | The CW (via The CW Plus; 2016–present) |
| Owner |
SagamoreHill Broadcasting (SagamoreHill of Indiana Licenses, LLC) |
| First air date | November 21, 1953 |
| Call letters' meaning | WISE or "wisdom" |
| Former callsigns | WKJG-TV (1953–2003) |
| Former channel number(s) |
Analog: 33 (UHF, 1953–2009) |
| Former affiliations |
DT1: NBC (1953–2016) DT2: MyNetworkTV (2006–2016) |
| Transmitter power | 285 kW |
| Height | 239.3 m |
| Facility ID | 13960 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 41°5′39.4″N 85°10′35.5″W / 41.094278°N 85.176528°W |
| Licensing authority | FCC |
| Public license information: |
Profile CDBS |
| Website | yourcwtv |
WISE-TV, channel 33, is a television station for Fort Wayne, Indiana. Owned by SagamoreHill Broadcasting, WISE-TV is an affiliate of The CW.
WISE-TV originally operated as an NBC affiliate from its establishment through 2016, where as the result of Quincy Media's acquisition of WPTA-TV (which had previously been operated by WISE's former owner, Granite Broadcasting, as part of a shared services agreement), the NBC affiliation became the property of Quincy and was moved to WPTA's second digital subchannel in exchange for its CW affiliation.
The station was founded on November 21, 1953 with the call letters WKJG-TV. It was the first television station in Fort Wayne and affiliated with NBC. The station was owned by William Kunkle, owner of The Journal Gazette newspaper (with both entities forming the call letters), WKJG radio (AM 1380 and FM 97.3), and other television stations. On September 30, 1971, the radio stations were sold. Their call letters became WMEE and WMEF-FM respectively. Today, the FM station has the calls WMEE. The AM station went through a variety of call signs including WQHK, WHWD, and WONO. It went back to the original WKJG on November 3, 2003 and to this day, is Fort Wayne's ESPN Radio affiliate. However, both radio stations are owned by a different company and have no connection with the television station. The first person seen on television in Fort Wayne was Hilliard Gates, who doubled as a sportscaster for the station until his retirement in 1993. John Siemer, a newscaster and announcer at the station, was known at that time as "Engineer John" who introduced cartoons.
For a time, WKJG-TV was owned by Thirty Three Inc, a Tony Hulman company. That broadcaster also owned two other television stations in Indiana, WTHI-TV in Terre Haute and WNDY-TV in Indianapolis. When Hulman died in 1977, WKJG became owned by Joseph R. Cloutier, who had been a Terre Haute-based long time employee of Hulman's company. After Cloutier's death, a trust fund called the Corporation for General Trade was formed, with Cloutier's son Joseph A. Cloutier as majority owner with a 51% stake. That company continued to own WKJG until it was sold in 2003.
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