Early years The station that is currently WBME-CD had existed in one way or another since the early 1980s on low-power
translator stations: first on
UHF channel 55 as W55AS, then by 1989, moving to channel 65 as W65BT. The station has been owned by
Weigel Broadcasting since it signed on the air. Until the late 1990s, the station would air the
Stock Market Observer business news block, which was produced by
Chicago sister station
WCIU-TV, from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.; in fact, the station launched as a full translator of WCIU, receiving that station via a microwave link between WCIU's transmitter on the
Sears Tower and a receiver dish atop the
First Wisconsin/Firstar Center, and was Weigel's first successful attempt since trying to acquire the
channel 49 license in
Racine in 1965 to establish a station in Milwaukee. At night, the station ran a mix of
home shopping programs,
infomercials,
religious shows, Spanish programming from
Univision (before the launch of W46AR in 1990) and low-cost programming, including plenty of
public domain and low-cost films. The station was watched by few because of insufficient cable carriage and better television choices in the Milwaukee market, along with Weigel trying to establish WDJT's presence in the market, especially after acquiring the market's
CBS affiliation from
WITI (channel 6) in December 1994. A harbinger of the station's future happened that month, when some of WDJT's syndicated programming that would have aired during CBS timeslots moved over to W65BT after the switch to fulfill existing contracts for those programs. In 1999, Weigel obtained construction permits for new channel positions in the wake of having to move its Milwaukee low-power operations (which included then-Univision station W46AR (channel 46; now
Telemundo affiliate
WYTU-LD, channel 63) to accommodate WDJT's
digital signal on channel 46, along with the inauguration of Weigel's new Lincoln Park transmitter for WDJT and the low-power stations, which united the company's transmitter operations into one facility. Towards the end of September 2000, the programming from channel 65 moved to the new channel 41 under the callsign W41CI, with the station's on-air brand becoming "TV-41". In its first year, the station improved its programming, airing Weigel/
Bridge Information Systems' WebFN
financial news service during the day, and entertainment programs at night. The
America One network aired during the overnight and morning hours (also to fulfill
educational programming requirements), along with local news updates produced by WDJT that aired throughout the day. Then in mid-November 2001, channel 41 would acquire
low-power status, allowing it to have a lettered call sign, which would end up being WMLW-LP (the WMLW call letters were previously used from 1982 to August 1989 by
Watertown radio station
WJJO (94.1 FM), with the calls standing for "mellow" as part of that station's then-
soft rock format).
As an independent station In 2002, the station began transitioning to become more of a true
independent station, with the WebFN venture folding in the wake of the
dot-com crash, freeing up the 7 a.m.–5 p.m. timeslot for other programming. Weigel acquired more syndicated programs for the station and found itself in a unique position as Milwaukee's only true independent television station.
Sinclair Broadcast Group–owned
WVTV (channel 18) and
WCGV-TV (channel 24) decided to focus more on their
WB and
UPN programming (which were later replaced by
The CW and
MyNetworkTV in September 2006) instead of running occasional sports coverage (which often preempted the network schedules, much to the annoyance of the local fanbases of each of the two network's shows); WCGV retained broadcast rights for the
Milwaukee Bucks until the end of the 2006–07 season, and took themselves out of the race for local college and high school sports rights; there was also a lack of interest on the part of
FSN North, which wanted to focus on teams with statewide interest, not just within the Milwaukee metro area. Therefore, Weigel decided to use channel 41 in order to take the rights for these sporting events and use the lure of the teams to gain carriage on local cable providers, knowing that it would be the only way to make channel 41 a viable player in Milwaukee broadcasting.
Time Warner Cable was strongly opposed to adding channel 41 to its Southeastern Wisconsin systems, arguing that the station was not a full-power signal and the sports were only a lure to add another unneeded station to their lineups. This came after
must-carry rules pushed them to air religious station
WWRS-TV (channel 52), and move Madison's PBS member station,
WHA-TV, to
digital cable to free up a basic channel. Weigel then encouraged viewers to call and write TWC and
Charter Communications to add the station to their lineups in the wake of being the Milwaukee station that would air the
WIAA high school basketball championships, using promotions on WDJT and in local newspapers to send the message. After much campaigning, Charter decided to add WMLW to its basic cable service (channel 8 in most cities, channel 21 in
Sheboygan), with Time Warner Cable carrying the station only over digital cable at first, allowing the WIAA coverage to be seen on cable at some level. A compromise would later be reached between Weigel and TWC as a part of
retransmission consent negotiations for WDJT, and the station would become a part of the basic package throughout TWC's service area, moving from digital channel 741 to basic channel 7 in the fall of 2003. After securing cable carriage, the station began to identify only by the WMLW call letters and rarely mentioned its over-the-air channel number except in a few promotions, and visually in
FCC-required
identifications. WMLW would drop America One programming in 2002, and began programming the entire day shortly thereafter. In mid-September 2003, WMLW became a
Class A television station and added the "-CA" suffix to their call letters. In September 2004,
Fox's
4Kids TV block moved to the station from WCGV, after that station decided to stop carrying Fox children's programming, the block aired on WMLW in lieu of WITI, which had no interest in airing the Fox-supplied children's programming. After the block was discontinued in December 2008, WMLW and WITI refused to carry the replacement
Weekend Marketplace paid programming block, which is unseen in the market. Local musical artist
Pat McCurdy is the songwriter and singer of the station's former
jingle and
theme song as an independent station, "wmlw means Milwaukee". The station had a minor logo change in December 2010, keeping the same general theme but utilizing a different font.
Station swap with WMLW On August 7, 2012, WBME and WMLW each swapped channel allocations. WBME's callsign (whose "-TV" suffix was changed to a "-CA" suffix with the swap) and MeTV affiliation moved from full-power channel 49 to low-power channel 41, while the WMLW call letters, and the syndicated and
brokered programming inventory seen on channel 41 were moved to channel 49 as WMLW-TV. The move to the full-power channel 49 license allowed WMLW to broadcast in
high definition for the first time. Since the channel 41 signal is a low-power allocation, MeTV programming is relayed on the 58.2 subchannel of WDJT-TV that relayed WMLW's programming prior to the swap. Sometime in early 2013, a late-night rebroadcast of WDJT's 10 p.m. newscast began airing on WBME-CD at 12:30 a.m. (1:00 a.m. on early Monday mornings), replacing MeTV's national broadcast of
Night Gallery. This is likely to meet the station's Class A license requirements, and a glut of programming on WDJT and WMLW making the rebroadcast unattainable on those stations.
Return of WMLW On September 12, 2017, in a TVNewsCheck story about the purchase by Weigel of
KAZA-TV in Los Angeles, it was revealed that WMLW, which Weigel had sold the spectrum of in the 2016 FCC spectrum auction, would see their channels moved to the channel space of WBME-CD at the start of 2018. Sinclair, Weigel and
Milwaukee PBS decided on a switch date of January 8 for their various local spectrum moves, and WMLW moved to WBME-CD's bandwidth at around 5 a.m. that morning. WMLW remained on its existing 49.1 position, with the WYTU-LD market-wide simulcast moving to WDJT-DT4, and Decades to WBME-CD2 (MeTV remained on 41.1). This TV moved to WYTU-LD2. WBME-CD continues to carry MeTV on 41.1, along with the 58.2 market-wide simulcast.
MeTV FM cross-promotion On August 15, 2018, local
Entercom station
WMYX-FM (99.1) entered an agreement with Envision Networks to begin carrying Weigel's
gold adult contemporary radio format
MeTV FM (which is nationally distributed by Envision and matches the main Chicago playlist song-for-song) over WMYX's second
HD Radio subchannel, which is
cross-promoted by Weigel with WBME-CD, and the first market outside Chicago to carry both a MeTV station and a MeTV FM station. ==Technical information==