WPRO

**WPRO** (digital channel 19, virtual channel 49) is the CBS-affiliated television station for Milwaukee, Wisconsin. WPRO is owned and operated by Atlantic South Communications.

## History

WPRO first began broadcasting on April 30, 1975 as **WXCT**. The station was originally owned and operated by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee. WXCT's schedule originally consisted primarily of religious programming, though it did offer a limited selection of locally-produced secular programs. These included a few lifestyle shows, public access programs, the occasional telethon, and a weekly news recap show simply titled *This Week*. This program was the station's only news program prior to joining CBS. *This Week* ended its run in 2003.

By the end of the decade, the Archdiocese encountered difficulties acquiring enough funds necessary to operate the station. In 1981, WXCT was sold to Chicago, Illinois businessman Rick Grover and his newly-founded Grover Television Company. Under new ownership, the amount of religious programming on the schedule was greatly reduced (though religious programs were never removed entirely) and WXCT began its transformation to a standard general entertainment independent. By the start of 1982, WXCT began airing cartoons, movies, off-network reruns (both classic and recent), game shows, some local high school sports, and music videos. One additional locally-produced program added to the schedule was *Fun Frenzy*, which first aired in 1985 as a variety program for children that was incorporated into the station's daily cartoon blocks. The program featured a live studio audience of elementary-school aged children, which was common for such programs at one point in time. Segments in-between cartoons included minigames, giveaways, popular music videos of the time, as well as a cast of side characters that would perform comedy skits and interact with the hosts and audience. *Fun Frenzy* ended in 1995, when the station affiliated with CBS.

WXCT became a charter affiliate of the Fox Broadcasting Company when that network launched in October 1986. Initially, WXCT was still essentially considered an independent station as Fox wouldn't offer a full week's worth of programming until 1993. In 1987, WXCT adopted the on-air moniker of "Fox 49." In 1990, the aforementioned *Fun Frenzy* was incorporated into the recently-launched Fox Kids block as well as WXCT's own Fox Kids Club.

In 1994, longtime CBS affiliate WUAK (channel 4) announced it would become Milwaukee's Fox affiliate the following year. Shortly after the announcement, it was decided that WXCT would take over the CBS affiliation from WUAK. This decision soon came to overwhelm Grover Television Company. One reason was because joining CBS meant WXCT had to put together a news operation, and Grover didn't have the resources to do so. As such, Grover quickly cut a deal to sell WXCT to Roanoke, Virginia-based GV Media Properties (now Atlantic South Communications) the same year. GV then got to work on the makeover process, including the establishment of a full news department.

WXCT officially joined CBS in 1995, at which point the station's call letters were changed to the current **WPRO**. The news department was launched at the same time.

## Programming

WPRO clears the entire CBS schedule. Syndicated programming on WPRO includes *Entertainment Tonight*, *The Drew Barrymore Show*, and *You Bet Your Life* among others.

## Digital Television

On August 15, 2017, WPRO moved GetTV programming to its DT3 subchannel and Escape (now Court TV Mystery) programming to a new DT4 subchannel. WPRO-DT2 became Milwaukee's affiliate of XTV once that channel launched on September 17.

WPRO's broadcasts are digital-only as of June 11, 2009.