WTMJ Milwaukee

A blackout of Journal Broadcast Group’s WTMJ Milwaukee on Time Warner Cable systems has dragged on for 55 days and has become a line in the sand in the national battle between broadcasters and pay-TV services over fees, programming and viewers.

Three frustrated Time Warner Cable customers on Thursday sued the cable TV provider over its decision last month to drop Journal Broadcast-owned NBC affiliate WTMJ Milwaukee from its lineup. TWC dropped WTMJ on July 25 over a retrans contract dispute. Both companies have been running public relations campaigns ever since trying to convince the public the other side is making unreasonable demands.

Football fans in Wisconsin aren’t letting the blackout of Journal Broadcasting stations on Time Warner Cable systems get in the way of watching the year’s first preseason Packers game against the Arizona Cardinals on Friday. Many have been shopping for antennas and, if people have older TVs, digital TV converter boxes, so they can watch NBC affiliate WTMJ Milwaukee over the air.

A Milwaukee police officer is suing the Milwaukee NBC affiliate and parent Journal Broadcast Group, saying WTMJ promoted and aired a story that put him in a bad light even though the station knew he had done nothing wrong.

A story Milwaukee NBC affiliate WTMJ promoted for sweeps as “an explosive I-Team investigation months in the making” about a Milwaukee police officer taking money from a man at an ATM has landed the station in hot water with the Milwaukee police chief.

The blog NewscastStudio.com is currently hosting the second round of its “Set Madness” tournament that lets readers decide which set has the best design.

Some question whether the appearance of news anchors in a commercial that at least indirectly promotes an advertiser treads on the line dividing news from advertising.

Milwaukee TV stations covered Sunday’s shootings at a Sikh temple with varying degrees of speed and accuracy. There were conflicting reports of the numbers of victims and gunmen throughout the morning. And WTMJ grappled with a unique dilemma: whether to show news of a breaking local story of national significance or continue with NBC’s Olympics coverage.

Three TV stations in Milwaukee are not only battling it out in the November ratings, but also for Facebook likes. At last check, WISN has 28,605 likes, WTMJ has 43,660, but WITI comes out on top with a whopping 85,153, ranked No.6 in Lost Remote’s leaderboard of the most popular Facebook pages in local TV. Impressive for the nation’s 34th largest market.

If I worked in the newsroom at WTMJ-TV, I would be ashamed to show my face in public after the new stunt the station has created to get more viewers. The ratings period starts Thursday and the station is going to give away an iPad every night of the ratings period. All you have to do is “like” the station’s Facebook page and then watch the news at 10 when John Malan will announce the winner.