View source for WBAY-TV

{{Short description|Television station in Green Bay, Wisconsin}}
{{redirect|Action 2 News|other stations with similar branding|Action News#Stations that use or have used the Action News format or name{{!}}Action News}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox television station
| callsign = WBAY-TV
| logo = WBAY-TV logo.svg
| logo_size = 200px
| logo_alt = A logo with two different circular elements; a black ABC logo, then the station's main numerical logo, which features a numerical gray-gradient "2" inset into a thick circle of the same color. A contrasting dark red gradient fills in the space between the circle and the "2"
| branding = WBAY-TV 2; ''Action 2 News''
| digital = 23 ([[UHF]])
| virtual = 2
| subchannels = 
| affiliations = {{ubl|'''2.1:''' [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]|''for others, see {{section link||Subchannels}}''}}
| location = [[Green Bay, Wisconsin]]
| country = United States
| owner = [[Gray Media]]
| licensee = Gray Television Licensee, [[LLC]]
| airdate = {{start date and age|1953|03|17|p=y|br=yes}}
| callsign_meaning = Green Bay (callsign taken from former sister radio station WBAY (AM), now [[WTAQ]])
| former_channel_numbers = {{ubl|'''Analog:''' 2 ([[VHF]], 1953–2009)}}
| former_affiliations = {{ubl|[[CBS]] (1953–1992)|ABC (secondary, 1953–January 1954)|[[NBC]] (secondary, 1953–September 1954)|[[DuMont Television Network|DuMont]] (secondary, 1953–1956){{cn|date=August 2022}}|[[NTA Film Network|NTA]] (secondary, 1956–1961)|[[Overmyer Network|United]] (secondary, 1967)}}
| erp = 1,000 [[kW]]
| haat = {{convert|372|m|ft|0|abbr=on}}
| facility_id = 74417
| coordinates = {{coord|44|24|34.6|N|88|0|6.7|W|type:landmark_scale:2000}}
| licensing_authority = [[FCC]]
| website = {{URL|https://www.wbay.com/}}
}}

'''WBAY-TV''' (channel 2) is a [[television station]] in [[Green Bay, Wisconsin]], United States, affiliated with [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] and owned by [[Gray Media]]. The station's studios are located on South Jefferson Street in downtown Green Bay (across from the historic [[Brown County Courthouse (Wisconsin)|Brown County Courthouse]]), with a [[Fox Cities]] [[news bureau]] on College Avenue on the west side of [[Appleton, Wisconsin|Appleton]], just south of [[Fox River Mall]]; its transmitter is located in [[Ledgeview, Wisconsin]].

==History==

=== As a CBS affiliate (1953–1992) ===
[[File:WBAYTVMidwestRadioGreenBayWisconsinStudiosMay2007.jpg|thumb|left|Studios in 2007.]]
The only television station broadcasting in Wisconsin prior to the FCC's [[Federal Communications Commission#Freeze of 1948|1948 freeze on television licenses]] was [[WTMJ-TV]] in [[Milwaukee]]. After the FCC's freeze ended in 1952, WBAY-TV became the second television station on the air in the state, on March 17, 1953.<ref>{{cite news |title=WBAY-TV Goes On Air Tonight |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/green-bay-press-gazette-wbay-tv-goes-on/183163042/ |access-date=October 17, 2025 |newspaper=Green Bay Press-Gazette |date=May 26, 1948 |location=Green Bay, Wisconsin |page=1 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> WBAY-TV was originally owned by the [[Norbertine]] Order of Priests, whose abbey is in nearby [[De Pere]]. The priests run [[St. Norbert College]] in De Pere, and already operated WBAY radio (1360 AM, now [[WTAQ]]) in Green Bay and [[WHBY]] radio in Appleton. Like WTMJ when that station started in 1947 – as the only station in the market – WBAY originally carried programming from all four networks of the day – channel 2 was a primary [[CBS]] affiliate with secondary affiliations with [[NBC]], [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] and [[DuMont Television Network|DuMont]].

ABC moved to WNAM-TV (channel 42, now [[WFRV-TV]] on channel 5) in [[Neenah]] when it started up in January 1954.<ref>{{cite news |title=WNAM-TV To Go On Air January 26 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/news-record-wnam-tv-to-go-on-air-january/183163475/ |access-date=October 17, 2025 |newspaper=Twin City News-Record |date=January 5, 1954 |location=Neenah, Wisconsin |page=1 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> Then, NBC moved to [[Marinette, Wisconsin|Marinette]]'s WMBV-TV (channel 11, now [[Fox Broadcasting Company|Fox]] affiliate [[WLUK-TV]]) when it signed on in September of that year.<ref>{{cite news |title=WMBV-TV |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-post-crescent-wmbv-tv/171299736/ |access-date=April 28, 2025 |newspaper=The Post-Crescent |date=September 9, 1954 |location=Appleton, Wisconsin |page=14 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> With the shutdown of DuMont in August 1956, WBAY was left as an exclusive CBS affiliate. The station upgraded its transmitter and began broadcasting network programming in color in the fall of 1956.<ref>{{Cite news|date=May 30, 1956|title=TV Laughter No Joke, Now Serious Problem|pages=3|work=The Post-Crescent|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/60765428/tv-laughter-no-joke-now-serious-problem/|access-date=October 9, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=November 17, 1956|title=Our Mr. Sun (advertisement)|pages=5|work=The Post-Crescent|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/60765819/our-mr-sun-advertisement/|access-date=October 9, 2020}}</ref> WBAY-TV would remain the only station licensed to Green Bay proper until the 1959 relocation of WLUK to the city. Locally produced programs were broadcast in color starting in 1966.

The station's studios in downtown Green Bay were built in 1924 as a former [[Knights of Columbus]] clubhouse and later was turned into a private [[Roman Catholic]] [[high school]] during the [[Great Depression]] when the Norbertines took over the building. The former gymnasium/auditorium is now called the WBAY Auditorium and is used as the studio for the station's [[cerebral palsy]] [[telethon]]. During the early years of WBAY, it served as the main studio until 1954 when an addition was built behind the main building. The auditorium has also been used for local theatrical productions. The station's newsroom is in the basement of the building in an area that originally held a [[swimming (sport)|swimming]] pool and [[bowling]] alley. The WBAY building also served as the home of the WBAY radio stations (now WTAQ and [[WIXX]]), which were later purchased by [[Midwest Communications]] in the late 1970s, but remained in the building until Midwest built a combined Green Bay operations facility/company headquarters in 2007 and a news-weather sharing agreement was maintained between WBAY-TV and its former radio sisters for many years before it was discontinued in favor of an agreement with WLUK-TV.

As a CBS affiliate, WBAY-TV benefited from that network's [[NFL on CBS|coverage]] of [[National Football League]] games, primarily those of the [[Green Bay Packers]]. The station carried its first Packers game a few months after signing on, and continued to air most Packers games until 1991 by virtue of CBS holding the rights to the Packers' conference, the [[National Football Conference]] (for the 1992 and 1993 seasons, Packers games moved to WFRV when that station switched to CBS). Packers games drew up to a 90 percent share of the audience during the team's championship era of the 1960s under [[Vince Lombardi]] (including the team's first two Super Bowl triumphs in [[Super Bowl I]] and [[Super Bowl II]], the former of which was also carried by then-NBC affiliate WFRV), and the station carried the team's coaches' show ''The Vince Lombardi Show.'' The station also originated the team's exhibition game coverage from the 1960s to 2002, with some exceptions. Main anchor Bill Jartz has been [[Lambeau Field]]'s [[PA system]] announcer since the start of the 2005–2006 season. The station continued to air ''[[Monday Night Football]]'' Packer games originating from [[ESPN]] beginning with the move of ''MNF'' to cable starting with the 2006 until the 2015 season. For the 2016 season, WLUK-TV, the Packers' primary home by virtue of [[Fox NFL|Fox presently holding the rights to the NFC]], acquired the syndication rights to the ESPN games under a multi-year agreement.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://fox11online.com/sports/packers-and-nfl/fox-11-to-air-hall-of-fame-game-packers-mnf-games|title=FOX 11 to air Hall of Fame Game, Packers MNF games|date=July 6, 2016|publisher=WLUK-TV|access-date=July 7, 2016}}</ref> It was the first time that WBAY did not broadcast a Packers game during an NFL season in its 63-year history, and the station would not carry another Packers game until [[2022 Green Bay Packers season|December 19, 2022]], a home matchup with the [[2022 Los Angeles Rams season|Los Angeles Rams]], as ABC began to simulcast select ''Monday Night Football'' games with ESPN.

In 1974, WBAY was sold to [[Nationwide Communications]], which operated the station until 1993, when it was sold to [[Young Broadcasting]] along with its two ABC-affiliated sisters [[WATE-TV]] in [[Knoxville, Tennessee]], and [[WRIC-TV]] in [[Richmond, Virginia]].

=== As an ABC affiliate (1992–present) ===
In 1991, CBS purchased the assets of Midwest Television to acquire its long-dominant affiliate in [[Minneapolis–Saint Paul]], [[WCCO-TV]]. Midwest also owned channel 2's longtime competitor, WFRV. CBS considered WBAY a strong affiliate, and tried to sell WFRV and their [[Escanaba, Michigan]]–based satellite station, [[WJMN-TV]], after the deal with Midwest closed. However, after FCC rules were relaxed at the time to allow one company to own more stations, the network decided to keep the two stations as a result and switched WFRV/WJMN to CBS in 1992 (CBS sold WFRV/WJMN to [[Liberty Media]] in 2007, which in turn sold the stations to [[Nexstar Media Group]] in 2011, Nexstar sold WJMN to Sullivan's Landing in 2024 and that station is now operated by [[Morgan Murphy Media]] and again an ABC affiliate as the satellite of [[WBUP]]).

After it was announced that WFRV would join CBS, channel 2 then decided to take WFRV/WJMN's ABC affiliation; WBAY management insisted that the change take place on or near the anniversary of its sign-on date, March 17. Since that date fell on a Tuesday in 1992, WFRV and WBAY swapped networks on March 15, which fell on a Sunday.<ref>{{cite news|last=Gerds|first=Warren|date=February 6, 1992|title=Get ready to flip channels|pages=A-1, [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/63697715/ A-2]|work=Green Bay Press-Gazette|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/63697735/|access-date=November 20, 2020|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> This brought WBAY-TV's ABC affiliation in line with sister stations WATE-TV in Knoxville and WRIC-TV in Richmond, which had recently renewed their ABC relationships.

The station formerly preempted the first hour of the ABC lineup (7–8 p.m. [[Central Time Zone|Central]]) on Tuesday evenings during the football season to carry the local program ''Tuesday Night Touchback'', which was formerly known as ''Monday Night Countdown'' before it was moved in 2007 because of ''[[Dancing with the Stars (American TV series)|Dancing with the Stars]]'' and the departure of ''Monday Night Football'' from ABC (for most of the 2000s, the slot was among the lowest-rated on ABC's prime time schedule, as was the case with the pre-''MNF'' timeslot). Programs normally seen during that hour then aired later on early Wednesday morning after ''[[Jimmy Kimmel Live!]]'' during the football season. However, in November 2009, this was changed temporarily due to viewer feedback involving the preemption of the series premiere of ''[[V (2009 TV series)|V]]'', which forced that program to be aired after the Saturday 10 p.m. newscast; for the remainder of November, ''V'' aired at 7 p.m., while ''Tuesday Night Touchback'' preempted ''[[The Insider (TV series)|The Insider]]'' and aired before prime time in a truncated half-hour format. The station's football coverage eventually was merged into the station's newscasts, along with occasional special coverage which is usually contained to Friday evenings and preempts ''[[Shark Tank]]''.{{cn|date=August 2022}}

On December 1, 2004, WBAY launched their first permanent digital subchannel service, an internally-run full-time weather feed known then as "Stormcenter 2 24/7", now "First Alert Weather 24/7", featuring a four-pane display of rolling weather conditions, forecasts, traffic reports and advertisements; a seven-day outlook; current radar; and real-time current observations from the regional network of [[WeatherBug]] reporting stations. It has never been associated with a national weather network and is run and maintained by the station's meteorologists. It simulcasts the main WBAY channel and goes into a commercial-free format during severe weather events. 

Previously, WBAY-DT2 had been activated in the summer of 2004, carrying [[ABC News Live|ABC News Now]] during the [[2004 Republican National Convention|Republican]] and [[2004 Democratic National Convention|Democratic]] conventions, along with that year's [[2004 United States presidential election|presidential election]]. It also broke format in the spring and summer of 2006 to carry gavel-to-gavel coverage of [[Steven Avery#Teresa Halbach murder|Steven Avery's trial for the murder of Teresa Halbach]], and until the move of special coverage to a secondary webfeed, did so for other trials of interest.

WBAY was one of seven Young-owned stations whose management and operations were handled by [[Gray Television]] as part of a proposed takeover of Young Broadcasting by its secured creditors (a plan tentatively approved by a New York bankruptcy judge on July 22, 2009; it was approved in late April 2010<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/451854-Gray_TV_Back_in_Business_With_Young_Stations.php|title=Gray TV Back in Business With Young Stations}}</ref>). Under Gray management, this made it a semi-sister station in Wisconsin to NBC affiliates [[WMTV]] in [[Madison, Wisconsin|Madison]] and [[WEAU]] in [[Eau Claire, Wisconsin|Eau Claire]], and CBS affiliate [[WSAW-TV]] in [[Wausau, Wisconsin|Wausau]]. The Gray management agreement ended in 2012 as Young returned to some financial stability and the pursuit of a sale partner.

In late January 2010, the station stopped [[sign-on and sign-off|signing off]] during the early morning hours on Saturdays and Sundays, after a major transmitter problem forced the station to reconsider this mode of operation. WBAY was the last commercial station in the state to start broadcasting 24 hours a day daily, the former off-hours on WBAY's main signal are now taken up by a simulcast of WBAY-DT2.

==== Sale to Media General, then Nexstar and resale to Gray Television (2013–present) ====
On June 6, 2013, Young Broadcasting announced that it would merge with [[Media General]]. The sale was approved on November 8, and consummated on November 12.<ref name="tvnc-youngmgcomplete">{{cite news|title=Media General, Young Now Officially One|url=http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/71928/media-general-young-now-officially-one|access-date=November 12, 2013|newspaper=TVNewsCheck|date=November 12, 2013}}</ref> At that time it became both Media General's first station in Wisconsin and the Upper Midwest, and the company's northernmost asset.

On March 21, 2014, [[LIN Media]] entered into an agreement to merge with Media General in a $1.6 billion deal. Because LIN already owned WLUK-TV and [[The CW|CW]] affiliate [[WCWF]] (channel 14), with WBAY and WLUK ranking among the four highest-rated stations in the Green Bay market in total day viewership, the companies were required to sell either WBAY or WLUK to another station owner in order to comply with FCC ownership rules as well as planned changes to those rules regarding same-market television stations which would prohibit [[local marketing agreement|sharing agreements]].<ref>[https://variety.com/2014/tv/news/tv-station-mega-merger-media-general-lin-set-1-6-billion-deal-1201141567/ TV Station Mega Merger: Media General, LIN Set $1.6 Billion Deal] from ''Variety'' (March 21, 2014)</ref><ref>[http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-lin-media-general-merge-20140321,0,5277028.story Media General acquiring LIN Media for $1.6 billion], ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', March 21, 2014.</ref><ref>[http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/74959/media-genlin-to-sellswap-in-five-markets Media Gen/LIN To Sell/Swap In Five Markets], ''TVNewsCheck'', March 21, 2014.</ref> On August 20, 2014, Media General announced that it would retain WBAY, trading WLUK and WCWF to [[Sinclair Broadcast Group]] as part of several exchanges between other broadcast groups.<ref name=tvnc-wluksinclair>{{cite news|title=Media General, LIN Sell Stations In 5 Markets|url=http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/78615/media-general-lin-sell-stations-in-5-markets|access-date=August 20, 2014|work=TVNewsCheck|date=August 20, 2014}}</ref>

On January 27, 2016, Media General announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Nexstar Broadcasting Group.<ref name=tvnc-mgnexstar>{{cite web|title=Nexstar-Media General: It's A Done Deal|url=http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/91865/nexstarmedia-general-its-a-done-deal|website=TVNewsCheck|access-date=January 27, 2016|date=January 27, 2016}}</ref><ref name=nyt-mgnex>{{cite news|title=Nexstar Clinches Deal to Acquire Media General|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/28/business/dealbook/nexstar-clinches-deal-to-acquire-media-general.html?_r=0|access-date=January 27, 2016|work=The New York Times| date=January 27, 2016 | last1=Picker | first1=Leslie }}</ref> Because Nexstar already owned WFRV, it was required to sell that station or WBAY to another owner, though with the financial outlay Nexstar had invested into WFRV since its 2011 purchase, a swap for WBAY was unlikely despite the latter's first-place market ranking.

On June 3, 2016, it was announced that Nexstar would retain WFRV, selling WBAY to Gray Television for $270 million; this time in addition to the original Gray stations in the 2010 management deal, WBAY also became a sister station to CBS affiliate WSAW-TV and Fox affiliate [[WZAW-LD]] in Wausau, and dual NBC/Fox affiliate [[WLUC-TV]] in Marquette (which had been an on-and-off sister station to WLUK over the years), which Gray acquired more recently.<ref name=tvnc-graymc>{{cite web|title=Gray Buying Two Nexstar Spinoffs For $270M|url=http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/95259/gray-buying-two-nexstar-spinoffs-for-270m|website=TVNewsCheck|access-date=June 3, 2016|date=June 3, 2016 |last1=Miller |first1=Mark K. }}</ref><ref name=bc-graymediageneral>{{cite news|first=Diana|last=Marszalek|url=http://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/local-tv/gray-buys-nexstar-stations-green-bay-davenport/157035|title=Gray Buys Nexstar Stations in Green Bay, Davenport|work=[[Broadcasting & Cable]]|publisher=[[NewBay Media]], [[LLC]]|date=June 3, 2016|access-date=June 18, 2016}}</ref> The sale was closed on January 17, 2017, with a possible removal of WBAY on [[Dish Network]] due to Gray's previous [[retransmission consent]] deal ending averted with a renewal only hours later. The ownership transaction saw WBAY remove the Media General-mandated infotainment program ''Hollywood Today Live'' from their schedule (airing in late night on tape delay rather than in the mid-afternoon; the program was canceled at the end of April) after March 3, along with Gray taking control of the station's website and mobile apps. With WBAY now having sister stations statewide, Gray began to distribute WBAY's Sunday night sports show, ''Sunday Sports Night: Cover 2'', to their other stations with the start of the [[2017 NFL season]].

The station sponsors the yearly "WBAY Boat Show" and the "WBAY [[RV]] and [[Camping]] Show", both held in the winter months, formerly at the [[Brown County Arena]]/[[Shopko]] Hall (which moved to the new [[Brown County Expo Center|expo center in 2021]]), along with a [[Boy Scouts of America|Boy Scout]] door-to-door food drive ("[[Scouting for Food]]") in the fall, and the market's [[Toys for Tots]] effort with the [[Marine Corps Reserve]].

==Programming==
===Cerebral Palsy Telethon===
WBAY holds the record for the longest running telethon on the same channel, as it airs the CP Telethon, which has been broadcast on the station since 1954 and benefits Cerebral Palsy, Inc., a local organization involved in the care of cerebral palsy patients and which provides a number of services from their facilities in Green Bay, [[Suamico]], [[Kimberly, Wisconsin|Kimberly]], and [[Two Rivers, Wisconsin|Two Rivers]]. The telethon airs for 22 hours from 8 p.m. Saturday to 6 p.m. Sunday during the first weekend in March, although prior to WBAY switching to 24-hour daily broadcasts in 2010, it broke between midnight and 6 a.m., as the station signed off in the overnight hours on weekends (the break allowed WBAY's Saturday syndicated programming to air without interruption). Past hosts of the telethon have included [[Gloria DeHaven]], [[Raymond Burr]], [[Dennis James]] (who would later host the [[United Cerebral Palsy]] national telethon), [[Dennis Weaver]],<ref>{{cite book|last1=Fuller|first1=Jason R.|title=I will sing my songs again : the inconceivable life story of Ronnie Fuller|date=2004|publisher=iUniverse|location=New York [u.a.]|isbn=0595313272|page=20|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YtWTEAd9CeUC&q=cerebral+palsy+telethon+wbay&pg=PA20}}</ref> and [[Tom Wopat]]. Currently, the telethon is a local-only effort, using local broadcasters and people to host the broadcast, and the funds raised benefit the local organization. Before the sale of the WBAY stations by the Norbertine Fathers, the telethon was [[simulcast]] over WBAY (AM) (later WGEE, now WTAQ) and WBAY-FM (now WIXX).

WBAY's cerebral palsy telethon both pre-dated and succeeded the national telethon for United Cerebral Palsy, which ran on numerous stations nationwide from the mid-1970s to 1997.

===Sunday Mass===
The station continues to air a [[Sunday Mass]] on Sunday mornings, as it has since signing on under the ownership of the Norbertine Fathers. After the sale of the station, however, the [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Green Bay]] began producing the Mass at WBAY's studio. The Diocese provided a presider, [[choir]], liturgical coordinator, and producer while WBAY provided camera operators, a [[technical director]] and audio technician.

On December 27, 2009, the Diocese of Green Bay ended local production of the Mass, instead choosing to contract with the Passionist Spiritual Center to carry their nationally syndicated Mass program from [[Riverhead (CDP), New York|Riverhead, New York]], by mutual agreement of the station and the Diocese, a transition that was planned two years before and took priority after the September 2009 death of the Diocese's communications director and Mass producer Tony Kuick.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.thecompassnews.org/2009/12/diocese-will-no-longer-produce-tv-masses/|title=Diocese will no longer produce TV Masses; Televised Masses will now be produced by Passionist Communications|date=December 16, 2009|publisher=The Compass, [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Green Bay]]|access-date=March 2, 2014}}</ref>

===News operation===
{{expand section|further information on the history of WBAY's news department|date = November 2010}}
WBAY-TV presently broadcasts 36 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with six hours each weekday and three hours each on Saturdays and Sundays), along with a half-hour sports-focused extension of the Sunday late news known as ''Sunday Sports Night: Cover 2'' in football season (as mentioned above, that program airs statewide on Gray's stations as of September 2017). The station currently exchanges news stories with [[Hearst Television]]'s [[WISN-TV]] in Milwaukee, in addition to airing that station's Wisconsin-focused [[Sunday morning talk show]], ''UpFront with Adrienne Pedersen''. Other sharing partners outside of its Gray sisters in Wisconsin are [[Quincy Media]]'s slate of ABC stations throughout the western part of the state, and [[Hubbard Broadcasting]]'s ABC stations in [[KSTP-TV|Minneapolis–St. Paul]] and [[WDIO-DT|Duluth, Minnesota]]. The station utilizes the [[NEXRAD]] radar from the [[National Weather Service]] office just north of [[Austin Straubel International Airport]]. It formerly maintained an older self-owned Doppler unit until it mothballed the unit and removed its radar dome atop the station's downtown building in 2015.

[[File:WBAY-TV News Logo.png|thumb|left|175px|WBAY's logo for ''Action 2 News''.]]
WBAY's news operation is branded under the [[Action News]] title as ''Action 2 News'', and has used the title since the mid-1980s (with the ''HD'' suffix added upon its transition to high definition newscasts), predating its ABC affiliation. The station rarely refreshes its graphical imaging, having only done so four times since 1995, but has maintained long-term dominance in the local ratings for most of its history. Until September 2012, when WFRV debuted its 4 p.m. newscast, it was the only one in the market to have a late afternoon newscast in that timeslot. In late 2011, the station released mobile applications for [[iOS]] and [[Android (operating system)|Android]] devices, followed by a separate weather app for both platforms in February 2013.

Because the station decided to maintain its noon newscast, WBAY-TV was among the few ABC affiliates that carried ''[[The Chew]]'' on a one-day delay (three days with the Friday edition) at 11 a.m. weekdays due to the network not offering an alternate feed for stations who wish to air the program at an earlier time, which was continued from a one-day delay on ''[[All My Children]]'' since 1992; this caused complaints among viewers, especially during the holidays when episodes timed to them aired after their occurrence, making the recipes presented in them superfluous. As of September 14, 2015, this was rectified, with ''The Chew'' moved to a same-day airing on tape at 2 p.m. and the delay is maintained for the replacement show for ''The Chew'', ''[[GMA3: What You Need To Know]]''. The only times of year the station does not run a newscast are on [[Christmas]] morning, during the CP telethon, and the evening before [[Easter]] when ABC runs ''[[The Ten Commandments (1956 film)|The Ten Commandments]]'' yearly (due to the film presentation ending after midnight; a one-year shift to an 11 p.m. show was made in 2020 in order to provide up-to-date coverage of the [[COVID-19 pandemic in Wisconsin|COVID-19 pandemic]]; two days later, the station also added a special weeknight late night newscast from Gray, ''Full Court Press Now'', to their late night schedule for the next month).

The station began the process of upgrading to full HD production with a control room upgrade in the second quarter of 2011, a process hamstrung by the Young bankruptcy until Gray was able to begin operating the company's stations. The news department's conversion began on October 15 after that morning's newscast when construction began on a new set and the relocation of the older set (which had been in use with constant refreshing since the late 1980s) to another part of the building; the new set was completed by mid-December after a training/rehearsal period, using a common set design and graphics package used by all of the New Young stations.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.facebook.com/pages/WBAY-TV-2|title=''Tomorrow, after Action 2 News This Morning-Weekend Edition, we will be dismantling this news set to make way for our HD improvements. Stay tuned for some exciting improvements!''|publisher=Station [[Facebook]] posting|access-date=October 15, 2011}}</ref> On December 14, 2011, WBAY became the second commercial station in the Green Bay market to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in HD (after WFRV-TV, which upgraded on June 23, 2011).<ref>[http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/article/20110503/GPG04/105030540/1250/gpg04/Warren-Gerds-column-WBAY-s-switch-HD-elaborate "WBAY's switch to HD to be elaborate,"] from ''Green Bay Press-Gazette'', February 5, 2011</ref><ref>[http://www.wfrv.com/news/local/Channel-5-launches-HD-Behind-the-scenes.html "Channel 5 launches HD: Behind the scenes,"] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20120917120610/http://www.wfrv.com/news/local/Channel-5-launches-HD-Behind-the-scenes.html |date=September 17, 2012 }} from ''WFRV.com'', June 23, 2011</ref> Stormcenter 2 24/7 was switched over on March 12, 2012, to a new presentation format with the current graphics package. After all four local news operations established HD or widescreen presences, WBAY dropped the "HD" suffix from their brandings on June 2, 2014. On November 1, 2019, the station unveiled its first new slogan in decades, abandoning "Coverage You Can Count On" for the new tagline "Your First Alert Station" to tie into the [[push notification]]s sent from the station's news and weather [[mobile apps]]; likewise, weather is now branded as "First Alert Weather". A plan by Gray Television to build a new set to complement the rebranding was delayed to the last part of the second quarter of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the existing set moved to another part of the building, and the station taking advantage of most of the station's weather team presenting their forecasts from home through the early part of the pandemic during the build-out requiring no use of the weather center, allowing it to be constructed with full secrecy (those meteorologists who did need to be in the building stayed in front of the chyron, and their interactions with the anchors were adjusted to obscure there was a new set being built). The new set was unveiled on September 8, 2020.

On September 14, 2020, the station launched two additional newscasts; a 9 a.m. weekday newscast, along with a 4:30&nbsp;p.m. newscast to create a {{frac|2|1|2}}-hour news block in the mid-afternoon, matching WFRV's scheduling in the same time period. The 4:30&nbsp;p.m. show is hosted by sports director Chris Roth and has a different format from the station's traditional newscast where Roth checks in with the station's reporters and local subjects in the news for longer-form features regarding those stories, along with an extended weather and [[astronomy]] segment with meteorologist Brad Spakowitz entitled "Three Brilliant Minutes" (Spakowitz went into semi-retirement in July 2021, but remains with the station for that segment, along with maintaining its weather systems, and as a backup meteorologist).<ref>{{cite news|url=https://cronkitenewslab.com/broadcast/2021/02/18/green-bay-wbay-homegrown-recipe-newsroom-innovation/|title=Is your best idea for newsroom innovation sitting just down the hall? Green Bay's WBAY cooks up a homegrown recipe for change|last=Heyward|first=Andrew|date=February 18, 2021|publisher=Knight-Cronkite News Lab ([[Knight Foundation]] and [[Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication]])|access-date=April 20, 2021}}</ref>

From 2019 until 2022, the station carried ''Full Court Press'', a national Sunday morning talk show from Gray featuring Appleton native [[Greta Van Susteren]],<ref>{{Cite web |last=Johnson |first=Ted |date=April 8, 2019 |title=Greta Van Susteren to Launch 'Full Court Press' for Gray Television |url=https://variety.com/2019/politics/news/greta-van-susteren-gray-television-1203183372/ |access-date=March 30, 2025 |website=Variety |language=en-US}}</ref> who regularly provided commentary to WBAY-TV regarding national and local politics as part of her role as the station group's chief national political analyst. The program ended with Van Susteren's departure to [[Newsmax TV]].

====Notable former on-air staff====
* [[Rob Fowler (meteorologist)|Rob Fowler]] – meteorologist (1985–1987)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.linkedin.com/pub/rob-fowler/17/721/ab|title=Rob Fowler|access-date=September 26, 2013}}</ref>
* [[Jim Hill (American football)|Jim Hill]] – sports contributor (1972–1974)<ref>TV Guide magazine, Wisconsin Edition dated September 23–29, 1972, WBAY-TV ad on page A-40</ref>
* [[Orion Samuelson]] – farm director (1950s)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.radiohof.org/newstalk/orionsamuelson.html|title=Orion Samuelson biography|publisher=[[Radio Hall of Fame]]|access-date=September 26, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130123124228/http://www.radiohof.org/newstalk/orionsamuelson.html|archive-date=January 23, 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* [[Ben Tracy]] – reporter<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/01/11/broadcasts/main3699611.shtml|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080122074750/http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/01/11/broadcasts/main3699611.shtml|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 22, 2008|title=Ben Tracy biography|publisher=[[CBS News]]|access-date=September 26, 2013}}</ref>
* [[Michelle Tuzee]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/bio?section=resources/inside_station/newsteam&id=5744048 |title=Michelle Tuzee biography |publisher=[[KABC-TV]] |access-date=September 26, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101127035511/http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/bio?section=resources%2Finside_station%2Fnewsteam&id=5744048 |archive-date=November 27, 2010 }}</ref>

==Technical information==
===Subchannels===
The station's signal is [[Multiplex (TV)|multiplexed]]:
{| class="wikitable"
|+Subchannels of WBAY-TV<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rabbitears.info/market.php?request=station_search&callsign=WBAY#station|title=RabbitEars TV Query for WBAY}}</ref>
! scope = "col" | [[Digital subchannel#United States|Channel]]
! scope = "col" | [[Display resolution|Res.]]
! scope = "col" | [[Aspect ratio (image)|Aspect]]
! scope = "col" | Short name
! scope = "col" | Programming
|-
! scope = "row" | 2.1 
| rowspan=2| [[720p]] || rowspan=5| [[16:9]] || WBAY-HD || [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]
|-
! scope = "row" | 2.2 
| WBAY-WX || [[Independent station|First Alert Weather 24/7]]
|-
! scope = "row" | 2.3 
| rowspan=3| [[480i]] || The365 || [[365BLK]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.wbay.com/2023/12/19/new-network-the365-debuts-new-years-day-wbay-channel-23/|title=New network THE365 debuts New Year's Day on WBAY channel 2.3|website=WBAY.com|date=December 19, 2023|accessdate=December 19, 2023}}</ref> / [[MyNetworkTV]] 
|-
! scope = "row" | 2.4 
| WBAY-HI || [[Heroes & Icons]]
|-
! scope = "row" | 2.5 
| WBAYSTV || [[Start TV]]
|-
|-style="background-color:#DFEBF6; border-top: 2px solid #003399;"
! scope = "row" | [[WCWF|14.3]] 
| 480i || 16:9 || Charge! || [[Charge! (TV network)|Charge!]] ([[WCWF]])
|}
{{legend|#DFEBF6|Broadcast on behalf of another station}}

The station currently features their main channel and six other subchannels, with one set aside for the ATSC 1.0 channel for [[WCWF]]'s third subchannel, which carries [[Charge! (TV network)|Charge]] as WCWF serves as the market's [[ATSC 3.0]] lighthouse station; likewise, WCWF carries WBAY's main channel in that format, still in 720p. WBAY-TV was the first commercial station in the market to carry subchannel services, doing so in July 2004 when [[ABC News Live|ABC News Now]] was launched to cover that year's political conventions.

In late June 2010, WBAY-TV became the third commercial station in Green Bay to air syndicated programming (previously only the ABC schedule and ESPN HD broadcasts of ''Monday Night Football'') in [[high-definition television|high definition]]. WBAY-TV also began to produce some outside advertising for local businesses and internal station promos in both HD and [[16:9]] [[standard definition]] in mid-2010.

Since July 2013, the station uses the [[Active Format Description|AFD #10]] flag to present all programming in letterboxed [[widescreen]] for viewers watching on [[cable television]] and over-the-air through traditional 4:3 sets, with the same done for 2.2. and 2.3 within the same year; a re-imaging in November 2015 saw the station's graphical image adjusted to meet this presentation mode. The 2.1 signal had a [[secondary audio program|SAP audio channel]] added in late September 2013, allowing the station to transmit [[audio description]] and [[Spanish language in the United States|Spanish-language]] [[Dubbing (filmmaking)|dubs]] of ABC network programming, along with a 2017 upgrade to allow automated description of on-screen weather warning scrolls per new FCC rules.

As of 2021, WBAY's secondary weather station transmits natively in 720p after an upgrade, and is available in high definition through the station's website and any simulcasts on WBAY's main channel.

In February 2023, the station added programming from [[MyNetworkTV]] to the overnight schedule of WBAY-DT3 after the [[E. W. Scripps Company|E.{{nbsp}}W. Scripps Company]] declined to renew its affiliation agreement for [[WACY-TV]] in the summer of 2022. The move of MyNetworkTV's all-repeat schedule to overnights on a subchannel has become an increasingly common fate for the service, especially for Gray stations. MyNetworkTV programming airs Tuesday through Saturday mornings from 1 to 3 a.m.

===Analog-to-digital conversion===
WBAY-TV shut down its analog signal, over [[VHF]] channel 2, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United States [[Digital television transition in the United States|transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts]] under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition [[UHF]] channel 23,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf |title=DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds |access-date=March 24, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130829004251/http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf |archive-date=August 29, 2013 }}</ref> using [[virtual channel]] 2.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://www.wbay.com/ Official website]

{{Green Bay TV}}
{{Wisconsin TV}}
{{Other Wisconsin Stations}}
{{Gray TV}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wbay-Tv}}
[[Category:American Broadcasting Company affiliates]]
[[Category:Gray Media]]
[[Category:Heroes & Icons affiliates]]
[[Category:MyNetworkTV affiliates]]
[[Category:NFL primary television stations]]
[[Category:Nationwide Communications]]
[[Category:Start TV affiliates]]
[[Category:Television channels and stations established in 1953]]
[[Category:Television stations in Green Bay, Wisconsin|BAY-TV]]