WTMJ-TV

Not to be confused with WMTJ.

1947–1956	1956–1962	1962–1966	1966–1977	1977–1980
1980–2004	1986–1992	1992–2004	2004–2020	2020–present

1947–1956

1947-1953

This station ID was transmitted in black-and-white.

WTMJ-TV first signed on the air on December 3, 1947, originally broadcasting on VHF channel 3. In addition to being the first commercial television station to sign on the air in Wisconsin, the fourth such station to sign on in the Midwestern United States and the 15th to launch in the United States, WTMJ was also the first station located outside of the Eastern Time Zone to be affiliated with a major broadcast television network. Prior to that, the Journal Company first granted a license in September 1931 for W9XD, conducted field tests from 1931 to 1933. W9XF's license was withdrawn by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 1938 as part of an effort to limit broadcast licenses to stations that would actively engage in the development of television. Journal obtained abother license, this time for WMJT (for "Milwaukee Journal Television"), and built a new broadcast facility to transmit its signal by August 1942. However, the company's television plans were suspended due to television and radio equipment be allocated for use by the military during World War II.

WTMJ-TV has been affiliated with NBC since its sign-on, owing to its radio sister's longtime affiliation with the NBC Red Network; although, it also initially carried programming from CBS, ABC and the DuMont Television Network. It lost its secondary affiliation with CBS when WCAN-TV (channel 25, now defunct) signed on in September 1953, and lost access to ABC and DuMont programming when WOKY-TV (channel 19, now CW affiliate WVTV on channel 18) made its debut one month later. WTMJ is the only television station in Milwaukee to have been affiliated with the same network throughout its history, and is currently NBC's second-longest tenured affiliate, behind only KSDK in St. Louis (which signed on as KSD-TV eleven months earlier in January 1947).

1953–1956

1954 temperature ID

1955 ID

Test pattern

WTMJ-TV moved to VHF channel 4 on July 11, 1953, in order to alleviate interference with WKZO-TV (now WWMT) in Kalamazoo, Michigan, which is located nearly directly across Lake Michigan. This move also forced the CBS O&O on channel 4 in Chicago, WBBM-TV, to be reassigned to VHF channel 2; WBBM had moved to that frequency six days before WTMJ's channel relocation on July 5, 1953.

1956–1962

Late 1950s-early 1960s logo with Seal of Good Practice (1959-65 version)

Color ID art card

This layout page was used to transfer the logo and text onto the art card; Pencil was scribbled over the back of the tracing paper, then retraced onto the card.

1962–1966

ID from 1966

1966–1977

WTMJ-TV used this "Star 4", in recognition of the United States Bicentennial from 1975 to 1976.

Standalone Bicentennial logo. This was also used by KOA-TV.

1977–1980

This logo is similar to the one used by DWGT-TV in Manila.

1980–2004

Print version

1986–1992

The numeral could also be used alone without the peacock.

News 4 Tonight At 10 open from early 1988

1992–2004

Designer:  John Christopher Burns

Typography:  ITC Symbol [modified] Gill Sans Condensed [modified] Helvetica Ultra Compressed (graphics)

Launched:  July 25, 1992

WTMJ inaugurated the "Today's TMJ4" brand on July 25, 1992, coinciding with the start of NBC's coverage of that year's Summer Olympics (variants of this brand, whether they incorporated the last three letters of the callsign or not, were later used by other stations such as KTHV in Little Rock and WTMJ sister station KIVI-TV in Boise).

The “Sailboat 4” logo became italicized with the new branding.

Standalone logo

Standalone logo (print)

Weather logo (199?–2001)

Weather logo (2001–2004)

2004–present

Designer:  Journal Broadcast Group, Renderon Broadcast Design, The E. W. Scripps Company

Typography:  Gothic CG No.2 Gothic CG No. 3 Geometric 415

Launched:  2004, 2020

2004–2020

3D version

ID variant

Alternate logo since 2015

Weather logo

News open 1 (2016–2020)

News open #2 (2016–2020)

2020–present

The Today's part was dropped from the branding on February 25, 2020, as part of a corporate roll-out of new news graphics. The NBC peacock was also enlargened.

Gradient version

Olympics logo (2020–present)

3D version

Print logo

Olympics print logo

News open (2020–present)

WTMJ-TV news opens

External links

• Official website