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Local media in Milwaukee, Wis., is dominated by Journal Communications, a diversified media company that owns the market's only daily newspaper, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, as well as the top-ranked television station and the dominant radio station in the market. It's a hometown operation; Journal Communications employees own 90 percent of the company.
Journal's News/Talk WTMJ-AM is the market's top biller with an estimated $9.4 million in revenue in 1999 and is also the No. 1 outlet among all listeners 12 and older. The station, which recently won the prestigious Marconi Award as the best News/Talk/Sports station in the country, has the radio rights for Green Bay Packers NFL games, Milwaukee Brewers baseball games and Milwaukee Bucks NBA games. WTMJ is also the flagship outlet for the University of Wisconsin Badgers' basketball and football teams.
Jon Belmont, a veteran ABC Radio correspondent from New York, joined WTMJ on Jan. 8 as host of Wisconsin's Morning News. Belmont succeeded Robb Edwards, the station's morning personality for some 20 years. Edwards has stayed on at WTMJ working in marketing, production and limited on-air duties, says Jon Schweitzer, vp/general manager of WTMJ and Journal Broadcast Group's WKTI-- FM, a Hot Adult Contemporary outlet.
WTMJ's main competitor in the 31st-ranked Milwaukee-Racine radio market is Clear Channel Communications' Talk property WISN-AM. WISN generates strong ratings with afternoon-drive host Mark Belling and syndicated fare including Rush Limbaugh.
Clear Channel commands a leading 27 percent share of Milwaukee-Racine's radio ad revenue (see Radio Ownership chart below). The group's highest-ranked property is Urban Contemporary WKKV-FM, which tied for second place with Entercom Communications' WXSS-FM, a Contemporary Hit Radio outlet, among listeners 12-plus in last summer's Arbitron book.
Despite its strong position, Clear Channel has experienced some problems in Milwaukee. In December 1999, the company fired the on-air staff of its underperforming Oldies outlet WZTR-FM and changed the station's call letters to WRIT-FM. Then last February, Terry Wood abruptly resigned as general manager of CC's Milwaukee radio stations, citing "personal reasons." Wood was replaced by Dave Pugh, formerly with Clear Channel's stations in Phoenix. WRIT's numbers have continued to slide over the last several ratings periods.
Saga Communications recently swapped the frequencies of its WJMR-FM, which went from 106.9, a low-power signal in the...