WSAW-TV

WSAW-TV is the CBS-affiliated television station for North-Central Wisconsin's Northern Highland. Licensed to Wausau, it broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 7 from a transmitter on Rib Mountain. Owned by Gray Television, the station is sister to low-powered Fox affiliate WZAW-LD and the two outlets share studios on Grand Avenue/U.S. 51 in Wausau.

To serve the Northwoods area of Northern Wisconsin, it operates a digital fill-in translator in Sayner (W42DH-D) that also covers Eagle River. This also airs a high definition signal but is seen on UHF channel 42 (or virtual channel 7.1 via PSIP) from a transmitter, on Razorback Road, in unincorporated Vilas County (north of Sayner). The low-powered repeater also serves the western portion of Michigan's Upper Peninsula although the broadcasting radius is limited to Marenisco and Watersmeet.

History

The station launched on October 23, 1954 as WSAU-TV and was a sister station to WSAU-AM 550 and the original WSAU-FM 95.5 (now WIFC). It was originally owned by a consortium of North-Central Wisconsin newspapers that also included the Wausau Daily Tribune-Herald. Channel 7 originally operated from the Plumer Mansion, a Richardsonian Romanesque-style building, that was located on North 5th Street in Wausau and torn down in 1972 one year after the station moved to its current home.