Mavericks plan to relaunch Ashland TV station

By Chuck Watson

With help from a major market consultant, a pair of mavericks is determined to illuminate the on-air light for Ashland’s dormant UHF television station.

Hank Martinsen, an Ashland real estate developer and former newspaper publisher, and Alan Ralph, one of the idled station’s original founders, are readying the relaunch of TrueNorth TV-25. Licensed as WAST-TV, the station has followed a twisting path from conception to execution.

Ralph and James Lien put it on the air in 1996 for $65,000 in start-up costs and a $111,000 annual budget. It began with a local six o’clock newscast and select local programming, including “Inside Racing from the AB.” But the undercapitalized station’s resources had dried up by fall of 1997 and it was sold to Ashland-based Superior Waterlogged Lumber.

Anticipating the national conversion of TV from analog to digital transmission in 2006, the new owner renewed the station’s license with the Federal Communications Commission in 1997.

The FCC is not issuing any new licenses until after the format change. “We were on inactive status and we had to hurry to contact the FCC to request permission to keep the license,” Ralph said.

Superior Waterlogged was nearly swamped by its own financial problems, and morphed into Timeless Timber, Inc., in the fall of 1998. Nevertheless, the company maintained its license by running lower-cost syndicated programming.

Martinsen, former owner of both the Bayfield County Journal and Cloquet Journal, bought the license from Timeless Timber in 2003.

New effort better capitalized

This time, WAST True North TV-25, LLC, hopes to reach viewers with an array of Chequamegon Bay area news, sports, environmental and outdoors shows — Sunday ice racing, for example — as well as TV-magazine programming.

Martinsen has moved slowly in purchasing equipment. As a former newspaper owner, he is no stranger to area media. He hired Ralph in November as an independent project consultant for the station’s relaunch.

“We see ourselves doing a lot of filming and editing and producing 30 and 60 minute shows,” Ralph said. “It’s an adventure and another form of economic development for the area. Visitors will see an increasing amount of local programming.”

In his 25 years in Ashland, Ralph has operated his own marketing firm, managed distribution of publications, and in the 1960s co-founded the Island Gazette, a Madeline Island newspaper. He has also served on the city council and county board.

“The driving motivation is a strong need to have more than one source of news,” he said. “We need a regional media source around the bay focusing on this area. That idea was sound in ‘96 and still sound today,” Ralph said.

“Consolidation in media has resulted in less and less local news, weather and sports. You can turn on all the channels you want and there is a void here in Northwest Wisconsin. We see a niche here,” he said.

The station has been dark for two years and if it stays dark too much longer, Martinsen could lose his license. So far, the FCC has approved 90-day extensions so long as there is demonstrative progress, such as equipment and studio purchasing.

“We think we are going to be on the air (sometime) between May and June,” Martinsen said.

When Ralph and Lien started nine years ago the station had $50,000 worth of equipment. This time it will have $250,000 in equipment, including a new $75,000 transmitter mounted on the WEGZ-FM 105.9 tower west of Washburn. The TV-25 signal was strengthened in 2004, expanding its reception area to the northeast.

“Madeline island will have city-grade reception. It’s possible, our engineer tells us, that it may reach into Hurley and Ironwood,” Ralph said, adding the goal is a solid signal within 25 miles of Ashland.

The rest of the $500,000 in startup capital will pay for the tower lease, electricity and 24-hour programming. A studio at 101 W. Main St. in Ashland will have satellite dishes on the roof and a large street level window for pedestrians to view television productions.

That’s a sharp contrast to the $65,000 that launched the station in 1996. Ralph said the higher level of financing this time realistically reflects the cost of a professional quality product. “We’re going straight to digital so we will not have to buy new equipment in a year or two,” said Ralph.

Challenging Bay TV demographics

The Chequamegon Bay area is a very small TV market, and the new TV-25 faces an additional hurdle: Cable and satellite TV subscribers make up 69 percent of its households, and at least initially, neither is picking up the new signal.

According to media source, The BRIDGE, there are 15,497 households in Ashland and Bayfield counties: 6,371 are DBS (satellite) TV Systems subscribers. Meanwhile, Charter Communications has 4,300 cable subscribers, according to the company. The remaining 31 percent of the homes in the market have no TV or use traditional antennae or rabbit ears.

To entice agreements with satellite and cable companies and attract those remaining viewers, an attractive 24 hour programming grid is essential.

And that’s where creative programming enters the equation.

Martinsen and Ralph have retained

Hal Pontious, president of Showplace Broadcasting in Chicago, to develop the TV-25 program grid.

“The initial process is to find out what is available, then put together a grid based on availability and demographics,” Pontious said. “TV-25 will be producing some of its own shows. They’re building their own studio and producing their own shows and paying their own talent,” he said. “The owners are interested in community-oriented and news programming. So we’re looking at viewing habits in the area.”

Realizing it takes three years to develop a profit, Pontious’ philosophy is to develop a good business plan and work with stations to buy middle-of-the-road programs first, and buy the big show later. “If this were a big group owner, they could spend the money. We want to start simple so that they are successful,” he said. “(Startup TV stations) flop because they buy more expensive programs. What will help this station is that it is a local station aimed locally.”

Pontious has consulted with major networks for 25 years, including WB, UPN, CBS and ABC and UHF and VHF stations. In 1995, he helped upstart Lockwood Broadcasting and its WPEN-TV in Norfolk-Richmond, VA. The flagship station is still operating and Lockwood Broadcasting has since purchased two more stations, and is on its way to being a major group owner in the Northeast and in Oklahoma, Pontious said, adding no station operated by his clients has failed.

He said a balance between local and syndicated programming is a must. Excluding talent costs, production of a 30-minute program in this market for this type of station should cost around $500, about 10 percent of the cost of a similar show produced in Chicago, he said.

And some shows can be purchased in bulk. Syndicated mid-priced shows like “Green Acres” and “The Andy Griffith Show” are available in packages for $200 per day in this region, and some weekend barter shows are free.

Ralph said that equipment will record programming continually. “When staff isn’t there, we will have a local engineer. The larger upfront capital and a high degree of automation will keep costs down,” he said.

The team also has hired Bob Truscott, a semi-retired engineer from Milwaukee to solve initial technical problems and assist in training when the station is set to run.

Ralph and Martinsen are seeking six people to fill production, reporting and sales positions.