A Madison Independent station has affiliated with Ion and some of its former local programming has moved to another station in the market.
Byrne Acquisition Group’s WIFS (Janesville-Madison) has replaced its former lineup of syndicated and local programming on channel 57.1 with Ion Life, while the main Ion network is being carried on the newly-launched channel 57.9. (The national Ion feed is already carried on cable and satellite providers, and the addition of Ion Life on WIFS’ main channel will get that network cable and satellite carriage as well.) WIFS continues to carry other subchannels on 57.2 through 57.8.
Former WIFS General Manager Jessa Jeremiah says she and former Station Manager Tony Virga are no longer with WIFS and have relaunched WIFS’ former local lifestyle programming on TVW, which is carried on channel 3.2 of Morgan Murphy Media’s WISC-TV. The programs are now appearing in the afternoon on TVW, a MyNetworkTV affiliate.
ION had formerly been carried on WISC-DT3; WISC Vice President and General Manager Tom Keeler says the station is still evaluating its options for new programming on channel 3.3.
WIFS is a former UPN, WB, and CW affiliate and had been Independent since 2016.