The Journal Company, owner of the newspaper The Milwaukee Journal, obtained radio station WKAF in April 1927 and soon changed the call sign to WTMJ, for The Milwaukee Journal. The station's first broadcast was June 25, 1927, with a music format and news programming to complement its newspaper. Then in 1942 a new facility, Milwaukee Journal's Radio City, was built and opened with WTMJ-AM and FM.
The AM station, until the early 1990s, featured a mixture of music, news, and local personalities, along with sports play-by-play. The station then switched to a news and talk format. The FM station went through many changes and call signs and even went off the air for a time, since many homes did not have FM radio receivers. It returned as WTMJ-FM on June 1, 1959 running automated music. The FM station changed its call sign twice, first in 1974 to WKTI and then from 2008 to 2015 to WLWK until switching back to WKTI.
The Journal Company was granted its first television license, with the call letters W9XD, in September 1931 until 1938 when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) withdrew their license for the experimental television station. A license was granted again in 1941; this time with the call letters WMJT (Milwaukee Journal Television), but unfortunately the war suspended the station's ability to begin broadcasting.
The station's call letters were changed to WTMJ-TV (The Milwaukee Journal) and signed onto the air December 3, 1947. It was the first commercial television station to broadcast in Wisconsin, and the 15th in the United States. WTMJ-TV has been affiliated with NBC since its first broadcast. WTMJ-TV was also one of the first stations to broadcast in color in December 1953. For the 1962 to 1965 seasons WTMJ-TV broadcast the Milwaukee Braves until their move to Atlanta, and then they were the local television outlet for the Milwaukee Brewers from 1970 to 1980. Since the 1990s the station has been the “official” Milwaukee station to broadcast the Green Bay Packers for non-nationally televised pre-season games.
Tom Luljak earned his bachelor's degree in Radio/TV/Film and Speech Education at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. He first joined WTMJ as a broadcast journalist, eventually serving as the news director for WTMJ-TV, WTMJ-AM, and WKTI-FM. After leaving journalism, he served as director of corporate communications at Blue Cross & Blue Shield United of Wisconsin. In the spring of 2000, Luljak joined the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) to become the Vice Chancellor of University Relations and Communications. He also serves as an associate lecturer in UWM's Department of Journalism and Mass Communication.
