general manager. Bartell proposed to sell the newspapers a two-thirds interest in the station. However, the parties were unable to reach final agreement on matters related to the sale, and the proposed transaction was abandoned in August. With WMTV as Bartell's only television property, Wometco Enterprises filed in 1957 to buy WMTV for $350,000. Move to channel 15; Forward ownership Wometco owned the station less than a year before Forward Television, a company owned by Lee Enterprises of Mason City, Iowa, acquired WMTV in 1958. During Forward Television's ownership, the station applied to move from channel 33 to channel 15. The move took effect on October 25, 1961, after weather and antenna fabrication delays. Lee accepted an offer from Wisconsin Valley Television Corporation to acquire WMTV in December 1962. Wisconsin Valley was a consortium of newspaper interests that owned WSAU radio and television in Wausau. The FCC only narrowly approved the transaction on a 4–3 vote in May 1963, in large part because the firm was being investigated for its relationship with efforts to start an educational television station in Wausau on the only other VHF channel in that city so as to prevent it from going into commercial use; a condition was attached that allowed the FCC to order the sale of WMTV to another group at no profit to Wisconsin Valley should it find the firm abused its processes. That September, the FCC voted 5–0 to allow the sale to stand after Midcontinent Broadcasting, owner of WKOW-TV, asked it to reconsider. The new ownership of the station invested in equipment, including an upgraded transmitter facility which increased the effective radiated power to 950,000 watts in 1965. Wisconsin Valley renamed itself Forward Communications Corporation at the start of 1967 in the wake of acquiring its first broadcast property outside the state of Wisconsin, KVTV in Sioux City, Iowa. Despite an improved product and Forward's ability to pull WMTV out of its status as a "financial loser", the Madison station continued to be something of an uphill struggle for Forward because of the configuration of the market, with WISC-TV as the only very high frequency (VHF) station against two commercial UHF outlets. Forward was sold in late 1984 to Wesray Capital Corporation, which retained the Forward name for its media holdings. However, the new Forward began a decline in news ratings. Prior to the sale, WMTV competed with WISC for