MILWAUKEE — TMJ4 News is celebrating 75 years of storytelling across Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and the world. TMJ4 hit the airwaves on Dec. 3, 1947.
It was the first TV station in Milwaukee. TMJ4 would go on to be the only station for the next five years. In the very beginning, TMJ4 was just WTMJ-TV and aired on channel 3. The station switched to TMJ4 in 1953.
Looking back at the last 75 years, there have been some major stories to hit Wisconsin. From migrant farmer protests, to Packers Super Bowl victories, to Jeffrey Dahmer, to unrest in Kenosha, and so much more. TMJ4 News has been there all along, capturing history.
But before history was captured through a camera lens, George Castorf was worrying about how the first broadcast would go.
"Kind of nervous I guess, and we were kind of nervous that everything went right," he said.
Castorf helped TMJ4 get on the air back in 1947.
The news looked different back then. There wasn't as much technology to make newscasts pop.
“We had a board, I had a pen I had to fill it every day. You kind of drew things on a plexiglass glass board like of the noted states or I think part of North America," Paul Joseph said.
Joseph was the second weathercaster at TMJ4, and the first meteorologist in the market. He joined the station in 1970 and retired in 2006.
Joseph said that back in the day, the weathercast was a bit of comic relief from the heavy news of the day. When he joined TMJ4, his main competition was a puppet named Albert the Alley Cat. Eventually, audiences wanted more serious and science-backed forecasts. Joseph would go on to be one of the preeminent meteorologists in the state.
From reporting in Israel to reporting at Milwaukee's City Hall, TMJ4 has been committed to storytelling for 75 years - and the station will continue telling the stories of the community for at least another 75 years.
