WWAZ-TV (Fond du Lac, Wis.) elected to terminate analog broadcasting Jan. 15. The station is owned by Pappas Telecasting Companies and made an FCC filing last October for permission to switch off its analog transmitter more than a year before the mandatory end of analog television broadcasting in the United States.

“In order to allow for early voluntary band clearing, a speedier digital conversion and to reduce financial losses, the station was taken off the air on January 15, 2008,” said Harry J. Pappas, chairman and CEO of Pappas Telecasting Companies.

The station had asked to surrender its Channel 68 analog frequency and is operating as a digital-only entity on Channel 44.

Pappas said that the cessation of analog transmissions would have a “negligible impact on television viewing,” and that WWAZ-TV did not meet the minimum reportable levels as measured in the Green Bay-Appleton DMA, according to Nielsen Media Research audience surveys. He added that the FCC filing included letters from both Wisconsin and Illinois public safety agencies which expressed their interesting occupying the Channel 68 spectrum.