WMLW-TV (channel 49) is an independent television station licensed to Racine, Wisconsin, United States, serving the Milwaukee area.

The stations share studios in the Renaissance Center office complex on South 60th Street in West Allis; WMLW-TV's transmitter is located in Milwaukee's Lincoln Park.

Even though WMLW-TV is licensed as a full-power station, it shares spectrum with WBME-CD, whose broadcasting radius does not reach all of southeastern Wisconsin.

The station was founded by the late Joel Kinlow, a Milwaukee area minister who died on June 7, 2016; his estate and children continue to own Elm Grove-based WGLB (1560 AM).

Kinlow claimed he wanted to maintain his staff while continuing to give broadcasting experience and training to many different people beyond those usually hired to operate a television station.

Its cable coverage at the time was usually limited to Milwaukee, Racine, Kenosha, Walworth and Waukesha counties under must-carry provisions, with the remainder of the market unable to watch it outside of over-the-air reception.

[3] Shop at Home eventually shut down again in March 2008, and WJJA's last month under Kinlow ownership featured a 24-hour schedule of Jewelry Television programming.

[4] The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted approval for the transfer in mid-September 2007, though the license and financial transfers between the two parties, along with the poor condition of the station's transmitter tower in the southeastern Milwaukee County suburb of Oak Creek[5] took months longer to settle before Weigel could take full control of the station.

On April 21, 2008, Weigel assumed full control of the station, and at 12:30 pm, Jewelry Television was replaced by a test card and color bars.

The station also carries some different educational and informational programming such as Green Screen Adventures (which is broadcast on the national MeTV network) to meet the FCC's mandated E/I thresholds.

In September 2013, WMLW's main channel and subchannel feeds moved exclusively to Time Warner Cable's digital tier as that provider begins the transition to an all-digital system by 2015, requiring a QAM-compatible television or a DTA set-top box to view the station.

WMLW aired the 4Kids lineup on Sundays at 8 am, one day and one hour later than its usual Saturday timeslot for most of the Central Time Zone, and did not pick up the replacement Weekend Marketplace infomercial block from Fox at the start of 2009, which remains unseen in the Milwaukee market, though WITI took the new Xploration Station block from Fox in September 2014.

Currently the station's sports output is limited to the WIAA basketball and hockey tournaments, which are produced by Allen Media Group for a statewide broadcast network.

Prior to 2011, the station aired Labor Day coverage of the US Open tennis tournament from CBS, because of WDJT's commitment as the local "Love Network" affiliate for the annual Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon, along with the first three hours of the show in prime time so WDJT could carry CBS programming; this ended when MDA decided to pursue other formats for the telethon (a six-hour show on the night before Labor Day, then a two-hour network broadcast on ABC).

From 2008 to 2012, the men's final for each US Open that year (all delayed to Monday afternoon due to weather conditions on Saturday or Sunday afternoons and in 2011, earlier days) was aired on WMLW; as the second Monday in September is traditionally the debut date for new and returning syndicated programming, WDJT passed along the tennis coverage to launch their new series, though in 2011 most of WDJT's syndicated programming moved up their season starts to a day later to compensate.

In 2014, however, all syndicated programming on WDJT moved their premiere dates to the Tuesday after, allowing WDJT to carry the men's final for the first time in six years without preempting any new programming; this turned out to be the last year CBS would have to work around the issue with the tournament's move entirely to ESPN in 2015 (and the tournament's main stadiums eventually receiving retractable roofs).

The telecasts were produced by Fox Sports Wisconsin and simulcast on that network outside of the Milwaukee market, retaining the network's on-air appearance (except for WMLW microphone flags and a lack of the FSBREWERS bug in the upper right-hand corner, and adaptation of graphics to fit WMLW's 4:3 frame rather than FSN's usual 16:9-optimized presentation), while WMLW/WDJT sold ad time during the games.

A few games were added to the WMLW package every year depending on early-season weather postponements and the team's standing in the pennant race later in the season.

This arrangement was discontinued after the 2011 season due to several factors, including the Brewers wanting to maintain a full schedule of games in high definition, and Fox Sports Wisconsin desiring to maintain near-full exclusivity over telecasts for their own network, along with the 2011 NBA lockout allowing Fox Sports Wisconsin to add the rights for the 15-game package to their schedule in lieu of the loss of 16 Bucks games due to the stoppage.

Spanish sister station WYTU continues to carry several Sunday home Brewers games a year with Spanish-language play-by-play, though under a separate production and announce team which uses Bally Sports Wisconsin's camera positions.

The station also carried Milwaukee Panthers men's and women's basketball from either a local announcer team and camera crew or coverage from ESPN Plus or the Horizon League's internal broadcasting unit.

The Daily Buzz returned to the station's schedule in September 2012, with the broadcast of the 6 a.m. hour of the program, before being removed once again in September 2013 to make way for the Weigel-produced First Business, which moved from WDJT to WMLW when that station expanded its weekday morning newscast to 4:30 am, along with Right This Minute and a move of Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns to the 6 a.m. hour.

On August 8, 2011, the backers of Bounce TV and Weigel announced that both WBME and WWME would be charter affiliates of the network, which is targeted to African-American viewers.

On that day, the channel space was used to launch a new Weigel network concept, Heroes & Icons, which carries mostly police dramas and westerns targeted towards men.

In addition, WMLW's main signal is now rebroadcast on WDJT-DT3 to serve all viewers in the market over-the-air, in a reduced standard definition simulcast which remains in widescreen format.