WLS-TV
WLS-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, serving as the market's ABC network outlet. It has been owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division since the station's inception. WLS-TV's studios are located on North State Street in the Chicago Loop, and its transmitter is located atop the Willis Tower.
- Chicago, Illinois
- United States
- Chicago, Illinois
- United States
- ABC 7 Chicago
- ABC 7 Eyewitness News
- (WLS Television, Inc.)
September 17, 1948
- WENR-TV (1948–1953)
- WBKB (1953–1965)
- WBKB-TV (1965–1968)[1]
- Analog: 7 (VHF, 1948–2009)
- Digital: 52 (UHF, 1996–2009), 7 (VHF, June–October 2009), 44 (UHF, October 2009–2019)
- Translator: 7 (VHF, 2009–2013)
- Tele1st (OTA subscription television, 1984 overnights)
See former sister station WLS (AM)
73226
1,000 kW
518 m (1,699 ft)
History[edit]
WENR-TV (1948–1953)[edit]
The station first signed on the air on September 17, 1948, as WENR-TV.[1] It was the third television station to sign on in the Chicago market behind WGN-TV (channel 9), which debuted six months earlier in April, and WBKB (channel 4), which changed from an experimental station to a commercial operation in September 1946. As one of the original ABC-owned stations on channel 7, it was the second station to begin operations after WJZ-TV in New York City, and before WXYZ-TV in Detroit, KGO-TV in San Francisco and KECA-TV in Los Angeles.
The station's original call letters were taken from co-owned radio station WENR (890 AM), which served as an affiliate of the ABC Radio Network (WENR would eventually merge with WLS, with which it shared a frequency under a time-sharing arrangement until ABC purchased a 50% interest in WLS in 1954).
WBKB-TV (1953–1968)[edit]
In February 1953, ABC merged with United Paramount Theatres (UPT), the former theater division of Paramount Pictures. UPT subsidiary Balaban and Katz owned WBKB (which shared a CBS affiliation with WGN-TV). The newly merged American Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres, as the company was known then, could not keep both stations because of Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations then enforced that forbade the common ownership of two television stations licensed to the same market. As a result, WBKB's channel 4 license was sold to CBS, which subsequently changed that station's call letters to WBBM-TV; that outlet would move to VHF channel 2 several months later on July 5, 1953. The old WBKB's on-air and behind-the-scenes staff stayed at the new WBBM-TV, while the WBKB call letters and management moved to channel 7 (from 1965 to 1968, a "-TV" suffix was included in the station's calls, modifying it to WBKB-TV[3]).
WLS-TV (1968–present)[edit]
Sterling "Red" Quinlan served as the station's general manager from the early 1950s to the mid-1960s,[4] and became a giant in early Chicago television. Quinlan was instrumental in starting the careers of Tom Duggan, Frank Reynolds and Bob Newhart. The station courageously aired The Tom Duggan Show in the mid-1950s, which became the most popular show in the Chicago market, far outdrawing other network competition. Channel 7 had its call letters changed to WLS-TV on October 7, 1968,[5] named after WLS Radio, which ABC had wholly owned since 1959 when the network bought the 50% interest it did not already hold in the station from the Prairie Farmer magazine.[6] Ironically, ABC merged WLS with WENR, its shared-time partner, in 1954.[7]
In 1963, Al Parker joined the station as an announcer and worked in that capacity for 26 years. Until his departure, he also served as an announcer for AM Chicago and The Oprah Winfrey Show. He died September 30, 2000, at the age of 74.[8]
WLS-TV had claimed to be "Chicago's first television station" in its sign-ons and sign-offs during its first three decades (implying a connection with the original WBKB on channel 4), but admitted to its true roots with WENR with its 30th anniversary in 1978.[9]
On January 17, 1984, WLS-TV launched Tele1st, an ABC-owned overnight subscription television service that carried a mix of films and lifestyle programs for four hours per night six days a week after the station's sign-off at 2 a.m.; the service was similar in format to competitor ONTV (which was carried locally on WSNS-TV, channel 44 (now a Telemundo owned and operated station)) and other over-the-air pay services that existed during the early and mid-1980s.[10][11] Tele1st was created with the concept of allowing users to record programming for later viewing; therefore, its decoder boxes were designed to unencrypt the signal only with the aid of a VCR. Scrambling codes that were sent to the box and relayed to the VCR were changed on a monthly basis, requiring subscribers to record additional footage airing immediately before and after that night's schedule to retrieve codes to play back the recorded programs properly; this resulted in any recordings being viewable only during that calendar month. Tele1st was deemed a failure, attributing only 4,000 subscribers at its peak, and ceased operations on June 30, 1984.[12]
In 1988, WLS-TV agreed to sell production rights to The Oprah Winfrey Show to her Harpo Productions company, but ABC O&Os continued to air the show until the end of its run in 2011.[13]
Studios[edit]
WLS-TV's studios at 190 North State Street include the former State-Lake Theatre's gutted and converted interior.[49]
Beginning in 1959, Playboy's first television show, Playboy's Penthouse, filmed for two years at 190 North State Street.[50]