 | |
| |
|---|---|
| Channels | |
| Branding |
|
| Programming | |
| Affiliations | |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| History | |
First air date | September 17, 1948 (77 years ago) (1948-09-17) |
Former call signs |
|
Former channel numbers |
|
| |
Call sign meaning | See former sister stationWLS (AM) |
| Technical information[2] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 73226 |
| ERP | 1,000 kW |
| HAAT | 518 m (1,699 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 41°52′44″N87°38′8″W / 41.87889°N 87.63556°W /41.87889; -87.63556 |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | abc7chicago |
WLS-TV (channel 7) is atelevision station inChicago, Illinois, United States, serving as the market'sABC network outlet. It has beenowned and operated by the network'sABC Owned Television Stations division since the station's inception. WLS-TV's studios are located onNorth State Street in theChicago Loop, and its transmitter is located atop theWillis Tower.
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 behindWGN-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 afterWJZ-TV in New York City, and beforeWXYZ-TV in Detroit,KGO-TV in San Francisco andKECA-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 withWLS, with which it shared a frequency under a time-sharing arrangement until ABC purchased a 50% interest in WLS in 1954).
In February 1953, ABC merged withUnited Paramount Theatres (UPT), the former theater division ofParamount Pictures. UPT subsidiaryBalaban and Katz owned WBKB (which shared aCBS affiliation with WGN-TV). The newly mergedAmerican Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres, as the company was known then, could not keep both stations because ofFederal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations then enforced that forbade thecommon ownership of two television stations licensed to the samemarket. As a result, WBKB's channel 4 license was sold to CBS, which subsequently changed that station's call letters toWBBM-TV; that outlet would move toVHF 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]).
Sterling "Red" Quinlan served as the station'sgeneral 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 ofTom Duggan,Frank Reynolds andBob Newhart. The station courageously airedThe 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 thePrairie 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 forAM Chicago andThe 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 itssign-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 overnightsubscription television service that carried a mix offilms and lifestyle programs for four hours per night six days a week after the station'ssign-off at 2 a.m.; the service was similar in format to competitorONTV (which was carried locally onWSNS-TV, channel 44 (now aTelemundo 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 aVCR. 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 toThe Oprah Winfrey Show to herHarpo Productions company, but ABC O&Os continued to air the show until the end of its run in 2011.[13]
WLS-TV currently airs theWeekend Adventureeducational programming block and the network'spolitical/news discussion programThis Weekone hour later than most ABC stations due to its weekend morning newscasts.
WLS-TV is the local over-the-air host ofMonday Night Football games involving theChicago Bears, airing simulcasts of the team'sESPN-televised games (WLS-TV's corporate parent,The Walt Disney Company, owns 80% of ESPN, and the ABC Owned Television Stations haveright of first refusal for simulcasts of ESPN'sNFL telecasts within a team's home market). Because of this, atypical for a network-owned station outside ofbreaking news and severe weather coverage necessitating such situations, the station has had to reschedule ABC network programs preempted by the telecasts. The preseason andMNF telecasts mark the only NFL games to have aired on WLS-TV since ABC lost the rights to NFL games in 2006; during the regular season, Bears games are rotated between WBBM-TV (through theNFL on CBS),WMAQ-TV (throughNBC Sunday Night Football) and especially WFLD (through theNFL on Fox). Since 2010, however, it has deferred the right of first refusal due to the popularity and live voting requirements of ABC'sDancing with the Stars, with WCIU-TV carrying theMNF games when the former program's fall season is ongoing (an exception being WLS' carriage of anMNF Bears game against theDallas Cowboys on December 9, 2013, when the team honored former head coachMike Ditka, aftertheDWTS fall season had already ended).
On December 12, 2014, WLS-TV signed a new five-year broadcast agreement with theChicago Cubs, in which WLS televised 25 of theMajor League Baseball team's games per year, starting with the2015 season. The arrangement partially replaced one with WGN-TV (which had broadcast Cubs games since its inception in April 1948), which voluntarily pulled out of its existing broadcast deal with the team for the 2015 season and subsequently agreed to carry a reduced slate of 45 games. The WLS broadcasts were seen onDirecTV's version of MLB Extra Innings, and the feed provided was the WLS signal seen in the Chicago market (unlike with the feeds of WGN broadcasts, wherepublic service announcements were seen in place of local commercials and station promos).
As ABC has alimited sports programming schedule during the Major League Baseball season prior to September (when the MLB regular season andcollege football season overlap), the station mainly carried the team's weekend daytime games in order to limit preemption of the network's prime time programming.[27][28][29][30] The deal (along with all of the Cubs' broadcast television deals) ended after the 2019 season, when the team launched the cable-onlyMarquee Sports Network to carry their game telecasts.
WLS-TV also carries selectChicago Bulls games as part of theirNBA on ABC telecasts.
From1999 to2004 and again since2021, WLS-TV carries selectChicago Blackhawks games as part of theirNHL on ABC telecasts.
WLS-TV broadcasts 41 hours, 25 minutes of locally produced newscasts each week (with 6 hours, 5 minutes each weekday and5+1⁄2 hours each on Saturdays and Sundays). WLS-TV also contracts withiHeartMedia to provide weather forecasts for their Chicago market stations, includingWLIT-FM (93.9),WCHI-FM (95.5),WVAZ (102.7),WKSC-FM (103.5), andWGCI-FM (107.5).
In 1969, WLS-TV adopted theEyewitness News format that the other ABC owned-and-operated stations began implementing in the late 1960s, after the news format was popularized when it originated at New York City flagship WABC-TV. Beginning in 1968, the station's main evening newscasts were co-anchored byFahey Flynn, abowtie-wearing broadcaster who had spent the previous 15 years at WBBM-TV; andJoel Daly, who was hired away by WLS fromWJW-TV inCleveland in 1967. The duo served as the anchors of the station's 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts until Flynn's death in August 1983. In 1970, the two were joined byJohn Drury, who helmed the 5 p.m. newscast. By 1973, WLS'Eyewitness News broadcasts surpassedNBC-owned WMAQ-TV (channel 5)'s newscasts to become Chicago's top-rated news operation, a lead it held until WBBM-TV surpassed channel 7 for the top spot in 1979. For much of the 1970s and 1980s, it waged a spirited battle for second place in the Chicago news ratings between its two main competitors.
Around the time of Flynn's death, Channel 7 had been experiencing a ratings decline, prompting major changes to the station's management. ABC hired Bill Applegate from WNEV-TV inBoston (nowWHDH) as the station's news director. Shortly after, general manager Peter Desnoes resigned to co-found Burnham Broadcasting.[31] His replacement was Chicago nativeDennis Swanson, who worked for WGN-TV and WMAQ-TV before becoming news director at ABC's Los Angeles station,KABC-TV.[31][32] ABC also commissionedFrank Gari to compose an updated version of theCool Hand Luke "Tar Sequence" theme widely associated with theEyewitness News format. The result was "News Series 2000", a theme package that was quickly picked up by other ABC O&Os and affiliates.
Upon his return to Chicago, Swanson would be tasked with finding a replacement for Flynn on the 6 p.m. news, as well as a new host for itsAM Chicago program after hostRobb Weller departed forNew York City.[33] He responded to the latter by bringing inOprah Winfrey, at the time the host ofPeople Are Talking on ABC's then-affiliate inBaltimore,WJZ-TV.[34]
Within a year, the program had moved to first place in the ratings.AM Chicago entered into national syndication in 1986 and was renamedThe Oprah Winfrey Show. Channel 7 was theflagship station for the show, and it, along with most of ABC's other owned-and-operated stations, carried it until it went out of production in September 2011. Swanson also re-hired lead anchor John Drury, who had left for WGN-TV in 1979; andFloyd Kalber, who had led WMAQ-TV to the top of the ratings in the 1960s. Drury andMary Ann Childers were a popular anchor team at WLS-TV during the 1980s and 1990s, accompanied by weather anchor Steve Deshler and sports anchorTim Weigel. In March 1986, channel 7 passed WBBM-TV as the highest-rated news station in Chicago. It has held the lead ever since, aside from a brief period when WBBM-TV forged a tie for first in the late 1980s.
In 1992, the station replaced the "News Series 2000" package (as the other ABC O&Os did over the following year, due partly to increased royalties for use of theCool Hand Luke theme and its variants by the original theme's composer,Lalo Schifrin) with a new news music package, also produced by Gari, called "News Series 2000 Plus" (since renamed "Stimulus"), which has remained in use by WLS ever since and was updated in 2013. In 1996, WLS-TV dropped theEyewitness News brand after 26 years, in favor of the network-centricABC 7 News; the move was part of a standard branding effort imposed by ABC across its owned-and-operated stations which saw the incorporation of the ABC name into their local brands[35] (most of the other ABC O&Os retained their existing news branding, as sister stations such as WABC-TV andWPVI-TV in Philadelphia retained theirEyewitness News orAction News identities).
WLS-TV debuted a street-side studio at its North State Street facility on April 10, 2006, during the station's morning newscast, although the station had begun broadcasting its newscasts from that studio two days earlier on April 8.[36] On the weekend of April 29–30, 2006, WLS-TV upgraded its news helicopter with ahigh definition camera, rebranding it as "Chopper 7 HD". On January 6, 2007, WLS-TV became the first Chicago television station to broadcast all of its local programming—including newscasts—in high definition, although most remote field footage remained in16:9widescreen standard definition at the time. Since then, WLS-TV upgraded most of its field footage to HD, although some field reports remain in widescreen SD.[as of?]
On December 23, 2007, aMazda MPVminivan drove through a reinforced studio window at the State Street Studio two minutes into the 10 p.m. newscast, startling anchor Ravi Baichwal on air and creating a 20-degree draft as the glass shattered upon the car's impact; no one was injured in the crash.Evanston resident Gerald Richardson was subsequently charged with felony damage to property for the incident.[37][38][39][40] On November 11, 2012, WLS-TV expanded its Sunday 8 a.m. newscast from1+1⁄2 to two hours, leading into ABC'sThis Week.[41] The 8 a.m. portion of the Saturday morning newscast was expanded to two hours from 8 to 10 a.m. on August 24, 2013. Nearly a week later on August 30, WLS-TV discontinued its hour-long weekday 11 a.m. newscast (which originated in 1992 as a half-hour program at 11:30, before it expanded into an earlier, one-hour broadcast on October 6, 2003, following the cancellation ofPort Charles) after 21 years, and replaced it on September 2 withWindy City Live, whose original 9 a.m. slot became occupied byLive! with Kelly and Michael when it moved to WLS from WGN-TV on that date (as such, it became the first – and currently, the only – ABC owned-and-operated station without a midday newscast). With the move and the midday newscast's cancellation, news and weather cut-ins were incorporated intoWindy City Live.[42][43]
On October 26, 2013, WLS-TV reintroduced theEyewitness News brand (asABC 7 Eyewitness News), as part of an overall rebranding of its newscasts that included new graphics and a modernized update to the "Stimulus" theme. In an interview with media columnistRobert Feder, WLS-TV president/general manager John Idler said the reasoning behind the restoration of theEyewitness News brand, was that it "[still] resonated strongly with [viewers in] the Chicago market", despite being dropped by the station 17 years earlier.[35] On November 2, 2013, WLS expanded the early block of its weekend morning newscasts, with the extension of its hour-long 6 a.m. newscast on Saturdays and Sundays to two hours at 5 a.m.[44]
On February 10, 2014, WLS-TV entered into a partnership agreement with theChicago Sun-Times to include the use of the station's weather team in the newspaper's weather section, replacing WMAQ-TV, whose previous partnership ended the day before; in addition, the station would air a 'look ahead' of the newspaper's front page and stories, with theSun-Times promoting WLS's newscasts and programming in turn.
On December 14, 2014, WLS-TV entered into a news share agreement withWCIU-TV to produce a weeknight-only 7 p.m. newscast titledABC 7 Eyewitness News at 7:00 on The U; the program debuted on January 12, 2015, and is the fifth newscast produced by ABC O&O for a separately owned station in the station's home market (along with existing programs produced by sister stations inRaleigh, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Los Angeles forWLFL,WPHL-TV,KOFY-TV andKDOC-TV in the respective markets, and a since-canceled newscast produced by KFSN-TV forKAIL in Fresno).[45][46]
On June 27, 2016, WLS-TV revived its 11 a.m. newscasts for the first time since 2013, becoming the fourth television station in Chicago to do so; which completes against WMAQ-TV (who revived its midday newscasts in September 2011 and moved to the time period in September 2014), WBBM-TV (who began airing a half-hour 11 a.m. newscasts in early 2000s), and WGN-TV (who began its midday newscasts in 1984; followed by some expansions in September 2008 and October 2009). In June 2016, after several years of unsuccessful syndicated talk show replacements for the canceledAll My Children (includingKatie andFABLife), the station movedGeneral Hospital to 2 p.m., thenWindy City Live to 1 p.m. to accommodate the 11 a.m. newscast, with a replay of the latter late night afterNightline.[23]
On July 29, 2019, it was announced that WLS-TV would end its news share agreement with WCIU-TV, ending the weeknight program for that station, the 7 p.m. newscastABC 7 Eyewitness News at 7:00 on The U after 4 years, with the final broadcast on August 30 of that same year. The mutual parting of ways came as WCIU became the market'sCW affiliate on September 1, leaving no room for a newscast on the station's schedule.[47]
On June 19, 2023, WLS-TV debuted its new on-air look for the first time in a decade as it was the first ABC owned-and-operated station to unveil its new standard graphics package.
According to the Nielsen local news ratings for the February 2011 sweeps period, WLS-TV remained in first place overall, with the 10 p.m. newscast getting a 9.7 rating share, down a tenth of a point from a 9.8 during the same time the previous year.[48] The station remained in second place for its prime time lead-in.[needs update]
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]
| License | Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WLS-TV | 7.1 | 720p | 16:9 | WLS-HD | ABC |
| 7.2 | 480i | LOCLish | Localish | ||
| 7.3 | CHARGE | Charge! | |||
| WXFT-DT | 60.1 | 720p | WXFT-DT | UniMás | |
| 60.2 | 480i | ESCAPE | Ion Mystery | ||
| 60.3 | Quest | Quest |
Prior to February 24, 2011, WLS-DT3 carriedABC 7 News NOW, featuring local news and weather and national/sidebar content fromThe Local AccuWeather Channel. The ABC O&Os discontinued their Local AccuWeather channels on February 24, 2011, replacing its programming with a letterboxedstandard-definitionsimulcast of their Live Well subchannels, thoughAccuWeather's content/branding agreement with ABCOTS, including WLS-TV, continued unchanged. WLS-DT3 formerly served as a charter affiliate ofLaff diginet from its launch in January 2015. To accommodate the WXFT channel share which took effect in December 2017, WLS-TV discontinued the third Laff subchannel, which shifted over to a subchannel of WXFT's sister station,WGBO-DT2, and reduced the Live Well feed from a reduced-bitrate720p broadcast to a480i format. After WLS moved to their new channel post-spectrum transition, it soon picked up This TV after ABCOTS picked up the network for their stations in the spring of 2021.
WLS-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 7, at noon on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United Statestransitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transitionUHF channel 52, which was among the high band UHF channels (52–69) that were removed from broadcast use as a result of the transition, to its analog-era VHF channel 7.[52]
WLS operated its digital signal at low power (4.75kW) to protect the digital signal of NBC affiliateWOOD-TV inGrand Rapids, Michigan (which also broadcasts on channel 7, but at a much higher radiated power). As a result, many viewers were not able to receive the station.[53] The FCC sent extra personnel to Chicago,Philadelphia andNew York City to deal with difficulties in those cities. WLS had received 1,735 calls just by the end of the day on June 12 (WBBM only received 600), and an estimated 5,000 calls in total by June 16.
WLS-TV was just one station which needed to increase its signal strength or move its frequency to solve its problems, but a power increase required making sure no other stations were affected.[54] WLS received a two-week experimental permit for a power increase late in June.[55] WLS had also applied for a permit to construct a low-power fill-in digital translator station on UHF channel 32 (the former analog frequency ofWFLD),[56] but abandoned that plan (the channel 32 RF frequency has since been claimed byWMEU-CD). Eventually the FCC granted it a permit to transmit on a second frequency, UHF channel 44,[57] formerly occupied by WSNS-TV; WLS announced the availability of that frequency on October 31, 2009.[58]
Throughout construction of the new maximized transmitting facilities at the Willis Tower, WLS operated both channels 7 and 44 from its auxiliary facilities at theJohn Hancock Center under anSTA.[59] WLS operated channel 7 as a fill-in translator with a power of 7 kW,[60] and operating their full power operations on channel 44 with a power of1 MW.[61] Through the use ofvirtual channel technology, both operating frequencies were re-mapped and displayed as channel 7, which would cause some digital tuners to have two versions of virtual channels 7.1, 7.2 and 7.3, while tuning sequentially. In October 2012, WLS-TV completed construction from the Willis Tower and its operating channel 44 at the 1 million watt power level.[62] The station continued its dual-frequency operations until 12:03 p.m. on March 18, 2013, when WLS-TV formally ceased operations on VHF channel 7, leaving UHF channel 44 as its permanent allotment.[63] Since WLS-TV officially moved its full-power operations to channel 44, it is the only ABC-owned station to vacate its former analog allotment for its digital operations and the second ABC O&O to operate its full-power operations on the UHF band, afterFresno sister stationKFSN-TV (which was forced onto UHF in 1961 when it was a CBS affiliate, as the FCC preferred Fresno to be a "UHF island").
On June 12, 2017, WLS-TV's parent companyABC Owned Television Stations andUnivision Communications announced they would enter into a channel sharing agreement following the sale of the over-the-air spectrum ofUniMás owned-and-operated stationWXFT-DT in the FCC'sspectrum reallocation auction for $126.1 million on April 13, 2017; as mentioned above, the transition of WXFT to the WLS-TV spectrum occurred eight months later. During the 2019 digital television repack, the station relocated from UHF channel 44 as it was no longer allocated to broadcast television and is now broadcasting on UHF channel 22.
Broadcast television stations by affiliation in the state ofIllinois | ||
|---|---|---|
Includes stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of Illinois | ||
| ABC | ||
| CBS | ||
| Fox | ||
| NBC | ||
| The CW | ||
| MyNetworkTV | ||
| Ion Television | ||
| PBS | ||
| Religious | ||
| Spanish | ||
| Other | ||
| ATSC 3.0 | ||
Broadcast television stations by affiliation in the state ofIndiana | ||
|---|---|---|
Includes stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of Indiana | ||
| ABC | ||
| CBS | ||
| Fox | ||
| NBC | ||
| The CW | ||
| MyNetworkTV | ||
| Ion Television | ||
| PBS | ||
| Religious | ||
| Spanish | ||
| Other | ||
| ATSC 3.0 | ||
