WXFT-DT

Aurora–Chicago, Illinois United States
City	Aurora, Illinois
Channels	Digital: 22 (UHF), shared withWLS-TV Virtual: 60
Branding	UniMás Chicago
Programming
Affiliations	60.1:UniMás 60.2:Ion Mystery 60.3:Quest
Ownership
Owner	TelevisaUnivision (UniMas ChicagoLLC)
Sister stations	WGBO-DT,WOJO,WPPN,WVIV-FM
History
First air date	April 20, 1982 (1982-04-20)
Former call signs	WBBS-TV / WPWR-TV (1982–1987) WEHS (1987–1992) WEHS-TV (1992–2001) WXFT (2001–2003) WXFT-TV (2004–2009)
Former channel numbers	Analog: 60 (UHF, 1982–2009) Digital: 59 (UHF, 2006–2009), 50 (UHF, 2009–2017), 44 (UHF, 2017–2019)
Former affiliations	SpanishInd. (1982–1987) HSN (1987–2002)
Call sign meaning	C("X")hicago/Xtreme Telefutura (WCFT was already in use at the time of assignment)
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	60539
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	Public file LMS
Website	UniMás

WXFT-DT (channel 60) is atelevision station licensed toAurora, Illinois, United States, serving as theChicago-area outlet for the Spanish-language networkUniMás. It isowned and operated byTelevisaUnivision alongsideJoliet-licensedUnivision stationWGBO-DT (channel 66). The two stations share studios at541 North Fairbanks Court in theStreeterville neighborhood. Through achannel sharing agreement withABC owned-and-operated stationWLS-TV (channel 7), WXFT-DT transmits using WLS-TV's spectrum from an antenna atop theWillis Tower.

The UHF channel 60 allocation to Aurora was originally occupied by WLXT-TV, which broadcast from May 16, 1969, to July 17, 1970. WLXT was anindependent station that abruptly closed after 14 months of attempting to serve its suburban coverage area, but it was notable for the people that passed through it, particularly news directorChristine Lund, who became a well-known news anchor inLos Angeles, andTom Skilling, longtime chief meteorologist atWGN-TV (channel 9), who got his start in television broadcasting at WLXT and presented daily weather forecasts for the station during his junior year of high school.

When applications for channel 60 were reopened in 1978, considerable interest was attracted. Several applicants proposed a new Spanish-language television station, including theSpanish International Network (which ended up applying for channel 66 instead) and a local group headed byMarcelino Miyares, the owner of Spanish-language advertising agency OMAR.^[2] The Miyares group became known as Hispanic American Television–Chicago and eventually HATCO-60 when it merged with competing applicant Aurora-Chicago Telecasters, Inc. The FCC received five proposals, three of which were designated for hearing by the FCC in July 1980: HATCO-60 (specifyingWest Chicago);Metrowest Corporation, specifying Aurora; and theCollege of DuPage, forGlen Ellyn.^[3]

In late 1981, HATCO-60 and Metrowest agreed to a shared-time agreement.^[4] Under the agreement, Metrowest would broadcast daily from 2:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., while the Hatco-60 station would broadcast daily from 7 p.m. to 2:30 a.m., giving channel 60 the distinction of being the only split-licensed station in the United States (and the first to operate in more than 20 years).

With the arrangement in place, the two stations signed on in April 1982, sharing transmitter facilities atop theSears Tower. Eychaner signed on independent stationWPWR-TV.

At the same time WPWR debuted, Miyares signed on WBBS-TV—the call sign assigned by theFederal Communications Commission (FCC) over objections fromWBBM-TV^[5]—which maintained a Spanish-language entertainment format as a founding^[6] affiliate of NetSpan, which would evolve intoTelemundo in 1987. WBBS featured various programming aimed at Hispanic audiences including local news programming,telenovelas andvariety series as well as other locally produced shows, such as the popularmusic video programImagen, hosted by local Spanish-language television personality (and now media executive) Rey Mena and Vivianne Plazas. One of the notable events for WBBS occurred in 1983, when the station introduced the Latin teen pop groupMenudo (which included a youngRicky Martin), to Chicago's Latino community. The station's primary competitor wasWCIU-TV (channel 26, now a CW affiliate), which was then a part-time affiliate of the Spanish International Network (the forerunner to the present-dayUnivision).

Both stations shared^[7] one critical piece of programming: a newsubscription television service calledSportsVision (a companion service toON TV), which Eychaner and Miyares had developed through a deal withChicago White Sox co-ownersJerry Reinsdorf andEddie Einhorn. In order to access the service, viewers had to purchase a set-topdescrambling converter and pay a monthly subscription fee in order to view sporting events such as White Sox games. However, SportsVision achieved little success on WPWR/WBBS-TV and converted into acable channel in January 1984. With SportsVision removed from the station, WPWR ranpublic domainmovies, cartoons and classicsitcoms from the early to mid-1950s to fill its schedule. In 1984, more popular classic sitcoms and newer barter cartoons were mixed into the lineup.

In 1984, Eychaner acquired the construction permit for WDAI, a proposed station that would be licensed toGary, Indiana and broadcast on UHF channel 56, for $1.5 million. The permit had been held by a group of Indiana businessmen doing business as GWWX-TV and later Great Lakes Broadcasting. The WDAI construction permit had existed since 1982, but short-spacing concerns to channel 60 and to two allocations in southeast Wisconsin had meant channel 56 could not be placed on the Sears Tower; this finding crippled a previous attempt to build the allocation as WGMI in 1968.^[8] However, another channel allocated to Gary could: channel 50, which as educational stationWCAE had folded the previous year due to financial problems. The license was transferred to Northwest Indiana Public Broadcasting, but NIPB was not able to reactivate the station from improved facilities without an infusion of resources. Eychaner paid $684,000 to Northwest Indiana Public Broadcasting,^[9] giving it the funding it needed to build its facility, if it would switch allocations with WDAI. The move had been initially designed to potentially allow WBBS-TV to go full-time on channel 60, but the loss of NetSpan affiliation doomed those plans.^[10] In August 1986, the commission issued final orders switching the commercial and noncommercial allocations for Gary.^[11] This allowed Metrowest to proceed with its plan of moving the WPWR-TV intellectual unit from channel 60 to channel 50 while selling the channel 60 license;^[12] the noncommercial allocation shifted to channel 56, which signed on asWYIN on November 15, 1987.

In the spring of 1985,WSNS-TV (channel 44) ended its five-year run as an affiliate of the ON TV subscription service and announced that it would affiliate with SIN. In response to losing access to SIN programming, WCIU chose to align with NetSpan, which in turn sent WBBS-TV into a tailspin. In October 1985, Eychaner purchased a financially struggling WBBS-TV for $11 million. At that moment, WPWR took over the weekday hours held by WBBS; channel 60 continued to broadcast on weekend evenings until August 1986, when the sale was approved.^[13] Channel 50 was ready to sign on as a commercial outlet by October 1986, at which point Eychaner then sold the channel 60 allocation to theHome Shopping Network for $25 million.^[14] HSN, which owned the station through its Silver King Television arm, changed the station's call letters toWEHS (originally planned to be changed to WHSI). WPWR moved to channel 50 on January 17, 1987,^[15] at which time the channel 60 signed on as an HSN owned-and-operated station, with its only diversions from the master HSN schedule being the minimum fulfillment of local and educational programming requirements.

Barry Diller—then-owner ofUSA Network—acquired Silver King Communications in November 1995; the sale was finalized on December 19, 1996, ten months after its March 11 approval by the FCC.^[16][17][18] By 1998, the company rebranded asUSA Broadcasting after merging with the TV assets ofUniversal Pictures. In 1999, USA Broadcasting began converting its stations into a general entertainment independent format called "CityVision" and WEHS was slated to convert to this format infusing locally produced and syndicated programming along with live sports content;^[19] with the station likely to have become "Windy 60" under new WNDE calls (both referencing Chicago's nickname,"The Windy City")

However, before the proposed conversion into an independent station could occur, the plans were put on ice after USA Broadcasting announced that it would sell off its television station group in 2000. One of the two prospective buyers for the group wasThe Walt Disney Company (had Disney's bid been successful, it would have created the market's first televisionduopoly withABC owned-and-operated stationWLS-TV); however, Disney was outbid by Spanish-language broadcaster Univision Communications, which purchased the USA Broadcasting stations for $1.1 billion on December 7, 2000; the sale was finalized on May 21, 2001.^[20][21][22] As a result, channel 60 changed its call letters to WXFT, and became a charter owned-and-operated station of Univision's new 2nd network, Telefutura (later rebranded to UniMás), when that network launched on January 14, 2002.^[23][24][25]

WXFT's 5,000,000-watt transmitter malfunctioned in the early hours of December 6, 2006, causing an alarm which forced action by theChicago Fire Department to extinguish the smoldering equipment.^[26] The transmitter was destroyed, leaving only half of its power available. The station still remained available via cable fed via a direct connection from the station. A new transmitter was commissioned on January 11, 2007, which restored normal operations.

WXFT shut down its analog signal, overUHF channel 60, on June 12, 2009, the official deadline for full-power television stations in the United Statesto convert from full-time analog to full-time digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal moved from its pre-transition UHF channel 59 to channel 50,^[27] usingvirtual channel 60.

In December 2009, WXFT and sister station WGBO, along with most of Univision's other owned-and-operated stations, upgraded their main digital channels to transmit in16:91080ihigh definition in preparation for the launches of Univision and Telefutura's HD feeds which launched in 2010.

On April 13, 2017, station owner Univision Communications announced the over-the-air spectrum of WXFT-DT was sold in the FCC'sspectrum reallocation auction for $126.1 million.^[28] In January 2016, theABC Owned Television Stations group, owners ofWLS-TV announced they will enter into a channel sharing agreement with Univision for WXFT. While WXFT-DT did not go off the air, it began to share spectrum with WLS-TV in June 2017.^[29]

• 1982 establishments in Illinois
• Ion Mystery affiliates
• Quest (American TV network) affiliates
• Spanish-language television stations in Illinois
• TelevisaUnivision
• Television channels and stations established in 1982
• Television stations in Chicago
• UniMás affiliates

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