WLS-TV


WLS-TV 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.

History

WENR-TV (1948–1953)

The station first signed on the air on September 17, 1948, as WENR-TV. It was the third television station to sign on in the Chicago market behind WGN-TV, which debuted six months earlier in April, and WBKB, 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, which served as an affiliate of the ABC Radio Network.

WBKB-TV (1953–1968)

In February 1953, ABC merged with United Paramount Theatres, the former theater division of Paramount Pictures. UPT subsidiary Balaban and Katz owned WBKB. The newly merged American Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres, as the company was known then, could not keep both stations because of Federal Communications Commission 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.

WLS-TV (1968–present)

Sterling "Red" Quinlan served as the station's general manager from the early 1950s to the mid-1960s, 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, 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. Ironically, ABC merged WLS with WENR, its shared-time partner, in 1954.
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.
WLS-TV had claimed to be "Chicago's first television station" in its sign-ons and sign-offs during its first three decades, but admitted to its true roots with WENR with its 30th anniversary in 1978.
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 and other over-the-air pay services that existed during the early and mid-1980s. 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.
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.

Programming

WLS-TV currently airs the Weekend Adventure educational programming block and the network's political/news discussion program This Week one hour later than most ABC stations due to its weekend morning newscasts.

Network programs time-shifted

  • From that program's debut in January 2003, WLS-TV aired Jimmy Kimmel Live! on a one-hour delay at 12:02 a.m. as the station aired reruns of The Oprah Winfrey Show at 11:02 p.m. after Nightline.
  • For many years, WLS-TV was the only ABC owned-and-operated station that did not carry Live with Kelly and Mark in its various incarnations. Lives traditional 9 a.m. timeslot was occupied on Channel 7 by Oprah prior to the former program's national debut in September 1986 until May 2011, and later by Windy City Live from May 2011 to September 2013; the program—which is produced by New York City sister station WABC-TV—had, however, occasionally aired in an overnight timeslot on WLS from 1991 to 1993 and again from 1999 to 2002. Other Chicago stations that aired Live in a daytime slot included WFLD, WBBM-TV and WGN-TV. On September 2, 2013, Live with Kelly and Mark moved to WLS-TV, with Windy City Live being bumped to 11 a.m. as a result.
  • From its premiere in September 2019 until September 2021, WLS-TV was the only ABC-owned station not to carry Tamron Hall, due to a lack of a viable timeslot in its daytime schedule. Independent station WCIU-TV carried it for its first two seasons, with the show moving to WLS-TV in the third season after the end of Windy City Live.

    Other WLS-TV produced programs

  • 190 North – a local lifestyle program formerly hosted by Janet Davies; the show began broadcasting in 1998 and then in high-definition on May 6, 2007. The show ran on Sundays at 11 p.m., with a rebroadcast on Saturday nights from 1998 to 2013. It returned later in 2013 in a retooled format, only airing a few times a year.
  • Let's Dish – a food-based travel program produced by WLS-TV for the Live Well Network, and shown locally on digital channel 7.2.
  • Windy City Weekend – a weekly lifestyle program that formerly served as a weekday afternoon talk show with a live audience known as Windy City Live, hosted by Ryan Chiaverini and Valerie Warner that premiered as a daily program on May 26, 2011, replacing The Oprah Winfrey Show. Initially airing weekdays at 9 a.m., the live telecast moved to 11 a.m. on September 2, 2013, and at 1 p.m. on June 27, 2016, with reruns airing at 2 p.m. and at 12:07 a.m.. The show ended after 10 years as a daily program on September 3, 2021; it later recast as a weekly program, known as Windy City Weekend on September 10, 2021, and it airs Fridays at 11:30 a.m.
  • Since 1991, the station has broadcast a local New Year's Eve special known as Countdown Chicago.

    Former WLS-TV produced programs

  • The Chicago Huddle – a local sports program about the Chicago Bears hosted by Ryan Chiaverini. The program aired Sundays 10:30 a.m. during the NFL season until during the 2009-10 Bears season.
  • Chicagoing – a local public affairs program hosted by Bill Campbell. Aired on Sunday mornings at 11:30 a.m., the program ran its final broadcast on December 26, 2010.

    Former syndicated programming produced in Chicago

  • At the Movies – nationally syndicated film review program, produced at WLS-TV's studios, and distributed by Disney-ABC Domestic Television. It aired Saturdays 10:35 p.m. with reruns Sundays 10:30 a.m. The program aired its final original broadcast on August 14, 2010.
  • The Oprah Winfrey Show – previously a local program A.M. Chicago, it received the name about one year after Oprah Winfrey began hosting. The program was created by WLS-TV, but was later produced by Harpo Productions and CBS Television Distribution at Oprah's Harpo Studios. It aired weekdays at 9 a.m., in both its local and syndicated incarnations. The program ended with its final original broadcast airing on May 25, 2011. Reruns continued weeknights at 11:02 p.m. until September 9, 2011.

    Sports programming

WLS-TV is the local over-the-air host of Monday Night Football games involving the Chicago Bears, airing simulcasts of the team's ESPN-televised games. Because of this, atypical for a network-owned station outside of breaking news and severe weather coverage necessitating such situations, the station has had to reschedule ABC network programs preempted by the telecasts. The preseason and MNF 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, WMAQ-TV and especially WFLD. Since 2010, however, it has deferred the right of first refusal due to the popularity and live voting requirements of ABC's Dancing with the Stars, with WCIU-TV carrying the MNF games when the former program's fall season is ongoing.
On December 12, 2014, WLS-TV signed a new five-year broadcast agreement with the Chicago Cubs, in which WLS televised 25 of the Major League Baseball team's games per year, starting with the 2015 season. The arrangement partially replaced one with WGN-TV, 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 on DirecTV's version of MLB Extra Innings, and the feed provided was the WLS signal seen in the Chicago market.
As ABC has a limited sports programming schedule during the Major League Baseball season prior to September, the station mainly carried the team's weekend daytime games in order to limit preemption of the network's prime time programming. The deal ended after the 2019 season, when the team launched the cable-only Marquee Sports Network to carry their game telecasts.
WLS-TV also carries select Chicago Bulls games as part of their NBA on ABC telecasts.
From 1999 to 2004 and again since 2021, WLS-TV carries select Chicago Blackhawks games as part of their NHL on ABC telecasts.