WGBO-TV

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

WGBO-TV
Joliet / Chicago, Illinois
Branding	Univision Chicago
Channels	66 (UHF) analog, 53 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	Univision
Owner	Univision
Founded	1981
Call letters meaning	Grant Broadcasting (former owner)

WGBO-TV 66 is the Univision affiliate licensed to Joliet, Illinois, and serves the Greater Chicago area. WGBO offers a Spanish programming format featuring news, talk shows, dramas, movies, and other first rate Spanish programming.

[edit] History

Channel 66 signed on in 1981 as WFBN-TV, owned by Focus Broadcasting. Initially it ran business news from FNN during the day and Spectrum Subscription TV by night. By 1982, the station ran Subscription TV almost 24/7, but by Fall 1983 Spectrum shared the same schedule with Chicago subscription rival ON-TV.

WFBN continued this format until early 1984, when it dropped Spectrum in favor of music videos 24/7. By the fall of 1984, WFBN dropped the music videos and refilled the schedule with off-network classic sitcoms, dramas, movies, and religious shows. Grant Broadcasting bought WFBN in fall 1985 and changed its call letters to WGBO in January of 1986.

In January 1986, WGBO added a few more off-network sitcoms and a couple of kids shows. It also added a lot of westerns. Unfortunately, the station overpaid for product. When it went to acquire more barter kids shows, it found the shelves were picked clean by WGN-TV, WFLD and WPWR. The bargain product was picked clean by WPWR. Ratings were always very low on this station and did not go up under Grant's ownership. Grant also could not compete against the two established independent stations and was not even able to compete against WPWR (even with all the low budget shows WPWR had along with lots of barter shows).

Grant Broadcasting overextended itself for all three of its stations. As a result, at the end of 1986, Grant filed Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. While the other two stations kept similar formats with fewer shows, WGBO 66 added a lot of infomercials, religion, and other paid programs. WGBO did hold on to some entertainment shows. Ratings did not deteriorate, but they were very low to begin with.

In the early 1990s, WGBO added some barter cartoons and sitcoms that other stations passed on or dropped previously. In 1989, WGBO (along with its sister stations) went into receivership. A group of creditors called Combined Broadcasting took over the stations. Finally, in 1994, in a group deal Combined Broadcasting sold its Philadelphia and Miami stations to the Paramount Stations Group (who sold its original Philadelphia station to News Corporation, who also by then owned WFLD), and WGBO to Univision-the leading Spanish-language network was angred when its then-affiliate in Chicago, WCIU-TV, refused to drop its English-speaking shows like Stock Market Observer, as such, Univision wanted to buy WGBO.

Univision took ownership of Channel 66 in January 1995. The station retained the WGBO call letters, but immediately switched to Spanish programming. WCIU-TV picked up WGBO's entertainment shows.

WGBO is tentatively scheduled to move to channel 38 when the FCC completes the transition to all-digital broadcasting on February 17, 2009. [1]

[edit] Trivia

• In 1995 Oshkosh, Wisconsin radio station WVBO asked WGBO for permission to use the call letters WGBO-FM for its planned Green Bay simulcast. WGBO refused, and the Green Bay station went on the air as WOGB instead.

[edit] External links

• Query the FCC's TV station database for WGBO-TV

Broadcast television in the Chicago market (Nielsen DMA #3)
WBBM 2 (CBS) - W04CQ 4 (Silent) - WMAQ 5 (NBC) - WLS 7 (ABC) - WGN 9 (The CW) (The Tube on DT2) - WTTW 11 (PBS, Create on DT.2) - WOCK-CA 13 (Azteca América) - W13BQ 13 (DW) - W18AT 18 / W54BK 54 (LeSEA) - WYCC 20 (PBS) - W64CQ 22 (TBN) - WWME-CA 23 (Ind) - WHVI-LP 24 (LeSEA) - WCIU 26 (Ind) - WSPY-LP 30 (A1) - WFLD 32 (Fox) - WEDE-CA 34 (Ind) - WWTO 35 (TBN) - WCPX 38 (i) - WOCH-CA 41 (Ind) - WSNS 44 (TEL) - WFBT-CA 48 (Ind) - WPWR 50 (MNTV) - W54BE 54 (Edu. Ind) - WLFM-LP 55 (Ind) - WYIN 56 (PBS) - WXFT 60 (TFT) - WCHU-LP 61 (MTV3) - WJYS 62 (Ind) - WGBO 66 (UNI)
Local cable television channels
CLTV - Comcast SportsNet Chicago