WQHS-TV

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For the radio station at the University of Pennsylvania, see WQHS Radio.

WQHS-TV
Cleveland, Ohio
Branding	Univision 61
Channels	61 (UHF) analog, 34 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	Univision
Owner	Univision
Founded	1980
Call letters meaning	HS = "Home Shopping Network"
Former callsigns	WCLQ-TV (1980-1986) WQHS (1986-1992) WQHS-TV (1992-2006/Present)
Former affiliations	Independent (1980-86), Home Shopping Network (1986-2002)

For the old channel 61 in Cleveland, see WKBF-TV.

WQHS-TV is a Spanish-language television station owned and operated by and affiliated with Univision. It is licensed to serve the Cleveland, Ohio television market, and broadcasts on UHF channel 61. It is also one of two stations with the Univision affiliation, alongside WUDT-CA in Detroit, Michigan in markets bordering Canada.

Contents 1 History 1.1 1975 to 1980: The dark years 1.2 1980 to Present: New license, new owners 2 External link

[edit] History

A previous license owned by Kaiser Broadcasting occupied Channel 61 as WKBF from 1968 to 1975. In 1975, Kaiser Broadcasting purchased rival station WUAB-TV and combined assets of both stations. Kaiser then signed Channel 61 off the air due to poor revenue growth and returned the license to the Federal Communications Commission.

[edit] 1975 to 1980: The dark years

Rumors abounded concerning potential companies that could file for the Channel 61 license in Cleveland, yet none came forward right away. After a few years, the FCC began to accept applications for channel 61 (as a distinctly separate license from WKBF), and Balaban Stations won the license in 1980.

[edit] 1980 to Present: New license, new owners

The current licensed station signed on in March of 1981. The call letters assigned to the new licensee was WCLQ. The Channel 61 logo was similar to WKBF's design, but with a neon glow effect. This station too was classified as "independent" as it did not carry a national network. The air time was filled with general entertainment programming and ran a mix of classic cartoons, hour long off network dramas, westerns, sitcoms, and other syndicated programs. The station did gain profitability, unlike its predecessor. This may have been initially due to the evening program service that was not free broadcast, but an over-the-air subscription service that scrambled the signal to anyone but paid subscribers (known under its brand name as "Preview Television Subscription"). The service was discontinued in 1982. WCLQ was sold to Channel Communications in 1984.

In 1985, WOIO and WBNX both signed on with entertainment formats to create further competition, which took viewers away from WCLQ. WOIO surpassed WCLQ in the ratings immediately. WBNX struggled and ran alot of paid programming. But it became apparent that Cleveland was unable to support four independent stations. As a result, WCLQ began to lose money, and Channel Communications decided to put WCLQ up for sale in May 1986. The station began running Home Shopping Network programming from midnight to 6 a.m. earlier that year, and in the summer it also began to air from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. In August, HSN's broadcasting arm (Silver King Television) bought WCLQ. In September, WCLQ began to run HSN programming 18 hours a day, while the independent format continued to air from 4 to 10 p.m.

Once the sale was finalized in November 1986, WCLQ changed its call letters to WQHS-TV. The independent format was completely dropped, with HSN programs being shown 24/7 for the next sixteen years. WBNX picked up much of WCLQ's syndicated programming including cartoons.

Plans emerged in the late 1990s to return WQHS-TV to the independent format by 2002. However, USA Broadcasting decided that it would be better to sell and almost sold WQHS to ABC/Disney in 2000, but ended up being outbid by Univision. As a result, WQHS-TV adopted the Univision Network programming in January 2002. The station continues to serve Northern Ohio as its only Spanish language station.

Preceded by: WKBF-TV

Channel 61 Cleveland occupant 1980-present

Succeeded by: incumbent

[edit] External link

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