Chicago TV Chronology

[RandTV]

1946
Sept. 6 - WBKB/ch. 4 (independent) signs on. It originally signed on in 1940 as experimental W9XBK.

1948
Apr. 5 - WGN/ch. 9 (CBS) signs on and shares its CBS affiliation with WBKB.
Sept. 17 - WENR/ch. 7 (ABC) signs on.
Sept. 26 - WGN/ch. 9 becomed afiliated with DuMont.
Oct. 8 - WNBQ/ch. 5 (NBC) signs on.
Dec. 1 - WGN/ch. 9 begins a dual afiliation with CBS and DuMont.

1949
Oct. 12 - WBKB/ch. 4 switches to CBS primary, and DuMont secondary.

1953
Feb. 12 - WENR/ch. 7 acquires WBKB call from channel 4, which changes call to WBBM and drops DuMont secondary.
July 5 - WBBM/ch. 4 relocates to channel 2.

1955
Sept. 6 - WTTW/ch. 11 (NET) signs on.

1956
Aug. 6 - WGN/ch. 9 reverts to independent as DuMont folds.

1964
Feb. 6 - WCIU/ch. 26 (independent) signs on.
Aug. 31 - WNBQ/ch. 5 changes call to WMAQ.

1965
Sept. 21 - WXXW/ch. 20 (Instructional TV) signs on.

1966
Jan. 4 - WFLD/ch. 32 (independent) signs on.

1968
Oct. 7 - WBKB/ch. 7 changes call to WLS.
Date unknown - WCIU/ch. 26 becomes a secondary SIN affiliate.

1970
Apr. 5 - WSNS/ch. 44 (independent) signs on.
Oct. 5 - WTTW/ch. 11 becomes a PBS afiiliate.

1974
Aug. - WXXW/ch. 20 signs off.

1976
May 31 - WCFC/ch. 38 (religious independent) signs on.

1978
Nov. 9 - WGN/ch. 9 launches into a national superstation.

1981
Sept. 18 - WFBN/ch.66 (independent) signs on, licensed to and originaiting from Joliet, IL.

1982
Apr. 4 - Shared station WPWR (English) and WBBS (Spanish) sign on channel 60.

1983
Feb. 2 - WXXW/ch. 20 returns to the air as WYCC (PBS).

1985
July 1 - WSNS/ch. 44 becomes the full-time SIN affiliate (later Univision) as WCIU/ch. 26 becomes a part-time affiliate with the new Spanish-language NetSpan (later Telemundo).

1986
Jan. 4 - WFBN/ch. 66 changes call to WGBO.
Date unknown - WBBS, the Spanish version of ch. 60 signs off as WPWR, the English version, remains on.
Oct. 9 - WFLD/ch. 32 becomes a Fox affiliate.

1987
Jan. 18 - WPWR/ch. 60 relocates to channel 50 as WEHS (HSN) takes over channel 60.

1989
Jan. 8 - WCIU/ch. 26 reverts to a part-time Univision affiliate as WSNS/ch. 44 becomes a full-time Telemundo affiliate.

1995
Jan. 1 - WCIU/ch. 26 reverts to full-time independent as WGBO/ch. 66 becomes a full-time Univision affiliate.
Jan. 11 - WGN/ch. 9 become a WB affiliate.
Jan. 16 - WPWR/ch. 50 becomes a UPN affiliate.

2006
Sept. 5 - WPWR/ch. 50 becomes a MyNetworkTV affiliate.
Sept. 18 - WGN/ch. 9 becomes a CW affiliate.

2016
Sept. 1 - WGN/ch. 9 reverts to independent as WPWR/ch. 50 becomes a CW affilate.

2019
Sept. 1 - WCIU/ch. 26 becomes a CW affilate as WPWR/ch. 50 reverts to a MyNetworkTV affiliate.

Please feel free to notify me of any errors or omissions.

 

[KeithE4]

Updates and corrections. Sources are from Broadcasting Magazine (thanks, David E). Some dates are approximate as they are not always specified:

1939
March 30 -- W9XZV (Zenith) airs its first experimental telecast on (prewar) Channel 1 (44-50 MHz) using the then-current 441 line standard. This would change in 1940, when 42-50 MHz was reallocated to FM.

1940
Aug 5 -- Balaban & Katz is issued a CP for W9XBK on (prewar) Channel 2 (60-66 MHz).
Aug 6 -- Channel 1 is reallocated to 50-56 MHz. W9XZV moves with it.

1941
Feb 21 -- W9XBK (Balaban & Katz) airs its first experimental telecast on Channel 2 using the now-established 525 line standard.

1943
May 10 -- W9XBK becomes WBKB as the FCC grants its license to cover the 1942 CP for the commercial station. W9XBK is still used for non-commercial experimental transmissions. The OP's and Wikipedia's date of 9/6/46 is in error.

1945
Late Dec -- Postwar (current) channels are announced and allocated. W9XZV is assigned to Channel 2 (54-60 MHz) and WBKB is assigned to Channel 4 (66-72 MHz).

1949
Aug 1 (approx) -- Zenith petitions the FCC to allow its Phonevision to be used on W9XZV Channel 2. Tests don't begin until 1951.

1950
??? -- W9ZXV becomes KS2XBS to conform to the FCC's new callsign format.

1953
July 5 -- When WBBM-TV moves from Channel 4 to 2, Zenith's experimental TV station comes to an end. Zenith donates its television facilites to WTTW.

 

[KeithE4]

From the mechanical TV era, when men were men and Nipkow Disks roamed the earth...

The mechanical TV channels allocated by the FRC were 2.0-2.1, 2.1-2.2, 2.75-2.85, and 2.85-2.95 MHz. Channels were not numbered like today, and sound was often broadcast on a co-owned AM station.

1928
W9XAA signs on, operating on 2.0-2.1 MHz by the Chicago Federation of Labor. Sound is provided by WCFL. The station also experimented with TV on the shortwave bands.

1929
W9XAO signs on, operating on 2.0-2.1 MHz by Nelson Brothers Bond and Mortgage Co. and running 500 watts.

1930
Chicago had the following stations:
2.0-2.1 -- W9XAA (Chicago Federation of Labor/WCFL), 1000 watts
2.0-2.1 -- W9XAG (Aero Products), 1000 watts. It was not shown in 1931 station lists.
2.0-2.1 -- W9XAO (Western Television/WIBO), 100 watts
2.75-2.85 -- W9XAP (Chicago Daily News/WMAQ), 1000 watts
2.85-2.95 -- W9XR (Great Lakes Broadcasting/WENR), 5000 watts from Downers Grove

Lines per frame and frame rate are not known, other than for W9XAO, which used Ulisas Sanabria's standard of 45 lines, triple interlaced, at 15 frames (45 fields) per second. This was the first example of interlaced scanning.

Nov 4 -- W9XAP televises election returns, complete with graphics. Sound was via WMAQ.

1931
Nov 1 -- NBC buys WMAQ/W9XAP from the Chicago Daily News, and WENR/W9XR from Great Lakes Broadcasting. W9XR goes dark but W9XAP continues for just over a year.

1933
March -- NBC shuts down W9XAP. They were working on electronic television, and had no use for Nipkow disks.
Aug 31 -- The FRC shut down WIBO to allow WJKS (now WIND) to move to 560 kHz. As W9XAO now had no voice, it also ceased operations.

All mechanical TV stations were gone by the end of 1933. I don't have a date for W9XAA exiting the TV business, but it continued as a shortwave relay station for WCFL into the 1930s.

 

[RandTV]

From the mechanical TV era, when men were men and Nipkow Disks roamed the earth...

The mechanical TV channels allocated by the FRC were 2.0-2.1, 2.1-2.2, 2.75-2.85, and 2.85-2.95 MHz. Channels were not numbered like today, and sound was often broadcast on a co-owned AM station.

1928
W9XAA signs on, operating on 2.0-2.1 MHz by the Chicago Federation of Labor. Sound is provided by WCFL. The station also experimented with TV on the shortwave bands.

1929
W9XAO signs on, operating on 2.0-2.1 MHz by Nelson Brothers Bond and Mortgage Co. and running 500 watts.

1930
Chicago had the following stations:
2.0-2.1 -- W9XAA (Chicago Federation of Labor/WCFL), 1000 watts
2.0-2.1 -- W9XAG (Aero Products), 1000 watts. It was not shown in 1931 station lists.
2.0-2.1 -- W9XAO (Western Television/WIBO), 100 watts
2.75-2.85 -- W9XAP (Chicago Daily News/WMAQ), 1000 watts
2.85-2.95 -- W9XR (Great Lakes Broadcasting/WENR), 5000 watts from Downers Grove

Lines per frame and frame rate are not known, other than for W9XAO, which used Ulisas Sanabria's standard of 45 lines, triple interlaced, at 15 frames (45 fields) per second. This was the first example of interlaced scanning.

Nov 4 -- W9XAP televises election returns, complete with graphics. Sound was via WMAQ.

1931
Nov 1 -- NBC buys WMAQ/W9XAP from the Chicago Daily News, and WENR/W9XR from Great Lakes Broadcasting. W9XR goes dark but W9XAP continues for just over a year.

1933
March -- NBC shuts down W9XAP. They were working on electronic television, and had no use for Nipkow disks.
Aug 31 -- The FRC shut down WIBO to allow WJKS (now WIND) to move to 560 kHz. As W9XAO now had no voice, it also ceased operations.

All mechanical TV stations were gone by the end of 1933. I don't have a date for W9XAA exiting the TV business, but it continued as a shortwave relay station for WCFL into the 1930s.

Thanks for that interesting historic info from the "experimental era", but for me, I prefer to start from after that era, according to the dates provided by TV Stations Fandom.

 

[fybush]

This is great stuff - but my usual reminder as someone who's been doing broadcast history for 30+ years:

Message boards like this are ephemeral. Everything posted here could disappear tomorrow with no archives and no recourse.

Good research deserves good archiving. Maybe some of the people posting this material here could find a way to work with David Gleason to get it saved on World Radio History, where he has plans in place to keep that material accessible over the long term.

 

[KeithE4]

Thanks for that interesting historic info from the "experimental era", but for me, I prefer to start from after that era, according to the dates provided by TV Stations Fandom.

I checked a couple of articles there. It looks like they were taken straight from Wikipedia. Wikipedia is not a primary source for anything. All articles there should be fact-checked from at least two other sources.

My sources for what I posted were David Eduardo's site worldradiohistory.com, Jeff Miller's History of American Broadcasting, and FRC/FCC station lists that have been published, both on those two sites and elsewhere. chicagotelevisionhistory.com is another excellent source of material.

 

[KeithE4]

This is great stuff - but my usual reminder as someone who's been doing broadcast history for 30+ years:

Message boards like this are ephemeral. Everything posted here could disappear tomorrow with no archives and no recourse.

Good research deserves good archiving. Maybe some of the people posting this material here could find a way to work with David Gleason to get it saved on World Radio History, where he has plans in place to keep that material accessible over the long term.

Most of my info came from the Broadcasting Magazines on David's website. I mentioned other sources above. As I'm sure you know, to do it right takes a lot of time, which I don't have enough of these days. Eventually I want to do one each for the Indianapolis and Phoenix areas. Maybe later unless someone beats me to it.

 

[RandTV]

I checked a couple of articles there. It looks like they were taken straight from Wikipedia. Wikipedia is not a primary source for anything. All articles there should be fact-checked from at least two other sources.

My sources for what I posted were David Eduardo's site worldradiohistory.com, Jeff Miller's History of American Broadcasting, and FRC/FCC station lists that have been published, both on those two sites and elsewhere. chicagotelevisionhistory.com is another excellent source of material.

I hope I wasn't doing anything wrong or against the rules. Are we forbidden to put down info from Wiki or Fandom? I do have another major source other than those, newspapers.com which includes the Chicago Tribune. Most of the station tranistion dates match between Wiki/Fandom and newspapers.com. Please let me know whether I did the right thing.

 

[KeithE4]

I hope I wasn't doing anything wrong or against the rules. Are we forbidden to put down info from Wiki or Fandom? I do have another major source other than those, newspapers.com which includes the Chicago Tribune. Most of the station tranistion dates match between Wiki/Fandom and newspapers.com. Please let me know whether I did the right thing.

You didn't do anything wrong, and there aren't any rules against it. But when researching history, accuracy is imperative. Newspapers may or may not get it right, but contemporary station listings, government data published at the time, and the like are more accurate.

Newspapers are good for program listings, but articles regarding stations are only as good as the reporter and his source will allow. Sometimes, the source is a station's PR Department. Not usually the best source.

 

[RandTV]

You didn't do anything wrong, and there aren't any rules against it. But when researching history, accuracy is imperative. Newspapers may or may not get it right, but contemporary station listings, government data published at the time, and the like are more accurate.

Newspapers are good for program listings, but articles regarding stations are only as good as the reporter and his source will allow. Sometimes, the source is a station's PR Department. Not usually the best source.

Accuracy is as high a priority for me as much as the rest of us. You do notice that on some parts I've put "Date unknown" or just the month without the date if I'm unable to find the exact date through my thorough researches.