WPWR-TV
Encyclopedia : W : WP : WPW : WPWR-TV
WPWR-TV, "My 50," is currently an affiliate station of UPN, licensed to Gary, Indiana and serving the Chicago, Illinois area. WPWR-TV is owned by Fox Television Stations, a division of the News Corporation, and is a sister station to WFLD-TV (channel 32). It was previously branded as Power 50, UPN Chicago, UPN Power 50 and UPN 50.
On February 22, 2006, Fox announced that WPWR will be part of a new primetime network called My Network TV to launch September 5, 2006. My Network TV will be operated by Fox Television Stations and its syndication division, Twentieth Television. There is no local news on this station.
History
The station began in 1981 on channel 60 and was shared by a Spanish Group. From 7 p.m. to 2:30 a.m., the station was WBBS running a Spanish Format. Though Fred Eychaner's Metrowest Corporation had applied for the license in 1978, the FCC didn't approve of it until 1981. On April 4, 1981, WPWR channel 60 premiered with a large percentage of its broadcast schedule dedicated to a new pay television service called Sportsvision, which Eychaner had developed in a deal with Chicago White Sox owners Jerry Reinsdorf and Eddie Einhorn. For the service, viewers have to pay for a set top converter and subscription fees to watch their favorite baseball team. However, Sportsvision was not a success and moved to cable in January 1983. With Sportsvision gone, Eychaner began running public domain movies and old sitcoms from the early to mid 1950s as well as old cartoons. In 1984, familiar classic sitcoms and newer barter cartoons were mixed in.WPWR was an oddity in that it was a split licensed station. WPWR aired from 2:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. for seven days a week. At 7 p.m., Spanish language WBBS signed on. WBBS, owned by Chicagoan Marcelino Miyares doing business as Hatco-60, ran a Spanish entertainment format.
The 1985 announcement of WSNS's affiliating with the Spanish International Network (SIN) caused WBBS to end weekday programming at the end of 1985, with the exception on weekends when it ran Spanish movies into 1986.
Eychaner spent $1.5 million for WGMI, a channel 56 construction permit licensed to Gary that had been held by a group of Indiana businessmen since 1976, but was never built. In 1981, Eychaner opted to help build Channel 60 with help from Marcelino Miyares. In 1985, Eychaner acquired the educational broadcast license for WCAE St. John, Indiana, channel 50. He then swapped the licenses and channel 56 became WYIN (now licensed to Merrillville). Channel 50 became a commercial license with plans to be put on the air and re-dubbed WPWR with Channel 60's assets.
In early 1986, Eychaner bought WBBS's share of Channel 60 for $11 million. When Channel 50 was ready to sign on, Eychaner sold Channel 60 to the Home Shopping Network (HSN) for $25 million. HSN changed Channel 60's call letters to WEHS and on January 17, 1987, went on the air in the middle of a sale. At the same time, WPWR moved off channel 60 and reappeared on channel 50 with an episode of Rod Serling's Night Gallery called Green Fingers.
As time went on, WPWR began acquiring many cartoons, more recent off-network sitcoms, drama shows, movies, and first-run syndicated shows, including [[Star Trek: The Next Generation]] in 1987 and War of the Worlds in 1988. At least one Star Trek spinoff would air on WPWR from that time until June of 2005, when the last network episode of [[Star Trek: Enterprise]] was broadcast. In 1994, WPWR picked up The Disney Afternoon from WGN-TV. Early in 1995, WPWR took the UPN affiliation and added more first run syndicated talk/reality/court shows. The station also continued adding off network sitcoms to its lineup.
In July 2002, the Chicago Sun-Times's Robert Feder reported that Eychaner sold WPWR to Rupert Murdoch's Fox Television for $425 million. Today WPWR is an UPN affiliate owned by Fox. It schedule consistes of talk shows, court shows, reality shows, sitcoms, cartoons, and UPN programs.
In 2005, WPWR added 4Kids TV, Fox's Saturday morning line-up packaged by 4Kids Entertainment. WFLD dropped this block of shows in favor of a local newscast they are launching soon.
On January 24, 2006, the UPN and WB networks announced they would merge. The newly combined network would be called The CW, the letters representing the first initial of its corporate parents CBS (the parent company of UPN) and the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner. The merger will take effect in September 2006. Current WB station WGN-TV was announced as the CW's Chicago affiliate.
The CW announcement came just a few months after Fox and UPN agreed to a new eight-year affiliation deal for WPWR and the other Fox-owned UPN affiliates (such as KCOP in Los Angeles and WWOR-TV in New York City). In response, Fox removed all references to UPN from its UPN affiliates' logos and promotions. Accordingly, WPWR switched to its former on-air name before Fox ownership, Power 50.
A month later, WPWR was announced as the Chicago outlet for My Network TV. When the network launches in September, WPWR will officially rebrand as my 50. Although most onair promos retained the "Power 50" slogan for the summer of 2006, the station began to use the "my 50" moniker in some advertising to promote the change, particularly at sponsored events such as the Taste of Chicago.
Logos
Trivia
- Because sisters WWOR-TV and KCOP are on VHF, WPWR has the distinction of being the largest UHF affiliate of UPN.
- The WCAE calls that were on channel 50 while still an educational license (but never went on the air) were once used on WEAE in Pittsburgh.
External links
| Terrestrial television>Broadcast television in the Chicago market [(Nielsen DMA #3)] | ||
|---|---|---|
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WBBM 2 (CBS) -
W04CQ 4 (ANC) -
WMAQ 5 (NBC) -
WLS 7 (ABC) -
WGN 9 (The WB/The CW) (The Tube on DT2) -
WTTW 11 (PBS) -
WOCK-CA 13 (MTV2) -
W13BQ 13 (DW) -
W18AT 18 / W54BK 54 (LeSEA) -
WYCC 20 (PBS) -
WWME-CA 23 (Ind) -
W24AW 24 (LeSEA) -
WCIU 26 (Ind) -
WSPY-LP 30 (A1) -
WFLD 32 (Fox) -
WWTO 35 (TBN) -
WCPX 38 (i) -
WOCH-CA 41 (Ind) -
WSNS 44 (TEL) -
WFBT-CA 48 (Ind) -
WPWR 50 (UPN/My Network TV) -
W54BE 54 (edu.) -
WYIN 56 (PBS) -
WXFT 60 (TFT) -
WJYS 62 (Ind) -
W64CQ 64 (TBN) -
WGBO 66 (UNI)
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| Local cable television channels | ||
| CLTV - Comcast SportsNet Chicago - Superstation WGN | ||