WFLD
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| WFLD | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Chicago, Illinois | |
| Branding | Fox Chicago Fox News Chicago |
| Slogan | The Most Powerful Name in Local News. |
| Channels | 32 (UHF) analog, 31 (UHF) digital |
| Affiliations | Fox (since 1986) |
| Owner | Fox Television Stations Group |
| Founded | January 4, 1966 |
| Call letters meaning | W FieLD Communications, the station's founding owner |
| Former affiliations | Independent (1966-1986) |
| Transmitter Power | 5000 kW/418.4 m (analog) 200 kW/475 m (digital) |
| Website | www.myfoxchicago.com |
WFLD-TV is an owned-and-operated television station of the News Corporation-owned Fox Broadcasting Company, based in Chicago, Illinois. The station operates on channel 32, though it is identified on the air as simply "Fox Chicago." WFLD is co-owned with WPWR-TV (channel 50), Chicago's MyNetworkTV affiliate. WFLD's transmitter sits on top of the John Hancock Center.
WFLD is a typical Fox station with about 35 to 40 hours a week of news along with syndicated first run talk/court/reality shows, off-network sitcoms, Fox's primetime network programming, and sports.
Contents |
[edit] History
The station began life on January 4, 1966, from its downtown Chicago studios. Its founding owners were Field Enterprises, which also owned the Chicago Sun-Times and, most notably, the Marshall Field's department store chain. The station was christened the "Station of Tomorrow" by the Sun-Times in an April 1966 article because of its innovative technical developments in broadcasting its signal.
Field Enterprises sold a majority ownership in WFLD to Kaiser Broadcasting in 1972, and the two companies' new partnership would see WFLD joining Kaiser's stable of UHF independent stations in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Detroit. In 1977, Kaiser ended the partnership by selling its share of the stations back to Field Enterprises, with Field regaining 100-percent ownership of channel 32.
From the late 1960s to the 1980s, WFLD carried a wide variety of syndicated series, movies, and local public affairs programming. To counter-program against its more established VHF rivals, channel 32 offered documentaries, adult dramas, westerns, and live sports, though for much of the time it trailed WGN-TV (channel 9) in the ratings among Chicago's independent stations until the late 1970s. When it won bids to shows such as M*A*S*H, All In The Family, Happy Days, Three's Company,and Green Acres, the station finally beat WGN-TV in the ratings, and the two stations went head to head throughout the 1980s. M*A*S*H was the top show on channel 32 often beating not only WGN, but even the network stations in the 6pm time period - ABC-CBS-NBC. During this time period the station identified itself as Field Communications and WFLD-32, logo with 32 in a television shaped box, and WFLD directly under the box. This was common to their stations in other markets. "Field Communications" name was shown as a separate slide with the name and a common background, with voice over: "this is Field Communications".
In 1968, WFLD-TV acquired broadcast rights to the Chicago White Sox baseball team from WGN-TV, carrying them initially until 1972, and again from 1982 to 1989. During the 1980s WFLD also aired games of the NBA's Chicago Bulls, until WGN-TV acquired broadcast rights to both teams in 1990 (Chicago-area attorney and real estate investor Jerry Reinsdorf owns both franchises). WFLD was also noteworthy as the longtime home of the local B-movie program Svengoolie, which currently airs on WCIU-TV (channel 26).
In 1983, Field sold WFLD to Metromedia as part of a company-wide liquidation. At that time programming changed slightly but graphics were abruptly changed to reflect the new ownership. Metromedia's television stations, including WFLD, were sold to the News Corporation in 1986, and they formed the core of the new Fox Broadcasting Company.
Following the 1986 sale to the new Fox ownership, the station continued to compete aggressively in the market. Now known on-air as Fox 32, the station expanded its news presence as well. Its news presence began in 1986 with the premiere of the half-hour "Fox 32 News at 7" (touted as "the news that doesn't get home before you do") along with a half-hour 11PM newscast [1] which lasted until they consolidated both newscasts to compete with then-independent WGN's 9PM newscast. The newscast was moved back to 7PM by the fall of 1988 [2], and returned to 9PM by the fall of 1989 [3], in anticipation of Fox's expanding prime time schedule. The station started airing a morning newscast called Fox Thing in the Morning (now Fox News in the Morning) in place of the morning cartoon block.
The afternoon cartoon block, which became Fox Kids by 1992, continued on the station, as well as the top-rated off-network sitcoms in the evening. It also added more first-run talk shows and court shows. When Fox ended the weekday kids block in January of 2002, WFLD added more first-run reality and talk shows to the lineup.
In the mid-1990s, after several years of being known on the air as "Fox 32" (or even "Fox Thirty-Two"), the station rebranded itself as "Fox Chicago" due to the fact that many Chicagoans watch WFLD via cable (channel 12 or channel three on most area cable systems). Fox purchased WPWR-TV in 2002, and WPWR's operations were integrated into WFLD's facilities in downtown Chicago.
In January 2003, WFLD dropped the Fox Saturday morning cartoon block, now outsourced by Fox to producer "4 Kids TV", and the programs now air on WPWR in the same four-hour time block. In the near future, WFLD will be adding a Saturday morning newscast in its place from 6 to 9 AM (which for now syndicated kid shows and informercials air). WFLD is the first of the original six Fox-owned stations (owned prior to the New World stations purchase) to drop Fox's Saturday children's programming.
On May 7, 2006, WFLD adopted a new look for its newscasts, including new theme music and graphics, a new broadcast set, as well as a new station logo.
On September 11, 2006, WFLD launched an entirely redesigned website which is part of the myFox network.
[edit] Past logos
 WFLD logo used in the 1960s. |
 WFLD logo used from 1978-86. |
 WFLD-TV logo used from March 1986 to 1987 upon News Corp's purchase of the station from Metromedia. |
 Second Fox 32 logo, seen on an Australia style test pattern, in 1987. |
 WFLD's Fox Chicago logo from 1999. Modified from previous logo, Chicago is in place of where Thirty-Two had gone. |
 WFLD's logo until May 2006 |
 WFLD's main channel logo, used since May 2006 |
[edit] Newscasts
[edit] Weekdays
- Fox News Chicago in the Morning - 5-9AM
- Fox News Chicago at Noon - 12-1PM
- Fox News Chicago at 9PM - 9-10PM
[edit] Saturday
- Fox News Chicago at 5PM - 5-6PM (Saturday)
- Fox News Chicago at 9PM - 9-10PM
[edit] Sunday
- Fox Chicago Perspectives - 8-9AM (Sunday)
- Fox News Chicago at 9PM - 9-10PM
[edit] Trivia
- Chicago is the largest market with a Fox station on the UHF dial.
- WFLD is also the first Fox UHF O&O to adopt a logo similar to that of sister WTVT. The new logos inspired by Fox News Channel use the logo colors red and blue and match the look of the network.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________ NOTABLE PEOPLE \
Notable News Personalities CURRENT
Jill Carlson, Sports Anchor/Reporter
Lilia Chacon, General Assignment Reporter
Jack Conaty, General Assignment Reporter
Rick DiMaio, Chief Meteorologist
Patrick Elwood, Morning and Noon Anchor/Reporter
Michelle Gielan, General Assignment Reporter
Tamron Hall, Morning Anchor/Reporter/
Byron Harlan, Weekend 9PM Anchor/Reporter
Darlene Hill, General Assignment Reporter
Anne Kavanagh, General Assignment Reporter
Nancy Loo, Morning and Noon Anchor/Reporter
Cory McPherrin, Sports Director
David Novarro, Morning Anchor/Reporter
Nancy Pender, Weekend 9PM Anchor/Reporter
Dane Placko, General Assignment Reporter
Robin Robinson, 9PM Anchor/Reporter
Mark Saxenmeyer, General Assignment Reporter
Steve Baron, Meteorologist
Margaret Shortridge, General Assignment Reporter
Sondra Solarte, General Assignment Reporter
Tammie Souza, Morning Meteorologist
Mark Strehl, Weekend Meteorologist
Mark Suppelsa, 9PM Anchor/Reporter
Tom Waddle, Sports Anchor/Reporter
Craig Wall, General Assignment Reporter
Larry Yellen, General Assignment Reporter
Kelly ????????
PAST
Walter Jacobson, 9PM Anchor/Reporter/"Perspectives" Host (1993-2005)
Michael Pomeranz, Anchor/Reporter (?-2000; now at KARE-TV)
Maurice DuBois, Anchor/Reporter (1994-1997; now at WCBS-TV)
Jonathan Hoenig, morning financial analyst (2000-2002; now at Fox News Channel)
Michelle Leigh, morning meteorologist (2001-2006)
Steve Perez Schill, evening weather anchor (1995-2001)
Harry Volkman, weekend meteorologist (1996- 2004)
Bruce Wolf, morning sports (19??-2006)
This list is incomplete. You can help by expanding it
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Station Website
- WFLD-TV Conducts A Test Of The Emergency Broadcast System, 1984
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WFLD
| 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) |
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| Local cable television channels | ||
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WFLD 32 (Chicago) - WQRF 39 (Rockford) - WYZZ 43 (Bloomington) - "CGEM" 54.3 (Quincy) - WRSP 55 / WCCU 27 (Springfield / Urbana) |
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| See also: ABC, CBS, CW, MyNetworkTV, NBC, PBS and Other Stations in Illinois | |
