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WSNS-TV. / 41.878917°N 87.636167°W / 41.878917; -87.636167. WSNS-TV (channel 44) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, serving as the local outlet for the Spanish-language network Telemundo. It is owned and operated by NBCUniversal 's Telemundo Station Group alongside NBC outlet WMAQ-TV (channel 5); it is also ...
Aug 8, 2021 · WSNS-TV (Channel 44) said Thursday it will begin carrying programs from the Telemundo network in January, when that Spanish-language station`s affiliation with the Univision network ends. The switc…
Nov 10, 1995 · Telemundo Group Inc., the struggling Spanish-language television network that emerged from bankruptcy in January, said Thursday it has agreed to buy a 74.5 percent stake in WSNS-TV, Ch. 44, Chicago…
- The Independent Years
- On TV Subscription Television
- Spanish-Language Broadcasting
- Programming
- Technical Information
Construction and "instant news"
On September 27, 1962, Essaness Theatres, a chain of Chicago motion picture houses, filed under the name Essaness Television Associates for a construction permit to build a new UHF television station on channel 44 in Chicago, which it initially proposed to transmit from the Woods Theatre in the Loop and air programming "designed to serve the needs and interests of significant minority groups", particularly Chicago's Black community. The Federal Communications Commission(FCC) approved the appl...
Chicago's third independent
1972 was a key year in the history of the young television station as new general manager Ed Morris sought to revamp a station that was losing money. Under his direction, WSNS-TV began airing more classic reruns and movies—having programmed just one movie a week prior to the changes—and extended its broadcast day while removing significant portions of the previous schedule. Even more significant than the new programming was the acquisition of the television rights to Chicago White Sox basebal...
Pre-launch
In November 1975, Video 44 requested authority to operate a subscription television (STV) service over WSNS-TV. As a result of a similar request from WCIU-TV, the application sat for several years, as the FCC did not change its policy to permit more than one subscription station in large markets until 1979. Channel 44's plans rapidly shifted twice on STV. In June 1979, an agreement was reached with Oak Industries, a maker of broadcast and cable equipment and other electronics then headquarter...
Operation
On September 22, 1980, WSNS began offering ON TV beginning at 7 p.m. on weekdays and 5 p.m. on weekends, with Oak supplying first-run movies and specials to subscribers who paid $21.95 a month plus a $52.95 installation fee. A year after ON TV began broadcasting, it got competition when Spectrum, originally owned by Buford Television, began airing over Focus Broadcasting-owned WFBN(channel 66) on September 29, 1981. At the same time, WSNS extended its transmission of ON TV programming by two...
STV double: SportsVision
At the same time that ON TV was gaining subscribers, SportsVision International, a consortium of four Chicago sports franchises—the White Sox, Bulls, Blackhawks, and Sting—had reached a deal to set up a new subscription television station on channel 60 (the shared time WPWR/WBBS), which would carry their games. Both Oak and Buford competed for the right to manage the service, and Oak won out; ON TV subscribers could receive SportsVision for an extra $14.95 a month, and a special run of two-ch...
SIN/Univision
On July 1, 1985, nearly five years of subscription television programming on WSNS-TV was replaced by Chicago's first full-time Spanish-language television station, affiliated with the Spanish International Network(renamed Univision in 1987). The two existing Spanish-language stations in Chicago either also aired other programming, as in the case of WCIU-TV, or shared their channel with another station, as did WBBS-TV. The new programming was an immediate financial success. Revenue for the fir...
Switch to Telemundo and license challenge settlement
On October 13, 1988, WSNS-TV announced that it would switch its affiliation to Telemundo after that station's affiliation agreement with Univision concluded on December 31; two months later on December 16, WCIU—whose contract with Telemundo was set to expire the following month—signed an affiliation agreement with Univision, returning the station to that network after four years. The two stations switched affiliations on January 10, 1989. It was stated that WSNS and Univision had been at a fi...
NBC ownership
When NBC purchased Telemundo in 2002, WSNS became part of the newly enlarged conglomerate, creating Chicago's first commercial television duopoly between two full-power television stations. The consolidation of NBC owned-and-operated station WMAQ-TV (channel 5) and WSNS-TV led to pressure on NBC to extend the same union benefits to the previously non-union Telemundo staffers that the NBC employees already enjoyed. WSNS-TV's nine anchors and reporters voted unanimously to join the American Fed...
News operation
After the switch to Spanish-language broadcasting, WSNS began producing local newscasts, originally under the title Noticentro 44 (Newscenter 44), on October 7, 1985. Originally airing in the early evening only, WSNS began producing late newscasts on October 17, 1994, in response to the cancellation of WCIU-TV's Spanish-language local news service. To respond to the challenge posed by WGBO, channel 44 hired personalities from Spanish-language radio, with Luisa Torres of WIND and Alberto Augus...
Sports programming
As part of a five-year broadcast partnership between WMAQ-TV and the Chicago Bears, WSNS aired Spanish-language broadcasts of the Bears' preseason football games from 2003 to 2007. In 2017, as part of an expansion of WMAQ-TV's partnership with the Chicago Marathon, WSNS-TV began to air the marathon in Spanish. In 2020, this deal was extended through 2023.
Subchannels
The station's digital signal is multiplexed:
Analog-to-digital conversion
WSNS-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 44, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcastsunder federal mandate. The station's digital signal continued to broadcast on its pre-transition UHF channel 45.
Spectrum reallocation
On April 13, 2017, station manager David Doebler revealed that WSNS-TV's spectrum had been sold in the FCC's spectrum reallocation auction, fetching $141.7 million. WSNS-TV ceased broadcasting on UHF digitalchannel 45 on April 23, 2018, and began sharing spectrum with WMAQ-TV on channel 29.
On October 13, 1988, WSNS-TV announced that it would switch its affiliation to Telemundo after that station's affiliation agreement with Univision concluded on December 31; two months later on December 16, WCIU—whose contract with Telemundo was set to expire the following month—signed an affiliation agreement with Univision, returning the ...
Telemundo Station Group. Telemundo Station Group is the division of NBCUniversal Owned TV Stations ( NBCUniversal ), a subsidiary of Comcast that oversees their Telemundo owned-and-operated television stations and the TeleXitos network. The NBC owned-and-operated stations are held in the separate NBC Owned Television Stations division.
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Oct 14, 1988 · THE MEDIA BUSINESS; Telemundo Adds WSNS. Share full article. Oct. 14, 1988. Credit... The New York Times Archives. See the article in its original context from October 14, 1988, Section D, Page 15 ...
