66 is the
Univision affiliate licensed to
Joliet, Illinois , and serves the Greater
Chicago area. WGBO offers a Spanish programming format featuring news, talk shows, dramas, movies, and other first rate Spanish programming.
Channel 66 signed on in
1981 as , owned by Focus Broadcasting. Initially it ran business news from FNN during the day and Spectrum Subscription TV by night. By
1982 , the station ran Subscription TV almost 24/7, but by Fall
1983 Spectrum shared the same schedule with Chicago subscription rival ON-TV.
WFBN continued this format until early
1984 , when it dropped Spectrum in favor of music videos 24/7. By the fall of 1984, WFBN dropped the music videos and refilled the schedule with off-network classic sitcoms, dramas, movies, and religious shows.
Grant Broadcasting bought WFBN in fall
1985 and changed its call letters to in January of
1986 .
In January 1986, WGBO added a few more off-network sitcoms and a couple of kids shows. It also added a lot of westerns. Unfortunately, the station overpaid for product. When it went to acquire more barter kids shows, it found the shelves were picked clean by
WGN-TV ,
WFLD and
WPWR . The bargain product was picked clean by WPWR. Ratings were always very low on this station and did not go up under Grant's ownership. Grant also could not compete against the two established independent stations and was not even able to compete against WPWR (even with all the low budget shows WPWR had along with lots of barter shows).
Grant Broadcasting overextended itself for all three of its stations. As a result, at the end of
1986 , Grant filed
Chapter 11 Bankruptcy . While the other two stations kept similar formats with fewer shows, WGBO 66 added a lot of infomercials, religion, and other paid programs. WGBO did hold on to some entertainment shows. Ratings did not deteriorate, but they were very low in the first place anyway.
In the early
1990s , WGBO added some barter cartoons and sitcoms that other stations passed on or dropped previously. In
1989 , WGBO (along with its sister stations) went into receivership. A group of creditors called Combined Broadcasting took over the stations. Finally, in
1994 , in a group deal Combined Broadcasting sold its
Philadelphia and
Miami stations to the Paramount Stations Group (who sold its
Original Philadelphia Station to
News Corporation , who also by then owned WFLD), and WGBO to Univision-the leading Spanish-language network was angred when its then-affiliate in Chicago,
WCIU-TV , refused to drop its English-speaking shows like Stock Market Observer, as such, Univision wanted to buy WGBO.
Univision took ownership of Channel 66 in
January 1995 . The station retained the WGBO call letters, but immediately switched to Spanish programming. WCIU-TV picked up WGBO's entertainment shows.
