, '''"Power 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 ''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 to launch
September 5 ,
2006 . My Network TV will be operated by Fox Television Stations and its syndication division, Twentieth Television.
The station began in , 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 AM to 7 PM for seven days a week. At 7 pm, 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 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, channel 50. He then swapped the licenses and channel 56 became WYIN. 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. In
1994 , WPWR picked up the Disney Cartoons 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 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.
As a result of Fox dropping all references to UPN in station logos and promotion on all of their current UPN stations (such as
KCOP in
Los Angeles and
WWOR-TV in
New York City ), WPWR again branded themselves by their former name before Fox ownership, ''Power 50''.
