SPANISH TV WARS

Spanish language programming in Chicago was nothing new. WCIU had been doing it, along with Polish, Russian, Japanese, Greek, and other languages for some twenty years. And for a great majority of those years, it aired without competition. All that changed in the 1980s when suddenly WCIU was faced with two new guys on the block- part-timer WBBS on channel 60 and after a major format change in 1985, WSNS on channel 44.

WSNS was owned by Video 44 Inc., a joint venture of National Subscription Television, a division of Oak Communications Inc. (49%), Harriscope Inc. (run by Irving Harris- 25.5%), and The Essaness Theater chain (controlled by The Silverman family- 25.5%). For 23 hours of it's broadcast day, since 1981, WSNS aired Oak's ON-TV subscription service of movies and specials. But by 1985, the days of ON-TV were numbered as cable was soon to be approved in Chicago.

Since its 1970 debut, WSNS had struggled to stay on the air. Run by a staff and crew with limited broadcast experience, the station became the butt of many industry jokes. Not until the arrival of vice president and general manager Edward L. Morris in 1972 did the station finally begin to garner some notice as it became the home for Chicago White Sox baseball and Chicago Bulls basketball. With the growing trend of UHF stations being used for subscription television service in the early 1980s, the owners of the station saw a opportunity to finally make some money on their investment. Arrangements were made to sell 49% of the station to Oak Communications which would program the station with its ON-TV service. The owners would retain control of the station but not the programming. It was a decision they would later regret.

Monroe Communications, a group of twelve businessman, petitioned the FCC to revoke it's license claiming the station aired obscene and unedited movies. It also claimed that WSNS did not meet the federal guidelines for community service, offering no newscasts to the public, a far cry from it's beginnings as an all news channel. The suit, which began in 1981, took nine years to settle and at one time resulted in the station's license being revoked. That decision was later reversed.

The change in Chicago politics finally allowed cable into the city and Oak shut down ON-TV. It had been the last of the corporation's national outlets. WSNS announced it would be aligning with The Spanish International Network (later to become Univision and bought by Hallmark). This would now shake up things over at WCIU, who since 1982 had only part-timer WBBS to worry about.

Over at channel 60, Marcelino Miyares was betting on his WBBS to beat out WCIU and newcomer WSNS. In fact the station had beat out WCIU in the ratings several times. With plans to go full-time pending FCC approval of WPWR's move to channel 50 (see The Rise & Rise Of WPWR), Miyares had hoped to take on full-timer WSNS and leave WCIU in the dust. But complications from lawsuits from Milton Grant's WGBO slowed things down and it wasn't until 1987 that WPWR moved. By that time, WBBS found it could not compete and Miyares sold the station to WPWR owner Fred Eychaner for a paltry $11 million.

Over the next four years, WCIU and WSNS would compete for top ratings in the Spanish television market. Channel 26 aligning itself with Telemundo, another Spanish language network, though only part-time and channel 44 getting it's programming (on a full time basis) from Univision. For the first time since it's 1970 inception, WSNS was starting to look good.

Then came another seismic shift in Chicago television. After three and half years as a Univision affiliate, WSNS suddenly announced it would no longer carry the network's programming. Rumors had been circulating since October of 1988 that WSNS was making demands (read: money) on Univision that the network did not accept. In February of 1989, the announcement was made that channel 44 would now carry Telemundo network programming on a full-time basis. Univision, fearing it would have no presence in the Chicago market, quickly signed with WCIU.

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