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96-428: The program is formatted as a newscast with a somewhat less serious tone than WGN-TV's other local news programs and is known for its fun and rambunctious nature, with the anchors and reporters often shown more relaxed on-air, often pulling on-air pranks and practical jokes. The 4:00–6:00 a.m. portion of the newscast is more staid in tone to some extent and is a more generalized news/weather/sports/traffic format, while

192-475: A brain aneurysm and was absent from the show for several months. Meanwhile, Sandburg resolved to leave the show for the West Coast but stayed longer while Bell recuperated. To pick up the slack, WGN-TV floor manager Richard Shiloh Lubbers appeared as "Monty Melvin," named after a schoolmate of Sandburg's, while WGN Garfield Goose and Friends and Ray Rayner and His Friends puppeteer Roy Brown created

288-462: A 200+ member studio audience. In the early months of the series, a respected English acrobatic clown, "Wimpey" (played by Bertram William Hiles) worked on the show, providing some legitimate circus background and performing opposite Bell's Bozo in comedy sketches. Hiles continued to make periodic guest appearances on the show into the mid-1960s. In October 1961, Don Sandburg joined the show as producer and principal sketch writer, and also appeared as

384-424: A fill-in translator with a power of 7 kW, and operating their full power operations on channel 44 with a power of 1 MW . Through the use of virtual channel technology, both operating frequencies were re-mapped and displayed as channel 7, which would cause some digital tuners to have two versions of virtual channels 7.1, 7.2 and 7.3, while tuning sequentially. In October 2012, WLS-TV completed construction from

480-584: A letterboxed standard-definition simulcast of their Live Well subchannels, though AccuWeather 's content/branding agreement with ABCOTS, including WLS-TV, continued unchanged. WLS-DT3 formerly served as a charter affiliate of Laff diginet from its launch in January 2015. To accommodate the WXFT channel share which took effect in December 2017, WLS-TV discontinued the third Laff subchannel, which shifted over to

576-415: A minimum three hours of educational children's programs per week. In 1998, Michele Gregory left the cast following more budget cuts. In 2001, station management controversially ended production citing increased competition from newer children's cable channels. The final taping, a 90-minute primetime special titled Bozo: 40 Years of Fun! , was taped on 12 June 2001 and aired 14 July 2001. By this time, it

672-517: A mix of films and lifestyle programs for four hours per night six days a week after the station's sign-off at 2 a.m.; the service was similar in format to competitor ONTV (which was carried locally on WSNS-TV , channel 44 (now a Telemundo owned and operated station)) and other over-the-air pay services that existed during the early and mid-1980s. Tele1st was created with the concept of allowing users to record programming for later viewing; therefore, its decoder boxes were designed to unencrypt

768-558: A modernized update to the "Stimulus" theme. In an interview with media columnist Robert Feder , WLS-TV president/general manager John Idler said the reasoning behind the restoration of the Eyewitness News brand, was that it "[still] resonated strongly with [viewers in] the Chicago market", despite being dropped by the station 17 years earlier. On November 2, 2013, WLS expanded the early block of its weekend morning newscasts, with

864-481: A much higher radiated power). As a result, many viewers were not able to receive the station. The FCC sent extra personnel to Chicago, Philadelphia and New York City to deal with difficulties in those cities. WLS had received 1,735 calls just by the end of the day on June 12 (WBBM only received 600), and an estimated 5,000 calls in total by June 16. WLS-TV was just one station which needed to increase its signal strength or move its frequency to solve its problems, but

960-506: A new character, "Cooky the Cook." Sandburg left the show in January 1969 and Bell returned in March. Lubbers left as well with Brown staying on as a permanent cast member. Magician Marshall Brodien , who had been making semi-regular guest appearances in which he frequently interacted with the clowns, also began appearing as a wizard character in an Arabian Nights-inspired costume in 1968 and by

1056-603: A new five-year broadcast agreement with the Chicago Cubs , in which WLS televised 25 of the Major League Baseball team's games per year, starting with the 2015 season . The arrangement partially replaced one with WGN-TV (which had broadcast Cubs games since its inception in April 1948), which voluntarily pulled out of its existing broadcast deal with the team for the 2015 season and subsequently agreed to carry

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1152-477: A new weekday morning newscast; the WGN Morning News made its debut on September 6, 1994 (debuting on a Tuesday as the station carried The Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon the previous day in the timeslot) as an hour-long newscast from 7:00-8:00 a.m.; it was originally anchored by Dave Eckert and Sonja Gantt, alongside meteorologist Paul Huttner. Concurrent with the move of Bozo to Sundays,

1248-412: A part-time basis but suffered additional health setbacks and took another extended leave of absence in the fall of 1993. Brown's presence on the show remained, though, as previously aired segments as Cooky and Cuddly Dudley were incorporated until 1994, when he and Marshall Brodien retired from television. Later that year, WGN management, due to the high cost of producing a daily television program, plus

1344-402: A popular anchor team at WLS-TV during the 1980s and 1990s, accompanied by weather anchor Steve Deshler and sports anchor Tim Weigel . In March 1986, channel 7 passed WBBM-TV as the highest-rated news station in Chicago. It has held the lead ever since, aside from a brief period when WBBM-TV forged a tie for first in the late 1980s. In 1992, the station replaced the "News Series 2000" package (as

1440-458: A power increase required making sure no other stations were affected. WLS received a two-week experimental permit for a power increase late in June. WLS had also applied for a permit to construct a low-power fill-in digital translator station on UHF channel 32 (the former analog frequency of WFLD ), but abandoned that plan (the channel 32 RF frequency has since been claimed by WMEU-CD ). Eventually

1536-403: A prize of increasing value for each one hit. The game ended when the player either missed a bucket or hit all six of them; in the latter case, he/she won a cash bonus, a bicycle, and (in later years) a trip. Any player who missed the first bucket was allowed to keep trying until he/she hit it and won that prize. Before each game, a postcard was drawn at random from those sent in by home viewers, and

1632-550: A reduced slate of 45 games. The WLS broadcasts were seen on DirecTV 's version of MLB Extra Innings, and the feed provided was the WLS signal seen in the Chicago market (unlike with the feeds of WGN broadcasts, where public service announcements were seen in place of local commercials and station promos). As ABC has a limited sports programming schedule during the Major League Baseball season prior to September (when

1728-552: A replacement for Flynn on the 6 p.m. news, as well as a new host for its AM Chicago program after host Robb Weller departed for New York City . He responded to the latter by bringing in Oprah Winfrey , at the time the host of People Are Talking on ABC's then-affiliate in Baltimore , WJZ-TV . Within a year, the program had moved to first place in the ratings. AM Chicago entered into national syndication in 1986 and

1824-483: A short hiatus to facilitate WGN-TV's move from Tribune Tower in downtown Chicago to a purpose-built studio facility on the city's northwest side, the show was relaunched in an expanded one-hour format as Bozo's Circus , which premiered at noon on 11 September 1961. The live show featured Bell as Bozo (although he did not perform on the first telecast), host Ned Locke as "Ringmaster Ned," a 13-piece orchestra, comedy sketches, circus acts, cartoons, games and prizes before

1920-420: A single-anchor format. The weekend editions were eventually expanded to three hours on Saturdays (from 7:00 to 10:00 a.m.) and two hours on Sundays (from 7:00 to 9:00 a.m.) on the weekend of September 10–11, 2016, and switching to a two-anchor format (with original anchor Sean Lewis and meteorologist Mike Hammernik being joined by longtime assignment reporter Tonya Francisco as co-anchor) in alignment with

2016-600: A street-side studio at its North State Street facility on April 10, 2006, during the station's morning newscast, although the station had begun broadcasting its newscasts from that studio two days earlier on April 8. On the weekend of April 29–30, 2006, WLS-TV upgraded its news helicopter with a high definition camera, rebranding it as "Chopper 7 HD". On January 6, 2007, WLS-TV became the first Chicago television station to broadcast all of its local programming—including newscasts—in high definition, although most remote field footage remained in 16:9 widescreen standard definition at

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2112-509: A subchannel of WXFT's sister station, WGBO-DT 2, and reduced the Live Well feed from a reduced-bitrate 720p broadcast to a 480i format. After WLS moved to their new channel post-spectrum transition, it soon picked up This TV after ABCOTS picked up the network for their stations in the spring of 2021. WLS-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 7, at noon on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in

2208-698: A substitution in most others as a result of its transition to a basic cable network; because of this, WGN-TV's newscasts are now available worldwide only through the station's website, www.wgntv.com, and on television outside of the Chicago market via Canadian cable and satellite providers that carry the WGN-TV Chicago broadcast signal (WGN-TV is authorized for carriage in Canada by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission ). The Bozo Show The Bozo Show

2304-489: A two-hour retrospective titled Bozo, Gar & Ray: WGN TV Classics . The primetime premiere was #1 in the Chicago market and continues to be rebroadcast and streamed live online annually during the holiday season. Bozo also returned to Chicago's parade scene and the WGN-TV float in 2008 as the station celebrated its 60th anniversary. He also appeared in a 2008 public service announcement alerting WGN-TV analog viewers about

2400-491: A week later on August 30, WLS-TV discontinued its hour-long weekday 11 a.m. newscast (which originated in 1992 as a half-hour program at 11:30, before it expanded into an earlier, one-hour broadcast on October 6, 2003, following the cancellation of Port Charles ) after 21 years, and replaced it on September 2 with Windy City Live , whose original 9 a.m. slot became occupied by Live! with Kelly and Michael when it moved to WLS from WGN-TV on that date (as such, it became

2496-570: Is a locally produced children's television program that aired on WGN-TV in Chicago and nationally on its superstation feed (now NewsNation ). It was based on a children's record-book series, Bozo the Clown by Capitol Records . The series is a local version of the internationally franchised Bozo the Clown format and is also the longest-running in the franchise. Recognized as the most popular and successful locally produced children's program in

2592-649: Is the local over-the-air host of Monday Night Football games involving the Chicago Bears , airing simulcasts of the team's ESPN -televised games (WLS-TV's corporate parent, The Walt Disney Company , owns 80% of ESPN, and the ABC Owned Television Stations have right of first refusal for simulcasts of ESPN's NFL telecasts within a team's home market). Because of this, atypical for a network-owned station outside of breaking news and severe weather coverage necessitating such situations,

2688-595: The Eyewitness News format that the other ABC owned-and-operated stations began implementing in the late 1960s, after the news format was popularized when it originated at New York City flagship WABC-TV. Beginning in 1968, the station's main evening newscasts were co-anchored by Fahey Flynn , a bowtie -wearing broadcaster who had spent the previous 15 years at WBBM-TV; and Joel Daly , who was hired away by WLS from WJW-TV in Cleveland in 1967. The duo served as

2784-612: The September 11th terror attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C. All of WGN's news programming (including the SyndEx-restricted segments, but excluding the video portions of highlight footage during sports segments) is streamed over the station's website and through WGN's smartphone applications. WGN America restored a simulcast of the WGN Morning News to its schedule on February 3, 2014, airing only

2880-438: The WGN Morning News did not regularly air on WGN-TV's national superstation feed WGN America , reportedly because certain segments of the newscast were not allowed to air outside of Chicago due to syndication exclusivity rules on segments within the newscast. The only instance where the WGN Morning News was carried nationally on WGN's superstation feed during this period was on September 12, 2001 as part of special coverage of

2976-725: The 10 p.m. newscast getting a 9.7 rating share, down a tenth of a point from a 9.8 during the same time the previous year. The station remained in second place for its prime time lead-in. WLS-TV's studios at 190 North State Street include the former State-Lake Theatre's gutted and converted interior. Beginning in 1959, Playboy ' s first television show, Playboy's Penthouse , filmed for two years at 190 North State Street. Prior to February 24, 2011, WLS-DT3 carried ABC 7 News NOW , featuring local news and weather and national/sidebar content from The Local AccuWeather Channel . The ABC O&Os discontinued their Local AccuWeather channels on February 24, 2011, replacing its programming with

WGN Morning News - Misplaced Pages Continue

3072-412: The 11 a.m. newscast, with a replay of the latter late night after Nightline . On July 29, 2019, It was announced that WLS-TV would end its news share agreement with WCIU-TV, ending the weeknight program for that station, the 7 p.m. newscast ABC 7 Eyewitness News at 7:00 on The U after 4 years, with the final broadcast on August 30 of that same year. The mutual parting of ways came as WCIU became

3168-518: The 1970s and 1980s, it waged a spirited battle for second place in the Chicago news ratings between its two main competitors. Around the time of Flynn's death, Channel 7 had been experiencing a ratings decline, prompting major changes to the station's management. ABC hired Bill Applegate from WNEV-TV in Boston (now WHDH ) as the station's news director. Shortly after, general manager Peter Desnoes resigned to co-found Burnham Broadcasting. His replacement

3264-498: The 6:00–10:00 a.m. portion incorporates feature segments, interviews and includes some humorous elements. Following a previous attempt that ran from 1991 to 1998, WGN-TV expanded its morning newscasts to weekends in August 2014, originally maintaining a one-hour format (running from 6:00 to 7:00 a.m.), similar in structure to the station's midday and evening newscasts with a general news/weather/sports format, although utilizing

3360-529: The ABC Radio Network (WENR would eventually merge with WLS , with which it shared a frequency under a time-sharing arrangement until ABC purchased a 50% interest in WLS in 1954). In February 1953, ABC merged with United Paramount Theatres (UPT), the former theater division of Paramount Pictures . UPT subsidiary Balaban and Katz owned WBKB (which shared a CBS affiliation with WGN-TV). The newly merged American Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres , as

3456-846: The Chicago market behind WGN-TV (channel 9), which debuted six months earlier in April, and WBKB (channel 4), which changed from an experimental station to a commercial operation in September 1946. As one of the original ABC-owned stations on channel 7, it was the second station to begin operations after WJZ-TV in New York City, and before WXYZ-TV in Detroit, KGO-TV in San Francisco and KECA-TV in Los Angeles. The station's original call letters were taken from co-owned radio station WENR (890 AM), which served as an affiliate of

3552-590: The FCC granted it a permit to transmit on a second frequency, UHF channel 44, formerly occupied by WSNS-TV; WLS announced the availability of that frequency on October 31, 2009. Throughout construction of the new maximized transmitting facilities at the Willis Tower, WLS operated both channels 7 and 44 from its auxiliary facilities at the John Hancock Center under an STA . WLS operated channel 7 as

3648-1136: The MLB regular season and college football season overlap), the station mainly carried the team's weekend daytime games in order to limit preemption of the network's prime time programming. The deal (along with all of the Cubs' broadcast television deals) ended after the 2019 season, when the team launched the cable-only Marquee Sports Network to carry their game telecasts. WLS-TV also carries select Chicago Bulls games as part of their NBA on ABC telecasts. From 1999 to 2004 and again since 2021 , WLS-TV carries select Chicago Blackhawks games as part of their NHL on ABC telecasts. WLS-TV broadcasts 41 hours, 25 minutes of locally produced newscasts each week (with 6 hours, 5 minutes each weekday and 5 + 1 ⁄ 2 hours each on Saturdays and Sundays). WLS-TV also contracts with iHeartMedia to provide weather forecasts for their Chicago market stations, including WLIT-FM (93.9), WCHI-FM (95.5), WVAZ (102.7), WKSC-FM (103.5), and WGCI-FM (107.5). In 1969, WLS-TV adopted

3744-508: The Sunday morning newscast was cancelled. Within a year-and-a-half of its debut, the WGN Morning News was gradually expanded in length: first to two hours (retaining its 7:00 a.m. start time) in January 1996, followed eight months later by an additional one-hour extension at 6:00 a.m. that August. That year, Larry Potash (who remains on the newscast to this day as anchor of the 6:00-10:00 a.m. block) replaced Eckert as co-anchor of

3840-634: The United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 52, which was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcast use as a result of the transition, to its analog-era VHF channel 7. WLS operated its digital signal at low power (4.75 kW ) to protect the digital signal of NBC affiliate WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids, Michigan (which also broadcasts on channel 7, but at

3936-580: The WGN Orchestra, dubbed the "Big Top Band." Games on the show included the "Grand Prize Game" created by Sandburg, wherein a boy and girl were selected from the studio audience by the Magic Arrows, and later the Bozoputer (a random number generator ),. The player attempted to toss ping-pong balls into six numbered buckets in sequence, each set farther away than the one before it, and won

WGN Morning News - Misplaced Pages Continue

4032-456: The Willis Tower and its operating channel 44 at the 1 million watt power level. The station continued its dual-frequency operations until 12:03 p.m. on March 18, 2013, when WLS-TV formally ceased operations on VHF channel 7, leaving UHF channel 44 as its permanent allotment. Since WLS-TV officially moved its full-power operations to channel 44, it is the only ABC-owned station to vacate its former analog allotment for its digital operations and

4128-406: The anchors of the station's 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts until Flynn's death in August 1983. In 1970, the two were joined by John Drury , who helmed the 5 p.m. newscast. By 1973, WLS' Eyewitness News broadcasts surpassed NBC -owned WMAQ-TV (channel 5)'s newscasts to become Chicago's top-rated news operation, a lead it held until WBBM-TV surpassed channel 7 for the top spot in 1979. For much of

4224-566: The cancellation of the station's then two-year-old Sunday morning newscast, whose 8 a.m. timeslot Bozo took over). Immel was replaced by Robin Eurich as "Rusty the Handyman," Michele Gregory as "Tunia" and Cathy Schenkelberg as "Pepper." (Shenkelberg was dropped in 1996.) The show suffered another blow in 1997, when its format became educational following a Federal Communications Commission mandate requiring broadcast television stations to air

4320-523: The chosen viewer received a duplicate of every prize won by the player. For many years, the cash bonus for hitting the sixth bucket was a progressive jackpot that grew by $ 1 each day until it was won." The Grand Prize Game became so popular that Larry Harmon , who purchased the rights to the Bozo character, later adapted it for other Bozo shows (as "Bozo Buckets" to some and "Bucket Bonanza" to others) and also licensed home and coin-operated versions. By 1963,

4416-413: The circus acts and Garfield Goose and Friends puppets were dropped, and Cuddly Dudley (a puppet on Ray Rayner and His Friends voiced and operated by Roy Brown) and more cartoons were added. In 1983, Pat Hurley from ABC-TV 's Kids Are People Too joined the cast as himself, interviewing kids in the studio audience and periodically participating in sketches. The biggest change occurred in 1984 with

4512-493: The company was known then, could not keep both stations because of Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations then enforced that forbade the common ownership of two television stations licensed to the same market . As a result, WBKB's channel 4 license was sold to CBS, which subsequently changed that station's call letters to WBBM-TV ; that outlet would move to VHF channel 2 several months later on July 5, 1953. The old WBKB's on-air and behind-the-scenes staff stayed at

4608-485: The current incarnation of its 4:30 a.m. show in 2009, although it had an earlier newscast at that time as Barely Today in 2007), and ABC -owned WLS-TV (which debuted a newscast in that timeslot two weeks earlier). On October 2 of that year, WGN-TV re-entered into weekend morning news, with the launch of two one-hour newscasts on Saturday and Sunday mornings from 6:00 to 7:00 a.m. (the Saturday newscast airs in

4704-565: The early 1970s evolved into "Wizzo the Wizard." From the beginning of the show until 1970, Bozo appeared in a red costume; Larry Harmon, owner of the character's license, insisted Bozo wear blue. Harmon did not have his way regarding the costume's color in Chicago until after Don Sandburg, who was also the show's producer, left for California. A prime-time version titled Big Top was seen September through January on Wednesday nights in 1965 through 1967. Ray Rayner left Bozo's Circus in 1971 and

4800-509: The early time slot for one hour due to The CW's morning animation block ). The addition made WGN-TV the second Tribune-owned station to carry a weekend morning newscast (though the first chronologically due to its earlier weekend morning shows in the 1990s; Fox affiliate WXIN / Indianapolis debuted weekend morning newscasts in August 2010; Fox affiliate WTIC-TV / Hartford and fellow CW affiliate KTLA / Los Angeles would later join them in January and April 2011, respectively). On July 11, 2011,

4896-476: The extension of its hour-long 6 a.m. newscast on Saturdays and Sundays to two hours at 5 a.m. On February 10, 2014, WLS-TV entered into a partnership agreement with the Chicago Sun-Times to include the use of the station's weather team in the newspaper's weather section, replacing WMAQ-TV, whose previous partnership ended the day before; in addition, the station would air a 'look ahead' of

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4992-431: The first two hours of the broadcast, which replaced paid programming that occupied the 5:00–7:00 a.m. ET timeslot on the superstation feed (the addition concurred with the removal of the simulcast of WGN's 9:00 p.m. newscast, which was replaced by syndicated programming in that timeslot four days prior). WGN America restricted carriage of the program on December 15, 2014 to certain markets, with paid programming as

5088-405: The first two weeks that season. Actor Adrian Zmed (best known from ABC-TV's T.J. Hooker ), who was a childhood fan of Bozo's Circus and former Grand Prize Game contestant, also appeared on the special and portrayed himself as a "Rookie Clown" for the following two weeks. Actor Michael Immel then joined the show as "Spiffy" (Spifford Q. Fahrquahrrr). Brown returned in January 1992, initially on

5184-401: The first – and currently, the only – ABC owned-and-operated station without a midday newscast). With the move and the midday newscast's cancellation, news and weather cut-ins were incorporated into Windy City Live . On October 26, 2013, WLS-TV reintroduced the Eyewitness News brand (as ABC 7 Eyewitness News ), as part of an overall rebranding of its newscasts that included new graphics and

5280-504: The history of television, it only aired under this title for 14 of its 40+ years: it also aired under the titles Bozo (1960–1961), Bozo's Circus (1961–1980), and The Bozo Super Sunday Show (1994–2001). WGN-TV's first incarnation of the show was a live half-hour cartoon showcase titled Bozo , hosted by character actor and staff announcer Bob Bell in the title role performing comedy bits between cartoons, weekdays at noon for six-and-a-half months beginning on 20 June 1960. After

5376-468: The last surviving original cast member, died at the age of 87. Four months later, WGN-TV paid tribute to Sandburg and the rest of the original cast with a two-hour special titled Bozo's Circus: The 1960s . ^ Costume part of the Museum of Broadcast Communications' Bozo's Circus collection. WLS-TV WLS-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois , United States, serving as

5472-532: The market's ABC network outlet. It has been owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division since the station's inception. WLS-TV's studios are located on North State Street in the Chicago Loop , and its transmitter is located atop the Willis Tower . The station first signed on the air on September 17, 1948, as WENR-TV. It was the third television station to sign on in

5568-523: The market's CW affiliate on September 1, leaving no room for a newscast on the station's schedule. On June 19, 2023, WLS-TV debuted its new on-air look for the first time in a decade as it was the first ABC owned-and-operated station to unveil its new standard graphics package. According to the Nielsen local news ratings for the February 2011 sweeps period, WLS-TV remained in first place overall, with

5664-527: The mid-1950s, which became the most popular show in the Chicago market, far outdrawing other network competition. Channel 7 had its call letters changed to WLS-TV on October 7, 1968, named after WLS Radio, which ABC had wholly owned since 1959 when the network bought the 50% interest it did not already hold in the station from the Prairie Farmer magazine. Ironically, ABC merged WLS with WENR, its shared-time partner, in 1954. In 1963, Al Parker joined

5760-568: The mute clown "Sandy the Tramp," a character partly inspired by Harpo Marx . By November 1961, another eventual Chicago television legend joined the show's cast, actor Ray Rayner , as "Oliver O. Oliver," a country bumpkin from Puff Bluff, Kentucky. Rayner was hosting WGN-TV's Dick Tracy Show (which also premiered the same day as Bozo's Circus ) and later replaced Dick Coughlan as host of Breakfast with Bugs Bunny , later retitled Ray Rayner and His Friends . WGN musical director Bob Trendler led

5856-532: The network-centric ABC 7 News ; the move was part of a standard branding effort imposed by ABC across its owned-and-operated stations which saw the incorporation of the ABC name into their local brands (most of the other ABC O&Os retained their existing news branding, as sister stations such as WABC-TV and WPVI-TV in Philadelphia retained their Eyewitness News or Action News identities). WLS-TV debuted

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5952-541: The new WBBM-TV, while the WBKB call letters and management moved to channel 7 (from 1965 to 1968, a "-TV" suffix was included in the station's calls, modifying it to WBKB-TV ). Sterling "Red" Quinlan served as the station's general manager from the early 1950s to the mid-1960s, and became a giant in early Chicago television. Quinlan was instrumental in starting the careers of Tom Duggan , Frank Reynolds and Bob Newhart . The station courageously aired The Tom Duggan Show in

6048-472: The newspaper's front page and stories, with the Sun-Times promoting WLS's newscasts and programming in turn. On December 14, 2014, WLS-TV entered into a news share agreement with WCIU-TV to produce a weeknight-only 7 p.m. newscast titled ABC 7 Eyewitness News at 7:00 on The U ; the program debuted on January 12, 2015, and is the fifth newscast produced by ABC O&O for a separately owned station in

6144-493: The next twelve years. In January 2001, the weekday newscast was expanded to 3½ hours, adding a half-hour at 5:30 a.m. and in January 2004, it was expanded to four hours starting at 5:00 a.m. On August 16, 2010, WGN-TV added an additional half-hour to the newscast, which expanded to 4:30-9:00 a.m.; with the expansion into the 4:30 timeslot, WGN-TV became the third Chicago station to begin its morning newscast at that time, along with NBC - owned WMAQ-TV (which debuted

6240-516: The other ABC O&Os did over the following year, due partly to increased royalties for use of the Cool Hand Luke theme and its variants by the original theme's composer, Lalo Schifrin ) with a new news music package, also produced by Gari, called "News Series 2000 Plus" (since renamed "Stimulus"), which has remained in use by WLS ever since and was updated in 2013. In 1996, WLS-TV dropped the Eyewitness News brand after 26 years, in favor of

6336-433: The program. While the weekday morning newscast gained an audience, WGN-TV would eventually cancel its more conventional Saturday morning edition—its lone remaining weekend morning newscast—in December 1998, leaving only the flagship 9:00 p.m. newscast as WGN's only news program on weekends (outside of public affairs programs People to People , Adelante, Chicago and the since-discontinued Minority Business Report ) for

6432-420: The retirement of Bob Bell, with the show still the most-watched in its timeslot and a ten-year wait for studio audience reservations. After a nationwide search, Bell was replaced by actor Joey D'Auria , who would play the role of Bozo for the next 17 years. In 1985, Frazier Thomas died and Hurley filled in as host for the final six shows that season, stepping into a semi-authority character. In 1987, Hurley

6528-578: The retiring Ringmaster Ned and appointed "Prime Minister" Thomas as the new Circus Manager. In 1978 when WGN-TV became a national superstation on cable and satellite through what eventually became WGN America , the show gained more of a national following. In 1979, Bozo's Circus added " TV Powww! ", where those at home could play a video game by phone. By 1980, Chicago's public schools stopped allowing students to go home for lunch and Ray Rayner announced his imminent retirement from his morning show and Chicago television. The show stopped issuing tickets;

6624-664: The right of first refusal due to the popularity and live voting requirements of ABC's Dancing with the Stars , with WCIU-TV carrying the MNF games when the former program's fall season is ongoing (an exception being WLS' carriage of an MNF Bears game against the Dallas Cowboys on December 9, 2013, when the team honored former head coach Mike Ditka , after the DWTS fall season had already ended ). On December 12, 2014, WLS-TV signed

6720-505: The rising competition from dedicated children's television networks, decided to get out of the weekday children's television business and buried The Bozo Show in an early Sunday timeslot as The Bozo Super Sunday Show on 11 September 1994; WGN's decision to relegate the program to Sundays coincided with the launch of the WGN Morning News (which debuted five days earlier), a weekday morning newscast that originally launched as an hour-long program (the move of Bozo effectively resulted in

6816-460: The sale of the over-the-air spectrum of UniMás owned-and-operated station WXFT-DT in the FCC's spectrum reallocation auction for $ 126.1 million on April 13, 2017; as mentioned above, the transition of WXFT to the WLS-TV spectrum occurred eight months later. During the 2019 digital television repack, the station relocated from UHF channel 44 as it was no longer allocated to broadcast television and

6912-457: The second ABC O&O to operate its full-power operations on the UHF band, after Fresno sister station KFSN-TV (which was forced onto UHF in 1961 when it was a CBS affiliate, as the FCC preferred Fresno to be a "UHF island"). On June 12, 2017, WLS-TV's parent company ABC Owned Television Stations and Univision Communications announced they would enter into a channel sharing agreement following

7008-467: The show welcomed its 100,000th visitor and reached the 250,000 mark in 1966. The show was so popular locally, that seven hours after the Chicago Blizzard of 1967 began, there were 193 people standing in line, waiting to use their Bozo show tickets; it was one of the few times the live show was canceled and the tape of an older show was run instead. In October 1968, Bell was hospitalized for

7104-448: The signal only with the aid of a VCR . Scrambling codes that were sent to the box and relayed to the VCR were changed on a monthly basis, requiring subscribers to record additional footage airing immediately before and after that night's schedule to retrieve codes to play back the recorded programs properly; this resulted in any recordings being viewable only during that calendar month. Tele1st

7200-601: The station as an announcer and worked in that capacity for 26 years. Until his departure, he also served as an announcer for AM Chicago and The Oprah Winfrey Show . He died September 30, 2000, at the age of 74. WLS-TV had claimed to be "Chicago's first television station" in its sign-ons and sign-offs during its first three decades (implying a connection with the original WBKB on channel 4), but admitted to its true roots with WENR with its 30th anniversary in 1978. On January 17, 1984, WLS-TV launched Tele1st, an ABC-owned overnight subscription television service that carried

7296-493: The station has had to reschedule ABC network programs preempted by the telecasts. The preseason and MNF telecasts mark the only NFL games to have aired on WLS-TV since ABC lost the rights to NFL games in 2006; during the regular season, Bears games are rotated between WBBM-TV (through the NFL on CBS ), WMAQ-TV (through NBC Sunday Night Football ) and especially WFLD (through the NFL on Fox ). Since 2010, however, it has deferred

7392-647: The station's home market (along with existing programs produced by sister stations in Raleigh , Philadelphia, San Francisco and Los Angeles for WLFL , WPHL-TV , KOFY-TV and KDOC-TV in the respective markets, and a since-canceled newscast produced by KFSN-TV for KAIL in Fresno). On June 27, 2016, WLS-TV revived its 11 a.m. newscasts for the first time since 2013, becoming the fourth television station in Chicago to do so; which completes against WMAQ-TV (who revived its midday newscasts in September 2011 and moved to

7488-515: The station's other newscasts. Prior to the program's launch, WGN-TV had already carried morning newscasts; the station ran five-minute news briefs following its morning movie showcases on weekdays from the 1970s through the early 1990s. An attempt was made at a full-fledged morning newscast in May 1984, titled Chicago's First Report ; replacing the agriculture-focused Top 'o' the Morning , First Report

7584-421: The tape and put together a new special entitled Bozo's Circus: The Lost Tape , which aired in December 2012. Klein maintains a substantial number of Bozo tapes in his museum; WGN initially prevented Klein from sharing the tapes on the museum's YouTube page but later dropped its objection, recognizing the importance of preserving the content. On 6 October 2018, Don Sandburg, Bozo's Circus producer, writer and

7680-493: The time period in September 2014), WBBM-TV (who began airing a half-hour 11 a.m. newscasts in early 2000s), and WGN-TV (who began its midday newscasts in 1984; followed by some expansions in September 2008 and October 2009). In June 2016, after several years of unsuccessful syndicated talk show replacements for the canceled All My Children (including Katie and FABLife ), the station moved General Hospital to 2 p.m., then Windy City Live to 1 p.m. to accommodate

7776-407: The time the weekend morning broadcasts debuted, WGN-TV ran the long-running Chicago television staple The Bozo Show on weekday mornings. By 1994, WGN station management decided to get out of the weekday children's television business and moved The Bozo Show to Sunday mornings, revamping it as The Bozo Super Sunday Show on September 11 of that year. In its place, the station decided to launch

7872-477: The time. Since then, WLS-TV upgraded most of its field footage to HD, although some field reports remain in widescreen SD. On December 23, 2007, a Mazda MPV minivan drove through a reinforced studio window at the State Street Studio two minutes into the 10 p.m. newscast, startling anchor Ravi Baichwal on air and creating a 20-degree draft as the glass shattered upon the car's impact; no one

7968-645: The upcoming switch to digital television. Bozo was played by WGN-TV staff member George Pappas. Since then, Bozo continues to appear annually in Chicago's biggest parades. Few episodes from the show's first two decades survive; although some were recorded to videotape for delayed broadcasts, the tapes were reused and eventually discarded. In 2012, a vintage tape was located on the Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection website archive list by Rick Klein of The Museum of Classic Chicago Television , containing material from two 1971 episodes. WGN reacquired

8064-449: The wait to be part of the audience was eight years long. Beginning a summer hiatus and airing taped shows the next year pushed the wait back to ten years. On 11 August 1980, Bozo’s Circus was renamed The Bozo Show and moved to weekdays at 8:00 a.m., on tape, immediately following Ray Rayner and His Friends . On 26 January 1981, The Bozo Show replaced Ray Rayner and His Friends at 7:00 a.m. The program expanded to 90 minutes,

8160-409: The weekday edition of the WGN Morning News expanded once more with the addition of a half-hour at 4:00 a.m., bringing the program to a five-hour time length. This made it the first station in the Chicago market and the third Tribune station (after WPIX / New York City and WXIN) to have its weekday morning newscast start at 4:00 a.m. In March 2013, reports surfaced that WGN station management

8256-553: Was Chicago native Dennis Swanson , who worked for WGN-TV and WMAQ-TV before becoming news director at ABC's Los Angeles station, KABC-TV . ABC also commissioned Frank Gari to compose an updated version of the Cool Hand Luke "Tar Sequence" theme widely associated with the Eyewitness News format. The result was "News Series 2000", a theme package that was quickly picked up by other ABC O&Os and affiliates. Upon his return to Chicago, Swanson would be tasked with finding

8352-516: Was absent. The show had its 500,000th visitor in the same year. By 1973, WGN gave up on Thompson and increased Brodien's appearances as Wizzo. That same year, the National Association of Broadcasters issued an edict forbidding the practice of children's TV show hosts doubling as pitchmen for products. This resulted in major cutbacks to children's show production budgets. In 1975, Bob Trendler retired from television and his Big Top Band

8448-499: Was briefly replaced by actor Pat Tobin as Oliver's cousin "Elrod T. Potter" and then by magician John Thompson (an acquaintance of Roy Brown's and Marshall Brodien's) as "Clod Hopper." (Tobin previously had played Bozo on KSOO-TV in Sioux Falls, South Dakota . Thompson has appeared on A&E's Criss Angel Mindfreak .) Rayner periodically returned to guest-host as himself in his morning show's jumpsuit as "Mr. Ray" when Ned Locke

8544-435: Was canceled by December of that year due to low viewership. The station would later debut conventional hour-long newscasts (under the title Chicago's Weekend Morning News ) on Saturdays and Sundays at 8:00 a.m. in January 1992, predating the premiere of the weekday WGN Morning News in an unusual occurrence of a television station carrying a local weekend morning newscast absent a companion Monday–Friday morning program. At

8640-489: Was considering expanding the weekday edition of the WGN Morning News to six hours – with an additional hour of the newscast being added from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m., once Live! with Kelly and Michael (which had aired locally on WGN-TV since September 2002) moved to WLS-TV in September. The news of this expansion was confirmed on June 20, 2013 through a report by media columnist and former Chicago Sun Times reporter Robert Feder on his Facebook page. From 1996 to 2014,

8736-606: Was deemed a failure, attributing only 4,000 subscribers at its peak, and ceased operations on June 30, 1984. In 1988, WLS-TV agreed to sell production rights to The Oprah Winfrey Show to her Harpo Productions company, but ABC O&Os continued to air the show until the end of its run in 2011. WLS-TV currently airs the Weekend Adventure educational programming block and the network's political/news discussion program This Week one hour later than most ABC stations due to its weekend morning newscasts. WLS-TV

8832-453: Was dropped and the show's timeslot returned to 60 minutes. In 1987, a synthesizer , played by "Professor Andy" (actor Andy Mitran ), replaced the three-piece Big Top Band. Roy Brown began suffering heart-related problems and was absent from the show for an extended period during the 1991–92 season. This coincided with the show's 30th anniversary and a reunion special that included Don Sandburg as Sandy, who also filled in for Cooky for

8928-418: Was injured in the crash. Evanston resident Gerald Richardson was subsequently charged with felony damage to property for the incident. On November 11, 2012, WLS-TV expanded its Sunday 8 a.m. newscast from 1 + 1 ⁄ 2 to two hours, leading into ABC's This Week . The 8 a.m. portion of the Saturday morning newscast was expanded to two hours from 8 to 10 a.m. on August 24, 2013. Nearly

9024-411: Was reduced to a three-piece band led by Tom Fitzsimmons. Locke also retired from television in 1976 and was replaced by Frazier Thomas , host of WGN's Family Classics and Garfield Goose and Friends , at which point Garfield Goose and Friends ended its 24-year run on Chicago television with the puppets moving to a segment on Bozo's Circus . As the storyline went, Gar "bought" Bozo's Circus from

9120-412: Was renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show . Channel 7 was the flagship station for the show, and it, along with most of ABC's other owned-and-operated stations, carried it until it went out of production in September 2011. Swanson also re-hired lead anchor John Drury, who had left for WGN-TV in 1979; and Floyd Kalber , who had led WMAQ-TV to the top of the ratings in the 1960s. Drury and Mary Ann Childers were

9216-529: Was the only Bozo show that remained on television. The special featured Joey D'Auria as Bozo, Robin Eurich as Rusty, Andy Mitran as Professor Andy, Marshall Brodien as Wizzo and Don Sandburg as Sandy. Also present at the last show were Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins , who performed, and Bob Bell's family. Many of the costumes and props are on display at The Museum of Broadcast Communications . Reruns of The Bozo Super Sunday Show aired until 26 August 2001. Bozo returned to television on 24 December 2005 in

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