WPWR-TV/WBBS-TV timeshare
When applications for channel 60 were reopened in 1978, considerable interest was attracted. Several applicants proposed a new Spanish-language television station, including the Spanish International Network (which ended up applying for channel 66 instead) and a local group headed by Marcelino Miyares, the owner of Spanish-language advertising agency OMAR.[1] The Miyares group became known as Hispanic American Television–Chicago and eventually HATCO-60 when it merged with competing applicant Aurora-Chicago Telecasters, Inc. The FCC received five proposals, three of which were designated for hearing by the FCC in July 1980: HATCO-60 (specifying West Chicago); Metrowest Corporation, specifying Aurora; and the College of DuPage, for Glen Ellyn.[2]
In late 1981, HATCO-60 and Metrowest agreed to a shared-time agreement.[3] Under the agreement, Metrowest would broadcast daily from 2:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., while the Hatco-60 station would broadcast daily from 7 p.m. to 2:30 a.m., giving channel 60 the distinction of being the only split-licensed station in the United States (and the first to operate in more than 20 years).
With the arrangement in place, the two stations signed on in April 1982, sharing transmitter facilities atop the Sears Tower. Eychaner signed on independent station WPWR-TV.
At the same time WPWR debuted, Miyares signed on WBBS-TV—the call sign assigned by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over objections from WBBM-TV[4]—which maintained a Spanish-language entertainment format as a founding[5] affiliate of NetSpan, which would evolve into Telemundo in 1987. WBBS featured various programming aimed at Hispanic audiences including local news programming, telenovelas and variety series as well as other locally produced shows, such as the popular music video program Imagen, hosted by local Spanish-language television personality (and now media executive) Rey Mena and Vivianne Plazas. One of the notable events for WBBS occurred in 1983, when the station introduced the Latin teen pop group Menudo (which included a young Ricky Martin), to Chicago's Latino community. The station's primary competitor was WCIU-TV (channel 26, now a CW affiliate), which was then a part-time affiliate of the Spanish International Network (the forerunner to the present-day Univision).
Both stations shared[6] one critical piece of programming: a new subscription television service called SportsVision (a companion service to ON TV), which Eychaner and Miyares had developed through a deal with Chicago White Sox co-owners Jerry Reinsdorf and Eddie Einhorn. In order to access the service, viewers had to purchase a set-top descrambling converter and pay a monthly subscription fee in order to view sporting events such as White Sox games. However, SportsVision achieved little success on WPWR/WBBS-TV and converted into a cable channel in January 1984. With SportsVision removed from the station, WPWR ran public domain movies, cartoons and classic sitcoms from the early to mid-1950s to fill its schedule. In 1984, more popular classic sitcoms and newer barter cartoons were mixed into the lineup.
In 1984, Eychaner acquired the construction permit for WDAI, a proposed station that would be licensed to Gary, Indiana and broadcast on UHF channel 56, for $1.5 million. The permit had been held by a group of Indiana businessmen doing business as GWWX-TV and later Great Lakes Broadcasting. The WDAI construction permit had existed since 1982, but short-spacing concerns to channel 60 and to two allocations in southeast Wisconsin had meant channel 56 could not be placed on the Sears Tower; this finding crippled a previous attempt to build the allocation as WGMI in 1968.[7] However, another channel allocated to Gary could: channel 50, which as educational station WCAE had folded the previous year due to financial problems. The license was transferred to Northwest Indiana Public Broadcasting, but NIPB was not able to reactivate the station from improved facilities without an infusion of resources. Eychaner paid $684,000 to Northwest Indiana Public Broadcasting,[8] giving it the funding it needed to build its facility, if it would switch allocations with WDAI. The move had been initially designed to potentially allow WBBS-TV to go full-time on channel 60, but the loss of NetSpan affiliation doomed those plans.[9] In August 1986, the commission issued final orders switching the commercial and noncommercial allocations for Gary.[10] This allowed Metrowest to proceed with its plan of moving the WPWR-TV intellectual unit from channel 60 to channel 50 while selling the channel 60 license;[11]
