branding abc 7 chicago general abc 7 eyewitness news newscasts slogan people make the difference general chicago s 1 news news primary your news . your way . news secondary channels digital 44 uhf virtual 7 psip subchannels see article affiliations abc o & o owner disney abc wls television inc. first air date september 17 1948 ; 68 years ago 1948 09 17 call letters meaning world s largest store derived from former sister station wls am sister station s wmvp former callsigns wenr tv 1948 1953 wbkb tv 1953 1968 former channel number s analog 7 vhf 1948 2009 digital 52 uhf 1996 2009 7 vhf june october 2009 translator 7 vhf 2009 2013 transmitter power 1000 kw height 518 metres 1 699 feet facility id 73226 transmitter coordinates 41 52 44 n 87 38 8 w 41.87889 n 87.63556 w 41.87889 ; 87.63556 coordinates 41 52 44 n 87 38 8 w 41.87889 n 87.63556 w 41.87889 ; 87.63556 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website abc7chicago.com wls tv virtual channel 7 uhf digital channel 44 is an abc owned and operated television station located in chicago illinois united states . the station is owned by the abc owned television stations subsidiary of the walt disney company . wls tv maintains studio facilities located on north state street in the chicago loop and its transmitter is located atop the willis tower on south wacker drive . contents 1 history 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 programming 3.1 station oddities 3.2 other wls tv produced programs 3.3 former wls tv produced programs 3.4 former syndicated programming produced in chicago 3.5 sports programming 4 news operation 4.1 ratings 4.2 on air staff 4.2.1 notable current on air staff 4.2.2 notable former on air staff 5 see also 6 references 7 external links history edit the station first signed on the air on september 17 1948 as wenr tv . it was the third television station to sign on in the chicago market behind wgn tv channel 9 which debuted six months earlier in april and wbkb channel 4 now wbbm tv on channel 2 which signed on 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 now wabc tv in new york city its sister stations in detroit san francisco and los angeles signed on within a year of wenr s launch . the station s original call letters were taken from co owned radio station wenr 890 am which served as an affiliate of the abc radio network wenr would eventually merge with wls am 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 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 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 1 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 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 2 named after wls radio 890 am which abc had wholly owned since 1959 when the network bought the 50 % interest it did not already hold in the station from sears roebuck and company . 3 ironically abc merged wls with wenr its shared time partner in 1954 . 4 wls tv had claimed to be chicago s first television station in its sign ons during the 1980s implying a connection with the original wbkb on channel 4 but admitted to its true roots with wenr with its 30th anniversary in 1978 . 5 6 on january 17 1984 wls tv launched tele1st an abc owned overnight subscription television service that carried a mix of films and lifestyle programs for four hours per night six days a week after the station s sign off at 2 00 a.m. ; the service was similar in format to competitor ontv which was carried locally on wsns tv channel 44 and other over the air pay services that existed during the early and mid 1980s . 7 8 tele1st was created with the concept of allowing users to record programming for later viewing ; therefore its decoder boxes were designed to unencrypt 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 was deemed a failure attributing only 4 000 subscribers at its peak and ceased operations on june 30 1984 . 9 digital television edit digital channels edit the station s digital channel is multiplexed channel video aspect psip short name programming 10 7.1 720p 16 9 wls dt main wls tv programming abc 7.2 livwell live well network 7.3 480i 4 3 laff laff prior to february 24 2011 wls dt3 aired abc 7 news now with weather programming from the local accuweather channel . the abc o & os discontinued their local accuweather channels in february 2011 replacing its programming with a letterboxed standard definition simulcast of their live well subchannels ; however the partnership between abc and accuweather continues to this day as the branding for the stations weather reports . analog to digital conversion edit wls tv shut down its analog signal over vhf channel 7 on june 12 2009 the official date in which full power television stations in 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 broadcasting use as a result of the transition to its analog era vhf channel 7 for post transition operations . 11 wls operated its digital signal at low power 4.75 kw to protect the digital signal of wood tv in grand rapids michigan which also broadcasts on channel 7 but at a much higher radiated power . as a result many viewers were not able to receive the station . 12 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 a power increase required making sure no other stations were affected . 13 wls received a two week experimental permit for a power increase late in june . 14 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 15 but abandoned that plan the channel 32 rf frequency has since been claimed by wmeu cd . eventually the fcc granted it a permit to transmit on a second frequency uhf channel 44 16 formerly occupied by wsns tv ; wls announced the availability of that frequency on october 31 2009 . 17 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 . 18 wls operated channel 7 as a fill in translator with a power of 7 kw 19 and operating their full power operations on channel 44 with a power of 1 mw . 20 through the use of psip technology both operating frequencies were re mapped and displayed as virtual 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 the willis tower and its operating channel 44 at the 1 million watt power level . 21 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 . 22 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 the second abc o & o to operate its full power operations on the uhf band after fresno sister station kfsn tv . programming edit wls tv airs the entire abc network schedule ; however it currently airs the litton s 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 . syndicated programs broadcast on wls tv as of september 2016 update include live with kelly produced by sister station wabc inside edition right this minute jeopardy and wheel of fortune which is hosted by chicago native pat sajak . 23 station oddities edit from that program s debut in january 2003 wls tv aired jimmy kimmel live on a one hour delay at 12 02 a.m. as the station aired reruns of the oprah winfrey show at 11 02 p.m. after nightline this practice ended after oprah by then in reruns as the daytime talk show aired its last episode that may discontinued its syndication run on september 9 2011 ; jimmy kimmel was subsequently moved to 11 02 p.m. three days later on september 12 . for many years wls tv was the only abc owned and operated station that did not carry live with kelly in its various incarnations . 24 live s traditional 9 00 a.m. timeslot was occupied on channel 7 by oprah prior to the former program s national debut in september 1986 until september 2011 and later by windy city live from september 2011 to september 2013 ; the program which is produced by new york city sister station wabc tv had however occasionally aired in an overnight timeslot on wls during periods when no other local station carried the program in a daytime slot . 25 on september 2 2013 live with kelly and michael moved to wls tv from wgn tv with windy city live being bumped to 11 00 a.m. as a result . 25 26 27 wls tv remains the only abc o & o that does not to air the syndicated version