station in cadillac michigan see wfqx tv . wfld chicago illinois united states city chicago il branding fox 32 chicago general fox 32 news newscasts slogan you and fox 32 general what chicago is talking about newscasts channels digital 31 uhf virtual 32 psip subchannels 32.1 fox affiliations fox o & o owner fox television stations fox television stations inc. first air date january 4 1966 ; 50 years ago 1966 01 04 call letters meaning field enterprises founding owner of the station sister station s wpwr tv former channel number s analog 32 uhf 1966 2009 former affiliations independent 1966 1986 cbs secondary 1967 1970 transmitter power 1000 kw height 475 m 1 558 ft facility id 22211 transmitter coordinates 41 52 44 n 87 38 10 w 41.87889 n 87.63611 w 41.87889 ; 87.63611 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website www.fox32chicago.com wfld virtual channel 32 uhf digital channel 31 is a fox owned and operated television station located in chicago illinois united states . the station is owned by the fox television stations division of 21st century fox and operates as part of a television duopoly with gary indiana licensed cw affiliated mynetworktv owned and operated station wpwr tv channel 50 . the two stations share studio and office facilities located at michigan plaza on north michigan avenue in the chicago loop ; wfld s transmitter is based at the willis tower on south wacker drive in the loop business district . contents 1 history 1.1 as an independent station 1.1.1 field communications ownership 1.1.2 sale to metromedia 1.2 as a fox owned and operated station 2 digital television 2.1 digital channel 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 programming 3.1 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 references 6 external links history edit as an independent station edit field communications ownership edit the station first signed on the air on january 4 1966 as an independent station . wfld was founded by a joint venture of the parties that each competed individually for the license and construction permit to operate on uhf channel 32 . field enterprises owned by heirs of the marshall field s department store chain and publishers of the chicago sun times and the chicago daily news was the station s majority partner with a 50 % interest and was responsible for managing wfld s day to day operations ; they were led by veteran broadcasting executive sterling c. red quinlan . 1 2 the station originally operated from studio facilities located within the marina city complex on state street . 3 channel 32 was christened the station of tomorrow by an april 1966 sun times article because of its innovative technical developments in broadcasting its signal . it also broadcast news programming from the sun times daily news newsroom . 4 from the fall of 1967 to summer of 1970 wfld aired the final hour of cbs saturday daytime schedule from 12 00 to 1 00 p.m. in lieu of the network s owned and operated station wbbm tv channel 2 . citation needed in march 1969 field entered into an agreement to sell wfld to new york city based metromedia for 10 million . 5 6 at the time the field interests were concerned about running afoul of the federal communications commission fcc s recent scrutiny of commonly owned multiple media outlets within the same market . the deal ultimately fell through nearly one year later in february 1970 ; 7 following the collapse of the metromedia purchase attempt field instead purchased the 50 % share of wfld that was held by its minority partners . citation needed wfld was noteworthy for being the longtime home of the local b movie program svengoolie . there were two versions of the showcase the original incarnation of the series began on the station on september 18 1970 under the title screaming yellow theatre with local disc jockey jerry g. bishop doing scary voices and later wearing a long blond wig while portraying the character . bishop became such a hit with viewers that the show was popularly called svengoolie after his character although the title of the program did not change and this version lasted until late in the summer of 1973 . the second version premeried on june 16 1979 with rich koz as son of svengoolie and ran on channel 32 until january 25 1986 . the show was revived on wciu tv channel 26 when it became an english language independent station in december 1994 and has aired there locally ever since and began to be broadcast nationally on metv in april 2011 . 8 9 10 11 field enterprises sold controlling interest in wfld to kaiser broadcasting in may 1972 . when the deal was completed in july 1973 the two companies new partnership resulted in wfld joining kaiser s stable of uhf independent stations in san francisco boston philadelphia cleveland and detroit . 12 13 14 in june 1977 kaiser ended the partnership when it sold its share of the stations back to field enterprises . 15 16 in addition to carrying the traditional fare of sitcoms drama series children s programs and first run syndicated programs the station also aired movies initially european releases that were dubbed into english and local public affairs programming during this period . citation needed to counterprogram against its more established vhf rivals channel 32 offered older cartoons older off network sitcoms documentaries drama series westerns and live sporting events ; although it easily trailed its biggest competitor wgn tv channel 9 formerly a cw affiliate now again as an independent station in the ratings among chicago s independent stations . the station broadcast daily from 10 00 a.m. to about 1 00 a.m. during the 1970s except from september to december when the station signed on 7 00 a.m. beginning in 1978 wfld signed on daily before 6 00 a.m. in 1975 wfld acquired the local syndication rights to the brady bunch and the partridge family ; two years later in 1977 the station won the rights to a stronger slate of cartoons such as woody woodpecker and tom and jerry . channel 32 strengthened its syndicated programming slate in 1979 when it acquired the local syndication rights to m a s h all in the family happy days and what s happening . the station also acquired the rights to i love lucy that year and later added battlestar galactica buck rogers in the 25th century the six million dollar man wonder woman and star trek in 1982 . wfld began to beat wgn tv in ratings as a result of its stronger programming acquisitions citation needed and the two stations continued to go head to head throughout the 1980s . wfld scored no big ticket program acquisitions in 1980 or 1981 ; however in 1982 the station won the local syndication rights to popular series such as three s company taxi and mork and mindy . citation needed sale to metromedia edit in 1982 field enterprises began a gradual sale of its five television stations on an individual basis a process which continued into the following year due to disagreements between brothers marshall field v and frederick ted field on how to operate the company which strained their working relationship . incidentally the year prior in 1981 the field brothers sought a prospective buyer for wfld in the event that the company would be put up for sale . while wfld was the leading independent station in chicago at the time citation needed most of the companies that were interested in buying wfld were only willing to pay about half the amount that field wanted for the station at least 100 million compared to the approximately 50 million that the most expensive uhf stations went for . in addition most of the prospective companies were concerned that tribune broadcasting owned wgn tv could eventually overtake wfld again in the local ratings . by mere coincidence given field s previous aborted attempt to sell channel 32 to that group the one company that showed interested in wfld was metromedia owners of wnew tv now wnyw in new york city which led the independent stations in that market and beat tribune owned wpix in the ratings there . metromedia was ripe to compete against wgn based on the group s success in competing against wpix in the new york city market . in chicago metromedia was given the right of first refusal to purchase wfld . when field began selling its stations the company sold wfld to metromedia again this time in a successfully completed deal for slightly over 100 million a record price for a uhf station at the time . wfld was the first of the stations that field communications sold when it began the liquidation process in september 1982 with the final station to be sold wkbd tv in detroit in january 1984 completing the deal for wfld in march 1983 . 17 18 19 as a condition metromedia was forced by the fcc to divest radio station wmet 95.5 fm now webg which it sold to doubleday broadcasting . wfld s programming slate changed slightly but the station s on air graphics and branding were abruptly changed to reflect the new ownership with the station adopting metromedia 32 as its on air brand using a similar branding scheme that was used at new sister station wnew . still the old field era logos were used on air by accident on some occasions through the summer of 1983 . metromedia added several first run syndicated programs that were not previously carried in the chicago market as the market had only two commercial independent stations at the time as wsns tv channel 44 now a telemundo owned and operated station became a full time affiliate of the ontv subscription service the previous year onto the station s schedule particularly in prime time like the merv griffin show which wfld previously carried a few years prior but subsequently moved to wsns where it ran until that station became a full time ontv outlet . wfld remained the top rated independent station in chicago throughout metromedia s ownership of the station . citation needed as a fox owned and operated station edit in may 1985 metromedia reached an agreement to sell wfld tv and its five sister independent stations wnew tv now wnyw in new york city kttv in los angeles wttg in washington d.c. krld tv now cw affiliate kdaf in dallas fort worth and kriv in houston to news corporation owned by australian newspaper magnate rupert murdoch for 2.55 billion abc affiliate wcvb tv in boston the company s only network affiliated station was originally to be sold as well through the deal but upon exercising a right of first refusal clause related to metromedia s 1982 purchase of that station it was spun off to the hearst corporation s television and radio station subsidiary hearst broadcasting for 450 million in a separate concurrent deal . 20 21 22 that october news corporation which had purchased a 50 % interest in 20th century fox corporate parent tcf holdings for 250 million in march 1985 announced its intentions to create a fourth television network that would use the resources of 20th century fox television to both produce and distribute programming intending to compete with abc cbs and nbc . the company formally announced the launch of the new network the fox broadcasting company on may 7 1986 with the former metromedia stations serving as its nuclei . 23 the purchase of the metromedia stations was approved by the fcc and finalized on march 6 1986 with news corporation creating a new broadcasting unit the fox television stations to oversee the six television stations in april 1986 . 24 consequently through the purchase