Fox Sports Net Chicago
Country | United States |
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Broadcast area |
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Network |
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Headquarters |
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Programming | |
Language(s) | English |
Picture format | 480i (SDTV) |
Ownership | |
Owner |
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History | |
Launched | April 1982 |
Closed | June 23, 2006 |
Replaced by | NBC Sports Chicago |
Former names |
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Fox Sports Net Chicago (often branded as FSN Chicago) was an American
The network carried games from most of the Chicago area's major league sports teams including the
History
Early history
SportsChannel Chicago was first launched in 1981 when
The agreement with Cablevision was supposed to be a two year deal. However, the White Sox's new owners
Due to the fact that Chicago was one of the last major U.S. cities where cable television was still not widely available, SportsVision initially operated as an over-the-air subscription service. They broadcast over WPWR each weeknight and weekend. Viewers were required to purchase a set-top converter and pay a monthly fee to view the telecasts, which included Bulls, White Sox, and Blackhawks games, as well as college sports events of local interest. Some sports telecasts were also simulcast on ONTV, a co-owned subscription service that broadcast part-time over WSNS-TV (channel 44). The Bulls and White Sox continued to broadcast a number of games on free broadcast television locally, while the Blackhawks moved all of their game broadcasts over to SportsVision, ending a longstanding partnership with WSNS. After the move, some set-top converters which were sold as part of ONTV and SportsVision subscriptions, began incorporating a switch to allow subscribers to tune to either ONTV or SportsVision. By 1984, White Sox games began airing on ONTV as well.[4]
The decision to move most of the White Sox broadcasts to paid television led longtime announcer Harry Caray to become the play-by-play voice of the rival Chicago Cubs. He did this due to the limited exposure that the White Sox would experience as a result of having the majority of games on a medium that would limit the reach of the team's televised game broadcasts.[5] Chicago was, until 2019, one of the very few television markets in the United States whose baseball teams made a substantial percentage of their games available over-the-air. Until the mid-1990s, the Cubs still televised all of their games that were not aired nationally on the major broadcast networks (ABC, NBC, CBS) over WGN-TV (channel 9), and a regional network of television stations throughout parts of the Midwest.
Affiliation with SportsChannel and Fox Sports Net
The WPWR-SportsVision partnership struggled by late 1983 and as a result, the channel was sold to Cablevision and the
On June 30, 1997,
Following the purchase, SportsChannel Chicago abruptly canceled its daily sports news program The SportsChannel Report on August 10, resulting in the layoffs of ten staff members (including the program's veteran anchors Jim Blaney, Steve Kashul and Dyrol Joyner). That October, the channel launched Fox Sports Tonight, a similarly formatted sports news program focusing on local sports, intended to complement Fox Sports Net's national program Fox Sports News.
The new joint venture formed between News Corporation, Cablevision and Liberty Media, National Sports Partners, began a gradual rebranding of the SportsChannel networks that Cablevision had previously controlled into owned-and-operated outlets of Fox Sports Net. As a result, SportsChannel Chicago was rebranded as Fox Sports Chicago in January 1998. The channel was then rebranded as Fox Sports Net Chicago in 2000, as part of a collective brand modification of the FSN networks under the "Fox Sports Net" banner.
Fox Sports Tonight later evolved into the Chicago Sports Report in 2001, as part of a groupwide expansion of regional news programs across the Fox Sports Networks to complement the
Loss of broadcast rights and decline
In December 2003, Reinsdorf,
In February 2005, Cablevision acquired full ownership of Fox Sports Chicago and
FSN Chicago ceased operations on June 23, 2006;
References
- ^ "White Sox add cable to lineup" (PDF). Broadcasting Magazine: 70. December 8, 1980. Retrieved 24 April 2021.
- ^ "Irish on Sportschannel" (PDF). Broadcasting Magazine: 73. February 2, 1981. Retrieved 24 April 2021.
- ^ "Baseball 1982" (PDF). Broadcasting Magazine: 52. March 1, 1982. Retrieved 24 April 2021.
- ^ RobHart780 (November 30, 2012). "White Sox History: The story of SportsVision". South Side Sox. Retrieved August 30, 2016.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ Liptak, Mark (July 28, 2015). "Biggest What Ifs in White Sox History, Part 2". Chicago Now. Retrieved August 30, 2016.
- ^ "Post, Cablevision Acquire Rights to SportsVision". Washington Post. December 15, 1983. Retrieved 24 April 2021.
- ^ Nidetz, Steve (March 3, 1989). "Seriously, folks, 'the Loop' is trying to get a corner on all kinds of sports". Chicago Tribune. Chicago, Illinois. p. 53. Retrieved February 5, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Sherman, Ed (May 23, 1991). "SportsChannel: Vision fulfilled". Chicago Tribune. Chicago, Illinois. p. 4:4. Retrieved February 5, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "TCI, NBC, CABLEVISION CALL REGIONAL SPORTS TRUCE" (PDF). Broadcasting Magazine. July 15, 1991. Retrieved 27 April 2021.
- ^ "Fox putting together national Sports Net // Changes ahead for SportsChannel". Chicago Sun-Times. June 24, 1997. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved April 9, 2015.
- ^ Higgins, John (June 30, 1997). "National net keys regional deal. (Fox Sports, Liberty Media Corp. challenge ESPN with stake in SportsChannel)". Broadcasting & Cable. Archived from the original on September 10, 2015. Retrieved April 9, 2015.
- ^ Feder, Robert (August 12, 1997). "With demise of 'Report', SportsChannel cuts staff". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved April 9, 2015 – via HighBeam Research.
- Daily Herald. Archived from the originalon September 24, 2015. Retrieved April 9, 2015.
- ^ Cox, Ted (July 24, 1997). "New SportsChannel Studios Are State-of-Art". Daily Herald.{
- ^ "Comcast To Launch New Sports Net Along With Chicago Teams". Sports Business Journal. December 2, 2003. Archived from the original on April 17, 2015. Retrieved April 9, 2015.
- ^ "CSN Chicago Is Born; New Net To Launch In 1.5 Million HHs". Sports Business Journal. December 3, 2003. Archived from the original on April 17, 2015. Retrieved April 9, 2015.
- ^ Leon Lazaroff (February 23, 2005). "News Corp. exits Chicago Fox sports station". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved April 9, 2015.
- ^ "No need for FSN Chicago". The Daily Journal. June 27, 2006. Retrieved April 9, 2015.
External links
- White Sox Interactive: SportsVision -- The Legacy? Archived 2011-07-16 at the Wayback Machine