WGBO-DT

WGBO-DT, virtual channel 66 (UHF digital channel 38), is a Univision owned-and-operated television station serving Chicago, Illinois, United States that is licensed to Joliet. The station is owned by Univision Communications, as part of a duopoly with UniMás owned-and-operated station WXFT-DT (channel 60). The two stations share studio facilities located on Fairbanks Court (near Columbus Drive and Illinois Street), with WGBO's transmitter located atop the John Hancock Center on North Michigan Avenue in the Streeterville neighborhood.

History

As an independent station

Early history

The station first signed on the air on September 18, 1981 as independent station WFBN. Originally owned by Nashville-based Focus Broadcasting, it initially ran local public-access programs during the daytime hours and the subscription television service Spectrum during the nighttime. By 1982, WFBN ran Spectrum programming almost 24 hours a day; however by the fall of 1983, Spectrum shared the same schedule with that service's Chicago subscription rival ONTV. The station as well as ONTV parent National Subscription Television faced legal scrutiny because of its lack of news or public affairs programming and was faced with class action lawsuits because of the pornographic films aired by ONTV during late-night timeslots, with some of these legal challenges continuing even after ONTV was discontinued; however, a ruling by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) permitted broadcast television stations to air content normally considered indecent through an amendment to its definition of what constituted "public airwaves" declaring that "broadcasts which could not be seen and heard in the clear by an ordinary viewer with an ordinary television" were exempt, as long as the signal was encrypted.