| Fox Sports Net Chicago | |
| Picture Format: | 480i (SDTV) |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Replaced By: | NBC Sports Chicago |
Fox Sports Net Chicago (often branded as FSN Chicago) was an American regional sports network that was headquartered in Chicago, Illinois and was owned by Cablevision for most of its history (from 1987 to 2005). News Corporation acquired a minority ownership interest in the network in 1997, which Cablevision bought out in 2005. The network was affiliated with SportsChannel from 1987 to 1997, when it became an affiliate of Fox Sports Net.
The network carried games from most of the Chicago area's major league sports teams including the Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox Major League Baseball franchises; the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks; the NBA's Chicago Bulls; the Chicago Fire of Major League Soccer; and the Arena Football League's Chicago Rush. The network also aired local and national collegiate sports, including teams sourced from its sister network Fox Sports Detroit.
SportsChannel Chicago was first launched in 1981 when Cablevision obtained rights to 81 Chicago White Sox homes games for the 1981 season.[1] Shortly after another deal was made to carry sporting events from Notre Dame both on SportsChannel Chicago and New York.[2]
The agreement with Cablevision was supposed to be a two-year deal. However, the White Sox's new owners Jerry Reinsdorf and Eddie Einhorn launched a new cable service named SportsVision which also contracted with ONTV to provide the games as an over-the-air premium service, since many parts of Chicago still were not wired for cable television service. SportsVision also formed a partnership with the Blackhawks, Bulls and Sting to bring their games to the new network as well. The move of the White Sox games from SportsChannel led to Cablevision filing a breach of contract lawsuit.[3] SportsChannel Chicago would disappear from channel lineups, but not permanently.
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.
The WPWR-SportsVision partnership struggled by late 1983 and as a result, the channel was sold to Cablevision and the Washington Post (which by this time had become a partner in SportsChannel).[6] SportsVision immediately affiliated with SportsChannel and was converted into a basic cable service by 1986. By 1988, the Post had sold its share in SportVision (and the other SportsChannel networks) and NBC became a new partner gaining 50% ownership of the network. On March 1, 1989, the channel relaunched as SportsChannel Chicago, returning the name after over seven years.[7] The network began broadcasting 24 hours a day in 1991.[8] Also that year, Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI) purchased a 25% share in SportsChannel Chicago, with the remaining 75% split evenly between Cablevision and NBC. As part of this transaction, TCI also signed a long-term deal to carry the network on its cable systems.[9]
On June 30, 1997, News Corporation and Liberty Media—which had created a new group of regional sports networks known as Fox Sports Net in November 1996—purchased a 40% interest in Cablevision's sports properties. Properties included the SportsChannel America networks, Madison Square Garden, and the arena's professional sports franchise tenants, the New York Knicks and New York Rangers.[10] [11]
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.[12] [13] During that period, the channel relocated its production and office facilities to a new facility in the Apparel Center, at 350 North Orleans Street in the Near North Side area.[14]