Hi everyone. Today I am writing about my memories of watching WSNS-TV Channel 44 in the 1970s. It may be strange to some people that I write about a TV Station that is still in business, but at the time, it was unique. Channel 44 first went on air on April 5, 1970, it maintained an all-news format. That continued until 1972. Slowly, it began showing old movies, talk shows, and obscure TV shows. The shows that I remembered are listed here:

Prince Planet

Speed Racer

Leave it to Beaver

Adventures of Superman

Mundo Hispano

College Courses

Dimensions, a talk show

Felix The Cat

Deputy Dawg

Peter Gunn

Mr. Lucky

The Munsters

Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C

I Love Lucy

My Favorite Martian

Hazel

Room 222

The Untouchables

Colonel March of Scotland Yard that starred Boris Karloff

Bullwinkle

Popeye with Steve Hart

Bonanza

Wanted: Dead or Alive

Maverick

Flipper

F-Troop

Sports Spotlight

On Deck

Movie Game

Thing Theater

Rick Talley Sports

Ultraman

The Dating Game

Dinah and Friends

The Gong Show

Bob Luce Wrestling

The Star-Spangled Movie

The Good Time Bunch

Spiderman

Illinois State Lottery

Chicago White Sox

Chicago Black Hawks

Monster Rally Movie

DePaul Basketball

Get Smart

Al Lerner Sports

All Night Movies

Combat

The Mike Douglas Show

Outdoors with Ken Callaway

ON-TV

The One O’ Clock Movie

Monster Movie

Not For Women Only

Roller Derby

I Spy

Chicago Bulls

Indiana Basketball

Burns & Allen

Win at The Races

High Hopes, a Canadian soap opera

The Onedin Line

Marvel Superheroes

Robin Hood

Linus The Lionhearted

Lassie

Science Fiction Theater

Marine Boy

Space Giants

Lafftime

Sgt Bilko

The Big Valley

House of Frightenstein

Pro-Fan

Johnny Sokko

The Heart of The News

Well, that’s most of the shows that I remembered and researched. The Chicago White Sox started airing on Channel 44 in 1973 until 1980, The Chicago Blackhawks aired from 1978 to 1980, and The Chicago Bulls aired from 1973 to 1976. The Disco Demolition also aired on channel 44. I was in Greece at the time. In September 1980, ON-TV a subscription television service debuted on Channel 44. It started airing at 7 p.m. in the evening that aired movies, concerts, and sporting events. It aired adult programming in late evening hours. The converter box is probably the most popular thing that people remembered about ON-TV. The service ended in May 1985. On July 1, 1985. WSNS-TV Channel 44 converted to an all Spanish network by Univision for a few years and then to Telemundo.

When I watched Channel 44 in the 70s, it had very interesting programming. It was low-budget, and the promos of the TV shows were very memorable. My favorite shows that I watched were Prince Planet and Speed Racer. Speed Racer has been in reruns for years, but Prince Planet was very evasive. Once I went to a comic book convention and saw Prince Planet on DVD. It was a bootleg DVD recorded off TV. I couldn’t resist and I bought it. I took it home and watched it for the first time in years. It was heavily edited, but I love it anyway. There is an official DVD release but it aired originally in Japanese. Not sure you can change the language on a DVD player, but I will find out soon.

All these years I was hoping channel 44 would come back as an English independent TV station. I don’t think it will happen. WCIU-TV Channel 26 had ethnic programming for years until it switched to English programming on December 31, 1994. Oh, well, at least we have our memories. Thank you. Pete Kastanes, Admin for Vanished Chicagoland Facebook Page.

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