1.
NBC Sports Regional Networks
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The networks were originally established as Comcast SportsNet, a unit of Comcasts cable television business, beginning with a network in Philadelphia which launched in 1997. Their operations were aligned with the national NBC Sports division following the 2011 acquisition of NBC Universal by Comcast, NBC Sports Regional Networks business and master control operations are based in New York City, New York. The group operates seven regional networks, Comcast also has an ownership interest in SportsNet New York, which is co-owned with Charter Communications. Since the alignment of CSN with NBC, the networks have continued to operate primarily under the Comcast SportsNet name. Although the company originally considered dropping the Comcast branding on the networks in favor of NBC following the merger, HTS was later relaunched as Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic on April 4,2001. On October 1,2004, Comcast SportsNet Chicago was launched to replace FSN Chicago, also in October 2004, Comcast SportsNet West was launched conjunction with Maloof Sports & Entertainment, owners of the Sacramento Kings. The channel was renamed Comcast SportsNet California in 2008, in April 2012, NBC Owned Television Stations took over responsibilities of selling national advertising on behalf of four CSN networks. For unwired sales, the Group will be continue to be represented by Home Team Sports, the arrangement is an extension of one that it had established with New England Cable News in 2011. In early 2012, Comcast signed a contract worth $1 billion with the Houston Astros and Houston Rockets, the network was then integrated into DirecTV-operated Root Sports group, which relaunched it as Root Sports Southwest on November 14,2014. CSN quietly dropped all FSN-supplied programming on August 1,2012, Comcast is currently exploring implementing this new branding in other markets. New England Cable News, a news channel owned by Comcast, was operated as a part of Comcast Sports Group. In July 2013, as part of a reorganization, NECN had its operations transferred to NBC Owned Television Stations. Comcast also owned Comcast Local, a Detroit-based sports network that was distributed throughout Michigan, the network provided coverage of local collegiate and high school sports events, as well as minor league sports throughout its broadcast area. Comcast Local ceased operations in February 2008, as every major professional or college team in the region had its programming tied to FSN Detroit and/or the Big Ten Network, Comcast SportsNet HD is a high definition simulcast feed of select programs from Comcast SportsNet including live sports and series. Comcast SportsNet Northwest currently does not maintain a high-definition simulcast in the Seattle market, each of the Comcast SportsNet outlets have acquired the play-by-play broadcast rights to major sports teams in their regional market. In some markets, CSN competes directly with other sports networks for the broadcast rights to team-specific programming. Premier League select games NASCAR Sprint Cup Series & NASCAR Xfinity Series live practice & qualifying coverage when NBCSN & CNBC are unable to broadcast due to other programming
2.
NBC Sports Group
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Plans originally called for the Comcast SportsNet channels to be rebranded under the NBC Sports banner as well, however these plans have since been shelved. However, the networks would adopt some elements from the new NBC Sports design. Mark Lazarus, formerly the head of Turner Entertainment Group, was named President, a president of programming at NBC Sports and Versus was named John Miller, executive vice president, NBC Sports. Dick Ebersol continued as NBC Sports Group Chairman, in May 2011, Lazarus took over for Ebersol as chairman of the group. The group made a few big rights deal since then adding an extension to its Olympic contract from 2014 out to 2020, Major League Soccer and renewed PGA Tour and “Sunday Night Football”. In June 2011, NBC Sports Group purchased back the Alli Sports share held by MTV Networks Music Group in June 2011, on January 1,2012, Versus was renamed NBC Sports Network. On March 18,2013, nearly all of the operations for NBC Sports and NBCSN began to be based out of a facility in Stamford. Telemundo Deportes, a dedicated Hispanic sports production unit, was announced by Joe Uva, Chairman of NBCUniversal Hispanic Group. Telemundo Deportes was also in process of moving to the NBC Sports Group facility in Stamford, NBC Sports Group formed NBC Sports Films in 2015 for long form sports documentaries for the sports groups platforms. The first film was Center of Attention, The Unreal Life of Derek Sanderson which was broadcast on NBC Sports Network June 8 after the Stanley Cup Final Game 3, the Group launched two channels just for the 2016 Olympic games, NBC Olympic Basketball and NBC Olympic Soccer. NBC Sports streaming technology unit will become a unit within the group per an April 2016 report by Sports Business Daily. The units first client is reported as the upcoming Olympic Channel, the unit and service was named Playmaker Media in May 2016 and exists within NBC Sports Digital. NBC News is expected to use Playmaker for the 2016 general election. com playmaker. media sportsengine. com
3.
1080i
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1080i is an abbreviation referring to a combination of frame resolution and scan type, used in high-definition television and high-definition video. The number 1080 refers to the number of lines on the screen. The term assumes a widescreen ratio of 16,9, so the 1080 lines of vertical resolution implies 1920 columns of horizontal resolution. A1920 pixels ×1080 lines screen has a total of 2.1 megapixels and this format is used in the SMPTE 292M standard. The choice of 1080 lines originates with Charles Poynton, who in the early 1990s pushed for square pixels to be used in HD video formats, within the designation 1080i, the i stands for interlaced scan. A frame of 1080i video consists of two fields of 1920 horizontal and 540 vertical pixels. The first field consists of all odd-numbered TV lines and the second all even numbered lines, 1080i differs from 1080p, where the p stands for progressive scan, where all lines in a frame are captured at the same time. In native or pure 1080i, the two fields of a frame correspond to different instants, so motion portrayal is good and this is true for interlaced video in general and can be easily observed in still images taken of fast motion scenes. However, when 1080p material is captured at 25 or 30 frames/second, it is converted to 1080i at 50 or 60 fields/second, respectively, in this situation both fields in a frame do correspond to the same instant. The field-to-instant relation is more complex for the case of 1080p at 24 frames/second converted to 1080i at 60 fields/second. Both field rates can be carried by digital television broadcast formats such as ATSC, DVB. The frame rate can be implied by the context, while the rate is generally specified after the letter i. In this case 1080i60 refers to 60 fields per second, the European Broadcasting Union prefers to use the resolution and frame rate separated by a slash, as in 1080i/30 and 1080i/25, likewise 480i/30 and 576i/25. Resolutions of 1080i60 or 1080i50 often refers to 1080i/30 or 1080i/25 in EBU notation, 1080i is directly compatible with some CRT HDTVs on which it can be displayed natively in interlaced form, but for display on progressive-scan—e. g. Most new LCD and plasma TVs, it must be deinterlaced, depending on the televisions video processing capabilities, the resulting video quality may vary, but may not necessarily suffer. For example, film material at 25fps may be deinterlaced from 1080i50 to restore a full 1080p resolution at the frame rate without any loss. Preferably video material with 50 or 60 motion phases/second is to be converted to 50p or 60p before display, worldwide, most HD channels on satellite and cable broadcast in 1080i. This also allows local newscasts on these ABC affiliates to be produced in the resolution to match the picture quality of their 1080i competitors
4.
Illinois
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Illinois is a state in the midwestern region of the United States, achieving statehood in 1818. It is the 6th most populous state and 25th largest state in terms of land area, the word Illinois comes from a French rendering of a native Algonquin word. For decades, OHare International Airport has been ranked as one of the worlds busiest airports, Illinois has long had a reputation as a bellwether both in social and cultural terms and politics. With the War of 1812 Illinois growth slowed as both Native Americans and Canadian forces often raided the American Frontier, mineral finds and timber stands also had spurred immigration—by the 1810s, the Eastern U. S. Railroads arose and matured in the 1840s, and soon carried immigrants to new homes in Illinois, as well as being a resource to ship their commodity crops out to markets. Railroads freed most of the land of Illinois and other states from the tyranny of water transport. By 1900, the growth of jobs in the northern cities and coal mining in the central and southern areas attracted a new group of immigrants. Illinois was an important manufacturing center during both world wars, the Great Migration from the South established a large community of African Americans in Chicago, who created the citys famous jazz and blues cultures. Three U. S. presidents have been elected while living in Illinois, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, additionally, Ronald Reagan, whose political career was based in California, was the only U. S. president born and raised in Illinois. Today, Illinois honors Lincoln with its official slogan, Land of Lincoln. The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum is located in the capital of Springfield. Illinois is the spelling for the early French Catholic missionaries and explorers name for the Illinois Native Americans. American scholars previously thought the name Illinois meant man or men in the Miami-Illinois language and this etymology is not supported by the Illinois language, as the word for man is ireniwa and plural men is ireniwaki. The name Illiniwek has also said to mean tribe of superior men. The name Illinois derives from the Miami-Illinois verb irenwe·wa he speaks the regular way and this was taken into the Ojibwe language, perhaps in the Ottawa dialect, and modified into ilinwe·. The French borrowed these forms, changing the ending to spell it as -ois. The current spelling form, Illinois, began to appear in the early 1670s, the Illinois name for themselves, as attested in all three of the French missionary-period dictionaries of Illinois, was Inoka, of unknown meaning and unrelated to the other terms. American Indians of successive cultures lived along the waterways of the Illinois area for thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans, the Koster Site has been excavated and demonstrates 7,000 years of continuous habitation
5.
Greater St. Louis
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Greater St. Louis is the metropolitan area that completely surrounds and includes the independent city of St. Louis. It includes parts of both the U. S. states of Missouri and Illinois, the city core is on the border to Illinois and collectively the two regions form the combined metropolitan area. St. Louis is the largest metro area in Missouri, and is the second largest in Illinois, St. Louis County is independent of the city of St. Louis and their two populations are generally tabulated separately. Depending on the counties included in the area, it can refer to the St. Louis, MO-IL metropolitan statistical area or the St. Louis-St. Charles-Farmington, MO-IL combined statistical area. The CSA includes all of the MSA listed above and the Farmington, MO micropolitan statistical area, which includes Washington and St. Francois Counties. The CSA was the 19th largest in the United States in 2015, with a population of 2,916,447, while the MSA was the 20th largest in the country that year with a population of 2,811,588. The region is home to nine Fortune 500 companies, Express Scripts, Emerson Electric, Monsanto, Reinsurance Group of America, Centene, Peabody Energy, Ameren, Graybar Electric, the area received the All-America City Award in 2008. The nearby Hannibal–Quincy micropolitan areas are not located within the metropolitan. According to the 2010 United States Census, in Greater St. Louis there were 2,787,701 people living in 1,143,001 households, of which 748,892 households were families. In 2010,98.2 percent of Greater St. Louis was of one race,72,797 residents or 2.5 percent were Hispanic or Latino Americans of any race. As of 2010, the age for Greater St. Louis is 38.2. As of 2010, Greater St. Louis included 1,264,680 housing units,3.3 percent or 41,884 units were vacant and not for sale or rent. Of the occupied housing units,70.6 percent or 807,431 were owner-occupied with 2,075,622 occupants,29.4 percent or 335,570 units were rented with 739,749 occupants. In 2010, the income for a household in the St. Louis metro was $50,900. Transportation in Greater St. Louis includes road, rail, parts of Greater St. Louis also support a public transportation network that includes bus and light rail service. Education in Greater St. Louis is provided by more than two dozen public school districts, independent private schools, parochial schools, and several public library systems, Greater St. Louis also is home to more than thirty colleges and universities. Several Missouri state parks in the region and parks owned by St. Louis County are larger than 1,000 acres, while one park in the city of St. Louis, Forest Park, the 2014 Gross Metropolitan Product of St. Louis was $145.958 billion. That makes St. Louis the 21st highest GMP in the United States, Greater St. Louis has more than 1.3 million non-farm workers, representing roughly 15 percent of the non-farm workforce of Missouri and Illinois combined
6.
Indiana
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Indiana /ɪndiˈænə/ is a U. S. state located in the midwestern and Great Lakes regions of North America. Indiana is the 38th largest by area and the 16th most populous of the 50 United States and its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th U. S. state on December 11,1816, before becoming a territory, varying cultures of indigenous peoples and historic Native Americans inhabited Indiana for thousands of years. Indiana has an economy with a gross state product of $298 billion in 2012. Indiana has several areas with populations greater than 100,000. The states name means Land of the Indians, or simply Indian Land and it also stems from Indianas territorial history. On May 7,1800, the United States Congress passed legislation to divide the Northwest Territory into two areas and named the section the Indiana Territory. In 1816, when Congress passed an Enabling Act to begin the process of establishing statehood for Indiana, a resident of Indiana is officially known as a Hoosier. The first inhabitants in what is now Indiana were the Paleo-Indians, divided into small groups, the Paleo-Indians were nomads who hunted large game such as mastodons. They created stone tools made out of chert by chipping, knapping and flaking, the Archaic period, which began between 5000 and 4000 BC, covered the next phase of indigenous culture. The people developed new tools as well as techniques to cook food, such new tools included different types of spear points and knives, with various forms of notches. They made ground-stone tools such as axes, woodworking tools. During the latter part of the period, they built mounds and middens. The Archaic period ended at about 1500 BC, although some Archaic people lived until 700 BC, afterward, the Woodland period took place in Indiana, where various new cultural attributes appeared. During this period, the people created ceramics and pottery, an early Woodland period group named the Adena people had elegant burial rituals, featuring log tombs beneath earth mounds. In the middle portion of the Woodland period, the Hopewell people began developing long-range trade of goods, nearing the end of the stage, the people developed highly productive cultivation and adaptation of agriculture, growing such crops as corn and squash. The Woodland period ended around 1000 AD, the Mississippian culture emerged, lasting from 1000 until the 15th century, shortly before the arrival of Europeans. During this stage, the people created large urban settlements designed according to their cosmology, with mounds and plazas defining ceremonial
7.
Iowa
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Iowa is a U. S. state in the Midwestern United States, bordered by the Mississippi River on the east and the Missouri River and the Big Sioux River on the west. Surrounding states include Wisconsin and Illinois to the east, Missouri to the south, Nebraska and South Dakota to the west, in colonial times, Iowa was a part of French Louisiana and Spanish Louisiana, its state flag is patterned after the flag of France. After the Louisiana Purchase, people laid the foundation for an economy in the heart of the Corn Belt. Iowa is the 26th most extensive in area and the 30th most populous of the 50 United States. Its capital and largest city by population is Des Moines, Iowa has been listed as one of the safest states in which to live. Its nickname is the Hawkeye State, Iowa derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many Native American tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa is bordered by the Mississippi River on the east, the Missouri River and the Big Sioux River on the west, Iowa is the only state whose east and west borders are formed entirely by rivers. Iowa has 99 counties, but 100 county seats because Lee County has two, the state capital, Des Moines, is in Polk County. Iowas bedrock geology generally increases in age from west to east, in northwest Iowa, Cretaceous bedrock can be 74 million years old, in eastern Iowa Cambrian bedrock dates to c.500 million years ago. Iowa is generally not flat, most of the consists of rolling hills. Iowa can be divided into eight landforms based on glaciation, soils, topography, Loess hills lie along the western border of the state, some of which are several hundred feet thick. Northeast Iowa along the Mississippi River is part of the Driftless Zone, consisting of steep hills, several natural lakes exist, most notably Spirit Lake, West Okoboji Lake, and East Okoboji Lake in northwest Iowa. To the east lies Clear Lake, man-made lakes include Lake Odessa, Saylorville Lake, Lake Red Rock, Coralville Lake, Lake MacBride, and Rathbun Lake. The states northwest area has remnants of the once common wetlands. Iowas natural vegetation is tallgrass prairie and savanna in areas, with dense forest and wetlands in flood plains and protected river valleys. Most of Iowa is used for agriculture, crops cover 60% of the state, grasslands cover 30%, as of 2005 Iowa ranked 49th of U. S. states in public land holdings. Endangered or threatened plants include western prairie fringed orchid, eastern prairie fringed orchid, Meads milkweed, prairie bush clover, the explosion in the number of high-density livestock facilities in Iowa has led to increased rural water contamination and a decline in air quality. Iowa has a continental climate throughout the state
8.
Kenosha County, Wisconsin
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Kenosha County is a county located in the southeastern corner of the U. S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2010 census, the population was 166,426, the county is named after the county seat. Kenosha County is included in the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI Metropolitan Statistical Area and it is located on the west shore of Lake Michigan. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of 754 square miles. Although the county contains much area from Lake Michigan, it is the fourth-smallest county in Wisconsin by land area, Kenosha Regional Airport serves the county and surrounding communities. The population density was 548 people per square mile, there were 59,989 housing units at an average density of 220 per square mile. The racial makeup of the county was 88. 38% White,5. 08% Black or African American,0. 38% Native American,0. 92% Asian,0. 04% Pacific Islander,3. 29% from other races, and 1. 91% from two or more races. 7. 19% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race,28. 8% were of German,10. 4% Italian,7. 9% Irish,7. 6% Polish and 7. 5% English ancestry according to Census 2000. 25. 50% of all households were made up of individuals and 9. 10% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.60 and the average family size was 3.13. In the county, the population was out with 27. 10% under the age of 18,9. 40% from 18 to 24,31. 30% from 25 to 44,20. 70% from 45 to 64. The median age was 35 years, for every 100 females there were 98.30 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 95.30 males, Kenosha county has been a solidly Democratic county for the past fifty years. In 2016, Donald Trump became the first Republican presidential candidate in 44 years to win the county and it consists of 23 members each elected from single member districts. The county executive is elected in a countywide, non-partisan vote. Population of states and counties of the United States,1790 to 1990, United States Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Population Division. Kenosha County government website Kenosha County map from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation
9.
Michigan
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Michigan /ˈmɪʃᵻɡən/ is a state in the Great Lakes and Midwestern regions of the United States. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, Michigan is the tenth most populous of the 50 United States, with the 11th most extensive total area. Its capital is Lansing, and its largest city is Detroit, Michigan is the only state to consist of two peninsulas. The Lower Peninsula, to which the name Michigan was originally applied, is noted to be shaped like a mitten. The Upper Peninsula is separated from the Lower Peninsula by the Straits of Mackinac, the two peninsulas are connected by the Mackinac Bridge. The state has the longest freshwater coastline of any political subdivision in the world, being bounded by four of the five Great Lakes, as a result, it is one of the leading U. S. states for recreational boating. Michigan also has 64,980 inland lakes and ponds, a person in the state is never more than six miles from a natural water source or more than 85 miles from a Great Lakes shoreline. What is now the state of Michigan was first settled by Native American tribes before being colonized by French explorers in the 17th century, the area was organized as part of the larger Northwest Territory until 1800, when western Michigan became part of the Indiana Territory. Eventually, in 1805, the Michigan Territory was formed, which lasted until it was admitted into the Union on January 26,1837, the state of Michigan soon became an important center of industry and trade in the Great Lakes region and a popular immigrant destination. Though Michigan has come to develop an economy, it is widely known as the center of the U. S. automotive industry. When the first European explorers arrived, the most populous tribes were Algonquian peoples, which include the Anishinaabe groups of Ojibwe, Odaawaa/Odawa, the three nations co-existed peacefully as part of a loose confederation called the Council of Three Fires. The Ojibwe, whose numbers are estimated to have been between 25,000 and 35,000, were the largest, French voyageurs and coureurs des bois explored and settled in Michigan in the 17th century. The first Europeans to reach what became Michigan were those of Étienne Brûlés expedition in 1622, the first permanent European settlement was founded in 1668 on the site where Père Jacques Marquette established Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan as a base for Catholic missions, missionaries in 1671–75 founded outlying stations at Saint Ignace and Marquette. Jesuit missionaries were received by the areas Indian populations, with relatively few difficulties or hostilities. In 1679, Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle built Fort Miami at present-day St. Joseph, in 1691, the French established a trading post and Fort St. Joseph along the St. Joseph River at the present day city of Niles. The hundred soldiers and workers who accompanied Cadillac built a fort enclosing one arpent, cadillacs wife, Marie Thérèse Guyon, soon moved to Detroit, becoming one of the first European women to settle in the Michigan wilderness. The town quickly became a major fur-trading and shipping post, the Église de Saint-Anne was founded the same year
10.
Chicago
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Chicago, officially the City of Chicago, is the third-most populous city in the United States. With over 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the state of Illinois, and it is the county seat of Cook County. In 2012, Chicago was listed as a global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. Chicago has the third-largest gross metropolitan product in the United States—about $640 billion according to 2015 estimates, the city has one of the worlds largest and most diversified economies with no single industry employing more than 14% of the workforce. In 2016, Chicago hosted over 54 million domestic and international visitors, landmarks in the city include Millennium Park, Navy Pier, the Magnificent Mile, Art Institute of Chicago, Museum Campus, the Willis Tower, Museum of Science and Industry, and Lincoln Park Zoo. Chicagos culture includes the arts, novels, film, theater, especially improvisational comedy. Chicago also has sports teams in each of the major professional leagues. The city has many nicknames, the best-known being the Windy City, the name Chicago is derived from a French rendering of the Native American word shikaakwa, known to botanists as Allium tricoccum, from the Miami-Illinois language. The first known reference to the site of the current city of Chicago as Checagou was by Robert de LaSalle around 1679 in a memoir, henri Joutel, in his journal of 1688, noted that the wild garlic, called chicagoua, grew abundantly in the area. In the mid-18th century, the area was inhabited by a Native American tribe known as the Potawatomi, the first known non-indigenous permanent settler in Chicago was Jean Baptiste Point du Sable. Du Sable was of African and French descent and arrived in the 1780s and he is commonly known as the Founder of Chicago. In 1803, the United States Army built Fort Dearborn, which was destroyed in 1812 in the Battle of Fort Dearborn, the Ottawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi tribes had ceded additional land to the United States in the 1816 Treaty of St. Louis. The Potawatomi were forcibly removed from their land after the Treaty of Chicago in 1833, on August 12,1833, the Town of Chicago was organized with a population of about 200. Within seven years it grew to more than 4,000 people, on June 15,1835, the first public land sales began with Edmund Dick Taylor as U. S. The City of Chicago was incorporated on Saturday, March 4,1837, as the site of the Chicago Portage, the city became an important transportation hub between the eastern and western United States. Chicagos first railway, Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, and the Illinois, the canal allowed steamboats and sailing ships on the Great Lakes to connect to the Mississippi River. A flourishing economy brought residents from rural communities and immigrants from abroad, manufacturing and retail and finance sectors became dominant, influencing the American economy. The Chicago Board of Trade listed the first ever standardized exchange traded forward contracts and these issues also helped propel another Illinoisan, Abraham Lincoln, to the national stage
11.
WMAQ-TV
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WMAQ-TV, channel 5, is an NBC owned-and-operated television station located in Chicago, Illinois, United States. In the few areas of the eastern United States where an NBC station is not receivable over-the-air, WMAQ-TV is available on satellite via DirecTV, the station first signed on the air on October 8,1948 as WNBQ, the fourth television station to sign on in Chicago. It was also the third of NBCs five original owned-and-operated television stations to begin operations, after outlets in New York City and Washington, D. C. and before Cleveland, WNBQ initially broadcast a minimum of two hours of programming per day. The stations first mid-week broadcast came the month following its sign-on, when Paul Winchell and Joseph Dunninger were featured on the NBC variety series, the half-hour program was recorded via kinescope, and rebroadcast on WNBQ at 8,30 p. m. on Thursdays. Television critics referred to the broadcasts – often low-budget with few celebrity guests but a good deal of inventiveness – as examples of the Chicago School of Television. The calls of its radio station were initially assigned by the government, but went on to form the phrase We Must Ask Questions. On October 1,1989, the station relocated its operations from the Merchandise Mart after 40 years and began broadcasting from the NBC Tower. Ratings for WMAQ-TVs newscasts overtook those of WBBM-TV in the 1980s, for most of its years, The station did include the networks logo next to theirs, branding solely with the channel number and/or call letters vocally and visually until 1995. To improve its reception of the station, on June 5,2000, the LMA ended on July 1,2005 upon Paxs rebranding as i, Independent Television. WSNS-TV subsequently integrated its operations into WMAQ-TVs NBC Tower facilities, three days later on March 18,2016, the company announced it will continue to carry WMAQ-TV, WSNS-TV and five other cable channels for another 10 days while seeking arbitration from the FCC. It will be the first dispute with that provider in 15 years, the dispute involves the 6 NBC owned-and-operated stations, USA Network, Syfy, Bravo, CNBC, MSNBC, NBCSN, E. Oxygen and the other NBCU-owned cable channels, on the same day, the cable company announces that they continue to watch WMAQ-TV and other NBCU-owned cable channels. The companies’ negotiations over a deal to replace the one that expires on said date have been extended after midnight. The stations digital channel is multiplexed, WMAQ-TV also maintains a Mobile DTV feed of digital subchannel 5.2, raw coverage of various live events, including Barack Obamas victory rally in Grant Park and Governor Rod Blagojevichs impeachment trial have also been carried on 5.2. The stations digital signal continued to broadcasts on its pre-transition UHF channel 29, through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the stations virtual channel as its former VHF analog channel 5. From June 13 to July 12,2009, WMAQ-TV had simulcast most of its newscasts as a contributor to WWME-CA s analog lifeline service for the Chicago area, in an unprecedented four-station partnership. The lifeline programming provided on analog UHF channel 23 included WMAQs weekday and Saturday morning, weeknight 6,00 p. m. and weekend 5,00 p. m. newscasts along with WGN-TV s 9,00 p. m. newscast. The lifeline continued only as a simulcast of entertainment programming from WWMEs sister station WCIU-TV until January 2011, as typical for a network-owned station, WMAQ-TV generally carries the vast majority of the NBC network schedule
12.
WSNS-TV
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WSNS-TV, virtual channel 44, is a Telemundo owned-and-operated television station located in Chicago, Illinois, United States. The station is owned by the NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations subsidiary of NBCUniversal, the two stations share studio facilities within the NBC Tower in downtown Chicagos Magnificent Mile district. WSNSs transmitter is located atop the Willis Tower on South Wacker Drive in the Chicago Loop, the station first signed on the air on April 5,1970, as an independent station, it is currently the third-oldest commercial television station on the UHF band in the Chicago market. WSNS was originally owned by a consortium of investors including Harriscope Broadcasting, the stations transmitter and studio facilities were located on the 97th floor of the John Hancock Center on North Michigan Avenue in the Streeterville neighborhood. The station never disclosed its ownership, in any of WSNS formats, initially, channel 44 maintained an all-news programming format. On November 16,1970, the moved to into a newly constructed studio facility on West Grant Place in the Lincoln Park communitys Mid-North District. During these early years, the Emergency Broadcast System required many stations to shut down in the event of a national emergency, on February 20,1971, when a National Level EBS message was accidentally activated, WSNS was the only television station to respond correctly and shut down. The all-news format was not particularly successful, and by 1972, WSNS had converted into an entertainment-based independent, basically, WSNS was the also ran independent station in the market, running whatever programming that established independents, WGN-TV and WFLD, declined to purchase the local rights to. The lineup included some Japanese animated and adventure series, along with cartoons, older off-network shows, older feature films. WSNS did incorporate a few stronger programs within its schedule, for a time during the mid-1970s, during the late 1970s, the station had also aired talk shows such as The Merv Griffin Show, The Mike Douglas Show, and Dinah. In addition, WSNS featured Chicago White Sox baseball games for seven years as well as showing Chicago Blackhawks hockey, by the early 1980s, the station had lost some of its higher-profile shows to competitors such as WFLD. With the station stuck near the bottom of the ratings, WSNS looked at options to become more viable. The station then began carrying programming from the new ONTV service, during the late 1970s and early 1980s, most major cities had one or two licensed subscription television operators. To obtain a television license, the station had to provide the FCC with a proposal detailing the programming to be offered. The station required subscribers to have a descrambler installed in their home in order to unscramble the signal during ONTVs programming hours. National Subscription Television subsequently purchased a 24. 5% interest in the station from Essaness Television Corporation. In September 1980, WSNS continued to maintain a general entertainment programming format until 7,00 p. m. on weekdays, in November 1981, WSNS extended its transmission of ON-TV programming by one hour on weekdays and by three hours on weekends. The ONTV Chicago service ceased operations in July 1985, largely due to the entrance of cable television service into the area
13.
Dish Network
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Dish Network is an American direct-broadcast satellite service provider. The company provides satellite television, satellite Internet access, audio programming, as of November 2016, the company provided services to 13.7 million television and 580,000 broadband subscribers. The company has approximately 16,000 employees, the company is headquartered in Meridian, Colorado, though the postal designation of nearby Englewood, Colorado is used in the corporate mailing address. In January 2008, Dish Network was spun off from its parent company EchoStar. The company began using Dish Network as its brand in March 1997, after the successful launch of its first satellite, EchoStar I. That launch marked the beginning of its television services, and EchoStar has since launched numerous satellites. EchoStar continues to be the technology partner to Dish Network. Joseph Clayton became president and chief officer of the company in June 2011. Clayton remained in the position until March 31,2015 when he retired leaving Ergen to resume the post, Dishs main service is satellite television. Its offerings are similar to satellite and cable companies. Viewers can choose from a series of bundles, paying more money for more channels. A la carte programming is available, however limited other than Premium channels, the company is currently working on diversifying its offerings. With its purchase of Blockbuster LLC, it now owns the Blockbuster trademarks and has used its intellectual property agreement to offer streaming, Dish Anywhere is Dishs subscriber-only streaming video service, which includes HBO and Cinemax programming. In May 2012, the American Customer Satisfaction Index ranked Dish second among American television providers and it weighs ten pounds, is protected from weather, and automatically searches for a signal. The only satellites that are compatible with the Tailgater are at Dishs 119,110. In March 2012, Dish began offering a video recorder called Dish Hopper that can automatically record all prime time programming on the four major television networks. The other half is for video on demand, a Hopper feature, called AutoHop, enables customers to view these programs without commercials, subject to time restrictions. AutoHop has attracted enthusiasts, critics, boycotts and legal action, at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show Dish won an award for their AutoHop feature on the Hopper
14.
DirecTV
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DirecTV is an American direct broadcast satellite service provider based in El Segundo, California and is a subsidiary of AT&T. Its satellite service, launched on June 17,1994, transmits digital television and audio to households in the United States, Latin America. Its primary competitors are Dish Network and cable television providers, DirecTV provides television and audio services to subscribers through satellite transmissions. Services include the equivalent of local television stations, broadcast television networks, subscription television services, satellite radio services. Subscribers have access to hundreds of channels, so its competitors are cable television service, most subscribers use reception antennas which are much smaller than the first generation antennas, which were typically a few yards across. Advances in antenna technology, including fractal antennas, have allowed a reduction in antenna size across all industries. Receiving equipment includes a dish, an integrated receiver/decoder and a DirecTV access card. Consumers who purchase DirecTV subscribe to various packages of DirecTV programming for which the subscriber pays a monthly fee, additional monthly fees may include a protection plan, DVR, additional receivers, HD channels, and other premium channel packages. A subscriber also can order pay-per-view and video on demand events, all programming distributed by DirecTV is delivered to its broadcast centers in Castle Rock, Colorado, and Los Angeles, where it is then digitized and compressed. The resulting signal is encrypted by DirecTV to prevent its unauthorized reception, DirecTV then transmits these signals to several satellites located in geostationary orbit. As of the quarter ended September 30,2012, DirecTV U. S. had 19.981 million subscribers, for the same period, DirecTV Latin America ended with 9.666 million subscribers and revenues of US$1.577 billion. In addition to serving residences, DirecTV offers service to bars, restaurants, hotels, dorms, the company also offered mobile service for cars, boats, and RVs as well as aircraft in cooperation with Connexion by Boeing. On November 30,2016, DirecTV Now, an internet streaming TV service was launched, in 1953, Howard Hughes created the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, to which he transferred full ownership of Hughes Aircraft. Ostensibly created as a medical research foundation, HHMI was accused of being used by Hughes as a tax shelter. Following Hughes death in 1976, HHMI was incorporated in 1977, in 1984, the court appointed a new board for HHMI, which proceeded to sell off Hughes Aircraft to General Motors on December 20,1985, for an estimated $5.1 billion. General Motors then merged Hughes Aircraft with its subsidiary Delco Electronics to create Hughes Electronics Corporation, the new subsidiary was initially composed of four units, Delco Electronics Company, Hughes Aircraft Company, Hughes Space and Communications Company, and Hughes Network Systems. Stanley E. Hubbard founded United States Satellite Broadcasting in 1981 and was a proponent for the development of direct-broadcast satellite service in the United States. USSB was awarded five frequencies by the FCC, at the coveted 101 degree west satellite location, Hughes Communications, Inc. was also awarded 27 frequencies at the same 101-degree location
15.
Xfinity
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Comcast Cable Communications is the cable television division of Comcast. Xfinitys CEO is Dave Watson, its chairman is Brian L. Roberts, Xfinity went from $23.7 billion in revenue in 2007 to $48.1 billion in 2013. Comcast Digital Cable was renamed Xfinity TV, Comcast Digital Voice became Xfinity Voice, Business Services remains under the Comcast name. A marketing push involving the new Xfinity brand took place during the 2010 Winter Olympics coverage on NBC, the Xfinity rebranding has been controversial as a purported effort to sidestep the negativity of the Comcast brand. In February 2010, TIME listed Xfinity at number 2 in their Top 10 Worst Corporate Name Changes list, Comcast is the largest provider of cable internet access in the US, servicing 40% of the market in 2011. As of June 30,2013, Comcast has 19.986 million high-speed internet customers, according to the Comcast High Speed Internet terms of service, residential customers are provided with dynamic IP addresses. Comcast began offering services in late 1996, when it helped found the @Home Network. The agreement continued after @Homes merger with Excite, when the combined company Excite@Home filed for bankruptcy in 2002, Comcast moved their roughly 950,000 internet customers completely onto their own network. Available Comcast High-Speed Internet Plans, Speeds are given in megabits per second, along with the price of internet subscriptions, Comcast charges users an additional $10. 00/month to rent a cable modem. This fee has been seen by some as unfair, but is waived for customers who buy their own modems, Comcast charges $20 for internet installation, but the fee is waived for customers who opt to install themselves. In 2011, Comcast launched its Internet Essentials program, which offers low-cost internet service to families with children who qualify for free or reduced school lunches. The U. S. Federal Communications Commission required this budget service as a condition for allowing Comcasts acquisition of NBCUniversal in January 2011, of an estimated 2.60 million households eligible for the program, about 220,000 households participate in the program as of June 2013. A similar program is available from internet providers through the non-profit Connect2compete. org. Comcast has stated that the program will accept new customers for a total of three years, in March 2014, as he met with FCC concerning the Time Warner Cable merger, Comcast vice president David Cohen told reporters that the internet essentials program will be extended indefinitely. In early 2013, Comcast began broadcasting hotspot services using Xfinity branded equipment from customers homes, specifically this Xfinity branded equipment is the combination cable modem and router that the customer needs to access the internet. This is the situation for every customer unless they provide their own equipment and these combination cable modem/routers are used to provide other Comcast subscribers with free WiFi access at over 500,000 locations across the United States. It is this channel that provides the Xfinity WIFI to other Comcast subscribers. Comcast claims customers internet speeds are not affected by the feature being enabled on their equipment
16.
Chicago metropolitan area
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The Chicago metropolitan area, or Chicagoland, is the metropolitan area associated with the city of Chicago, Illinois, and its suburbs. With an estimated population of 9.4 million people, it is the third largest metropolitan area in the United States, Chicagoland is the area that is closely linked to the city through geographic, social, economic, and cultural ties. The Chicago metropolitan area is one of the world’s largest and most diversified economies, with more than four million employees, the region is home to more than 400 major corporate headquarters, including 31 in the Fortune 500. The Chicago Metropolitan Statistical Area was originally designated by the United States Census Bureau in 1950 and it comprised the Illinois counties of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake and Will, along with Lake County in Indiana. As surrounding counties saw an increase in their population densities and the number of their residents employed within Cook County, the Chicago MSA, now defined as the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI Metropolitan Statistical Area, is the third largest MSA by population in the United States. The 2015 census estimate for the MSA was 9,427,676 and this loss of population has been attributed to taxes, political issues, and other factors. A breakdown of the 2009 estimated populations of the three Metropolitan Divisions of the MSA are as follows, The OMB also defines a larger region as a Combined Statistical Area. The Chicago-Naperville, IL-IN-WI Combined Statistical Area combines the areas of Chicago, Michigan City. This area represents the extent of the market pool for the entire region. The CSA has a population of 9,928,312, the Chicago urban agglomeration, according to the United Nations World Urbanization Prospects report, lists a population of 9,545,000. The term “urban agglomeration” refers to the contained within the contours of a contiguous territory inhabited at urban density levels. It usually incorporates the population in a city plus that in the surrounding area, Chicagoland is an informal name for the Chicago metropolitan area. The term Chicagoland has no definition, and the region is often considered to include areas beyond the corresponding MSA. Colonel Robert R. McCormick, editor and publisher of the Chicago Tribune, mcCormicks conception of Chicagoland stretched all the way to nearby parts of four states. The first usage was in the Tribunes July 27,1926 front page headline, Chicagolands Shrines, A Tour of Discoveries and he stated that Chicagoland comprised everything in a 200-mile radius in every direction and reported on many different places in the area. The Tribune was the dominant newspaper in a vast area stretching to the west of the city, today, the Chicago Tribunes usage includes the city of Chicago, the rest of Cook County, eight nearby Illinois counties, and the two Indiana counties of Lake and Porter. Illinois Department of Tourism literature uses Chicagoland for suburbs in Cook, Lake, DuPage, Kane, the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce defines it as all of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, and Will counties. For example, many residents who live in some of the more distant satellite counties nonetheless refer to themselves as being from Chicago or Chicagoans
17.
RCN Corporation
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As of 2006, RCN claimed over 424,000 domestic customers and 130 cable franchises. New York City, New York, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, RCN was originally created in 1993 by developer David McCourt and Peter Kiewit Sons Inc. Kiewit also owned MFS, a Competitive Access Provider, in a series of moves, RCN purchased C-TEC, the parent of Pennsylvanias Commonwealth Telephone, while MFS spun off its small residential telephone operations to RCN. MFS was later purchased by Worldcom, rCN/C-TEC became a competitive local exchange carrier when the Telecom Act of 1996 passed. RCN then began its growth as a cable TV overbuilder, constructing competitor cable systems in markets that already had cable service, most of its systems were partnerships with power companies, which provided rights-of-way on poles. RCN featured triple play service, though for some time its voice operations were largely resold incumbent telephone company lines. It purchased existing US East-Coast ISPs Erols Internet, UltraNet Communications, Interport, on the West Coast, it purchased existing ISPs DNAI and Brainstorm. In Chicago, it bought into the market by acquiring overbuilder 21st Century Telecom, in 2004, RCN declared Chapter 11 Bankruptcy and on December 21,2004, the court cancelled all outstanding shares of RCN stock traded under the RCNC and RCNCQ symbols. In early February 2009, RCN converted to an all-digital network, with the transition, the company was able to use the entire spectrum for digital and high-definition television broadcasting, reducing the need to compress signals. ABRY Partners, an equity firm, acquired RCN Corporation for $1.2 billion in 2010. In 1996, RCN bought much of C-TEC Corporation, on January 21,1998, RCN paid $110. 5M for UltraNet in Massachusetts and Erols in Virginia. On June 16,1998, RCN paid $11 million in stock and $871,000 in cash for Interport Communications, on July 27,1998 RCN paid $13.4 million in stock and $2.4 million in cash for Javanet, Inc. On March 20,2006, RCN bought Consolidated Edison Communications Holding Co. a subsidiary of Consolidated Edison for $32 million, on August 18,2006, RCN announced it was selling its San Francisco operations, representing 18,000 subscribers, to Astound Broadband for $45 million. On September 13,2006, Bloomberg News, citing two sources, reported that RCN hired the Blackstone Group to examine the possibility of putting the company up for sale. Official website RCN Forum at Broadband Reports Independent discussion of RCN Internet, Cable TV and Phone Services THE WALL STREET TRANSCRIPT CEO Interview, PETER AQUINO published 02/13/2006
18.
Wide Open West
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Wide Open West is the ninth largest cable TV provider in the United States. Additionally, the company offers landline telephone and broadband Internet services, wide Open West is privately owned, with Crestview Partners having a significant stake. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 gave way for competition to enter the cable TV market. Encouraged by this law a number of investors, led by local telephone companies and these entities became known in the industry as cable overbuilders, meaning they would build new cable infrastructure into areas where there were existing cable systems. WOW. was founded in November 1999 in Denver, Colorado, after building a network in April 2001, WOW. initially served about 200 people in the Denver area. This purchase opened WOW. to over 310,000 new customers in areas surrounding the cities of Chicago, Cleveland, Columbus, Detroit, Denver. WOW. no longer serves the Denver market, on January 14, WOW. completed the acquisition of Broadstripes cable systems in Michigan. In April 2012, WOW. purchased Knology, a broadband company, with the merger the combined customer total will be over 800,000. In June 2014, WOW. sold its cable, Internet, part of the multimillion-dollar deal, worth $262 million, included the markets in Iowa and Minnesota previously served by Knology and PrairieWave Communications. In March 2015 these markets would become known as Vast Broadband. In September 2016, WOW. purchased NuLink, a company serving Newnan. In October 2016, WOW. came to an agreement with Midco to sell its systems in Lawrence and these systems currently pass approximately 67,000 homes and businesses in the area
19.
IPTV
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Unlike downloaded media, IPTV offers the ability to stream the source media continuously. As a result, a client media player can begin playing the data almost immediately and this is known as streaming media. Although IPTV uses the Internet protocol it is not limited to television media streamed from the Internet, IPTV in the telecommunications arena is notable for its ongoing standardisation process. Historically, many different definitions of IPTV have appeared, including elementary streams over IP networks, transport streams over IP networks and these services may include, for example, Live TV, Video On Demand and Interactive TV. These services are delivered across an access agnostic, packet switched network that employs the IP protocol to transport the audio, video, the term IPTV first appeared in 1995 with the founding of Precept Software by Judith Estrin and Bill Carrico. Precept developed an Internet video product named IP/TV, the software was written primarily by Steve Casner, Karl Auerbach, and Cha Chee Kuan. Precept was acquired by Cisco Systems in 1998, Internet radio company AudioNet started the first continuous live webcasts with content from WFAA-TV in January 1998 and KCTU-LP on January 10,1998. The operator added additional VoD service in October 2001 with Yes TV, kingston was one of the first companies in the world to introduce IPTV and IP VoD over ADSL as a commercial service. The service became the reference for various changes to UK Government regulations, in 2006, the KIT service was discontinued, subscribers having declined from a peak of 10,000 to 4,000. In 1999, NBTel was the first to commercially deploy Internet protocol television over DSL in Canada using the Alcatel 7350 DSLAM, the service was marketed under the brand VibeVision in New Brunswick, and later expanded into Nova Scotia in early 2000 after the formation of Aliant. IMagic TV was later sold to Alcatel, in 2002, Sasktel was the second in Canada to commercially deploy Internet Protocol video over DSL, using the Lucent Stinger DSL platform. In 2005, SureWest Communications was the first North American company to offer high-definition television channels over an IPTV service, in 2005, Bredbandsbolaget launched its IPTV service as the first service provider in Sweden. As of January 2009, they are not the biggest supplier any longer, TeliaSonera, in 2007, TPG became the first internet service provider in Australia to launch IPTV. Complementary to its ADSL2+ package this was, and still is, free of charge to customers on eligible plans and now offers over 45 local free to air channels, by 2010, iiNet and Telstra launched IPTV services in conjunction to internet plans but with extra fees. In 2008, PTCL launched IPTV under the name of PTCL Smart TV in Pakistan. S. Markets with an IPTV service called Prism and this was after successful test marketing in Florida. During the 2014 Winter Olympics Shortest path bridging was used to deliver 36 IPTV HD Olympic channels, in 2016, KCTV introduced the Set-top box called Manbang, claiming to provide video-on-demand services in North Korea via quasi-internet protocol television. According to KCTV, viewers can use the service not only in Pyongyang, stating that the demands for the equipment are particularly high in Sinuiju, with several hundred users in the region
20.
AT&T U-verse
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AT&T U-verse, commonly called U-verse, is an AT&T brand of triple-play telecommunications services, although the brand is now only used in reference to the television portion of the services. Launched on June 26,2006, using the FTTP, VDSL, and ADSL communication protocols, U-verse included broadband Internet, IP telephone, and IPTV services in 21 states. On March 27,2017, it was revealed that AT&T is seriously considering closing down the TV service website Uverse. com on May 30,2017. SBC announced its plans for a network and Internet Protocol television deployment in 2004. Beta testing began in San Antonio in 2005 and AT&T U-verse was commercially launched June 26,2006, a few months later on November 30,2006, the service was launched in Houston. In December 2006, the product launched in Chicago, San Francisco, Oakland, Hartford, Indianapolis, in February 2007, U-verse was launched in Milwaukee. One month later service was initiated in Dallas and Kansas City, in May 2007, U-verse launched in Detroit, Los Angeles, and surrounding areas. Launch continued in Cleveland, Akron, and San Diego in June 2007, the Oklahoma City and Sacramento launches occurred in August 2007. In November 2007, service was started in Austin, in December 2007, U-verse was launched in Orlando and St. Louis. A controlled launch was initiated in Atlanta that month marking the first launch in the Southeastern United States. On December 22,2008, the product debuted in Birmingham, on January 25,2010, AT&T announced that U-verse was available to over 2.8 million households. AT&T Phone was added on January 22,2008, and was first available in Detroit, in 2008, U-verse availability approached 8 million households and over 225,000 customers had been enrolled, with new installations reaching 12,000 per week. By 2009,1 million Phone customers and 2.1 million U-verse TV customers had been enrolled, at the end of 2011, U-verse was available to more than 30 million living units in 22 states and U-verse TV had 3.8 million customers. By mid-2012, AT&T had 4.1 million U-Verse TV subscribers,2.6 million Phone subscribers, by the third quarter of 2012, AT&T had 4.3 million TV subscribers,2.7 million Phone subscribers and 7.1 million Internet. This represents 7% growth quarter on quarter, the actual number of customers is lower, as most customers subscribe to a bundle and so are counted in both categories. On March 29,2016, AT&T announced that it will increase data caps on its Internet service on May 23,2016, the integration of AT&T and DirecTV is set to begin by the fourth quarter of 2016. On May 16,2016, AT&T announced that it will acquire Quickplay Media, on September 19,2016, AT&T announced that the U-verse brand would no longer apply to its broadband and phone services, renaming them AT&T Internet and AT&T Phone, respectively. AT&T delivers most U-verse service over a fiber-to-the-node or fiber-to-the-premises communications network, in the more common FTTN deployment, fiber-optic connections carry all data between the service provider and a distribution node
21.
NBC Sports
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Other programming from outside producers – such as coverage of the Ironman Triathlon – is also presented on the network through NBC Sports. With Comcasts acquisition of NBCUniversal, its own sports networks were aligned with NBC Sports into a part of the division known as the NBC Sports Group. In 2000, NBC declined to renew its broadcast agreement with Major League Baseball, in 2002, it was additionally outbid by ESPN and ABC for the NBAs new broadcast contract, ending the leagues twelve-year run on NBC. During this era, NBC experimented with broadcasting emerging sports, in 2003, NBC obtained the broadcast rights and a minority interest in the Arena Football League. The network televised weekly games on a basis, as well as the entire playoffs. The deal lasted four years, after which the league and NBC parted ways, beginning with the 1999 Pennzoil 400, NBC began its foray into NASCAR. NBC, along with Fox, FX and TNT, obtained the broadcast rights of the top two series – the Winston Cup and Busch Series – in a deal, beginning in 2001. NBC televised the second half of the season and alternated coverage of the Daytona 500 with Fox, in December 2005, NBC announced that it would not renew its agreement with NASCAR. In 2001, NBC obtained the broadcast rights to horse racings Triple Crown in a five-year deal, in 2004, NBC reached a broadcast agreement with the National Hockey League. The revenue-sharing deal called for the two sides to split advertising revenue after the network recouped the expenses. NBC televised regular season games at first on Saturday afternoons before moving the telecast to Sundays, Saturday and Sunday afternoon playoff games, and up to five games of the Stanley Cup Final. Additionally in 2008, NBC broadcast the first Winter Classic, an outdoor NHL game played on New Years Day at Ralph Wilson Stadium, the following years Winter Classic would become the most-watched regular season game in 34 years. In addition to regular season success, Game 7 of the 2009 Stanley Cup Final was watched by an average of 8 million viewers. In January 2011, Comcast finalized its acquisition of a majority share in NBC Universal, as a result of the merger, the operations of Comcasts existing sports networks, such as Golf Channel and Versus, were merged into an entity known as the NBC Sports Group. NBC Sports senior vice president Mike McCarley additionally became Golf Channels new head, on July 3,2011, ESPN obtained the exclusive broadcast rights to Wimbledon in a 12-year deal, ending NBCs television relationship with The Championships after 42 years. On August 10,2011, NBC Sports also announced a new three-year broadcasting contract with Major League Soccer to produce games for the 2012 season on NBC and the NBC Sports Network. S. On October 15,2012, NBC Sports announced that it had acquired broadcast rights to the Formula One World Championship in a deal with the series. The majority of its coverage would air on NBCSN, while NBC would air the Monaco Grand Prix, Canadian Grand Prix, all races will also be streamed online and through the NBC Sports Live Extra mobile app
22.
NBCUniversal
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NBCUniversal is an American multinational media conglomerate. It has a significant presence in broadcasting through a portfolio of domestic and international properties, including terrestrial, via the Universal Parks & Resorts division, the company is also the third-largest operator of amusement parks in the world. NBC Universal was formed on May 12,2004 by the merger of General Electrics National Broadcasting Company with Vivendis Vivendi Universal Entertainment, as of March 19,2013, it is wholly owned by Comcast who bought GEs ownership stake. NBC and Universal Television had a long-standing partnership dating back to 1950 and this partnership continued throughout a number of name changes and changes of ownership. NBC Universal Television has its roots in a series of expansions undertaken by NBC. In the late 1980s, NBC began pursuing a strategy of diversification, NBC also had partial ownership of several regional sports channels and other cable channels such as American Movie Classics and Court TV. In 1995, NBC began operating NBC Desktop Video, a news service that delivered live video to personal computers. The following year, NBC announced an agreement with Microsoft to create an all-news cable television channel, a separate joint venture with Microsoft included establishing a news website, MSNBC. com. In 1998, NBC partnered with Dow Jones & Co, the two companies combined their financial news channels outside the US. The new networks included NBC Europe, CNBC Europe, NBC Asia, CNBC Asia, NBC Africa, in 1999, NBC took a 32% stake in the Paxson group, operator of PAX TV. Five years later, NBC decided to sell its interest in PAX TV and end its relationship with PAX owner, in 2001, NBC acquired the US Spanish-language broadcaster Telemundo, which included the bilingual Mun2 Television. That same year NBC acquired the cable channel Bravo, the sale and resulting merger formed NBC Universal. The new company was 80% owned by GE, and 20% owned by Vivendi, Universal Music Group was not included in the deal and is not part of NBC Universal. On August 2,2004, the divisions of NBC. NBC Studios series bought into the company include the NBC dramas Las Vegas, Crossing Jordan, Universal Network Television bought the Law & Order franchise and The District—in fact, Universal Network Television had co-produced American Dreams with NBC before the merger. Entertainment shows produced by the new group include The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Last Call with Carson Daly, and Saturday Night Live. The formation of NBC Universal saw the establishment of NBC Universal Cable, which oversees the distribution, marketing, NBC Universal Cable also manages the companys investments in The Weather Channel and TiVo. The cable division also used to operate NBC Weather Plus until 2008 and it also owned a 50% stake in Canal+ and also owned a 15% stake in A+E Networks until 2012
23.
Comcast
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Comcast Corporation is an American global telecommunications conglomerate that is the largest broadcasting and cable television company in the world by revenue. Comcast services U. S. residential and commercial customers in 40 states, the companys headquarters are located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The first Universal theme park outside of the U. S, Universal Studios Japan, opened in 2001, followed by Universal Studios Singapore in 2011. Few new locations are being planned or developed for future operation, Comcast also has significant holdings in digital distribution. In February 2014 the company agreed to merge with Time Warner Cable in an equity swap deal worth $45.2 billion, under the terms of the agreement Comcast was to acquire 100% of Time Warner Cable. However, on April 24,2015, Comcast terminated the agreement, Comcast has been criticized for multiple reasons, the companys customer satisfaction often ranks among the lowest in the cable industry. Critics also point out a lack of competition in the vast majority of Comcasts service area, furthermore, given Comcasts negotiating power as a large ISP, some suspect that Comcast could leverage paid peering agreements to unfairly influence end-user connection speeds. And its ownership of content production and content distribution has raised antitrust concerns. These issues, in addition to others, led to Comcast being dubbed The Worst Company in America by The Consumerist in 2010 and 2014. Despite being publicly-traded, Comcast is a business, with the Ralph J Roberts family owning 33% controlling stake. Comcast is sometimes described as a family business, Brian L. Roberts, Chairman, President, and CEO of Comcast, is the son of co-founder Ralph Roberts. Roberts owns or controls just over 1% of all Comcast shares but all of the Class B supervoting shares, legal expert Susan P. Crawford has said this gives him effective control over every step. In 2010, he was one of the highest paid executives in the United States, Comcast is headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and also has corporate offices in Atlanta, Detroit, Denver, and Manchester, New Hampshire. On January 3,2005, Comcast announced that it would become the tenant in the new Comcast Center in downtown Philadelphia. The 975 ft skyscraper is the tallest building in Pennsylvania, Comcast has begun construction on a second 1,121 ft skyscraper directly adjacent to the original Comcast headquarters in the summer of 2014. The company is criticized by both the media and its own staff for its less upstanding policies regarding employee relations. A2012 Reddit post written by an anonymous Comcast call center employee eager to share their experiences with the public received attention from publications including The Huffington Post. A2014 investigative series published by The Verge involved interviews with 150 of Comcasts employees and it sought to examine why the company has become so widely criticized by its customers, the media and even members of its own staff
24.
Chicago Cubs
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The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago, Illinois. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball as a club of the National League Central division. The team plays its games at Wrigley Field, located on the citys North Side. The Cubs are one of two league teams in Chicago, the other, the Chicago White Sox, is a member of the American League Central division. The Cubs, first known as the White Stockings, was a member of the NL in 1876. The Cubs have appeared in a total of eleven World Series, the 1906 Cubs won 116 games, finishing 116–36 and posting a modern-era record winning percentage of.763, before losing the World Series to the Chicago White Sox by four games to two. The Cubs won back-to-back World Series championships in 1907 and 1908, the 108-year drought was also the longest such occurrence in all major North American sports. Since the start of play in 1969, the Cubs have appeared in the postseason eight times through the 2016 season. The Cubs are known as the North Siders, a reference to the location of Wrigley Field within the city of Chicago, there is a divisional rivalry with the St. Louis Cardinals and also a newer rivalry with the Milwaukee Brewers. There is also a rivalry with the White Sox. The Cubs began play in 1876 as the Chicago White Stockings, joining the National League as a charter member. Owner William Hulbert signed multiple star players, such as pitcher Albert Spalding and infielders Ross Barnes, Deacon White, the White Stockings played their home games at West Side Grounds and quickly established themselves as one of the new leagues top teams. Spalding won forty-seven games and Barnes led the league in hitting at.429 as Chicago won the first ever National League pennant, which at the time was the games top prize. After back-to-back pennants in 1880 and 1881, Hulbert died, and Spalding, the White Stockings, with Anson acting as player-manager, captured their third consecutive pennant in 1882, and Anson established himself as the games first true superstar. In 1885 and 86, after winning N. L. pennants, both seasons resulted in match ups with the St. Louis Brown Stockings, with the clubs tying in 1885 and with St. Louis winning in 1886. This was the genesis of what would become one of the greatest rivalries in sports. In all, the Anson-led Chicago Base Ball Club won six National League pennants between 1876 and 1886. As a result, Chicagos club nickname transitioned, and by 1890 they had known as the Chicago Colts, or sometimes Ansons Colts
25.
Chicago Bulls
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The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago. The Bulls compete in the National Basketball Association as a club of the leagues Eastern Conference Central Division. The team was founded on January 16,1966, the team plays its home games at the United Center, an arena shared with the Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League. The Bulls saw their greatest success during the 1990s and they are known for having one of the NBAs greatest dynasties, winning six NBA championships between 1991 and 1998 with two three-peats. All six championship teams were led by Hall of Famers Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, the Bulls are the only NBA franchise to win multiple championships and never lose an NBA Finals series in their history. The Bulls won 72 games during the 1995–96 NBA season, setting an NBA record that stood until the Golden State Warriors won 73 games during the 2015–16 NBA season. The Bulls were the first team in NBA history to win 70 games or more in a season. Many experts and analysts consider the 1996 Bulls to be one of the greatest teams in NBA history, Michael Jordan and Derrick Rose have both won the NBA Most Valuable Player Award while playing for the Bulls, for a total of six MVP awards. The Bulls share rivalries with the Detroit Pistons, New York Knicks, Miami Heat, the Bulls rivalry with the Pistons was highlighted heavily during the late 1980s and early 1990s. On January 16,1966 Chicago was granted an NBA franchise to be called the Bulls, the Chicago Bulls became the third NBA franchise in the city, after the Chicago Stags and the Chicago Packers/Zephyrs. The Bulls founder, Dick Klein, was the Bulls only owner to play professional basketball. He served as the Bulls president and general manager in their initial years, after the 1966 NBA Expansion Draft, the newly founded Chicago Bulls were allowed to acquire players from the previously established teams in the league for the upcoming 1966–67 season. The team started in the 1966–67 NBA season, and posted the best record by a team in NBA history. In their first two seasons, the Bulls played most of their games at the International Amphitheatre, before moving to Chicago Stadium. Fan interest was diminishing after four seasons, with one game in the 1967–68 NBA season having an attendance of 891. The Bulls under Williams and head coach Dick Motta qualified for four straight playoffs and had attendances grow to over 10,000, in 1972, the Bulls set a franchise win-loss record at 57 wins and 25 losses. During the 1970s, the Bulls relied on Jerry Sloan, forwards Bob Love and Chet Walker, point guard Norm Van Lier, the team made the conference finals in 1975 but lost to the Golden State Warriors,4 games to 3. After four 50-win seasons, Williams returned to Philadelphia, and Motta decided to become GM as well, the Bulls ended up declining, winning only 24 games in the 1975–1976 season
26.
Chicago White Sox
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The Chicago White Sox is an American professional baseball team based in Chicago, Illinois. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball as a club of the American League Central division. The White Sox play their games at Guaranteed Rate Field. They are one of two league clubs in Chicago, the other is the Chicago Cubs, who are a member of the National League Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf. One of the American Leagues eight charter franchises, the Chicago team was established as a major baseball club in 1900. The club was called the Chicago White Stockings, but this was soon shortened to Chicago White Sox. The team played games at South Side Park before, in 1910. The White Sox won the 1906 World Series with a team dubbed the Hitless Wonders, and the 1917 World Series led by Eddie Cicotte, Eddie Collins. The 1919 World Series was marred by the Black Sox Scandal, in response, Major League Baseballs new Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis banned the players from Major League Baseball for life. In 1959, led by Early Wynn, Nellie Fox, Luis Aparicio and manager Al Lopez and they won the AL pennant in 2005, and went on to win the World Series. The White Sox originated as the Sioux City Cornhuskers of the Western League, in 1894, Charles Comiskey bought the Cornhuskers and moved them to St. Paul, Minnesota, where they became the St. Paul Saints. In 1901, the Western League broke the National Agreement and became the new major league American League, the very first season in the American League ended with a White Stockings championship. However, that would be the end of the season as the World Series did not begin until 1903, the franchise, now known as the Chicago White Sox, made its first World Series appearance in 1906, beating the crosstown Cubs in six games. The White Sox would win a pennant and second World Series in 1917, beating the New York Giants in six games with help from stars Eddie Cicotte. The Sox were heavily favored in the 1919 World Series, huge bets on the Reds fueled speculation that the series had been fixed. This set the franchise back, as they did not win another pennant for 40 years. The White Sox did not finish in the half of the American League again until after club founder Charles Comiskey died and passed ownership of the club to his son
27.
Chicago Blackhawks
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The Chicago Blackhawks are a professional ice hockey team based in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League and they have won six Stanley Cup championships since their founding in 1926. The Blackhawks are one of the Original Six NHL teams along with the Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs, Boston Bruins, since 1994, the clubs home rink is the United Center. The club had played for 65 years at Chicago Stadium. The clubs original owner was Frederic McLaughlin, who owned the club until his death in 1944, under McLaughlin, a hands-on owner who fired many coaches during his ownership, the club won two Stanley Cup titles. The club was owned by the Norris family, who as owners of the Chicago Stadium were the clubs landlord. At first, the Norris ownership was as part of a syndicate fronted by long-time executive Bill Tobin, after the senior James E. Norris died in 1952, the Norris assets were spread among family members and James D. Norris became owner. Norris Jr. took an active interest in the team and under his ownership, after James D. Norris died in 1966, the Wirtz family became owners of the franchise. In 2007, the club came under the control of Rocky Wirtz, who is credited with turning around the organization, under Rocky Wirtz, the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup three times within six seasons. On May 1,1926, the NHL awarded a franchise for Chicago to a syndicate headed by former football star Huntington Hardwick of Boston. However, only one later, Hardwicks group sold out to Chicago coffee tycoon Frederic McLaughlin. McLaughlin had been a commander with the 333rd Machine Gun Battalion of the 86th Infantry Division during World War I and this Division was nicknamed the Blackhawk Division after a Native American of the Sauk nation, Black Hawk, who was a prominent figure in the history of Illinois. McLaughlin named the new team in honor of the military unit. The Black Hawks began play in the 1926–27 season, along with new expansion franchises Detroit Cougars, McLaughlin took a very active role in running the team despite having no background in the sport. McLaughlin hired Bill Tobin, a goaltender who had played in the Western league, as his assistant. He was also interested in promoting American hockey players, then very rare in professional hockey. The Hawks first season was a moderate success and they played their first game on November 17 when they played the Toronto St. Patricks in the Chicago Coliseum. The Black Hawks won their first game 4–1, in front of a crowd of over 7,000 and they ended up finishing the season in third place with a record of 19–22–3
28.
Optical fiber
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An optical fiber or optical fibre is a flexible, transparent fiber made by drawing glass or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a human hair. Fibers are also used for illumination, and are wrapped in bundles so that they may be used to carry images, thus allowing viewing in confined spaces, as in the case of a fiberscope. Specially designed fibers are used for a variety of other applications, some of them being fiber optic sensors. Optical fibers typically include a transparent core surrounded by a transparent cladding material with an index of refraction. Light is kept in the core by the phenomenon of internal reflection which causes the fiber to act as a waveguide. Fibers that support many propagation paths or transverse modes are called multi-mode fibers, multi-mode fibers generally have a wider core diameter and are used for short-distance communication links and for applications where high power must be transmitted. Single-mode fibers are used for most communication links longer than 1,000 meters, being able to join optical fibers with low loss is important in fiber optic communication. This is more complex than joining electrical wire or cable and involves careful cleaving of the fibers, precise alignment of the cores. For applications that demand a permanent connection a fusion splice is common, in this technique, an electric arc is used to melt the ends of the fibers together. Another common technique is a splice, where the ends of the fibers are held in contact by mechanical force. Temporary or semi-permanent connections are made by means of specialized optical fiber connectors, the field of applied science and engineering concerned with the design and application of optical fibers is known as fiber optics. The term was coined by Indian physicist Narinder Singh Kapany who is acknowledged as the father of fiber optics. Guiding of light by refraction, the principle that makes fiber optics possible, was first demonstrated by Daniel Colladon, John Tyndall included a demonstration of it in his public lectures in London,12 years later. When the ray passes from water to air it is bent from the perpendicular. If the angle which the ray in water encloses with the perpendicular to the surface be greater than 48 degrees, the angle which marks the limit where total reflection begins is called the limiting angle of the medium. For water this angle is 48°27′, for flint glass it is 38°41′, unpigmented human hairs have also been shown to act as an optical fiber. Practical applications, such as close internal illumination during dentistry, appeared early in the twentieth century, image transmission through tubes was demonstrated independently by the radio experimenter Clarence Hansell and the television pioneer John Logie Baird in the 1920s. The principle was first used for medical examinations by Heinrich Lamm in the following decade
29.
Satellite television
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A direct-broadcast satellite is a type of artificial satellite which usually broadcasts satellite television signals for home reception. The type of satellite television which uses direct-broadcast satellites is known as direct-broadcast satellite television or direct-to-home television and these services were to use the D-Mac and D2-Mac format and BSS frequencies with circular polarization from orbital positions allocated to each country. Before these DBS satellites, home satellite television in Europe was limited to a few channels, really intended for cable distribution, in 1977, the ITU adopted an international BSS Plan under which each country was allocated specific frequencies at specific orbital locations for domestic service. Over the years, this plan has been modified to, for example, accommodate new countries, increase coverage areas, at present, numerous countries have brought into use their BSS Plan allocations. By contrast, the term DTH can apply to similar services transmitted over a range of frequencies transmitted from satellites that are not part of any internationally planned band. The term DBS is often used interchangeably with DTH to cover both analog and digital video and audio services received by relatively small dishes, a DBS service usually refers to either a commercial service, or a group of free channels available from one orbital position targeting one country. In certain regions of the world, especially in North America, DBS is used to refer to providers of subscription satellite packages, the second commercial DBS service, Sky Television plc, was launched in 1989. Sky TV started as a four-channel free-to-air analogue service on the Astra 1A satellite, by 1991, Sky had changed to a conditional access pay model, and it launched a digital service, Sky Digital, in 1998, with analogue transmission ceasing in 2001. Since the DBS nomenclature is used in the UK or Ireland. News Corporation has a 32% stake in BSkyB, PrimeStar began transmitting an analog service to North America in 1991, and was joined by DirecTV, in 1994. At the time, DirecTVs introduction was the most successful consumer electronics debut in American history, although PrimeStar transitioned to a digital system in 1994, it was ultimately unable to compete with DirecTV, which required a smaller satellite dish and could deliver more programming. DirecTV purchased PrimeStar in 1999 and moved all of that subscribers to DirecTV equipment. In 2008, Liberty Media Corporation purchased News Corporations controlling interest in DirecTV, in 1996, EchoStars Dish Network went online in the United States and, as DirecTVs primary competitor, achieved similar success. AlphaStar also started but soon went under, astro was also started, using a direct broadcast satellite system. Dominion Video Satellite Inc. s Sky Angel launched on a platform in the United States in 1996, with its DBS service geared toward the faith. It grew from six to 36 television and radio channels of entertainment, Christian-inspirational programming. Dominion, under its corporate name Video Satellite Systems Inc. Sky Angel, although a separate and independent DBS service, used the satellites, transmission facilities
30.
River North Point
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Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in 1977, the building is located in the River North district north of the Main Branch and east of the North Branch. In 1988, Helmut Jahn designed a pedestrian walking bridge over Orleans Street connecting the building to Merchandise Mart. The building opened on November 6,1976, the property was formerly owned by Marshall Field who sold it to Joseph P. Kennedy and the buildings grand opening was attended by the entire Kennedy family. The family owned the land upon which the building was constructed for over 50 years, however, the family has retained its ownership interest in adjacent properties and continues to manage the Marchandise Mart business. Chicago Tribune architecture critic Blair Kamin called the building a concrete hulk that mars the downtown bend of the Chicago River, when the building was constructed, it was the worlds largest wholesale buying center, featuring over 1000 display showrooms and representing over 3000 clothing lines. It was Chicagos attempt to replace New York City, where businessmen have to travel to 20 different buildings to see a variety of clothing as the worlds fashion center. Its completion bolstered the Merchandise Marts claim of being the Worlds Largest Wholesale Buying Center, the building was completed just as the downtown office space market recovered from the 1973–75 recession and was part of a boom of Near North Side hotel constructions. The adjacent parking lot has over 2000 parking spaces, the grand opening ceremony on January 22,1977 was attended by the Kennedy family, as well as Chicago Mayor Michael Bilandic. The grand opening included a fashion show attended by 1200 people. In the late 1990s, many concrete walls were replaced by windows, the building includes a 7-story light court over a swimming pool to the west. Although the Chicago building code only requires kilos per square foot of bearing pressure for the caissons, the Kennedy-Vornado transaction occurred during an urban commercial real estate recovery that also saw the Sears Tower change hands at approximately the same time. Kennedy had purchased the property in 1945 or 1946 from the Marshall Field family, john F. Kennedy, Jr. told a joke about Chicago that included the Merchandise Mart and Apparel Center, In the 40s, my grandfather bought the Merchandise Mart. In the 70s, there was the Apparel Center, and in the 60s election, my family bought 20,000 votes. Christopher G. Kennedy met his wife who is from Winnetka, Illinois and became involved in the Merchandise Mart Properties business, that he now presides over. The Kennedys retained their interest in Wolf Point, the 4 acres of land between Apparel Center and the Chicago River to the south of the building with an address of 340 North Orleans, there have been numerous plans to develop the property dating back to the late 1980s. In 2007, the Kennedys planned to develop the property with three high-rises and skyscrapers according to Cesar Pelli designs and these redevelopment plans would obstruct the view of the Apparel Center. The Wolf Point land is considered to have been the point of the earliest settlements in Chicago at the beginning of the 19th century. In May 2015 The Blackstone Group purchased River Point North for $390 million from San Francisco-based owner Shorenstein Properties, Shorenstein had purchased the property in January 2012 for $228 million and invested an estimated $70 million in it
31.
Near North Side, Chicago
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The Near North Side is one of 77 defined community areas of Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is the northernmost of the four areas that constitute Downtown Chicago, the others being the Near West Side, Near South Side, the community area is located north and east of the Chicago River. To its east is Lake Michigan, and its boundary is the 19th-century city limit of Chicago. Of the downtown community areas, the Near North Side has the second largest total area, after the Near West Side, the highest number of skyscrapers, the Near North Side is the oldest part of Chicago. Today this is marked by Pioneer Court, the Gold Coast consists mostly of high-rise apartment buildings and stone mansions throughout. As with many neighborhoods, its borders are subject to dispute, but, generally, they are North Avenue, to the north, Chicago Avenue, to the south. The Gold Coast became the home of the super-rich in 1885, over the next few decades, Chicagos elite gradually migrated from Prairie Avenue to their new homes north of the Loop. Along almost every boulevard of the Gold Coast, upscale boutiques, also, Aston Martin, BMW, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Maserati, Rolls-Royce, and Tesla all have dealerships in the Gold Coast. Many of Chicagos best known restaurants are located here as well, carmines, Gibsons, Hugos Frog Bar, Lou Malnatis Pizzeria, Maple & Ash, the original Mortons, Nico Osteria, the Pump Room, Spiaggia, and Table Fifty-Two are in the area. The Gold Coast Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 30,1978, the Gold Coast is zoned to the following Chicago Public Schools schools, Ogden School, and Lincoln Park High School. The prestigious Latin School, is located in the neighborhood as well and it crosses portions of the community areas of southern Lincoln Park, as well as the northern Near North Side, and is part of Chicagos 43rd ward. This historic district sits within the Old Town Triangle Association, a Lincoln Park neighborhood bounded by the former Ogden Avenue right-of-way, Clark Street and it sits inside the community area of Lincoln Park and is part of Chicagos 43rd ward. Old Town north of North Avenue is in Lincoln Park, and it is now an affluent gentrified neighborhood. Old Town is now considered an affluent and historic neighborhood, home to many of Chicagos older Victorian-era buildings, the neighborhood is home to St. Michaels Church, originally built to serve German immigrants, and one of only 7 to survive the great Chicago fire. St. Michaels, Holy Name Cathedral, Immaculate Conception, many of the streets and alleys, particularly in the Old Town Triangle section, predate the Great Chicago Fire and do not all adhere to the typical Chicago grid pattern. In 1927, sculptors Sol Kogen and Edgar Miller purchased and subsequently rehabilitated a house on Burton Place, near Wells Street, through the 1930s, an art colony emerged in the neighborhood as artists moved from the Towertown neighborhood near Washington Square Park. Old Town was home to many gays and lesbians from the 1950s through the 1980s and this was the first gay ghetto in Chicago, predating the current Lake View neighborhood. There were numerous gay bars, now closed, along Wells Street
32.
Tribune Media
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The Tribune Media Company, also known as Tribune Media and formerly known as the Tribune Company, is an American conglomerate that is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, United States. A significant amount of the stock of publicly traded Tribune is held by three firms that were the senior debt holders, Oaktree Capital Management, Angelo, Gordon & Co. Investment interests include the Food Network, the Tribune Company was founded on June 10,1847, the Chicago Daily Tribune published its first edition in a one-room plant located at LaSalle and Lake Streets in downtown Chicago. The original press run consisted of 400 copies printed on a hand press, the Tribune constructed its first building, a four-story structure at Dearborn and Madison Streets, in 1869. The building was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire of October 1871, the Tribune resumed printing two days later with an editorial declaring Chicago Shall Rise Again. Joseph Medill, a native Ohioan who first acquired an interest in the Tribune in 1855, gained control of the newspaper in 1874. Medills two grandsons, cousins Robert R. McCormick and Joseph Medill Patterson, assumed leadership of the company in 1911 and that same year, the Chicago Tribunes first newsprint mill opened in Thorold, Ontario, Canada. The mill marked the beginnings of the Canadian newsprint producer later known as QUNO, Patterson established the companys second newspaper, the New York News in 1919. Tribunes ownership of the New York City tabloid was considered interlocking due to an agreement between McCormick and Patterson, the paper launched a European edition during World War I. To compete with the Saturday Evening Post and Colliers in 1924, the company entered broadcasting in 1924 by leasing WDAP, one of Chicagos first radio stations. Tribune later changed the call letters to WGN, reflecting the Tribunes nickname. WGN was purchased by the company in 1926 and went on to be first in the radio industry, in 1925, the company completed its new headquarters and one of Chicagos first skyscrapers, the Tribune Tower. That same year, the decided to fund the future Joseph Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Liberty magazine eventually exceeded Colliers circulation, but lacked enough advertising and was sold in 1931, the Tribunes European edition was also cut. However, Tribune launched the Chicago Tribune-New York News Syndicate content syndication service in 1933, expecting a printers strike in November 1948, the Tribune printed their paper early, incorrectly proclaiming Dewey Defeats Truman in the 1948 presidential election. Tribune entered into the industry, then in its infancy, in 1948, with the establishments of WGN-TV in Chicago in April. In 1956, the Tribune Company purchased the Chicago American from William Randolph Hearst, also in 1963, the company purchased some part of the folded New York Mirror. The company increased its broadcast station holdings with the acquisition of radio station WQCD-FM in New York City in 1964, in 1967, the company began printing a tabloid serving suburban areas of Chicago, The Suburban Trib
33.
FSN Chicago
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Based in Chicago, the network was affiliated with SportsChannel from 1987 to 1997, when it became an affiliate of Fox Sports Net. It also aired local and national sports, including those sourced from sister network Fox Sports Detroit. FSN Chicago launched in April 1982 as Sportsvision, a joint venture between Jerry Reinsdorf, Eddie Einhorn and Fred Eychaner, some sports telecasts were also simulcast on ONTV, a co-owned subscription service that broadcast part-time over WSNS. Because of this, some set-top converters sold as part of ONTV, by 1984, White Sox games had begun airing on ONTV as well. Chicago was one of the few television markets in the United States whose baseball teams made a substantial percentage of their games available over-the-air. In 1989, the became an affiliate of the SportsChannel America group of regional sports networks. Following the purchase, SportsChannel Chicago abruptly cancelled its daily news program The SportsChannel Report on August 10. That October, the channel launched Fox Sports Tonight, a similarly formatted sports news program focusing on local sports, intended to complement Fox Sports Nets national program Fox Sports News. At that time, the channel relocated its production and office facilities to a new facility in the Apparel Center, 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. In 2004, the channel shortened its name to FSN Chicago, all three decided to enter into a partnership with Comcast to form a new regional sports network, Comcast SportsNet Chicago, which launched on October 1,2004. The move led many cable and satellite providers in northeastern Illinois, the set formerly used by the Chicago Sports Report was purchased by NBC affiliate WREX-TV in Rockford for use as the stations main news set. The Orleans Street facility has also become the homebase of the Chicago Sun-Times. White Sox Interactive, SportsVision -- The Legacy
34.
WGN-TV
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WGN-TV, virtual channel 9, is an independent television station located in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is the television property of the Tribune Broadcasting subsidiary of Tribune Media. WGN-TV is also a pioneering superstation, and formerly programmed an alternate feed for cable and satellite throughout the United States. However, WGN-TV regained national availability as the Chicago area feed was included as part of the offerings of Channel Masters LinearTV service. WGNs longtime slogan, Chicagos Very Own, was the basis for an image campaign of the 1980s and 1990s. WGN Television began test broadcasts in February 1948 and began programming on April 5 with a two-hour special, WGN-TV Salute to Chicago. It was founded by the Chicago Tribune – whose slogan Worlds Greatest Newspaper was the basis for the letters used by the television station. WGN-TV originally held dual primary affiliations with CBS and the DuMont Television Network, for its first 13 years on the air, WGN-TV had operated from the Tribune Tower at 435 North Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago. S. Supreme Court order forced Paramount Pictures to divest its chain of movie theaters – for $6, following a two-month cancellation clause, all of the CBS programs that WGN-TV had been airing were moved to the rechristened WBBM-TV, leaving channel 9 exclusively with DuMont. WGN-TV soon became one of DuMonts strongest affiliates, as well as a production center for that network. WGN-TV had also telecast performances of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, beginning in 1953, the station lost the DuMont affiliation when the network ceased operations on August 6,1956, at that point, WGN-TV became an independent station. For much of its existence, WGN-TV produced a number of its own programs at its studios. During the late 1950s, the station was affiliated with the NTA Film Network. In 1957, WGN-TV became one of the first television stations in the Chicago market to broadcast live programming in color, WGN-TV served as the Chicago affiliate of the United Network for its one month of existence in 1967, airing The Las Vegas Show. From 1974 to 1982, Phil Donahues syndicated daytime talk show Donahue originated from the WGN-TV studios, in 1975, the agriculture program U. S. Farm Report debuted in syndication, also originating from WGN-TVs studios.7 FM. WGN-TV began to be distributed across the United States through cable television in October 1978, after Tulsa, as WGN-TV gained national exposure, the station became vulnerable in the Chicago area and underestimated the ability of UHF competitor WFLD to acquire top-rated syndicated programs. As a result, WFLD edged ahead of WGN-TV in the ratings by the end of 1979, WGN-TV continued with its programming format, competing with WFLD and another UHF independent station, WSNS-TV
35.
WCIU-TV
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WCIU-TV, virtual channel 26, is an independent television station located in Chicago, Illinois, United States. All three stations share studio facilities located on Halsted Street in the Greektown neighborhood, WCIUs transmitter is located atop the Willis Tower on South Wacker Drive in the Chicago Loop. Founded by John J. Weigel, the station first signed on the air on February 6,1964, WCIU has spent much of its history carrying multi-ethnic entertainment programming. At its sign-on, channel 26 operated as an independent station, local businessman Howard Shapiro, who founded appliance store chain C. E. T. and held a minority interest in the station, took over Weigel Broadcasting and WCIU in 1966. From the late 1960s until 1985, WCIU carried religious programs during the morning hours. The station ran The Stock Market Observer – a business news block similar in format to the cable channel CNBC – from about 8,00 a. m. to 3,30 p. m. After 5,00 p. m. each weekday, the station ran Spanish language entertainment programming – including controversial bullfighting matches – from the Spanish International Network. During the weekend, WCIU ran a blend of programs, Spanish language programs, paid programming. From 1966 to 1970, the station aired Kiddie A-Go-Go, a childrens puppet, several popular musical groups performed on the show, including The Four Seasons and New Colony Six. In 1970, channel 26 became the birthplace of the groundbreaking African American music program Soul Train, just prior to the Christmas season of 1974, the station installed and tested color transmission equipment, which broadcast on a low-power relay station located in Lincoln Park. In the summer of 1985, the SIN affiliation moved to WSNS-TV, WCIU, meanwhile, later in the 1980s, Weigel Broadcasting expanded coverage of WCIU-TV to areas of western Illinois, northwest Indiana and southeastern Wisconsin through translator stations. In 1983, the station signed on W55AS to relay WCIUs programming into the Milwaukee market, in 1987, WCIU launched two additional translators, W33AR in Rockford, Illinois and W12BK in South Bend, Indiana. The two stations switched affiliations on January 10,1989, in 1993, Univision asked WCIU to drop all of its English-language programming, including Stock Market Observer, and carry the networks programming full-time. On December 31,1994, WCIU switched to an English language general entertainment format full-time, channel 26s programming began to feature mostly classic sitcoms and drama series. And served as one of the Uz Guys, a group of hosts for various blocks of the stations programming, WCIU then added a weekday block of childrens programs from 7,00 to 9,00 a. m. in March 1995. On February 19,1995, WCIU signed a agreement with The WB to carry the networks childrens program block, Kids WB. The agreement also allowed WCIU to carry WB prime time programming in the event that WGN-TV chose to pre-empt it in order to air Cubs, White Sox and Bulls evening games. In order to make room for the Kids WB block, the full Stock Market Observer broadcast moved to WFBT-CA, the weekday business news programming was then reduced to a 3½-hour block from 8,30 a. m. to 12,00 p. m
36.
AMC Networks
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The company was originally launched in 1980 and formerly known as Rainbow Media Holdings, LLC, a subsidiary of Cablevision, but was spun off as a publicly traded company in July 2011. The company is majority-owned and controlled by the Dolan family, when Rainbow was formed in 1980, it originally included Bravo and SportsChannel New York. As SportsChannel expanded by adding other regional networks, these became part of Rainbow. When SportsChannel was merged into Fox Sports Net, all of these networks except SportsChannel NY were gradually sold off, Fox Sports New York was then transferred to the MSG Media and rebranded MSG+. Rainbow originally started the Playboy Channel in 1982 as a joint-venture with Playboy, in 1988, Cablevision merged their cable networks with NBC, giving NBC 50% ownership in Rainbow. Through a series of transactions, NBCs stake was eventually reduced, in 2002, Cablevision sold its share of Bravo to NBC and as part of the deal, NBC gave up its then 20% share in Rainbow. Rainbow ran the local-minded MSG Metro Channels which launched in 1998, chris-Craft later sold its stations, including WRBW, to Fox Television Stations, who currently operates WRBW as a MyNetworkTV station. In 2005, Cablevision considered spinning off its content subsidiary Rainbow Media as a publicly traded company, and making their core cable business private, in 2006, a new plan emerged to privatize all of Cablevision, including Rainbow Media. In January 2007, with no word on if the privatization would go through, Rainbow Media also formerly owned the music channel Fuse, the channel became a part of MSG Media in 2010, as Madison Square Garden was also spun off as a public company. Rainbow Media also owned Wedding Central which was shut down the same day AMC Networks went public, Rainbow Medias former president Josh Sapan serves as the president and chief executive of AMC Networks which went public on July 1,2011. Dish Network stated that the lawsuit is unrelated to the decision to remove the AMC Networks channels, on May 20,2012, Dish Network removed Sundance Channel from its channel lineup. On July 1,2012, Dish Network dropped AMC, WEtv, on July 12,2012, AMC said in an e-mailed statement that it would stream over the Internet the season premiere of Breaking Bad to Dish customers. Dish subscribers can register online starting July 13 for the show and we want to give Dish customers an extra week to switch providers so they can enjoy the rest of the season. On October 28,2013, AMC Networks announced it would acquire most of Chellomedia, the acquisition did not include Chello Benelux, owners of Film1 and Sport1. On February 2,2014, the transaction was completed, what was formerly Chellomedia will now be known as AMC International and will allow AMC Networks to distribute its programming worldwide. On October 23,2014, AMC confirmed it had purchased a 49. 9% stake in BBC America, the joint venture will also give AMC operational control in BBC America, which will be managed as a stand-alone from AMCs other channels. In 2015, AMC Networks, along with Upfront Ventures, Daher Capital, Northgate Ventures, AMC IFC SundanceTV WeTV AMC Networks International BBC America List of companies in the United States List of S&P400 companies Official website
37.
Chicago Sun-Times
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The Chicago Sun-Times is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the paper of the Sun-Times Media Group. The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city and it began in 1844 as the Chicago Daily Journal, which was the first newspaper to publish the rumor, now believed false, that a cow owned by Catherine OLeary was responsible for the Chicago fire. The Evening Journal, whose West Side building at 17-19 S. Canal was undamaged, in 1929, the newspaper was relaunched as the Chicago Daily Illustrated Times. The modern paper grew out of the 1948 merger of the Chicago Sun, founded December 4,1941 by Marshall Field III, and the Chicago Daily Times. The newspaper was owned by Field Enterprises, controlled by the Marshall Field family, when the Daily News ended its run in 1978, much of its staff, including Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Mike Royko, were moved to the Sun-Times. During the Field period, the newspaper had a populist, progressive character that leaned Democratic but was independent of the citys Democratic establishment, although the graphic style was urban tabloid, the paper was well regarded for journalistic quality and did not rely on sensational front-page stories. It typically ran articles from the Washington Post/Los Angeles Times wire service, the advice column Ask Ann Landers debuted in 1943. Ann Landers was the pseudonym of staff writer Ruth Crowley, who answered readers letters until 1955, eppie Lederer, sister of Dear Abby columnist Abigail van Buren, assumed the role thereafter as Ann Landers. Kups Column, written by Irv Kupcinet, also made its first appearance in 1943, Jack Olsen joined the Sun-Times as editor-in-chief in 1954, before moving on to Time and Sports Illustrated magazines and authoring true-crime books. Hired as literary editor in 1955 was Hoke Norris, who covered the civil-rights movement for the Sun-Times. Jerome Holtzman became a member of the Chicago Sun sports department after first being a boy for the Daily News in the 1940s. He and Edgar Munzel, another longtime sportswriter for the paper, famed for his World War II exploits, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Bill Mauldin made the Sun-Times his home base in 1962. The following year, Mauldin drew one of his most renowned illustrations, two years out of college, Roger Ebert became a staff writer in 1966, and a year later was named Sun-Times film critic. He continued in this role for the remainder of his life, after the friend wrote a story about it, Grizzard fired Banks. With that, the employees union intervened, a federal arbitrator ruled for Banks and 13 months later. The articles received considerable publicity and acclaim, but a nomination for the Pulitzer Prize met resistance from some who believed the Mirage series represented a form of entrapment. In March 1978, the afternoon publication the Chicago Daily News, sister paper of the Sun-Times
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