For eight years the battle over WSNS Channel 44 was waged in the relative privacy of federal hearing rooms and courtrooms in Washington, D.C. But now the bitter fray has broken into the open, with throngs of Hispanic activists and politicians passionately taking sides.
Harris and his partners dropped the adult films and converted to a Spanish-language format five years ago. Nevertheless, the FCC awarded the license to Monroe, which had lodged a request to take over Video 44’s license back in 1982. But by the time the FCC ruled in Monroe’s favor, Channel 44 had developed a large and loyal following, whose members want the station to remain under its current ownership. Led by several influential politicians and activists, they formed the Coalition in Defense of Access to Channel 44 and have convinced Mayor Daley and the City Council to intervene on Video 44’s behalf.
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The Hispanic community had no reason to take a side when the fight began. The issue then was simply whether or not Channel 44’s programming was “serving the public good,” for viewers of any ethnicity. Before 1982 WSNS has been a low- budget UHF station. In 1982 it became a pay-TV station. For $21.95 a month, subscribers could watch feature movies, children’s shows, sports, and concerts throughout the day, and adult films from 11:30 PM to 3 AM. “We had to show the adult films because our one competitor started showing them,” says Harris. “We were losing 5,000 subscribers a month to him. The adult films are what the public wanted.”
Whatever the case, by the final 15 weeks of their license period, the only nonentertainment segments on Channel 44 were Health Field, which ran for an hour at six in the morning, and a political show called Illinois Press.
“This fight has gotten personal,” says Gilbert. “We’ve invested a lot of money in this case; our legal bills are in seven figures. Now we have the license. True, they get to operate the station until they exhaust their appeals. But we think we will win. It would be foolish for us to back out now.”
Nonetheless, Gutierrez took the case to the City Council, circulating a resolution (signed by 48 aldermen) asking the city to file a brief with the FCC supporting Video 44’s right to retain ownership.
“When I saw what Cohen was doing, I was outraged,” says Gutierrez. “Pucinski had gone out of his way to give him a hearing and he was trying to show us up. So I pulled out the plug on his video player. And he plugged it back in. I said, ‘Hey, Cohen, are you back on the City Council now? Are you a janitor? What gives you the right to use City Hall property this way?’ I was really steaming.”
