Hard to imagine, in our 500-cable channel world, that not that long ago the choices on what to watch were just four. The Big Three networks reached every household, and the fourth channel was usually some local public broadcasting station. That was the state of affairs until the brash Rupert Murdoch, an Australian businessman who already owned 20th Century Fox film distributors, decided to challenge the Big Three.

On this day, April 5, in 1987, the Fox Broadcasting Company launched, running the prime-time lineup of Married…With Children and The Tracey Ullman Show.

Murdoch had to overcome a number of media ownership restrictions to launch Fox-TV. As he already owned 20th Century Fox and its television production unit, a waiver had to be granted by the FCC for him to purchase broadcast stations in the major markets. The number of core stations any network was allowed to own expanded from 7 to 12 as Murdoch was launching Fox.