[2] Prior to Image Union, WTTW aired Nightwatch with Gene Siskel, an all-night show featuring the work of independent producers with call-in audience participation.
These grievances reached their peak at a regional conference between independent producers and their local PBS stations, sponsored by NYC Global Village Video Center.
This ultimately led to the creation of Image Union under Tom Weinberg, who was "natural liaison" between the independent and corporate worlds, due to his background in the guerilla film movement.
[1] In example, the first episode of Image Union featured 11 different films and videotapes, ranging from Swiss and German television commercials to old videos of Mayor Daley, with small fillers sometimes separating them.
[1] The success of this show would later enable the WTTW television series The 90's, also produced by Tom Weinberg and very much in similar concept to Image Union.