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Eyes Of A Generation . . . Television's Living History

Yes its a cool one and there was one page where the site discussed who ABC's first TV affiliates were in 1948 when they expanded to TV it's WFIL-TV(Currently WPVI), WMAL-TV (Currently WJLA) and WABD (Currently WNYW). In that era ABC had KGO, WJZ, KECA, WENR, and WXYZ in the construction permits phase in 1948.
 
Y2kTheNewOldies said:
Yes its a cool one and there was one page where the site discussed who ABC's first TV affiliates were in 1948 when they expanded to TV it's WFIL-TV(Currently WPVI), WMAL-TV (Currently WJLA) and WABD (Currently WNYW). In that era ABC had KGO, WJZ, KECA, WENR, and WXYZ in the construction permits phase in 1948.
Click to expand...
I'm wondering about ABC-TV's early affiliation with Channel 5 WABD in New York. The station was put on the air by the DuMont TV Network. It joined with WTTG Channel 5 in Washington and WDTV Channel 2 Pittsburgh (now KDKA-TV).

WABD later became WNEW-TV and currently WNYW. But according to its history on Wikipedia, when the DuMont Network ended, WABD became an independent station. I always thought WJZ-TV Channel 7, now WABC-TV, was always the ABC O&O in New York.
 
eyesofageneration.com

April 19, 1948...The Start Of The ABC Television Network - Eyes Of A Generation...Television's Living History

April 19, 1948...The Start Of The ABC Television Network 68 years ago today, on April 19, 1948, the ABC Television Network began its broadcasts on its first primary affiliate, WFIL-TV in Philadelphia. The debut show was "On The Corner" with host Henry Morgan, which was also the name of his…
eyesofageneration.com eyesofageneration.com

This is the one that I was referring to

oldtvhistory.blogspot.com

April 1946

DuMont is back on the air! It’s mid-April 1946, and WABD has moved into new studios in Wanamaker’s Department Store in Manhattan. New York’...
oldtvhistory.blogspot.com oldtvhistory.blogspot.com

Also I seen some earlier attempts for ABC Network to go on TV but they just came out of the Spinoff from NBC when that network was ordered to sell “Blue” Network. Apparently in 1946 WABD carried content from ABC when they were still considering to go to TV.

It’s mid-April 1946, and WABD has moved into new studios in Wanamaker’s Department Store in Manhattan. New York’s other commercial stations, NBC’s WNBT and CBS’ WCBW, were still changing frequencies as ordered by the FCC, though “Paley-Vision” returned at the end of the month.

DuMont’s programming deal with WNEW radio seems to have expired, but WABD continued to air shows put together by ABC. That situation wouldn’t change until WJZ-TV signed on in 1948.

On this blog, we’ve avoided going into the constant dispute between CBS/Colour/UHF and NBC/Black-and-White/VHF. The two companies were taking out full-page trade ads boasting of the superiority of their system over the other. The battle carried on into the ‘50s when the FCC, after several years of hearings and appeals, made a decision on what was to be acceptable. It had an effect on sales and programming this month, so we’ve included a story about it.
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WDTV was on 3 until just before the sale to Westinghouse and call change to KDKA-TV.

As for ABC and WABD, the ramp up of ABC's TV production and programming happened slowly. ABC was a tenant of RCA/NBC at 30 Rock into the end of the 1940s, building up its production capabilities very slowly through the 1946-48 era while working at the same time to get its O&O stations on the air, several years behind NBC, CBS and even DuMont.

So the earliest ABC affiliates like WTVW/WMAL-TV in Washington and WFIL-TV in Philadelphia really functioned like most of the other early stations in 1947-48 - they carried those earliest. ABC-TV shows alongside other programs, including DuMont shows on WFIL.

Which in turn helps to explain why those early ABC-TV shows aired on WABD before WJZ-TV came on the air later in 1948 - there was at least an unwritten understanding that in exchange for that carriage in NYC, DuMont shows would get airtime on ABC stations in markets that didn't have a full time DuMont outlet, which was most of them aside.

And DuMont used WDTV to great effect, too. As the only station in Pittsburgh through most of the 1950s, the other networks needed WDTV to carry their key shows in what was then a top-20 market, which meant they couldn't really complain if their own primary affiliates in other one-and two-station markets cleared some key DuMont shows.

Until Paramount Theaters bought ABC in 1953, it was by no means certain that ABC would survive and DuMont wouldn't. Both networks were fighting to at least be number three behind the dominant big two of NBC and CBS, and in markets as big as Boston, Milwaukee, Denver, Indianapolis, Miami and Buffalo, it was a patchwork of programming as everyone fought for slots on just one or two stations.

You need to get into the late 1950s and 1960s to get to a point where at least the biggest 50 or so markets mostly had a full lineup of Big Three affiliates - and even then there was plenty of weirdness that remained in "2+1" markets like Louisville, Birmingham and San Diego where two big VHF stations cherry-picked the most popular shows from all three networks and left the dregs for a smaller UHF.
 


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