Alternate TV Channel Lineups

[w9wi]

The company that was then known as Jefferson Standard
Broadcasting (later Jefferson-Pilot) had the license for
Channel 4 in the Triangle but gave it to the University of
North Carolina for noncommercial use.

Some things happened around that time that I don't know about, but... I see no sign anyone was ever assigned channel 4 before the freeze, nor that anybody had a construction permit for a station in the Triangle before the freeze. It was definitely reserved non-commercial from the beginning of the post-freeze table.

It does certainly seem likely Jefferson Standard would have been interested in a station in the Triangle though. Maybe they appealed against the non-commercial reservation on channel 4 and failed? They wouldn't have been anywhere near the only company to object to a non-commercial reservation in the 1952 table. (or the proposed 1951 table that preceded it)

 

[fortmill]

I had read somewhere that Jefferson-Standard was somehow responsible for channel 4 being assigned as a non-commercial in the Triangle, but never understood how. Could it be because they expected to be awarded channel 5 there and wanted less competition, and thus used their political influence to "help" 4 go non-com? I also heard that Jeff expected to get channel 8 in High Point--they figured they would be rewarded for giving up their channel 8 in Florence SC? Instead, Southern got 8, supposedly because they held the licenses for 2 failed UHF stations in the area, 26 and 28, which they had actually bought AFTER they'd gone dark.

 

[RadioDaze]

Some on-air histories of the UNC-TV network mentioned Jefferson Standard originally seeking channel 4 in the Triangle, but ceasing to do so when they found out the University of North Carolina sought it for educational TV--even going so far as providing the university with the paperwork and engineering research they'd accumulated in trying to get a commercial channel 4(the UNC-TV headquarters in Durham's Research Triangle Park actually are named for longtime J-S president Joseph Bryan and his wife, Kathleen). However, I've not seen anything about this in old Broadcasting Yearbooks, etc. The only evidence of this I see beyond the UNC account is the '47 Table of Allotments with VHF 4 assigned to Durham, where it would have been available for commercial use. It most definitely would have changed the Raleigh-Durham market dynamics and likely the fortunes for NBC had channel 4 remained a commercial allocation here. Interestingly in later allocations, Durham later picked up several less-than desirable UHF frequencies--a non-commercial 40, and commercial 46 and 73. Local commercial interests attempted to sign-on a WCIG-TV 46 and local radio station WSSB (now WDUR 1490) pursued a TV operation on channel 73, though none of these actually made it to air--by the late 1960s, these were all gone from Durham's allocations with UHF 28 moving over to Durham from Raleigh.

As for the channel 5 allocation later added in Raleigh, I'm not aware of Jefferson Standard having pursued that, though they certainly might have. The well-known story about VHF 5 in Raleigh is that two local companies--Durham Life Insurance Company and Capitol Broadcasting had a battle royal for that one. Durham Life, by far the larger of the two, thought that they were a shoo-in for "WPTF-TV 5" and went so far as to build a TV studio and prepare one of the towers at the WPTF transmitter plant for a batwing antenna. However, channel 5 would go to the smaller Capitol, the owner of WRAL 1240 AM, and went on to have one of the most successful local TV operations in the country.

 

[w9wi]

Some on-air histories of the UNC-TV network mentioned Jefferson Standard originally seeking channel 4 in the Triangle, but ceasing to do so when they found out the University of North Carolina sought it for educational TV--even going so far as providing the university with the paperwork and engineering research they'd accumulated in trying to get a commercial channel 4(the UNC-TV headquarters in Durham's Research Triangle Park actually are named for longtime J-S president Joseph Bryan and his wife, Kathleen). However, I've not seen anything about this in old Broadcasting Yearbooks, etc. The only evidence of this I see beyond the UNC account is the '47 Table of Allotments with VHF 4 assigned to Durham, where it would have been available for commercial use. It most definitely would have changed the Raleigh-Durham market dynamics and likely the fortunes for NBC had channel 4 remained a commercial allocation here. Interestingly in later allocations, Durham later picked up several less-than desirable UHF frequencies--a non-commercial 40, and commercial 46 and 73. Local commercial interests attempted to sign-on a WCIG-TV 46 and local radio station WSSB (now WDUR 1490) pursued a TV operation on channel 73, though none of these actually made it to air--by the late 1960s, these were all gone from Durham's allocations with UHF 28 moving over to Durham from Raleigh.

I wonder if they filed an application pre-freeze? That wouldn't have shown up in the articles I've read. (only stations that received a construction permit appear)

Really I think a VHF non-commercial allotment to Chapel Hill was simply going to happen. It jibed with FCC policy elsewhere, of assigning VHF non-commercial channels to major educational centers. They went to places like Pullman, Washington (Wash. State Univ., channel 10); Vermillion, South Dakota (U. of SD, channel 2); Durham, N.H. (Univ. of NH, channel 11); Urbana, Ill. (U. of Illinois, channel 12) and Lawrence, Kansas. (Univ. of Kansas, channel 11*) UNC is of course at least on par with these institutions & could have been expected to receive a VHF assignment.

And J-S's actions may have been philanthropic. (and of a PR nature) They did after all run WBTV, probably the highest-profile TV station in the state at the time. Being seen assisting the University of North Carolina would have improved WBTV's image, and maybe made things easier for the station in its dealings with the locals in Charlotte.

* KU never used the channel, it ended up moved to Topeka where Washburn University ran/runs it.

 

[RadioDaze]

Really I think a VHF non-commercial allotment to Chapel Hill was simply going to happen. It jibed with FCC policy elsewhere, of assigning VHF non-commercial channels to major educational centers. They went to places like Pullman, Washington (Wash. State Univ., channel 10); Vermillion, South Dakota (U. of SD, channel 2); Durham, N.H. (Univ. of NH, channel 11); Urbana, Ill. (U. of Illinois, channel 12) and Lawrence, Kansas. (Univ. of Kansas, channel 11*) UNC is of course at least on par with these institutions & could have been expected to receive a VHF assignment.

That FCC policy explains some other interesting non-commercial allotments, such as VHF channel 5 going to Gainesville (University of Florida) instead of being commercial and paired with the VHF channel 4 allocation up the road in Jacksonville (as VHF channels 4 and 5 frequently were due to the "space" between their frequencies in the spectrum) and perhaps even VHF channel 11 going to Tallahassee (where it's run by Florida State).

Jacksonville is a similar "three VHF/ two commercial" case study to Raleigh-Durham; the only difference is that all of the Big 4 save for NBC ended up on UHF dial there when WJXT dropped CBS and went independent about a decade ago.

 

[Mr. Mike]

Really I think a VHF non-commercial allotment to Chapel Hill was simply going to happen. It jibed with FCC policy elsewhere, of assigning VHF non-commercial channels to major educational centers. They went to places like Pullman, Washington (Wash. State Univ., channel 10); Vermillion, South Dakota (U. of SD, channel 2); Durham, N.H. (Univ. of NH, channel 11); Urbana, Ill. (U. of Illinois, channel 12) and Lawrence, Kansas. (Univ. of Kansas, channel 11*) UNC is of course at least on par with these institutions & could have been expected to receive a VHF assignment.

That FCC policy explains some other interesting non-commercial allotments, such as VHF channel 5 going to Gainesville (University of Florida) instead of being commercial and paired with the VHF channel 4 allocation up the road in Jacksonville (as VHF channels 4 and 5 frequently were due to the "space" between their frequencies in the spectrum) and perhaps even VHF channel 11 going to Tallahassee (where it's run by Florida State).

Jacksonville is a similar "three VHF/ two commercial" case study to Raleigh-Durham; the only difference is that all of the Big 4 save for NBC ended up on UHF dial there when WJXT dropped CBS and went independent about a decade ago.

If Channel 17 in Jacksonville had been on the VHF dial instead of the current UHF dial, it wouldn't be a stretch to suggest they might've been better able to compete with 4 and 12.

 

[bpatrick]

Some on-air histories of the UNC-TV network mentioned Jefferson Standard originally seeking channel 4 in the Triangle, but ceasing to do so when they found out the University of North Carolina sought it for educational TV--even going so far as providing the university with the paperwork and engineering research they'd accumulated in trying to get a commercial channel 4(the UNC-TV headquarters in Durham's Research Triangle Park actually are named for longtime J-S president Joseph Bryan and his wife, Kathleen). However, I've not seen anything about this in old Broadcasting Yearbooks, etc. The only evidence of this I see beyond the UNC account is the '47 Table of Allotments with VHF 4 assigned to Durham, where it would have been available for commercial use. It most definitely would have changed the Raleigh-Durham market dynamics and likely the fortunes for NBC had channel 4 remained a commercial allocation here. Interestingly in later allocations, Durham later picked up several less-than desirable UHF frequencies--a non-commercial 40, and commercial 46 and 73. Local commercial interests attempted to sign-on a WCIG-TV 46 and local radio station WSSB (now WDUR 1490) pursued a TV operation on channel 73, though none of these actually made it to air--by the late 1960s, these were all gone from Durham's allocations with UHF 28 moving over to Durham from Raleigh.

As for the channel 5 allocation later added in Raleigh, I'm not aware of Jefferson Standard having pursued that, though they certainly might have. The well-known story about VHF 5 in Raleigh is that two local companies--Durham Life Insurance Company and Capitol Broadcasting had a battle royal for that one. Durham Life, by far the larger of the two, thought that they were a shoo-in for "WPTF-TV 5" and went so far as to build a TV studio and prepare one of the towers at the WPTF transmitter plant for a batwing antenna. However, channel 5 would go to the smaller Capitol, the owner of WRAL 1240 AM, and went on to have one of the most successful local TV operations in the country.

I think what you're saying about the Bryans and Channel 4 is accurate. I know they put a lot of effort into getting WUNC on the air. And no, I've never heard of Jefferson Standard pursuing the Channel 5 license; like you, the story I've heard is that Capitol Broadcasting beat out Durham Life, mainly because Capitol offered the FCC an ambitious schedule of local programming.

WTVD was originally owned by a member of the Fletcher family, owners of WRAL at the time. Eventually a group headed by Lowell Thomas called Capital Cities Communications bought it and Channel 10 in Albany, NY (both stations were located in, or served, a capital city, hence the company's name); that company would buy ABC in 1985 and make WTVD an ABC o&o.

IMHO, I think WRAL today is a higher-profile station in North Carolina than WBTV; it has certainly been on the cutting edge of technology.

 

[fortmill]

Certainly, WRAL offers a far better product than WBTV, and that is almost sure to continue, with WBTV's ownership, Raycom. And WTVD beats the socks off WSOC. OTOH, WCNC is far superior to WNCN, even if Belo has given up with being completely competitive with 3 and 9.

 

[w9wi]

IMHO, I think WRAL today is a higher-profile station in North Carolina than WBTV; it has certainly been on the cutting edge of technology.

Today, absolutely.

Of course that wasn't the case in 1952 as WRAL-TV didn't exist yet!

 

[bpatrick]

I think somebody pointed out that back then WBTV was
the high-profile station in North Carolina, but in 1952 there
were only two stations in the state; WFMY Greensboro being
the other.