-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
CITIES WHERE THE 1ST TV STATION WAS A UHF
- Thread starter gregg75
- Start date
Scott Fybush said:
Yeah, I realized that afterwards...soon after I checked this board, I went to the Classic TV section :-[
K
kenrayc
Guest
In Fresno CA, the first station was KMJ-TV 24 that went on the air on June 1, 1953 and carried all 3 networks, later that Fall KJEO 47 went on the air as a CBS affiliate, on May 10 1956 KFRE ch12 went on the air taking the CBS Affiation from KJEO 47, which became ABC leaving KMJ 24 the NBC affiliate, in 1961 KFRE 12 switched to channel 30 making Fresno a all UHF Market, Channel 12 moved to Santa Maria as KCOY, I remember My Grandmother's TV a 1953 Admiral that had to have UHF strips added to the VHF Tuner, which KMJ 24 was on channel 2 and KJEO 47 was on channel 5, when KFRE switched from 12 to 30 she have to add on a UHF converter, seems like history repeats itself with the digital transition, and now KAIL 53 went to channel 7 bringing VHF back to Fresno 50 years later, which doesn't help the fact we use all UHF antennas.
K
kenrayc
Guest
kenrayc said:
BTW I was born in 1961, but remember in the 60s turning the VHF tuner still seeing 24 on 2 and 47 on 5 the UHF converter used channel 4.
Little Rock AR, KRTV channel 17 went on the air April 4, 1953 from the
Hillcrest neighborhood. KRTV's broadcast tower was behind the studios (a former movie theater)
and freestanding. Newspaper accounts of the time were full of articles about area residents' objections
to the large tower. By modern standards, KRTV was an LPTV. The station carried all four networks but
was mostly a CBS affiliate (via kinoscope) until the fall of 1953 when the network coxial cable feed reached
Little Rock from Memphis. KATV ch 7 Pine Bluff AR (COL at the time) and the construction of KARK ch 4 hastened
the demise of KRTV. KRTV sold out to KATV in March of 1954 which then occupied the Hillcrest studios until Halloween
1957 when a fire destroyed the old studio. A Kroger store sits on the old site today. As for the free-standing tower, it was
dismantled after KATV purchased KRTV. The KRTV calls went to Great Falls Montana where they remain to this day.
Hillcrest neighborhood. KRTV's broadcast tower was behind the studios (a former movie theater)
and freestanding. Newspaper accounts of the time were full of articles about area residents' objections
to the large tower. By modern standards, KRTV was an LPTV. The station carried all four networks but
was mostly a CBS affiliate (via kinoscope) until the fall of 1953 when the network coxial cable feed reached
Little Rock from Memphis. KATV ch 7 Pine Bluff AR (COL at the time) and the construction of KARK ch 4 hastened
the demise of KRTV. KRTV sold out to KATV in March of 1954 which then occupied the Hillcrest studios until Halloween
1957 when a fire destroyed the old studio. A Kroger store sits on the old site today. As for the free-standing tower, it was
dismantled after KATV purchased KRTV. The KRTV calls went to Great Falls Montana where they remain to this day.
...in Madison, three different UHFs -- WHA-TV/21 (the educational station owned by the University of Wisconsin), WKOW-TV/27 (then CBS), and WMTV/33 (NBC primary and ABC/DuMont secondaries) -- all signed on the air in 1953-54, years before WISC-TV/3 in 1956 (which took the CBS affiliation away from WKOW, who in turn became an ABC primary affiliate)...
...in the Green Bay-Fox Cities market, although WBAY-TV/2 (CBS primary/ was by far the first station on the air, in 1953, the first stations licenced to any of the Fox Cities were WNAM-TV/42 (ABC) Neenah-Menasha and WOSH-TV/48 (NBC) Oshkosh, both later in 1953. WOSH was so poorly constructed that you actually could see the beacon atop the transmitting tower at a greater distance than you could get a city-grade signal; after a year of operation, WOSH-TV went dark and the physical assets were sent up to Marinette to start up WMBV/11 (NBC) in 1954. Several online sources falsely claim WNAM took to the air in 1955; when I lived in Oshkosh I was able to find program listings and ads for WNAM-TV in microfilms of the Oshkosh Northwestern newspaper dated as early as 1953. Around 1958, in order to take advantage of a new VHF allocation for Green Bay, WNAM-TV reorganised itself and changed call sign and channel to WFRV/5...
...in the Green Bay-Fox Cities market, although WBAY-TV/2 (CBS primary/ was by far the first station on the air, in 1953, the first stations licenced to any of the Fox Cities were WNAM-TV/42 (ABC) Neenah-Menasha and WOSH-TV/48 (NBC) Oshkosh, both later in 1953. WOSH was so poorly constructed that you actually could see the beacon atop the transmitting tower at a greater distance than you could get a city-grade signal; after a year of operation, WOSH-TV went dark and the physical assets were sent up to Marinette to start up WMBV/11 (NBC) in 1954. Several online sources falsely claim WNAM took to the air in 1955; when I lived in Oshkosh I was able to find program listings and ads for WNAM-TV in microfilms of the Oshkosh Northwestern newspaper dated as early as 1953. Around 1958, in order to take advantage of a new VHF allocation for Green Bay, WNAM-TV reorganised itself and changed call sign and channel to WFRV/5...
I still remember having a TV with no UHF. I forget what the box on top was. It either moved the antenna or allowed UHF channels to be watched. I forget which.KML-224 said:
Our next TV had channels 70 through 83. In fact, so did our next several channels.
Ultimajock said:
According to reports in Broadcast Magazine, WNAM-TV seemed to have a tough go of it at the beginning. Granted a CP on 12/23/1952, the station first targeted a late summer 1953 launch, which turned into Nov. 1953, which became 12/15/1953, then 1/5/1954, and finally 1/26/1954, which appears to be the actual sign-on date. WNAM had tried to secure the NBC affiliation, but NBC put them off pending the Milwaukee move from ch 3 to ch 4, then in Dec. 1953, announced their plans to affiliate with the aforementioned Marinette/Green Bay station, whose transmitter, according to a complaint filed by WNAM, was closer to Green Bay than to Marinette. Finally, WNAM-TV affiliated with ABC, beginning 7/12/1954, at first by kinescope, with an AT&T connection to follow within 45 days.
In January 1955, the FCC approved a merger between WNAM-TV and WFRV-TV, which had been granted a CP in March 1954. The merger approval required surrender of the channel 42 license, and Broadcasting Magazine reported suspension of WNAM operations in early February 1955. WFRV-TV affiliated with ABC effective 4/1/55 and was scheduled to begin operations in mid-April, but at the last minute, the FCC rescinded the merger authorization following a complaint from WMBV-TV Marinette. WFRV signed on in May 1955 and operated on a CP until 12/26/1957, when the FCC granted the license.
So, both dates are correct. WNAM signed on in January 1954, but ceased operations in February 1955. WFRV signed on in May 1955, but was not licensed until Christmas 1957.
KeithE4 said:
Reading had:
(33) WEEU-TV (NBC, ABC) (1953-55)
(61) WHUM-TV (CBS) (1953-56)
Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton had:
(39) WQCY (CP, never built)
(51) WLEV-TV (NBC) (1953-57)
(57) WGLV (ABC, DuMont) (1953-57)
(67) WFMZ-TV (1954-55)
Both WQCY and WFMZ attempted to secure a CBS affiliation, but were prevented from doing so by WCAU-TV,
which had built a new, tall tower in 1954, pre-Roxborough.
C.
PTBoardOp94 said:
WNIN, Ch. 9 signed on in March of 1970, with NET. It became PBS later that year.
Note that in the cases of Madison, Evansville, and Green Bay, disputes over occupancy of VHF channels resulted in delayed launch, allowing UHF stations to get on the air first. (contemporary articles suggest many of the UHF operators hoped to establish themselves & build a loyal audience before the VHF channel could be awarded to an applicant)
- Madison was part of an ongoing "deintermixture" proceeding. Even before the UHF table was adopted, Radio Wisconsin had petitioned to have channel 3 deleted from the table or reserved for non-commercial use. WHA (who everyone figured, correctly, would eventually occupy the non-commercial channel) didn't ask for VHF, and the owners of radio stations WIBA and WKOW objected to the reservation. Disputes over the channel would continue even after the channel 3 station went on the air -- ironically, owned by Radio Wisconsin.
- Channel 9 could not be assigned to Evansville in the initial table. Evansville was 15 miles too close to St. Louis, where the channel was assigned. The FCC eventually ruled that a new channel could be allotted if a usable *transmitter site* was far enough from other stations on the same channel, even if the city itself was too close. Between that, and the eventual construction of the St. Louis station (KETC) some distance to the west of the city, it became possible to allot channel 9 at Evansville. I'll bet there was some effort to get that non-commercial reservation swapped for one of the UHF channels too...
- Green Bay's channel 5 assignment was also subject to some controversy -- not because of anything going on in Green Bay, but because of goings-on in Milwaukee. Initially, Green Bay was assigned channels 2 and 6. Yes, channel 6 in Green Bay would be way too close to the channel 6 assignments in Milwaukee and Upper Michigan. However, the channel 6 assignment in Milwaukee wasn't in the initial table, and the Marquette assignment was 5.
A Milwaukee applicant tried to get the Green Bay and Marquette assignments swapped, so that channel 6 could be assigned in Milwaukee. The FCC didn't have any problems with the Green Bay swap, but Milwaukee was three miles too close to existing channel 6 station WOC-TV in Davenport, Iowa. The Milwaukee applicant finally got around that problem by having the channel assigned to the suburb of Whitefish Bay -- five miles north of Milwaukee -- instead.
- And then there was the WMBV thing. Today, that move would have been prohibited for a completely different reason.
- Madison was part of an ongoing "deintermixture" proceeding. Even before the UHF table was adopted, Radio Wisconsin had petitioned to have channel 3 deleted from the table or reserved for non-commercial use. WHA (who everyone figured, correctly, would eventually occupy the non-commercial channel) didn't ask for VHF, and the owners of radio stations WIBA and WKOW objected to the reservation. Disputes over the channel would continue even after the channel 3 station went on the air -- ironically, owned by Radio Wisconsin.
- Channel 9 could not be assigned to Evansville in the initial table. Evansville was 15 miles too close to St. Louis, where the channel was assigned. The FCC eventually ruled that a new channel could be allotted if a usable *transmitter site* was far enough from other stations on the same channel, even if the city itself was too close. Between that, and the eventual construction of the St. Louis station (KETC) some distance to the west of the city, it became possible to allot channel 9 at Evansville. I'll bet there was some effort to get that non-commercial reservation swapped for one of the UHF channels too...
- Green Bay's channel 5 assignment was also subject to some controversy -- not because of anything going on in Green Bay, but because of goings-on in Milwaukee. Initially, Green Bay was assigned channels 2 and 6. Yes, channel 6 in Green Bay would be way too close to the channel 6 assignments in Milwaukee and Upper Michigan. However, the channel 6 assignment in Milwaukee wasn't in the initial table, and the Marquette assignment was 5.
A Milwaukee applicant tried to get the Green Bay and Marquette assignments swapped, so that channel 6 could be assigned in Milwaukee. The FCC didn't have any problems with the Green Bay swap, but Milwaukee was three miles too close to existing channel 6 station WOC-TV in Davenport, Iowa. The Milwaukee applicant finally got around that problem by having the channel assigned to the suburb of Whitefish Bay -- five miles north of Milwaukee -- instead.
- And then there was the WMBV thing. Today, that move would have been prohibited for a completely different reason.
I wonder if this wasn't the case in Raleigh as well. The News and Observer newspaper, which owned WNAO radio (later WKIX, WYLT, WRBZ and now again WKIX), signed on WNAO-TV at channel 28 in 1953. Durham Life Broadcasting (WPTF radio owner) and Capitol Broadcasting Company (WRAL radio owner) fought for several years to see which would be awarded Raleigh's channel 5 allotment. (Capitol, then the underdog, eventually won it, signing on in late 1956), though I don't know if they began the fight prior to WNAO's sign-on. In Durham, the Herald-Sun Newspapers (owners of WDNC radio) and Floyd Fletcher and Harmon Duncan (owners of WTIK radio) were competing for that city's channel 11 allocation (the two would form a joint corporation, Durham Broadcasting Enterprises, which signed on WTVD in 1954).
D
Darth_vader
Guest
It was mentioned earlier in this thread that KPTV was the first UHF station in the country. It also should have been mentioned that it was the first television station, period, in the state of Oregon (and thus its home city of Portland) using equipment that made up the experimental UHF relay of WNBT in New York, KC2XAK in Bridgeport, CT, operated by RCA on channel 24 circa late 1940s.
[size=8pt]It actually started out as a combined ABC/CBS/Dumont/NBC affiliate, as well as carrying programming from Paramount Television Network! And later on, in the 1990s, it became part of UPN but that's another thread.
[size=8pt]It actually started out as a combined ABC/CBS/Dumont/NBC affiliate, as well as carrying programming from Paramount Television Network! And later on, in the 1990s, it became part of UPN but that's another thread.
I've heard stories about why so many of the first stations on the air (1947-1950 period) were NBC stations...some say it was because NBC was further along in providing programming, but I've also heard this:
Since RCA, then the parent company of NBC, was in those early days the only full-line, turnkey station equipment supplier manufacturing everything needed to hit the air (cameras, transmitters, antennas, mics, monitoring, relay and processing gear, film chains, audio consoles, the whole package), they infuenced many early licensees to go with NBC. Westinghouse, General Electirc and others made excellent transmitters and other components, but only RCA made it all-and they could fill a boxcar with the NBC station's gear next week!
In other words, if you held a license and intended to go primary CBS, ABC, DuMont or independent, you got in line for the RCA gear from the Camden, NJ TV plant...but if a prospective NBC station placed an order, they were bumped up in the list ahead of the other nets' affiliates. Very quietly, the FCC insisted on a first-come first shipped policy, and enforced it by slowing up type acceptance of some RCA RF equipment until the "backlog" resolved itself. To me, this sounds like something General Sarnoff would do! Comments?
Since RCA, then the parent company of NBC, was in those early days the only full-line, turnkey station equipment supplier manufacturing everything needed to hit the air (cameras, transmitters, antennas, mics, monitoring, relay and processing gear, film chains, audio consoles, the whole package), they infuenced many early licensees to go with NBC. Westinghouse, General Electirc and others made excellent transmitters and other components, but only RCA made it all-and they could fill a boxcar with the NBC station's gear next week!
In other words, if you held a license and intended to go primary CBS, ABC, DuMont or independent, you got in line for the RCA gear from the Camden, NJ TV plant...but if a prospective NBC station placed an order, they were bumped up in the list ahead of the other nets' affiliates. Very quietly, the FCC insisted on a first-come first shipped policy, and enforced it by slowing up type acceptance of some RCA RF equipment until the "backlog" resolved itself. To me, this sounds like something General Sarnoff would do! Comments?
- Status