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Defunct TV Stations in the L.A. Market

J

Joey1986

I know of three defunct TV stations in this market (I'm only counting full-power OTA ones, not LPTVs, Class As, translators, or local/regional cable channels): KKOG-TV channel 16 in Ventura (lasted a whopping nine months--12/14/68 to 9/13/69), and KVST (lasted less than two years--5/5/74 to 12/23/75) and KEEF-TV (which lasted less than a year in 1987, having originally signed on as KDDE-TV) in Los Angeles proper. Both of those stations operated on channel 68. All I know is that the frequency of channel 16 is now used for mobile radio in Los Angeles (now I know why when I was a kid, whenever I turned the 1990 Zenith TV set in my parents' living room to channel 16, I would hear people talking on radios underneath the "snow"), and that in 1983, UHF channels 70 through 83 were reallocated for cell phone use, and that UHF channels 52 through 69 are in the process of being repurposed for other uses.

Are (were) there any other defunct full-power TV stations in the L.A. market? If so, have their frequencies been reassigned to non-television uses, or are they just vacant?
 
Mastaclocksetta said:
Are (were) there any other defunct full-power TV stations in the L.A. market? If so, have their frequencies been reassigned to non-television uses, or are they just vacant?
Click to expand...

I'm pretty confident KUSC-TV operated on channel 28 for a few months in 1953. It appears it may have been (probably was) the first non-commercial TV station. (predating KUHT, Houston which is the oldest non-commercial station *still on the air*)

Clarke Ingram quotes an article in a 1977 VHF-UHF Digest which lists defunct UHF stations. It includes a KITO-18 San Bernardino and a KCOA-52 Corona. (and KUSC-28) However, this list includes unbuilt construction permits.

http://www.dumonthistory.tv/a10.html
 
I'm planning on a project for RabbitEars to list every TV station licensed, permitted, or applied for starting with the end of the freeze in 1952. Not sure when I'll find the time to do it or how I'll structure the database or anything, but I definitely have it in my sights.

- Trip
 
The USC station was KTHE. The LA Times listed it as ch.27. It was licensed from 1954-1957 but from what I have read it was only on the air for aprox. 9 months. KCHU on ch. 18 in San Bernardino was on the air for a couple of years in the early 1960's.
 
ercjncpr said:
Don't forget Saul Levine's brief flirtation with TV as KMTW Ch 52, before he sold it to Kaiser
Click to expand...

The original poster didn't really specify, but by "defunct" didn't he mean stations whose licenses were canceled or allowed to expire? If I'm not mistaken, the channel 52 license was continuously valid at least from Kaiser's times (and presumably earlier) through the present days as KVEA. KKOG and KTHE, on the other hand, were deleted. No station (except the LA County Sheriff's two-way!) took over KKOG's channel, and the station that's on channel 28 (virtual) today is not related to KTHE.

(thanks to Jon Bruce for the reminder on the correct calls for the first channel 28. The non-commercial channel allocation for LA in the original post-freeze table of allocations was 28, so I'm pretty confident that's right instead of 27. It was however listed as KUSC-TV in the linked list.)
 
I remember reading that the FCC originally assigned it KUSC but the station changed calls to KTHE before hitting the air. I could be wrong on that.

- Trip
 
w9wi said:
ercjncpr said:
Don't forget Saul Levine's brief flirtation with TV as KMTW Ch 52, before he sold it to Kaiser
Click to expand...

The original poster didn't really specify, but by "defunct" didn't he mean stations whose licenses were canceled or allowed to expire? If I'm not mistaken, the channel 52 license was continuously valid at least from Kaiser's times (and presumably earlier) through the present days as KVEA. KKOG and KTHE, on the other hand, were deleted. No station (except the LA County Sheriff's two-way!) took over KKOG's channel, and the station that's on channel 28 (virtual) today is not related to KTHE.

(thanks to Jon Bruce for the reminder on the correct calls for the first channel 28. The non-commercial channel allocation for LA in the original post-freeze table of allocations was 28, so I'm pretty confident that's right instead of 27. It was however listed as KUSC-TV in the linked list.)
Click to expand...

I actually meant both. Sorry for the confusion.
 
Channel 46 was KBSA around 1972 or so.

I have heard of KBIC on channel 22 in the early '60s or late '50s IIRC.NOt known if htey showed anything besides test patterns.
 
ercjncpr said:
Don't forget Saul Levine's brief flirtation with TV as KMTW Ch 52, before he sold it to Kaiser
Click to expand...

Levine flirted with TV twice. The second time was KMGT Channel 26 in Honolulu in the late-'80s. The second time was just like the first, the station is now TBN repeater KAAH-TV.
 
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