Did Philadelphia Get 1 Less VHF due to WDEL?

[Markxxx]

Correct me if I am wrong

The original VHF allocations for Philadelphia were
3, 6, 10, 12 with Channel 7 assigned to Wilmington.

I always thought Chicago was short changed on VHF allocations, but Philly seemed to get it worse.

Anyway I can't figure out why they thought Channel 7 in Wilmington would work with a Channel 7 in NYC and DC.

Question is do you think Philadelphia didn't get Channel 8 because of Wilmington getting Channel 7. Obviously you can't put channel 7 and 8 in the same market.

If the FCC had realized channel 7 wouldn't work in Wilmington first off do you think they would have given Philadelphia channel 8. Or at least Wilmington channel 8. Instead of moving WDEL to channel 12, later to become a non-commercial station WWHY.

My reasoning is like this, the FCC wanted the Philadelphia area to have 5 allocations on VHF. But by the time they moved WDEL from channel 7 to channel 12 it was too late to reassign channel 8 to Philadelphia or Wilmington.

Just some thoughts.

 

[pab]

> Correct me if I am wrong

You're close, IIRC.

> The original VHF allocations for Philadelphia were
> 3, 6, 10, 12 with Channel 7 assigned to Wilmington.

> Anyway I can't figure out why they thought Channel 7 in
> Wilmington would work with a Channel 7 in NYC and DC.

There were a lot of cases of short-spacing in the early allocations that took the FCC by surprise. They honestly didn't realize just how much interference there would be from these allocations.

> Question is do you think Philadelphia didn't get Channel 8
> because of Wilmington getting Channel 7. Obviously you can't
> put channel 7 and 8 in the same market.

Philly DID get Channel 8, but lost it to Lancaster, but not because of Channel 7. It was just political maneuvering. Again, remember that there were only two "big" networks (NBC and CBS) and two smaller ones (DuMont and ABC) up until 1955 when DuMont signed off. It was common practice for stations to affiliate with multiple networks and pick and choose which shows they wanted from which. Thus, there was little need for more than three stations in a major market. Philly didn't really need 3, 6, 8, 10, and 12, so 8 went to Lancaster as WGAL and 12 went to Wilmington as WDEL.


> If the FCC had realized channel 7 wouldn't work in
> Wilmington first off do you think they would have given
> Philadelphia channel 8. Or at least Wilmington channel 8.
> Instead of moving WDEL to channel 12, later to become a
> non-commercial station WWHY.

I doubt it. If they had wanted 8 to stay in Philly, it would have.
<P ID="signature">______________
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[w9wi]

> Philly DID get Channel 8, but lost it to Lancaster, but not
> because of Channel 7. It was just political maneuvering.

WGAL-8 in Lancaster was already authorized (and I believe operating) at the time, but on channel 4. Obviously, channel 4 didn't work very well in Lancaster for the same reason channel 7 wasn't working in Wilmington! (isn't Lancaster even closer to Washington than Wilmington?)

If they decided they had to get WGAL off of channel 4, they had to put it *somewhere*:

2-11-13: not usable due to Baltimore
3-6-10: not usable due to Philadelphia
4-5-7-9: not usable due to Washington
UHF: politically impossible for existing VHF stations
8, 12: these were the two reasonable choices for WGAL and WDEL if they were to be moved from channels 4 and 7.

Did WDEL-7 actually cover Philadelphia? Today, it's reasonable to assume a VHF station is running the maximum power allowed by law. In the 1950s that assumption was not reasonable. Many stations were running as little as 1kw or so. I would not be certain WDEL-7 was watchable on typical equipment anywhere outside northern Delaware.

 

[KeithE]

> Correct me if I am wrong
>
> The original VHF allocations for Philadelphia were
> 3, 6, 10, 12 with Channel 7 assigned to Wilmington.
>
> I always thought Chicago was short changed on VHF
> allocations, but Philly seemed to get it worse.

Chicago got short-changed due to existing stations in Kalamazoo & Grand Rapids MI that interfered with co-channel stations in Milwaukee (WTMJ Ch. 3) and Chicago (WENR Ch. 7, now WLS), respectively. WTMJ had to move to Ch. 4, which caused WBBM Chicago to move from 4 to 2. WLAV Grand Rapids (now WOOD) moved from 7 to 8. Then the FCC thought it was a good idea for Rockford to have one VHF allocation, so 13 was moved from Chicago (where it wasn't being used as yet) to Rockford.

Boston also got short-changed due to the FCC's desire to have at least one VHF channel in every state. New Hampshire got 2 (9 & 11) so Boston lost out on those. Same goes for Pittsburgh with VHF allocations in Wheeling WV (7) and Steubenville OH (9) that would have been better in Pittsburgh.

> Anyway I can't figure out why they thought Channel 7 in
> Wilmington would work with a Channel 7 in NYC and DC.
>
> Question is do you think Philadelphia didn't get Channel 8
> because of Wilmington getting Channel 7. Obviously you can't
> put channel 7 and 8 in the same market.

Channel 8 was originally allocated to Allentown before 1952.

> If the FCC had realized channel 7 wouldn't work in
> Wilmington first off do you think they would have given
> Philadelphia channel 8. Or at least Wilmington channel 8.
> Instead of moving WDEL to channel 12, later to become a
> non-commercial station WWHY.
>
> My reasoning is like this, the FCC wanted the Philadelphia
> area to have 5 allocations on VHF. But by the time they
> moved WDEL from channel 7 to channel 12 it was too late to
> reassign channel 8 to Philadelphia or Wilmington.

I agree, but WGAL Lancaster was already on the air on Ch. 4 and wouldn't have moved to UHF without a fight, so IIRC they moved the Allentown allocation for Ch. 8 to Lancaster. Wilmington's Channel 12 assignment was logical.

Moving 8 to Lancaster also allowed that channel to be used in New Haven CT. WNHC was interfering with WFIL Philly on Channel 6 so it had to move as well.