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Educational Stations on VHF (but not LA?)

G

Gregg

In the early days of TV, educational stations were
signing on the air in most large cities... except
LA. In fact, LA is the only U.S. market with 7
commercial VHF stations, none non-profit.

In NYC, Channel 13 had been a commercial station
running a mix of English, Italian and other ethnic
programs in the 50s till it was turned into an
educational outlet. Same in Philly with Channel 12.
(Actually 12 is licensed to Wilmington and 13 to
Newark but they serve the larger markets as PBS
affiliates.)

Boston, Miami and Minneapolis apparently had such
wise TV pioneers that educational stations got the
coveted Channel 2! San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago,
Phoenix, Tuscon, Dallas, Atlanta, both Portlands and
many other cities also got educational stations in
time for them to be on VHF channels.

So why did LA wind up with its PBS station on Ch.
28? Was there any effort to get KCET a VHF channel?
Were they also asleep at the wheel in the nation's
capital with WETA on UHF Ch. 26?




Gregg
[email protected]
 
To answer Gregg's questions:

No "educational" TV allocations were made by the FCC prior to the mid-1952 lifting of the "freeze" that for four years had prevented any new TV stations from being licensed.

By the time the first educational TV allocations were made, Los Angeles already had seven commercial VHF's on the air.

Boston, Minneapolis/St. Paul, and Miami had "open" VHF channels that were allocated for educational use.

If Los Angeles had an "open" VHF channel when the freeze was lifted in 1952, it would have without doubt become an educational allocation. But with seven VHF's, there was no way (due to adjacant-channel rules) that an eighth VHF could have been placed into the L.A. area.
 
> If Los Angeles had an "open" VHF channel when the freeze was
> lifted in 1952, it would have without doubt become an
> educational allocation. But with seven VHF's, there was no
> way (due to adjacant-channel rules) that an eighth VHF could
> have been placed into the L.A. area.

Also, New York's PBS station started out as a commercial station. It became non-commercial in the early 1960s when the owner -- National Telefilm Associates -- was going under, and the licensees of the other commercial VHFs (CBS, NBC, Metromedia, ABC, RKO, and the New York Daily News) jointly purchased the license and turned it over to a non-profit foundation to operate as an "educational" station.<P ID="signature">______________


</P>
 
Almost correct, Joe. But Boston's Channel 2 was originally an commercial allocation with WRTB-TV, Waltham (a Boston suburb) having a Construction Permit in the early 1950's. It was never constructed. However, the permittee, Raytheon Corporation gave the CP to the fledgling WGBH Educational Foundation (licensee of WGBH-FM/89.7). The rest, as they say, is history.

73,

Peter Q.


> Boston, Minneapolis/St. Paul, and Miami had "open" VHF
> channels that were allocated for educational use.
> <P ID="signature">______________
Peter Q. George (K1XRB)
Whitman, Massachusetts</P>
 
"Both Portlands"? Kind of. I assume you're referring to WCBB-TV (PBS) channel 10, which is licesned to Augusta, ME, a good distance to the north from Portland (but still with the Portland/Poland Spring DMA). The station call letters stood for Colby, Bates and Bowdoin Colleges, the original triumverate which held the station's license (correct me if I'm wrong!). They became a portion of Maine PBS in the early 1990s.
 
The Salt Lake City market have three educational stations, all on VHF (channels 7, 9, and 11), while in the Denver area, they are two of their educational stations on VHF (Channels 6 and 12).
 
I offer my consipiracy theory here.

I find it more than a little supsicious that DC, NYC and LA all didn't have any non commercial VHFs

Hmmm

Remember in 1950 Chicago was still bigger than LA.

Philly also got ripped off with VHF allocatios worse than Chgo.

So is it he political clout of DC that "saved" them. Or is it the fact that DC, NYC and LA are all "initial cities"

LOL

---Posted half tongue in cheek----
<P ID="signature">______________
Once I figured out the meaning of life....Then I forgot to write it down.</P>
 
> So is it he political clout of DC that "saved" them. Or is
> it the fact that DC, NYC and LA are all "initial cities"

As Joseph said, yes. By the time non-commercial allocations were created, all technically possible VHF channels in those cities were in use already.<P ID="signature">______________


</P>
 
I was surprised to learn that Houston had the first educational station. Interesting website. Thanks, Chuck.
 
> "Both Portlands"? Kind of. I assume you're referring to
> WCBB-TV (PBS) channel 10, which is licesned to Augusta, ME,
> a good distance to the north from Portland (but still with
> the Portland/Poland Spring DMA). The station call letters
> stood for Colby, Bates and Bowdoin Colleges, the original
> triumverate which held the station's license (correct me if
> I'm wrong!). They became a portion of Maine PBS in the early
> 1990s.
>

Yes. Even though it's licensed to the state capital, the
WCBB transmitter is near Lewiston, halfway between Portland
and Augusta. So all three cities got a good signal.
Communities in Southern Maine might have some trouble
picking it up, but just over the Maine-New Hampshire border
is PBS Ch. 11, licensed to Durham, home of the Univ. of NH.
 
> I offer this history from the very first non-commercial
> television licensee in the nation, KUHT Channel 8 Houston,
> Texas. Enjoy:
>
ht> tp://www.houstonpbs.org/site/PageServer?pagename=abt_history
>

In what is now the Raleigh-Durham-Fayetteville, NC TV market, we had the nation's 10th educational TV station and VHF, WUNC-TV, channel 4, Chapel Hill, which signed on January 8<sup>th</sup>, 1955. Channel 4 wasn't originally set aside as non-commercial, and was allocated to Durham. Jefferson Pilot Insurance Company, which started radio and television in the Carolinas with Charlotte's WBT and WBTV, respectively, was pursuing a license for the channel. Officials with the University of North Carolina wanted an educational TV station. When Jefferson Pilot President Joseph Bryan learned of the University's plans, he dropped his company's plans for the commercial TV station and provided UNC with the paperwork they had already done. To this day, the market has only two commercial VHFs, Durham's WTVD, channel 11 (ABC) and Raleigh's WRAL-TV, channel 5 (CBS). <P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by RadioDaze on 08/30/05 04:34 AM.</FONT></P>
 
Wilmington Delaware's commercial TV station had a difficult time, starting out in 1948 as WDEL-TV channel 7, then being moved to channel 12 so it wouldn't interfere with NYC or DC's channel 7's. Channel 12 (WVUE) also went dark in 1958 after the third attempt by different owners and different calls to make a go of it without being a network affiliate. Philly's KYW channel 3 had requested that NBC pull its TV affiliation from Wilmington's WDEL-TV back in early 1950's which it did making the Wilmington station an independent and unfortunately a money loser. It became an educational NET (National Educational Television) affiliate as WHYY in 1963. The station is licensed to Wilmington, but has only a small studio for a local newscast in Wilmington. The larger studio, offices, transmitter, etc are located in Philly.

> > If Los Angeles had an "open" VHF channel when the freeze
> was
> > lifted in 1952, it would have without doubt become an
> > educational allocation. But with seven VHF's, there was no
>
> > way (due to adjacant-channel rules) that an eighth VHF
> could
> > have been placed into the L.A. area.
>
> Also, New York's PBS station started out as a commercial
> station. It became non-commercial in the early 1960s when
> the owner -- National Telefilm Associates -- was going
> under, and the licensees of the other commercial VHFs (CBS,
> NBC, Metromedia, ABC, RKO, and the New York Daily News)
> jointly purchased the license and turned it over to a
> non-profit foundation to operate as an "educational"
> station.
>
 
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