Got a history of translators? How long have they been around?

[zman]

In La Salle Illinois we used to have two translators. Channel 78 used to rebroadcast channel 19 out of Peoria and channel 71 used to re broadcast channel 31 out of Peoria.

LaSalle/Peru also had the old WEEQ, channel 35, which was a repeater of WEEK (NBC) in Peoria (originally on channel 43 until 1964, then 25 thereafter). Channel 35 in this area is WWTO (TBN).

When did all of these translators in LaSalle suspend operations, and did this result in at least part of LaSalle County being placed in the Peoria/Bloomington market for a while
instead of Chicago? Also, I'm surprised there was never at least a translator for PBS in LaSalle/Peru (possibly a translator of WTVP-47 Peoria or WTTW-11 Chicago).

I want to say that Channel 71 was still on the air as late as 1980. We grew up in Tonica just south of La Salle and we actually got a better signal on channel 31 then we did on Channel 71. I don't remember when Channel 78 went dark. The channel 71 tower is still standing. One of our radio stations WBZG 100.9 FM Peru Illinois used to lease space on the tower until we built our own tower a few years ago. I'm not sure if channel 31 still owns the tower but they did when we leased space on it and taht was up until I beleive 2000.

The old channel 35 tower was torn down a couple years ago. I don't know what happend to the channel 78 tower or where it was located.

 

[mjlarochelle]

Also, M.J., how about translators for stations in Nova Scotia, a province I visited in 1980 and 1983?

CBHT (Channel 3) in Halifax signed on in December 1954, and within ten years had four translators: CBHT-1 (Ch. 12) Liverpool and CBHT-2 (Ch. 7) Shelburne (both signed on November 24, 1958), CBHT-3 (Ch. 11) Yarmouth (sign-on December 20, 1958), and CBHT-4 (Ch. 11) Sheet Harbour (sign-on February 19, 1964). CBHT-1 broadcasts at only 1.952 kW today, and I am guessing has had that power since 1958. The other three are higher-powered but are all below 40 kW.

CJCH-TV (Channel 5) in Halifax, which signed on in 1961, had three translators at Canning, Bayview, and Amherst by 1969. Most of the other translators for CJCH and CJCB-TV (Channel 4) Sydney came about in the 1970s. In New Brunswick, by 1965, CKCW-TV (Channel 2) Moncton had three translators in Northeastern New Brunswick and three translators in the Gaspe region of Quebec. The translator at Upsalquitch, New Brunswick is a full-power transmitter, but the rest were low-power. The Quebec translators are all gone and today the only English service there is rebroadcast from CBMT in Montreal.

 

[Bluenoser]

CJCH-TV (Channel 5) in Halifax, which signed on in 1961, had three translators at Canning, Bayview, and Amherst by 1969. Most of the other translators for CJCH and CJCB-TV (Channel 4) Sydney came about in the 1970s. In New Brunswick, by 1965, CKCW-TV (Channel 2) Moncton had three translators in Northeastern New Brunswick and three translators in the Gaspe region of Quebec. The translator at Upsalquitch, New Brunswick is a full-power transmitter, but the rest were low-power. The Quebec translators are all gone and today the only English service there is rebroadcast from CBMT in Montreal.

From what I've read, the Amherst CJCH relay [ch 8] disappeared in the early 70s when ATV was created (Amherst is only 40 miles from Moncton), with the allocation moved to Summerside, PEI (ch 8 is now the main ATV relay for the Island, with a second relay at St Edward in western Prince County). The Quebec CKCW relays were at Mont-Blanc/Perce, Mont-Bechervaise/Gaspe and Murdochville. Speaking of Quebec relays, through much of the 80s, there were 2 Gaspesie relays listed in the Canadian Almanac & Directoryfor CHSJ Saint John (then the NB CBC affiliate); strangely enough, they were never mentioned on-air at sign-on/sign-off...

 

[mmb5]

Ypsilanti, MI has a translator for WLNS-6 (CBS) from Lansing. Which is odd, because Ypsilanti is in the Detroit DMA and the CBS signal (first WJBK-2, now WWJ-62) can be received pretty well.

Is it carried on cable there or OTA only? Very interesting example.

OTA only. It's gettable in Ypsilanti and the eastern part of Ann Arbor.

 

[chuckydoll]

Translating TV/30 from Hartford

WVIT-TV (NBC) channel 30 of New Britain/Hartford, didn't always have the 3 million + watt signal and cable coverage they enjoy now.

"NBC, TV/30" was officially WHNB-TV prior to 1978. It had cable carriage on eastern Long Island because it was a full-fledged station with a regular NBC schedule.

The FCC requires a legal ID for translators 3 times a day through the main station. WHNB-TV prepared a special legal-ID slide with logos that were similar to the regular TV/30 logo. When that particular slide came up the booth announcer said "This is NBC, TV/30 and 79". Later it was "This is NBC, TV/30, 59 and 79".

WHNB-TV also acknowledged the translators each day at sign-on and sign-off. To this day I remember the callsigns: W79AI/Torrington and W79AK (later W59AA)/West Haven.

 

[oldschooler1]

WCNY/24, PBS in Syracuse, NY used to have at least two translators for many years: ch. 62, to hit the southern portion of Onondaga County (some very deep valleys), and ch. 59..? (I think), serving the Utica/Rome market.
Anyone know of other WCNY translators?
As well, before WFYF/WWTI went on the air as ch. 50 in Watertown (w/ a tower in nearby Lewis County), WUTR/20 in Utica used 50 as a translator to get its signal up there, though I don't know if it was a full power signal.
WENY/36 in Elmira,NY used to have a translator on ch. 7 in Ithaca, to hit the Ithaca city valley...
I recall finding a translator for WNEP/16 Scranton in Bradford County, on some UHF channel like ch. 11...And that was just five years ago.
WVIA/44, PBS in Scranton, used to have a boatload of translators across eastern PA...Listing them took up an entire screen!
Often these things are used nowadays just to give a clear signal to the local cable head-end.

 

[Bob1370]

A lot of stations used translators to stretch their signals in the days before they fully maximized their main signal antenna towers and ERP.

Case in point; WGR-TV in Buffalo (now WGRZ-TV), which is licensed on Channel 2, had a translator in Jamestown (about 65 miles south of their city of license) on Channel 6 which ran fairly hefty power as translators go (about 1000 watts ERP, IIRC). Their main Channel 2 signal, which originated from a city location not far from downtown Buffalo at first, had a lower antenna (maybe 500 to 550 feet above terrain initially) than their main competitors, 4 and 7, which sent their respective 100 kilowatts radiating from atop tall towers located on high ground in the Boston Hills south of town and blanketed the region.

When WGR-TV moved its transmitter into the hills in southern Erie County and boosted its antenna height to more closely match the competition during the mid-1960s, it shut down the Jamestown translator as superfluous.

 

[RadioDze]

The 11-station University of North Carolina Center for Public Television (UNC-TV) still operates an extensive network of 24 translators in the North Carolina mountains. Also, Durham-licensed WRDU-TV 28 (now My Network TV affiliate WRDC), which signed on in 1968 and was Raleigh-Durham's late comer NBC affiliate, operated a translator in Raleigh on channel 70, though nobody seems to remembr the call sign. When VHF drop-in WFXI-TV 8 signed on from Morehead City in 1989, it was rebroadcast on a Kinton translator, W64AZ. Thy later signe on a full power UHF from Greenville, WYDO-TV 14, which no doubt took care of Kinston and then some.

 

[Markxxx]

When I lived in Florida, (in the Keys and in Naples) they had translators but they were awful. I would take my portable TV and once you got past 1/2 mile from the transmitter the station would die out. The Keys were hopeless w/o cable but a lot of people in SW Florida had tall antenna aimed at Tampa and Miami which brought in the signals OK (by then standards)

 

[azumanga]

Does the Monroe County government still own translators to bring in the Miami stations? I know some of the Miami stations own their own translators in Key West, but what about the county-owned ones?

 

[w9wi]

Does the Monroe County government still own translators to bring in the Miami stations? I know some of the Miami stations own their own translators in Key West, but what about the county-owned ones?

Not anymore. It looks like Cayo Hueso Networks, Inc. has bought all the translators in the Keys.

 

[mjlarochelle]

WCNY/24, PBS in Syracuse, NY used to have at least two translators for many years: ch. 62, to hit the southern portion of Onondaga County (some very deep valleys), and ch. 59..? (I think), serving the Utica/Rome market.
Anyone know of other WCNY translators?
As well, before WFYF/WWTI went on the air as ch. 50 in Watertown (w/ a tower in nearby Lewis County), WUTR/20 in Utica used 50 as a translator to get its signal up there, though I don't know if it was a full power signal.
WENY/36 in Elmira,NY used to have a translator on ch. 7 in Ithaca, to hit the Ithaca city valley...
I recall finding a translator for WNEP/16 Scranton in Bradford County, on some UHF channel like ch. 11...And that was just five years ago.
WVIA/44, PBS in Scranton, used to have a boatload of translators across eastern PA...Listing them took up an entire screen!
Often these things are used nowadays just to give a clear signal to the local cable head-end.

WNED/17 in Buffalo used to have 25 translators, which were listed on three separate slides in an ID! I know some of the translators are still in operation but not all of them. See http://youtube.com/watch?v=sogAv7Gl1x0