Jefferson-Pilot screwed Raliegh out of 3 commercial VHF signal

[RickRose]

I just read that Jefferson-Pilot initially applied for a Raleigh TV station on Channel 4 but decided to give their research info to UNC since they wanted to launch an educational station. UNC could have used one of numerous UHF allotments allowing the big 3 networks their own VHF station in the market.

 

[Matt]

You don't have all of your facts here. In the first place, there were no UHF allotments when those applications were filed. This was before the freeze. I don't think channels 5 and 11 were even allocated at that time, and if they were, no one had applied for them before the FCC froze applications. Post-freeze, the allocations were 4 (already awarded to UNC as an educational allotment), 5 and 17 for Raleigh, and 11 and 28 for Durham. WTVD had been awarded Channel 11, and WPTF and WRAL were deadlocked in the applications process for Channel 5.

The Raleigh News and Observer moved VERY quickly to secure UHF channel 28 and get it on the air as WNAO-TV ahead of WUNC-TV, even though the University had the CP for their station earlier.

Secondly, given the regulatory environment before the freeze, one of the VHF allocations in North Carolina would likely have been reserved for educational use, so the odds are just as great that there still would not have been three VHF commercial allocations in the market.

Let's remember as well that a private business can do darn well what its owners want it to do, within the law, for reasons that seem justifiable to them. Jefferson Standard had a long-standing relationship with the University, and evidently Joe Bryan took that into consideration when he went contrary to what we, in our modern times, would consider a bad business move. 55 years after the fact, we might say that he "screwed" a market out of a VHF allocation, but we cannot know the entirety of Bryan's rationale for doing this. Certainly the tax write-off would not have been as valuable as the revenue gained from the station, but it's his perogative and HIS decision, made for reasons HE HIMSELF was satisfied with at the time.

I'm now going to hand you a hanky to dry your eyes with while I mop up the spilled milk on this floor.

Later...
Matt Smith