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Longest commercial VHF vacancy in a major market

S

Stanislav

In past threads, we've noted some odd early instances in which a UHF station signed on in spite of there being an available VHF allocation in the market.

That led me to the more general query: What is the longest a commercial VHF allocation remained vacant in a major or mid-major market? (Let's say, the top 50-100 markets.)
 
A lot of markets had their third V stay open deep into the 1950s or early 1960s because of a logjam of competing applicants for what would clearly be, 1) an ABC affiliate at a time when that network was beginning to get real traction wherever it was seen, and 2) instantly profitable the moment it signed on. Boston didn't get a third commercial V until WHDH-TV signed on in 1957 on Channel 5. It would be another year (late November 1958) before Buffalo's third V, WKBW-TV Channel 7, was authorized ending a decade-long competition for the channel. That same year of 1958, Pittsburgh got its third V, WTAE Channel 4, only a year after WIIC Channel 11 signed on and became its second VHF. Pittsburgh had been nominally a three-V market since the first channel allocation came out at the end of 1945.

Cities in the second tier of markets waited even longer...Rochester and Syracuse didn't get their third V's until September of 1962 after years of wrangling in competitive hearings.
 
I have no idea of how long its CP existed, but Miami's commercial ch 6 did not make it to air until September 1967---Miami's first "indie", at least in my lifetime.

Ch 6 had to have its antenna located in a spot where it would not interfere either with the 6 in Orlando OR ch 5 in West Palm Beach.

I have been checking the Miami News archives online---before the 6 transmitter settled in Princeton (about 30 miles south of Miami), there was an article of it being considered located in Islandia, a village off the mainland, which I believe has its homes on stilts!

Miami's chs 7 & 10 signed on in 1956 & 1957 respectfully, and Miami in the mid 50s had two UHF stations, on 17 & 23. Needless to say, in an era where many TVs were VHF-only, 17 & 23 died a quick death. ISTR one article showing where 17 wanted to apply for ch 6 when the allocation opened up. That was, of course, 10 years before WCIX 6 debuted.

Any top-50-markets' VHF debuting later? :D

cd
 
Interesting question. It'll require further study but I suspect the answer may be KVNV-3 Ely, Nevada. Channel 3 at Ely was in the initial 1952 allotment table; KVNV signed on July 9, 2001; and to my knowledge no other station ever operated on that allotment. That would make for a 49-year vacancy. Ely is in the Salt Lake City market, #36 today.

Channel 10 at Elko, Nevada was also in the initial table; it was vacant for 45 years until KENV signed on. Channel 12 at Logan, Utah was in the initial table, and the station currently using the channel didn't sign on until the beginning of 2001 -- but IIRC another station used the channel for a few years in the 1950s, so it wasn't vacant for the entire 48-year period.

Remember that some of the VHF channels present in the final analog table were *not* allotted in the initial 1952 table -- they were added later. The last commercial VHF to sign on may not be the one whose channel was vacant the longest, if that channel was not allotted until the 1980s.

It would be worthwhile to examine the geographically-huge Denver, Salt Lake, Phoenix, Wichita, and Albuquerque markets for other stations that may be better answers.

It would be a dramatically different question if you limited answers to stations with coverage of the central city of the market. (hint: I suspect channel 13 at Salt Lake City proper may be the answer) If you limited answers to stations with coverage of the central city but allowed non-commercial stations, I suspect the answer would be channel 12 at Boulder, Colorado, (covering Denver) vacant for 35 years.

It would also matter whether you mean top-50 *today* or top-50 when the channel was allotted. (of course, none of the markets mentioned above was likely to have been top-50-ranked when most of these channels were initially allotted in 1952)
 
Ah, ch 13 SLC.....I wonder why the 13 allocation was dormant for so long, and why only in 1980 the FCC table included it (per Wikipedia)....

If SLC is in the top 50, I think we have a winner.

cd
 
I'm sure the SLC-13 allocation was vacant for seven years because people were fighting over it. Battles over open VHF channels didn't end in the 1950s!

Channel 13 at Salt Lake City is a short-spaced allocation. The same channel was allotted to Rock Springs, Wyoming in the initial table. Rock Springs and Salt Lake City are 243km apart -- 305km was required. A number of short-spaced dropin allocations were made available in the 1970s, this would be one of them.

Channel 3 in Douglas, Arizona comes within a few weeks of matching KVNV's record.
 
How about WSKY Ch. 4 in Manteo, NC (part of the
Hampton Roads market)? It's been on since October
2001. Channel 4 was originally assigned to Norfolk,
and WTAR/WTKR started there in 1950, later reassigned
to Ch. 3.
 
Does Johnstown/Altoona (PA) count? For many years, their market had PBS on 3, NBC on 6 and CBS on 10. I know WWCP-TV (FOX) channel 8 of Johnstown came on much later...1986 maybe? I think they were short spaced to WGAL-TV (NBC) channel 8 of Lancaster/Harrisburg, which came on a lot earlier than WWCP-TV did.
 
WSKY and WWCP (and 13 Salt Lake, too, if memory serves) were all part of a wave of 1980s drop-in allocations that were added to the table when political pressure on the FCC allowed a slight easing of what had been hard and fast spacing rules.

WSKY's channel 4 allocation wasn't really the same "4" allocation that WTAR-TV used at the beginning. The table was completely revised in 1952 at the end of the freeze, moving dozens of stations to new channels. WTAR's post-1952 channel 3 allocation was mutually exclusive to its old 4, and so 4 was unavailable at Hampton Roads until the drop-in rules came into play.

One that's always intrigued me is channel 4 at Utica NY. I believe it was dropped in in the 1980s as well, and was never used - or, as best I can tell, even applied for. Utica had one longstanding commercial V (WKTV/NBC, which started on 13 and moved to 2 in an allocations shuffle in the late 1950s) and two commercial Us (WUTR/ABC, which signed on in 1970 on channel 20 and WFXV/Fox, which signed on around 1986 on 33), and 4 would have been a logical CBS affiliate. I think channel 4 (like WKTV's channel 2) would have had to be built way to the east of Utica to avoid short-spacing to Buffalo, and maybe that's why the more centrally-located WUTR and WFXV didn't seek to make a U-to-V move.
 
Scott Fybush said:
WSKY and WWCP (and 13 Salt Lake, too, if memory serves) were all part of a wave of 1980s drop-in allocations that were added to the table when political pressure on the FCC allowed a slight easing of what had been hard and fast spacing rules.

WSKY's channel 4 allocation wasn't really the same "4" allocation that WTAR-TV used at the beginning. The table was completely revised in 1952 at the end of the freeze, moving dozens of stations to new channels. WTAR's post-1952 channel 3 allocation was mutually exclusive to its old 4, and so 4 was unavailable at Hampton Roads until the drop-in rules came into play.

One that's always intrigued me is channel 4 at Utica NY. I believe it was dropped in in the 1980s as well, and was never used - or, as best I can tell, even applied for. Utica had one longstanding commercial V (WKTV/NBC, which started on 13 and moved to 2 in an allocations shuffle in the late 1950s) and two commercial Us (WUTR/ABC, which signed on in 1970 on channel 20 and WFXV/Fox, which signed on around 1986 on 33), and 4 would have been a logical CBS affiliate. I think channel 4 (like WKTV's channel 2) would have had to be built way to the east of Utica to avoid short-spacing to Buffalo, and maybe that's why the more centrally-located WUTR and WFXV didn't seek to make a U-to-V move.
Click to expand...

It looks like several of the examples mentioned so far were site-restricted due to spacing, or were outlying "rimshotting" allocations on the fringe of the market. Until cable and "must carry" somewhat leveled the playing field, it's not difficult to understand why these allocations weren't exactly highly-sought when TV was still primarily OTA, and anyone using the "fringe" allocation would have been at a disadvantage from the start.

One question about Utica, though: if the ch. 4 allocation would have been short-spaced to Buffalo, why wasn't Utica's ch. 2 in a similar pickle with regard to Buffalo's 2?
 
It was site-restricted - that's why the WKTV transmitter is about 15 miles east of Utica (and, indirectly, why the western half of Oneida County is in the Syracuse TV market.)

In its Channel 13 days, WKTV was right up on Smith Hill where its studios are still located.
 
Stanislav said:
It looks like several of the examples mentioned so far were site-restricted due to spacing, or were outlying "rimshotting" allocations on the fringe of the market. Until cable and "must carry" somewhat leveled the playing field, it's not difficult to understand why these allocations weren't exactly highly-sought when TV was still primarily OTA, and anyone using the "fringe" allocation would have been at a disadvantage from the start.
Click to expand...

Most of these dropins were *not* site-restricted. (I would suggest the Utica assignments were unusual, if not unique, in that way) Channel 13 SLC, for example, was co-sited with the rest of the market's stations. The dropins existed *because* they were highly sought after -- UHF channels were (usually) available but everyone wanted VHF.

You certainly have a point regarding the "rimshotters" -- indeed, nobody really expected them to have any audience in the central city at all. The FCC allocated them thinking someday, the economics would be such that someone would be able to make money operating a local TV station in Ely, Nevada; I can't exactly say I'd have disagreed with them at the time. These allocations weren't preventing use of the channels anywhere else where anyone would want to use them, so there really wasn't any need to delete them..

KML-224: channel 8 in Johnstown was one of those dropin allotments. I can't (quickly) find a date for when the allotment was created but would believe sometime in 1980. That would leave it vacant for about six years before WWCP signed on. (and I'm sure that delay was for litigation...)


Scott: I remember some offset shuffling when the Utica channel 4 assignment was made. Didn't some offsets get shuffled as far west as Wisconsin? -- ISTR WTMJ getting shuffled from zero to plus?
 
At college in the mid-80's I remember UHF Channel 23 in Charleston, West Virginia, moving to Channel 11, where it's a Fox affiliate today.
 
WVAH on Channel 11 was another one of the "class of 1980" drop-in allocations. It is indeed short-spaced to Pittsburgh and Louisville.
 
Scott Fybush said:
WVAH on Channel 11 was another one of the "class of 1980" drop-in allocations. It is indeed short-spaced to Pittsburgh and Louisville.
Click to expand...

As I recall, there were four of those "class of 1980" short spaced drop-ins, three of which have already been mentioned in this thread: Channel 8 in Johnstown, PA, Channel 11 in Charleston, WV, and Channel 13 in Salt Lake City.

The fourth drop-in was Channel 8 in Knoxville,TN.

It's interesting to note that three of these drop-ins became home to stations that started out on UHF and moved to the VHF drop-in: WVAH channel 23/11 Charleston, KSTU channel 20/13 Salt Lake City, and WTVK channel 26/8 Knoxville (although I believe they changed call letters aftger the channel move).
 
As a side note, if you ignore some of the distant "rimshot" stations (ie, channel 3 in Ely, NV really can't be received off-air in the SLC metro), one thing that becomes clear is how few markets of any size had more than three or four commercial VHF allocations.

In major markets, NYC and LA each had seven commercial VHF allocations (although one of the seven has been used by a non-comm station in NYC for the last fifty years or so). After that, the only other top 50 market to have more than four commercial VHF allocations is Seattle/Tacoma. In smaller markets, Honolulu also has five (although the fifth commercial allocation wasn't added until the eighties), as do Boise/Nampa/Caldwell, ID and Anchorage, AK.

And even the number of major market with four commercial VHF allocations was pretty low: Chicago, Philadelphia/Wilmington (but the fourth commercial VHF slot is filled by non-commercial WHYY), San Francisco/Oakland, Washington (DC), Saint Louis, Miami, Phoenix, Portland (OR), and Denver. An additional two (Charleston, Salt Lake City) were added in 1980. And a four commercial VHF allocation market that used to be a small market (Las Vegas) has grown up into a major market in recent years.

So, really, if you go back to the the fifties and sixties, the overwhelming majority of major (top 50 market) commercial VHF allocations were in areas with three or fewer commercial VHF stations, which guaranteed a network affiliations and the profitability associated with running a major network affiliate. In turn, that meant that these allocations weren't going to be allowed to remain fallow for long.

The only economically marginal major market VHF commercial stations that I can think of from those days were WNTA channel 13 in NYC, channel 12 in Wilmington,DE (I can't remember the commercial call letters for this station), and KTVW channel 13 in Tacoma, WA.
 
Reno added a fourth commercial V when KRXI 11 was dropped in. I believe that drop-in channel came somewhat after the "class of 1980," but I don't know much about the back story there.
 
Re the Utica situation: I was working at WUTR right after they signed on. I know that Roy H. Park wanted a "V" but was told none were available (by whom?). I, also, know Park wanted CBS affiliation for Utica. At the time he owned five other CBS stations. Some of them in pretty decent sized markets. He personally got involved and was shot down because Meredith (which owned WTVH in Syracuse) seemed to have more pull with CBS and blocked the affiliation for Utica. It was a personal disappointment for Mr. Park. WUTR had to settle for ABC, which at the time, was a little bit more important than The CW is now. I know this because I had conversations with big wigs From Park Broadcasting and with Mr. Park himself.
Now another side of this is that Park owned six other TV stations at the time. Five "V"'s and one "U". FCC rules at the time allowed ownership of seven TV stations. Five "V"'s and Two "U"s. The Utica station would compliment his ownership of seven TV, seven Am's and seven FM's. The only company in the country (at the time) to do so. So it would appear Park wouldn't be able to put channel 4 on in Utica without a change of FCC policy -which came about 25 years later.

There was a time in the mid 70's it was going around that in Syracuse WTVH (CBS) and WNYS (now WSYR-TV ABC) would be swapping networks. Once again the rumors spread on Smith Hill that WUTR would then become CBS. Never happened.
I seem to remember talk about that there was a channel four allocation in the Utica in the 1950's. Everyone expected WIBX radio to take it and become Utica's CBS. WIBX had just spent a lot of money on their own upgrade and passed on it. So channel 4 was with drawn from the market. Then in the late 70's it was revealed that the allocation was still there and had never been withdrawn. Just what I know.
 
TexasTom said:
And even the number of major market with four commercial VHF allocations was pretty low: Chicago, Philadelphia/Wilmington (but the fourth commercial VHF slot is filled by non-commercial WHYY), San Francisco/Oakland, Washington (DC), Saint Louis, Miami, Phoenix, Portland (OR), and Denver. An additional two (Charleston, Salt Lake City) were added in 1980. And a four commercial VHF allocation market that used to be a small market (Las Vegas) has grown up into a major market in recent years.
Click to expand...

The Indianapolis market had 4 VHF allocations, down from 5 in the 1947 table. Bloomington is part of the Indy market. Tucson also had 4 since Nogales is considered part of that market.

Phoenix was considered a medium-small market when channels were allocated in 1952 (about 350,000 population at that time).

Boston was originally a 4 commercial-channel market. If Raytheon's WRTB-TV/2 had gone on the air, WGBH would have had to settle for UHF.
 
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