Longest Off-Air Hiatus of a Broadcast Station

[rwells2265]

(1)In 1968, the facilities of WAKA-8 in Selma AL (at the time a very low-powered CBS affiliate not allowed to expand its signal into the Montgomery market) were destroyed in a fire, and they did not return to the air until 1973 after new owners rebuilt the station. It returned as a CBS affiliate (and was finally allowed more powerful facilities in 1984, extending their coverage to Montgomery.)

Wasn't WAKA (at the time WSLA-TV) an ABC affiliate at the time of the fire, getting its programming from WBRC in Birmingham?

Yes, WSLA-TV was ABC ... and rebroadcast WBRC-6. At least when atmospheric conditions allowed it. Sometimes Channel 8 would transform itself into CBS, because WCTV-6/Thomasville-Tallahassee would muscle in on Birmingham. I've been entertained with many a tale about all the glitches which occurred .... the master control op would punch up WBRC's feed, crossing its fingers that ABC would be there, i.e. that the station didn't do a last-minute preemption.

To say nothing of viewers in Dallas County who were befuddled by occasional Birmingham commercials and ID slides for WBRC showing up on WSLA when the op was asleep at the wheel.....

WSLA was owned at the time by the Brennan family, their only foray into TV (they were best-known for owning top-40 blowtorches WVOK/B'ham, WBAM/Montgomery, WAPE/Jacksonville and WFLI/Chattanooga). The Brennans constantly hit brick walls with the FCC while trying to move it into Montgomery. (WCOV-20 was Mgm's CBS affil at the time, and they wasted no FCC resource in battling this "threat") Brennan's intent was to sell the station upon such approval. After the '68 fire, Brennan turned in its license, giving up their hopes of playing "Flip This TV Station."

WSLA-TV was brought back to life by the Charles Grisham (who put WHNT-19/Huntsville on the air in '63), and from that moment on was always CBS.

(Which brings up the question of why WCOV-TV didn't approach WSLA and offer to buy 'em out. Even with the FCC aggressively trying to prop up UHF, perhaps 'COV could've cited competitive pressures; WSFA-12 was the only VHF in the city, and always held a lopsided advantage. They still do, in fact.)

--Russell

 

[Ultimajock]

...since nobody else will go with this, I will ;-) -- 48 years for WCFL-TV Chicago. On June 19, 1928, the radio station of the Chicago Federation of Labor transmitted a public broadcast of inventor Ulises Sanabria's experiments. Later, the Federation applied for its own TV license and was granted a construction permit, which was in turn eventually sold to a group of televangelists and took to the air in the Autumn of 1976. Its first few test transmissions were of an ID slide identifying the station as WCFL-TV, as the FCC had not yet approved the change of call sign to WCFC. The station today operates as WCPX/38...

 

[ShawnHill1]

I think this qualifies here...San Diego's Channel 39. They originally signed on as KAAR-TV in November 1965, as the first commerical UHF station in America's Finest City. 39 was originally an independent station, with Channels 6, 8, and 10 were ABC, CBS, and NBC respectively, while Channel 15 was (and still is) public/educational. However, a fire in 1966 at their headquarters shut Channel 39 off for nearly two years, but returned under new calls (KCST) and new ownership. Of course, some of you may know the rest of story for 39...took ABC from Channel 6 (XETV) in '72, then swapped with Channel 10 (KGTV) for NBC in '77, where it's been ever since.

 

[KeithE4]

...since nobody else will go with this, I will ;-) -- 48 years for WCFL-TV Chicago. On June 19, 1928, the radio station of the Chicago Federation of Labor transmitted a public broadcast of inventor Ulises Sanabria's experiments. Later, the Federation applied for its own TV license and was granted a construction permit, which was in turn eventually sold to a group of televangelists and took to the air in the Autumn of 1976. Its first few test transmissions were of an ID slide identifying the station as WCFL-TV, as the FCC had not yet approved the change of call sign to WCFC. The station today operates as WCPX/38...

W9XAA was still licensed as of 1931, although it may have been off the air by that time. The test transmissions of WCFL-TV 38 occurred in mid or late April 1976 (from what I remember), with regular programming beginning May 31 as WCFC. I don't know exactly what year the CP for WCFL-TV was granted, but I do remember seeing it in station listings as early as 1968.

Even then, I'm not sure that this counts as this was an experimental mechanical-TV system operating (apparently) under a generic shorwave license owned by WCFL. The W9XAA calls were later used by WCFL for its shortwave station.

 

[TexasTom]

In most of the cases being mentioned here, there was no hiatus in the operation of a station - the original occupant's license expired or was surrendered for cancellation, and then another permit was issued to a different licensee for the same channel.

Yes, I noticed the same thing -- and those don't really count as a station being on hiatus. The reference to KFWT/KTXA channel 21 in Fort Worth is an example of a license being turned back to the FCC and an entirely new station being launched on the same frequency many years later.

For a continuously licensed station that is off the air for a long period of time, I believe that Peter George's earlier post in this thread covers the record holder: WNET/WSTG in Providence, RI. It was off the air for 25 years (1956 to 1981) and changed both channels and call letters while it was off the air. But the original WNET channel 16 license never was cancelled, was kicked around over the years, and did ultimately return to the air as WSTG on channel 64. It's amazing that the FCC didn't cancel a license that was silent for 25 years.

 

[dgendvil]

In Portland, everyone remembers when channel 6 (KOIN) was off the air for a month in March 1971 due to a transmitter fire in Sylvan Hills? For that time, CBS programming went to the old channel 3 (KVDO) in Salem for about a month or so until KOIN resumed it's programming about a month or two later. Since then no station in that area (or in the Northwest, in that matter) has suspended operation due to transmitter problems except KVDO switched to PBS in the late 70's, but moved to Bend (as KOAB-TV) by 1983 or '84, I think. What do you think about it?

 

[chuckydoll]

In Philadelphia there is the sad story of WKBS on channel 48 when was forced to sign off in 1983 due money problems.

WKBS was owned by Field Enterprises, which was broken up in the 80's by a family feud. The company found buyers for every Field station except WKBS. As a result WKBS signed off for good at midnight on September 1, 1983.

WGTW signed on in 1992 on Channel 48 with no ties to Field.

 

[Stanislav]

Back in around '89, the two towers of WRAL-5 and (then) WPTF-28 in Raleigh-Durham came down after an ice storm. I recall that 5 made a deal with WKFT-40 in Fayetteville to rebroadcast their signal (a blessing for 40, which was facing possible bankruptcy and needed an influx of cash). I think 28 did a similar deal with other indies in the area. Does anyone know how long their actual signals were off-air after that disaster?

 

[KML0224]

Didn't channel 40 of Fayetteville have their own probelms a few years ago?

 

[fortmill]

Back in around '89, the two towers of WRAL-5 and (then) WPTF-28 in Raleigh-Durham came down after an ice storm. I recall that 5 made a deal with WKFT-40 in Fayetteville to rebroadcast their signal (a blessing for 40, which was facing possible bankruptcy and needed an influx of cash). I think 28 did a similar deal with other indies in the area. Does anyone know how long their actual signals were off-air after that disaster?

WRAL-TV remained on WKFT/40 for over a year---they also hooked up a low powered tx on channel 5 from their studio tower, so technically they weren't off channel 5 all that time. WPTF/28 was relatively lucky--they still had their former 1300 ft tower near Apex(they'd only been on their new 2000 ft tower a year or so) and came back on at full power within a month or so. A new 2000 ft tower, much sturdier that the original 2 towers, was built for WRAL and WPTF (now WRDC) and WRAL-FM and WQDR-FM. Capital Broadcasting built yet another 2000 footer for digital---it holds WRAL-DT, WRDC-DT, and WNCN-TV/DT (NBC) and WLFL-DT (WLFL/22/CW is still on their tall tower near Apex).. I'm not sure if WRAZ/50/DT is on the digital tower or the analog tower. Meanwhile WTVD/11 and DT remains on their adjacent 2000 ft. tower, which was damaged but not destroyed during the ice-storm. When WRAL vacated the channel 40 facility, WKFT resumed operation as an independent station. ABout 5 years ago, a small aircraft clipped WKFT's 2000 ft tower near Sanford, sending it to the ground. WKFT did not resume operations and channel 40 remained dark for about 2 years until the license was purchased by Univision, who rebuilt the tower at the same location and resumed operations as WUVN as NC's first full power Univision affiliate.

 

[KML0224]

So it was a plane and not ice? OK...thank you for the clarification.

 

[FreddyE1977]

WPGH-TV 53 (FOX 53 in Pittsburgh) - signed-on as WKJF-TV in 1953 and went bankrupt the following
year. Returned as WPGH in 1969. Then it went under again in '71 before returning for good in January
1974.

Also WENS-TV 16, later WQEX. Signed on in 1953 and was gone by March of '55 when a storm blew down their tower. They were already tanking financially at that time. License eventually went to WQED which operated a secondary educational channel as WQEX beginning in 1959. It ran very sporadically over the years....sometimes they would be on for only 3 or 4 hours in the evening. They ran the original black-and-white transmitter (which was used when they got it) and when it had problems they would be down for exended periods of time. Finally it gave up the ghost alltogether in 1985, when QED again had them down for a year or more until a new color facility was built.

 

[Nitelinger]

My guess for the longest absence is WCAN-TV Channel 25 Milwaukee WI. It went off the air in 1955 and its "successor" didn't return until 1980.

The Milwaukee UHF situation in the mid-late '50s was probably a bigger clusterf*** than the Chicago Paramount/ABC/CBS/WBKB/WENR/WBBM/Channel 2-4-7 mess of 1953. WCAN maintained a CP until the late '70s that included a one-channel downshift for all Milwaukee UHF allocations in 1958. It returned to the air as WCGV Channel 24 in 1980. IIRC, the license for WCAN-TV was never returned to the FCC.

While it may have been the longest broadcasting station absence, your facts aren't quite right. Lou Poller held the CP for WCAN-TV through most of 1966, when he sold it to the Field Communications Corp. (WFLD). The FCC approved the sale on 21 December of that year. Field searched desperately for a tower location, but was turned down by several communities, and they never built the station. The FCC deleted the CP in 1969.

B&F Broadcasting applied for Ch. 24 in 1973; receiving the CP the same year. WCGV-TV went on the air in 1980.

 

[MikefromDelaware]

Probably wasn't the longest, but may be one of the earliest. Wilmington Delaware's channel 7 (WDEL-TV), I believe it was 1949 when it went on the air, a couple of years later was moved to channel 12 due the closeness of both NYC and Wash DC's channel's 7 respectively as their signals clashed. WDEL-TV (NBC afilliate) gave way to WPHF ? (independent) and then WVUE (independent) when it finall went dark in 1958 and came back in 1963 as WHYY-TV (then NET affliate, today PBS affilliate).