Looking for good resource on Philadelphia TV history

[pabsungenis]

I'm participating in National Novel Writing Month in November of this year, and am considering making my project a novel of the early (and I mean REALLY early, like 1939-1947) days of television.While the obvious setting for this story would be in New York, I'm half tempted to set it in Philly instead. The basic set-up would be that a fictitious department store (along the lines of John Wanamaker's) would start their own station to help promote the sales of TV's by offering programming. Considering that Philco started W3XE so people would have something to watch on their new sets (the same reason Allen B. DuMont founded WABD in New York), it's not that unreasonable to assume.I know of a few anecdotes about the early days at W3XE, but I'm looking for a more in-depth history, either in print or on-line. One book I read mentioned (in passing) W3XAW saying that it later became WCAU, but everything I've seen on WCAU says the Bulletin first signed it on in 1948, and says nothing about the experimental days. Likewise, WPVI has no history past WFIL-TV's sign-on in 1947. So what ever became of W3XAW?Also, when was Channel 8 deleted from the Philadelphia allotment and moved to Lancaster? The logical place to put my fictitious station would obviously be Channel 8 (to avoid any comparison or collision with existing Philly TV properties), and the deletion of the allocation would also give me a logical reason to end the fictitious station's existence.Any good sources anyone can point me to, or any tidbits you'd like to post here, I would greatly appreciate.

 

[NeilRattigan]

Pab:The Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia has an excellent website.Go to www.broadcastpioneers.comIt may not have everything you want, but it will have most of what you need.

 

[Rockin Rob]

Try doing a Google search on UHF GraveyardIIRC, they have stories on abandoned UHF licenses, including the ORIGINAL Channel 48 (WKBS), including the sale from Kaiser to Field and the subsequent family tiff that resulted in the demise.