Hi Folks,
Just read at fybush.com that Milton Grant, the man behind "Philly 57" and the namesake of 57's call letters from 1985-1995 passed away. Grant bought WWSG, Channel 57 in 1985. At that time, WWSG was a "subscription TV" station, as they carried PRISM scrambled. Shortly after closing on his purchase, Grant upped Channel 57's power to 5000 kw, took PRISM off, unscrambled the signal, and began a general entertainment format as WGBS/Philly 57. Many would say that 57 was the "replacement" for WKBS which had gone dark two years earlier. In my opinion, for its time, Philly 57's production and on-screen look was very slick- classic reruns, Flyers hockey, catchy jingles proclaiming "Philly's Own Superstation", Kim Martin's witty announcing, and state of the art computer graphics. At the time, I thought it was a better station than WPHL and WTAF/WTXF.
Unfortunately, Grant overextended himself. At the time, there were also two upstarts in the Philly market. Around the time of Grant's purchase of WWSG, Channel 65 in Vineland, NJ was purchased by the Asbury Park Press newspaper and rechristened as WSJT. Also in the mid-1980s, an investor group put Channel 61 licensed to Wilmington, DE on the air as WTGI. While 57 had a superior signal, compared with Channels 65 and 61 whose towers were in Southwest NJ, all three competed from competitive programming, particularly, the owners of WSJT. The same scenerio played out at the same time in Chicago and Miami where Grant owned stations. Eventually, Grant won the bidding battle, but lost the war, as WGBS and his other stations went bankrupt in December 1986. The company was eventually reorganized, but Milt Grant lost control of Channel 57 in 1989 which eventually came under the CBS umbrella (after almost becoming a FOX O&O but that is another story).
Milt Grant was one of the reasons I got interested in TV broadcasting back when I was a teenager in the mid-late 1980s. RIP...
-Mike
Just read at fybush.com that Milton Grant, the man behind "Philly 57" and the namesake of 57's call letters from 1985-1995 passed away. Grant bought WWSG, Channel 57 in 1985. At that time, WWSG was a "subscription TV" station, as they carried PRISM scrambled. Shortly after closing on his purchase, Grant upped Channel 57's power to 5000 kw, took PRISM off, unscrambled the signal, and began a general entertainment format as WGBS/Philly 57. Many would say that 57 was the "replacement" for WKBS which had gone dark two years earlier. In my opinion, for its time, Philly 57's production and on-screen look was very slick- classic reruns, Flyers hockey, catchy jingles proclaiming "Philly's Own Superstation", Kim Martin's witty announcing, and state of the art computer graphics. At the time, I thought it was a better station than WPHL and WTAF/WTXF.
Unfortunately, Grant overextended himself. At the time, there were also two upstarts in the Philly market. Around the time of Grant's purchase of WWSG, Channel 65 in Vineland, NJ was purchased by the Asbury Park Press newspaper and rechristened as WSJT. Also in the mid-1980s, an investor group put Channel 61 licensed to Wilmington, DE on the air as WTGI. While 57 had a superior signal, compared with Channels 65 and 61 whose towers were in Southwest NJ, all three competed from competitive programming, particularly, the owners of WSJT. The same scenerio played out at the same time in Chicago and Miami where Grant owned stations. Eventually, Grant won the bidding battle, but lost the war, as WGBS and his other stations went bankrupt in December 1986. The company was eventually reorganized, but Milt Grant lost control of Channel 57 in 1989 which eventually came under the CBS umbrella (after almost becoming a FOX O&O but that is another story).
Milt Grant was one of the reasons I got interested in TV broadcasting back when I was a teenager in the mid-late 1980s. RIP...
-Mike