> > The readers of this site apparently have quite alot of
> > history behind them so I thought I would toss out another
> > Phoenix TV history question. The FCC granted the analog
> > channels of 2,4,5,7,9,11 and 13 in most (remember I said
> > most) major TV markets. I'm curious to learn why these
> > channels went mostly to Tuscon and Yuma. Channel 5 which I
> > believe you folks said was the first Phoenix TV station
> > grabbed the only major market channel. Were the Tuscon
> > stations on the air earlier or was the Tuscon market larger
> > than Phoenix at one time?
In 1952, when the post-freeze allocations were finalized, metro Phoenix had a population of around 400,000 (Maricopa County's 1950 population: 332,000). Tucson had maybe around 170,000 (Pima County's 1950 population: 141,000). Both were small markets back then.
Correction (KE - 7/25/05 2:05 PM): In 1950, metro Tucson (Tucson + South Tucson) had about 48,000 people, so a guess as to their population in 1952 is somewhere around 60,000.
The main reason that Phoenix didn't get the 2-4-5-7-etc. block (which it had in 1947, while Tucson had no channels allocated at all) might have been issues with Mexico. Nogales has stations on 2 & 7. I don't know how Mexico allocated its channels then (or now), but maybe those have always been allocated to Nogales, which is too close to Phoenix to be able to use them in both cities.
> My impression always was that Tucson was bigger (and
> projected to be bigger than Phoenix). I believe that's why
> the railroad originally went through Tucson and so forth.
> You must admit that the summer weather in Tucson is a bit
> better than Phoenix. Also, Tucson's proximity to the mining
> regions of Arizona (e.g. Bisbee, Douglas, etc.) probably was
> a factor at the time that stations were allocated.
The last census where Pima County was bigger than Maricopa County was 1890.
Both areas got 4 VHF commercial channels + one VHF Educational channel. That's better than what Boston or Philly got back then and equal to Chicago.<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">
Edited by Keith Elster on 07/25/05 09:04 PM.</FONT></P>
