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Pre-freeze CPs that never made it to air

K

KeithE4

This would be, of course, construction permits issued before the freeze began on 9/30/1948.

The only ones I've been able to determine were KARO Channel 1 Riverside CA, WSBE Channel 1 South Bend IN, WWHB Channel 3 Indianapolis, and KGDM-TV Channel 8 Stockton CA.

Channel 1 was withdrawn on 5/10/48. KARO never found a new channel. The South Bend Tribune eventually built WSBT-TV 34, later 22, but I believe that was a new CP since it was UHF.

WWHB was owned by the William H. Block Co. department store. I don't believe that CP was ever built or sold to another company, but it was the first CP issued for central Indiana. The CPs for WFBM-TV 6 and WTTV 10 were issued before WWHB's CP was withdrawn, so it wasn't related to either of them. The Channel 3 allocation for Indy was moved to Channel 4 in Bloomington in 1952, and WTTV took that.

I don't know the story of KGDM. I saw it in station lists from 1947 and 1949, but it was gone in 1950.
 
WRTB-TV, channel 2, in Boston, MA. This was a pre-freeze construction permit held by Raytheon that was never built.

Once Raytheon handed back the permit, the FCC reserved channel 2 for non-commercial use, which led to WGBH eventually applying for (and receiving) a permit to build what is now one of the most prominent public TV stations in the country. If Raytheon had actually built out it's construction permit, the result probably would have been that public television in Boston would have been relegated to a UHF channel (as happened in major cities such as LA, Washington, and Cleveland).
 
TexasTom said:
WRTB-TV, channel 2, in Boston, MA. This was a pre-freeze construction permit held by Raytheon that was never built.

Once Raytheon handed back the permit, the FCC reserved channel 2 for non-commercial use, which led to WGBH eventually applying for (and receiving) a permit to build what is now one of the most prominent public TV stations in the country. If Raytheon had actually built out it's construction permit, the result probably would have been that public television in Boston would have been relegated to a UHF channel (as happened in major cities such as LA, Washington, and Cleveland).
Click to expand...

In fact, Boston's Channel 2 was originally allocated to Waltham, a western suburb of Boston where Raytheon was headquartered. Did Raytheon actually return the CP or did they give it to WGBH as a gift, giving the FCC the go-ahead to reallocate Channel 2 for non-commercial use? WGBH's second station (WGBX-TV) on Channel 44 was originally WJDW-TV, a commercial permit that was given as a gift by Jack Wrather (owner of "Lassie") to the WGBH Educational Foundation. Channel 44 was reallocated for non-commercial use. Wrather was no stranger to non-commercial television. He was a founding member of KCET/28 in Los Angeles, a former PBS affiliate, now independent public television station.
 
While not technically ever a construction permit, in 1947 Akron's only allocated TV channel was 11, which WAKR-TV had applied for. However, thee FCC did not grant the license before the "freeze" took effect, so WAKR-TV had to wait till 1953 to build on Channel 49..One wonders how differently things might have been in the Cleveland market, and other areas if WAKR could have built Channel 11..
 
TexasTom said:
WRTB-TV, channel 2, in Boston, MA. This was a pre-freeze construction permit held by Raytheon that was never built.

Once Raytheon handed back the permit, the FCC reserved channel 2 for non-commercial use, which led to WGBH eventually applying for (and receiving) a permit to build what is now one of the most prominent public TV stations in the country. If Raytheon had actually built out it's construction permit, the result probably would have been that public television in Boston would have been relegated to a UHF channel (as happened in major cities such as LA, Washington, and Cleveland).
Click to expand...

I wasn't sure whether Raytheon donated the CP for WRTB to WGBH or whether WGBH was a new post-freeze CP and WRTB was returned. I had assumed that the CP was still in force and applied to WGBH, so I didn't list it.

Another one I'm not sure of is WTZR Channel 2 Chicago. We all know the story about how that station never came to be as far as becoming a fully-licensed commercial station. The transmitter was donated by Zenith to WTTW and modified to work on Channel 11, but was the CP also donated or was WTTW a brand new CP? If it was the same CP, then it doesn't count here.
 
In Syracuse, NY, WAGE (620 AM) owner Frank Revoir, a local realtor, had a CP granted just before the freeze for WAGE-TV, Channel 10. It was supposed to have a transmitter on Sentinel Heights right next to WHEN-TV (then Channel Eight), which launched first in '48, and WSYR-TV (then on Channel 5, later Channel 3) which started construction just before the freeze and got on the air in 1950. It would have been the area's ABC primary. Revoir could have built it out and put it on the air in 1949 or 1950, or sold it. But for whatever reason he opted not to build or sell it and the CP was turned in unbuilt. Revoir sold his AM station to WHEN-TV owner Meredith Corporation, it became WHEN (AM), and Revoir left the broadcasting business completely. Syracuse didn't get a primary ABC affiliate until the allocations were re-drawn and Channel 9 dropped into the market in 1962, pushing WHEN-TV down to Channel 5 in the process. Had he built it out the whole upstate channel table would have had to be drawn differently when the freeze was lifted in 1952 (channel 10 wound up in Rochester, WAGE-TV would probably have been moved to Channel 3, WSYR would have stayed on 5 and WHEN-TV moved to channel 9).
 
KeithE4 said:
TexasTom said:
WRTB-TV, channel 2, in Boston, MA. This was a pre-freeze construction permit held by Raytheon that was never built.

Once Raytheon handed back the permit, the FCC reserved channel 2 for non-commercial use, which led to WGBH eventually applying for (and receiving) a permit to build what is now one of the most prominent public TV stations in the country. If Raytheon had actually built out it's construction permit, the result probably would have been that public television in Boston would have been relegated to a UHF channel (as happened in major cities such as LA, Washington, and Cleveland).
Click to expand...

I wasn't sure whether Raytheon donated the CP for WRTB to WGBH or whether WGBH was a new post-freeze CP and WRTB was returned. I had assumed that the CP was still in force and applied to WGBH, so I didn't list it.
Click to expand...


I'm about 90% certain that the Raytheon permit expired well before WGBH came into existence -- and that WGBH was a new application, and not a continuation of the Raytheon CP.
 
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