Retro: 48 WKBS Philadelphia - Monday, August 29, 1983 (final day on the air)

[RandTV]

5:30 WKBS News
6:30 20 Minute Workout
7:00 Underdog
7:30 Flintstones
8:00 Popeye & Friends
8:30 Great Space Coaster
9:00 Battle of the Planets
9:30 Del Val (Delaware Valley)
10:00 CNN Headline News
10:30 20 Minute Workout
11:00 Too Close for Comfort
11:30 All in the Family
NOON Leave It to Beaver
12:30 McHale's Navy
1:00 Gomer Pyle
1:30 Dick Van Dyke
2:00 Dennis the Menace
2:30 Musters
3:00 Little Rascals
3:30 Mighty Mouse
4:00 Porky Pig Show
4:30 Woody Woodpecker
5:00 Flintstones
5:30 Mork & Mindy
6:00 BJ/Lobo
7:00 Wild, Wild West
8:00 Bob Newhart
8:30 NCAA Football: Nebraska vs. Penn State, at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ
11:30 Final Sign-Off (In place of the National Anthem film, was a video of WKBS employees saying farewell accompanied by a few instrumental lines of "Auld Lang Syne" and the last few lines of Simon & Garfunkel's "The Sound of Silence")

 

[TVCOOL]

5:30 WKBS News
6:30 20 Minute Workout
7:00 Underdog
7:30 Flintstones
8:00 Popeye & Friends
8:30 Great Space Coaster
9:00 Battle of the Planets
9:30 Del Val (Delaware Valley)
10:00 CNN Headline News
10:30 20 Minute Workout
11:00 Too Close for Comfort
11:30 All in the Family
NOON Leave It to Beaver
12:30 McHale's Navy
1:00 Gomer Pyle
1:30 Dick Van Dyke
2:00 Dennis the Menace
2:30 Musters
3:00 Little Rascals
3:30 Mighty Mouse
4:00 Porky Pig Show
4:30 Woody Woodpecker
5:00 Flintstones
5:30 Mork & Mindy
6:00 BJ/Lobo
7:00 Wild, Wild West
8:00 Bob Newhart
8:30 NCAA Football: Nebraska vs. Penn State, at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ
11:30 Final Sign-Off (In place of the National Anthem film, was a video of WKBS employees saying farewell accompanied by a few instrumental lines of "Auld Lang Syne" and the last few lines of Simon & Garfunkel's "The Sound of Silence")

Was there any attempt to save this station?

 

[KeithE4]

Was there any attempt to save this station?

Field Communications, which had absorbed Kaiser Broadcasting, had dissolved itself. Its other stations had been sold off, but nobody wanted WKBS. They had no choice but to close the station, as it would have no owner to operate it.

https://uhfhistory.com/articles/wkbs.html

 

[Rollo-Smokes]

I wouldn't say nobody wanted WKBS.

But any potential buyers either wouldn't meet Field's asking price, or couldn't place a bid due to FCC rules that were in effect (such as the then-limit of seven stations per group owner.) What Field got in closing WKBS down was a tax write-off.

By turning in the license and taking channel 48 dark, Field did a real disservice to viewers in Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley. They could and should have kept the station going for at least another year, found a buyer, and who knows...come 1986, WKBS could have become "Fox 48"...the scene would have been very different.