Retro: WNAO-TV Schedule Sunday, July 12, 1953

[bpatrick]

Growing up in Garner, I remember WKIX airing promos
for WGHP starting in 1963 (when WGHP went on the air),
although I didn't know then that they were sister stations
(I encountered another Southern duopoly in Birmingham
in the late '60s with WSGN radio/WBMG-TV).

And I agree that KIX was a great top-40 station, especially
when Mike Reineri was their morning man; while I think
WQXI Atlanta was the best top-40 station in the South, I'd
put KIX in the top three or four.

 

[nmoore6676]

I don't remember exactly when TV's were required to have built in UHF tuners. I do recall that in order to receive WOSU-34 from Columbus for a TV course my high school participated in that we but a long Yagi on the roof and had one of those Blonder Tongue converters, about the size of a small radio on top of the set. Later on that set which was our first got relegated as a second set for the basement rec-room. This was probably like 56 or 57 and the new set we got had a built in UHF tuner. It had two dials, the top for VHF and the lower one for UHF. You put the upper dial which clicked from 2 to 12 in a position between 2 and 13 labeled UHF and used the lower dial which worked kind of like a radio dial to get the UHF stations.

I wonder if those capped dials they mentioned on here were like that. The VHF tuners at the time had tuned circuits that switched in as the dial turned, one for each channel. I think both of those sets were Crosleys, I know the first one was. Later my Dad got a set for their bedroom that had a kind of remote control. It consisted of a plastic tube that connected to the back of the set. There was a rubber squeeze bulb on the other end that clicked the dial on channel everytime you squeezed. The 13th position turned off the set and it only had VHF. There was no volume or other control just that pneumatic gadget. That set was either by Sylvania or GE I think.

 

[fortmill]

TV sets manufactured after July, 1964 were required by federal law to be UHF capable. Prior to that time, most sets were available with UHF tuners for about $40 extra. The surprising thing was that the new UHF/VHF sets offered in 1964 did not cost a penny more than the old VHF-only sets.

 

[LKellerIII]

TV sets manufactured after July, 1964 were required by federal law to be UHF capable. Prior to that time, most sets were available with UHF tuners for about $40 extra. The surprising thing was that the new UHF/VHF sets offered in 1964 did not cost a penny more than the old VHF-only sets.

Not surprising really. In major markets, UHF was probably a tough sell, and people would have resented paying extra. Los Angeles, for instances, had 7 VHF stations - the three networks and 4 independents. Until about 1966, there were only three stations on UHF: a really low-rent indy that went belly-up after less than 2 years; a Spanish language channel; and KCET, the NET (now PBS) affiliate. NET was in it's early days and was not publicized widely. So unless your first language was Spanish, UHF tuners were useless.

 

[w9wi]

Two things I think are frequently forgotten about early UHF:

- While UHF tuners were required beginning in 1964, the tuners that were installed were pretty bad. Free-running oscillator driving a diode mixer, only one (or *maybe* two) tuned circuits before the mixer and no amplification until the IF. Hard to tune, hard to keep tuned, pretty "deaf". Even if UHF tuners had been installed in TVs from the beginning in 1945, UHF stations would have been at a disadvantage. But there's more:

- Station powers were a lot lower. By the 1960s most VHF stations were using the highest powers permitted by FCC regulations - 100,000 watts on channels 2-6, 316,000 on 7-13. However, as recently as 1966 *no* UHF station was running more than 1,000,000 watts - the limit is five times that. Many UHF stations were running less than 100,000 watts, less than 1/50th of the power the FCC would authorize.

So even if UHF tuners of equal quality to VHF tuners had been installed in TVs from the start, UHF would *still* have been at a disadvantage due to low transmitter powers.