Shortest-Lived TV Stations?

[recto101]

KNEW-32 San Francisco it only existed for a short time in the 1970's before KQED inc took over 32 and brand it as KQEC. that was short lived too.

 

[kenglish]

From Wiki:
"In 1953, WNEX and Douglas, Georgia radio station WOKA combined to invest in one of the south's first UHF TV stations, WETV channel 47. They hoped that, by signing with the NBC network, central Georgians would buy the set-top adaptors required to watch the station. The two locally-owned stations planned to use profits from the operation of their AM radio outlets to keep the TV station going until it could turn a profit.

WETV operated out of a new building on Macon's Pio Nono Avenue and placed advertising in Atlanta's "TV Digest," the precursor to TV Guide, and in the trade industry magazine Broadcasting in hopes of attracting national advertising. In a matter of weeks, the expense of running the station (particularly the power bill; UHF transmitters were very inefficient) caused the owners to rethink their investment in the blossoming television industry.

WETV soon changed call letters to WOKA, then briefly to WNEX. In turning the station off, WNEX asked that Macon's channel 47 not be deleted from the FCC database while the owner tried to find a way to return to the air. The station never did. The combination of few potential viewers, the expense of running the station, and crushing competition from crosstown CBS affiliate WMAZ TV 13 (whose signal could be received on all TV sets) made UHF impractical for decades.

Several years after WETV left the air, the WETV call letters were reassigned to Atlanta's first educational TV station operating on Channel 30. NBC didn't get a middle Georgia affiliate until 1968 when channel 41 WCWB TV signed on the air."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WNEX

The old station building on Pio Nono Avenue was later taken over by Pet Dairy Company, and was torn down many years later (to build K-Mart, IIRC). At the time the TV station was there, WIBB Radio had their AM transmitter only a block or so away. Maybe that's why they built on the opposite side of town from WMAZ-TV.

Somewhere back home, I still have one of those UHF to VHF Converters.

 

[cd637299]

^^^

When you add the short-lived WETV 13 Key West FL (1990-91 or so), it wouldn't seem like a good idea to take those call letters! And nobody is using them now, are they?

cd

 

[dhett]

^^^

When you add the short-lived WETV 13 Key West FL (1990-91 or so), it wouldn't seem like a good idea to take those call letters! And nobody is using them now, are they?

cd

An LPTV station in Murphreesboro TN has had those call letters since late 1995.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

Unlike many of these stations, the aforementioned WICA-TV/15 in the small town of Ashtabula, in the corner of Northeast Ohio, is no longer around in any form. That Wikipedia article says a WICA-TV antenna is still on the WREO-FM/97.1 tower, but I don't know that for sure.

But Channel 15 never returned after the mid-1960s second run.

Today, RF channel 15 is the digital signal home for WEWS/5, Cleveland's ABC affliate. To the east, adjacent channel 16 is being used as CBS affiliate WSEE/35 Erie's digital home.

But in Ashtabula itself...nothing. Though there is at least one analog translator for PBS affiliate WVIZ/25 down the road from Ashtabula, and a full-power repeater for NPR affiliate WKSU/89.7 Kent (WKSV/89.1 Thompson OH) in the area.

 

[mjlarochelle]

Flint, Michigan had an early UHF station, WTAC-TV 16 which was on the air from October 28, 1953 to April 20, 1954 - just under six months. It was the first station licensed to Flint, and was affiliated with ABC and DuMont. It was 1958 before WJRT/12 signed on, and in fact WJRT is still in the former WTAC studios to this day.

 

[Mediafrog+]

Houston had KVVV Channel 16 from February 1968 to August 1969. No other station has occupied that channel in Houston.

Houston also had KNUZ-TV Channel 39 from 1954 to 1957. However the current KIAH (ex-KHCW, ex-KHWB, ex-KHTV) seems to be considered a continuation of the license, even through ten years of being dark (1957-67) and ownership changes.

 

[Starbucks]

There were many UHF stations that signed on in the early 50's and a short span of less then a year on the air. There was no UHF tuners built in to TV sets and again it took a lot of juice to coverage area. Most of these were in medium markets while the FCC was very conservative in those days to issue VHF. There was a station in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre back in the early 50's and was wondering if anyone was watching, so they had a contest on the first person to respond to who was watching their station would win $100.00. They waited an hour with no calls....and realized it wasn't worth keeping the signal on, so they switched it off, for good.

 

[RyanHoward]

The first incarnation of WWAC-TV, Channel 53 in Atlantic City, NJ was a low-budget
independent station. It lasted less than a year in the early 80's.

WWAC-TV returned around 1987 under new ownership. It is now WMCN-TV and is operating
digital-only on Channel 44.

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

WJJY-TV served the Springfield, Ill. market from 1969-71. To my knowledge the channel 14 allotment was never returned to the air.

Channel 14 did indeed return to the air in 1984 as WJPT (now WSEC)... The former WJJY transmitter was toppled in an ice storm on Easter Sunday 1978 (the same storm also toppled the tower of WAND-17 Decatur).

And it was because of that that WSEC's sign on was delayed by a few years, as they were counting on using that title for transmission. In stead, they used three lower-powered transmitters and a repeater to cover only a fraction of what WJJY used to cover.

I've always wondered how central/western Illinois television history and affiliation alignments would have been affected had WJJY not failed--and/or at least continued to broadcast to at least the forementioned 1978 ice storm which toppled its tower, which would have coincided with ABC (of which WJJY was an affiliate--serving as the defacto ABC for Quincy plus a second ABC station receivable in Springfield) finally reaching #1 in the ratings with the likes of Happy Days, Charlie's Angels, Laverne and Shirley, etc. WJJY was licensed to Jacksonville, IL--a half-hour west of Springfield--which is still the COL for today's WSEC.

 

[cowboybud]

Houston had KVVV Channel 16 from February 1968 to August 1969. No other station has occupied that channel in Houston.

The license was transferred to Corpus Christi.

KVVV was actually licensed to Galveston, and its studios were in Friendswood. Amazingly, the studio building has been abandoned since the station went off the air, and it still stands today, over 40 years later.

 

[azumanga]

Houston had KVVV Channel 16 from February 1968 to August 1969. No other station has occupied that channel in Houston.

The license was transferred to Corpus Christi.

Don't know about the license, but its equipment certainly was, to start up pubcaster KEDT in 1972.

As for the channel 16 allocation, don't know for sure, but maybe channel 16 was allocated for both Galveston and Corpus Christi, with 16 being allocated educational in CC.

KVVV was actually licensed to Galveston, and its studios were in Friendswood. Amazingly, the studio building has been abandoned since the station went off the air, and it still stands today, over 40 years later.

There are also pictures of these studios -- which surprisingly left their furnishings behind after the station was abandoned:

http://good-times.webshots.com/album/579969668qgdhDf?vhost=good-times

 

[Kelly Watts]

I'll throw 4 into the mix here:

WBPZ TV Channel 32 Lock Haven, Pa. I think it lasted less than a year

WHUM TV Channel 61 Reading, Pa

WRAK TV Channel 36 CP never went on air. Channel 36 eventually went to Elmira, NY WENY TV

WTVE Channel 24 Elmira, NY had it's tower blown down by Hurricane Hazel

 

[KML0224]

Channel 61 would be assigned to Wilmington, DE. Not sure if it was the same licensee as this station. The "WTVE" call letters eventually went to channel 51 in Reading, PA. As with channel 61 (not sure about the licensee), channel 24 today is WCNY-TV (PBS) in Syracuse, NY.

 

[gbranch]

KVVV was actually licensed to Galveston, and its studios were in Friendswood. Amazingly, the studio building has been abandoned since the station went off the air, and it still stands today, over 40 years later.

There are also pictures of these studios -- which surprisingly left their furnishings behind after the station was abandoned:

http://good-times.webshots.com/album/579969668qgdhDf?vhost=good-times

I still find it hard to believe that the KVVV building has been abandoned since 1969. It seems that after 42 years of neglect that the roof would have collapsed and nature completely taken over. Granted, it's not in very good shape at all, but it appears that it has been abandoned for maybe 20-25 years. I have heard that a religious broadcaster had used the building into the 1980's.

 

[BoscoGoldBear]

Let's not forget Springfield Television's WWOR/14 in Worcester in the late 1960s (I believe it re-broadcast WWLP/22 from Springfield)

Also whatever occupied ABC/16 in Providence in the 1950s - 16 became WSTG/64 in the early 1980s and changed to WNAC/Fox 64 became the 80s ended

Also ABC/56 in Boston from around 1953 to 1956 - 56 was not resurrected until WKBG came along in late-1966/early-1967 with I Love Lucy (happy 100th, Lucy!) and The Flintstones (yabba dabba doo!) - today of course WKBG is WLVI-CW/56 as part of WHDH-7/NBC - irony: WKBG inheirited some of the WNAC/7 programs and movie packages, like Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, and the two big programs listed which were previously 7 bound (WSBK/38 got The Addams Family, McHale's Navy and Dick Van you-know-what from WNAC)

 

[azumanga]

Let's not forget Springfield Television's WWOR/14 in Worcester in the late 1960s (I believe it re-broadcast WWLP/22 from Springfield)

The station would later become WJZB -- for the last few years of its life, it was only on the air 90 minutes a day, with WWLP news at 6, Huntley/Brinkley ant 6:30 and more WWLP news at 7, due to WBZ already having NBC for the region, rights to syndicated programming held by other Boston stations, and low funds that precluded expanding programming on its own. Also, unlike WWLP, WJZB broadcasted not in "living color", but in "dull black and white".

WJZB later closed down and was sold to new owners, with plans to aggressively compete with Boston. They even refurbished the studio and installed color equipment. But shortly before signing on, a fire gutted the station, and WJZB, and channel 14, never returned to air again.

Also whatever occupied ABC/16 in Providence in the 1950s - 16 became WSTG/64 in the early 1980s and changed to WNAC/Fox 64 became the 80s ended

During its brief life from 1953 to 1956, the station was known as "WNET-TV" (unrelated to the pubcaster). The station was silent for 25 years (remarkably, without having its license cancelled), before returning to air in 1981 as WSTG channel 64 (the calls on WNET's license changed in the late-1960s, allowing WNDT in Newark to adopt the WNET calls in 1970).

More here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WNAC-TV

 

[Darth_vader]

There was a short-lived TV network on low-power channel 16 in Portland called "Main Street TV", which showed mostly older programming and general entertainment, and was only on the air for a few months in 1992 or 1993. Then KPDX bought the station's transmitter site, re-positioned the stick and used it for several years as a translator (K16CB) for eastern Portland (mostly the I-205 corridor area.)

I think Main Street was a national service and 16 was likely satellite-fed.

 

[VoiceofWayne]

There was a low-power station in Phoenix, AZ K61CA that played music videos and existed from March 1983 until December of 1984. As I recall, in someways they were better than MTV, but they had a very local flair, the VJs could be seen actually switching on the videos after talking about them, almost like watching live radio on TV. I believe they transmitted from Shaw Bute, and their signal was receivable on the north side of town.

There is a website dedicated to its memory: http://tv-61.com/

 

[rgseark2009]

KRTV channel 17 (UHF) Little Rock AR affiliated with CBS but also carrying programming from the other four networks at the time (including Dumont). First TV station to operate within borders of Arkansas, and first TV station of any type in Little Rock AR market. KRTV went on the air April 4, 1953 and went dark on March 31, 1954. From old newspaper articles that I've been able to glean, the station's power levels would be akin to a modern-day analog LPTV. The old KRTV broadcast tower was self supporting and built next to the station, located in an upscale (and today historic) neighborhood of Hillcrest in what was then the western edge of Little Rock at 620 Beech St (now Beechwood St). KRTV's tower caused an uproar from nearby residents whom didn't like a self supporting tower so close their homes. The KRTV studios, which were housed in the old Prospect Theater building were later used by CBS-ABC affiliate KATV (ch 7 VHF) Pine Bluff AR which bought KRTV early in 1954. KARK channel 4 went on the air in mid April 1954 as a NBC-Dumont affilate. The Prospect Theater building burned on Halloween night 1957. A Kroger store sits on old KRTV studio and transmitter site.

BTW, the KRTV calls have been recycled by a Great Falls MT CBS station which is still on the air. UHF OTA TV did not return to Little Rock AR until June 1983 when KLRT channel 16 went on the air as an independent (now the market's FOX station). Another channel 17 in Arkansas, KLEP in Newark AR went dark in 2005. It was a low power non-commercial independent station operated by the Newark School District.