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Stations That Once Operated on Chs. 70-83: Is this list complete?

S

Stanislav

Some of my recent mining of “This Day in TV History” factoids concerned UHF stations that once operated above channel 69. I believe these are the only full-power (non-translator or repeater) licensed non-experimental stations to ever operate in the 70-83 range in the U.S. and Canada:

71 WTPA Harrisburg PA 1953-57
73 WFMJ Youngstown OH 1953-54
73 WLOK Lima OH 1953-55
74 WCDC North Adams MA 1954-57
78 CBEFT Windsor ON 1976-82
79 CITY Toronto ON 1972-83

The following are either on Clarke Ingrams’ “Bleached Bones" list on his DuMont history site, or on the list on the “UHF Morgue” site. Did any of them ever actually operate on these channels?

71 WCBE New Haven CT
71 WCTB Bridgeport CT
74 WTVU Scranton PA
79 WTOH Toledo OH

Any additions or corrections? It looks like only 5 of the 14 channels from 70-83 ever had full-power stations on them.
 
I've never heard of those two Connecticut stations. I do know that WVIT-TV (NBC) channel 30 of New Britain once operated a translator station in Torrington. It was W79AA channel 79.
 
I am pretty sure there was a channle 73 in Baltimore back in the early to mid 70's which was part of Maryland Public Televison. Not sure what the calls were or even the purpose of this since MPT's channel 67 was already on the air at the time but they were featured in the Washington-Baltimore edition of TV Guide.
 
Stanislav said:
Some of my recent mining of “This Day in TV History” factoids concerned UHF stations that once operated above channel 69. I believe these are the only full-power (non-translator or repeater) licensed non-experimental stations to ever operate in the 70-83 range in the U.S. and Canada:

71 WTPA Harrisburg PA 1953-57
73 WFMJ Youngstown OH 1953-54
73 WLOK Lima OH 1953-55
74 WCDC North Adams MA 1954-57
78 CBEFT Windsor ON 1976-82
79 CITY Toronto ON 1972-83

The following are either on Clarke Ingrams’ “Bleached Bones" list on his DuMont history site, or on the list on the “UHF Morgue” site. Did any of them ever actually operate on these channels?

71 WCBE New Haven CT
71 WCTB Bridgeport CT
74 WTVU Scranton PA
79 WTOH Toledo OH

Any additions or corrections? It looks like only 5 of the 14 channels from 70-83 ever had full-power stations on them.
Click to expand...

In the original thread, I mentioned Educati WBGU-TV 70 in Bowling Green, Ohio from 1964-73..Now on Channel 27
 
Stanislav said:
Some of my recent mining of “This Day in TV History” factoids concerned UHF stations that once operated above channel 69. I believe these are the only full-power (non-translator or repeater) licensed non-experimental stations to ever operate in the 70-83 range in the U.S. and Canada:

71 WTPA Harrisburg PA 1953-57
73 WFMJ Youngstown OH 1953-54
73 WLOK Lima OH 1953-55
74 WCDC North Adams MA 1954-57
78 CBEFT Windsor ON 1976-82
79 CITY Toronto ON 1972-83
Click to expand...

Channel 74 in North Adams was not WCDC. It operated as WMGT, a stand-alone Dumont affiliate before becoming a satellite of then-WCDA, now WTEN Albany NY. It moved to Ch. 19 before it changed call letters.

The following are either on Clarke Ingrams’ “Bleached Bones" list on his DuMont history site, or on the list on the “UHF Morgue” site. Did any of them ever actually operate on these channels?

71 WCBE New Haven CT
71 WCTB Bridgeport CT
74 WTVU Scranton PA
79 WTOH Toledo OH

Any additions or corrections? It looks like only 5 of the 14 channels from 70-83 ever had full-power stations on them.
Click to expand...

WTVU operated on Ch. 73 (not 74). It was supposed to move to 44 but went off the air before that happened.

Others on the upper channels include:
WBGU Ch. 70 Bowling Green OH (later on Ch. 57, now on 27)
WNOP Ch. 74 Newport KY/Cincinnati (now WXIX Ch. 19)

I think there was a pre-NJN public television station in New Jersey on Channel 77 as well, but I can't find any info on it right now.

Per the 1958 Vane Jones Guide, there were CPs for:
WCTB Ch. 71 Bridgeport CT
WITH Ch. 72 Baltimore MD
WTOH Ch. 79 Toledo OH
WXTV Ch. 73 Youngstown OH
None of these stations ever made it to air, AFAIK.

And one that had "suspended operations:"
WCMB Ch. 71 Harrisburg PA

I don't think there were any stations in "K" country other than translators on these channels.
 
There were also two experimental stations in the early to late 1960s that transmitted instructional programming on weekdays from an airplane flying over Montpelier, Indiana (north of Hartford City and Muncie)

KS2XGA Channel 72 and KS2XGD Channel 76.

Purdue University-based Midwest Program on Airborne Television Instruction operated the experimental stations. I remember watching MPATI as a kid in the 5th grade. Most of the instrctional programs were interesting to watch...only the programs aimed at kindergarten students were considered a bit cheezy. The programs were also aired on local public TV stations in the early 70s after MPATI closed down.

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


WLOK-TV in Lima later moved to Channel 35 as WIMA-TV now WLIO.
 
OK, so with the corrections and additions (and ignoring the mentioned translators and Stratovision, both of which are outside the parameters of full-power and non-experimental), we now have these 8 confirmed as having actually operated above 69:

70 - WBGU - Bowling Green OH (1964-73)
71 - WTPA - Harrisburg PA (1953-57)
73 - WFMJ - Youngstown OH (1953-54)
73 - WLOK - Lima OH (1953-55)
73 - WTVU - Scranton PA (1953-55)
74 - WMGT - North Adams MA (1954-57)
78 - CBEFT - Windsor ON (1976-82)
79 - CITY - Toronto ON (1972-83)

And possibly:

74 - WNOP - Newport KY ? I find no indication of their having operated on 74 prior to 19 -- any sources? Years?

About WCMB Harrisburg being listed by Vane Jones on 71, AFAIK from research, they were the original ch. 27 there while WTPA was on 71 -- I think the Vane Jones just mixed up a couple of stations there (that list was never known for its great accuracy).

The few others appear to be CPs that never made it to air.

What's the deal with Ohio? 3 of the 6 U.S. stations on the list were in Ohio, and WNOP, if confirmed, served Ohio as well as Kentucky. Interesting that there was such a concentration of these rare stations in one state.

More additions/corrections welcomed -- I hope to come up with a sort of "canonical" list of these 70-83 stations.
 
Stanislav said:
About WCMB Harrisburg being listed by Vane Jones on 71, AFAIK from research, they were the original ch. 27 there while WTPA was on 71 -- I think the Vane Jones just mixed up a couple of stations there (that list was never known for its great accuracy).
Click to expand...

No, it was more complicated than that - it wasn't uncommon for those early UHF stations to swap CPs and allocations. In this case, the WTPA folks bought the channel 27 facility from WCMB radio, but rather than leave WCMB with no TV allotment, they moved the WCMB-TV CP to 71. It was never built there, but sat unbuilt on the FCC's records for many years.

"Television Factbook" editions from the early sixties included a list of TV stations that had gone off the air. I have a 1961 edition at home with a very comprehensive listing; when I get back there next week, I'll try to remember to go through in search of other 70+ operations that actually saw air.
 
In the 1966 Broadcasting Yearbook:

WBGU-70 Bowling Green, Ohio - 10,200w/170', listed as on air since Feb. 10, 1964.

WCTB-71 Bridgeport, Connecticut - 22,000w/610', listed as "not on air, target date unknown".

WNOP-74 Cincinnati, Ohio - or -
WSCO-74 Newport, Ky. - listed in Cincinnati in the by-channel listings and in Newport (and with different call letters) in the by-state listings. 17,400w/510', "not on air, target date 1966".

WNJE-77 Glen Ridge, N.J. - 369,000w/620', listed as "not on air, target date unknown".

So it would seem that by 1966 the only full-license station left above ch. 69 was WBGU.


Plus applications for:
ch. 70 Anniston, Ala. - 22,030w/862', co-owned with WCFT-33 Tuscaloosa (ironically, the station that would eventually be licensed in Anniston - to someone else -- is now co-owned with WCFT)

ch. 83 Wilmington, Del. - 261,500w/334' (Rollins Broadcasting of Delaware, WPTZ-5 NY & WEAR-3 FL)

ch. 75 Wheaton, Ill. - 221,000w/465' (Suburban-City Enterprises Corp.)

ch. 76 Buffalo, N.Y. - 244,800w/336' (Beta TV Corp., also had app for ch. 61 in Hartford, Conn.)

Strangely, the channels in Anniston and Wheaton do not appear in the Table of Allocations. I wonder if Anniston was a typo for ch. 40? (there was another app for ch. 40 there, there is now an operating station on ch. 40 in Anniston)
 
w9wi said:
In the 1966 Broadcasting Yearbook:

WBGU-70 Bowling Green, Ohio - 10,200w/170', listed as on air since Feb. 10, 1964.

WCTB-71 Bridgeport, Connecticut - 22,000w/610', listed as "not on air, target date unknown".

WNOP-74 Cincinnati, Ohio - or -
WSCO-74 Newport, Ky. - listed in Cincinnati in the by-channel listings and in Newport (and with different call letters) in the by-state listings. 17,400w/510', "not on air, target date 1966".

WNJE-77 Glen Ridge, N.J. - 369,000w/620', listed as "not on air, target date unknown".

So it would seem that by 1966 the only full-license station left above ch. 69 was WBGU.


Plus applications for:
ch. 70 Anniston, Ala. - 22,030w/862', co-owned with WCFT-33 Tuscaloosa (ironically, the station that would eventually be licensed in Anniston - to someone else -- is now co-owned with WCFT)

ch. 83 Wilmington, Del. - 261,500w/334' (Rollins Broadcasting of Delaware, WPTZ-5 NY & WEAR-3 FL)

ch. 75 Wheaton, Ill. - 221,000w/465' (Suburban-City Enterprises Corp.)

ch. 76 Buffalo, N.Y. - 244,800w/336' (Beta TV Corp., also had app for ch. 61 in Hartford, Conn.)

Strangely, the channels in Anniston and Wheaton do not appear in the Table of Allocations. I wonder if Anniston was a typo for ch. 40? (there was another app for ch. 40 there, there is now an operating station on ch. 40 in Anniston)
Click to expand...

Never heard of most of those apps, but of course, they obviously were never granted. I'm very surprised that there was once an app for a ch. 83 full-power!

It's amazing that back in the day stations even considered operating on these lofty channels, given the primitive state of receiving technology and the vast over 400 mHz wide swatch of frequencies that had to be spanned to cover all the UHF channels. Receiver noise figures must have been pretty bad at chs. 70-83; the 300-ohm twin-lead generally used then was bad enough in general for UHF use, but must have had astronomical loss figures (especially when wet!) up that high; and antennas were generally compromise designs that were best suited to work in the middle of the band.

Once 70-83 became the home of most translators, I remember that companies like Channel Master and Blonder-Tongue used to offer antennas and pre-amps that were designed specifically for the high end of the UHF band. They probably did a lot of business out west where so many communities relied on high-channel translators for their TV.

BTW, wanna see what a channel 74 test pattern looked like? The GGN page has one. A thing of beauty, eh? :D
 
Another thing to realize is, that most of the full-power Channel 70's that stayed on the air moved down to lower channels the first chance they got..For example, WFMJ chanel 73 moved down to channel 21, which WUTV never got on the air..

I did some research last May on how TV might have looked in Northeast Ohio by the mid 1960's if certain construction permits had been granted..Interesting possibilities..

http://clevelandclassicmedia.blogspot.com/2007/05/what-might-have-been-in-northern-ohio.html
 
Regarding WTPA-TV and WCMB-TV in Harrisburg, both stations operated until 1957, when they agreed to swap frequencies and transmitters. WTPA-TV (Channel 71) was initially with NBC in 1952 and switched to ABC the following year. WCMB-TV was, unfortunately, a Dumont affiliate. However, both stations were built and on the air for a few years. Where we lived, Channel 71 was obliterated during the few hours Channel 27 operated every day. I also recall that Channel 71 was a much clearer signal than 27 ever was. The two stations' transmitters were within a stones-throw of each other, and when it became apparent that WCMB-TV would go down the tubes with Dumont, a deal was worked out that they swapped actual facilities. WCMB-TV left the air one day and WTPA-TV appeared on Channel 27 the next, but although WCMB-TV could have resumed operations on Channel 71, they did not. The same company later had a CP for Channel 33, but in 1964 gave it up to an educational station, WITF. Both transmitter sites, towers and buildings exist today. For more details, history, photos and documents, check this web site: harrisburgradiotv.com.
 
CBLFT-8, the Radio-Canada station in Kitchener rebroadcasting CBLFT Toronto, was on Channel 76 from 1977-83, when it moved to Channel 61 where it remains today. It has always been full power.

There were various translators approved in Canada for channels 70-83 in the 1970s, including a few transmitters to rebroadcast CBUT from Vancouver in some parts of BC. I'm not sure if any of them ever aired on those channels, but those locations do have translators for CBUT today on lower channels.

Aside from CBC transmitters, the only channel 70-83 stations in Canada I know of are CITY, and two approved translators in Quebec in the 1950s that I'm not sure if they ever got to air. One was for CJBR in Rimouski.
 
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