The Last Major American city to get television

[bk77]

Denver got its first TV station after the freeze in 1952. That being channel 2, today's KWGN.
With that being said was Denver the last major American city ( population at least 100,000 in the early 50s )to recieve its first TV station?

Even before the freeze I believe Phoenix, Salt Lake City and even Albuquerque already had at least one TV station on the air. Las Vegas was pretty much a small town back then so I don't think that city would count.

I am pretty sure by 1952 all of the major east coast and midwest cities already had at least on channel on the air.

With that being said, wonder what was the last major city east of the Mississippi to got its own channel?
The only one I can think of would be Norfolk in 1950 with WTAR then on channel 4, now WTKR on channel 3.

 

[Tim L]

By that criteria (at least 100,000 population in the 1950's)..Both Youngstown and Akron, Ohio got their first TV stations in 1953, as well as Fort Wayne, Indiana..Probably a few other US cities as well..

 

[KML0224]

Good point about Youngstown. However, would Akron, OH count? Last time I checked, they were still a portion of the Cleveland market.

Hartford didn't get a station licensed to it until 1954 when the troubled channel 18 first signed on. NBC Channel 30 came on in 1953, but has always been licensed to New Britain (9 miles to the southwest). Channel 3 of Hartford didn't sign on until 1957 (WTIC-TV then, WFSB-TV/DT now). Connecticut's first TV station was WNHC-TV channel 6 of New Haven and signed on in June of 1948. The 1952 reallignment saw them become WNHC-TV channel 8 (WTNH-TV/DT today). This might count on a technicality for Hartford, since New Haven was separate for TV for a year or so.

 

[radiorob2.0]

There was a discussion of Denver being TV free a while back. It seems TV's were purchased in anticipation of something to watch but the freeze stopped that. In the meantime, TV owners would alert each other when skips were happening so they could get use out of their set.

Lexington, KY was late for TV:

WLEX 18-1955
(WKXP) WKYT 27-1957
(WBLG) WTVQ (62) 36-1968
KET 1968
WDKY (Danville) 1986

Off topic, I know, But, Trivia....1300 AM was associated with the creation of two TV stations. It was the owner of WLEX Radio that signed on Channel 18. Thirteen years later the then owners of 1300, now WBLG, signed on Channel 62.

 

[Corky Marlowe]

By that criteria (at least 100,000 population in the 1950's)..Both Youngstown and Akron, Ohio got their first TV stations in 1953, as well as Fort Wayne, Indiana..Probably a few other US cities as well..

Fort Wayne got all 3 networks in fairly short order. WKJG (now WISE) Channel 33 signed on as an NBC affiliate in the fall of '53, then WANE (originally WINT, licensed to Waterloo, Indiana in nearby Dekalb County) Channel 15 signed on with CBS in the fall of '54, and finally WPTA Channel 21 signed on with ABC in 1957, I believe. Compare this with Toledo, where they got their first station awfully early (WSPD, now WTVG Channel 13 back in 1948), but didn't get a second station until WTOL Channel 11 signed on with in 1958, and didn't get a third commercial station until WDHO (now WNWO) fired up in 1966. Wonder if Toledo's close proximity to Detroit was a factor...

 

[bpatrick]

In North Carolina Raleigh/Durham got its first station,
WNAO/28, in 1953; Greenville/New Bern/Washington
got WNCT/9 the same year. Wilmington got WMFD
(now WECT)/6 in 1954.

South Carolina had no stations until 1953. That year
saw WCSC/5 Charleston; WIS/10, WNOK/67 (now WLTX/19),
and WCOS/25 (which went off but returned in 1961 and is
now WOLO) Columbia; and WFBC (now WYFF)/4 Greenville
sign on.

Orlando got WDBO (now WKMG)/6 in 1953; Tampa/St.
Petersburg got WSUN/38 that year. These were the first
stations in those markets.

Mississippi and Arkansas also got their first stations in 1953:
WJTV/12 Jackson and KATV/7 Little Rock.

 

[mleach]

Virginia's largest city, Virginia Beach ( population well over 400,000 ) didn't get their first television station until channel 43 WVBT went on the air in the early 90s. First as a home shopping outlet, later WB and now FOX.

Of course Virginia Beach has always been in the Norfolk-Hampton-Portsmouth DMA from day one so its not like that city didn't have any TV to watch.

Harrisburg,PA didn't get their TV stations until after the freeze either ( 1953? ) but Harrisbug was right next door to Lancaster and their WGAL-TV channel 8 went on the air in the late 40s.

 

[Tim L]

Good point about Youngstown. However, would Akron, OH count? Last time I checked, they were still a portion of the Cleveland market.

The original poster didnt say anything about "markets" only "cities"..There was a possibility of at least 2 other stations in the Akron-Canton area before 1960....If they had been built you would have had an "Akron-Canton" Market of 3 stations.(23, 29, 49) with channel 17 and 55 added later..

In a post last July in my Cleveland Nostalgic Media blog I speculated about what an Akron-Canton market might look like with all original construction permits built and other stations with original call letters/city of license..


http://clevelandclassicmedia.blogspot.com/2007/07/akron-canton-television-market-my.html

 

[KML0224]

OK. I stand corrected about Akron, OH! Say, does anybody know who the single largeset city is today without a TV station licensed to it?

 

[mleach]

OK. I stand corrected about Akron, OH! Say, does anybody know who the single largeset city is today without a TV station licensed to it?

I really don't think there are large cities left with a population of over 100,000 people ( even half that ) without at least one. Now maybe some of those channels could by LPTV or whatever but its still TV.

Over the years I have heard people say Frederick, Maryland ( pop around 55,000 ) is the largest today without its own TV, but actually that city has been home to channel 62 ( a Maryland Public TV translator ) since the early 80s .

Maybe one of those so-called "super suburbs" ( EX: Fredericksburg, VA, Scottsdale, AZ or Aurora, Colorado ), perhaps a city like them, somewhere is without its own "TV station". BTW Fredericksburg, VA HAD their own station back in the 70s on channel 69, an NBC afflilate no-less but that is pretty much totally forgotten today

Virginia Beach I am pretty sure was the last major city to get its first full-power TV station and perhaps the last major city to get a station affiliated with one of the the big four nets ( WVBT FOX 43, last time I saw them OTA, they only mention Virginia Beach in their ID, not Norfolk, Portsmouth, Newport News. ect..)

 

[Tim L]

Another point about Canton, Ohio, which maintained a population of over 100,000 throughout the 1950's and 60's..Their first station signed on in 1967..WJAN-17, at first Independent but now TBN owned and operated as WDLI..

Link to the original Channel 17 logo, from a Canton Repository ad in 1968..Sorry about the image quality


http://bp3.blogger.com/_zhGDMDQ2osM/Rvu4jYDJHjI/AAAAAAAAALo/YRK8CiYxnTA/s1600-h/scan0009.jpg

Three part series on my blog about WJAN-TV

Part 1

http://clevelandclassicmedia.blogspot.com/2007/09/serving-city-of-cantonwjan-tv-17.html

Part 2

http://clevelandclassicmedia.blogspot.com/2007/09/1960s-programming-on-channel-17minimal.html


Part 3


http://clevelandclassicmedia.blogspot.com/2007/10/wjan-tv-1970-77growing-pains.html

 

[bk77]

There was a discussion of Denver being TV free a while back. It seems TV's were purchased in anticipation of something to watch but the freeze stopped that. In the meantime, TV owners would alert each other when skips were happening so they could get use out of their set.

Weren't TV signals back then-early 50's much WEAKER than they are now? Wonder what skips could have occured in Denver back then? From where? I can't see any station west of the Rockies making it over them.

 

[w9wi]

There was a discussion of Denver being TV free a while back. It seems TV's were purchased in anticipation of something to watch but the freeze stopped that. In the meantime, TV owners would alert each other when skips were happening so they could get use out of their set.

Weren't TV signals back then-early 50's much WEAKER than they are now? Wonder what skips could have occured in Denver back then? From where? I can't see any station west of the Rockies making it over them.

Not so much so for low-band VHF. With less interference (fewer stations) I'm of the impression skip was easier to DX back then.

Being centrally located I would expect both the West Coast and the Midwest (and South west of the Appalachians) would make it through.

 

[Gregg]

When the poster talked about "skips" I believe he was talking about a signal that might bounce off some significant layer of the atmosphere (or other -sphere) and back down to earth, not line of sight.

When in Northern New England, especially during periods of severe thunderstorms, I've seen TV stations from Waterloo Iowa, Kansas City, Memphis, Tulsa and other distant places. Sometimes they come in for quite a few minutes, other times they come and go even before you can see a legal I.D. or a TV commercial with locations for an advertiser that can tell you where the station is.

I'm also curious about UHF stations signing on before VHF stations in a given market. One poster mentioned that Channel 18 signed on in Hartford before Channel 3. And I know that once Channel 2 was on the air in Pittsburgh (owned by DuMont, not CBS at that point), the next commercial station to sign on was UHF, even though Pittsburgh had two more commercial VHF stations coming.

What a shame, being on the air early but not getting a VHF signal. Sort of like those rare three-letter call AM stations (or stations West of the Mississippi with call letters that begin with W) that have only 1000 watts. Sort of like WOL, Washington. Or WEW St. Louis which fits both catagories but still must sign off at sunset. On the air so early, yet the owner never got the FCC all those years to give them an upgrade. (I think I'll put this question on the "Classic Radio" board as well.)

In those days, TV sets didn't even come equipped most of the time with UHF reception. You had to buy separate equipment for your TV set to pick up UHF signals till sometime I think in the 70s when the FCC mandated all TVs must pick up UHF. I can remember the first time my family got a TV that by law had to pick up UHF. Those three additional stations filled their time with nothing shows including free half hours from folks like the U.S. Army or Dairy Farmers of America, encouraging you to enlist or drink more milk. I found it funny and fascinating at the same time, figuring almost NOBODY was watching.





Gregg
[email protected]

 

[Tim L]

actually by 1964, all new tv's had to have a uhf tuner in them. At the time of WJAN-TV Canton's sign on, there were still places selling converters (1967)

 

[Markxxx]

Here's a link to the census of 1950


http://www.census.gov/population/documentation/twps0027/tab18.txt

As you can see some cities like San Jose (today with 975,000 people and #10 in the nation didn't have 100,000 people back then)

Las Vegas was smaller than Reno back then. Remember places like Virginia Beach only got to be so big when the combined with their county, like Jacksonville, Indianapolis, Nashville and Louisville did (among others).


Large cities that generally are part of another market still have at least one TV station licensed to them.. (City and rank in population)

Like Mesa, AZ (#38) or Virginia Beach(#41) or Arlington, TX (#49), Anaheim (#54). So I guess that leaves Santa Ana, California with 340,00 people and the 53rd largest city in the United States with no TV station licensed to it.

Though LA is an unusual exception as it's the only city to have all 7 VHF (the max VHF) licensed to it. (I know other MARKETS like NYC have 7 VHF stations but they are licensed to other cities. Like Channel 13 is Newark not NYC).

Aurora, Colorado (#59) with 303,000 people doesn't seem to have any stations licensed to that city either. Plano, TX (#69) with 255,000, Glendale, AZ (#72) 247,000, Chandler, AZ (#76) with 241,000, Scottsdale, AX (#79) with 231,000, Chesapeake, VA (#84) with 220,000, Hialeah, FL (#87) with 217,000, Chula Vista, CA (#89) with 212,000, Fremont, CA (#97) with 201,000 and Glendale, CA (#100) with 199,000 don't have any TV stations licensed to them

That rounds out the top 100 cities based on 2006 US Census estimates.

But those are basically suburbs of bigger cities.

The biggest city I can find that really isn't a suburb and doesn't have a TV station allocated to it is Port St Lucie, Florida (#163) with 144,000. It is about 50 miles roughly from West Palm Beach.

 

[dhett]

Like Mesa, AZ (#38) or Virginia Beach(#41) or Arlington, TX (#49), Anaheim (#54). So I guess that leaves Santa Ana, California with 340,00 people and the 53rd largest city in the United States with no TV station licensed to it.

TBN's flagship station, KTBN-TV, channel 40, is licensed to Santa Ana.

Aurora, Colorado (#59) with 303,000 people doesn't seem to have any stations licensed to that city either. Plano, TX (#69) with 255,000, Glendale, AZ (#72) 247,000, Chandler, AZ (#76) with 241,000, Scottsdale, AX (#79) with 231,000, Chesapeake, VA (#84) with 220,000, Hialeah, FL (#87) with 217,000, Chula Vista, CA (#89) with 212,000, Fremont, CA (#97) with 201,000 and Glendale, CA (#100) with 199,000 don't have any TV stations licensed to them

I guess that leaves Aurora CO as your winner (?). But the way AZ cities are growing, don't be surprised if one of them tops the list by 2010. Chandler has now passed Glendale for #4 in the state and largest without a TV station.

The biggest city I can find that really isn't a suburb and doesn't have a TV station allocated to it is Port St Lucie, Florida (#163) with 144,000. It is about 50 miles roughly from West Palm Beach.

I assume we were only talking about full-service TV stations here, but Port St. Lucie FL has one LPTV station, WSLF-LP ch 35, while Aurora CO has KDEV-LP ch 39. Plano TX tops the list of cities without any TV stations at all, and Chandler AZ, Glendale AZ, Hialeah FL, Chula Vista CA, Fremont CA and Glendale CA round out the top 100.

 

[w9wi]

I'm also curious about UHF stations signing on before VHF stations in a given market. One poster mentioned that Channel 18 signed on in Hartford before Channel 3. And I know that once Channel 2 was on the air in Pittsburgh (owned by DuMont, not CBS at that point), the next commercial station to sign on was UHF, even though Pittsburgh had two more commercial VHF stations coming.

I strongly suspect that in these cases, there were applications on file for VHF stations before the UHF applications were filed. Because it was taking the FCC so long to figure out who would get a contested VHF channel, some of these folks decided to go for a UHF channel knowing they were almost certain to get it.

 

[KML0224]

Seeing as Hartford/New Haven had a VHF station on the air in 1948, this sounds pretty much right. As for UHF, I lost count how many years it took UHF channel 59 to come on around here (sign on was in 1995).

 

[ixnay]

Though LA is an unusual exception as it's the only city to have all 7 VHF (the max VHF) licensed to it. (I know other MARKETS like NYC have 7 VHF stations but they are licensed to other cities. Like Channel 13 is Newark not NYC).

IIRC the same goes for Channel 9, licensed to Secaucus. But wasn't Ch. 9 licensed to NYC until around 1982-3?

ixnay