The "VHF Morgue" - KHMA-11 and (?) others?

[Stanislav]

I was once again browsing the "UHF Morgue" website (great stuff) and got to thinking -- what about VHF stations that went dark and never came back? I don't mean stations that just changed channels when allocations shifted -- I mean VHFs that went totally kaput and the channel remained vacant. It might be weird to think of this happening, what with VHF allocations historically considered more desirable, but if I'm correct, there is at least one such case.

Back in the 70's, TV station lists for a time showed a channel 11 in Houma, Louisiana, with the calls KHMA. Apparently, the station did sign on in 1972 (as an indie, I believe), but not many years later disappeared from station lists, and even the ch. 11 allocation to Houma seemed to have vanished. There is no mention on this station anywhere on the Web, save for their sign-on date showing up in those "on this day" feature lists.

Does anyone know the story of this station and its brief lifetime? (Maybe someone has access to a TV Factbook or Broadcasting Yearbook from that era?) I'm guessing this was a case where a VHF allocation was stuck out in the middle of nowhere, probably too far away to rimshot the closest major markets (N.O. or Lafayette), and with not enough local population to support a full-power TV station.

And can anyone think of any other cases of a VHF signing on, going dark, and never being replaced (whether or not the allocation remained)?

 

[fybush]

This topic has surfaced from time to time here and on other boards. In addition to Houma's channel 11, there were a few other VHF signals that couldn't make it. KVDO 3 in Salem, Oregon was one - it ended up in the hands of Oregon Public Broadcasting and moved over the mountains to Bend, where it's now KOAB-TV. I'm pretty sure there was at least one VHF in Pueblo, Colorado that didn't survive (aside from KCSJ-TV/KOAA 5, which did make it.)

There are other Vs, of course, that couldn't make a go of it as stand-alone stations but survived as satellites of bigger stations. KNAZ in Flagstaff and KMOH in Kingman, Arizona come to mind. Up north, there was CJSS-TV 8 in Cornwall, Ontario, which lasted only a few years as a standalone before becoming a relay of Ottawa's CJOH.

 

[Ultimajock]

...probably the biggest would be WATV/WNTA-TV/13 in Newark, New Jersey, which was the New York City market's earliest independent commercial station. In 1962, that station was replaced by WNDT/WNET, New York's primary NET/PBS station. Obviously, *that* one ain't comin' back anytime soon ;-) ...

 

[fybush]

...probably the biggest would be WATV/WNTA-TV/13 in Newark, New Jersey, which was the New York City market's earliest independent commercial station. In 1962, that station was replaced by WNDT/WNET, New York's primary NET/PBS station. Obviously, *that* one ain't comin' back anytime soon ;-) ...

And a close parallel to that - channel 12 in Wilmington, Delaware, which had been an independent under the WDEL, WFPH and WVUE calls before going dark and resurfacing as public broadcaster WHYY-TV in 1963.

 

[dhett]

Other VHFs whose licenses were canceled:

• WTHS 2 Miami FL - shared channel with WPBT: Dade County Schools' WTHS broadcast educational programming during the day, and WPBT took over in the evening. WTHS was replaced by WLRN 17 Miami. License canceled in 1983.
• KTFL 4 Flagstaff AZ - FamilyNet channel went off the air in June 2006 after being on for 5-6 years.
• KVIJ 8 Sayre OK - license canceled in 1993. Allocation remained unused.
• KHJ 9 Los Angeles CA - station taken from RKO General in 1988; allocation replaced by KCAL the same year.
• KFNE 10 Riverton WY - license canceled in 1991. Replaced by new KFNE with different owner the same day.
• KFNR 11 Rawlins WY - license canceled in 1991. Replaced by new KFNR with different owner the same day.
• WHBQ 13 Memphis TN - station taken from RKO General in 1990; replaced by new WHBQ with different owner the same day.
• WETV 13 Key West FL - license canceled in 1990. Allocation remained unused.

 

[Stanislav]

So, if I am reading correctly, so far we have only KTFL-4 Flagstaff and KVIJ-8 Sayre which represent a VHF channel going dark and then staying dark (no subsequent operation on the channel), and KVDO-3 which kind of falls in the cracks (allocation deleted, but moved to the east and currently used). And, of course, my example of KHMA-11, the story of which I would still like to hear. All the other examples given have had other stations come on the vacated channels (some even the same day, thus the channel itself never really went dark), or stations that switched from standalone to satellite, or one case of half of a rare share-time arrangement ending, none of which are in the scope of what I was asking. I meant a station going dark and its channel remaining vacant to this day.

 

[fybush]

I knew there was one in Colorado - KDZA-TV 3 Pueblo, which had a brief existence in 1953-54 before going dark.

http://www.broadcastprofessionals.net/kdza.html

 

[EricStein]

Another addition:

KIVA-TV 11 in Yuma, Arizona. The first and only TV station in Yuma for years, only to give up after another TV station signed on in the '60s. Who knew if two VHF TV stations could survive in a very small market back then. The owners of KIVA-TV didn't think so.

 

[C Murder]

Back in the 70's, TV station lists for a time showed a channel 11 in Houma, Louisiana, with the calls KHMA. Apparently, the station did sign on in 1972 (as an indie, I believe), but not many years later disappeared from station lists, and even the ch. 11 allocation to Houma seemed to have vanished. There is no mention on this station anywhere on the Web, save for their sign-on date showing up in those "on this day" feature lists.

I don't know anything about KHMA when it was on the air, but I know that the allocation remained long after the original station signed off. For a while, there was rumour going around the TV stations in the mid-80s that it would sign back on as Baton Rouge's Fox affiliate. When WGMB eventually signed on - thereby negating that one - the rumor shifted to a UPN or WB station in 1995. Clearly, nothing ever transpired.

Unfortunately, the channel 11/Houma saga has come to an end, as channel 11 has been allocated to serve as the digital signal of New Orleans' PBS-affiliated WYES, which rightly covers the Houma-Thibodaux area.

 

[dhett]

So, if I am reading correctly, so far we have only KTFL-4 Flagstaff and KVIJ-8 Sayre which represent a VHF channel going dark and then staying dark (no subsequent operation on the channel), and KVDO-3 which kind of falls in the cracks (allocation deleted, but moved to the east and currently used). And, of course, my example of KHMA-11, the story of which I would still like to hear. All the other examples given have had other stations come on the vacated channels (some even the same day, thus the channel itself never really went dark), or stations that switched from standalone to satellite, or one case of half of a rare share-time arrangement ending, none of which are in the scope of what I was asking. I meant a station going dark and its channel remaining vacant to this day.

WETV also. There is no longer any station operating on channel 13 in Key West, including LPTVs.
There is also the aforementioned KZDA in Pueblo CO. No channel 3 allocation exists in So. Colo. today.

I'm sure there are others - I only had access to the FCC CDBS database, which only goes back to 1978.

 

[bpatrick]

I remember back around '72 the Times-Picayune
listed the New Orleans' stations' schedules, and
listed just the call letters of nearby stations.
KHMA was one of them. Yet I never saw their
listings in the New Orleans or Louisiana editions
of TV Guide, then or later when I lived in Texas
and my dad would bring back editions from Louisiana
(this would be 1976-79).

The only station on Channel 11 in Louisiana right
now is KAQY Columbia, LA, the ABC affiliate for
Monroe.

 

[Stanislav]

I remember back around '72 the Times-Picayune
listed the New Orleans' stations' schedules, and
listed just the call letters of nearby stations.
KHMA was one of them. Yet I never saw their
listings in the New Orleans or Louisiana editions
of TV Guide, then or later when I lived in Texas
and my dad would bring back editions from Louisiana
(this would be 1976-79).

So this odd duck really did live in a sort of limbo, huh? Sounds like you'd probably have to look through the back issues of the Houma newspaper to even find a schedule for them. I wonder what their programming was like, and what they were trying to do. Were they hoping to rimshot New Orleans? (Would be difficult from that distance with WYES-12 adjacent.) Or were they really trying to serve the mostly rural and lightly populated bayou? (Houma itself even today has a population of only around 30K or so, and there really are no other significant population centers nearby.) If someone has a TV Factbook or something from that era, it's be interesting to see what their facilities were like (transmitter site, ERP, etc.). Wonder if they did any local programming at all. (Probably a lot of fishing shows...)

And we have neglected the most important question of all: is it pronounced "HOO-ma" or "HOE-ma?"

 

[KeithE4]

KOY-TV 10 Phoenix, AZ shared time with KOOL-TV for about a year and a half in 1953-54, after which it merged with KOOL.

WVSJ-TV 9 Hatfield (near Evansville), IN was listed in the 1958 Vane Jones guide as being a new station, but I don't know if it ever actually went on the air. That channel is now WNIN, the Evansville PBS station.

The same Vane Jones guide also lists a KSAC-TV 8 Manhattan KS and KIFS 11 International Falls, MN as new stations. I don't know if they ever made it to air either.

 

[C Murder]

And we have neglected the most important question of all: is it pronounced "HOO-ma" or "HOE-ma?"

Houma is pronounced HOE-ma. It sounds as if you're saying "Home of" really fast.

In fact, KYRK, which is licensed to Houma but serves New Orleans, used to be KUMX and ID'd as such: "KUMX Houma/New Orleans' Hottest Hits," read as to imply "Home of New Orleans' Hottest Hits." It's the more innocuous version of WGTZ's "Eaton/Dayton Alive!"

 

[rwells2265]

KFOY-TV Channel 9 in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Signed on circa 1961, and was on the air for maybe 18 months before going dark.

As I understand it, KFOY was an NBC affiliate. Studios were on the side of West Mountain just up the hill from Central Avenue along Bathhouse Row.

Channel 9's assignment would then be moved to nearby Arkadelphia and declared non-commercial. Presently, 9 serves as the AETN station for southwest Arkansas.

--Russell

 

[w9wi]

In the same category as WTHS-2 is WMSU East Lansing, Mich.. It shared time with commercial station WILX on channel 10. They went dark sometime in the early 1970s, then returned as WKAR-TV with channel 23 all to themselves.

Some channels that left long gaps in occupancy might include channel 6 in Pocatello, Idaho; channel 7 in El Centro, Calif.; channel 10 in Thief River Falls, Minn.; channels 2 and 11 in Santa Fe, N.M. (KVSF listed in the 1966 Yearbook on both channels!); channel 12 in Pembina, N.D.; channel 12 in Logan, Utah; channel 13 in Flagstaff; channel 13 in Twin Falls, Idaho. In all these cases the station using that channel today is not related to the one that was using it in 1966.

In the "deleted & never came back" category, KVLF-TV Alpine, Texas. 66 Yearbook says it was an ABC affiliate on channel 12 with 170 watts at -240' and had suspended operations in 1966. (which implies it had operated at one point)

 

[Stanislav]

In the "deleted & never came back" category, KVLF-TV Alpine, Texas. 66 Yearbook says it was an ABC affiliate on channel 12 with 170 watts at -240' and had suspended operations in 1966. (which implies it had operated at one point)

Boy, that's another one that (like KHMA-11), looks like it was out in the middle of nowhere. Doesn't look like it was close enough to have any effect on the El Paso or Big Spring-Odessa-Monahans markets, especially not at that height and power! More like an LPTV than a "real" station. Out in the boonies, beaming the 3rd-rated network's programming to mostly cattle -- go figure.

 

[azumanga]

In the same category as WTHS-2 is WMSU East Lansing, Mich.. It shared time with commercial station WILX on channel 10. They went dark sometime in the early 1970s, then returned as WKAR-TV with channel 23 all to themselves.

Actually, the station was WMSB, during the time-sharing period. The station previously had a channel to itself, WKAR ch.60, from about 1954 (?) to 1959, when they moved to ch.10.

 

[bpatrick]

I remember back around '72 the Times-Picayune
listed the New Orleans' stations' schedules, and
listed just the call letters of nearby stations.
KHMA was one of them. Yet I never saw their
listings in the New Orleans or Louisiana editions
of TV Guide, then or later when I lived in Texas
and my dad would bring back editions from Louisiana
(this would be 1976-79).

So this odd duck really did live in a sort of limbo, huh? Sounds like you'd probably have to look through the back issues of the Houma newspaper to even find a schedule for them. I wonder what their programming was like, and what they were trying to do. Were they hoping to rimshot New Orleans? (Would be difficult from that distance with WYES-12 adjacent.) Or were they really trying to serve the mostly rural and lightly populated bayou? (Houma itself even today has a population of only around 30K or so, and there really are no other significant population centers nearby.) If someone has a TV Factbook or something from that era, it's be interesting to see what their facilities were like (transmitter site, ERP, etc.). Wonder if they did any local programming at all. (Probably a lot of fishing shows...)

And we have neglected the most important question of all: is it pronounced "HOO-ma" or "HOE-ma?"

HOE-ma

 

[banthony]

Idaho’s first and short-lived TV station was KFXD TV 6 ( Boise) that signed on with test patterns on June 18, 1953. Eleven days later, KFXD ran programs for 3 hours until 9 PM. Three other TV stations, KIDO (now KTVB), KBOI (KBCI-2) and KGEM filed for applications or had permits before KFXD, but hadn’t gone on the air yet. Without a network, KFXD possibly considered joining the 9-year-old Dumont network, but declined. Faced with mounting debt, the owner signed off KFXD two months later on August 12.

(from the National Radio Club page)