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

[fortmill]

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.
[/quote]

Doesn't (or didn't) "Television Marti" the spanish language TV service aimed at Cuba, and sister station to Radio Marti, operate from a balloon near Key West? I thought I read the channel would be reserved for use for a certain number of years, then change to a regular non-commercial allocation for Key West.

 

[Stanislav]

Doesn't (or didn't) "Television Marti" the spanish language TV service aimed at Cuba, and sister station to Radio Marti, operate from a balloon near Key West? I thought I read the channel would be reserved for use for a certain number of years, then change to a regular non-commercial allocation for Key West.

Forgot all about TV Marti -- that's obviously why there is no ch. 13 operating in Key West right now.

The Marti website also says they operate on ch. 20 as well, which is news to me. I wonder, given that the area is mostly water and tropospheric enhancement is a regular occurrence in the Keys, if these transmitters ever give problems to ch. 20 in Ft. Myers, or ch. 13 in the Bahamas?

 

[radiorob2.0]

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.

That is a misprint, the call letters were actually WVJS-TV. The Steele family, who owned WVJS AM/FM (later WSTO-FM) Owensboro, KY attempted to start a TV station in 1952. The first chance was Channel 14 as they and their cross town rivals The Hagers, owners of WOMI AM/FM (later WBKR-FM) and the Owensboro Messenger Inquirer fought for the allocation. The Steele family was awarded the allocation since the FCC felt the Hagers had media concentration (imagine that). Then Channel 9 was allocated to Hatfield, IN (tower location). The Steele's dropped their efforts for Channel 14 and tried for Channel 9. Everything was in place including letters from ABC and DuMont confirming affiliation. Then the FCC reallocated Channel 9 for Non-Commercial status. The Steele's fought the commission for years to change the allocation but the FCC refused. Channel 14 was moved to Evansville so WFIE could move from Channel 62 to a better UHF position of Channel 14. Around 1970 the Steele family tried for Channel 19 but gave up on over the air television for cable. They purchased a down and out cable system and rebuilt it to become Owensboro Cablevision. It was a state of the art system that became one of the first outside of the east coast to feature HBO. The original 1975 satellite dish still stands with a Time Warner logo, the current owner. Channel 9 finally signed on the air in 1973. It was originally owned by the Evansville-Vandenberg School Corporation and later sold to another entity.

There was an almost loss of a VHF signal in Evansville. Channel 7 was allocated to Evansville with help from a U.S. Senator trying to win points in southwest Indiana. WTVW signed on the air six years after WFIE (first at Channel 62 then 14) and WEHT Henderson (first at Channel 50, then 25). A few year later the FCC tried to force WTVW to move from Channel 7 to Channel 31 so Evansville would be an all UHF market. But the owners of WTVW told the FCC to...well.....shove it and remained on Channel 7.

 

[manauman]

I do remember KHMA in Houma!

As an 11 year old in 1970 I remember staying up late one night and saw the local channel 2, WBRZ in Baton Rouge, sign off the air. I was fascinated when the signal disappeared it was replaced by another noisier station which turned out to be KPRC, channel 2 in Houston. My family had just recently been to Houston to see an Astros game and it seemed so unreal to be able to watch a TV station from there all the way from Baton Rouge! I changed the dial and found two more stations, 11 and 13, from Houston. There was another station coming in on channel 5 but it was even noisier. I was determined to find out where it was from and at the next commercial break I was able hear from the audio that it was KENS, Channel 5 from San Antonio! This was so amazing to me! From that night on I was hooked on TV DXing, but I found out real fast that the weather played a big factor in determining reception quality. The next night KPRC and others were nowhere to be found. Over the next decade or so I kept a log of stations that I was able to pick up and I still have that list as well as a map that I made.

Anyway, what does this have to do with KHMA??? I do remember when KHMA came on the air in '72 and it was indeed an independent station. I could get some reception of KHMA from Baton Rouge with our ~20' outdoor antenna but it never was a very good signal. Unfortunately, KHMA was not well covered well by many media outlets and their broadcast programming was not even listed in some old TV Guides for south Louisiana that I kept from that era. I don't remember when KHMA signed off, but I do know it wasn't on the air for any more than a year or two.

 

[mjlarochelle]

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.

KIFS very well may have been on the air. The Ontario Economic Atlas, published in 1969, included a map of all the television signals originating in Ontario as well as spillover signals from Quebec and the United States, as of 1965. Up in Northwestern Ontario there is a large American signal covering much of Rainy River District and the Atikokan area, although this signal is not actually identified. If it existed it was the only TV signal available in much of that region, except right in the towns where there were translators for CBWT from Winnipeg. In any case, there is a Channel 11 in that area today, KRII which is a semi-satellite of KBJR/6 in Duluth. It was originally licensed to International Falls but has since moved to Chisholm - but it only signed on in 2000.