TV station history you want the most

[installLSC]

Has there ever been a TV station you would like to see an in-depth history of? My choice is KVOS Bellingham (in NW Washington State). Over the years, it went from a station that served the Bellingham market to CBS' defacto Vancouver BC affiliate to an independent that still aired a few CBS shows. Now it's one of the few primary MeTV affiliates. The decisions they made over the years would be highly interesting and tell us a lot about the TV industry. What's your choice?

 

[RyanHoward]

I would go for the long and trying history of(what else?) Channel 19 in Johnstown, PA!!

 

[Avid Listener]

I'm interested in the history of the local channels I watched when I was younger. I think everyone does. The last thing I want is to be barraged with posts about the history of the local channels someone else watched when they were younger in a different market. And, though I'm very interested in the locally originated shows on those local stations (few in number though they would be), long lists of extracts from TV Guide are about the most boring thing that anyone could cut and paste into a post, except possibly long lists of stations from all around the country that played obscure syndicated shows.

Now, if someone wanted to talk about the content or cast of those obscure syndicated shows, that would be interesting.

 

[JeffM]

Nothing escapes the Troll King...

 

[K.M. Richards]

You know, if any of the "most wanted" are UHFs which subsequently failed, the History of UHF Television site is always looking for new articles -- or at the least, people who can contribute enough information for an article to be written -- for future additions.

The problems with these kinds of "wish lists" are not entirely as Avid states (although I also tire of long lists extracted from TV Guide except for entire-market classic schedules, which often stimulate some discussion about stations and their local programming.

The biggest problem is that for the most part there is not sufficient information available to piece together a narrative. Anecdotal recollections and personal memories aren't really interesting enough (except to the person reminiscing) and are often easily challenged. Read the article at the UHF site for the old channel 79 translator in Torrington NH; for years, a "personal recollection" at the Hartford Radio History site that this translator was later moved to Waterbury NH was accepted as gospel truth because it came from an engineer at the originating station. Only trouble was that the Waterbury translator and the Torrington translator were both in operation for 14 months in 1964-65, and there was a separate licensing paper trail that could be pieced back together via Broadcasting Magazine. That's just one example, and it is why Clarke Ingram and I insist on fact-checking for the articles. The biggest problem, as I started to say at the beginning of this paragraph, is the lack of newspaper articles and the like for most stations ... especially the ones that came and went in very short spans of time.

But if there is enough for an article, the feedback we've gotten from the site is that people will read it.

 

[harrisburgpatv2]

I semi-agree with Avid as well. Stations in my home market (Harrisburg) I find the history very interesting, and could even help write them. The history of KOMO in Seattle (the first example I could think of that came to mind)? No interest. I have never lived in Seattle and only had the station back when one could easily get the networks on satellite. I do, however, find the retro schedules interesting.

 

[Avid Listener]

Is it just me, or does it seem like even when I make a positive response to an open question, and list several different things about TV station history I'd like to see, as well as much much I'd enjoy discussing the actual programs of yesteryear, some ******* still has to make a comment about "trolls".

And before anyone gets censor-happy, "*******" is not obscene. And in this case, it's also accurate.


It's also name-calling and it's not acceptable.

 

[K.M. Richards]

Is it just me, or does it seem like even when I make a positive response to an open question, and list several different things about TV station history I'd like to see, as well as much much I'd enjoy discussing the actual programs of yesteryear, some ******* still has to make a comment about "trolls".

And before anyone gets censor-happy, "*******" is not obscene. And in this case, it's also accurate.


It's also name-calling and it's not acceptable.

I'd rather be accused of trolling than have someone as belligerent as you calling me an ******* (and I'm 99.9% certain which seven-letter word you used and the moderator deleted, despite your own declaration that it was acceptable ... more proof that you don't make the rules).

And yes ... it is you. Your own behavior and disposition made it so.

Excuse me while I back away. You're too dangerously close to that line we shouldn't cross.

 

[radiorob2.0]

I'm interested in the history of the local channels I watched when I was younger. I think everyone does. The last thing I want is to be barraged with posts about the history of the local channels someone else watched when they were younger in a different market. And, though I'm very interested in the locally originated shows on those local stations (few in number though they would be), long lists of extracts from TV Guide are about the most boring thing that anyone could cut and paste into a post, except possibly long lists of stations from all around the country that played obscure syndicated shows.

Now, if someone wanted to talk about the content or cast of those obscure syndicated shows, that would be interesting.

Lighten up, Francis!

 

[marklungo]

I wouldn't mind hearing about WSWO-TV, Dayton's original, short-lived Channel 26 in the late 1960s. (It's currently CW/Bounce affiliate WBDT).

 

[newsmark]

I'd like to know more about the early UHF stations in DFW that aren't at all related to the current stations on the same channels.

KFWT Channel 21, Fort Worth
KMEC Channel 33, Dallas
KBFI Channel 33, Dallas

Granted, they were all so short-lived, there might not be much to tell.

 

[JeffM]

Lighten up, Francis!

Francis???

 

[K.M. Richards]

I'd like to know more about the early UHF stations in DFW that aren't at all related to the current stations on the same channels.

KFWT Channel 21, Fort Worth
KMEC Channel 33, Dallas
KBFI Channel 33, Dallas

Granted, they were all so short-lived, there might not be much to tell.

Your last sentence is indeed correct.

I've written more than a dozen station histories for the UHF Television website, and there are some that never even got started because we lack information on them.

I can track the pre-broadcast history of any station that received its construction permit between 1952 and the 1980s, because Broadcasting was reasonably accurate in publishing FCC filings, dismissals, and grants. I can track FCC actions in the 1960s and 1970s which rescinded CPs en masse. I can (usually) get the start date of operation from the Yearbooks.

What I can't get are details of station operation unless a local newspaper regularly reported on a station's activity, or the station ran print ads in the local newspaper ... and that newspaper is in one of the archive sites (Google, Newspapers.com, NewspaperArchives.com). Most of the "personal recollection" sites are either limited in data or provably wrong. And we all know how error-riddled Wikipedia can be unless facts are verified from the same external sources I've just referred to.

I'll use channel 33 in Dallas as an example. Here are my notes from my initial research on every UHF that got a CP in the first three decades of their issuance:
CP issued 4/17/67 and subsequently requested calls KMEC-TV
Went on-air 10/1/67
Went dark 10/25/68
Resumed operation 2/21/72 as KBFI-TV
Went dark a second time 12/16/72
Purchased by CBN and resumed 4/16/73 as KXTX
Acquired KDTV on channel 39 and moved operations to that channel 12/20/73, taking 33 dark for a third time
A new CP was issued 6/13/77 and calls KNBN-TV assigned
Began operation 9/80, subsequently changed calls to today's KDAF

I was able to find some print ads KMEC-TV ran in the newspapers within their coverage in mid- to late-September, 1967 (right before they went live). It was the same ad in all the papers and gave very little detail about the station, saying only "first run movies, best in live local sports, latest news and weather ... local live programs in color". The entire bottom third was instructions on how to use a UHF tuner.

What listings I could find in the Denton, Grand Prairie, Waco and McKinney newspapers during 1968 showed KMEC-TV programmed as a typical independent UHF scrambling for programming in a market with all three networks on VHF and an indie V (KTVT/11). Old movie at 4:00. Bozo/Cartoons at 5:30. Old movie at 6:30. Old movie at 8:00. Newscast at 9:30. Old movie at 10:00. All the movies mid-1950s or older vintage.

A whopping five news stories in the newspapers I had access to. One is a picture of the station's Bozo posing with young leukemia victims at a fundraiser; one was about two Irving High School students being selected for the station's teen advisory board; a third was a press release from a local minister about his weekly religious news program on Sunday afternoon; and a fourth was a two-sentence mention of the contestants in the Miss Grand Prairie pageant appearing on the station. The announcement of the station going dark and its pending sale was an AP wire service report, not even by a local reporter (and it said the station would resume early in 1969).

Most of what I found about KXTX pre-channel 39 was the announcement of CBN's purchase and their schedule, which was an early afternoon sign-on to run Jim & Tammy Bakker and the 700 Club, then a couple of hours of cartoons like Mighty Mouse and Magilla Gorilla, followed by Andy Griffith, Mayberry RFD, Courtship of Eddie's Father. In prime-time, 700 Club rerun and Jimmy Swaggart.

Not much to make an article out of.

Aside from that, nothing but an ad that ran in all the papers at the end of June hawking the Bozo show and inviting kids to send in their name and address if they wanted to be on the show.

All that marks the ten months of KBFI-TV's life are two articles: One, a press release by the local Lutheran church about a series they were sponsoring and two, an brief article about a monthly 15-minute program the station was doing in conjunction with the McKinney Jobs Corps for Women.

 

[LKellerIII]

I recall that in the mid 60s - the dawn of UHF stations in Los Angeles - given that we had 7 VHF stations - there was a Channel 18 for a few years. Our local cable company (and I mean REALLY local - only Sunland-Tujunga) did not put 18 on the VHF band, as they did with 22, 28, and 36. But I remember tuning it in OTA after we got a TV with a UHF tuner. I seem to recall the city of license was Fontana, but recall hothing else.

 

[newsmark]

Your last sentence is indeed correct.

I'll use channel 33 in Dallas as an example.

Thanks for that example. The one thing I recall from the KBFI days (I was 7 when they went on the air), was Burns & Allen reruns. It was the first time I had seen them and I loved 'em.

What you say about U vs. V is quite true, especially for people in the immediate metroplex. I lived farther out in an area where almost everyone had cable. (It had recently converted from a 5 channel system to a 12 channel system.) KDTV/39 was on 9 and KBFI/KXTX was on 7, so people in my area knew of the channels. I suspect in the metroplex, where most people didn't have access to cable (or the need for it), lots of people didn't know either channel existed. Since KTVT/11 was such a strong indy, people weren't really in a hurry to get 39 or 33.

 

[K.M. Richards]

I recall that in the mid 60s - the dawn of UHF stations in Los Angeles - given that we had 7 VHF stations - there was a Channel 18 for a few years. Our local cable company (and I mean REALLY local - only Sunland-Tujunga) did not put 18 on the VHF band, as they did with 22, 28, and 36. But I remember tuning it in OTA after we got a TV with a UHF tuner. I seem to recall the city of license was Fontana, but recall hothing else.

KCHU. COL San Bernardino. First commercial U in SoCal. One of the stations whose history now appears at the UHF site.

 

[kzpo]

Ch. 40 was the one that had Fontana as the city of license. As I recall the first ch.18 KCHU barely got outside of san bernardino.