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WGLV-TV

R

rcs

Although not directly related to the Philadelphia area I thought that some of you may be interested in some historical photos we recently came across of the construction of the transmitter site of WGLV-TV, Easton, PA. back in the fifites. We believe these were taken by former WPOP Radio chief engineer Augie Santana.

The photos can be viewed here: http://www.hartfordradiohistory.com/WGLV-TV.html

If anyone would like hi-res copies please let me know. I would also appreciarte any info you may have on the history of this station.
 
These pictures are great! Here is what I can tell you about WGLV-TV. The station, on Channel 57, was licensed to The Easton Publishing Company who, at the time, operated WEEX-FM (at 98.9-FM later moved to present day 99.9-FM) and owned The Easton (PA) Express. The station was in operation from about 1953 to 1958. From what I understand, its studios were located off PA 248 in Palmer Township near the present day Palmer Park Mall.

As you can tell from some of the photographs, the station was completely built with DuMont equipment and was a DuMont affiliate. It also broadcast some ABC programs at the time. The co-owned newspaper helped give the station some promotional support, but it never quite gained an audience due to the fact that it was on UHF and UHF tuners were rare to find in those days.

At the time, it was quite difficult to receive the Philadelphia television stations because their signals were blocked by South Mountain. In 1956, when the Philly stations moved their towers to their present location at Roxborough, this spelled the end of WGLV-TV. The station went dark by Summer of 1958 and the frequency (Channel 57) was assigned to Philadelphia. The Lehigh Valley gained its own television station in 1965 with WLVT-TV in Bethlehem and later in 1976 with WFMZ-TV, Channel 69.

These are great photos. Where did you get them from? And please post any others you might have.
 
We've come across a few more pictures from the same set which I will post later today on the above link. Collectively they appear to show three separate tower installations:

1. 3-sided tower on a high hill set in a clearing (most of the photos are of this tower I believe).
2. 3-sided tower directly behind small white building without a clearing (brush and trees close by on 3 sides of the tower base.
3. A 4-sided tower, perhaps a self-supporter. There is only one picture of this tower and it is taken from the tower looking down as a small adjacent tx building. This picture shows a tower made up of angle iron vs. tubular horizontal members, and from the right angle in the picture it looks as if it is a square tower.

Assuming #1 is the original WGLV installation, any idea where the other locations are? I assume they are in the same general area but that's just a guess.

Also, a friend has identified the transmitter as an RCA TTU-1B with a 6181 output tube (tetrode). Probably 1 kw visual and 500 watts aural under the original 2 to 1 rule. The antenna is tentatively identified as a TFU-21, RCA's antenna in that period.
 
rcavictor said:
At the time, it was quite difficult to receive the Philadelphia television stations because their signals were blocked by South Mountain. In 1956, when the Philly stations moved their towers to their present location at Roxborough, this spelled the end of WGLV-TV. The station went dark by Summer of 1958 and the frequency (Channel 57) was assigned to Philadelphia. The Lehigh Valley gained its own television station in 1965 with WLVT-TV in Bethlehem and later in 1976 with WFMZ-TV, Channel 69.

These are great photos. Where did you get them from? And please post any others you might have.
Click to expand...

Wasn't there also a WLEV-TV?
1953-1957

The proximity to Philadelphia and likely New York prevented network affiliation for those interested, even if licenses were available. WBPH is another commercial station in the Lehigh Valley now.
 
Yes, there was a WLEV-TV, which was licensed to Bethlehem, PA during the same time period. I believe they were on Channel 69 and I also believe they carried some NBC programming at the time. In the Valley, New York television was rather hard to receive, just like Philadelphia TV, until the new towers (in Philadelphia) were constructed in 1957.
 
DToTheJ said:
rcavictor said:
WLEV-TV was on Channel 51...
Click to expand...

... which now serves Reading as WTVE. I imagine WLEV-TV encountered the same fate as WGLV.
Click to expand...

Saying that WTVE serves the Reading area is like saying WMCN serves the AC area. They both show infomercials all day and they both have total coverage in the Philly metro area on Xfinity, Fios, DirecTv, (not sure about Dish).
 
WGLV-TV57, WLEV-TV51 and the original WFMZ-TV67 (yes, 67) all went dark within a month of each other in 1957. WLEV-TV41 was owned by Steinman Stations (WGAL-TV) of Lancaster. It was the lowest-powered of the original Lehigh Valley TV stations..a 1 kw xmtr with 20 kw ERP. The original WFMZ-TV67was owned by Allentown Broadcasting Co. Any info on who those folks were?

Also, anybody know anything at all about
lonely little WBPZ-TV, Lock Haven, which broadcast for about a year on Ch. 32 in
1958 and 59. (Still years before Congress passed the law requiring all TV set manufactured in the USA to have a UHF tuner. WBPZ had a "use it or lose it" choice....light up the station or lose their construction permit. The big cable system in Williamsport would not carry WBPZ-TV, effectively sealing their doom. This years before the "must carry" law.

1958 was late enough in the early UHF era to have seen a slew of U's fail and go dark. But, those adventurous people in Lock Haven even thought they could make it as an indie. They aired some local, live religious shows. Almost nobody had UHF antennas or set top converters. A few had highly-directional parabolics to pick up the Wilkes-Barre stations. Anybody know where WBPZ-TV's transmitter site was and what their ERP was?

Steinman had a UHF construction permit for Williamsport but never lit it up. When WGAL-TV8 increased power
in '54..and again, later, that put Williamsport and the Lehigh valley in their Grade B contours and the FCC didn't permit such overlap.
 
The WLEV-51 studio and 235-foot tower were on Savercool Avenue in Fountain Hill. The building is now the xmtr house for an FM whose calls I can't remember. A new tower is at the same spot as 51's.
 
Also, anybody know anything at all about
lonely little WBPZ-TV, Lock Haven, which broadcast for about a year on Ch. 32 in
1958 and 59. (Still years before Congress passed the law requiring all TV set manufactured in the USA to have a UHF tuner. WBPZ had a "use it or lose it" choice....light up the station or lose their construction permit. The big cable system in Williamsport would not carry WBPZ-TV, effectively sealing their doom. This years before the "must carry" law.

I worked at WBPZ radio in 1967 and learned a little bit about WBPZ TV, yes it was on the air for about a year, I do remember seeing the siggnal in Montoursville Pa as my neighbor was a tv repairman and picked it up off air. Legend has it that the proposed tower site, on the mountain south of Lock Haven Airport had to be changed for some reason. The final site is to the southwest of Lock Haven the current WBPZ (WSNU) FM site. I have no idea what their power was to be. I do sort of remember they were picking up ABC programming from Wilkes Bare which probably at the time was WILK.
[
Steinman had a UHF construction permit for Williamsport but never lit it up. When WGAL-TV8 increased power Steinman did have a CP for channel 36 for Williamsport, but it never went on the air, I suspect the WRAK FM tower and building on Bald Eagle Mtn, would have been the transmitter site. The station was sold to a local group formed by J. Wright Mackey and the TV was never built. Channel 36 eventually was assigned to Elmira NY and became Howard Green's WENY TV that went on the air in the late 60's with sutdios in the Downtown Mark Twain Hotel until the 72 flood when they moved to the current location in Horseheads on Old Ithaca Rd.
[/quote]
 
Bill_W said:
DToTheJ said:
rcavictor said:
WLEV-TV was on Channel 51...
Click to expand...

... which now serves Reading as WTVE. I imagine WLEV-TV encountered the same fate as WGLV.
Click to expand...

Saying that WTVE serves the Reading area is like saying WMCN serves the AC area. They both show infomercials all day and they both have total coverage in the Philly metro area on Xfinity, Fios, DirecTv, (not sure about Dish).
Click to expand...

Yes, but Comcast is still the largest one. WTVE doesn't have coverage in SW NJ (Camden/Burlington counties) on Comcast. WTVE could arrange a deal for full blanket market Comcast coverage for Phila DMA, but Comcast may move them to digital only (such as Ch.199) throughout the entire market including Reading PA. KFTY in Santa Rosa struck a deal with Comcast for the SF Bay area, so that KFTY has full SF coverage on Ch.199. I think I've heard WSAH doing so for the NYC DMA.
 
WGLV-57 June 26, 1953 - November 1, 1957
WLEV-51 April 21, 1953 - October 31, 1957

GLV's studios were on Nazareth Pike in Palmer Township.
 
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