Why is WNJU licensed to Linden NJ?

[Gregg]

I'm sure the FCC was trying to spread TV allocations around the NY region, so that not every station was based in New York City, even though all VHFs except 13 were licensed to the Big Apple. Newark, being New Jersey's largest city, got VHF Channel 13. And Paterson, another large Northern NJ city, got Channel 41.

But Linden is fairly insignificant. It has a private airport, some refineries and industrial plants, but it has fewer that 40,000 residents. Plenty of North Jersey communities have much bigger populations. Jersey City was the largest municipality in the U.S. with no commercial AM, FM or TV station till AM 620 changed its city of license to Jersey City from Newark a few years ago.

I guess WNJN 50 was licensed to Montclair because its TV tower is on the campus of Montclair State University. WNJB 58 was placed in New Brunswick because that's a large city in the North-Central part of NJ and home to Rutgers State University. And WWOR 9 was licensed to Secaucus because RKO General had to save the license after violating some FCC regulations. Congress made the deal that the station had to relocate from New York City to become New Jersey's first and only VHF station... and Secaucus had an office park close to the Lincoln Tunnel so the station's news vans could easily get to Manhattan events and celebrities visiting NYC could easily get to the station for appearances.

But how did Channel 47 get licensed to Linden?

Gregg
[email protected]

 

[w9wi]

...
But Linden is fairly insignificant. It has a private airport, some refineries and industrial plants, but it has fewer that 40,000 residents. Plenty of North Jersey communities have much bigger populations. Jersey City was the largest municipality in the U.S. with no commercial AM, FM or TV station till AM 620 changed its city of license to Jersey City from Newark a few years ago.
...
But how did Channel 47 get licensed to Linden?

Educated guess (and this is only a guess): They had a line on a decent studio space within the Linden city limits. At the time, you were required to place your main studio within the limits of your city of license.

 

[MattParker]

Educated guess (and this is only a guess): They had a line on a decent studio space within the Linden city limits. At the time, you were required to place your main studio within the limits of your city of license.

Did they ever have a studio? The studio is in Trenton and the other transmitters are repeaters.

 

[ansky212]

Does WNJU still broadcast from the tower in West Orange, or did they move to NYC?

 

[tripinva]

Does WNJU still broadcast from the tower in West Orange, or did they move to NYC?

Yes, WNJU is now on Empire.

- Trip

 

[tripinva]

Did they ever have a studio? The studio is in Trenton and the other transmitters are repeaters.

WNJU is Telemundo, not NJN.

- Trip

 

[azumanga]

At the time, you were required to place your main studio within the limits of your city of license.

I thought it was within 15 miles or so of your COL? One example from Florida is WTSP in St. Petersburg -- its studio was always in St. Pete, yet until 1980-1981, its COL was Largo (just north of St. Pete), where the station never had any presence -- studio or transmitter (the latter was further north, in the town of Holiday).

 

[ansky212]

Does WNJU still broadcast from the tower in West Orange, or did they move to NYC?

Yes, WNJU is now on Empire.

- Trip

Do any TV or radio stations broadcast anymore from the West Orange tower (the one near the corner of Prospect & Eagle Rock Aves.?)

 

[MickeyD]

Did they ever have a studio? The studio is in Trenton and the other transmitters are repeaters.

WNJU is Telemundo, not NJN.

- Trip

Telemundo is owned by NBC and their network control is on the other side of NBC network control. Automation ya gotta love it!

 

[MickeyD]

I'm sure the FCC was trying to spread TV allocations around the NY region, so that not every station was based in New York City, even though all VHFs except 13 were licensed to the Big Apple. Newark, being New Jersey's largest city, got VHF Channel 13. And Paterson, another large Northern NJ city, got Channel 41.

But Linden is fairly insignificant. It has a private airport, some refineries and industrial plants, but it has fewer that 40,000 residents. Plenty of North Jersey communities have much bigger populations. Jersey City was the largest municipality in the U.S. with no commercial AM, FM or TV station till AM 620 changed its city of license to Jersey City from Newark a few years ago.

I guess WNJN 50 was licensed to Montclair because its TV tower is on the campus of Montclair State University. WNJB 58 was placed in New Brunswick because that's a large city in the North-Central part of NJ and home to Rutgers State University. And WWOR 9 was licensed to Secaucus because RKO General had to save the license after violating some FCC regulations. Congress made the deal that the station had to relocate from New York City to become New Jersey's first and only VHF station... and Secaucus had an office park close to the Lincoln Tunnel so the station's news vans could easily get to Manhattan events and celebrities visiting NYC could easily get to the station for appearances.

But how did Channel 47 get licensed to Linden?

Gregg
[email protected]

Don't know if it is still that way, but Channel 13 was originally a commercial allocation.

 

[w9wi]

At the time, you were required to place your main studio within the limits of your city of license.

I thought it was within 15 miles or so of your COL? One example from Florida is WTSP in St. Petersburg -- its studio was always in St. Pete, yet until 1980-1981, its COL was Largo (just north of St. Pete), where the station never had any presence -- studio or transmitter (the latter was further north, in the town of Holiday).

I took a bit of time to look it up in the 1966 Broadcasting Yearbook. I think there were two relevant rules:

• 73.607(b)

which allowed you to use a channel in a city other than the one to which that channel is allotted, if the city where you want to use the channel doesn't have any other channels allotted and is within 15 miles of the city to which the channel is allotted. Channel 47 was initially allotted to New Brunswick. (and still was when WNJU received their permit)

• 73.613(b)

which allowed the FCC to permit a station to locate its main studio outside its city of license. You did have to get a permit first.
[/list]

So why didn't WNJU license itself to New Brunswick and request a permit to locate its studio in Linden? Good question. 73.613(b) didn't require the FCC to waive the main studio rule, maybe they were pretty strict about those waivers at the time?

(but if the OP is asking why channel 47 wasn't licensed to New York City, the answer is because the channel allotment was originally made to New Brunswick, and it could not have been moved to NYC because NYC already had other channels allotted.)

_________________________________________________

Don't know if it is still that way, but Channel 13 was originally a commercial allocation.

It is still a commercial allocation.

 

[w9wi]

Oh, FWIW the listed address of WNJU at the time was 1020 Broad St., Newark. Which doesn't necessarily mean the main studio was there.

 

[mdamico25]

Channel 47's CP might have migrated northeast in 1965 from New Brunswick to Linden to make room for the Channel 48 allocation in Burlington, NJ (which shortly thereafter became WKBS). Not sure if a 47 allocated to New Brunwick and a 48 allocated to Burlington would have been allowed.

Incidentally, the poster mentioned WNJB/58 being allocated to New Brunswick, NJ. Channel 58 was "moved" from Eatontown, NJ to New Brunswick in 1972. In the late 1950s a commerical WRTV/58 operated from Eatontown. It was owned by the Walter Reade Theatre Chain, which later put Channel 68 Newark on the air as WWRO. From what I've heard, WRTV/58 went dark in either 1959 or 1960 and was dormant for many years. The owners planned to put it back on the air in the early 1970s with much increased power and color facilities, but they never went back on the air from Eatontown. I've heard that alot of the equipment was used to put Channel 68 on the air from Newark in 1974.

Back on topic with WNJU- I heard that they initially used the facilties in Newark (the Mosque Theater?) that WNTA/13 used before they were sold and became noncommerical WNDT (later WNET). Anyone know if that is true? Where was WNJU's first antenna located- a guess says the Empire State Building as they went on the air before the World Trade Center was constructed.

One more WNJU question- were they always a Spanish station? I remember in the 1980s, they would show English language religious programs in the morning and then Spanish programming the rest of the day. We always got lousy reception from WNJU in Monmouth County where I lived. The Philadelphia U's came in better.

-Mike

 

[w9wi]

Channel 47's CP might have migrated northeast in 1965 from New Brunswick to Linden to make room for the Channel 48 allocation in Burlington, NJ (which shortly thereafter became WKBS). Not sure if a 47 allocated to New Brunwick and a 48 allocated to Burlington would have been allowed.

I don't have the separation rules as they existed in 1965 handy. Under the rules as they existed at the end of analog, 47 New Brunswick and 48 Burlington would *not* have been allowed. According to Wikipedia (admittedly I don't know where they get the coordinates) the two towns are 57.1km apart. (about 35 miles) The minimum separation for adjacent UHF channels was 87.7km. (about 55mi.) **I think** the distance separation rules did not change appreciably from the time they were set in 1952 to the time analog disappeared last summer.

Thing is, I see no record that the channel 47 allotment had been moved until well after the Burlington station signed on. WKBS is listed as having gone on the air in 1965 (same year as WNJU) but channel 47 is still listed as allotted to New Brunswick in the 1971 Yearbook.

Could be a Yearbook typo. (failure to update the table)

It is difficult to read WKBS's channel in the 1965 book. It looks like it could have been originally authorized on channel 41, not 48. 41 was allotted to Trenton at the time; no channel was allotted to Burlington; -- and channel 48 was allotted to Dover, Delaware. (which of course would have been inconsistent with its use anywhere in NJ)

Where was WNJU's first antenna located- a guess says the Empire State Building as they went on the air before the World Trade Center was constructed.

That would be my guess. Their antenna height is listed as 1180' HAAT (360m) in both the 1965 and 1971 lists -- that's similar to the heights of the ESB backups for many NYC FMs today.

 

[pab]

One more WNJU question- were they always a Spanish station? I remember in the 1980s, they would show English language religious programs in the morning and then Spanish programming the rest of the day. We always got lousy reception from WNJU in Monmouth County where I lived. The Philadelphia U's came in better.

WNJU started as brokered multi-culti and progressively became more and more Spanish. The last non-Spanish foreign language programming disappeared in the early 1980's, and the English religious programming disappeared in 1984 when it became one of the original affiliates of NetSpan (which became Telemundo).

My favorite memories watching WNJU on cable in the 1970's (although I didn't yet speak Spanish) include "el Gato de WAPA" as the station's mascot and watching Mighty Mouse and Hanna-Barbera cartoons in Spanish hosted by a Spanish version of the Magic Clown (who was downright creepy).

 

[KeithE4]

Channel 47's CP might have migrated northeast in 1965 from New Brunswick to Linden to make room for the Channel 48 allocation in Burlington, NJ (which shortly thereafter became WKBS). Not sure if a 47 allocated to New Brunwick and a 48 allocated to Burlington would have been allowed.

Per the 1967 Yearbook, they were allowed.

There was a major reshuffling of allocations in 1965-66, when Channels 37, and 70-83 were removed from the allocations table, except for Glen Ridge NJ (77) and Bowling Green OH (70). Burlington got 48, Dover was moved from 48 to 34, and and Paterson was moved from 37 to 41 during this time.

 

[Gregg]

I remember in its early days that WNJU ran children's shows in English in the late afternoon, including Zacherle doing his show (he was a NYC TV host who dressed as an undertaker and did a Halloween-themed youth show) as well as a cartoon show featuring Coco The Clown. There were brokered ethnic and religious shows on weekends and Spanish programming in the evening before the station became a Telemundo affiliate.

And knowing that 47 was originally licensed to New Brunswick but that the owners wanted the studios and offices in Newark makes Linden a sort of logical choice. Newark already had its allocation on Channel 13, so if you move 47's allocation roughly halfway between Newark and New Brunswick, you come up with Linden as a compromise.

I'm pretty sure the FCC has always allowed stations to put their studios and offices within 15 miles of their city of license, and Newark falls within 15 miles of Linden. However, if the founders were really trying to create enough space for a Channel 48 in the Philadelphia market, they should have made Jersey City the city of license for 47. As I stated above, it's one of the largest muncipalities without a TV station in the country, so the FCC would have welcomed the change. And Jersey City is even farther from the Philly market than Newark is.

Gregg
nh153@mailcom

 

[Marckd]

Originally, Channel 47 WNJU was English Speaking and an independent but a very weak one with only a few hours of shows a day. In order to stay on the air, very soon after the station began selling time to anyone paying to be on the air which included religious shows and foriegn language shows. Within a couple years after sign on WNJU had mostly foriegn language programs ranging from Italian to Asian to Spanish. On Saturday and Sunday mornings the station had religious shows about 4 hours a day and those were in English. In the mid 70's, WNJU took the 2 hour version of PTL Club on weekdays and eventually the 90 minute edition of 700 Club as well being that WOR TV only took the hour edition of PTL and PIX took the hour version of 700 Club. Screen Gems, which syndicated a bunch of off network reruns for Columbia Pictires such as the Flintstones, Bewitched, Dennis The Menace, I Dream Of Jeannie, Donna Reed, among others, onwed Channel 47 in the 70's. Still, this stuff never landed on WNJU and they continued running the station as a brokered station.

When 700 Club was dropped from WPIX, the hour edition went to WOR-TV. Also Channel 68 would drop 700 Club altogether and 47 ran the 90 minute edition live at 10 AM. PTL was down to an hour anyway so 47 ran that at 9 AM. During the late 70's into the early 80's, WNJU began picking up Spanish Syndicated shows not on SIN/Univision and their Channel 41. By 1980, the brokered shows were mostly weekends and weekdays it was mostly Spanish programs from Noon on and before Noon daily they continued running religious shows in English.


In 1984, WJNU alligned with a couple other Spanish Speaking indepednet stations to form a Spanish Network called Net Span. In 1985, Channel 52 Miami and Channel 26 Chicago (which lost Univision to Channel 44, only for 26 to get Univision back in 1987 and Channel 44 to then becoma alligned with Net Span. As new Spanish stations signed on they too joined Net Span and by 1988, that network became known as Telemundo. Channel 47 continued running religion mornings before 11 AM until about 1993. So Channel 47 gradually became a Spanish Station.




.

 

[VeteranPD]

WNJU's debut goes back to 1965. AFAIK, there never was a studio in Linden. The original studios for WNJU were the former studios of WNTA TV and, even earlier, WATV.

In the WNTA days, the Mosque Theater at 1020 Broad Street was called "Television Center" and there were, in theory, 4 studios. The main studio was a converted ballroom on the second floor and contained a very small adjacent studio used for small productions. The control room was on the third floor. On the fourth floor was another large studio which todays serves as a dance studio. I have never seen evodence on TV lighting in this fourth floor studio and it may have been just used for rehearsals.
Little known to many, there was another large street level studio in the front of the Mosque Thater which was used by WNDT (13) which is now used for meetings and special functions.
Mosque Theater was a great facility in which to do TV with lots of space and 3 spacious studios.

I remember early WNJU as the afore mentioned hybrid of English and Spanish programming. I was a devoted viewer of John Zacherle's "Disc-O-Teen" as a teen and an avid fan of WNTA's "Studio 99 1/2" with Jimmy Nelson during my childhood.

Several years ago, I did tour the old studios after WNJU moved out and it was sad to see empty equipment racks and dagnling wires everywhere.

Thee roof tower which was used to relay signals from the studio to the transmitter was dismantled decades ago but I remember it.

Finally the debut of WNJU TV was delayed by about a week when an antenna problem at Empire surfaced and the plug had to be pulled on the inaugural broadcast. I sat in front of my little B&W tv watching the test pattern. At the time the show was due to start nothing happened..just the test pattern. The next morning WNJU ran a newspaper ad proclaiming "The Channel 47 Baby is Late!" with an explanation of the problem.