• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Wilmington Radio/TV history

M

MikefromDelaware

I found a great web site for radio and TV history. http://www.americanradiohistory.com/

There are all sorts of books there via PDF files you can read going back to 1924 for radio, back when WDEL was WHAV 1120kc (by 1926 WDEL was the calls and it moved to 1150kc back then 1150Khz today.

Some interesting Wilmington TV news at the link below. In 1954 WDEL had already moved from channel 7 to channel 12. On the cover of this book, you'll see an add for WDEL-TV. What I really found interesting is there were two other TV stations planned for Delaware target date in 1954. WHRN channel 40 Dover (interesting the address given is in Rehoboth). The Rollin's family who already owned WAMS were the owners of this new TV station.

Also WILM-TV channel 83 with a target date of 1955. E.B. Hawkins and the Hawkins family were the owners.

I wonder what happened and why didn't either TV station get off the ground.

The link is below, see page 80 and 81 of that book.


http://www.americanradiohistory.com... TV/AL-MN-Stations-BC TV Annual 1954-55-2.pdf
 
I also found the answer to those Wilmington FM station frequencies that have been discussed here, in White's Radio Log Fall 1949 again at http://www.americanradiohistory.com/

The FM frequencies were as follows in the fall of 1949:

Wilmington, Del.
WDEL-FM 93.7
WILM-FM 99.5
WTUX-FM 107.3
WAMS-FM 96.1

Georgetown, Del.
WJWL-FM 101.5
 
Thanks for that info Mike. I have never known for sure what the WTUX-FM allocation was. I had always figured it was 99.5. I never found anything at the station that gave info on the FM. And during those long Sundays, I certainly looked around!

Today, since the Wilmington market can barely support two FM and two AM stations (they are not supporting 1290 at all), I wonder what would have happened if all four FMs had been functional? I also wonder if a gas station owner with the initials JBR would ever have gotten into the business?

I remember hering my mother talk about when WDEL-TV was on Ch 7. Whoever the brain dead paper-pusher was at the FCC who thought hey, let's give Philly Channel 6 and Wilmington Channel 7, probably got a big promotion!
 
Interference between WFIL-TV (now WPVI) and WDEL-TV was never an issue, because there's a VERY large gap between channels 6 and 7. Indeed, the two channels were used through the end of analog in Miami, Boise, and Spokane. (probably among other places I've forgotten about)

Interference between WDEL-TV and channel 7 stations in Washington and New York, on the other hand, may have been a problem.

If all four FMs had been built, chances are most if not all of them would have gone silent in the mid-1950s. Milwaukee was at least the 11th-largest city in the U.S. in that period -- and for a few years, had NO FM stations. It was hardly unique -- many other cities lost most or all of their FMs in that period.
 
So I guess the fact that 107.3 WTUX-FM was turned in allowed WRQX-FM in DC to become a reality, and WAMS-FM's 96.1 becoming York, PA's WSOX. Our loss their gain.

It would have been interesting to see how different the Wilmington radio and TV market would have been if 96.1 and 107.3 and Wilmington TV channel 83 WILM-TV and channel 40 WHRN-TV Dover would have been if all those stations had gone on the air back then. Back then, I believe Wilmington was still a separate TV market as it is still with radio today, I'm not sure when that ended and Wilmington's TV market disappeared and we were absorbed into Philly's (which is why if you see market size for Philly TV vs Philly radio, the TV market is larger than the radio market (Wilmington's radio market isn't included in Philly's) .

My guess is WHRN-TV channel 40 would have survived as the lower part of Delaware only had Salisbury stations and back then with rabbit ears, probably wasn't great reception. They could have had a major network or two to be affiliated with and no complaints from Philly TV stations as did happen to WDEL-TV with Philly's channel 3 over NBC-TV affiliation.

Sure a WILM-TV channel 83 would have had the same problems that any UHF station of that time had, few TV's in 1955 had UHF, you had to buy an adapter and a special antenna (remember the early days of channel 17 WPHL and 48 WKBS and they came along a lot later than the mid 50's if I remember correctly). That was why WUHY channel 35 NET in Philly wanted channel 12 so badly so folks could easily get their station. Granted in today's cable world it doesn't make a difference, but back in the mid 1950's a UHF station was like being an FM radio station. No one had a receiver to get your station.

Unfortunately Wilmington's Achilles Heal is being too close to Philly. So we lack in radio/TV, and yes a real airport with commercial airlines. IF Wilmington was where Dover is, my guess is, we'd have several TV stations, far more AM and FM stations and yes several airlines flying here with connections to Philly/Balt/ and possibly Salisbury. Location, location, location.
 
The problem was not just the lack of a network. It was also the lack of a firm revenue base. We were able to support 4, then 6 radio stations as WJBR-FM and WSTW became players. Newark was even able to support a station, albeit a daytime one.

But TV was a bit too much. TV12 had few realistic options other than moving to Philadelphia. Even today, we have seen the death of radio stations as we have increased support of television (Comcast). The growth of cable advertising has cost us WAMS and WNRK, with WWTX and WILM on life support.
 
That's a good point. I completely forgot about cable TV advertising. You're right. There is only so much local spot money and Comcast has taken quite a lot of it. Probably also has affected the News Journal too.
 
The News-Journal is about one-third the size it used to be. Direct mail has also taken quite a hit. For the second and third-tier stations, it has been deadly. Larger businesses may go with Comcast and WJBR/WSTW. They think hard before adding WDEL/WILM. WWTX? Yeah, right!

I agree with the view that we would have lost WAMS-FM and WTUX-FM by the end of the 50's.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom