WJAC

[WCWalker]

I can easily afford Cable TV or Satellite if I want to...but enough is enough. I put an antenna in the attic and have OTA only. Don't miss all those extra channels, that were nothing but commercials anyway. I probably will add Netflix this fall.

Cable TV and Satellite are losing lots of subscribers. They are starting to price themselves out of the market. Bottom line, OTA is well on its way back.

Back to topic...I grew up in Pittsburgh. Back in the 50's and 60's, Pirate baseball was carried on Channels 2,6 and 9. Away games only. When they did TV games, they brought in a "third" announcer to work with Bob Prince and Jim Woods, and that was Paul Long from KDKA. He helped out on radio when they had those early TV games. Good times...broadcasting was great back then.

If you don't mind my asking, what antenna are you using in your attic? I hope to be moving to the Pittsburgh area and it is multipath prone from the hills and it will require a good antenna to combat the problem to receive the local stations. I'd mount mine on the roof though since I will be a good 20 to 35 miles from the city.

 

[Parttimer]

If one of the local stations would pry the Penguins and Pirates away from cable/sat-only ROOT sports and put it on their .2 channel, I would ditch Concast in a second. I'm curious as to why we haven't seen this in major markets yet. Perhaps the contracts have yet to expire since the advent of HDTV.

The Penguins contract with Root Sports runs another 20+ years.

 

[Silver Meteor]

If you don't mind my asking, what antenna are you using in your attic? I hope to be moving to the Pittsburgh area and it is multipath prone from the hills and it will require a good antenna to combat the problem to receive the local stations. I'd mount mine on the roof though since I will be a good 20 to 35 miles from the city.

Bought the antenna at Radio Shack. Could not tell you any model number. I just told them what I wanted to do, and bought what they recommended. I now live in Atlanta. About 25 miles from the Atlanta towers. Picks everything up very good.

Back in the 50's and 60's when I lived in Pittsburgh, those were the days of Rabbit Ear antennas. I lived in Penn Hills. With the conventional Rabbit Ear antennas, besides picking up all the Pittsburgh stations, I was able to pick up Channel 6 in Johnstown, and Channel 9 in Steubenville. That of course was in the analog days. No idea if you can do that with their digital frequencies today.

Back then both channel 6 and channel 9 carried two networks. Channel 6 was primarily NBC, but did carry some ABC. Channel 9 was mainly CBS, but did carry some ABC. Channel 6 and 9 both went ABC for awhile on Saturday nights, as they both joined Channel 4 in Pittsburgh and carried the Lawrence Welk show from ABC. And yes, channel 6's motto was "Serving Millions from atop the Alleghenies's". Again, great times.

 

[fryman]

How about the late John Powley (sp?) when he owned/operated channel 23 up on Wopsy Mountain outside of Altoona. He became an ABC affiliate, put up an antenna and REBROADCAST "over air" ABC affiliate out of Harrisburg. Crazy picture not to mention his local cutaways! Now, that was back when "television was television".

 

[cingram]

How about the late John Powley (sp?) when he owned/operated channel 23 up on Wopsy Mountain outside of Altoona. He became an ABC affiliate, put up an antenna and REBROADCAST "over air" ABC affiliate out of Harrisburg. Crazy picture not to mention his local cutaways! Now, that was back when "television was television".

I remember this. The station was on channel 38 at the time, and WHGM 103.9 Bellwood (now WALY) was in the
same building.

Two other stations that rebroadcast over-the-air signals back in the day were WDTV-5 Weston (rebroadcasting
CBS from KDKA-TV) and WCMC-TV 40 Wildwood (rebroadcasting NBC from KYW-TV Philadelphia).

Finally, I remember one summer afternoon in '82 when WJAC's pickup of a Pirates game from KDKA-TV ran smack
into a massive E-skip opening that destroyed their channel 2 reception and forced them to leave the game!

C.

 

[secondchoice]

WDTV-5 Weston (rebroadcasting
CBS from KDKA-TV)

IIRC they also used channel (7?) Wheeling / Stubinville when KDKA was not running CBS some in the 1980's. I use to watch WDTV some and the channel seven logo was seen many times. Their local News was "interesting". I always wondered why they never "sold/ swapped" the Call letters to a Detroit TV station. When they moved the studios close the intersection of I79 and US 50 (early 1980's) They had a rather tall free standing tower for the microwave shot back to the studio / tower. One year they strung colored lights from near the top the microwave tower to make "West Virginia's tallest Christmas Tree". I wonder which station 12 or 5 (or the relatively new Fox outlet) put ABC on their HD 2.

 

[fryman]

I remember one evening, both channel 38/Wopsy Mountain/Altoona and WHGM FM (it stood for the "house of beautiful music") (both facilities(?) were in John's home high atop Wopsy Mountain...John's wife plugged in the washer or dryer or something and managed to blow a fuse and shut down both the TV and radio operation(?). Those home record changers he used to track albums ground to a halt as well as the the TV chain.

 

[KeyTimes950]

I wonder which station 12 or 5 (or the relatively new Fox outlet) put ABC on their HD 2.

WBOY-12.2, also called "Your ABC."

 

[Kurt Toy]

Is it a coincidence? WDTV broadcasting the signal of the station that originally used those same calls in Pittsburgh before Group W purchased Channel 2.

 

[cingram]

Is it a coincidence? WDTV broadcasting the signal of the station that originally used those same calls in Pittsburgh before Group W purchased Channel 2.

I believe the WDTV call letters were chosen as a tribute to channel 2; at least that's what several histories of
the Weston station say. (The WDTV calls also were parked on a construction permit in Harrisburg for a couple
of years between Pittsburgh and Weston.)

C.