Here in Boston, we had WTAO-56, the market's first UHF station, which went on the air September 28, 1953 (carrying a handful of DuMont or ABC programs but never a "full time" affiliate of either network).
WTAO went off the air two-and-a-half years later, on March 30, 1956. The station failed because not many sets in the area could get UHF at a time when most set owners had access to three (or some, even four) VHF stations: WBZ-4 and WNAC-7 from Boston plus WMUR-9 Manchester (beginning in 1954) and/or WJAR-10 Providence.
WTAO's owners Harvey Radio Labs kept the license, and briefly put the station back on the air in 1962 as an FCC-sponsored test as WXHR-TV, using programming from the Boston Catholic TV Center (according to a Boston Globe article of the period).
In 1966, the Channel 56 license along with two radio stations owned by Harvey was sold to a joint venture of Kaiser Broadcasting and the Globe, which put the station back on the air that December as WKBG (it is now WLVI).
Further West, in Worcester, there was Channel 14, originally WWOR, later WJZB. As WWOR in the 1950's, it broadcast a few ABC and DuMont shows, and a handful of local programs. After several years off the air, the station reappeared as WJZB, under the same ownership of WWLP-22 in Springfield. While simulcasting "Western Massachusetts Highlights" (a talk show) and the NBC news (then co-anchored by Chet Huntley and David Brinkley) from WWLP, the rest of the time, WJZB was an independent carrying "bargain basement" syndicated programming.
Although there were rumors that WWLP was going to try to move WJZB into the Boston market, the station left the air in 1969 after fire destroyed their facilities atop historic Mount Amnesbumskit in Paxton.
And north, in New Hampshire, there were two stations that are now defunct:
The first was WXPO-50, which launched in the Fall of 1969 as an rather ambitious independent. But the station lost money and went off the air nine months later.
Later, there was WNHT-21 in Concord, which was at first an independent, but was later a CBS affiliate. But even that wasn't enough to save it, and it went off the air around 1990.
Out in Northwest Massachusetts, there was WRLP-32 in Greenfield. Long a satellite of sister station WWLP, WRLP eventually (late 1970's) became an independent for Western Massachusetts (with a signal that greatly overlapped WWLP's). WRLP carried games of the Boston sports teams (Red Sox and Bruins from WSBK-38; Celtics and Patriots' pre-season games from WBZ), prime-time movies, but did also carry NBC's nightly news (by this time, anchored by John Chancellor).
