Broadcasting Telecasting (Jan-Mar 1957)

New Orleans, Beaumont Uhfs Ask FCC for Move to Ch. 12 TWO uhf tv stations — one dark and one on the air — last week petitioned the FCC to order them to show cause as to why they should not be authorized to operate on ch. 12 in Beaumont and New Orleans. The Commission, two weeks ago, announced that it had instructed its staff to draw up orders adding ch. 12 to both of these cities [B«T, March 4]. Ch. 31 KBMT (TV) Beaumont asked for temporary authority to begin operating on ch. 1 2 and that the request be acted on concurrently with or subsequently to grant of ch. 4 BeaumontPort Arthur. Port Arthur College holds an initial decision for this facility following an agreement with two competing applicants [B*T, Feb. 17]. KBMT was on the air for over two years but has been dark since mid1956. Ch. 6 KFDM-TV is the only Beaumont station presently on the air. Operating ch. 20, WJMR-TV New Orleans, which originally requested a show cause order for ch. 12 Feb. 14, repeated its request and asked that action be taken concurrently with a final order allocating ch. 12 to New Orleans. The station said that it is ready to commence operations on the vhf channel immediately and that it would be impossible for WJMR-TV to continue operating as a u in a four-vhf New Orleans market. The only v presently operating in New Orleans is ch. 6 WDSU-TV. Also assigned are educational ch. 8 (WYES [TV]) and ch. 4 WWL-TV (which is forbidden to start construction by the FCC, pending outcome of the deintermixture proceedings) . New U Assignments Sought In York, Pa., Niagara Falls CH. 49 WNOW-TV York, Pa., last week asked the FCC to institute rule-making proceedings toward assigning ch. 33 to York and to issue a show cause order as to why WNOW-TV should not shift operations to that channel. Ch. 31 WTPA (TV) Harrisburg, Pa., has a request before the Commission that the same facility, presently assigned to Reading, Pa. (now dark WEEUTV), be reassigned to Harrisburg, 20 miles from York. WNOW-TV said that it would be willing to accept any picture image interference which might occur from ch. 18 WTLF (TV) Baltimore (not yet on air) and asked FCC to waive its separation requirement of 75 miles. Distance between the proposed WTLF transmitter and that of WNOW-TV is 48 miles, the petition stated. (Both WNOW-TV and WTPA (TV) are presently on the air.) A similar petition was filed by ch. 59 WNYT-TV Buffalo, N. Y„ seeking to exchange its authorization for ch. 29. now assigned to Niagara Falls, Ont. The petitioner said that it had an opportunity to buy the used equipment of ch. 17 WBUF (TV) Buffalo at a substantial reduction in original cost. This equipment, WNYT-TV said, could be used on a lower uhf channel such as 29 but is not adaptable to use on its presently assigned channel. The station said that it expected to be able to compete financially with two vhf stations in Buffalo because of the large number of uhf receivers in the area and that the requested channel assignment would meet all mileage separation requirements. Rome Citizens File for Ch. 9 Now Held by WROM-TV REQUEST for the channel (9) now held by WROM-TV Rome, Ga., was filed with the FCC last week by Tv-Rome Inc. in an effort, the application said, to keep a local tv service in Rome. Applicant for ch. 9 is a group of Rome citizens headed by James H. Scarborough and R. L. McBrayer and their wives. A year ago WROM-TV requested FCC permission to move its transmitter to a location approximately 45 miles north of Rome (near Chattanooga, Tenn.) and on Jan. 4 the Commission asked for comments on a proposal to shift ch. 9 to Chattanooga. A protest to this reallocation of ch. 9 also was filed last week by Mr. Scarborough. The applicant requested 12 kw, antenna 320 ft. above average terrain and estimated construction costs as $142,869, with $89,000 for first year operation. Wife PAUL H. RAYMER. NATIONAL REPRESENTATIVE O • • 0 Broadcasting • Telecasting March 11, 1957 • Page 75