Television digest with electronic reports (Jan-Dec 1954)
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between it and Birmingham station would constitute " duopoly" ; that gift of equipment from Storer's WBRC-TV would give him "influence" over educators.
Commission dismissed all the arguments, made additional statement that "the deletion of the reservation on Ch. 10 would mean that the city would be without the facilities of an educational station," and that Mt. Cheaha educational outlet cannot be considered a Birmingham station.
In another allocations action. Commission proposed to add Ch. 19 to North Adams, Mass. — requested by WMGT, which has been bedeviled by technical troubles with Ch. 74 (Vol. 10:38) — by substituting Ch. 54 for Ch. 19 in Utica-Rome, N.Y. ; Ch. 15 for Ch. 19 in Portsmouth, N.H. ; Ch. 74 for Ch. 33 in Bennington, Vt.
Petition for "de-intermixture" in Peoria through deletion of Ch. 8, filed by uhf stations WEEK-TV & WTVH-TV last week (Vol. 10:39), was opposed this week by Ch. 8 applicant WIRL which is awaiting decision. WIRL said that 938 sq. mi. of its proposed Grade B contour would get no Grade B service from any other existing or proposed station. Applicant also said Ch. 8 commercial grant would counteract "news monopoly" of WTVH-TV and its associated Journal and Star.
ONE NEW STARTER AS NORFOLK UHF QUITS: Another uhf economic casualty is Norfolk's WTOV-TV (Ch.23), while sole new U.S. station brought TV to Cape Girardeau, Mo. area for first time and new Canadian station was poised to begin Oct. 3 — making total of 408 operating stations in U.S. (122 of them uhf) and 16 in Canada.
WTOV-TV goes off air Oct. 3, just 19 days short of its first birthday, blaming "disappointing results" of its efforts to attract new network business. Station hopes to apply for Ch. 13. which FCC has proposed to assign to area (Vol. 10:38).
One of 3 uhf stations in 4-station Norfolk area, WTOV-TV carried some ABC & DuMont programs. Another uhf in area, independent WACH-TV left air last March, returned in August (Vol. 10 :14, 31) . To date 25 uhf stations have left air (not counting WACH-TV) as against 6 vhf (2 were results of mergers). This week's starters:
KFVS-TV, Cape Girardeau. Mo. (Ch. 12) goes commercial Oct. 3 as CBS primary interconnected, reports "clear signal as far as 150 mi." after week of test patterns. Opening up virtually new small-city market area bordering Illinois & Kentucky, its only TV competition within 100 mi. is uhf WSLI-TV, Harrisburg, 111., 62 mi. away.
It has 10-kw Federal transmitter, 808-ft. Truscon tower, 12-bay RCA antenna. Ownergen. mgr. is radio pioneer Oscar Hirsch, who controls 4 AMs in Missouri & Illinois ; his son Robert is TV operations mgr. ; brother Ralph L. Hirsch, station mgr. ; Jack Ramey, commercial mgr. Base hour rate is $250. Rep is Pearson.
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CFRN-TV, Edmonton. Alta. (Ch. 3) is all set for Oct. 3 test patterns, wires owner-gen. mgr. G.R.A. (Dick) Rice. Tenth privately owned Canadian outlet, it plans to supplement CBC programs with U.S. network kines. It has 5-kw Canadian GE transmitter, 488-ft. tower with GE 6-bay antenna. Chief engineer is F.G.A. Makepeace. Base rate is $200. Reps are Radio Representatives Ltd. (Canada), Adam Young (U.S.) and Harlan Oakes & Assoc. (Los Angeles & San Francisco).
Big $500,000 expansion announced by uhf WFTL-TV, Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., in conjunction with signing as primary NBC affiliate. Owned by Ft. Lauderdale Daily News (79%) and Noran E. (Nick) Kersta (21%), station plans to build new 1000-ft. tower at Miami “antenna farm” and add new RCA 12%-kw amplifier to boost ERP to 250-kw by year’s end. “And as soon as additional equipment is available from RCA,” writes Kersta, “we’ll have 1000 kw — which will give us FCC maximum height and power.”
New “RCA” call letters for NBC stations (Vol. 10:36) were authorized by FCC this week, and changeover is scheduled for midnight Oct. 17. New calls: New York, WRCA-TV, WRCA & WRCA-FM (ex-WNBT, WNBC & WNBC-FM); Los Angeles, KRCA (ex-KNBH); Washington, WRC-TV (ex-WNBW), with WRC and WRC-FM staying same. No changes were requested for Chicago or Cleveland stations.
Community TV tower being built in Greenville, Miss, by Delta Video Corp. collapsed this week, killing 2 workers. Some 300 ft. of 420-ft. structure had been built, began to weave, and workers were trying to steady it. Town had been partially wired up by Delta, a subsidiary of Mid-West Video Corp., Little Rock, Ark. A second system for Greenville has been under construction by Greenville TV Cable Corp., employing Jerrold equipment and using 380-ft. Army tower. Jerrold rushed equipment and erected tent to seat 1000, to show World Series.
New community antenna projects reported by Jerrold Electronics, equipment manufacturer: Petoskey, Mich.; Tupelo, Miss.; Farmington, N. M.; Horseheads, N. Y.; Wausau, Wis. Jerrold is also rewiring systems in Franklin, Pa., and Breckenridge, Tex. In Green River, Wyo., grouj) headed by E. J. Vehar is seeking state iiermission to go ahead with construction.