Re: The firsts in broadcasting...

[Dan Strassberg <dan.strassberg@worldnet.att.net>]

At 03:01 AM 4/1/97 +0000, you wrote:
>As far as I know, there is a tie for the first licensed TV station.
>Both WNBT on Channel 1, and WCBS on Channel 2 in New York were
>licensed on the same date. I don't know it off the top of my head but,
>I'll look it up. The stations are currently WNBC Channel 4, and WCBS-TV.
>
When I was a kid in New York in the 40s, the calls of the CBS TV station
were WCBW, not WCBS. I may not be remembering back far enough, however.

Did the CBS TV station in New York get its license when what is now WCBS was
still WABC and what is now WABC was still WJZ? That could explain the WCBS
calls. The FCC hadn't invented call-letter suffixes back then, and hadn't
thought of allowing co-owned stations on different bands in the same COL to
use the same base calls. Certainly the TV licenses preceded by decades the
idea of allowing the use of the same base calls by co-owned stations on
different bands in different COLs. The use of the same base calls by
non-co-owned stations in the same or different cities is an even more recent
development.


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Dan Strassberg (Note: Address is CASE SENSITIVE!)
ALL _LOWER_ CASE!!!--> dan.strassberg@worldnet.att.net
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