Channel 7 history

[Garrett Wollman <wollman>]

<<On Sat, 13 Oct 2001 08:33:30 -0400, "Mark Watson" <markwats@mediaone.net> said:

>    Yes, Channel 7 was WNAC back in 1978. It became WNEV in the early or mid
> 80's (forget exact date) after David Mugar's New England Television took
> over the license from RKO General.

WNAC-TV's license was cancelled.  NE-TV was the surviving one of three
original competing applicants which had filed against the renewal of
WNAC-TV in the early 1970s.  There is a surprising amount of good
information about this case available on the 'net, including the full
text of the appeals court decision upholding the FCC's decision to
cancel the license and declare General Tire unfit to be a broadcast
licensee.  (General Tire pleaded with the FCC to permit them to sell
channel 7, and the Commission -- much tougher then than it is today --
responded that one cannot sell a license one does not have.)  The
ultimate death of the company was postponed for several years because
only three of RKO's licenses had been contested.

Thus (in answer to today's trivia non-question), WHDH-TV is the
youngest commercial TV station licensed to Boston.

-GAWollman