that horrible BEEP

Sun Jan 20 13:32:12 EST 2008

Channel 41 (which, if still on the air, may be WCDA) was the original
home of WROW-TV. Channel 35 was the original home of WTRI (WTRY's TV
affiliate and not part of the sale of the AM to the Providence group
headed by Mowry Lowe that I mentioned in previous posts). There is no
way I can fully reconstruct the saga of either TV station and I don't
even know the current calls of Channel 13--all I know is that it is no
longer WAST, which were the calls for many years after it signed on on
Channel 13.

The Capital District was originally deprived of multiple VHF
assignnments by its proximity to other metros in the northeast.
Albany-Schenectady-Troy's sole post-freeze VHF was WRGB Channel 6, one
of, if not THE, oldest commercial TV station in the US. All other
assignments were on less desirable UHF channels. I remember the
original assignments on 23, 35, and 41. There were probably others
that I don't recall. WROW built an ~700' tower (fairly tall for that
era--but no record breaker, for sure) in North Greenbush. The problem
was that the tower base was in the valley, so the HAAT was not great
and the signal in Schenectady was not very good. (The tower exists to
this day and is home to WRPI (FM), the student-run station of my alma
mater, RPI in Troy.) WTRI located atop Bald Mountain north of Troy.
I'm not sure of the tower height, but I'm pretty sure that WTRI
achieved an HAAT of 1000' or close to it.

WROW extended its reach by acquiring or leasing WMGT Channel 74 in
North Adams MA with transmitter atop Mt Greylock, the highest point in
MA. After a fire that destroyed the Channel 74 Tx, WMGT relocated to
Channel 19 and became, I believe, WCDC. It may still have those calls.
WROW also built another station to the west of the Capital District
near Amsterdan in Hagaman NY on Channel 29. I believe the calls for
Channel 29 were WCDB. Channel 29 took care of the poor Channel 41
reception in Schenectady, although I believe that Channel 19 also
comes in pretty well in Schenectady.

Then came WROW's big plan. With the rejuggling of VHF assignments in
Utica, Syracuse, and Rochester, WROW's engineers recognized that a
small triangular piece of land just south of Sacondaga Reservoir in
the hamlet of Vail Mills NY, had become just far enough (170 miles)
from Channel 10 assignments in Rochester, Providence, and Montreal to
allow the construction of a full-power VHF station that was (just
barely) not short-spaced to anything. The Channel 10 station could
replace Channel 29 and, it was hoped, also cover the entire Capital
District. WROW was granted a CP and soon constructed a 1300+' tower.
Even before construction could get started, Capital District residents
noted that the site was more than 35 miles from downtown Albany and
that, tall tower notwithstanding, the high-band VHF signal was
unlikely to do a very good job of penetrating into the valley, where
most of the population in the metro lived. Decent over-the-air
reception of Channel 10 would therefore probably require expensive
outdoor antennas. (Remember, at that time, cable had not yet really
gotten off the ground.) Moreover, for most Capital District residents,
Vail Mills lay to the northwest, whereas Channel 6 transmitted from a
site in the Helderberg Mountains, southwest of Albany, so antenna
rotators were also likely to be needed. When Channel 10 took to the
air, the worst fears about reception were confirmed.

At some point, the idea came up of relocating Channel 10 to a site in
the Helderbergs, where it would be short-spaced to Providence. That is
indeed what happened.

As for Channel 13, I believe that a site south of Lake Champlain would
theoretically not be short spaced to co-channel stations licensed to
Montreal, Newark NJ (New York City), or Utica. Such a site would be a
bit further from downtown Albany than Vail Mills was, but might have
been able to do a better job of penetrating the valley. Whether
Channel 35 ever actually applied for such facilities, much less built
them, I don't know. I do know that a Channel 13 that is short spaced
to Newark was built at the Channel 35 site on Bald Mtn, where, AFAIK,
it replaced Channel 35. AFAIK, Channel 13 still operates from that
site, although I believe I've read that its DTV station is located in
the Helderbergs.

-----
Dan Strassberg (dan.strassberg@att.net)
eFax 1-707-215-6367

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Doug Drown" <revdoug1@verizon.net>
To: "Dan.Strassberg" <dan.strassberg@att.net>; "A. Joseph Ross"
<joe@attorneyross.com>
Cc: <boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org>
Sent: Sunday, January 20, 2008 12:16 PM
Subject: Re: that horrible BEEP

> That early history of television in the Capital District is indeed
> interesting and quite complicated.  I can remember when WTEN (then
> party of
> the Capital Cities family, along with WROW AM and FM) operated not
> one, but
> two adjunct UHF stations --WCDC, Channel 19 in Adams, Mass (the
> original
> WROW-TV)., and WCDA, Channel 41 in Albany --- to compensate for its
> inadequate signal coverage amidst the surrounding hills and
> mountains.  I
> assume that it was that reason that enabled Cap Cities to get around
> whatever rules then existed regarding local media monopolies.
>
> Similarly, WAST, Channel 13, simulcast on WTRI, Channel 35.
>
> All of this changed when the stations built new towers in the
>      -Doug
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Dan.Strassberg" <dan.strassberg@att.net>
> To: "A. Joseph Ross" <joe@attorneyross.com>
> Cc: <boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org>
> Sent: Sunday, January 20, 2008 9:01 AM
> Subject: Re: that horrible BEEP
>
>
>> The reasons for the big Capital District radio-network affiliation
>> shift of the mid fifties were complicated. It was played to the
>> public
>> that the group (from Providence) that acquired WTRY was committed
>> to
>> local independent radio and so dropped the (very lucrative) CBS
>> affiliation, thus precipitating the round-robin switch, which left
>> WTRY indpendent and made WOKO a network affiliate (which it had not
>> been in many years). As an independent, WTRY continued to prosper.
>> However, I think the the reason for the shift was more
>> complex--related to the lifting of the freeze on construction of TV
>> stations and the formation of Capital Cities Broadcasting (which
>> over
>> many decades and many mergers, morphed into ABC and Disney).
>>
>> Capital Cities started in the Capital District (and indeed was
>> named
>> for it) and WROW was its very first station! WROW got a TV CP,
>> which
>> initially resulted in the construction of Channel 41 (now Channel
>> 10
>> et al). In those days, it was cutomary for radio and TV networks to
>> affiliate with commonly owned radio and TV stations in most markets
>> where they existed. IIRC, WROW-TV (which was later renamed WTEN
>> after
>> it built the Channel 10 facility in Vail Mills) initially became
>> the
>> CBS-TV affiliate. It was thus fitting for WROW (AM) to be the CBS
>> Radio affiliate. Although WTRY was 5 kW-U with excellent coverage
>> of
>> Albany, Troy, and Schenectady, it couldn't match WROW's daytime
>> coverage of the Hudson Valley. WROW's lower night power (1 kW)
>> apparently didn't bother CBS, perhaps because WROW's low dial
>> position
>> at least partially compensated for the lower power.
>>
>> -----
>> Dan Strassberg (dan.strassberg@att.net)
>> eFax 1-707-215-6367
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "A. Joseph Ross" <joe@attorneyross.com>
>> To: "Dan.Strassberg" <dan.strassberg@att.net>
>> Cc: <boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org>
>> Sent: Saturday, January 19, 2008 11:57 PM
>> Subject: Re: that horrible BEEP
>>
>>
>> > On 19 Jan 2008 at 9:28, Dan.Strassberg wrote:
>> >
>> >> I believe that those "blips" were (barely) audible cues from a
>> >> system
>> >> that CBS installed at the radio network in (I think) the '50s
>> >> and
>> >> continued to use for decades thereafter. It was called NetAlert.
>> >> If
>> >> I'm not mistaken, I first heard NetAlert cues on WROW Albany
>> >> after
>> >> it
>> >> replaced WTRY Troy as the CBS affiliate in New York's Capital
>> >> District. That would have been while I was in college around
>> >> 1953
>> >> or
>> >> so.
>> >
>> > Since I remember it, and we moved to Albany just after
>> > Thanksgiving
>> > 1953, I think this would have been sometime in 1954 or maybe
>> > 1955.
>> > I
>> > never understood why the change took place, but it affected three
>> > of
>> > the four networks and four stations.  CBS moved from WTRY to
>> > WROW,
>> > ABC moved from WROW to WPTR, and Mutual moved from WPTR to WOKO.
>> > NBC
>> > remained on WGY.
>> >
>> > -- 
>> > A. Joseph Ross, J.D.                           617.367.0468
>> > 92 State Street, Suite 700                   Fax 617.507.7856
>> > Boston, MA 02109-2004
>> > http://www.attorneyross.com
>> >
>> >
>>
>