that horrible BEEP

[Scott Fybush]

Larry Weil wrote:

> Another sizeable market that remains short of channels to this day is St.
> Louis.  2, 4, 5, 9(Public) and 11 are the only VHF's, and not that many
> UHF's either.
> 
> Larry Weil
> Lake Wobegone, NH  

I wouldn't call five VHF signals "short of channels." Even today, there 
are only three US markets (NY, LA, Salt Lake) with seven Vs, and only a 
handful (Seattle/Tacoma, San Francisco/San Jose, Dallas/Fort Worth) with 
six. St. Louis' 5 puts it in the company of Chicago, Minneapolis, 
Phoenix, and other cities that are or were of similar size...and of 
course well ahead of Philadelphia, DC, Boston and others that got only four.

St. Louis did end up without very many UHFs. I don't know why that was - 
perhaps because there was both an indie (KPLR 11) and PBS (KETC 9) on 
VHF, so the hurdle for an indie U was quite high.

s