...and speaking of anniversaries...

[Dave Doherty]

Hi Scott-

Albany had a pretty confusing early TV history, too.

My Dad worked for a short time in the late 40's at WTRI-FM, which was 
co-owned with WTRY (980, now WOFX)) and spawned WTRI-TV, which I think was a 
UHF that eventually morphed into channel 13. WTRI-FM went off the air in the 
early 50's, and AFAIK WTRY didn't have an FM partner again until the 
consolidation movement in the 90's. In the late 1950's, I went to the 
WTRI-FM site on Heldeberg Mountain with my Dad, and I recall the tower 
sections stacked on the ground with the weeds growing up over them.

WROW (590) was co-owned with channel 10.

Channel 10 was originally WROW-TV on channel 41, eventually became three UHF 
stations, WCDA(41), WCDB(29), and WCDC (originally WMGT on channel 74, but 
eventually WCDC on 19).

WCDA was on the WRPI tower in Troy, WCDB was on a very early 1000' tower in 
Vail Mills (licensed to Hagaman), on the south end of Scanadaga Lake, and 
WCDC still exists on Mount Greylock in the Berkshires. When they got channel 
10, WCDA and WCDB were abandoned. They removed the tower at Vail Mills, and 
I guess they donated the Troy tower to RPI. I visited the Vail Mills site 
years ago, and the concrete was still there. As a kid, I free-climbed the 
WRPI tower (yes, the statute of limitations passed a long time ago).

Of course, GE Broadcasting was the powerhouse in the market from the 
beginning. WGY (reputedly named for Wirless General electric schenectadY) 
was arguably the first 50kW station in the world. WGFM was an obvious choice 
of call signs. Channel 6 was named for Dr. Walter Ransom Gail Baker, a GE 
and IRE engineering luminary who also spent some time at GE competitor RCA 
(http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Walter_Baker)

Interestingly, there is a tie between the GE stations and channel 10 
involving none other than WRGBaker. It seems that old WRG was an 
entrepreneur who built some statons in upstate NY that were acquired by the 
Outlet Company. At one time, Cap Cities owned both WTEN and the Outlet 
Company's WPRO-TV (now WPRI).

-d



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Scott Fybush" <scott@fybush.com>
To: "Dave Doherty" <dave@skywaves.net>
Cc: <boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org>
Sent: Wednesday, June 10, 2009 9:44 PM
Subject: Re: ...and speaking of anniversaries...


>
> Dave Doherty wrote:
>> Hey Scott-
>>
>> RIP WHAM-TV analog: Age 60 years plus one day.
>>
>
> With one confusing twist: the WHAM-TV that signed on in 1949 and will sign 
> off Friday at age 60 years plus a day is now WROC-TV...while the station 
> on channel 13 that now bears the WHAM-TV calls is only 46+ years old, 
> having signed on in 1962 as WOKR(TV).
>
> It's a nearly identical situation to the two WHDH-TVs in Boston: WHDH 850 
> spawned WHDH-TV 5, outlived those calls on its TV sister, then went on to 
> again loan its calls to a different station (ex-WNAC-TV/WNEV on 7) years 
> later.
>
> (And it gives rise to a trivia question: how many other such examples 
> exist out there? Hartford has had two WTIC-TVs, both associated with WTIC 
> 1080. Syracuse has had two WSYR-TVs over the years, both associated with 
> WSYR 570. There have been two WWJ-TVs in Detroit, both associated with WWJ 
> 950. I can't come up with any others at the moment...)
>
> s
>