UHF in Southern New England (was WHNB/WVIT Channel 30 (was Re: WTAG-TV?))

[Paul Anderson]

On Nov 21, 2009, at 8:56 PM, Bill Dillane wrote:

> On another note, the FCC in the 50s and early 60s made several attempts to
> move the Channel 3 allocation from Hartford to Providence.  Travelers
> Insurance fought back (both before and after the WTIC-TV3 sign-on), and
> Senator Abe Ribicoff publicly petitioned the FCC.  The FCC's purpose was to
> make Hartford an all-UHF market (Ch 8 in New Haven was grandfathered because
> it had gone on the air before the TV allocation freeze).

In reading the histories of various early UHF stations that failed, it's interesting that UHF in Hartford and Springfield was successful from the start.  Everybody had UHF tuners or converters.  I moved from New Jersey to Connecticut in 1968 and we sure got a UHF converter fast!  Not even poor little channel 20 failed during all those years that other UHFs went under in other parts of the country.

I have an Arbitron ratings book from 1961 and it shows WHNB (channel 30) very competitive with channels 3 and 8 in the Hartford area, often beating channel 3 in certain dayparts.

Paul