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

[Dan.Strassberg]

Interesting contrast with New York's Capital district, only about 100 
miles away. No doubt, however, that would have turned out much 
different if WRGB hadn't been a legacy VHF signal and if ways hadn't 
been found to drop two short-spaced VHF channels (10 and 13) into the 
market. What I never undestood and still don't understand, though, is 
why10 and 13 didn't swap transmitter sites (or channels). I believe 
that both 10 and 13 used directional antennas to protect the stations 
to which they were short spaced. Thirteen's Bald Mtn site (originally 
built for 35) is east of most of the population in the market (ideal 
for 10, which was short-spaced to Providence), Ten's Helderberg site 
is south of most of the market population and is short spaced to WNET. 
Had the two stations swapped channels or sites, most of the market 
population would have gotten, in effect, full-power signals from both 
10 and 13.

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

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Paul Anderson" <paulranderson@charter.net>
To: "Boston Radio Group" <boston-radio-interest@lists.BostonRadio.org>
Sent: Saturday, November 21, 2009 10:30 PM
Subject: Re: UHF in Southern New England (was WHNB/WVIT Channel 30 
(was Re:WTAG-TV?))


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=