Update-WXTV channel 45 Youngstown

Good Morning:

We had detailed in our November 9th post about nearly-forgotten WXTV-45 in Youngstown a little bit of its history and pattern of operation, We mentioned at the time that other than the TV Guide listings, there was very little information about this station floating around, especially on the internet. It would be very difficult to dig out the information without going to the time and expense of a special trip to Youngstown to check out Newspaper aricles. (which I still may do at some point after the first of the year now that I have dates to work with)

I had asked at the end of the November 9 article that anyone that had any memories about watching the station or any specific facts about ownership or local hosts to contact me..Well, two of our regular readers, Sportsteve24 of the Youngstown area and John F. Zies, came through in a big way..Sportsteve24 tells us that an owner of WXTV-45 was Sanford Schafitz, founder of WWIZ-1380 Lorain, Ohio and WFAR-1470 (Now WLOA) Farrell, Pa., and the "45 Hop" Teen Dance Show was apparently hosted by "Boots" Bell, longtime Disc Jockey at WHOT-1330 Campbell/Youngstown, Ohio..

John Zies sent me this very informative E-Mail based on volumes of "Television Factbook" of which he owns most editions from 1962-1996 (Would love to own that resource)..It details power and antenna of the 1960-62 version of channel 45 as compared to 21, 27 and 33 at the time.as well as specific dates of operation, etc..




"In response to your request for more data on WXTV, I went back to my old editions of Television Factbook, the industry “bible”, which I have most volumes from 1962 to 1996. From the Construction Permit and Stations Off The Air listings the following was obtained:



Ownership: WXTV, Inc, 803 E. Indianola Ave., Youngstown, OH. (Not very informative) This address is now home of a recording studio.



Period of Operation: November 15, 1960 to either February 28 or March 1, 1962. The two listings disagree about the end date. Obviously the TV Guide listings for March 1962 were provided before the plug was pulled.



In addition to weak programming, the station had a weak signal. Technical parameters were 16 kw visual effective radiated power, 10 kw aural ERP, and an antenna 330 feet above average terrain. This would have provided a radius of coverage of no more than 20 miles, and possibly less with the low sensitivity UHF tuners and converters of the time. By comparison they parameters of the other Youngstown stations at the start of 1963 were:

21 - 179 kw Vis, 89.5 kw Aur and 960 feet AAT

27 – 436 kw Vis, 218 kw Aur and 630 feet AAT

33 – 209 kw Vis, 105 kw Aur and 580 feet AAT



In Akron we could receive 21, 27, 33 and the old WKST 45, but I do not remember ever seeing WXTV.



I am really enjoying your articles. Found your site through Ohio Media Watch. I lived in Akron from 1952 to 1962 and had a great interest in TV. I still remember the Cleveland VHF channel changes, the coming of WAKR-TV 49 to Akron and installing a converter box to receive it, and the construction of antennas for Youngstown reception. Hope in the future you do an article on WAKR-TV, as I have mentioned in a couple of blog responses. If I can provide any additional historical data let me know....John"





A couple of interesting points:The power of WXTV Channel 45 was flea powered compared to 21, 27, or even 33 which even today 33 is'nt very strong..with a 20 mile radius, one wonders if WXTV-45 would even make it to Alliance, Ohio on a good day..The 803 Indianola Avenue address confirms the TV Guide Channel listings..Also, assuming the March 1, 1962 date of final sign-off was corrrect, The detailed listings of March 16, 1962 never aired.. Thanks again to John F. Zies and Sportsteve for the helpful insight..