WOAC-TV flips to New programming..

UPDATE:6/25/2009 2:21 PM
The newly-named WRLM-TV (formerly WOAC) is already showing up on digital tv tuners as channel 47-1..So at least Over The Air..Channel 67, even in name only, is history..

A day later than expected, WOAC-TV 67 Canton changed its informercial programming to that of TCT Christian TV in Marion, Illinois..The change was made today at 1PM..

More from Ohio Media Watch:

http://ohiomedia.blogspot.com/2009/06/woac-flips.html

Thus ends the 27 year history of Channel 67 in Northeast Ohio..

Encore Post:What might have been in Northern Ohio Television

Dateline Column from TV Guide Lake Erie Edition, December 11-17, 1953..Announcement of WXEL's move from Channel 9 to 8, as well as the expected channel lineup by December 1954, which mostly didnt materialize..Click on the picture to read the article better..

With the digital TV switch recently and WOAC now with new owners, I thought it would be a good time for an encore post..In May 2007, I dug through some TV Almanacs to list all the licensed TV stations and allocations from the 50's and 60's that never made it on the air..My thought at the time was that Television would be quite different locally if just some of these permits were built...


May 22, 2007 Cleveland Classic Media..
What we will discuss today is what Northeast Ohio Television might have been like by say 1960-65 if certain "construction permits" had ever been built. UHF-TV in the 1950's was very unstable with stations appearing lasting maybe a year or two then disappearing. One had to have UHF converters attatched to their TV set..These converters werent very reliable..It was particulary hard when there were established VHF's in a city. The UHF couldnt get enough audience or advertising to survive in many cases..

Most Major libraries have copies of "Televison Almanac" in their reference collection..Sort of a year in review for TV Network executives, station owners and program producers. Included in this Almanac was an FCC list of US tv channel allocations and a list of licensed stations, both operating and non operating..For all the TV stations that were on the air even for a short time, there were many others with operating permits that never got on the air at all. For example, Channel 79 in Toledo while a permit was granted in the 1950's, was still being listed in the almanac as late as 1975..And it never did get on the air...What I want to do here is list some of the past channel allocations in NE Ohio..and give a mention to planned stations that never got on the air..which would have made things qute different today.

Channel Allocations as of 1956 e=educational channel
Akron 49, e55, 61(Now WQHS Cleveland)
Ashtabula 15
Athens 62
Cambridge 26
Canton 29 (Now WAOH-LP Akron)
Cleveland 3, 5, 8, 19, e25, 65
Coshocton 20 (Now WOUB Athens)
Defiance 43 (Now WUAB Lorain-Cleveland)
Findlay 53
Fremont 59
Lima 35, 73
Lorain 31
Mansfield 36
Massillon 23 (Now WVPX Akron)
Sandusky 42
Steubenville/Wheeling 7, 9, 51, e57
Tiffin 47
Toledo 11, 13, e30, 79
Warren 67 (Now WOAC Canton)
Youngstown/New Castle, Pa. 21, 27, 45, 73

Specific info on some local permits: (1950's)

Cleveland
65 WERE-TV
Cleveland Broadcasting Inc.
Bulkely Building
Cleveland, Oh.
Pres. Ray Miller
VP-Richard M. Klaus

19 WHK-TV (WOIO-1985)
United Broadcasting Inc.
5000 Euclid Ave. Cleveland
Sterling E. Graham, President

31 WEOL-TV
Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting
Elyria Savings and Trust Bldg.
Elyria, Ohio
Pres. Roy Ammel
VP-D.O. Thomas

Mansfield
36 WTVG
Fergum Theaters, Inc.
Madison Theater
Mansfield, Oh.
Pres. William Skirball
VP-Jack M. Skirball

Massillon
23 WMAC (WAKR Akron 1967) (now WVPX)
Midwest TV Co.
500 Security Bldg.
Toledo, Oh.

Canton
29 WTLC (WAOH Akron-1980's) not sure of the date
Tri-Cities Telecasting
324 Market Ave. N.
Canton, Ohio
President Morton Frank
VP-WR Persons
Treasurer David B. Hanna
Secretary Loren E. Souers I have a 1958 Canton City Directory that lists Tri-Cities Telecasting, but no indication it was ever on the air..Souers has a middle school in Canton named after him.

New Castle, Pa. (1965)
73 WXTV
Community Telecasters
Farrell, Pa.
(This was on channel 45 as a Youngstown Indie in 1960-62 at least probably not much beyond that..WFMJ 21 was on 73 in 1953-54)

I had seen in the past a listing in TV Almanac for
67 WHHH Warren, Oh. Some of the copies of TV almanac had been purged from the Stark Co. Library that had this listing

Finally some 1970 channel allocations

Akron 23, 49, e55 (though 55 was listed as educational, 49 would become WEAO-PBS..55 became commercial WBNX in 1986)
Ashtabula 15 (WICA-TV actually had a couple different stints on-air)
Athens e20
Canton 17, 67
Cleveland 3, 5, 8, 19, e25, 61
Defiance 65
Lima 35, 44, e57
Lorain 43
Mansfield e31 (eventually would get channel 68-Now WMFD)
Sandusky 51 (WGGN 52 is now on in Sandusky)
Steubenville 9, e62
Toledo 11, 13, 24, e30, 54, 60 (36 would be added in)
Woodsfield e44 (Likely became WOUC-Cambridge)
Youngstown 21, 27, 33, 45, e58 (45 would end up licensed to Alliance as PBS and 58 would become a translator for 45/49)

Thanks to the Stark County District Library for their assistance..Station information courtesy Television Almanac

"Your Good Neighbor" WHBC 1480-Drops ABC Radio for Fox News

WHBC Logo used in late 1947-Taken from a Christmas programming ad in the Canton Repository-November 1947


Current WHBC Logo-Used for the last year and a half..From WHBC.com

Cover of WHBC booklet from 1946, showing their Studio location at 550 Market Ave. S., Canton, where they have been since 1939..WHBC History Page

Good Morning..
Ohio Media Watch reports that as of this morning, WHBC AM-1480 in Canton will drop ABC Radio News for the Fox News Radio Network..While this move should surprise no one, especially since the recent passing of Paul Harvey (WHBC had carried Harvey as far back as 1951), There is sort of a sadness here. While WHBC is still a fine station and does "Full Service" as well as an station in this day and age, the dropping of ABC signals the last remnant of the "Old WHBC"..

WHBC has had affiliation with Radio Networks as far back as 1940, when they hooked up with the Mutual Network.Airing shows like Superman, Tom Mix, The Lone Ranger and many others..WHBC moved to ABC in 1947 where they carried shows like Don Mc Neill's Breakfast Club, Paul Harvey,Challenge Of The Yukon and The Green Hornet..

As The Old Time Radio age passed, WHBC had a number of memorable personalities from the late 40's into the 1980's..These included:
Bill Karrenbauer
Bob Krahling
Jim Roberts
Jim Burnett
Jim Muzzy
Skip Hornyak
Ronnee Furman
Doug Lane
Jim Johnson
Tom Jarrett
Brian Novak
Ed Cox

And many others..Since 2008, WHBC has stopped playing music, going to a News/Talk/Sports format with full-service elements-Some local talk, though not as much as Id like..However, they do a better job at "Full Service" than many stations do today..Even with what they do today, the one link to the old days was ABC Radio..And that is gone..


http://ohiomedia.blogspot.com/2009/06/quick-hits-for-monday.html

Ohio Media Watch-Scroll down to the second article


http://www.digitaldeliftp.com/LookAround/la_networkspot_abc.htm

An Interesting piece on the History of ABC Radio-With the old (pre-1968) ABC Radio Musical bridge from their newscasts and the announcement:"This Is The ABC Radio Network"

Note:I wanted to include more here, including an ABC Newscast pre 1968-At least the "sounder" as well as The Theme for the American Entertainment Network post-1968..I have a little of the "old WHBC" on some Broadcast HOF CDs I might try to add here or in a new post.If anyone has old audio as I describe above, I would appreciate it..Thanks for any help..

Typical ABC-WHBC (AM-FM) schedule from 1956-Monday February 13

7AM News/Sports
7:15 Three T's (Time, Temperature and Tunes)
8AM News-Top of the Morning
9AM Breakfast Club
10AM Morning Matinee
10:30 When a Girl Marries
10:45 Whispering Streets
11AM Easy Listening
11:30 Feminine Fancy
Noon Keyboard Captions(?)
12:30 Carol's Notebook-Various Ladies portrayed "Carol Adams"..Sort of a "Women's Editor"

1PM Paul Harvey
1:15 Ohio History
1:30 My True Story
2PM Music In The Air
3PM Coffee Break
3:30 Homeward Bound (WHBC used a form of this title into the 1980's)
5:30 Dinah Shore
5:45 Weather
6PM News
6:15 Sports
6:30 Bing Crosby
6:45 Patti Page
7PM Fulton Lewis
7:15 Bill Stern
7:30 Edward P, Morgan News
8PM Opera Auditions
8:30 Good Neighbor
8:45 Join The Navy
9PM Les Brown
9:30 Nixon Address
10PM Pop Concert
11PM News
11:15 Sports Whirl
11:30 Disc Den
1AM Sign-Off

Three Analog Shutdowns-WOAC disappears next Wednesday..

This morning Id like to post how three of the more famed Television Stations in the US shut down their analog signals June 12..Unfortunately none are in Cleveland or NE Ohio, as none of the local stations thought it was important enough to put planning or thought into doing any retrospectives, or memories of their pasts, though 3, 5, and 8 all have very rich histories.



KDKA-TV 2, Pittsburgh-The logo above was used from 1963-1993



The last 10 minutes of KDKA analog..


Memories of KDKA through the years..going all the way back to WDTV Dumont-ending with the WDTV channel 3 logo..Then KDKA-TV's "nightlight" service



WLWT-5, Cincinnati
This logo may go back as far as the 1980's but am not sure..



From WLWT's YouTube Page..Bill Myers, station announcer for over 40 years, deliverrs the last sign-off..With pictures, logos and film for just over a minute..




WFAA-8, Dallas, Texas...This was used for a very long time, as far as I can tell..I had Dish Network in the 1990's for Dallas distant stations and they were using a form of this logo then..


Chief Meterologist of WFAA Pete Delkus hosts a brief retrospective clip and shows the WFAA sign-off from the mid 70's..

These were all very well done..It is sad that none of the NE Ohio stations chose to do anything similar..

Another brief note..




Canton's WOAC-TV 67 will be no more after Wednesday, June 24, 2009..New owners TCT Christian TV of Marion, Illinois are scheduled to finalize the station purchase on that date..apparently changing the channel to 47 and the call letters to WRLM..Ohio Media Watch will have more on this next week..

The End of Analog TV..My Thoughts

WJW Logo from 1966-77-A version of this was revived in 1995-96 for "eight Is News"

WKYC-TV Test Pattern from it's early color years-1965 on

WNBK Test Pattern from 1948 (WKYC-3)

First WEWS Test Pattern from 1947

First WXEL Test Pattern from 1949

WAKR-23 Test Pattern from the early 1970's

WJAN Test Pattern 1970's

WUAB Test Pattern from 1968

WOAC Logo-1982-1996

PBS 45/49 Logo-1990's maybe earlier

WAKR-49 Test Pattern 1953

WB 55 Logo-The "55" logo was in use from the beginning-1985

WKBF-Kaiser Broadcating Logo-1968-75

Logos and Test Patterns of various Cleveland Area Television stations

Good Evening

As I sit here along with hundreds, maybe thousands of tv geeks here in Northeast Ohio, checking on the latest Digital TV shutoff news from places like Ohio Digital TV Blog (From Ohio Media Watch) , AVS Forums, Radio-Info.com, and others..I just want to kind of share some thoughts as Television History is made here and across the USA..Full-Power analog tv is scheduled to be ending tomorrow as hundreds of stations move to their final digital channel locations..The times appear to be staggered, apparently..Check the sites listed above for more information..

As we approach this historical milestone I think of other Technical milestones that television has had over the years..The introduction of color tv, while happening about the mid 1950's..Full network color didnt happen till 1968,,And it took till the early 70's before most TV stations had local color..For me, just being able to pull in UHF and seeing a Canton ad on a Canton TV station was a thrill for me, as well as DX (distant watching) of TV signals throughout the country as I loved to do in the 1970's..The advent of Cable and Satellite nearly made the TV antenna obsolete..Everything I just described could only happen on analog television.

As we enter this new era, There are things happening I never thought I'd see..Getting Youngstown (WKBN) with a perfect picture on an indoor antenna 50 miles from Canton..I have read that WXTV 45 Youngstown in 1960 had such a weak signal it couldnt make it to Alliance, Ohio..Digital 45 is now my strongest digital signal locally..With a good antenna in the 1970's, one could get maybe 10-15 stations in the Cleveland/Akron/Canton area..Because of subchannels, that number (depending on location and quality of equipment) could be up to 30 stations..I think we can safely say that the days of "just 3, 5, and 8" are gone forever..

New Radio History Links:

Hello:
A friend of mine on Radio-Info.com, Stanislav, alerted me to a page of what looks to be outstanding Radio (and some TV) History Material..Called Radio's Online Library, David Gleason is endeavoring to reproduce as many of the broadcasting histories, annuals, and directories over the years as possible. Many of these resources have been in public libraries, but are being deleted from the shelves because of space constraints..Some of the content includes:

Broadcasting Magazine
Broadcasting Yearbook
White's Radio Log
Radex (Radio Index)
Jones Log

I've just seen the front page thus far, but it looks like one could spend hours at this site..There are other history links as well..Gleason specializes in Management and Research for US Hispanic Radio and TV

Link:(which will be permanently added to our link list)

http://www.davidgleason.com/Radio_Archives.htm

A Note on Blog Images..

Good evening:
I just got a notice from a reader that he had a hard time reading the content on the images in my latest blog post (see below)

I thought it would be a good time to mention (as I have in the past but not in awhile) That any photo image, ad, etc, that is hard to read can be right clicked to open in a new window (or in your current window)..Just place the mouse arrow anywhere on the picture and right click to open..It will usually be magnified, thus easier to read..Have a good night.

TV Scope-1959

Cover and back page of "TV Scope" a free TV listing guide given out at Cleveland's Fisher Foods..Darlene Kane of "Bandstand" on WJW-TV 8 Saturdays..Hosted by Phil McLean..



Movie Highlights Page..



Weekday Listings..It appears that Channel 8 was the only station to buy actual ad space in this magazine..


Sunday and weekday listings..


Here is a real "good item" as Geoff Sindelar used to say..TV Scope was a free TV listing magazine given out at local Fisher Foods in the Cleveland area..A New friend of the blog was kind enough to let me have 9 of these spanning 1958-60..This person had bought them off an internet auction site..United Television Publications published this guide, in an 8 page fold out format..Probably did this as a franchise to other cities..All the copies I have are from various Fisher Foods locations all over Cleveland..They listed Cleveland, Akron and Erie stations..Notice the telephone Exchange numbers..There were several companies, up til the 1990's, that put out simple format guides, especially as cable came on, as giveaways to their customers, mostly at grocery stores and Variety stores..Except for a little brown coloring in spots because of age, these guides are in remarkably good shape..

This particular volume was published June 14-20, 1959. I might share a few of the ads in other volumes, maybe even the cover pages..Interesting covers of then-current tv favorites..