A note of interest I saw while looking at the June "Popular Communications" Radio Hobby Magazine..WTOF, the longtime call letters of Canton religious station WTOF 98.1 FM and for a short time used on AM 900 in Canton by Mortenson Broadcasting, Have been reassigned by the FCC to the former WBCA-AM 1110 in Bay Minette, Alabama, owned by Evangelist Buddy Tucker, as a companion to his WMOB 1360-AM..According to the history link below,WTOF-1110 runs all Syndicated religious programming..not unlike WTOF-FM Canton in its heyday, Though much of the programming was local as well. Of course, WTOF-FM is now WKDD-98.1..Owned by Clear Channel since 2001..And AM 900 has been WCER for nearly 15 years under the direction of Jack Ambrozic..and runs a News/Talk/Religious format.. One wonders if Rev. Tucker uses the slogan "Tower of Faith" as Mortenson did for so many years with WTOF-FM
http://members.aol.com/zachr330/almediapage/profiles/wtof.html
History of WBCA/WTOF-AM in Alabama
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Fade to Black...
Hello Folks:
Tonight was the last scheduled program for "Big Chuck" Schodowski and "Lil John" Rinaldi on Fox 8 in Cleveland. The "End of An Era" Special airing at 8PM tonight was extrememly well done..It was basically an overview of the "Horror Movie" Franchise in Cleveland from 1963-2007..With many clips, some I had never seen. Guests were comedian Tim Conway and Bob "Hoolihan" Wells, who added perspective and told some good stories..One thing I did not know..Chuck actually ran Camera for "Barnaby" during his Summer at channel 3 in 1960. The show gave a lot of credit to supporting cast members..Some I had forgotten their names till tonight...What really struck me after watching this tonight..Most of the actors in the Big Chuck/Lil John/Hoolihan/Ghoulardi skits...were really just ordinary folks. Folks we'd say hi to at the market or at the Little League Field or at the park..Many of the skits would remind one of glorified high school or college skits..Except that with Chuck producing and Channel 8 management putting support behind the show, It somehow worked for over 40 years. The end was especially touching..I'll definitely be putting this on VHS..Its a keeper for sure..We will never see anything quite like this again..
If you missed it, Fox 8 will air "End of An Era" twice more..at 10 AM tomorrow and 12:30 Late Saturday with a movie..
Tonight was the last scheduled program for "Big Chuck" Schodowski and "Lil John" Rinaldi on Fox 8 in Cleveland. The "End of An Era" Special airing at 8PM tonight was extrememly well done..It was basically an overview of the "Horror Movie" Franchise in Cleveland from 1963-2007..With many clips, some I had never seen. Guests were comedian Tim Conway and Bob "Hoolihan" Wells, who added perspective and told some good stories..One thing I did not know..Chuck actually ran Camera for "Barnaby" during his Summer at channel 3 in 1960. The show gave a lot of credit to supporting cast members..Some I had forgotten their names till tonight...What really struck me after watching this tonight..Most of the actors in the Big Chuck/Lil John/Hoolihan/Ghoulardi skits...were really just ordinary folks. Folks we'd say hi to at the market or at the Little League Field or at the park..Many of the skits would remind one of glorified high school or college skits..Except that with Chuck producing and Channel 8 management putting support behind the show, It somehow worked for over 40 years. The end was especially touching..I'll definitely be putting this on VHS..Its a keeper for sure..We will never see anything quite like this again..
If you missed it, Fox 8 will air "End of An Era" twice more..at 10 AM tomorrow and 12:30 Late Saturday with a movie..
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Notes from a week in Television: May 1954
Ad for a Friday Night showing of the Syndicated "Boston Blackie" Detective Series on WXEL-TV Channel 8 
TV Guide Ad from the week of May 14-20, 1954 showing WNBK-TV 3's new coverage area after their recent tranmitter upgrade and move from channel 4 to channel 3 (Courtesy TV Guide)Today I thought we would look at a specific week in Cleveland area TV courtesy of TV Guide Lake Erie Edition. TV Guide at this time had a Friday-Thursday format rather than Saturday-Friday as readers would become used to. Also, The Cleveland Edition was known as the "Lake Erie" Edition early on..Also, While TV Guide had its weekly New York and Hollywood "Dateline" with national TV News, The Lake Erie Edition also had its local "Dateline" weekly column. Here's some notes from that column:
Akron's WAKR-TV will carry the complete Army-McCarthy TV hearings as long as they will be televised. The Investigating Committee goes before the cameras at 10:30 AM and again at 2:30 PM. About the only thing Channel 49 is pre-empting for this public service telecast is it's test pattern. The station usually signs on at 4:30 PM daily.
Switch: In Youngstown channel 73 was notified by the Federal Communications Commission that it had okayed the change which will permit WFMJ-TV to switch to channel 21. The Station Management has set June 1st as the date for the channel change. (Note: The change to channel 21 ended up taking place August 7, 1954)
New Show:Grizzly Pete launches a new weekly afternoon show on channel 27 at 4:45 ech Wednesday. The show is written in that it will teach the kiddies as well as entertain them. Grizzly Pete will show and discuss the use of different types of clothing as worn out west.
Fading Away:Channel 5 has dropped its late late movie. With the exception of Sundays and Thursdays, the midnight movie ran from 12:05 AM to the wee hours of the morning
The top three film (Syndicated) shows around the nation for the month of April;
1 Badge 714 (Dragnet Reruns)
1 Badge 714 (Dragnet Reruns)
2 I Led Three Lives
3 Liberace
All Three of the shows can be seen in more than 100 cities. Each of the shows reaches an estimated 6,000,000 viewers.
TV Guide Listings: Friday, May 14, 1954..
WNBK 3 NBC Cleveland
7AM Today
9AM Movie-Streets Of New York
10AM Ding Dong School
10:30 One Man's Family
10:45 Three Steps to Heaven
11AM Home-Arlene Francis
Noon Bride And Groom
12:15 Hawkins Falls
12:30 Betty White Show-Variety
1PM Movie-O'Halloran
2:15 Maggi Byrne-Local Womens Fashion show
2:45 Nancy Dixon-Shopping
3PM Kate Smith
4PM Welcome Travelers
4:30 On Your Account-Quiz
5PM Pinky Lee
5:30 Howdy Doody
6PM Suppertime Comics
6:30 Sports-Tom Manning
6:40 Weather Vein (sp)
6:45 Today's News
7PM Badge 714
7:30 Eddie Fisher
7:45 John Cameron Swayze-NBC News
8PM Dave Garrowway
8:30 Life Of Riley
9PM The Big Story
9:30 TV Soundstage
10PM Boxing-Gillette
10:45 Greatest Fights
11PM News, Weather, Sports-Tom Field, Joe Finan, Joe Mulvihill
11:15 Custom Inn-Chatter
11:30 Movie-Who Killed Doc Robbin?
12:30 Hoot Gibson-Western
12:45 News
WEWS 5 CBS Cleveland
7AM CBS Morning Show
9AM Wings of Song-Music
9:30 Western Reserve Telecourse
10AM Jack Paar Show
11AM Dione Lucas-Cooking
11:30 Strike It Rich-Guest Orson Bean
Noon Valiant Lady
12:15 Love Of Life
12:30 Search For Tomorrow
12:45 Guiding Light
1PM Women's Window
1:30 Garry Moore
2PM Double Or Nothing
2:30 Art Linkletter
3PM Big Payoff
3:30 Bob Crosby
4PM Mixing Bowl-Van Cleve
4:30 Robert Q. Lewis
5PM Uncle Jake's House-Gene Carroll
5:45 News
5:50 Dinner Platter-Records
6:25 Professor Pet
6:30 Dorothy Fuldheim-News
6:45 Sports Page-Jack Graney
6:55 Weather-Johnny Price
7PM Primary (election) Preview
7:10 TV I. Q.
7:15 Greatest Drama
7:30 Perry Como
7:45 CBS News-Douglas Edwards
8PM Mama
8:30 Topper
9PM Schlitz Playhouse Of Stars
9:30 Our Miss Brooks
10PM My Friend Irma
10:30 I Led Three Lives
11PM Movie-The Creeper
12:30 News
WXEL 8 DuMont ABC Cleveland
8:55 Preview Corner
9AM Breakfast Club-ABC
10AM Maggie Wulff-Chatter
10:30 Charming Children
11AM Alice Weston
11:30 Rena And Bob
Noon Treasure Party-Bob Neal
1PM The Brighter Day-CBS
1:15 Portia Faces Life-CBS
1:30 Movie-Railroaded
2:55 You are What you Eat
3PM All For You-Alice Weston
3:15 Joe Portaro-Beauty
3:30 Paul Dixon-DuMont
4PM Woman With A Past-CBS
4:15 Secret Storm-CBS
4:30 King Jack's Toy Box-Kids
5PM Movie-Border Badmen
6:15 Sports-Bob Neal
6:30 TV Weatherman-Dr. Annear
6:40 Cleveland Today-News
6:45 At Home With The Grahams-Cleveland Browns QB Otto Graham and Family hosted this show
7PM Captain Video-DuMont
7:30 Stu Erwin-ABC
8PM Ozzie And Harriet-ABC
8:30 Pepsi Cola Playhouse-ABC
9PM Paul Hartman Show-ABC (better known as Emmett Clark on Andy Griffith Show/Mayberry RFD)
9:30 Boston Blackie
10PM Chance Of A Lifetime-DuMont
10:30 Colonel Flack-DuMont
11PM News-Warren Guthrie (Sohio Reporter)
11:10 Ted Malone-Today's Top Story
11:15 Carling Sports Final
11:20 Movie-To Be Announced
WKBN 27 CBS, ABC, DuMont Youngstown
7AM CBS Morning Show
9AM Breakfast Club-ABC
10AM Jack Paar
11AM I'll Buy That
11:30 Strike it Rich
Noon News
12:15 Love Of Life
12:30 Search For Tomorrow
12:45 Guiding Light
1PM The Brighter Day
1:15 Home Cooking-Resch
1:45 Garry Moore
2PM Movie-Hollywood Mystery
3PM Big Payoff
3:30 School Days
4PM Woman With A Past
4:15 Secret Storm
4:30 Robert Q. Lewis
5PM Barker Bill-CBS
5:15 Grizzly Pete
6:30 News Today
6:45 Sports-Don Gardner
6:55 Weather-Stu Wilson
7PM Captain Video-DuMont
7:30 CBS News
7:45 Perry Como
8PM Talent Patrol-ABC (Thurs. 8PM)
8:30 Topper
9PM Playhouse Of Stars
9:30 Our Miss Brooks
10PM My Friend Irma
10:30 Person To Person-Edward R. Murrow
11PM News-Warren Guthrie
11:10 News-Sid Davis
11:15 Movie-Mr. Lord Says No
12:30 News
WFMJ 73 NBC Youngstown
7AM Today
9AM Movie-Woman Doctor
10AM Ding Dong School
10:30 One Man's Family
10:45 Three Steps to Heaven
11AM Home
Noon Bride And Groom
12:15 Hawkins Falls
12;30 Betty White
1PM News
1:15 Hal's A Poppin-Hal Fryar
2PM Movie-Three Little Steps
3PM Kate Smith
4PM Welcome Travelers
4:30 On Your Account
5PM Susie Sidesaddle
5:30 Howdy Doody
6PM News
6:15 Sports-Eddie Lane
6:25 Weather
6:30 In Our Schools
7PM Turn Of A Card
7:15 Telerama
7:30 Eddie Fisher
7:45 John Cameron Swayze-NBC News
8PM Dave Garroway
8:30 Life Of Riley
9PM Big Story
9:30 TV Soundstage
10PM Boxing-Gillette
10:45 Greatest Fights
11PM Barn Dance-DEBUT With John Fritz and the Saddlemates-Live from WFMJ
11:45 News
WAKR 49 ABC Akron
10:30 AM Army-McCarthy Hearings (ABC Coverage)
2:30 PM Army McCarthy Hearings (ABC Coverage)
5PM Hinky Dinks-Kids
5:30 Summer Matinee
6:10 Social Whirl
6:15 (Rex) Humbard Family-Religion
6:30 Sports-Bob Wylie
6:45 Custom Ranch-Woodell
6:55 Weather
7PM News-Jack Fitzgibbons
7:10 Scores-Sports
7:15 ABC News-John Daly
7:30 Chef Lorenzo-Cooking
8PM Teen "WHO" Club-Records
8:30 Pepsi Cola Playhouse
9PM Paul Hartman Show
9:30 Who's The Boss?-Panel Show-ABC
10PM Movie-Follow Your Heart
11PM News-Bill Murphy
11:10 Sports-Bob Wylie
To end up on a lighter note, we have a "Letter to the Editor" from T. H. of Canton who writes:
"I am a midnight movie fan who is going to bed early these days. The Reason? I can't stand silly English Movies. Why Can't we get some good American movies?"
The Editor responds: [Now if you would contact Hollywood and persuade some executives to release some movies to TV...Ed.]
I thought I'd try something different..focus on a specific week or day of TV...Let me know if you like this format and content..Thanks..
Saturday, June 9, 2007
Cleveland Television-Just for Kids (and Grownup Kids Too)
Left to Right:Franz The Toymaker (Ray Stawiarski) Woodrow The Woodsman (Clay Conroy) Barnaby (Linn Sheldon) and Ron Penfound (Captain Penny)..From Clevelandseniors.comThis Picture is taken from a Early Mc Donald's Ad-Probably mid 1960's. The Caption on top reads:"Look For The Golden Arches...where Quality starts fresh... every day" I find it intersting that all 4 hosts..from competing stations..would take a picture together..though they were probably friends outside the studio..
The following edited text was taken from a posting of mine at the Golden Age Cartoons Forum over a year ago
"Some of my fondest memories as a youngster in Canton, Ohio from 1963-71 or so was watching many of the wonderful Children's show hosts out of Cleveland...I am probably biased, but I dont think there were many better hosts outside of New York or Chicago..
Baranby on KYW/WKYC 3 afternoons arond 4:30 and Saturdays from 7-9 AM with Popeye, Dick Tracy, Mr. Magoo, Wizard of Oz Cartoons, etc..It was said he did his shows ad lib..with only a prop chest to help him along..Linn Sheldon had been a stage and movie actor before doing a lot of early Cleveland TV from the beginning (1947-48)..He played Barnaby from 1957-88..ending at channel 43..His memoir, Barnaby and Me, is quite entertaining though sad at times..A good read if you can find it..
Captain Penny (Ron Penfound) from WEWS-TV 5, did shows at Noon and late afternoon, usually 4:30 or 5..He showed Deputy Dawg and other Terrytoons as well as Magilla Gorilla, Quick Draw McGraw, Rocky And Bullwinkle, Peter Potamus, Batfink, the Three Stooges and Cliff Norton "Funny Mann's" Live action show..He along with Barnaby had a gentle way about them that translated well to the kids..He had Jungle Larry from Cedar Point and Pooch Parade..to try and give dogs a new home.He was on from 1957-71.
Woodrow Woodsman (Clay Conroy) was at first Barnaby's sidekick at KYW-3 but later got his own 9AM show..He had an "Enchanted Forest" with puppets Talkington the Owl and Voracious the Peanut Butter&Jelly sandwich eating elephant..He was in Cleveland from the early 60's to 1965, 1970-72 (WKYC) and 1997-2000 (WJW-8) from 1966-70 he took the Character to Detroit's WJBK-2..
Link to a nice bio..http://www.detroitkidshow.com/clay_conroy.htm
Franz The Toymaker (WJW-8) roughly 1964-70...As we didnt get channel 8 very well in my location, I never saw him, but he wore a Bavarian type outfit (see above) in pictures I've seen and he did crafts from what i heard.
Mr Jingeling-Created for Halles Department Store, Mr. Jingeling began appearing on WEWS-TV 5 during the Christmas season I believe in 1956 or so..He would appear on Captain Penny's Cartoon shows beginning either Thanksgiving or the day after and would continue Monday-Friday visits until Christmas Day.. He was Santa's "Head Elf" who would have a multipart story for the kids each day.. Portrayed first by Max Ellis, who passed away, then Channel 5 staff member Earl Keyes from 1964 on..Keyes continued as Jingeling..even after the TV shows stopped until his passing on December 26, 2000..Jingeling made the rounds of Channel 5, 8, 3 and 43 till the mid 1980's..Was always a highlight at Christmas to a kid from Canton..to a degree it made Halles and Cleveland seem so much closer if that makes sense."
.There is yet another carrying on the Jingeling tradition..http://www.mrjingeling.com/
Commentary:
With the retirement of Big Chuck and Little John from Fox8, it has been said by some friends of mine that Local TV will have lost it's "soul". I couldnt agree more..There was a "connection" to the viewer..as if the host was talking directly to one person in the audience..While I am talking about the Cleveland hosts here, you could name any city in the USA..Viewers had their "connections".. and with the cookie cutter, generic Television of today there is a loss of value to the viewer if that makes sense..The viewer is just a commodity to sell rather than a human being..Sorry to be overdramatic..but there is something lost..maybe innocence, that we will never get back..Great to have the memories though..
Cleveland area TV Schedule
Thursday February 14, 1957
TV Guide
KYW 3 NBC Cleveland
WEWS 5 ABC Cleveland
WJW 8 CBS Cleveland
WFMJ 21 NBC Youngstown
WKBN 27 CBS/ABC Youngstown
WAKR 49 ABC Akron
7AM
3-21 Today
8-27 Good Morning-Will Rogers Jr.
8AM
8-27 Captain Kangaroo
8:55
3 News-Jay Miltner-Longtime Station ID Announcer
5 News-Bill Prentice
8 News-Jim Doney-Would host "Adventure Road" Years Later
9AM
3 Morning Surprise-Tom Haley
5 Fun Farm-Kids
8 All-Star Theater-Drama Anthology reruns
21 Adelaide Snyder
9:30
8 Maggie Wulff-Women
9:45
5 Paige Palmer
10AM
3-21 Home-Arlene Francis
5 Western Reserve Telecourse
8 Garry Moore
27 Movie-To Be Announced
10:30
3 Window
5 Movie-Bombay Waterfront
8 Arthur Godfrey
10:45
3 Home (retruned in progress)
11AM
3-21 Price Is Right-Bill Cullen
11:15
27 Esther Sonntag-Fashions
11:30
3-21 Truth Or Consequences-Bob Barker
8-27 Strike It Rich-Warren Hull
11:55
5 News-Ron Penfound
Noon
3-21 Tic Tac Dough
5 Captain Penny-Penfound
8 Valiant Lady-Serial
27 Cartoon Carnival
12:15
8-27 Love Of Life
12:30
3-21 It Could Be You
8 Search For Tomorrow
27 Playhouse-Drama
12:45
5 Beulah
8 Guiding Light
1PM
3 Movie-Annabel Takes A Tour
8 Our Miss Brooks
21-27 News
49 Movie-TBA
1:10
27 Stand Up-Women
1:15
5 Stu Erwin-Comedy
21 Kitchen Corner-Mariner
1:30
8 As The World Turns
27 Movie-Man From Thunder River
1:45
5 Susie-Ann Sothern
21 Hal's A Poppin-Hal Fryar
2PM
8 Alice Weston
2:15
5 Liberace
2:30
3-21 Tennessee Ernie Ford
8 House Party-Linkletter
49 Life With Elizabeth-Betty White
2:45
5 Music Masters-Songs
27 Casteel's Carousel
3PM
3-21 Matinee Theater-COLOR
5-49 Afternoon Film Festival-All Over The Town (English 1949)
8-27 Big Payoff-Randy Merriman
3:30
8 Bob Crosby
27 Movie-Western (TBA)
4PM
3-21 Queen For A Day-Jack Bailey
8 Brighter Day-Serial
4:15
8 Secret Storm
4:30
5 Little Rascals
8 Edge Of Night
49 Joe Palooka
4:45
3-21 Modern Romances
5PM
3 It's A Great Life-Comedy
5-27 Mickey Mouse Club
8 Movie-American Empire
27 Fun House Gang
49 Movie-Dawn Riders
5:30
3 Headline ("Big Town" Reruns)
6PM
3 Six O Clock Adventure-Sheena, Federal Men
5 Three Musketeers
21 Popeye
27-49 Looney Tunes
6:15
8 News-Roger Kennedy
6:30
5 News Commentary-Dorothy Fuldheim
8 Ohio Story-Big Timber In Ohio
21-27-49 Sports, News
6:40
8 News-Roger Kennedy
6:45
5 Weather-Bill Prentice
8-27 CBS News-Douglas Edwards
49 Social Whirl-Stillman
6:50
5 News-Paul Wilcox, Ron Penfound
6:55
3 News-Tom Field
7PM
3 Soldiers Of Fortune
5 Charles Boyer
8-21 Dr. Christian
27 Crunch And Des
49 News, Weather
7:30
3-21 Dinah Shore
5 Lone Ranger
8-27 Sergeant Preston
49 Movie-The Homestretch
7:45
3-21 NBC News-Huntley/Brinkley
8PM
3-21 You Bet Your Life-Groucho Marx
5 Circus Time-Paul Winchell/Jerry Mahoney
8-27 Bob Cummings
8:30
3-21 Dragnet
8-27 Climax!
9PM
3-21 People's Choice
5 Danny Thomas
49 Movie-TBA
9:30
3-21 Tennessee Ernie Ford
5 Bold Journey
8-27 Playhouse 90-Mickey Rooney in "The Comedian"
10PM
3-21 Lux Video Theater-COLOR-Shirley Jones, Jack Cassidy in "Dark Victory"
5 Public Defender-Syndicated
10:30
5 Movie-The Large Rope
49 Movie-TBA
11PM
3 News-Tom Field
8-27 News-Warren Guthrie-The Sohio Reporter
21 News
11:10
3 Weather-Joe Finan
8 Sports-John Fitzgerald
11:15
3 Sports-Bob Neal
8 Weather-Ken Armstrong
27 Movie-TBA
11:20
3 Jungle
8 Movie-Lucky Legs
21 Living Word-Religion
11:30
3 Twin Hearts Ball-SPECIAL
21 Tonight-Jack Lescoulie
Midnight
3 Tonight-Lescoulie
12:05
5 News-Court Stanton
1AM
3 News-Tom Field
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Ashtabula's "Beacon" of Entertainment-Conclusion
The conclusion of the History Of WICA-TV 15 in Ashtabula..
Carl Feather
Ashtabula Star-Beacon
It didn't take long for the novelty of local television to wear off and the frustrations of UHF reception to wear thin. By 1955 the fascination of seeing your neighbor sing on a 21-inch screen was no longer enough to get you to turn to Channel 15 or convince a local advertiser to purchase time on WICA-TV.Consider the WICA programming lineup for Jan. 10, 1955. After the news and weather, viewers were treated to "Telecomics," "Americana," a film program by "The Christophers," "Your Business" and a full hour of wrestling (film).That same night, network affiliates from Cleveland and Erie, Pa., were beaming "Dinah Shore," "Milton Berle," "Fireside Theatre," "Warner Brothers Presents," "Wyatt Earp," "Danny Thomas," "The Phil Silvers Show," "Red Skelton" and "The $64,000 Question."Three years earlier, signals from these affiliate would have been no competition for local programming. Snow, ghost images and other symptoms of a waning signal would have marred viewing.But John Colin, who was general manager of WICA-TV, said that the FCC granted the VHF stations substantial power increases shortly after the local UHF channels started going on the air. Not only could these small stations not access the network's programming and advertising dollars, they had to compete against them."Lo and behold, just about this time, the FCC allowed VHF stations all over the country to come in with full power enough to encompass us and get the picture we get today," Colin said. "When the FCC did this, there were 100 or more stations that went off the air, they couldn't handle this."The financial loses were tremendous."The equipment we had was the best money could buy," said Frank Bernato, who was station engineer. "I understand that Rowley invested $250,000 in equipment."Signal strength, however, was not an issue. Colin has in his possession letters from viewers in New York, Michigan, Indiana and Connecticut reporting reception of Channel 15's signal."The problem with UHF was we simply couldn't get enough viewers in the area to make the business pay," said John Strasen, former WICA-TV program director. "You got to have a bunch of people watching if you wanted to sell ads, and that's what it was all about."
WICA-TV plodded along with programming that became increasingly boring and inexpensive. According to program grids published in The Star-Beacon, the last day of broadcast was June 16, 1956. Programming included a full hour of "Home Town Teens," featuring "Five Kings," "The Barnyard Five" and "Vlock-Dahl Quartet" _ hardly any competition for "The Lone Ranger," "Dinah Shore" "You Bet Your Life."In contrast to the yearlong build-up that preceded its arrival, WICA-TV left the air without fanfare. The novelty had become a nuisance."Bingo, we were off the air," said Donald Fassett, who was business manager. "It surprised all of us.""I hate to be negative about it, but for a small town like this, it was state of the art," said Charles Mandrake, former assistant program director for WICA-TV. "It was similar to the early days of sound recording. All it had to do was make a noise and people would be fascinated. I have to compare the early days of television's local stations to that."Since most of the television personnel were doing double duty on the radio, the demise of WICA-TV was no big loss to them."I think there was a sigh of relief among the staff," said John Strasen, former program director. "I worked the better part of another year clearing up the debris _ mostly empty film cans and stuff that had piled up all over. I returned the free films before they got lost. There was a pile of them. Oh, gee, what a job that was."
Channel 15 remained blank in Ashtabula County for over eight years. But the Rowley Family held on to the license, keeping UHF competition from elbowing into their broadcasting turf.In 1964 Colin and public school superintendents in Ashtabula County began to explore the feasibility of using the channel for educational television. Articles of incorporation for The Ashtabula County Educational Television Foundation were filed and its trustees traveled to demonstration sites to observe educational television at work.But enthusiasm for the project waned and it was put on hold until 1967. In the meantime, station management attempted one last attempt at reviving local television. Without fanfare, at 3:45 p.m. Dec. 15, 1965, the 363-foot tower on Jefferson Road began beaming television programming to Ashtabula County homes.Starting out with a minimum of 2^2 hours of programming a day, Monday through Friday, station management promised to air programs of local interest featuring local artists and community leaders as well as programs of general interest. It sounded like the same, tired format all over again.But the environment for a local UHF station looked favorable. Congress had passed a law that required television sets manufactured after January 1963 be equipped to receive UHF and VHF. Videotape equipment was coming down in size, making location taping of commercials and local events possible."All manufacturers of sets had to put UHF on them," said Colin. "We thought it would be much easier."Still, WICA would return to the air without the benefit of network affiliation. And it was a black-and-white station in a medium that was making the transition to color. Further, within a couple years cable television would be available in Ashtabula, providing 12 VHF and UHF channels without an antenna. And the station limited its broadcast schedule to weekdays.In April 1966 the station expanded its hours to fill a 3:45 to 8:30 p.m. time slot. Eventually, the programming would be extended until 11 p.m., but the content was mediocre, at best.The April 4, 1966, lineup on WICA-TV was: news, weather and sports; "The Stewardess Story; "With All Good Wishes," "Suspension Bridge," "Now and Forever," news and weather, "Big Band Bash," sports and "Theater 15."Eventually, "Theater 15" would be expanded to consume four of the seven hours of WICA programming. Promising "full length films produced since 1958," "Theater 15" also had the nasty practice of running the films twice in one week."This is similar in philosophy to that used by theaters and will give viewers two chances to see a movie," explained Robert Rowley, business manager, in a newspaper story.The titles of the some of the Theater 15 films suggest mediocrity and low rental rates: "Crime in the Streets," "The Accursed," "Samson and the Sea Beast," "Temple of White Elephants" and "Black Sunday."The station continued to operate with one studio camera, the same antiquated unit whose technology had imposed severe limitations on local broadcasting a decade before. The purchase of a portable Vidicon camera in 1967 was touted as a way to bring local events to the television audience. Rowley was quoted in a newspaper story as saying, "We plan to utilize a portable mobile unit embodying the camera and new tape machine which we can take to all local events of importance."The station bowed off the air later that year, Dec. 26, 1967, with an unimpressive lineup of programming for the night: "Taur the Mighty," "Death Valley Days," "The Saracens.""After the second time, we left the license go, once there was no more hope for the educational television project," Colin said.The station's equipment was sold to other stations or donated to schools. The only physical reminder of the station's existence is the 53-foot UHF broadcasting antenna that rises above the FM pylon.The electromagnetic waves that once emanated from the Channel 15 tower have dissipated into the ether of broadcasting eternity. No videotapes or kinescopes of "The Hoot and Holler Gang," "Happiland" or any of the other locally produced programs exist. The memories of those days are getting dimmer, fading to black like the tiny dot on the 1953 Philco that once filled our living rooms with the joys and sorrows of baby television.
Courtesy
Ashtabula Star-Beacon Archives...
Great resource for Historical articles on Ashtabula County
http://www2.suite224.net/~editorsb/updates/archive.htm
Link to Archives..
These articles were originally published in the Star-Beacon January 16, 1995
Comments:
There were a lot of grand ideas for Local Television in Ashtabula County in the 1950's and 60's. The WICA folks should be honored for the effort they put in..The main thing is..having entertaining programming and sponsor support..one wonders what might have happened if the Rowleys had not kept the license..Who else might have come in and tried to put it on the air..I think it would definitely be on the air in some form by now..
Carl Feather
Ashtabula Star-Beacon
It didn't take long for the novelty of local television to wear off and the frustrations of UHF reception to wear thin. By 1955 the fascination of seeing your neighbor sing on a 21-inch screen was no longer enough to get you to turn to Channel 15 or convince a local advertiser to purchase time on WICA-TV.Consider the WICA programming lineup for Jan. 10, 1955. After the news and weather, viewers were treated to "Telecomics," "Americana," a film program by "The Christophers," "Your Business" and a full hour of wrestling (film).That same night, network affiliates from Cleveland and Erie, Pa., were beaming "Dinah Shore," "Milton Berle," "Fireside Theatre," "Warner Brothers Presents," "Wyatt Earp," "Danny Thomas," "The Phil Silvers Show," "Red Skelton" and "The $64,000 Question."Three years earlier, signals from these affiliate would have been no competition for local programming. Snow, ghost images and other symptoms of a waning signal would have marred viewing.But John Colin, who was general manager of WICA-TV, said that the FCC granted the VHF stations substantial power increases shortly after the local UHF channels started going on the air. Not only could these small stations not access the network's programming and advertising dollars, they had to compete against them."Lo and behold, just about this time, the FCC allowed VHF stations all over the country to come in with full power enough to encompass us and get the picture we get today," Colin said. "When the FCC did this, there were 100 or more stations that went off the air, they couldn't handle this."The financial loses were tremendous."The equipment we had was the best money could buy," said Frank Bernato, who was station engineer. "I understand that Rowley invested $250,000 in equipment."Signal strength, however, was not an issue. Colin has in his possession letters from viewers in New York, Michigan, Indiana and Connecticut reporting reception of Channel 15's signal."The problem with UHF was we simply couldn't get enough viewers in the area to make the business pay," said John Strasen, former WICA-TV program director. "You got to have a bunch of people watching if you wanted to sell ads, and that's what it was all about."
WICA-TV plodded along with programming that became increasingly boring and inexpensive. According to program grids published in The Star-Beacon, the last day of broadcast was June 16, 1956. Programming included a full hour of "Home Town Teens," featuring "Five Kings," "The Barnyard Five" and "Vlock-Dahl Quartet" _ hardly any competition for "The Lone Ranger," "Dinah Shore" "You Bet Your Life."In contrast to the yearlong build-up that preceded its arrival, WICA-TV left the air without fanfare. The novelty had become a nuisance."Bingo, we were off the air," said Donald Fassett, who was business manager. "It surprised all of us.""I hate to be negative about it, but for a small town like this, it was state of the art," said Charles Mandrake, former assistant program director for WICA-TV. "It was similar to the early days of sound recording. All it had to do was make a noise and people would be fascinated. I have to compare the early days of television's local stations to that."Since most of the television personnel were doing double duty on the radio, the demise of WICA-TV was no big loss to them."I think there was a sigh of relief among the staff," said John Strasen, former program director. "I worked the better part of another year clearing up the debris _ mostly empty film cans and stuff that had piled up all over. I returned the free films before they got lost. There was a pile of them. Oh, gee, what a job that was."
Channel 15 remained blank in Ashtabula County for over eight years. But the Rowley Family held on to the license, keeping UHF competition from elbowing into their broadcasting turf.In 1964 Colin and public school superintendents in Ashtabula County began to explore the feasibility of using the channel for educational television. Articles of incorporation for The Ashtabula County Educational Television Foundation were filed and its trustees traveled to demonstration sites to observe educational television at work.But enthusiasm for the project waned and it was put on hold until 1967. In the meantime, station management attempted one last attempt at reviving local television. Without fanfare, at 3:45 p.m. Dec. 15, 1965, the 363-foot tower on Jefferson Road began beaming television programming to Ashtabula County homes.Starting out with a minimum of 2^2 hours of programming a day, Monday through Friday, station management promised to air programs of local interest featuring local artists and community leaders as well as programs of general interest. It sounded like the same, tired format all over again.But the environment for a local UHF station looked favorable. Congress had passed a law that required television sets manufactured after January 1963 be equipped to receive UHF and VHF. Videotape equipment was coming down in size, making location taping of commercials and local events possible."All manufacturers of sets had to put UHF on them," said Colin. "We thought it would be much easier."Still, WICA would return to the air without the benefit of network affiliation. And it was a black-and-white station in a medium that was making the transition to color. Further, within a couple years cable television would be available in Ashtabula, providing 12 VHF and UHF channels without an antenna. And the station limited its broadcast schedule to weekdays.In April 1966 the station expanded its hours to fill a 3:45 to 8:30 p.m. time slot. Eventually, the programming would be extended until 11 p.m., but the content was mediocre, at best.The April 4, 1966, lineup on WICA-TV was: news, weather and sports; "The Stewardess Story; "With All Good Wishes," "Suspension Bridge," "Now and Forever," news and weather, "Big Band Bash," sports and "Theater 15."Eventually, "Theater 15" would be expanded to consume four of the seven hours of WICA programming. Promising "full length films produced since 1958," "Theater 15" also had the nasty practice of running the films twice in one week."This is similar in philosophy to that used by theaters and will give viewers two chances to see a movie," explained Robert Rowley, business manager, in a newspaper story.The titles of the some of the Theater 15 films suggest mediocrity and low rental rates: "Crime in the Streets," "The Accursed," "Samson and the Sea Beast," "Temple of White Elephants" and "Black Sunday."The station continued to operate with one studio camera, the same antiquated unit whose technology had imposed severe limitations on local broadcasting a decade before. The purchase of a portable Vidicon camera in 1967 was touted as a way to bring local events to the television audience. Rowley was quoted in a newspaper story as saying, "We plan to utilize a portable mobile unit embodying the camera and new tape machine which we can take to all local events of importance."The station bowed off the air later that year, Dec. 26, 1967, with an unimpressive lineup of programming for the night: "Taur the Mighty," "Death Valley Days," "The Saracens.""After the second time, we left the license go, once there was no more hope for the educational television project," Colin said.The station's equipment was sold to other stations or donated to schools. The only physical reminder of the station's existence is the 53-foot UHF broadcasting antenna that rises above the FM pylon.The electromagnetic waves that once emanated from the Channel 15 tower have dissipated into the ether of broadcasting eternity. No videotapes or kinescopes of "The Hoot and Holler Gang," "Happiland" or any of the other locally produced programs exist. The memories of those days are getting dimmer, fading to black like the tiny dot on the 1953 Philco that once filled our living rooms with the joys and sorrows of baby television.
Courtesy
Ashtabula Star-Beacon Archives...
Great resource for Historical articles on Ashtabula County
http://www2.suite224.net/~editorsb/updates/archive.htm
Link to Archives..
These articles were originally published in the Star-Beacon January 16, 1995
Comments:
There were a lot of grand ideas for Local Television in Ashtabula County in the 1950's and 60's. The WICA folks should be honored for the effort they put in..The main thing is..having entertaining programming and sponsor support..one wonders what might have happened if the Rowleys had not kept the license..Who else might have come in and tried to put it on the air..I think it would definitely be on the air in some form by now..
Ashtabula's "Beacon" of Entertainment-Part Two
A continuation of an excellent look at the History of WICA-TV As told by people who were there at the time..
By Carl Feather
Ashtabula Star-Beacon
Part Two
As test signals were first beamed across Ashtabula County in August, 1953, Sales Manager Donald Fassett and his staff _ Robert Rydberg, Irvine Bleasdale, Joseph Yourcheck, Vernon Webster, JoAnn Klasen, Jean Moss, Jeannette Kolasinski, Patricia Nelson and George H. Murray _ drummed up sponsors. Fassett, who retired from the radio station in 1979, said the sales department had one of the toughest assignments in the new venture."We had a heck of a time selling advertising," he said. The station was not yet on the air and advertisers were reluctant to put their dollars into an unknown when radio and newsprint advertising was proven and readily available. Further, the absence of popular programming made it difficult to drum up sponsors for the old movies and locally produced shows that would become the station's mainstay.But Fassett and his staff did succeed in signing on several major sponsors. The Illuminating Company sponsored one of the station's most popular shows, "I Led Three Lives." East Ohio Gas signed on as an advertiser for a live cooking show that required construction of a kitchen set in the studio. Fassett and other station employees exchanged their business suits for carpenter's aprons and constructed the set."We did everything back then," he said.Radio station personnel were pressed into service to fill new positions in the television side of the operation. Fred Baker had signed on with WICA in December 1951 with the hopes of getting a radio announcer's job. He ended up in the advertising department, but when the television project was announced, made the transition to the new film and slide department of WICA-TV."I was responsible for the movie and the slide projectors," he said. "There was a girl who worked with me. We prepared the films and the slides for each day's run. It involved inspecting, cleaning them and getting them ready...loading the projectors. It was just about the same type of work a projectionist would do in a movie theater."Fassett said slides were a big part of the station's programming. Usually, the slides illustrated an advertiser's message. While the slide was on the screen, an announcer in a studio off camera would narrate the image. Fassett recalls R.W. Sidley in particular using many slides. An amateur aviator, Fassett shot the photographs as he flew over the company's sprawling facility in Thompson.Slides were an essential part of the station's operation because there was only one television camera for the entire station. The behomoth had a turrent with fixed focal-length lenses that could not be changed while feeding an image to the control board. If the camerman needed to switch to a different lens, he had to signal the control room to cut to a slide or film, make the change, then return to feeding his signal from the camera."We were pioneering," he said. "There was no book on this. There was no where you could go and get anything on how to operate a station in those days. It was by guess and by golly."One camera operation was not unique to WICA-TV. Fassett said it was an economic necessity for many staions. "They were fabulously expensive," he said. "They were a huge thing and they were very, very expensive."Economy was not limited to equipment. Staff was stretched thin between radio and television duties to keep the operations on the air. Virtually everyone who worked at WICA ran camera at one time or another. Weighing in at 100 pounds, the studio camera was primitive compared to today's lightweight camcorders. Operating it was physically exhausting, because it had to be in almost constant motion."The sensitive element of the camera tube was such that if you didn't move that camera every so often, 30 seconds or so, you'd get a double image," Mandrake said. "You had to remember to shift the camera.""We had to watch those burn spots like crazy," said Strasen. "Only a few seconds would do it. We had to watch different types of lighting, too. If you put the camera tube on the lights and held it there for a couple sets, bingo, you had a burned tube and there wasn't anything you could do to get rid of it."The constant motion requirement made for some tedious camera work _ and viewing. Adding to the tedium was the lack of network feeds or news footage during news and sports broadcasts. The most viewers could hope for would be a slide or photograph shot at the scene of the news event."It was simply the announcer's handsome face on camera, that's all," Strasen said.
By mid-September 1953, Channel 15 was set to go on the air in Ashtabula, a scant seven months after the FCC gave its final go-ahead to the license. WICA-TV was one of the first UHF stations to begin broadcasting and was believed to be the first to occupy Channel 15. It was a great occasion for Ashtabula County and the local newspapers _ Conneaut News-Herald, The Star-Beacon, Geneva Free Press and Painesville Telegraph _ ran a special supplement announcing the debut of the new station at 6 p.m. Sept. 19, 1953."An aspect of WICA-TV's opening night will be spontaneous `television parties' in the homes having sets converted for receiving UHF transmissions," the newspapers reported. "Many owners of unconverted sets are expected to swarm in on friends and relatives who have converted to see how the picture and sound come through."The first man to be seen and heard on the new station was Charles Mandrake, veteran WICA radio announcer and assistant program director. Following his identification of the station, Mandrake delivered a 10-minute news program. A film program, "The Christophers," followed. Andrew Holecko presented a sports report at 6:40 p.m. A 35-minute inaugural program followed.The Star-Beacon gave the following account of WICA's first three hours on the air:"Saturday night's inaugural television program went off `quite well,' officials said, although some sets experienced difficulty in bringing in as good a picture as expected. Adjustment of sets has, in many cases, not been perfected due to the last minute rush which took up most of the time of local television dealers and repair men."Local television had come to northeast Ohio.
On Oct. 3, 1954, the station celebrated its first anniversary with an open house and afternoon of local programming. A look at the program grid for that special afternoon provides a revealing look at the kind of programming WICA hosted:
n 12:30 p.m. _ Fred Dense, an organist from Painesville, gave a program of organ melodies in the studio. His program was repeated live (videotape was not introduced until 1957) at 4 and 5:45 p.m.
n 12:45 p.m. _ The Polka Toppers with Robert Bilicic presented a 15-minute program of music.
n 1 p.m. _ Joanne Marie Salo, a 16-year-old Harbor High School student, presented 15 minutes of favorite piano selections. Her program was repeated later in the afternoon.
n 1:15 p.m. _ The Texas Tornadoes of Painesville, Dave and Irene Stowe, entertained with a program of country and hillbilly music.
n 1 p.m. _ Patricia Nelson, a vocalist from Ashtabula, gave a program of secular and religious music.
n 1:45 p.m. _ Phil Hammon's Orchestra, the Scarlet Notes, performed.
n 2 p.m. _ Charles Mandrake, WICA personality, presented his "popular television show," "Ye Olde Record Shoppe."
n 2:45 p.m. _ An all request program of piano music was played by L. Robert Coxe.
n 3 p.m. _ The Kiddies Korner.
n 3:30 p.m. _ People's Missionary Baptist Chaurch, with Rev. R.L. Fields presenting a singing program of spiritual and gospel songs. Also performing that day were area teen-agers and the members of the Massucci Accordian Band.
Colin recalls the open house as extremely successful. Over 2,500 people toured the studios and watched the programs being aired. Up to 300 crammed in one studio, hoping to have their faces beamed across the county as the station's only camera panned the audience.
The marshy land around the station was transformed into a parking lot. Colin said many of the visitor's cars got hung up in the muck and had to be rescued by station personnel who dashed between tractors, studios and desks.
The fascination of seeing your neighbor sing a song in a 21-inch box was not enough to capture and hold a television audience, let alone to convince an advertiser to spend money on the station. And in that was the demise of WICA-TV.
Consider the WICA programming line-up for Jan. 10, 1955. After the news and weather, viewers would be treated to "Telecomics," "Americana," a film program by "The Christophers," "Your Business" and a full hour of wrestling (film).
That same night, the network affiliates from Cleveland and Erie, Pa., would beam the following shows across the lakeshore: "Dinah Shore," "Milton Berle," "Fireside Theatre," "Warner Brothers Presents," "Wyatt Earp," "Danny Thomas," "The Phil Silvers Show," "Red Skelton" and "The $64,000 Question."
Three years earlier, these shows would have been no competition for local programming. Snow, ghost images and other symptoms of a weak signal would have mared the viewing.
But Colin said that the FCC granted the VHF stations substantial power increases shortly after the local UHF channels started going on the air. Not only could these small stations not access the network's programming and advertising dollars, they had to compete against them.
"Lo and behold, just about this time, the FCC allowed VHF stations all over the country to come in with full power enough to encompass us and get the picture we get today," Colin said. "When the FCC did this, there were 100 or more stations that went off the air, they couldn't handle this."
The financial loses were tremendous.
"The equipment we had was the best money could buy," said Bernato. "I understand that Rowley invested $250,000 in equipment...it was just that UHF had its problems and the receiving equipment was not the best in the world.
WICA-TV struggled along despite the stiff competition for viewers who could now get programming without having to purchase adapters, a new set or antenna. The station's signal strength was not an issue in its demise. Colin has in his possession letters from viewers in New York, Michigan, Indiana and Connecticut reporting reception of WICA's signal.
The problem was a lack of local viewers who possessed sets capable of receiving WICA and programming of high enough quality to make it worth the investment of an adapter or new set.
According to program grids published in The Star-Beacon, the last day of broadcast was June 16, 1956. Programming included a full hour of "Home Town Teens," featuring "Five Kings," "The Barnyard Five" and "Vlock-Dahl Quartet," no competition for "The Lone Ranger," "Dinah Shore" "You Bet Your Life."
"I hate to be negative about it, but for a small town like this, it was state of the art," said Mandrake. "It was similar to the early days of sound recording. All it had to do was make a noise and people would be fascinated. I have to compare the early days of television's local stations to that."
"The problem with UHF was we simply couldn't get enough viewers in the area to make the business pay," Strasen said. "You got to have a bunch of people watching if you wanted to sell adds, and that's what it was all about."
In contrast to the yearlong build-up that preceded its arrival, WICA-TV left the air without fanfare.
"Bingo, we were off the air," said Donald Fassett, who was the station's business manager. "It surprised all of us."
"I think there was a sigh of relief among the staff," said Strasen. "I worked the better part of another year clearing up the debris _ mostly empty film cans and stuff that had piled up all over. I returned the free films before they got lost. There was a pile of them. Oh, gee, what a job that was."
Courtesy Ashtabula Star-Beacon Archives
By Carl Feather
Ashtabula Star-Beacon
Part Two
As test signals were first beamed across Ashtabula County in August, 1953, Sales Manager Donald Fassett and his staff _ Robert Rydberg, Irvine Bleasdale, Joseph Yourcheck, Vernon Webster, JoAnn Klasen, Jean Moss, Jeannette Kolasinski, Patricia Nelson and George H. Murray _ drummed up sponsors. Fassett, who retired from the radio station in 1979, said the sales department had one of the toughest assignments in the new venture."We had a heck of a time selling advertising," he said. The station was not yet on the air and advertisers were reluctant to put their dollars into an unknown when radio and newsprint advertising was proven and readily available. Further, the absence of popular programming made it difficult to drum up sponsors for the old movies and locally produced shows that would become the station's mainstay.But Fassett and his staff did succeed in signing on several major sponsors. The Illuminating Company sponsored one of the station's most popular shows, "I Led Three Lives." East Ohio Gas signed on as an advertiser for a live cooking show that required construction of a kitchen set in the studio. Fassett and other station employees exchanged their business suits for carpenter's aprons and constructed the set."We did everything back then," he said.Radio station personnel were pressed into service to fill new positions in the television side of the operation. Fred Baker had signed on with WICA in December 1951 with the hopes of getting a radio announcer's job. He ended up in the advertising department, but when the television project was announced, made the transition to the new film and slide department of WICA-TV."I was responsible for the movie and the slide projectors," he said. "There was a girl who worked with me. We prepared the films and the slides for each day's run. It involved inspecting, cleaning them and getting them ready...loading the projectors. It was just about the same type of work a projectionist would do in a movie theater."Fassett said slides were a big part of the station's programming. Usually, the slides illustrated an advertiser's message. While the slide was on the screen, an announcer in a studio off camera would narrate the image. Fassett recalls R.W. Sidley in particular using many slides. An amateur aviator, Fassett shot the photographs as he flew over the company's sprawling facility in Thompson.Slides were an essential part of the station's operation because there was only one television camera for the entire station. The behomoth had a turrent with fixed focal-length lenses that could not be changed while feeding an image to the control board. If the camerman needed to switch to a different lens, he had to signal the control room to cut to a slide or film, make the change, then return to feeding his signal from the camera."We were pioneering," he said. "There was no book on this. There was no where you could go and get anything on how to operate a station in those days. It was by guess and by golly."One camera operation was not unique to WICA-TV. Fassett said it was an economic necessity for many staions. "They were fabulously expensive," he said. "They were a huge thing and they were very, very expensive."Economy was not limited to equipment. Staff was stretched thin between radio and television duties to keep the operations on the air. Virtually everyone who worked at WICA ran camera at one time or another. Weighing in at 100 pounds, the studio camera was primitive compared to today's lightweight camcorders. Operating it was physically exhausting, because it had to be in almost constant motion."The sensitive element of the camera tube was such that if you didn't move that camera every so often, 30 seconds or so, you'd get a double image," Mandrake said. "You had to remember to shift the camera.""We had to watch those burn spots like crazy," said Strasen. "Only a few seconds would do it. We had to watch different types of lighting, too. If you put the camera tube on the lights and held it there for a couple sets, bingo, you had a burned tube and there wasn't anything you could do to get rid of it."The constant motion requirement made for some tedious camera work _ and viewing. Adding to the tedium was the lack of network feeds or news footage during news and sports broadcasts. The most viewers could hope for would be a slide or photograph shot at the scene of the news event."It was simply the announcer's handsome face on camera, that's all," Strasen said.
By mid-September 1953, Channel 15 was set to go on the air in Ashtabula, a scant seven months after the FCC gave its final go-ahead to the license. WICA-TV was one of the first UHF stations to begin broadcasting and was believed to be the first to occupy Channel 15. It was a great occasion for Ashtabula County and the local newspapers _ Conneaut News-Herald, The Star-Beacon, Geneva Free Press and Painesville Telegraph _ ran a special supplement announcing the debut of the new station at 6 p.m. Sept. 19, 1953."An aspect of WICA-TV's opening night will be spontaneous `television parties' in the homes having sets converted for receiving UHF transmissions," the newspapers reported. "Many owners of unconverted sets are expected to swarm in on friends and relatives who have converted to see how the picture and sound come through."The first man to be seen and heard on the new station was Charles Mandrake, veteran WICA radio announcer and assistant program director. Following his identification of the station, Mandrake delivered a 10-minute news program. A film program, "The Christophers," followed. Andrew Holecko presented a sports report at 6:40 p.m. A 35-minute inaugural program followed.The Star-Beacon gave the following account of WICA's first three hours on the air:"Saturday night's inaugural television program went off `quite well,' officials said, although some sets experienced difficulty in bringing in as good a picture as expected. Adjustment of sets has, in many cases, not been perfected due to the last minute rush which took up most of the time of local television dealers and repair men."Local television had come to northeast Ohio.
On Oct. 3, 1954, the station celebrated its first anniversary with an open house and afternoon of local programming. A look at the program grid for that special afternoon provides a revealing look at the kind of programming WICA hosted:
n 12:30 p.m. _ Fred Dense, an organist from Painesville, gave a program of organ melodies in the studio. His program was repeated live (videotape was not introduced until 1957) at 4 and 5:45 p.m.
n 12:45 p.m. _ The Polka Toppers with Robert Bilicic presented a 15-minute program of music.
n 1 p.m. _ Joanne Marie Salo, a 16-year-old Harbor High School student, presented 15 minutes of favorite piano selections. Her program was repeated later in the afternoon.
n 1:15 p.m. _ The Texas Tornadoes of Painesville, Dave and Irene Stowe, entertained with a program of country and hillbilly music.
n 1 p.m. _ Patricia Nelson, a vocalist from Ashtabula, gave a program of secular and religious music.
n 1:45 p.m. _ Phil Hammon's Orchestra, the Scarlet Notes, performed.
n 2 p.m. _ Charles Mandrake, WICA personality, presented his "popular television show," "Ye Olde Record Shoppe."
n 2:45 p.m. _ An all request program of piano music was played by L. Robert Coxe.
n 3 p.m. _ The Kiddies Korner.
n 3:30 p.m. _ People's Missionary Baptist Chaurch, with Rev. R.L. Fields presenting a singing program of spiritual and gospel songs. Also performing that day were area teen-agers and the members of the Massucci Accordian Band.
Colin recalls the open house as extremely successful. Over 2,500 people toured the studios and watched the programs being aired. Up to 300 crammed in one studio, hoping to have their faces beamed across the county as the station's only camera panned the audience.
The marshy land around the station was transformed into a parking lot. Colin said many of the visitor's cars got hung up in the muck and had to be rescued by station personnel who dashed between tractors, studios and desks.
The fascination of seeing your neighbor sing a song in a 21-inch box was not enough to capture and hold a television audience, let alone to convince an advertiser to spend money on the station. And in that was the demise of WICA-TV.
Consider the WICA programming line-up for Jan. 10, 1955. After the news and weather, viewers would be treated to "Telecomics," "Americana," a film program by "The Christophers," "Your Business" and a full hour of wrestling (film).
That same night, the network affiliates from Cleveland and Erie, Pa., would beam the following shows across the lakeshore: "Dinah Shore," "Milton Berle," "Fireside Theatre," "Warner Brothers Presents," "Wyatt Earp," "Danny Thomas," "The Phil Silvers Show," "Red Skelton" and "The $64,000 Question."
Three years earlier, these shows would have been no competition for local programming. Snow, ghost images and other symptoms of a weak signal would have mared the viewing.
But Colin said that the FCC granted the VHF stations substantial power increases shortly after the local UHF channels started going on the air. Not only could these small stations not access the network's programming and advertising dollars, they had to compete against them.
"Lo and behold, just about this time, the FCC allowed VHF stations all over the country to come in with full power enough to encompass us and get the picture we get today," Colin said. "When the FCC did this, there were 100 or more stations that went off the air, they couldn't handle this."
The financial loses were tremendous.
"The equipment we had was the best money could buy," said Bernato. "I understand that Rowley invested $250,000 in equipment...it was just that UHF had its problems and the receiving equipment was not the best in the world.
WICA-TV struggled along despite the stiff competition for viewers who could now get programming without having to purchase adapters, a new set or antenna. The station's signal strength was not an issue in its demise. Colin has in his possession letters from viewers in New York, Michigan, Indiana and Connecticut reporting reception of WICA's signal.
The problem was a lack of local viewers who possessed sets capable of receiving WICA and programming of high enough quality to make it worth the investment of an adapter or new set.
According to program grids published in The Star-Beacon, the last day of broadcast was June 16, 1956. Programming included a full hour of "Home Town Teens," featuring "Five Kings," "The Barnyard Five" and "Vlock-Dahl Quartet," no competition for "The Lone Ranger," "Dinah Shore" "You Bet Your Life."
"I hate to be negative about it, but for a small town like this, it was state of the art," said Mandrake. "It was similar to the early days of sound recording. All it had to do was make a noise and people would be fascinated. I have to compare the early days of television's local stations to that."
"The problem with UHF was we simply couldn't get enough viewers in the area to make the business pay," Strasen said. "You got to have a bunch of people watching if you wanted to sell adds, and that's what it was all about."
In contrast to the yearlong build-up that preceded its arrival, WICA-TV left the air without fanfare.
"Bingo, we were off the air," said Donald Fassett, who was the station's business manager. "It surprised all of us."
"I think there was a sigh of relief among the staff," said Strasen. "I worked the better part of another year clearing up the debris _ mostly empty film cans and stuff that had piled up all over. I returned the free films before they got lost. There was a pile of them. Oh, gee, what a job that was."
Courtesy Ashtabula Star-Beacon Archives
Ashtabula's "Beacon" of Entertainment-Part One
Today's Article is about WICA-TV 15 in Ashtabula, Ohio. C. A. Richard D and David C. Rowley had operated WICA-970 AM in Ashtabula since the 1937 and WICA-FM since 1948..as well as the Ashtabula Star Beacon Newspaper..Below is an account of the History of WICA-TV as reported by Carl Feather in the Star-Beacon in 1995..It highlights the unique difficulties at the time..Being UHF, Kind of in a no man's land geographically.The difficulty of lining up sponors, network affiliation, etc..
WICA-TV History
By Carl Feather
Ashtabula Star-Beacon
Turn back 40 years, to Jan. 9, 1955. Supper dishes are done. Your high-fat, high- cholesterol meat-and-potatoes meal is beginning to settle down. You walk into the living room and turn your new television on _ a Philco 21-inch set housed in a maple cabinet. It's the centerpiece of your living room, and rightly so. It set you back $454.95, plus tax.Your new set is of the latest design, for it features a UHF tuner that reaches above the paltry 12 channels on VHF to the ultra-high frequencies (UHF) of television land. Your acquisition of the set has made you very popular with relatives and neighbors. During the holidays, there was a constant parade of brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles and shirttail relatives who stopped by watch your set, one of the few in the neighborhood with UHF capabilities.But tonight, it's just the spouse and kids. You glance at your watch, note the time and turn the set on. The tiny dot in the middle of the screen grows steadily until its ghastly glow probes every corner of the room. The speaker crackles and hisses as you turn the tuner to the magic number on the UHF dial, "15."You're just in time for the sign-on of WICA-TV, Channel 15, broadcasting live from its modern studios on Jefferson Road in Ashtabula. You tinker with the fine tuning dial on your set until the picture is clear (for the time being). Then you settle down in the easy chair and get ready for the news. Announcer Charles Mandrake comes on the screen with a picture of the U.S. Capitol behind him. In the news tonight: Frank J. Lausche was sworn in as Ohio's 5-term governor; Diamond-Alkali in Painesville announces plans to locate a radiation research center in Painesville; and 2-year-old Larry Knapp of Andover removed the labels from all the cans in his mother's cupboard, making a guessing game out of meal preparation.At 6:40 p.m., the signature tune of "Music for You" announces that it's time for a visit with Mrs. Fern Dingley and her local guest artists, Mario Brindzi and Mrs. Vincent Gigliotti. You doze and read the paper while Brindzi sings "The Lace-Edged Shawl" and Gigliotti gives her cello arrangement of Handel's "Largo."Your favorite show comes on at 7:30 p.m., "I Led Three Lives," a half-hour drama about an American who posed as a Communist. It's a regular on Monday nights and one of the few big-name WICA_TV programs.At 8:30 p.m., another film program, "The Big Picture," informs you about the activities of the South Korean Army. Halfway through the show, the film breaks and your screen turns white. The infamous, "One moment please" slide appears.Mandrake returns to the screen at 9 p.m. with a final update on the news, and the station signs off for another day. Your time in front of the TV screen is limited not by your couch potato discipline, but the availability of material on the local channel.It has been exciting to watch this hatcheling medium peck its way out of the shell and into your living room. For now, you are content to have an image, any image on your screen. But in a few months, the constant parade of mediocre talent, public service films and cowboy movies no longer entertain. The stronger signals of the Cleveland and Erie television stations carrying network programming to your living room woo you from your initial allegiance to the local station. Then one evening in the summer of 1956, you turn back to Channel 15 out of curiosity.Only snow greets you.
The history of television broadcasting in Ashtabula County is a short but fascinating one. WICA-TV beamed its first program, Charles Mandrake's newscast, over the airwaves 6 p.m. Sept. 19, 1953. No public announcement of its final telecast appears to have been made, but The Star-Beacon last printed a TV grid for the local station June 21, 1956. The station returned to the airwaves briefly in the mid-1960s. Many of the same factors that doomed it a decade before put it off the air again in 1967, this time for good.In the early 1950s, however, the prospects for a local television station were very bright. Prior to 1952, television stations had been limited to large markets and a narrow band, VHF, or very high frequencies. Stations in Cleveland and Erie, Pa., tried to service this area, but the long distances, poor receiving equipment and weak radiated power of the stations made reception poor, at best.The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) controlled the allocation of television channels. The small number of channels in the VHF band made it very unlikely that a community the size of Ashtabula would be assigned a channel. Indeed, as the number of stations grew in metropolitan markets, so did interference between stations occupying the same channel in neighboring cities. The problem became so great that in September 1948, the FCC placed a freeze on new television station licenses.But research by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) and National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) in the late 1940s offered hope. Their answer was the UHF band, which would open up channels 14 to 83 (VHF is assigned 2 through 13).On Dec. 30, 1949, experimental station KC2XAK in Stratford, Conn., rebroadcast the VHF signal from New York station WNBT on the UHF band. Fifty experimental UHF receivers built for occasion were placed in homes, businesses and other locations around the community to assess the quality of the reception. Shortly thereafter, the first commercial UHF station, in Portland, Oregon, went on the air.Local media entrepreneurs Robert B. and Donald C. Rowley watched these developments with acquisitive interest. Their father, the late C.A. Rowley, had laid the groundwork for a media empire in Ashtabula, Lake and Geauga counties. Rowley's AM radio station, WICA, went on the air in 1937 (see page B2 for a look at the radio side of WICA). In 1940, C.A. Rowley made preparations for the addition of an FM station, a dream he did not live to see fulfilled. Rowley died Aug. 10, 1945.But his sons sustained the dream. By 1949, WICA-AM and WREO-FM were broadcasting 18 hours a day, with the FM station boasting 48,000 watts, the second most powerful station in Ohio. But the AM station was stymied by FCC regulations that focused its broadcast pattern on Lake Erie and the southern regions of the county to avoid infringing upon stations from Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Buffalo. The signal fell off substantially beyond Saybrook Township to the west and Kingsville Township to the east.Frank Bernato, who was engineer for the radio stations, said he recalls going to Washington D.C. with the Rowley brothers to plead their case before the FCC. Bernato said the FCC officials recommended WICA apply for a spot on the UHF band and assured the Rowleys that Ashtabula would be given a favorable channel, close to those on the VHF band. The Rowleys filed their application _ and waited.Meanwhile, UHF technology improved and the FCC eventually lifted its freeze on new stations. The FCC's new allocation plan, announced in April 1952, provided for 2,053 television stations in 1,291 communities in the United States, its territories and possessions. The agency's plan would put a television station in virtually any region of the nation. True to their word, the FCC assigned Ashtabula an excellent spot on the UHF spectrum, Channel 15.
Robert Rowley died in 1950, leaving Donald as president of WICA Inc. and publisher of four Northeastern Ohio newspapers, including The Star-Beacon. Rowley needed a man to take over the organization of the new television channel, and selected John A. Colin for the job. Colin had served as legal counsel for the media conglomerate and had always been interested in the newspaper and broadcasting business.Colin was named general manager of WICA-TV. He began laying the groundwork for a new station, from filing the FCC paperwork to planning the layout of transmitters, film chains and the studio. This was concurrent with the station moving its radio studios from Center Street in Ashtabula to Jefferson Road, which would also become the location of the television studios and transmitter.Another task assigned to Colin was negotiate an affiliation with a major television network. Network affiliation would be essential to the economic survival of a new station. With it would come the popular programming of the day, but more importantly, the national advertising dollars that would pay the electricity bills, purchase the equipment and compensate the employees.But networks were not interested in spending their money or efforts in a market the size of Ashtabula's."This was one of our great problems," said Colin, who still maintains a law practice in Ashtabula. "I had to visit New York, Chicago and other cities to get these networks to give us an affiliation. The closest we came to getting one was either CBS or ABC, but no promises."Even without network affiliation, the station's management decided to move ahead on the project. Colin said Rowley was committed to making WICA-TV a local television station that would feature hometown talent and address community issues. The absence of network programming would be compensated for by running free public service films and renting low-budget motion pictures from film services."He became convinced we didn't have to have a network," said Bernato. "We could get a lot of free stuff, old movies, cowboys and wrestling shows. It think that hurt us. People wanted something better."
Courtesy Ashtabula Star Beacon Archives..
Part 2 to follow
WICA-TV History
By Carl Feather
Ashtabula Star-Beacon
Turn back 40 years, to Jan. 9, 1955. Supper dishes are done. Your high-fat, high- cholesterol meat-and-potatoes meal is beginning to settle down. You walk into the living room and turn your new television on _ a Philco 21-inch set housed in a maple cabinet. It's the centerpiece of your living room, and rightly so. It set you back $454.95, plus tax.Your new set is of the latest design, for it features a UHF tuner that reaches above the paltry 12 channels on VHF to the ultra-high frequencies (UHF) of television land. Your acquisition of the set has made you very popular with relatives and neighbors. During the holidays, there was a constant parade of brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles and shirttail relatives who stopped by watch your set, one of the few in the neighborhood with UHF capabilities.But tonight, it's just the spouse and kids. You glance at your watch, note the time and turn the set on. The tiny dot in the middle of the screen grows steadily until its ghastly glow probes every corner of the room. The speaker crackles and hisses as you turn the tuner to the magic number on the UHF dial, "15."You're just in time for the sign-on of WICA-TV, Channel 15, broadcasting live from its modern studios on Jefferson Road in Ashtabula. You tinker with the fine tuning dial on your set until the picture is clear (for the time being). Then you settle down in the easy chair and get ready for the news. Announcer Charles Mandrake comes on the screen with a picture of the U.S. Capitol behind him. In the news tonight: Frank J. Lausche was sworn in as Ohio's 5-term governor; Diamond-Alkali in Painesville announces plans to locate a radiation research center in Painesville; and 2-year-old Larry Knapp of Andover removed the labels from all the cans in his mother's cupboard, making a guessing game out of meal preparation.At 6:40 p.m., the signature tune of "Music for You" announces that it's time for a visit with Mrs. Fern Dingley and her local guest artists, Mario Brindzi and Mrs. Vincent Gigliotti. You doze and read the paper while Brindzi sings "The Lace-Edged Shawl" and Gigliotti gives her cello arrangement of Handel's "Largo."Your favorite show comes on at 7:30 p.m., "I Led Three Lives," a half-hour drama about an American who posed as a Communist. It's a regular on Monday nights and one of the few big-name WICA_TV programs.At 8:30 p.m., another film program, "The Big Picture," informs you about the activities of the South Korean Army. Halfway through the show, the film breaks and your screen turns white. The infamous, "One moment please" slide appears.Mandrake returns to the screen at 9 p.m. with a final update on the news, and the station signs off for another day. Your time in front of the TV screen is limited not by your couch potato discipline, but the availability of material on the local channel.It has been exciting to watch this hatcheling medium peck its way out of the shell and into your living room. For now, you are content to have an image, any image on your screen. But in a few months, the constant parade of mediocre talent, public service films and cowboy movies no longer entertain. The stronger signals of the Cleveland and Erie television stations carrying network programming to your living room woo you from your initial allegiance to the local station. Then one evening in the summer of 1956, you turn back to Channel 15 out of curiosity.Only snow greets you.
The history of television broadcasting in Ashtabula County is a short but fascinating one. WICA-TV beamed its first program, Charles Mandrake's newscast, over the airwaves 6 p.m. Sept. 19, 1953. No public announcement of its final telecast appears to have been made, but The Star-Beacon last printed a TV grid for the local station June 21, 1956. The station returned to the airwaves briefly in the mid-1960s. Many of the same factors that doomed it a decade before put it off the air again in 1967, this time for good.In the early 1950s, however, the prospects for a local television station were very bright. Prior to 1952, television stations had been limited to large markets and a narrow band, VHF, or very high frequencies. Stations in Cleveland and Erie, Pa., tried to service this area, but the long distances, poor receiving equipment and weak radiated power of the stations made reception poor, at best.The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) controlled the allocation of television channels. The small number of channels in the VHF band made it very unlikely that a community the size of Ashtabula would be assigned a channel. Indeed, as the number of stations grew in metropolitan markets, so did interference between stations occupying the same channel in neighboring cities. The problem became so great that in September 1948, the FCC placed a freeze on new television station licenses.But research by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) and National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) in the late 1940s offered hope. Their answer was the UHF band, which would open up channels 14 to 83 (VHF is assigned 2 through 13).On Dec. 30, 1949, experimental station KC2XAK in Stratford, Conn., rebroadcast the VHF signal from New York station WNBT on the UHF band. Fifty experimental UHF receivers built for occasion were placed in homes, businesses and other locations around the community to assess the quality of the reception. Shortly thereafter, the first commercial UHF station, in Portland, Oregon, went on the air.Local media entrepreneurs Robert B. and Donald C. Rowley watched these developments with acquisitive interest. Their father, the late C.A. Rowley, had laid the groundwork for a media empire in Ashtabula, Lake and Geauga counties. Rowley's AM radio station, WICA, went on the air in 1937 (see page B2 for a look at the radio side of WICA). In 1940, C.A. Rowley made preparations for the addition of an FM station, a dream he did not live to see fulfilled. Rowley died Aug. 10, 1945.But his sons sustained the dream. By 1949, WICA-AM and WREO-FM were broadcasting 18 hours a day, with the FM station boasting 48,000 watts, the second most powerful station in Ohio. But the AM station was stymied by FCC regulations that focused its broadcast pattern on Lake Erie and the southern regions of the county to avoid infringing upon stations from Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Buffalo. The signal fell off substantially beyond Saybrook Township to the west and Kingsville Township to the east.Frank Bernato, who was engineer for the radio stations, said he recalls going to Washington D.C. with the Rowley brothers to plead their case before the FCC. Bernato said the FCC officials recommended WICA apply for a spot on the UHF band and assured the Rowleys that Ashtabula would be given a favorable channel, close to those on the VHF band. The Rowleys filed their application _ and waited.Meanwhile, UHF technology improved and the FCC eventually lifted its freeze on new stations. The FCC's new allocation plan, announced in April 1952, provided for 2,053 television stations in 1,291 communities in the United States, its territories and possessions. The agency's plan would put a television station in virtually any region of the nation. True to their word, the FCC assigned Ashtabula an excellent spot on the UHF spectrum, Channel 15.
Robert Rowley died in 1950, leaving Donald as president of WICA Inc. and publisher of four Northeastern Ohio newspapers, including The Star-Beacon. Rowley needed a man to take over the organization of the new television channel, and selected John A. Colin for the job. Colin had served as legal counsel for the media conglomerate and had always been interested in the newspaper and broadcasting business.Colin was named general manager of WICA-TV. He began laying the groundwork for a new station, from filing the FCC paperwork to planning the layout of transmitters, film chains and the studio. This was concurrent with the station moving its radio studios from Center Street in Ashtabula to Jefferson Road, which would also become the location of the television studios and transmitter.Another task assigned to Colin was negotiate an affiliation with a major television network. Network affiliation would be essential to the economic survival of a new station. With it would come the popular programming of the day, but more importantly, the national advertising dollars that would pay the electricity bills, purchase the equipment and compensate the employees.But networks were not interested in spending their money or efforts in a market the size of Ashtabula's."This was one of our great problems," said Colin, who still maintains a law practice in Ashtabula. "I had to visit New York, Chicago and other cities to get these networks to give us an affiliation. The closest we came to getting one was either CBS or ABC, but no promises."Even without network affiliation, the station's management decided to move ahead on the project. Colin said Rowley was committed to making WICA-TV a local television station that would feature hometown talent and address community issues. The absence of network programming would be compensated for by running free public service films and renting low-budget motion pictures from film services."He became convinced we didn't have to have a network," said Bernato. "We could get a lot of free stuff, old movies, cowboys and wrestling shows. It think that hurt us. People wanted something better."
Courtesy Ashtabula Star Beacon Archives..
Part 2 to follow
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