Readers: Our Jan. 22 column on TV switches led to a note from Jim Anderson, a TV veteran dating to the 1940s. Highlights:
“Channel 5: went on the air as WJNO-TV, with some partial ownership of radio station WJNO. Studios in Palm Beach in the old “slat-house” on Coconut Row. Later ownership change to Scripps-Howard and changed to WPTV.
“Channel 12: Began as WEAT-TV, owned by John D. MacArthur, who also owned the AM and FM radio stations WEAT. Studios on South Congress Avenue. Channel 12 started with ABC. MacArthur had to rid himself of ownership because FCC rules forbade owning 3 stations in the same market. Sold to Photo Electronics Corp., (hence WPEC), and relocated to Mangonia Park.
“Channel 34: Fort Pierce. It was the CBS station. Later, when Channel 25 went on, ABC went with the new station, leaving Channel 34 to show a lot of old movies and re-runs, until more recently, when they affiliated with their current network.
“Channel 29 went on as an independent, ahead of the arrival of FOX.
“We must remember the PIONEER in West Palm Beach: Channel 21 WIRK TV. The UHF station went on before UHF was ‘fashionable’, as it has been made so by cable, which equalizes a viewer’s ability to see many stations without a difference in quality of signal.
“WIRK-TV had studio and transmitter on the 11th floor of the Harvey Building, downtown West Palm Beach. When they first went on the air about 1953 or ‘54, they carried a few ABC programs, first by Kinescope recording and later by cable, as the only West Palm Beach station. When WEAT-TV went on the air, ABC affiliated with them, leaving WIRK-TV with local programming, old movies, etc. They went off the air in ‘55 or ‘56.”
Palm Beach Post file photo: At right is the Channel 12 TV station in 1984 in Mangonia Park. The station began as WEAT-TV and was owned by John D. MacArthur. MacArthur had to sell the station because he owned an AM and an FM radio station and owning three stations in the same market was against FCC rules. It was sold to Photo Electronics Corp., hence WPEC call letters.
Tags: television
Readers: Next month’s switch to digital television is groundbreaking.
A seismic change by local standards occurred 20 years ago this month.
For years, the Palm Beach County-Treasure Coast market had just two stations: ABC affiliate WPEC-TV Channel 12 and NBC affiliate WPTV-TV Channel 5.
That changed when networks decided not just to provide programming to South Florida stations but to own some outright.
First, NBC’s parent company bought WTVJ-TV, Channel 4, Miami’s CBS affiliate.
Then CBS bought WCIX-TV, Channel 6, an independent. That station’s signal was weak and reached only to central Broward County. So CBS teamed with West Palm Beach’s Channel 12 and its strong southern signal.
Left out was ABC — but not for long. Within months the new WPBF-TV, Channel 25, signed on as an ABC affiliate.
And since then, WFLX, Channel 29, has become part of the Fox network.
Now people have become used to cable, where stations often are at spots unrelated to their broadcast position. Many probably could not tell you the actual broadcast channel of a particular station.
That 1989 alphabet soup of stations, owners and affiliates scattered across two overlapping markets wasn’t done.
In 1995, as part of a related swap in Philadelphia, Miami-Fort Lauderdale stations WTVJ and WCIX — now WFOR — swapped channel positions.
This switch seemed relatively simple; everything that had been seen Channel 6 now would appear on Channel 4, and the other way around.
Regardless, both stations instituted toll-free hot lines for people who were still confused.
Readers: A loyal reader pointed out our Dec. 18 column on the former Pine Ridge Hospital in West Palm Beach didn’t give its address. It’s 1401 Division Ave. The column also prompted a note from Dr. Bernard Kimmel, a retired physician and a former state legislator and chair of the Palm Beach County Republican Party: “Just to correct the record, Pine Ridge closed in 1957 and not in 1956. How do I know this? Because I was called to see several patients in Pine Ridge shortly after I began my medical practice in West Palm Beach in 1957. St. Mary’s opened their North Wing during that same year, but continued their racial segregation policies at that time by using this only for their Black patients’ admissions. Desegregation of the hospital was still several years away.”
Tags: television
