75 Years of TV in Pittsburgh
January 11, 2024It was 75 years ago this day (1/11/1949) when WDTV (Channel 3) signed on from the Syria Mosque in Oakland thereby starting television broadcasting in Pittsburgh. WDTV stood for “DuMont Television” and when it signed on and was owned by Allen B. DuMont Laboratories, Inc.
It was seen as the beginning of NETWORK television as it was the link between stations on the East Coast and Midwest – most especially between co-owned WABD in New York and WTTG in Washington, DC.
In 1952, the channel allocation was moved to Channel 2 and with the fall of the DuMont Network, by 1954/55 WDTV was sold to Westinghouse Broadcasting – owners of KDKA Radio (1020) and the station became KDKA-TV.
Although today’s programming on KDKA-TV will feature the history of the station, it will not be an exclusive focus.
PBRTV wrote this piece five years ago for the station’s 70th anniversary.
I had the honor to serve there as KDKA Radio Engineering Manager from 1976 into 1980
TV was the hot new tech for my parents and grandparents, just like computers and phones are for people today, so I heard the legend of WDTV from Dumont, and thought that was cool knowledge to have, a long forgotten TV station on an empty channel.
It was probably for the best that KDKA move down to channel 2, then allowing for channel 4 and 6 in this same region, with a channel between each to avoid interference.
I also like stories about abandoned and changed UHF channels in the area as well. Now we’re in the digital broadcast era, and there have never been so many TV channels. We’re now starting the era of ATSC 3.0 for UHD televisions, which also promises a set of radio stations to ride along within a TV station’s allotted bandwidth. Radio over TV is being proposed and tested right now.
Boomer
Dumont was squeezed out by Westinghouse. Had Dumont known that he killed the goose that laid the golden egg, he never would have sold WDTV.
I’m not sure that Westinghouse squeezed DuMont out. Yes, DuMont had a stronghold on the market, but even with what Westinghouse apparently paid for the station, it was still a matter of months before DuMont was out of business.
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