History Tidbit
July 26, 2018
From Clarke Ingram: When the tower of WENS (16) Pittsburgh blew over in a windstorm, the FCC permitted them to share channel 13 with WQED for a brief period of time. On VHF, the ratings tripled! Unfortunately, the FCC wouldn’t allow them to make the sharetime arrangement permanent. March 14, 1955.
Next time someone asks why HD radio is floundering, you have the answer here from Clarke’s 1955 history piece. In the day UHF could only be received by one of those crummy converters. People weren’t about to go out and buy one. When “all channel” TVs were mandated, UHF finally took hold. People didn’t really see the “need” to add a channel or two to their TVs – but when the ability to get the channels was “just there”…well you get the picture. UHF was tough to get anyway – just like HD is at 10% of the “base” station’s power. AM proponents are suggesting all digital to solve their problems. The UHF converter example fits there too. Most people won’t go out and “buy” a radio just to get more stations . We saw that with HD. WIth AM Stereo. With FM “Quad”. . . The Channel 16 story is an example of the beginning of history…which repeats itself over and over and over…