Survival on two fronts On April 11, 1952, the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) lifted a
self-imposed freeze on television applications through the adoption of the
Sixth Report and Order, addressing the necessity for additional channels with the addition of
ultra high frequency (UHF) broadcasting. The three primary cities of
New York's Capital District—Albany, Schenectady and
Troy—received a total of five allocations:
WRGB in Schenectady was ordered to move from
very high frequency (VHF) channel 4 to 6 because of new mileage separations; UHF channels 17 (reserved for educational use), 23, and 41 were available to any community within the immediate Albany–Schenectady–Troy area, while channel 35 was restricted to only Schenectady to avoid possible interference with channel 42 at
Greenfield, Massachusetts. Two groups filed with the FCC for channel 35 at Schenectady: the Champlain Valley Broadcasting Corporation, in which
Meredith Publishing held an interest; and the Van Curler Broadcasting Company, a subsidiary of Fabian Enterprises, a
New York City-based theater chain who owned the
Stanley Warner group of theaters. Van Curler and Champlain Valley had both previously applied for channel 9 prior to the FCC freeze in 1948, as had two other companies: Patroon Broadcasting, a subsidiary of the Schine Theatre chain, owners of
WPTR in Albany; and Troy Broadcasting, owners of
WTRY in
Troy, both of whom now sought channel 23. Troy Broadcasting president Harry C. Wilder was a former owner of
WSYR in
Syracuse, New York; following the sale of the station to
S.I. Newhouse in 1947, he remained president of WSYR and its television sister,
WSYR-TV, until leaving his post in September 1952. Champlain Valley had been operating
WXKW in Albany under a construction permit since 1948 because of difficulties with its six-tower directional array, causing complaints of interference from
WHDH in
Boston and
KOA in
Denver. Looking for a way out of incurring further expenses with operating WXKW and seeking a TV construction permit, a deal was brokered between the four companies after channels 23 and 35: Champlain Valley would sell the assets of WXKW to the three other parties for $300,000, with Patroon to pay $150,000 and Van Curler and WTRY to pay $75,000 each, after which the radio station would cease operations; in return, Champlain Valley would relinquish its bid for channel 35. WTRY and Van Curler, in turn, would then file a joint bid for channel 35, thereby leaving Patroon uncontested for channel 23. This deal was approved by the FCC on June 11, 1953, and re-affirmed on July 23 when the FCC rejected a protest by
WABY in Albany. WABY had alleged the parties stifled competition through a merger agreement and questioned whether the involvement of the Schine and Stanley Warner theatre interests in channels 23 and 35 would result in a "tendency to monopolize the media of mass communications". Wilder was named president of the combined WTRY–Van Curler operation. WXKW left the air on July 31, with five station staff joining WPTR. Channel 35, granted the
call sign WTRI, won FCC approval that October to construct a transmission tower on Mount Rafinesque (Bald Mountain), northeast of Troy; permission to operate a temporary studio from the transmission site followed in January, after an earlier application to locate its studios in
Menands, near Albany, was denied by the FCC; WTRI contended that operating from studios in Schenectady would cause its microwave relay to be disturbed by airplanes from
Albany International Airport.
WROW-TV (channel 41) in Albany opposed WTRI's Menands application, stating that as the channel 35 permit was for Schenectady, it should operate there, and that a second station in Albany would greatly affect WROW-TV's business. Undeterred, WTRI petitioned the FCC the following month to assign the channel 35 license to Albany–Schenectady–Troy, rather than Schenectady alone; the petition stated that, since the Greenfield, Massachusetts, allocation had moved from channel 42 to 58 on September 30, 1953, as a result of an error in constructing the original Television Table of Assignments, the limitation no longer applied to channel 35 in the Capital District. While awaiting the results of the petition, WTRI began broadcasting on February 28, 1954, transmitting from a tower in Mount Rafinesque, operating with 262,000 watts average
effective radiated power, with temporary studios there. WTRI originally operated as a secondary
CBS affiliate, sharing programs with WRGB. Syndicated programs filled out other parts of WTRI's prime time schedule, including
Liberace's
half-hour program on Mondays and an hour-long
professional wrestling program,
Ringside with the Rasslers, on Wednesdays. local programming during WTRI's first year included programs on
golfing and
skiing, telecasts of
ice hockey matches from
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and
Sheriff of Cactus County, with program director Fred Shavor introducing
Western films as the title character. A mixed-breed dog, Teddy, who was found outside WTRI's transmitter building shortly after starting operations, began appearing in close-ups during the program and soon became a fan favorite; Teddy eventually became a regular part of the cast. On May 12, 1954, the FCC granted WTRI's petition to reclassify as an Albany–Schenectady–Troy station. On July 7, WTRI changed its
city of license to Albany and received FCC approval to permanently house its studios in Menands; WROW-TV once again protested the move but withdrew its final protest in September. On November 1, WTRI moved into its new studios at North Pearl Street. Despite the victory over WROW-TV, two events over the next few months would test WTRI's long-term survival. On October 14, 1954, it was reported that a consortium led by CBS commentator
Lowell Thomas, a resident of
Pawling, made an offer to purchase a controlling interest in the Hudson Valley Broadcasting Corporation, the parent of WROW-TV-
AM. Frank J. Smith, former president of the State Tax Commission, Thomas's business manager and part of the consortium, hinted at the possibility of WROW-TV taking the CBS affiliation from WTRI should the FCC approve the deal. The offer was approved on November 3, with the Thomas group paying $298,800 for 83 percent of the company. Immediately after the sale, WROW-TV, looking to improve service in the region, requested the addition of VHF channel 10 at
Vail Mills, northwest of Schenectady, to the Television Table of Assignments. The station contended it was the only available area within the Capital District at least from any viable VHF channel. WTRI made a counter-proposal on November 17, asking the FCC to shift all commercial television in the Capital District to the UHF band by shifting the educational reservation to channel 6 and forcing WRGB to move to a UHF channel. On December 3, WTRI filed a petition with the FCC to stay the approval of the sale of the WROW stations to the Thomas group and to call for a hearing on the matter. WTRI, who had been informed by CBS that its affiliation agreement had been withdrawn, described Thomas as a member of the CBS organization and charged that a "secret understanding" existed between Hudson Valley and CBS under which WTRI would soon lose its secondary CBS affiliation to WROW-TV; furthermore, WTRI general manager Richard B. Wheeler charged that WROW-TV salesmen suffered damage to WTRI's business by telling WTRI's advertisers and local advertising agencies that WTRI's loss of CBS affiliation and WROW-TV's move to channel 10 would be inevitable. WTRI also called for an
antitrust investigation, alleging that CBS would have "effective control" of the WROW stations. While the plea asking immediate relief was rejected by the FCC on December 22, two other phases of the petition—whether contractual or business relationships between Thomas and CBS violated FCC ownership rules, and whether existing understandings concerning network affiliations violated the
Sherman or
Clayton antitrust acts—were scheduled for oral arguments; originally scheduled for January 24, 1955, the hearings were postponed several times and were eventually scheduled for May 9, 1955. The hearings did not bar WROW-TV from signing an affiliation agreement with CBS on December 30, 1954, assuming WTRI's secondary affiliation with CBS effective February 1; channel 41 retained its affiliation agreements with
ABC and the
DuMont Television Network. With no available network affiliations, WTRI announced it would sign off on January 31, 1955. 40 employees were laid off; Wilder helped them find work at other television stations, including
WPRO-TV in
Providence, Rhode Island. Teddy, the canine co-star of
Sheriff of Cactus County, received many adoption offers after the station went dark; he eventually settled with a family on Lawn Avenue in Albany several blocks from the studio.
Dark times and deintermixture The FCC hearings on Thomas's purchase of the WROW stations began on May 9, 1955. During the first day of testimony, Wilder testified that WTRI had never received any formal notification that CBS was terminating its affiliation with channel 35 and that CBS never gave any hint of dissatisfaction with WTRI. A memorandum between CBS president
Frank Stanton and chairman of the board
William S. Paley discussed several possible reasons for affiliation with WROW-TV, including the possibility of WROW-TV moving to channel 10 in Vail Mills; Wilder denied the memorandum's claim that WTRI was not interested in channel 10, reviewing earlier efforts to have channel 10 assigned to the Capital District and their abandonment of the efforts upon discovering it was unfeasible. Wheeler testified that WTRI had lost $457,000 during their operation of channel 35; he also claimed that CBS had previously assured the station the affiliation would remain on WTRI and that the first notice he had of the CBS affiliation switch to WROW-TV was when he had seen a newspaper photograph of two members of Hudson Valley's board of directors, U.S. representatives
Leo W. O'Brien and
Dean P. Taylor, signing an affiliation agreement. Stanton testified on May 12, denying a charge the CBS affiliation went to WROW-TV because Taylor was on the board; Stanton admitted to meeting Taylor the previous July, but claimed Taylor had sought Stanton's guidance on running a station, and not help in obtaining the affiliation. Stanton further stated that CBS had disaffiliated from WTRI because of dissatisfaction with the station, and because he had confidence in the Thomas group's plans for the improvement of WROW-TV. Thomas testified on May 13, stating he had acquired an interest in the WROW stations only as an investment and a springboard for some ideas in radio and television he wished to try out; up to that point, the only idea Thomas advanced was to encourage their audience to read newspapers, which he felt presented more depth to stories in comparison to the "highlights" broadcast over radio and television. Thomas assured the FCC his role in the management of the WROW stations would be minimal. He contended his only relationship with CBS was his contract as a radio newscaster and that he owned no stock in CBS, which Thomas called "one of the major mistakes in my life". As the arguments were being considered, the fight for the addition of channel 10 at Vail Mills continued. Speaking at an FCC hearing on June 28, WTRI's counsel, former FCC commissioner
Paul A. Porter, claimed that the addition of channel 10 would "decapitate" television service in the area, supported deintermixing the Capital District by making it all-UHF, and stated that WTRI would return to the air if the FCC rejected the channel. Paul Hennessey, counsel for WRGB, strictly rejected the notion of moving to UHF, while James McKenna, counsel for
WMGT in
Pittsfield, Massachusetts, proposed substituting UHF channels for ungranted VHF allocations in intermixed areas where conversion to UHF had reached sufficient levels. Several weeks later, on July 13, Troy Broadcasting separated WTRY from its television sister, selling the radio station to the former owners of
WHIM in
Providence, Rhode Island, for $500,000. On October 31, FCC examiner James D. Cunningham recommended the dismissal of WTRI's protest against the sale of the WROW stations to Thomas, finding nothing improper in the transaction and stating that Thomas was employed as talent under contract to CBS. Less than two weeks later, on November 10, the FCC added channel 10 to Vail Mills by a 4–3 vote. WTRI and WMGT appealed the addition of channel 10; during a hearing at the
U.S. Court of Appeals on December 8, WMGT claimed that UHF set conversion orders in the Pittsfield area dropped off upon the announcement of the drop-in. The next day, the Court of Appeals granted the stay on adding channel 10; a petition by Hudson Valley to vacate the stay was denied on February 14, 1956. The
Senate Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce held a probe on February 8, 1956, in which deintermixture took up most of the session.
Mike Monroney assailed television set manufacturers, saying they had "no sense of public service at all" for not making sets capable of receiving both VHF and UHF channels; FCC commissioner
George McConnaughey stated that, of the million television sets in the country, only 7 million were capable of receiving UHF channels. Committee chairman
Warren Magnuson noted the increase in the manufacture of VHF-only sets despite the negligible added cost—$8 to $13—of making an all-channel set.
A return to air and the FCC's big decision On March 10, 1956, industry sources reported that WTRI would return to the air on August 1 as the Capital District's ABC affiliate; although no specific reason was given, speculation arose that WTRI wanted to strengthen its position in the event the FCC added an additional VHF channel in the market in addition to channel 10. The FCC was in the process of examining several possibilities for the future of Capital District television. ABC suggested a plan which would have had VHF channel 8 moved in from
New Haven, Connecticut, where
WNHC-TV was presently operating; subsequently, the
Hartford–New Haven market would have been made all-UHF. Stanley Warner confirmed the return of WTRI to the airwaves with the announcement of their purchase of Troy Broadcasting's stake in Van Curler for $75,000 plus the assumption of $350,000 in debts on March 27, 1956; the deal was approved by the FCC on April 26. WTRI returned to the air in two phases. A limited daily schedule of news and movies from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. began on June 15, 1956, to re-orient station personnel. A full day's schedule with ABC programs debuted on July 1, signing on at 1:30 p.m. and signing off at 11:30 p.m.
Sheriff of Cactus County returned to the air and remained until September 27, 1957; Shavor returned the following Monday with a new character, "Major Quinn", introducing action-adventure films. Shavor ended the show in September 1959 to fully devote himself to program direction. WTRI began airing programs and movies from the
NTA Film Network on April 1, 1957. On June 26, 1956, the FCC, in a 4–3 vote, reached a proposal which would have deleted channel 10 from Vail Mills and added channel 47 at Albany–Schenectady–Troy. Three of the concurring commissioners proposed a further step: the deletion of channel 6, forcing WRGB onto a UHF channel and making the Capital District all-UHF. The plan was strongly opposed by WRGB, who claimed in a survey conducted in late 1956 that over 120,000 people could receive only channel 6 despite efforts to convert for UHF reception, people who would be fully deprived of service should channel 6 be deleted. On February 26, 1957—as part of a process that, by that time, had spread to around 30 communities—the FCC voted 5–2 to make the Capital District all-UHF: channel 10 was to be deleted at Vail Mills, channel 6 would be moved to Syracuse, and UHF channel 47 would be added in its place. In their decision, the FCC was of the view that a third VHF station at Syracuse outweighed a VHF station in the Capital District; furthermore, the FCC were not entirely convinced of WRGB's claim of deprived service, as the survey also acknowledged widespread mechanical difficulties with TV sets when the survey was conducted. The FCC also pointed to the heavy UHF conversion rate in the area—about 80 percent—and suggested that the generally flat terrain of the area was suitable for UHF operation, while outlying areas could be reached with translators and more powerful transmitters. The decision received widespread opposition from viewers in the area who could only receive WRGB; WRGB and WCDA (the former WROW-TV) vowed to fight the ruling, with
General Electric (GE), WRGB's owner, claiming the FCC's order deprived GE and TV set owners of their rights and properties without
due process, and would devalue their broadcasting assets in Schenectady. Four months later, on June 21, 1957, the FCC shifted its position. The commission proposed a reversal of their February order which would not only retain channel 6 and assign channel 10 at Vail Mills to WCDA but also move the channel 13 allocation at
Utica to Albany, for use by WTRI. Utica's
WKTV, in turn, would shift from channel 13 to channel 2. The proposal received the unanimous support of all four stations. ABC said it would oppose the proposal if the FCC did not consider improvements in other markets, particularly Syracuse, Providence, and
Rochester, New York. The Mohawk-Hudson Council on Educational Television, producer of educational programming on the three Albany-area stations, announced in July it would apply for one of the vacated channels should the VHF proposal go through and negotiate with WCDA and WTRI for donations of UHF equipment. Mohawk-Hudson chose not to seek channel 17, the designated non-commercial allocation in the Capital District, so as to avoid modifying the donated transmitter or the home viewer's set. Van Curler agreed to donate their transmitter, tower, antenna and facilities totaling $500,000 to Mohawk-Hudson contingent on the FCC's VHF decision. The proposal was granted on September 5, granting WCDA and WTRI special temporary authority to operate on channels 10 and 13, thereby leaving the stations open to new applications in the interim. In September, WTRI chose new transmission facilities atop
Spruce Mountain, north of
Saratoga Springs, to adhere to the requirement. While WCDA's changeover was almost immediate, signing on channel 10 on December 1 from new transmission facilities in
Broadalbin under the new call sign of WTEN, WTRI's changeover would last more than a year due to WKTV's struggles to find a new site for its tower. The WKTV tower, originally planned to be sited in
Fairfield, was blocked due to air safety concerns from authorities at
Griffiss Air Force Base in
Rome; several other possible sites were met with objections from WSYR-TV in Syracuse and
WCBS-TV in
New York City due to violations of station mileage separations. The following September, the
Air Force withdrew their objection to the Fairfield location, clearing the way for WTRI to build its Spruce Mountain transmitter. WTRI's broadcast day expanded in October 1958; the station now signed on at 9:24 a.m. on weekday mornings to accommodate ABC's introduction of daytime programming. Later that month, WTRI aired a telecourse, sponsored by the Mohawk-Hudson Council, instructing viewers in the
Russian language. ==WAST==