WFPG-TV
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WFPG-TV, one of the earliest UHF television stations in America, signed on in Atlantic City, New Jersey in December 1952 with affiliations to all four major networks of the era: NBC, CBS, ABC and DuMont.
Geographically, New Jersey is sandwiched between New York and Philadelphia, preventing most of its communities from obtaining service from a local VHF station. All available channels were already in use in New York (2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11), Newark (13), Philadelphia (3, 6, 10), Lancaster (8) and Wilmington (12). While some of the Philadelphian stations could be received in Atlantic City, the signals were marginal and the necessary antennas to view the distant signals very large.
The use of a channel on the newly-opened UHF TV band would allow Atlantic City to boast (in the words of one promotion to 1954-era convention-goers) "Operation of Atlantic City's own television station. WFPG-TV has begun and it is expected that many national programs will visit here and originate their shows from 'On the Boardwalk in Atlantic City'."[1]
Construction began at 8:00 o'clock on the morning of October 30, 1952 and was completed 52 days later, with WFPG's AM broadcasts continuing uninterrupted while the new building and its UHF TV facilities were constructed around the existing radio operation.[2]
While local television receiver vendors were initially hesitant to promote the then largely-unproven UHF band, due both to unfamiliarity with the selection of antennae required for the higher frequencies and a lack of factory-installed UHF tuners in many TV sets,[3] the ability to serve Atlantic City from even a relatively low-powered local station was to provide stronger signals and better-quality images in the local community than could be had at the time through the distant reception of Philadelphia VHF stations.
Demise
As Philadelphia's VHF stations increased their transmitted signal power to cover a growing market, they were able to regain market share in various outlying communities in New Jersey and Pennsylvania which in 1953 had been viewing local UHF stations 33 WEEU-TV and 61 WHUM-TV in Reading, Pennsylvania, 43 WSBA-TV in York, Pennsylvania as well as 46 WFPG-TV in Atlantic City.[4]
While WFPG-TV is no longer on the air,[5] its radio siblings continued operation. WFPG 1450 (news/talk) and WFPG-FM 96.9 (AC) currently operate from studios in Northfield[6] with the original callsign still in active use on FM radio. The WFPG-TV tower also still stands; the facilities built for channel 46 now house WMID 1340 and 99.3 WZBZ radio.
Local TV broadcasting was not to return to Atlantic City until January 25, 1966, when WMGM-TV 40 signed on as an affiliate of the National Broadcasting Company.
References
- ^ http://www.newjersey.imsasafety.org/Articles/1954/Mar-April/MSE-Mar-Apr%201954c.pdf
- ^ WFPG-TV ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. UHF CHANNEL 46, FRED WEBER President of WFPG-TV and BLAIR THRON, RCA Broadcast News, March 1953 - as archived by Atlantic City broadcast engineer Tom McNally
- ^ WFPG-TV's entry at the UHF Morgue
- ^ http://www.mcsittel.com/html/tvg-phl.htm
- ^ DuMont historical website, Clarke Ingram
- ^ Northeast Radio Watch, August 25, 2000
External links
- Printed advertisement for WFPG-TV, "TURN TO WFPG-TV channel 46 Featuring Four Great Networks: N.B.C - C.B.S. - A.B.C. - DuMont Telecasting From The World's Finest Playground WFPG-TV channel 46 ATLANTIC CITY
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