[PRCo] Re: [Fwd: Pittsburgh Rwy Cars]

[Bob Rathke]

I never lived in Fayette County, but in Pittsburgh in the 1950's we received TV
stations in Johnstown and Wheeling (60 miles away) with just a rabbit ears antenna.
Also got the Altoona station (100 miles), but the picture was snowy.  TV and FM
transmissions are line of sight for near-perfect recenption, but transmissions are
still viewable well beyond the visible horizon.

Bob 4/17/01



"Fred W. Schneider III" wrote:

> Suggest reading Ed Lyberger's note about TV receiption in Fayette
> County.  Also remember that TV and FM radio frequencies, like those used
> by FAA, are line of sight ... if you can't see the tower due to
> mountains or the curvature of the earth (yes, it is round), you don't
> receive the signal.
>
> Bob Rathke wrote:
> >
> > I believe that WJAC-TV in Johnstown was on the air in 1949 - on channel 13.  At
> > that time, Pittsburgh's only TV station was WDTV channel 3 (in 1954 it became
> > KDKA-TV).  Around 1950,  the FCC re-arranged channel assignments, and 13 went
> > to Pittsburgh, although WQED didn't go on the air until April 4, 1954; channel
> > 6 then went to Johnstown, and WDTV in Pittsburgh switched from channel 3 to 2.
> >
> > I grew up on the North Side of Pittsburgh.  With only one commecial TV station
> > in Pittsburgh from 1949-57, we were forced to watch the other networks'
> > programming on TV stations broadcasting from Johnstown, Wheeling and
> > Steubenville.  I don't believe WPR's reasoning, but couldn't people in Fayette
> > County have viewed those stations in the early 1950s too?
> >
> > Because of disputes over ownership rights, Pittsburgh didn't get its second
> > commercial VHF station (WIIC channel 11, now WPXI) until 1957.  WTAE-TV channel
> > 4 didn't go on the air until 1958.
> >
> > Bob 4/16/01
> >
> > "Fred W. Schneider III" wrote:
> >
> > > It was easy to believe and West Penn said so in their abandonment
> > > petitition.  Except there was no TV in that region when the West Penn
> > > petition was filed!  It sounded really good for the PUC types from
> > > Harrisburg, who could listen to then WGAL TV Channel 4 from Lancaster.
> > > We can look at one channel in Harrisburg, can't everyone?  By 1950
> > > Johnstown had television.  But nobody in Fayette County had TV.  It was
> > > a bald faced lie by West Penn's management to add weight to their effort
> > > to abandon services that had lost money for 30 some years. But Bob
> > > Brown, who lived in Pittsburgh and wrote the piece, had to know
> > > better.
> > >
> > > Derrick J Brashear wrote:
> > > >
> > > > On Sun, 15 Apr 2001, ROGER Jenkins wrote:
> > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > Well Fred if two publications said it was TV that reduced the riding on
> > > > > West Penn and you did not believe it, what do you think the real reason
> > > > > was? To me it sounded plausible that the draw of watching Ed Sullivan
> > > > > and a whole lot of other things on the 12 inch sets like my neihbor had
> > > > > where us kids went to watch  it, made perfect sense. Instead of riding
> > > > > the trolley to the local bijou , people stayed home glued to that new
> > > > > fangled picture box !
> > > >
> > > > TV: not in 1952 in little coal patch and beehive coke oven towns.
> > > >
> > > > -D