[PRCo] More than you wanted to know about Pittsburgh TV

[Bob Rathke]

KDKA radio was in the Grant Building (where I worked) until around 1954 when
the station moved to Gateway 1.

Since 1949, KDKA-TV (then WDTV, channel 3) had its stidios in the Chamber of
Commerce Bldg.  It too moved to Gateway 1 around 1954, and became KDKA-TV.
WDTV was owned by the DuMont Network and the station was sold to
Westinghouse in 1954.  Today, Bruce DuMont is director of the Broadcast
Museum in Chicago, and has a radio program, "Beyond the Beltway."

Back in the late 1940's and early 1950's, WJAC-TV in Johnstown broadcast on
channel 13.  In a major channel shuffle in the early 50's, WDTV went from
channel 3 to 2, channel 3 went to Cleveland (KYW-TV), WJAC-TV went from 13
to 6, and channel 13 was assigned to Pittsburgh, although WQED didn't take
over that channel until April 5, 1954.

For about 18 months in 1954-55, Pittsburgh had TV stations on channel 16
(WENS) and 53 (WKJF), but most TV sets in that era couldn't receive UHF
broadcasts, and so the stations went off the air, and they didn't return
until the late 1960's when all TV sets were required to receive UHF
channels.

And....UHF channels at that time went up to 83.  Now the highest UHF channel
is 69.  What happened to channels 70-83?  That part of the broadcast
spectrum is now used for cell phone transmissions.  Does anyone out there
still have a TV set capable of receiving channels 70-83?  If you do, guess
what you can hear on channels 70-83....

Bob 4/22/04


----- Original Message -----
From: "Harold Geissenheimer" <transitmgr2 at earthlink.net>
To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
Sent: Thursday, April 22, 2004 11:40 AM
Subject: [PRCo] Re: Wabash Terminal


> Greetings
> A question?  Wasnt KDKA Radio in the Grant Building?
> I attended a radio show there once.   Harold Geissenheimer
RR