WHCT, WNTA’s Affiliate in Connecticut
How, you ask, can a television station have its own affiliate? But WNTA-TV in New York City. The station went on the air in 1948 as WATV (Channel 13). In October of 1957 its owner, the Bremer Broadcasting Corporation, sold the station to National Telefilm Associaties. Its call letters were officially changed to WNTA-TV on May 7th, 1958. On April 30th, 1959 The New York Times reported that WNTA-TV had signed an affiliate in the form of station WHCT (Channel 18) in Hartford, Connecticut. The article did point out that WNTA-TV wasn’t a television network but did use the term affiliate.
The agreement between WNTA-TV and WHCT meant that viewers in Connecticut and Massachussetts would be able to see certain WNTA-TV programming live via coaxial cable. Included were Mike Wallace’s Newsbeat (half-hour news program), Mike Wallace Interviews (half-hour interview series), Open End (two hour panel discussion with David Susskind), Alex in Wonderland (half-hour interview series with author Alexander King), The Richard Willis Show (half-hour program featuring fashion and beauty tips) and Henry Morgan & Co. (ninety-minute talk show).
Unfortunately, I have found no further mention of this affiliation. I don’t know how long it lasted or whether WNTA-TV ever broadcast programming originating from WHCT.
Related:
July 14th, 2009 at 2:29PM
Actually, National Telefilm Associates was trying to put together an “NTA Film Network” (in collaboration with 20th Century-Fox) at the time they bough WATV in late 1957. Their goal was to provide a national service of “syndicated” programming, including first-run series ["HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE", 'THIS IS ALICE", "THE THIRD MAN", "DING DONG SCHOOL", etc.] and several pre-1949 20th Century-Fox feature films, in addition to NTA’s “local” programs from New York {”THE MIKE WALLACE INTERVIEWS”, “OPEN END”, and so on}. The idea of having an “affiliate” [WHTC] as one of their key stations in the “NTA Film Network” was a crucial one, in addition to individual stations who carried the NTA “package”. Unfortunately, things fell apart financially by 1960 [Fox pulled out of the deal by then], with NTA putting the station up for sale in 1961, and shutting down WNTA later that year.
July 16th, 2009 at 8:55PM
Well, that explains that. Was WHTC the only affiliate NTA was able to sign before the attempt folded?
July 17th, 2009 at 1:57AM
Apparently so, ‘RG’. I don’t know if WHTC ever “fed” any of their local programs to WNTA {they usually depended on their “mainstream” sources, from Hollywood and New York}…
July 28th, 2009 at 12:20AM
Actually, trade papers and newspapers of the time indicate the NTA Network signed over 100 affiliates. You can find a more complete list, sourced to old news articles, here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTA_Film_Network
November 18th, 2009 at 3:02AM
I stand corrected: there WERE over 100 affiliates associated with the “NTA Film Network”. But, like WNTA in New York, the arrangement fell apart by 1961 because National Telefilm Associates “overextended” itself, and financial problems dealt the final blow to their service.