Television Stations on the Air in June 1948

Here’s a list of the television stations on the air in the United States as of June 13th, 1948, either broadcasting regular programming or test patterns, from The New York Times:

East

New York
New York City: WNBT, WCBS, WABD, WPIX
Schenectady: WRGB
Buffalo: WBEN-TV

New Jersey
Newark: WATV

Connecticut
New Haven: WNHC-TV

Pennsylvania
Philadelphia: WPTZ, WFIL-TV, WCAU-TV

Maryland
Baltimore: WMAR-TV, WBAL-TV

Massachusetts
Boston: WBZ-TV, WNAC-TV

District of Columbia
Washington: WTTG, WNBW, WMAL-TV

South

Virginia:
Richmond: WTVR

Midwest

Illinois
Chicago: WBKB, WGN-TV

Michigan
Detroit: WWJ-TV

Minnesota
St. Paul: KSTP-TV

Missouri
St. Louis: KSD-TV

Ohio
Cincinnati: WLWT
Cleveland: WEWS

Wisconsin
Milwaukee: WTMJ-TV

West

California
Los Angeles: KTLA, KTSL

Utah
Salt Lake City: KDYL-TV

References:

Poppele, J. R. “Chains Extend Range: Many Additions to the Nation’s Outlets Are in Prospect During 1948.” New York Times. 13 Jun. 1948: XX3.


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6 Replies to “Television Stations on the Air in June 1948”

  1. WJZ [now WABC-TV], the ABC affiliate in New York, didn’t sign on until August 10, 1948. WATV, Channel 13, was a commercial broadcasting station [changing its call letters to WNTA, after being acquired by National Telefilm Associates, in 1958]until it temporarily signed off in December 1961, re-emerging as WNDT {now WNET}, the “educational channel”, in September 1962. DuMont began operating the only TV station in Pittsburgh, WDTV, at the beginning of 1949…and got Admiral to simulcast their “ADMIRAL BROADWAY REVUE” (starring Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca in their first network series together, from January through June) on NBC and DuMont because that was the ONLY way the show could be seen in Pittsburgh.

    1. Supposedly, CBS’s 1952 coverage of the political conventions and elections was simulcast on DuMont because Westinghouse was the sponsor, and this simulcast was the only way the coverage could be seen on Westinghouse’s hometown of Pittsburgh.

      In fact, the reason the Westinghouse-sponsored dramatic anthology “Studio One” appeared on Monday nights at 10 P.M. Eastern time was that when the program started, DuMont had no network programming at that hour. Again, it was the only way the show could be seen live in Pittsburgh.

  2. I am here to tell you that WEWS is still going strong here in Cleveland, but an interesting note is that when it began it was the CBS affiliate here with ABC and Dumont as secondary affiliates…try that now and see what happens

  3. And in late 1954/early 1955 WDTV was sold by DuMont to Westinghouse, which then changed the call letters to KDKA-TV after its pioneering radio station. DuMont ceased to be a television network within months of this transaction.

  4. Three of the listed stations, Boston’s two stations and New Haven’s WNHC, all went on the air that month (June, 1948).

    Boston’s WBZ went on the air June 9th; WNHC (now WTNH) signed-on June 15th, while WNAC (now WHDH) went on the air for the first time on June 21st, just in-time to pick-up CBS (the network it was affiliated with then) coverage of the opening session of the Republican Convention.

  5. I am researching the history of radio and television coverage of space/astronomy mostly in the USA for my doc dis. The first scheduled radio program about astronomy was scheduled on a NJ station in late March 1922. The first television program on “space travel and rockets” featured G. Edward Pendray on the CBS NYC experimental television station on Tuesday 1 March 1932 at 2230 ET, the same night the Lindbergh Baby kidnapping took place across the Hudson River in New Jersey. (I guesstimate the number of TV sets available in the very low hundreds, if even that many then.) The Brooklyn Daily Eagle newspaper that day even ran a display ad about the program. Any light you can shed on such early radio-TV space coverage would be greatly appreciated! As you know all too well, it is most challenging field of historical research. Thank you for your fascinating and enlightening pieces online — I will be citing from some in my doc dis!

    — Alfred Robert Hogan
    [email protected]

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