New York Gets Independent TV

Three television stations weren’t enough for New York City.

In 1948, the number doubled to six, though one was not technically in New York State.

At the start of the year, the city had the flagship stations for NBC (WNBT), CBS (WCBS) and Du Mont (WABD). Then two independents popped up. The first was WATV on Channel 13, owned by Bremer Broadcasting, the operators of WAAT radio. The station’s license was to serve Newark, N.J., but its transmitter was in West Orange.

There was an incredible competition for licenses to serve the New York area. On June 19, 1944, Broadcasting magazine stated Bremer had applied for a construction permit for a station to operate on Channel 5 (84,000 to 90,000 kc.).

In the first part of June 1946, the number of applicants for a new station in New York had dropped from 13 to six. Bremer was still in the running and made its case at an FCC hearing. On April 14, 1947, the Commission approved four new stations for New York-Northeastern New Jersey: Bamberger Broadcasting Service (Channel 9), American Broadcasting Co. (Channel 7), News Syndicate Co. (Channel 11) and Brener on Channel 13 (an application from Debs Memorial Radio Fund was denied; WLIB withdrew its application). The channels were assigned May 14.

There were the usual delays. There was also a casualty to WATV’s impending arrival. Billboard of March 6, 1948 reported:

WATV, Newark, Begins Test, Forcing W2XJT To Close
NEW YORK, Feb. 28—With Bremer Broadcasting Company’s Newark video outlet, WATV, trying out its test pattern transmission this week on Channel 13, the colorful career of William B. Still’s experimental W2XJT, Jamaica, L.I. began to draw to a close. Still, the Negro engineer who put together an efficient homemade transmitting unit virtually on a shoestring, is expected to be notified to vacate the same channel shortly by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). WATV on Monday (1) will begin regular test pattern transmissions between 9 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., and expected to begin programming within eight weeks.

Variety of March 3, 1948 updated:

WATV (Newark) Sets Cap for Major N.Y. Market in Preem 3 Weeks Hence
With equipment tests already being made from the transmitter station atop First Mountain, West Orange, N. J., WATV television station in Newark, N. J., expects to start remotes within the next three or four weeks. WATV studios should be ready for use by April 15. Television layout will cost upwards of $600,000 when fully completed.
The transmitter, which was already sending out a test pattern last week, is situated on an elevation of about 600 feet above sea level. With the tower, this gives the station an antenna height of 800 feet. Another antenna, 100 feet high, is going up atop the Mosque theatre building, Newark, where the television studios now are nearing completion.
Television plans for the Mosque, which is owned by WATV and WAAT, indie radio station, call for two smaller tele studios besides the main one, which, will be 84 feet by 82. This main studio has a 25-foot ceiling, making it possible to use sets higher than one floor.
The studio has a lighting system designed to provide uniform light intensity at all points with necessary high-lighting supplied by spotlight banks. Use of fluorescent lighting, coupled with the vast light sensitivity of the image orthicon cameras to be used, enables a pick-up even by the light of a single candle.
Station setup is such that WATV will have its own theatre television when the time time is ripe via the big Mosque theatre, immediately adjacent to the new WATV studios. This 3,500-seat house soon will be running on a film policy. At present it is used about once a week for concerts.
Television lineup for the main studio calls for offices on two sides of the big stage space and dressing rooms on the main' floor. Guests at telecasts will be seated behind a vast glass window stretching about 70 feet. When viewers are desired for aud participation shows, they will be escorted from this section, seating about 200, and taken up to the mikes. On opposite side of this main studio is the show's operations panel, an announcer's booth, and a film room.
A 24-sheet poster campaign in 41 locations will tell the public about WATV from March 1 to April 22. The arrival of the new tele station also is being broadcast dally over WAAT. Understood that opening of main tele studios will be preceded by a radio broadcast from the Mosque theatre stage, with New Jersey state officials invited to special televised program immediately following in the adjacent WATV studios. It's likely that the entire radio show will pick up on film and subsequently shown as part the telecast.

On April 7, the AP’s C.E. Butterfield’s column said “WATV of Newark, N. J., which still is in its test period, presented a pre-inaugural program of slides to help out in the demonstration of a new set.”

Variety on Apr. 14 noted:

WATV Set to Go May 1
WATV, Bremer Broadcastings television station in Newark, N. J., expects to take the air now with remote pickup and film shows about May 1 and will swing into full studio production a month later.
Station originally expected to be in full operation about April 1 but has been stymied by the slow delivery of equipment. It’s not on the air with a test pattern several hours daily. Studios are about two-thirds completed.

The New York Herald Tribune published this “special” on April 18. “State” is misleading; it does not refer to the state government.

State of N. J. Soon to Operate WATV, Own Television Station
NEWARK, N. J., April 17.—In. exactly two weeks the State of New Jersey, where a considerable amount of research on television has had its home, will go on the air regularly with a television station of its own. The new station, which is already on the air on a test basis from its transmitter tower on the Watchung range in West Orange, will be operated by station WATV, the Bremer Broadcasting Corporation, owner and operator of, station WAAT and WAAT-FM.
Adjoing [sic] the tower—which supports a post-war R. C. A. six-section super-turnstile F. M.-TV antenna—is a two-story brick structure designed to house frequency modulation and television transmitting equipment. An auxiliary tower atop this building, in conjunction with a 100-foot tower atop Television Center, Newark, and a completely equipped mobile unit, will utilize a microwave relay system for transmitting programs from the center's studios and from remote locations.
WATV, with 50.000 watts effective radiated power, is the first commercial television station in the nation to operate on Channel 13, occupying the 210-216-mega-cycle portion of the band. Test patterns are currently on the air from noon to 7 p. m. daily, with program operations expected to begin about May 1. The Newark station will serve 13,000,000 residents of the New York-northern New Jersey metropolitan area.
According to Frank V. Bremer, vice-president in charge of engineering, the WATV image will appear on sets in the area bounded on the north by Middletown. N. Y., and on the south by Point Pleasant on the New Jersey shore, and from the Delaware River east to Bay Shore, L. I.
The six-story Mosque Theater building in Newark—newly named Television Center—will provide the main arena for WATV's television programs. Dramatic, variety and fashion shows will originate from the center, which contains the world's largest television studios, augmented by two other studios and additional facilities including spectator and sponsor galleries.

Through all this, ABC did not have a TV station. It worked out a deal to piggy-back on WATV’s airtime, including its coverage of the Republican and Democratic conventions. A story in Variety on April 21 announced the station “is slated to go on the air about May 15.”

Three days before air, Variety outlined what viewers would—and wouldn’t—see.

WATV, NEWARK, SET FOR PREEM SAT. (15)
After several delays, WATV, Bremer Broadcasting's Newark television outlet, takes the air Saturday (15), but its new studios, now under construction in Newark's Mosque building, won't be ready for occupancy until fall. Station will tee off, consequently, with five-and-a-half hours of programming devoted almost exclusively to film.
Scheduled for daily programming are an hour of short musical films, tied together by an emcee working live in front of one camera, from 4 to 5 p.m.; a kids' show including 40 minutes of filmed cartoons from 5 to 6; a western film, from 6 to 7; film shorts from 7 to 8, and a feature film from 6 to 9:30. Station's almost total dependence on film points up the ready Market available for film distribs in the number of new tele outlets scheduled to take the air within the next year.
WATV program chief Paul Belanger plans a full schedule of live studio shows once the studios are ready.

Billboard added this in its issue of May 15:

NEWARK, N. J., May 8.—The Bremer Broadcasting Corporation’s video outlet, WATV, skedded to debut next Saturday (15) on an all-film programing basis, will introduce a video equivalent for the disk jockey. The station has contracted for 1,200 soundies and film shorts during the next year, and will run them off in a 60-minute stretch each afternoon. WATV will commence studio operations about September 1. Until then, it will carry some live shows via its deal with American Broadcasting Company (ABC), but which it will serve as New York outlet for the web until the ABC station begins airing in August.

The schedule on opening day, Saturday, May 15, isn’t clear. The New York Times gave it as:
4:10—Racing, from Garden State Park, N. J. 4:45—Variety and Films. 9:00—Film Shorts. 9:30—Hayloft Hoedown [ABC, originating from WFIL-TV, Philadelphia].

The Daily News gave it as:
4:00—Musical Varieties. 4:10—Horse Races from Golden State Park, Camden, N.J. 5:00—Junior Frolics [cartoons and shorts]. 6:00—Western Film. 7:00—Camera Highlights. 7:45—Feature Film.

The Patterson Morning Call added to that:
5:40—Serial Episodes. 9:00—Film Shorts.

The Herald Tribune didn’t mention the station at all. As no newspaper we’ve found reviewed the first day’s programming, it’s impossible, for now, to say what aired. But Sidney Lohman in his Along Radio Row column in the Times on May 23 reported problems.

THE opening of a regular program service last week by WATV, Newark, brought with it an unpleasant surprise to a number of owners of home television receivers. They discovered that they could not tune in the station's programs on channel 13.
Inquiry into the problem last week among engineers and trained observers produced the consensus that the flaw in reception would be found to lie principally in the antennas. Corrective measures, it was also agreed, would depend upon the shortcomings inherent in the respective antennas as they are now rigged.
The problem was created, it was explained, by a video station operating in the upper reaches of the spectrum, or path through the air, assigned to television. Up to WATV's advent, all the local telecasters were using the lower channels. For the technically minded, WATV operates in the high band, specifically from 210 to 216 megacycles. WCBS-TV, WNBT and WARD, respectively, on Channels 2, 4 and 5, are in the low band, which extends from 44 to 88 megacycles.
Where all-band antennas, those capable of picking up signals from both ends of the spectrum, are installed, it was said, there is little likelihood of defective reception. The only trouble envisaged for set owners with this installation is one of location. There are some isolated spots around town which are "blind" to a given signal, where nothing will help.
A heartening note reported is that numerous existing antennas can be adjusted to pick up the evasive signal. According to the individual cases, the solution might be in reorientating the antenna, or pointing it so that it also becomes sensitive to WATV's beam; or in adding extensions to the mast, in effect, the equivalent of another antenna, designed to catch the high signal. In extreme cases, in localities not beneficial to reception, another antenna might have to be installed, it was said.
There will be cases, it was continued, where antennas attuned only to the low band have been put up. Two reasons are advanced for these installations: either the type had to be used to get existing stations without "ghosts," or double images caused by reflections from tall buildings; or they were considered adequate at the time because there were no stations on the high band about which to be concerned. In either case, the prescription recommended is the same. An antenna capable of catching WATV's signal must be installed.
The observation also was made that there will be instances where no amount of antenna adjustment or addition will help. That would be where the home receiver itself does not contain provision for channel 13.

The Times schedule for the rest of the week looked like this:

Sunday, May 16
4:00—Musical Varieties. 5:00—Junior Frolics. 6:00—Western Feature. 7:00—Film Shorts. 7:45-9:00—Feature Film [sponsored by American Shops].

Monday, May 17 and Tuesday, May 18
No programs scheduled.

Wednesday, May 19
4:00—Musical Varieties. 5:00—Junior Frolics. 6:00—Western Feature. 6:55—News [Daily News listing]. 7:00—Film Shorts. 7:45—Feature Film. 9:00—Wrestling, from Washington [from WMAL].

Thursday, May 20
4:00—Musical Varieties. 5:00—Junior Frolics. 6:00—Western Feature. 7:00—Film Shorts. 7:45—Feature Film. 8:30—Hollywood Screen Test [ABC, with Burt Lytell from WFIL-TV, Philadelphia].

Friday, May 21
4:00—Musical Varieties. 5:00—Junior Frolics. 6:00—Western Feature. 7:00—Film Shorts. 7:45—Feature Film.

Saturday, May 22
4:00—Film Shorts. 4:10—Racing, from Garden State Park, N. J. 4:45—Musical Varieties. 5:00—Junior Frolics. 6:00—Western Feature. 7:00—Camera Highlights. 7:45—Feature Film. 9:00—Shorts Subjects. 9:30—Hayloft Hoedown.

After a purchase by syndicator NTA, the station was sold again to finally become an educational television outlet in 1962. It remains one, as WNET, to this day.