The Tribulations of KLAC-TV

One day of test patterns was enough for one TV station before it went on the air.

Not only that, the new station was already being sold.

Today that station occupies Channel 13 in Los Angeles.

The FCC received an application for what was to be made KLAC-TV on June 18, 1946. Here’s Variety’s brief blurb.

Thackery Tele Bids
Washington, Jan. 22
Dorothy S. Thackrey, New York publisher, has filed applications for television stations in Los Angeles and Frisco.
Mrs. Thackrey, operator of the New York Evening Post, owns WLIB, New York, and recently purchased standard [A.M.] stations in California. She also has pending applications for FM stations in Los Angeles and Frisco.

Thackery had purchased KMTR Los Angeles, which she renamed KLAC (raising objections at the FCC from KFAC Los Angeles), and KYA in San Francisco.

The Commission began hearings on May 20, 1946 in Los Angeles. Originally, 13 companies had applied for commercial licenses. Five withdrew: Walt Disney Productions, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., Fox West Coast Theatres, Warner Bros. Broadcasting Corp. and Consolidated Broadcasting Corp. That left Television Productions Inc. (Paramount), Hughes Productions, Earle C. Anthony, Don Lee System, NBC, the Times-Mirror Co., ABC, and Thackrey vying for seven licenses; Lee was already on the air with W6XAO and Paramount with W6XYZ.

The May 28 sitting of the Commission, setting a resumption date of June 20 in Washington. The Hollywood Reporter noted:

The last of the applications to be heard was that of Dorothy Thackrey, owner of the New York Post and station KLAC here, who read from a prepared statement and said that she was prepared to take a substantial loss in the initial operations of a video outlet here but believed the medium to have a limitless future and one that would become self-sustaining.
Mrs. Thackrey said her primary interest "in television, radio and newspapers is to provide the widest possible public service by utilizing and making available the most effective means of mass communications, and to improve the quality and quantity of public information." She said that a television outlet should serve for effective expression of pertinent shades of viewpoint on current political, economic and social matters, without imposition of partisan views.
Mrs. Thackrey's testimony was abetted and paralleled by the testimony of her husband, Ted Thackrey, and Don Fedderson, vice president and manager of KYA, San Francisco, and KLAC, Los Angeles. The latter will manage the video station if granted.

The Thackreys looked set—when it came to a station in San Francisco. There were six channels available and six applications. The FCC cancelled all hearings, and decided to make an announcement about the Bay Area after the Los Angeles situation was settled. But Broadcasting then reported on Dec. 9, 1946:

TWO TV WITHDRAWLS BY DOROTHY THACKREY
WITHDRAWL of television applications for New York, San Francisco, without prejudice, leaving one for Los Angeles stand, sought of FCC by Dorothy Thackrey interests. Don Federson [sic], vice president-general manager, West Coast operations, said action taken since “full justice could not have been done with all three stations or even two.”
If Mrs. Thackrey obtains Los Angeles grant, he added, “concentrated effort” will be made in that operation. “It is entirely possible that Mrs. Thackrey may later request reinstatement of applications for New York and San Francisco, perhaps one at a time,” said Mr. Federson.

It wasn’t long before an FCC decision came down. On December 20, 1946, the commission granted licenses to Thackrey as well as Earle C. Anthony, the Times-Mirror, Television Productions, ABC and NBC. Thackrey was assigned Channel 13.

Variety reported on March 26, 1947 that KLAC’s television operations were expected to start by year-end with television baseball in summer 1948 (the radio station had rights to air games of both PCL teams). Billboard’s update in its Oct. 18, 1947 issue is that the debut was “still many months away.”

Meanwhile, Dorothy Thackery was having second thoughts about television altogether. Billboard, in a story dated Nov. 29, said MGM had begun talks to buy KLAC and KYA, mainly for the TV license because Paramount had a station in Los Angeles. About a month later, the trade paper said the deal looked dead as MGM lost interest, and an offer from film producer Jack Wrather was turned down since Thackery wanted to sell both radio stations and Wrather only wanted KLAC.

With no news about getting the TV station on the air, reports swirled in the early months of 1948 that CBS, oilman Ed Pauley and Warner Bros. were either interested, or in talks, to buy Thackery’s West Coast operations. Variety broke a story on April 28 that Warners had paid $800,000 for the Tv license and the two radio stations. “Ridiculous” and “not a word of truth” was Thackrey’s response (Broadcasting, May 3). Variety came back on May 26, saying the amount was $1.1 million. No comment from Thackery. Finally, Broadcasting reported on June 28 the sale documents had been filed with the FCC the previous week, though it took almost a month for the Commission to announce it. Thackery told the commission she wanted to sell out to devote full time to her newspapers.

There were attempts to stop the sale, but we’ll set aside that story.

The man in charge of the station, Don Fedderson, was known later for syndicating Liberace and making him a household name across the U.S., and then for putting My Three Sons on television. He wasn’t going to waste any more time getting KLAC-TV on the air. First, a report from Billboard, May 1, 1948:

KLAC-TV To Bow In Mid-September
HOLLYWOOD, April 24.—KLAC-TV, local indie owned by Dorothy Thackrey, finally unveiled tele plans this week with the announcement that the station planned to he airborne by mid-September. Station Manager Don Fedderson said the outlet had acquired a new site on Mount Wilson and that construction of the transmitter would begin within two weeks. Plans call for delivery of the transmitter by July 31.
KLAC tele progress has been stymied because the previous transmitter site required considerable work to prevent settling of building and land erosion. New land parcel was leased to KLAC by the U. S. Forestry Service and previously had been earmarked for FM operation of KWKW, Pasadena indie. Because of an application for increased power, now pending before the Federal Communications Commission, KWKW has withdrawn its FM application and relinquished the land.

Variety, on April 28, said construction of the transmitter had begun.

Here’s Broadcasting of July 5:

Start of KLAC-TV Now Set for Fall
IN SURPRISE move last week, Don Fedderson vice president and general manager of KLAC Hollywood and KYA, San Francisco, announced that former station's video station would be on the air by the latter part of September.
Previously the station was not considered likely to be on the air before early 1949.
Summing up the spirit of the push he pointed out that the station's transmitter sight [sic] was underway and that construction costing $65-70,000 would be sped up to meet the new scheduled opening. This, he said, would be finished in 12-14 weeks as against the usual six to nine months required.
Ground was also broken last week for an additional studio on the property of KLAC which will provide an additional 15,000 square feet of space at an estimated cost of $15,000.
To make certain that the stepped-up schedule is met, Mr. Fedderson is headquartering in Los Angeles for several weeks. Engineers of KLAC are already being schooled in video methods by Paul C. Schulz, chief engineer of KYA-KLAC who recently returned from the RCA television school for engineers.
When Mr. Fedderson was queried on the fact that a contract for purchase of the Thackrey stations had been filed with the FCC by Warner Bros., he offered "no comment" pointing out that his only responsibility was getting the station on the air. In August he said the sales staff would begin to seek business and that a strong likelihood existed that advertisers would be offered an AM-television package rate.
As further preparation, he said that James McNamara, news director, and Fred Henry, assistant manager, both of KLAC would spend the month of July looking in on other station operations in the East and Midwest.

An update from Variety on July 28:

KLAC Sets Sights On Sept. Preem; Accent To Be on Disk Jockeys
Hollywood, July 27.

NBC Television Arrives in Chicago To Stay

NBC had some experience with television in Chicago in the 1930s. In February 1931, the network bought WENR radio which had visual station W9XR attached. It decided not to renew the TV license that year. Then it bought a half interest in WMAQ, which had a telecasting station named W9XAP. NBC stopped operating it in March 1933; it was interested in electronic television, not the outdated mechanical type in Chicago.

Tinkering with iconoscopes and electronics during the 1930s culminated with the company putting a station on the air in New York in 1939 for the World’s Fair, going commercial as WNBT in July 1941. RCA and NBC had bigger plans, with Chicago a part of them. Here’s the Chicago Tribune’s version of events, published March 4, 1944:

NBC CHIEF SEES MIDWEST CHAIN FOR TELEVISION
Chicago to Be Hub of Giant System.
BY LARRY WOLTERS.
A midwest television chain, with Chicago at its hub, is projected as part of the post-war television plans of the National Broadcasting company, Niles Trammell, president, disclosed yesterday. Trammell envisioned the formation of a television network radiating outward from Chicago which would include Milwaukee, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Des Moines, St. Louis, Indianapolis, and Cleveland.
A television station now in operation in New York and another to be built in Washington will form the nucleus of an eastern network, he said. A Pacific coast chain also is planned, eventually to be linked with the two other sections to form a cross country system.
File Construction Applications.
Applications for construction of NBC television stations in Chicago, Cleveland, Denver, San Francisco, and Los Angeles have been filed with the federal communications commission. The chain has leased the top of the Civic Opera house for its local television transmitter.
W-G-N, Inc., recently announced plans for building a television station. The station filed an application for a construction permit with the FCC and placed an order for a transmitter and auxiliary television equipment with the General Electric company for delivery after the war or as soon as priorities permit.
Requests Zenith Frequency.
NBC, in its application for a Chicago television station, requested that it be assigned to channel No. 1, covering 50 to 56 megacycles, which is assigned to W9XZV and WTZR, television stations of the Zenith Radio corporation. The former station has been operating experimentally continuously since March 30, 1939, longer than any New York station, it claims.

An overview of the Chicago television situation was provided in Television magazine's issue of October, 1945. Regarding NBC, Frederick A. Kugel said:

This is an application for a commercial station to operate on channel 4, using CA equipment with 3 kw power, visual and aural. The NBC transmitter will be located at the Civic Opera House, 20 North Wacker Drive and the video studios at the Merchandise Mart in downtown Chicago.
NBC plans service to 4,143,345 people in the Chicago area. The net's original request was for channel 1, already held by Zenith in Chicago. In April 1944, Zenith informed the FCC it would oppose any attempt by NBC to take away Channel 1 on which its experimental station W9XZV is licensed to operate. NBC subsequently amended its application. NBC has estimated its Chicago station will cost $202,500 with monthly operating expenses around $6,500.

On May 4, 1946, the FCC announced commercial video grants had been awarded in Chicago to NBC (Channel 5, 76-82 mc) and Zenith (Channel 2, 54-60 mc); Zenith gave up its construction permit in January 1947. The eventual NBC station was WNTC through 1946. The call letters were changed to WBNY in 1947 and the station was granted numerous extensions by the FCC into 1948 to get on the air.

Broadcasting of Dec. 12, 1947 indicated the station was no where near ready.

NBC’s Chicago TV Plans Move Ahead
Executives to Confer This Week On Constructing Facilities
SERIES of conferences dealing with construction of NBC Chicago television facilities will be held this week in New York. I. E. Showerman, vice persident in charge of Central Division, and Howard Luttgens, the division's chief engineer, will meet with Frank E. Mullen, NBC executive vice persident; O. B. Hanson, vice president in charge of engineering, and Noran Kersta, network's television manager.
Studio, central control and some engineering facilities for WNBY, NBC's proposed Chicago television station, will be constructed in the Merchandise Mart, which presently houses Central Division headquarters. Transmitter and antenna will be located atop Chicago Civic Opera Bldg.
Network's first video newsreel coverage of a Chicago event took place Dec. 5 when an NBC television cameraman filmed highlights of the International Livestock Exposition for showing on the eastern five-station network. Films of the exposition's Parade of Champions and other exposition highlights were then flown to New York for developing, editing and dubbing-in of sound, and were shown on the video hookup the following day.
Under supervision of William Drips, NBC director of agriculture, event was photographed from the floor of the International Amphitheater by Jack Leib, NBC Chicago video cameraman. A 35-mm. newsreel camera, using some 2,000 feet of film, was utilized to telecast the farm show highlights.
Earlier [BROADCASTING, Dec. 8] Mr. Mullen, who attended the exposition, predicted that NBC television would cover the annual livestock show by 1949 at the latest through extension of the network's video link as far west as Chicago.

There was a final name change. The Hollywood Reporter, March 5, 1948:

NBC’s Chicago Video Call Letters Changed.
CHICAGO.—NBC’s television station here will be known as WNBQ, call letters reminiscent of the company’s pioneer broadcasting station WMAQ, it was announced yesterday [4] by I E. Showerman, NBC voce-president and general manager of the Central division.
Previously, the company’s Chicago video station had been assigned the call letters WNBY. NBC management felt that in time there might be some confusion in the Chicago area because of the phonetic similarity between this call and WMBI, the call letters of the Moody Bible Institute’s broadcasting station.

It was pointed out in Broadcasting’s March 8 edition that NBC discovered the WNBQ call was already assigned to a 25 watt relay transmitter operated by the network’s Central Division engineering department for special events and news relay work.

NBC had two goals: to open a station in Chicago and to internet its stations into a radio-like network. The latter depended on A.T. and T. to build the links. Let’s follow along through the pages of Broadcasting. First, June 21, 1948:

WNBQ SET TO INSTALL ITS VIDEO FACILITIES
PLANS for the Sept. 1 video debut of WNBQ, NBC's Chicago outlet, were advanced last week by arrival of the television transmitter and preparation for erection of the antenna soon after July 1.
Although a shortage of steel caused delay in shipment of the antenna and its base, Chicago network officials last Wednesday expected delivery before the weekend. The antenna, 70 feet high and 631 feet above ground level, will serve both TV and FM stations from the roof of the Civic Opera Bldg.
NBC's original plan to convert space into one huge two-floor room has been altered to include two rooms of one story each. Television and FM transmitters, now in storage until construction work is completed, will be housed in one room. Headquarters for both operations will be located on the 42nd and 43rd floors of the building.
Meanwhile, electrical contracts have been let, and installation of power cables and other lines will begin soon. A special video cable from the transmitter site to Illinois Bell Telephone Co. headquarters nearby will be laid to connect with existing cable between the Merchandise Mart, NBC AM studio site, and the phone company office.

August 16, 1948:

NBC LEASES 20,000 SQ. FT. MORE IN MERCHANDISE MART
NBC Chicago sparked its drive for fall opening date of its key video outlet, WNBQ, with lease of 20,000 sq. ft. of additional space in Merchandise Mart headquarters. Network plans to enlarge Studio A, largest in its Chicago plant, for television.
Video technical and administrative staffs will be quartered in added first and second floor space of Mart, with some 14,000 sq. ft. on first floor used for storage rooms, work shops, shipping room and video field engineering shop and office. Production offices-directors, engineers and administrative personnel-will be constructed in the 6,000-sq. ft. areas on second floor.

August 30, 1948:

WNBQ, NBC'S TV STATION READY TO BEGIN TESTS
WNBQ, NBC's Midwestern video outlet in Chicago, will operate a mobile unit, with cameras, transmitter and receivers, at National Television and Electrical Living Show sponsored by Electric Assn., Chicago, at city's Coliseum Sept. 18 to 26, for visitors wishing to see themselves televised. RCA is cooperating with NBC in presentation.

The Chicago Tribune picks up the story on September 19, 1948.

Chicago's next television station, WNBQ, a NBC affiliate, will begin transmitting its test pattern this week. A 22 kilowatt station, WNBQ will occupy channel 5. Test programming is to get underway shortly with full operations following soon thereafter.
Studios will be located in the Merchandise Mart and the transmitter facilities on the 42d and 43d floors of the Civic Opera building. The antenna tower, atop the Civic Opera building, will be 625 feet above street level.
Hub Of TV Network
WNBQ will be hub of NBC's midwest network of six stations. Cities in the net are St. Louis, Detroit, Milwaukee, Toledo, and Buffalo, it was announced by I. E. Showerman, central division vice president.
Jules Herbuveaux, NBC's central division television manager, said when the network tie is made, probably by Jan. 1, 1949, such programs as Star Theater, the Lanny Ross show, Television Playhouse, NBC newsreel, Theater Guild, and Television Theater probably will be seen in Chicago.
Studio Atop Mart
NBC's studio A in the Merchandise Mart, scene of major audience radio broadcasts, will become WNBQ's main television studio after conversion is completed.
The network recently leased 20.000 square feet of additional space in the Mart for its television operations and hired 60 additional employes.
Film projection and news commentary studios will be constructed on the 19th floor. Workshops, dressing rooms, and engineering and administrative offices will occupy space on the first and second floors.

In the meantime, Chicago’s third station, ABC’s WENR-TV, had just begun regular programming.

While Chicagoans got a signal from Channel 5 the following day, they didn’t get the big show of the day from WNBQ. The ABC and NBC Midwest networks both signed on that evening. While WENR-TV broadcast the extravaganza in Chicago, WNBQ wasn’t yet connected to the NBC counterpart.

More from Broadcasting, Sept. 20, 1948:

NBC-TV Order
ANDREW CORP., New York office, has announced it has received orders from NBC to supply and install television lines at WNBQ Chicago and WNBK Cleveland. Two outlets, key points in proposed NBC midwest TV network, are expected to begin operation shortly. Firm's engineering group also was selected to insure sound transmission line installation.

That circuit came in handy, as WNBQ was able to pick up Games 3, 4 and 5 of the World Series from Municipal Stadium. Broadcasting of October 11, 1948 revealed the station needed special permission of the FCC to carry the games and the pre-game activities. Meanwhile, the FCC granted yet another extention to Jan. 20, 1949 for completion of the station's studios. Broadcasting mentioned on Oct. 18:

Studio A Goes TV
WORK is underway in Chicago to transfer NBC's largest audience studio, Studio A at the Merchandise Mart, into a television theatre for presentation of WNBQ (TV).
video programs. Network's key Midwest TV station is scheduled to take the air at year'end. NBC has leased an additional 20,000 square feet on the first and second floors.

There was something else besides a test pattern on Oct. 31. The station began to air Philco Television Playhouse Sunday nights at 9, which was piped down the Midwest network via kinescope. The first presentation was “Counselor-at-Law” starring Paul Muni. The following Sunday was “Angel in the Wings,” the first complete production of a hit Broadway musical, starrinng Paul and Grace Hartman and Hank Ladd, who appeared in the stage production.

Election Night was Nov. 2, 1948, and there was no way WNBQ was going to be off the air that evening. The day before, Broadcasting reported:

WNBQ'S FIRST LIVE PROGRAM SCHEDULED WNBQ CHICAGO, new NBC video station, will present its first live programming Tuesday night. News Commentator Clifton Utley will appear before its cameras with a series of visual election analyses on state and local issues. Mr. Utley's remarks during the final five minutes of each half-hour will supplement a schedule of NBC election night telecasts carried to Chicago by Midwest coaxial cable from WNBK (TV) Cleveland.

The station began adding other test programming. On November 14, Sunday broadcasting began at 7 p.m. with “Stop Me,” followed by “American Song” at 7:30 p.m. and ending with an NBC Newsreel at 9 p.m. The highlight that night was Philco Television Theatre’s adaptation of Elmer Rice’s Pulitzer Prize-winning story “Street Scene” about the tenement- dwelling daughter of a New York City stagehand who killed his wife and his wife’s lover (the milkman). Broadcasting wrote in November 15, 1948:

NBC CHICAGO ADDS THREE TV SHOWS
IN LINE with NBC's plans to link its Eastern and Midwestern TV circuits Jan. 12, Jules Herbuveaux, TV manager at the network's Central Division, last week announced addition of three shows to the program schedule of WNBQ Chicago, expected to begin full-time programming Jan. 8.
Field telecasts, he explained, will make up the majority of the live programming until NBC Chicago Merchandise Mart video studios are completed in February.
Bigelow-Sanford Carpet Co., New York, through Young & Rubicam, same city, began sponsorship of WNBQ's first mid-week program Thursday [18] with Floor Show, starring Dunninger,the mentalist, and Paul Winchell, ventriloquist, 8:30-9 p.m. CST. Chicago telecast is a kinescope recording of the original show televised on the network's East Coast video hookup, and is being piped from WNBQ via co-axial and the NBC Midwest TV circuit.Additional Sunday features supplement the programming.

And from Broadcasting, November 29, 1948:

CHICAGO LIVESTOCK SHOW TO BE ON TV
REMOTE telecasts of the International Livestock Exposition from Chicago's International Amphitheater began Saturday as the annual livestock classic opened its 10-day session. WNBQ, NBC's Chicago outlet still operating on an experimental basis, will telecast judging of the grand champion steer tomorrow (Tuesday, 2-3 p.m. CST) under sponsorship of Allis-Chalmers.
The exposition, conducted in conjunction with the International Horse Show and the National 4-H Club Congress, is also being televised by WGN-TV Chicago.

Despite going days at a time without anything but a test pattern, the station had viewers. Variety of December 1, 1948 wrote:

Chicago, Nov. 30.—Ratings on Chi's four tele stations, released by Jay & Graham Research on the basis of dairies in 450 tele homes, give WBKB the largest share of audience during the week of Nov. 1-7. The Balaban and Katz station was credited with 36.7%, as against 29% for WGN-TV, 24% for WENR-TV, and 10.3% for WNBQ, which is in its experimental stage.

On January 4, 1949, the FCC granted another extension to WNBQ to complete its studios as of July 20th. But the station began full-time broadcasting before that. Broadcasting said on January 10 that WNBQ would “convert from its experimental operations of the past three months to a fulltime commercial basis Wednesday.” That was January 12, 1949. But the station was on the air the night before, when the link Niles Trammell predicted in 1944 became a reality.

Here is one story and part of a second about it from the Tribune of Jan. 12:

East Linked to Midwest by Television
The eyes of television broadened their range last night from the Mississippi to the Atlantic, an area in which a quarter of the nation's citizens live.
Four video networks—ABC, CBS, DuMont, and NBC—combined to present a 90 minute inaugural program over a coaxial cable linking the east coast and midwest television facilities of the American Telephone and Telegraph company's Bell system. Thirty stations in 14 cities televised the show.
Four Chicago stations carried the four networks' top talent. They were THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE'S station, WGN-TV, affiliated with both DuMont and CBS television networks; WNBQ, WENR-TV, and WBKB.
Areas Linked For First Time
For the first time, television viewers in Chicago could see events happening in New York or other eastern cities. Similarly, eastern viewers could see and hear Chicago's Mayor Kennelly commending the new industry.
The new cable's official opening was made possible by completion of a $12,500,000 link between Philadelphia and Cleveland. Before that, there were eastern and midwest networks. The eastern unit connected Boston, New York City, Newark, N. J., Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Richmond, Va., Schenectady, N. Y. and New Haven, Conn. The western unit united St. Louis, Chicago, Milwaukee, Toledo, Detroit, Cleveland, and Buffalo, N. Y. The new link added Pittsburgh, where WDTV went on the air for the first time last night.
All save Newark, Schenectady, and New Haven were connected last night.
Last night's show was a long step toward coast-to-coast TV hookups. The cable that made the eastern-midwest hookup possible contains eight wires—each about the size of a pencil lead. A single pair can carry as many as 600 simultaneous telephone conversations or two television programs, one in each direction.
LeRoy A. Wilson, A.T.& T. president, pointed out during his appearance on the program that the Bell facilities were built primarily for long distance telephone service, but serve TV also.
14 Cities Answer Roll
Wilson's appearance followed a roll call of the 14 cities in the combined network and an exchange of felicitations by presidents of the four networks. Wayne Coy, chairman of the federal communications commission, hailed from Washington the possibilities of the new medium in furthering education, arts, sciences, news' dissemination, and entertainment.
The congratulations were followed by fun and drama. During 15 minute segments allotted to each network, televiewers saw and heard Arthur Godfrey of CBS, Ted Steele's orchestra of DuMont, Milton Berle of NBC, and Stand By for Crime, a whodunit on ABC. The ABC program was the only portion of the show to originate in Chicago. The new cable goes on a commercial basis today, with the four networks taking turns.
* * *
WNBQ, NBC affiliate which went off experimental status last week, will tie into the cable for a host of east coast programs. Among those announced are [Philco] Television Playhouse, [Kraft] Television Theater, Lanny Ross show [for Swift Premium], Boxing [sponsored by Gillette] from Madison Square Garden, [Texaco] Star Theater (Milton Berle), Quiz Kids, Meet the Press [for Maxwell House], and [Admiral] Broadway Revue. There are others but these appear to be the best. All won't be available immediately but they are on the way. Quiz Kids, for instance, with the same mental moppets heard Sunday afternoons, will he seen for the first time here on video at 8 p. m. Jan. 25. A different panel of precocious youngsters will appear on subsequent shows, however. In all, WNBQ will telecast at least 15 hours this week.

The station expanded its programming, mainly thanks to New York, before the end of the month. Variety wrote on January 19:

Chi WNBQ Gets Up To 20-Hr. Week Sked Fast
Chicago, Jan. 18. Addition of six NBC Chi produced tele programs and several commercial network shows to WNBQ's schedule, boosts station's operations to over 20 hours weekly in its third full week. New network telecasts added include Colgate Theatre, Phil Silvers Show, Americana and Chesterfield Supper Club.
NBC Chi productions include Irna Phillips' These Are My Children, Walt's Workshop, debuting Jan. 24, Clifton Utley and the News, teeing off on same date, The Weatherman, five-minute spot which began Monday (17) and Take a Dare, an audience participation half-hour teeing off Wednesday (19).

Here is the programming for the first week of full operations:

TUESDAY, JANUARY 11, 1949
8:30—Coaxial Cable Opening.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 12, 1949
4:30—“Howdy Doody” (NBC). 6:50—Camel Newsreel Theatre (NBC). 7:00—Custard Pie Theatre (debut). 7:30—“You Are An Artist” with John Gnagy (NBC). 7:45—Paris Fashions with Faye Emerson. 8:00—Kraft Television Theatre, “Miranda,” comedy about a mermaid and the complications she causes in a doctor’s life, with Betty Ann Nyman, Beverly Roberts and Richard Kendrick, Gage Clarke, Peggy French, Leora Thatcher, Michael Garrett and Sue Ellen Blade. (NBC). 9:00—NBC Television News. 9:15—Musical Miniatures.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 1949
6:50—Camel Newsreel Theatre (NBC). 7:00—The Phil Silvers Arrow Show, with Harry Salter's orchestra. Guests—Joey Faye, Jack Gilford (NBC). 7:30—The Lanny Ross Show, from Chicago, sponsored by Swift-Premium, with Harry Simeon’s orchestra. Guests—Martha Wright, singing star of “Music in My Heart”; Peter Donald, comedian featured as Ajax Cassidy in Fred Allen’s radio show, and Penny and Marvin, dancers. (NBC). 8:00—Feature film. 8:30—“The Bigelow Floor Show” with Dunninger and Paul Winchell (NBC). 9:00—Grand Marquee.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 14, 1949
6:50—Camel Newsreel Theatre (NBC). 7:00—Film serial. 8:00—Feature film, “Scandal in Paris” with George Sanders, Signe Hasso, Carole Landis and Akim Tamiroff. 9:00—Gillette Cavalcade of Sports. Boxing from Madison Square Garden, Vince Foster vs. Tony Pellone (NBC). 10:00—Chesterfield Supper Club with Perry Como (NBC).

SATURDAY, JANUARY 15, 1949
No programming.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 16, 1949
6:30—Richard C. Harkness, news. 6:45—“Paris Cavalcade of Fashion” with Faye Emerson. 7:00—Feature Film. 8:00—Philco Television Playhouse, hosted by Bert Lytell, “Ramshackle Inn” with Zasu Pitts (NBC). 9:00—Review of the News (NBC).

MONDAY, JANUARY 17, 1949
4:30—Howdy Doody (NBC). 6:45—The Weatherman. 6:50—Camel Newsreel Theatre (NBC). 7:30—Screen Magazine (NBC). 8:00—Colgate Theatre Hour, “Fancy Meeting You Here.” Betty Garde stars as a nurse who is changing boyfriends and rents the same apartment with a girl and a boy from a scheming landlady. Also features Mary Wickes, Nancy Marquand, Peggy Van Vleet and Brooks West. (NBC). 8:30—“Americana” with Ben Grauer and a panel of high school students, sponsored by Firestone (NBC).

TUESDAY, JANUARY 18, 1949
4:30—Howdy Doody (NBC). 6:45—The Weatherman. 6:50—Camel Newsreel Theatre (NBC). 7:00—Texaco Star Theatre with Milton Berle. Guests—Carmen Miranda, Tony Martin, Florence Desmond, Paul and Palette Trio and the Unger Twins (NBC). 8:00—Feature film. 8:30—Three Musketeers. 9:00—Hour of Fear, “Secret of Stamboul” with James Mason.

Network Television Comes to Chicago

Chicago started 1948 with one television station. By the end of the year, it had four. Two were owned by radio chains which also set up limited TV network programming before 1948 was done.

(This does not include Zenith’s station used for experimental tests).

When the American Broadcasting Company was still the Blue Network, it applied for commercial television stations in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. The Chicago Tribune reported on September 1, 1944:

Blue Network Proposes Television Station Here
Application for authority to operate a new commercial television radio station in Chicago was filed with the federal communications commission in Washington, D. C., yesterday [Aug. 31] by the Blue network. Authority to open similar stations in New York and Los Angeles also was asked. The company asked that the Chicago and Los Angeles stations be on channel 8 [162,000 to 168,000 kilocycles] and that the New York outlet be on Channel 15 [258,000 to 264,000 kilocycles). The Yankee Network, Inc., Boston, Mass., operator of Station WAAB, Wooster, Mass., applied for a similar station in Boston on channel 2 [60,000-66,000 kilocycles].

On September 18, the FCC placed all of them (with commercial TV applications from Maison Blanche Co., New Orleans, and United Broadcasting Co., Cleveland) in its pending file.

ABC had big postwar plans for TV in Chicago, as Billboard revealed on February 2, 1946.

Chi Video Station Within 18 Months On ABC Agenda
CHICAGO, Feb. 16.—Paul Mowrey, American Broadcasting Company's television director, last week threw his hat into the Chi video ring by announcing that one of the top plans on his agenda is a television station in Chi at the earliest possible date. Mowrey could not give the exact date ABC would have a Chi video station because operation here will only take place after the FCC has granted the local video license for which the net has applied. As nobody knows when the FCC can get around to processing all its video applications, the starting date could not be set as definite, and Mowrey could only say that ABC should have its own station here not later than 18 months from now.
Mowrey plans at the beginning of the ABC video station operation here to program primarily in special events remotes an occasional program from one of the ABC studios and accent on a new type of video programing (new here, that is), the picking up of remote dramatic programs from the houses of various amateur theatrical groups such as the Jack and Jill Players and the legit groups at universities.
28 Hours Weekly
Mowrey expects to be able to program, even at the beginning of his operation, the 28 hours weekly that the FCC wants telecasters to air by June 1, 1946.
Mowrey is already starting to line up agreements with the drama groups and special events originating places, such as indoor and outdoor sports arenas.
For his drama pick-up Mowrey plans to use three orthicon cameras—one for close-ups, one for middle shots and one for distant shots. This, he reasons, will enable the video audience to see plays in a manner that could be duplicated only if they bought three seats—one up front, one half way and one at the back of the house.
Chi Shows To Be Telecast
Some of the ABC's present Chi-originated radio shows will also be used for the net's video program content here. Mowrey, will not telecast these at the same time they are broadcast over AM, but he intends to create special video adaptations, using radio personalities and program formats. Breakfast Club and Quiz Kids were among the shows he mentioned as being especially adaptable for video.
There is a possibility that ABC might get into the video picture here even before it can get its own station, Mowrey said, if he is able to work out arrangements to have some ABC-produced shows telecast on either of the two video stations now in operation here.
Formation of an ABC video staff here, Mowrey also said, would be done by having a few of the net's New York video experts come here for a few months to train the net's present AM staff in the why's and wherefore's of television production.

ABC did exactly as Mowrey speculated. It had no TV license in Chicago but found homes elsewhere for its programming. This is from Billboard, July 13, 1946.

ABC Signs Sports On B. & K. in Chi
CHICAGO, July 6.—The American Broadcasting Company, Friday (5) signed to present four sporting events on WBKB, Balaban & Katz tele outlet. They will present boxing and prize fights from the Rainbo Gardens on Wednesday nights starting Wednesday (10). An option has been taken for an additional four scannings and Paul Mowrey, ABC's tele man, states that he hopes to have the shows sponsored even before the first one hits the ether.
This makes five stations over which the network without a video outlet is photographing shows; WABD (DuMont), New York; WRGB (G.E.), Schenectady; WPPZ (Philco), Philadelphia and WTTG (DuMont), Washington. Bud Pearse, ABC tele special eventer, will handle the Chi scannings.

Less than two weeks later, ABC had its license.

ABC Gets 1st Video Outlet
WASHINGTON, July 27.—Chicago has a new television station authorized, with announcement by the Federal Communications Commission this week that American Broadcasting Company has been granted a CP for a commercial video station operating on Channel Seven, visual power of 30 kw. And aural power of 15 kw. (Billboard, Aug. 3)

Applications for television (and FM) stations piled up. Factories had to switch over from war mode into manufacturing things for consumers and businesses, things like TV sets and transmitters. Dealing with that took time. The FCC continued to allow deferrals for deadlines to get stations on the air.

We learn from the Hollywood Reporter, Jan. 29, 1948:

ABC Starts Chicago Telev. Construction
Chicago.—Construction of television facilities for ABC's new station WENR-TV in Chicago, are now under way, it was announced yesterday [28] by E. R. Borroff, vice-president in charge of the network's Central division. Although the arrival of supplies and material has been delayed during the past few months, it is anticipated that television operations will commence by September 1 at the latest.
The tower, an RCA superturnstile type, will be installed on the highest ridge of the Civic Opera building, located at 20 N. Wacker Drive. It is 118 feet in height.
Complete construction plans and antenna designs are now in the final process of approval. The main television studios will be located on the 44th floor of the Opera building and outside studio space will be rented temporarily, until such time as permanent studios can be obtained or built. The station will operate on Channel 7, with a frequency of 174 to 180 megacycles. Video is 15 kilowatts and aural is 7.5 kilowatts.

Meanwhile, progress was made on stringing together a Midwest TV feed. Broadcasting, April 26, 1948:

Chicago-Cleveland Coaxial Opened for Phone Use
TELEVISION transmission on the Chicago-Cleveland coaxial cable route moved a step closer April 19 when AT&T's Long Lines Dept. announced that the cable was available for immediate telephone use.
Designed to ease crowded long-distance circuits between the two cities, the 363-mile cable will become an integral part of the Bell System's midwestern inter-city TV network, which also will service Detroit, Milwaukee and St. Louis.
In addition, the cable will tie in with the Philadelphia-Cleveland cable which, when completed at year's end, will link the system's midwestern and eastern television networks. Cable along each route provides one television circuit in each direction.
NBC has authorization for a video station (WNBK) in Cleveland, while ABC, CBS and MBS have applications pending. Lone operating TV station there is WEWS, owned by Scripps-Howard Radio.
In Chicago one network affiliate, WGN-TV (MBS) is on the air. Two other stations, WNBQ and WENR-TV (NBC and ABC), expect to begin operation by September, and application for another, WBBM (CBS), is pending.

ABC’s sales department began lining up sponsors for its soon-to-exist network. From the Hollywood Reporter, July 15, 1948:

More Spots For Bulova
Bulova Watch, pursuing its cornerstone of time signal spots on all TV stations, has signed up three of ABC’s leading projected stations. Thought the Biow, Co., New York, it has bought 17 signals weekly on WENR-TV, Chicago; WXYZ-TV, Detroit, and KGO-TV, San Francisco.

The station wasn’t on the air in time for the Republican Convention in Philadelphia June 21 to 25, but it had a presence there as the station’s mobile unit was seconded for the event.
WENR-TV started hiring staff. This name, from Variety, Aug. 4, 1948, may be familiar, especially if you watched credits on Dean Martin’s TV shows.

Staff recruits for forthcoming WENR-TV include Gregg Garrison, lately of WFIL-TV [Philadelphia]...Garrison as staff director.

A new date was set for WENR-TV’s debut. Variety, Aug. 11, 1948:

ABC-TV’s Sept. Chi Bow
ABC’s WENR-TV beams its first test patterns this week, with the formal teeoff coming Sept. 17. Station studio and offices will be located on the 44th floor of the Civic Opera Building.
Amateur bouts from the Madison Athletic Club are among the shows set for lensing, with “Breakfast Club” and “Ladies Be Seated” earmarked as sure futures. Station also plans to organize a stock company of pros and amateurs.
Chicago Daily News, which has no affiliation with WENR-TV or ABC, will issue a special tele supplement to mark the TV bow.

There was a slight problem. To broadcast a test pattern, you need a test pattern. Variety, Aug. 18, 1948:

No Harm Meant
Chicago, Aug. 17
Engineers ready to telecast the first test pattern of WNER-TV Thursday (12) found that the regular slide hadn’t arrived, so they called a camera shop and got a Walt Disney product. Slide showed the Big Bad Wolf and two little pigs.
Viewers at Chi’s two other tele stations, WBKB and WGN-TV, interpreted the slide as a sly rib, but WENR-TV engineers insist it was used merely because of its linear quality.

The station needed additional studios, post-haste, for September 17. This is from the Tribune, Aug. 24, 1948:

WENR-TV TO CONVERT CIVIC THEATER INTO TELEVISION STUDIO
The Chicago Civic theater, site of legitimate theater productions since October, 1929, will be converted into a television studio by the American Broadcasting company as headquarters for its new video station WENR-TV, which begins operation Sept. 17, it was announced yesterday by John H. Norton Jr., ABC vice president, and James Thompson, president of the Wacker corporation, owners of the Civic Open building.
Extensive reconstruction and redecoration of the theater already is underway and will be completed prior to the opening. The studio, leased for approximately five years, will be equipped with the latest types of studio, motion picture, and field cameras and will accommodate 878 persons.
The WENR-TV transmitter is on the 44th floor of the Civic Opera building and the antenna is on the building's roof.

20 North Wacker Drive, Chicago 6, III. When the station went on the air it had two studios at 20 North Wacker Drive, approximately 25-by-46 feet, plus a 32-by-71-foot studio in the Civic Opera Building. It had six studio cameras, six dollies; two 16mm. and two 35mm. film projectors; two slide projectors; two sets remote equipment; four remote comeras (info from Oct. 1948 issue of Television magazine).

WBKB had been telecasting play-by-play sports a-plenty—hockey, baseball, college football (even installing a circuit to South Bend, Indiana, to pick up the Green Bay Packers). It was natural WENR-TV would want a piece of that. Here’s Variety, Sep. 8, 1948:

Chi TV Deals on Tap For Bears, Cardinals
Chicago, Sept. 7
Local tele expects to come to terms with the Chicago Bears and Cardinals, pro football teams that failed to rush into video this season. ABC already has signed the Card tussle with the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sept. 19, paying a reported $2,000 to carry the game on WENR-TV.

T-Day on September 17, 1948 got closer. The Trib had this preview on the 12th:

WENR-TV, THIRD VIDEO STATION, TO OPEN FRIDAY
Plan 30 Hours a Week of Programs
BY LARRY WOLTERS
Chicago's third television station, WENR-TV, will start regular programming next Friday evening [17]. A gala 4 hour dedicatory show will be presented from 7 to 11 o'clock, most of it emanating from the Civic theater which the station will use as its main studio. WENR-TV will operate on channel 7. It plans to present about 30 hours of programs a week.
Thus, Chicagoland viewers will have considerable choice in video fare henceforth. WGN-TV, W-G-N's television station, operates on channel 9; WBKB, the Balaban and Katz station, on channel 4. And a fourth Chicago station is in prospect. WNBQ, NBC's local video station, expects to be on the air with a test pattern next week and will begin programming sometime this fall. Both WENR-TV and WNBQ will have their transmitters and antennas atop the Civic Opera building, NBC's Studio A atop the Merchandise Mart is being reconverted into a modern television studio for WNBQ.
Opening Night's Show
WENR-TV's opening night's show is to start with a half hour dedicatory feature in which state, city and civic leaders, and representatives of ABC, which will operate the new station, will participate.
The show to follow will be in some measure a preview of the station's programs. It will include film telecasts of Candid Microphone and Bride and Groom, two of ABC's shows. The Breakfast Club gang, regularly heard in the morning on the network, is down for a nocturnal appearance before the cameras. WENR's Amateur Hour will be telecast on the premiere.
Ladies Be Seated, an audience participation show, with Tom Moore as master of ceremonies, will be viewed. This show is to be telecast regularly. Victor Borge, pianist and comedian, will be featured.
Whiteman To Conduct
A one hour variety show will wind up the premiere. Paul Whiteman, ABC's musical chief, will conduct a 60 piece orchestra in a performance of George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue." The "Rhapsody" has been identified as Whiteman's musical signature since he introduced it in Carnegie Hall Feb. 12, 1924. Earl Wild, young pianist-composer-conductor, will be soloist.
WENR-TV will telecast regularly a half hour show tentatively titled Video Varieties. Vocalists, instrumentalists and combinations as well as novelty and dance acts will be featured. Among those already engaged for this series are Jack Owens, the "cruising crooner"; Patsy Lee, songstress of the Breakfast club; the Honey Dreamers; Johnny Hill, baritone; Lola Ameche, radio and night club vocalist; Ralph Martine conducting a Dixieland group: Don Lindley and his Music in Velvet, the Adele Scott trio and the George Barnes octet.
Promises Fine Pictures
Paul Mowrey, television director of the network, said that WENR-TV viewers are assured of the finest reception. "Conclusive evidence of this," he said, "is the overwhelmingly tine response directed towards the station on the excellent clarity of the WENR-TV test pattern which currently is being transmitted."
Mowrey said that channel 7 is "in the middle of the dial"— a position little subjected to interference from nonbroadcast (amateur) transmitters and from industrial, scientific and medical devices.
The Civic Theater gives WENR and WENR-TV a studio with a seating capacity of 878. The Breakfast club's morning radio shows will be aired from this theater.

How did the premiere go? Here’s Variety’s review.

WENR-TV INAUGURAL
With Lou Holtz, Paul Whiteman, Victor Borge, Ginny Simms, Jerry Colonna, Buck and Bubbles, Margaret Harris, Szonyis, Montana Jack, Maple City Four, Indian Dancers, "Breakfast Club" with Don McNeill, Jack Owens, Patsy Lee, Fran Allison, and Sam Cowling; "Ladies Be Seated" with Tom Moore; WENR’s "Amateur Hour" with Bob Murphy; Herbie Mintz, Beulah Karney, Herb Newcomb, Wayne Griffin; conductors Rex Maupin, Ed Ballantine and Mary Hartline.
Producer: Harold Stokes
Directors: Jack Gibney, Greg Garrison
4 Hrs., 52 Mins.; Fri. (17), 7 p.m. Sustaining
WENR-TV, Chicago
In preeming the new Civic studio and WENR-TV, its second o-&-o tele station, ABC gave Chicago viewers a modified version of the recent WJZ-TV bow. The "dream bill" device was tossed out, along with any sentimental hark back on vaude. The net simply assembled the best array of talent offered so far on local video. Result couldn't help being the most impressive tele show eyed here to date.
Kickoff cost ABC $7,800 for talent, exclusive of musicians. In relation to the entertainment level of Chicago tele, however, brilliance of the WENR-TV bow was up to that of its New York sister. Preem bucked football and baseball on two other stations, but, according to phone data compiled by ABC researchers, it captured and held 80% of the audience.
In the course of five hours the show inevitably had sagging periods in which quantitative rather than qualitative factors held sway. The entertainment content in one 90-minute stretch might well have been boiled down to 45 minutes, with quarter hours allotted for each of what played as three 30-minute shows. A snack, rather than a full meal, would have sufficed.
"Breakfast Club" came off surprisingly well via the use of visual stunts lifted from its regular format.
The WENR "Amateur Hour" and "Ladies Be Seated" emerged as straight radio shows made visible even to the standing mike in the tyro show. The half-hour remote from the National Television and Electrical Living Show was the weakest seg, offering two male singing groups in close order, plus Indian dances of anthropological interest. Montana Jack's bull whip cracking went best, with a good assist from Don Ward.
Variety show, emceed by Lou Hotz [sic], set a high for NBC and CBS to shoot at when they enter Chi tele. Holtz turned in his standard job, using Lapidus and other stand-by stories throughout.
Buck and Bubbles repeated the sock bits viewed on the WJZ-TV preem. Jerry Colonna punched over two songs via popped optics and eyebrow acrobatics. Margaret Harris, child pianist, was effective in her brief spot. Ginny Simms was plenty sightworthy in lilting her brace of pops. Victor Borge's piano routines were top stuff but his needless worries over mike volume would have been better left to the engineers. Evidently stretching it while the orch set up, his punctuation familiar tapered off for a wan close.
Camera work was skittery at times, especially for the Szonyis terp session in which a payoff over-head lift was dampered. Of the four cameras used, two failed temporarily with consequent limiting of shots. Really choice lensing came during Paul Whiteman's batoning of "Rhapsody In Blue." Sight and sound were expertly interwoven, so expertly in fact that previous camera handling suffered by contrast.
Show went into rehearsal at a late hour, which accounted for some small defects. All in all, however, viewers must have felt that their investment in a receiver had brought a good dividend. Meanwhile until tele is perfected, there won't be perfection. Baxt. (Variety, Sept. 22, 1948)

Two days after the start of programming, the company outlined its programming plans to the Tribune.

WENR-TV, THIRD STATION, TELLS PROGRAM PLANS
Following its debut Friday evening [17] WENR-TV, Chicago's third television station, has started regular daily programming. Shows will be telecast daily during the evening hours, excepting for day time sports events, Harold Stokes manager of the ABC video outlet, announced.
A varied schedule of shows ranging from an amateur hour to a Great Books forum has been arranged.
A program fashioned after the Sachs Amateur Hour will be telecast on Sundays. This program completed its 14th consecutive year on the air on Aug. 29 over WENR. Since its inception in 1934 it has offered nearly 9,000 contestants, ranging in age from 4 to 110, a chance for public recognition.
Dollars and Sense, an audience participation program during which contestants will receive cash awards for cunning use of their senses of touch, taste, sight, sound and smell, will be telecast Sunday evenings.
Plan Video Varieties
During the week a musical and variety program tentatively titled Video Varieties, will be telecast, featuring top vocalists, instrumentalists and musical combinations as well as novelty and eccentric dance acts unique to the television field.
Talent which will be seen thruout this series includes Jack Owens, heard regularly on ABC's Breakfast Club; the five swinging Honey Dreamers; Johnny baritone, a recent radio discovery from St. Louis; the Breakfast Club's comely Patsy Lee; Ralph Martire, trumpeter, conducting a Dixieland group; Don Lindley with his Music in Velvet; and the Adele Scott Trio, which has appeared on many commercial radio programs as well as the Arthur Godfrey program in New York.
Candid Microphone, the production in which the "man with the hidden mike" carefully records unexpected and unpremeditated conversations, will be presented on film on Sundays.
A half hour program of mystery and suspense, as yet untitled, will be presented at 9 p.m. Sundays and at 9:30 to closing at 11, a feature film will be telecast. WENR-TV will experiment in a program primarily designed to interest children.
Boxing And Wrestling
Stump the Authors, which permits fans to hear the plots of complete original stories in the making, also will be televised. This program formerly was heard on ABC and received notable praise from critics a few months ago when it was produced over WBKB.
From 9 to 11 p.m, Tuesdays amateur boxing bouts from the Rainbo Arena will be telecast. From 8:30 to 11 p.m. Wednesdays wrestling matches will be presented.
A television program adapted from the Great Books forums which are conducted thruout the nation will be an extraordinary feature of WENR-TV. Chancellor Robert M. Hutchins of the University of Chicago and chairman of the Great Books Foundation will participate in the forum.

Three days after sign-on, ABC had a regional network set-up. The Trib reported on Sept. 20, 1948:

A midwestern television network, with coaxial cable and radio relay facilities provided by American Telephone and Telegraph company, begins operation tonight. Two way service is provided between St. Louis, Chicago, Toledo, Detroit, and Cleveland. Branches will carry programs to Milwaukee and Buffalo, N. Y., but for the present none can be sent back from these points. This Midwestern network will be linked with the east coast video network by the end of the year.
WENR-TV, ABC video outlet here, will originate several programs on the network to be piped to stations in Milwaukee, Toledo and Cleveland. Stump the Authors, on WENR-TV at 7:30p.m., will be carried on the video net, in addition to a variety hour from 8 to 9.

The circuit had to be used by both NBC and ABC. Variety reviewed its “opening night” the following day.

ABC’s Commercial TV Kickoff Gets Nod Over NBC’s Midwest Video Inaugural; 7-City Feed Uneven
Chicago, Sept. 21.
Television networking was born in the midwest last night (20). Both ABC and NBC celebrated the occasion—inauguration of the Bell System's 2,000-mile coaxial circuit from St. Louis to Buffalo—with special programs piped to outlets along the cable. But, on three scores, ABC copped the laurels.
For (1), ABC jumped on the circuit at 6 p.m., getting a full-hour beat on NBC in debuting web TV operation; (2) ABC kicked off its networking with a commercial show ("On The Trail," a variety stanza, for Admiral Radio, 6-6:30 p.m.), whereas NBC teed off sponsorless; and (3) ABC announced plans for regular web programming, while NBC confessed that, owing to expense, its three-hour inaugural was a one-shot web affair and no further networking is on the books for the moment. Of course, if a sponsor turns up, that'll be different. Or if a special event warranting it comes along, a web feed will again be ordered. . . .
ABC originated its web debut from its new Chicago owned and operated station, WENR-TV, which took to the air only three days before. New Admiral variety show was fed to WTMJ-TV, Milwaukee; WBEN-TV, Buffalo, and WEWS, Cleveland. It'll be a weekly stanza. Net says at least two or three additional shows, all sustaining, will be fed over the coax skein weekly to start.
Hookup last night marked official identification of WEWS, Scripps-Howard station, and WBEN-TV, Buffalo News-owned, as full TV affiliates of ABC. Web's Detroit station, WXYZ-TV, linked by micro-wave via Toledo, will get into the web picture Oct. 9. . . .
ABC plans networking 10 hours of programming weekly. Initial schedule includes: Sunday—"Dollars and Sense," "What Do You Think?" and as yet untitled half-hour show; Monday—"Stump the Author" and 30-minute variety show; Tuesday—two hours of boxing; Wednesday—two hours of wrestling or auto races; Friday—"Music in Velvet" and "Platter Party"; Saturday—"Skip Farrell Show," "Stand By for Crime" and full-hour "Super Circus."
Commercials set for the ABC net include, besides the Admiral variety show, four Notre Dame grid games starting Saturday (25) with Admiral also as sponsor; balloting results Nov. 2 under Kaiser-Frazer aegis, and a sked of boxing bouts tagged by Motorola. Paramount's WBKB, Chi, has exclusive on ND grid games, so ABC airing will be via affiliates outside the Windy City only. Fact that it has commercial shows ready for the new mid-west coax will be roundly plugged by ABC to cement affiliations.

Once the network was in place, two large events were sent out on WENR-TV. The station aired the World Series, but only the games from Cleveland as there was no coaxial with Boston, where Games 1, 2 and 6 took place (it could be heard on WGN radio). On Election Night, November 2, the station combined with ABC radio’s WLS to bring viewers a preview at 6:45 Central, and then complete returns at 7 p.m. WENR-TV would adopted the WLS call letters in 1968.

The first week’s listings in the Trib look pretty local.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1948
7:00—Official opening of WENR-TV, with Mayor Kennelly, Lt. Gov. Hugh Cross, officials of ABC, Paul Harvey, Beulah Karney, Herbie Mintz, Tommy Bartlett and Bob Elson. 7:30—Candid Microphone (film). 8:00—Breakfast Club with Don McNeill. 9:00—Ladies Be Seated with Tom Moore. 10:00—Variety, with Ginny Simms, Victor Borge, Jerry Colonna, Paul Whiteman’s orchestra.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1948
8:00—Skip Farrell show. 8:30—Mystery Quiz. 9:00—Pickup from Television and Electrical Living show at Colesium.
Chicagoans will have an opportunity to see regular telecasts of Chicago's three video stations—WGN-TV, WBKB and WENR-TV—put on the air at the National Television and Electrical Living show, opening at 11 a.m, today in the Coliseum. The show will continue for nine days. Visitors also may be televised and see themselves on video receivers.
More than 300 television receivers of every type and price—the largest number ever assembled under one roof—will be on exhibition, Harry Alter, chairman of the Electric association, which is sponsoring the show has announced.
A hundred manufacturers and distributors of radio and television, washing machines, refrigerators, vacuum cleaners and various electrical appliances will display their newest wares. A feature of the exposition is a search for Miss Television of Chicago, with a 13 week contract with WENR-TV as one of the rewards. Fifth army headquarters and the navy electronics laboratory at Great Lakes will exhibit the newest in military communications equipment. The show will be open daily from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. (Tribune)

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1948
No programming.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1948
7:00—News. 7:15—Film. 7:30—“Stump the Authors” with Sidney Breeze. 8:00—Variety Hour with radio and theatre stars.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1948
7:00—News. 7:15—Film. 7:30—Jack Owens. 8:00—Feature Film.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1948
7:00—Sports News. 7:15—Feature Film. 8:30—Remote telecast. 9:00—Remote telecast.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1948
No programming.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1948
7:00—Music in Velvet. 7:30—Platter Party. 8:00—TV Film.