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 NBC stopped operating it in March 1933; it was interested in electronic television, not the outdated mechanical type in Chicago.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.