Detroit was one of two cities in the U.S. with the distinction of being able to watch two new TV stations premiere in the same month. WXYZ-TV formally went on the air on October 9, and WJBK did the same thing 15 days later, though it had test patterns on the air before this.
WXYZ-TV was Detroit’s second station. Its radio station was known as the home base for The Lone Ranger starting in early 1933. Partial credit has been given to station owner George Trendle for its creation. While the Ranger made the transition to TV, he wasn’t part of the WXYZ-TV line-up when the station signed on. Neither was Trendle, for that matter.
Trendle was considering television in the wake of all the publicity surrounding NBC announcing it would begin regular telecasts from the New York World’s Fair. A Variety story dated from July 11, 1939, began:
Concurrent with resignation late last week of George W. Trendle as prez of United Detroit Theatres Corp. (Par), it was revealed that King-Trendle Broadcasting Corp. is mapping erection of brand new studios for WXYZ here, with an eye to television…
The company didn’t act right away. In fact an application for an FM license was turned down in 1942 because the war caused a shortage of materials to build the station. It was another two years before the owners of WXYZ acted on television. Broadcasting of May 22, 1944 reported:
Three Video CPs Sought
THREE new commercial television stations were sought in applications filed with the FCC last week. United Detroit Theatre Corp., Detroit, which is 74.35% owned by Paramount Pictures, Inc., seeks a Channel 4 outlet. Remaining interest is held by Balaban & Katz, which operates WBKB, Chicago. Licensee of WXYZ Detroit, King Trendle Broadcasting Corp., has applied for a Channel 2 outlet and WOW Omaha requests a Channel 1 station.
The August 28, 1944 issue of the trade paper indicated International Detrola Corp. had applied for Channel 2 as well (WJR had asked for Channel 6). The same paper noted as of Oct. 15, 1945, the News Assn. and the Jam Handy Organization had applications for stations in Detroit. That made six companies vying for the five channels assigned to Detroit.
The FCC’s job was made easier when WJR and International Detrola pulled out early in April. It announced its decision on April 15, 1946 (Windsor Star, same date). Here’s a portion of Broadcasting’s report of April 22.
Detroit Gets Two Television Grants
FCC Delays Other Hearings As Applicants Withdraw
FIRST television stations for Detroit were authorized by the FCC last Monday with grants to the Evening News Assn. (WWJ) and King-Trendle Broadcasting Corp. (WXYZ). The grants were the first to be processed without hearing and brought to six the total issued since the resumption of licensing last Fall. . . .
Two Withdrawals
Action on the Detroit grants resulted from the withdrawal of two of the original six applicants for the five available channels, eliminating the necessity for hearings scheduled for April 24. The commission vacated its order of Feb. 1 which designated the applications for consolidated hearing.The two grants were made subject to frequency assignments and other engineering details to be determined. The actions, it was explained, are more than conditional grants, which will not be issued on television applications as announced under the new Commission procedure.
Two other applications are pending for television stations in Detroit—The Jam Handy Organization Inc. and United Detroit Theatres Corp. Action on these cases will be taken later. …
It was at this point King-Trendle decided to get out the radio and television business. ABC bought WXYZ, a radio station in Grand Rapids and the Michigan Network which provided programmes to nine stations, for $3,650,000. The FCC approved the sale July 17, 1946. WXYZ was an ABC radio affiliate; there was no doubt what TV affiliation it would have.
Meanwhile, on July 12, 1946, the Commission granted Channel 5 (76-82 mc) to King-Trendle (and Channel 4 at 66-72 mc to the Evening News) with visual power at 16 kw, aural at 14 kw and a tower of 379 feet. Broadcasting’s list of TV stations as of Oct. 1, 1946 gave the call letters at WDLT (apparently for “Detroit’s leading televisors”).
The station was lining up sponsors. Billboard of Nov. 30, 1946 blurbed:
The U. S. Rubber Company, General Mills, Chevrolet and the Campbell-Ewald ad agency have all contracted to sponsor programs with ABC over WDLT, net’s second station being built in Detroit, altho it won’t start operations for six months.
On March 27, 1947, WDLT was back before the FCC asking to modify the permit which changed the frequency to Channel 7, 174-180 mc. It applied on Dec. 15, 1947 to extend the completion date to June 10, 1948, which was granted Feb. 12. United Detroit Theatres wasn’t happy about this. On Feb. 20, 1948, the FCC denied a petition from the company to have WDLT’s channel assignment revoked, complaining about the delay in getting the station built, then lost an appeal on May 7, 1948.
It’s unclear when the call letters were changed. Billboard used them in a story on April 24, 1948. On May 14, it asked the Commission to allow the corporate name to be changed from King-Trendle Broadcasting Corp. to WXYZ-TV. And it asked for yet another extension to Nov. 1, 1948.
But things were getting closer, according to the Free Press, June 16, 1948:
2nd Station to Broadcast Television Detroit's second television station, WXYZ-TV, will start broadcasting the first week in October. Announcement of the formal opening was made by James G. Riddell, general manager of WXYZ, WXYZ-FM and WXYZ-TV.
• • •
RIDDELL SAID that exchange of programs with stations in Chicago and Cleveland would start in October. New York programs are expected by Jan. 1. 1949.
The TV transmitter and studios will be in the Maccabees Building. Riddell said WXYZ-TV will operate on channel No. 7.
The present antenna will be replaced by one 487 feet above ground level. Addition of a second station is expected to advance the quality of television programs in Detroit, Riddell said.
The station was getting sponsors, mainly on a network basis. The Hollywood Reporter, July 15, 1948:
More Spots for Bulova
Bulova Watch, pursuing its cornering of time signal spots on all TV stations, has signed up three of ABC’s leading projected stations. Through the Biow, Co., New York, it has bought 17 signals weekly on WENR-TV, Chicago; WXYZ-TV, Detroit, and KGO-TV, San Francisco.
A local sponsor deal, Billboard, Aug. 14, 1948:
WXYZ-TV Inks 52-Week Series
DETROIT—Aug. 7.—First commercial contract for 52-week series of program was signed Tuesday [3] by James G. Riddell, manager of WXYZ-TV, which is not expected to be on the air until after October 1. Sponsor is the Wettlaufer Manufacturing Company, with the Marvin Hahn Agency handling the show. Present contract offers the sponsor a choice of three different shows being readied by the station, all in the sports field.Rates for whatever show is decided upon for Wettlaufer will be based upon the rate card issued June 1 by the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), which owns the station.
Original plans to carry the University of Michigan home football teams under Wettlaufer sponsorship were nixed by Riddell as a matter of station policy. WWJ carried the games last year and is slated to do so again, and Riddell ruled against any duplication in programming.
Instead, another sports deal was slated for signing Friday (6) to carry the eight home games of the Detroit Lions by WXYZ on both television and AM. Show will be sponsored again by Goebel Beer, who sponsored the Lions on WXYZ’s AM operation in 1947. (The following week, Billboard reported radio was not part of the deal).
It appeared WXYZ-TV would make the deadline to be part of the ABC regional TV network when it was ready. Here is the Free Press, Aug. 29, 1948:
WXYZ Joins Video Network in Midwest
The first Midwest television network will be launched Sept. 20 by the American Broadcasting Co., Paul V. Mowrey, ABC’s national television director, announced.On Oct. 9 television programs will be initiated by WXYZ, the ABC outlet in Detroit.
A coaxial network, to be completed with the Detroit inauguration, will link Detroit, Chicago, Toledo, Cleveland, Buffalo and two other cities, probably St. Louis and Milwaukee.
Meanwhile, test patterns will begin on Sept. 15.
And some programmes were put together. Billboard, Sept. 11, 1948:
FORE!
DETROIT, Sept. 4.—Professional golf lessons are to go on the air over WXYZ-TV, new American Broadcasting Company affiliate, with signing of Chick Harbert, pro at Meadowbrook Gold Club, for a series of telecasts. The Michigan open champ will demonstrate strokes.
And from Broadcasting, Sept. 13, 1948:
‘Lady O’ Charm’
SPECIAL COOKING show will be conducted on WXYZ-TV, ABC’s Detroit video outlet which begins telecasts Oct. 9, by Edythe Fern Melrose, WXYZ’s “Lady O’ Charm” being constructed at Lake St. Clair, 12 miles from Detroit. Show will be televised once weekly.
And an update on the ABC Midwest network from Broadcasting, Sept. 20, 1948:
WXYZ-TV TO COMPLETE MIDWEST TV NETWORK
WXYZ-TV Detroit, opening Oct. 9, will complete the coaxial system joining Chicago, Cleveland, Buffalo, St. Louis and Milwaukee. Link is supplemented by microwave relay between Detroit and Toledo, already connected: Exchange programs are expected from the East early in the year, according to James G. Riddell, general manager of WXYZ AM, TV and FM. Before year's end, ABC expects to have video stations operating also in Los Angeles and San Francisco. In addition to programming from these five key cities, the network will establish three preliminary regional circuits, from which an overall national TV network will be developed later, Mr. Riddell said. New 40,000-pound TV and FM tower, mounted atop the Maccabees Bldg. and anchored to concrete beams at the 15th floor level, is in the "last stages of construction," he added. Placed 469 feet above ground level, it replaces the 187-foot radio tower and antenna, dismantled at cost of $50,000.
Facilities will include nine studio cameras, one complete remote unit and a film projection unit. Studios and control room will be constructed on the 15th floor of the building, centered in the city's art district, with a main floor auditorium to be used as an audience studio.
WXYZ-TV hit the airwaves with what was mainly a sports package on October 9, 1948. Here's Variety's review:
ABC Takes Wraps Off WXYZ-TV With a 10 1/2–Hr. Sponsored Pree
By GEORGE ROSEN
Detroit, Oct. 12.
ABC forged another important link in its coast-to-coast television network and in its bid for a lofty perch in the TV sphere, with the preem of its owned-and-operated Detroit station—WXYZ-TV—last Saturday (9). It's now three down and two to go for Ed Noble's $8,000,000 video enterprise, with the wraps also off in New York and Chicago, and with Los Angeles and San Francisco still coming up.
As TV preems go, the Detroit opening was significant from several standpoints, leaving in its wake TV blueprints to chart the medium's future course in the hinterlands. As Detroit's second television station (the Detroit News' WWJ-TV is an old story in tele pioneering), WXYZ-TV has served as a midwest stimulant, with a 24-sheet pre-preem ballyhoo not only spiraling set ownership from a previous 15,000 mark to nearly 20.000 within a week, but injecting a hypo into the local competitive programming setup. That's how WWJ-TV wanted it, and significant was the fact that the Detroit News' station staged its own program Friday night (8) as a salute to the newcomer. Too, the WXYZ-TV preem rates a nod as the most commercially successful one to date, with its solid 10 1/2 hours of inaugural programming (in itself establishing a record for a marathon preem shows completely sold out, with the exception of a 15-minute segment allotted to talks by ABC board chairman Noble; prez Mark Woods, and WXYZ AM-FM-TV gen. mgr James G. Riddell.
Otherwise the bankrolling of the variegated opening-day programming setup more than offset the $10,000 preem nut. This included Philco's picking up the tab for the 60-minute entertainment spread emceed by Georgie Price and comprising Frances Langford, Paul and Grace Hartman, Gil Maison, "Sugar Chile" Robinson and Paul Whiteman with a house orch augmented by key men of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and pianist Earl Wild, who was brought on from N. Y. as part of the "Philco Package."
Opening day sponsored program spread also included a pickup of the World Series game from Cleveland and the Notre Dame-Michigan State grid contest, both tied in with the midwest tele web; a program by the Chevrolet Glee Club, an early vintaged Danny Kaye pic, sports commentary and a pickup of the Detroit Lions vs. Boston Yanks pro football game for the nightcap.
Significant, too, was the Detroit premiere's inauguration of the “Philco Package" tieup for TV openings around the country, with the set manufacturer laying out $7,500 for the 60-minute show here and already prepping ambitious plans to underwrite elaborate Coast shows for the L. A. and Frisco ABC-TV curtain-raisers.Occupying Channel 7 on the Detroit video band, WXYZ signal on the opening day festivities was generally excellent. Weighed strictly on terms of bigtime professional standards and to one familiar with slick, know-how techniques associated with the New York-originating "Texaco Star Theatre" and CBS' "Toast of the Town," the WXYZ premiere, from a technical standpoint, left much to be desired. This was particularly true on the lighting and camera work, which resulted in some of the ace Philco-bankrolled acts suffering.
But at the same time the Philco show, virtually a replica of the east coast network's Texaco stanza, was a revelation to these midwest viewers, who perhaps for the first time recognized the potentialities of bigtime live programming when coaxial coast-to-coast TV becomes a reality. And while the shortcomings of the local technical crews were apparent, nevertheless there is evidenced here an eagerness and a daring in some of the camera work, with some of the Paul Whiteman superimpositions, for example, rivalling those achieved in the east.
It's expected that by the middle of December WXYZ, along with the remainder of the midwest TV web, will be finally linked coaxially with N. Y., with an ambitious Christmas full network show currently in the works at ABC. But until then the ABC Detroit operation, for one, is striving hard to overcome the handicaps resulting from lack of experience.
With a weekly schedule of 20 hours programming, it's estimated that about 40% of the time will be sponsored by the end of October. Chief reliance, or course, is on films and sports, with the station also benefiting by a six hours a week midwest net program exchange.
Detroit's next TV premiere will be the George Storer station, WJBK, scheduled for Oct. 24.
Broadcasting’s issue of Oct. 11, 1948 concentrated on the station’s sales abilities.
WXYZ-TV Opening Heavily Sponsored
Every Available Time Segment On Detroit Outlet Sold
OPENING DAY's schedule of WXYZ-TV Detroit last Saturday was scheduled to be as completely commercial as ABC executives would permit for the inaugural of its o&o TV station in the motor capital, with every time segment sold that was offered for sale.
Starting with a 15-minute preview, which was not for sale, at 12:16 p.m., WXYX-TV's first commercial was to be the Chevrolet Glee Club. 12:30-1 p.m., sponsored by the Chevrolet Division of General Motors Corp., Detroit, placed by Campbell-Ewald Co., Detroit. Gillette Safety Razor Corp., Boston, was to sponsor the World Series telecast from Cleveland, through Maxon Inc., New York. At the end of the ball game the WXYZ-TV audience was to be taken to South Bend where the Notre Dame-Michigan State gridiron contest was under way. This WXYZ-TV telecast was to be sponsored by Admiral Corp., Chicago, through Crittenden & Eger, that city. Following the football game Don Wattridge was scheduled for a sports resume, to be presented by Detroit Edison Co., through Campbell-Ewald Co.
Another special not-for-sale program was to be followed by a film, sponsored by Galvin Mfg. Corp., Chicago (Motorola radio and TV sets), through Gourfain-Cobb, Chicage, broadcast 5:45-6:15 p.m. The next quarter-hour, according to the advance agenda, was the official welcome to WXYZ-TY by the Governor of Michigan and the Mayor of Detroit, with acknowledgements by Edward Noble, ABC board chairman; Mark Woods, ABC President, and James Riddell, general manager of WXYZ and WXYZ-TV.
The Philco premiere variety program, 6:30-7 p.m., sponsored by Philco Radio Corp.. Philadelphia, through Hutchins Adv. Inc., Philadelphia, was to open the evening schedule, followed by a quarter-hour sports news program presented by Cunningham Drug Co., Detroit, through Simons-Michelson, Detroit. WXYZ-TV's first day was to wind up with a pro football game between the Detroit Lions and Boston Yanks, sponsored by Goebel Brewing Co., Detroit, through Brooke, Smith. French & Dorrance, that city.
Other than the World Series, the programming for the first week (at least judging by the Free Press listings and ads) was purely local. Meanwhile, WWJ-TV was airing some of the shows from NBC.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1948
12:15—Preview of WXYZ-TV debut. 12:30—Chevrolet Glee Club. 1:00—World Series baseball from Municipal Stadium, Boston Braves vs. Cleveland Indians (ABC). 3:30—Second half of football game from South Bend, Ind., Michigan State vs. Notre Dame (ABC). 6:15—WXYZ-TV Opening Ceremonies (ABC). 6:30—Philco Premier Variety Program with Paul Whiteman, Frances Langford and the Hartmans, dance satirists, Georgie Price, emcee (ABC). 7:30-7:45—Sports News. 8:00—Football from Briggs Stadium, Boston Yanks vs. Detroit Lions.
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 10, 1948
12:45—World Series baseball from Municipal Stadium, Boston Braves vs. Cleveland Indians (ABC). 6:00—Musical Pattern. 8:00—Dollars and Sense. 8:30—Film. 9:00—Suspense Drama. 9:30—Who Do You Think?
MONDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1948
4:30—Charm Kitchen.
5:30—Film.
6:00—Music.
6:30—Documentary Film.
7:00—Woods and Waters, hunting and fishing show with Jack Van Coevering.
7:30—News Quiz.
8:00—Sports Parade with Don Watrick, sponsored by the J.L. Hudson Company.
8:15—Barber Shop Quartet, sponsored by Frankenmuth Beer and Ale.
8:30—Film.
9:00—Variety Show.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1948
6:30—Musical Pattern. 8:30—Wrestling at the Arena Gardens. Sky Hy Lee (the Texas Cowboy) vs. Mike (the Body) Sharpe; Fred Atkins vs. Lee Henning.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1948
8:15—Gay Deceivers. 8:30—G.E. Auction Night, hosted by Johnny Slagle. 9:00—Movie Time.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1948
No programmes scheduled.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1948
6:30—Musical Pattern. 8:00—Music in Velvet. 8:30—Platter Party.
