Television stations today are technological marvels. Computers, digital components, transmitters of unimagined power, and machines that can make anything we dream a reality. WNEP-TV will be celebrating its 50th anniversary soon. We thought it would be interesting to look back, and see how it all began.

Five Stations started it all

The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre TV market was born on January 1st, 1953 when WBRE-TV signed on the air at 3pm. With this first signal the race was on. Six months later WDAU-TV in Scranton, signed on. Three months after that, on September 16th, 1953, WILK-TV hit the air. In January of 1954, WARM-TV owned by a group headed by Former Governor William Scranton began broadcasting. Last, and as it turned out, least, was WVUE-TV from Scranton. WVUE-TV lasted only 9 months before it ceased operations and its license was bought by WDAU-TV. It would be 20 years before another station would be added to our market.

WILK-TV signs on. The Governor of Pennsylvania, the Mayor of Wilkes-Barre, and other dignitaries join WILK-TV owners Thomas Shelbourne and Dr. Roy Morgan.

Typically, the stations in the market operated from 3pm until midnight. On the day that WILK-TV signed on, they were scheduled to begin the festivities at 2pm....getting the jump on the other two operating stations. But the whole thing almost never took place. The engineers working on the transmitter had the signal up and running by noon of that day, so they went to lunch. At lunch they asked the restaurant owner to turn on the TV, so they could see the test signal and how it looked....it looked good. About an hour before the ceremony, they looked up from their lunch and saw snow on the screen! Skipping lunch (and paying) they rushed back to the tower and managed to re-establish the signal at 1:50 pm.

Putting a station on the air was simple. Getting a network signal from New York to Scranton was hard. Back then you couldn’t just pick up the network signal off a satellite. The engineers of the station had to make it up as they went along. Often using hand-made equipment from old radio parts, the engineers came up with “hops”, or re-transmissions, from mountain top to mountain top. They adapted microwaves to carry the network signal from the top of the Empire State Building to a reception tower in Effort, Pa., about 45 miles east of Wilkes-Barre. From there the signal was relayed to Penobscot Mountain, the site of our transmitter. It wasn’t the most reliable system in the world, and often the Effort tower had to be re-directed to accept a signal from Philadelphia. Ice and snow at both towers affected the signals and many times the engineer on duty had to climb up the tower and chip the ice off with hammers. Talk about hazardous duty!

WNEP-TV News Anchor Bob Carroll in 1966 (photo courtesy The Scranton Times) Past Newswatch 16 6pm Anchors John VonBergen Tom Bigler Roy Goshorn Bob Carroll John Glawe -- Marie Carpentier John Foster -- Marie Carpentier Ed Martelle -- Liz Pursell Gary Essex -- Liz Pursell Gary Essex -- Susan Blake Gary Essex -- Cheryl Toney Gary Essex -- Jacqueline Boulden Nolan Johannes -- Jacqueline Boulden Nolan Johannes -- Karen Harch Nolan Johannes -- Marisa Burke Frank Andrews -- Marisa Burke Mike Lewis -- Marisa Burke

Both WILK-TV out of Wilkes-Barre and WARM-TV out of Scranton, were ABC Network affiliates. Since the two stations used the same network signal, they would sometimes share their signal with each other when weather turned bad. But this was hardly a courtesy. Occasionally, the engineer on duty would flash his own station’s call letters on the signal sent to the other station. This would make it on the air and infuriate the opposing General Manager.

Networks, also in their infancy, provided little programming for the local stations. Back then networks signed on at 8pm and carried programming until 11pm. Filling the time before and after was up to the local station, and WILK had plenty of ideas. Cooking shows with local women, kid shows after school, local politicians, and any kind of game show imaginable all took turns filling time and attracting viewers. In those days not many people watched television, so the shows didn’t have a lot of money to work with. Often two or even three different programs would use the same set, and everybody helped put on the show. A big break for local television came with the McCarthy hearings on un-American activity. The hearings introduced television to people in many ways and led to higher ratings even after the hearings were over. People began to get in the habit of watching TV.

WARM-TV camera used on the show "At Home with Janet" in the 1950s

That didn’t mean that stations flourished. In fact, WILK and WARM were both losing money, but because they were each part of local radio stations, they stayed on the air. In 1955, the owners of WILK and WARM (the two ABC affiliates) decided to merge the two stations. A company from Buffalo, NY, Transcontinental stepped in to make things legal, and on January 1st, 1956 the struggling stations joined to form WNEP-TV. WNEP still holds the license for WILK-TV 34, even though our primary signal is the WARM-TV 16.

Continue to "WNEP History Part 2" -->