TAR HEEL
TELEVISION
With the bars down, it is swiftly
blanketing the state.
By J. B. CLARK
Television— man’s modern miracle
of communication — in five short years
has become, to thousands of North
Carolinians, an accepted part of their
daily lives. The letters — TV — mean
television and they arc as familiar now
to Tar Heel children as their ABC’s.
And many youngsters, still not old
enough to attend school, have learned
to follow their favorite TV shows as
well as adults, recognizing familiar
theme songs, pictorial commercials
and star performers on sight.
TV has had a rather brief history in
North Carolina. WBTV, Charlotte, was
the first television station in the Caro¬
lines. This was inaugurated on July 15,
1949. WFMY-TV. Greensboro, fol¬
lowed soon after on September 22.
1949. Back then, TV was quite a nov¬
elty. In fact, WBTV estimated less
than 500 receiving sets within the
station's radius. Compare that total
with an estimated 350.000 sets within
the WBTV area today.
This has stimulated a new business
in the state, with wholesalers, retailers
and repair service shops profiling to
the tune of millions of dollars in a new
industry which, five years ago, was un¬
tapped in North Carolina. Consider
for a moment, there arc over 500.000
TV sets in the combined area served
by WBTV and WFMY-TV. At an aver¬
age purchase price of $200 per set,
this has caused 100 million dollars to
be spent by North Carolinians. And at
an average of 4 viewers per set, over
2 million people today watch Tar Heel
television.
Only five years ago, few North Caro¬
linians had ever seen television. Perhap
on a trip to New York or some other
metropolitan center, they had had a
quick look at it, but had reconciled
themselves to the possibility that Tar
Heel TV was a long way off. Fortu¬
nately for WBTV and WFMY-TV. op¬
erators of those stations began tele¬
casting as quickly as they could after
being issued their grants by the
Federal Communications Commission
which is empowered to license all radio
and TV stations in the nation. It wasn't
long after Charlotte and Greensboro
went on the air that the FCC invoked
a ’‘freeze" on all TV applications until
a lengthy and exhaustive study could
be made on the availability of
channels and the selection of strategic
locations could be assigned to assure
adequate TV service across the nation,
without danger of overlapping chan¬
nels.
The FCC "freeze” has now been re¬
moved. new and old applications are
being processed daily and television
is rapidly expanding in North Carolina
as more and more stations go on the
air. At this writing. North Carolina has
seven stations in operation: WISE-TV,
Asheville; WBTV. Charlotte; WFMY-
TV, Greensboro; WNAO-TV, Raleigh;
WSJS-TV and WTOB-TV. Winston-
Salem and WNCT-TV. Greenville.
Meanwhile, construction permits have
been issued to seven more stations in
North Carolina. These additional sta¬
tions will be located in Chapel
Hill, Charlotte, Durham, Goldsboro,
Greensboro. Mount Airy and Wilming¬
ton, with others to be added as the
lower of WSJS-TV at Winston-Salem.
FCC conducts its hearings to select
licenses from contesting applicants.
Today North Carolina’s landscape
is dotted with nearly 100 radio sta¬
tions. Television may never surpass
that figure but. with the issuance of
more and more "UHF" grants, as com¬
pared to the limited number of “VHF"
permits available, the day will surely
come when TV will cover the state as
comprehensively as radio does today.
THE STATE, FCORUARY 13. 1954
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