Why It Was WMSB On Channel 10

[FredLeonard]

I'm sure this split channel deal made Hal Gross happy. He had two weaker competitors: One operating part time from down near Jackson. The other operating from Flint. And WMSB was pathetic - like all "educational television." Panel discussions of a bunch of professors. A professor sitting in front of a bookcase and droning on about some obscure topic. An occasional obscure public domain movie. And educational radio was just as bad. Add to the preceding mix: Classical music and farm reports.

[rugratsonline]

...WMSB was pathetic - like all "educational television." Panel discussions of a bunch of professors. A professor sitting in front of a bookcase and droning on about some obscure topic. An occasional obscure public domain movie...

Educational TV "back in the day" was before my time, but I pictured it just as it was described above. Also add instructional programming for in-class use, which was just as banal as class itself. It wasn't until the arrival of the "public television" concept and Sesame Street in the late 1960s that educational TV began to have more flavor.

[Dr. Sandi]

Instructional TV in the early 60s from "Michigan Classroom Television" was slightly more interesting than our teacher. For example, Mrs. Stone, the TV science teacher got to do experiments that my grade school wasn't equipped (or possibly insured) for.

And as a native Spanish speaker, Senora Martha Murray taught us Spanish in a way that our classroom teacher never could have. Although these days, I'm sure there would be a kid in class who could give us a flawless native pronunciation of those elementary sentences.

There are things that they could do on TV that nobody was doing in the classroom. But the shows were Hella dreary, despite the content upgrade. Minimal budget and the sterile college mindset didn't make for must see TV.

Of course, the MCTV producer in the early 60s was Les Harcus, who had years of experience at WZZM in Grand Rapids before he took the TV job at MSU. I think his time in commercial TV paid off when he brought real world experience to the hallowed halls of Big Education. But still, it was done in a Quonset hut on the fringes of the MSU campus. I don't think they got a lot of respect or a lot of funding.

I was glad that Sesame Street came along, even though I was starting college by then. I could tuck in and feast on some Rubber Duckie action.

[Sholmes]

...WMSB was pathetic - like all "educational television." Panel discussions of a bunch of professors. A professor sitting in front of a bookcase and droning on about some obscure topic. An occasional obscure public domain movie...

Educational TV "back in the day" was before my time, but I pictured it just as it was described above. Also add instructional programming for in-class use, which was just as banal as class itself. It wasn't until the arrival of the "public television" concept and Sesame Street in the late 1960s that educational TV began to have more flavor.

Watch the MAX show Julia to see what Public Television was like prior to Julia Childs turning it into something entertaining and educational. She is the reason Public Television survived and we now have Masterpiece and Seseme Street.

Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

[wsummers]

Early history article….I remember visiting WKAR in the old studios with sets for Land of Play and others.

https://www.wkar.org/history/2019-02-27 ... liest-days

[Calvert DeForest]

I saw my first UHF TV Receiver in the late 1950s in a neighbor's house. I was fascinated by it, and had dreams about tuning in all the UHF Channels. That actually happened during a tropo event 15 or so years later, more or less. There were a few missing channels, but not that many, in the 14-30 range.

I remember growing up we had a Zenith B&W console with button tuning instead of a knob. It had a built-in VHF tuner with a UHF slot between channels 13 and 2. The tuner would automatically jump over the UHF selection when cycling up or down. The UHF slot was for an external tuner which we didn't have for that set. My folks bought me a used B&W portable for my 6th birthday. The portable set had a built-in UHF slide tuner with a wire-loop antenna. It was about the time WUHQ signed on channel 41 in Battle Creek. It was the only UHF station I could get with any clarity until WKAR signed on channel 23 a couple years later.

My dad was never interested in getting a color set as the Zenith console worked fine and he didn't see the need to pay for a new set. About a year after he passed away my mom took the plunge and bought a Zenith color console from Knapp's. She had it delivered while I was at school and didn't tell me beforehand because she wanted it to be a surprise. I remember coming home that day and seeing The Price is Right in color. It was a whole new experience.

[Jason Kragt]

I was in 2nd grade during the switch from 10 to 23. The teacher would play The Electric Company every morning. One day, a game show came on instead. She didn't know what happened. We lost our in-class TV time and favorite show. It took them weeks before they figured out what happened and how to get a UHF antenna properly connected so we could watch again.

[FredLeonard]

I was in 2nd grade during the switch from 10 to 23. The teacher would play The Electric Company every morning. One day, a game show came on instead. She didn't know what happened. We lost our in-class TV time and favorite show. It took them weeks before they figured out what happened and how to get a UHF antenna properly connected so we could watch again.

I remember the switch over. WMSB promoted it for weeks before it happened, including on screen text during most programs. Thank you. You have confirmed my opinion of the stupidity of teachers. Weeks to figure out what happened? Didn't your your teacher bother to read the text crawling across thew screen? Did she just turn on the Electric Company to give herself a break?

[Jason Kragt]

They figured out what happened relatively quickly. The thing that tripped them up more was how they needed a UHF antenna. I think they connected the rabbit ears to the UHF input. Some days it would come in. Others it would not.

[ChrisWL1980]

The American Archive of Public Broadcasting (americanarchive.org) has an exhibit devoted to National Educational Television and an extensive collection of NET shows from the '50s and '60s. Some of them are interesting, especially the NET Journal and At Issue series (sort of an early version of Frontline). But yeah, a lot of it is just "talking heads".
Some PBS stations still carried that instructional programming for in-class usage into the '90s (IIRC WGTE 30 in Toledo was one of them, while WTVS 56 had settled into a daytime mixture of kids' shows and lifestyle/how-to programs by then. I think the advent of home video largely put an end to the in-class OTA instructional programming.

[HD74]

The very last day that the channel share ended, there was a cavity fire in the transmitter. MSB engineer left and left WILX to deal with it. I worked with that engineer doing telethons for a few years, he shared the story while we were sitting at the console in the old Guerstenslager (SIC) van shading cameras.

[rugratsonline]

Some PBS stations still carried that instructional programming for in-class usage into the '90s (IIRC WGTE 30 in Toledo was one of them, while WTVS 56 had settled into a daytime mixture of kids' shows and lifestyle/how-to programs by then. I think the advent of home video largely put an end to the in-class OTA instructional programming.

As well as the internet -- both videotaping (including pre-recorded material) and the WWW meant that in-school programming can fit a class' schedule, instead of a class fitting a TV schedule.

Speaking of internet, a major provider of in-school television has their wares online:

https://media.dlib.indiana.edu/collections/d791sm87h

[Calvert DeForest]

They figured out what happened relatively quickly. The thing that tripped them up more was how they needed a UHF antenna. I think they connected the rabbit ears to the UHF input. Some days it would come in. Others it would not.

That would make sense. Although I likewise remember the switch was heavily promoted on-air and with full-page ads in the State Journal, UHF was relatively new to viewers in the area. Channel 41 signed on the year before and was the only UHF station that had semi-reliable reception in Lansing. Sets were sold with UHF loops or bowties in the packaging, although I can imagine a lot of them were tossed aside or buried in a drawer somewhere as there was really no use for a UHF antenna prior to WKAR's appearance on channel 23. It was probably the first time a lot of folks had ever touched the UHF slide tuner on their sets or had a reason to take the bowtie out of the plastic wrap and hook it up. Once viewers got into the habit it didn't take long for the audience to follow the switch.

[FredLeonard]

Ironically, now many people have the opposite problem. Most stations, no matter what they call their channel number, are really on UHF. Many of the so called HDTV antennas only work on UHF. But there are some stations whose real channel (RF channel) is actually VHF and they often have the same reception problems described here for the early days of WKAR-TV on channel 23 (actually, their RF channel is channel 35). WILX-TV and WJRT-TV both remain on VHF and actually transmit on their old channel numbers, which is something of a rarity.

[Calvert DeForest]

Analog VHF stations were given the opportunity to retain UHF channel assignments post-transition or move their digital assignments to the VHF band. A lot of stations chose the latter to save on the power bill (less juice required to cover the same footprint). WOOD moved from RF channel 8 analog to channel 7 digital while WWMT moved from channel 3 analog to channel 8 digital. Due to the delicate nature of ATSC 1.0 signals and increased interference factors at lower frequencies, the standard plays much better with UHF than VHF.

You're right in that many indoor and outdoor antennas manufactured these days are missing the longer elements needed for decent VHF reception. Some Yagi's have the VHF element although you have to make sure the antenna you're purchasing contains a VHF rod in the assembly. So-called "HD antennas" are no different than antennas used for analog. It's all marketing. An antenna is an antenna.