WVUE (channel 12) was a
television station
A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth's s ...
licensed to
Wilmington, Delaware
Wilmington is the List of municipalities in Delaware, most populous city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish colonization of the Americas, Swedish settlement in North America. It lie ...
, United States, which operated from 1949 to 1958. For the last part of its history, it attempted to target the
Philadelphia
Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
, Pennsylvania,
market. The station's studios were located in Wilmington.
History
WVUE first signed in March 1949 as WDEL-TV, owned by the Steinman family of
Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Lancaster ( ) is a city in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 58,039 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, eighth-most populous ci ...
, along with WDEL radio (
AM 1150 and FM 93.7, now
WSTW). It received a full license on June 30. It shared a studio and tower on Shipley Road in north Wilmington with its radio sisters. It operated on channel 7 as the
NBC affiliate for Wilmington, and also carried a secondary affiliation with the
DuMont Television Network
The DuMont Television Network (also the DuMont Network, DuMont Television, DuMont/Du Mont, or (incorrectly) Dumont ) was one of America's pioneer commercial television networks, rivaling NBC and CBS for the distinction of being first overall in ...
. At the time, Wilmington was a separate television market.
However, WDEL-TV found the going somewhat difficult. It was forced to operate at only 1,000
watt
The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...
s because it was sandwiched between
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
's WJZ-TV (now
WABC-TV) and
Washington, D.C.'s WMAL-TV (now
WJLA-TV). This resulted in hit-or-miss reception outside of Wilmington itself. In 1951, WDEL-TV moved to channel 12 for two reasons—to allow its sister station in Lancaster,
WGAL-TV, to move to channel 8 and to alleviate the aforementioned interference from WJZ-TV and WMAL-TV. The channel switch allowed WDEL-TV to significantly increase its power to cover much of the Philadelphia market. While Philadelphia already had an NBC affiliate, WPTZ-TV (channel 3, later WRCV-TV and now
KYW-TV), its transmitter was not strong enough to cover Wilmington at the time. The Steinmans realized that Philadelphia and Wilmington were going to be a single market (Wilmington is only southwest of Philadelphia). In hopes of boosting the station's profile, the Steinmans persuaded
Joe Pyne, who had been a popular talk show host on
WILM radio, to come back to Wilmington and start a talk show there. Pyne stayed at the station for two years before going to
Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
.
In early 1955, the
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...
(FCC) officially collapsed Wilmington into the Philadelphia market. By this time, NBC was negotiating to buy channel 3, and informed the Steinmans that in the event negotiations were successful, it would pull its affiliation from channel 12. With that in mind, the Steinmans opted to sell channel 12 to Paul F. Harron, owner of Philadelphia radio powerhouse WIBG (now
WNTP). The sale closed in March 1955, and channel 12 changed its calls to WPFH, after its new owner. Harron turned channel 12 into Philadelphia's first
independent station
An independent station is a broadcast station, usually a television station, not affiliated with a larger broadcast television network, network. As such, it only broadcasts broadcast syndication, syndicated programs it has purchased; brokered pr ...
. However, he continued to lease space on WDEL-AM-FM's tower. On March 25, 1956, Philadelphia minister
George A. Palmer began a Sunday afternoon television version of his popular ''Morning Cheer'' daily radio show on WPFH.
Two years later, Harron sold WPFH and WIBG to
Storer Broadcasting
Storer Communications, known from 1927 to 1952 as the Fort Industry Company and from 1952 to 1983 as Storer Broadcasting, was an American media company that owned television and radio stations and cable television systems.
Founded by George Butle ...
, who changed channel 12's calls to WVUE. The station did not go on the air for a week during the call sign transition.
Storer operated the station out of a studio on Baynard Boulevard in downtown Wilmington, with a satellite studio at
Suburban Station in Philadelphia. Storer also moved the transmitter to
Glassboro, New Jersey
Glassboro is a Borough (New Jersey), borough within Gloucester County, New Jersey, Gloucester County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, within the Philadelphia metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 2 ...
. Plans were in the works to build a new transmitter at the
Roxborough tower farm in Philadelphia, but while Storer bought land for a new tower, it was never built.
In 1958, Storer brought Pyne back to Wilmington to host a late-night talk show. Pyne's program reportedly boosted the station's ratings 30-fold. However, it wasn't enough to keep the station going. Later in 1958, Storer bought
WITI in
Milwaukee
Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...
. At that time, Storer owned VHF stations in
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...
,
Detroit
Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...
,
Cleveland
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...
and
Toledo in addition to WVUE, and the purchase of WITI would have left the company one VHF station over the FCC ownership limit of the time. As a result, Storer had to either sell off or shut down WVUE in order to comply with the ownership limit. There were no interested buyers, however, so Storer took the station off the air on September 13 of the same year. The license was returned to the FCC on December 18.
Around this time, Philadelphia's
public television
Public broadcasting (or public service broadcasting) is radio, television, and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service with a commitment to avoiding political and commercial influence. Public broadcasters receive f ...
station,
WHYY-TV, was looking for a way to boost its coverage. Operating on channel 35, it had difficulty attracting an audience because of the limitations of
UHF's reach at the time. Shortly after WVUE went off the air, WHYY-TV's owners, the Metropolitan Philadelphia Educational Radio and Television Corporation, asked the FCC for permission to move to channel 12. There were no free VHF allocations in Philadelphia itself, and the channel 12 allocation in Wilmington was the only available VHF allocation on the New Jersey or Delaware sides of the market that could cover Philadelphia with a city-grade signal. The FCC granted the request in early 1963, and on September 12, WHYY-TV moved to channel 12. It operated from the old WVUE facility in Glassboro until moving to the Roxborough tower farm in 1971. The
WVUE calls currently belong to the
Fox-affiliated television station in
New Orleans
New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...
.
References
External links
Scott Fybush on the old WDEL-TV
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wvue (Delaware)
Television channels and stations established in 1949
1949 establishments in Delaware
Television channels and stations disestablished in 1958
1958 disestablishments in Delaware
Wilmington, Delaware
VUE