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WHCT-TV, Channel 18 (ABC, DuMont, CBS, Independent) |  |
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WHCT-TV, Channel 18 (ABC, DuMont, CBS, Independent) | |
One of the applicants
for the 1985 Channel 18 distress sale, Alan Sherburg, a
computer consultant from Rocky Hill, CT, felt
the FCC's license granting to Astroline was a farce. He claimed the
backers were not a minority group at all, that
allegedly Ramirez was simply a figurehead "minority"
for the purpose of allowing these backers to own the
station, and as such, the station's ownership was
not in the community's interest as defined by the FCC
distress sale mandate. He pursued his case in the
federal courts for the next 5 years, which became a
massive financial drain on the fledgling station's
resources, as attorneys spent time fighting for the
station's right to operate (Shurberg even argued his
case on the infamous "Morton Downey Jr. Show" in
1989).
The new, revamped WHCT was off to an
inauspicious start. The station returned to the
air, and many Hartford area cable systems in late
September 1985, with a diet of movies, reruns, and
bottom-of-the-barrel syndicated programs not wanted
by WTXX & WTIC. This included such '70's chestnuts as
"The Brady Bunch", "The Odd Couple", "Columbo",
"MacMillan & Wife", "The Best of Saturday Night Live",
"Dallas", "Mork & Mindy" and "SCTV" (Although this may
sound like a cool lineup today, remember that in the
mid-80's, all that was associated with the '70's was
considered decidedly unhip). This was rounded out by
genuine "bottom-of-the-barrel" programming such as
"Julia", "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir", and the
soon-to-be-put-out-pasture "Merv Griffin Show". The
response, as well as the first 2 Arbitron & Neilson
books, was pretty under whelming.
Click Here To Watch
Channel 18's 1985 Image Promo
All the activity at the station's headquarters was taking place in one large,
garage-like room that became the station's main
studio when building renovations were completed in
March 1986. One part of the room contained temporary
wooden shelves which housed the 3/4 inch tapes that
were the station's tape library. In one corner was
the production area, which housed a Grass Valley
switcher, a Chiron machine, a 16-track audio board,
and an Ampex ADO computerized editor for special
effects. Next to it was a small master control area
with a crude switcher, 3 3/4 inch tape decks for
program playback, several small B&W monitors and 2
frame syncs. Spread out along the remainder of the
room were long tables & chairs holding dubbing
stations.
One table contained 2 Ampex VPR-80 1 inch VTRs,
each wired to both a 3/4 inch VTR deck and a 2 sided
time code generator. Another table had a similar
setup, except these machines were hardwired to an old
telecine in the corner and an equally old, unreliable
Ampex Quad VTR. Another part of the room had a film
editor, and smack in the middle of the area with the
dubbing stations was a mechanized monstrosity
containing a bank of 12 3/4 inch tape decks, attached
to a PC hard drive, keyboard & screen. It was called
the LaKart system.
The bitter end nearly came in the Spring
of 1986, as several employees were let go amid the
mountains of start-up debt. However, WHCT received an
unlikely stay of execution. Most improbably, the
station signed a 3 year agreement to televise 20 road
games per season of the NHL's Hartford Whalers. At
the time, the Whalers were enjoying their greatest
bout of success, having taken the eventual Stanley Cup
winning Montreal Canadians through a grueling 7-game
quarterfinal series which the Whale missed winning by
one goal (Hell, the city of Hartford even had a parade
for them!). WHCT thought that burgeoning Whaler mania
would be their ticket to the promised land.
Click Here To Watch
The Closing Of Whalers-Boston Bruins Telecast From January 1987
Instead, the station wound up floundered on
the beach. The Whalers never lived up to the promise
shown by their 1986 playoff run, taking an early
playoff exit in 1987 despite winning the NHL's Adams
Division, and mailing in .500 regular seasons with
first round playoff defeats the next 2 years. The
Neilson ratings reflected this disappointment, as the
station averaged 3 to 5 ratings points for Whalers
telecasts over the 3 year life span of the contract
(Still far better than the typical "Audience too small
to measure" ratings for the rest of its daily lineup).
Despite this, the Whalers identification brought
the station some needed local ad revenue. Most of the
local advertising was home grown, as the station
opened their facilities, at a minimum of cost to advertisers,
to produce local spots that could be aired not only on
Channel 18, but other local outlets as well. The
station produced ads for Hartford-area car dealerships
(including one ad with baseball slugger Reggie Jackson
in 1987), furniture stores, yuppie restaurants, menswear stores, and even the Double A
baseball New Britain Red Sox. What money was gained
from these spots was also
ploughed back into producing local programming.
This included a daily, live Catholic mass (for which
"yours truly" was responsible for the show's opening
center camera smooth zoom down from a close up of
Jesus on a silver cross to a wide shot of the priest
entering.),
(Click Here To Watch the
end of a Mass, on Martin Luther King's Birthday, January 1987)
a weekly job search program,
"Classified 18", telecasts of selected University of
Hartford Hawks NCAA Basketball games, and a live,
in-studio, call-in post-game show for Hartford Whalers
telecasts, hosted by local rock DJ and sports expert,
Irv Goldfarb.
Despite all this, the station was still
ailing financially, and programming distributors
were not getting paid. To stave off the repo man,
the station began regularly airing paid programming
for whatever and whoever would pony up; skin care
items, weight loss pills, Home Shopping Network and
even Jim & Tammy Bakker (The station showed the "PTL
Club" twice a day during Bakker's famous downfall
in 1987). By
1989, the WHCT's creditors had forced the station
into an involuntary bankruptcy, which forced it to
refrain from regular programming, except for a
few hours at night for Columbo & Kojak reruns,
a movie or a Whaler game (The Whalers contract was
not renewed in 1990, and the station started carrying
Boston Celtics games from WFXT instead). The
rest of the station's schedule was lousy with paid
programming and the Home Shopping Network for
the next 3 years to repay their debts.
A 1986 Ad for "The Best Of Saturday Night Live", part of WHCT's 7 - 8PM "Comedy Block", along with SCTV
(Thanks again for Stuart Cook for this picture! - Click to see at full size)
A 1987 Ad for WHCT's 2 most programs: Kojak & Columbo (Click Picture For Full Size)
Unfortunately,
the debt repayment didn't happen fast enough to
satisfy
the creditors or the Federal Bankruptcy court. In
April 1991, the court ordered the
station to sign off and the equipment repossessed
to satisfy the creditor's demands.
Channel 18 remained dark for the next 5 years, until the station was sold by the bankruptcy trustees to a holding company called "Two If By Sea". WHCT returned to the airwaves in February 1997, beating an FCC deadline for silent TV stations losing their license, showing a steady stream of paid programming and shopping channel fare, except for a season of showing Red Sox baseball in 1998. Many local cable companies never bothered to restore the station to their systems (including TCI cablevision in Hartford). WHCT's old studio building on 18 Garden Street in Hartford had its date with the wrecking ball on June 26th 1999. The original transmitter facilities on Deercliff Road in Avon, CT are still in use to this day. Click Here to see photos of the transmitter site, on the NECRAT Tower Photography Site
In 2000, the Entravision Corporation purchased Channel 18 from Two If By Sea, changed its call letters
to WUVN-TV, its network affilliation to Univision, and an era in Hartford broadcasting came to an end....
Click Here to go to WUVN's website.
The WHCT call letters live on, though, on low powered religious Channel 38 in Hartford.
Station history written by
Kyle Bookholz (Click to e-mail) , who was employed at the station from 1985 to 1987
This write up was originally contributed in 1999 to Peter George's "UHF Morgue", where you can click here
and read about many other interred broadcast stations.
Peter also added a few facts the author wasn't aware of, and edited my occasionally fatuous prose!
Click here to see some pictures & newpaper articles on the early days of Channel 18
Click here to read the histories of other Hartford TV & Radio Stations, in addition to Channel 18!
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