WJJY-TV
Encyclopedia
WJJY-TV was a short-lived television station
station based in Jacksonville, Illinois
that was on the air from 1969 to 1971. It was the ABC
television
affiliate for Quincy, Illinois
, and also reached Springfield
as well.
trading area of the Champaign/Urbana/Springfield market. A significant part of the Quincy market lay in the states of Missouri
and Iowa
. For much of the region, television was limited to WGEM-TV
and KHQA-TV
in Quincy, or grade B signals from the St. Louis VHF stations. A few homes in the area (mostly in the eastern part of the region) could watch UHF stations from Springfield, and with luck could pick up signals from Peoria
.
Keith Moyer, an out-of-town promoter who also started WTIM radio in Taylorville
, believed that Quincy was big enough to support a third station. With the help of several Jacksonville-area investors, he formed Look Television Corporation and applied for the channel 14 license. Jacksonville was chosen because it was the nearest city to Quincy with an available commercial license, even though it was located on the Springfield/Decatur side of the Champaign/Urbana/Springfield market. On August 18, 1969, WJJY-TV started broadcasting as an ABC affiliate.
WJJY had a lot going for it on paper. It signed-on using every watt of its legally permitted 4.5 million watts of effective radiated power
— at the time, the most powerful UHF station in the world. It operated from a 1,610-foot tower near Bluffs, Illinois
, one of the three tallest structures in North America
at the time. It was topped with an experimental RCA
"Vee-Zee" antenna, one of only three ever constructed. Since the station aired on the lowest portion of the UHF dial, the antenna weighed 26 tons
--one of the heaviest ever put into service. the three tallest man-made structures in the Northern Hemisphere
. On its first day on the air, reception reports came in from as far south as Cape Girardeau, Missouri
and as far north as Minneapolis.
Look Television persuaded ABC to give the station the exclusive affiliation for the Quincy market. Before then, the ABC affiliation for the Quincy market was split between NBC
affiliate WGEM-TV and CBS
affiliate KHQA (licensed to Hannibal, Missouri
, but with studios in Quincy). The transmitter's location and power gave the station primary coverage of Springfield as well even though there was already an ABC affiliate in the area, WAND
in Decatur. The station usually identified as "Jacksonville/Springfield/Quincy" on-air, even though Quincy was its primary market. WJJY agreed to air the entire ABC schedule in pattern with no pre-emptions (except for breaking local news). The microwave relay system was built to be redundant in order to ensure that the ABC feed would always be available.
The station was on the air from 9 a.m. to midnight every day. Programming consisted of movies, travelogue
s and St. Louis Cardinals
baseball in addition to ABC. It also aired newscasts at 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. Starting in 1970, it aired some PBS
programming as well as educational programs from the Illinois Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction
via microwave relay from WILL-TV in Champaign-Urbana during off-ABC hours. The area had been one of the few areas in the country without access to public television.
However, WJJY struggled almost from the start. For one thing, most of its viewers in the Quincy market, a previously all-VHF area, had probably not bought new sets since the Federal Communications Commission
required television sets to include UHF tuning capability in 1964. In addition, most Quincy-area viewers could watch ABC on two longer-established VHF stations: KTVI
in St. Louis (now a Fox
affiliate) and KTVO
in Kirksville, Missouri
. KTVI's grade B signal covers much of the Missouri and Illinois portions of the market, while KTVO's grade B signal covers nearly all of the market. As a result, the station made almost no headway against WGEM and KHQA. It was nonexistent in Springfield as well, gaining no ground against established stations WAND, WICS
and WCIA. Look Television had expected WJJY to be profitable almost immediately — an unrealistic goal for any station, especially one serving such a small market.
The next year and a half witnessed a litany of bounced paychecks and unpaid bills. The biggest problems, ironically, came from what was potentially WJJY's most important asset: the transmitter, which was a voracious power hog. Look Television was badly undercapitalized, and its owners did not anticipate the high electrical costs from running such a powerful transmitter. The Western Illinois Power Cooperative shut off power to the transmitter on several occasions due to nonpayment. While WIPCO always restored the power, it was not because of a payment arrangement. Rather, it was because the utility would have thus been responsible for a 1,600-foot unlighted airplane hazard.
By early 1971, ABC was giving serious thought to yanking its affiliation from WJJY. The network's Quincy ratings were lower than they were when it aired part-time on KHQA and WGEM. Many of the station's engineering staff had left the station in 1970 after going unpaid. Finally that spring, Look Television was placed into receivership, and WJJY signed off for the last time in April with almost no fanfare. Quincy would not get another full-time ABC affiliate until 2007, when KHQA set up an ABC affiliate on its digital subchannel
.
Look Television eventually agreed in principle to sell the tower to Convocom, a consortium of west-central Illinois educational institutions. Convocom planned to used the tower for WJPT
, a PBS
member station serving Springfield and Quincy. However, on March 26, 1978--while financing was still being put together--a severe ice storm coated the tower with thick sheets of ice. With the shifting weight of the antenna, the tower collapsed. It had been designed with the specifications of a lighter antenna, and was thus not properly engineered to sustain so much weight. The same ice storm brought down WAND's tower, which was designed similarly to WJJY's tower.
Television station
A television station is a business, organisation or other such as an amateur television operator that transmits content over terrestrial television. A television transmission can be by analog television signals or, more recently, by digital television. Broadcast television systems standards are...
station based in Jacksonville, Illinois
Jacksonville, Illinois
Jacksonville is a city in Morgan County, Illinois, United States. The population was 18,940 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Morgan County....
that was on the air from 1969 to 1971. It was the ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
affiliate for Quincy, Illinois
Quincy, Illinois
Quincy, known as Illinois' "Gem City," is a river city along the Mississippi River and the county seat of Adams County. As of the 2010 census the city held a population of 40,633. The city anchors its own micropolitan area and is the economic and regional hub of West-central Illinois, catering a...
, and also reached Springfield
Springfield, Illinois
Springfield is the third and current capital of the US state of Illinois and the county seat of Sangamon County with a population of 117,400 , making it the sixth most populated city in the state and the second most populated Illinois city outside of the Chicago Metropolitan Area...
as well.
History
West-central Illinois had limited choices for television in the 1960s. Most of the western portion of the region was in the Quincy market, while most of the eastern portion was part of the Springfield/DecaturDecatur, Illinois
Decatur is the largest city and the county seat of Macon County in the U.S. state of Illinois. The city, sometimes called "the Soybean Capital of the World", was founded in 1823 and is located along the Sangamon River and Lake Decatur in Central Illinois. In 2000 the city population was 81,500,...
trading area of the Champaign/Urbana/Springfield market. A significant part of the Quincy market lay in the states of Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
and Iowa
Iowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
. For much of the region, television was limited to WGEM-TV
WGEM-TV
WGEM-TV is the NBC-affiliated television station for the Tri-States area of Western Illinois, Northeastern Missouri, and extreme Southeastern Iowa that is licensed to Quincy, Illinois. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 10 from a transmitter east of the city on Cannonball...
and KHQA-TV
KHQA-TV
KHQA-TV is the CBS-affiliated television station for the Tri-States area of Western Illinois, Northeastern Missouri, and extreme Southeastern Iowa. It is licensed to Hannibal, Missouri. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 7 from a transmitter northeast of Quincy, Illinois...
in Quincy, or grade B signals from the St. Louis VHF stations. A few homes in the area (mostly in the eastern part of the region) could watch UHF stations from Springfield, and with luck could pick up signals from Peoria
Peoria, Illinois
Peoria is the largest city on the Illinois River and the county seat of Peoria County, Illinois, in the United States. It is named after the Peoria tribe. As of the 2010 census, the city was the seventh-most populated in Illinois, with a population of 115,007, and is the third-most populated...
.
Keith Moyer, an out-of-town promoter who also started WTIM radio in Taylorville
Taylorville, Illinois
Taylorville is a city in Christian County, Illinois, United States. The population was 11,246 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat and largest city in Christian County.-Geography:Taylorville is located at ....
, believed that Quincy was big enough to support a third station. With the help of several Jacksonville-area investors, he formed Look Television Corporation and applied for the channel 14 license. Jacksonville was chosen because it was the nearest city to Quincy with an available commercial license, even though it was located on the Springfield/Decatur side of the Champaign/Urbana/Springfield market. On August 18, 1969, WJJY-TV started broadcasting as an ABC affiliate.
WJJY had a lot going for it on paper. It signed-on using every watt of its legally permitted 4.5 million watts of effective radiated power
Effective radiated power
In radio telecommunications, effective radiated power or equivalent radiated power is a standardized theoretical measurement of radio frequency energy using the SI unit watts, and is determined by subtracting system losses and adding system gains...
— at the time, the most powerful UHF station in the world. It operated from a 1,610-foot tower near Bluffs, Illinois
Bluffs, Illinois
Bluffs is a village in Scott County, Illinois, United States. The population was 748 at the 2000 census. It was briefly the location of the WJJY TV Mast, the tallest structure built to that date in Illinois....
, one of the three tallest structures in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
at the time. It was topped with an experimental RCA
RCA
RCA Corporation, founded as the Radio Corporation of America, was an American electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. The RCA trademark is currently owned by the French conglomerate Technicolor SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Technicolor...
"Vee-Zee" antenna, one of only three ever constructed. Since the station aired on the lowest portion of the UHF dial, the antenna weighed 26 tons
Tonne
The tonne, known as the metric ton in the US , often put pleonastically as "metric tonne" to avoid confusion with ton, is a metric system unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. The tonne is not an International System of Units unit, but is accepted for use with the SI...
--one of the heaviest ever put into service. the three tallest man-made structures in the Northern Hemisphere
Northern Hemisphere
The Northern Hemisphere is the half of a planet that is north of its equator—the word hemisphere literally means “half sphere”. It is also that half of the celestial sphere north of the celestial equator...
. On its first day on the air, reception reports came in from as far south as Cape Girardeau, Missouri
Cape Girardeau, Missouri
Cape Girardeau is a city located in Cape Girardeau and Scott counties in Southeast Missouri in the United States. It is located approximately southeast of St. Louis and north of Memphis. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 37,941. A college town, it is the home of Southeast Missouri...
and as far north as Minneapolis.
Look Television persuaded ABC to give the station the exclusive affiliation for the Quincy market. Before then, the ABC affiliation for the Quincy market was split between NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
affiliate WGEM-TV and CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
affiliate KHQA (licensed to Hannibal, Missouri
Hannibal, Missouri
Hannibal is a city in Marion and Ralls counties in the U.S. state of Missouri. Hannibal is located at the intersection of Interstate 72 and U.S. Routes 24, 36 and 61, approximately northwest of St. Louis. According to the 2010 U.S. Census the population was 17,606...
, but with studios in Quincy). The transmitter's location and power gave the station primary coverage of Springfield as well even though there was already an ABC affiliate in the area, WAND
WAND
WAND, virtual channel 17, is an NBC-affiliated television station serving the Decatur–Springfield–Champaign area. It is owned by Block Communications...
in Decatur. The station usually identified as "Jacksonville/Springfield/Quincy" on-air, even though Quincy was its primary market. WJJY agreed to air the entire ABC schedule in pattern with no pre-emptions (except for breaking local news). The microwave relay system was built to be redundant in order to ensure that the ABC feed would always be available.
The station was on the air from 9 a.m. to midnight every day. Programming consisted of movies, travelogue
Travel documentary
A travel documentary is a documentary film or television program that describes travel in general or tourist attractions in a non-commercial way....
s and St. Louis Cardinals
St. Louis Cardinals
The St. Louis Cardinals are a professional baseball team based in St. Louis, Missouri. They are members of the Central Division in the National League of Major League Baseball. The Cardinals have won eleven World Series championships, the most of any National League team, and second overall only to...
baseball in addition to ABC. It also aired newscasts at 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. Starting in 1970, it aired some PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
programming as well as educational programs from the Illinois Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction
Illinois State Board of Education
The Illinois State Board of Education administers public education in the state of Illinois. The State Board consists of nine members who are appointed by the Governor with the consent of the...
via microwave relay from WILL-TV in Champaign-Urbana during off-ABC hours. The area had been one of the few areas in the country without access to public television.
However, WJJY struggled almost from the start. For one thing, most of its viewers in the Quincy market, a previously all-VHF area, had probably not bought new sets since the Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
required television sets to include UHF tuning capability in 1964. In addition, most Quincy-area viewers could watch ABC on two longer-established VHF stations: KTVI
KTVI
KTVI, virtual channel 2, is the Fox-affiliated television station serving the St. Louis, Missouri, designated market area. The station is owned by Local TV LLC, the media arm of private equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners, under a local marketing agreement with Tribune-owned CW affiliate KPLR...
in St. Louis (now a Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
affiliate) and KTVO
KTVO
KTVO is the ABC-affiliated television station for the Honey Lands area of Northeastern Missouri and Southeastern Iowa. Licensed to Kirksville, Missouri, it broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 33 from a transmitter northwest of Downing, Missouri along US 136...
in Kirksville, Missouri
Kirksville, Missouri
Kirksville is the county seat of Adair County, Missouri, United States. It is located in Benton Township. The population was 17,505 at the 2010 census. Kirksville also anchors a micropolitan area that comprises Adair and Schuyler counties. The city is perhaps best known as the location of Truman...
. KTVI's grade B signal covers much of the Missouri and Illinois portions of the market, while KTVO's grade B signal covers nearly all of the market. As a result, the station made almost no headway against WGEM and KHQA. It was nonexistent in Springfield as well, gaining no ground against established stations WAND, WICS
WICS
WICS is the ABC-affiliated television station for Springfield and Decatur, Illinois. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 42 from a transmitter south of Dawson and I-72/US 36. The station can also be seen on Comcast channel 2 and Suddenlink channel 10...
and WCIA. Look Television had expected WJJY to be profitable almost immediately — an unrealistic goal for any station, especially one serving such a small market.
The next year and a half witnessed a litany of bounced paychecks and unpaid bills. The biggest problems, ironically, came from what was potentially WJJY's most important asset: the transmitter, which was a voracious power hog. Look Television was badly undercapitalized, and its owners did not anticipate the high electrical costs from running such a powerful transmitter. The Western Illinois Power Cooperative shut off power to the transmitter on several occasions due to nonpayment. While WIPCO always restored the power, it was not because of a payment arrangement. Rather, it was because the utility would have thus been responsible for a 1,600-foot unlighted airplane hazard.
By early 1971, ABC was giving serious thought to yanking its affiliation from WJJY. The network's Quincy ratings were lower than they were when it aired part-time on KHQA and WGEM. Many of the station's engineering staff had left the station in 1970 after going unpaid. Finally that spring, Look Television was placed into receivership, and WJJY signed off for the last time in April with almost no fanfare. Quincy would not get another full-time ABC affiliate until 2007, when KHQA set up an ABC affiliate on its digital subchannel
Digital subchannel
In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a means to transmit more than one independent program at the same time from the same digital radio or digital television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compression techniques to reduce the size of each individual...
.
Look Television eventually agreed in principle to sell the tower to Convocom, a consortium of west-central Illinois educational institutions. Convocom planned to used the tower for WJPT
Network Knowledge
Network Knowledge is a group of three Public Broadcasting Service stations in central and western Illinois. Until October 13, 2004, it used the brand name Convocom...
, a PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
member station serving Springfield and Quincy. However, on March 26, 1978--while financing was still being put together--a severe ice storm coated the tower with thick sheets of ice. With the shifting weight of the antenna, the tower collapsed. It had been designed with the specifications of a lighter antenna, and was thus not properly engineered to sustain so much weight. The same ice storm brought down WAND's tower, which was designed similarly to WJJY's tower.