WKBF-TV
Encyclopedia
- This article is about the former television station in Cleveland, Ohio.
- For the current channel 61 in Cleveland, see WQHS-TVWQHS-TVWQHS-DT is a Spanish-language television station owned and operated by Univision. It is licensed to serve the Cleveland, Ohio television market, and broadcasts on UHF channel 61 with studios and offices in Parma...
.
WKBF-TV channel 61 was an Independent television station
Independent station
An independent station is in the category of television terminology used to describe a television station broadcasting in the United States or Canada that is not affiliated with any television network....
serving the Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
market owned by a joint venture between Kaiser Broadcasting
Kaiser Broadcasting
Kaiser Broadcasting was the name of an entity that owned and operated broadcast television stations in the United States from 1958 to 1977.-History:...
and Field Communications
Field Communications
Field Communications was a division of Field Enterprises, which owned the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Daily News. The company owned independent television stations in the United States, with WFLD-TV in Chicago as its largest-market station....
(the latter owned a minority stake in the station from 1972 to 1975). WKBF is perhaps the least remembered for its position in television history, although many nationally recognized broadcast professionals began their career at the station. It was the first commercial UHF
Ultra high frequency
Ultra-High Frequency designates the ITU Radio frequency range of electromagnetic waves between 300 MHz and 3 GHz , also known as the decimetre band or decimetre wave as the wavelengths range from one to ten decimetres...
station in northeast Ohio. It was located on St. Clair Avenue in Euclid, Ohio
Euclid, Ohio
Euclid is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States. It is part of the Greater Cleveland Metropolitan Area, and borders Cleveland. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 48,920...
. Its microwave studio-transmitter link (STL) was assigned the microwave license of KZM-32.
1968-1975
As the newest member of the Kaiser BroadcastingKaiser Broadcasting
Kaiser Broadcasting was the name of an entity that owned and operated broadcast television stations in the United States from 1958 to 1977.-History:...
chain of stations that included WKBD-TV in Detroit, WKBS-TV
WKBS-TV (Philadelphia)
WKBS-TV was an independent television station licensed to Burlington, New Jersey, which served the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area from 1965 to 1983. WKBS-TV had studio facilities located in South Philadelphia, and transmitter at the Roxborough tower farm in Philadelphia.-History:WKBS-TV began...
(frequency now occupied by WGTW-TV
WGTW-TV
WGTW-TV, digital channel 27, is a Trinity Broadcasting Network-owned and operated television station licensed to Burlington, New Jersey, and serving the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area...
) in Philadelphia, WKBG-TV (now WLVI-TV
WLVI-TV
WLVI, digital channel 41, is a television station licensed to Cambridge, Massachusetts which serves as the CW affiliate for the Boston, Massachusetts television market. WLVI is owned by Sunbeam Television, and is a sister station to WHDH, Boston's NBC affiliate. The two stations share studios at...
) in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
,
WFLD-TV in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, KBHK-TV (now known as KBCW-TV) in San Francisco, and KBSC-TV (now KVEA
KVEA
KVEA is a Spanish-language television station in the Los Angeles area owned and operated by NBC Universal and the West Coast flagship station of the Telemundo network. It was the first mainland U.S. station owned by Telemundo at the network's launch in the late 1980's...
) in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
,
Channel 61 came to the air on January 19, 1968 as WKBF-TV, but when the station began operation, its first day of broadcast was delayed due to one of the worst local snow storms that winter.
Being the first commercial UHF
Ultra high frequency
Ultra-High Frequency designates the ITU Radio frequency range of electromagnetic waves between 300 MHz and 3 GHz , also known as the decimetre band or decimetre wave as the wavelengths range from one to ten decimetres...
station to go on the air in Cuyahoga County
Cuyahoga County, Ohio
Cuyahoga County is a county located in the state of Ohio, United States. It is the most populous county in Ohio; as of the 2010 census, the population was 1,280,122. Its county seat is Cleveland. Cuyahoga County is part of Greater Cleveland, a metropolitan area, and Northeast Ohio, a...
, it paved the way for the later commercial UHF stations such as WUAB
WUAB
WUAB, identified on-air as "My43 The Block, WUAB", is the MyNetworkTV affiliate in Cleveland, Ohio. The station is licensed to the suburb of Lorain, and it shares a studio in downtown Cleveland with sister station WOIO, Cleveland's CBS affiliate. Its transmitter is located in Parma, Ohio...
channel 43 with whom it later merged and WOIO
WOIO
WOIO, virtual channel 19 , is the CBS affiliate in Cleveland, Ohio. It is licensed to the nearby suburb of Shaker Heights. WOIO is owned by Raycom Media and its sister station to MyNetworkTV affiliate WUAB . The two stations share a studio facility in Cleveland and WOIO's transmitter is located in...
after trading affiliations with WJW.
The first video transmitted was a simple sentence on a hand lettered message board "We made it Cleveland", with a 1,000 hertz tone (normally used for system calibration).
WKBF was also the first northern Ohio "Love Network" affiliate, broadcasting the annual Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon
Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon
The MDA Labor Day Telethon is an annual telethon in the United States to raise money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association . The first MDA telethon was during the Thanksgiving Day weekend of 1952 and titled Party for MDA. It has been held annually since 1966...
. The local inserts were hosted by notable children's host Linn Sheldon
Linn Sheldon
Linn Sheldon was a Cleveland, Ohio based American children's television host and actor, best known for his character "Barnaby", which was seen in Cleveland for over 30 years.-Biography:...
.
WKBF also ran a children's show called Captain Cleveland; even though the actual Captain was never actually seen on-camera by viewers. In a sort of local nod to Charlie McCarthy and Edgar Bergen
Edgar Bergen
Edgar John Bergen was an American actor and radio performer, best known as a ventriloquist.-Early life:...
, the characters on the show included John, played by local Cleveland ventriloquist John Slowey, and his puppet buddy Clem, who performed on the station from 1969 to 1974.
The bulk of children's programming came from traditional cartoons along with Anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
favorites including Kimba the White Lion
Kimba the White Lion
, known in the United States as Kimba the White Lion, is an anime series from the 1960s. Created by Osamu Tezuka and based on his manga of the same title which began publication in 1950, it was the first color animated television series created in Japan. The manga was first published in serialized...
and 8th Man, with black-and-white syndicated shows such as Little Rascals and The Three Stooges rounding out the children's schedule. Other syndicated shows included McHale's Navy
McHale's Navy
McHale's Navy is an American television sitcom series which ran for 138 half-hour episodes from October 11,1962, to August 31, 1966, on the ABC network. The series was filmed in black and white and originated in a one-hour drama called Seven Against the Sea, broadcast on April 3, 1962...
and The Phil Silvers Show
The Phil Silvers Show
The Phil Silvers Show is a comedy television series which ran on CBS from 1955 to 1959 for 142 episodes, plus a 1959 special. The series starred Phil Silvers as Master Sergeant Ernest G...
and, along with public affairs shows and classic cinema, provided the bulk of programming.
Other programming on WKBF included the late-night weekend horror movies hosted by Ron Sweed
Ron Sweed
Ron Sweed, , is an American entertainer best known for his late-night television horror host character The Ghoul.-The Ghoul:...
, who's on-air character was named The Ghoul
The Ghoul Show
The Ghoul Show was the brain-child of Cleveland-born actor Ron Sweed. The late-night horror movie and comedy sketch show ran for various blocks of seasons from 1971 through 2004, primarily in Detroit and Cleveland....
. The Ghoul character was essentially a beatnik
Beatnik
Beatnik was a media stereotype of the 1950s and early 1960s that displayed the more superficial aspects of the Beat Generation literary movement of the 1950s and violent film images, along with a cartoonish depiction of the real-life people and the spiritual quest in Jack Kerouac's autobiographical...
vampire
Vampire
Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...
, outfitted in a fright wig, goatee
Goatee
Goatee refers to a style of facial hair incorporating hair on a man’s chin. The exact nature of the style has varied according to time and culture.Traditionally, goatee refers solely to a beard formed by a tuft of hair on the chin...
, lab coat, and sunglasses
Sunglasses
Sunglasses or sun glasses are a form of protective eyewear designed primarily to prevent bright sunlight and high-energy visible light from damaging or discomforting the eyes. They can sometimes also function as a visual aid, as variously termed spectacles or glasses exist, featuring lenses that...
with one lens missing. It was patterned after the Ghoulardi
Ghoulardi
Ghoulardi was a fictional character invented and portrayed by disc jockey, voice announcer, and actor Ernie Anderson as the horror host of late night Shock Theater at WJW-TV, Channel 8, in Cleveland, Ohio from January 13, 1963 through December 16, 1966....
character created by Ernie Anderson
Ernie Anderson
Ernie Anderson was an American disc jockey, and television and radio announcer/voiceover artist...
(with his permission), who was later to become the voice of 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...
network in the 1970s. While Anderson had no interest in doing so, he granted Sweed permission to don the costume. As WJW owned the rights to the name "Ghoulardi," the younger performer adopted the name "The Ghoul." Although WKBF has long since passed into broadcasting history, Sweed continues (on a fee basis) to makes personal appearances in this guise today.
WKBF also featured sports programming such as World Football League
World Football League
The World Football League was a short-lived gridiron football league that played in 1974 and part of 1975. Although the league's proclaimed ambition was to bring American football onto a worldwide stage, the farthest the WFL reached was placing a team – the Hawaiians – in Honolulu, Hawaii. The...
, Cincinnati Royals
Sacramento Kings
The Sacramento Kings are a professional basketball team based in Sacramento, California, United States. They are currently members of the Western Conference of the National Basketball Association...
NBA Basketball and harness racing
Harness racing
Harness racing is a form of horse racing in which the horses race at a specific gait . They usually pull a two-wheeled cart called a sulky, although racing under saddle is also conducted in Europe.-Breeds:...
.
Despite the local programming, the most popular and most profitable program was the syndication of the original Star Trek
Star Trek: The Original Series
Star Trek is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry, produced by Desilu Productions . Star Trek was telecast on NBC from September 8, 1966, through June 3, 1969...
. It was known that WKBF rebroadcast the 79-episode series in the exact order of play that 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...
had done when it was a network show, in its original length, without additional editing for commercials.
WKBF was one of only two commercial independent stations in the immediate Cleveland area back in the early 1970s, along with WUAB
WUAB
WUAB, identified on-air as "My43 The Block, WUAB", is the MyNetworkTV affiliate in Cleveland, Ohio. The station is licensed to the suburb of Lorain, and it shares a studio in downtown Cleveland with sister station WOIO, Cleveland's CBS affiliate. Its transmitter is located in Parma, Ohio...
. A third UHF station also existed - non-commercial educational station WVIZ
WVIZ
WVIZ is a public television station in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It was the 100th public television station to sign on in America. Its founder was Betty Cope, a former producer at Cleveland's ABC affiliate, WEWS, who recognized the value of non-commercial educational television for the schools...
. Other UHF stations in the market, with varying coverage, included ABC affiliate WAKR-TV in Akron
Akron, Ohio
Akron , is the fifth largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Summit County. It is located in the Great Lakes region approximately south of Lake Erie along the Little Cuyahoga River. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 199,110. The Akron Metropolitan...
(now Ion Television station WVPX-TV) and WJAN-TV in Canton
Canton, Ohio
Canton is the county seat of Stark County in northeastern Ohio, approximately south of Akron and south of Cleveland.The City of Caton is the largest incorporated area within the Canton-Massillon Metropolitan Statistical Area...
(now TBN
Trinity Broadcasting Network
The Trinity Broadcasting Network is a major American Christian television network. TBN is based in Costa Mesa, California, with auxiliary studio facilities in Irving, Texas; Hendersonville, Tennessee; Gadsden, Alabama; Decatur, Georgia; Miami, Florida; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Orlando, Florida; and New...
station WDLI-TV
WDLI-TV
WDLI-TV is a religious television station licensed to Canton, Ohio, serving the Cleveland market on channel 17...
).
By 1973, Kaiser had sold a 22.5% share of WKBF to Field Communications, but continued with a majority share of the station.
In April, 1975, WUAB owner United Artists
United Artists
United Artists Corporation is an American film studio. The original studio of that name was founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks....
sold a partial stake in that station to the Kaiser/Field group. As the FCC
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...
rules at the time did not allow for ownership of more than one station in any market by the same owner or group owner, Kaiser/Field opted to shut down WKBF. After the station went dark, Kaiser chose to augment WUAB's programming with the better part of Kaiser Cleveland's WKBF programming assets,. Even though Kaiser, partnered (as a minority shareholder) with United Artists operations in the spring of 1975 after shutting down WKBF, at no time did WUAB operate under full or partial Kaiser ownership.
During the final moments of WKBF on the air, highlights of the previous seven years were shown. That was followed by station vice president and general manager Alan B. Bennett thanking the community for its support, attributing the Kaiser decision to fold the WKBF operation into WUAB as a result of "static market growth" along with "the creation of a second (commercial UHF) station in less than a year". Upon closure, the channel 61 license was fully returned to the FCC, which closed the opportunity to transfer the license to another owner.
1975 to 1980: The dark years
Rumors abounded concerning potential companies that could file for the Channel 61 license in Cleveland, yet none came forward right away.In 1980, Balaban Communications purchased a new, separate license for Channel 61. They signed the station on later that year under the call letters WCLQ-TV (the station would later change the call letters to WQHS-TV). The station is now an affiliate of the Spanish language Univision
Univision
Univision is a Spanish-language television network in the United States. It has the largest audience of Spanish language television viewers according to Nielsen ratings. Randy Falco, COO, has been in charge of the company since the departure of Univision Communications president and CEO Joe Uva...
network, as WQHS-DT.