Other Television History

Central Illinois TV History began in 1953 with the sign on of TV stations WTVP, channel 17 in Decatur; WCIA, channel 3 in Champaign, WICS, channel 20 in Springfield, WBLN in Bloomington and WDAN-TV channel 24 in Danville. This page is a mixed bag of TV history taken over the last 50 years. From TV Guide listings, to a sample of TV history news, to various graphics of local and not so local station graphics. It also includes copies of TV Guide ads from the 1950's and at least recognition of the other TV stations in the central Illinois market.

TV Guidetm Listings Over the Years
	(left) The 1954 TV Guide station list for the central Illinois edition which included St. Louis, Quincy and the Springfield, Decatur and Champaign markets. Notice the listing for WCIA included CBS and NBC. St. Louis stations Channel 4-KWK was both a CBS and a secondary ABC affiliate. Channel 5 was an NBC and secondary CBS affiliate, meanwhile channel 54, located in Alton, Illinois was an ABC and DuMont affiliate. Some KTVI History: KTVI began as WTVI licenced to Belleville, Illinois. It was the St. Louis area's first CBS affliliate with secondary affiliation with ABC. It's studios were located in Alton, Illinois. Later KWK(later KMOX, KMOV) signed on, the VHF station took the CBS affiliation away from WTVI. In April of 1955, the station moved to St. Louis and began to broadcast on Channel 36 as an ABC affiliate. Then, the channel 2 allocation became available when the FCC, under pressure from the White House, moved channel 2 from Springfield, Illinois to St. Louis. In April of 1957, KTVI moved from channel 36 to channel 2. In 1995, it became a FOX affiliate as it is today.
(right) By 1958 Peoria was listed in the station lineup with the network affiliation pretty much as it is now, nearly 50 years later. Quincy/Hannibal station WGEM-TV was a secondary ABC affiliate while maintaining NBC as it's primary network. The Springfield, Decatur stations were pretty set with WICS(NBC) and WTVP(ABC). Champaign's WCIA was a CBS affiliate with secondary affiliation with NBC, because WICS didn't reach into the Champaign area. The St. Louis stations were set with KTVI, formerly channel 54, moving to channel 36 and by 1958 was now at channel 2(formerlly allocated to Springfield, Illinois) and licensed to St. Louis. The Quad Cities were now with a 2 station lineup with no ABC station yet. WBLN in Bloomington was listed as an independent, but did air some ABC shows. KTVO in Ottumwa was CBS/NBC affiliate for the tri-state area(Iowa, Missouri and Illinois).
	(left) This TV Guide listing is from September 9th, 1962. It's notable because this was the last time that central Illinois was served by one local edition of TV Guide. The next week central Illinois was spit between two editions. The Eastern Illinois edition included stations from Springfield, Decatur, Champaign, Danville and Peoria. The Western Illinois edition included stations from Quincy, Peoria, Ottumwa(IA) and the Quad Cities(Davenport-Rock Island-Moline). Outside of WGEM-TV in Quincy and KTVO in Ottumwa, all of the other stations were primary network affiliates. WGEM was both NBC and ABC at least until the late 1970's, while KTVO changed to a primary ABC affliliate in 1968. (courtesy of J.R. Evans) Some KTVO History: KTVO, Channel 3 signed-on November 21, 1955 as a CBS/NBC primary/secondary affiliate. It broadcast in color for the first time in 1961 and switched to ABC in 1968. In 1988 KTVO's tower collapsed killing three technicians. It was originally owned by Jim Conroy initially, Post acquired the station in 1964, then it was owned by Federal Broadcasting , before selling to Raycom in 1996. The present owner is Barrington Broadcasting which purchased KTVO in 2006.
(right) The next week, September 15, 1962, The Eastern Illinois edition of TV Guide included the schedules of the stations from Springfield, Decatur, Champaign-Urbana, Danvilleand Peoria. It was also the first appearance of Danville's Channel 24, WICD. Even though the Danville station had been on the air since late 1953(as WDAN-TV, then in 1961 as WICD), it wasn't until late 1962 that it was listed. (courtesy of J.R. Evans) This was the era of the translator stations, as UHF transmitters were yet to hit the super power limits of today(around 5 million watts). Most were less than a half-a-million watts, which limited the range across the prairies of central Illinois. WTVP had W-70-AF(see WAND history), while WEEK in Peoria had the "full power" translator WEEQ at channel 35 and WTVH had the low power translator W-78-AC in the LaSalle-Peru area. WTVH's translator had a short life, because by 1964 it was off the air, and WMBD had one instead.
	(left) In 1964 the Central Illinois edition looked pretty much like it did in 1962. TV stations didn't see much change in facilities as addresses were all pretty constant even from the very early sign-on days of 11 years or less previous to 1964. The only real changes from 1962 was the elimination of WTVH's translator at channel 78 and the addition of WMBD's translator W-71-AE in Peru. These low power translators probably had broadcast ranges of just a few miles at those very high frequencies.
(right) This listing is from 1966 showing the call letter change of WTVP to WAND. Also a change of channel took place for WEEK in Peoria, when it moved from channel 43 to channel 25. Notice also the translator listings included an additional one for Mattoon, W-75-AD which rebroadcast WICS. The power levels for both WCHU and WICD were very low which created the need for adding Mattoon to their coverage area. WICS was the higher powered station which made picking up the signal off of the air for rebroadcast for likely to maintain enough signal level to drive the translator transmitter.
	(left) In 1980 the listings for TV Guide included many imported stations from neighboring markets. For the most part, the signals for these stations were microwaved to cable headends around the region. Satellite distribution wasn't quite what it is today. Also, the signal of WGN was exactly what WGN-channel 9 in Chicago was broadcasting with local commercials included. That's not the situation today with Superstation WGN, which outside of some sports and local news is all a separate programming source. Major changes with the local stations included WICD is now at Channel 15, which happened in 1967. WCHU, channel 33 and channel 24 were discontinued. WILL-TV was now a full powered station at channel 12. Channel 55, WBHW went on the air in Springfield, a low powered independent, pre FOX. In the 70's, WCIA added a translator at channel 49, W-49-AA. This was also the era in which WAND had lost their primary transmitter site in an ice storm, which made it necessary to move the translator from Danville(W-68-AA) back to Champaign to cover that community. Danville lost the WAND signal with that move.

TV Guidetm Illinois Dateline August 1957

During the early days of TV Guide, each local edition would reprint the press realeases of local TV stations programming changes, personnel changes and the like. This is one from August of 1957.

A TV Guide local television news column from August 1957 on some up and coming events and changes. Also note the local channel listings. This edition included the stations from the Quad Cities, Peoria, Springfield-Decatur-Champaign and Danville and Quincy-Hannibal-Ottumwa markets. Notice the shared network affiliations of KTVO which eventually ended up with ABC in the 60's, WCIA with CBS and NBC, WHBF with CBS and ABC(before WQAD), WOC with NBC and ABC(also before WQAD), WGEM with ABC and NBC(eventually the network affiliation was changed listing NBC as primary and ABC as secondary), WTVH was CBS(primary) with secondary affiliation being ABC(in hindsight the change of dumping CBS for ABC was probably not a good choice) and WICS with primary affiliation with NBC and secondary affiliation with ABC(reason was the lack of signal strength of WTVP in Decatur).

St. Louis Television History

Central Illinois Broadcasting has seen a lot of changes over the last 50 years. But not quite as volatile as some of the neighboring markets. For example, in St. Louis in the early 50's, WTVI signed on at channel 54, as the only TV station on the east side of the river, later moving to channel 36 where it was an ABC affiliate. Later it was to benefit from a controversial allocation move from Springfield, Illinois as channel 2 was moved to St. Louis. This had to put some distress on KWK-TV, channel 4 and KSD-TV, channel 5 which enjoyed being the only stations with the low dial positions. Later, of course, KWK became KMOX-TV during the 60's(now KMOV) and KSD-TV became KSDK during the 80's. Both KMOX and KSD had very successful AM radio sister stations in the St. Louis markets with KSD being co-owned with the Post Dispatch Newspaper as well. Newcomer KDNL(channel 30) was an independent when it came on the air in the 70's, later became a FOX affiliate. In the late 80's, a network switch made KTVI a FOX affiliate and KDNL an ABC affiliate. It was under the ownership of Sinclair Broadcasting KDNL dropped it's local news. A move which was received quite negatively among other broadcasters, critics as well as the St. Louis public at large.

KWK-TV telecasting from the Globe-Democrat Tower Building, I'm assuming it was owned by the St. Louis newspaper until ownership changed with the call letters to KMOX-TV,
then in the 80's to KMOV.

KSD-TV, sister station to KSD radio(550kc) owned by the St. Louis Post Dispatch newspaper. Now KSD is KSDK under different ownership. KSD radio is no more having changed calls to KTRS.

KPLR ID graphics from 1983.

Bloomington-Peoria Television History

WEEK-TV, Channel 43(later 25) Peoria, Illinois


	WEEK-TV was Peoria's first television station having gone on the air on February 1, 1953. It was owned and operated at the time by West Central Broadcasting Company, based out of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The Company also operated radio station WEEK, 1350 AM. The new Peoria TV station went on the air as an NBC affiliate on channel 43.

It was soon determined that the signal of WEEK had problems in the northern most region of the viewing area, and as many UHF stations of the era determined, that in order to "fill in" their designated signal areas, the use of lower powered translator stations were necessary. In the case of WEEK, a translator on channel 35 was set up in La Salle, Illinois on channel 35 by November of 1957. It was given the call letters of WEEQ-TV, which was an indication that it was more than the typical low wattage signal, in the fact that it was given a call letter designation of a full powered TV station. The timing of the translator assignment was just a few months before a new TV signal would be on the air in Peoria, WMBD.

The next big change for WEEK occurred Friday, October 16, 1964, when the station moved from broadcasting on channel 43 to channel 25. For the viewer, it placed the NBC affiliate in the middle of the dial between WTVH at channel 19 and WMBD at channel 31. Remember, that this was well before digital UHF tuners, and viewers had to spin the slide rule indicator along the UHF spectrum on their TV to their desired channel. Even though WEEK could rebroadcast color programming from NBC early on, it wasn't until September 10, 1967 that any local production was broadcast in color. WEEK continues success in local news coverage in the Peoria-Bloomington-Normal, Illinois market. In early March of 2009, WEEK and Granite Broadcasting took control of WHOI and is controlling the station under a local managment agreement.

Here's a link to today's WEEK-TV.


"Coffee Time" was a mid day locally produced talk variety show originating from the WEEK studios hosted by Dick and Bev Vance. This 1950's ad, along with the others pictured here appeared in central Illinois editions of TV Guide tm. It was a sign of the times, appealing to the housewives who were home doing the cleaning, cooking and laundry.	It was the early days of rock and roll, and local TV stations jumped on the bandwagon with their own locally produced TV teen dance party programs. It only stands to reason, as local TV had shows for the housewives(left), the kids(cartoons and locally produced kid panel shows) and for adult men(sportscasts, along with network TV sports coverage). While ABC had "American Bandstand" WEEK had the "Rock n-Roll Party" which aired on Saturday afternoons. The WEEK version was hosted by station "work horse" Dick Vance.

"Mackenzie's Raiders" was a syndicated TV western starring Richard Carlson as the real life character of the old west. It was produced from 1958-59 and was shown during those years on WEEK-TV. Many times local TV stations were given blocks of prime time, as the network didn't bother to program against successful shows on the other networks. Sunday nights at 9:30PM CT was dominated by "What's My Line" on CBS. Neither NBC or ABC programmed that half hour of prime time, leaving the local stations to fill the time.	Here's the Sunday night news team, which probably looked alot like the weekday news team. Producing local news at the time, was much simpler and required less resources as today. Many local newscasts were simply "rip and read" sessions, because the act of getting any local film footage wasn't done at the time. Bill Houlihan was a fixture on Peoria TV over the next 50 years.
	In 1962 the after school late afternoon lineup included the locally produced Captain Jinks followed by the Hanna Barbara cartoons in rotation Huckleberry Hound, Quick Draw McGraw and Yogi Bear. This ad also ranks it's full power Peru, Illinois translator, WEEQ, Channel 35 as being equal to WEEK. (courtesy of J.R. Evans)

WTVH-TV, WIRL-TV, WRAU-TV, WHOI-TV, Channel 19, Peoria, Illinois

WTVH was Peoria's second TV station having signed on nine months later, in November of 1953. The station was a project of Hilltop Broadcasting, in which part owner was the Peoria Journal Star newspaper. WTVH's studios were located in downtown Peoria at 234 North Madison Street. It's transmitter was located on the east side of the Illinois river at Creve Coeur. WTVH was one of the original twenty ABC full time affiliates but sometime after sign-on, the station became associated with some kind of a network affiliation with CBS. It's also been recorded that the station also aired programming from DuMont.

Based on TV Guide programming and local news items during the middle to late 1950's, it seems that WTVH went through a very trying time. Local newscasts were eliminated, with the probable lay-offs of many staffers. The broadcast hours of operation were also cut considerably on the weekends. Why there was such a downturn in the economic health of WTVH is hard to determine. This downturn did seem to occur as WTVH became an ABC primary affiliate, while programming from CBS seemed to disappear. The cut-backs of the station could have been the result of the anticipated loss of network TV advertising revenue. Of course, CBS programming would return with the eventual sign-on of another Peoria TV competitor with WMBD-TV on January 1, 1958.

In 1959 WTVH became a part of the company which it was previously associated as an affiliate. When DuMont went out of business in the mid 1950's, the former pieces of the original company became Metropolitan Broadcasting Corporation(see WTVP History). With the ownership change to Metropolitan, WTVH picked up a central Illinois sister station in Decatur, WTVP. It's seems to be a coincidence that the call letters were very similar, but many stations tried to work in the call letters "TV" into their names. There's no indication that it was any plan of the owners, since they actually went on the air with different owners, although it many have been a plan of some of the early ABC affiliates to have the "TV" call letters, much like it was the plan to have ABC owned and operated stations all at channel 7.

During the early 1960's, Metropolitan Broadcasting went through another name change becoming Metromedia. By 1965, Metromedia sold WTVH to WIRL(AM) radio bringing about a TV station name change. WTVH became WIRL-TV, where it was co-owned by the 5,000 watt AM Top 40 station through 1973. Back in 1958, WIRL-TV was listed in an allocation table on Channel 8. The station never went on the air, as the allocation was shifted to the Quad Cities area where it was used by WQAD-TV.

Channel 19 was sold once again to Forward Communications when the call letters were changed to WRAU-TV in 1973. In 1985 the call letters were changed to WHOI, which went with the theme of "Heart of Illinois." Two years later in 1987, Forward Communications was merged with Adams Communications which operated the ABC affiliate to 1991, when it was sold to Brisette Broadcasting. That ownership was short as in 1996 it changed hands again to Benedek Broadcasting which eventually filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy. That company merged with Grey Broadcasting which sold the station in 2002 to Chelsey Broadcasting and later to Barrington Broadcasting Group. On March 2, 2009 it was announced that WHIO would be operated by Granite Broadcastings's WEEK-TV. WHOI now operates under the control of WEEK, Channel 25.

Here's the link to today's WHOI-TV

Visit my former co-anchor at WICD, Jen Christensen's blog site, News Anchor Mom.


"Stretch" Miller was broadcasting sports on WTVH in 1958.	It was "Weather According to Hoyle" in 1958 on WTVH, Channel 19 in Peoria.

"The Les Crane Show" was a late night talker syndicated to go up against "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson. Needless to say, Les didn't do all that great and only lasted a short time. This was during the Metropolitan Broadcasting area, later Metromedia. Notice the font style was the same for WTVP, Channel 17 during the era they were co-owned.	ABC's corporate headquarters was nicknamed "Hard Rock" because of it's ownership of several major market Top 40 stations during the 1960's. Here Channel 19 was owned by the local Top 40 station, WIRL-1290 AM.

WMBD-TV, Channel 31, Peoria, Illinois

On New Years Day, 1958, WMBD signed on the air as the CBS affiliate. It's arrangement with CBS nearly put Peoria station WTVH-TV out of business. Channel 19 did retain it's affiliation with ABC, making it a full time affiliate with the young network, but not without severely affecting the operation.

Meanwhile, the new CBS affiliate at Channel 31 was developed and owned by Charles Caley and John Fetzer of WMBD, Inc., the licensee of WMBD, 1470 AM radio. WMBD was a longtime radio affiliate of CBS, which would make me assume that that relationship was what shifted the TV network to the newer station. John Fetzer was a long time radio executive and was a part owner of the Detroit Tigers baseball team from 1956 to 1961, becoming the sole owner in 1961. He also was rather ingenious in the development of radio and TV stations in Nebraska, Iowa and Michigan.

In 1960, WMBD, Inc. was sold to Midwest Television, the license holder of WCIA(TV) in Champaign, Illinois. WMBD and WCIA were both CBS affiliates and shared a number of programming elements over the years.   Farm news, weather, even reporters and anchors were shared over the years, even into the 80's. A microwave relay system between Champaign, Springfield and Peoria gave the stations a way to broadcast news from the state capitol in Springfield, operating a bureau out of the capitol building. The microwave relay also allowed simulcasts of farm news, weather and local news reports which would have appeal to both markets. It's also been recorded that the stations shared broadcasts of "The Hop"(see WCIA History), Nightmare Theater(the late night 'creature feature') and other local programs. Local color broadcasts of local news came on Sunday, January 22, 1967. WMBD was the first Peoria TV station to broadcast local news in color.

Sometime in the early 1980's, WMBD moved the studios from the run down, crowded home at the then deserted hotel in downtown Peoria to the home of a former grocery story at 3131 N. University.   The TV stations of Midwest TV were sold to Nextar in 1999, while the radio stations WMBD and WKZW(FM) were sold to JMP Media. JMP was purchased by Triad Broadcasting which now also own former competition WIRL, WDQX, WXCL and WSWT.

Here's a link to today's WMBD-TV.    Here's a link to today's WMBD-AM and WPBG(FM)

Above is a collection of TV Guide ads featuring some of the talent of WMBD in news, weather and being a master of ceremonies for the "Family Theatre" presentation. Notice the local newscast was just 15 minutes in 1958 airing at 6PM. Joe Rex's weather window was simulcast weekends on central Illinois sister station WCIA in Champaign. Names like Chuck Henson, Lloyd Ummel, Joe Rex, John Fisher, Jim Jenson were all a part of the talent package of WMBD-TV.

Above left is one of the early ads from 1958, promoting "Weekend World" with Jess Kennedy. It was a 30-minute world, national and local news roundup of the events of the weekend which ran on Sunday night.
At the right is a TV Guide ad with the movie lineup of the week.

WMBD's "big difference in news" was the use of a microwave relay "network" which linked WCIA with WMBD and enabled the stations to exchange audio/video to further the coverage of central Illinois news. The station vehicles were parked at the front of the hotel on Southwest Jefferson in downtown Peoria, which was the site of the WMBD radio and TV stations.

Above left: From 1965, WMBD news main anchors consisted of Jerry Biddle(left), Bob Gregory(center) and Bob Starr(right).

Above: It seems the theme of the late weekend 30-minute locally produced news wrap-up was carried over into the 60's with "Weekend World."

Left: By the mid 1960's, WMBD had local color capabilities, at least for the broadcast of films for the "Late Show."

Below: The news talent lineup of WMBD and WCIA from 1976.

WBLN(TV), Channel 15, Bloomington, Illinois

As of right now, very little is known about this central Illinois TV station, other than it went on the air in very late December 1953 and operated for several years as an independent, and later as an ABC affiliate. The studio was located in southeast Bloomington, just to the southeast of the former Bypass 66(now Veteran's Parkway). The transmitter location is currently unknown, although there are some indications it was located at the present site of WJBC/WBNQ studios along Greenwood Aveune(also along the former Bypass 66) in the southwest part of Bloomington. The broadcast tower looks very similar to those constructed in Peoria and Danville for other UHF stations of the era. The station went dark for a time during the mid to late 1950's, only to return for a time before shutting down again. The station never returned to broadcast. The allocation for channel 15, was moved to Champaign in 1967 when WICD-TV combined the operations for Channel 33 and Channel 24 in Champaign and Danville to create the full powered station.



	Far Upper Left: A TV Guide ad from 1954 as WBLN finally received a network hookup to bring viewers ABC programming. Far Upper Right: The Telephone Answering Service of Bloomington sponsored the local news broadcast which ran at 9:45pm with Frank Muxfield. Upper left: WBLN's local news coverage in 1958 included coverage of McLean County at 6 and 10 with Warner Tidemann with sports at 6:15 and 10:15 with Don McKellar. WBLN also promoted their "wire" association with United Press Unifax Service, which I assume allowed them to broadcast actual news still pictures. Upper right: It's hard to believe that local TV in 1958 included a prime time religious program, broadcast live in prime time, with a discussion of the Bible. Left: "Uncle Johnny" Barton, a fixture of nearby Clinton radio station WHOW was a central Illinois country music celebrity for many years. He performed live on WHOW and was a DJ at the 5,000 watt country station as well. Here is an early ad from TV Guide in 1958 promoting his show "Hillbilly Jamboree" which ran weekly, at least for while, in 1958 on Wednesday's from 8 to 9pm.

Western Illinois TV History

WJJY(TV), Channel 14, Jacksonville, Illinois

Jacksonville also had a hand in some television history on several fronts. First of all it did host a TV station in the late 60's. It was also one of the MOST powerful TV stations in the country(4.5 million watts) broadcasting from one of the three tallest broadcast towers in the northern hemisphere(1610 feet). WJJY-TV went on the air in August of 1969 from it's studio in Jacksonville located at 1314 West Walnut.. The company, "Look Television" was headed by Keith Moyer(who also started WTIM radio in Taylorville) and employed future WAND staffers like Jerry Slade(later changed to Jerry Slabe) and Mike Cheevers.


Click on one of the images above to go to the WJJY History Website

Within a year and a half ABC was threatening to cancel their ABC affiliation as audience levels continued to come short of their previous part time affiliation with KHQA in Quincy. It appears the bank beat them to it when it went into receivership, RCA claimed most of their leased equipment and was sold on the open market. Their monster tower fell during an ice storm on Easter morning 1978 the same ice storm which also claimed the tower of WAND. Ironically both towers had nearly identical RCA antennas which weighed nearly 26 tons(normal UHF antennas weighed in from 2 to 9 tons)!

Since the demise of the station, the building is still standing, but has been repainted a number of times, the microwave tower has been removed and a warehouse was built on the rear. It now houses the Elm City Rehabilitation.

For the whole story, as told by an insider, visit The Rise and Fall of WJJY-TV, Channel 14.

thanks to J. Mitch Hopper for his contribution

Other Central Illinois History

I've spent alot of web site space looking into the histories of "the big four" stations, WTVP, WICS, WCIA, WDAN, but haven't mentioned much about the other also rans in the market. So, I include brief histories of WBHW(now WRSP) and WFHL(now WBUI) below...

WBHW to WRSP/WCCU, Channel 55 and 27, Springfield, Urbana, Illinois

A listing from the early 50's which included a channel 55 allocation for Springfield and the calls WPNG were attached to it, but to my knowledge, the station never went on the air. There was another indication that another TV service was on the way to Springfield in 1958, as a listing had WMAY-TV on channel 36. The proposed WMAY-TV would have been sister station to WMAY-AM(970AM). It never became a reality.

Springfield finally picked up it's third TV signal when WBHW-TV, Channel 55 went on the air June 1, 1979 in Springfield. The original studio was located in the former "Robert Hall" clothing store, located on Clear Lake, just east of K-Mart. The building has since been torn down. WBHW ran a schedule of older syndicated programming such as those being offered by Viacom, like The Andy Griffith Show, Flintstones from a poor quality film chain at the low power facility. I remember stories about the station running commerical breaks from consumer grade VHS VTRs. You can only imagine how bad the quality of the broadcasts were! The call letters were changed to WRSP-TV in 1982.. The station operated from a short located just off of North Grand Avenue and I-55.

Sometime in the 1980's, WRSP went to a full power station with a transmitter location change to Mechanicsburg, near the transmitter of WICS-TV.   The studios were moved to another location on the Old Rochester Road on Springfield's east side, near Dirkson Parkway. Under the ownership of Springfield Broadcasting Partners, a subsidary of Cy Bahakel Communications the station was brought up to date and was one of the original FOX affiliates.

On Apri 25, 1987, WCCU-TV signed on from Urbana. It was an affiliate of WRSP, having a different owner, then eventually being purchased by Springfield Broadcasting Partners(Bahakel Communications) within a couple of years to become a sister station and satellite. WCCU was purchased from the initial license holder as the plan called for when duopoly rules were relaxed during the 90's. The Urbana studio location on Kilarny Avenue consisted of a master control and small studio in which some public affairs programmin was produced. The signal of WRSP was passed through for broadcast, but local commericals and announcements were sometimes inserted over the local commericials of WRSP.   The studio and master control was eliminated when a microwave relay system was put into place which sent the signal from the WRSP studios directly to WCCU's transmitter point near Penfield, Illinois. WCCU maintains an advertisting sales office in downtown Champaign.

Right now WRSP is also broadcasting a digital HDTV video signal on channel 44. WCCU is now broadcasting a digital signal on channel 26, with HDTV.   The station's also broadcast a local newscast at 9pm nightly that is produced by WICS/WICD.

See today's WRSP here.
See today's WCCU here.

More on the History of WRSP/WCCU coming soon.


The original call letters for WRSP was WBHW, a low power upper UHF station owned by some local partners, including Bill H. Wingerter. The call letters were his initials....WBHW.	WRSP/WCCU ID graphic from 1989 recorded from WCCU, Channel 27 in Urbana.	Here is a Fox graphic from their initial sign on in the 80's.	WBHW and WRSP in the early 80's broadcast the CBS Late Night lineup, since WCIA broadcast their own movie lineup to make room for more local advertising. WBHW and WRSP, without a network line, would rebroadcast the off air/off cable signal of KMOX(KMOV) and covered local ads with their own. Occasionally a KMOX ID would slip through, and the signal was also questionable depending on weather conditions and same channel interference from other channel 4's.	The program lineup consisted of some off network crime dramas and a few British imports including the New Avengers.

WFHL, WBUI, Decatur, Illinois

A WB promo capture from a promo with the frog logo Michigan J. Frog from the Warner Brothers cartoons of the 40's and 50's.

In the 1980's the Four Square Gospel Church of Decatur applied for and received a broadcast license at channel 23. WFHL broadcast religious programming with both local and syndicated sources. It relied on some commercial income, but also received donations from viewers. Later it was sold to the Paxnet group which made the station a PAX network affiliate, while at the same time relying on religious programming to fill out the schedule. In the late 1990's, the station was sold to ACME broadcasting which changed the network affiliation to WB. The station also tape delayed some PAX programming to air late nights or overnight while the PAX was in operation. WB-23 continues to broadcast from a new transmitter site, just a few hundred feet from the tower site of WAND. It was equipped to broadcast it's analog channel 23 signal as well as it's digital signal at channel 22. In the Fall of 2006, WBUI became an affiliate of the new CW Network which resulted in the partnership of WB and UPN Networks. In 2007, the ownership changed from Acme to GoCom which owns WRSP/WCCU.

At far left is a former logo of WBUI back when
the network was known a "The WB." Since the partnership of CBS and Warner's, it's been known as "The Country Western...."
oops...."The C-W."

Other stations lost in time....

In 1953 a group of University of Illinois educators financed by a group of New York real estate investors applied for a UHF station in Champaign, Illinois at channel 21. They organized and filed for a license under the name of Champaign Television, Inc.. There were a series of questions about the proposed broadcast tower's location from area air fields, including the one from nearby Chanute Air Field in Rantoul. The proposed tower was called "a hazard and danger to air navigation." The group was represented by attorney Phillip Zimmerly in a series of meetings and hearings during the month of July of 1953. The proposed 750-foot tower and antenna which was to be located near the Rt. 150 and Lake of the Woods road was eventually approved by the equivalent to the FAA at the time. At the time of the WCIA sign-on, the owners talked of their situation by saying they were not in any hurry to sign-on preferring to wait on "new technological changes" which would change their plans. They stated that changes in lighting, projection systems and the advent of color TV would want to be incorporated in their plans. A representative also said, " We're trying to get one of the first color transmitters." By July of 1953, the FCC granted a construction permit to build the new UHF station at Channel 21. The owners of Champaign Television during 1954 went through a series of changes and was reorganized under a new President, Norman Blankman of New York City, and a new company name "Champaign-Urbana Television Inc... By June of 1954, almost a year later, the FCC dismissed the application stating that the company's "failure to prosecute the application." That was were the story ended. See WCIA for more information.

In 1960 it was reported from a story dated April 23, 1960, in the Champaign News Gazette, an FCC examiner recommended that the FCC reject a bid by Livesay Broadcasting Company(WLBH-AM/FM, Mattoon) to take over the TV channel 10 in Terre Haute, Indiana. WTHI occupied the channel and had requested a move to lower dial position Channel 2. The allocation was opened up in Terre Haute(at the same time channel 2 opened up in St. Louis) after it was moved from Springfield, Illinois. The examiner refused the bid by Livesay because of the Wabash Valley Broadcasters(owner of WTHI) "superiority in local ownership" and it's record of public service. It was unclear as to whether the proposed ownership of channel 10 would have moved the station to Mattoon or if it would have stayed in Terre Haute.

Outside the Market Notes and Graphics


WISH-TV Channel 8 Indianapolis a CBS affiliate. This graphic is from sometime in the 1960's.	WFBM-TV Channel 6 Indianapolis was an NBC affiliate until the network switch in the early 80's, which took it to ABC. It's now WRTV.	WTHR from the early-mid 1980's with an ID Graphic with the NBC Just Watch Us Now theme. WTHR Channel 13 is in Indianapolis.	WPDS, Channel 59 went on the air as an independent but is now the FOX affiliate for Indianapolis and is owned by Tribune Broadcasting.

WGN ID graphic from the 70's	Harry Carey, Cubs play by play announcer on WGN-TV.	A WGN ID Graphic from the 80's	More coming soon

What I have put together here covers the "Big 4" stations in the Champaign-Urbana, Decatur and Springfield market which can take their history back to 1953. Even though I am employed technically by two of the stations listed, I have tried to be objective. The information here contains no authorized information from any of the stations, including the one to which I am employed, and this site simply exists for the entertainment and curiosity of those interested in local TV and radio broadcasting. Virtually all of the images are from my personal collection of TV programs and special TV historical perspectives recorded on local TV and satellite feeds from 1980 to the present. The original copyrighted information is owned by the networks and stations and contained within this site simply for the historical significance of each item. If any of the copyright holders object to any images on this site e-mail me and it will be removed and an explanation will be in it's place.

This site also includes information gathered from TV Guide articles(they used to include local TV station news), TV Guide ads, a few newspaper articles(mainly the Springfield Journal Register, Champaign News-Gazette, Urbana Courier and the Danville Commercial News) and my own memory growing up and watching Central Illinois TV on various Philco, Sylvania, G.E., RCA and Zenith TV's of the eras. I have also included information from volunteer contributors who are noted. The station promotional ads are from Central Illinois TV Guides from 1953-1990 which are in my own personal collection. They as well as ALL IMAGES appear on this web site only for their historical significance. I believe most facts stated on these pages are accurate, but I'll keep an open mind to any corrections that anyone should volunteer. I'll also include any more verifiable contributions anyone would send me.

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