WCIA Champaign

WCIA view of sign across the top of the building
and the "old radio tower" which served as support
for the microwave antenna which sent the signal of
WCIA from the studio to the transmitter site west of
Champaign near Seymour. The "old radio tower" still
serves WCIA today.
(from the WCIA 50th Anniversary Special
and the Ed Mason Collection)

August Meyer, President of Midwest Television
(from the WCIA 50th Anniversary Special
and the Ed Mason Collection)

Pictured is the groundbreaking of WCIA's tower and transmitter at their initial location near White Heath, although the tower wasn't contructed here. Find out why in the text below.

Pictured on the left photo(left to right) Henry Kaiser, President of Monticello Chamber of Commerce; Francis Anderson, Mayor of Monticello; Luella and Eddie McCartney, children of Dean McCartney(just outside the picture range at far left); Mrs. McCartney, Mrs. August Meyer; Mr August C. Meyer, President of Midwest Television(with shovel); J.C. Vinson, President of White Heath Community Club; also just outside the picture on the right was C.G. Holforty, President of First State Bank of Monticello.
(from the WCIA 50th Anniversary Special
and the Ed Mason Collection)

Standing left: Merrill Lindsey, Board Member(representing the former Illinois Broadcast Company); F.R. White, Manager of White Heath Grain Company; Cloy Rudisaill, landowner.
Kneeling are Rev. A.R. Cartlidge, Board Member(placed on the board by request of Helen M. Stevick and daughter Marajen Chinigo(of the Champaign News-Gazette and WDWS Radio)) ; Harold Davis of the Archetectural Firm of Royer and Davis; August C. Meyer, President of Midwest Television(in background), Russell O. Derby, Board Member, Robert Showalter, Monticello Attorney an C.G. Hofforty, President of First State Bank of Monticello. This picure was published in the June 4, 1953 edition of the Urbana Courier Newspaper.


Here is a series of pictures showing the construction of the WCIA broadcast tower located near Seymour. It also shows the VHF "bow-tie" antenna system which would broadcast the analog signal of WCIA from 1953 to 2009. (from the WCIA 50th Anniversary Special and the Ed Mason Collection)

At right is a airplane view of the tower against the east central Illinois country side. The 1000 foot tower was one of the tallest towers ever constructed at that time and was tall enough to send the channel 3 VHF signal from Springfield, to the west, eastward into west central Indiana. Channel 3 would reach almost to Kankakee to the north to Effingham at the far south. The fact that WCIA was the only VHF station in the central Illinois marketing area gave the station an advantage of attracting many national and regional advertisers. (from the WCIA 50th Anniversary Special and the Ed Mason Collection)

WCIA's Beginnings....

Channel 3, WCIA was the third of the original five Central Illinois Stations having signed-on November 14, 1953 from studios on South Neil Street in Champaign. It was also the first and only commercial VHF station in central Illinois. Midwest Television was the original owner from 1953 to 2000, when it was sold to Nextar with several very controversial changes in staffing. The fact is, WCIA was/is an influential part of Central Illinois like no other newspaper, radio station or TV station was or ever has been.

1953....it was a time in which the newspapers in Springfield, Decatur, Champaign-Urbana and Danville served their individual communities but not much beyond. This was many years before the linking of these communities by Interstate 74. To travel between Springfield and Danville, for example, the journey took you along U.S. 36, IL 48, 47 and 10, then to U.S. 150. Traveling the market was not an easy chore along the two lane highways of central Illinois at thet time. In fact Champaign-Urbana and Danville had more in common with Bloomington and Peoria being linked directly along U.S. 150 than with the larger towns to the west which were linked by U.S. 36. Without getting into the socioeconomic make up of each of the cities it's safe to say that Springfield was about as opposite to Decatur as any two cities could be, while the same could be said about Champaign-Urbana and Danville. It just so happened that the opposite cities were grouped together at opposite east-west ends in central Illinois. The one common denominator was the vastness of the prairie and the rich black farmland which stretched across central Illinois east of the Illinois River. This made agriculture the major industry of the region.

Before WICA went on the air, let us go back to September of 1948, when the F.C.C. halted any further allocation of television station licences. At that point there were 108 TV stations on the air. This "freeze" put an end to any new TV stations in the U.S. while, other than the ones which were already under construction. The freeze allowed the F.C.C. to work out a formula allowing television stations to broadcast on the UHF band, in spite of the fact that there were no UHF transmitters designed or being built, and no TV receivers designed or built to receive the stations. With very little testing, the F.C.C. decided to begin allocating UHF stations once the freeze was lifted. This plan would allow for placement of VHF stations on those grandfathered in, and allow for other VHF stations to be added to major markets, while allocating UHF stations to smaller towns and communities. The number of stations per community would depend on the population of that community. Los Angeles and New York were granted 7 VHF stations and a maximum of 4 VHF stations in other secondary markets. The separation of the same channel was based on 170 miles.

This ruling put stations broadcasting on the VHF band in a far advantage for success no matter what size market they were located, compared to that of their UHF competitors. Again, consider that there were very few TV sets equiped to received UHF broadcasts. Also, the larger more important TV networks were the ones in demand by local TV stations, and put those stations affiliated with CBS and NBC at an advantage, along with being the only VHF stations in the markets. This put DuMont and ABC at a distinct disadvantage. WCIA would benefit from this situation for years....but it was not without challeges.

Much like with the cities' newspapers, the coverage area of the newly assigned area UHF TV stations were limited to much smaller geographic areas. WCIA was a different animal. It's position at VHF Channel 3 made it inherently possible to cover much of the area from Springfield, Illinois to Covington, Indiana from the west to the east, and from Effingham to Kankakee from the south to the north.

(from Champaign-Urbana Courier)

(from Champaign-Urbana Courier)

Being the only VHF station in the market, allowed WCIA to cover such a vast area like none of the other TV stations in Springfield, Decatur, Bloomington or Danville could. There would be no other VHF allocations available in central Illinois. While, early allocation tables allowed for Channel 2 in Springfield and Channel 8 in Peoria, those were never granted. In fact, they were moved....as Channel 2 went to St. Louis and Channel 8 was moved to Moline, Illinois. That was part of a plan to give Chicago more than it's share of dedicated VHF signals. Other VHF allocations from surrounding markets around Chicago were reduced to move them to the Windy City to give them a 6 VHF stations. It could have been because there was a Democrat in the White House, while Chicago was a very Democratic city.

Challenges to WCIA

There were at least two efforts taken by the other two leading stations in the market to change the dial position of WCIA from being the only VHFat channel 3 to a UHF channel, which would have probably been channel 27. By changing from VHF to a UHF channel, it would have given WCIA a coverage area much like that of WICS(in Springfield) and WTVP(in Decatur).

Beginning in 1957 there were actions being taken by the FCC to classify the entire market as "only UHF", triggered by the efforts of the Springfield and Decatur competitors. The proposal was fought by WCIA to remain on VHF channel 3. After several months of haggling and WCIA's public campaign threatning the loss of signal to nearly 150,000 viewers if it was to shift to a UHF channel, the FCC finally decided to make this market a VHF-UHF market during the spring of 1958.

Another challenge was made during the early 1960's when the FCC proposed once again to make the market an all UHF market. After much campaigning, helping to arrange community protests and getting the support of CBS the FCC eventually approved the "deintermixture"of the market to include both VHF and UHF stations. The passing of the FCC all channel receiver law help save WCIA from making the switch to UHF. It appeared that the inclusion of an all channel television receiver would somehow make all channels "equal" thus giving no station a dominant dial position. WCIA, Channel 3 was pronounced "saved" in September of 1962. This decision ultimately created a VHF "superstation" in the market for WCIA and forced the other UHF stations to remain relatively local in coverage areas for years. It wasn't until the developement of high powered UHF transmitters and the use of extraordinarily tall broadcast towers in the 1970's that made the coverage areas of some UHF stations even come close to that of the VHF stations. These high powered UHF transmitters, though, were very costly to operate, a fact which continues to be an unfair cost of doing business for these stations.

If the other major stations, WTVP and WICS, in the market had anything to do with the two challenges by the FCC to move WCIA into the UHF band, it wasn't the first time they had challenged WCIA. The first challenge was undertaken early in 1953 by Prairie Broadcasting, WTVP(Channel 17) in Decatur when WCIA was under construction. The original tower site was located north of White Heath on what was determined to be one of the highest points in central Illinois(see the ground breaking pictures at the top of this page). The concrete footings were poured for the tower and the guy wire supports when WTVP filed with the FCC against WCIA alleging "invasion and encroachment" of it's territory. To avoid delays in the construction, another site was chosen which engineers determined would be a minimal change in the proposed coverage area . That site was the current tower site of WCIA near Seymour along Illinois route 10 west of Champaign. The 1,000 foot tower and antenna was completed on Monday, October 26, 1953 and was pitched as the tallest structure in downstate, possibly the entire state of Illinois. The microwave tower at the rear of the studio at 509 South Neil was completed the same day. That tower would help send the signal of WCIA from the studio to the transmitter site at Seymour.

The FCC approved the licence on February 26, 1953, but before it was awarded to Midwest TV, there was an incredibly smart move by Midwest TV to eliminate another applicant for Channel 3 by the Illinois Broadcast Company. The Illinois Broadcast Company filed for the station on June 26, 1952 and proposed a broadcast tower at the southeast corner of Florida and Kirby in Urbana, Illinois. A few days later on June 29, 1952, Midwest TV filed for the station proposing a broadcast tower 2.4 miles northwest of Champaign. In order to avoid what would surely be a long drawn out series of hearings to award the licence, August C. Meyer, the President of Midwest offered a 20 percent stake in Midwest TV to the investors of the Illinois Broadcast Company. An agreement was made with the other applicant and Midwest TV was formed. The board of directors were as follows: Mr. and Mrs. August C. Meyer, Merrill Lindsey(representing Illinois Broadcast Company), R.O. Derby(a C-U business man) and Reverend A. Ray Cartlidge(of the First Presbyterian Church of Champaign). The Rev. Cartlidge held the seat by request of Helen M. Stevick and daughter Marajen Chinigo(of the Champaign News-Gazette and WDWS Radio). Mr. and Mrs. August Meyer held controlling interest at 51%.

Also at about the same time the license for Channel 3 was awarded there was another request for another Champaign TV station. Champaign-Urbana Television Inc. filed a construction permit to establish a TV station on Channel 21. Phillip Zimmerly, a spokesperson for the company, "hoped to join WCIA-TV in the near future" and applauded the TV dealers in the Twin Cities to pitch the advantage of having both VHF and UHF tuners to their customers. C-U Television Inc. had proposed a 700-foot tower with a 50-foot antenna north of U.S. 150 and east of the Lake of the Woods road. The key organizer of the group was Dallas Smyth, Professor of Economics and Communication Research at the U of I. Other investors include: David F. Holshouser, Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering; Vernon Fryburger, Assistant Professor of Journalism and Communications while controlling stock was owned by a group of New York realtors. The group also hoped to be the station with the first color transmitter in the market, although no projected on-air date was stated. More on this proposed C-U competitor in The Others.

During 1953 the staff began to assemble. The first General Manager was Harry Maynard, who came to Champaign from KTLA(TV) in Los Angeles. There he was Sales Manager, but his background included working at ad agency Batten, Baren, Durstine and Osbourn in Hollywood, as well as a staff assistant director with Warner Brothers, Paramount and Selznick film studios. He was also a Marine in WWII. His wife was the former Joan Casgrove and they had three daughters, Mary Sue(12), Julie Ann(10) and Sally Joan(8). He graduated from San Jose State Normal College. He started in June of 1953. Other staffers included: James Fielding-Production Manager; Fred A. Sorenson-News Editor; Lou Martz-Sales; Martha Meyers-Office Manager; Geroge Pienderleith-Film Director; Allen Doyle-Engineering Staff; Robert Meyer-Assistant Chief Engineer; M.D. Hunnicutt Jr.-Chief Engineer; Guy Main-Commercial Manager; William Stinson-Art Director; John Ketterer-Music Director; Jerry F. Drake-Engineering Staff; Kenneith O. Fristoe-Engineering Staff; Carle W. St. John-Engineering Staff; Nancy Hill-Engineering Staff and Leonard Davis-Publicity Director.


Here WCIA anounces it's programming for the first week of broadcasting, mid November 1953. (from Champaign-Urbana Courier)	Here in the land of agriculture, farm programming was very important. (from Champaign-Urbana Courier)

Everything Pointed to November 14, 1953

From the time of the granting of the licence in February 26, 1953 to the sign on of WCIA, Midwest Television built the station in less than nine months! That also included the last minute relocation of the tower site from White Heath to Seymour. From the announcement of the new General Manager, to the various stages of construction, it appeared to go like well organized clock work. If a goal was to have something acheived in a set number of weeks on a particular day, the goal was met on time. Also during 1953 work had to be completed on a microwave system which would enable WCIA to receive network programming from Danville.

Here is a shot of the control room and studio of
WCIA right before sign-on in November of 1953.
(from Champaign-Urbana Courier)

It seemed that a major AT and T coaxial cable passed through Danville and not Champaign. This coaxial cable linked Chicago with Terre Haute, Indiana and St. Louis. Network programming would have to be switched in Danville by AT and T at specified times to feed CBS, DuMont or NBC programming to WCIA via a microwave relay system between Danville and Champaign. Another relay tower was constructed by AT and T near St. Joseph(it was the old twin tower microwave tower just to the north of I-74, that was removed during the mid-late 90's) to relay the signal from the AT and T office tower in Danville to another receiving dish on top of the Inman Hotel in downtown Champaign. From there it was cabled to 509 South Neil and the studios. This would end up being a technical nightmare for WCIA which would bring CBS in to rectify the situation.

The sign-on date for WICA was set even before some major equipment was installed and other construction projects were completed. The sign-on date was also planned to coincide with a huge public introduction of television at a "TV Show" which would include TVdealers from the Champaign area as well as WCIA. More on that later. The sign-on date was set weeks in advance even down to the exact time, 10:45AM, Saturday, November 14, 1953.

The first day of broadcasting on that November 14th included a short 15-minute film "Round South America"(a travel log), followed by the first CBS show "Big Top"(circus show for kids) and a local presentation of the western movie "Trail of the Silver Spur". A test pattern followed from 1pm to 5:45pm, when programming resumed with a formal live welcome with community leaders until 6PM when the movie "Overland Trail" was broadcast ahead of the CBS primetime schedule beginning with "The Jackie Gleason Show," "Two for the Money," and WCIA's first network rerun, an episode of "Amos and Andy."

Adding NBC to the Network Lineup

On December 4, 1953, WCIA announced it had signed a secondary affiliation agreement with NBC as station owner August Meyer returned from New York. The first NBC program broadcast was the Notre-Dame and Southern Methodist Football game which ran the following Saturday afternoon at 12:45pm. Negotiations were underway to add further NBC shows such as "The Voice of Firestone," "Dragnet," "Dave Garoway Show," "Ethyl and Albert" and "Television Playhouse." It was reported that sponsors operate on quarterly budgets and some shows might not be added until the next 13 week cycle. Remember, most TV shows at the time were actually info-mercials, in that the program and talent were owned by the advertising agency producing the show for it's sponsor client. They in turn were under contract with the networks which provided them an outlet for their commercials and their programs. They would pay the networks....and the networks would pay the local stations for air time. With the addition of NBC, WCIA had almost a monopoly on the most popular networks with it's agreements with CBS, DuMont and now NBC. Again, their VHF coverage area came into play, as the increased coverage area brought higher network compensation to WCIA. TV listings of WCIA from time to time during the early days also included airing of some ABC shows, such as "The Advetures of Ozzie and Harriet!" It appears that the ad agency, probably with the Kodak account, which sponsored the series at the time and owned "Ozzie and Harriet" saw more benefit being on the air waves of WCIA than ABC's own affilaite, WTVP!


One of the only "snags" in the sign on of WCIA was a problem with the audio transmitter. (from Champaign-Urbana Courier)	Newspaper photo of a studio rehersal at WCIA's studios from 1953. (from Champaign-Urbana Courier)


Behind the scenes at WCIA master control, studio shots showing the "teleprompter" scrolling script set up on the front of the camera. Also note the zoom lens addition to the old RCA studio camera. (from the WCIA 50th Anniversary Special and the Ed Mason Collection)

The Heritage of WCIA

WCIA set the standard for broadcasting in Central Illinois for most of it's broadcast history. It's approach to news and programming was one with the region in mind, as opposed to being a local broadcast service. The coverage area of WCIA included 41 counties in central Illinois and west central Indiana, with a population of more than 1.5 million people. It's location in Champaign, home of the University of Illinois gave it a natural programming, labor and revenue source. It was so exciting that over 41% of the homes in central Illinois had TV by 1954! Champaign News-Gazette accounts read, "Television set owners.....will have little difficulty in receiving WCIA's signal from it's 1000 foot tower at Seymour. The new channel 3 station will operate on maximum power at maximum tower height allowed by the Federal Communications Commission." The tower of WCIA is actually 880 feet tall with the remaining 120 feet being the antenna itself.