WGSF Television

Link: http://wgsf.oldgleaner.com/

You pass a lot of things as you drive down the road or across town, physical things. Cars and trucks in the next lane, behind you and before you. Buildings and bridges, Structures large and small, from the tidy to the tawdry, ‘McMansions’ and monuments. Even the magnificence of natural ‘wonders’ pales to insignificance when compared to the one element that grabs our attention, and our emotions - People!
Take away the human element and the most grandiose monument is just a pile of stone. Erase the names from the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, DC, ignore the association with its reason for being, and it retains only one thought in our minds - Who built it, and why. Stonehenge intrigues us, only in part because of its composition, but primarily because somebody built it. We know ‘What’ it is, and ‘Where’ it is, but we are driven to discover the ‘Who’ and the ‘Why’ - the people connection!
So, too, with any history we may compile. The physical elements are akin to computer firmware - things to touch and see. But people, ahh, people! That is the ‘software’ that gives life to history, that makes monuments truly majestic, and puts the “Awe” in awesome. Feelings, thoughts, emotions - the ties that bind and the forces that drive us.
Yes, we can analyze, we can describe, we can measure and calculate the finiteness of things, but life is not in them. Because we are human, things are only complete when we imbue them with a relationship to our humanity.

Now, why am I writing this as a prelude to a history of a television station?
Simply because we may write all we may about trucks and transmitters, cameras, consoles, and gadgets galore, and they, like a monument, are clumps of metal and plastic. A monument to human ingenuity, perhaps, but of meaningless utility until they are brought into the human equation.
Why did someone build it? What was it used for? How did this contribute to the sharing of feelings, emotions, conquests and failures of the human spirit? That is the essence of what any history is all about. Any trip down the road or across town is significant only of the passage of time until someone recounts what people did during the trip. Those experiences are what makes the journey memorable!

The ‘journey’ for the Television Station known as WGSF involved trucks and transmitters, cameras, consoles, and gadgets galore, but it is the “people” element that makes a history of this particular institution worthy of remembering, retelling and compiling.

That WGSF had some television equipment, at least some of the time, and used it for the purpose of broadcasting television programs, was one of the few things that was shared in common with most other stations. The deficiency of equipment was more than overcome by the exuberance of spirit shared by those who participated in this “adventure.” There must have been some mystic that so enthralled teen-agers that they would trudge across town, through snow, and up a two-hundred foot high hill, to become part of it. Let’s face it; it wasn’t just for the TV toys that you expended so much effort, but for the ’games’ you played with them. Talk about the equipment if it is relevant to the story line, but the real story is the people connection.

That is what I most wish to collect with this history.
What happened? Why do you remember that? Things that went right and things that went wrong tend to stick in our minds. Yes, I have documentation on many things, physical and procedural, but the most necessary component is the remembering and retelling of the experiences, the emotions, the frustrations and “hilltop” moments as you interacted with the people you encountered there.
Share the “who-what-where-why-how” of your “life” with WGSF Television. And, if you had a life after June 30, 1976, did it make a difference somewhere along the trip from then until whenever?

Please share what ever pops up from the repository of those memories of this part of your life journey.

Link: http://wgsf.oldgleaner.com/

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Topics can include anything that doesn't fit into an established category. That might be a "Help Needed" question, blog etiquette, an inquiry about something you are trying to remember about WGSF, or whatever.

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Leland Hubbell
admin

This is the latest feature of the WGSF Television website:
http://wgsf.oldgleaner.com/
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Link: http://wgsf.oldgleaner.com/

WGSF Television

Newark, Ohio 1963 - 1976

Public Broadcasting Television Station WGSF operated in Newark, Ohio, from 1963 to 1970 as Channel 28, and then as Channel 31 until it ceased operation in 1976.

The call letters for station WGSF honor the first major contributor to help finance the station - the Games Slayter Family. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Games_Slayter

The station was officially dedicated in 1963. A larger photo of this page from the dedication booklet with photos of the station and of Mr. and Mrs. Games Slayter may be seen at:

http://wgsf.oldgleaner.com/GamesSlayterFamily.html

Notes On Call Letters
Radio and television broadcast stations in the United States are assigned call letters (station identification) that begin with either the letter 'W' or 'K' followed by two or three other letters, in this case, GSF, for Games Slayter Family.
(Some people persisted twisting the call letters to W-S-G-F)

It is interesting to note that the designator -TV was NOT part of the assigned identification - legally, it was just 'WGSF.'
The station was once cited by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) because the station identification slide read "WGSF-TV" and the audio announcement proclaimed it as such. We had to quickly make new , correct slides, and change the announcer's copy.