WGSF Television

The first Chief Engineer at WGSF, Bob Brooks, was a ham (Amateur Radio) operator as was his successor, Leland Hubbell. Bob was responsible for the construction phase of the station, and was initially the only person on the WGSF staff.
Bob installed a small six meter antenna part way up the tower, and would sometimes get on the air with a small transceiver. Six meters (AM) was popular with the technician class license in the 1960's, and the location is the reason that so many different radio systems are located on the hill.
Bob Brooks resigned in the summer of 1964.
I, Leland Hubbell, was hired as Chief Engineer in September.
I was first licensed as a Novice Class operator in 1956, and was assigned the call KN4LHB, while in Florida.The Air Force assigned me to Texas in 1957, and I upgraded to Technician class, and received a station license as K5MSX. I mustered out of the Air Force in 1958, moved back home to Ohio, and modified the call to K8MZH, which I have held since that time. I passed through the upgrade steps, and I now hold an Amateur Extra Class license, obtained in 1990.
The FCC permitted licensees to hold a second station license for many years, which was handy for operating at a location away from the home station. Otherwise, it was mandatory to file a report of proposed "Portable" operation with the FCC, and give the station identification and state the portable operation, thus: "This is K8MZH, Portable, Newark, Ohio." By obtaining the second station license, I held the station call letters WB8OFL, registered the location, and saved a lot of hassle.
The 2 meter ham radio repeater became popular in the 1960's, utilizing the FM mode. My operation from Horn's Hill was mostly on that band, especially since the Newark Amateur Radio Assn. had 2 meter facilities on Horn's Hill, dating back to the 1970's, at least.
A 'Repeater' is a system that gives a boost to mobile/portable stations by picking up signals from a transmitting station on one frequency, and retransmitting it on a different frequency, but at a much higher power. In that regard, it is similar to the current 'translator' which picks up the signal of WOSU-TV on channel 34, and re-transmits it on WGSF's old channel 31.
The difference is that ham operators take turns transmitting on a
frequency of, say, 146.28 MHz, and everybody listens on 146.88 MHz, using frequency modulation (FM)

The ham equipment was originally contained in a weatherproof box located on the wall outside the office, near the tower. They were given permission to move the ham equipment inside the building when WGSF ceased operation, and occupy what was once the WGSF audio/announce booth.
Several attempts were made to sell the WGSF transmitter equipment. It sat idle for several years, until the Newark School's Supervisor responsible for the Television services gave the Newark Amateur Radio club permission to dismantle the transmitter and remove it from the building.I have no idea what they did with the parts, although it is likely that some ham operator in the Newark area is using something that came from the old WGSF GE transmitter.

I taught several classes for aspiring amateur radio licensees while working for the Newark City Schools, both during and after the WGSF era. Several people went on to pass the FCC exams and obtain their amateur radio license.

It is interesting to note that a rather well equipped amateur radio station was located in 'H' Building, the Industrial Arts classroom and shops site, on the Newark High school campus. I would go over and operate when I had time, such as at lunch, working stations all over the world on the HF (High Frequency) bands. The amateur station was closed in 1995.

The first locally produced programs were broadcast on the WGSF Television station in the spring of 1963. The television camera was borrowed from the Educational Television station, WGTE, in Toledo, Ohio.
There was no further production until the spring of 1966, when two Dumont cameras were borrowed from WCET in Cincinnati, Ohio.
A few programs were produced using the Iconoscope slide chain camera, projecting 35 mm, 4x6 inch, or film strips directly onto the face of the tube. Live television was not possible with this camera.

Local production began in earnest in early 1967 with the arrival of two RCA TK-30 model cameras, which were donated by commercial TV station WJW in Cleveland, Ohio.

Please add comments to this thread as thoughts come to mind from your experiences..

Leland Hubbell
admin WGSF Blog

Every broadcast station in the world is assigned a unique licensee identification 'name' using combinations of letters or numbers.
The identification is proscribed by international law and agreements, and each national entity is assigned a group of letters from which to precede each identification.
The United States is allocated the letters A, N, K, and W, and may combine them with numbers - but one of those letters must be used as a prefix. The rest of the ID could be two or three letters for broadcast stations, often chosen to represent a location, business or person. Thus, in honor of the Games Slayter Family, who donated funding for the Newark station, the suffix was GSF, for Games Slayter Family - WGSF.
Stations broadcasting in the original AM radio band were given calls that began with a letter 'W' for stations east of the Mississippi River, and the letter 'K' for stations west of the river. An exception was KDKA, the first station licensed, which is in Pittsburgh, PA. (See , http://www.kdkaradio.com/pages/15486.php )

Later, as FM (Frequency Modulated) stations began broadcasting, often licensed to an existing AM station that wanted to use the same call letter identification, the letters AM and/or FM were added to the ID, thus: WLW-AM; WLW-FM; and later WLW-TV.
It should be noted that where a single transmitter was involved, as was the television station licensed to operate in Newark, Ohio, there was no requirement to add the -TV suffix. And it was not!
The legal station identification (ID) was simply WGSF Newark, Ohio.
In fact, the original station ID slides used WGSF-TV, and was so announced on the air. The Federal Commications Commission (FCC) noticed, though, and the station was cited for using an illegal station ID.
Hastily, new slides were made up, and the copy changed accordingly. Over the public airwaves, at least, WGSF was the way the station was known to one and all.

Leland Hubbell
admin WGSF Blog

All:

I was quite astonished to see the old KDYL now/later the WFSG Remote
truck still completely intact.

I was the Chief Engineer of KTVX - KCPX - KTVT - KDYL/W6XIS TV in Salt
Lake City Utah from 1983 until 1998.

As a collector of early television memorabilia I had gathered up a huge
pile of 8 X 10 pictures many of which showed that truck in action.
I started in the TV Biz in 1961. In my younger years I saw that truck
all over town and looked in the doors and probably became inspired to
get into the TV biz.

We (KTVX) became interested in doing a 50 year history in 1998 and used
the materials I had collected.

I guess the next question is, has any of the equipment been tried
recently? My experience is that stuff often works.
Jim McDermaid
FOX TV KSAZ - KUTP

(602) 262-5122 tel
(602) 762-2950 cel

james.mcdermaid@foxtv.com

Mr. DeBenedictis, a former administrator at Newark High School, died Friday, May 23, at Newark Health Care Center. He was born Nov. 23, 1928, in Huntington, W.Va., to his late parents, Thomas and Catherine (Jones) DeBenedictis. No services are scheduled at this time.

To sign an online guest book, visit http://www.brucker-kishlerfuneralhome.com
and click guest book/obituary.

Many of you who attended Newark High School knew Mr DeBenedictis as one of the Principals.
He had a long-time interest in theater, and was one of the founders of the Licking County Players, originally Welsh Hills Players. He was responsible for producing the play, "Little Women," on WGSF Television in 1966.
Newark High School did not have a theater building at that time, and was in danger of losing their Thespian Charter. The production on WGSF enabled them to renew their membership.
Mr DeBenedictis arranged for students to become the television production crew, and they were the first "Student Staff." Once the crew was trained on the equipment, several other TV programs were aired in early 1966.
He drove me to Cleveland to inspect the television cameras that were donated by WJW later that year, and is shown in a couple of photos with the cameras at the Cleveland station.
He maintained a close interest in WGSF, directing several other programs, including productions by the Licking County Art Association.

Leland Hubbell