The Federal Communications Commission has announced the grant of a new television station to serve this area. It is UHF Channel 54 assigned to the Signal Hill Telecasting Corporation of Belleville, Illinois with call letters WTVI. This is the largest market in the United States to receive a UHF grant.
The new station will be one of the most powerful in the world. Its power is greater than the combined power of all the television stations in either New York, Chicago or Los Angeles.
Studios will be erected at 10200 West Main Street, Belleville, with transmitter and tower on acreage nearby. Construction will start immediately. Corporation members expect to have their station on the air by May 1, 1953.
Officers of the Signal Hill Telecasting Corporation are Bernard T. Wilson, president and general manager; John I. Hyatt, vice president in charge of sales; Ted Wescott, vice president in charge of programming; H.M. Stolar, secretary; Paul E. Peltason, treasurer; and Harry Tenenbaum, assistant secretary-treasurer.
New model TV sets are said to be already equipped to receive the UHF station and most recent model sets sold in 1951 and 1952 will require a plug-in attachment which set owners can put on themselves. Older sets will require an inexpensive converter, which can be installed in one service call.
(Originally published in the Ad Club Weekly 12/8/1952).