WLNE-TV - History

History

The station began broadcasting on January 1, 1963 as WTEV from studios on 430 County Street in New Bedford. It operated an analog signal on VHF channel 6 from a transmitter in Tiverton.

ABC had a curious history in Rhode Island prior to WTEV's sign-on. In the earliest years of television in Providence, all three networks were shoehorned on primary NBC affiliate WJAR-TV (channel 10), at that time the market's only TV station. WNET launched on channel 16 in 1953 as an ABC affiliate. However, it was forced off the air in 1956 due to the difficulties faced by UHF startups at the time. Since television manufacturers weren't required to include UHF tuning capability on TV sets, viewers needed an expensive converter (or an all-channel set, the latter being very rare at the time) to watch WNET, and the picture was marginal at best even with one. For the seven years prior to channel 6's sign-on, WJAR and CBS affiliate WPRO-TV (channel 12, now WPRI-TV) aired ABC programming, sometimes pre-empting their primary network but usually airing ABC shows on a delayed basis in off-hours. However, much of Rhode Island could get the full ABC schedule from Boston stations—WHDH-TV (channel 5, now occupied by WCVB-TV) prior to January 1, 1961, and WNAC-TV (channel 7, now WHDH) from 1961 to 1963.

Even though Providence was big enough to support three full network affiliates, it soon became apparent that channel 16 would not be resurrected in the near future. The owners of the future WTEV thus decided to seek a license for channel 6 in New Bedford, since it was the only available VHF allocation in the region, albeit on the Massachusetts side of the market.

New Bedford and Bristol County are part of the Rhode Island market due to Rhode Island's small geographic size, even though the rest of southern Massachusetts is in the Boston market. This was merely a technicality until satellite television, but is a point of irritation to some Massachusetts subscribers of services such as DirecTV and Dish Network who are unable to receive Massachusetts news and sports from Boston stations. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) allows network affiliates to prevent satellite subscribers from receiving network stations from outside the station's designated market. Bristol County is the only part of Massachusetts associated with Rhode Island for television purposes. Neither Bristol County television station actually operates in Massachusetts.

WTEV was founded by a group that was 55-percent owned by the E. Anthony and Sons, publisher of the New Bedford Standard-Times and owner of WNBH radio (1340 AM and 98.1 FM, now WCTK); the remaining 45 percent was held by New England Television, the holder of the license for the old WNET. In 1966, shortly after E. Anthony and Sons sold the Standard-Times and WNBH, WTEV was purchased by Steinman Stations of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. WTEV moderately preempted ABC shows, in most every case a low-rated program. This didn't pose as much of a problem as it may seem, since most viewers could still get the full schedule from Boston's WNAC until 1972, and on WCVB afterward. During afternoon hours, WTEV ran a blend of cartoons and classic sitcoms. Late nights were devoted to movies.