History
WHDH-TV signed on November 26, 1957. It was owned by the Boston Herald Traveler Corporation along with WHDH radio (AM 850, now occupied by WEEI; and FM 94.5, now WJMN). It was originally an ABC affiliate, but switched to CBS on January 1, 1961.
Initially, studios were with sister station WHDH Radio at 6 St. James Avenue in Boston's Back Bay; but this facility was far from ideal for television and in early 1960, the station moved into a newly built studio center at 50 Morrisey Boulevard in the Dorchester section of Boston.
WHDH was also the first television station in New England to originate local live (and later taped) programming in color.
In 1959, WHDH began a local version of Bozo the Clown with Frank Avruch as Bozo; in 1966, 130 episodes taped by WHDH that year would go into national syndication for those stations that did not want a local Bozo show.
Almost as soon as it signed on, the FCC began investigating allegations of impropriety in the granting of the television license. This touched off a struggle that lasted 15 years. As a result, WHDH-TV never had a license longer than six months at a time. (Television station licenses at the time lasted for three years.)
In 1969, a local group, Boston Broadcasters Incorporated (BBI), was granted a construction permit for a new channel 5 under the call letters WCVB-TV after promising to air more local programming than any other station in America at the time (even though WHDH often broadcast more local programming, in terms of hours per week, than any other commercial TV station in the market). The challenger was also critical of the combination of the Herald-Traveler newspaper and WHDH AM-FM-TV. Herald-Traveler Corporation fought the decision in court, but lost its battle in 1972; and Boston Broadcasters was awarded a full license.
During the final months of its operation, WHDH-TV was court-ordered to sign off daily at 1:00 A.M. so that WCVB-TV could test its equipment. WHDH-TV declined to sell its transmitter and tower to the new WCVB-TV, which subsequently leased space on WBZ-TV's tower. Since WHDH would not sell its studio building and equipment at 50 Morrissey Boulevard, WCVB remodeled a former International truck dealership in Needham to serve as its studios and offices.
The WHDH-TV call letters were subsequently reassigned to channel 7 almost 18 years later to the day of their last use, on Monday, March 12, 1990, where they remain to this day.
Read more about this topic: WHDH-TV (defunct)
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