Bygone Era: Atlantic City's first TV station

Post World War II oversaturation of TV stations hitting the airwaves was so intense, the Federal Communications Commission issued a block, a moratorium on licensing new stations. Beginning in 1948, the main issue was short-spacing on the broadcast band resulting in interference from too many signals. The state of New Jersey would lift the ban on July 1, 1952. Atlantic City and Jersey shore residents up until that point dealt with inconsistent signals from the Philly Big 3, Channels 3, 6 and 10. The only decent signal was another fuzzy from afar, Newark's legendary Channel 13, which later would become one of the cornerstones of the PBS Network. Enter two entrepreneurs from Neptune, New Jersey. Fred Weber and Blair Thron, who already owned two radio stations in the Atlantic City market sought to fill a need. WFPG-TV Channel 46 would be introduced to local viewers as a one stop shop featuring coverage from not one, but four networks. Channel 46 featured four great networks including the Big three ABC, CBS and NBC and the DuMont Network. A WFPG test pattern went on the air on the evening of December 21, 1952. At 10:45that night, the station broadcast a "commercial film" followed by programming from the four established networks from the Philadelphia market. The initial launch wasn't without challenges as a microwave transmitter link had to be installed to relay the TV signal from the big city to the shore viewers. The initial audience measurement was 8,200 homes. As success grew so didn't the resistance from the Big city who then set out to sabotage and crush the reputation of Channel 46. TV sales executives from the city began to tout the superiority of signal, viewership and opportunity relative from what the shore broadcasters could provide. By May of 1954, the on-slaught from fear and loathing by Philly stations from the threat of solid local broadcasters basically put the local station out of business. In later decades, Atlantic City's other attempts of TV broadcasting would experience the same fate. NOTHING beats local. It's a sad downside of advanced technology and improved one-stop-shopping services of the networks and new social platforms where anyone living in their parents' basement with a microphone and recorder can have their own show?? LONG live Channel 46 and the long lost local visionaries who set out to make our lives better.