TV stations in Dallas-Fort Worth in 1953
 

Does anyone know the transmitter power and antenna height of channels 4,5,and 8 in 1953? Seems like I remember a station in Dallas with a tower on top of the building or behind the building near down town.

I can supply an ad for Channel 4 KRLD Dallas-Ft. Worth from Dec. 1953. May not answer your question, but it's 1 out of 3.

-Steve D.

Last time I was downtown, the old WFAA 8 and KDFW 4 (previously KRLD) towers were still there, where they transmitted until they moved to Cedar Hill in '55-56. A Google search comes up with pictures.

An excellent source for all available stuff DFW TV-related...

http://www.dfwretroplex.com/tvlist.html

Thanks Ed what a great page!
I had a 1969 Zenith 25" when I lived out in Lewisville in 1983 - reception was great way out there with a set of Rembrandt "ears", but when I moved further away to Denton in '84 a outdoor antenna was needed for sure.

If only there was a page that complete for the Philadelphia area.

I wish Mr. Shannon the guy who put all that together had more time to update it. Hasn't been updated since 2005. I'm glad he still has the site up at all!

Here's what I was able to find with xmtr sites:

KRLD-TV 100 KW/ 50KW 463’ HAAT 568’ AGL Cam & Griffin Streets
WBAP-TV 5 KW/2.5KW 490’ HAAT 502’ AGL 39C Barnett St
WFAA-TV 27.1 KW/13.5 350’ HAAT 373’ AGL 3000 Harry Hines Blvd

When in Dallas on business in the late '90's I remember seeing the old WFAA-TV tower near the restaurant my associates and I had supper at. I don't recall the name. But, it was somewhat upscale with you choosing the cut of steak you wanted and cooking it yourself on one of several grills...

3900 Barnett St, Fort Worth - It seems KXAS still has operations there, though they recently moved their studios and offices. They moved their transmitter to Cedar Hill decades ago.

I've read (not able to confirm) that NBC threatened that if 5 did not improve their signal in Dallas, they would pull their affiliation and sign up the then new channel 11 (which would remain independent for decades).

Amateur radio publications of the era had articles about people in Dallas trying to ban ham radio there because of "interference" to channel 5 (the actual interference was almost always the TV set, but the fact that the front end of the TV tuner had to run "wide open" to get the weak signal from Ft. Worth allowed the overload from amateur signals to occur).