Bob Cox, Johnson City Press, 08-28-2006
A significant event occurred in Johnson City at 7 pm on October 26, 1953; on that much-anticipated day, home-based television arrived in Johnson City. Prior to that historic occasion, televiewers had to rely on sprawling antennas towering above their rooftops to capture faint signals from distant stations, such as WBTV in Charlotte.
 Herb Howard, a former program director at the station, has the distinction of uttering the first words heard over the new enterprise. He shared his remembrances of those happy days in a recent phone interview. The veteran airman was unsure of his exact verbiage that evening nearly 53 years ago but deems it went something like this: “Good evening ladies and gentlemen; this is WJHL Television signing on the air. The station is owned by WJHL Incorporated with a license to operate on channel 11 from Johnson City, Tennessee. Welcome to our first evening of broadcasting.” After some brief words, the station went directly into the first broadcast, sponsored by Free Service Tire Company, from atop Tannery Knob.
Since country music was to be the regular fare for the 7:30-8:00 time slot, several country music entertainers were featured during this period on opening night. Included in the inaugural lineup that evening was the husband-wife team of Bonnie Lou and Buster Moore, who began appearing regularly on Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights. The station also engaged Homer Harris, a seven-foot guitar-playing cowboy singer, and his trick horse, Stardust, on Tuesday nights. The remaining Thursday 7:30 slot was set aside for singing cowboy star, Gene Autry, whose program came to the station via film. Unfortunately, those live classic shows were not recorded, as videotape technology was not yet available for commercial use.
At 8:00 each evening, the station went to network programming using Kinescope recordings - black and white films taken directly from the picture tube.It was necessary to use these recordings of network shows for about six months after WJHL’s sign-on, at which time AT&T cable and microwave system connected the station on a live basis with CBS and other national networks. Obtaining these Kinescope reels for nightly broadcasting required someone routinely picking them up at the airport, creating a broadcast delay of about 2-3 weeks.
WJHL slowly achieved full-day broadcasting by gradually migrating toward earlier sign-on and later sign-off times. The station’s metal building on Tannery Knob was somewhat large, having a spacious main studio, control room and observation room. The studio contained numerous sets. After one program concluded, the production crew and talent promptly relocated to the next one. Religious broadcasts were usually presented first, followed by news, sports and weather. There were additional sets for other programs.
Herb recalled how difficult it was for employees to navigate their cars up Tannery Knob during inclement weather. On one snowy evening, a minister had difficulty getting up the hill. Herb read the 23rd Psalm and other Bible scriptures over the air to complete the morning devotions. Bill Marrs, fondly known as Professor Kingfish, hosted a live half-hour hunting and fishing program on Tuesday nights, being well known for his work over WJHL Radio. Fishermen routinely brought their daily catch into the studio, leaving behind a lingering telltale odor. Herb became good friends with Berlin “Pecos Ben” Benfield, who hosted a weekday afternoon 2-hour cowboy show that included a B-western flick. Some advertisers used live animals - dogs, chickens and pigs - in live commercials. One sponsor from Elizabethton did outlandish things to promote his successful furniture business.
The ushering in of television into the Tri-Cities area developed as an offshoot of WJHL Radio. The radio station began operation in 1938. By 1946, it had become the most powerful station in the Tri-Cities area, operating with 5000 watts and attracting the largest radio audience in the region. Most of the television announcers made the transition from the radio station. Herb explained his involvement with the station: “I worked part time at the radio station while attending high school. I had no previous TV experience and there was very little college training for broadcasting in those days. I hung around the station, getting acquainted with the people who worked there and making myself available. I was offered full time employment in 1945 when the studio was located at 412 South Roan Street, later moving to West Main Street. The television and radio stations initially shared offices even though the TV operation was situated on Tannery Knob. Announcers made about $75 a week, receiving additional income for doing live commercials. My moving from radio to television was a natural extension of my employment. I continued working in both mediums the entire time I was with them.”
WJHL-TV became a CBS  network affiliate from its inception, but it also carried selected programs from the other networks - ABC, NBC and Dumont - for its first few years. Tom Lyons, one of the original announcers handled sports, including play-by-play events on radio. Dick Ellis, previously with WKPT, Kingsport, replaced him in 1955.
Initially, WJHL read news from the wire service, as there was very little remote reporting of news in those days. Portable video news cameras for out-of-studio reporting had not yet become available. The station relied heavily on news from the Associated Press and the United Press, which was read over the air. Facsimile pictures were taken from a fax machine and mounted on an easel for use by the news broadcasters. By the spring of 1954, external live broadcasts became a reality using the new technology of microwave and coaxial cables. The station also acquired 16-millimeter film capability that allowed reporters to travel to remote locations to capture news. Since teleprompters were not yet available, broadcasts were read from text lying on the desk in front of the newsman. Commercials required the use of cue cards.
Herb, as the  station’s first weatherman, recalled the antiquated methods used to report the weather: “The duration of the weather report was just five minutes. Just prior to going on the air, I talked with the U.S. Weather Bureau at Tri-Cities Airport to obtain up-to-date reports. My weather map was a wall-mounted framed blackboard containing an outline of the United States. I used chalk to show weather patterns around the country. This was a far cry from today’s sophisticated colorful electronic boards.”
Herb enjoyed his off-the-air celebrity status: “People recognized me from TV and would often talk to me in some public place as if they had known me all my life. That was an image we strived to maintain.”
Howard explained that miscues were frequent on live broadcasts: “I was doing a commercial for the Bonnie Lou and Buster segment. I was promoting a grocery store’s freshly ground coffee machine, telling viewers how easy it was to grind your own coffee beans right in the store. I put the beans in the machine and told my audience that all you had to do was push one little button. However, when I flipped the switch, nothing happened; I tried two or three more times to get it to work without success. I could almost hear the people laughing at me. After finding the machine to be unplugged, I added an element of humor to the commercial by telling folks how easy it is to grind your own coffee bean … provided the power cord is plugged in.”
Herb recalled another awkward episode: “Hecht’s Bakery was the sponsor for the Gene Autry segment. We were advertising a new cake product. A cameramen was clowning a bit with the cake and caused it to slide onto the floor. Walter Heeb, the producer, wisely placed the portion of the cake that had not been damaged back onto the platter. The camera operators then obtained a tight close-up shot of the undamaged piece. The commercial went without a hitch; nobody apparently knew what had happened.
On a particularly hot summer day, Howard was doing the weather report. The studio doors had been opened to make things a bit more bearable. Unknown to the airman, a good-sized bug was crawling on his shoulder. Although the insect was visible to viewers, Herb didn’t learn of it until after the program was over.
Male broadcasters had to wear mascara type makeup on their faces to keep their clean-shaven faces from showing beard stubs over the tube. Herb said they looked like a bunch of clowns off camera. Close attention was given to what people wore over the air so as to determine the shades of gray each color would appear on black and white television. For this reason, men wore blue shirts rather than white ones  because the former ones appeared naturally white on TV screens. A white shirt had an unnatural look.
In early October 1953, just days before the station was due to sign on, a harrowing event occurred that had the whole town buzzing. On that Saturday morning, the large tower on Tannery Knob suddenly and without warning fell to the ground, ending up as a twisted heap of metal. Workmen had been tightening the guy wires. The tower hit part of the building but fortunately missed the transmitter. Had it hit the latter, the station would have been off the air much longer. Engineers rapidly built a shorter tower to a height of 50 to 100 feet that was just tall enough to get the antenna above the trees. The antenna was then remounted on the tower’s stub. Although the station was broadcasting with a weaker signal due to the shorter tower, reception extended into Kentucky, North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee.
This delay prevented WJHL-TV from being Tennessee’s third operating television station; a station in Knoxville claimed that honor. Remarkably, the station returned to broadcasting at normal full power within five days of the accident. During the excitement following the tower collapse, Hanes Lancaster, Jr., the station’s general manager, realized that the “announce booth” would not be ready in time for the sign-on broadcast. This small room was important so announcers would have a soundproof area to broadcast commercials and announcements. The keen thinking owner came up with the idea of renting an outside telephone booth from the local phone company as a temporary substitute. Herb said that, while the booth was not the best acoustically, it got the staff through a jam.
The pioneer broadcaster and now retired UT professor had words of admiration for Hanes Lancaster, Sr. and Hanes Lancaster, Jr.: “It took a tremendous amount of optimism  and fortitude to invest in a TV station in Johnson City in the 1950s. Both men were willing to make this investment and it has been a wise and successful move.”
Howard left WJHL in 1958, having achieved the rank of program director. After getting his doctoral degree, he accepted a job in radio, teaching production and journalism at the University of Tennessee, where he remained until his retirement as professor and associate dean of the College of Communications in 1999. Herb offered these concluding words: “Looking back, my working in early television was a happy time for me. I enjoyed it thoroughly. My early work at WJHL [radio and television] really contributed to what would become my lifetime career.”
boblcox@bcyesteryear.com)
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