I remember the earliest attempts by Hamiltonian Lou Zanoni to get his very popular local Mercer County television station on the air. As an amateur radio operator, I am fully aware of the many problems we amateurs have in installing a transmitting tower above 30 feet, let alone a commercial tower. Zanoni had a huge obstacle to overcome when he needed to utilize a high tower which would allow for RF transmissions above existing power lines. The neighbors in the Route 33-Shady Lane Avenue weren't about to allow a high tower. Un-deterred, Lou set about finding another location. He found a perfect spot on East State Street near Klockner, in a building that once housed a ball and roller bearing distributor. No sooner did he succeed in overcoming the antenna tower obstacle when along came another very difficult obstacle. TKR cable company refused to allow his programming to be included in their channel lineup. Unless the cable company would relent, the WZBN signal would only be available to those citizens who had an outdoor antenna which could be oriented to the direction of the WZBN transmitter on East State Street. With the low power output of the local channel, there would be only a very limited number of viewers to the new station. At the time, I was hosting "In Focus," a public access program on TKR. I recall one evening when I was doing a program shoot, one of the camera guys observed that TKR was getting negative reactions from many in the public for not including ZBN in their list of cable channels. As we all know, WZBN did indeed receive their rightful place in the channel listings of TKR and their successor, Cablevision. Today, ZBN is a refreshing stop for me every evening at 7:30 as I watch their evening local newscast.
QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS: tglover320@optimum.net
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
1989: WZBN: IN THE BEGINNING
I remember the earliest attempts by Hamiltonian Lou Zanoni to get his very popular local Mercer County television station on the air. As an amateur radio operator, I am fully aware of the many problems we amateurs have in installing a transmitting tower above 30 feet, let alone a commercial tower. Zanoni had a huge obstacle to overcome when he needed to utilize a high tower which would allow for RF transmissions above existing power lines. The neighbors in the Route 33-Shady Lane Avenue weren't about to allow a high tower. Un-deterred, Lou set about finding another location. He found a perfect spot on East State Street near Klockner, in a building that once housed a ball and roller bearing distributor. No sooner did he succeed in overcoming the antenna tower obstacle when along came another very difficult obstacle. TKR cable company refused to allow his programming to be included in their channel lineup. Unless the cable company would relent, the WZBN signal would only be available to those citizens who had an outdoor antenna which could be oriented to the direction of the WZBN transmitter on East State Street. With the low power output of the local channel, there would be only a very limited number of viewers to the new station. At the time, I was hosting "In Focus," a public access program on TKR. I recall one evening when I was doing a program shoot, one of the camera guys observed that TKR was getting negative reactions from many in the public for not including ZBN in their list of cable channels. As we all know, WZBN did indeed receive their rightful place in the channel listings of TKR and their successor, Cablevision. Today, ZBN is a refreshing stop for me every evening at 7:30 as I watch their evening local newscast.
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