KCEB (Tulsa)
|
Tulsa, Oklahoma United States |
|
|---|---|
| Channels | Analog: 23 (UHF) |
| Affiliations | Defunct |
| Owner | Elfred Beck |
| First air date | March 13, 1954 |
| Last air date | December 4, 1954 |
| Call letters' meaning | Reversal of owner's last name, BECK |
| Former affiliations |
NBC (primary, March–July 1954) ABC (March–September 1954; secondary until July 1954) DuMont (secondary until September 1954) |
| Licensing authority | FCC |
| Public license information: |
Profile CDBS |
KCEB, UHF channel 23, was a television station located in Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States, that maintained affiliations with NBC, ABC and the DuMont Television Network. The station was owned by Elfred Beck. KCEB operated for almost ten months from March 13 to December 4, 1954.
The station was founded by Tulsa oilman Elfred Beck. KCEB (which Beck named after himself as a reversal of his last name) began construction of its studio facilities atop Lookout Mountain in west Tulsa on August 21, 1953. At the time, electronics manufacturers did not include UHF tuners on television sets (the United States Congress would later pass the All-Channel Receiver Act into law in 1961, requiring UHF tuners to be included in all newer sets by 1964) and converters or adapters had to be used on sets built prior to that time in order to receive television stations on that band; this factor would play into the station's downfall, as many UHF stations ceased operations during the 1950s and early 1960s due to a lack of wide reception; in June 1954, 82 UHF television stations were on the air in the United States, which was reduced substantially to 24 by the following year. At one point, an estimated 100,000 UHF converters had been sold to Tulsa residents by local electronics retailers (which accounted for about 40% of all households with a set in the area). The station was outfitted with the latest equipment.
The station signed on the air on March 13, 1954 as the second television station to sign on in the Tulsa market. It originally operated as an affiliate of NBC and the DuMont Television Network; it also shared ABC programming with primary CBS affiliate KOTV (channel 6), which signed on 4½ years earlier in October 1949. As electronics manufacturers were not required to include UHF tuners on television sets at the time, NBC reached an agreement with KOTV that allowed that station to continue "cherry-picking" stronger shows from both networks. Not long afterward, NBC began allowing KOTV to cherry-pick much its programming, leaving less programming available for KCEB to broadcast.
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