WICU-TV
  
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Erie, Pennsylvania United States |
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| Branding | WICU 12 (general) Erie News Now Me TV (on DT2) WSEE (on DT3) |
| Slogan |
Coverage You Can Count On: Your News. Now. TV to Talk About (on DT2) |
| Channels |
Digital: 12 (VHF) & WSEE-DT3 16.3 (UHF) Virtual: 12 (PSIP) & WSEE-DT3 35.3 (PSIP) |
| Subchannels | (see article) |
| Affiliations | NBC |
| Owner |
SJL Broadcasting (SJL of Pennsylvania License Subsidiary, LLC) |
| Operator | Lilly Broadcasting |
| Founded | March 1948 |
| First air date | March 15, 1949 |
| Call letters' meaning |
ICU (sounds like "I see you") |
| Sister station(s) | WSEE-TV |
| Former channel number(s) | 12 (VHF analog, 1949–2009) 52 (UHF digital, 1995–2009) |
| Former affiliations | CBS (1949-1954) DuMont (1949–1955) ABC (1949–1966) all secondary |
| Transmitter power | 5.4 kW |
| Height | 306.7 m |
| Class | DT |
| Facility ID | 24970 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 42°3′50″N 80°0′21″W / 42.06389°N 80.00583°W |
| Website | www.erienewsnow.com |
WICU-TV, channel 12, is an NBC-affiliated television station located in Erie, Pennsylvania, USA. WICU-TV is owned by SJL Broadcasting, and operated by Lilly Broadcasting, which also owns and operates CBS affiliate WSEE-TV (channel 35) and its CW subchannel. The two stations both share studios on State Street in downtown Erie, and a transmitter located in Greene Township, Pennsylvania.
WICU-TV began broadcasting in Erie on March 15, 1949 as an affiliate of all four networks of the time (NBC, CBS, ABC, and DuMont). It was one of the last stations to be granted a construction permit before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) froze new applications. Channel 12 was founded by Edward Lamb, an attorney from Toledo, Ohio who also owned the now-defunct Erie Dispatch-Herald, and other broadcast properties including WTVN-TV (now WSYX) in Columbus, Ohio, which went on the air six months later. In 1952 Lamb purchased WIKK radio (1330 AM, later WICU and now WFNN), giving channel 12 a sister station on radio.
The station was a major beneficiary of a quirk in the FCC's plan for allocating stations. In the early days of broadcast television, there were twelve VHF channels available and 69 UHF channels (later reduced to 55 in 1983). The VHF bands were more desirable because they carried longer distances. Since there were only twelve VHF channels available, there were limitations as to how closely the stations could be spaced.
After the FCC's Sixth Report and Order ended the license freeze and opened the UHF band in 1952, it devised a plan for allocating VHF licenses. Under this plan, almost all of the country would be able to receive two commercial VHF channels plus one noncommercial channel. Most of the rest of the country ("1/2") would be able to receive a third VHF channel. Other areas would be designated as "UHF islands" since they were too close to larger cities for VHF service. The "2" networks became CBS and NBC, "+1" represented non-commercial educational stations, and "1/2" became ABC (which was the weakest network usually winding up with the UHF allocation where no VHF was available).
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Wikipedia