WSUN-TV
|
St. Petersburg/Tampa, Florida United States |
|
|---|---|
| City | St. Petersburg, Florida |
| Channels | Analog: 38 (UHF) |
| Owner |
City of St. Petersburg (1953–1966) Hy Levinson (1966–1970) |
| First air date | May 5, 1953 |
| Last air date | February 23, 1970 |
| Call letters' meaning | Why Stay Up North? (from radio sister) |
| Former affiliations |
Independent (1953–1954 and 1965–1970) CBS (secondary, 1953–1954; primary, 1954–1955) ABC (secondary, 1953–1955; primary, 1955–1965) NBC (secondary, 1953–1955) DuMont (secondary, 1953–1955) |
WSUN-TV, UHF analog channel 38, was a television station located in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. Operating from 1953 to 1970, it was the first television station in the Tampa/St. Petersburg television market.
The station first signed on with a test pattern on May 3, 1953, with regular operations beginning on May 5. It was owned by the city of St. Petersburg, along with WSUN radio (620 AM, frequency now occupied by WDAE). It was one of the first UHF television stations in the country. WSUN-TV's studios were located on the first floor of the St. Petersburg Pier, overlooking Tampa Bay. The facility was relatively small – measuring only 35 feet long and 46 feet wide – and had once been a trolley turnaround. This made the production of local programs rather difficult.
The station was originally operated as an independent station, although it held secondary affiliations with all four major networks of the time – CBS, NBC, ABC and DuMont -- in part because microwave links for network programming only went as far as Tampa. During its first year of operation, channel 38 relied on film and kinescopes for prime time programming. Later in the fall of 1953, however, the area's main telephone provider, Peninsular Telephone (later owned by GTE), provided WSUN-TV with a private microwave link in time for the World Series, making it the first television station in the country to receive live programming via microwave relay. The station quickly secured a primary affiliation with CBS, while continuing to cherry-pick programming from NBC, ABC and DuMont. During the late 1950s, the station was also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network.
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