WLVI (channel 56) is a television station licensed to Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, serving the Boston area as an affiliate of The CW. It is owned by Sunbeam Television alongside WHDH (channel 7), an independent station. WLVI and WHDH share studios at Bulfinch Place (near Government Center) in downtown Boston; through a channel sharing agreement, the two stations transmit using WHDH's spectrum from the WHDH-TV tower in Newton, Massachusetts.
Channel 56 is Boston's oldest UHF station, with roots dating to 1953 and having been in continuous operation since 1966. In addition to syndicated entertainment programs, the station was notable for producing a variety of local children's and sports programs, and in the late 1960s and between 1984 and 2006, it produced local newscasts.
History
WTAO-TV
On December 19, 1952, the Middlesex Broadcasting Company, owners of WTAO (740 AM) and WXHR (96.9 FM) applied for a construction permit to build a new television station in Cambridge, using Boston's allocated channel 56, which would originate from studios and transmitter atop Zion Hill in Woburn. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted the permit on March 11, 1953. After having broadcast a test pattern since August 31, WTAO-TV debuted on September 27, 1953, as Boston's third television outlet and first on the UHF band.
An affiliate of the DuMont Television Network with occasional ABC programs, the station suffered from its position on the UHF band—as, in the days before the All-Channel Receiver Act, not all TV sets could receive UHF stations. After DuMont eliminated entertainment programming in 1955 and with most ABC output airing on WNAC-TV (channel 7), the small station became reliant on movies and limited local programming to fill its airtime. On March 30, 1956, the station quit telecasting: its last program was a ceremony marking its departure from the air, with Massachusetts lieutenant governor Sumner G. Whittier delivering an address. It was the 58th UHF to fold, with president Frank Lyman, Jr., blaming the intermixture of VHF and UHF stations in the market.
Despite its closure, WTAO-TV retained its construction permit. Harvey Radio Laboratories acquired the radio and television stations in 1959, and in 1962, Harvey loaned the station to the Archdiocese of Boston. The channel broadcast a demonstration program that November 10 of what viewers, particularly clergy, could expect from the Catholic TV Center. The archdiocese later built WIHS-TV channel 38, which began telecasting in 1964. On April 12, 1965, WTAO-TV changed its call letters to WXHR-TV.
The Kaiser and Field years
In June 1966, Harvey Radio Laboratories sold its entire Boston-area broadcasting operation to Kaiser Broadcasting. Kaiser then sold 50 percent to The Boston Globe.
Kaiser ordered $3 million in new RCA equipment to outfit a new channel 56 on an old construction permit. The new station also made a major push into sports, with away games of the Boston Celtics and Boston Bruins. The Kaiser-Globe partnership began operating the radio stations in November 1966, and under new WKBG-TV call letters, channel 56 returned to the air on December 21, 1966—two days after the opening ceremonies, because the station was hit with last-minute technical delays due to bad weather.
Little except the transmitter site was retained from the prior WTAO-TV. The effective radiated power at launch was 282,000 watts, up from 20,000, and a second boost came months after launch. After briefly operating from temporary quarters at 1050 Commonwealth Avenue in Brookline, the Kaiser-Globe partnership purchased a former supermarket next to the newspaper in Dorchester in 1968 and built a $2.25 million studio facility on the property, which was completed in 1969. This came alongside a move of the transmitter from Woburn to Needham on a tower shared with WSBK-TV (the former WIHS-TV), further expanding the station's signal and filling in gaps to the south and west. Despite all of this investment, WKBG-TV had lost nearly $11 million from its launch to November 1970.
By 1969, WSBK-TV had secured both the Bruins and Celtics; when it had to choose one or the other, WKBG had opted for the Celtics, only for the Bruins to become resurgent on channel 38 and the Celtics to falter. It also aired telecasts of the World Hockey Association's New England Whalers from 1972 to 1974.