WECT (New York)

El-Cor Television, Inc., a company whose shareholders were the Corning Leader and Elmira Star-Gazette, was formed in September 1952 and applied to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for a construction permit for channel 18; both newspapers abandoned their own applications for channels 18 and 24, respectively.[2] El-Cor was granted the permit on February 26, 1953, but told it could not start construction until Elmira-Corning Broadcasting Corporation divested its stake in WELM, as WELM and WENY—the stations owned by stockholders in the two newspapers—had overlapping coverage.[3] The FCC permitted construction activities to begin on March 25 once WELM was sold to Radio Elmira, Inc.[4] At a site on Hawley Hill, work began on the integrated studio and transmitter site,[5] and an affiliation agreement with NBC was signed in July.[6] In addition to network shows, the station would have two cameras for the production of local programming.[7]

By early September, the telecast of the World Series was the primary goal for start-up of the new channel 18.[8] This was successfully achieved on September 30, when WECT made its first telecast, rebroadcasting the NBC feed of the first game of the series from WSYR-TV (channel 3) in Syracuse, New York.[9] After the Series, the station temporarily went off the air; beginning October 7, it broadcast only a test pattern and select NBC network shows[10] until October 19, when the first Elmira-based local program went out; on October 22, a formal dedication program marked the start of regular broadcasting activities.[11]

On May 27, 1954, WECT suspended broadcast operations.[12] The station cited "consistent losses" in its request to leave the air.[13] El-Cor then announced in September that it had returned the permit to the FCC and would not resume;[14] the company sold the site in 1955 to a man who planned to use the transmitter building for residential purposes and lease the tower to a cable television company which would use it as a receiving station.[15] Two proposals were then received to run the station as a repeater of another, one from WSYR-TV and another from WNBF-TV in Binghamton, New York;[16] the Binghamton station dropped its bid, leaving the path open for WSYR-TV to be granted a new construction permit for the channel.[17] WSYE-TV, a near-full-time repeater of the Syracuse station, began broadcasting on September 15, 1956.[18] The station, which eventually became an independent unit as WETM-TV, continued to maintain studios on Hawley Hill until 1988 and retains its transmitter on the high-elevation site.[19]