&sq=&lang=&file=File:WKBS.jpg) Station logo used under Field | |
| |
|---|---|
| City | Burlington, New Jersey |
| Channels | |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations | Independent |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| History | |
First air date | September 1, 1965 |
Last air date |
|
Call sign meaning | "Kaiser Broadcasting System"[1] |
| Technical information | |
| Facility ID | 21425 |
| ERP | 2,090 kW |
| HAAT | 1,100 feet (340 m) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 40°02′37.4″N 75°14′30.6″W / 40.043722°N 75.241833°W |
WKBS-TV was a television station on UHF channel 48 serving the Philadelphia area, licensed to serve Burlington, New Jersey. It operated from September 1965 to August 1983 and was one of three major independent stations serving the Delaware Valley. Though licensed to Burlington, its studios and transmitter were located within Philadelphia city limits—in South Philadelphia and the Roxborough tower farm, respectively.
WKBS-TV was constructed by Kaiser Broadcasting as the second in a chain of major-market UHF independent TV stations. It offered movies, syndicated reruns, children's and sports programs, and briefly a 10 p.m. local newscast. From Philadelphia, a teen dance program hosted by local radio personality Hy Lit was syndicated to all of Kaiser's stations. Though the station was a perennial money-loser for most of its first decade in operation, its fortunes improved in the mid-1970s, and it spent six seasons as the television broadcaster of the Philadelphia 76ers basketball team.
Kaiser sold a minority stake in its television stations to Field Communications in 1973; Field acquired Kaiser outright in 1977. A family feud over control of the Field business empire led to the decision in 1982 to place all of the company's stations on the market. No buyer came through with a satisfactory purchase price, which prompted the liquidating firm to close the station down and sell it for parts in its shareholders' best interests. WKBS-TV made its last broadcast on the morning of August 30, 1983; some equipment and most of its programming were purchased by one of its competitors, WPHL-TV, while other items were auctioned.
In the years following the closure of WKBS-TV, Philadelphia regained a third full-market independent in 1985 with the conversion of subscription-based WWSG into WGBS-TV, owned by Milton Grant. The process to award channel 48 in Burlington to a new bidder spanned the rest of the decade; Dorothy Brunson, a Black radio station owner, received a construction permit in 1989 and built WGTW-TV in 1992.