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  #1  
Old 06-29-2016, 04:16 PM
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What ever happened to WA9RTP?

Amateur radio station WA9RTP was located in the studios of Chicago television station WFLD in the late 1960s. I just saw a YouTube video from 1967, when WFLD-TV was covering a blizzard in the city that year; amateur station WA9RTP was mentioned in the video, with the news announcer stating that WFLD-TV was venturing into a new method of reporting news--via amateur radio.

To the best of my knowledge, WFLD-TV was the only Chicago TV station to try this. Do any of you in or from the Chicago area remember this experiment? Also, I'm curious to know when WA9RTP finally went off the air. It is no longer listed in the FCC's amateur radio call sign database.

Note: I am not from the Chicago area and have never seen WFLD-TV, or any other Chicago TV station. The only way I know anything at all about WFLD-TV or WA9RTP is from doing a Google search for the television station, and from seeing an article years ago in the (now defunct) Popular Electronics magazine about the amateur station, in the magazine's "Amateur Radio" section.

Thank you.

73,
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Old 06-29-2016, 10:29 PM
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This is interesting, but I don't recall it. I am not a ham, so my ears weren't attuned to such news. WFLD started out as an independent funded by the heirs of Marshall Field plus the Sun-Times and Daily News newspapers, which put a good amount of money into facilities and nearly nothing into programming. One of their most popular local series was called "Films With a Mind of Their Own," which was hosted by Richard Christiansen, theater critic of the Chicago Tribune, and featured industrial promotional movies, which they obviously got for free. Based on that, it doesn't surprise me that they tried to get unpaid news reporting from the ham community.

Here's a TV guide listing for July 4, 1967:
http://tvguidegal.blogspot.com/2013/...r-tuesday.html

By the way, the most popular "film with a mind of its own" was titled (IIRC) "A John Is a John Is a John" and was about an odor-venting toilet design.

My two favorites were ones that used little or no narration, only music: one showing the production of Oreo cookies, and one from Western Electric showing the making of telephone cable.

[I have posted this somewhere here before]

Edit: here's the wire video [watch for the "instant" coffee at 02:19]:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfQtjimsjMI
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Last edited by old_tv_nut; 06-29-2016 at 10:39 PM.
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Old 06-30-2016, 07:30 AM
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According to what little I found, WA9RTP was an amateur radio club station call sign assigned to a club at that TV station. There are lots of radio clubs and club call signs today.

FCC rules might have thrown cold water on their notion to use amateur radio for news reporting, as amateur radio must not include any commercial monetary or pecuniary interests (other than non-profit, like fund raisers to support the radio club or public service activities, stuff like that).

Last edited by Ed in Tx; 06-30-2016 at 07:36 AM.
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Old 06-30-2016, 10:51 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ed in Tx View Post
According to what little I found, WA9RTP was an amateur radio club station call sign assigned to a club at that TV station. There are lots of radio clubs and club call signs today.

FCC rules might have thrown cold water on their notion to use amateur radio for news reporting, as amateur radio must not include any commercial monetary or pecuniary interests (other than non-profit, like fund raisers to support the radio club or public service activities, stuff like that).
I don't think the amateur station's audio was ever transmitted over the TV station. The station may have simply used weather reports from local amateurs, received over WA9RTP and relayed in the news announcer's own words during the TV station's newscast. This was in 1967, so there would have been no way to actually retransmit the live reports from hams at WA9RTP (short of recording them on magnetic tape) unless the TV station somehow either tapped across the speaker terminals of the station's receiver or the announcer held a microphone in front of the speaker while the weather reports were coming in. The latter is known as the direct acoustic method, which is a very poor and unprofessional way rebroadcasting or recording anything.

You are correct in that FCC rules (part 97) prohibit rebroadcasting over amateur stations of commercial radio or television audio. However, I remember that there is a provision for this in the rules; it is allowed under certain circumstances, but the catch is that there must be no reference made by the broadcaster, directly or indirectly, to the rebroadcast.

However, the experiment must not have lasted very long, as WA9RTP's license may have expired in 1972 or '73 and was never renewed. Amateur licenses (except Novice) were valid for only five years in those days and were renewable, on condition that the operator could prove at least a certain number of hours of activity in the last three years.

I don't know anything about WFLD-TV, except what I have read about it on Google and in the Popular Electronics article I referred to in my original post (the old story "I only know what I read in the papers"), since I have never lived in or been to Chicago, Illinois in my life.

Part 97 regulations clearly state that amateur radio must not be used for newsgathering and/or other commercial purposes, so your observation that the FCC may have taken a very dim view of WFLD-TV's use of it as a newsgathering tool could well be right on the mark. The Commission may have revoked the license for WA9RTP on grounds of violations of this rule; this is only a guess on my part. Another possibility is that, when the television station was sold (the first time) from Field Communications, the new owners may not have seen the worth of having an amateur station in the studio, for live weather reports or for any other purpose.

In any event, the experiment did not work out and was discontinued after either one year or after WA9RTP's license expired, unless, as I mentioned, the FCC revoked the amateur station's license on grounds of violations of Part 97 regulations. At this late date (49 years later), however, we may never know.
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Last edited by Jeffhs; 06-30-2016 at 01:12 PM.
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Old 06-30-2016, 11:12 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ed in Tx View Post
FCC rules might have thrown cold water on their notion to use amateur radio for news reporting, as amateur radio must not include any commercial monetary or pecuniary interests (other than non-profit, like fund raisers to support the radio club or public service activities, stuff like that).
But in an emergency situation, certainly hams may assist broadcast services in providing information germane to public safety.

http://www.arrl.org/news-gatherings-and-amateur-radio

A major snowstorm in the Chicago area, knocking out power, transportation and some communications would certainly be a life threatening situation.

jr

edit add: more detail of the situation here:

http://www.southgatearc.org/news/201...9#.V3VPxpBHaK2

.

Last edited by jr_tech; 06-30-2016 at 12:04 PM. Reason: add link
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  #6  
Old 06-30-2016, 11:29 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeffhs View Post
I don't think the amateur station's audio was ever transmitted over the TV station...
Wouldn't necessarily need to be rebroadcast to violate the rule. If they planned to routinely use hams to gather news, that would be the equivalent of a small business setting up on the 2M or 70CM ham bands for business use. A big no no.

They can use ham operators to gather up to the minute weather or emergency info, which would be shared with other stations over a local repeater or via the National Weather Service, at least that's the way they do it here in DFW. That would be public service.

Anyway I could run it by my friend who is a "VLC" volunteer legal council for ARRL, but I already know what his answer would be. 73!
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