@@MIKECNW The reason was a bitter feud between the Field brothers, who owned Field Communications, the station's owner, over the future of the company, and decided to get out of the TV and radio business by selling off all their stations. All of the stations owned by Field were purchased, except WKBS, and it was forced to go dark. As for Ch. 48, it is now WTGW, owned by Trinity Broadcasting Network, and based in Millville, NJ.
Unfortunately, I was out in Los Angeles when they finally went off the air. In fact, was my first night out there. I believe that the last program that they aired that night was a Penn State football game. I also heard that Field Communications was selling all of their stations, and they couldn't find a buyer for Channel 48.
Wow' its been 39 and a half years since I watched this. My memory was that it was a bit different from this and I can see from other comments that it actually was. I thought there were two videos in a row for the sign-off, and then the signal was turned off and it went to snow.
On August 29, 1983 (Mon.) that original Ch. 48-TV in Phila., Penna. metro. area had its swan song bcst. day. At 12:45 AM local time on August 30, 1983 (Tues.), sta.'s Gen. Mgr., Vincent Barresi had commentary on sta. signing off for last time
Ironically, on August 30, 2023 (Wed.), exactly 40 yrs. to day that original Ch. 48-TV in Phila., Penna. metro. area went dark, l lost my step-mother, late Gwynne ("Gwynnie") Linton-Hagee as she succumbed to M.A.C. lung disease. She was well in her 70s at time, her death
I watched last "sign-off" for original Ch. 48-TV in Phila., Penna. metro. area in late-Summer, 1983. In mid-July, that same yr. sta.'s parent co., Field Communications announced that it would cease operations, Phila., Penna. metro. area's original Ch. 48-TV unless license to operate sta. would return back to Wash., D.C.-based Federal Communications Commission (F.C.C.)
B.T.W., late Mrs. Mary C. Hagee, my mother tragically succumbed to liver cancer ♋️ in December, 1985. She was only in her early-50s at time, her death 💀. Me/my 4 siblings (incl. since-deceased brother, mine) have outlived my mother
The real sign off just had the standard WKBS 48 sign off film with "The Sound Of Silence" by Simon & Garfunkel playing instead of the National Anthem. The "Star Spangled Banner" film seen here isn't the one that WKBS used at the time the plug was pulled. This was the one they used by 1983. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-xqxRACzx3gg.html
An account of Flickr posted a reconstruction of the final sign off and he has the recording of the sound of silence playing after the sign off announcement.
The speech is from the actual sign off. The SSB isn't. They played Simon and Garfunkel's "Sound of Silence" instead, then shut the xmitter off for good.
It's so odd that TWO Full-service TV stations in the Philadelphia market threw their licenses in the fire. Storer station (Channel 12) had a Full-service *VHF* station, and decided that independent television could never be profitable. If they had waited a few years, they could have had a decent run. They may have eventually been the Fox station. I wonder why WKBS threw the towel in.
Family squabble. What I read about it in Wikipedia, it was actually a pretty robust presence in the Philly/NJ market among indies. Kaiser Broadcasting exited the broadcast biz and it sold out to Field Enterprises, publisher of the Chicago Sun-Times, World Book Encyclopedias, Parade Magazine, Simon & Schuster, ad nauseum. Marshall Field V and his half-brother Ted waged a nasty legal battle against each other (Think HBO's "Succession"). FCC said "crap or get off the pot" (sell by July 15th, '83 or take it off the block and continue broadcasting. No one was able to meet the Fields' high ask, so they scuttled it on August 30, 1983. The casualty of a typical '80s rich kids' brewhaw.
The reason why some of these TV stations went off the air is because low viewership equates to lost money resulting in the station either finding a buyer or filing for bankruptcy...
Officially, it was due to a nasty fight between the two Field Brothers over the future of their company, and it resulted in the breakup of their holdings. While most stations were able to find new owners, including WKBD, KBHK, and WLVI (WKBG), WKBS wasn’t able to find a new owner, and as a result Field returned their license for ch 48 to the FCC.
@@davidmatthewvinotjr8396 Most of what you've said is true. However, there were several companies that offered Field money for WKBS but their bids were too low for Field. Providence Journal (back then owners of WPHL TV 17) offered Field $35 million for 48 and Field was strongly considered it. But they changed their minds and decided to shut WKBS down for a 42.5 million dollar tax write off.
