Like many Chattanoogans of a certain age, you may recall the purchase of your family’s first television set. Chances are you watched WDEF-TV, Chattanooga’s first television station, and you might remember catching a glimpse of Luther Masingill, already well known for his distinctive radio programming, and Drue Smith, an award-winning political journalist.
On April 24, 2024, WDEF-TV will celebrate its 70th year, and an anniversary of that magnitude calls for cake and a showering of cards and letters.
The announcement that a unique compromise deal would allow WDEF-TV Channel 12 to begin broadcasting recounted the phases of the process: “anticipation, application, hearing postponement, frustration, and finally compromise.”
Chattanooga, like so many other cities, reacted quickly in April 1952, when the application process for new television stations reopened. Within days, more than 1,000 applications had been filed, including several local ones. Southern Television Inc. requested VHF Channel 12, while WDEF Broadcasting Company and Tri-State Telecasting Corporation requested the same slot. Additionally, WDOD and the Mountain City Company filed for a station to be designated as Channel 3. The Federal Communications Commission conducted hearings and then announced it was indefinitely postponing a decision about the Chattanooga applications due to a deadlock among applicants. Chattanoogans must have responded with cries of alarm, but only days later the three applicants consolidated their applications, and WDEF-TV was licensed.
How did the compromise work? Carter Parham, president of WDEF, Moses Lebovitz, president of Southern, and Alex Guerry Jr., president of Tri-State, held a joint news conference to explain. Southern and Tri-State had withdrawn their applications, which unified community support for WDEF’s application. In response, WDEF granted stockholders of Southern and Tri-State the opportunity to purchase stock in the WDEF Broadcasting Company, which would then own and operate both the radio and television stations. The agreement included a stipulation that the original investors in WDEF would retain 45% control, while the new partners would each acquire 27.2%.