WKBS-TV (Philadelphia)

WKBS-TV

Station logo used under Field
Burlington, New Jersey; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania United States
City	Burlington, New Jersey
Channels	Analog: 48 (UHF)
Programming
Affiliations	Independent
Ownership
Owner	Kaiser Broadcasting (1965–1977) Field Communications (1977–1983)
History
First air date	September 1, 1965 (1965-09-01)
Last air date	August 30, 1983 (1983-08-30) (17 years, 363 days)
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 / 40.043722; -75.241833

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—at one point in its history—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 a perennial money-loser for most of its first decade in operation, it improved its fortunes in the mid-1970s and 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, leading the liquidating firm to decide that it was in its shareholders' best interests to shut the station down and sell it for parts. 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 that followed 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.