WTVE (Elmira, NY)

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WTVE
Elmira / Corning, New York
Channels Analog: 24 (UHF)
Affiliations Defunct, deleted
Owner
Founded 1953
Call letters’ meaning W
TeleVision
Elmira
Former affiliations DuMont (1950s-54)

WTVE was the first television station to go on the air in the Elmira-Corning, New York market.

It was a DuMont Television Network station broadcasting from studios on Market Street in Elmira in 1953. It broadcast on UHF channel 24.

The station was blown off the air in 1954 when its tower on South Mountain was blown down by Hurricane Hazel. Not long after, the DuMont network itself shut down. The station remained on the FCC books until at least 1960. At one point, the licensee held a construction permit for VHF channel 9, according to BostonRadio.com.

However, the station never signed back on the air. Both channels 9 and 24 were reallocated to Syracuse, New York, where they are occupied by WSYR-TV (originally WNYS and then WIXT) and WCNY, respectively.

The WTVE call letters were reallocated to a station in Reading, Pennsylvania.

It is notable that Hazel also blew WLBR-TV in Lancaster, Pennsylvania off the air, though it came back on under new ownership within a few years.