WKNY-TV
WKNY-TV was a television station that served the Hudson Valley in the mid-1950s. It was co-owned with AM 1490 WKNY, at first broadcasting on Channel 66 and later switching to Channel 21.
WKNY-TV was owned by Joseph K. Close under the corporate name Kingston Broadcasting Company. It signed on the air on May 24, 1954. It was licensed to Kingston, New York, but it broadcast from studios in Poughkeepsie. WKNY-TV carried programs from all four major networks of the time, CBS, NBC, ABC, and DuMont. As of 1955, WKNY-TV was broadcasting one hour each morning, from 11am to noon, and 5 1/2 hours in the evening, 5:30 to 11pm. Broadcasts were seven days a week. Irv Rose served as WKNY-TV's program director.
But in the 1950s, few people owned television sets that could receive UHF stations, above Channel 13. UHF signals were also considered weaker than conventional VHF signals, a problem in the sparsely populated region between New York City and Albany, New York.
WKNY-TV left the air on July 25, 1956, leaving Kingston without a TV station for almost three decades, until WRNN began broadcasting in 1985.
