Birthplace Of Cincinnati TV Dead At Age 59

Cincinnati’s birthplace of television soon will reduced to rubble.

WLWT-TV's original Studio A on Chickasaw Street beneath the University Heights tower – and later the first home for WCET-TV (Channel 48) -- will be razed by the end of the year.

The studio on "Mount Olympus," as the huge complex overlooking the city was called, was built for the city's first commercial broadcasts on WLWT-TV (then Channel 4) on Feb. 9, 1948 for $600,000.

Ruth Lyons' "50-50 Club," the city's most popular TV show in the 1950s and '60s, and the Saturday night country music "Midwestern Hayride," were televised from the hilltop facility.

More than 7,600 people toured the studio at an open house on April 19, 1948. That month WLWT-TV became NBC's second affiliate in the nation, after WNBC-TV in New York. Channels 9 and 12 didn't sign on until 1949.

While Crosley Broadcasting originally had grand plans for Mount Olympus at the advent of TV, they never panned out. By 1951, just three years later, Crosley had moved the "50-50 Club" and other shows to Crosley Square, the centrally located home of WLW-AM since 1944 at Ninth and Elm streets downtown. The transmitter and tower have remained at Mount Olympus.

Crosley then leased the studios to WECT-TV – the nation's first licensed public TV station – for $1 a year. From 1959 to 1976, CET broadcast Lilias Folan's yoga shows, Irma Lazarus' interviews and "Action Auction" from Mount Olympus. The Sports Time cable channel and Paradigm Communications were based there. Gary Burbank taped a sitcom pilot there in the early 1990s, "It's The Pitts."

So why won't Mount Olympus see a 60th birthday?

"It’s a business decision. We looked at the cost at rehabbing the building, but it was exorbitant. We didn't want to pay for the upkeep any more," says Tim Hudson, Channel 5 assistant chief engineer.

The roof leaks, and there is no air-conditioning. The studio mostly has been used for storage of old WVXU-FM equipment acquired two years ago by WGUC-FM, which broadcasts from the Channel 5 tower.

Channel 5's owners, Hearst-Argyle Television Inc., approved the demolition earlier this month. By the end of December, all that will remain will be the "garage area" housing the WGUC-FM and WVXU-FM transmitters, and Channel 5's backup analog transmitter, Hudson says.

"It's a tired old building and it needs to come down," Hudson says.

It's a historic old building, and it's a shame to see it go.

Do any of you have remembrances of going to shows at Mount Olympus? Or working there?
Tell us all about them....