I will send this in two parts - it is long.
Additional comments and corrections are welcome.
What are your memories of the transmitter?
Those of you who moved out into the greater universe of radio and/or
television broadcasting -
please lend your thoughts as you encountered the world away from our
cozy little 'planet' on Horn's Hill.

I am still hoping to get input from everyone who had a part in the
history of the station.

The WGSF transmitter - Part 1


Most people never see the apparatus that constitutes the final link
between the television production system and the receiving audience. The
broadcast transmitter is usually housed in that mystical realm seen only
by the eyes of broadcast engineers and technicians, located in some
almost inaccessible back room, or on a remote hilltop.
The WGSF television station was therefore most unique, in that the
transmitter was essentially the heart and soul of the entire operation.
The production control room sat in front of the transmitter, sharing
controls in the same console. The announcer could look out from the
audio production booth and gaze upon the glowing electronic tubes in
that expansive box that occupied most of one wall of the control room.
One entry door into the studio took you right past the entire length of
the transmitter. The station office shared space with the maze of
plumbing behind the transmitter that connected it to the antenna located
410 feet above. Even the rest rooms were just a few steps from the
center of operations.
I dare say that no person in television broadcasting other than Leland
Hubbell has had the experience of leaving the hosts chair in the studio
in the middle of a live broadcast, replacing a failed audio final
transmitting tube, then returning to the studio to finish the broadcast.
Only at WGSF!
Built by the General Electric Company, the transmitter was designed in
the early days of UHF television broadcasting. The WGSF equipment
consisted of three cabinets. The larger, central portion contained the
main control circuitry, and generated both the picture (visual) and
sound (aural) elements of the broadcast signal. The visual circuitry,
the more complex part, was located on the left side of the cabinet, and
the aural to the right, viewed from the control position in front of the
transmitter. The low powered signals then went into a final amplifier
cabinet where they were boosted to licensed broadcast strength, one on
either side of the central unit. The plumbing behind the transmitter was
called a Filtrexer, a combination of filter and multiplexer, which
means that it combined the output of the two transmitters onto one
pipe that went up to the antenna.
Parts of the system, like the Filtrexer, were essentially overkill, as
they were designed for a much more powerful transmitter than that used
at WGSF. Most stations used transmitters that required as much as ten
times or more the ratings that we needed, but again, WGSF used whatever
was available.
Federal Communications Commission rules and regulations required that a
person with a First Class Radiotelephone broadcast license be in control
of the transmitter. Passing the required FCC exams, then posting the
crucial license at the transmitter is indeed a proud moment for all who
seek such status. Getting the box on the air, and keeping it there were
two different ball games, however.