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 2

The transmitter operator or engineer maintained a record, or log, of the
various operating parameters, according to FCC rules and regulations.
All of those meters told the operator something about how the
transmitter was performing, for better or for worse. The settings that
kept the transmissions at the proper channel frequencies and output
power were captiously observed, accordingly noted on the log, and
adjustments were made if needed.
Initially, the station had one oscilloscope to display the video signal,
a Tektronix model 524 AD on a Scopemobile. It doubled as test
equipment for any video signal work. Eventually, a dedicated
oscilloscope monitor for the transmitter was obtained. Colorization also
provided a video signal generator, which helped tremendously, but still
did not provide the essential services of a sweep generator for aligning
the visual channel, or chain.
Another required monitor displayed the operating frequency of the aural
and visual transmitters. Those readings were also logged by the
operator, noting any deviation above or below the assigned channel. That
monitor was itself subject to changes over time, and both the
transmitter and the monitor had to be adjusted periodically to stay
within legal specifications. The station subscribed to a monitoring
service called Woodward Labs in Mt. Vernon. The monthly report was
noted in the transmitting log, and kept on file. Adjustments were made
if needed - and they usually were.
All of the original equipment at the station used vacuum tubes - lots of
vacuum tubes. Vacuum tubes wear out: their performance drops over time,
or they even short out entirely. Most of the test equipment owned by the
station when it initially went on the air was from a radio/TV repair
shop that was bought out. The device used to test vacuum tubes was
essentially for home type electronics, but covered most of the common
tubes used in the WGSF equipment, but still mostly go/no go readings.
The purchase of a more industrial oriented model made the task of
preventative maintenance both easier and more accurate. Every tube was
checked on a periodic basis, and the readings kept in a database.
Most tubes used at the station could be purchased locally from an
electronics supply store, the same place the radio and TV repair shops
bought theirs. The major transmitting tubes had to be obtained from a
dealer of industrial tubes in Columbus. The power amplifiers, or
finals, were made only by General Electric, and cost over a thousand
dollars. We babied those beasties, and kept a special card under a
serial number on file for each one.
We followed a special turn-on routine for the transmitter, starting at
reduced power, and gradually increasing to the normal operating power.
The transmitter also had special circuitry designed to ease the tube up
to normal parameters, so as not to damage the heater or filament in
the tube. Still, most tubes didnt just wear out; they would die of an
open filament, burning out like a light bulb, their distant cousins.
They could also sustain an internal short between elements, no matter
how carefully we watched over them.

Still, some of the specialized transmitting tubes could not be checked,
except by the operating readings monitored and indicated by the meters
on the transmitter itself. Thus the chore of taking and recording an
hourly set of readings had a practical aspect besides meeting FCC rules
and regulations. The maintenance technicians could note the performance
of those tubes, and replace them when necessary.
Changing any tube in the radio frequency chain that generated the
broadcast signal necessitated retuning the amplifier stage, simple in
the case of the aural channel, but an often laborious process in the
visual channel.
Broadcast signals must conform to very stringent standards. Meeting
those standards was always a challenge at WGSF. The aural transmitter
was fairly straightforward, and generally required only a minimum of
attention. The visual section was literally a nightmare!
The visual transmitter required a tuning process called broadbanding.
That meant that more than a dozen adjustment points had an impact on the
proper overall performance. Further, WGSF never had the proper test
equipment, a sweep generator that would trace a picture of the
bandpass on an oscilloscope screen. We could only stand, look over their
shoulders, and drool at the test equipment technicians brought in on the
two occasions that we had modifications supplied, once by Nationwide at
the channel change from 28 to 31, and when the state network paid for
the colorization.
Picture a partially filled tube of tooth paste: Squeeze it here, you get
a dip. Squeeze another place, that dip changes, but you get another dip.
Pretty soon you no longer have the nice, smooth tube that you started
with. Now multiply that to the square of 12 - or more. Thats what it
was like to tune the visual transmitter. Pretty much by guess and by
golly!
Add to that the device that put the picture information on the radio
frequency carrier. The modulator was maddening. It never worked as
desired, ever. It nearly drove GEs own engineer to total despair during
the conversion from channel 28 to channel 31. He would get on the
telephone to the guys in the engineering department back at GE, mumbling
things uncomplimentary about the modulator.
He came to hate a particular, though essential, piece of test equipment.
It would simulate a picture change from total white to total black. The
meters on the transmitter would flip wildly, the protective circuitry
would kick in with a klunk, and kick the whole box off the air. Over
and over! Yes, he despised both the modulator and the standards that it
would not - could not - attain.
There were certain vacuum tubes in the modulator that could be pulled
from their supposedly normal locations and placed in sockets labeled
Emergency Operation.  Every transmission at WGSF was an Emergency
Operation.
The transmitter was turned off for the last time on June 30, 1976. The
transmission line, the 3 1/2 inch copper pipe leading up to the antenna,
was switched over to the new translator that was installed and operated
by the Ohio ETV Network Commission.
The new box operated on the same channel as WGSF, Channel 31, and at the
same power. The station, however, was quiet, except for the hum of the
new unit as it automatically turned on when WOSU-TV, Channel 34 in
Columbus, began their broadcast day on July 1. The Federal
Communications Commission was accordingly notified, the license to
broadcast was canceled. The WGSF transmitter sat dark and cold, never to
be turned on again.
The school district, owner of the station, had one query with intent to
purchase the transmitter, but no further response occurred once the
technical information was sent to them.
The city and county used the WGSF tower for their two-way radio antennas,
and the equipment was housed in a room in the south east corner of the
building. They requested permission to utilize the now unneeded space,
stripped of all but the old transmitter, to install additional equipment
for their communication services. Permission was granted to the local
amateur radio club, who had moved their amateur repeater equipment into
the former WGSF audio production room, to dismantle the transmitter.
None of the former WGSF staff was there to witness that final phase of
the history of WGSF.