West Palm Beach TV Station Ads

WIRK-Channel 21 was the first TV station based in West Palm Beach. It didn't last long -- going dark in 1956 after WJNO-Ch. 5 and WEAT-Ch. 12 signed on.

West Palm Beach is an unusual TV market. Depending on your point of view, the market got its first TV station in 1949 … or 1953. WIRK-Channel 21, based in West Palm, telecast a test pattern on Aug. 31, 1953, and started regular programming on Sept. 13, 1953. But WTVJ-Channel 4, based in Miami, started broadcasting in 1949 — and an upgrade to its tower and power in 1953-54 meant that viewers all the way to Vero Beach were able to get the CBS station’s strong signal. In fact, WTVJ remained the CBS affiliate for West Palm Beach up until 1989 — when an affiliate swap in Miami also shuffled the lineup in WPB. Thanks to Google’s Newspaper Archive, AmericanRadioHistory.com, and the Miami Archives blog for helping provide material for this page. Stations included below: