The Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia

Paul Harron, Sr.

Paul Harron Sr., Founder of Harron Communications Corp., a privately held company, entered the cable television industry in 1963, yet its roots stretch back to the days of vaudeville when Harron sold advertising space on the vaudeville curtains.

The Company first entered the broadcasting business in the 1940s when Paul Harron Sr. purchased WHOM, a New York City foreign language station. In the early fifties, Harron assembled a group of investors and purchased WDEL (a Steinman station) and renamed it WPFH, after himself. WPFH was Philadelphia’s first independent TV station.

In 1957, Harron sold WPFH and two Philadelphia radio stations, including popular WIBG, to form the Mid New York Broadcasting Company, and purchased WKTV, channel 2, the NBC affiliate in Utica, New York.

In 1963, Harron decided to build a cable system in Utica to protect the Company’s position in the market. It would prove to be an advantageous and far-reaching decision.

The Company continued its acquisition of broadcast properties in 1968 by purchasing WMTW, channel 8, the ABC affiliate in Portland, Maine, and its powerful signal, broadcast from the peak of Mount Washington, reached from Montreal to Boston.

On Friday, Novmber 19, 2010, Paul Harron, Sr. was posthumously inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers Hall of Fame.

The e-mail address of the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia is pioneers@broadcastpioneers.com