Lentorama 2009: Great(?) Moments in Catholics on Television

October 12, 1964: WIHS-TV airs its first broadcast

The archdiocese of Boston aired its first televised mass on January 1, 1955, celebrated by Cardinal Cushing. This would mark the start of the archdiocese's involvement in television, later formalized in the creation of the Catholic Television Center, originally located on Granby Street.

Looking to get its own air, the archdiocese obtained a broadcast license. When WIHS debuted, it was an early, if not first, Catholic-operated TV station that showed both religious and general entertainment programming.

Two years after its start, though, the license was sold to Storer Broadcasting, who would continue to operate on WIHS's channel but with a name derived from its stock ticker symbol. Thus was born WSBK-TV, channel 38, Boston's first independent TV station and the first widely popular (and accessible) station in UHF.

While WSBK would continue to show some religious programming, the Catholic Television Center would continue to look for its own venue. In 1983 it would move on to cable as Boston Catholic Television (BCTV), and then go for a more national audience in 2006 when rebranded simply as Catholic TV, though it lags behind EWTN in reach. But more about EWTN later.