first high-powered UHF station". The tower rose from atop a site on Blue Mountain near Summit Station, delivering a signal with an effective radiated power of 260,000 watts—then the highest in use at any UHF facility. The studios and offices in Reading's Tower Hotel were furnished with two remotely controlled cameras. In addition, WHUM-TV had the use of two satellite studios in Pomeroy's department stores at Wilkes-Barre and Harrisburg. The high-power facility was effective at sending signal over a wide area. However, signal strength was often not as high in Reading proper, leading to poorer pictures. Dealers often struggled to install television sets and antennas that received satisfactory signals from channel 61, particularly in Reading; they also learned that terrain shielding was much more severe to UHF signals than VHF. In addition to CBS programming, WHUM-TV presented 30 hours of local and live programming a week. However, some of it was rather cheap: the station's cooking program was hosted by a woman who did not know how to cook and relied on cookbooks at the local public library to prepare her show. Additionally, the station aired sports programming from WPIX New York, part of a regional daisy-chain hookup of 10 stations. Six months after signing on, the station almost faced calamity when a small plane clipped one of the guy wires supporting the WHUM-TV tower. After striking the wire, the plane crashed and burst into flames; both occupants died. A second outlet joined WHUM-TV two months later, when WEEU-TV (channel 33) began telecasting with NBC and ABC programs. WEEU-TV closed on June 30, 1955; WHUM-TV began airing some ABC programming after channel 33 folded. Closure As more viewers tuned to the more powerful—and VHF—signals of Philadelphia's network stations, channel 61 suffered. A financial reorganization of Eastern Radio Corporation was carried out early in 1956, with founder Greig ceding the job of general manager to Robert C. Magee. In late August, the specter of additional competition arose when the commission approved a proposal to return WLBR-TV, channel 15 at Lebanon, to the air, under the ownership of Triangle Publications; WHUM-TV had joined three UHF outlets in the Harrisburg area in protesting the transaction. The final blow, however, came not from economic troubles, but from above. On the afternoon of September 4, 1956, a lightning bolt struck the WHUM-TV tower and caused what was described as "extensive" damage to the waveguide and