Al Sellers of Lehighton hold a pole to demonstrate the location of the first cable TV antenna in Mauch Chunk, now Jim Thorpe, at the top of Mount Pisgah. As a boy, Sellers helped install the cable system that would bring reception to between 35 and 40 neighbors.

Al Sellers of Lehighton while viewing the scale model display of the Switchback Gravity Railroad at the Mauch Chunk Museum in Jim Thorpe,  pointed to a row of homes parallel to the Switchback’s track saying to his wife, “I grew up, right there on North Avenue, just across from the base of the Switchback’s Pisgah Plane”

 His interest in Switchback history caught my attention and I asked Sellers if he had any stories about the Switchback. “No, I was born in 1939,” he said. “By then, the Switchback was gone.”

 “But,” he continued, “as a boy I helped erect the first cable TV system in Jim Thorpe at the top of Mount Pisgah.” This is Al Seller’s story.

 In the spring of 1951, twelve-year-old Al Sellers was home from school—quarantined for six weeks with the chicken pox. The illness’ severe phase had passed but, until all signs of the pox cleared from his skin, he wasn’t allowed to return to school.

 By 1951, residents in Seller’s section of Upper Mauch Chunk, the town hadn’t yet been changed to Jim Thorpe, around North and Center Streets, the street names hadn’t yet been changed to North and Center Avenues, had purchased televisions—the round black and white models then available—but, because of the surrounding mountains, could not receive clear reception.

 Roughly 35 or 40 neighbors raised money to construct an antenna at the top of Mount Pisgah, and a cable network to provide improved television reception.

 According to Sellers, the group, Mauch Chunk Television Services, Inc., through subscriptions, raised about $1,200 to purchase the poles, antennas, cable and electrical boxes to construct the system.

 Sellers remembers the day that Charles E. “Bud” Hontz, the owner of the ESSO station at the bottom of the Liberties drove his wrecker to the base of the Pisgah Plane and gathered about a dozen neighbors together to build the system. Chained behind his wrecker, Hontz was dragging a utility pole.

 As Hontz’s wrecker dragged the pole up the plane, young Sellers and  the others chopped back tree limbs and cleared brush.

 At the mountain’s summit, a hole was dug. Several antennas were attached near the top of the pole to make sure that at least one would be pointed in the right direction. A lightening suppression device was attached at the top and cabling was run down from the devices.

 Hontz used the wrecker to lift the pole into the hole, holding it still while the others stabilized it with guy wires.

 They ran a heavy black coaxial cable down the Pisgah Plane, using booster boxes and junction boxes where necessary. The wire ran to North Street and was routed up a utility and routed overhead with the telephone line and power lines that crossed the street.

 The main feed terminated at George Weiksner’s house at the top of North Street. From that point, the line split and provided service to North and Center Street and a portion of South Street. The lines coming into the homes were 75 ohm twin lead television antenna wire.

 From the beginning, the subscribers received good reception on three Philadelphia channels 3, 6, and 10.

 Once in a while, service would be interrupted. Then, several of the members would take a walk up Mount Pisgah to find the source of the problem. Usually, it was a fallen tree that needed to be cut and removed.

 The system ran successfully for about eight years until Palmerton TV Signal Corporation combined with Mauch Chunk Television Services, Inc. and Lehigh Trans-Video of Lehighton to form Carbon Cable TV in 1960. In 1971, Carbon Cable TV expanded further and changed it name to Blue Ridge Cable Television.