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Television was once banned on Sunday
- Thread starter mvcg66b3r
- Start date
I remember Blue Laws here in Pennsylvania.
Up until around 1970 grocery stores were closed on Sundays.
Farther back pro baseball was banned from being played on Sundays.
Up until around 1970 grocery stores were closed on Sundays.
Farther back pro baseball was banned from being played on Sundays.
Blue Laws are still with us..well some are. In Colorado it is still illegal to buy a car on Sundays while PET rats are still banned in Billings, Montana. Not sure where ( think it's Nebraska ) but I heard about the law still on the books where it's illegal for an adult to attend an amusement park without a child. Doubt it's enforced though.
At one time, Sunday NFL games in Baltimore could not start before 2:00 PM ET. (The normal early game start time is 1:00 PM ET.)
Neither, obviously, could Sunday Orioles games, even doubleheaders. The 2:00 restriction, I remember reading, was one of Bob Irsay's beefs when he was threatening to move the Colts. One of the last attempts to appease Irsay before he moved was when a state law was passed in early 1984 (right after the Colts' last Baltimore season) allowing Sunday sports in Baltimore to start at 1:00 (one of those "all cities of at least [x] population" state laws). Bob backed up the trucks anyway.
ixnay
After the Colts moved to Indianapolis, bars in Indiana were allowed to open on Sundays, so long as they served food. Indiana had a total ban on alcohol sales on Sundays prior to the arrival of the NFL. AFAIK, groceries and other retail outlets are still prohibited from selling alcohol on Sundays.
When I lived in the Detroit area in the late 80's Ontario still had blue laws.
Retailers were pretty much all closed on Sunday.
You could barely get into a mall parking lot on a Sunday with all of the
cars with Canadian plates parked there.
Retailers were pretty much all closed on Sunday.
You could barely get into a mall parking lot on a Sunday with all of the
cars with Canadian plates parked there.
The NBA's Utah Jazz do not play regular season home games on Sunday. However, they have allowed some home playoff games to be played on Sunday.
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Is the call on that really up to the Jazz?
I'm not aware of any FCC regulations about it. But perhaps there was something in the NAB Code. Of course TV in 1941 was largely experimental.
I know there was no ban on radio. In fact, on December 7th, 1941, one radio network (perhaps it was the Mutual) was broadcasting a Giants football game, when it was interrupted by the bulletin about Pearl Harbor.
Speaking of Baltimore back in the mid to late 1950s up until around 1966 one could NOT play and rock and roll music on the radio in that city on Sundays. If one had wanted to hear rock music on Sunday and if one lived in Baltimore in those days they better hope to pick up WPGC or something from DC or Philly's WIBG on their AM radios ( forget FM ) instead because one won't get it in Baltimore. Actually that is how my old boss broke into the biz by playing classical music over Baltimore's WCAO on Sundays back around 1961 or so. Of course during Monday thru Saturday WCAO was top 40 as was WITH in those days. According to him this was some kind of Blue Law per-Baltimore. Apparently Baltimore had wanted their local Sunday radio to be "family friendly" in those days. I didn't think that city would had the power to make that call.
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As I understand it, it was a request to the NBA by the Jazz. The NBA must have approved it. Perhaps a compromise was for playoff games.
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Much the same thing was true of AM radio in Tucson in the 50's. I think I remember "church music or actual services" being broadcast until around noon on Sundays.
In Richmond, VA in the 70's you could not buy any type of liquor, pet food or lawn furniture on Sundays. Those stores that did open opened late and closed early. TV was filled with electronic preachers. You could not pick up any sort of alcoholic drink and move to another table. You had to get the wait staff to move it for you. Clubs were all "private" but whites could buy a "membership" for $5 so long as you brought your own liquor and bought setups (at inflated prices). You could not buy items such as beach towels with alcohol brands printed on them. No browsing in state-run liquor stores either. You had to request, by exact name and size, what you wanted and the stores were open very short hours.
In New Caanan, CT it was illegal for females to sit at the bar (they had to sit at tables).
In Allentown, PA you can buy beer only in "distributors" warehouses and only by the case. If this law was intended to squelch large quaffing it failed miserably.
In Japan bars had to close at midnight but restaurants could stay open all night. So when midnight rolled around the bartenders brought out big bowls of fried rice for every table. Apparently Japanese politicians are as dumb as the rest of them.
In S.F. it was illegal to sell meat products on Monday. This was actually a good idea because it was in the days before refrigeration. Any unsold meat from Saturday would spoil by Monday so it had to be discarded. Of course, anyone who has spent a summer in San Francisco might realize it is naturally cooler there in summer than at any other time of the year.
In Richmond, VA in the 70's you could not buy any type of liquor, pet food or lawn furniture on Sundays. Those stores that did open opened late and closed early. TV was filled with electronic preachers. You could not pick up any sort of alcoholic drink and move to another table. You had to get the wait staff to move it for you. Clubs were all "private" but whites could buy a "membership" for $5 so long as you brought your own liquor and bought setups (at inflated prices). You could not buy items such as beach towels with alcohol brands printed on them. No browsing in state-run liquor stores either. You had to request, by exact name and size, what you wanted and the stores were open very short hours.
In New Caanan, CT it was illegal for females to sit at the bar (they had to sit at tables).
In Allentown, PA you can buy beer only in "distributors" warehouses and only by the case. If this law was intended to squelch large quaffing it failed miserably.
In Japan bars had to close at midnight but restaurants could stay open all night. So when midnight rolled around the bartenders brought out big bowls of fried rice for every table. Apparently Japanese politicians are as dumb as the rest of them.
In S.F. it was illegal to sell meat products on Monday. This was actually a good idea because it was in the days before refrigeration. Any unsold meat from Saturday would spoil by Monday so it had to be discarded. Of course, anyone who has spent a summer in San Francisco might realize it is naturally cooler there in summer than at any other time of the year.
In Salt Lake City, FM 100, (Bonneville) offers "soft Sunday sounds", a mix of LDS and Christian artists. Up north in Idaho Falls/Pocatello, KLCE (Riverbend) offers "The Sounds of Sunday", mostly LDS artists. As a footnote, Riverbend is now offering a 24/7 LDS "Sounds of Sunday" format on their AM's, at 1260 and 690.
I lived in Arkansas for three years, and I remember a syndicated show that aired on a bunch of country stations in those parts back in the '70s called "Country Crossroads," which consisted mostly of mainstream country songs with a positive message, with soft-sell preaching between the musical selections. Sometimes the host would play a cheating song, though, and then explain why the behavior sung about in it was wrong! I clearly recall Joe Stampley's "If You've Got Ten Minutes (Let's Fall in Love)" being used for that purpose.
I don't suppose "Country Crossroads" is still around, and the country format's sound and demographic appeal has certainly changed over the decades, but do any current mainstream country stations go mellow/Christian on Sunday mornings?
I don't suppose "Country Crossroads" is still around, and the country format's sound and demographic appeal has certainly changed over the decades, but do any current mainstream country stations go mellow/Christian on Sunday mornings?
There are quite a few similar shows today: Rise Up with John Ritter and Sunday Kind of Country are two that come to mind.
Wasn't Country Crossroads the Country version of "Powerline", also produced by the Southern Baptist Convention?
I don't know the background, but you remind me of another current show with a similar theme called "Power Source Country."
"Wasn't Country Crossroads the Country version of "Powerline", also produced by the Southern Baptist Convention?"
Yep. They also did a talk/pop culture show called "Master Control".
Yep. They also did a talk/pop culture show called "Master Control".
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