-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
Stupid Bowl Phun Phacts
- Thread starter landtuna
- Start date
What is worse is all the network morning shows football "themes" the last couple of days. Nothing more entertaining than Kathi Lee Gifford in shoulder pads. Seriously, this happened today on Today.
And my fun fact is Kathi Lee's late husband, Frank, was one of the first color commentators on a Super Bowl. (CBS 1/15/67). I say one of the first because Paul Christman was also a color commentator on that first Super Bowl, on NBC. The first Super Bowl was shown by both CBS and NBC.
Do you suppose that was because every market did not have both CBS and NBC?
I don't remember that game because I was shuckin and jivin in the lovely jungles of S. Vietnam. I do remember there was a ton more interest in the Clay/Liston fight than the Super Bowl. I think I have that right. It lasted all of 30-odd seconds before Clay unleashed an invisible cross and Liston took a nap.
I think it had more to do with the AFL and NFL becoming more equal. The game was described as "The Super Bowl", and there were already talks of combining the leagues. So someone, (I don't know who), decided to let the AFL network (NBC) and NFL network (CBS) both televise it. Didn't last, though, as subsequent Super Bowls were alternated between networks. When the the leagues merged for the 1970 season, it definitely went back and forth between CBS and NBC, until ABC entered the fray in 1970, and Fox, years later.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Super_Bowl_broadcasters
Last edited:
The merger was agreed upon in 1966, to take effect as of the 1970 season. The Super Bowl (officially The AFL-NFL Championship Game for the first two) was a product of that merger, but was to be played immediately following the 1966 season. KC Chiefs' owner Lamar Hunt coined the "Super Bowl" name as a suggestion during the merger talks, but it didn't take hold until 1969.
As far as having it on both NBC and CBS was concerned, that probably was just to keep both leagues and their networks happy for the first one. By 1966, there were very few one-station markets, and those that did exist had either CBS or NBC as their primary affiliate. Most, if not all of the remaining two-station markets had an NBC and a CBS station, with ABC divided between them. I'm willing to bet that there were no areas of the country with TV that didn't get the game.
many markets with just one or two stations cherry picked shows from the networks
Yes, this could have existed in the mid-60's, but most major markets had both network affiliates available. I believe this was an agreement between the AFL and NFL for the most part. If some could only get one, then so be it. But this was generally a compromise between the two network/leagues. Only to last one season. Perhaps a wakeup call to ABC, and they did indeed wakeup with Monday Night Football, just a few years later.
Last edited:
But wait Los Angeles was not allowed to air the first Super Bowl due to blackout rules from AFL and NFL.
If Los Angeles CBS O&O KNXT and NBC O&O KNBC were not allowed to air the first Super Bowl then what did these two network O&O's air instead?
I have no idea, but perhaps there is someone out there with a TV guide from that day. (doubt it)... the funny thing is most in LA didn't really care. They just caught the score on the George Putnam News that evening...
Stupid Bowl Phun Phacts... yep, you're getting them here. 
BTW Salisbury, MD, halfway down the Delmarva Peninusula was one of those 1-station markets in 1967. That station was WBOC-16 which was primarily CBS (although I watched NBC's telecast of the MLB ASG on WBOC while staying at the Delaware beaches one summer). Salisbury finally got a second station (a PBS affil) around 1975.
ixnay
BTW Salisbury, MD, halfway down the Delmarva Peninusula was one of those 1-station markets in 1967. That station was WBOC-16 which was primarily CBS (although I watched NBC's telecast of the MLB ASG on WBOC while staying at the Delaware beaches one summer). Salisbury finally got a second station (a PBS affil) around 1975.
ixnay
To correct a prior poster: ABC started Monday Night Football in 1970. However, the first NFL Championship game they aired was Super Bowl XIX in early 1985. ABC aired the following games...XIX (San Francisco over Miami)XXII (Washington 42-Denver 10)XXV (NY Giants 20-Buffalo 19)XXIX (San Francisco over San Diego)XXXIV (Saint Louis over Tennessee)XXXVII (Tampa over Oakland)XL (Pittsburgh over Seattle)FOX's first NFL Championship game was Super Bowl XXXI in early 1997.
I forgot about the blackout in LA. I'm surprised that the networks didn't demand that it be lifted, if only for that game. You'd think the advertisers would have wanted their commercials in Market #2 (or was it still #3 in 1966-67?).
And, was it possible, at least in Orange County and points south, to put up a tall enough antenna and get the game out of San Diego? This is how Bears home games were seen in Chicago bars prior to the lifting of the mandatory blackout in 1973. A 100 foot tower, with a UHF antenna pointed toward Rockford or South Bend.
Santa Barbara was also probably doable in Ventura County (KEYT [ABC] shared CBS with KCOY [primary NBC at the time])
Yes, that is correct and I wasn't clear. I was referring to ABC getting into the fray with Monday Night Football in 1970. I am somewhat surprised it took them 15 years to be awarded a Super Bowl, with the success of the Monday franchise.
Last edited:
Channel 10 in San Diego was NBC at the time (and was KOGO-TV), and of course, Channel 8 there was and still is CBS...definitely from Orange County (and in the hilly areas in far-southern L.A. county [the Harbor and Palos Vedres areas]) on south, the L.A. viewers could have pull-in either station, albeit with the usual static you would get from a distant station.
Although the official name was "The AFL-NFL Championship Game", the public was referring to it as the "Super Bowl" from the start.
http://www.itsabouttv.com/2013/01/this-week-in-tv-guide-january-14-1967.html
Now while there are areas within a DMA that may not be able to pick up FOX OTA there are only 2 DMA's in the whole US with NO FOX affiliate
Zanesville, OH (WHIZ NBC)
Glendive, MT (KXGN CBS -1 NBC -2)
Yes there are "markets within a market" (like Hagerstown, MD and Hazard, KY) which are part of another DMA but has no FOX available in that part of the market but the 2 examples above are the only ones without a FOX in market
Zanesville, OH (WHIZ NBC)
Glendive, MT (KXGN CBS -1 NBC -2)
Yes there are "markets within a market" (like Hagerstown, MD and Hazard, KY) which are part of another DMA but has no FOX available in that part of the market but the 2 examples above are the only ones without a FOX in market
The commercials shown during the Superbowl have a real cult following in the UK. I'm just off to see if this years are on Youtube yet. I really remember the 'so God made a farmer' advert from a few years back. That really stuck in my mind.
Ironically since the BBC brought the rights back a couple of years ago the UK is probably one of the few places in the world where you can watch the superbowl without commercials (the guys in the studio just have to do loads of filling instead).
Ironically since the BBC brought the rights back a couple of years ago the UK is probably one of the few places in the world where you can watch the superbowl without commercials (the guys in the studio just have to do loads of filling instead).
- Status