Retro: Port Huron, MI - Wednesday, March 19, 1975

[CCBInMI]

Source: The Times-Herald via Newspapers.com

WJBK 2 Detroit (CBS)
6:15 Message for Today
6:20 Town & Country Almanac
6:30 Sunrise Semester
7:00 News
8:00 Captain Kangaroo
9:00 Joker’s Wild
9:30 Gambit
10:00 Now You See It
10:30 Price Is Right
11:00 Phil Donahue
12:00 News
12:30 As the World Turns
1:00 Love of Life
1:25 News
1:30 Edge of Night
2:00 Guiding Light
2:30 Search for Tomorrow
3:00 Young and the Restless
3:30 Match Game ‘75
4:00 Tattletales
4:30 Mike Douglas (co-host Johnny Bench)
6:00 News
7:00 Walter Cronkite
7:30 Truth or Consequences
8:00 Tony Orlando & Dawn (guests Kate Smith, Buddy Ebsen)
9:00 Cannon
10:00 Manhunter
11:00 News
11:30 Movie “The Vatican Affair”
1:30 Movie “Road to Denver”

WWJ 4 Detroit (NBC)
6:30 Classroom
7:00 Today
9:00 Concentration
9:30 Wheel of Fortune
10:00 High Rollers
10:30 Hollywood Squares
11:00 Jackpot
11:30 Blank Check
11:55 Here’s Carol Duvall
12:00 What’s My Line
12:30 News
1:00 Days of Our Lives
1:30 Doctors
2:00 Another World
3:00 Somerset
3:30 How to Survive a Marriage
4:00 Celebrity Sweepstakes
4:30 George Pierrot Presents “Colorful Colorado”
5:30 Bowling for Dollars
6:00 News
7:30 Masquerade Party
8:00 Hallmark Hall of Fame “The Small Miracle”
9:00 Lucas Tanner
10:00 The Law “Complaint Amended”
11:00 News
11:30 Tonight Show (guests Peter Falk, Mac Davis)
1:00 Tomorrow

WNEM 5 Bay City (NBC)
5:45 U of M Presents
6:15 Farm & Home Show
6:45 News
7:00 Today
9:00 Celebrity Sweepstakes
9:30 Wheel of Fortune
10:00 High Rollers
10:30 Hollywood Squares
11:00 Jackpot
11:30 Blank Check
12:00 News
12:30 How to Survive a Marriage
12:55 News
1:00 Days of Our Lives
1:30 Doctors
2:00 Another World
3:00 Courtship of Eddie’s Father
3:30 Gilligan’s Island
4:00 Movie “Dear Brigitte”
6:00 News
7:00 I Dream of Jeannie
7:30 Dragnet
8:00 Hallmark Hall of Fame “The Small Miracle”
9:00 Lucas Tanner
10:00 The Law “Complaint Amended”
11:00 News
11:30 Tonight Show (see ch4)
1:00 Tomorrow

WXYZ 7 Detroit (ABC)
6:05 News
6:25 TV College
6:55 Take Kerr with Graham Kerr
7:00 A.M. America
9:00 Movie “Never Let Me Go”
10:30 A.M. Detroit
11:30 Split Second
12:00 All My Children
12:30 Let’s Make a Deal
1:00 $10,000 Pyramid
1:30 Big Showdown
2:00 General Hospital
2:30 One Life to Live
3:00 Money Maze
3:30 Password
4:00 Brady Bunch
4:30 Movie “Marx Brothers at the Circus”
6:00 News
7:30 Name That Tune
8:00 Muppets Show (this special, aka “Sex and Violence,” was sort of a trial run for the “Muppet Show” series)
8:30 Jane Goodall and the World of Animal Behavior
9:30 1975 Fashion Awards (Diahann Carroll and John Davidson host; Ken Berry and Juliet Prowse guest)
11:00 News
11:30 Wide World of Entertainment “The Third David Frost Presents the Guinness Book of World Records”

CKLW 9 Windsor (CBC/CTV)
7:30 Cartoon Playhouse
8:00 Uncle Bobby Show
8:30 Bozo’s Big Top
9:30 Mon Ami
9:45 Friendly Giant
10:00 Ontario Schools
10:30 Mr. Dressup
11:00 Take 30
11:30 Family Court
12:00 Galloping Gourmet
12:30 Dick Van Dyke
1:00 Movie “Mara of the Wilderness”
3:30 Gomer Pyle
4:00 Petticoat Junction
4:30 Andy Griffith
5:00 Mickey Mouse Club
5:30 Partridge Family
6:00 Bewitched
6:30 I Dream of Jeannie
7:00 Beverly Hillbillies
7:30 News
8:00 NHL Hockey (Boston at Montreal)
10:30 Ceilidh
11:00 News
12:00 Movie “The Hell with Heroes”

CFPL 10 London (CBC)
9:30 Mon Ami
9:45 Friendly Giant
10:00 Ontario Schools
10:30 Mr. Dressup
11:00 Sesame Street
12:00 Cartoons
12:30 News
12:45 Movie “Istanbul Express”
2:30 Edge of Night
3:00 Wednesday at Three
3:30 Take 30
4:00 Family Court
4:30 Dr. Zonk & The Zunkins
5:00 Partridge Family
5:30 Dick Van Dyke
6:00 FYI
7:00 Little House on the Prairie
8:00 This Land
8:30 Musicamera
10:30 Pacific Canada
11:00 News
11:45 Movin’ On

WJRT 12 Flint (ABC)
6:30 Town & Country Almanac
7:00 Speed Racer
7:30 Cartoon Carnival
8:00 Sesame Street (Flint would not get its own PBS station, WFUM 28, until 1980)
9:00 Mike Douglas
10:30 Brady Bunch
11:00 Password
11:30 Split Second
12:00 All My Children
12:30 Let’s Make a Deal
1:00 $10,000 Pyramid
1:30 Big Showdown
2:00 Money Maze
2:30 Ghost and Mrs. Muir
3:00 General Hospital
3:30 One Life to Live
4:00 Merv Griffin
5:30/6:00 News
6:30 Movie “Everybody Does It”
8:00 Muppets Show (see ch7)
8:30 Jane Goodall and the World of Animal Behavior
9:30 1975 Fashion Awards (Diahann Carroll and John Davidson host; Ken Berry and Juliet Prowse guest)
11:00 News
11:30 Wide World of Entertainment “The Third David Frost Presents the Guinness Book of World Records”

WXON 20 Detroit (Ind.)
Apparently station did not sign on until 2:30 at this time
2:30 Romper Room
3:00 Bullwinkle
3:30 Super Heroes
4:00 Spiderman
4:30 Batman
5:30 Leave It to Beaver
6:00 Daniel Boone
7:00 To Tell the Truth
7:30 It Takes a Thief
8:30 Champions
9:30 700 Club
11:00 Charisma

WEYI 25 Saginaw (CBS)
6:30 Sunrise Semester
7:00 News
8:00 Captain Kangaroo
9:00 Joker’s Wild
9:30 Valley Today
10:00 Now You See It
10:30 Love of Light (typo – most likely Love of Life)
11:00 Young and the Restless
11:30 Dinah
12:30 As the World Turns
1:00 Guiding Light
1:30 Edge of Night
2:00 New Price Is Right
2:30 Match Game
3:30 Gambit
4:00 Yogi and Friends
4:30 Munsters
5:00 I Love Lucy
5:30 Hogan’s Heroes
6:00 News
7:00 The FBI
8:00 Tony Orlando & Dawn (see ch2)
9:00 Cannon
10:00 Manhunter
11:00 News
11:30 Movie “The Vatican Affair”

CKGN 29 Sarnia (Global)
1:30 Canadian Cavalcade
2:30 Alphabet of Life
3:00 That Talk Show
4:00 Doctor in the House
4:30 Hollywood Squares
5:00 Gilligan’s Island
5:30 Hogan’s Heroes
6:00 News
6:30 Movie “The Appointment”
9:00 Mac Davis Show
10:00 News
11:00 World of Wicks
11:30 Movie “Cotter”

WKBD 50 Detroit (Ind.)
9:00 Operation Second Chance
9:27 Religious Message
9:30 Jack LaLanne
10:00 Detroit Today
10:30 Not for Women Only
11:00 New Zoo Revue
11:30 Bugs Bunny
12:00 Underdog
12:30 Lucy Show
1:00 Movie “Desiree”
3:30 Banana Splits
4:00 Three Stooges
4:30 Little Rascals
5:00 Flintstones
5:30 Gilligan’s Island
6:00 Star Trek
7:00 Hogan’s Heroes
8:00 Dealer’s Choice
8:30 Merv Griffin
10:00 Dinah
11:30 Movie “The Great Lie”

WTVS 56 Detroit (PBS)
6:00 Using the Newspaper for Learning
6:30 Work & Labor
7:00 Performing Arts
8:45 Human Relations & Motivation
9:15 Children’s Hour
9:30 Listen & Say
9:45 Science Is Searching
10:00 Sesame Street
11:00 Electric Company
11:30 Villa Alegre
12:05 Americans from Africa
12:55 Art Lesson
1:10 Tell Me a Story
1:25 Inside Out
1:40 Reason & Read
2:00 America
2:30 Lilias, Yoga and You
3:00 Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood
3:30 Memo to Teachers
4:00 Sesame Street
5:00 Electric Compay
5:30 Work & Labor
6:00 Science & Ecology
6:30 Operation Second Chance
7:00 Woman
7:30 House Call
8:00 Great Performances
9:30 TBA
10:00 Only Then Regale My Eyes
10:30 It’s Your Turn

 

[TexasTom]

Source: The Times-Herald via Newspapers.com

WXON 20 Detroit (Ind.)
Apparently station did not sign on until 2:30 at this time
2:30 Romper Room
3:00 Bullwinkle
3:30 Super Heroes
4:00 Spiderman
4:30 Batman
5:30 Leave It to Beaver
6:00 Daniel Boone
7:00 To Tell the Truth
7:30 It Takes a Thief
8:30 Champions
9:30 700 Club
11:00 Charisma

Yes, you're right about WXON not signing on until well into the afternoon back then. I'd been in the Detroit area that previous summer (August of 1974) and remember tuning to channel 20 just before 3 PM and being surprised when it wasn't on the air yet -- but a signal appeared shortly, and the station came on the air for a "Mister Ed" rerun at 3 PM. Apparently, they moved their sign on time ahead by a whole half hour between August of 1974 and March of 1975. Even as a kid I could tell that this was a station that was just barely hanging on.

 

[CCBInMI]

Yes, you're right about WXON not signing on until well into the afternoon back then. I'd been in the Detroit area that previous summer (August of 1974) and remember tuning to channel 20 just before 3 PM and being surprised when it wasn't on the air yet -- but a signal appeared shortly, and the station came on the air for a "Mister Ed" rerun at 3 PM. Apparently, they moved their sign on time ahead by a whole half hour between August of 1974 and March of 1975. Even as a kid I could tell that this was a station that was just barely hanging on.

Yep, 20 was definitely an also-ran compared to 50 - and on the Canadian side, Global (29) was even more so, being barely a year old at this point (1975). Both seemed to have their act together more by the mid-'80s with a decent slate of syndicated reruns and kids' programming, as will be demonstrated shortly when I share a schedule from 1990. I probably watched 20 more than 50, despite WKBD being Michigan's superstation for a good part of the late '70s and early '80s when they were carried on just about every cable system in the state plus parts of Ontario, Ohio and IIRC even Wisconsin (this would be reduced once markets like Grand Rapids, Lansing, Flint, Toledo and northern Michigan got their own independents, which all, like WKBD, eventually affiliated with Fox).
Ironically, WXON once operated on channel 62. Detroit would get a third indie later in 1975 - WGPR, on channel 62.

 

[ftballfan]

In Television Factbooks and Broadcasting Yearbooks, I've seen evidence of WKBD being carried as far into Ohio as Findlay, Sandusky, and Norwalk and as far west as Ashland, Wisconsin. 'KBD would remain on cable in the UP until it dropped FOX for UPN, but it would return to several downstate systems with its flip to UPN (as it was the only full-time UPN station in the state).

 

[CCBInMI]

Until WGKI came on, WKBD was also on cable in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. Most communities in northern Ontario carried WUHF (and probably still do) as their Fox affiliate, so the Sault was an anomaly.

 

[CCBInMI]

The Times-Herald would add CKCO to their listings when the channel 42 Oil Springs repeater signed on and would keep listing programs for CFPL even after it was dropped by Michigan cable systems. (By 1990, CKCO, Global, CBET, and CBLN (the CBC O&O that replaced CFPL as the affiliate for London and most of southwestern Ontario except Windsor) were the Canadian channels carried on Port Huron cable. The Broadcasting Yearbook shows CFPL on Port Huron cable in the 1979-80 period but dropped by 1981-82; however, CFPL still retained carriage as far away as Bad Axe, in the northern portion of the Thumb.) They apparently never listed programs for SRC (ch 68) or TVO (which would have been seen in Sarnia from the ch 59 Chatham transmitter). If I'm not mistaken, the Detroit Free Press was the only newspaper in Michigan that listed SRC programs (CBEFT), unless the Sault, MI paper did (Newspapers.com only goes up to 1974 with the Sault Evening News archives).

 

[TexasTom]

Yep, 20 was definitely an also-ran compared to 50 - and on the Canadian side, Global (29) was even more so, being barely a year old at this point (1975). Both seemed to have their act together more by the mid-'80s with a decent slate of syndicated reruns and kids' programming, as will be demonstrated shortly when I share a schedule from 1990. I probably watched 20 more than 50, despite WKBD being Michigan's superstation for a good part of the late '70s and early '80s when they were carried on just about every cable system in the state plus parts of Ontario, Ohio and IIRC even Wisconsin (this would be reduced once markets like Grand Rapids, Lansing, Flint, Toledo and northern Michigan got their own independents, which all, like WKBD, eventually affiliated with Fox).
Ironically, WXON once operated on channel 62. Detroit would get a third indie later in 1975 - WGPR, on channel 62.

On those occasions when I was in the Detroit area as a kid (visiting family), channel 20 fascinated me. I think part of it was that even as a kid I tended to root for the underdog, and it was obvious that the station was an underdog. Frankly, it amazes me in retrospect that they managed to survive through the seventies.