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1968 Oscars/Academy Awards on ABC radio

R

radiohistory

This was a long time ago, so it may be difficult to find the answer right away. I was told by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) that the final year they produced a separate radio broadcast of the Academy Awards was for the 40th annual awards on April 10, 1968 over the ABC radio network. But their records don't show which station, if any, carried the program on Los Angeles radio on 4-10-68.

Does anybody know if KABC-790 or another station in L.A. carried this broadcast? I checked the L.A. Times radio log page and nothing special is listed on that date. Would the Herald examiner have a better radio page at the time? If it was not carried in L.A., what was the last year a Los Angels radio station carried the Academy Awards program?

Jim
 
Found the following in David Eduardo's Broadcasting magazine archive from March 15th, 1968:

Eastman Kodak Co., Rochester, N. Y.,
through J. Walter Thompson Co., New
York, will sponsor ABC Radio's coverage
of the 40th Academy of Motion
Picture Arts and Sciences awards presentation.
The program will be broadcast
Monday, April 8 (10 p.m. to conclusion,
EST) on the American Entertainment
Network. Kodak also is the sponsor
for ABC-TV's coverage.

The American Entertainment Network affiliate in Los Angeles in 1968, I believe, was KFOX-FM 100.3 . This is based on a cassette tape from an OTR dealer of the last episode of Don McNeil that features AEN network cues and KFOX-FM IDs
 
Interestingly, in an off-topic thread on the506forums.com(which a handful of this site's regulars also frequent), someone mentioned that 1981 was the final year the Oscars started at 10 PM ET, with 1982 and subsequent years starting at 9.('81, of course was also the year that the show was postponed 24 hours due to the shooting of President Reagan; the NCAA basketball final went on as planned, so there was no conflict with the Oscars due to the breaking news.)
I'd just assumed that the Oscars had started earlier in the evening back then. Were the Oscar shows of the '70s typically as long and bloated as they would get in the '80s? Considering that even nowadays, with an 8:30 ET start, people still complain about the length of the show, I can't imagine the East Coast ratings were very good for a 10 o'clock start, and a potential 2 1/2 to 3-hour telecast.
 
KFOX-FM? Wow, thanks for the help on that. I know that ABC radio had the first network coast-to-coast feed of the Oscars in 1945. Before that, it was only on a Los Angeles station or regional west coast network, via an L.A. station, with some years in the '30s, there was no radio coverage. Also, some years, the Academy only allowed a station to read the winners at 11 pm after their banquet ended, in a newscast type broadcast. By 1941, radio began covering the entire awards, which then lasted less than an hour.

So, ABC radio had it from 1945 to 1952. In 1953, when the Academy Awards had their first television broadcast on NBC-TV, NBC radio took the radio side, and KFI-640 in L.A. carried the broadcast from 1953 to 1960. I so far couldn't find if any station in L.A. carried the radiocast of the Oscars in 1961, but KABC-790 carried it in 1962, '63 and '64.

I'd like to find out now if anyone in L.A. radio carried the Oscars in '65, '66 or '67? Thanks for the lead on the 1968 ABC entertainment network and KFOX-FM. at 100.3. I appreciate you taking the time to find that for me.

Jim



I found in the Pasadena Star-News radio-TV page logs that
 
Jim Hilliker said:
KFOX-FM? Wow, thanks for the help on that. I know that ABC radio had the first network coast-to-coast feed of the Oscars in 1945. Before that, it was only on a Los Angeles station or regional west coast network, via an L.A. station, with some years in the '30s, there was no radio coverage. Also, some years, the Academy only allowed a station to read the winners at 11 pm after their banquet ended, in a newscast type broadcast. By 1941, radio began covering the entire awards, which then lasted less than an hour.

So, ABC radio had it from 1945 to 1952. In 1953, when the Academy Awards had their first television broadcast on NBC-TV, NBC radio took the radio side, and KFI-640 in L.A. carried the broadcast from 1953 to 1960. I so far couldn't find if any station in L.A. carried the radiocast of the Oscars in 1961, but KABC-790 carried it in 1962, '63 and '64.

I'd like to find out now if anyone in L.A. radio carried the Oscars in '65, '66 or '67? Thanks for the lead on the 1968 ABC entertainment network and KFOX-FM. at 100.3. I appreciate you taking the time to find that for me.

Jim



I found in the Pasadena Star-News radio-TV page logs that
Click to expand...
Youre very welcome...did you mean to finish the comment on the Pasadena Star News
 
Only the fact that thanks to the Pasadena Library for emailing me radio-TV pages from the Star-News for 1961-1968, in which I found KABC-790 carrying the Academy Awards radiocast in 1962, '63 and '64.

Jim
 
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