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60 Years ago today WABI-TV signed on

Maine-i-ac commented: said:
(WABI-5 Bangor was) the first (New England TV station) to sign on post Korean War.
Click to expand...

The Korean War ended in the Summer of 1953.

But WABI was Northern New England's first TV station and likely the first station in New England to be granted a construction permit after the FCC lifted it's "freeze" on the granting of licenses for new TV stations.

I wonder if WABI got live network programming right away, or did they have to wait for AT&T network lines to reach Bangor before getting live network programming.
 
Joseph_Gallant said:
Maine-i-ac commented: said:
(WABI-5 Bangor was) the first (New England TV station) to sign on post Korean War.
Click to expand...

The Korean War ended in the Summer of 1953.

But WABI was Northern New England's first TV station and likely the first station in New England to be granted a construction permit after the FCC lifted it's "freeze" on the granting of licenses for new TV stations.

I wonder if WABI got live network programming right away, or did they have to wait for AT&T network lines to reach Bangor before getting live network programming.
Click to expand...

It appears Maine was connected by 1952

http://long-lines.net/places-routes/maps/US52.html
 
Thanks for the reminder and link, Maine-i-ac! I remember vividly standing in front of Willy's store (now Grasshopper) in downtown Ellsworth and watching the test pattern. This was BIG! 20 years later I anchored the Saturday late night news on channel 5. Good memories. A lot of on-air personnel went on to bigger things: Steve Martin, Jonathan LeVeen, Michelle Marsh, Jean Meserve just to mention a few. Any others I missed? Congrats to WABI!
 
I checked out the TV5 Time Capsule special Friday night, which I recorded on DVR. Unfortunately the TimeWarner Program Grid on the DVR had it at wrong time. Luckily I recorded both the 7:00 and 7:30 block, and got it anyway.
Did anybody else have that problem?? And to further confuse viewers both Jon Small and Kathryn Pegrim gave conflicting times for the upcoming special during the Friday 6PM newscast. But well worth checking out if they hopefully repeat it. The old black and white footage hel up surprisingly well.
 
amguy said:
A lot of on-air personnel went on to bigger things: Steve Martin, Jonathan LeVeen, Michelle Marsh, Jean Meserve just to mention a few...
Click to expand...

Jeanne Meserve is still at CNN... Unsure if Ms. Marsh is still at WCBS-TV... And I don't think you speak of the comedian Steve Martin... ::)
 
WABI's Steve Martin is a Maine native and now the TV broadcaster for the Charlotte Bobcats in the NBA. Michelle Marsh left WCBS many years ago, not sure what she is doing now. And Jon LeVeen went to WBZ-TV in Boston. Again, not sure where he is now, last I heard he was out of broadcasting and living back in Maine.
 
You got that right, Maine-i-ac! Steve did sports full-time. Part-timers included Rich Kimball who now does 'Downtown' on 92.9 The Ticket. Remember their slogan--"Watch the team that watches you". The live announcers were in color, but the news clips were 16mm black and white. No teleprompter--we scotched taped the news stories to yellow copy paper. Fun times, though.
 
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