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ABC affiliates not clearing "The Edge of Night" (1975-84 ABC run)

S

spencerkarter85

Lots of ABC affiliates didn't clear or dropped the P&G soap "The Edge of Night" (1956-84) during it ABC run from December 1, 1975-December 28, 1984 because of off-network reruns, syndicated programming, or local news.

The only affiliates I know pre-empted/not carrying "The Edge of Night" (during the ABC era) are:
WLOS-TV Asheville, NC
WPVI-TV Philadelphia, PA (seen instead on now-defunct indie WKBS 48)
WGHP-TV (sadly now a FOX affiliate) Greensboro, NC
WCVB-TV Boston, MA
WFTV Orlando, FL

Can you tell me which other ABC affiliates didn't cleared or dropped EON?
 
KGTV 10 San Diego when it got the ABC affilliation from KCST on July 1, 1977. KCST when it was ABC carried Edge.
 
KSTP in Minneapolis did not carry EON when they got the ABC affiliation. They ran syndicated Match Game, which must have made for a very confusing September 1979...

The old NBC affiliate is now ABC, but running a game show best associated with CBS at the old CBS time.
 
I think WRAU-TV (now WHOI-TV) in Peoria cleared EON till the early '80s before dropping it. I don't think WQAD-TV in the Quad Cities ever carried it, but they may have early on in the ABC run. If WQAD did carry it, they dropped it quite awhile before WRAU.
 
71dude said:
WTAE Pittsburgh
Click to expand...
WTAE-4 Pittsburgh carried "Edge" from the start of the ABC run in 1975 at 10:30 am (one-day behind) until summer 1982, and then-independent WPTT-22 (now WPMY (MyNetworkTV)) picked up the show and aired it at 10:30 am weekdays (one-day behind) through the end of its run in December, 1984.
 
XETV 6 picked up Edge in early 1978 for a few months, but ran it at 11am. It was an independent at the time, the run of the mill type that ran cartoons from 7-9am and 3-5pm weekdays and reruns and movies in other day parts.
 
WISN/Milwaukee had "Edge" on a one-week delay from 1977 until 1982 when "Loving" replaced it. And in Honolulu, KITV also aired the serial a week behind but later dropped the show and it was picked up in 1982 along with "Ryan's Hope" by then-independent KSHO (now TBN-owned KAAH).
 
Someone correct me if I'm wrong on any of this (my memory doesn't go back further than the early 80's) but I never remember seeing it on WEWS-Cleveland. It did, however, always seem to be on WAKR-Akron, which was another example of the occasional weirdness in having those two ABC affiliates so close together (especially in the large area where reception would overlap).
 
WFAA/8 Dallas/Ft. Worth carried "Edge" at 3 PM (CT)
until around 1979 or '80. They tried it for a time at
9:30 AM, then dropped it and independent Ch. 27 picked
it up.
 
Both WEWS-TV 5 Cleveland and WAKR-TV 23 Akron carried the 90-minute Edge premiere on December 1, 1975. The following day, WAKR broadcast Edge at 4 PM, while WEWS elected to carry Edge on a day-delay basis at 10 AM, starting Wednesday, December 3, 1975. WEWS carried Edge at 10 AM until the 30-minute Phil Donahue debuted, pushing it into the 10:30 AM slot. Thereafter, when Donahue became an hour in length, WEWS carried Edge at 11 AM until finally dropping it when ABC began to broadcast Happy Days in the 11:00 AM (ET) slot. Fortunately for some of the Cleveland market viewers able to receive Channel 23, WAKR carried Edge at 4 PM during its entire ABC run. It is notable that WEWS frequently complained to ABC about the presence of WAKR in their market, but refused to clear the entire ABC schedule, preempting Edge as well as the 8-9 AM hour of Good Morning America, which it finally picked up in 1978. WEWS even tape-delayed Nightline for a time.
 
KTRK in Houston dropped "The Edge of Night" about a year after its move from CBS to ABC. The ABC affiliate added their new "Live at Five" newscast which would have cut their profitable afternoon "Million Dollar Movie" from two hours (3:30-5:30) to 90 minutes. The choice was made to cancel "The Edge of Night" and move the afternoon movie up to 3:00.
 
Didn't WEWS use the 8-9 AM hour for its local show "Morning Exchange"?

Back to "Edge": it really didn't do all that badly in the Central time zone,
where it was on at 3; although there were pre-emptions they were minimal
in comparison with the Eastern time zone. ABC's East Coast affiliates were
beginning to pre-empt 4 PM at least as far back as when "Love, American
Style" occupied that slot; it's one reason "The Money Maze" was cleared on
only 60% of the network (although there were plenty of stations that pre-empted
"Money Maze" but carried "Edge," although on delay).

"Edge" also had a slightly-younger demographic on ABC than it did on CBS; I don't
know if the introduction of some younger characters (I remember Lori Loughlin, later
of "Full House," playing on "Edge" in the early '80s), the later timeslot (4 PM instead
of 2:30, if you were lucky), or the lead-in from "General Hospital" (again, if you were
lucky) had anything to do with it.
 
WEWS did use the 8-9 AM slot for Morning Exchange dating back to January 1972..In fact, Morning Exchange aired 8-10 through part of the 1990's, before moving to 9-11 after WEWS added the second hour of GMA..
 
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