this is the abc tv network jan 2 1948 live wfil tv philadelphia wmar tv baltimore wmal tv washington other stations ktla tv los angeles wbkb tv chicago wews tv cleveland wwj tv detroit wrgb tv schenectady wtmj tv milwaukee wlwt tv cincinnati and ksd tv st louis showing films of the 1948 sugar bowl dumont televised it forabc tv
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abc tv network 1948
- Thread starter oburn
- Start date
oburn said:
Let's see if I can use my Gibberish-to-English dictionary to translate this: ;D
1. "This is the ABC TV network." OK.
2. "Jan 2, 1948" Nope. The network officially began on April 19, 1948, although there were a few shows produced by ABC and carried on Dumont going back to 1946. Play the Game was the first.
3. "Live" Or maybe on kinescope outside of New York.
4. 'WFIL-TV Philadelphia, WMAR-TV Baltimore, WMAL-TV Washington" All were on the air before 1948 and were ABC's first stations (their O&Os weren't yet on the air when the network started - their NYC station was Dumont's WABD until WJZ-TV went on the air that August).
5. "Other stations KTLA Los Angeles, WBKB Chicago, WEWS-TV Cleveland, WWJ-TV Detroit, WRGB Schenectady, WTMJ-TV Milwaukee, WLWT Cincinnati, KSD-TV St. Louis." Maybe they got ABC shows on kinescope in mid '48 with the possible exception of WRGB.
6. "...showing films of the 1948 Sugar Bowl. Dumont televised it for ABC." Entirely possible. This would have been one of the pre-startup shows that ABC produced but Dumont carried. But it would only have been "live" (so to speak) in NYC, Philly, Baltimore, and Washington. ABC first televised it live in 1969. I don't know where (or if) it was televised prior to that date.
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Bob1370
Guest
ABC gives two different answers to the question, "What was your first network show?"
One was "Hollywood Screen Test," with Neil Hamilton and Bert Lytell, an early talent-scout show pairing young aspiring actors looking for their big break, with seasoned stars who'd play short scenes from films or plays with them. It started on April 15, 1948, lasted until mid-1953 on the ABC schedule, and provided the national debut for a number of performers including Grace Kelly, Jack Lemmon and Jack Klugman. It was produced by ABC and started on a three station "ABC network" including WFIL-TV Philadelphia, WMAL-TV in Washington and WMAR-TV in Baltimore, the first two of which have been official ABC affiliates continuously ever since (the Baltimore ABC affilation has moved around over the years although it's back with WMAR today). It wasn't seen in New York until network flagship WJZ-TV was launched in August of the same year.
The other, "On The Corner," started three days later. It was a modest variety show hosted by Henry Morgan and was carried by the same three stations, plus DuMont flagship WABD in New York, which carried it because ABC had not completed construction of its own station and paid to get it cleared in New York. It lasted just six weeks.
Both shows were produced at WFIL. Hollywood Screen Test moved production to the ABC television center in New York in August of 1948 and stayed there the rest of its five year run.
One was "Hollywood Screen Test," with Neil Hamilton and Bert Lytell, an early talent-scout show pairing young aspiring actors looking for their big break, with seasoned stars who'd play short scenes from films or plays with them. It started on April 15, 1948, lasted until mid-1953 on the ABC schedule, and provided the national debut for a number of performers including Grace Kelly, Jack Lemmon and Jack Klugman. It was produced by ABC and started on a three station "ABC network" including WFIL-TV Philadelphia, WMAL-TV in Washington and WMAR-TV in Baltimore, the first two of which have been official ABC affiliates continuously ever since (the Baltimore ABC affilation has moved around over the years although it's back with WMAR today). It wasn't seen in New York until network flagship WJZ-TV was launched in August of the same year.
The other, "On The Corner," started three days later. It was a modest variety show hosted by Henry Morgan and was carried by the same three stations, plus DuMont flagship WABD in New York, which carried it because ABC had not completed construction of its own station and paid to get it cleared in New York. It lasted just six weeks.
Both shows were produced at WFIL. Hollywood Screen Test moved production to the ABC television center in New York in August of 1948 and stayed there the rest of its five year run.
...obviously Henry scared off sponsors on television as well as he was doing on radio ;-) ...Bob1370 said:
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cd637299
Guest
Semi-OT, but does anybody have the first ABC logo from '48? Also, what years did they use the "eagle" logo?
I have seen on www.museum.tv an ABC show from 1951, and there was a silhouette map of the US (48 state US) with "American Broadcasting Company" placed on it. Was that the original '48 logo as well?
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I have seen on www.museum.tv an ABC show from 1951, and there was a silhouette map of the US (48 state US) with "American Broadcasting Company" placed on it. Was that the original '48 logo as well?
cd
I checked...That was the same Neil Hamilton who played Commissioner Gordon on "Batman". The show sounds somewhat similar to "The Don Adams Screen Test" 30 years later. And 2 of the people mentioned, Grace Kelly and Jack Klugman, were Philly natives.
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Bob1370
Guest
The very first ABC television logo was a silhouette of an RCA 44-style capital letters A-B-C in Times Roman font lined up vertically, and big sans-serif capital T-V. with the T to the left of the mike and the V to the right, all inside an early television screen with horizontal scanning lines as bacground. It first appeared on shows produced by ABC and shown on DuMont and NBC affiliated stations in the 1946-48 period before ABC had studios and stations of its own. It lasted a short time into ABC's existence as a real network in the spring and summer of 1948 before it was phased out.
The continental US logo came next, months after the network started. Simultaneously they used a simple camera lens with capital letters ABC inside. The eagle came in 1953 when Leonard Goldenson took over...followed by the next logo, a lower case A with "abc" inside it, in 1957. The current logo design, the circle enclosing lower-case sans-serif "abc", dates to the fall of 1962.
The continental US logo came next, months after the network started. Simultaneously they used a simple camera lens with capital letters ABC inside. The eagle came in 1953 when Leonard Goldenson took over...followed by the next logo, a lower case A with "abc" inside it, in 1957. The current logo design, the circle enclosing lower-case sans-serif "abc", dates to the fall of 1962.
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Bob1370
Guest
ultimajock said, "...obviously Henry scared off sponsors on television as well as he was doing on radio 
..."
According to Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh's prime time TV history, that's just what happened.
Admiral (one of the biggest TV set makers back then) sponsored the show. Morgan was making wisecracks in the couse of delivering live commercials, and the brass at Admiral pulled the plug on their sponsorship (and the show) six weeks into what was supposed to be an initial 13 week run (which would have been more if the show had been a hit and the commercials hadn't been hacked to pieces).
These were the days when sponsors were still hard to recruit for a new and still relatively unproven medium like TV..so when one sponsor pulled out, a replacement often wasn't available to step in and keep a show on the air. Even popular shows sometimes died a premature death.
..."According to Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh's prime time TV history, that's just what happened.
Admiral (one of the biggest TV set makers back then) sponsored the show. Morgan was making wisecracks in the couse of delivering live commercials, and the brass at Admiral pulled the plug on their sponsorship (and the show) six weeks into what was supposed to be an initial 13 week run (which would have been more if the show had been a hit and the commercials hadn't been hacked to pieces).
These were the days when sponsors were still hard to recruit for a new and still relatively unproven medium like TV..so when one sponsor pulled out, a replacement often wasn't available to step in and keep a show on the air. Even popular shows sometimes died a premature death.
So in April of 1948, NYC only had three TV stations, Channel 2 WCBS-TV, Channel 4 WRCA-TV (later WNBC-TV and today just WNBC since there are no NBC-owned radio stations) and Dumont's Channel 5 WABD (later Independent WNEW-TV and today WNYW Fox 5).
So WABC-TV 7 had yet to sign on, as well as Channels 9, 11 and 13? I suppose ABC, WOR Radio and the NY Daily News, which put Channels 7, 9 and 11 on the air, were all slow in getting their facilities and licenses ready? I'm not sure who first put Channel 13 on the air, which was licensed to Newark and may have had New Jersey-based ownership, before it was bought by a non-profit organization and became the NET (later PBS) flagship in the NY market.
Also it's mentioned above that WRGB 6 Schenectady was an early ABC affiliate. Was that their secondary affiliation? I always assumed WRGB, originally owned by General Electric, was a long-time NBC affiliate, till the 80s when they switched to CBS.
Gregg
[email protected]
So WABC-TV 7 had yet to sign on, as well as Channels 9, 11 and 13? I suppose ABC, WOR Radio and the NY Daily News, which put Channels 7, 9 and 11 on the air, were all slow in getting their facilities and licenses ready? I'm not sure who first put Channel 13 on the air, which was licensed to Newark and may have had New Jersey-based ownership, before it was bought by a non-profit organization and became the NET (later PBS) flagship in the NY market.
Also it's mentioned above that WRGB 6 Schenectady was an early ABC affiliate. Was that their secondary affiliation? I always assumed WRGB, originally owned by General Electric, was a long-time NBC affiliate, till the 80s when they switched to CBS.
Gregg
[email protected]
Gregg said:
Channel 13 (whose Newark, NJ presence was there from Point Go) signed on in April of 1948 as WATV, sister to Newark radio station WAAT 970 (now WNYM). The station's first parent was Atlantic Television, a subsidiary of Bremer Broadcasting. In May 1958, after a change in ownership (to National Telefilm Associates, NTA), the TV and radio stations' calls became WNTA. NTA unloaded WNTA (by that point a big-time money loser) at the end of 1961 which was when what became the Educational Broadcasting Corporation purchased the station.
Gregg said:
WRGB (which was originally on Channel 4, before moving to 6 in 1954) was primary NBC and secondary ABC at this point.
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cd637299
Guest
Thank you goes ou to Bob1370 for the info. Any photo of the 1948 ABC logo?
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Bob1370
Guest
Happy to answer cd637299; that early microphone logo is shown on the Wikipedia website in the ABC network entry.
As far as the history of NYC's TV dial is concerned, 13 got there earliest of the postwar stations, as mentioned above. WPIX/11 was next, a few weeks later in the late spring of 1948. WJZ-TV/7, predecessor of WABC-TV, came in August of 1948, and WOR-TV/9 was last to sign on in the market in October of 1949.
Many of ABC's affiliations outside the top 20 markets were shared with other networks until the late 50s and early 60s, when the FCC partly redrew the VHF table of allocations to put more full power stations on the air in more of the top 100 markets. Those new stations, which went on the air in markets from Syracuse to Buffalo to St. Louis to Sacramento, signed on between 1957 and 1963 and brought ABC close enough to coverage parity to effectively compete in the national ratings battle.
As far as the history of NYC's TV dial is concerned, 13 got there earliest of the postwar stations, as mentioned above. WPIX/11 was next, a few weeks later in the late spring of 1948. WJZ-TV/7, predecessor of WABC-TV, came in August of 1948, and WOR-TV/9 was last to sign on in the market in October of 1949.
Many of ABC's affiliations outside the top 20 markets were shared with other networks until the late 50s and early 60s, when the FCC partly redrew the VHF table of allocations to put more full power stations on the air in more of the top 100 markets. Those new stations, which went on the air in markets from Syracuse to Buffalo to St. Louis to Sacramento, signed on between 1957 and 1963 and brought ABC close enough to coverage parity to effectively compete in the national ratings battle.
When Leonard Goldenson took control of ABC in 1953 the network
had five o&os and nine fulltime affiliates. I know that the o&os were
in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, and Detroit; and
that ABC had affiliates in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Atlanta,
and (I think) Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Dallas. Where were the other
affiliates?
had five o&os and nine fulltime affiliates. I know that the o&os were
in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, and Detroit; and
that ABC had affiliates in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Atlanta,
and (I think) Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Dallas. Where were the other
affiliates?
...I believe WOKY-TV/19 Milwaukee was one (ABC primary, DuMont secondary)...bpatrick said:
Ultimajock said:
The merger was approved by the FCC on February 9, 1953. WOKY-TV signed on that October, so it doesn't count in this context.
Seven of the nine affiliates were Philly, Baltimore, Washington, Atlanta, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and DFW. I can't figure out who were the other two. I thought they were WTVN Columbus OH and WNHC New Haven CT, but they were both Dumont primary and ABC secondary until Dumont died.
There were a few stations that signed on as primary ABC affiliates within a couple of months after the merger (WLVA Roanoke/Lynchburg VA, KSWO Lawton OK, KOAT Albuquerque), but they weren't on the air at the time of the merger.
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cd637299
Guest
Wouldn't L.A. have an ABC-only affiliate then? Or are we referring only to "in pattern"/live feed?
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cd637299
Guest
Oh I forgot....slippery mind.
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