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AMERICA'S BEST INDEPENDENT STATIONS IN THE 1970s, 1980s and 1990s?

S

sctvman

Do you think WGN (Chicago) or KTLA (Los Angeles) were the best independent stations in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s? Are there any other independent stations you can think of that had great programming?
 
One other Chicago station WSNS Channel 44.....before they went away in the late 70's
 
Back in 1977, when i first got cable television, there was a independent
television station in Charlotte, North Carolina, then owned by Ted Turner,
the same one who created a "Superstation" in late 1976 called "WTCG",
based in Atlanta, that also was a great independent until they tweaked
with Channel 17; WRET-TV, Channel 36 carried shows like "Father Knows
Best", "The Three Stooges", and much more, i enjoyed watching them
until the cable system where i lived replaced it with WTCG in October
1977, this was a period of television history that is sorely missed today.
 
...hmmm...do I dare bring up KFIZ-TV/34 Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, on this thread? No? Okeh ;-) ...
 
All the Chicago independents in Chicago were pretty good. WPWR (Channel 60) WFBN (Channel 66) WSNS (Channel 44) they all had good shows, old movies and nice mixes of entertainment.
 
WSBK-TV channel 38 in Boston which had the "Movie Loft" with Dana Hersey
(I hope I am spelling it correctly) was probably the best independent in the country during the early to mid eighties before it was destroyed,

In north suburban Boston I had the three NYC independents along WGN and WTBS none of these we even in the ballpark. TV-38 was the first over the air stations to run movies completely uncut which was unheard of.
I still have video tapes of some of the including a completely uncut version of
"The Boys in the Band", imagine trying to run that at 8 PM on an over the air
station these days
 
The Kaiser stations were all excellent operations in their day - especially their Detroit station. WKBD started with an all sports format (two decades before ESPN) and then added several outstanding local shows including Bill Kennedy Showtime (classic movies with a host who had been a Warner Brothers contract player from the late 30s to the early 50s and who, before returning to Detroit, recorded the opening narration for The Adventures of Superman) and The Lou Gordon Show (set the style for today's political cable TV talk shows).
 
fredflintstone said:
The Kaiser stations were all excellent operations in their day - especially their Detroit station. WKBD started with an all sports format (two decades before ESPN) and then added several outstanding local shows including Bill Kennedy Showtime (classic movies with a host who had been a Warner Brothers contract player from the late 30s to the early 50s and who, before returning to Detroit, recorded the opening narration for The Adventures of Superman) and The Lou Gordon Show (set the style for today's political cable TV talk shows).
Click to expand...

No question, the Kaiser Group of stations set the standard to which Independent stations were made back in the 60's and 70's. This was a company that gave UHF it's first chance to be a competitive force in the market. Something of which it never was able to do until that time (1965-1970). In Boston, Kaiser's WKBG-TV/56 (now WLVI) really struck a chord with the audience almost immediately since it's first air date in December, 1966. Along with some great kids and family programming (as well as one of the largest film libraries in the market), WKBG brought "The Lou Gordon Program" (from WKBD/Detroit), "The HyLit Show" (from WKBS/Philadelphia) and "Bill Kennedy's Hollywood" (from WKBD) and more. In addition, Kaiser had a tendency to buy syndicated shows as a group (unlike most syndicated product which was sold station-by-station), like "Star Trek", "Speed Racer", "Kimba The White Lion" which were aired on all Kaiser stations. "Star Trek" was a special buy from Desilu/Paramount, as this show which got rather anemic ratings on the NBC, truly thrived on UHF on the Kaiser stations. These airing of "Star Trek" on UHF set the stage for the reunion movies that were to be filmed ten years later.

I was a big fan of Lou Gordon. I was not alone. Most of my friends in school watched Lou Gordon every Sunday night at 10 on Channel 56 (WKBG/WLVI). This is where "Joey The Hitman" became famous. Lou really put him in his place. What a time!
 
I'd also like to give mentions to WTTG in Washington and to KWGN in Denver. Both excellent independent stations in my opinion, with excellent programming and both producing their own news and local programs.
 
I worked with Lou. In addition to his WKBD-TV show (and prior to it) he did daily commentaries for WXYZ radio. He brought down several local politicians (and got many of those indicted, as well) and uncovered some Enron-style bad behavior in the private sector. Unlike today's political talk show hosts, Lou was a real reporter - an old-school, Front Page-style muckraker. He was a very charismatic individual but not easy to get close to. Interestingly enough, radio and TV were sidelines for him; his day job was selling women's clothing to retailers and from what I understand, he was a hell of salesman, too.

For a time, WXYZ (an ABC-owned station) carried him in the dinner hour news block right between the local news and Howard Cossell, probably the perfect place for him.

And for Massachusetts residents, Lou was the guy who asked the question that prompted Mitt Romney's old man to say he'd been "brainwashed" about Viet Nam, which forced him out of the 1968 presidential race.
 
America's Best Independent Stations?- In the late '70s and '80s, I would like to nominate the Philadelphia UHF's, especially WGBS-TV "Philly 57." After being a subscription TV station for many years as WWSG, Milton Grant bought Channel 57 in 1985, upped the power, unscrambled the signal, created a snazzy CGI graphics package, and bought alot of classic programming. IMHO, what "TV Land" should be. Within a year, 57 was challenging WTAF/29 at the top of the UHF ratings in Philadelphia.

The other Philadelphia UHF's were pretty good during this period as well. Under Taft Broadcasting ownership, WTAF had a big movie library and some classic cartoons. Until its demise in 1983, WKBS-TV, Channel 48 a great station. Channel 48 was a typical Kaiser Broadcasting/Field Communications station as described in earlier posts.

Towards 1985/1986, another good UHF indie in the Philadelphia region was WSJT-TV 65 in Vineland, NJ. Owned by the "Asbury Park Press" newspaper, Channel 65 showed alot of classic programs right out of the 1950s and 1960s. Unfortunately, its signal did not come from Roxborough, PA where the other Philly UHF's came out of. It could not compete in the ratings with WGBS and others, and in 1987, APP sold out to Home Shopping Network. It then used the $$ to buy a TV station in Florida (WKCF/18).

-Mike
 
So far no one had mentioned the NYC indies. If you could get those, there was always something on. WNEW And WPIX had the best syndicted fare out there. I didn't care much for WOR. About all they showed were the programs the the other stations didin't want, the same crummy movies over & over again and Joe Franklin. Pretty much 2nd class compared to WPIX & WNEW, although WOR did have the Mets.
Also, honorable mention in their day, WCIX in Miami and WUHF in Rochester.
 
In general, the best indies of the 70's, 80', & 90's had quality sitcoms, quality movies, and local news departments that put on quality newscasts. OK, that eliminates a bunch right there.

How about the worst ones of today? No local news, wall-to-wall infomercials that are designed to function almost totally as a revenue maker and not ratings maker. How's that for programming for the viewer? I won't mention names...they know they are. Yuck!
 
Both the former Dupont/Metromedia stations mentioned above were excellent operations with solid local news operations and outstanding local shows:
WTTG, Washington
WNEW-TV, New York

Kudos also to KTLA (also previously mentioned), owned be Gene Autry back in the day, with an ahead-of-its-time and on-top-of-network-competition local news department.

Some people have mentioned the Chicago UHF indies, but none of them ever approached WGN-TV (no not even WFLD) - for all practical purposes Chicago's network-of-one.

And shame on those station owners with major market VHF licenses but no network affiliation early on who bailed out on the assumption that an indie could not make it. Obviously they could - often with class, creativity and better profitability than their network owned or affiliated competitors.
 
KTLA was a solid station during the Gene Autry years, right through the middle of Tribune's current ownership. However, my favorite of the four indies (five, if you count KDOC) in L.A. was KCOP. They had a larger movie library and better syndicated product (depending on your point of view). KTTV was also solid in its own right. I basically enjoyed a little bit from all of them, but like therealjm12 mentioned about (W)WOR, KHJ (now KCAL) was kinda of second-rate station, but they rebound well in terms of getting programming when they were bought by Disney in 1989, much like Universal did for WWOR.
 
I would say WPHL-TV 17, Channel 29 and the old WKBS-TV 48 in Philly were really good as INDEPENDENTS.
 
For a brief shining moment, KTVW, Channel 13 in Tacoma/Seattle was an irresistible draw with its eclectic mix of classic TV shows and locally produced programs. While it wasn't the "best" independent, "The Blaidon Station" was fun and unpredictible. It was purchased by Blaidon Mutual Investors Corp. in 1972, a company with no broadcasting experience, from a bankrupt J. Elroy McCaw estate. Blaidon and Channel 13 burned through whatever money they had invested in the station and less than two years later, declared bankruptcy themselves.
 
The stations that come to mind in these parts include WDRB Channel 41 Louisville, WXIX Channel 19 Newport (Cincinnati) and WTTV Channel 4 Bloomington (Indianapolis). All three had extensive cable coverage via microwave and OTA back in the day.
 
For Northern California , KTVU-2 and KBHK-44 were the best in the Bay Area. For Sacramento, it was KTXL-TV 40. They were THE BEST from their October 26, 1968 sign on until they became Sacramento's Official Fox Affiliate in 1986. They had everything from "Big Time Wrestling" (The Roy Shires Promotion) to Cartoons with "Capn' Mitch" as the host. There was Saturday Night Horror with "Bob Wilkins" long before he went to KTVU with "Creature Features" and continued until 1981 (2 years after he left KTVU). They had movies in the morning, afternoon and prime time as well as "All Night Movies" with Tom LaBrie as host. (I believe it was called "Night Comfort Theatre"?). Another great station was the original KMUV Channel 31 which signed on on October 5, 1974 with an "ALL MOVIE FORMAT". The movies were shown 3 times a day with "Horror/SciFi Movies" on at 7:30AM,5:30PM and 11:30PM, "Comedy/Romances/Dramas" on at 9:AM, 1:pM and 7:pM, "Action/Westerns/Mysteries on at 11:AM, 3:pM and 9:pM plus there were half hour kiddie type shows (Old Serials, Laurel And Hardy, Little Lulu Cartoons) called "Solid Gold Heroes" at 7:AM, 5:pM and 11:pM. There were 3 on air hosts: KROY DJ "Johnny Hyde", "George Liberace" brother of famed pianist and Former Boxer/B-Movie Star "Buddy Baer".The All Movie Format only lasted until 1976 when it switched to "ALL SPANISH".
 
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