August 10: This Day in TV History

[Stanislav]

Just a few random TV related events that happened on August 10. Discuss or comment as you please……

1913: Actor Noah Beery, Jr. (The Rockford Files) is born in Kansas City, Missouri.

1948: Candid Camera begins its long television history. Beginning on ABC, the show later also aired at one time or another on NBC, CBS, and in syndication.

1948: WJZ-TV (later WABC-TV) begins operating on channel 7 in New York City.

1953: WTVI (channel 54) signs on in Belleville, Illinois as the CBS affiliate for the St. Louis market. Soon thereafter, they would lose CBS to the new VHF station KWK-TV (later KMOX, et. al.) and become an ABC affiliate. The station would then be moved across the river to St. Louis, move to channel 36, and take the new calls KTVI. The station would later move to channel 2 in 1957 after an allocation shift takes channel 2 away from Springfield, Illinois.

1970: KBMA-TV (channel 41, now KSHB-TV) starts broadcasting in Kansas City Missouri.

1972: Actress/model Angie Harmon (Baywatch Nights, Law & Order) is born in Dallas, Texas.

1979: Actress Joanna Garcia (Reba) is born in Tampa, Florida.

1983: KDVR begins broadcasting on channel 31 in Denver, Colorado. It is the first full-power UHF station in Colorado, and the first new commercial station in Denver since 1956.

2003: Futurama ends its original network run on Fox.

(Just a little featurette I hope to do as time permits…..don’t expect it every single day. It’s an entirely random selection based on a quick Net search, and is not meant to be comprehensive. So, don’t post nasty messages about “you forgot THIS” or “how could you not mention THAT?” Do so, and I’ll just take my keyboard and go home…..)

 

[andreajesus]

Just a few random TV related events that happened on August 10. Discuss or comment as you please……
1948: Candid Camera begins its long television history. Beginning on ABC, the show later also aired at one time or another on NBC, CBS, and in syndication.

In the 90's, the former Pax-TV (now "I") Network showed the ORIGINAL reruns, and even had its own remake with Allen Funt's son and, iirc, Sarah Purcell (oy vey!!)

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

1981: I included this item as it eventually led to the development of "America's Most Wanted": Two weeks after his abduction from a Sears store in Hollywood, FL on July 27, the head of 6-year old Adam Walsh is found in a Vero Beach, FL canal. This murder prompted John Walsh to become a staunch champion of victims' rights, help establish the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and (starting in 1988) host Fox's "America's Most Wanted." The Adam Walsh kidnapping also prompted two TV-movies on NBC in 1983 and 1986, respectively: "Adam," and "Adam, His Song Continues."

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

1953: WTVI (channel 54) signs on in Belleville, Illinois as the CBS affiliate for the St. Louis market. Soon thereafter, they would lose CBS to the new VHF station KWK-TV (later KMOX, et. al.) and become an ABC affiliate. The station would then be moved across the river to St. Louis, move to channel 36, and take the new calls KTVI. The station would later move to channel 2 in 1957 after an allocation shift takes channel 2 away from Springfield, Illinois.

And the move of the channel 2 allocation from Springfield to St. Louis also allowed for a channel 2 allocation for Terre Haute, IN, which became a reality in September 1965 with the sign-on of the Wabash Valley's NBC affiliate, WTWO (which also has been referred to in old TV Guide channel listings as "W-TWO").

A similar reallocation would later occur 70 miles north of Springfield, in Peoria, with the reallocation of that city's only VHF allocation (Channel Eight) to Moline, IL (Quad Cities). Channel 8 signed on in the QC's as WQAD-TV on Aug. 1, 1963--giving the Quad Cities a full-time ABC affiliate (it had been previously shared by CBS affiliate WHBF-4 and NBC's WOC-6, the latter now KWQC). Ironically, the Grade B signal (in both analog and digital days, although its digital signal actually transmits on channel 38) of WQAD does cover Peoria (and even far northwestern Peoria County, IL is able to get a Grade A signal from WQAD)--thanks to its tower site 15 miles south of the Quad Cities near Orion, IL.

 

[Ultimajock]

A similar reallocation would later occur 70 miles north of Springfield, in Peoria, with the reallocation of that city's only VHF allocation (Channel Eight) to Moline, IL (Quad Cities). Channel 8 signed on in the QC's as WQAD-TV on Aug. 1, 1963--giving the Quad Cities a full-time ABC affiliate (it had been previously shared by CBS affiliate WHBF-4 and NBC's WOC-6, the latter now KWQC). Ironically, the Grade B signal (in both analog and digital days, although its digital signal actually transmits on channel 38) of WQAD does cover Peoria (and even far northwestern Peoria County, IL is able to get a Grade A signal from WQAD)--thanks to its tower site 15 miles south of the Quad Cities near Orion, IL.

...in the analog days, didn't WQAD short-space WKBT/8 La Crosse? WKBT's transmitter site is 30 miles north of La Crosse, in Galesville, Wisconsin; one of my daughters lives on the north end of La Crosse and reports that she's never been able to pick up the WKBT digital signal OTA at her home...

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

A similar reallocation would later occur 70 miles north of Springfield, in Peoria, with the reallocation of that city's only VHF allocation (Channel Eight) to Moline, IL (Quad Cities). Channel 8 signed on in the QC's as WQAD-TV on Aug. 1, 1963--giving the Quad Cities a full-time ABC affiliate (it had been previously shared by CBS affiliate WHBF-4 and NBC's WOC-6, the latter now KWQC). Ironically, the Grade B signal (in both analog and digital days, although its digital signal actually transmits on channel 38) of WQAD does cover Peoria (and even far northwestern Peoria County, IL is able to get a Grade A signal from WQAD)--thanks to its tower site 15 miles south of the Quad Cities near Orion, IL.

...in the analog days, didn't WQAD short-space WKBT/8 La Crosse? WKBT's transmitter site is 30 miles north of La Crosse, in Galesville, Wisconsin; one of my daughters lives on the north end of La Crosse and reports that she's never been able to pick up the WKBT digital signal OTA at her home...

As I'm not an engineering expert, and that the FCC has removed analog query info from their search engines, I'm not sure if WQAD and WKBT short-spaced--but the presence of La Crosse's channel 8 likely is what forced WQAD to build their transmitter near Orion, IL (and same deal with the-then KRNT-8, now KCCI, in Des Moines). Interestingly, at the time (and still to this day), many of the Quad City radio stations were transmitting from the Orion area (and IIRC WHBF-4 had their tranny near Orion at the time--they began broadcasting from their Bettendorf transmitter in late '82, alongside channel 6 until the end of KWQC's "nightlight" service). Now ironically WHBF is the only full-service Quad City station (not counting the market's KGCW-DT, which is licensed to Burlington, IA and transmits from near Aledo, IL) that does not have a transmitter in the Orion area.

Interestingly, all of the major Quad City stations (in both the analog and digital eras) were and still are able to get their Grade B signals to cover the city of Peoria. I wonder if in the analog area the all-UHF Peoria stations raised objections to many of their Quad City mostly-VHF counterparts broadcasting from their Orion transmitters?

I've also wondered about another analog-era near-shortspace (unless it was barely averted): the forementioned channel 2's assigned to both St. Louis and Terre Haute after the elimination of the channel 2 allocation from Springfield (particularly the reception and selection of which channel 2 to the cable channel lineups in the area between Vandalia and Effingham, IL, and also near Flora, IL, the latter located in Clay County, IL and has recently been part of the St. Louis DMA DESPITE slightly being able to receive a better channel 2 signal from WTWO rather than KTVI in the analog days).

 

[Stanislav]

A similar reallocation would later occur 70 miles north of Springfield, in Peoria, with the reallocation of that city's only VHF allocation (Channel Eight) to Moline, IL (Quad Cities). Channel 8 signed on in the QC's as WQAD-TV on Aug. 1, 1963--giving the Quad Cities a full-time ABC affiliate (it had been previously shared by CBS affiliate WHBF-4 and NBC's WOC-6, the latter now KWQC). Ironically, the Grade B signal (in both analog and digital days, although its digital signal actually transmits on channel 38) of WQAD does cover Peoria (and even far northwestern Peoria County, IL is able to get a Grade A signal from WQAD)--thanks to its tower site 15 miles south of the Quad Cities near Orion, IL.

...in the analog days, didn't WQAD short-space WKBT/8 La Crosse? WKBT's transmitter site is 30 miles north of La Crosse, in Galesville, Wisconsin; one of my daughters lives on the north end of La Crosse and reports that she's never been able to pick up the WKBT digital signal OTA at her home...

As I'm not an engineering expert, and that the FCC has removed analog query info from their search engines, I'm not sure if WQAD and WKBT short-spaced--but the presence of La Crosse's channel 8 likely is what forced WQAD to build their transmitter near Orion, IL (and same deal with the-then KRNT-8, now KCCI, in Des Moines). Interestingly, at the time (and still to this day), many of the Quad City radio stations were transmitting from the Orion area (and IIRC WHBF-4 had their tranny near Orion at the time--they began broadcasting from their Bettendorf transmitter in late '82, alongside channel 6 until the end of KWQC's "nightlight" service). Now ironically WHBF is the only full-service Quad City station (not counting the market's KGCW-DT, which is licensed to Burlington, IA and transmits from near Aledo, IL) that does not have a transmitter in the Orion area.

Interestingly, all of the major Quad City stations (in both the analog and digital eras) were and still are able to get their Grade B signals to cover the city of Peoria. I wonder if in the analog area the all-UHF Peoria stations raised objections to many of their Quad City mostly-VHF counterparts broadcasting from their Orion transmitters?

I've also wondered about another analog-era near-shortspace (unless it was barely averted): the forementioned channel 2's assigned to both St. Louis and Terre Haute after the elimination of the channel 2 allocation from Springfield (particularly the reception and selection of which channel 2 to the cable channel lineups in the area between Vandalia and Effingham, IL, and also near Flora, IL, the latter located in Clay County, IL and has recently been part of the St. Louis DMA DESPITE slightly being able to receive a better channel 2 signal from WTWO rather than KTVI in the analog days).

The W9WI site has a "snapshot" listing of the analog dial as it stood in early 2009 (a handy historical document to save). I don't know offhand what the separation requirements for co-channel allocations are (or, rather, were) in that region, but according to the transmitter coordinates, WQAD and WKBT's towers were 198 miles apart, while KTVI and WTWO's are separated by just 168 miles.

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

1959: Actress Rosanna Arquette, whose resume includes an Emmy nomination for the 1982 TV movie "The Executioner's Song," is born in NYC.