Broadcast history of "The Gong Show" (1976-80) in your market

[spb]

How much of the original Gong Show (daytime and/or nighttime) was seen in your market, if any?

In Omaha, KMTV 3 (then the NBC affiliate) did not carry daytime Gong until January 3, 1977, when NBC moved it to 3:00 p.m. This version was preempted again when NBC moved it back to 11:30 a.m. on December 5, 1977.

The nighttime version started in Omaha the same week the NBC daytime version began airing. WOWT 6 (then the CBS affiliate) carried the Gary Owens version Fridays at 6:30 p.m. starting January 7, 1977. WOWT continued to carry nighttime Gong Fridays at 6:30 p.m. when Chuck Barris became nighttime host in September 1977. WOWT carried this version until September 1978.

When syndicated repeats of the NBC daytime version became available in September 1978, KMTV carried these episodes weekdays at 3:00 p.m. through January 1979. The episodes moved to late nights (1:00 a.m. or so) starting in the spring of 1979.

 

[Bob1370]

Had the whole run of the show, both network and prime access, carried in Rochester, NY on WROC-TV Ch. 8 (then an NBC affiliate, although it's been CBS since 1989). IIRC it ran at 12:30 PM ET on the daytime network feed, right after the noon local news, and 7 PM in prime time access--once again, directly following news (in this case the NBC Nightly News).

Down the road in Buffalo, the daytime and syndicated nighttime versions also ran in similar pattern on NBC affiliate WGR-TV (now WGRZ), channel 2.

 

[Ultimajock]

...working from memory now, I seem to recall that in Green Bay the NBC run was cleared on then-affiliate WFRV/5 and the nighttime run was on WBAY-TV/2, then the CBS affiliate. I'm not quite sure if it was WFRV or WLUK/11 (then ABC) that handled the post-NBC daily syndicated strip, or if WLRE/26 picked it up when it signed on the air in December 1980. In Chicago, I recall it as being WMAQ-TV/5 for the NBC run, WLS-TV/7 for the nighttime run, and both WFLD/32 and later WSNS/44 for the post-NBC daily strip...

 

[onairb]

Wasn't "Gong" already finished by December of '80? Even the theatrically released "Gong Show Movie" had come and gone by then.
I really don't remember the original run of the show; I was 4 when NBC cancelled it. I recall old TV GUIDE listings that had it on KGO in San Francisco in '78-79, but don't know if it aired on another station at some point. My experience with the show came from the USA Network reruns around 1984-85.

 

[bpatrick]

Dallas: KXAS/5 carried the daytime version at 11:30 AM (CT), later
at 3 PM. WFAA/8 carried the first year of the syndicated version
(with Gary Owens as host) on Saturdays at 5:30 (CT); after that,
KXAS carried it Fridays at 6:30.

Atlanta: WSB, then the NBC affiliate, never carried the daytime show;
WATL/36 picked it up and ran it in late afternoon (5 or 5:30 PM). WSB
did carry the syndicated show starting in the second year, Fridays at
7:30.

 

[wrsg915fm]

IIRC, WTRF-TV, Wheeling, WV, then an NBC affiliate aired the show for its entire run. However, I distinctly remember that Channel 7 blanked out an act, claiming that it did not meet their 'decency' requirements.

 

[easttxtv]

IIRC, WTRF-TV, Wheeling, WV, then an NBC affiliate aired the show for its entire run. However, I distinctly remember that Channel 7 blanked out an act, claiming that it did not meet their 'decency' requirements.

How did they do that? Just audio/no video during the act, or strategically-placed black squares/spots?

 

[Ultimajock]

Wasn't "Gong" already finished by December of '80? Even the theatrically released "Gong Show Movie" had come and gone by then.

...production ceased on The Gong Show in 1980 (NBC evicted the show from its stages upon the network cancellation in 1978, leading Chuck Barris to move production on the syndicated versions to Golden West/KTLA Studios, which he also had been using for The Dating Game and The Newlywed Game). Syndicated repeats were still available to local stations afterwards for several years...

 

[Ultimajock]

IIRC, WTRF-TV, Wheeling, WV, then an NBC affiliate aired the show for its entire run. However, I distinctly remember that Channel 7 blanked out an act, claiming that it did not meet their 'decency' requirements.

How did they do that? Just audio/no video during the act, or strategically-placed black squares/spots?

...probably Have You Got A Nickel (a.k.a. "The Popsicle Twins")...

 

[wrsg915fm]

I believe there was a voice-over, and just seeing the extreme border of the picture. Basically everything was blurred, but that could just be my memory being blurred.

 

[cowboybud]

It aired in the afternoons on KPRC Houston. I was watching it when they broke in to announce that Elvis Presley died.

Reruns aired on USA network in the mid 80s.

 

[chris12]

In Chicago I believe the nighttime version ran a year on WMAQ 5 in once a week access with other game shows like Name That Tune, Price Is Right etc, and the daytime run used the 3 CT feed so I don't believe the infamous posicle twins segment aired there, the post 1978 rerun strip bounced around on WFLD 32 at first then pre-spanish WSNS 44, also WPWR 60(now 50) had it for a spell in its infancy as part of a Barris rerun block along with Dating Game and Treasure Hunt and likewise WLS 7 in 1985 or so had it in a similar late night rerun block.

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

Here in Boston, I don't think then-NBC station WBZ-4 ever carried the NBC daytime version of the original "Gong Show".

The daytime version was cleared by WSBK-38 (and also seen by many Boston-area residents on WJAR-10 in Providence).

The once-a-week syndicated version was on WNAC-7 in Boston and also in Providence on the aforementioned WJAR. I'm not 100% sure, but I think WCVB-5 may have showed the final season of the original weekly syndicated version; I do know that WCVB aired reruns of the syndicated show weekday afternoons around 1980 or 1981.

A trade ad for the syndicator of "Gong" (Firestone Program Services) published in early 1977 in both Variety and Broadcasting Magazine bragged that WJAR's showing of the once-a-week "Gong" on Thursday nights at 7:30 P.M. during the November, 1976 (Arbitron, which did TV ratings back then) sweeps drew more women between 18 and 49 than any prime-time network show in the market!

 

[skipeastport]

I lived in rural Mississippi in the 70s and had access to a few NBC affiliates via cable. Two of them I can remember pretty well.

WTWV (Tupelo, MS). Carried the daytime version of The Gong Show in pattern with NBC. It was on 11:30am-noon from its premiere and moved to 3:00pm the first Monday in January 1977 after NBC cancelled the soap Somerset. The interesting thing about WTWV was that it was an NBC affiliate carrying secondary ABC programming. Instead of showing Somerset at 3, WTWV aired it at 12 noon and picked up The Edge of Night in pattern with ABC at 3pm. When NBC moved The Gong Show to 3 central, WTWV dropped The Edge of Night. The Gong Show was moved back to 11:30am in December 1977 and stayed with WTWV until it went off the air the next summer.

WMC-TV (Memphis, TN). WMC also cleared The Gong Show in pattern for its entire NBC daytime run. This was nothing short of a miracle since WMC was notorious for declining to carry morning game shows. There was a nearly 2 hr block of game shows that channel 5 skipped in spite of their popularity.

I've got some old TV Guides from the period. I'll post them for those interested so you can see what those local schedules looked like in the Mid South.