December 24: This Day in TV History

[Stanislav]

Just a few random TV related events that happened on December 24. Discuss or comment as you please……

1946: The first televised church service (from Grace Episcopal Church) is broadcast on New York City’s WABD-TV (channel 5).

1948: Singer Perry Como makes his first television appearance when his Chesterfield Supper Club radio program is simulcast on NBC-TV.

1951: The first opera written for television, “Amahl and the Night Visitors” by Gian Carlo Menotti, airs on NBC.

1953: WSTV-TV (channel 9, now WTOV-TV) launches in Steubenville, Ohio.

1953: KOA_TV (channel 4, now KCNC-TV) signs on in Denver, Colorado.

1954: WFTL-TV (channel 23, later WGBS-TV) begins operating in Fort Lauderdale, Florida as a dual NBC/DuMont affiliate. Already battling the de facto inferiority of UHF receivers of the era, the station would subsequently lose DuMont (when that network folded) and NBC (when WCKT-TV, now WSVN, signed on) and go dark in 1957, unable to survive as an independent. The station (transplanted to Miami) would be revived in 1967 as WAJA (now WLTV, an Univision O&O).

1955: The Lennon Sisters make their television debut on The Lawrence Welk Show.

1966: WPIX-TV (channel 11, New York City) broadcasts its annual Christmas Eve Yule Log program (a film loop of a yule log burning in a fireplace, with a soundtrack of classic Christmas carols) for the first time.

1968: In a live Christmas Eve TV broadcast, Apollo 8 astronauts William Anders, Jim Lovell and Frank Borman surprise the world (and enrage noted atheist Madalyn Murray O’Hair) with a reading of the Creation Story from the Book of Genesis as they orbit the moon.

1968: WATU-TV (channel 26, now WAGT) signs on in Augusta, Georgia. Unable at first to secure a network affiliation (the existing CBS and ABC affiliates continuing to also carry some of the more popular NBC shows), the station would go dark less than two years later, then be resurrected in 1974 when they were finally able to affiliate with NBC.

1974: TV host Ryan Seacrest (American Idol) is born in Dunwoody, Georgia.

1992: Belgian cartoonist (The Smurfs) Pierre Culliford, a/k/a Peyo, dies in Brussels, aged 64.

1994: All That premieres on Nickelodeon.

2006: Former CBS president (1946-1971) Frank Stanton dies in Boston, Massachusetts, aged 98.

(Just a little featurette I hope to do as time permits. 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…..)

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

1963: Former basketball player/coach and current ESPN and CBS analyst Jay Bilas is born in San Pedro, CA.

 

[Mike Stroud]

1968: WATU-TV (channel 26, now WAGT) signs on in Augusta, Georgia. Unable at first to secure a network affiliation (the existing CBS and ABC affiliates continuing to also carry some of the more popular NBC shows), the station would go dark less than two years later, then be resurrected in 1974 when they were finally able to affiliate with NBC.

Actually, WJBF, channel 6 (now digital 42; PSIP 6) was the "Georgia-Lina" region's NBC affil prior to the WATU launch. According to the Wikipedia entry, the likely reason for channel 6 to go ABC full-time (the Alphabet network ran part-time on that station) was that its owner's other stations were all also ABC.

WJBF and WRDW (then channel 12, now digital 12) split NBC shows up to that point, and were not about to let the higher-rated ones go when a new kid showed up on the block that Christmas Eve. So the new channel 26 (now digital 30; PSIP 26) had to get by with the leftovers and patch together some syndicated stuff to make a go of it. It didn't have enough gas in the tank, especially when it had to contend not only with WJBF and WRDW, but to nearby VHF NBC outlets such as WSB in Atlanta and WIS in Columbia. (NOTE: a South Carolina edition of TV Guide from 1969-70 would be marvelous in determining the station's characteristics, as in whether or not it did much in the way of local shows)

The station probably had been all but half-forgotten by viewers in the Savannah River region when it came back in '74, so I imagine everything had to start from scratch all over again. I am surprised that the owners didn't ask for new calls from the FCC or even try to get a different channel allocation.

UHF start-ups from the 1960s and 1970s, especially those in previously all-VHF markets, for some reason fascinate me and I never have known why. Perhaps I have a soft spot in my heart for underdogs. Anyway, WATU beat the odds.

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

1992: British actress Melissa Suffield (BBC's "EastEnders") is born in London, England.

 

[wbhist]

1966: WPIX-TV (channel 11, New York City) broadcasts its annual Christmas Eve Yule Log program (a film loop of a yule log burning in a fireplace, with a soundtrack of classic Christmas carols) for the first time.

From that first telecast to 1969, the film used was a 16mm loop of 15 or so seconds recorded at the fireplace of Gracie Mansion in New York City. Unfortunately, during one filming session there, a carpet was set on fire by 'PIX staff - to the point that by 1970, when the original loop film got so worn out it couldn't be used anymore, then-Mayor Lindsay's office had the station barred from filming there again. What we saw from 1970 to the present day (excepting the 1990-2000 period when The Yule Log didn't run at all on Channel 11) was actually filmed in one of the hottest days of the year in California, with a longer running time (so that the loop ran all of 7 minutes), on 35mm film. (For years, the master film of that loop was kept in a can that previously housed a Honeymooners episode, "A Dog's Life" - which, a few years ago, led to WPIX titling a special about the program's history "The Yule Log": A Log's Life.)

 

[blackgold]

You forgot one thing:

1972: The Midnight Mass from Bethlehem is carried live for the first time via satellite throughout the world.

 

[RadioDaze]

1906-More along the lines of laying the groundwork for TV, Reginald Fessenden makes his historic voice broadcast from Brant Rock, Massachusetts, surprising many at-sea radio operators, who until that time had heard only Morse code dits and dots prior to that time, with Scripture readings and Christmas hymns.

 

[blackgold]

And here's one more thing: On Christmas Eve 1977, BBC & PBS teamed up with several broadcasters to present "Star Over Bethlehem," a live Christmas program that linked Bethlehem, Barvaria, France, Jamaica, London, New Zealand, Germany & a shopping mall in Columbia, South Carolina. BBC would do 2 more Christmas Eve broadcasts-in 1979 and 1981(which aired on the CBN Cable Network and featured a gospel choir performing live from their Viriginia Beach headquarters).

 

[fortmill]

1968: WATU-TV (channel 26, now WAGT) signs on in Augusta, Georgia. Unable at first to secure a network affiliation (the existing CBS and ABC affiliates continuing to also carry some of the more popular NBC shows), the station would go dark less than two years later, then be resurrected in 1974 when they were finally able to affiliate with NBC.

I don't believe the original WATU threw inthe towel until late 1971 or early 1972. The final straw was when the rule that each of the big three could only prtogram three hours a night. THis really left WATU in th lurch, since WJBF and WRDW each aired an hour of NBC programing from 7 to 8 PM (yes, often 2 first-run NBC programs aired at the same time, in the same market), in addition airing NBC programs at other off times. WJBF was never "the NBC station" for the region. Perhaps reflecting owner J. B. Fuqua's right wing politics, his stations had long been primary ABC affiliates. I remember these details quite well, as WJBF and WRDW were recieved OTA in Columbia (and were carried on both local cable systems), providing a chance to watch programs from all three nets in different time-slots.

Actually, WJBF, channel 6 (now digital 42; PSIP 6) was the "Georgia-Lina" region's NBC affil prior to the WATU launch. According to the Wikipedia entry, the likely reason for channel 6 to go ABC full-time (the Alphabet network ran part-time on that station) was that its owner's other stations were all also ABC.

WJBF and WRDW (then channel 12, now digital 12) split NBC shows up to that point, and were not about to let the higher-rated ones go when a new kid showed up on the block that Christmas Eve. So the new channel 26 (now digital 30; PSIP 26) had to get by with the leftovers and patch together some syndicated stuff to make a go of it. It didn't have enough gas in the tank, especially when it had to contend not only with WJBF and WRDW, but to nearby VHF NBC outlets such as WSB in Atlanta and WIS in Columbia. (NOTE: a South Carolina edition of TV Guide from 1969-70 would be marvelous in determining the station's characteristics, as in whether or not it did much in the way of local shows)

The station probably had been all but half-forgotten by viewers in the Savannah River region when it came back in '74, so I imagine everything had to start from scratch all over again. I am surprised that the owners didn't ask for new calls from the FCC or even try to get a different channel allocation.

UHF start-ups from the 1960s and 1970s, especially those in previously all-VHF markets, for some reason fascinate me and I never have known why. Perhaps I have a soft spot in my heart for underdogs. Anyway, WATU beat the odds.