February 5: This Day in TV History

[Stanislav]

Just a few random TV related events that happened on February 5. Discuss or comment as you please……

1892: Dorothy Stimson Bullitt is born in Seattle, Washington. She would become the first woman to buy and manage a TV station, and the founder of Seattle’s King Broadcasting Company.

1941: Producer/writer Stephen J. Cannell (credits too numerous to list) is born in Los Angeles.

1954: WMGT (now WCDC) begins transmitting on channel 74 from a tower atop Mt. Greylock, Massachusetts, as a DuMont affiliate. The move to channel 19 would take place 10 months later. In 1957, the calls would be changed and the station re-purposed as a satellite of WCDA (now WTEN) in Albany, New York.

1961: Actor/comedian Tim Meadows (Saturday Night Live) is born in Highland Park, Michigan. His tenure on SNL would be the second-longest in the show’s history, surpassed only by Darrell Hammond.

1967: The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour premieres on CBS.

1969: ABC. Hype and anticipation. Debut. Turn-On. Shock. Disgust. Disaster. TV infamy.

1973: Satellite delivery of color programming begins to the CBC’s 6 northernmost stations (which had previously carried the courier-delivered black-and-white "Frontier Coverage Package").

1980: Mystery! premieres on PBS.

1989: The world's first commercial DBS (Direct Broadcast Satellite) system, Sky Television, launches in the U.K.

1989: Composer Joe Raposo dies in Bronxville, New York, aged 51, of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He was best known for his work on Sesame Street (including the theme song, and the well-known tunes "Bein' Green" and "C is for Cookie"), The Electric Company, Shining Time Station and the sitcom Three's Company, for which he composed the theme song.

1995: Actor Doug McClure (Checkmate, The Virginian) dies in Sherman Oaks, California, aged 59.

2002: WMTW (channel 8, Poland Spring, Maine) signs off for the last time from its famous Mt. Washington transmitter site in New Hampshire. The move to a new site in Baldwin, Maine is motivated by the desire to better serve the more populous areas of the market (primarily Portland), as well as to avoid the insurmountable logistics of generating enough power at the remote Mt. Washington site for both an analog and a DTV transmitter.

2006: Actor Franklin Cover (The Jeffersons) dies in Englewood, New Jersey, aged 77..

(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…..)

 

[bpatrick]

WMGT is now the call letters of the NBC affiliate
in Macon, GA.

 

[Stanislav]

WMGT is now the call letters of the NBC affiliate
in Macon, GA.

Where they now stand for "Mid-Georgia Television," as opposed to their original home, where they stood for "Mount Greylock Television."

 

[daryll]

Until 1983, WMGT was WCWB - "Why Compete? We're Beat" or "We Can't, We're Broke". The letters fit the station's miserable on-air look and anemic ratings. The WCWB calls are now in Pittsburgh.

 

[RyanHoward]

Most recently, WCWB was used by Ch. 22 in Pittsburgh. In May 2006, they changed their
calls to WPMY(for "Pittsburgh's MYNetworkTV")

 

[Stanislav]

Until 1983, WMGT was WCWB - "Why Compete? We're Beat" or "We Can't, We're Broke". The letters fit the station's miserable on-air look and anemic ratings. The WCWB calls are now in Pittsburgh.

I only had the pleasure (?) of viewing them once, on an overnight stay back in the 80's. I do seem to recall that the graphics on their IDs looked like they were done by a 5th grade Art class...

 

[wbhist]

1989: Composer Joe Raposo dies in Bronxville, New York, aged 51, of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He was best known for his work on Sesame Street (including the theme song, and the well-known tunes "Bein' Green" and "C is for Cookie"), The Electric Company, Shining Time Station and the sitcom Three's Company, for which he composed the theme song.

He also composed the theme music for New York station WABC-TV's various movie shows, most notably The 4:30 Movie, as heard from the 1970's to the '80's. (This from a former Electric Company cast member.) Those familiar with the famous "rotating / spinning cameraman" opening will recognize the music - and Raposo's "staggering rhythmic" style. Ironic that for much of the 1970's, Sesame Street and The Electric Company were competing bookends for the respective first and last half-hours of The 4:30 Movie. I've also been apprised that in the early 1970's, ABC's other owned stations of the time (WLS-TV Chicago, WXYZ-TV Detroit, KABC-TV Los Angeles and KGO-TV San Francisco) used this same music.

 

[LKellerIII]

Just a few random TV related events that happened on February 5. Discuss or comment as you please……

1967: The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour premieres on CBS.

...causing a case of chronic heartburn for CBS President William F. Paley which raged unabated until April 1969 when he ordered the show cancelled...due at least in part (it is rumored) to pressure from the Nixon Administration.

 

[landtuna]

Just a few random TV related events that happened on February 5. Discuss or comment as you please……

1967: The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour premieres on CBS.

...causing a case of chronic heartburn for CBS President William F. Paley which raged unabated until April 1969 when he ordered the show cancelled...due at least in part (it is rumored) to pressure from the Nixon Administration.

The Brothers pounded their opposition to the Vietnam War into ever increasing, and quite humorous, skits and would not stop even after being warned by C(BS). It didn't seem to matter that most of the nation agreed with them.

It was one of my favorite shows (the major other being Laugh-In which also was anti-Vietnam War but in a not-so-serious manner) and I was infuriated when it was cancelled. It was the first time I ever wrote a letter to a major broadcast organization complaining about their decisions. And it was the first time I ever used the abbreviation 'C(BS)' which I continue to use today.

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

1971: Country singer and songwriter Sara Evans is born in New Franklin, MO. She has also made TV appearances on shows including Nashville Star, Password, Dancing with the Stars, Foxworthy's Big Night Out, and HGTV Design Star.