Just a few random TV related events that happened on February 8. Discuss or comment as you please……
1940: Journalist Ted Koppel (Nightline) is born in Lancashire, England. (He and his parents, German Jews who had fled Nazi Germany, emigrated to the U.S. in 1953.)
1947: Missouri’s first TV station, St. Louis’ KSD-TV (channel 5, later KSDK), launches. The station would for a time enjoy a monopoly in the market due to the “freeze” on new stations, with St. Louis’ 2nd station (KTVI) not signing on until 1953.
1953: WLVA-TV (Channel 13) signs on in Lynchburg, Virginia. The transmitter, originally on Tobacco Row Mountain (I kid you not) would be moved the following year to Evington to better serve the Roanoke area.
1958: KIRO-TV (channel 7) begins broadcasting in Seattle, Washington. Its first broadcast is a live remote showing the explosion of Ripple Rock, which had been deemed a navigation hazard in Seymour Narrows. Following the remote is the first broadcast of the venerable kiddie show J.P. Patches, which would become a beloved Seattle institution for the next 23 years.
1963: The first publicly announced color broadcast in Mexico, of the program Paraíso Infantil, takes place on Mexico City's XHGC-TV.
1964: Production of American Bandstand moves from Philadelphia’s WFIL-TV to the ABC Television Center in Los Angeles
1968: Actor Gary Coleman (Diff’rent Strokes) is born in Zion, Illinois.
1974: One week after its 20th anniversary, The Secret Storm airs for the 5195th and last time on CBS.
1974: Good Times premieres on CBS. (Challenge: which of you geeks, without Googling, can tell me what ill-fated CBS series was replaced by Good Times?)
1974: Actor/comedian/voice artist/producer Seth Green (That 70’s Show, Family Guy, Robot Chicken) is born in Philadelphia. Pennsylvania.
1987: The first episode of the 7-night, 14 ½ hour miniseries Amerika, depicting life ten years after the United States is defeated and occupied by the USSR, is broadcast on ABC. (Boy, if ever there was a series that was a product of the Reagan era, this is it!)
1988: WCEU (channel 15, now WDSC-TV) launches in New Smyrna Beach, Florida.
2006: President Bush signs the "Digital Transition and Public Safety Act of 2005", mandating a hard shut-off date of February 17, 2009 for the end of all full power analog TV transmissions (now extended optionally to June), provided for the auctioning off of the frequencies associated with UHF channels 52 to 69 (done, but the winners will have to wait a bit longer now to use them), and set aside funds to subsidize consumers who would need digital-to-analog converter boxes (not enough, apparently, and poorly planned).
2007: Model Anna Nicole Smith is found unresponsive in room 607 at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida. After some delays (attributable to either a comedy of errors or a sinister conspiracy, depending on who you believe), she ultimately is pronounced dead at the hospital. The subsequent battles over her will and the custody of her child would provide a three-ring circus of voyeuristic TV in the months to follow.
(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…..)
1940: Journalist Ted Koppel (Nightline) is born in Lancashire, England. (He and his parents, German Jews who had fled Nazi Germany, emigrated to the U.S. in 1953.)
1947: Missouri’s first TV station, St. Louis’ KSD-TV (channel 5, later KSDK), launches. The station would for a time enjoy a monopoly in the market due to the “freeze” on new stations, with St. Louis’ 2nd station (KTVI) not signing on until 1953.
1953: WLVA-TV (Channel 13) signs on in Lynchburg, Virginia. The transmitter, originally on Tobacco Row Mountain (I kid you not) would be moved the following year to Evington to better serve the Roanoke area.
1958: KIRO-TV (channel 7) begins broadcasting in Seattle, Washington. Its first broadcast is a live remote showing the explosion of Ripple Rock, which had been deemed a navigation hazard in Seymour Narrows. Following the remote is the first broadcast of the venerable kiddie show J.P. Patches, which would become a beloved Seattle institution for the next 23 years.
1963: The first publicly announced color broadcast in Mexico, of the program Paraíso Infantil, takes place on Mexico City's XHGC-TV.
1964: Production of American Bandstand moves from Philadelphia’s WFIL-TV to the ABC Television Center in Los Angeles
1968: Actor Gary Coleman (Diff’rent Strokes) is born in Zion, Illinois.
1974: One week after its 20th anniversary, The Secret Storm airs for the 5195th and last time on CBS.
1974: Good Times premieres on CBS. (Challenge: which of you geeks, without Googling, can tell me what ill-fated CBS series was replaced by Good Times?)
1974: Actor/comedian/voice artist/producer Seth Green (That 70’s Show, Family Guy, Robot Chicken) is born in Philadelphia. Pennsylvania.
1987: The first episode of the 7-night, 14 ½ hour miniseries Amerika, depicting life ten years after the United States is defeated and occupied by the USSR, is broadcast on ABC. (Boy, if ever there was a series that was a product of the Reagan era, this is it!)
1988: WCEU (channel 15, now WDSC-TV) launches in New Smyrna Beach, Florida.
2006: President Bush signs the "Digital Transition and Public Safety Act of 2005", mandating a hard shut-off date of February 17, 2009 for the end of all full power analog TV transmissions (now extended optionally to June), provided for the auctioning off of the frequencies associated with UHF channels 52 to 69 (done, but the winners will have to wait a bit longer now to use them), and set aside funds to subsidize consumers who would need digital-to-analog converter boxes (not enough, apparently, and poorly planned).
2007: Model Anna Nicole Smith is found unresponsive in room 607 at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida. After some delays (attributable to either a comedy of errors or a sinister conspiracy, depending on who you believe), she ultimately is pronounced dead at the hospital. The subsequent battles over her will and the custody of her child would provide a three-ring circus of voyeuristic TV in the months to follow.
(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…..)
