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First Shows Broadcast in Stereo

N

notalkallstatic

For all three networks, what was their first show broadcasted in Stereo? And what year?

I thought I read somewhere that the 1985 Revival of "The Twilight Zone," was CBS's first show presented in Stereo... correct or not?
 
I recall Miami Vice (1984-1989) was one of the first shows presented in stereo. NBC was at the forefront of this audio for TV revolution. David Letterman did a bit called "The Stereo Twins" on Late Night in the mid-80's when he still called NBC home. He was doing his comedic take on the network's famous "available in stereo" logo. Prior to this time televised concerts, awards shows, and such would be simulcast on FM radio in stereo. Just turn down the TV sound and crank up your stereo and you were in business. Those were the days.
 
Pretty sure it was "Miami Vice". I remember NBC making a big deal of it, even airing the audio portion on FM radio stations so people without stereo sets could hear the difference. Miami Vice had been on for a while IIRC, so I'm guessing 1985-86.
 
According to WikiPedia, the first network show in stereo was on July 26, 1984. It was The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. The only station which had the capability at the time was the NBC flagship, WNBC-TV channel 4 in New York City.
 
Many of NBC's comedies, as early as 1984, were in stereo. I have VHS's taped off the air of both the Golden Girls and the Cosby show where you can see the Available in stereo graphic at the beginning. This was on WBZ-TV Boston that I saw and recorded this.
 
It was infact The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson. For years, NBC had been very quietly recording and producing The Tonight Show in stereo preparing for the day when the network would transmit stereo audio via their Ku band satellite system. That way when a Best of Carson was shown, it would be in stereo too. It was Doc Severinsen who announced it right at the start of the show as "The First Broadcast of a Network Television Program In Stereo". I worked for an NBC affiliate at the time shading cameras for newscasts and doing transmitter watch from 4PM to Midnight. The good ol' days. (Yeah right!)
 
To correct the above post, The Golden Girls started on NBC in 1985, not 1984. I'm certain what else you said was correct though.
 
Speaking of stereo television, on a related note, let's take a look at what stations were first in stereo.

For instance, here in St. Louis, if my memory serves me right, KPLR-TV, at the time a leading independent station, became the first in the St. Louis market to broadcast in stereo sometime between late August and September of 1984. When it did so, Channel 11 adopted their own version of the "Circle 11" logo to signify their entry into stereo broadcasting. In their case, it consisted of two sticks representing the number 11 surrounded by a blue circle amid a red laser background.

In addition it should also be noted that its then sister station in Sacramento, KRBK Channel 31, also changed its logo when it began stereo transmissions that year. In that regard, the only difference was the number 31 surrounded by a purple-magenta circle amid a blue laser background.
 
I remember that KPLR logo of the mid 80s well...Still have it on some old movies/3 Stooges, etc taped off of 11 during that era. KSDK was right around the same time in 84/85. I don't think Channel 4 went to stereo until it changed from KMOX to KMOV in whant IICR was in 1986. KTVI and KDNL were late bloomers into stereo. I don't think KDNL was broadcasting in Stereo until they became an ABC affiliate in the mid 90s during the affiliation swap between 2 & 30.
 
mbatchelor said:
I remember that KPLR logo of the mid 80s well...Still have it on some old movies/3 Stooges, etc taped off of 11 during that era. KSDK was right around the same time in 84/85. I don't think Channel 4 went to stereo until it changed from KMOX to KMOV in whant IICR was in 1986. KTVI and KDNL were late bloomers into stereo. I don't think KDNL was broadcasting in Stereo until they became an ABC affiliate in the mid 90s during the affiliation swap between 2 & 30.
Click to expand...

Have you thought of putting the material from KPLR-TV, especially the blue circle logo, from the mid-1980s on YouTube by any chance? Or have you already done it?
 
Here in Orlando was when stations converted to stereo

WFTV - 9/7/1985

WIYE (now WACX) - Late 1985

WESH - 4/1986

WOFL - 10/1987

WCPX (now WKMG) - 8/1995 (originally scheduled for 1986/1987)

WRBW and WRDQ were stereo from the beginning, I think WKCF was too. None of the PBS stations were in Stereo even though WMFE started a SAP channel (Radio Reading Service) in the mid 90's.
 
I'm looking...does anyone remember the title and number of the FCC order authorizing BTSC Stereo in 1984? I'd like to refresh my memory.
 
Did any local station have a stereo program intro as snooty-sounding as the one
used by Phoenix beg-a-thoner (PBS) KAET some years back?

"The following program is presented in KAET stereo...in selected homes." ::)
 
I stand corrected...thanks. Golden girls did begin in 85....but were in stereo even then. Of course, not everyone had stereo TVs at the time, so very few could hear it that way. In addition, some network affiliates (like the NBC affiliate in Portland, Maine, where I was living) took some time before finally broadcasting in stereo.
 
Tim L said:
As early as October 15, 1958. ABC's Lawrence Welk Advertised in TV Guide "Stereo" sound through TV and using AM Radio...I have an Cleveland area ad announcing this..To tune WEWS-5, WKST-45 and WAKR-49, along with WSRS-1490 in Cleveland and WAKR-1590 Akron..

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zhGDMDQ2o.../qpqr1W9itTc/s1600-h/welkplymouthstereo58.jpg

Link to the ad..
Click to expand...
...and, of course, there were the stereo simulcasts of In Concert and The Midnight Special. Which reminds me, I recall the In Concert premiere with Alice Cooper did get yanked in mid-broadcast by a couple of ABC affiliates (Little Rock and Knoxville sound kinda familiar), and I'm curious if there were FM radio stations in those markets that continued with the stereo audio after the TV stations quit that night's video feed?...
 
Yes, I know all about WCSH-TV not going stereo right away. There was an occasional viewer feedback type show that they would air. This was always the #1 question that would get asked. I believe WPXT-TV channel 51 of Portland signed on in September of 1986 with stereo capability (briefly as an independent, then a charter FOX affiliate, then WB in 2001 and CW since 2006). I was living in Old Orchard Beach between 1985 to 1987. The only TV I had to use at the time was a 13" Curtis Mathes with 12 little thumb-wheel tuning dials under a panel which popped off (no cable during that time either).
 
Radio West said:
It was infact The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson. For years, NBC had been very quietly recording and producing The Tonight Show in stereo preparing for the day when the network would transmit stereo audio via their Ku band satellite system. That way when a Best of Carson was shown, it would be in stereo too. It was Doc Severinsen who announced it right at the start of the show as "The First Broadcast of a Network Television Program In Stereo". I worked for an NBC affiliate at the time shading cameras for newscasts and doing transmitter watch from 4PM to Midnight. The good ol' days. (Yeah right!)
Click to expand...

I remember Carson being a vocal proponent of better TV audio in general, often coming out of a commercial break lauding the band and saying something to the effect of "I really wish you could have heard that out of something better than that tinny little TV speaker." He definitely pushed stereo TV audio on-air on a number of occasions; I wonder if he was doing so at the same time as he was taping in stereo?
 
hubcity said:
I remember Carson being a vocal proponent of better TV audio in general...
Click to expand...

For its side of the equation, AT&T granted his wish circa 1978, when Telco finally boosted the
audio bandwidth on TV network feeds from 5 to 15 kHz.

Of course consumers still had to upgrade from TVs with tinny speakers.
 
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