The recent thread about Alaska (the 49th state) programming practices back in the 70's got me thinking about the 50th state.
I assume that until satellites were used to distrubute network feeds, Hawaiian stations had no live network hookup. There were cables that carried phone calls to and from the islands, but I doubt any of them had the capability or bandwidth to carry a TV signal.
So, what sort of delay system was used? I'm thinking stuff was flown from California (kinnies and, later, videotapes) and probably aired on a one-week delay to keep the same weekday/program scheduling. But what was done with live sporting events? Were they shown on delay as well? How about network newscasts?
And what happened when an unexpected network interruption, like a breaking news story, occurred? Would the interrupted show have been shipped to Hawaii as recorded off-air (doubt it, with the then "old" news bulletin included), or would they have taped it off-line and sent an intact episode?
Something tells me there were probably a LOT of last-minute program changes back then. :-\
I assume that until satellites were used to distrubute network feeds, Hawaiian stations had no live network hookup. There were cables that carried phone calls to and from the islands, but I doubt any of them had the capability or bandwidth to carry a TV signal.
So, what sort of delay system was used? I'm thinking stuff was flown from California (kinnies and, later, videotapes) and probably aired on a one-week delay to keep the same weekday/program scheduling. But what was done with live sporting events? Were they shown on delay as well? How about network newscasts?
And what happened when an unexpected network interruption, like a breaking news story, occurred? Would the interrupted show have been shipped to Hawaii as recorded off-air (doubt it, with the then "old" news bulletin included), or would they have taped it off-line and sent an intact episode?
Something tells me there were probably a LOT of last-minute program changes back then. :-\
M local news. That proved popular andthe station from that time on recorded the news bysatellite for showing a few hours later the same dayrather than late in the night.Prime time entertainment programs were brought over byplane and shown a week later on local TV untilsometime in the late 70s or early 80s.. I can'tremember when. But I think that "Dallas" episode on"Who Shot J.R." was shown on the same day as it airedin the mainland. However due to the time differenceall of our local network prime time and in fact theentire network feed is time shifted by the localstations to play at the normal times one would expectthem to air if they were on the mainland. So you get"The Today Show" in the 7:AM hour just like themainland, but in reaility the thing is about 6 hoursold by the time it is aired.That can spell some incovenience for programs like"American Idol" which people can find out about whowon before the show actually airs in Hawaii! Ditto forall of the programs with cliffhangers and stuff...like "Lost"... if one really wants to know whathappened, all you have to do is go to a programmessage board or even the network TV site to find outwhat happened in the episode before it airs duringlocal prime time in Hawaii.Most cable TV shows are aired live using theirsatellite feeds, so that you'd get like the raunchyNC17 movies being shown on Showtime or HBO at 8 in theevening and missing the showcase movie premieres inprimtime because they aired at 2PM when most peopleare working or at school.The local cable company time shifts some of the cablenetwork programming so that family fare falls infamily hours and adult stuff airs late night.All of the cable network sports and news shows airlive, which is good as these programs are the mosttimely.It would not have been a good thing if something likenews coverage on 9-11 had been satellite delayed!"