January 24: This Day in TV History

[Stanislav]

Just a few random TV related events that happened on January 21. Discuss or comment as you please……

1922: Actor Aristotelis “Telly” Savalas (Kojak) is born in Garden City, New York. He would die exactly one day after his 72nd birthday.

1924: (Cue “Yakity Sax” music...) Comedian Benny Hill is born (as Alfred Hawthorne Hill) in Southampton, England. (Presumably all the attending nurses were dressed in lingerie, garters and 5-inch heels...) DYK: He took the stage name “Benny” because he was a great admirer of U.S. comedian Jack Benny.

1947: Actress Jill Eikenberry (L.A. Law) is born New Haven, Connecticut.

1956: Actress Geena Davis (Commander in Chief) is born in Wareham, Massachusetts.

1956: WCOS-TV (channel 25) in Columbia, South Carolina, is taken off the air. The station, which debuted in April 1953, was never able to effectively compete once VHF WIS-TV (channel 10) had signed on in November 1953. The channel would remain dark for several years, then be resurrected as WCCA-TV (now WOLO-TV) in October 1961.

1970: Nanny and the Professor debuts on ABC.

1972: The first organized convention of Star Trek fans is held at New York's Statler-Hilton hotel.

1983: The religious anthology series Insight airs its final (250th) original syndicated episode. Created by a Paulist priest, the show attracted many “name” guest stars (including such actors as Ed Asner, Jack Albertson, Beau Bridges, Patty Duke, Jack Klugman, Robert Lansing, Walter Matthau, Bob Newhart, John Ritter, and Martin Sheen) and won many awards.

1989: Simon & Simon airs its final original network episode on CBS.

1998: Actor Jack Lord (Hawaii Five-O) dies in Honolulu, Hawaii of heart failure, aged 77.

2004: Longtime local Chicago TV personality Ray Rayner dies in Fort Myers, Florida of complications from pneumonia, aged 84.

(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]

You meant "January 21" instead of "January 24" in the subject heading, right?

 

[Stanislav]

You meant "January 21" instead of "January 24" in the subject heading, right?

DAMN!! Of course, I did. This is what I get for working ahead -- I was in the process of compiling the January 24 list when the recently balky website suddenly showed signs of life, so I quickly posted the 21st, only I still had "24th" on the brain.

I *HATE* that you can't go back and edit after a short time.

And now it's taken me many tries just to get this reply posted.....wow, the site is really having some major issues. I'm tired of seeing that "Connection Problems" screen....... [DOUBLE ]

 

[fortmill]

Regarding WCOS/25 in Columbia SC---this was South Carolina's first TV station, and the present occupant of channel 25, WOLO still claims to be the oldest TV station in the state, since they still are on the original license. When WCOS-TV signed off in 1956, not only were they competing with WIS/10, but also with WNOK/67 (now WLTX/19) a CBS affilate which had come onthe air only a few weeks after WCOS-TV. WNOK-TV persevered possibly by offering superior customer service. The station manager and other station personnel were well known to make numerous house calls---helping local households to better recieve the weak channel 67 signal, often ending up on th e roof installing or reorienting UHF antennas or replacing tubes in UHF tuners. But the WCOS-TV studio did not sit empty during the years it was off the air---the WW2 surplus quonset hut became a recording studio--Maurice William's R&B classic "Stay" was recorded there during the late 50s. One ironic note---for years channel 25 tried to persuade the FCC to allow them to move to more desirable VHF channel 8. They finally got their wish when they were awarded DTV channel 8. They will remain on channel 8 after the transition and are expected to have the most powerful TV signal in the market!

 

[Stanislav]

One ironic note---for years channel 25 tried to persuade the FCC to allow them to move to more desirable VHF channel 8. They finally got their wish when they were awarded DTV channel 8.

Wonder how they figured to do that pre-DTV? Just off the top of my head, you have Waycross, Athens, and High Point on the channel, plus the Morehead City allocation (that wasn't actually occupied until the late 80's, I believe). Seems like a channel 8 plopped down in Columbia would have been pretty much short-spaced to most or all of those. Unless they were willing to live with some power/height restrictions, and would have been happy if just the metro and burbs were covered, not the cows and chickens farther out. (That's one thing about South Carolina -- in-between the major towns and cities, there ain't much "there" there...)

 

[fortmill]

One ironic note---for years channel 25 tried to persuade the FCC to allow them to move to more desirable VHF channel 8. They finally got their wish when they were awarded DTV channel 8.

Wonder how they figured to do that pre-DTV? Just off the top of my head, you have Waycross, Athens, and High Point on the channel, plus the Morehead City allocation (that wasn't actually occupied until the late 80's, I believe). Seems like a channel 8 plopped down in Columbia would have been pretty much short-spaced to most or all of those. Unless they were willing to live with some power/height restrictions, and would have been happy if just the metro and burbs were covered, not the cows and chickens farther out. (That's one thing about South Carolina -- in-between the major towns and cities, there ain't much "there" there...)

Actually, a channel 8 transmitter could have been sited in the Columbia area which would have been short-spaced to only High Point OR Athens, depending on location. The other stations you mention are 300 or more miles from Columbia. You have to remember, the Athens transmitter is actually closer to Atlanta, at Stone Mountain. Channel 25 was only asking for the same type of short-spacing which was being allowed in up-state NY and a few other places to help the then struggling ABC network. In fact, WGHP/HIgh Point didn't come on until 1963 as an ABC station, after the channel 8 allocation was moved from Florence SC, only about 70 miles from Columbia. Channel 25 based their agrument on the idea that UHF signals had a serious problem pentetrating the dense pine forests of central SC! But I don't agree with your idea that SC is so lightly populated that stations might not be interested in reaching outside the larger cities. 19 and 25 actually did quite well within Columbia, but were slaughtered in surrounding cities such as Sumter, Orangeburg and Camden where their signals were deep fringe, but WIS came booming in, basically becoming the only station in town. In 1960, metro Columbia only had 260,000 people (today it's about 700,000) while the entire DMA, about a 60 mile radius, had maybe 500,000, thus 19 and 25 didn't have a chance with about half of the potential audience.

 

[Stanislav]

One ironic note---for years channel 25 tried to persuade the FCC to allow them to move to more desirable VHF channel 8. They finally got their wish when they were awarded DTV channel 8.

Wonder how they figured to do that pre-DTV? Just off the top of my head, you have Waycross, Athens, and High Point on the channel, plus the Morehead City allocation (that wasn't actually occupied until the late 80's, I believe). Seems like a channel 8 plopped down in Columbia would have been pretty much short-spaced to most or all of those. Unless they were willing to live with some power/height restrictions, and would have been happy if just the metro and burbs were covered, not the cows and chickens farther out. (That's one thing about South Carolina -- in-between the major towns and cities, there ain't much "there" there...)

Actually, a channel 8 transmitter could have been sited in the Columbia area which would have been short-spaced to only High Point OR Athens, depending on location. The other stations you mention are 300 or more miles from Columbia. You have to remember, the Athens transmitter is actually closer to Atlanta, at Stone Mountain. Channel 25 was only asking for the same type of short-spacing which was being allowed in up-state NY and a few other places to help the then struggling ABC network. In fact, WGHP/HIgh Point didn't come on until 1963 as an ABC station, after the channel 8 allocation was moved from Florence SC, only about 70 miles from Columbia. Channel 25 based their agrument on the idea that UHF signals had a serious problem pentetrating the dense pine forests of central SC! But I don't agree with your idea that SC is so lightly populated that stations might not be interested in reaching outside the larger cities. 19 and 25 actually did quite well within Columbia, but were slaughtered in surrounding cities such as Sumter, Orangeburg and Camden where their signals were deep fringe, but WIS came booming in, basically becoming the only station in town. In 1960, metro Columbia only had 260,000 people (today it's about 700,000) while the entire DMA, about a 60 mile radius, had maybe 500,000, thus 19 and 25 didn't have a chance with about half of the potential audience.

My apologies...I certainly know both South Carolina geography and demographics better than that. I suppose when one mentions SC, my memories of those many jaunts up and down I-95 in my youth come to mind. It seemed like they not only layed out the route of that highway so as to miss all the major population centers, but also so as to take the longest possible north-south arc across the state. Back then, it was quite easy to get the impression that the hinterlands of South Carolina contained nothing save for a few Days Inns and Stuckeys, plus 13,000 fireworks emporiums. It boggled my mind how a state that looked so relatively small on the map could take SO long to get across. It seemed to violate the laws of physics -- as if no matter how fast you drove, it still took just as long. And as interminable a drive as it was during the day, it seemed twice as long at night. Deprived of rest and hopped up on caffeine, crossing on I-95 in the middle of the night, one could easily begin to hallucinate and feel that they were trapped in an Interstate Twilight Zone, doomed to spend eternity crossing the state, but to never reach the border. ;D

 

[rwells2265]

Deprived of rest and hopped up on caffeine, crossing on I-95 in the middle of the night, one could easily begin to hallucinate and feel that they were trapped in an Interstate Twilight Zone, doomed to spend eternity crossing the state, but to never reach the border. ;D

"You're travelling through another dimension, a dimension not only of pine trees and swamps, but of boredom; a journey along a crumbling concrete road whose boundaries are that of thousands of billboards - Next stop, South of the Border!" (Pedro Serling)

--Russell

 

[Stanislav]

One ironic note---for years channel 25 tried to persuade the FCC to allow them to move to more desirable VHF channel 8. They finally got their wish when they were awarded DTV channel 8.

Wonder how they figured to do that pre-DTV? Just off the top of my head, you have Waycross, Athens, and High Point on the channel, plus the Morehead City allocation (that wasn't actually occupied until the late 80's, I believe). Seems like a channel 8 plopped down in Columbia would have been pretty much short-spaced to most or all of those. Unless they were willing to live with some power/height restrictions, and would have been happy if just the metro and burbs were covered, not the cows and chickens farther out. (That's one thing about South Carolina -- in-between the major towns and cities, there ain't much "there" there...)

Actually, a channel 8 transmitter could have been sited in the Columbia area which would have been short-spaced to only High Point OR Athens, depending on location. The other stations you mention are 300 or more miles from Columbia.

I couldn't let sleeping dogs lie, and plugged WOLO's coordinates into the ol' analog database. Assuming for the moment a channel 8 allocation at the same coordinates, for the record the distances to the four cited channel 8 tower sites would be:

Morehead City - 248
Waycross - 226
Athens - 195
High Point - 128

That's awfully close spacing to High Point, especially with the relatively flat terrain of the Carolina Piedmont. And then if you specified a site restriction well to the S.E. of Columbia to sufficiently protect WGHP, you'd be getting pretty uncomfortably close to Waycross. Maybe it could have been done with the right site, and some power restrictions and/or directional shading, but it would be a tight fit.

{BTW, posting this in both the erroneous "January 24" thread as well as the reposted January 21 thread...)