Just a few random TV related events that happened on July 1 (a very busy day with lots of station startups and other “firsts”). Discuss or comment as you please……
1901: Actress/writer Ima Phillips is born in Chicago. Known to soap opera fans as the “mother” of soaps, she is credited with creating or co-creating many shows in the genre, including Another World, As the World Turns, Days of Our Lives, and Guiding Light.
1934: Actor Jamie Farr (M*A*S*H) is born (as Jameel Farah) in (where else?) Toledo, Ohio.
1941: The first two commercial TV stations in the U.S. hit the airwaves as WCBW (later WCBS-TV) and WNBT (later WNBC-TV) start operating under their newly granted licenses. (The stations had been broadcasting for some time as experimental stations W2XAB and W2XBS, respectively.) WNBT makes it to the air first at 2 pm, while WCBW signs-on half an hour later with a newscast. WNBT also airs the first TV commercial (a 20-second spot for Bulova watches) at 2:29:40 pm, just before broadcasting a Brooklyn Dodgers baseball game. (Bulova had paid the princely sum of $9 for the spot.)
1947: Actress/comedienne Shirley Hemphill (What’s Happening) is born in Asheville, North Carolina.
1949: WTCN-TV (later WCCO-TV) signs on for the first time on channel 4 in Minneapolis-St. Paul.
1949: WBRC begins broadcasting on channel 4 in Birmingham, Alabama. The station would move to channel 6 in 1953 due to interference issues with WSM-TV in Nashville.
1949: The CBS series Mama (based on the film “I Remember Mama”) debuts. The show would run until 1957, with all but the last half-season broadcast live.
1950: WHBF-TV (channel 4) starts broadcasting in Rock Island, Illinois.
1952: Actor/comedian Dan Aykroyd (Saturday Night Live) is born in Ottawa, Ontario. DYK: He had intended until the age of 17 to become a Roman Catholic priest.
1953: KTVH (later KWCH-TV) begins operations on channel 12, becoming Kansas’ second TV station.
1954: WDBO-TV (channel 6) begins broadcasting in Orlando as Central Florida’s first TV station. Call letters would change to WCPX-TV in 1982, and to WKMG-TV in 1998. (The latter change following the station’s acquisition by Post-Newsweek Stations, to honor longtime Washington Post publisher, Katharine M. Graham.)
1954: WISH-TV (channel 8 ) begins broadcasting in Indianapolis, Indiana.
1954: KXJB-TV (channel 4) signs on in Fargo, North Dakota (licensed to Valley City).
1955: KOTA-TV (channel 3) launches as the first television station in western South Dakota.
1956: CFCY-TV (Channel 13) goes on the air in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, bringing CBC television to the last unserved Canadian province. Later changing calls to CBCT-TV, the station remains to this day the only primary TV station originating programming on the tiny island (with all other available channels merely re-broadcasting stations from New Brunswick).
1956: Elvis Presley makes one of his early TV appearances on The Steve Allen Show. Allen, a talented pianist and jazz aficionado, telegraphs his distaste for rock and roll by comically presenting Presley in a white bow tie and black tails, singing “Hound Dog” to a basset hound.
1958: The CBC finishes linking its TV stations from coast to coast. The microwave network, covering from Nova Scotia to British Columbia, is said to be the longest in the world.
1961: CBS soap opera The Brighter Day airs its first episode after moving taping locations from New York City to Los Angeles. The change hurts the show’s ratings, damaging continuity when some key actors had to be abruptly written out of the storyline because they did not want to make the cross-country move.
1963: KERO-TV (Bakersfield, California) moves from channel 10 to channel 23, changing Bakersfield to an all-UHF market. The station would actually simulcast its signal on both channels for two months before channel 10 was vacated permanently.
1967: BBC2 becomes Europe's first color TV broadcaster, though still experimental at this stage. The first color programming shown is live coverage from the Wimbledon Championships.
1967: On the same day, Canada’s CBC also begins broadcasting some programs in color (they would go full color by 1974).
1967: Actress/professional bimbo Pam Anderson (Home Improvement, Baywatch) is born in Ladysmith, British Columbia.
1974: The game show High Rollers debuts on NBC.
1976: Showtime begins operating as a subscription-based cable service. The first system carrying the channel is in Dublin, California.
1983: CITY-TV, Toronto, changes from channel 79 to channel 57. It had been the highest-channeled full-power UHF station in North America. The change is made partly to avoid potential cross-border interference with mobile radio services (for which the U.S. was keen to reassign the 70-83 range).
1991: Actor Michael Landon (Bonanza, Little House on the Prairie, Highway to Heaven) dies of cancer in Malibu, California, aged 54.
1991: Court TV (later rebranded as TruTV) launches its cable/satellite channel.
2005: The PAX-TV network changes its name to the minimalist “i” network (standing for “independent,” though some wags suggested it stood for “infomercials”). A year and a half later, the network would again rebrand, and is now known as ION. (Under any name, however, their programming has remained unwatchable and largely ignored. End of editorial.)
(Just a little featurette I hope to do as time permits…..don’t expect it every single day. 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…..)
1901: Actress/writer Ima Phillips is born in Chicago. Known to soap opera fans as the “mother” of soaps, she is credited with creating or co-creating many shows in the genre, including Another World, As the World Turns, Days of Our Lives, and Guiding Light.
1934: Actor Jamie Farr (M*A*S*H) is born (as Jameel Farah) in (where else?) Toledo, Ohio.
1941: The first two commercial TV stations in the U.S. hit the airwaves as WCBW (later WCBS-TV) and WNBT (later WNBC-TV) start operating under their newly granted licenses. (The stations had been broadcasting for some time as experimental stations W2XAB and W2XBS, respectively.) WNBT makes it to the air first at 2 pm, while WCBW signs-on half an hour later with a newscast. WNBT also airs the first TV commercial (a 20-second spot for Bulova watches) at 2:29:40 pm, just before broadcasting a Brooklyn Dodgers baseball game. (Bulova had paid the princely sum of $9 for the spot.)
1947: Actress/comedienne Shirley Hemphill (What’s Happening) is born in Asheville, North Carolina.
1949: WTCN-TV (later WCCO-TV) signs on for the first time on channel 4 in Minneapolis-St. Paul.
1949: WBRC begins broadcasting on channel 4 in Birmingham, Alabama. The station would move to channel 6 in 1953 due to interference issues with WSM-TV in Nashville.
1949: The CBS series Mama (based on the film “I Remember Mama”) debuts. The show would run until 1957, with all but the last half-season broadcast live.
1950: WHBF-TV (channel 4) starts broadcasting in Rock Island, Illinois.
1952: Actor/comedian Dan Aykroyd (Saturday Night Live) is born in Ottawa, Ontario. DYK: He had intended until the age of 17 to become a Roman Catholic priest.
1953: KTVH (later KWCH-TV) begins operations on channel 12, becoming Kansas’ second TV station.
1954: WDBO-TV (channel 6) begins broadcasting in Orlando as Central Florida’s first TV station. Call letters would change to WCPX-TV in 1982, and to WKMG-TV in 1998. (The latter change following the station’s acquisition by Post-Newsweek Stations, to honor longtime Washington Post publisher, Katharine M. Graham.)
1954: WISH-TV (channel 8 ) begins broadcasting in Indianapolis, Indiana.
1954: KXJB-TV (channel 4) signs on in Fargo, North Dakota (licensed to Valley City).
1955: KOTA-TV (channel 3) launches as the first television station in western South Dakota.
1956: CFCY-TV (Channel 13) goes on the air in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, bringing CBC television to the last unserved Canadian province. Later changing calls to CBCT-TV, the station remains to this day the only primary TV station originating programming on the tiny island (with all other available channels merely re-broadcasting stations from New Brunswick).
1956: Elvis Presley makes one of his early TV appearances on The Steve Allen Show. Allen, a talented pianist and jazz aficionado, telegraphs his distaste for rock and roll by comically presenting Presley in a white bow tie and black tails, singing “Hound Dog” to a basset hound.
1958: The CBC finishes linking its TV stations from coast to coast. The microwave network, covering from Nova Scotia to British Columbia, is said to be the longest in the world.
1961: CBS soap opera The Brighter Day airs its first episode after moving taping locations from New York City to Los Angeles. The change hurts the show’s ratings, damaging continuity when some key actors had to be abruptly written out of the storyline because they did not want to make the cross-country move.
1963: KERO-TV (Bakersfield, California) moves from channel 10 to channel 23, changing Bakersfield to an all-UHF market. The station would actually simulcast its signal on both channels for two months before channel 10 was vacated permanently.
1967: BBC2 becomes Europe's first color TV broadcaster, though still experimental at this stage. The first color programming shown is live coverage from the Wimbledon Championships.
1967: On the same day, Canada’s CBC also begins broadcasting some programs in color (they would go full color by 1974).
1967: Actress/professional bimbo Pam Anderson (Home Improvement, Baywatch) is born in Ladysmith, British Columbia.
1974: The game show High Rollers debuts on NBC.
1976: Showtime begins operating as a subscription-based cable service. The first system carrying the channel is in Dublin, California.
1983: CITY-TV, Toronto, changes from channel 79 to channel 57. It had been the highest-channeled full-power UHF station in North America. The change is made partly to avoid potential cross-border interference with mobile radio services (for which the U.S. was keen to reassign the 70-83 range).
1991: Actor Michael Landon (Bonanza, Little House on the Prairie, Highway to Heaven) dies of cancer in Malibu, California, aged 54.
1991: Court TV (later rebranded as TruTV) launches its cable/satellite channel.
2005: The PAX-TV network changes its name to the minimalist “i” network (standing for “independent,” though some wags suggested it stood for “infomercials”). A year and a half later, the network would again rebrand, and is now known as ION. (Under any name, however, their programming has remained unwatchable and largely ignored. End of editorial.)
(Just a little featurette I hope to do as time permits…..don’t expect it every single day. 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…..)