Just a few random TV related events that happened on July 15. Discuss or comment as you please……
1935: Actor Ken Kercheval (Dallas) is born in Wolcottville, Indiana.
1935: Football player/actor Alex Karras (Webster) is born in Gary, Indiana.
1944: Actor Jan-Michael Vincent (Airwolf) is born in Denver, Colorado.
1949: WBTV (channel 3) goes on the air in Charlotte, North Carolina. It is the 13th TV station in the U.S., and the first in the Carolinas.
1954: WBOC-TV begins operations on channel 16 in Salisbury, Maryland. It is the first station to serve the Delmarva Peninsula.
1955: The brief, but iconic TV series Flash Gordon ends a 39-episode run in general syndication (and on the DuMont network in the East). DYK: The series was filmed in West Berlin as a joint West German, French, and American co-production.
1955: WNDU-TV (channel 46) goes on the air in South Bend, Indiana. The call letters directly reference the station’s owner, The University of Notre Dame. (Predictably, the station aired the first ever telecast of a Notre Dame football game.) WNDU would move to channel 16 in 1957. After half a century of operation, Notre Dame would sell the station in 2006, reaping a bonanza of $85 million, which was put into an endowment fund.
1957: KPAC (later KJAC, now KBTV-TV) begins operating on channel 4 in Port Arthur, Texas. An NBC affiliate from the start, the station would rack up several “firsts” for the market: first to broadcast in color, use video tape, and air live high school football games.
1960: Willie Aames (Eight is Enough, Charles in Charge) is born in Los Angeles.
1963: KAIT-TV signs on from Jonesboro, Arkansas on channel 8. At first an independent (the calls originally standing for “Arkansas Independent Television,” as well as being pronounced like the number “eight”), the station would affiliate with ABC two years later.
1968: One Life to Live premieres on ABC.
1974: Local TV host Christine Chubbuck, aged 29, commits suicide on live television, shooting herself in the head with a revolver about 8 minutes into her Suncoast Digest show on Sarasota, Florida’s WXLT-TV (channel 40). Many of the show’s tiny handful of shocked viewers phone the station or the police, wondering if what they witnessed was real, or merely a sick joke. The gruesome act, generally believed to be the first live TV suicide in U.S. television history, propels the small, struggling UHF station into the national spotlight. It also serves as inspiration for part of the plot of the motion picture "Network." Authorities later return the station’s videotape of the suicide (which had been seized as evidence) to Chubbuck’s family, who have the tape destroyed to keep the footage from being exploited. (There is an extensive account of the events leading up to Ms. Chubbuck’s suicide on Wikipedia, which also provides a link to Sally Quinn’s more in-depth Washington Post article. They make for sad, but interesting reading.)
1986: Actress Florence Halop (St. Elsewhere, Night Court) dies, aged 63.
1991: Actor and game show host Bert Convy (Tattletales, Super Password, Win Lose or Draw) dies from an inoperable brain tumor, aged 57.
1996: Cable channel MSNBC is launched.
2002: After over 50 years as a CBS affiliate, Jacksonville, Florida’s WJXT (channel 4 analog/42 DTV) becomes an independent station after negotiations over a new agreement with the network fall through.
(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…..)
1935: Actor Ken Kercheval (Dallas) is born in Wolcottville, Indiana.
1935: Football player/actor Alex Karras (Webster) is born in Gary, Indiana.
1944: Actor Jan-Michael Vincent (Airwolf) is born in Denver, Colorado.
1949: WBTV (channel 3) goes on the air in Charlotte, North Carolina. It is the 13th TV station in the U.S., and the first in the Carolinas.
1954: WBOC-TV begins operations on channel 16 in Salisbury, Maryland. It is the first station to serve the Delmarva Peninsula.
1955: The brief, but iconic TV series Flash Gordon ends a 39-episode run in general syndication (and on the DuMont network in the East). DYK: The series was filmed in West Berlin as a joint West German, French, and American co-production.
1955: WNDU-TV (channel 46) goes on the air in South Bend, Indiana. The call letters directly reference the station’s owner, The University of Notre Dame. (Predictably, the station aired the first ever telecast of a Notre Dame football game.) WNDU would move to channel 16 in 1957. After half a century of operation, Notre Dame would sell the station in 2006, reaping a bonanza of $85 million, which was put into an endowment fund.
1957: KPAC (later KJAC, now KBTV-TV) begins operating on channel 4 in Port Arthur, Texas. An NBC affiliate from the start, the station would rack up several “firsts” for the market: first to broadcast in color, use video tape, and air live high school football games.
1960: Willie Aames (Eight is Enough, Charles in Charge) is born in Los Angeles.
1963: KAIT-TV signs on from Jonesboro, Arkansas on channel 8. At first an independent (the calls originally standing for “Arkansas Independent Television,” as well as being pronounced like the number “eight”), the station would affiliate with ABC two years later.
1968: One Life to Live premieres on ABC.
1974: Local TV host Christine Chubbuck, aged 29, commits suicide on live television, shooting herself in the head with a revolver about 8 minutes into her Suncoast Digest show on Sarasota, Florida’s WXLT-TV (channel 40). Many of the show’s tiny handful of shocked viewers phone the station or the police, wondering if what they witnessed was real, or merely a sick joke. The gruesome act, generally believed to be the first live TV suicide in U.S. television history, propels the small, struggling UHF station into the national spotlight. It also serves as inspiration for part of the plot of the motion picture "Network." Authorities later return the station’s videotape of the suicide (which had been seized as evidence) to Chubbuck’s family, who have the tape destroyed to keep the footage from being exploited. (There is an extensive account of the events leading up to Ms. Chubbuck’s suicide on Wikipedia, which also provides a link to Sally Quinn’s more in-depth Washington Post article. They make for sad, but interesting reading.)
1986: Actress Florence Halop (St. Elsewhere, Night Court) dies, aged 63.
1991: Actor and game show host Bert Convy (Tattletales, Super Password, Win Lose or Draw) dies from an inoperable brain tumor, aged 57.
1996: Cable channel MSNBC is launched.
2002: After over 50 years as a CBS affiliate, Jacksonville, Florida’s WJXT (channel 4 analog/42 DTV) becomes an independent station after negotiations over a new agreement with the network fall through.
(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…..)
