July 5: This Day in TV History

[Stanislav]

Just a few random TV related events that happened on July 5. Discuss or comment as you please……

1928: Actress Katherine Helmond (Soap, Who’s the Boss, Coach) is born in Galveston, Texas.

1953: Channel assignment musical chairs: WBBM-TV Chicago moves from channel 4 to channel 2 to avoid interference with WTMJ-TV, which itself had switched channels from 3 to 4 to avoid CCI to Kalamazoo’s WKZO-TV.

1963: Actress Edie Falco (The Sopranos) is born in Brooklyn, New York.

1976: Third time’s the charm: WATL-TV (channel 36, Atlanta) returns to the air after a 5-year hiatus. The station had previously operated from 1969-71, and the channel had originally been occupied by WQXI-TV (no relation to the later channel 11 station using those calls) in an early abortive UHF attempt that lasted about 9 months in 1954-55.

1989: The Seinfeld Chronicles, a pilot episode for a new sitcom, is broadcast on NBC. Lukewarm ratings and reviews made the show unattractive to NBC, and it would come close to being offered to Fox before being championed by Rick Ludwin of NBC, who diverts budget money to film four more episodes. These shows, airing the following year (May/June 1990) would garner excellent ratings (having Cheers as a lead-in didn’t hurt) and the newly renamed Seinfeld would begin its second season (and first full season) in January 1991.

1999: Talk about a hard act to follow: The new NBC soap opera Passions premieres in the time slot formerly occupied (for almost 8900 episodes) by Another World. The new kid on the block would last about 8 years on NBC, then be exiled to a DirectTV in-house satellite channel. The show is scheduled to breathe its last in August 2008.

2003: The tower of WFIR (channel 23 analog, 41 DTV) in Freeport/Rockford, Illinois, collapses during a severe wind strorm. Despite being located directly behind the stations’ studios and offices, the tower thankfully falls into an open field behind the station, and no one is injured.

(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…..)

 

[wbhist]

1953: Channel assignment musical chairs: WBBM-TV Chicago moves from channel 4 to channel 2 to avoid interference with WTMJ-TV, which itself had switched channels from 3 to 4 to avoid CCI to Kalamazoo’s WKZO-TV.

I seem to recall when the "CBS test pattern" came to use on WBBM, the first layout on the white center circle was like this:
WBBM
TV
CHICAGO
CBS

After the channel change, the layout was altered accordingly:
WBBM
TV
CHANNEL 2
CBS

 

[azumanga]

2003: The tower of WFIR (channel 23 analog, 41 DTV) in Freeport/Rockford, Illinois, collapses during a severe wind strorm.

Don't you mean "WIFR"?

 

[KML0224]

Yes, it's WIFR. I believe the call letters refer to Freeport, IL, which is their city of license.

 

[Stanislav]

Just another case of my fat fingers moving faster than my brain.... :

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

1953: Channel assignment musical chairs: WBBM-TV Chicago moves from channel 4 to channel 2 to avoid interference with WTMJ-TV, which itself had switched channels from 3 to 4 to avoid CCI to Kalamazoo’s WKZO-TV.

And WBBM, back in its days on channel 4, was also surrounded to the west by WHBF-TV Rock Island (Quad Cities), also on channel 4 since its July 1950 sign-on (and still is even in the digital era, as one of the few low-VHF digital stations in the country). In fact, another Quad City station, WOC-TV (now KWQC-TV) after the freeze was forced to switch from channel 5 to 6 in order to avoid more interference to another Chicago station, WNBQ (WMAQ-TV since 1964).

 

[radioman148]

1953: Channel assignment musical chairs: WBBM-TV Chicago moves from channel 4 to channel 2 to avoid interference with WTMJ-TV, which itself had switched channels from 3 to 4 to avoid CCI to Kalamazoo’s WKZO-TV.

I seem to recall when the "CBS test pattern" came to use on WBBM, the first layout on the white center circle was like this:
WBBM
TV
CHICAGO
CBS

After the channel change, the layout was altered accordingly:
WBBM
TV
CHANNEL 2
CBS

What a great memory.

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

Yes, it's WIFR. I believe the call letters refer to Freeport, IL, which is their city of license.

WIFR signed on, IIRC, around 1965, originally with the calls WCEE-TV, which would later be used as the initial call letters for another Illinois TV station--for Channel 13 licensed to Mt. Vernon, IL (but also serving parts of southern Illinois and the Illinois side of the St. Louis market), which signed on as an indy in 1983 (now WPXS).