July 9: This Day in TV History

[Stanislav]

Just a few random TV related events that happened on July 9. Discuss or comment as you please……

1952: TV host/musician/composer John Tesh (Entertainment Tonight) is born in Garden City, New York. DYK: Tesh, a devoted Star Trek fan, appeared as a Klingon in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “The Icarus Factor.”

1953: KFSA-TV signs on to channel 22 as Fort Smith, Arkansas’ first TV station. The station would cease operations in August 1958 due to an adverse FCC ruling (at the time, it was prohibited for own owner to have two stations in the same market, and KFSA’s owner also had purchased a share of local KNAC-TV, channel 5). Many of channel 22’s personnel were shifted to channel 5, and the station adopted the old KFSA-TV calls soon thereafter (changing to KFSM-TV in 1973).

1955: Actor Jimmy Smits (L.A. Law, NYPD Blue, The West Wing) is born in Brooklyn, New York.

1976: Actor Fred Savage (The Wonder Years) is born in Glencoe, Illinois.

1978: The last original episode of Switch airs on CBS.

1978: Actress Linda Park (Star Trek: Enterprise) is born in South Korea.

1985: W49AA (Springfield, Illinois) transitions from translator to full-power satellite of WCIA-TV (channel 3, Champaign, Illinois), taking the calls WCFN.

1992: CBS Journalist Eric Sevareid dies of stomach cancer, aged 79.

1993: A Different World ends a 6-season run on NBC.

2004: Actress Isabel Sanford (The Jeffersons) dies in Los Angeles, aged 86.

2007: The venerable character actor Charles Lane dies in Santa Monica, California, aged 102. He appeared in 250 films and hundreds of TV shows over a career that spanned parts of EIGHT decades (from the 1930’s to the 2000’s).

(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]

1952: TV host/musician/composer John Tesh (Entertainment Tonight) is born in Garden City, New York. DYK: Tesh, a devoted Star Trek fan, appeared as a Klingon in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “The Icarus Factor.”

Also: In the late 1970's, Tesh was a reporter and weekend anchor at WCBS-TV (Ch. 2) in New York. I remember his time there well.

1978: The last original episode of Switch airs on CBS.

Around that same time, WOR-TV in New York commissioned an opening title sequence for its late-afternoon movie umbrella, The 4 O'Clock Movie, with the same kind of zig-zag vertical-line graphics that were used for the Switch opening, only with clips from some movies that were part of Channel 9's movie library at the time. WOR's movie show used a KPM library music piece by Neil Richardson, later to be titled "The Riviera Affair" when issued on a Sound Library CD collection in the 1990's, as the theme.

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

1985: W49AA (Springfield, Illinois) transitions from translator to full-power satellite of WCIA-TV (channel 3, Champaign, Illinois), taking the calls WCFN.

On April 2, 2002, WCFN again transitioned from a WCIA satellite to a standalone UPN affiliate for the Champaign-Decatur-Springfield market (now MyNetwork as "MYCFN")--leaving many viewers in the western part of that market who did not subscribe to cable or satellite (although the market's locals would not be offered until about a year later, IIRC), or did not have a DTV converter yet (to continue picking up WCIA's signal as a subchannel of WCFN's digital signal)without CBS programming (unless they lived in areas that could receive alternate CBS affiliates as WMBD-31 in Peoria, KHQA-7 Hannibal/Quincy, and KMOV-4 St. Louis).

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

1985: W49AA (Springfield, Illinois) transitions from translator to full-power satellite of WCIA-TV (channel 3, Champaign, Illinois), taking the calls WCFN.

On April 2, 2002, WCFN again transitioned from a WCIA satellite to a standalone UPN affiliate for the Champaign-Decatur-Springfield market (now MyNetwork as "MYCFN")--leaving many viewers in the western part of that market who did not subscribe to cable or satellite (although the market's locals would not be offered until about a year later, IIRC), or did not have a DTV converter yet (to continue picking up WCIA's signal as a subchannel of WCFN's digital signal)without CBS programming (unless they lived in areas that could receive alternate CBS affiliates as WMBD-31 in Peoria, KHQA-7 Hannibal/Quincy, and KMOV-4 St. Louis).

One year later, easy OTA reception of CBS programming in the immediate Springfield, IL area is back for the first time in over 7 years, as WCFN (digital 13, virtual channel 49) carries WCIA's programming on subchannel 49-2 (with 49-1 for WCFN/My programming). The situation is reversed for viewers of WCIA-3 (digital 48)--regular WCIA programming on 3-1, relay of WCFN on 3-2.

Also another birthday on July 9, this one of an infamous celebrity who also had some TV celebrity time:

1947: O. J. Simpson.

 

[radioman148]

1985: W49AA (Springfield, Illinois) transitions from translator to full-power satellite of WCIA-TV (channel 3, Champaign, Illinois), taking the calls WCFN.

On April 2, 2002, WCFN again transitioned from a WCIA satellite to a standalone UPN affiliate for the Champaign-Decatur-Springfield market (now MyNetwork as "MYCFN")--leaving many viewers in the western part of that market who did not subscribe to cable or satellite (although the market's locals would not be offered until about a year later, IIRC), or did not have a DTV converter yet (to continue picking up WCIA's signal as a subchannel of WCFN's digital signal)without CBS programming (unless they lived in areas that could receive alternate CBS affiliates as WMBD-31 in Peoria, KHQA-7 Hannibal/Quincy, and KMOV-4 St. Louis).

One year later, easy OTA reception of CBS programming in the immediate Springfield, IL area is back for the first time in over 7 years, as WCFN (digital 13, virtual channel 49) carries WCIA's programming on subchannel 49-2 (with 49-1 for WCFN/My programming). The situation is reversed for viewers of WCIA-3 (digital 48)--regular WCIA programming on 3-1, relay of WCFN on 3-2.

Also another birthday on July 9, this one of an infamous celebrity who also had some TV celebrity time:

1947: O. J. Simpson.

I wonder how OJ will celebrate tomorrow?

 

[Ultimajock]

I wonder how OJ will celebrate tomorrow?

...a couple of cups of raisin jack and/or pruno, I assume ;D ...

 

[Corky Marlowe]

Quote from: radioman148 on July 08, 2009, 11:32:56 pm
I wonder how OJ will celebrate tomorrow?


...a couple of cups of raisin jack and/or pruno, I assume ...

You guys act like he's in jail or somethng!

 

[radioman148]

His cell might be crowded ;D ;D

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

1956: Actor Tom Hanks (whose TV roles include Bosom Buddies) is born in Concord, CA.