June 17: This Day in TV History

[Stanislav]

Just a few random TV related events that happened on June 17. Discuss or comment as you please……

1932: Actor Peter Lupus (Mission: Impossible) is born in Indianapolis, Indiana. DYN: in some 50’s and early 60’s film roles, he was credited as “Rock Stevens.”

1953: WTVP (channel 17, later WAND) begins broadcasting in Decatur, Illinois. It is the oldest station in central Illinois, and the state's second-oldest station on the UHF band.

1954: Actor Mark Linn-Baker (Perfect Strangers) is born in St. Louis, Missouri.

1960: WPCA-TV, a religious station (“People’s Christian Association”) hits the Philadelphia airwaves on channel 17. The station would fold two years later, and the channel would be occupied by WPHL-TV starting in 1965.

1963: Actor Greg Kinnear (Talk Soup) is born in Logansport, Indiana.

1964: Actress Erin Murphy (Bewitched) is born in Encino, California.

1994: The infamous O.J. Simpson “low-speed chase” is broadcast live. Simpson and his friend Al Cowlings flee from police in his white Ford Bronco. The pursuit ends at Simpson's Brentwood mansion, where he surrenders to police.

(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…..)

 

[Tim L]

Just a few random TV related events that happened on June 17. Discuss or comment as you please……


1953: WTVP (channel 17, later WAND) begins broadcasting in Decatur, Illinois. It is the oldest station in central Illinois, and the state's second-oldest station on the UHF band.

Not that it has much to do directly with the above event, but the WAND call letters were first used by a radio station in Canton, Ohio (AM 900) from its sign-on in 1947 into the early 1960's..

 

[KML0224]

All I remember about that night in 1994 is that David Hasselhoff had some sort of pay-per-view special that night that nobody saw as a result.

 

[Stanislav]

All I remember about that night in 1994 is that David Hasselhoff had some sort of pay-per-view special that night that nobody saw as a result.

You mean, something for which we could actually thank O.J.?

 

[Smittian]

1994: The infamous O.J. Simpson “low-speed chase” is broadcast live. Simpson and his friend Al Cowlings flee from police in his white Ford Bronco. The pursuit ends at Simpson's Brentwood mansion, where he surrenders to police.

It also reduced Game 5 of the NBA Finals on NBC to a split screen

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

Just a few random TV related events that happened on June 17. Discuss or comment as you please……


1953: WTVP (channel 17, later WAND) begins broadcasting in Decatur, Illinois. It is the oldest station in central Illinois, and the state's second-oldest station on the UHF band.

Not that it has much to do directly with the above event, but the WAND call letters were first used by a radio station in Canton, Ohio (AM 900) from its sign-on in 1947 into the early 1960's..

Then five years after WTVP-17 changed its calls to WAND in 1966, the WTVP calls moved to another central Illinois market, this time for Peoria's public television station (WTVP-47), and still used to this day.

 

[Ultimajock]

1994: The infamous O.J. Simpson “low-speed chase” is broadcast live. Simpson and his friend Al Cowlings flee from police in his white Ford Bronco. The pursuit ends at Simpson's Brentwood mansion, where he surrenders to police.

It also reduced Game 5 of the NBA Finals on NBC to a split screen

...and the most memorable element of ABC's coverage of the chase was a prankster reducing the whole thing to a free promo for Howard Stern, whose E! cable show began the following week with an episode about the whole mess...

 

[Stanislav]

1994: The infamous O.J. Simpson “low-speed chase” is broadcast live. Simpson and his friend Al Cowlings flee from police in his white Ford Bronco. The pursuit ends at Simpson's Brentwood mansion, where he surrenders to police.

It also reduced Game 5 of the NBA Finals on NBC to a split screen

...and the most memorable element of ABC's coverage of the chase was a prankster reducing the whole thing to a free promo for Howard Stern, whose E! cable show began the following week with an episode about the whole mess...

As I recall, isn't that the incident in which Peter Jennings was totally clueless about the "Baba-booey" prank call, asking the producer to try and get that "witness" back on the phone after he hung up? (And Al Michaels, who knew all too well what the call was from his appearances on Stern's show, had to sort of hint obliquely to Jennings on-air that it wasn't such a good idea to try to call the guy back?)

Sometimes (like then), I would laugh at the "Baba-booey" prank calls. Other times, I thought they were in horrible taste, such as during the Columbia disaster. My tape of the coverage of that tragedy begins (alas) as one of Stern's fans is prank calling CNN or MSNBC (forget which), claiming that the astronauts were all dead because they screwed up by listening to Howard Stern and not paying attention. I'm pretty liberal when it comes to black humor, but that's just crude and tasteless.

I also recall reading that a Stern fan called as a bogus eyewitness during coverage of Princess Diana's crash, and that British TV continued to play the tape of this "eyewitness" (minus the call-ending "Baba-booey!" which they deleted) often during the night because they had no recognition of Stern or his fans.

 

[Newname]

...and the most memorable element of ABC's coverage of the chase was a prankster reducing the whole thing to a free promo for Howard Stern, whose E! cable show began the following week with an episode about the whole mess...

As I recall, isn't that the incident in which Peter Jennings was totally clueless about the "Baba-booey" prank call, asking the producer to try and get that "witness" back on the phone after he hung up? (And Al Michaels, who knew all too well what the call was from his appearances on Stern's show, had to sort of hint obliquely to Jennings on-air that it wasn't such a good idea to try to call the guy back?)

I recall Michaels saying,'Peter, for the record...that was a totally bogus call!' At least he didn't say it was 'most non-non heinous!'

 

[Corky Marlowe]

Sometimes (like then), I would laugh at the "Baba-booey" prank calls. Other times, I thought they were in horrible taste, such as during the Columbia disaster. My tape of the coverage of that tragedy begins (alas) as one of Stern's fans is prank calling CNN or MSNBC (forget which), claiming that the astronauts were all dead because they screwed up by listening to Howard Stern and not paying attention. I'm pretty liberal when it comes to black humor, but that's just crude and tasteless.
They also hit CBS...Dan Rather put a caller on the air who said part of the Shuttle had landed in his back yard. The guy said the piece was big and white and looked like one of Bababooey's teeth. Rather, of course, was completely clueless until a producer told him what was up.

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

Tomorrow is also an important historical date with relevance to TV history:

1972: Watergate break-in.

 

[radioman148]

Tomorrow is also an important historical date with relevance to TV history:

1972: Watergate break-in.

And in retrospect when you think back on it how insane was that break in?
The election was not even close, in fact a landslide.

 

[easttxtv]

Tomorrow is also an important historical date with relevance to TV history:

1972: Watergate break-in.

And in retrospect when you think back on it how insane was that break in?
The election was not even close, in fact a landslide.

But it sure did a number on TV scheduling in the months to come.

 

[Stanislav]

Tomorrow is also an important historical date with relevance to TV history:

1972: Watergate break-in.

And in retrospect when you think back on it how insane was that break in?
The election was not even close, in fact a landslide.

Paranoia knows no logic or reason...

 

[KML0224]

So a year has passed...anything else of note which happened on this date?

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

1974: Actress Pamela Britton (b. March 19, 1923 in Milwaukee) of "My Favorite Martian" fame, dies in Arlington Heights, IL.