KNEW-TV 32: What If....

[TexasTom]

If I remember correctly, KSAN TV was on the air weekdays from 1 pm until 4 or 5 pm, and something similar on weekends. They had a show called something like Industry on Parade, which showed short films produced by, and about, industry. I didn't find it terribly interesting, but watched because it was the only station that I could get on my new converter box. I'm pretty sure they didn't have any ads during this show. The shows themselves were ads of a sort. Kind of early infomercials.

Companies produced those films and let stations air them for free (except for the cost of postage to get the print to the station) -- the idea was that the films would have some sort of educational or informational value, but would also serve as a promo for the company. Stations got cheap programming to fill time -- usually in the early morning or late night, although some small market stations would run these programs in the afternoon rather than paying for programming to fill the entire period between the end of network daytime schedules and the evening news.

Yeah, you're right that it was a lot light infomercials -- but the stations didn't charge for the time (program length commercials violated FCC rules until the eighties) and the companies kept the "sell" a little softer than is typical of infomercials today.

 

[KBOS1965]

I'd also like to hear more stories about KICU 43. Does anyone know the details of how they got their programming to KSAN in San Francisco?

If I remember correctly, they were using microwave links to send the signal up to the Bay Area. I wish I still had all my brain cells.

I know at KMPH they upconverted the VHF bands of the LA area and the SF Bay Area and sent them up to the Blue Ridge transmitter site by microwave links. At the same time they received the SLO station over the air up at the transmitter site. This made it possible to rebroadcast anything that was on the air in LA, SF, or SLO. This was before the FOX network, and it allowed them to run stuff like the Tomorrow show from NBC, professional sports, etc. It was fun for me when I was running the transmitter, because I could watch anything on the air (like cable tv before its time). It was kind of lonely up there by myself on that mountain top, babysitting KMPH-TV, KBOS, and KDFR, but it was a great view on a clear day. At night I could make out the streel light outlines of the major streets in Fresno, Visalia, Delano, and places in between. There were still a handfull of native Condors hanging out up there, and the ring tail cats would come around at night. One night a starving bloodhound found the only human being (me) within 30 miles, and saved his life with that nose of his (everything was copvered with a foot or two of snow, and pickings were probably slim). He shared rations with me until we could haul him down the mountain. He seemed like the dumbest dog I had ever seen, until he proved that I was the dumbest human he had ever seen. We would go for walks around the mountian top at night, and he noticed one time that the door wasn't shut tight when we left. When we got the the maximum distance from the transmitter, he took off running, and ate half the rations before I could catch up with him.

KICU used to receive the Bakersfield stations off the air, and use those signals to broadcast network stuff that wasn't being carried in Fresno. It's tricky business when you do that kind of stuff, and try to insert your commercials in place of the other station's. I used to do that at KMPH and switch between the microwave feeds from the studio and from the other over the air stations. Sometimes it was dead air until you could pick a good place to cut back in.

I'll start a new topic sometime soon, and talk about KICU.

I'll tell one good story about KMPH before I quit here. At one point they picked up an engineer to run the Blue Ridge transmitter. It turns out he wanted that job so he could hide from his creditors, and maybe a few other folks, real and imagined, for a while. It didn't take long to find out that he was prone to heavy drinking and hallucinations. He was firing a rifle from the porch of the transmitter to kill the "bears" that were circling outside. Now there's a delimma. You need to get rid of that guy as soon as you can, but who is going up there to relieve him when he's shooting at everything that moves!!

 

[KBOS1965]

I'd also like to hear more stories about KICU 43. Does anyone know the details of how they got their programming to KSAN in San Francisco?

If I remember correctly, they were using microwave links to send the signal up to the Bay Area. I wish I still had all my brain cells.

I know at KMPH they upconverted the VHF bands of the LA area and the SF Bay Area and sent them up to the Blue Ridge transmitter site by microwave links. At the same time they received the SLO station over the air up at the transmitter site. This made it possible to rebroadcast anything that was on the air in LA, SF, or SLO. This was before the FOX network, and it allowed them to run stuff like the Tomorrow show from NBC, professional sports, etc. It was fun for me when I was running the transmitter, because I could watch anything on the air (like cable tv before its time). It was kind of lonely up there by myself on that mountain top, babysitting KMPH-TV, KBOS, and KDFR, but it was a great view on a clear day. At night I could make out the streel light outlines of the major streets in Fresno, Visalia, Delano, and places in between. There were still a handfull of native Condors hanging out up there, and the ring tail cats would come around at night. One night a starving bloodhound found the only human being (me) within 30 miles, and saved his life with that nose of his (everything was copvered with a foot or two of snow, and pickings were probably slim). He shared rations with me until we could haul him down the mountain. He seemed like the dumbest dog I had ever seen, until he proved that I was the dumbest human he had ever seen. We would go for walks around the mountian top at night, and he noticed one time that the door wasn't shut tight when we left. When we got the the maximum distance from the transmitter, he took off running, and ate half the rations before I could catch up with him.

KICU used to receive the Bakersfield stations off the air, and use those signals to broadcast network stuff that wasn't being carried in Fresno. It's tricky business when you do that kind of stuff, and try to insert your commercials in place of the other station's. I used to do that at KMPH and switch between the microwave feeds from the studio and from the other over the air stations. Sometimes it was dead air until you could pick a good place to cut back in.

I'll start a new topic sometime soon, and talk about KICU.

I'll tell one good story about KMPH before I quit here. At one point they picked up an engineer to run the Blue Ridge transmitter. It turns out he wanted that job so he could hide from his creditors, and maybe a few other folks, real and imagined, for a while. It didn't take long to find out that he was prone to heavy drinking and hallucinations. He was firing a rifle from the porch of the transmitter to kill the "bears" that were circling outside. Now there's a delimma. You need to get rid of that guy as soon as you can, but who is going up there to relieve him when he's shooting at everything that moves!!

Does all of that stuff make sense? Should I explain that when I ran the KMPH transmitter, I had to live up there, and live on the groceries that I carried up with me? In the summertime there were people that had cabins not too far away, and there was a lookout tower that was manned during that time of year. Wintertime was another story - there was nobody else around on that mountain top. When you went up to relieve somebody, they drove back in the truck you used to get up there. There was no way of leaving until someone came up there with a vehicle. In the wintertime you could be snowed in, and only be reached by snowmobile. There was a tendency to forget people up there. They would leave somebody up there as much as a month (or more) at a time. Harry Pappas had given me that job as a favor, because I was out of work between the time I got out of the service, and the time I found a job in my primary career field of electronic engineering. Unfortunately at one point when I was stuck up on the mountaintop, I had an important job interview in San Francisco, and they weren't interested in finding someone to relieve me just then. I went ballistic, and threatened to shut down the transmitter to help make their decision easier. I cooled down after a while, and by the time Harry Pappas got on the phone, I simply stated that my shift would end when the station signed off (and I was pretty sure that meant my employment as well). Somebody else would have to be there to bring the transmitter up the next morning. My ploy worked, but I had to drive all the way to San Francisco without any sleep. The interviewer was so impressed with that story that I got the job. Harry still spoke to me after that, by the way.