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Live Aid-July 13, 1985

C

classictvfan

Do any of you remember the Live Aid Concerts in London and Philadelphia on Saturday, July 13th, 1985? If so, on which localtelevision station in the area where you lived at the time did it air?
 
MTV provided live coverage all day and night, with lots of V-J talk interrupting the performances and occasional jumps from live coverage to tape delayed performances. There were also many commercials and recorded PSAs as I recall. I still have some it on video tape, recorded from the broadcast. The V-J talk ruined the MTV coverage. As they blathered on, I remember Mark Goodman promising over and over we wouldn't "miss a minute" of the Who at Wembley and we darn near missed it all. If memory serves, ABC also aired a prime time show that night that included many taped highlights from the day and some of the live evening stuff as the Philly show finished. I can't recall who hosted that show, however.
 
An 11-hour syndicated version also aired on Independent television stations in some larger U.S. markets-in Saint Louis it aired on KPLR Channel 11(later WB 11) from 6 AM-5 PM that Saturday.
 
It was simulcast on many FM stations, though where was living at the time, WFBQ (Q-95), Indianapolis's feed was a second or two behind the TV coverage.
 
The syndicated version aired in Houston on KTXH-20 (I remember because it pre-empted wrestling, dammit!). It was also simulcast on an FM station.
 
In the Tampa Bay area, WTSP carried the syndicated TV coversge starting at 7AM, but didn't carry all of it, due to ABC's Saturday morning and sports line-up.
 
In Bloomington/Peoria Illinois WYZZ TV 43 carried the syndicated coverage. I listend to it on WLS AM wich was useing ABC radios coverage and had far better coverage than any of the US tv coverage. They carried practicly every preformance without interuption and the ones they missed live they played back during breaks on tape. IIRC, ABC radio only took two commercail breaks each hour and did a wrap up show of highlights after the Philly concert wrapped up. When ABC lost the feed during the WHO preformance they switched to another feed so those listening on the radio did not miss too much of the WHO. They stayed with that one until they were able to get their feed back. Back On topic though. Sorry to get a little off topic with the radio talk but I felt it deserved a mention. My appologies for getting a little OT.
 
In Baltimore the syndicated Live Aid broadcast aired on WMAR-2 (then a Baltimore Sun-owned NBC affiliate, now a Scripps Howard-owned ABC affiliate).I remember at one point Connie Chung from the NBC network interrupting with a bulletin about a passenger plane crash (seemed a lot of them took place in 1985, but that's for Off The Air). When WMAR went back to Live Aid, BB King was finishing up his set (I think it was taped in some blues club, it certainly didn't look like it was at Wembley or in Philly).That evening I watched some of the ABC segment on WJZ-13 (then Group W-owned, ABC affiliated, now CBS O&O).Having grown up in the Philadelphia area, I think I can safely say that Live Aid was the last hurrah for Municipal/JFK Stadium, which, other than Army/Navy, didn't have (or deserve, judging from its architecture) many hurrahs. The Wachovia Center now occupies the site.ixnay
 
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