March 6: This Day in TV History

[Stanislav]

Just a few random TV related events that happened on March 6. Discuss or comment as you please……

1923: TV host/sidekick and commercial huckster Ed McMahon (The Tonight Show, Star Search) is born in Detroit.

1947: Actress Anna Maria Horsford (Amen, The Wayans Bros.) is born in Harlem, New York.

1955: WDXI-TV (channel 7) signs on in Jackson, Tennessee as a CBS affiliate. The station would move to ABC in 1968, and change calls to the current WBBJ-TV a year later.

1959: Actor/comedian Tom Arnold is born in Ottumwa, Iowa.

1964: Actor/comedian D.L. Hughley (The Hughleys, D.L. Hughley Breaks the News) is born in Los Angeles.

1968: They once were lost, but now are merely canceled: Lost in Space airs its final original episode on CBS.

1977: WCFE-TV (channel 57) begins broadcasting in Plattsburgh, New York.

1978: The Six Million Dollar Man reaches the magic 100-episode mark (said to be minimum needed for successful syndication) with its final original episode on ABC. (There would also be additional TV-movies, so the franchise wasn’t yet totally dead...)

1979: Villain Roger Thorpe (played by Michael Zaslow) rapes his wife Holly (Maureen Garrett) on Guiding Light, the first time spousal rape is depicted on U.S. television.

1981: Farewell, Uncle Walter...and we thank you: Walter Cronkite presents The CBS Evening News for the final time, to be succeeded the following Monday by Dan Rather.

1983: The first televised USFL football game (Los Angeles Express vs. New Jersey Generals) is broadcast by ABC. The Express wins, 20-15.

1988: In the Heat of the Night premieres on NBC.

1995: In Sacramento-Stockton, California, KXTV (channel 10, CBS -->ABC) and KOVR (channel 13, ABC --> CBS) swap network affiliations.

(Just a little featurette I hope to do as time permits. 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…..)

 

[Robnoxious]

1995: In Sacramento-Stockton, California, KXTV (channel 10, CBS -->ABC) and KOVR (channel 13, ABC --> CBS) swap network affiliations.

Fun fact: KOVR followed the odd practice as KPIX-5 (the San Francisco CBS affliate) by airing network primetime from 7pm-10pm. Shortly after 1995 KPIX ceased using this practice and started netowrk programming at 8pm leaving KOVR as the only station in the Pacific Time Zone that starts their primetime block of network programming an hour early. KOVR still does this to this day.

 

[LKellerIII]

1995: In Sacramento-Stockton, California, KXTV (channel 10, CBS -->ABC) and KOVR (channel 13, ABC --> CBS) swap network affiliations.

Fun fact: KOVR followed the odd practice as KPIX-5 (the San Francisco CBS affliate) by airing network primetime from 7pm-10pm. Shortly after 1995 KPIX ceased using this practice and started netowrk programming at 8pm leaving KOVR as the only station in the Pacific Time Zone that starts their primetime block of network programming an hour early. KOVR still does this to this day.

Partially true - I believe KOVR was the first to go with "early prime." KPIX followed a year or two later citing KOVR as a success story. Problem is, in Sacramento, KOVR was the only affiliate to do early prime, so it benefitted. In San Francisco, KRON (then NBC) followed KPIX into early prime - so the only winner was the ABC affiliate (KGO-TV) which ended up with the only network programming at 10:00 and the only late news at 11:00.

Both KPIX and KRON dropped early prime after one or two seasons, leaving KOVR as the only one still doing it.

Both KOVR and KPIX are now owned and operated by CBS.

 

[Robnoxious]

Partially true - I believe KOVR was the first to go with "early prime." KPIX followed a year or two later citing KOVR as a success story. Problem is, in Sacramento, KOVR was the only affiliate to do early prime, so it benefitted. In San Francisco, KRON (then NBC) followed KPIX into early prime - so the only winner was the ABC affiliate (KGO-TV) which ended up with the only network programming at 10:00 and the only late news at 11:00.

Both KPIX and KRON dropped early prime after one or two seasons, leaving KOVR as the only one still doing it.

KPIX did not revert to 8:00-11:00 prime time programming until 1998 after making no dent in KTVU's 10:00 pm news ratings, which has dominated the time slot for years in the Bay Area.

KPIX started "early prime" in the early to mid 90's. That much I know is true as I resided for a year in San Jose in 1994-95 and remember the -1hr start times on KPIX. KRON experimented with early prime for only one year.

KOVR had a traditional 8pm-11pm primetime schedule when it was an ABC affiliate which by Stanislav's timeline ended in '95.

 

[LKellerIII]

Partially true - I believe KOVR was the first to go with "early prime." KPIX followed a year or two later citing KOVR as a success story. Problem is, in Sacramento, KOVR was the only affiliate to do early prime, so it benefitted. In San Francisco, KRON (then NBC) followed KPIX into early prime - so the only winner was the ABC affiliate (KGO-TV) which ended up with the only network programming at 10:00 and the only late news at 11:00.

Both KPIX and KRON dropped early prime after one or two seasons, leaving KOVR as the only one still doing it.

KPIX did not revert to 8:00-11:00 prime time programming until 1998 after making no dent in KTVU's 10:00 pm news ratings, which has dominated the time slot for years in the Bay Area.

KPIX started "early prime" in the early to mid 90's. That much I know is true as I resided for a year in San Jose in 1994-95 and remember the -1hr start times on KPIX. KRON experimented with early prime for only one year.

KOVR had a traditional 8pm-11pm primetime schedule when it was an ABC affiliate which by Stanislav's timeline ended in '95.

A little googling brought me to an SF Chronicle story from January 1998 stating that KPIX will be abandoning early prime after 6 years - which means it started some time in 1992. By 98, KPIX had become an O&O backwards - Westinghouse had owned KPIX for years, and then bought CBS, which it owned for only a short time before selling their broadcast division to Viacom.

According to the article, KRON announced their move to early prime just days after KPIX, but bowed to pressure from NBC to drop it after only one year.

As you pointed out, KOVR did not go to early prime until it was a CBS affiliate, which did not happen until March 1995. So KPIX was first.

So you are right, Robnoxious. Damn! I hate when I'm wrong...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article/article?f=/c/a/1998/01/14/MN71379.DTL

 

[firepoint525]

1955: WDXI-TV (channel 7) signs on in Jackson, Tennessee as a CBS affiliate. The station would move to ABC in 1968, and change calls to the current WBBJ-TV a year later.

"WBBJ" stands for "Bahakel Broadcasting, Jackson."  WDXI was part of the "Dixie Network" of radio (and apparently, television, too) stations in Tennessee and Mississippi way back when.  The first three letters of their call letters were all "WDX-."  It was the fourth letter of the call letters that was different.  I worked for the former WDXN in Clarksville, Tennessee, back in the early '90s, but the Dixie Network had long since ceased to exist by that time.  (I believe a radio station having the call letters WDXI still exists in Jackson, Tennessee.)

 

[tlyle]

Just a few random TV related events that happened on March 6. Discuss or comment as you please……

[1983: The first televised USFL football game (Los Angeles Express vs. New Jersey Generals) is broadcast by ABC. The Express wins, 20-15.

My wife and I were watching Celebrity Apprentice the other night and was wondering how Hershel Walker could be involved. It finally dawned on me that Hershel played for the New Jersey Generals (right out of the University of Georgia). The Generals were owned by Donald Trump. Also, I beleive Hershel was the highest paid player at the time. We concluded that Donald was Hershel's prevous boss more than 25 years ago.

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

1923: TV host/sidekick and commercial huckster Ed McMahon (The Tonight Show, Star Search) is born in Detroit.

Sadly, Ed would pass away (on June 23, 2009) since this thread was first posted.

 

[Rob Jason]

1923: TV host/sidekick and commercial huckster Ed McMahon (The Tonight Show, Star Search) is born in Detroit.

Sadly, Ed would pass away (on June 23, 2009) since this thread was first posted.

And Uncle Walter, too....July 17, 2009. :'(

 

[FreddyE1977]

1983: The first televised USFL football game (Los Angeles Express vs. New Jersey Generals) is broadcast by ABC. The Express wins, 20-15.

I remember watching that game. Herschel Walker's pro debut. The USFL had a good thing going if they would have stuck to
spring football.