New York TV- Fall 1947

[Tim L]

There's also a Youtube link to the final Howdy Doody episode---the original network broadcast. It includes a mid-show net ID slide for station break, plus at the end of the show, the network promo (just a couple slides) for the movie "International Velvet" that aired the following Sunday night. "Eight eastern and pacific, 7 central, on NBC!" Good stuff!

The mid-show I.D. on that Howdy Doody series finale was voiced by Bill Hanrahan, who within a few years became the "Voice of NBC News." The promo for the upcoming National Velvet series was V/O'd by the late Bob Waldrop - who one night in 1960 after the network's New York flagship changed call letters from WRCA-TV to WNBC-TV did a sign-off that was recorded by one Jerry Immel, and is now on J. Alan Wall's TV Signoffs site in a section dealing with audio-only sign-offs of TV stations from the mid-to-late 1950's to early '60's.

Jerry Immel was also the source of the Bill Randle Show referenced above (or on the previous page)
..There are also Cleveland and other areas' sign off clips on tvsign-offs.com courtesy of Mr. Immel

 

[Ultimajock]

WJZ-TV Ch. 7 hit the air in August 1948. WENR-TV Ch. 7 Chicago went on about a month later.

...September 17, 1948, to be precise. WNBQ/5 followed on October 8, 1948, and from then to 1953, WENR-TV and WNBQ shared the same Merchandise Mart studios. When Balaban-Katz Broadcasting sold the license and transmitter of WBKB-TV/4 to CBS in '53, those call letters were changed to WBBM-TV and the station moved to Channel 2 and new studios on McClurg Court. Balaban-Katz's parent company, United Paramount Theaters, had just merged with ABC and held onto the studio site at the old Lake Theater, moving WENR-TV out of the Merchandise Mart over to those studios and replacing the call letters WBKB on Channel 7....

 

[bpatrick]

I remember Jerry Immel doing WXIA's promos
in the late '70s. On the closing credits of the
Atlanta Emmy Awards they'd mention that he
was the announcer.

 

[bpatrick]

And to the poster who commented on the 1946 schedule: CBS's programs would have been seen only in New York.

As I said earlier, CBS didn't begin feeding programs to other stations until 1947. Per CBS's own website, those cities were Philly (WPTZ 3 or WFIL-TV 6), Washington (WMAL-TV 7), and Baltimore (WMAR-TV 2). The stations are my guesses as CBS doesn't mention the actual stations, but those were on the air in '47 and not owned by NBC or Dumont. They don't call this the beginning of their official network, however.

Per their website, WCAU-TV 10 Philly was the first "official" CBS-TV Network affiliate (other than WCBS-TV of course) when it formally began in '48.

NBC had three stations (New York, Philadelphia, and Schenectady; I'm not sure if Washington was on the air yet). DuMont had New York and Washington;

WNBW Ch. 4 Washington went on the air on 6/27/47.

ABC, to my knowledge, had no television affiliates (New York's Channel 7 didn't go on until 1948), at least not hooked into the coaxial cable. IIRC, ABC produced its shows at either DuMont's facilities or at WRGB.

WJZ-TV Ch. 7 hit the air in August 1948. WENR-TV Ch. 7 Chicago went on about a month later. Before that, what few ABC network shows existed were produced by Dumont (but used ABC personnel, IIRC) and aired on their stations in NYC and Washington, plus WFIL-TV Philadelphia.

I do know that the second Joe Louis-Billy Conn fight was televised that year by NBC, but since Washington didn't have an NBC affiliate at the time of the fight, WTTG carried it there. (ABC carried it on radio to a record--for ABC, if not for radio--168 stations.)

For the record, this fight was on June 19, 1946 at Yankee Stadium. If it was broadcast in Washington, it would have had to have been on WTTG.

Which, if you'll notice, it was.

When Ted Mack's Amateur Hour debuted on DuMont, January 18, 1948, two of the four stations
that carried that first show were DuMont secondary affiliates: WFIL and WMAR. DuMont o&os
WABD (now WNYW) and WTTG also carried that show.

Milton Berle had the largest station lineup for 1948:

WBZ Boston
WRGB Schenectady
WNBC (or whatever it was then) New York
WPTZ Philadelphia
WBAL Baltimore
WNBW (WRC) Washington, DC
WTVR Richmond

Ed Sullivan had six: WCBS, WCAU, WMAR, WMAL (I think),
and I don't know what the other two were.

 

[Tim L]

I remember Jerry Immel doing WXIA's promos
in the late '70s. On the closing credits of the
Atlanta Emmy Awards they'd mention that he
was the announcer.

I've been in contact with Mr. Immel by email in recent months...He's a real good guy..He was on the announcing staff at WEWS-TV 5 Cleveland in the mid 1960's..

 

[Tim L]

Ed Sullivan had six: WCBS, WCAU, WMAR, WMAL (I think),
and I don't know what the other two were.

One of them would certainly have been WEWS-Channel 5 in Cleveland, which signed-on December 17, 1947

 

[JeeperOne]

Hi everyone:

One wonders what might have happened if it werent for World War II..Television development might have been accelerated on both sides of the Atlantic..And Maybe hastened the demise of Network radio as it was known then..Shows and talent might have migrated to TV earlier..Not to mention stations built sooner in more cities..Interesting possibilites..

I seriously doubt TV would've had an affect on radio before 1950 anyway since TV will still a behemoth of a monster to figure out. WWII just simply bought RCA, GE and other manufacturers time to figure it out without making fools of themselves because their primary focus was on helping our fighting forces win the war (As it should've been!).

Would there have more shows sooner? Would there have been more channels and networks? Perhaps and perhaps. But either way, the effect on radio wouldn't have been seriously felt before 1950 anyway.

JMO...

Cheers

 

[bpatrick]

Ed Sullivan had six: WCBS, WCAU, WMAR, WMAL (I think),
and I don't know what the other two were.

One of them would certainly have been WEWS-Channel 5 in Cleveland, which signed-on December 17, 1947

If Buffalo-to-Chicago was connected by coaxial cable to Boston-to-Richmond,
then that's probably true, but I thought the two cable links were joined early
in 1949 (in time for Harry Truman's inauguration, in fact).

 

[oburn]

cbs tv sent programs in 1947 to wfil wmar wmal at least by dec 1947 in sept 1947 it sent programs to wrgb on monday nights i would like to know what other 2 stations carried ed sullivan at first dumont by 1947 was on wmar wfil wttg wabd did wmar carry nbc before wbal came on i see nbc carried football games in 1947 from baltimore dumont also sent programs monday nights in sept 1947 to wrgb old time radio has radio programs with some old tv programs the new york times way back 1947washington post 1940s los angeles 1940s chicago igot there by search old time radio encylopedia w? i cant spell it

 

[Ultimajock]

When Ted Mack's Amateur Hour debuted on DuMont, January 18, 1948, two of the four stations
that carried that first show were DuMont secondary affiliates: WFIL and WMAR. DuMont o&os
WABD (now WNYW) and WTTG also carried that show.

Milton Berle had the largest station lineup for 1948:

WBZ Boston
WRGB Schenectady
WNBC (or whatever it was then) New York
WPTZ Philadelphia
WBAL Baltimore
WNBW (WRC) Washington, DC
WTVR Richmond

Ed Sullivan had six: WCBS, WCAU, WMAR, WMAL (I think),
and I don't know what the other two were.

...are these only the live feed affiliates, or did the networks not send kinescopes to their Chicago stations at this point?...

 

[oburn]

chicago first network show was amatuer hour on dumont kinescopes sept 1948