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Opening Galas for TV Stations?

K

KML0224

Guest
I remember back when WTIC-TV channel 61 of Hartford, CT came to the air in September of 1984 (our FOX affiliate today). They aired a 1-hour opening gala that evening at 7 PM and had some luminaries in attendance, including former President Jimmy Carter and Bob Steele, THE man for many years with WTIC-AM 1080. (Bob also did some work with the "other" WTIC-TV, channel 3 [now WFSB-TV].) Up until that time, they showed a continuous loop of their transmitter being constructed on Rattlesnake Mountain in Farmington, CT, along with a preview of some of the shows they'd be airing that fall.

Does anybody here know of stations in other markets doing the same?
 
> I remember back when WTIC-TV channel 61 of Hartford, CT came
> to the air in September of 1984 (our FOX affiliate today).
> They aired a 1-hour opening gala that evening at 7 PM and
> had some luminaries in attendance, including former
> President Jimmy Carter and Bob Steele, THE man for many
> years with WTIC-AM 1080. (Bob also did some work with the
> "other" WTIC-TV, channel 3 [now WFSB-TV].) Up until that
> time, they showed a continuous loop of their transmitter
> being constructed on Rattlesnake Mountain in Farmington, CT,
> along with a preview of some of the shows they'd be airing
> that fall.
>
> Does anybody here know of stations in other markets doing
> the same?
>
Not when it came on the air, but when WAGA/5 Atlanta moved
into its new facility on Briarcliff Road in 1966, Walter
Cronkite came to cut the ribbon. After several years off
the air in Atlanta, Cronkite was reinstated on Channel 5's
schedule at the same time.
 
> > I remember back when WTIC-TV channel 61 of Hartford, CT
> came
> > to the air in September of 1984 (our FOX affiliate today).
>
> > They aired a 1-hour opening gala that evening at 7 PM and
> > had some luminaries in attendance, including former
> > President Jimmy Carter and Bob Steele, THE man for many
> > years with WTIC-AM 1080. (Bob also did some work with the
> > "other" WTIC-TV, channel 3 [now WFSB-TV].) Up until that
> > time, they showed a continuous loop of their transmitter
> > being constructed on Rattlesnake Mountain in Farmington,
> CT,
> > along with a preview of some of the shows they'd be airing
>
> > that fall.
> >
> > Does anybody here know of stations in other markets doing
> > the same?
> >
> Not when it came on the air, but when WAGA/5 Atlanta moved
> into its new facility on Briarcliff Road in 1966, Walter
> Cronkite came to cut the ribbon. After several years off
> the air in Atlanta, Cronkite was reinstated on Channel 5's
> schedule at the same time.
>


WEWS TV 5 in Cleveland had a "Gala opening Broadcast" on December 17, 1947 with Cleveland Mayor Thomas Burke and Ohio Governor Thomas J. Herbert on hand. The first program after the dedications was the Cleveland Press Annual Christmas Party at Public Hall in Downtown Cleveland with special guest Actor James Stewart.
 
In Toronto, the opening for CFTO (I kid you not) was an Ontario Association for Retarded Children telethon, which lasted for 18 hours straight.

CHCH in Hamilton was more "tasteful", shall we say. They aired a two-hour history of the city of Hamilton, complete with a local choir singing.

Global Television had a gala-type celebration, with an orchestra and someone singing the song used in the network's signoffs for the next decade. "We're got to start, we've got to begin getting a point of view, knowing about ourselves, knowing this world, understanding what and who can make it better, starting here and now with me, and you"<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by mjlarochelle on 07/13/05 02:25 AM.</FONT></P>
 
> Not when it came on the air, but when WAGA/5 Atlanta moved
> into its new facility on Briarcliff Road in 1966, Walter
> Cronkite came to cut the ribbon. After several years off
> the air in Atlanta, Cronkite was reinstated on Channel 5's
> schedule at the same time.
>
This isn't when it came on the air either, but when WBFF Fox 45 Baltimore launched its nightly newscast on a June Monday in 1991, its anchors, sports guy and weatherguy wore tuxedos on the set, even the anchorwoman, ala Marlene Dietrich.

ixnay
 
B. Patrick noted:

> (W)hen WAGA/5 Atlanta moved
> into its new facility on Briarcliff Road in 1966, Walter
> Cronkite came to cut the ribbon. After several years off
> the air in Atlanta, Cronkite was reinstated on Channel 5's
> schedule at the same time.

I have heard that one major reason the network evening newscasts were seldom "cleared" by affiliates in the Southeast during the first half of the 1960's had to do with their extensive coverage of the civil rights movement which irked some owners or managers of such stations who were staunch segregationists.

Back To Topic: I would also think that WAGA's local programming switched from black-and-white to color upon the move to their new facility.
 
> B. Patrick noted:
>
> > (W)hen WAGA/5 Atlanta moved
> > into its new facility on Briarcliff Road in 1966, Walter
> > Cronkite came to cut the ribbon. After several years off
> > the air in Atlanta, Cronkite was reinstated on Channel 5's
>
> > schedule at the same time.
>
> I have heard that one major reason the network evening
> newscasts were seldom "cleared" by affiliates in the
> Southeast during the first half of the 1960's had to do with
> their extensive coverage of the civil rights movement which
> irked some owners or managers of such stations who were
> staunch segregationists.
>
> Back To Topic: I would also think that WAGA's local
> programming switched from black-and-white to color upon the
> move to their new facility.
>
Cronkite wasn't cleared in either Atlanta or Birmingham at
one point in the mid-1960s. As for your second point, I
wouldn't be surprised if Channel 5 went to color that day,
as color was definitely coming "in" in 1966.
 
> I remember back when WTIC-TV channel 61 of Hartford, CT came
> to the air in September of 1984 (our FOX affiliate today).
> They aired a 1-hour opening gala... Does anybody here know of stations in other markets doing the same?

I went to the open house at WTIC-AM-FM-TV3 when owner Travelers Insurance moved the stations to Constitution Plaza in 1961. They had technicians operating the cameras on the sets for us. News, sports (with Bob Steele) and weather were separate shows and had separate sets. They also had sets for the morning and afternoon kids' shows and one for a weekly quiz show called What in the World. The station had two large studios for the sets. Radio was either on the top floor or the top 2 floors.

A week before going on the air in 1984, WTIC-TV-61 ran tests asking viewers to call with reception reports. When I called they asked how their off-air signal compared with Channel 3's.
 
Interesting notes! Two things of note about channel 3:

1- I have their 40th Anniversary special on tape from the fall of 1997.
2- They'll be moving into new studios (which aren't built yet) down I-91 in Rocky Hill, CT by 2007. It'll all be about a mile from that highway.
 
WDTN had a party in front of their studios in a Dayton suburb to celebrate the network switch this past fall.<P ID="signature">______________
Soon to set the world record for recieving Nigerian scam and phising e-mails!</P>
 
Gr8oldies noted:

> WDTN had a party in front of their studios in a Dayton
> suburb to celebrate the network switch this past fall.

It was actually WDTN returning to the NBC affiliate roster. The station began as an NBC affiliate (under the call letters WLWD) but flipped to ABC in the late 1970's at a time when ABC had suddenly become the top-ranked network in prime-time, winning the ratings race by a huge margin. ABC was able to raid several long-standing powerhouse affiliates of both NBC and CBS (the major defection: KSTP-5 Minneapolis/St. Paul, which had been the Twin Cities' NBC affiliate from the beginning).

Don't forget that until the late 1970's, many ABC affiliates were the weakest network-affiliated stations in their markets; some had signals leaving something to be desired (i.e. Providence/New Bedford, where ABC was on the then-WTEV-6, a station with an inferior signal to the market's other VHF's; or Dayton, where ABC was on UHF while CBS and NBC were on VHF's).
 
> Gr8oldies noted:
>
> > WDTN had a party in front of their studios in a Dayton
> > suburb to celebrate the network switch this past fall.
>
> It was actually WDTN returning to the NBC affiliate roster.
> The station began as an NBC affiliate (under the call
> letters WLWD) but flipped to ABC in the late 1970's at a
> time when ABC had suddenly become the top-ranked network in
> prime-time, winning the ratings race by a huge margin. ABC
> was able to raid several long-standing powerhouse affiliates
> of both NBC and CBS (the major defection: KSTP-5
> Minneapolis/St. Paul, which had been the Twin Cities' NBC
> affiliate from the beginning).
>
>
Not sure I agree that KSTP was the biggest defection to ABC.
Most stations that made the switch, including KSTP, ran
second in their markets. WSB/2 Atlanta was number one sign-on
to sign-off and made the switch in hopes of obtaining an even
bigger lead. It was the only NBC affiliate in the top 25 markets
to be number one in prime time in the 1979-80 season, and ABC
claimed that it might have held off CBS's return to number one
that year if WSB, and not WXIA/11 Alive, had been the ABC
affiliate.

At the time (June 1980), the Atlanta Journal quoted an ABC
spokesperson as saying that gaining WSB was like gaining another
o&o. When KSTP switched, Fred Silverman had been at NBC less
than a year and thus could not be blamed for the change in the
Twin Cities. But by 1980 he had had two years at NBC without
significant progress, so NBC had no excuse for letting WSB
defect.

But from all I've been able to gather over the past 20-some
years, NBC didn't get hurt too badly in Minneapolis, especially
in prime time. I've heard KARE/11 has been quite competitive
in prime time and in the 10 PM news.

BTW, KARE (then WTCN) marked the switch from independent to NBC
with a huge gala at the Guthrie Theater. An ice sculpture of
the NBC peacock was set up outside the theater, a motorcade of
limos took VIPs to the theater (I think the University of Minnesota
marching band might have performed), and Fred Silverman himself
showed up.<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by bpatrick on 07/16/05 10:54 PM.</FONT></P>
 
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