Peoria, IL/Quad Cities, Thursday, October 7, 1982 (OTA only) (6AM-1:30AM)

[Tim from Springfield IL]

From the Galesburg (IL) Register-Mail "Guide," 10/2/82.

Note: I will be listing the over-the-air channels only, listings were also included for HBO, USA, CNN, ESPN, as well as Chicago stations WGN, WFLD and WTTW (the latter two still offered at the time on Galesburg's cable). With the exception of KIIN-12, this is what was received with at least fair signals OTA at my parents' house in far northwestern Peoria County, IL (near the town of Brimfield) halfway between Peoria and Galesburg.

Stations listed (and their 1982 newscast names that I know of):
4-WHBF Rock Island (CBS) (News 4?)
6-WOC (now KWQC) Davenport (NBC) (NewsCenter 6)
8-WQAD Moline (ABC) (Active 8 News)
12-KIIN Iowa City (PBS--Iowa Public Television)
19-WRAU (now WHOI) Peoria (ABC) (possbly just 19 News then?)
25-WEEK Peoria (NBC) (was and still is News 25)
31-WMBD Peoria (CBS) (NewsCenter 31)
47-WTVP Peoria (PBS)

(Listings from the guide may be subject to error as a result of ALCS/NLCS games, but I checked Wikipedia for the actual game times and dates, so those are based on what I found there)

Listings (and comments when needed):
6AM
4, 25-Jim Bakker
6-Ag Day
8-Country Day
19-ABC News this Morning
31-Jimmy Swaggart

6:30AM
6-Early Today
8-ABC News this Morning
31-Captain Kangaroo

6:45AM
12-Weather (likely Maryland Public Television-produced "AM Weather")

7AM
4, 31-CBS Morning News
6, 25-Today
8, 19-Good Morning America (Hartman/Lunden)
12-Understanding Human Behavior

7:30AM
12-Mister Rogers' Neighborhood

7:45AM
47-AM Weather (for sure on WTVP--see above)

8AM
12, 47-Sesame Street

9AM
4, 31-$25,000 Pyramid
6-Diff'rent Strokes
8, 19-Phil Donahue (Guest: Lana Turner)
12-Instructional Programs (apparently until 3:30)
25-Richard Simmons
47-Villa Alegre

9:30AM
4, 31-Child's Play
6-Wheel of Fortune (less than 3 months before Vanna's debut on the daytime version)
25-So You Got Troubles (might actually be: "So You Think You Got Troubles?")
47- 3-2-1 Contact

10AM
4, 31-Price is Right
6, 25-Texas
8-Richard Simmons
19-Love Boat
47-Sign off until 4PM (WTVP didn't have an all-day weekday schedule until June 1987)

10:30AM
8-Romper Room (Teacher: Miss Peggy)

11AM
4, 31-Young and the Restless
6, 25-The Doctors (less than 3 months until cancellation)
8, 19-Family Feud

11:30AM
6, 25-Search for Tomorrow (moved to NBC from CBS earlier in '82)
8, 19-Ryan's Hope

12PM
4-Jeffersons
6, 31-News
8, 19-All My Children
25-Days of Our Lives (WEEK did not have a noon newscast until 1995)

12:30PM
4, 31-As the World Turns
6-Days of our Lives

1PM
8, 19-One Life to Live
25-Another World

1:30PM
4, 31-Capitol
6-Another World

2PM
4, 31-Guiding Light (the disco theme years)
8, 19-General Hospital
25-Joker's Wild

2:30PM
6-Fantasy
25-I Love Lucy

3PM
4-Eight is Enough
8, 31-Hour Magazine (Gary Collins)
19-Edge of Night (possibly tape-delayed--apparently bumped completely by WQAD-8)
25-Favorite Funnies (local classic cartoon show, including pre-1948 Looney Tunes--can't remember if other cartoons with Popeye, etc. were also included or if it was just WB cartoons)

3:30
6-Little House on the Prairie
12-Mister Rogers
19-Soap World
25-Brady Bunch

4PM
4-Bugs Bunny and Friends
8-Happy Days Again
12-Sesame Street
19-All in the Family
25-Laverne and Shirley
31-Rockford Files
47-Mister Rogers

4:30PM
4-Leave it to Beaver
6, 25-People's Court
8-Laverne and Shirley
19-Jeffersons
47-Electric Company

5PM
4-Hogan's Heroes
6-Barney Miller
8-Magazine (likely a local news program)
12-Electric Company
19-News
25-Live at Five (was and still is WEEK's 5PM news program)
31-More Real People
47-Sesame Street

5:30 PM
4, 31-News (don't know if it's CBS or local on 4, while 31 had local news at that time then)
6, 25-NBC News
8, 19-ABC News
12-Contemporary Health Issue

6PM
4, 6, 8, 19, 25-News (again, unsure about channel 4 on whether it was CBS or local)
12-Business Report (most likely "Nightly Business Report")
31-CBS News
47- 3-2-1 Contact

6:30PM
4, 31-Family Feud
6-PM Magazine
8-M*A*S*H
12, 47-MacNeil-Lehrer Report
19-Alice
25-Entertainment Tonight

7PM
4, 31-Magnum, P.I.
6, 25-Fame
8, 19-Joanie Loves Chachi (according to the guide, but going by Wikipedia, NLCS Game 1 may likely have aired this evening instead of the regular ABC lineup--Final Score: St. Louis Cardinals 7, Atlanta Braves 0).
12-Live from the Met
47-All Creatures Great and Small

7:30PM
8, 19-Star of the Family (regularly scheduled program)

8PM
4, 31-Simon and Simon (season premiere)
6, 25-Cheers (second episode)
8, 19-Too Close for Comfort (regularly scheduled)
47-American Short Story

8:30PM
6, 25-Taxi (just moved to NBC from ABC)
8, 19-It Takes Two (regularly scheduled)

9PM
4, 31-Knots Landing ("J.R. makes a surprise visit to Knot's Landing")
6, 25-Hill Street Blues
8, 19- 20/20 (regularly scheduled)
47-American Dreamers ("The recipients of the Horatio Alger Award are profiled")

10PM
4, 6, 8, 19, 25, 31-News
47-Psychology

10:30
4-Quincy
6, 25-Tonight Show
8-M*A*S*H
19-Barney Miller
31-Hawaii Five-O
47-Psychology

11PM
8-Vega$ ("Dan joins forces with a psychic to follow the trail of a kidnapped heiress") (1 hr. 10 min.)
12-Dick Cavett
19-All in the Family

11:30 PM
4-MOVIE: "McCloud: Encounter with Aries" (CBS Late Movie?)
6, 25-Late Night with David Letterman
12-Captioned ABC News
19-Nightline
31-MOVIE: "Virgin Soldiers" (1970) (WMBD usually aired their own movies in place of the CBS Late Movie offerings)

12AM
8-Nightline
19-Vega$ (same description as 11PM on WQAD--possibly an ABC late night offering of off-air Vega$ reruns?)

12:30AM
6, 25-NBC News Overnight
8- 700 Club

1AM
4-Nightbeat (late night CBS news?)

1:15AM
31-Your World (possibly a late night newscast?)

1:30AM
6, 8-News/Sign-Off
25-Meditations

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

I was going to remark at the end of the listings that based on the newscast titles of '82 I gave and the name of WEEK's 5PM newscast, I think one can easily tell which station in the Peoria market has been the ratings leader for news.

Also, I didn't think much of it growing up, but WMBD's use of "News Center 31" for the name of their newscast was, IMO, very unusual for a CBS affiliate. It seems that a preponderance of the stations that had (or currently still use) the "NewsCenter" title are NBC affiliates (case in point, channel 6 throughout the '80s, all of the NBC affiliates in Iowa at the time, and more recently, the use of "NewsCenter 17" as the name of WAND-Decatur's newscast since it switched affiliations from ABC to NBC last September).

However, although both of these other Illinois stations are not in the listings above, in the early '80s WCIA-3 Champaign (CBS), which was also owned by Midwest Broadcasting (and both sold to and operated by Nexstar since 1999), called their newscast "News Center 3," and there were instances where some WMBD news personalities also appeared on WCIA (for example, until the mid-90s WCIA simulcasted WMBD's farm report with Coleen Callahan during both stations' noon news). However, this did not necessarily translate to WCIA always picking up the same syndicated programs and having similar schedules for the Champaign/Decatur/Springfield market that WMBD offered for Peoria viewers (WCIA aired Donahue at 9AM in fall 1982, for instance, completely bumping $25,000 Pyramid and Child's Play there, while channel 3 still showed old "Dialing for Dollars" movies at the time).

In addition, WGEM-10 Quincy (NBC) called their newscast "Newswatch 10" at the time of the listings I posted. In fact, I don't think either of the two Quincy network affiliates (KTVO Kirksville, MO, which is considered the de facto ABC station for Quincy, does not count) ever used the "NewsCenter" title for their newscasts.