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Really Retro: Boston, Friday, September 10th, 1948

Let's go back exactly 65 years, to a time when commercial television in Boston was three months old. There were two stations on the air, WBZ-4 and WNAC-7. Below are the TV listings for that date, as published in that day's Boston Globe.

Although the Globe listed the programs of WBZ and WNAC separately, I have posted their listings in the more familiar format of time period, followed by programs in that time period on WBZ, then WNAC.

WBZ-TV, Channel 4 (NBC)
WNAC-TV, Channel 7 (ABC/CBS/DuMont)

10 A.M.
4-Test Pattern (until 12 Noon)
11 A.M.
7-Test Pattern)(until 12 Noon)
1 P.M.
4-Test Pattern
1:30 P.M.
7-Test Pattern
1:55 P.M.
4-Major League Baseball: New York Yankees at Boston Red Sox (according to Shrp ports.com, Boston lost 11-6 in ten innings. In retrospect, this loss may have cost Boston the American League pennant, as the team tied Cleveland at the end of the regular-season and lost a one-game playoff!)
2 P.M.
7-Natrional Tennis Championships (this was the event at Forest Hills in New York that later became the U.S. Open; according to TV listings in that day's New York Times, this event was not televised in New York City itself, so I don't know if ABC, CBS, or DuMont originated the telecast)(presumably, WNAC signed-off after the telecast ended unless it ran through 6 P.M. EDT)
5 P.M.
4-Sign-Off (time approximate after baseball)
6 P.M.
7-Small Fry Club (DuMont; hosted by Bob "Big Brother" Emery, who in 1952 returned to Boston to do a long-running local version of this show on WBZ)
6:30 P.M.
4-Test Pattern
7-Russ Hodges' Scoreboard (DuMont)
6:45 P.M.
7-Film Shorts
6:55 P.M.
4-News Tape
7:00 P.M.
4-Kartoon Korner (that's the way the Globe spelled it; this was probably also the way WBZ did)
7-News and Views (ABC evening newscast)
7:14 P.M.
4-Weather or Not with Dr. James Austin (the first on-camera TV weather forecaster in Boston; yes, the 7:14 P.M. time is not a typo!)
7:15 P.M.
7-Places, Please (short variety show) (CBS)
7:20 P.M.
4-(Shawmut) Nightly Newsteller (local newscast sponsored by the Shawmut Bank)
7:30 P.M.
4-Adventures of Rex and Rinty (presumably an episode of a movie serial; during the Summer and Fall of 1948, WBZ carried an episode of a movie serial at 7:30 P.M. each evening they were on the air; "Rinty" probably referred to Rin-Tin-Tin, who eventually would have his own hit TV series in the 1950's)
7-News (presumably, this would be "Douglas Edwards and the News" from CBS)
7:45 P.M.
7-Face The Music (not the later game show of that title, but a musical interlude from CBS; that day's Times indicated that Johnny Desmond was on that evening's show)
7:50 P.M.
4-(Camel) Newsreel Theatre-Newsreel film from either NBC or Movietone, narrated off-camera by John Cameron Swayze)
8:00 P.M.
4-Movie: The Secret Valley (according to IMDB.com, I found a 1937 movie by that title starring Richard Arlen and Virgina Grey)
7-Sportsmen's Quiz (CBS)
8:05 P.M.
7-High-School Football; Chelsea at Lynn English (in the Fall of 1948, WNAC actually televised local high-school football games, most played at the Manning Bowl in Lynn, Massachusetts. Today, regular-season high-school football in Massachusetts is televised on local cable-access channels) (WNAC signed-off after the game ended)
9:15 P.M.
4-Newsreel (maybe local; but I didn't think WBZ began shooting local news film until the early-to-mid 1950's)
9:25 P.M.
4-(Gillette) Cavalcade Of Sports (a boxing card from Madison Square Garden in New York; the feature bout was a 10-round lightweight match between Paddy DeMarco and Willie Pep; I believe Pep eventually became the world lightweight champ)
10:45 P.M.
4-(Boston Post) Views of News In New England (a young Arch MacDonald reading the news, along with still photos from the now-defunct paper; the Post had worked with WBZ in several news-related projects going back to the late 1930's on radio)
10:50 P.M.
4-Sign-Off
 
"Kartoon Korner" is probably not a typo; I've heard of stations carrying
cartoon anthologies with names like "Kartoon Kapers," or, occasionally,
"Kartoon Karnival."
 
I should have noted in my original post that from June 9th through September 22nd of 1948, WBZ-4 was on the air only five evenings a week: Wednesday through Sunday.

Only if they had a baseball game or coverage of the 1948 political conventions would they go on the air Mondays or Tuesdays, or during daytime hours on any day of the week.

Beginning on Monday, September 27th, 1948, WBZ would begin telecasting seven nights/days a week.
 
And the Boston Post was also seeking a television station - IIRC it was either channel 9 or 13 (they were both assigned to the Boston market at that time before eventually going to Manchester NH and Portland ME respectively).
 
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