Retro: Anchorage Thurs, Apr 22, 1971

[Bluenoser]

from Anchorage Daily News via Google News Archive

KENI 2-NBC/ABC
9:00 NBC News
9:30 Instructional TV (bw)
10:00 Dinah's Place
10:30 Concentration
11:00 Sale of the Century
11:30 That Girl
noon Bewitched
12:30 A World Apart
1:00 All My Children
1:30 Let's Make a Deal
2:00 Newlywed Game
2:30 Dating Game
3:00 General Hospital
3:30 One Life to Live
4:00 Password
4:30 TBA
5:30 Julia
6:00 TV2 News
7:00 Flip Wilson
8:00 Ironside
9:00 Dean Martin (guests Ernest Borgnine, Dom DeLuise, and Peggy Lee)
10:00 Four-in-One: SFO International Airport
11:00 TV2 Late News
11:10 NBC Nightly News
11:40 Tonight Show

KTVA 11-CBS
7:30 Morning News
8:00 Captain Kangaroo
9:00 Sesame Street
10:00 Hostess House
10:45 Instructional TV (bw)
11:05 TBA
11:30 Lucy Show
noon Family Affair
12:30 Love of Life
1:00 Where the Heart is
1:25 Mid-Day News
1:30 Search for Tomorrow
2:00 As the World Turns
2:30 Love is a Many-Splendored Thing
3:00 Guiding Light
3:30 Secret Storm
4:00 Edge of Night
4:30 Gomer Pyle, USMC
5:00 Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour
6:00 Beverly Hillbillies
6:30 Channel 11 Evening News
7:00 Family Affair
7:30 Jim Nabors
8:30 CBS Thursday Night Movie "Who's Minding the Store?'
10:30 Death Valley Days
11:00 Dateline: Anchorage
11:15 CBS Evening News
11:45 Merv Griffin

KHAR 13-Ind
1:45pm Instructional TV (bw)
2:00 Studio 13
4:00 Sesame Street
5:00 Lost in Space (bw)
6:00 Dick Van Dyke (bw)
6:30 Galloping Gourmet
7:00 Alaska Fish & Game Show
7:30 Alfred Hitchcock (bw)
8:00 Thursday Night Movie "Hellfire"
10:00 Hart '71 News
10:25 Rubens Weather

 

[gregg75]

The big A had 126,000 people in 1970, so I would say this is pretty good tv for a city
of that size back then. When did they get their 3rd network & a PBS? I would guess that
WHAR became the 3rd network.

 

[Bluenoser]

The big A had 126,000 people in 1970, so I would say this is pretty good tv for a city
of that size back then. When did they get their 3rd network & a PBS? I would guess that
WHAR became the 3rd network.

According to Wikipedia (usual disclaimer applies ), 13 would take the ABC affiliation later that year and become KIMO (and then become KYUR late last year). The PBS station, KAKM 7, signed-on in 1975. Also for the record, KTBY 4 (Fox) came on in 1983, becoming a charter affiliate of Fox when that net launched 3 years later. KYES 5 (My, also on KYEX-LP 18) went on the air in 1990. KDMD 33 (ION) signed-on in 1989 (and runs the state's only Spanish channel, a Telemundo station, on a subchannel). And last but not least, KCFT-LP 35 (FamilyNet) has been on the air since 1984.

The local subchannel situtation looks like this:
KTUU: NBC SD 2.2
KTBY: zilch
KYES: UWTV (University of Washington) 5.2, Universal Sports 5.3, France 24 5.4, KUEL-FM 5.50, Uncommon Audio 5.51, testing 5.52
KAKM: Create 7.2, 360 North 7.3 (the latter originates at KTOO Juneau)
KTVA: see KTBY
KYUR: CW 13.2
KDMD: Telemundo 33.2, KACN-LP (Ind) 33.3, TBN 33.4
KCFT-LP: as KTBY

 

[gregg75]

Looks like they could use some help on their sub channels..............like many other
places.

 

[BMR]

How did they get the link from the lower 48 up to Alaska in 1971? Satellites would have been in their relative infancy still, and quite limited in capacity.

Did they run a microwave chain all the way from Seattle via Canada?

 

[azumanga]

How did they get the link from the lower 48 up to Alaska in 1971? Satellites would have been in their relative infancy still, and quite limited in capacity.

Did they run a microwave chain all the way from Seattle via Canada?

At the time, Alaska stations showed network programming on a tape delay -- regular network shows were usually delayed a week or two, while network newscasts were taped by Seattle stations and flown from there for showing later in the evening or the following morning.

This was the main reason why you see Walter Cronkite follow the 11PM news on channel 11, and why channel 2 did not carry the Today show.

 

[BMR]

Thanks for that, Azumanga. Very interesting. So on occasions they must have been showing very out of date news!?

Presumably there would have been shortwave radio links with the lower 48 for breaking news stories?

 

[azumanga]

Thanks for that, Azumanga. Very interesting. So on occasions they must have been showing very out of date news!?

Presumably there would have been shortwave radio links with the lower 48 for breaking news stories?

I believe the TV and radio stations in Alaska had teletype, just like everyone else -- by this time, Alaska had long-distance telephone connections with the Lower 48, through Canada.

 

[mjlarochelle]

At the time, Alaska stations showed network programming on a tape delay -- regular network shows were usually delayed a week or two, while network newscasts were taped by Seattle stations and flown from there for showing later in the evening or the following morning.

(Somewhat off-topic) I've also read that the latter is exactly how residents of Anchorage enjoyed McDonald's before the city got its first McDonald's restaurant - people visiting Seattle would order a bunch of Big Macs and fly them back to Anchorage.

 

[Wright County Guy]

What (or when) was the morning newscasts from (especially 30 minutes of NBC News at 9am ) -- was that a rerun of the previous evening?

 

[BMR]

So does anyone know when and how Alaska finally got on the live network feed?

 

[azumanga]

So does anyone know when and how Alaska finally got on the live network feed?

I would imagine not until the networks migrated to satellite in the 1980s -- while Alaska did have long-distance service with the Lower 48, it did not have any coaxial connections capable to transmit a television signal.