Retro: Atlanta/Chattanooga/Macon Saturday, May 10, 1969

[bpatrick]

From TV Guide, Georgia (Atlanta) Edition:

WSB Ch. 2 Atlanta (NBC)

7 AM Green Dragon Theater (I think this is a
reference to Orvil Dragon, a character
on "Officer Don's Popeye Club" on Ch. 2.)
8 AM Popeye Club
9 AM Super 6
9:30 Top Cat
10 AM Flintstones
10:30 Banana Splits
11:30 Untamed World ("Dragon" looks at snakes and
crocodiles, delay from 12:30 PM)
12 N Storybook Squares (Wally Cox, Abby Dalton,
Nanette Fabray, Stu Gilliam, Arte Johnson,
Carolyn Jones, Soupy Sales, Charley Weaver,
Paul Winchell)
12:30 Movie: "Stagecoach To Dancer's Rock" (Martin
Landau appears in this one, from '62)
1:55 Sports Film
2 PM Baseball: Reds-Expos (alternate game: Giants-Cubs)
5 PM Steve Allen (David Janssen, Joan Baez, Mort Sahl,
New Orleans mayor Victor Schiro, time approximate)
6 PM News (John Pruitt)
6:30 Huntley-Brinkley Report
7 PM Adam-12 (week-behind delay from 7:30 PM)
7:30 Death Valley Days (Robert Taylor is the lawman, Rudy
Vallee is his sidekick)
8 PM Get Smart
8:30 Rod McKuen Special
9 PM NBC Movie: "The Sound Of Anger" (pilot for "The Lawyers"
segment of "The Bold Ones," with Burl Ives and James
Farentino)
11 PM News
11:30 Movie: "Pony Express"
1:30 Movie: "Three On A Spree"

WRCB Ch. 3 Chattanooga (NBC)

8 AM Roy Rogers
9 AM Super 6
9:30 Top Cat
10 AM Flintstones
10:30 Banana Splits
11:30 Underdog
12 N Storybook Squares
12:30 Untamed World (South American tribes)
1 PM Bill Anderson
1:30 Gadabout Gaddis
2 PM Baseball (see Ch. 2)
5 PM Wilburn Brothers (time approximate)
5:30 Lester Flatt (after his breakup with Earl Scruggs)
6 PM Kitty Wells
6:30 Huntley-Brinkley Report
7 PM Porter Wagoner (guest: Little Jimmy Dickens)
7:30 Adam-12
8 PM Get Smart
8:30 Rod McKuen Special
9 PM NBC Movie: "The Sound Of Anger"
11 PM Stoneman Family
11:30 Saturday Tonight Show

WAGA Ch. 5 Atlanta (CBS)

6:25 Sacred Heart
6:40 Living Word
6:55 RFD-5
7:25 Metro Forestry
7:30 4-H Hour
8 AM Go-Go Gophers
8:30 Mr. Pix (Dave Michaels)
9:30 Wacky Races
10 AM Archie Show
10:30 Batman/Superman Hour
11:30 Herculoids
12 N Shazzan!
12:30 Jonny Quest
1 PM Moby Dick And The Mighty Mightor
1:30 Lone Ranger (animated)
2 PM Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour (delay from
8:30 AM)
3 PM Dobie Gillis
3:30 Gidget
4 PM Adventures Of The Seaspray
4:30 Tightrope! (Atlanta viewers get a double dose of
Mike Connors today--"Tightrope!" now, and "Mannix"
at 10 PM.)
5 PM Hawaii Five-O (delay from Wed 10 PM)
6 PM Panorama News
6:30 The Good Guys (delay from Wed 8:30 PM)
7 PM Beverly Hillbillies (delay from Wed 9 PM)
7:30 Jackie Gleason (rerun of the episode where Ralph claims
his friend Jackie Gleason is going to appear at the Raccoon
Lodge dance, but Gleason never heard of the bus driver)
8:30 My Three Sons
9 PM Hogan's Heroes
9:30 Petticoat Junction (actors Buddy Rogers and Richard Arlen
attend a Hooterville premiere--of their 1928 movie "Wings")
10 PM Mannix
11 PM News
11:30 Movie: "The Far Horizons" (the story of Lewis and Clark,
with Fred MacMurray and Charlton Heston, from '55)

WGTV Ch. 8 Athens/Atlanta/WDCO Ch. 15 (WMUM Ch. 29) Cochran/
WCLP (WNGH) Ch. 18 Chatsworth (NET)

8 PM Charles Ives (Leopold Stokowski conducts the American Symphony
Orchestra in a performance of Charles Ives' Fourth Symphony, which
took ten years to decipher after it was found in 1954.)
9 PM Theater I: "Crazy Sunday" with Dana Andrews and Rip Torn
10 PM Speaking Freely

WTVC Ch. 9 Chattanooga (ABC)

7 AM Ag Science
7:30 George Of The Jungle (delay from noon, listed as black and white)
8 AM Dudley Do-Right (delay from Sun 9:30 AM, listed as black and white)
8:30 Three Stooges
9 AM New Casper Cartoon Show
9:30 Adventures Of Gulliver
10 AM Spider-Man
10:30 Fantastic Voyage
11 AM Journey To The Center Of The Earth
11:30 Fantastic Four
12 N Singing Convention
1 PM Know Your Bible
1:30 Happening (the Grass Roots, the Spiral Staircase)
2 PM Ramar Of The Jungle
2:30 Three Stooges
3 PM Movies: "Danger Woman" (watch for Don Porter in this
one from '46) and "A Dangerous Game"
5 PM Wide World Of Sports (National Championship Steeplechase
Motorcycle Race, NCAA Gymnastics Championships, Fireman's
Competition--competition in events such as pumping and ladder
climbing)
6:30 The Avengers (delay from Mon 7:30 PM)
7:30 Dating Game (celebrity guest: Don Grady of "My Three Sons")
8 PM Newlywed Game
8:30 Lawrence Welk (salutes to Mother's Day, Irving Berlin's 81st
birthday, and the completion of the first transcontinental railroad
in May 1869; Virginia Graham appears on behalf of the National Cancer
Crusade)
9:30 Hollywood Palace (a country show with hosts Roy Rogers and Dale
Evans, Burl Ives, George Gobel, Irene Ryan, Jeannie C. Riley,
Sonny James, the Stoney Mountain Cloggers)
10:30 Alfred Hitchcock Presents
11 PM News (I presume this is ABC, no anchor given)
11:15 Movie: "The Benny Goodman Story" (Steve Allen plays the bandleader)

WQXI (WXIA) Ch. 11 Atlanta (ABC)

7 AM Adventures In Living
7:30 Tubby And Lester
9 AM New Casper Cartoon Show
9:30 Adventures Of Gulliver
10 AM Spider-Man
10:30 Fantastic Voyage
11 AM Journey To The Center Of The Earth
11:30 Fantastic Four
12 N George Of The Jungle
12:30 American Bandstand (Tommy Roe, Smoke Ring)
1:30 Happening
2 PM Bill Anderson
2:30 Wilburn Brothers (guest: Charlie Walker)
3 PM Porter Wagoner (guests: Lonzo and Oscar)
3:30 Joe Pyne (guest: Earl Ray Koons, author of "The
Planet Earth")
5 PM Wide World Of Sports
6:30 Movie: "The Left Hand Of God"
8:30 Lawrence Welk
9:30 Hollywood Palace
10:30 Atlanta Wrestling
11:30 Joe Pyne (rerun of the 3:30 show)
1 AM News (listed in black and white--the station had
color, but this could also be ABC on delay)

WDEF Ch. 12 Chattanooga (CBS)

8 AM Go-Go Gophers
8:30 Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour
9:30 Wacky Races
10 AM Archie Show
10:30 Batman/Superman Hour
11:30 Herculoids
12 N Shazzan!
12:30 Jonny Quest
1 PM Moby Dick And The Mighty Mightor
1:30 Lone Ranger (animated)
2 PM Movie: "Tarzan And The Trappers" (Gordon
Scott is Tarzan, from '58)
3 PM Abbott And Costello
3:30 Car And Track
4 PM Combat!
5 PM Wrestling (from the studio)
6 PM News (Red Brown)
6:30 CBS News (Roger Mudd)
7 PM Skippy The Bush Kangaroo
7:30 Jackie Gleason
8:30 My Three Sons
9 PM Hogan's Heroes
9:30 Petticoat Junction
10 PM Mannix
11 PM News
11:15 Movie: "Between Heaven And Hell"

WMAZ Ch. 13 Macon (CBS/ABC)

7 AM Georgialand
7:30 Georgia TV Monitor
8 AM Go-Go Gophers
8:30 Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour
9:30 Wacky Races
10 AM Archie Show
10:30 Batman/Superman Hour
11:30 Herculoids
12 N Shazzan!
12:30 Jonny Quest
1 PM Moby Dick And The Mighty Mightor
1:30 Lone Ranger (animated)
2 PM Happening (Mickey Rooney, the Friends of
Distinction)
2:30 Film
3 PM Movie: "Sierra Baron" (Brian Keith and Rick
Jason are in this one from '58)
5 PM Film
5:30 Guns Of Will Sonnett (ABC, delay from Fri 9:30 PM)
6 PM N.Y.P.D. (ABC, delay from Tue 9:30 PM)
6:30 CBS News
7 PM Porter Wagoner
7:30 Jackie Gleason
8:30 Lawrence Welk
9:30 Petticoat Junction
10 PM Mannix
11 PM News
11:15 Robins Report
11:20 Movie: "The Bottom Of The Bottle" (despite the title,
this is about an escaped convict trying to get his
wife and kids out of Mexico, and the lawyer-brother
who fears for his practice if he helps him)

WJRJ (WPCH) Ch. 17 Atlanta (Ind.)

2 PM Upbeat (Gary Puckett and the Union Gap, Brooklyn
Bridge, Ronnie Dove)
3 PM Agriculture U.S.A.
3:30 Movie: TBA
5 PM Little Rascals
5:30 Batman
6 PM Western Star Theatre
6:30 CBS News (pre-empted on Ch. 5)
7 PM Movie: "Prince Of Foxes"
9 PM Skippy The Bush Kangaroo
9:30 Roller Derby
10:30 The Generation Gap (pianist Craig Hundley and his
manager-father play the game, delay from Fri 8:30
PM, pre-empted on Ch. 11)
11 PM Alfred Hitchcock Presents
11:30 Thriller

WETV (WPBA) Ch. 30 Atlanta (NET)
off air on Saturdays

WCWB (WMGT) Ch. 41 Macon (NBC)

9 AM Super 6
9:30 Top Cat
10 AM Flintstones
10:30 Banana Splits
11:30 Underdog
12 N Storybook Squares
12:30 Untamed World
1 PM Dog Etiquette
1:30 Film: "Pride Of The Packers"
2 PM Baseball (see Ch. 2)
5 PM Wrestling (from the studio, time approximate)
6 PM Film: "Lifeline On Wheels" (the trucking industry)
6:30 Bill Anderson
7 PM Huntley-Brinkley Report
7:30 Adam-12
8 PM Get Smart
8:30 Rod McKuen Special
9 PM NBC Movie: "The Sound Of Anger"
sign off 11 PM

 

[Charles1]

Good ole' Parc Jarry in Montreal! It wasn't much of anything, but it was a heck of a lot better than Olympic Stadium, where the Expos played from '77 until they moved to Washington.

Wasn't the MLB game of the week on NBC the first time an MLB game played in Canada was broadcast coast-to-coast in the U.S.? 1969 was the first year of play for the Expos and Padres in NL, as well the first year of play for the Royals and the Pilots in the AL. It was also the last year of play for the Pilots, as they moved to Milwaukee just before the beginning of the '70 season and changed their nickname to the Brewers.

 

[bpatrick]

Given the date it seems plausible that that Expos game was
the first game played in Canada to be televised nationally in
the U.S. It seems strange, though, that the Expos were usually
contenders yet they apparently couldn't draw the crowds and
ended up moving to Washington.

 

[Mike Stroud]

WAGA Ch. 5 Atlanta (CBS)

2 PM Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour (delay from
8:30 AM)
5 PM Hawaii Five-O (delay from Wed 10 PM)
6:30 The Good Guys (delay from Wed 8:30 PM)
7 PM Beverly Hillbillies (delay from Wed 9 PM)

WGTV Ch. 8 Athens/Atlanta/WDCO Ch. 15 (WMUM Ch. 29) Cochran/
WCLP (WNGH) Ch. 18 Chatsworth (NET)

8 PM Charles Ives (Leopold Stokowski conducts the American Symphony
Orchestra in a performance of Charles Ives' Fourth Symphony, which
took ten years to decipher after it was found in 1954.)
9 PM Theater I: "Crazy Sunday" with Dana Andrews and Rip Torn
10 PM Speaking Freely

WTVC Ch. 9 Chattanooga (ABC)

11 PM News (I presume this is ABC, no anchor given)

WDEF Ch. 12 Chattanooga (CBS)

6 PM News (Red Brown)

WMAZ Ch. 13 Macon (CBS/ABC)

7 AM Georgialand
7:30 Georgia TV Monitor

6:30 CBS News

WETV (WPBA) Ch. 30 Atlanta (NET)
off air on Saturdays

All right, bp, here I come again with my snark:

1) WAGA: I bet CBS was really pleased with this station's habit of airing shows out of pattern. I suspect this continued up until the time of News Corp's purchase and conversion of the station to FOX in 1995. CBS probably didn't shed too many tears to see channel 5 gone as one might suppose. These days with TiVo, it's up to the viewer to decide when he or she wants to watch a particular program; VCRs were still in the Research and Development phase in 1969, though (if that).

2) I know we dealt extensively with Georgia ETV's peculiarities on the recent 1974 post, but it seems to me a waste just to run a three-hour sked in prime time (I bet you even money the control room staff bitched loudly about coming in on a Saturday night). GETV would have done better to do as WETV (and many other pub TV outlets at the time) did and just stay dark on Saturdays, postponing those shows until the next day, when more potential viewers would be at home anyway. These days, PBS stations fill up Saturday nights with the likes of Lawrence Welk and so-called "Brit-coms" aimed at an older, house-bound viewership, since everybody else is either out or watching videos or playing video games on that night.

3) WTVC, 11 p.m. and WMAZ, 6:30 p.m.: It must have been annoying to viewers to have to figure out for themselves whether a newscast was local or national. TVG's inconsistent labeling sure didn't help things. It was so strange when I started collecting issues from the 1960s to find newscasts mostly unlabeled--by the time I came along in the 1970s, the magazine finally started doing that; e.g., "NBC News," "News" standing for local, and so on.

4) WDEF, 6 p.m.: Red Brown was a well-respected anchor in Chattanooga. His wife was named Violet and they had a daughter named Blackie. (HAHAHAHAHA!!!)

5) WMAZ, 7-8 a.m.: The station sure seems proud of its state of location. It should be, since, back then, the Macon stations were about the only ones whose signals did not reach into any other state.

Ta-ta for now!

 

[Tim L]

Given the date it seems plausible that that Expos game was
the first game played in Canada to be televised nationally in
the U.S. It seems strange, though, that the Expos were usually
contenders yet they apparently couldn't draw the crowds and
ended up moving to Washington.

The Expos drew as well as anyone when they won..Just that the last owners (especially Jeffery Loria) ruined the Franchise, eventually they were run by MLB the last couple of seasons..Near the end they were playing "home" games in Puerto Rico..Fans just got fed up..


http://www.baseball-almanac.com/teams/montattn.shtml

I have a soft spot for the Expos..Back in the 70's I was able to see some games via TV-DX from CFPL-10 London, Ontario..

 

[bpatrick]

WAGA Ch. 5 Atlanta (CBS)

2 PM Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour (delay from
8:30 AM)
5 PM Hawaii Five-O (delay from Wed 10 PM)
6:30 The Good Guys (delay from Wed 8:30 PM)
7 PM Beverly Hillbillies (delay from Wed 9 PM)

WGTV Ch. 8 Athens/Atlanta/WDCO Ch. 15 (WMUM Ch. 29) Cochran/
WCLP (WNGH) Ch. 18 Chatsworth (NET)

8 PM Charles Ives (Leopold Stokowski conducts the American Symphony
Orchestra in a performance of Charles Ives' Fourth Symphony, which
took ten years to decipher after it was found in 1954.)
9 PM Theater I: "Crazy Sunday" with Dana Andrews and Rip Torn
10 PM Speaking Freely

WTVC Ch. 9 Chattanooga (ABC)

11 PM News (I presume this is ABC, no anchor given)

WDEF Ch. 12 Chattanooga (CBS)

6 PM News (Red Brown)

WMAZ Ch. 13 Macon (CBS/ABC)

7 AM Georgialand
7:30 Georgia TV Monitor

6:30 CBS News

WETV (WPBA) Ch. 30 Atlanta (NET)
off air on Saturdays

All right, bp, here I come again with my snark:

1) WAGA: I bet CBS was really pleased with this station's habit of airing shows out of pattern. I suspect this continued up until the time of News Corp's purchase and conversion of the station to FOX in 1995. CBS probably didn't shed too many tears to see channel 5 gone as one might suppose. These days with TiVo, it's up to the viewer to decide when he or she wants to watch a particular program; VCRs were still in the Research and Development phase in 1969, though (if that).

2) I know we dealt extensively with Georgia ETV's peculiarities on the recent 1974 post, but it seems to me a waste just to run a three-hour sked in prime time (I bet you even money the control room staff bitched loudly about coming in on a Saturday night). GETV would have done better to do as WETV (and many other pub TV outlets at the time) did and just stay dark on Saturdays, postponing those shows until the next day, when more potential viewers would be at home anyway. These days, PBS stations fill up Saturday nights with the likes of Lawrence Welk and so-called "Brit-coms" aimed at an older, house-bound viewership, since everybody else is either out or watching videos or playing video games on that night.

3) WTVC, 11 p.m. and WMAZ, 6:30 p.m.: It must have been annoying to viewers to have to figure out for themselves whether a newscast was local or national. TVG's inconsistent labeling sure didn't help things. It was so strange when I started collecting issues from the 1960s to find newscasts mostly unlabeled--by the time I came along in the 1970s, the magazine finally started doing that; e.g., "NBC News," "News" standing for local, and so on.

4) WDEF, 6 p.m.: Red Brown was a well-respected anchor in Chattanooga. His wife was named Violet and they had a daughter named Blackie. (HAHAHAHAHA!!!)

5) WMAZ, 7-8 a.m.: The station sure seems proud of its state of location. It should be, since, back then, the Macon stations were about the only ones whose signals did not reach into any other state.

Ta-ta for now!

1. WAGA ran a movie on Wednesday nights from 8:30-10:30. They put "Green Acres" at 10:30 Wednesday, then delayed everything else airing on the network from 8:30-11 to Saturday. Actually, several CBS affiliates in these parts ran movies on Wednesdays, usually early so as to compete with "The Virginian"; I remember WFMY and WBTV doing this, delaying "The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour" to Fridays at 7, and pre-empting "Wild Wild West". "Mr. Pix" had previously pre-empted the Saturday edition of "Captain Kangaroo" from 8-9; when CBS changed its Saturday-morning lineup in 1968 the first available hour slot was 8:30-9:30, and you already know how Ch. 5 handled it.

2. I wondered about that myself, why Chs. 8, 15, and 18 would carry only three hours on Saturday. At the time many NET stations (at least the ones I know about) didn't even bother to sign on on Saturday.

3. I have difficulty figuring out if the newscast is local or network in the pre-1970 era unless the anchor's name is given or I know there was a network newscast at a particular time (such as ABC Sat/Sun 11 PM); where it gets tricky is something like Ch. 11 at 1 AM--is that a short locally-produced wrapup before sign-off or did they delay ABC News two hours? Memory seems to be telling me it was the latter; by the late '70s they were doing local news 11-11:30, a movie 11:30-1:30, and ABC News 1:30-1:45.

4. No comment.

5. "Georgia TV Monitor," later renamed "Georgia Farm Monitor," originated at WMAZ and, by sometime in the '70s, was carried statewide. The other show I'm not familiar with.