Retro: Atlanta/Chattanooga/Macon Saturday, May 17, 1958

[bpatrick]

From TV Guide, Georgia (Atlanta) Edition:

WSB Ch. 2 Atlanta (NBC)

9:30 Laurel And Hardy
10 AM Howdy Doody
10:30 Ruff And Reddy
11 AM Fury
11:30 Andy's Gang (Andy Devine)
12 N True Story
12:30 Mr. Wizard (delay from Sun 1 PM)
1 PM Baseball: Yankees-Senators (Leo Durocher and
Lindsey Nelson report; these Senators became
the Minnesota Twins, while the second team
known as the Senators became the Texas Rangers.)
3:30 Jungle (documentary, time approximate)
4 PM Captain David Grief
4:30 Detective's Diary
5 PM Movie: "Golden Boy" (William Holden got his break in
this '39 classic about a violinist from New York's East
Side who becomes a boxer.)
6:55 News, Sports
7 PM Saber Of London (delay from Sun 5:30 PM)
7:30 People Are Funny
8 PM Perry Como (guests: Jack Carter, the Mills Brothers,
Sally Ann Howes, Ann B. Davis, COLOR)
9 PM Polly Bergen (guests: Dick Van Dyke and dancer Carol
Haney)
9:30 Turning Point
10 PM Amateur Hour (guests: accordionist Frances Flower, singers
Dolores Ann Duda and Diana Robin, cellist Tate Ann Hunter)
10:30 Your Hit Parade (COLOR)
11 PM Movie: "Strange Cargo"

WRGP (WRCB) Ch. 3 Chattanooga (NBC)

9 AM Western Movie (title not given)
10 AM Howdy Doody
10:30 Ruff And Reddy
11 AM University Of Tennessee Extension Service
11:15 Health Council
11:30 Andy's Gang
12 N True Story
12:30 Film Feature (travelogue)
1 PM Baseball: Yankees-Senators
4 PM Film Feature (travelogue)
4:30 Detective's Diary
5 PM Western Movie (title not given)
6 PM Racket Squad
6:30 Chicago Wrestling
7:30 People Are Funny
8 PM Perry Como (COLOR)
9 PM Polly Bergen
9:30 Turning Point
10 PM Amateur Hour
10:30 Your Hit Parade (COLOR)
11 PM Movie: TBA

WAGA Ch. 5 Atlanta (CBS)

8:45 Off To Adventure
9 AM Mr. Toymaker
9:30 Captain Kangaroo
10:30 Mighty Mouse
11 AM Jimmy Dean (guests: singer Jane Morgan,
vocal group the Four Saints)
12 N Cross Country (farm news)
12:30 4-H Hour (an institution on Ch. 5 into the '80s
at least)
1:15 Baseball: Dodgers-Cardinals (Dizzy Dean and Buddy
Blattner report)
3:55 Sports With Jimmy Powers (time approximate)
4 PM Florida Derby Day
4:30 The Preakness (Tim Tam won this race and the Kentucky
Derby but lost to Cavan in the Belmont)
5 PM School Of The Air
5:30 This Is Your Town (another long-running fixture on Ch. 5)
6 PM Cisco Kid
6:30 Combat Sergeant
7 PM Code 3
7:30 Perry Mason
8:30 Top Dollar (a daytime version of this show would replace
the rigged "Dotto" in August)
9 PM Oh! Susanna (Gale Storm)
9:30 Have Gun, Will Travel
10 PM Gunsmoke
10:30 Big Story
11 PM News, Weather, Sports
11:05 Mystery Is My Business
11:35 Mr. District Attorney

WTVC Ch. 9 Chattanooga (ABC)

2:55 News Report
3 PM Words And Thoughts
3:15 Country Style, U.S.A.
3:30 Movie: TBA
5 PM Chattanooga Wrestling
6:30 Cartoons
7:30 Dick Clark (guests: Billy and Lillie, Art and
Dotty Todd, Chuck Berry, Betty Johnson,
Carl McVay, Frankie Lymon)
8 PM Country Music Jubilee (Red Foley welcomes
Marty Robbins)
9 PM Lawrence Welk (a salute to Norway)
10 PM Billy Graham
11 PM Movie: TBA

WLWA (WXIA) Ch. 11 Atlanta (ABC)

8:05 Cartoon Carnival
11 AM Flash Gordon
11:30 Ramar Of The Jungle
12 N Joe Palooka
12:30 Movie: "Law Of The Badlands"
1:30 Movie: "Way Back Home"
3 PM Dance Party
4 PM Western Movie (title not given)
5:30 Atlanta Wrestling
6 PM Movie: "Flight For Freedom" (Rosalind Russell
plays a pilot based on Amelia Earhart; the movie
led many to believe the Japanese shot down Earhart's
plane on her around-the-world flight attempt in 1937
because the heroine here discovers Japanese fortifications
on a Pacific island.)
7:30 Dick Clark
8 PM Country Music Jubilee
9 PM Lawrence Welk
10 PM Billy Graham
11 PM 20th Century-Fox Hour

WDEF Ch. 12 Chattanooga (CBS)

9 AM Children's Gospel Hour
9:30 Captain Kangaroo
10 AM Mr. Chickaroonie
10:30 Mighty Mouse
11 AM Jimmy Dean
12 N Top Ten Dance Party
1:15 Baseball: Dodgers-Cardinals
4 PM Porky Pig (not to be confused with the ABC
series in the '60s, time approximate)
4:30 The Preakness
5 PM Forestry In Action
5:30 Movie: "Dark Command"
7 PM Sky King
7:30 Perry Mason
8:30 Top Dollar
9 PM TVA Anniversary
9:30 Have Gun, Will Travel
10 PM Gunsmoke
10:30 Sheriff Of Cochise
11 PM Movie: "The Pied Piper"

WMAZ Ch. 13 Macon (CBS/NBC/ABC)

9:30 Captain Kangaroo
10:30 Fury (says it's the same as Ch. 2's broadcast
at 11 AM, although 11 AM is the in-pattern time)
11 AM Jimmy Dean
12 N Sky King
12:30 Terrytoon Time
1 PM Riders Of The Purple Sage
1:15 Baseball: Dodgers-Cardinals
4 PM TBA
4:30 The Preakness
5 PM Macon Wrestling
6 PM Sheena, Queen Of The Jungle
6:30 Grand Ole Opry
7 PM Burns And Allen (CBS, delay from Mon 8 PM)
7:30 Navy Log (ABC, delay from Thu 9:30 PM)
8 PM Highway Patrol
8:30 Sea Hunt
9 PM Oh! Susanna
9:30 Have Gun, Will Travel
10 PM Gunsmoke
10:30 The Californians (NBC, delay from Tue 10 PM)
11 PM Lawrence Welk
12 M Night Show

 

[gregg75]

Interesting that Chattanooga has all 3 networks at this time. I think Atlanta was the only
place in Georgia with 3. Possibly Nashville had 3 also in Tennessee. I don't think Birmingham
or anywhere in Alabama had all 3 yet either. School me on this.

Chattanooga beat Columbus, Georgia (1970) by at least 12 years!

 

[bpatrick]

Nashville, Knoxville, Montgomery, and Mobile/Pensacola
all had three network affiliates by 1958. Huntsville got
its third in 1963 (WHNT) and Birmingham, its third in
1965 (WBMG/WIAT).

 

[fortmill]

Nashville, Knoxville, Montgomery, and Mobile/Pensacola
all had three network affiliates by 1958. Huntsville got
its third in 1963 (WHNT) and Birmingham, its third in
1965 (WBMG/WIAT).

I didn't think Montgomery got it's third network affil until 1964 when channel 32 signed on with ABC. And in all fairness, Huntsville didn't really get it's FIRST until 1959!

 

[bpatrick]

Channel 32 signed on in 1954 as WCCB (now the call letters of FOX18
in Charlotte) and has been an ABC affiliate from the beginning; it changed
its call letters to WKAB in 1964. Huntsville/Decatur already had one station
prior to 1959, WMSL, then on 23, later on 48. WAAY was the first station
in Huntsville, since WMSL was licensed to Decatur.

 

[fortmill]

Channel 32 signed on in 1954 as WCCB (now the call letters of FOX18
in Charlotte) and has been an ABC affiliate from the beginning; it changed
its call letters to WKAB in 1964. Huntsville/Decatur already had one station
prior to 1959, WMSL, then on 23, later on 48. WAAY was the first station
in Huntsville, since WMSL was licensed to Decatur.

Sorry, but I don't believe channel 32 in Montgomery came on until 1964. When I was in Montgomery in 1962 there were only 2 channels--12 and 20. The Wiki article has two different dates, 1954 and 1964, but we know Wiki is often wrong. Several years ago, I read a history of Bahakel Broadcasting that said they put 32 on the air in 1964. Regarding Huntsville, it is true WMSL was the first station in the region, but considering Decatur is about 25 miles from Huntsville and UHF stations as a rule didn't carry very far in those days, I don't think WMSL could be considered a local any more than Birmingham or Nashville stations.

 

[bpatrick]

Channel 32 signed on in 1954 as WCCB (now the call letters of FOX18
in Charlotte) and has been an ABC affiliate from the beginning; it changed
its call letters to WKAB in 1964. Huntsville/Decatur already had one station
prior to 1959, WMSL, then on 23, later on 48. WAAY was the first station
in Huntsville, since WMSL was licensed to Decatur.

Sorry, but I don't believe channel 32 in Montgomery came on until 1964. When I was in Montgomery in 1962 there were only 2 channels--12 and 20. The Wiki article has two different dates, 1954 and 1964, but we know Wiki is often wrong. Several years ago, I read a history of Bahakel Broadcasting that said they put 32 on the air in 1964. Regarding Huntsville, it is true WMSL was the first station in the region, but considering Decatur is about 25 miles from Huntsville and UHF stations as a rule didn't carry very far in those days, I don't think WMSL could be considered a local any more than Birmingham or Nashville stations.

Just like WNAO in Raleigh was never considered a local for Durham and Chapel Hill who, in the '50s, got CBS from WFMY Greensboro rather than Channel 28. As for Channel 32 I have also found a source that gives its start date as March 12, 1964. Is it possible that there was a station on 32 earlier which, like most UHFs in the '50s, went under fairly quickly? I believe Bahakel's Channel 25 in Columbia, SC started in 1953 (perhaps under different ownership), went dark fairly quickly, and didn't come back on until the early '60s. What I do know is that WCCB/18 Charlotte signed on in 1964 (on 36 until late 1966), so the WCCB calls definitely weren't in use in Montgomery. This whole thing sounds like either a typo on the part of the Wiki contributor, or a station that went dark, then came back years later. Does anybody have a Broadcasting Yearbook that might clear this up?

 

[Mike Stroud]

Channel 32 signed on in 1954 as WCCB (now the call letters of FOX18
in Charlotte) and has been an ABC affiliate from the beginning; it changed
its call letters to WKAB in 1964. Huntsville/Decatur already had one station
prior to 1959, WMSL, then on 23, later on 48. WAAY was the first station
in Huntsville, since WMSL was licensed to Decatur.

Sorry, but I don't believe channel 32 in Montgomery came on until 1964. When I was in Montgomery in 1962 there were only 2 channels--12 and 20. The Wiki article has two different dates, 1954 and 1964, but we know Wiki is often wrong. Several years ago, I read a history of Bahakel Broadcasting that said they put 32 on the air in 1964. Regarding Huntsville, it is true WMSL was the first station in the region, but considering Decatur is about 25 miles from Huntsville and UHF stations as a rule didn't carry very far in those days, I don't think WMSL could be considered a local any more than Birmingham or Nashville stations.

fortmill, you are right on the nose. As one who hails from that market, I can testify that WMSL primarily served Morgan and Limestone counties. At the time of WMSL's founding in 1954, Huntsville was a smaller city than Decatur. However, within a few years this changed, and by the mid-1960s, WMSL owner Frank Whisenant realized that his station was at a competitive disadvantage with the two start-ups in Huntsville, WAAY and WHNT. He made the move to the Rocket City in early 1969, giving up channel 23 per FCC requirements and moving to channel 48, which is now WAFF. The station's stick, like the others, was (and is) on Monte Sano, some 2,000 feet above sea level. Decatur is, by contrast, on relatively flat terrain, on the banks of the Tennessee River, and thus much lower in elevation. The Huntsville move gave the station increased coverage throughout North Alabama, which was augmented by a power upgrade in the early 1980s. Although the station's building on Monte Sano burned in 1982, the tower was not affected.

 

[oburn]

mobile didnt have 3 networks till sept 1959 and few people could get wear tv in mobile till april 1960 when they move there transmitter to baldwin county and then in 1959 they carried no abc tv shows except the weekends in the daytime

 

[fortmill]

I found many years of Broadcasting Yearbook achived at DavidGleason.com What a wonderful storehouse of information! Regarding channel 32 in Montgomery, there is no evidence from this source that 32 ever existed before 1964, not even as a early CP. There was, however, ample evidence of channel 36's history in Charlotte, first as WAYS-TV broadcasting for a VERY brief time from the Oakdale community NW of Charlotte (surely better known as 61 Radio Road!) The interesting thing is, whoever bought the WAYS-TV license apparently constructed a new facility at 1 Television Place, got new calls (WQTV) and then sat on the unused facility for many years until CY Bahakel purchased the station and finally put it on the air as WCCB in 1964! I'm of the opinion now that channel 32 in Montgomery was never WCCB, but debuted as WKAB, which interestingly was the calls of Mobile's first TV station. If you are interested in TV history, you've got to put your eyes on David Gleason's treasure. I found the 1954 Telecasting Yearbook especially fascinating!

 

[bpatrick]

Interestingly there's a second site on Wikipedia that gives
the year each station signed on. There is no mention of a
WCCB signing on in 1954; indeed, the site indicates that WKAB
signed on in 1964 and that would seem to be additional confirmation
that you're right and I'm wrong (or at least the person who wrote
the article on WNCF--WKAB's current call letters--is) on this one.

As for WEAR, I suspect a lot of people on the Alabama side of the
market still don't consider it a local station since its newscasts are
oriented toward Northwest Florida. But I'm curious: that same Wikipedia
site mentioned in the previous paragraph says that WEAR signed on in
1954. If I'm reading the postings correctly it didn't become an ABC
affiliate until 1959. What did it carry before that?

 

[gregg75]

So to sum things up......no city in Alabama had all 3 networks in 1958. Atlanta was the
only one in Georgia. Yet, Tennessee had Nashville, Memphis, Knoxville & Chattanooga.
I'd call that a TV TRUMP for Tennessee.

 

[fortmill]

Actually, Mobile Al did have all three nets, since WEAR was ABC since their sign on in 1954, according to Broadcasting Yearbook . Elsewhere, in all of North and South Carolina, only Greenville/Spartanburg/Asheville had each of the big three represented. In Virginia, OTOH, Richmond, Norfolk, and Roanoke/Lynchburg all had full-time big three affils by 1958.

 

[trusty]

From the 1965 Broadcasting Yearbook (with 1965 calls & affils.):

Alabama

Birmingham market
May, 1949 - WAPI/13 - NBC, CBS
July, 1949 - WBRC/6 - ABC, CBS
Apr., 1955 - WBIQ/10 - NET
(not on air) - WBMG/42

Mobile market
Jan., 1953 - WALA/10 - NBC
Jan., 1954 - WEAR/3 - ABC (Pensacola)
Sep., 1955 - WKRG/5 - CBS
Nov., 1964 - WEIQ/42 - NET

Montgomery market
Apr., 1953 - WCOV/20 - CBS
Dec., 1954 - WSFA/12 - NBC
Mar., 1960 - WSLA/8* - ABC (Selma)(owned by the Brennan family (WBAM/WVOK/WAPE)
Dec., 1962 - WAIQ/26 - NET
Mar., 1964 - WKAB/32 - ABC
* not actually in the Montgomery market at that time

N. Alabama*
July, 1954 - WMSL/23 - NBC, CBS (Decatur)
Aug., 1959 - WAAY/31 - ABC (Huntsville)
Aug., 1961 - WOWL/15 - NBC (Florence)
Nov., 1963 - WHNT/19 - CBS (Huntsville)
(not on air) - WVNA/47 (Tuscumbia)
* all UHF - not sure of the "market"

The only other commercial station in Ala. was Dothan's WTVY/4 (Feb., 1955) - CBS, ABC

 

[gregg75]

Aren't Pensacola and Mobile about 100 miles apart. I'm not sure I would count ABC Pensacola
as Mobile, unless their antenna is between both places. But, a good antenna in Mobile would
probably have picked it up. Doesn't Pensacola have their own stations this day and age?

 

[bpatrick]

Mobile and Pensacola are about 50 miles apart; Nielsen
considers them one market. WEAR, in the analog days,
was on very-viewable Channel 3; I never had any problem
picking it up in Mobile before cable.

As for the Northern Alabama designation, I think it used to
be Huntsville/Decatur (although Florence was considered part
of the market) but is now Huntsville/Decatur/Florence.

 

[oburn]

wear tv came on air jan 1954 it was abc dum till oct 1954 then it was cbs abc dum when wpfa tv drop live cbs programs aand went ind wear tv drop dumont in 1955 cbs in 1958 or 1959 in the press register around 1955 it has a ad with the cbs lineup for ch 3