Retro: Birmingham and Eastern Mississippi Sunday 9/4/60

[Charles35080]

Source: The Tuscaloosa News 9/4/60, via Google News Archive
Stations Listed:
4: WCBI Columbus, MS (CBS/ABC/NBC)
6: WBRC Birmingham (CBS)
11: WTOK Meridian, MS (CBS/NBC/ABC)
13: WAPI (now WVTM) Birmingham (NBC/ABC)
5:30
6: Big Picture

6:00

6: Industry on Parade
13: Big Picture

6:15

6: Americans at Work

6:30

6: This Is the Life
13: Sherlock Holmes

7:00

6: The Answer
13: Flash Gordon

7:30

6: Talk Back
13: Popeye

8:00

6: Wally Fowler (Southern gospel music show hosted by the former member of the Oak Ridge Boys, long before they hit it big with “Elvira”)
13: Joe Palooka

8:30

13: Faith for Today

9:00

6: Cartoon Carnival
13: Movie

9:30

6: Movie

10:45

11: Americans at Work

11:00

6-11: Summer Olympics (from Rome)
13: Movie

11:55

4: Baseball

12:00

6: Movie

12:15

11: Baseball

12:45

6: Governor’s Report (Alabama’s governor at the time was John Patterson)

1:00

6: Water Show
13: Happy Wilson

1:25

13: News

1:30

6: John Wayne Theatre
13: What’s Your Problem?

2:00

13: Lawrence Welk

3:00

11: Movie
13: Movie

3:30

6: Movie

4:00

4: Silent Service

4:30

4-11: Face the Nation
13: Summer Stock Festival

5:00

4: Industry on Parade
11: Summer Olympics
13: Walt Disney

5:15

4: Know the Truth

5:30

4: Oral Roberts
6: 20th Century
11: Bat Masterson

6:00

4-6-11: Lassie
13: Riverboat

6:30

4-6-11: Dennis the Menace

7:00

4-6-11: Ed Sullivan
13: 77 Sunset Strip

8:00

4-6-11: Ronald Reagan
13: Mystery Playhouse

8:30

4: Weather and News
6-11: Alfred Hitchcock

8:40

4: The Way of the Life

9:00

4-6-11: Lucy in Connecticut
13: Loretta Young

9:30

4: Lawrence Welk
6-11: What’s My Line?
13: Producer’s Choice

10:00

6: Adventures in Paradise
11: Sunday News Special
13: Johnny Staccato

10:15

11: Olympics

10:30

4: You Bet Your Life
11: Reckoning
13: Movie

11:00

4: News
6: Movie

11:15

11: News

Interesting to note that neither Face the Nation or Meet the Press were cleared in Birmingham.

 

[sadler3329]

Very interesting schedule.

 

[Charles35080]

Interesting is a very good word. As large as Birmingham was (and still is---never lower than a Top 50 market), it didn't get its third commercial station until 1965. Also, it wasn't until 1982 that the market got its first independent station. This, of course, meant that Channels 6 and 13 were forced to shoehorn three networks worth of programming. Channel 6 was exclusively affiliated with CBS from 1954 until '61, meaning that Channel 13 had to juggle NBC and ABC. When Channel 6 went to ABC in '61 (a topic that has been beaten to death on here), it meant that Channel 13 had the unenviable task of juggling the top two networks. Even when WBMG-42 signed on in Birmingham in '65, Channel 13 opted to remain affiliated with both networks, leaving Channel 42 (and later Channel 33 in Tuscaloosa and Channel 40 in Anniston) to pick up mainly the dregs of the schedules of those two networks.

What was even more interesting was that even after Channel 6 became an ABC affiliate was that they still carried a significant amount of CBS programming: mainly daytime and Saturday morning fare. Quite frankly, as a small child it confused the heck out of me!

 

[bpatrick]

Raleigh/Durham had the same situation. When CBS affiliate WNAO folded in 1958, WTVD
became a CBS primary, ABC secondary; WRAL went from exclusive NBC to NBC primary,
ABC secondary in 1959. In 1962, WRAL went to ABC (with a few NBC shows left over and
even a few CBS shows, like "My Three Sons" after 1965), leaving WTVD to shoehorn CBS
and NBC, a practice it continued even after WRDU (now WRDC) signed on in '68 (RDU got
the dregs, just as Channel 42 did). Both WTVD and Birmingham's Channel 13 were eventually
forced by the FCC to choose one network (TVD took CBS and 13 took NBC); Birmingham made
the changeover at the end of May 1970; Raleigh/Durham didn't make it until September 1971.

When I lived in the Triangle, I found it easier to watch NBC on WITN Greenville/New Bern/Washington,
since they cleared virtually everything in pattern. Like Channel 6, WRAL was pre-emption happy in those
days, and WGHP Greensboro/Winston-Salem/High Point gave me an alternative ABC station. (And boy,
would I have liked to have had Channel 11 in Atlanta more often than I did when I lived in Birmingham,
since they tended to pre-empt ABC only one night a week for a locally-originated movie; their daytime
schedule ran hot and cold, however, as I have seen the station clear everything at times while at other
times delaying as many as three shows--finally settling out at two (the shows at 12 N and 4 PM, including
"Edge Of Night") in the last years before going to NBC.

I at least had the good fortune to leave the Raleigh/Durham market in 1965 and move to Greenville/New Bern/
Washington, which, with three stations, meant few pre-emptions (and at the time, New Bern's Channel 12,
the ABC station, didn't pre-empt anything).

 

[Mike Stroud]

Source: The Tuscaloosa News 9/4/60, via Google News Archive

8:00

6: Wally Fowler (Southern gospel music show hosted by the former member of the Oak Ridge Boys, long before they hit it big with “Elvira”)

11:00

6-11: Summer Olympics (from Rome)
13: Movie

5:00

13: Walt Disney

8:00

4-6-11: Ronald Reagan

11:15

11: News

Yessiree, Charles, we got a good 'un here. Let me figure it out:

WBRC, 8 a.m.: Oh, Fowler was in that group long before anyone could envision it going secular. Here's the skinny on the Oaks and their long history through multiple changes in personnel, as has been common in Southern Gospel quartets over the years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oak_Ridge_Boys. Funny thing is, as the current lineup (the "classic" one which country fans remember fondly from the '70s and '80s), the Oaks have been gravitating back toward Gospel and religious sounds at their performances in places like Branson, Missouri and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, especially toward older listeners. What cometh around goeth around.

11 a.m., all stations: Apparently churches hadn't caught on yet to having their services televised, as would eventually be the case by mid-decade, as large Baptist (especially) congregations in the region finally overcame their apprehension about the "Devil's Box" and decided to go after secularist back-sliders and the shut-in elderly. In fact, it is a little surprising that the stations had even signed on the air for Sunday morning, given that most of their audience were away from the tube for most of the morning at the "meeting-house". I am certain that wasn't the case back in the '50s when these stations started up.

WAPI, 5 p.m.: I never was a big Disney fan, so I guess I never knew that it aired in timeslots other than Sunday prime time. Might have been a summer replacement, since I know that, before the early '70s, CBS and NBC programmed non-sports shows in the late afternoon on Sundays, allowing affils only a 30-minute break or so for news before going into the evening lineup.

CBS, 8 p.m.: For you kiddies out there, in a former life, the eventual POTUS was an actor back before he went into politics in the mid-'60s. This show was actually "General Electric Theatre," an anthology drama with a different cast and plot every week. Reagan hosted and did commercials for GE. This is where he really became a household name with a lot of folks, many of whom would vote for him for Prez in '80 and '84.

WTOK, 11:15 p.m.: And another thing, little whippersnappers: folks actually went to bed EARLY in those days. Especially on Sunday nights, there wasn't any David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel, or those great infomercials to keep people up hopping and awake. Stations served real people, who had to go to work on the farm or at the mill and NOT the coffeehouse or Wal-Mart, and knew that they had real lives to live! So they turned off their transmitters and let people sleep. Imagine that! Must have been some kinda socialist conspiracy, to deprive those poor folk in Alabama and Mississippi of their right to stay up all night to see Johnny Carson tongue-lash Joey Bishop or Don Rickles.

 

[bpatrick]

The 1960-61 season was Disney's last on ABC before moving to NBC. That year,
"Wat Disney Presents" aired Sundays at 6:30 (ET), just before "Maverick." For
the two previous seasons Disney had aired Friday nights on ABC, at 8 (ET) in the
1958-59 season, and at 7:30 in the 1959-60 season (I have a feeling Channel 13
was delaying from Friday night since these seems to be a little early to start the
1960-61 season). And for the first four seasons (1954-58), "Disneyland" aired
Wednesdays at 7:30.

Disney really became synonymous with Sunday nights when he moved to NBC
in the fall of 1961; he spent twenty years on that night on the Peacock Network.
I remember, at least from 1969-71, that Channel 13 carried Disney instead of Ed
Sullivan, who came on CBS at the midpoint of Disney's show (Sullivan was relegated--
banished might be the better word--to Channel 42 until 42 became the exclusive
CBS affiliate in 1970.)

I mentioned Raleigh/Durham earlier; there WTVD carried both Disney and Sullivan:
Disney on a one-week delay Sundays at 7 followed by Sullivan live at 8. By the time
the Triangle had worked out the CBS/NBC affiliation situation, Sullivan was gone and
Disney was airing in pattern at 7:30 on Channel 28.

It also wasn't uncommon for a program to be listed by its star or host, especially
if that star was well-known (and Ronald Reagan was, even before he entered politics).
"You Bet Your Life" was always listed in TV Guide as "Groucho Marx," and "The Lucy Show"
as "Lucille Ball."

 

[ixnay]

bpatrick, how did you end up bouncing from one Dixie market to another?

ixnay

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

The 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome were held two years before Telstar 1, the first TV broadcast satellite, was launched. Tapes had to be flown across the Atlantic.

I have read some period newspaper articles claiming that CBS News (back then, sorts at CBS were under the auspices of the news division, as was the case at the other networks) would tape and edited events in Rome, feed edited tapes to the CBS News bureau in Paris where they would be re-recorded on other reels of videotape, then flown to New York by the then-new Boeing 707 jetliner.

Tapes would arrive at the then-Idlewild Airport and be fed to the network from there, saving time otherwise wasted by ferrying tapes to Manhattan.

I suspect that the 12 Noon-1:15 P.M. (EDT) broadcast that day was coverage of events from the previous day, while the 6-6:30 and 11:15-11:30 P.M. EDT broadcasts were likely events held in Rome that morning and afternoon, respectively, and rapidly flown back to New York.

I've also heard an urban legend (but have never been able to confirm it) that CBS was actually able to fly a videotape of the conclusion of Rafer Johnson's win in the track and field decathlon (the 1,500-meter run) across the Atlantic in-time for it to air during the 11:15 P.M. EDT show the day it occurred, about eight and a half hours after it took place. Is this true??

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

I suspect the baseball game on WBRC-6 and WTOK-11 was from CBS (I believe Dizzy "He Slud Into Third" Dean was analyst) and the one on WCBI-4 was from NBC (I believe a young Joe Garagiola, probably recently retired from playing, teamed up with Lindsay Nelson for the NBC regular-season games in 1960).

 

[bpatrick]

bpatrick, how did you end up bouncing from one Dixie market to another?

ixnay

My dad was transferred quite a bit with his company; we lived in Raleigh/Durham, Greenville/
New Bern/Washington, Norfolk, Greenville/Spartanburg/Asheville, Birmingham, Tampa/St. Petersburg,
and Dallas/Ft. Worth. I graduated from the University of Georgia, which put me in touch with Atlanta
stations (although I had relatives in both Atlanta and Athens) and got my doctorate at the University of
South Carolina. I was born in Greensboro and watched a lot of WFMY and WGHP when I visited my
grandparents'.

And with a different edition of TV Guide in each market I was exposed to such markets as Charlotte, Richmond,
Knoxville, Bristol/Kingsport/Johnson City, Huntsville, Nashville, Orlando, and Fort Myers (I also have
relatives in Brevard County, FL, so I've been exposed to Orlando television).

My interest in Kentucky television springs partly from the fact that Kentucky fascinates me to begin with,
but also because, in the '70s, I saw on WLKY some of the same things I would have done as a programmer
(I particularly liked their 7:30 checkerboard, with "The Price Is Right, "Let's Make A Deal," and "Hollywood
Squares.")

Finally, because my dad traveled a lot, he'd bring back TV Guides from wherever he went. So I was
exposed to the Southern Alabama, Gulf Coast, Northern Florida (Jacksonville), Southern Florida (Miami and
West Palm Beach), South Texas, Southeast Texas, West Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, and New
Mexico editions.

 

[ixnay]

My dad was transferred quite a bit with his company; we lived in Raleigh/Durham, Greenville/
New Bern/Washington, Norfolk, Greenville/Spartanburg/Asheville, Birmingham, Tampa/St. Petersburg,
and Dallas/Ft. Worth.

You've heard of the term "military brat"? One who bounces around as Uncle Sam relocates his/her military parent(s)? I have two nephews who were such, courtesy of their (now ex-) army dad. Well, b, I hope I don't offend you when I consider you an example of a "business brat".

ixnay

 

[bpatrick]

Well, there were a lot of us whose dads worked for the same company
as my dad. I knew one girl whose dad had been transferred from Greenville, SC
to Philadelphia, Columbus, and, finally, Jacksonville. Another lived in Medina, OH,
before her dad was transferred back to Greenville. And I went to school in Greenville
with three people whose dads, who worked for GE, were sent down there from
Schenectady, NY. And as places like Atlanta and Dallas have become regional hubs,
I'm sure there are a lot more whose dads or moms have been transferred from other
parts of the country.

Actually, I'm thankful for the experience, even though I took a lot of grief as the perennial
"new kid" in school. I would have traded two of the places I lived--Greenville and Birmingham,
neither of which I particularly liked--for the chance to live in some other Western markets, especially
Denver or Southern California.

And just for the record, I've dated at least four "military brats"--three Army, one Navy--one of whom
I thought I might like to marry. But when you rarely get to see each other (I was in Georgia, she was
in Alabama), those things tend to fizzle out.

 

[rwells2265]

"Sears brat", here. My Dad's employer was notorious for moving people around. From north Alabama, to Mississippi, then to southeast Missouri, and finally Arkansas (three cities, at that), it seemed we didn't stay in one place too long. I left Arkansas for Alabama in 1990, and then Georgia in 2000. Living in one place for more than 10 years is a mite bit odd, have to say.