On Saturday, March 18, 1972 WHDH lost its last appeal to stay on the air. After the 11:00 PM News, station manager Harold Clancy went on to make the announcement, and to thank all the viewers and employees. WHDH channel 5 left the air that night after the late movie, appropriately entitled “Fixed Bayonets”. The next morning WCVB took to the airwaves (sign-on from YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_zsgWkNHr0). Many of both the on-air and technical employees went to the new station, helping to make WCVB the success that it became. Here are the listings for the last week of WHDH – March 11-17, 1972. (I don’t have a copy of the last day as of now, but when I do I will post it.) By this time the court had ordered WHDH off the air by 1 AM so WCVB could test their equipment. The copy of the TV Guide I’m using is from Western New England, but the three Boston network affiliates were listed. There is no mention in the Guide of the possibility of the change (which could have happened at any time), and if the change went into effect that the new WCVB would be the ABC affiliate and that CBS programming would go to WNAC channel 7. I do remember seeing as a child (I was just shy of 6 when it happened) an ad in TV Guide proclaiming that the new WCVB was on the way. I can’t remember the exact date of the ad. Some shows survived to the new channel 5, most notably Candlepin Bowling, and (for a while) Romper Room. Anyway…here is the last week of Boston’s WHDH, channel 5, CBS affiliate.
Saturday, March 11, 1972
6:30a Sunrise Semester – “Latin-American Literature” (color)
7:00a Young World (color)
7:30a Young World (color)
8:00a Bugs Bunny (color)
8:30a Scooby Doo (color)
9:00a Harlem Globetrotters – cartoon (color)
9:30a Help! It’s the Hair Bear Bunch! (color)
10:00a Pebbles and Bamm Bamm (color)
10:30a Archie’s TV Funnies (color)
11:00a Sabrina, the Teenage Witch – cartoon (color)
11:30a News, Sports, Weather (color)
12:00p Candlepin Bowling (color)
1:00p Junior Bowling (color)
1:30p Baseball – exhibition game: The Boston Red Sox meet the Chicago White Sox at Winter Haven, Fla. Ken Coleman and Ned Martin report (Sox games would go to WBZ 4 once the change happened) (color)
4:00p To Be Announced
4:30p CBS Golf Classic (color)
5:30p News, Sports, Weather (color)
6:00p Week Ends Here (color)
7:00p Movie “A Distant Trumpet” 1964 starring Troy Donahue and Suzanne Pleshette (“All in the Family” and “Mary Tyler Moore” are preempted)
9:00p The New Dick Van Dyke Show – Dick tries to stop smoking (color)
9:30p Arnie – Milton Berle appears as himself (color)
10:00p Mission: Impossible – the IMF team tries to shut down a narcotics operation (color)
11:00p News, Sports, Weather (color)
11:30p Movie “Sergeant York” 1941 starring Gary Cooper and Walter Brennan
Sunday, March 12, 1972
6:30a Consumer Report (color)
7:00a Sacred Heart (color)
7:15a Christopher Closeup – topic: the women’s liberation movement (color)
7:45a Turning Point (color)
8:00a Lamp Unto My Feet (color)
8:30a Look Up and Live (color)
9:00a This is the Life – the story of a man’s guilt over adultery (color)
9:30a Builder’s Showcase (color)
10:00a CBS Children’s Film Festival – “Up In The Air” a 1969 British film with Jon Pertwee (color)
11:00a You Are There – history (color)
11:30a Kid Talk – discussion; Carol Lawrence is the guest (color)
12:00p Animal World (color)
12:30p News, Sports, Weather (color)
1:00p Maverick
2:00p Pro Hockey – Chicago Black Hawks at Detroit Red Wings; Dan Kelly and Jim Gordon report (color)
4:30p Glen Campbell – guests: Jim Nabors, Helen Reddy, Shecky Green, Jeannine Burnier, the Four Leaves, a Japanese rock group (color, delayed from Tuesday @ 7:30p)
5:30p News, Weather, Sports (color)
6:00p 60 Minutes (color)
7:00p CBS Sunday Night Movie “Five Million Years to Earth” 1967
9:30p Cade’s County “Jessie” – Glenn Ford starred; Barbara Rush and Bobby Sherman were guest stars (color)
10:30p This is Your Life – guest: Irene Ryan (Granny on “The Beverly Hillbillies”) (color)
11:00p News, Sports, Weather (color)
11:30p Face the Nation (color, delayed from 12:30p)
12:00a Movie “Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed!” 1969 starring Peter Cushing (color)
Monday-Friday, morning and daytime (6a-6p)
6:00a Sunrise Semester (color)
6:30a New England Farmer (color)
6:45a We Believe (color) M-Tu, Th-F; Living Word (color) W
7:00a CBS News – John Hart (color)
8:00a Captain Kangaroo (color)
9:00a Romper Room (color)
9:30a Classroom Five (color)
10:00a Lucille Ball (color)
10:30a My Three Sons (color)
11:00a Family Affair (color)
11:30a Love of Life (color)
12:00p News, Weather, Sports (color)
12:30p Search for Tomorrow (color)
1:00p Truth or Consequences (color)
1:30p As the World Turns (color)
2:00p Love is a Many Splendored Thing (color)
2:30p The Guiding Light (color)
3:00p The Secret Storm (color)
3:30p The Edge of Night (color)
4:00p Gomer Pyle, USMC (color)
4:30p To Tell The Truth (color)
5:00p Perry Mason
Monday, March 13, 1972 – evening
6:00p News, Sports, Weather (color)
6:30p CBS Evening News – Walter Cronkite (color)
7:00p What’s My Line? (color)
7:30p Five Reports (color)
8:00p Gunsmoke “The Wedding” (color)
9:00p Here’s Lucy – Tony Randall as a health fanatic pitted against Lucy in a mountain-climbing contest (color)
9:30p Doris Day – Doris’s fuss-budget neighbor is the prime suspect in a jewelry store heist (color)
10:00pThe Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour – guests: George Burns, David Clayton Thomas (color)
11:00p News, Weather, Sports (color)
11:30p CBS Late Movie “Penelope” 1966 starring Natalie Wood (color)
Tuesday, March 14, 1972 – evening; the networks will interrupt regular programming for bulletins on the Florida Presidential Primary
6:00p News, Sports, Weather (color)
6:30p CBS Evening News – Walter Cronkite (color)
7:00p What’s My Line? (color)
7:30p All in the Family – the pilot for “Maude” (color, delayed from Saturday @ 8p)
8:00p Mary Tyler Moore “What’s Your Sexual I.Q.?” (color, delayed from Saturday @ 8:30p)
8:30p Hawaii Five-O “Rest in Peace, Somebody” (color)
9:30p Cannon – a young con allowed out for university study is also serving as a courier for an imprisoned syndicate leader (color)
10:30p Campaign ’72-The Election Year (special) – In Miami, Walter Cronkite reviews late returns in the Florida Presidential Primary (color)
11:00p News, Sports, Weather (color)
11:30p CBS Late Movie “The Venetian Affair” 1967 starring Robert Vaughn and Elke Sommer (color)
Wednesday, March 15, 1972 – evening
6:00p News, Sports, Weather (color)
6:30p CBS Evening News – Walter Cronkite (color)
7:00p What’s My Line? (color)
7:30p Five Reports (color)
8:00p Carol Burnett – guests: Bing Crosby, Paul Lynde; sketches include Bing as a soused father in a take-off of the classic melodrama “The Drunkard”, featuring Paul as the villain and Carol as the daughter; a chapter of “As the Stomach Turns” stars Bing as Father Sarge, patrolman-turned-priest and Paul as Mel Torment, town masochist; Harvey Korman in drag as a Jewish mother (color)
9:00p Medical Center “The Albatross” – Michael Douglas guest starring as a mentally retarded young man (color)
10:00p Mannix “A Step in Time” (color)
11:00p News, Sports, Weather (color)
11:30p CBS Late Movie “Come Fly With Me” 1963
Thursday, March 16, 1972 – evening
6:00p News, Sports, Weather (color)
6:30p CBS Evening News – Walter Cronkite (color)
7:00p What’s My Line? (color)
7:30p Five Reports (color)
8:00p Me and the Chimp – Ted Bessell’s show after “That Girl”, and yes, it did have a chimp (color)
8:30p My Three Sons “Bad Day for Barbara” (color)
9:00p CBS Thursday Night Movie “Return to Peyton Place” 1961 (color)
11:20p News, Sports, Weather (color)
11:50p CBS Late Movie “Terror on a Train” 1953 starring Glenn Ford
Friday, March 17, 1972 – evening
6:00p News, Sports, Weather (color)
6:30p CBS Evening News – Walter Cronkite (color)
7:00p What’s My Line? (color)
7:30p Five Reports (color)
8:00p O’Hara, U.S. Treasury – Frank Gorshin guests as a two-bit hood trying to pull off a $50,000 blackmail scheme (color)
9:00p M*A*S*H (special) – the pilot for the long running series (color)
9:30p Oh, Nurse! (special) – a pilot about student nurses; stars Susan Foster, Judy Pace and Heather Young (color)
10:00p Singles (special) – a pilot with Ruth Buzzi and Michele Lee as working girls on an extraordinary project: the rehabilitation of a bumbling burglar (color)
10:30p Don Rickles – Don plays jealousy for laughs in “The Dr. Rudolph Affair, about an unexpected visit from his wife’s old boyfriend (color)
11:00p News, Sports, Weather (color)
11:30p Movie “Virginia City” 1940 starring Errol Flynn
Saturday, March 11, 1972
6:30a Sunrise Semester – “Latin-American Literature” (color)
7:00a Young World (color)
7:30a Young World (color)
8:00a Bugs Bunny (color)
8:30a Scooby Doo (color)
9:00a Harlem Globetrotters – cartoon (color)
9:30a Help! It’s the Hair Bear Bunch! (color)
10:00a Pebbles and Bamm Bamm (color)
10:30a Archie’s TV Funnies (color)
11:00a Sabrina, the Teenage Witch – cartoon (color)
11:30a News, Sports, Weather (color)
12:00p Candlepin Bowling (color)
1:00p Junior Bowling (color)
1:30p Baseball – exhibition game: The Boston Red Sox meet the Chicago White Sox at Winter Haven, Fla. Ken Coleman and Ned Martin report (Sox games would go to WBZ 4 once the change happened) (color)
4:00p To Be Announced
4:30p CBS Golf Classic (color)
5:30p News, Sports, Weather (color)
6:00p Week Ends Here (color)
7:00p Movie “A Distant Trumpet” 1964 starring Troy Donahue and Suzanne Pleshette (“All in the Family” and “Mary Tyler Moore” are preempted)
9:00p The New Dick Van Dyke Show – Dick tries to stop smoking (color)
9:30p Arnie – Milton Berle appears as himself (color)
10:00p Mission: Impossible – the IMF team tries to shut down a narcotics operation (color)
11:00p News, Sports, Weather (color)
11:30p Movie “Sergeant York” 1941 starring Gary Cooper and Walter Brennan
Sunday, March 12, 1972
6:30a Consumer Report (color)
7:00a Sacred Heart (color)
7:15a Christopher Closeup – topic: the women’s liberation movement (color)
7:45a Turning Point (color)
8:00a Lamp Unto My Feet (color)
8:30a Look Up and Live (color)
9:00a This is the Life – the story of a man’s guilt over adultery (color)
9:30a Builder’s Showcase (color)
10:00a CBS Children’s Film Festival – “Up In The Air” a 1969 British film with Jon Pertwee (color)
11:00a You Are There – history (color)
11:30a Kid Talk – discussion; Carol Lawrence is the guest (color)
12:00p Animal World (color)
12:30p News, Sports, Weather (color)
1:00p Maverick
2:00p Pro Hockey – Chicago Black Hawks at Detroit Red Wings; Dan Kelly and Jim Gordon report (color)
4:30p Glen Campbell – guests: Jim Nabors, Helen Reddy, Shecky Green, Jeannine Burnier, the Four Leaves, a Japanese rock group (color, delayed from Tuesday @ 7:30p)
5:30p News, Weather, Sports (color)
6:00p 60 Minutes (color)
7:00p CBS Sunday Night Movie “Five Million Years to Earth” 1967
9:30p Cade’s County “Jessie” – Glenn Ford starred; Barbara Rush and Bobby Sherman were guest stars (color)
10:30p This is Your Life – guest: Irene Ryan (Granny on “The Beverly Hillbillies”) (color)
11:00p News, Sports, Weather (color)
11:30p Face the Nation (color, delayed from 12:30p)
12:00a Movie “Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed!” 1969 starring Peter Cushing (color)
Monday-Friday, morning and daytime (6a-6p)
6:00a Sunrise Semester (color)
6:30a New England Farmer (color)
6:45a We Believe (color) M-Tu, Th-F; Living Word (color) W
7:00a CBS News – John Hart (color)
8:00a Captain Kangaroo (color)
9:00a Romper Room (color)
9:30a Classroom Five (color)
10:00a Lucille Ball (color)
10:30a My Three Sons (color)
11:00a Family Affair (color)
11:30a Love of Life (color)
12:00p News, Weather, Sports (color)
12:30p Search for Tomorrow (color)
1:00p Truth or Consequences (color)
1:30p As the World Turns (color)
2:00p Love is a Many Splendored Thing (color)
2:30p The Guiding Light (color)
3:00p The Secret Storm (color)
3:30p The Edge of Night (color)
4:00p Gomer Pyle, USMC (color)
4:30p To Tell The Truth (color)
5:00p Perry Mason
Monday, March 13, 1972 – evening
6:00p News, Sports, Weather (color)
6:30p CBS Evening News – Walter Cronkite (color)
7:00p What’s My Line? (color)
7:30p Five Reports (color)
8:00p Gunsmoke “The Wedding” (color)
9:00p Here’s Lucy – Tony Randall as a health fanatic pitted against Lucy in a mountain-climbing contest (color)
9:30p Doris Day – Doris’s fuss-budget neighbor is the prime suspect in a jewelry store heist (color)
10:00pThe Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour – guests: George Burns, David Clayton Thomas (color)
11:00p News, Weather, Sports (color)
11:30p CBS Late Movie “Penelope” 1966 starring Natalie Wood (color)
Tuesday, March 14, 1972 – evening; the networks will interrupt regular programming for bulletins on the Florida Presidential Primary
6:00p News, Sports, Weather (color)
6:30p CBS Evening News – Walter Cronkite (color)
7:00p What’s My Line? (color)
7:30p All in the Family – the pilot for “Maude” (color, delayed from Saturday @ 8p)
8:00p Mary Tyler Moore “What’s Your Sexual I.Q.?” (color, delayed from Saturday @ 8:30p)
8:30p Hawaii Five-O “Rest in Peace, Somebody” (color)
9:30p Cannon – a young con allowed out for university study is also serving as a courier for an imprisoned syndicate leader (color)
10:30p Campaign ’72-The Election Year (special) – In Miami, Walter Cronkite reviews late returns in the Florida Presidential Primary (color)
11:00p News, Sports, Weather (color)
11:30p CBS Late Movie “The Venetian Affair” 1967 starring Robert Vaughn and Elke Sommer (color)
Wednesday, March 15, 1972 – evening
6:00p News, Sports, Weather (color)
6:30p CBS Evening News – Walter Cronkite (color)
7:00p What’s My Line? (color)
7:30p Five Reports (color)
8:00p Carol Burnett – guests: Bing Crosby, Paul Lynde; sketches include Bing as a soused father in a take-off of the classic melodrama “The Drunkard”, featuring Paul as the villain and Carol as the daughter; a chapter of “As the Stomach Turns” stars Bing as Father Sarge, patrolman-turned-priest and Paul as Mel Torment, town masochist; Harvey Korman in drag as a Jewish mother (color)
9:00p Medical Center “The Albatross” – Michael Douglas guest starring as a mentally retarded young man (color)
10:00p Mannix “A Step in Time” (color)
11:00p News, Sports, Weather (color)
11:30p CBS Late Movie “Come Fly With Me” 1963
Thursday, March 16, 1972 – evening
6:00p News, Sports, Weather (color)
6:30p CBS Evening News – Walter Cronkite (color)
7:00p What’s My Line? (color)
7:30p Five Reports (color)
8:00p Me and the Chimp – Ted Bessell’s show after “That Girl”, and yes, it did have a chimp (color)
8:30p My Three Sons “Bad Day for Barbara” (color)
9:00p CBS Thursday Night Movie “Return to Peyton Place” 1961 (color)
11:20p News, Sports, Weather (color)
11:50p CBS Late Movie “Terror on a Train” 1953 starring Glenn Ford
Friday, March 17, 1972 – evening
6:00p News, Sports, Weather (color)
6:30p CBS Evening News – Walter Cronkite (color)
7:00p What’s My Line? (color)
7:30p Five Reports (color)
8:00p O’Hara, U.S. Treasury – Frank Gorshin guests as a two-bit hood trying to pull off a $50,000 blackmail scheme (color)
9:00p M*A*S*H (special) – the pilot for the long running series (color)
9:30p Oh, Nurse! (special) – a pilot about student nurses; stars Susan Foster, Judy Pace and Heather Young (color)
10:00p Singles (special) – a pilot with Ruth Buzzi and Michele Lee as working girls on an extraordinary project: the rehabilitation of a bumbling burglar (color)
10:30p Don Rickles – Don plays jealousy for laughs in “The Dr. Rudolph Affair, about an unexpected visit from his wife’s old boyfriend (color)
11:00p News, Sports, Weather (color)
11:30p Movie “Virginia City” 1940 starring Errol Flynn
