Retro: Carolina-Tennessee Saturday, January 13, 1968

[bpatrick]

From TV Guide, Carolina-Tennessee Edition:

WSJK (WETP) Ch. 2 Knoxville (Sneedville, TN) (NET)
off air on Saturday

WBTV Ch. 3 Charlotte (CBS)

6:45 News Of The Church
7 AM Rascals Club
8 AM Captain Kangaroo
9 AM Frankenstein Jr. And The Impossibles
9:30 Herculoids
10 AM Shazzan!
10:30 Space Ghost
11 AM Moby Dick And The Mighty Mightor
11:30 Superman/Aquaman Hour Of Adventure
12:30 Jonny Quest
1 PM Lone Ranger (animated)
1:30 Pastors Face Your Questions
1:45 Vic Bubas: Duke Basketball Highlights
2 PM ACC Basketball: Duke-Maryland
4 PM Country Style Roundup (with future Congressman
Bill Hefner, time approximate)
5 PM Wrestling (live from the studio: Luther Lindsey and
Abe Jacobs vs. Gene and Lars Anderson; Sandy and
George Scott vs. Jim Grabmire and Pancho Valdez)
6 PM Early Report
6:30 Death Valley Days
7 PM Super Bingo
7:30 Jackie Gleason (the accent is on country music; Jackie
welcomes Eddy Arnold, Patti Page, the Geezinslaw Brothers,
Jack Carter, Fannie Flagg, and saxophonist Boots Randolph)
8:30 My Three Sons
9 PM Hogan's Heroes
9:30 Petticoat Junction
10 PM Mannix
11 PM News, Weather, Sports
11:20 Movie: "The Dark At The Top Of The Stairs"

WFBC (WYFF) Ch. 4 Greenville, SC (NBC)

6:30 Farm News (Ben Leonard)
7:30 Leave It To Beaver
8 AM Monty's Rascals (Monty DuPuy and Stowe Hoyle as
"Mr. Doohickey")
9 AM Super 6
9:30 Super President
10 AM Flintstones
10:30 Samson & Goliath
11 AM Birdman And The Galaxy Trio
11:30 Atom Ant/Secret Squirrel
12 N Top Cat
12:30 Cool McCool
1 PM Brother Buzz (the story of Scottish-born conservationist
John Muir)
1:30 Film Feature
1:45 Changing Times
2 PM ACC Basketball: Duke-Maryland
4 PM Stoneman Family (time approximate)
4:30 Wilburn Brothers
5 PM Wrestling (from Raleigh)
5:55 News (Jeff Fields)
6 PM Porter Wagoner
6:30 Flatt And Scruggs (guest is Randy Scruggs, Earl's son)
7 PM Super Bingo
7:30 Maya
8:30 Get Smart (watch for Larry Storch and Barry Newman, best
known, AFAIK, as "Petrocelli" in the '70s series)
9 PM NBC Movie: "Saratoga Trunk" (an older-than-usual one for NBC,
and in black and white from 1945: Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman
in a love story set in 1870s New Orleans)
11:45 Movie: "Glory Alley"

WCYB Ch. 5 Bristol, VA (NBC/ABC)

6 AM Tele-College
7 AM Rural Tenneva
7:25 News (Merrill Moore)
7:30 Comedy Time
8:30 Popeye
9 AM Super 6
9:30 Super President
10 AM Flintstones
10:30 Samson & Goliath
11 AM Birdman And The Galaxy Trio
11:30 Atom Ant/Secret Squirrel
12 N Top Cat
12:30 Cool McCool
1 PM Trails West
1:30 American Bandstand (Kenny O'Dell; on film: the Turtles,
ABC, delay of at least a week from 12:30 PM)
2:30 The Happening (local and not to be confused with ABC's
"Happening '68")
3:30 Village Square
4 PM Skelton Brothers (not related to Red; I think this is a local
country-music show)
4:30 Bonnie Lou And Buster
5 PM Country Music Carousel
5:30 Stoneman Family
6 PM Flatt And Scruggs
6:30 Porter Wagoner
7 PM Frank McGee Report
7:30 Maya
8:30 Get Smart
9 PM NBC Movie: "Saratoga Trunk"
11:45 News, Weather, Sports
12:15 Saturday Tonight Show (singer Jane Morgan, George Carlin,
clairvoyant Maurice Woodruff)

WATE Ch. 6 Knoxville (NBC)

7 AM RFD 6
7:30 Movie: "The Younger Brothers" (Younger was their last name.)
9 AM Super 6
9:30 Super President
10 AM Flintstones
10:30 Samson & Goliath
11 AM Birdman And The Galaxy Trio
11:30 Atom Ant/Secret Squirrel
12 N Top Cat
12:30 Cool McCool
1 PM Forest Rangers
1:30 Movie: "The Camp On Blood Island"
3 PM Sugarfoot
4 PM Country Music Carousel
4:30 Stoneman Family
5 PM Wilburn Brothers
5:30 Porter Wagoner (guest: "Little" Jimmy Dickens, who stood,
as I recall, about five feet four inches)
6 PM Startime
6:30 Flatt And Scruggs (interesting song here from guest Jerry Green:
"Tripod the Three-Legged Dog")
7 PM Frank McGee Report
7:30 Maya
8:30 Get Smart
9 PM NBC Movie: "Saratoga Trunk"
11:45 Movie: "Hong Kong" (not to be confused with the 1960-61 ABC
series, stars Ronald Reagan and Rhonda Fleming, from '52)

WSPA Ch. 7 Spartanburg, SC (CBS)

6:30 Sunrise Semester: "Russian Literature" (last lecture of the course)
7 AM Roy Rogers
8 AM Captain Kangaroo
9 AM Frankenstein Jr. And The Impossibles
9:30 Herculoids
10 AM Shazzan!
10:30 Space Ghost
11 AM Moby Dick And The Mighty Mightor
11:30 Superman/Aquaman Hour Of Adventure
12:30 Farmer Gray (Cliff Gray with music and farm news)
1:30 College Basketball: Davidson-West Virginia
3:30 Billy Dilworth (although considered a local country-music show,
all the performers are from Northeast Georgia; Dilworth had a
column in the Athens (GA) Banner-Herald, time approximate)
4 PM CBS Golf Classic (season premiere: Chi Chi Rodriguez and Roberto
de Vicenzo vs. Harold Henning and George Knudson)
5 PM Blue Ridge Quartet
5:30 Greyhound Derby
6 PM Early Report
6:30 Rawhide
7:30 Jackie Gleason
8:30 My Three Sons
9 PM Hogan's Heroes
9:30 Petticoat Junction
10 PM Mannix
11 PM News, Weather, Sports
11:15 Movie: "The Far Horizon" (the story of Lewis & Clark, with Fred
MacMurray and Charlton Heston, from '55)

WSOC Ch. 9 Charlotte (NBC)

7 AM Seven Bells
7:30 Zane Grey Theater
8 AM Cisco Kid
8:30 Astroboy
9 AM Super 6
9:30 Super President
10 AM Flintstones
10:30 Samson & Goliath
11 AM Birdman And The Galaxy Trio
11:30 Atom Ant/Secret Squirrel
12 N Top Cat
12:30 Kilgo's Kanteen (Jimmy Kilgo)
1:30 College Basketball: Davidson-West Virginia
3:30 Gadabout Gaddis (time approximate)
4 PM Village Square
4:30 Greyhound Derby
5 PM TBA
6 PM Virginian (delay from Wed 7:30 PM)
7:30 Maya
8:30 Get Smart
9 PM NBC Movie: "Saratoga Trunk"
11:45 News, Weather, Sports
12:15 Movie: "The Fugitive Kind" (Marlon Brando in a fairly
typical role: a drifter who causes trouble in a Mississippi
town, from '59)

WBIR Ch. 10 Knoxville (CBS)

7 AM Sergeant Preston Of The Yukon
7:30 Movie: "Blood Arrow" (watch for Phyllis Coates, the "first"
Lois Lane--although that distinction really belongs to Joan
Alexander on radio-- in this '58 Western)
9 AM Frankenstein Jr. And The Impossibles
9:30 Herculoids
10 AM Shazzan!
10:30 Space Ghost
11 AM Moby Dick And The Mighty Mightor
11:30 Superman/Aquaman Hour Of Adventure
12:30 Jonny Quest
1 PM Lone Ranger (animated)
1:30 Pastor's Study
2 PM Roy Skinner (no idea who this is)
2:30 Ray Mears: University of Tennessee Basketball Highlights
3 PM SEC Basketball: Kentucky-Florida
5 PM Bonnie Lou And Buster (time approximate)
5:30 Gunsmoke (delay from Mon 7:30 PM)
6:30 CBS News (Roger Mudd)
7 PM Bat Masterson
7:30 Jackie Gleason
8:30 My Three Sons
9 PM Hogan's Heroes
9:30 Petticoat Junction
10 PM Mannix
11 PM Movie: "Lucky Me" (I think this was an early success for Phil
Silvers; he co-stars with Doris Day, Bob Cummings, and Eddie
Foy Jr., from '54)

WJHL Ch. 11 Johnson City, TN (CBS/ABC)

7 AM Laramie
8 AM Captain Kangaroo
9 AM Frankenstein Jr. And The Impossibles
9:30 Herculoids
10 AM Shazzan!
10:30 Space Ghost
11 AM Moby Dick And The Mighty Mightor
11:30 Superman/Aquaman Hour Of Adventure
12:30 Jonny Quest
1 PM Lone Ranger (animated)
1:30 Road Runner
2 PM TBA
2:15 Passport To Profit
2:30 Ray Mears
3 PM SEC Basketball: Kentucky-Florida
5 PM CBS Golf Classic (delay from 4 PM, time approximate)
6 PM Lawrence Welk (guests are future regulars Sandi Jensen
and Salli Flynn; and teen trumpeter David Joy; I think this
is a delay of about two weeks, ABC, from 8:30 PM)
7 PM Flying Nun (ABC, delay from Thu 8 PM)
7:30 Jackie Gleason
8:30 My Three Sons
9 PM Hogan's Heroes
9:30 Petticoat Junction
10 PM Mannix
11 PM News, Weather, Sports
11:15 Movie: "The Golden Blade"

WLOS Ch. 13 Asheville, NC (ABC)

7 AM New Casper Cartoon Show (delay from 9 AM)
7:30 Superman (George Reeves)
8 AM Mr. Bill And Bumbo (Bill Norwood and Bob Caldwell as
Bumbo the clown)
9:30 Fantastic Four
10 AM Spider-Man
10:30 Journey To The Center Of The Earth
11 AM King Kong
11:30 George Of The Jungle
12 N Beatles
12:30 American Bandstand (guests: the Box Tops)
1:30 Happening '68 (the Sunshine Company, Leonard Nimoy;
Dino, Desi, and Billy judge the amateur-band contest)
2 PM Village Square
2:30 Upbeat
3:30 Movie: "The Man They Could Not Hang" (Boris Karloff, from
'39)
4:25 Outdoor World
4:30 Gadabout Gaddis
5 PM Music City USA
6 PM Bing Crosby Golf Tournament (third round)
7:30 Dating Game (guest: Carolyn Jones)
8 PM Newlywed Game
8:30 Lawrence Welk (Sandi and Salli make another appearance;
Mr. Music Maker is apparently interested in adding them to
his musical family.)
9:30 Hollywood Palace (returns to its old time slot tonight with
a fourth-anniversary show; Bing Crosby hosts, with Peggy Lee,
Milton Berle, Jimmy Durante, Lawrence Welk, Phil Harris, Rosey
Grier and the L.A. Rams Fearsome Foursome, the acrobatic Sothkins
of the Moscow Circus)
10:30 Joe Pyne (topics: North Vietnam and urban renewal)
12 M ABC News (Keith McBee)
12:15 Movie: "The Big Heat"

WCCB Ch. 18 Charlotte (ABC)

8:30 Pancho's Corral
9 AM New Casper Cartoon Show
9:30 Fantastic Four
10 AM Spider-Man
10:30 Journey To The Center Of The Earth
11 AM King Kong
11:30 George Of The Jungle
12 N Beatles
12:30 American Bandstand
1:30 Happening '68
2 PM Upbeat
3 PM Big Picture
3:30 Pro Bowlers Tour: Showboat Invitational in Las Vegas
5 PM Wide World Of Sports (International Women's Alpine
Skiing Championship; Tournament of Thrills Auto Crash
Championship)
6 PM Bing Crosby Golf Tournament
7:30 Dating Game
8 PM Newlywed Game
8:30 Lawrence Welk
9:30 Hollywood Palace
10:30 Race To The White House (Democratic leaders discuss the
state of the party; participants are Sen. Eugene McCarthy,
who will run against LBJ in the early primaries; Postmaster
General Lawrence O'Brien, former Presidential advisor Theodore
Sorensen.)
11 PM ABC News
11:15 Movie: "Rage Of The Buccaneers" (Vincent Price, Ricardo Montalban,
from '62)

WTVK Ch. 26 (WVLT Ch. 8) Knoxville (ABC)

8:30 Agricultural Science In Action
9 AM New Casper Cartoon Show
9:30 Fantastic Four
10 AM Spider-Man
10:30 Journey To The Center Of The Earth
11 AM King Kong
11:30 George Of The Jungle
12 N Beatles
12:30 American Bandstand
1:30 Happening '68
2 PM Movie: "The Black Lancers"
3:30 Pro Bowlers Tour
5 PM Wide World Of Sports
6 PM Bing Crosby Golf Tournament
7:30 Dating Game
8 PM Newlywed Game
8:30 Lawrence Welk
9:30 Hollywood Palace
10:30 An Evening With The King Sisters
11 PM UT Basketball Replay: Tennessee-Georgia

WNTV Ch. 29 Greenville, SC (NET)

4:15 Smart Sewing
4:45 Everybody's Business
5:15 Agricultural Panorama
5:30 Folk Guitar
6 PM Sportsmanlike Driving
6:30 Let's Take Pictures
7 PM College Bound
7:30 Antiques (first of two on glassware)
8 PM Koltanowski On Chess (the career of Russian chess master
and world champion Mikhail Tawl)
8:30 Casals Master Class (student Elnar Holm performs the second
and third movements of Boccherini's Concerto in B Flat Major;
Casals demonstrates how the fingers should strike the violin strings)
9 PM New Orleans Jazz (the early sounds of Dixieland, including "When The
Saints Go Marching In," are recreated in a concert on a French Quarter
patio)
sign off 9:30 PM

WCTU (WCNC) Ch. 36 Charlotte (Ind.)
TV Guide begins listing Ch. 36 today.

3:30 Movie: "The Black Book" (Bob Cummings as Robespierre, from '49)
5 PM Movie: "Singapore" (Fred MacMurray, Ava Gardner, from '47)
6:30 National Bandstand (I know nothing about this one except it's not
"American Bandstand.")
7:30 Brand New Oprie (that's how "Opry" is spelled here)
8:30 ACC Basketball: South Carolina-Virginia (South Carolina would leave
the conference in 1970, go independent, then join the SEC.)
11 PM Movie: "Boston Blackie Booked On Suspicion" (of helping auction off
what turns out to be a fake copy of Dickens' "Pickwick Papers")

WAIM (WMYA) Ch. 40 Anderson, SC (ABC/CBS)

8 AM Captain Kangaroo
9 AM Frankenstein Jr. And The Impossibles
9:30 Fantastic Four
10 AM Spider-Man
10:30 Journey To The Center Of The Earth
11 AM King Kong
11:30 George Of The Jungle
12 N Beatles
12:30 American Bandstand
1:30 Happening '68
2 PM Pro Bowlers Tour (North Jaycee Open from Phoenix,
delay from 3:30 PM)
3:30 Big Picture
4 PM CBS Golf Classic
5 PM Wide World Of Sports
6 PM Bing Crosby Golf Tournament
7:30 Dating Game
8 PM Newlywed Game
8:30 Lawrence Welk
9:30 Petticoat Junction
10 PM Mannix
sign off 11 PM

 

[EJ204]

It's amazing how little news each of these stations does on a Saturday. Only WBTV Charlotte and WSPA Spartanburg have dinnertime and late newscasts.

Meanwhile WCYB Bristol and WSOC Charlotte have 30 minute late newscasts. But because the NBC Movie runs so late, they don't get on the air till almost midnight. Both stations are willing to invest in a full Saturday night newscast, but they don't want to take up valuable time earlier in the evening for a dinner newscast. WCYB doesn't want to cut into its series of half hour country music shows (Porter Waggoner, Country Music Carousel, etc.) between 3:30 and 7pm. WSOC didn't even figure out WHAT it wanted to run between 5pm and 6pm before TV Guide went to press. But apparently they didn't want to run news then.

Major network VHF stations WATE and WBIR Knoxville, and WLOS Asheville, don't have any local news at all. WFBC Greenville only has time for five minutes of local news at dinnertime.


WBTV 3 Charlotte -- 6 to 6:30pm, 11 to 11:20pm
WFBC 4 Greenville -- 5:55 to 6pm
WCYB 5 Bristol -- 7:25 to 7:30am, 11:45pm to 12:15am
WATE 6 Knoxville -- none
WSPA 7 Spartanburg -- 6 to 6:30pm, 11 to 11:15pm
WSOC 9 Charlotte -- 11:45pm to 12:15am
WBIR 10 Knoxville -- none
WJHL 11 Johnson City -- 11 to 11:15pm
WLOS 13 Asheville -- none
WCCB 18 Charlotte -- none
WTVK 26 Knoxville -- none
WCTC 36 Charlotte -- none
WAIM 40 Anderson -- none

 

[bpatrick]

At the time it was almost impossible to find an ABC affiliate
with local news on Saturdays, at least in these parts; in
Virginia/North Carolina/east Tennessee/North Georgia/Northern
Alabama I can think of only two: WNBE (now WCTI) New Bern,
NC, had a 6:30 PM newscast; WRAL Raleigh had ten minutes at
11:15 after ABC's newscast.

However, there were some CBS and NBC affiliates that did 30
minutes of local and 30 minutes of network news early Saturday
evenings: WFMY and WSJS (WXII) Greensboro/Winston-Salem/
High Point (CBS and NBC, respectively); WTAR (WTKR) Norfolk
and WTVR Richmond (both CBS); WITN Greenville/New Bern/Washington
(NBC). WSB and WAGA had 30-minute newscasts at 6 (Ch. 5) and 6:30
(Ch. 2), and both had 30-minute 11 PM newscasts.

In January 1969, in Greenville/Spartanburg/Asheville, both WFBC (WYFF)
and WSPA went to 30 minutes local/30 minutes network early Saturday
evenings; it was at that time that the Saturday edition of "The Huntley-
Brinkley Report" debuted on NBC; Ch. 4 picked it up and, not to be outdone,
Ch. 7 began airing Roger Mudd's newscast.

In the South, you were more likely to find a full hour of local and network
news in Florida, especially on the NBC stations in Orlando and Tampa and
the CBS ones in Orlando and Ft. Myers.

I remember that when I first moved to Birmingham in 1969 there were no
local newscasts on Saturdays; Huntley-Brinkley and Mudd were available
early, and WBRC carried ABC's newscast on a one-hour delay (11 PM CT),
and that was it.

I think the point when stations began to expand their weekend news times
was during Watergate, when news ratings in general were up, but I also recall
that Atlanta's Ch. 11 did something really unusual in the fall of '72: noon newscasts
on Saturday and Sunday (WSB still does this, as do some other stations including
sister stations WFTV Orlando and WSOC Charlotte).

 

[charlestondxman]

It was like that in Charleston too. Channel 5 (WCSC) did a 30 minute news on Saturday at 6:30. Channel 2 at the time (WUSN) did 30 minutes of late news, but that was it.

There was no news on Sunday except for WUSN doing a 15 minute news at 11:45 and WCSC doing 15 minutes of CBS at 11:00.

WCBD didn't start a consistent weekend 11pm news until the fall of 1983. WCIV did an early news, but no late news.

They didn't start a Saturday late news until the 90s.

 

[Charles1]

2 PM Roy Skinner (no idea who this is)
2:30 Ray Mears: University of Tennessee Basketball Highlights
3 PM SEC Basketball: Kentucky-Florida

Roy Skinner was the basketball coach at Vanderbilt from 1960-76, and is still the winningest coach in Commodores history. Somewhat notably, he also recruited the first African-American athlete to sign with an SEC school in any varsity sport.