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Retro: Cumberland, MD Cable TV Listings Friday, February 27, 1959

M

mleach

Cumberland, Maryland Cable TV Listings ( Full Time Channels )
Friday Evening, February 27, 1959
Cumberland Times

**some titles were shortened in these listings thanks to the newspaper.

**At the time of these listings Cumberland was the second largest city in Maryland.


WTOP channel 9 Washington ( CBS ) Cable 2 Full Time
3:00 Big Payoff
3:30 Your Verdict ( Verdict is Yours ? )
4:15 Brighter Day
4:30 Secret Storm
4:45 Edge of Night
5:00 Early Show
6:30 Spotlight
6:45 Edwards News ( CBS )
7:00 Copter Patrol
7:30 Your Hit Parade
8:00 Rawide
9:00 Phil Silvers
9:30 Playhouse
10:00 Lineup
10:30 Murrow
11:00 11PM Report
11:15 Late Show


WMAL channel 7 Washington ( ABC ) Cable 3 Full Time
3:00 Beat the Clock
3:30 Quiz Show
4:00 American Bandstand
5:00 Buccaneers
5:30 Mickey Mouse Club
6:00 Ramar
6:30 Amos & Andy
7:00 WMAL News & Sports
7:15 ABC News ( Daly )
7:30 Rin Tin Tin
8:00 Disneyland
9:00 Camera Man
9:30 77 Sunset Strip
10:30 John Daly
11:00 Movietime


WRC channel 4 Washington ( NBC ) cable 4 Full Time
3:00 Dr. Malone
3:30 From These Roots
4:00 Queen For A Day
4:30 County Fair
5:00 Susie
5:30 Burns & Allen
6:00 Jeff's Collie
6:30 Sam & Friends ( The Muppets )
6:45 Huntley & Brinkley
7:00 News
7:30 Northwest Passage
8:00 Ellery Queen
9:00 M Squad
9:30 Thin Man
10:00 Fights
11:00 News
11:30 Jack Parr


WTTG channel 5 Washington ( DuMont ) cable 5 Full Time
3:00 Cartoons
3:30 Gramps Place
4:00 Pick Temple
5:00 Milt Grant ( DC's American Bandstand )
6:15 News
6:30 Cartoons
7:00 Jim Bowie
7:30 Badge 714
8:00 Movie
9:30 Man Without Gun
10:00 Star Time
10:30 The Big Story
11:00 News
11:15 Movie


WSVA channel 3 Harrisonurg, VA ( all networks ) cable 6 Full Time
3:00 Dr. Malone
3:30 From These Roots
4:00 From the Bonnie Belle ( local cartoon show )
4:30 Secret Storm
4:45 Edge of Night
5:00 Buddy Starcher ( country music )
5:30 Adventure Theatre
6:00 Farm News
6:15 Rockingham County Showcase
6:30 News
6:45 Edwards News ( CBS )
7:00 Klub Kwiz
7:30 Rin Tin Tin
8:00 Trackdown
8:30 Target
9:00 M Squad
9:30 Ford Show
10:00 Friday Night Fights
11:00 WSVA News Final
11:15 Jack Parr


KDKA channel 2 Pittsburgh ( CBS ) cable 8 Full Time
3:00 Big Payoff
3:30 Your Verdict
4:00 Brighter Day
4:15 Secret Storm
4:30 Edge of Night
5:00 Early Show
7:00 News
7:30 Your Hit Parade
8:00 Rawhide
9:00 Phil Silvers
9:30 Playhouse
10:00 Lineup
10:30 Murrow
11:00 News
11:15 Theatre
1:00 Swing Shift

*Cable channel 9 was shared between Johnstown, PA's WJAC-TV 6 and Altoona, Pa's WFBG ( now WTAJ ) channel 10.
 
mleach said:
WTTG channel 5 Washington ( DuMont ) cable 5 Full Time
Click to expand...

I can only presume that this description of WTTG's affiliation was from the Cumberland Times, since by this time it was less than a year that the DuMont Broadcasting Corporation changed its name to the Metropolitan Broadcasting Corporation, in a bid to distance itself from what was considered the "failure" of the DuMont Network (it seems its New York sister station WABD's change in call letters to WNEW-TV on Sept. 7, 1958 was as much influenced by this as it was to conform the TV station's calls to its radio sister station at 1130 AM). Never mind WTTG also being an indie by this time.

One other thing: At what point did WRC-TV's Movie 4 debut?
 
WTOP 3:30 "Your Verdict"=The Verdict is Yours with Jim McKay, a couple of years before ABC would hire him away to host Wide World of Sports
WTOP 10:30 "Murrow"=Person to Person with Ed Murrow
WMAL 3:30 "Quiz Show"=Who Do You Trust? with Johnny Carson & Ed McMahon
WMAL 9:00 "Camera Man"=Man with a Camera crime drama starring Charles Bronson as a photographer/private eye
 
wbhist said:
mleach said:
WTTG channel 5 Washington ( DuMont ) cable 5 Full Time
Click to expand...

I can only presume that this description of WTTG's affiliation was from the Cumberland Times, since by this time it was less than a year that the DuMont Broadcasting Corporation changed its name to the Metropolitan Broadcasting Corporation, in a bid to distance itself from what was considered the "failure" of the DuMont Network
Click to expand...

That was the way it was listed in the Cumberland Times. Guess they can be "forgiven" since there is quite a bit of distance between Cumberland and DC besides I have grave doubts that the end of DuMont even made the Cumberland paper. Heck Buddy Holly's death which took place a few weeks earlier than these listings, even THAT didn't make the front page of the Cumberland Times.
 
WTOP 7 PM "Copter Patrol" sounds like "Whirlybirds"
WTOP 9:30 "Playhouse" is "Schlitz Playhouse Of Stars"
(or by that time, "Lux/Schlitz Playhouse")
WSVA 9:30 "Ford Show" sounds like Tennessee
Ernie Ford's show, delayed from
Thursday 9:30. The actual title was
"The Ford Show Starring Tennessee
Ernie Ford," referring to the sponsor,
Ford Motor Company, and not to him.
 
mleach said:
wbhist said:
I can only presume that this description of WTTG's affiliation was from the Cumberland Times, since by this time it was less than a year that the DuMont Broadcasting Corporation changed its name to the Metropolitan Broadcasting Corporation, in a bid to distance itself from what was considered the "failure" of the DuMont Network
Click to expand...

That was the way it was listed in the Cumberland Times. Guess they can be "forgiven" since there is quite a bit of distance between Cumberland and DC besides I have grave doubts that the end of DuMont even made the Cumberland paper. Heck Buddy Holly's death which took place a few weeks earlier than these listings, even THAT didn't make the front page of the Cumberland Times.
Click to expand...

The New York Times mentioned that crash which also took the lives of the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens (and future country "outlaw" Waylon Jennings lost a coin flip over one of the plane seats, which haunted him for the rest of his life) . . . but it was buried inside the paper.

But back to the topic of WTTG in the Cumberland Times listings: I thought that to be the case, thanks for confirming.
 
Why is Cumberland, MD in the Washington market when Pittsburgh not to mention Altoona/Johnstown is closer? MUCH closer.

Better yet why is Harrisonburg, VA's WSVA-TV even included here yet they were on the local system FULL TIME but not Johnstown or Altoona. Why?
 
TV Guide listings as late as 1958-59 were still showing stations ad "DuMont" affiliates, so The Cumberland paper wasnt the only one to make that mistake
 
Tim L said:
TV Guide listings as late as 1958-59 were still showing stations ad "DuMont" affiliates, so The Cumberland paper wasnt the only one to make that mistake
Click to expand...

Some later than others; New York's WABD (later WNEW-TV and now WNYW) was listed as "DuMont" in TV Guide up to mid-1958, after which its designation was changed to "Ind."
 
I'm assuming the DC stations were microwaved into Cumberland, even at this early date--after all, Cumberland is about 160 miles west of DC. Even today, Cumberland and surrounding area is in the Washington DMA(now we know why), and the cable system carries all DC area channels except WRC(including WDCA and WDCW). NBC comes from another Washington DMA NBC station, WHAG in Hagerstown. The only other commercial channels carried in Cumberland are WJZ and infomercial WJAL. Even WJAC, only about 60 miles away, is not carried. I think KDKA is carried in Frostburg, just to the west of Cumberland. I guess local TV never had a chance in Cumberland since cable got an early foothold. There were two channel allocations for Cumberland, but they never made it to air.
 
fortmill said:
I'm assuming the DC stations were microwaved into Cumberland, even at this early date--after all, Cumberland is about 160 miles west of DC. Even today, Cumberland and surrounding area is in the Washington DMA(now we know why), and the cable system carries all DC area channels except WRC(including WDCA and WDCW). NBC comes from another Washington DMA NBC station, WHAG in Hagerstown. The only other commercial channels carried in Cumberland are WJZ and infomercial WJAL. Even WJAC, only about 60 miles away, is not carried. I think KDKA is carried in Frostburg, just to the west of Cumberland. I guess local TV never had a chance in Cumberland since cable got an early foothold. There were two channel allocations for Cumberland, but they never made it to air.
Click to expand...

I am pretty sure both Johnstown's WJAC and Altoona's WTAJ were carried on the Cumberland cable system as recently as the mid 80's as they were listed as being on the system according to the Cumberland paper ( odd TV Guide they had at the time..all the pages were in YELLOW !! ). My guess is that Hagerstown's WHAG sometime in the mid to late 80s had WJAC removed from the system there since WHAG for many years had other NBC stations ( of course not WRC ) removed from various systems over the years such as thay bitter feud they had in the late 80s with Baltimore's WBAL involving some system in Pennsylvania ( Waynesboro I think ). WTAJ, have no idea why they were removed in Cumberland though oddly as recently as five years ago there were still on the system in Berkeley Springs, WV which is not quite two hours away from DC.

Frostburg I believe still gets KDKA and just to the south of Cumberland in Keyser, WV, at one time they got KDKA but I don't know if they still do or not.

Even though they had cable TV early, I am still surprised they never did had their own local TV since afterall Cumberland did get into radio quite early with WTBO-AM way back in the 1920's and considering the size of the city at the time. Maybe those involved or had an interest had some kind a "bad vibe" or whatever since the local Cumberland economy went into a severe nosedive in the 70's and 80's for which Cumberland never really recovered from. With all the plant and retail closings of that time, chances are local TV wouldn't had recovered from it anyway. The local radio stations barely did themselves such as the local HOT AC "JIB-100" having to end up hooking up with..Radio Disney.
 
Isn't one Maryland county (I think it's Garrett)
in the Pittsburgh DMA? I can't think of one in the
Johnstown/Altoona DMA.
 
bpatrick said:
Isn't one Maryland county (I think it's Garrett)
in the Pittsburgh DMA? I can't think of one in the
Johnstown/Altoona DMA.
Click to expand...

Garrett County, MD is indeed in the Pittsburgh DMA...even though I am pretty sure WHAG still appears on that system too.

Western Maryland only consists of three counties ( Washington, Allegany and Garrett ) and while none of them are in the Johnstown-Altoona market, one doesn't have to go far to get there. In the case with Cumberland, just drive ( or even walk ) a few miles and cross the Pennsylvania state line and presto......you are inside Johnstown-Altoona DMA market. It really is that close.
 
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