Retro: Dayton, OH. November 16, 1961

[Stitch]

From TV Guide Southern Ohio Edition

[2] WLW-D (NBC, ABC)

6:30am CONTINENTAL CLASSROOM-Education (Color)
7:00 TODAY-John Chancellor
9:00 ANDY MARTEN-Variety
10:15 JOSEPH LONGSTRETH-Variety
10:30 PLAY YOUR HUNCH-Merv Griffin (Color)
11:00 THE PRICE IS RIGHT-Bill Cullen (Color)
11:30 CONCENTRATION-Hugh Downs
12:00 RUTH LYONS-Variety (Color)
1:30 TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES-Bob Barker
2:00 IT COULD BE YOU
2:30 LORETTA YOUNG-Drama
3:00 SPECIAL FOR WOMEN-Drama*
4:00 MAKE ROOM FOR DADDY-Comedy
4:30 HERE'S HOLLYWOOD-Interviews
4:55 NEWS (NBC?)
5:00 HUCKLEBERRY HOUND-Cartoons
5:30 KUKLA, FRAN, AND OLLIE
5:45 ROCKY & FRIENDS
6:00 CANNONBALL-Adventure
6:30 LOCAL NEWS, SPORTS
6:45 HUNTLEY-BRINKLEY REPORT
7:00 RIPCORD-Adventure
7:30 MARGIE-Comedy (FROM ABC, *Not* My Little Margie)
8:00 DONNA REED (FROM ABC)
8:30 THE REAL McCOYS (FROM ABC)
9:00 THE ADVENTURES OF OZZIE & HARRIET (ABC, delayed from 7:30)
9:30 HAZEL (FROM NBC)
10:00 SING ALONG WITH MITCH (FROM NBC)
11:00 LOCAL NEWS
11:10 WEATHER
11:15 SPORTS
11:20 JACK PAAR
1:00 MOVIE-The Bamboo Blonde (1946)

*Pre-empted "Young Dr. Malone" and "From These Roots"

[7] WHIO-TV (CBS)

8:55am DAILY WORD-Religion
9:00 CAPTAIN KANGAROO
10:00 CARTOONS (No details given)
10:30 COLLEGE OF THE AIR
11:00 BOLD JOURNEY-Travel
11:30 LOVE THAT BOB!-Comedy
12:00 LOVE OF LIFE-Serial
12:30 SEARCH FOR TOMORROW-Serial
12:45 THE GUIDING LIGHT-Serial
1:00 DAY IN COURT-Drama (From ABC)*
1:25 ABC NEWS-Alex Dreier*
1:30 AS THE WORLD TURNS
2:00 PASSWORD
2:30 HOUSE PARTY-Art Linkletter
3:00 JANA DEMAS-Variety
3:30 THE VERDICT IS YOURS
3:55 CBS NEWS-Charles Collingwood
4:00 LIFE OF RILEY
4:30 POPEYE THEATER-Cartoons
6:00 NEWS/SPORTS
6:30 DAILY TREND-Business News
6:40 WEATHER
6:45 MR. MAGOO
7:00 KING OF DIAMONDS-Police
7:30 RIVERBOAT-Adventure (From NBC)*
8:30 BOB CUMMINGS-Comedy
9:00 BOB NEWHART-Variety
9:30 BEACHCOMBER-Adventure
10:00 AT THE SOURCE-Special
10:30 TECHNOLOGY FOR TOMORROW-Special
11:00 LOCAL NEWS
11:15 WEATHER
11:20 SPORTS-Tom Hamlin
11:25 MOVIE-Guilty of Treason (1950)

* (TV Guide listed WHIO-TV as CBS only)

 

[gregg75]

9PM OZZIE & HARRIET..........how would you delay a show in 1961? Make a film of it and
then show the film later?

 

[Limp73]

Actually since Ozzie and Harriet was a filmed series on ABC, the former WLWD (now WDTN then as an NBC primary affilliate and secondary ABC affilliate) would receive a film copy of the show. Delayed in this case refers to an air time other than the actual airing by a network in its respective time slot which was of course 7:30. WHIO-TV a CBS affilliate also aired a few "delayed" programs from ABC as well. Videotape delay was used by both stations a little later on in that decade when VTRs became more widely available.

 

[w9wi]

9PM OZZIE & HARRIET..........how would you delay a show in 1961? Make a film of it and
then show the film later?

Limp73's reply is more accurate for this particular case.

The practical VTR came out in 1956 and was widely available by 1961.

Before that, yes, they *did* delay shows by filming the screen & showing the film later. That was also the only way network programs could be aired on stations not physically connected to the networks. In the days before satellites, AT&T microwave was the way ABC/CBS/NBC delivered their programs to affiliates -- and that microwave didn't go everywhere immediately. Of course, Alaska and Hawaii never were on the microwave network!

It was also by no means unheardof for a station to pick up the signals of the nearest microwave-interconnected affiliate of the same network over the air and rebroadcast them. (which as you might guess led to some interesting mistakes!)

WSM-TV in Nashville built their own 140-mile private microwave link to deliver network signals from the nearest interconnection point, Louisville.

 

[gregg75]

So the film would arrive with the national commercials already in it? That just doesn't seem practical.

 

[oldiesfan6479]

So the film would arrive with the national commercials already in it? That just doesn't seem practical.

No topical promo/system cue at the end, no network booth announcer doing audio promos
over the credits, but with spots and sponsor billboards, yes. These 16mm reduction prints
were bicycled around the country to non-interconnected affiliates, or to stations that didn't
air the show "in pattern" and did not have sufficient facilities to tape delay the show.

Some stations would wind up airing the film print a week or two late, or x-number of days
late on a different night.

In a few cases, a station aired these episodes the same night as the network telecast. KTVK
Phoenix did this with ABC prime for much of the 1960s--Sunday-Friday was in pattern on
16mm film, only Saturday night was live network (starting at 5:30 MT). KTVK also fed these
"network" shows to KGUN-TV Tucson via a private microwave link.

 

[Limp73]

As a kid I remembered those unusual looking towers with the horn shaped antennas on top. Most if not all of them are now sitting dormant and collecting rust with the antennas removed....and the adjacent buildings that housed the relay equipment most likely are deteriorating from leaky roofs....but a few are bought up by companies with the intention of leasing them out as cel phone towers. They build new cel towers as well.

http://www.subcarrier.com

Columbus Grove and Fletcher, Ohio also come to mind....and an unusual looking tower (built mostly from concrete slabs) still stands next to I-70 in Springfield, Ohio.

Wished I could have had the opporitunity when I was a child to visit one of those sites as a school field trip. It never happened.

Any retired AT&T employees out there with some movies or old photos taken inside such faclilties?

Here's a link to a photo of the Botkins,Ohio tower now leased to Radio Maria as a transmitting site.

http://www.subcarrier.com/images/sites/botkins-oh.jpg

 

[Stitch]

Correction to WLW-D's 5:30pm listing:

Kukla, Fran, and Ollie only ran for five minutes. "Gordon Jump" ran from 5:35pm-5:45pm.

This was a while before Jump's WKRP and Maytag days.

 

[Ultimajock]

Actually since Ozzie and Harriet was a filmed series on ABC, the former WLWD (now WDTN then as an NBC primary affilliate and secondary ABC affilliate) would receive a film copy of the show. Delayed in this case refers to an air time other than the actual airing by a network in its respective time slot which was of course 7:30. WHIO-TV a CBS affilliate also aired a few "delayed" programs from ABC as well. Videotape delay was used by both stations a little later on in that decade when VTRs became more widely available.

...in fact, in the earliest days of television in Tucson, this would be how both NBC affiliate KVOA-TV/4 and CBS affiliate KPOP-TV/13 (now KOLD) would air many network programs. Interestingly enough, it was those 16mm film prints that would allow Dragnet to be the first network program to be widely syndicated in reruns under the title Badge 714; while KVOA didn't carry Dragnet in network schedule pattern (and may not have carried that show at all in the station's earliest months), KOPO carried the Badge 714 version from the beginning of its availability...

 

[Limp73]

Correction to WLW-D's 5:30pm listing:

Kukla, Fran, and Ollie only ran for five minutes. "Gordon Jump" ran from 5:35pm-5:45pm.

This was a while before Jump's WKRP and Maytag days.

I completely forgot 'bout him. Didn't know that was Jump on WLWD...but hey he's a native of Dayton. I also remember the five minute KF&O kinescoped segment on "Fun Time" which also ran the abbreviated 15 minute version of Rocky and Bullwinkle (called: "The Rocky Show") "Fun Time" had a breif run on Channel 2 that year...apperantly couldn't compete with Uncle Orrie on WHIO-TV in that same timeslot if I'm not mistaken. Orrie(real name: Joe Rockhold) hosted the weekday "Popeye Theater" that year.

 

[Cincinnati Kid]

By 1961, this five-minute feature was re-titled "Burr Tillstrom"s Kukla and Ollie". There was no mention in the title of "Fran" (Fran Allison). There was a female-like voice that introduced the show, but I'm not sure if it was Fran Allison's or not.

 

[wbhist]

By 1961, this five-minute feature was re-titled "Burr Tillstrom"s Kukla and Ollie". There was no mention in the title of "Fran" (Fran Allison). There was a female-like voice that introduced the show, but I'm not sure if it was Fran Allison's or not.

From what I read, Ms. Allison did the commercials on this short-lived Kukla & Ollie show.

 

[Limp73]

That sounds about right. The intro slide DID mention it as Kukla and Ollie although the announcer said Kukla,Fran and Ollie on the air....whoever that was. Fran or otherwise.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

Did newspapers of the area actually list WLWD as "WLW-D"? (And similar in other "WLW-" markets?)

 

[wbhist]

Did newspapers of the area actually list WLWD as "WLW-D"? (And similar in other "WLW-" markets?)

From what I could tell, TV Guide sure did, as late as Fall 1969, if this is of any indication (though by the end of 1969, it was a different story) - as did the stations themselves, on their test patterns, such as this for then-WLW-D and Indianapolis' then-WLW-I.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

I'm just finding it odd that outside sources (newspapers, TV Guide, etc.) would adopt the dash in the call letters, and wondering how that practice eventually faded.

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

I'm just finding it odd that outside sources (newspapers, TV Guide, etc.) would adopt the dash in the call letters, and wondering how that practice eventually faded.

IIRC TV Guide did the same thing with another Midwestern channel 2: WTWO-2 (NBC) in Terre Haute, IN in the late '80s/early '90s, listing their calls as "W-TWO."