Retro: Eastern Virginia Tuesday, August 25, 1970

[bpatrick]

Going out of my usual "on this day" or "close to this day,"
I just received an old Eastern Virginia edition of TV Guide
and wanted to put up a retro.

WTAR (WTKR) Ch. 3 Norfolk (CBS)

5:55 These Things We Share
6:10 Town And Country
6:20 Summer Semester: "The Image And Its Speech"
6:50 Lift Up Mine Eyes
7 AM CBS News (Joseph Benti)
7:30 Flibbertigibbet (kids' show that started in 1967)
8 AM Captain Kangaroo
9 AM The Game Game (What happens when Chuck Barris
does a game show straight? It tanks, and this one
did. It had a celebrity panel matching answers on
a given subject with a USC psychologist.)
9:30 The Farmer's Daughter
10 AM The Lucy Show (golfer Jimmy Demaret, who had appeared
in an "I Love Lucy" episode, works with Lucy again)
10:30 Beverly Hillbillies
11 AM Andy Griffith
11:30 Love Of Life
12 N Where The Heart Is
12:25 Local News
12:30 Search For Tomorrow
1 PM Mildred Alexander (women's show)
1:30 As The World Turns
2 PM Love Is A Many Splendored Thing
2:30 Guiding Light
3 PM Secret Storm
3:30 Edge Of Night
4 PM Gomer Pyle, USMC
4:30 F Troop
5 PM Truth Or Consequences
5:30 Gilligan's Island
6 PM News, Weather, Sports
6:30 CBS News (Walter Cronkite)
7 PM Hazel
7:30 CBS Movie: "Me And The Colonel"
9:30 The Governor And J.J.
10 PM Report 3
10:30 CBS News Special (Sens. Barry Goldwater
and William Proxmire on the U.S. position
in the arms race)
11 PM News, Weather, Sports
11:30 Merv Griffin (still at CBS, but when he goes
back into syndication in 1972 he will be a
staple of Ch. 3's afternoon lineup)

WSVA (WHSV) Ch. 3 Harrisonburg (NBC/ABC)

8 AM Today (joined in progress, and I don't know
why it carried only an hour)
9 AM Huckleberry Hound/Yogi Bear
9:30 Galloping Gourmet
10 AM Dinah's Place
10:30 Concentration
11 AM Sale Of The Century
11:30 Hollywood Squares
12 N The Best Of Everything
12:30 A World Apart
1 PM All My Children
1:30 Let's Make A Deal
2 PM Newlywed Game
2:30 Dating Game
3 PM General Hospital
3:30 One Life To Live
4 PM Dark Shadows
4:30 Hazel/Dialing For Dollars
5 PM Laramie
6 PM ABC News (Howard K. Smith/Frank
Reynolds)
6:30 News, Weather, Sports (still in B&W)
7 PM Wilburn Brothers
7:30 Mod Squad
8:30 ABC Movie: "The Journey Of Robert F. Kennedy"
10 PM Marcus Welby, M.D. (watch for Robert "Benson"
Guillaume in this one)
11 PM News, Weather, Sports
11:30 Dick Cavett

WTVR Ch. 6 Richmond (CBS)

6 AM Summer Semester: "Eisenhower" (runs a day behind)
6:30 Virginia Today (then-sister station WNCT Greenville/New
Bern/Washington, NC had "Carolina Today" at this time)
7 AM CBS News
8 AM Richmond Today (would later move to noon)
8:30 Romper Room
9 AM Captain Kangaroo (sister stations WNCT and WDEF
Chattanooga also did this)
10 AM The Lucy Show
10:30 Beverly Hillbillies
11 AM Andy Griffith
11:30 Love Of Life
12 N Where The Heart Is
12:25 CBS News (Douglas Edwards)
12:30 Search For Tomorrow
1 PM Queen For A Day (the failed revival, with Dick Curtis
of Jonathan Winters' CBS show as host)
1:30 As The World Turns
2 PM Love Is A Many Splendored Thing
2:30 Guiding Light
3 PM Secret Storm
3:30 Edge Of Night
4 PM Gomer Pyle, USMC
4:30 Bozo/Sooper Dog
5 PM The Monroes
6 PM News, Weather, Sports
6:30 CBS News
7 PM News, Weather
7:30 CBS Movie: "Me And The Colonel"
9:30 Something Special (Eartha Kitt plays host to
Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66)
10:30 Facing Richmond
11 PM News, Weather, Sports
11:30 Merv Griffin (when he returns to syndication he
will be seen on Ch. 8 in Richmond)

WXEX (WRIC) Ch. 8 Petersburg-Richmond (ABC)

7 AM R.F.D. 8
7:30 News
8 AM Girl Talk
8:30 Galloping Gourmet
9 AM Dialing For Dollars
10 AM Divorce Court (a few years earlier this had been
a 10 AM institution on Ch. 13 in Hampton Roads)
10:30 Loretta Young/Dialing For Dollars
11 AM Bewitched
11:30 That Girl
12 N The Best Of Everything
12:30 A World Apart
1 PM All My Children
1:30 Let's Make A Deal
2 PM Newlywed Game
2:30 Dating Game
3 PM General Hospital
3:30 One Life To Live
4 PM Dark Shadows
4:30 David Frost
5:55 Paul Harvey
6 PM News, Weather, Sports
6:30 Munsters
7 PM Truth Or Consequences
7:30 Mod Squad
8:30 ABC Movie: "The Journey Of Robert F.
Kennedy"
10 PM Marcus Welby, M.D.
11 PM News, Weather, Sports
11:30 Movie: "Swingers' Paradise"
1 AM News, Weather, Sports

WAVY Ch. 10 Norfolk (NBC)

6:30 Farm Show
7 AM Today
9 AM David Frost/Dialing For Dollars
10 AM Dinah's Place
10:30 Concentration
11 AM Sale Of The Century
11:30 Hollywood Squares
12 N Jeopardy!
12:30 Who, What Or Where
12:55 NBC News (Floyd Kalber)
1 PM Somerset
1:30 Eyewitness News Magazine
2 PM Days Of Our Lives
2:30 The Doctors
3 PM Another World
3:30 Bright Promise
4 PM My Favorite Martian
4:30 Mike Douglas (a fixture at 4:30 on Ch.
10 for years)
6 PM News, Weather, Sports
6:30 NBC News (the rotating-anchor format
that didn't work)
7 PM Marshal Dillon
7:30 I Dream Of Jeannie
8 PM Debbie Reynolds (Jess Oppenheimer tried
to turn her into another Lucy--not only
did it fail but Debbie admitted watching
"Mod Squad.")
8:30 Julia
9 PM NBC Movie: "Help!"
11 PM News, Weather, Sports
11:30 Tonight Show
1 AM News, Weather, Sports
1:05 Live And Learn

WWBT Ch. 12 Richmond (NBC)

6:35 Virginia Almanac
7 AM Today
9 AM Betty Feezor (WWBT is a sister station to WBTV
Charlotte, which is how they got this.)
9:30 Mike Douglas
10:30 Concentration
11 AM Sale Of The Century
11:30 Hollywood Squares
12 N Jeopardy!
12:30 Who, What Or Where
12:55 NBC News
1 PM Somerset
1:30 Life With Linkletter (not at all like "House Party"--
more controversial subjects and no kids--no
wonder it tanked)
2 PM Days Of Our Lives
2:30 The Doctors
3 PM Another World
3:30 Hazel
4 PM Movie: "Prince Of Pirates"
5:30 News, Weather, Sports (like WBTV at the time,
the newscast was called "The Scene Tonight")
6 PM Perry Mason
7 PM NBC News
7:30 I Dream Of Jeannie
8 PM Debbie Reynolds
8:30 Julia
9 PM NBC Movie: "Help!"
11 PM News, Weather, Sports
11:30 Tonight Show

WVEC Ch. 13 Norfolk (ABC)

6:45 Ladies' Day
7:15 On This Day (religion)
7:20 Datebook
7:30 Comedy Time
7:45 Romper Room
8:15 Jack LaLanne
8:45 News
8:50 Movie: "Man On The Flying Trapeze"
(W.C. Fields)
10:10 Fashions In Sewing
10:20 News
10:30 Galloping Gourmet
11 AM Bewitched
11:30 That Girl
12 N The Best Of Everything
12:30 A World Apart
1 PM All My Children
1:30 Let's Make A Deal
2 PM Newlywed Game
2:30 Dating Game
3 PM General Hospital
3:30 One Life To Live
4 PM Dark Shadows
4:30 Bungles/Addams Family
5:30 News, Weather, Sports
6 PM ABC News
6:30 Rawhide
7:30 Mod Squad
8:30 ABC Movie: "The Journey Of Robert F.
Kennedy"
10 PM Marcus Welby, M.D.
11 PM News, Weather, Sports
11:35 Movie: "April Showers"
1:25 News

WHRO Ch. 15 Norfolk (NET)

6:30 Sesame Street
7:30 Misterogers (better known as Mister Rogers'
Neighborhood)
8 PM Forsyte Saga (Part 15)
9 PM NET Festival
sign off 10 PM

WCVE Ch. 23 Richmond (NET)

6:30 Sesame Street
7:30 Misterogers
8 PM World Press
9 PM NET Festival
10 PM Space In The '70s
10:30 Maggie And The Beautiful Machine
sign off 11 PM

WYAH (WGNT or whatever they're calling it now)
Ch. 27 Portsmouth (Ind.)

4:30 Mister Ed
5 PM Leave It To Beaver
5:30 Jim And Tammy (yes, the Bakkers with their
kids' puppet show)
6:30 Flipper
7 PM News, Weather, Sports (this used to be the
first thing on the schedule when the station
signed on at 6)
7:30 Evening With Delores (something from CBN,
but I can't tell you who Delores is)
8 PM 700 Club
9:30 Rex Humbard
10:30 News, Weather, Sports
sign off 11 PM

 

[azumanga]

WTAR (WTKR) Ch. 3 Norfolk (CBS)

9 AM The Game Game (What happens when Chuck Barris
does a game show straight? It tanks, and this one
did. It had a celebrity panel matching answers on
a given subject with a USC psychologist.)

Chuck Barris would try another straight game in 1980 -- "Camouflage". That show tanked so badly, Chuckie practically gave up on game shows entirely for a few years.

 

[Mike Stroud]

Going out of my usual "on this day" or "close to this day,"
I just received an old Eastern Virginia edition of TV Guide
and wanted to put up a retro.

WTAR (WTKR) Ch. 3 Norfolk (CBS)

7:30 Flibbertigibbet (kids' show that started in 1967)

WSVA (WHSV) Ch. 3 Harrisonburg (NBC/ABC)

8 AM Today (joined in progress, and I don't know
why it carried only an hour)
6:30 News, Weather, Sports (still in B&W)

WAVY Ch. 10 Norfolk (NBC)

1:30 Eyewitness News Magazine
6:30 NBC News (the rotating-anchor format
that didn't work)

WWBT Ch. 12 Richmond (NBC)

1:30 Life With Linkletter (not at all like "House Party"--
more controversial subjects and no kids--no
wonder it tanked)

WYAH (WGNT or whatever they're calling it now)
Ch. 27 Portsmouth (Ind.)

4:30 Mister Ed
5 PM Leave It To Beaver
5:30 Jim And Tammy (yes, the Bakkers with their
kids' puppet show)
6:30 Flipper
7 PM News, Weather, Sports (this used to be the
first thing on the schedule when the station
signed on at 6)
7:30 Evening With Delores (something from CBN,
but I can't tell you who Delores is)
8 PM 700 Club
9:30 Rex Humbard
10:30 News, Weather, Sports
sign off 11 PM

Now it's time to leave Kentucky and mosey on back over the Appalachians to ole Virginny, as the ancient song goes ... with bp as our tour guide.

WTAR, 7:30 a.m.: Ummmm. Suppose it was sponsored by the "Scrumpdillyicious" Dairy Queen?--!

WSVA: I think the lack of an upgrade to local for local broadcasts probably explains a lot about why the station JIPed The Today Show. I have seen earlier posts on this forum about WSVA's owners being so traditionalist that they would not air local commercials, so it may be that they imposed an off-air curfew from, say, 1 to 8 a.m. It's further possible that station management didn't perceive that folks on the farm would be watching TV as they prepared to do their chores, so the sign-on time may have been geared toward the in-town audience, women who didn't have time to watch until their husbands went to work and their children got off to school. Anyways, as the only game in town, the station held the cards--and two networks hostage at times.

WAVY, 1:30 p.m.: Classic example of NBC's "graveyard problem" between 1968, when it lost Let's Make a Deal, to 1975, when it expanded Days of Our Lives to a full hour.

WAVY: 6:30 p.m.: I have posted before about the 1970-71 troika of NBC Nightly News anchors, and its effect on undermining audience confidence. Why guess at who will be at the anchor desk, when you knew that trusty old "Uncle Walt" would be there every night on CBS? The result led to NBC suffering ratings doldrums in its evening newscasts for the next 25 years.

WWBT, 1:30 p.m.: Indeed, I recall seeing a listing for the "new" Linkletter show on my birthday, March 16, 1970, once. The guest was none other than Jack Webb, who appeared to do a segment to show parents how to check if their children were on drugs. I happened to be born (12:40 p.m. Central Time) while that was on the air, and I swear to this day that that is the reason I have always taken a liking to Dragnet, Adam-12, and Emergency! But as for your point, I agree wholeheartedly. It was a gambit by NBC to get older (and nostalgic) viewers, while updating the guests and topics to resemble Mike Douglas or Merv Griffin, in order to grab some young housewives. As you say, it was all for naught, and I am sure this failure is the reason Art Linkletter decided to get out of the limelight, and appear on TV only occasionally thereafter.

Linkletter was accompanied by his son, Jack, who later appeared on another NBC daytime failure eight years later titled America Alive! The junior Linkletter died a couple of years ago, while the senior is still going strong at 97, and in fact, has been politically active in organizing a conservative seniors' organization, to oppose some of the initiatives of the AARP.

WYAH: Here we see the embryonic state of what would become Pat Robertson's broadcasting (and later educational) empire. It is somewhat odd that his station tried local newscasts at 7 and 10:30; one has to wonder whether or not they reported things from a "Christian" perspective, a la 700 Club.

 

[mleach]

WSVA: I think the lack of an upgrade to local for local broadcasts probably explains a lot about why the station JIPed The Today Show. I have seen earlier posts on this forum about WSVA's owners being so traditionalist that they would not air local commercials, so it may be that they imposed an off-air curfew from, say, 1 to 8 a.m. It's further possible that station management didn't perceive that folks on the farm would be watching TV as they prepared to do their chores, so the sign-on time may have been geared toward the in-town audience, women who didn't have time to watch until their husbands went to work and their children got off to school. Anyways, as the only game in town, the station held the cards--and two networks hostage at times.

Actually WSVA did air local commercials back in those days and yeah as I found out very recently thanks to Newspaper Archive, even on Sunday as well such as ads in the Saturday Daily News-Record for example I saw an ad from 1969 for the local Shenandoah Pride milk mentioning "..be sure to watch our commercial Sunday.. tune in to TV 3". Of course among the old timers in the area they swear to otherwise . I supposed this can be understandable between having a local newspaper that still refuses to this day to publish a Sunday edition, being the home of a supermarket chain that refused to sell certain items because they would go against the owner's faith ( yes that means NO TV Guide !! ) and not too mention the market was the home of ultra conversative radio announcer ( WQPO-FM ) Blake Allen...it shouldn't come as a surprise that some people had some kinda of idea that the old WSVA-TV was "picky" when it came to ads and programming in those days even if in reality, they really weren't.

 

[oldiesfan6479]

WTVR Ch. 6 Richmond (CBS)
6 AM Summer Semester: "Eisenhower" (runs a day behind)

Do you mean even a day behind the de facto day behind?

Sunrise/Summer Surprise was fed down the line weekdays from
1-1:30 PM ET for stations to record and play early the next
morning, so one could say it was "a day behind" anyway--or
argue that it really wasn't, since it was a closed-circuit feed
during the dead half-hour of daytime not meant for airing "live."

WWBT Ch. 12 Richmond (NBC)
9 AM Betty Feezor (WWBT is a sister station to WBTV
Charlotte, which is how they got this.)

A day behind or even a week delay from the Charlotte airing?

 

[Mike Stroud]

WSVA: I think the lack of an upgrade to local for local broadcasts probably explains a lot about why the station JIPed The Today Show. I have seen earlier posts on this forum about WSVA's owners being so traditionalist that they would not air local commercials, so it may be that they imposed an off-air curfew from, say, 1 to 8 a.m. It's further possible that station management didn't perceive that folks on the farm would be watching TV as they prepared to do their chores, so the sign-on time may have been geared toward the in-town audience, women who didn't have time to watch until their husbands went to work and their children got off to school. Anyways, as the only game in town, the station held the cards--and two networks hostage at times.

Actually WSVA did air local commercials back in those days and yeah as I found out very recently thanks to Newspaper Archive, even on Sunday as well such as ads in the Saturday Daily News-Record for example I saw an ad from 1969 for the local Shenandoah Pride milk mentioning "..be sure to watch our commercial Sunday.. tune in to TV 3". Of course among the old timers in the area they swear to otherwise . I supposed this can be understandable between having a local newspaper that still refuses to this day to publish a Sunday edition, being the home of a supermarket chain that refused to sell certain items because they would go against the owner's faith ( yes that means NO TV Guide !! ) and not too mention the market was the home of ultra conversative radio announcer ( WQPO-FM ) Blake Allen...it shouldn't come as a surprise that some people had some kinda of idea that the old WSVA-TV was "picky" when it came to ads and programming in those days even if in reality, they really weren't.

Well, file THAT in the category of urban, or should we say small-town, legends. Thanks for setting us straight.

 

[bpatrick]

The broadcast of "Summer Semester" on WTVR aired the
day after it aired on WTAR, which is why I used the term
"day-behind." I don't know how much delay there was
between the time Betty Feezor's show aired in Charlotte
and in Richmond, since she was live in Charlotte at 1 PM.

"Flibbertigibbet": I don't remember who sponsored it, but
I do remember the hostess, a rather perky blonde named
Ann Dawson. I don't know what happened to her.

"Life With Linkletter" was actually closer to Phil Donahue
than to Mike or Merv; the subject on the day of these
listings was sexual inadequacy in men over 50. All that
was missing were the audience and phone-in questions.
It was, however, a radical change for Art Linkletter who,
I think, was still coping with the death of daughter Diane
a few months earlier. As for Jack and "America Alive," he
was the only regular on that show not singled out for
negative criticism. The only NBC show in the 1:30 slot
that did last more than a few months (before "Days Of Our
Lives" expanded to an hour and moved to 1:30 in 1975) was
Bill Cullen's "Three On A Match" (1971-74).

And the less said about the Barris version of "Camouflage,"
the better. He ruined one of my favorite games.

 

[mleach]

"Life With Linkletter" was actually closer to Phil Donahue
than to Mike or Merv; the subject on the day of these
listings was sexual inadequacy in men over 50. All that
was missing were the audience and phone-in questions.
It was, however, a radical change for Art Linkletter who,
I think, was still coping with the death of daughter Diane
a few months earlier.

I wouldn't be surprised if the death of his daughter Diane was the reason why Art Linkletter would do this type of program rather than his usual "talking to the kids" type of show. I believe it was also around this time Art had got into the anti-drug and anti-pop culture mode, even going around saying that drugs had caused Diane's death even though from what I read about her death over the years, according to the autopsy report on Diane Linkletter, no drugs were in her system at the time of her death which is one reason why many people to this day believed Diane Linkletter was murdered, that and the man she was with at the time of her death was also the last person to have seen Carol Wayne whose 1985 death was just as bizarre as Diane Linkletter's.

 

[bpatrick]

I'm almost positive Diane Linkletter's death was the reason Art
began speaking out on issues, with this show as a forum. I've
also heard of the possibility that Diane was murdered because
no drugs were found in her system, although I'd never heard of
a possible link between her death and Carol Wayne's (that doesn't
mean there wasn't one). At any rate, aside from the overpowering
competition of "Let's Make A Deal" and "As The World Turns," it wasn't
quite the same Art Linkletter who had been so much a part of daytime
with his "House Party" format, and that just may have contributed to
the public's rejection of "Life With Linkletter."

 

[bpatrick]

A couple of other notes. I remember WYAH's newscasts as
being pretty straight; no Pat Robertson trying to relate the
news to Biblical prophecy as he so often does on "The 700
Club."

Also, I don't know if he was still there in 1970, but back around
1967-68 the host of "Dialing For Dollars" on Ch. 8 in Richmond was
Rich Landrum. If you watched the Raleigh-based wrestling shows
in the '70s and early '80s you'll remember him as play-by-play
announcer on "World Wide Wrestling."

 

[mleach]

A couple of other notes. I remember WYAH's newscasts as
being pretty straight; no Pat Robertson trying to relate the
news to Biblical prophecy as he so often does on "The 700
Club."

MUCH easier for Pat Robertson & Company to mix religion & news together on a nationwide show such as the 700 Club than for one a local news broadcast on a single station like WYAH. Topics like abortion, gay marriage, medical marijuana, the Iraq war, pronography, pop cutlure, hookah, etc...they are all hot topics on a nationwide platform which makes it easier to bring up the Bible when talking about them. Kinda of hard to do that with a bank robbery, city council meeting, traffic accident or some murder.

Also when one does try to mix local news & religion, it can be a problem. For example Woodstock, VA's religious WAZT-TV back in the mid 90's lost a lot of sponsors and viewers when their owners went public during one of their newscasts with their personal opinions about how they believe a local FM rock music station should fire one of their jocks because he had HIV becasue they felt by having this man on the air went against their faith. To this day WAZT never really recovered from that even after the owners had long since left the biz.