RETRO: Fairbanks, Alaska (April 18, 1963)

[johnnya2k6]

Source: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

2-KFAR (NBC/ABC)
5:00 Continental Classroom
5:30 Nelsons
6:00 The Big 30 (Yes, Channel 2 was the first in Fairbanks with a half-hour local newscast back in 1963; KTVF didn't expand their evening news until -- believe it or not -- 1971, when it became "The Fairbanks Evening News")
6:30 Alaska Highlites
6:45 Hometown Reporter
7:00 Sam Benedict
8:00 My Three Sons
8:30 Going My Way
9:30 11th Hour
10:30 The Joey Bishop Show
11:00 Nightcap News
11:10 Weather Map
11:15 Channel 2 Playhouse (which I think was the late movie)

11-KTVF (CBS)
THURSDAY EVENING:
6:30 News & Sports
6:55 Weather
7:00 Dr. Lafferty School Program (Dr. Charles Lafferty was Superintendent of the Fairbanks School District at that time; in 1964, that would be incorporated into the newly created Fairbanks North Star Borough as the FNSB School District)
7:30 Perry Mason
8:30 The Twilight Zone
9:30 The Nurses
10:30 Weather Forecast
10:35 News and Sports
10:40 Top Star Bowling

FRIDAY DAYTIME:
10:45 Test Pattern and Tone
10:55 Daily Word
11:00 Romper Room
Noon Love of Life
12:30 Search for Tomorrow (which would expand to a half-hour in 1968)
12:45 The Guiding Light (ditto the same year)
1:00 News
1:30 As The World Turns
2:00 College of the Air
2:30 Friday Matinee
4:00 The Secret Storm
4:30 The Edge of Night
5:00 Top Star Bowling
6:00 College of the Air

In 1967, floodwaters hit Fairbanks and KTVF suffered the most damage; their studios were at the basement of the Northward Building while KFAR remained high and dry on Second Ave. Channel 2 had already started colorcasting while Channel 11 moved to the second floor -- where they remained until 1990 when they moved to Van Horn Road -- and returned to the air at the end of the year, this time in color. Both stations were still doing local programs in black and white until the early '70s when they finally got their first color studio cameras.

Jonathan Allen

 

[mleach]

I wonder what the folks in places like Nome and Barrow had for TV back in 63. Did they even have TV at all? Or were the Fairbanks or Anchorage TV signals relayed to them?

 

[johnnya2k6]

TV in Rural Alaska

I wonder what the folks in places like Nome and Barrow had for TV back in 63. Did they even have TV at all? Or were the Fairbanks or Anchorage TV signals relayed to them?

Nome, Barrow, and the rest of rural Alaska didn't get any TV until the mid-1970s, when the state launched RATNET (Rural Alaska Television Network). It became ARCS (Alaska Rural Communications Service) in 1995 after budget cuts, which also led to PBS stations KUAC (Fairbanks), KTOO (Juneau), and KYUK (Bethel) becoming AlaskaOne. The other PBS station, KAKM in Anchorage, decided to be on their own.

ARCS is still on the air, despite digital cable and DirecTV/Dish Network reaching into some rural area homes in the last few years. The only way it'll be pulled the plug is if Comcast acquires GCI (current cable provider) with an intention to expand service to rural Alaska...something that GCI has failed to do.

Jonathan Allen

 

[bpatrick]

First, when did Fairbanks get a fulltime ABC affiliate?

Second, I wonder if anyone has any Honolulu schedules
for the same date or close to it? Since Alaska and Hawaii,
in that pre-satellite era, got their shows sometimes a week
or more after the continental U.S. saw them, it would be
interesting (to me, at least) to "compare notes" and see
what was airing when in Hawaii, too. And doesn't Guam
still get shows several days after the continental U.S.?

 

[JeeperOne]

Hi everyone:

Second, I wonder if anyone has any Honolulu schedules
for the same date or close to it? Since Alaska and Hawaii,
in that pre-satellite era, got their shows sometimes a week
or more after the continental U.S. saw them, it would be
interesting (to me, at least) to "compare notes" and see
what was airing when in Hawaii, too.

Yes it would.

And doesn't Guam
still get shows several days after the continental U.S.?

I would think not. If anything, they should get it on a ONE day delay (In other words, what soap episodes which are aired on Monday here would be aired on Tuesday on Guam).

That said, it'd be interesting to compare notes with Guam as well.

Cheers

 

[bpatrick]

Because Guam is on the other side of the International
Date Line, programs air a day later (what airs on Friday
night here airs Saturday night there). For example, the
Walter Cronkite and Dr. Phil specials airing tonight on CBS
in the continental U.S. are scheduled for Saturday there.
They're on the Central/Mountain version of prime time
(7-10 PM).

But I wouldn't mind seeing what their schedules looked
like in the pre-satellite era.

 

[azumanga]

But I wouldn't mind seeing what their schedules looked
like in the pre-satellite era.

But even in the satellite era, until last year, Guam got their television programming -- network and cable -- on a week delay basis, except for sports (which was seen live) and network news (which was seen in the evening).

 

[bpatrick]

I'd still like to see some of their old schedules.
I didn't realize they'd just gone on a day-behind
(actually, I think about nine hours if you allow for
the time difference, which I believe is fifteen hours)
basis.