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Retro: Hartford CT - WTIC sign-on and first week September 1957

M

MCarney

WTIC Debut Week

WTIC had no daytime listings for their first week in TV Guide. These are the exact listings for the first five days, and they were an independent station at the time.

Monday, September 23, 1957
7:00p Dedication Program (special) Gov. Abraham Ribicoff will assist in the Ch. 3 premiere telecast. Ed Begley, host.
8:00p Movie – The African Queen (1952); Humphrey Bogart, Katherine Hepburn
10:00p News, Weather
10:15p Boxing Preview
10:30p Boxing – St. Nick’s; Harry Bell vs. Carlos Oritz, 10 round lightweight bout. Chris Schenkel reports. (Note- DuMont was out of business by this time - not sure where this broadcast originated from)
11:15p Falcon – adventure “A Borderline Case”

Tuesday, September 24, 1957
7:00p Kingdom of the Sea – adventure; viewers see the underwater world at Coral Gardens (film)
7:30p Movie – Southwest Passage; Rod Cameron
9:00p Capt. David Grief – adventure “Son of the Sun” (film)
9:30p Public Defender – police “The Prize Fighter Story” (film)
10:00p News, Weather
10:15p Movie – Bitter Rice (1950); Silvano Mangano

Wednesday, September 25, 1957
7:00p Frontier Doctor – western; Dr. Baxter is captured by a gang of outlaws. Rex Allen (film).
7:30p Movie – Beachhead (1953); four Marines are assigned to locate a French planter and his daughter in the South Pacific. Tony Curtis, Frank Lovejoy.
9:00p O. Henry Playhouse – drama; After 18 years in the ring a fighter wants to quit but his friends and sportswriters want him to make one last try. (film)
9:30p Search for Adventure
10:00p News, Weather
10:15p Movie – Witness to Murder (1954); a woman sees a murder committed in the room across from her. Barbara Stanwyck

Thursday, September 25, 1957
7:00p Steve Donovan – western “Ghost Town” (fillm)
7:30p Movie – Man With a Million (English, 1954); A man sets out to prove that by just possessing a million-pound note, he could live like a king. Gregory Peck.
9:00p Dr. Hudson’s Journal – long embittered by the loss of his arm and the unfulfilled dream of becoming a doctor, a man finds a new lease on life. John Howard, Arthur Shields. (film)
9:30p Pro Football Highlights
10:00p News, Weather
10:15p Movie – Sleep, My Love (1948); with the help of a phony doctor, a husband tries to drive his wife mad. Claudette Colbert.

Friday, September 27, 1957
7:00p Touchdown – football
7:30p Movie – Fort Defiance (1951); a man’s desertion during battle causes the annihilation of his company. Dane Clark.
9:00p Mr. and Mrs. North “Reunion” (film)
9:30p What in the World – panel; regular panelists Joan Dando, English professor, Trinity College; Jim Egan of “$64,000 Question” and “Challenge” fame; Charles Cunningham, director of Wadsworth Atheneum and John Schereschewsky, director of Rumsey Hall School in Washington, Conn. Great guest Kathy Godfrey on the first show about travel. (Note – according to another item in the TV Guide Kathy Godfrey is Arthur Godfrey’s sister and hosts “Connecticut Life” weekdays at 1p on WHCT channel 18.)
10:00p News, Weather
10:15p Movie – I, The Jury (1953); Mike Hammer, private detective, vows vengeance for his friend’s murder. Preston Foster.
 
Also part of that premiere was the legendary Bob Steele, the longtime morning man at WTIC-AM 1080. I don't think channel 3 became a CBS affiliate until 1960 or so. The station changed their call letters to WFSB-TV in 1974. The call letters live on today for Tribune-owned FOX channel 61, unrelated to channel 3's original owners.
 
I think the St. Nicholas Arena (New York) boxing show was syndicated for a while after DuMont went out of the network business.

I don't know who syndicated it, but my guess is it was something like Sports Programs, Inc., Sports Network, Incorporated (SNI), or some other such firm that deal in producing sports events, renting facilities and landlines, and syndicating them.

I suspect the boxing show had to come in via long-line facilities; I doubt that even atop their transmitting tower, WTIC-3 could have gotten a clear off-the-air signal from Channel 5 in New York that they could have rebroadcast.
 
The reason the old WTIC-3 began live as an independent station was that they couldn't get a network affiliation, despite their VHF signal.

At the time, CBS and NBC had UHF O&O's in the market (WHCT-18 and WKNB-30); while ABC had WNHC-8 (now WTNH) in nearby New Haven.

Then-sister station WTIC-1080 was at the time an affiliate of the NBC Radio Network, and had NBC not had a UHF O&O, Channel 3 would have become the NBC station for both Hartford and Springfield.

WTIC-3 could have possibly made a run to become an ABC affiliate, but it would have forced WNHC to drop it's ABC affiliation and WWLP-22 to drop it's secondary ABC affiliation (WWLP was, and is still NBC primary; WWLP would lose ABC within a year and has been fulltime NBC ever since). Had WTIC gotten ABC. WNHC might have either become an independent, or may have been able to convince CBS and NBC to give them affiliations, since New Haven is some 50 miles south of Springfield (Until 1955, WNHC "cherry-picked" shows from ABC, CBS, NBC and the now-defunct DuMont network).

But in 1958, CBS sold WHCT, and decided to affiliate with WTIC, given it's big VHF signal that covered almost all of Connecticut and Western Massachusetts.That also triggered an affiliation change in Springfield: WHYN lost CBS and became a fulltime ABC outlet, while WWLP (as noted above) became fulltime NBC.
 
Can you post listings from the the week WTIC changed it's call letters to the current CBS affiliated WFSB-TV?

The week of
January 21 - 27, 1974?
 
The exact date WTIC-TV became a CBS affiliate was 11/16/58. If in fact, they had a choice between linking up with ABC or CBS--- picking CBS was a no brainer.
 
anabate said:
Can you post listings from the the week WTIC changed it's call letters to the current CBS affiliated WFSB-TV?

The week of
January 21 - 27, 1974?
Click to expand...

And do you also have listings from the week WTIC became a CBS affiliate?

The week of
November 17 - 23, 1958?
 
Unfortunately I don't have either set of listings. As I understand it the sale of WTIC came about 10 months before the call letter change, so I'm not sure there would be much difference in the listings for Jan 21-27, 1974. If I ever come across either listings I will post them.
 
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