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Retro: Indianapolis/Terre Haute/Fort Wayne/Muncie Sat, June 11, 1955

B

Bluenoser

from TV Guide-Indiana edition
Programs listed CDT

WCIA 3-CBS/NBC/DuMont Champaign
9:00 Pinky Lee
9:30 Film Feature
10:00 Winky Dink
10:30 Buffalo Bill "A Bronc Called Gunboat"
11:00 Big Top (guests the Hungarian Troupe, La Blonde Trio, Young China, the Busy Bs, and McConnel & Moore)
noon Lone Ranger "Pardon for Curly"
12:30 Uncle Johnny Coons
12:55 Baseball: Yankees-Indians (Dizzy Dean/Buddy Blattner)
3:15 Scoreboard
3:30 Belmont Stakes horse race
4:00 Movie (Western)
5:00 Roy Rogers "The Silver Fox Hunt"
5:30 Lassie "Knights of the Road"
6:00 Big Town "Comic Book Murder"
6:30 Show Wagon (from SLC's Capitol Theater)
7:00 Jackie Gleason
8:00 Two for the Money
8:30 Sherlock Holmes
9:00 Professional Father
9:30 Hit Parade (season finale, Your Playtime airs next week)
10:00 Masquerade Party
10:30 Midwest Marquee "Road Show"
mid. News

WTTV 4-NBC Bloomington
8:30 Playroom (IU program)
9:00 Pinky Lee
9:30 Winchell & Mahoney
10:00 Funny Boners
10:30 Space Cadets "Space Blindness"
11:00 Mr. Wizard "Ticks and Tocks"
11:30 AV Panorama (IU)
noon Les's Cartoons
1:00 Movie (Western/x3)
4:00 Country Jamboree
5:00 House of Mystery: title TBA
6:00 Boyd Bennett
6:30 Show Wagon
7:00 Film Feature
7:30 So This is Hollywood "Reunion in Hollywood" (with Tom Sawyer co-stars Mitzi Green and Jackie Coogan reuniting)
8:00 Imogene Coca (Bibi Osterwald returns to the show from maternity leave)
8:30 Donald O'Connor (Texaco Star Theater) (guest Edmund Lowe)
9:00 George Gobel
9:30 Hit Parade
10:00 Waterfront "The Seal"
10:30 Feature Theater "Song of Paris"
mid. News

WFBM 6-ABC Indianapolis
9:00 Gene Autry
10:00 Buffalo Bill, Jr. "Trail of the Killer"
10:30 Hopalong Cassidy
11:30 Roy Rogers
12:30 Hoosier Playhouse "$1000 a Minute"
1:30 Double Feature Theater "Gangs of Chicago"/"Two-Gun Sheriff"
3:15 All Star Theater "Covered Wagon Days"
4:30 Family Theater "Storm Over Lisbon"
5:30 Wild Bill Hickok "Savvy the Smart Little Dog"
6:00 Playhouse "The Boy and the Coach", followed by "Boy Wears a Gun" at 6:30
7:00 Midwestern Hayride
7:30 Hoosier Theater "Out of the Dark"
8:00 Badge 714 (Dragnet) "The Big Dream"
8:30 Theater "One Man Missing"
9:00 City Detective "Blonde Orchid"
9:30 Life Begins at 80
10:00 Indiana Hoedown (guests the Junior Briarhoppers, Lee Jones, Curley Meyers, and the Swannee River Boys)
11:00 Feature Theater "Secret Beyond the Door"

WISH 8-CBS/NBC/DuMont Indianapolis
8:00 Saturday Feature "Sabotage at Sea"
9:00 Breakfast with Chuckles
10:00 Winky Dink
10:30 Captain Midnight "The Last Moon"
11:00 Big Top
noon Lone Ranger "Pardon for Curly"
12:30 Uncle Johnny Coons
12:55 Baseball: Yankees-Indians
3:30 Belmont Stakes
4:00 Hillbilly Shindig
4:30 Indiana Farmer
5:00 Early Show "Dangerous Passage"
6:00 Soldiers of Fortune "Bite of the Ruby Red"
6:30 Beat the Clock
7:00 Jackie Gleason
8:00 Two for the Money
8:30 Down You Go (return)
9:00 Professional Father
9:30 Damon Runyon Theater "It Comes Up Money"
10:00 News (Vince Leonard- the same one from Philly??)
10:15 Masquerade Party
10:45 Late Show "Fun on a Weekend"

WTHI 10-CBS/ABC/DuMont Terre Haute
11:00 Big Top
noon King of the Wild
12:30 Uncle Johnny Coons
12:55 Baseball: Yankees-Indians
3:30 Belmont Stakes
4:00 Harry Weger
4:30 Range Roundup "Feud of the West"
5:30 This is the Life "The Answer"
6:00 Hollywood Wrestling
7:00 Dotty Mack
8:00 Two for the Money
8:30 I Led Three Lives
9:00 Professional Father
9:30 Sherlock Holmes "Pearl of Death"

WINT 15-CBS/ABC Fort Wayne/Waterloo
9:45 Auburn Review
10:00 Winky Dink
10:30 Hurricane Express
11:00 Big Top
noon Western Playhouse "Gay Buckaroo"
12:45 Dizzy Dean
12:55 Baseball: Yankees-Indians
3:30 Belmont Stakes
4:00 Broadway Theater "Thunder Pass"
5:30 Gene Autry "Black Rider"
6:00 Mr. Citizen "Terror on Jackrabbit Hill"
7:00 Jackie Gleason
8:00 Two for the Money
8:30 Name's the Same
9:00 Professional Father
9:30 Damon Runyon Theater "It Comes Up Money"
10:00 Starlight Theater "Harmony Lane"
11:00 Auburn Review

WKJG 33-NBC/DuMont Fort Wayne
9:00 Pinky Lee
9:30 Uncle Dave & Pete
10:00 Funny Boners
10:30 Buffalo Bill, Jr. "Trail of the Killer"
11:00 Mr. Wizard "Ticks and Tocks"
11:30 Two Gun Playhouse "Marked for Murder"
12:30 Matinee Theater "Shanghai Cobra"
1:30 Big Picture "Time to Go" (look at Selective Service System)
2:00 Baseball: Boston-Detroit (Van Patrick/Dizzy Trout)
4:30 Musical Moments
5:00 Championship Bowling: Bomar v Lippe
6:00 Soldiers of Fortune "Girl in a Jeep"
6:30 Show Wagon
7:00 Grand Ole Opry (the Opry's national TV debut)
7:30 So This is Hollywood "Reunion in Hollywood"
8:00 Imogene Coca
8:30 Abbott & Costello "Wrestling"
9:00 George Gobel
9:30 Hit Parade
10:00 Guy Lombardo
10:30 Lone Wolf "Phoenix-Newhall"
11:00 Armchair Theater "Bonnie Scotland"

WLBC 49-NBC/CBS/ABC/DuMont Muncie
9:00 Pinky Lee
9:30 Mr. Wizard "Bouncing and Stretching"
10:00 Winky Dink
10:30 Movies: TBA (x2)
12:30 TBA
12:45 Dizzy Dean
12:55 Baseball: Yankees-Indians
3:30 Belmont Stakes
4:00 TBA
4:45 Safety Club
5:00 Industry on Parade
5:15 TBA
5:30 Sports (Lee Allerton)
5:35 News (John Cory)
5:45 The 49ers
7:00 Grand Ole Opry
7:30 Big Picture (history of the Tropic Lightning Division in Korea)
8:00 Two for the Money
8:30 Life with Father
9:00 Professional Father
9:30 Hit Parade
10:00 Feature Theater "Jungle Book"
 
That listing contradicts Channel 8's own website, which states that they were ABC primary with NBC, CBS, and Dumont secondary, until 1956, when they switched to CBS.

I also note that there was no listing for WFAM-TV 59 (now WLFI-TV 18) Lafayette. I thought they went on the air in 1953.
 
It's a wonder NBC didn't stay on Ch. 4, in light of the fact
that 6 was ABC then and is now (and NBC is on 13). What
caused NBC to go to 6 and ABC to wind up on 13?
 
From what I've read, prior to 1956 WFBM-TV had secondary ABC affiliation which in essence had become primary due to the demise of DuMont whose programming also aired on WFBM. It was in 1956 (the same year WISH went CBS) that WFBM took over the NBC affiliation from WTTV, which then became an independent. So WFBM's network affiliation had been settled at the time then-WLWI signed on, thus that station took ABC affiliation by default.

I am apprised that the story of Indianapolis TV had enough twists, turns and complexities to warrant a made-for-TV movie.
 
bpatrick said:
It's a wonder NBC didn't stay on Ch. 4, in light of the fact that 6 was ABC then and is now (and NBC is on 13). What caused NBC to go to 6 and ABC to wind up on 13?
Click to expand...

WTTV is a rimshot, licensed to Bloomington and transmitting from Trafalgar - 25 miles south of Indy - allowing city-grade coverage of Bloomington and at least 2/3 of Indy (is it better now with DTV on UHF?). This is probably the reason why Tribune didn't move Fox there after buying the station.

When they were on Channel 10, their transmitter was in the same building as the studio, on the southeast side of B-town behind the main Tarzian factory (not co-located with sister-station WTTS 1370, which was just south of downtown). They moved their main studio to the south side of Indy and their transmitter to Trafalgar in 1953 or '54. but still had poor coverage to the more-wealthy north side of Indy. They didn't get full-market coverage until they bought Channel 29 in Kokomo and made it a satellite in the late '80s.

Channel 13 (then-WLWI) may have been a lousy operation (by their own admission) before 1979, but it had full coverage of most of the Indy market. Ironically, they had very poor coverage into the hilly Bloomington/Bedford area and as such, WTTV kept a secondary ABC affiliation (they were ABC primary in 1956-57, before 13 signed on). AFAIK, the only time ABC programming was carried on Channel 4 after 1957 was during the coverage of President Kennedy's assassination in 1963.

IIRC, this is how the network swaps went down (secondary affiliations in parentheses):

1949
WFBM-TV 6 CBS (NBC, ABC, Dumont)
WTTV 10 NBC (CBS, ABC, Dumont)

1954
WTTV 4 NBC (Dumont)
WFBM-TV 6 CBS (ABC, NBC, Dumont)
WISH-TV 8 ABC (NBC, CBS, Dumont)

1955
WTTV 4 NBC
WFBM-TV 6 ABC
WISH-TV 8 CBS

1956
WTTV 4 ABC
WFBM-TV 6 NBC
WISH-TV 8 CBS

1957
WTTV 4 Ind.
WFBM-TV 6 NBC
WISH-TV 8 CBS
WLWI 13 ABC
 
wbhist said:
From what I've read, prior to 1956 WFBM-TV had secondary ABC affiliation which in essence had become primary due to the demise of DuMont whose programming also aired on WFBM. It was in 1956 (the same year WISH went CBS) that WFBM took over the NBC affiliation from WTTV, which then became an independent. So WFBM's network affiliation had been settled at the time then-WLWI signed on, thus that station took ABC affiliation by default.

I am apprised that the story of Indianapolis TV had enough twists, turns and complexities to warrant a made-for-TV movie.
Click to expand...

It was common in the '50s for a station to have multiple affiliations, even in 3-station markets. The largest market that this happened was Chicago, where CBS was split between WBKB (primary) and WGN-TV (secondary, with Dumont primary) prior to the 1953 ABC/United Paramount merger.

As I mentioned earlier, with NBC being on limited-coverage WTTV (which probably didn't even make it to Indy when it transmitted from Bloomington), WFBM and WISH also had secondary NBC affiliations. Also, it was common for ABC and Dumont to be split among all stations in a market. I don't believe either network ran a full-day schedule in the early/mid '50s - I believe ABC started doing so in 1957, and of course, Dumont was dead by mid-1955 other than sports.
 
This is the first I ever knew that WKJG (now WISE) was DuMont secondary, or that WINT (soon to become WANE) was ABC secondary. Of course, this didn't last long, because DuMont was near the end of the road at that time, and WPTA signed on in 1956 to take ABC full time at which point WANE went with only CBS.

Also, the 2 baseball games aired that day were the Tribe and Tigers...Maybe Fort Wayne wasn't quite the Cubbies town it is today.
 
Corky Marlowe said:
This is the first I ever knew that WKJG (now WISE) was DuMont secondary, or that WINT (soon to become WANE) was ABC secondary. Of course, this didn't last long, because DuMont was near the end of the road at that time, and WPTA signed on in 1956 to take ABC full time at which point WANE went with only CBS.

Also, the 2 baseball games aired that day were the Tribe and Tigers...Maybe Fort Wayne wasn't quite the Cubbies town it is today.
Click to expand...

Channel 33 was still showing some Tigers games in 1971. See ad: http://vintagetoledotv.squarespace.com/indiana-chicago/single-gallery/4510822
 
wbhist said:
From what I've read, prior to 1956 WFBM-TV had secondary ABC affiliation which in essence had become primary due to the demise of DuMont whose programming also aired on WFBM. It was in 1956 (the same year WISH went CBS) that WFBM took over the NBC affiliation from WTTV, which then became an independent. So WFBM's network affiliation had been settled at the time then-WLWI signed on, thus that station took ABC affiliation by default.

I am apprised that the story of Indianapolis TV had enough twists, turns and complexities to warrant a made-for-TV movie.
Click to expand...

Sounds like Richmond. WTVR signed on in 1948 (first station in the South, as they love to remind viewers) with all four networks (including DuMont). In 1955 they lost NBC to WXEX (WRIC) in Petersburg, 25 miles south of Richmond, for reasons still unclear; that was also the year DuMont shut down all programming except boxing. WTVR then carried ABC and CBS for a year, yielding CBS to WRVA (now WWBT; WRVA was the CBS radio affiliate in the golden age of that medium) in '56. CBS wasn't happy with WRVA's performance (being on Ch. 12), and WTVR (Ch. 6) became the CBS affiliate in 1960 and has been ever since. Then in 1965 WXEX (Ch. 8) swapped with Ch. 12, a move related (I think) to ABC's rather impressive performance in the 1964-65 season, and things finally settled down; those affiliations have not changed since. Talk about enough to make a TV-movie!
 
Sounds much like Cleveland early on, though It was a top 10 market in the early-mid 1950's.

1947-48
WEWS 5 Primarily CBS, but carried some DuMont shows early on..by the end of '48 early 49 carried some ABC as well

1948
WNBK 4 NBC Owned and Operated-Has been NBC since, through all ownership and call letter changes over the years..

1949
WXEL 9 Major DuMont affiliate secondary ABC but by 1952-53 was carrying select CBS primetime shows WEWS didnt clear..By 1954 WXEL was clearing some CBS afternoon soaps

March 1955
Official swap of affiliations-WEWS from CBS to ABC
WXEL from ABC to CBS-DuMont was dying as a network by this time..

Even after this switch, WEWS through the mid 60's carried an occasional NBC or CBS Prime time show, but not often..Though WEWS had Huntley-Brinkley for a time in 1959 and The Tonight Show from 1958-66..
 
Corky Marlowe said:
This is the first I ever knew that WKJG (now WISE) was DuMont secondary, or that WINT (soon to become WANE) was ABC secondary. Of course, this didn't last long, because DuMont was near the end of the road at that time, and WPTA signed on in 1956 to take ABC full time at which point WANE went with only CBS.
Click to expand...
I had also never heard of WKJG as DuMont secondary, but have seen listing which indicate WINT as ABC secondary but the only ABC show I've ever seen listed was the Walt Disney anthology show. Anyone know of any other ABC shows WINT carried before WPTA's sign on a couple of years later?

Also, anyone know of any DuMont programs ever carried by WKJG? From what I can tell, there are no DuMont or ABC programs on either the WINT or WKJG sked.
 
wkjg tv carried little dumont week of feb 1954 they carried science review dollar a second week of dec 1953 they carried marge and jeff mon-fri science review dollar a second i found no abc listings
 
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