Retro: Iowa Sun, June 10, 1956

[Bluenoser]

from TV Guide-Iowa edition
All times CST

WMT 2-CBS Cedar Rapids
8:00 Lamp Unto My Feet "Thing of Evil" (guest is United Lutheran Church in America president Dr. Franklin Clark Fry)
8:30 Look Up & Live "The Flume" (dramatizing the cause and effects of a broken marriage)
9:00 Eye on New York
9:30 Camera Three "What Price Nonsense?"
10:00 Let's Take a Trip (to New Jersey's Palisades amusement park)
10:30 Christophers
11:00 Big Picture
11:30 Wild Bill Hickok "Chain of Events"
noon Movie "No Minor Vices"
2:00 The Way
2:30 Adventure (Charles Collingwood visits the Museum of Natural History in NYC and discusses dinosaurs with Dr. Edwin H. Colbert)
3:00 Face the Nation (naval operations chief Adm. Arleigh Burke is grilled by the New York Times' Anthony Leviero, Newsweek's John Madigan, and Time-Life's James Shepley)
3:30 CBS News Roundup
4:00 Telephone Time "Harry in Search of Himself" (John Nesbitt narrates this drama about Henry Bergh, who founded the ASPCA)
4:30 You are There "The Hatfield-McCoy Feud" (Jan 1, 1888: a look back at the day's events, that marked a peak in the feud)
5:00 TBA
5:30 Badge 714 (Dragnet)
6:00 Life of Riley
6:30 Private Secretary "Elusive"
7:00 GE Theater "Exits and Entrances"
7:30 Alfred Hitchcock "The Decoy"
8:00 $64,000 Challenge
8:30 What's My Line?
9:00 Ed Sullivan (Ed shows the animated film "A Short Vision", which shows the effects of the H-Bomb; in studio: guests Nat "King" Cole, Carol Haney, Jack Carter, Ricki Layne & Velvel, Edith Adams (who imitates Marilyn Monroe), Joey Clay, and jugglers the Half Brothers; a filmed segment with Bob Hope also airs)
10:00 Dr. Hudson's Journal
10:30 News (Cole Martin)
10:45 Movie "Spitfire"

KTVO 3-CBS/NBC Ottumwa
1pm Film Short
1:15 Christian Science
1:30 Oral Roberts
2:00 Palm Beach Golf Tournament
4:00 Telephone Time "Harry in Search of Himself"
4:30 Roy Rogers "The Kid from Silver City"
5:00 Christophers
5:30 This is the Life
6:00 You Asked for It (visiting the Loyal Order of Moose's "City of Children"/US Customs checks a ship for contraband/a visit to a plant that makes baseballs/following railway switchman Bryan Stephenson at work)
6:30 Jack Benny (re-enacting Jack's first encounter with Mary Livingston)
7:00 GE Theater "Exits and Entrances"
7:30 Alfred Hitchcock "The Decoy"
8:00 $64,000 Challenge
8:30 What's My Line?
9:00 Ed Sullivan
10:00 News
10:15 Movies: TBA (second one starts at 11:15)

KGLO 3-CBS Mason City
1:55pm This I Believe
2:00 Industry on Parade
2:15 Man to Man
2:30 Adventure
3:00 Face the Nation
3:30 CBS News Roundup
4:00 Telephone Time "Harry in Spite of Himself"
4:30 You are There "The Hatfield-McCoy Feud"
5:00 The Way
5:30 Reporters' Roundup
6:00 This is the Life
6:30 Private Secretary "Elusive"
7:00 GE Theater "Exits and Entrances"
7:30 Alfred Hitchcock "The Decoy"
8:00 $64,000 Challenge
8:30 Dr. Hudson's Journal
9:00 Ed Sullivan
10:00 News
10:15 Cavalcade Theater
10:45 Movie "Leave It to Henry"

WHBF 4-CBS/ABC Rock Island
11:00 This is the Life
11:30 Wild Bill Hickok "Chain of Events"
noon Understanding Our World
12:30 Christophers
1:00 Your Senator Speaks
1:15 Christian Science "How to Pray Effectively"
1:30 Faith for Today
2:00 We Believe "Divine Worship"
2:30 Adventure
3:00 Face the Nation
3:30 CBS News Roundup
4:00 Telephone Time "Harry in Search of Himself"
4:30 You are There "The Hatfield-McCoy Feud"
5:00 Movie "Outlaws of Sonora"
6:00 Lassie "The Runt"
6:30 Private Secretary "Elusive"
7:00 GE Theater "Exits and Entrances"
7:30 Alfred Hitchcock "The Decoy"
8:00 $64,000 Challenge
8:30 What's My Line?
9:00 Ed Sullivan
10:00 The Falcon "The $4.98 Buddha"
10:30 Quad Cities on Camera
10:45 Baseball Scoreboard

WOI 5-Edu/ABC Ames
2:30pm College Press Conference
3:00 Christophers
3:30 Man to Man
4:00 Going Places (visiting Florida)
5:00 The Way
5:30 This is the Life
6:00 You Asked for It (visiting the Mission Aviation Fellowship, a LA-area based group that sends missionaries worldwide/showing cine-radiography (X-ray movies)/teaching good handwriting/fireboats in New York Harbor/modern methods of moving railcars in railway yards)
6:30 Mr. & Mrs. North
7:00 Ted Mack's Amateur Hour (Ted salutes Gary, IN and welcomes performers the Tony Grant Starlets (tap dancers/Atlantic City), William Kelly (Irish tenor/Philadelphia), Robert Pavlick (singer/Passiac NJ), the Four Jubilees (combo band/Philadelphia), Martin Klein (harmonica player/Flushing LI), Linda Sue Benedict (singer/White Plains NY), Anita & Buddy Yoder (acrobats/Glenolden PA), Rosemary O'Reilly (tap dancer/Long Island City LI), the Hackley Octet (vocal group/Tarrytown NY), and Marimba Symphonette (instrumental group/New Providence PA))
8:00 Cavalcade Theater
8:30 Famous Film Festival "Island Rescue"
10:00 News
10:15 Movie: TBA

WOC 6-NBC/ABC Davenport
10:15 What's Your Trouble?
10:30 This is the Life
11:00 American Forum
11:30 Frontiers of Faith (Rev. Dana F. Kennedy leads a discussion on Christianity and how it helps people in everyday life)
noon Princeton '56
12:30 The Way
1:00 Dr. Spock "Baby's Time vs Mother's Time" (Dr. Spock is joined by 3 moms, who discuss how to keep baby happy and occupied while mom's doing chores and following her own interests)
1:30 Labor Program (the UAW looks back at their 20-year history; pre-empts Zoo Parade)
2:00 Palm Beach Golf Tournament
3:30 NBC News Roundup (stories include a visit to Drayton Valley AB, where an oil boom has caused the town's population to shoot up from 25 to 2500 in 2 years; also drama critic/author Louis Kronenberger suggests a rather unorthodox commencement address)
4:00 Meet the Press (New York state Gov. Averill Harriman, the subject of an intense campaign to have him win the Democratic Presidential nomination, answers questions from the Detroit News' Martin Hayden, the Portland (ME) Press-Herald's Mae Craig, and Newsday's Richard Clurman)
4:30 Ozzie & Harriet "Redressing Ricky"
5:00 You Asked for It (no info listed)
5:30 Frontier "Georgia Gold"
6:00 Comedy Hour (series finale with hostess Gloria De Haven, and guests Jonathan Winters (who spoofs Cinderella with the help of the Marquis Chimps), Dennis O'Keefe, Marilyn Erskine, Don Tannen, and Hank Penny)
7:00 Alcoa Hour "The Magic Horn" (featuring Ralph Meeker and Sal Mineo; with music from Spencer Lee and His River Boys (played by jazz musicians), and the title horn played by Ruby Braff, who plays Spencer)
8:00 Loretta Young "The Bronte Story"
8:30 Science Fiction Theater
9:00 Ted Mack's Amateur Hour (saluting Providence, with guests Alan Rose (violinist/The Bronx), the Roanoke Valley Boys (hillbilly musicians/NYC), Frances & John Dunffy (Highland dancers/Brooklyn), the Steppin' Tones (dance combo band/Archbishop Stepinac HS, White Plains NY), Harriet Husted (baton twirler/Bridgeton NJ), Barbara Bakaer (novelty accordianist/Yonkers NY), and Tyrone Breuninger (baritone horn player/Red Hill PA))
10:00 Weather/News/Sports
10:15 Eddie Fisher
10:30 Break the Bank
11:00 Les Paul & Mary Ford
11:05 Movie "Change of Heart"

KWWL 7-NBC Waterloo
noon This is the Life
12:30 Youth Wants to Know (guest is deputy Secretary of Defence Reuben B. Robertson Jr.)
1:00 The Answer is X-P
1:30 UAW Labor Program
2:00 Palm Beach Golf Tournament
3:30 NBC News Roundup
4:00 Northeast Iowa on Parade (featuring Cedar Rapids)
4:30 Roy Rogers "The Kid from Silver City"
5:00 Topper (series return)
5:30 Dollars for Scholars
6:00 Comedy Hour (series finale)
7:00 Alcoa Hour "The Magic Horn"
8:00 Loretta Young "The Bronte Story"
8:30 Movie: TBA
10:00 Weather/News/Sports
10:30 Movie: TBA

KRNT 8-CBS Des Moines
8:00 Lamp Unto My Feet "Thing of Evil"
8:30 Look Up & Live "The Flume"
9:00 Eye on New York
9:30 Camera Three "What Price Nonsense?"
10:00 Let's Take a Trip
10:30 Nation's Religions
11:00 Film Short
11:30 Wild Bill Hickok "Chain of Events"
noon Hopalong Cassidy
12:30 News (Russ Van Dyke)
12:45 Movie "Michael O'Halloran"
2:00 TV Teen Time
2:30 Adventure
3:00 Face the Nation
3:30 Big Idea
3:45 World Through Stamps
4:00 Telephone Time "Harry in Search of Himself"
4:30 You are There "The Hatfield-McCoy Feud"
5:00 Life of Riley
5:30 Long John Silver
6:00 Lassie "The Runt"
6:30 Private Secretary "Elusive"
7:00 GE Theater "Exits and Entrances"
7:30 Alfred Hitchcock "The Decoy"
8:00 $64,000 Challenge
8:30 What's My Line?
9:00 Ed Sullivan
10:00 News/Weather
10:20 Gordon Gammack
10:45 Newsreel of the Air
10:50 Movie "Twin Beds"

KCRG 9-ABC Cedar Rapids
noon Medical Diary
12:30 Oral Roberts
1:00 This is the Life
1:30 Movie "Queen for a Day" (the series inspired the plot for the movie)
3:00 Movie: TBA (Western)
4:00 Going Places
5:00 Superman
5:30 Count of Monte Cristo
6:00 You Asked for It (same topics as ch 5)
6:30 The Pendulum
7:00 Ted Mack's Amateur Hour (same guests as ch 5)
8:00 Star Showcase
8:30 Famous Film Festival "Island Rescue"
10:00 Movie "The Sword of Monte Cristo"
11:00 What's Your Trouble?

WREX 13-CBS/ABC Rockford
8:15 Sacred Heart
8:30 Faith for Today
9:00 What's Your Trouble?
9:15 Christophers
9:30 Camera Three "What Price Nonsense?"
10:00 Let's Take a Trip
10:30 Building America
10:45 Plumb, Level & Square
11:00 Talent Parade
noon The Way
12:30 Sports Album
1:00 Movie: TBA
2:15 Yesterday's Newsreel
2:30 Adventure
3:00 Face the Nation
3:30 CBS News Roundup
4:00 Telephone Time "Harry in Search of Himself"
4:30 You are There "The Hatfield-McCoy Feud"
5:00 Kit Carson
5:30 Private Secretary "Elusive" (live net feed)
6:00 Ed Sullivan (ditto)
7:00 GE Theater "Exits and Entrances"
7:30 Ford Theater
8:00 $64,000 Challenge
8:30 What's My Line?
9:00 Weather/News/Sports
9:30 Alfred Hitchcock "The Decoy"
10:00 Movie "The Countess of Monte Cristo"

WHO 13-NBC Des Moines
11:00 American Forum
11:30 Frontiers of Faith
noon Christophers
12:30 Youth Wants to Know
1:00 Dr. Spock "Baby's Time vs Mother's Time"
1:30 UAW Labor Program
2:00 Palm Beach Golf Tournament
3:30 NBC News Roundup
4:00 Meet the Press
4:30 Roy Rogers "The Kid from Silver Sity"
5:00 Cisco Kid
5:30 Frontier "Georgia Gold"
6:00 Comedy Hour (series finale)
7:00 Alcoa Hour "The Magic Horn"
8:00 Loretta Young "The Bronte Story"
8:30 Bowling (from the Faetz & Niesen alleys in Chicago, ABC masters champ Dick Hoover (Akron) takes on the winner of last week's match between Don Carter (St. Louis) and Tony Sparando (NYC))
9:00 Mobil Theater
9:30 TBA
10:00 News
10:15 Movie "The Teckman Mystery"

KQTV 21-NBC Fort Dodge
12:30pm What's Your Trouble?
12:45 Christian Science
1:00 Oral Roberts
1:30 UAW Labor Program
2:00 Palm Beach Golf Tournament
3:30 NBC News Roundup
4:00 Meet the Press
4:30 Roy Rogers "The Kid from Silver City"
5:00 Christophers
5:30 This is the Life
6:00 Comedy Hour (series finale)
7:00 Pathway to Fame
7:30 Showtime
8:00 Ruggles
8:30 Movie: TBA

WTVO 39-NBC Rockford
11:00 American Forum
11:30 Frontiers of Faith
noon Oral Roberts
12:30 Youth Wants to Know
1:00 Dr. Spock "Baby's Time vs Mother's Time"
1:30 UAW Labor Program
2:00 Palm Beach Golf Tournament
3:30 NBC News Roundup
4:00 Meet the Press
4:30 Roy Rogers "The Kid from Silver City"
5:00 Topper (return)
5:30 Uncommon Valor
6:00 Comedy Hour (series finale)
7:00 Alcoa Hour "The Magic Horn"
8:00 Loretta Young "The Bronte Story"
8:30 Bowling (as 13 Des Moines)
9:00 Movie: TBA

 

[TVWorldwide]

I recently quoted Bill Bryson's book about growing up in Iowa, but that post (and thread) got lost when the forum had technical problems last week. However, the passage -- from Bryson's The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid -- is just as relevant in this thread, as it takes place in the mid-1950s, so I'll reuse it here:

"My grandparents could get seven stations on their set -- we could only get three in Des Moines -- but only by turning the roof aerial, which was manipulated by means of a crank on the outside back wall of the house. So if you wanted to watch, say, KTVO from Ottumwa, my grandfather had to go out and turn the crank slightly one way, and if you wanted WOC from the Quad Cities he turned it another, and KWWI in Waterloo another way still, in each case responding to instruction shouted through a window. If it was windy or there was a lot of solar activity, he sometimes had to go ought eight or nine times during a program. If it was one of my grandmother's treasured shows, like As the World Turns or Queen for a Day, he generally just stayed out there in case an airplane flew over and made everything lapse into distressing waviness at a critical moment. He was the most patient man who ever lived."

 

[Gregg]

Interesting how many stations are on the air by 1956, even UHF ones in two small cities, Rockford and Fort Dodge. I guess we should also group the stations into approximate markets:

Des Moines/Ames
5 WOI Educ./ABC (That's an interesting story, a university running educational programs in the day and ABC at night.)
8 KRNT CBS
13 WHO NBC

Quad Cities
4 WHBF CBS/ABC
6 WOC NBC/ABC

Cedar Rapids/Waterloo
2 WMT CBS
7 KWWL NBC
9 KCRG ABC

Mason City/Rockford (About 20 miles apart, but I guess far enough away for two CBS affiliates?)
3 KGLO CBS
13 WREX CBS/ABC
39 WTVO NBC

Odd to see so many W call letters in a state west of the Mississippi. But I guess it was the oldest radio stations that had the money and personnel to put a TV station on the air. And those stations pre-dated the Mississippi divide, so they had W call signs.

And even by 1956 there were enough off-network series to syndicate. Notice the shows before the networks start Sunday night programming at 6 or 6:30pm? Badge 714, Life of Riley, Lassie, Roy Rogers, Superman, Count of Monte Cristo, Long John Silver, Kit Carson and Frontier. The listing for Topper says Series Return. But would a prime time network show run at 5pm CT? Or did they mean it had just gone into syndication after being cancelled?

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

Actually

Mason City/Rockford (About 20 miles apart, but I guess far enough away for two CBS affiliates?)
3 KGLO CBS
13 WREX CBS/ABC
39 WTVO NBC

Actually the Rockford stations (WREX and WTVO) are Rockford, Illinois stations. Perhaps the Iowa edition of TVG was distributed in northwestern Illinois at the time? (e.g., Sterling/Rock Falls, Savanna, Galena, Freeport, Dixon, etc.).

 

[Bluenoser]

Actually

Mason City/Rockford (About 20 miles apart, but I guess far enough away for two CBS affiliates?)
3 KGLO CBS
13 WREX CBS/ABC
39 WTVO NBC

Actually the Rockford stations (WREX and WTVO) are Rockford, Illinois stations. Perhaps the Iowa edition of TVG was distributed in northwestern Illinois at the time? (e.g., Sterling/Rock Falls, Savanna, Galena, Freeport, Dixon, etc.).

My copy does have an Illinois address on it (Dixon IIRC)...

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

I thought Iowa was "Chicago Cubs country", but while many of their games were being televised locally in Chicago (I believe WGN-9 was doing them as far back as 1956), it appears that there was as yet no regional syndication of games.

NBC's broadcast of the PGA Palm Beach Open was interesting, as I think there had only been four or five live network television broadcasts of golf tournaments prior to that one.

I'm not 100% sure, but I think the first network telecast of a golf tournament was one near Chicago in 1953, followed by the 1954 and 1955 U.S. Opens (I think the 1956 Open was a week or two after the date of these listings) and the 1956 Masters.

 

[KeithE4]

I thought Iowa was "Chicago Cubs country", but while many of their games were being televised locally in Chicago (I believe WGN-9 was doing them as far back as 1956), it appears that there was as yet no regional syndication of games.

WGN-TV has broadcast Cub games since Day One in April 1948. They've also carried the White Sox from 1948 through 1967, 1981, and since 1990.

KWWL-TV/7 Waterloo carried Minnesota Twins games in the mid '60s when I lived there. The games also aired on WHO radio in Des Moines at the time - probably the only team in MLB who was broadcast on two 50,000 watt AM stations at the same time, along with WCCO Minneapolis.

 

[bpatrick]

NBC aired reruns of "Topper" on Sundays at 7 PM (EDT) in
the summer of 1956. Since Iowa appears to have been on
Central Standard Time (two hours earlier), those stations
airing it at 5 were carrying the live network feed.

I'm a little surprised to find few clearances on CBS stations
for "Lassie" and "Private Secretary."

 

[Gregg]

>>>I thought Iowa was "Chicago Cubs country", but while many of their games were being televised locally in Chicago (I believe WGN-9 was doing them as far back as 1956), it appears that there was as yet no regional syndication of games.<<<

I don't think that's too odd. Looking at older TV Guides, I don't see a lot of Yankees coverage in upstate NY. Or Boston Red Sox coverage in Maine or Connecticut. I can think of two reasons why. Starting a regional network was probably expensive. And there were few Independent stations outside the major cities. Would a network affiliate give up the network shows to run baseball games?

Even in the 80s, before Syracuse had any independent stations, their NBC affiliate only ran Yankees games on weekends. That was one incentive to get cable in the early days, so you could get the NYC independent stations and see all the games for the Yankees, Mets, Knicks, Rangers, etc.

(BTW, I can think of a few cases where two 50,000 watt AM stations were running a baseball team's games. I'm pretty sure WTIC Hartford has long carried the Red Sox, in addition to whatever 50,000 watt station in Boston was the flagship. And 1540 WPTR Albany carried the Mets, in addition to their NYC flagship. Probably one of Sacramento's two 50,000 watt stations, KFBK or KHTK, carried the Giants, in addition to KNBR.)

 

[tvnut]

I thought Iowa was "Chicago Cubs country", but while many of their games were being televised locally in Chicago (I believe WGN-9 was doing them as far back as 1956), it appears that there was as yet no regional syndication of games.

NBC's broadcast of the PGA Palm Beach Open was interesting, as I think there had only been four or five live network television broadcasts of golf tournaments prior to that one.

I'm not 100% sure, but I think the first network telecast of a golf tournament was one near Chicago in 1953, followed by the 1954 and 1955 U.S. Opens (I think the 1956 Open was a week or two after the date of these listings) and the 1956 Masters.

Dumont covered the tournament at Tam O'Shanter you were thinking of as early as 1948. It was a two-weekend affair, the All-American Open followed by the World Championship of Golf, and Dumont picked up the final hour of the latter on a Sunday. NBC covered the 1949 (Medinah) and 1950 (Merion) U.S. Opens on television as well as radio, then skipped three years of TV before resuming U.S. Open television coverage in 1954.
By the way, the Palm Beach Open wasn't from Florida, but from Long Island. CBS covered it as early as 1951, the network's first foray into golf telecasts.

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

I don't think that's too odd.  Looking at older TV Guides, I don't see a lot of Yankees coverage in upstate NY.  Or Boston Red Sox coverage in Maine or Connecticut.  I can think of two reasons why.  Starting a regional network was probably expensive.  And there were few Independent stations outside the major cities.  Would a network affiliate give up the network shows to run baseball games?

Another reason was technical.

In the early days of TV, a flagship station for a pro sports team (whether baseball, football, hockey or basketball) was probably only able to feed games to other cities in their region if the affiliate station could pick-up the flagship station's signal off-air or if one affiliate could pick-up another affiliate's signal off-air. This was because there were so few microwave relay circuits between cities and often, they had to be used for network programs (this is a reason why until the mid-to-late 1950's, locally-produced live telecasts of away games in MLB, the NHL, and the NBA were extremely rare).

For quite a few years after it went on the air in 1949, Providence's WJAR-10 (originally on Channel 11) carried most of the televised games of the Boston Red Sox (and the Boston Braves prior to their moving to Milwaukee in 1953), according to various old Boston Globe TV listings. I suspect that WJAR picked-up the games off-air from WBZ-4 and WNAC-7 (which until the mid 1950's shared flagship station status since the rights were held by the Narragansett Brewing Company, which apparently didn't want to show favoritism to either station in the early days of TV, so WBZ and WNAC each got half the games). The Sox went exclusively with WBZ from 1955 through 1957, then to the old WHDH-5 (it's sister station, the old WHDH-850, had long been the Red Sox radio flagship) beginning in 1958.

It's possible that WNHC (now WTNH-8) in New Haven may have been able to pick-up New York baseball telecasts off-air for local rebroadcast, but as I don't at this moment have access to old New Haven newspaper TV listings, I can't verify that. But it's possible.

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

50,000 Watts Of Baseball (Was: Re: Retro: Iowa Sun, June 10, 1956)

(BTW, I can think of a few cases where two 50,000 watt AM stations were running a baseball team's games. I'm pretty sure WTIC Hartford has long carried the Red Sox, in addition to whatever 50,000 watt station in Boston was the flagship. And 1540 WPTR Albany carried the Mets, in addition to their NYC flagship. Probably one of Sacramento's two 50,000 watt stations, KFBK or KHTK, carried the Giants, in addition to KNBR.)

A couple of years back, 50,000 watt WEEI-850 moved it's (mostly) local sports format to FM, including the Red Sox (Today, 850 in Boston carries ESPN Radio 24/7). However, the Red Sox still have two 50,000-watt AM stations on their network: WTIC-1080 (as noted above) and Worcester's WCRN-830 which is a 50,000-watt station with a directional signal beamed towards Boston.

Especially at night, I don't think you can hear WCRN west of the Connecticut River, but you can hear a strong signal from it day and night in Eastern New England, and with a good enough AM radio, perhaps in western Nova Scotia during the day as well. At night, the signal is likely quite strong across all of the Maritimes, and reaches out far into the Atlantic Ocean.

 

[jh]

In the early days of TV, a flagship station for a pro sports team (whether baseball, football, hockey or basketball) was probably only able to feed games to other cities in their region if the affiliate station could pick-up the flagship station's signal off-air or if one affiliate could pick-up another affiliate's signal off-air.

In the 1960s, 7/KWWL in Waterloo did run the Twins on Sunday afternoons. They picked up an over-the-air signal from 10/KROC in Rochester,which in turn picked it up from the Minneapolis flagship. Quality wasn't the best, and when they games went to color, KWWL had to drop them because they couldn't pick up a reliable color signal.

The Cubs Sunday afternoon games came later in the 60s. 9/KCRG Cedar Rapids, 8/WQAD Moline, and some other ABC affiliates (Rockford?, Peoria?) got together and had the microwave ABC relay coming out of Chicago switched over to the Cubs network on Sunday afternoon for the games. Of course, they lost their ABC feed while the game was on.

 

[cyberdad]

The Cubs Sunday afternoon games came later in the 60s. 9/KCRG Cedar Rapids, 8/WQAD Moline, and some other ABC affiliates (Rockford?, Peoria?) got together and had the microwave ABC relay coming out of Chicago switched over to the Cubs network on Sunday afternoon for the games. Of course, they lost their ABC feed while the game was on.

IIRC, The Cubs network included 17/WTVO Rockford (which had switched from ch 39), 31/WMBD Peoria, and for a time 12/WISN Milwaukee, and 8/ WKBT, La Crosse. I think there were a couple of others in Indiana. They were also on Des Moines. WMBD and WKBT were definitely CBS. WTVO flipped networks, but I think was NBC in those days. WISN also changed affiliations, but I think was CBS at the time. The full network was usually up and running on Sundays....with a few night games also picked up by some of the network affilliates. WQAD among them.

 

[ShawnHill1]

The Cubs Sunday afternoon games came later in the 60s. 9/KCRG Cedar Rapids, 8/WQAD Moline, and some other ABC affiliates (Rockford?, Peoria?) got together and had the microwave ABC relay coming out of Chicago switched over to the Cubs network on Sunday afternoon for the games. Of course, they lost their ABC feed while the game was on.

IIRC, The Cubs network included 17/WTVO Rockford (which had switched from ch 39), 31/WMBD Peoria, and for a time 12/WISN Milwaukee, and 8/ WKBT, La Crosse. I think there were a couple of others in Indiana. They were also on Des Moines. WMBD and WKBT were definitely CBS. WTVO flipped networks, but I think was NBC in those days. WISN also changed affiliations, but I think was CBS at the time. The full network was usually up and running on Sundays....with a few night games also picked up by some of the network affilliates. WQAD among them.

WTVO was NBC until it was swapped networks with WREX in 1995, taking ABC. WTVO was the Rockford Cubs outlet for decades until the Cubbies moved to WIFR (CBS) starting in the 1988 season. WREX for many years, up until the launch of then-independent WQRF in 1978, carried the White Sox games, and I believe even WIFR had some Brewers games until WQRF started carrying them in the 80s (at one point, WQRF had the White Sox, Brewers, and St. Louis Cardinals on their air in their pre-Fox days).

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

Actually

Mason City/Rockford (About 20 miles apart, but I guess far enough away for two CBS affiliates?)
3 KGLO CBS
13 WREX CBS/ABC
39 WTVO NBC

Actually the Rockford stations (WREX and WTVO) are Rockford, Illinois stations. Perhaps the Iowa edition of TVG was distributed in northwestern Illinois at the time? (e.g., Sterling/Rock Falls, Savanna, Galena, Freeport, Dixon, etc.).

And another irony--IIRC the early years of the Iowa edition would be the only TVG edition which carried both Quad Cities and Rockford stations in a single edition (in later years the IL-WI edition was the home edition for Rockford channels, while QC's remained in the Iowa edition as well as Western Illinois). Especially considering that to this day Comcast in Sterling and Dixon carries both QC and Rockford channels on their lineups for those cities (as does Mediacom with some of the lineups in some smaller communities in Carroll and JoDaviess counties.

Does anyone know about where TVG drew the "line" between the distribution of the Western Illinois and IL-WI editions (i.e., which edition would have been distributed in far northwestern Illinois which received both QC and Rockford channels by antenna and/or cable)?

I'm also surprised that Quad Cities channels were never listed in the old Illinois-Wisconsin edition of TVG too, AFAIK.

BTW--I even remember seeing the "Western Illinois" edition of TVG distributed in a gas station check-out line in far northeast Missouri one time in the late '80s (while my family was traveling in that area). Although it's the subject of another thread that I posted some time back--so many things about old TVG edition lineups and geography always had me scratching my head (although it wasn't intended to be perfect for all circumstances)--e.g., the "Missouri" edition not listing any channels licensed north of Columbia including KC and St. Louis, the "Iowa edition" essentially a "Central/Eastern Iowa" edition with western IA and South Dakota channels listed in the "Nebraska edition" (while for a time Omaha had their own local edition).