Retro: Kentucky Friday, November 24, 1978

[bpatrick]

From TV Guide, Kentucky Edition:

WAVE Ch. 3 Louisville (NBC)

6:30 Today In WAVE Country
7 AM Today
9 AM WAVE-TV...30 Great Years
10 AM Card Sharks
10:30 Jeopardy! (the modified version that flopped)
11 AM High Rollers
11:30 Wheel Of Fortune
12 N Midday
12:30 Mike Douglas (co-hostess Helen Reddy; her husband
and manager Jeff Wald; Sylvester Stallone, Terry Funk,
and Lee Canalito from the movie "Paradise Alley")
1:30 Days Of Our Lives
2:30 The Doctors
3 PM Another World
4 PM Movie: "How To Stuff A Wild Bikini"
5:30 News
6 PM News
6:30 NBC News (John Chancellor/David Brinkley)
7 PM That Nashville Music (Bobby Bare, Reba McEntire, Roy
Head, Johnny Gimble)
7:30 Hee Haw Honeys (guest: Barbara Mandrell)
8 PM Diff'rent Strokes
8:30 Who's Watching The Kids?
9 PM Rockford Files
11 PM News
11:30 Tonight Show (guest: Dr. Lendon Smith)
1 AM Midnight Special (host Ted Nugent; Aerosmith, Cheap
Trick, AC/DC/ RED Speedwagon, Thin Lizzy, Golden
Earring)

WLWT Ch. 5 Cincinnati (NBC)

5:45 Moment Of Meditation
5:50 Good Morning
6 AM PTL Club
7 AM Today
9 AM Donahue (guest: Julia Child)
10 AM Card Sharks
10:30 Jeopardy!
11 AM High Rollers
11:30 Midday
12 N Bob Braun (his annual Thanksgiving show in
behalf of the Ruth Lyons Christmas Fund, which
distributes gifts to some viewers)
1:30 Days Of Our Lives
2:30 The Doctors
3 PM Another World
4 PM Everyday (the show which became "Hour Magazine")
5 PM Streets Of San Francisco
6 PM News
6:30 NBC News
7 PM Dating Game
7:30 Name That Tune
8 PM Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol (I've seen where NBC, which
originally aired this in 1962, is airing it this year.)
9 PM Rockford Files
11 PM News
11:30 Tonight Show
1 AM Midnight Special
2:30 Lightouch
2:35 Wrestling

WCPO Ch. 9 Cincinnati (CBS)

5:55 Farm News
6 AM Sunrise Semester: "English Language Arts"
6:30 America's Problems And Challenges
7 AM CBS News (Lesley Stahl/Richard Threlkeld)
8 AM Captain Kangaroo
9 AM Uncle Al
10 AM Match Game '78 (Loni Anderson, Bob Barker,
Patti Deutsch, Robert Pine, Charles Nelson
Reilly, Brett Somers, delay from 4 PM)
10:30 Price Is Right
11:30 All In The Family (delay from 10 AM)
12 N Noon Report
1 PM The Explorers (pre-empts "Search For Tomorrow")
1:30 As The World Turns
2:30 Guiding Light
3:30 M*A*S*H
4 PM Movie: "Chisum" (John Wayne, from '70)
6 PM News
6:30 CBS News (Walter Cronkite)
7 PM Joker's Wild
7:30 In Search Of... (Bigfoot in the Pacific Northwest)
8 PM Wonder Woman
9 PM Incredible Hulk
10 PM Flying High
11 PM News
11:30 Movie: "Summer Of '42"
2 AM Movie: "Class Of '44"
4 AM Sacred Heart
4:30 Praying The Rosary
4:45 News

WHAS Ch. 11 Louisville (CBS)

6 AM The Word Sings
6:30 Ed Allen Time (exercises)
7 AM CBS News
8 AM Captain Kangaroo
9 AM Search For Tomorrow (delay from 12:30 PM)
9:30 Young And The Restless (delay from 12 N)
10 AM Movie: "The Snow Queen" (pre-empts "Omelet"
and "The Price Is Right")
11:30 Love Of Life
11:55 CBS News (Douglas Edwards)
12 N News
12:30 Bob Braun's Thanksgiving Party (joined in progress)
1:30 As The World Turns
2:30 Guiding Light
3:30 M*A*S*H
4 PM Bonanza
5 PM Carol Burnett And Friends (guest: semi-regular
Steve Lawrence)
5:30 Mary Tyler Moore
6 PM News
6:30 CBS News
7 PM Newlywed Game
7:30 Weekend Gardener
8 PM Wonder Woman
9 PM Incredible Hulk
10 PM Flying High
11 PM News
11:30 The New Avengers
12:45 CBS Movie: "The Super Cops"
2:25 Movie: "The St. Valentine's Day Massacre"
4:25 News

WKRC Ch. 12 Cincinnati (ABC)

6 AM Make Peace With Nature
6:30 Not For Women Only
7 AM Good Morning America (guest: Patrick Macnee)
9 AM Edge Of Night (delay from 4 PM)
9:30 $20,000 Pyramid (delay from 12 N)
10 AM Mike Douglas (from Las Vegas: Robert Goulet,
Juliet Prowse, Mabel King, a team of musical
impressionists)
11 AM Happy Days
11:30 Family Feud
12 N Extra! (local)
12:30 Ryan's Hope
1 PM College Football Pre-Game Show
1:15 College Football: Pitt-Penn State
4:30 Dinah! (Joey Bishop, Harvey Korman, Merlin Olsen,
Loni Anderson, time approximate)
5:30 News
6:30 ABC World News Tonight
7 PM Tic Tac Dough
7:30 Newlywed Game
8 PM Donny & Marie (Lorne Greene, Bruce Kimmel, Cindy
Williams, Seals & Crofts)
9 PM ABC Movie: "Fun With Dick And Jane"
11 PM News
11:30 Movie: "Son Of Frankenstein" (Basil Rathbone, from '39)
1:30 Movie : "Son Of Dracula" (Lon Chaney, from '43)

WKPC Ch. 15 Louisville (PBS)

1:30 Sesame Street
2:30 Electric Company
3 PM Over Easy (guest: singer Sylvia Syms)
3:30 Lilias, Yoga And You
4 PM Sesame Street
5 PM Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
5:30 Electric Company
6 PM Zoom
6:30 Over Easy (Jack LaLanne, editor Norman Cousins)
7 PM MacNeil/Lehrer Report
7:30 Turnabout (avoiding sex-role stereotyping in children)
8 PM Washington Week In Review
8:30 Wall Street Week
9 PM Duchess Of Duke Street (Part 5)
10 PM Scenes From A Marriage (conclusion)
11 PM Dick Cavett (Agnes Nixon, creator of "All My Children"
and "One Life To Live")
11:30 Captioned ABC News
12 M Movie: "Angels Over Broadway"

WLEX Ch. 18 Lexington (NBC)

5:30 Arthur Smith
6 AM PTL Club
7 AM Today
9 AM Donahue (same as Ch. 5)
10 AM Card Sharks
10:30 Jeopardy!
11 AM High Rollers
11:30 Wheel Of Fortune
12 N News
12:30 Bob Braun's Thanksgiving Party (joined
in progress)
1:30 Days Of Our Lives
2:30 The Doctors
3 PM Another World
4 PM Santa Claus
4:30 Addams Family
5 PM Beverly Hillbillies
5:30 News
6:30 NBC News
7 PM Family Affair
7:30 Donna Fargo (guest: Robert Guillaume)
8 PM Diff'rent Strokes
8:30 Who's Watching The Kids?
9 PM Rockford Files
11 PM News
11:30 Tonight Show
1 AM Midnight Special

WXIX Ch. 19 Cincinnati (Ind.)

6:15 Perspective
7 AM Romper Room
7:30 New Zoo Revue
8 AM New Mickey Mouse Club
8:30 Groovie Goolies And Friends
9 AM Tom And Jerry
9:30 Flintstones
10 AM Dennis The Menace
10:30 Courtship Of Eddie's Father
11 AM Andy Griffith
11:30 Bewitched
12 N Medical Center
1 PM Movie: "Funny Face" (Audrey Hepburn plays the role
Sandy Duncan would play on television.)
3 PM Fred Flintstone & Friends
3:30 Popeye
4 PM Tom And Jerry
4:30 Spiderman
5 PM Gilligan's Island
5:30 My Three Sons
6 PM Brady Bunch
6:30 Carol Burnett And Friends (guest: Steve Lawrence)
7 PM Mary Tyler Moore (the last episode, where Ted is the
only survivor when new management overhauls the
WJM newsroom)
7:30 Odd Couple
8 PM Gunsmoke (guest: Jack Albertson)
9 PM Merv Griffin
10:30 Cross-Wits (Rue McClanahan, Abbe Lane, David Landsberg,
Carleton Carpenter)
11 PM Gong Show (Jamie Farr, Jaye P. Morgan, Allen Ludden)
11:30 Love Experts (Geoff Edwards, Nipsey Russell, Lois Nettleton)
12 M Ironside
sign off 1 AM

WKYT Ch. 27 Lexington (CBS)

7 AM CBS News
8 AM Captain Kangaroo
9 AM Not For Women Only (two social workers and a representative
from Planned Parenthood on the last of five shows about
teenage pregnancy)
9:30 Dinah! (from Las Vegas: Bobby Vinton, Chita Rivera, Martin
Mull, Harry Blackstone Jr.)
10:30 Price Is Right
11:30 Love Of Life
11:55 CBS News
12 N Young And The Restless
12:30 Guiding Light
1:30 As The World Turns
2:30 Search For Tomorrow
3 PM All In The Family
3:30 M*A*S*H
4 PM Petticoat Junction
4:30 Gomer Pyle, USMC
5 PM Andy Griffith
5:30 News
6 PM News
6:30 CBS News
7 PM My Three Sons
7:30 In Search Of... (same as Ch. 9)
8 PM Wonder Woman
9 PM Incredible Hulk
10 PM Flying High
11 PM News
11:30 Movie: "Battle Of The Bulge"

WLKY 32 Alive Louisville (ABC)

6:30 Romper Room
7 AM Good Morning America
9 AM Donahue (Nelson Rockefeller discusses his
primitive-art collection.)
10 AM Green Acres
10:30 Edge Of Night
11 AM Happy Days
11:30 Family Feud
12 N $20,000 Pyramid (Nipsey Russell, Elaine Joyce)
12:30 Ryan's Hope
1 PM College Football Pregame Show
1:15 College Football: Pitt-Penn State
4:30 Everyday (guests: Buddy Ebsen and Rip Taylor--the
show normally aired at 4, followed by "The Dating
Game" at 5)
5:30 News
6 PM ABC World News Tonight
6:30 WLKY-TV Reports (pre-empts "Tic Tac Dough")
7 PM Joker's Wild
7:30 Match Game PM (Don Sutton, Brett Somers, Betty
White, Nancy Lane)
8 PM Donny & Marie
9 PM ABC Movie: "Fun With Dick And Jane"
11 PM News
11:30 The Rookies
12 M Baretta (half-hour delay)
1:10 Movie: "Embassy"

WDRB Ch. 41 Louisville (Ind.)

7:45 News
8 AM New Zoo Revue
8:30 For You...Black Woman (guest: actress Pat Dixon
of "All My Children")
9 AM PTL Club
11 AM News/Introspect
11:30 The Bible With Pat Robertson
12 N 700 Club (guest: Dale Evans)
1:30 Love, American Style
2 PM Not For Women Only (emergency rooms and special
units are the topics on the last of five programs about
hospitals)
2:30 Bugs Bunny And Pals
3 PM New Mickey Mouse Club
3:30 Popeye
4 PM Three Stooges
4:30 Gilligan's Island
5 PM I Love Lucy
5:30 Battle Of The Planets
6 PM Six Million Dollar Man
7 PM Sanford And Son
7:30 My Three Sons
8 PM Gunsmoke
9 PM Merv Griffin (from New York: the cast of "Ain't
Misbehavin'"; Bob and Ray; Joel Grey; Phyllis
Newman; singer Grace Jones; Disco Sally)
10:30 Odd Couple
11 PM Love Experts (Geoff Edwards, Richard Paul,
Anita Gillette, Elayne Boosler)
11:30 Movie: "Then Came Bronson" (pilot for the series)
1:30 Soul Train (Jerry Butler, Rick James)

WTVQ Ch. 62 (Ch. 36) Lexington (ABC)

5:30 700 Club
7 AM Good Morning America
9 AM General Hospital (delay from 3 PM)
10 AM Marcus Welby, M.D.
11 AM Happy Days
11:30 Family Feud
12 N $20,000 Pyramid
12:30 Ryan's Hope
1 PM College Football Pregame Show
1:15 College Football: Pitt-Penn State
4:30 Gilligan's Island (time approximate)
5 PM Brady Bunch
5:30 News
6 PM ABC World News Tonight
6:30 Gong Show (Michele Lee, Pat McCormick,
Jaye P. Morgan)
7 PM Joker's Wild
7:30 Newlywed Game
8 PM Donny & Marie
9 PM ABC Movie: "Fun With Dick And Jane"
11 PM News
11:30 Baretta
12:40 Juke-Box (Twiggy's guests are Jummy McCullouch
and White Line, Pilot, the Alex Harvey Band, Gary
Glitter, Barry Ryan, Charlie)
1:10 Movie: "Dead Heat On A Merry-Go-Round"

E Kentucky Educational Television (WKZT/23 Elizabethtown,
WKSO/29 Somerset, WKMR/38 Morehead, WKLE/46 Lexington,
WKON/52 Owenton, WCVN/54 Covington, WKMJ/68 Louisville) (PBS)

3:30 Over Easy (singer Sylvia Syms)
4 PM Sesame Street
5 PM Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
5:30 Electric Company
6 PM Zoom
6:30 Guten Tag
7 PM MacNeil/Lehrer Report
7:30 Comment On Kentucky
8 PM Washington Week In Review
8:30 Wall Street Week
9 PM Farm Digest
9:30 College Heights Herald
10 PM The Pallisers (Part 12)
sign off 11 PM

 

[cd637299]

I notice that none of the three NBC stations listed showed "America Alive!" at noon.....wow what a disaster.

Even Wikipedia has no "takers" on that show as yet.

I lived in Alaska at that time, and I doubt that it was shown there either, as it was a sort of noontime "Today" show.

cd

 

[RyanHoward]

From TV Guide, Kentucky Edition:

WAVE Ch. 3 Louisville (NBC)

6:30 Today In WAVE Country
7 AM Today
9 AM WAVE-TV...30 Great Years
10 AM Card Sharks
10:30 Jeopardy! (the modified version that flopped)
11 AM High Rollers
11:30 Wheel Of Fortune
12 N Midday
12:30 Mike Douglas (co-hostess Helen Reddy; her husband
and manager Jeff Wald; Sylvester Stallone, Terry Funk,
and Lee Canalito from the movie "Paradise Alley")
1:30 Days Of Our Lives
2:30 The Doctors
3 PM Another World
4 PM Movie: "How To Stuff A Wild Bikini"
5:30 News
6 PM News
6:30 NBC News (John Chancellor/David Brinkley)
7 PM That Nashville Music (Bobby Bare, Reba McEntire, Roy
Head, Johnny Gimble)
7:30 Hee Haw Honeys (guest: Barbara Mandrell)
8 PM Diff'rent Strokes
8:30 Who's Watching The Kids?
9 PM Rockford Files
11 PM News
11:30 Tonight Show (guest: Dr. Lendon Smith)
1 AM Midnight Special (host Ted Nugent; Aerosmith, Cheap
Trick, AC/DC/ RED Speedwagon, Thin Lizzy, Golden
Earring)

The Rockford Files must have been a two-hour episode that night.

 

[bpatrick]

It was. This was a sweeps month, and "Rockford" was
much stronger than the regular 10 PM show, "The Eddie
Capra Mysteries."

 

[bpatrick]

Correction on "The Midnight Special": the guest list should
read, in part, AC/DC and REO Speedwagon. I think I accidentally
hit the "D" after "RE," and don't know why I put a slash after DC.

 

[bpatrick]

I notice that none of the three NBC stations listed showed "America Alive!" at noon.....wow what a disaster.

Even Wikipedia has no "takers" on that show as yet.

I lived in Alaska at that time, and I doubt that it was shown there either, as it was a sort of noontime "Today" show.

cd

Bob Braun was too much of an institution in Cincinnati for WLWT to drop him; his show's roots were in Ruth Lyons'
"50 Club" (later the "50/50 Club"), which dates back to radio in the '40s. He also had a strong following throughout
the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana-West Virginia-Tennessee region, so he was attractive to WLEX as well. Likewise, Mike
Douglas was too firmly entrenched on WAVE. And both Bob and Mike were worth more in revenue to their stations
than a network show would be.

My two NBC affiliates at the time, WSB Atlanta and WFBC (now WYFF) Greenville, SC, also passed on "America
Alive." Just as well; the show was both a ratings and critical disaster, with only host Jack Linkletter being spared
the opprobrium of the critics.

At the other end of the scale is the syndicated-by-Group W "Everyday," which aired on WLWT and WLKY. It was
a mix of features and comedy sketches; viewers decided they could do without the comedy. Group W took it off,
then retooled it as "Hour Magazine," one of the most successful syndicated shows of the '80s. Perhaps NBC could
have given "America Alive" more time to find a workable formula (also think ABC's transition from "A.M. America" to
"Good Morning America" in 1975), but it was not to be. Within a year, the Peacock Network was back to game shows
in the 12 N-1 PM timeslot.

Something about the Louisville/Lexington/Cincinnati area that has always puzzled me is how the CBS affiliates have
always played fast and loose with the soaps. In Louisville on this day, "Young And The Restless" and "Search For
Tomorrow" air on delay; in Lexington, "Guiding Light" and "Search For Tomorrow" are out of pattern, and in Cincinnati
"Love Of Life" and "Young And The Restless" aren't carried at all; "Search" is pre-empted for the day but normally airs
at 1 instead of 12:30. And in 2012, "Y&R" airs at 4 PM in Louisville and 1 PM in Lexington; "Bold And The Beautiful"
airs a day behind at 10:30 AM in Lexington.

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

"America Alive" (Was: Re: Retro: Kentucky Friday, November 24, 1978)

My two NBC affiliates at the time, WSB Atlanta and WFBC (now WYFF) Greenville, SC, also passed on "America
Alive."  Just as well; the show was both a ratings and critical disaster, with only host Jack ]

Perhaps the major problem with "America Alive" was it's timeslot: 12 Noon to 1 P.M. EDT/EST. As far back as 1978, many NBC stations on the East Coast broadcast local news at 12 Noon ET.

If my memory serves me correct, the show was broadcast live from 12 Noon to 1 P.M. ET, and that there was a "hard" station break at 12:28:50 EDT/EST, so the second half-hour began at 12:30:00 Eastern time.

I don't know if the show aired live on the West Coast from 9 to 10 A.M. Pacific, or was shown on a delay later in the day. I would think far more NBC stations in the Eastern time zone picked-up the 12:30 half-hour than the 12 Noon half hour.

As an example, then-NBC affiliate WBZ-4 never cleared either half-hour of "America Alive" (WBZ had been programming local news at 12 Noon since around 1953); the show aired here on independent WLVI-56. However, Providence's WJAR-10 did clear the second half-hour after likewise broadcasting local news from 12 Noon to 12:30 P.M. ET.

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

Back then, the November "sweeps" included Thanksgiving and the weekend following.

Today, the November sweeps always end the night before Thanksgiving, possibly in recognition of viewing patterns being disrupted by all those people traveling for the Thanksgiving weekend (and I would also think that today, far more people travel for Thanksgiving weekend than was the case in 1978 or earlier).

 

[cd637299]

IMO, merely the fact that "America Alive" was a one-hour show, starting at noon EST, was enough of a death knell as it was.

How NBC ever thought that stations would hop on for *that*....well, it's anybody's guess.

edit:

Having never viewed this thing, I suppose that Mr. Gallant's point of a hard break, so that some stations aired just the last half-hour, *might* have worked, but wouldn't there be a re-hashing of the top stories in that slot? You know, like, "For those of you who have just joined us"---that might make sense, but for those markets who had it 30 minutes, viewers would say "How could I have 'just joined' you? You just began!" And, for the 60-min. markets, if they *did not* use that disclaimer, folks would say, "Why are they repeating this?"

Well, you know what I mean.

cd

P.S. To give you an idea about 12 noon for the network, in 1989, recently-purchased WTVJ did not run "Super Password," the NBC 12 noon show. Who purchased WTVJ? NBC itself!

cd

 

[bpatrick]

That's something not confined to NBC. When WTVD became
an ABC o&o im 1985, it didn't carry "Ryan's Hope," although
WRAL did when it was Raleigh/Durham's ABC affiliate; "RH" also
aired at 12 N, when WTVD had and has local news.

Back to "America Alive": WRCB Chattanooga used to run the
first half-hour, followed by a local show, "Midday Live,"
at 12:30. And I don't know if NBC could have forced its affiliates
to take the whole hour; I imagine that a lot of those with local
news at noon would have rebelled.

While I think four hours is overkill, it seems to work for the "Today"
show, but that's 7-11 AM...still a better timeslot than "America Alive"
had.

 

[spb]

Omaha's then NBC affiliate, KMTV 3, initially cleared only the first half hour and aired its local talk show "Conversations" at 11:30. However, a sizable number of viewers wanted to see the entire hour, enough that KMTV chose to move Conversations from its long-time midday time slot to 9 in the morning. Conversations was moved back near the midday hour at 11:00 after America Alive! was canceled in January.