Retro: Kentucky Wednesday, June 18, 1980

[bpatrick]

From TV Guide, Kentucky Edition:

WAVE Ch. 3 Louisville (NBC)

6 AM Today In WAVE Country
7 AM Today (Tom Brokaw)
9 AM Password Plus (guests: Vicki Lawrence,
Gene Rayburn)
9:30 The Doctors
10 AM Card Sharks
10:30 Hollywood Squares
11 AM High Rollers
11:30 Wheel Of Fortune
12 N Midday
12:30 Mike Douglas (co-host Gary Sandy of "WKRP
In Cincinnati," guests Gil Gerard and Diana Canova)
1:30 Days Of Our Lives
2:30 Another World
4 PM Movie: "Bengal Brigade"
5:30 News
6 PM News
6:30 NBC News (John Chancellor)
7 PM Play The Percentages
7:30 America's Top 10
8 PM Real People
9 PM Diff'rent Strokes
9:30 Seems Like A Long Time (inside the Kentucky
state correctional facility for women)
10 PM Quincy
11 PM News
11:30 Tonight Show (Johnny's here tonight; guests are
David Steinberg, actress Marianne Broome, singer
Kelly Garrett, inventor John Bennett)
1 AM Tomorrow (Wayne Newton from Las Vegas)
2 AM News

WLWT Ch. 5 Cincinnati (NBC)

5:50 Good Morning
6 AM PTL Club
7 AM Today
9 AM Donahue (topic: children and depression)
10 AM Card Sharks
10:30 Hollywood Squares
11 AM The Doctors
11:30 Midday
12 N Bob Braun
1:30 Days Of Our Lives
2:30 Baseball: Reds-Cubs
5 PM Streets Of San Francisco (time approximate)
6 PM News
6:30 NBC News
7 PM Hollywood Squares
7:30 Face The Music
8 PM Real People
9 PM Diff'rent Strokes
9:30 Facts Of Life
10 PM Quincy
11 PM News
11:30 Tonight Show
1 AM Tomorrow

WCPO Ch. 9 Cincinnati (CBS)

5:30 Praying The Rosary
5:45 Farm News
6 AM Summer Semester: "Metropolitan America"
6:30 Ed Allen (exercises)
7 AM Morning With Bob Schieffer
8 AM Captain Kangaroo
9 AM Uncle Al
10 AM The Jeffersons
10:30 Alice
11 AM Price Is Right
12 N Noon Report
1 PM Young And The Restless
2 PM As The World Turns
3 PM Guiding Light
4 PM Movie: "The Drums Of Tabu"
6 PM News
6:30 CBS News (Walter Cronkite)
7 PM 7 O'Clock Report
7:30 Joker's Wild
8 PM Pilot: "Ethel Is An Elephant" (about a man
who wants to keep a baby elephant as a
pet over the objections of his landlord)
8:30 CBS Movie: "That's Entertainment, Part II"
11 PM News
11:30 Black Sheep Squadron
12:40 Medical Story
2:40 News

WHAS Ch. 11 Louisville (CBS)

6 AM Ed Allen
6:30 Louisville Tonight (rerun of the previous night's
show)
7 AM Morning With Bob Schieffer
8 AM Captain Kangaroo
9 AM Young And The Restless
10 AM The Jeffersons
10:30 Nanny And The Professor
11 AM Price Is Right
12 N News
12:30 Bob Braun
1:30 Search For Tomorrow
2 PM As The World Turns
3 PM Guiding Light
4 PM Carol Burnett And Friends
4:30 Beverly Hillbillies
5 PM Andy Griffith
5:30 Mary Tyler Moore
6 PM News
6:30 CBS News
7 PM Louisville Tonight
7:30 Face The Music
8 PM Pilot: "Ethel Is An Elephant"
8:30 CBS Movie: "That's Entertainment, Part II"
11 PM News
11:30 Black Sheep Squadron
12:40 Medical Story
2:40 News

WKRC Ch. 12 Cincinnati (ABC)

5:30 Health Field
6 AM Ask Your Lawyer
6:30 New Zoo Revue
7 AM Good Morning America (David Hartman)
9 AM Edge Of Night
9:30 $20,000 Pyramid (day-behind; guests LeVar
Burton and Debralee Scott)
10 AM Mike Douglas (co-host Anne Murray; guests
Martin Sheen, Ruth Buzzi, the Spinners)
11 AM Laverne & Shirley
11:30 Family Feud
12 N Extra! (not the current tabloid show)
12:30 Ryan's Hope
1 PM All My Children
2 PM One Life To Live
3 PM General Hospital
4 PM Dinah! & Friends (co-host Charles Nelson Reilly;
guests Cher, Polly Holliday, Gloria Steinem,
record-company executive Neil Bogart, Kate
Jackson in a pre-taped interview)
5:30 News
6:30 ABC News (Frank Reynolds/Peter Jennings/
Max Robinson)
7 PM Tic Tac Dough
7:30 PM Magazine
8 PM Family
9 PM Charlie's Angels
10 PM Vega$
11 PM News
11:30 Nightline (Ted Koppel)
11:50 Love Boat
1 AM Baretta
2:10 Soul Train (Ray, Goodman & Brown and Ray
Parker, Jr. and Raydio)
3:10 Movie: "Susan And God"

WKPC Ch. 15 Louisville (PBS)

7:15 A.M. Weather
7:30 Sesame Street
8:30 Electric Company
9 AM Sesame Street
10 AM Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
10:30 Electric Company
11 AM Studio See
11:30 Zoom
12 N Sesame Street
1 PM Over Easy
1:30 Dick Cavett
2 PM Masterpiece Theatre: "Disraeli: Portrait
Of A Romantic" (Part 3)
3 PM Here's To Your Health
3:30 Villa Alegre
4 PM Sesame Street
5 PM Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
5:30 Electric Company
6 PM Zoom
6:30 Over Easy
7 PM MacNeil/Lehrer Report
7:30 Dick Cavett
8 PM Great Performances (Schubert's Sixth and
Eighth Symphonies performed by the Chicago
Symphony Orchestra conducted by George Solti)
9:30 China: Land Of My Father
10 PM Presumed Innocent (not the Scott Turow novel,
but a look inside the House Of Detention For Men
on Rikers Island)
11 PM Dick Cavett
11:30 Captioned ABC News
sign off 12 M

WLEX Ch. 18 Lexington (NBC)

6 AM PTL Club
7 AM Today
9 AM Donahue (same as Ch. 5)
10 AM Card Sharks
10:30 Hollywood Squares
11 AM High Rollers
11:30 The Doctors
12 N News
12:30 Bob Braun
1:30 Days Of Our Lives
2:30 Baseball: Reds-Cubs
5 PM Beverly Hillbillies (time approximate)
5:30 News
6 PM News
6:30 NBC News
7 PM Sanford And Son
7:30 Carol Burnett And Friends
8 PM Real People
9 PM Diff'rent Strokes
9:30 Facts Of Life
10 PM Quincy
11 PM News
11:30 Tonight Show
1 AM Tomorrow

WXIX Ch. 19 Cincinnati (Ind.)

6:15 Perspective
7 AM Romper Room
7:30 Bugs And Porky
8 AM Popeye
8:30 Flintstones
9 AM Tom And Jerry
9:30 Star Blazers
10 AM Courtship Of Eddie's Father
10:30 Bewitched
11 AM Odd Couple
11:30 Mary Tyler Moore
12 N Medical Center
1 PM Movie: "The D.I." (Jack Webb)
3 PM Popeye
3:30 Flintstones
4 PM Tom And Jerry
4:30 Gilligan's Island
5 PM Superman (George Reeves)
5:30 My Three Sons
6 PM Mayberry R.F.D.
6:30 Carol Burnett And Friends
7 PM Chico And The Man
7:30 All In The Family
8 PM Movie: "A Star Is Born" (1954 version)
11 PM Prisoner: Cell Block H
11:30 All In The Family
12 M Mission: Impossible

WKYT Ch. 27 Lexington (CBS)

6 AM Town And Country
7 AM Morning With Bob Schieffer
8 AM Captain Kangaroo
9 AM Bugs Bunny And Friends
9:30 Woody Woodpecker And Friends
10 AM The Jeffersons
10:30 Alice
11 AM Price Is Right
12 N Prisoner: Cell Block H
12:30 Search For Tomorrow
1 PM Young And The Restless
2 PM As The World Turns
3 PM Guiding Light
4 PM One Day At A Time
4:30 Real McCoys
5 PM Mayberry R.F.D.
5:30 News
6 PM News
6:30 CBS News
7 PM PM Magazine
7:30 M*A*S*H
8 PM Pilot: "Ethel Is An Elephant"
8:30 CBS Movie: "That's Entertainment, Part II"
11 PM News
11:30 Black Sheep Squadron
12:40 Medical Story

WLKY Ch. 32 Louisville (ABC)

6:30 Romper Room
7 AM Good Morning America
9 AM Donahue (topic not given)
10 AM Green Acres
10:30 Edge Of Night
11 AM Laverne & Shirley
11:30 Family Feud
12 N $20,000 Pyramid
12:30 Ryan's Hope
1 PM All My Children
2 PM One Life To Live
3 PM General Hospital
4 PM Starsky & Hutch
5 PM Happy Days Again
5:30 News
6 PM ABC News
6:30 Tic Tac Dough
7 PM Joker's Wild
7:30 Nashville Swing
8 PM Family
9 PM Charlie's Angels
10 PM Vega$
11 PM News
11:30 Dave Allen At Large
12 M Nightline
12:20 Love Boat
1:30 Baretta

WDRB Ch. 41 Louisville (Ind.)

7:45 News
8 AM New Zoo Revue
8:30 Bugs Bunny
9 AM PTL Club
11 AM News/Introspect
11:30 Health Field
12 N 700 Club
1:30 Ross Bagley
2 PM Partridge Family
2:30 Baseball: Reds-Cubs
5 PM Rifleman (time approximate)
5:30 My Three Sons
6 PM Get Smart
6:30 Odd Couple
7 PM Six Million Dollar Man
8 PM Movie: "The Mad Bomber"
10 PM Laurel And Hardy
10:30 Best Of Groucho
11 PM Benny Hill
11:30 Movie: "Up In Arms" (this 1944 comedy made
a star out of Danny Kaye)

WTVQ Ch. 62 Lexington (ABC)
NOTE: On June 21 the station shut down for three days,
re-emerging on Ch. 36 on June 24.

5:30 700 Club
7 AM Good Morning America
9 AM General Hospital
10 AM Tic Tac Dough
10:30 Newlywed Game
11 AM Laverne & Shirley
11:30 Family Feud
12 N $20,000 Pyramid
12:30 Ryan's Hope
1 PM All My Children
2 PM One Life To Live
3 PM Get Smart
3:30 Tom And Jerry
4 PM Six Million Dollar Man
5 PM News
6 PM ABC News
6:30 Happy Days Again
7 PM All In The Family
7:30 The Sullivans (Australian soap set in World War II,
in no way related to the five Sullivan brothers who
went down with their ship--they were Americans)
8 PM Family
9 PM Charlie's Angels
10 PM Vega$
11 PM News
11:30 Nightline
11:50 Love Boat
1 AM Baretta

KET Kentucky Educational Television: WKZT/23 Elizabethtown,
WKSO/29 Somerset, WKMR/38 Morehead, WKON/52 Owenton,
WCVE/54 Covington, WKMJ/68 Louisville

3:30 Over Easy
4 PM Sesame Street
5 PM Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
5:30 Electric Company
6 PM Zoom
6:30 Cookin' Cajun (Justin Wilson)
7 PM MacNeil/Lehrer Report
7:30 Dick Cavett
8 PM Great Performances
9:30 China: Land Of My Father
10 PM Presumed Innocent
sign off 11 PM

 

[RALfan]

WLWT Ch. 5 Cincinnati (NBC)

2:30 Baseball: Reds-Cubs

What normally aired in these slots?

 

[bpatrick]

I should have anticipated that question, so here goes:

Ch. 5 2:30 Another World (then 90 minutes)
4 PM Starsky & Hutch

Ch. 18 2:30 Another World
4 PM Superman
4:30 Munsters

Ch. 41 2:30 Underdog
3 PM Popeye And Our Gang
4 PM Woody Woodpecker And Friends
4:30 Battle Of The Planets

You might note "Superman" on two stations: WLEX
and WXIX. At the time there was quite a bit of interest
in the George Reeves version, mainly because of the success
of the first two Christopher Reeve "Superman" movies. Those
movies have been playing on AMC recently (although "Superman
II" is the Richard Donner cut, released, I believe, in 2006), along
with "Superman III" (with Richard Pryor in the cast) and "Superman
Returns" (Brandon Routh as the Man of Steel).

 

[classictvfan]

I should have anticipated that question, so here goes:

Ch. 5 2:30 Another World (then 90 minutes)
4 PM Starsky & Hutch

Ch. 18 2:30 Another World
4 PM Superman
4:30 Munsters

Ch. 41 2:30 Underdog
3 PM Popeye And Our Gang
4 PM Woody Woodpecker And Friends
4:30 Battle Of The Planets

You might note "Superman" on two stations: WLEX
and WXIX. At the time there was quite a bit of interest
in the George Reeves version, mainly because of the success
of the first two Christopher Reeve "Superman" movies. Those
movies have been playing on AMC recently (although "Superman
II" is the Richard Donner cut, released, I believe, in 2006), along
with "Superman III" (with Richard Pryor in the cast) and "Superman
Returns" (Brandon Routh as the Man of Steel).

One correction to your note:Superman II would not be
released(at least in the U.S.) for another 12 months.

 

[classictvfan]

Lexington would be without an
Independent station until February
1986 when WDKY Channel 56
signed on.

 

[classictvfan]

It appears that M*A*S*H reruns
were not airing in Louisville or
Cincinnati at this point.

 

[radiorob2.0]

It appears that M*A*S*H reruns
were not airing in Louisville or
Cincinnati at this point.

IIRC, WHAS had M*A*S*H and aired it at 5:30. I'm not sure why it wasn't on the schedule. Based on memory, I believe WXIX had MASH in Cincinnati. Why it wasn't on the schedule is another mystery considering M*A*S*H debuted in syndication the previous fall.

 

[radiorob2.0]

WTVQ Ch. 62 Lexington (ABC)
NOTE: On June 21 the station shut down for three days,
re-emerging on Ch. 36 on June 24.

The move from 62 to 36 was extensive and included bringing down the old tower and replacing with a stronger tower. It actually took a little longer than scheduled. Lexington was still cable free at the time so ABC only existed via high gain antenna from WKRC or WLKY.

8 PM Pilot: "Ethel Is An Elephant" (about a man
who wants to keep a baby elephant as a
pet over the objections of his landlord)

Directed by John Astin http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0250364/

 

[azumanga]

WHAS had M*A*S*H and aired it at 5:30. I'm not sure why it wasn't on the schedule. Based on memory, I believe WXIX had MASH in Cincinnati. Why it wasn't on the schedule is another mystery considering M*A*S*H debuted in syndication the previous fall.

Maybe both stations took a break from airing M*A*S*H during the summer and aired something else.

 

[Mike Stroud]

WTVQ Ch. 62 Lexington (ABC)
NOTE: On June 21 the station shut down for three days,
re-emerging on Ch. 36 on June 24.

bp, wonder if WTVQ ran ads in that edition promoting the channel change? If the station did, I can just see the tagline now: "Next week, turn to 36 for the new TVQ." Some months back in another topic, I joked about the station being on the channel 62 frequency in the first place, beginning back in '68.

Whatever your attitude toward that, you can bet the farm that the station's Nielsens improved almost instantly after the change, mainly because the channel was closer to the other two network affils, both UHFs, WLEX (18) and WKYT (27) on the dials--and back then, that made a big difference, in the day before remote controls became widespread. You didn't have to whirl the channel knob all the way up--I am sure in the early days back in the early '70s, folks in central Kentucky just got tired of doing that after awhile and ignored the channel (and thus ABC offerings) altogether for years. It is obvious that management picked up on that and kept on--well, bitching, to put it mildly--at the FCC for years to get off 62. I think about a couple of years before the channel switch, new owners came in and got aggressive about the matter, and I suspect they had considerably more clout in Washington than did the local businessman who first put WTVQ on the air a decade earlier.

Mind you, all of that is speculation, but let us all face facts: nothing ever got done then, much like now, without the wheel squeaking hard enough to get some grease, in a manner of speaking. A few years later, with cable penetration, WTVQ might not have even bothered with the whole thing (except perhaps to increase power), but in 1980, most folks still had outdoor jobs or UHF rings on the backs of their sets, so this was likely the only way the station would ever become a truly viable operation.

 

[radiorob2.0]

WTVQ Ch. 62 Lexington (ABC)
NOTE: On June 21 the station shut down for three days,
re-emerging on Ch. 36 on June 24.

bp, wonder if WTVQ ran ads in that edition promoting the channel change? If the station did, I can just see the tagline now: "Next week, turn to 36 for the new TVQ." Some months back in another topic, I joked about the station being on the channel 62 frequency in the first place, beginning back in '68.

Whatever your attitude toward that, you can bet the farm that the station's Nielsens improved almost instantly after the change, mainly because the channel was closer to the other two network affils, both UHFs, WLEX (18) and WKYT (27) on the dials--and back then, that made a big difference, in the day before remote controls became widespread. You didn't have to whirl the channel knob all the way up--I am sure in the early days back in the early '70s, folks in central Kentucky just got tired of doing that after awhile and ignored the channel (and thus ABC offerings) altogether for years. It is obvious that management picked up on that and kept on--well, bitching, to put it mildly--at the FCC for years to get off 62. I think about a couple of years before the channel switch, new owners came in and got aggressive about the matter, and I suspect they had considerably more clout in Washington than did the local businessman who first put WTVQ on the air a decade earlier.

Mind you, all of that is speculation, but let us all face facts: nothing ever got done then, much like now, without the wheel squeaking hard enough to get some grease, in a manner of speaking. A few years later, with cable penetration, WTVQ might not have even bothered with the whole thing (except perhaps to increase power), but in 1980, most folks still had outdoor jobs or UHF rings on the backs of their sets, so this was likely the only way the station would ever become a truly viable operation.

The changeover ads produced by WTVQ featured a baby and a hand fastening a pin to a diaper. The headline read, "We're Making a Change". The copy had the details.

As far as the reason, it was dial position. As Mike mentioned UHF tuners were all about twisting the knob. Also, there were many inferior UHF tuners available. A TV that could receive a clear picture on Channel 18 and 27 had noise on Channel 62. One blessing Channel 62 had was being located near and eventually across the street from Channel 27. It didn't require an additional antenna since Lexington TV stations were spread out.

The allocation was part of a legal battle after WTVQ moved to Channel 36. Two groups fought for the allocation. One was a ministry and the other specialized in general interest programming. The latter won the allocation with an arrangement with the ministry to offer time. WLKT signed on the air in 1988. The station was plagued with technical problems including a microwave link that was not high enough. Also, WDKY signed on the air two years earlier. They had first dibs on available revenue, programming and viewership. Then the ministry sued for breach of contract. WLKT lasted about a year before signing off. Channel 62 returned ten years later as WBLU, a LPTV.

 

[azumanga]

WLKT signed on the air in 1988... lasted about a year before signing off. Channel 62 returned ten years later as WBLU, a LPTV.

Is WBLU still on the air today? Last I heard, Daystar snatched that station up during the bankruptcy auction of Equity Broadcasting, the previous owners of WBLU.

 

[radiorob2.0]

WLKT signed on the air in 1988... lasted about a year before signing off. Channel 62 returned ten years later as WBLU, a LPTV.

Is WBLU still on the air today? Last I heard, Daystar snatched that station up during the bankruptcy auction of Equity Broadcasting, the previous owners of WBLU.

The wiki entry has details. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WBLU-LP