Retro: Memphis July 21, 1965

[briancraig]

Channel 13 showed F.D.R. on Sunday nights at 10 pm.

By January 1966, Channel 13 is carrying the still 15 minute ABC evening news hosted by Peter Jennings.

1967 was the year that WMCT became WMC-TV. I believe on January 1. I always thought the 3 letters sounded better, so I've always wondered why KNXT wasn't KNX-TV or WLWT wasn't WLW-TV.

Sometime in the Fall of 1968, Channel 5 started a 5 pm newscast with NBC News at 5:30 and another local newscast at 6 pm (like they do today). On June 7, 1971 they started carrying a full hour of news at 5 pm and delayed NBC News until 6.

Channel 3 moved their 5 pm news to 6 pm sometime between January and September of 1972.

One thing that I think is pretty unique about Memphis is that all 3 stations in the 1970s and 1980s did a Noon newscast.
5 started their Noon news on September 4, 1967, 3 on February 10, 1969 and 13 on June 12, 1972.

Does anyone know of any other market during that era where all 3 network stations had a Noon news.

 

[mleach]

Does anyone know of any other market during that era where all 3 network stations had a Noon news.

Good question !!!

I can tell you two who didn't. Washington and Baltimore !!

Back in the 60's really the only local station that did offer a newscast at Noon was DC's ABC affiliate WMAL ( now WJLA ). However the region still had news during the lunch time..if 1pm is considered since that was the time when Baltimore's ABC ( WJZ ) and Washington's CBS ( WTOP/WUSA ) offered their "midday" newscast.

On the flip side of this is Virginia.

For some reason the local TV stations in Virginia were very late in the game to offer a local newscast at Noon. There was a time in the early 80s when Norfolk's WTKR channel 3 actually bragged about having the only local Noon newscast in the entire state of Virginia..5 days a week. The "five days a week" line was aimed at Norfolk's WAVY channel 10 who for some unknown reason didn't offer a Noon newscast on Fridays ( they just aired what NBC was airing ) however they did offer Noon news Monday thru Thursday.

The Virginia ABC affiliates, none of them offered any news at Noon at all since all of them had stayed with ABC's Family Feud ) but that would change in the mid 80s when Norfolk's WVEC started a midday newscast at 11:30am but that was quickly moved to Noon and soon the other ABC affiliates followed suit.

 

[radioman148]

>>1967 was the year that WMCT became WMC-TV. I believe on January 1. I always thought the 3 letters sounded better, so I've always wondered why KNXT wasn't KNX-TV or WLWT wasn't WLW-TV.>>

Around the same time in Chicago ABC owned WBKB channel 7 became WLS-TV.

 

[bpatrick]

I remember that WHBQ kept "Family Feud" at
12:30 (CT) even after it was airing at 11 AM
on the network; IIRC, Ch. 13 ran "All My Children"
at 11, followed by news at noon, then "Feud."
Don't remember if they carried "Ryan's Hope" at all.

The first market I recall where all three affiliates had
noon newscasts was (where else?) Atlanta, starting
in the fall of 1972. WQXI (WXIA) (ABC then) had had
a 12:30 newscast since 1970, and would later try it
at 11:30 AM (1975) without success. Orlando, I
remember, staggered its midday news: noon on WFTV
(ABC), 12:30 on WESH (NBC), 1 PM on WDBO (WKMG)
(CBS).

 

[rwells2265]

I remember that WHBQ kept "Family Feud" at
12:30 (CT) even after it was airing at 11 AM
on the network; IIRC, Ch. 13 ran "All My Children"
at 11, followed by news at noon, then "Feud."
Don't remember if they carried "Ryan's Hope" at all.

If WHBQ picked up "Ryan's Hope" at all, it would've been for a very brief time - different timeslot, for instance.

Between 1972 and 1977, 13 preempted the first 30-60 minutes of ABC daytime, airing their "Dialing for Dollars Movie" from 9-11 (CT), and AMC in the noon slot. When that soap expanded, 13 went to a very crazy scheme ... going from memory here, as I don't have any issues from ca. 1977 handy:
9:00 - Happy Days (delayed from 10:00)
9:30 - Family Feud (delayed from 10:30)
10:00 - Dialing for Dollars Movie
12:00 - News
12:30 - All My Children (bumped from 12:00)
1:30 - regular ABC in pattern.

At that point, 13 was preempting three shows - "Ryan's Hope", "Pyramid" and whatever show-of-the-week was on at 11:00 CT ("Better Sex", "Hot Seat", etc.)

By 1980, 13 was clearing every ABC daytime show except one - usually "Ryan's Hope" AMC aired on a one-day delay at 11:00, with "Feud" bumped to 12:30 after news. Curiously, the exact same schedule took place 70 miles away at KAIT-8 in Jonesboro, Ark., which also had a nooncast. This took place throughout the entire 1980s.

One memory of all this takes me back to the mid '80s, while at college in Jonesboro. The local cable picked up three ABCs - the local channel 8, of course, plus WHBQ-13 and KATV-7/Little Rock. And 7 aired AMC in pattern. I knew a couple of "All My Children" fans at the time, and they loved this arrangement, especially when they had alternating-day classes at noon ... they could watch AMC one day on 7 live, and then get a double-dose two days later, catching up on their fix.

--Russell

 

[bpatrick]

I remember seeing the Memphis edition of TV Guide
from time to time and remember KAIT carrying "Feud"
at 12:30, even after ABC put it at 11 AM. When we
lived in Dallas, my dad would bring back the Arkansas
edition when he went to Little Rock, and I recall that
KATV ran the entire ABC daytime schedule in pattern
with the exception of "Edge Of Night," which it ran
at 9:30 AM.

If anybody in my dorm had thought about it, they
could have watched "One Life To Live" on WLOS
a day ahead of its airing on WXIA. We had people
who preferred to watch "The Young And The Restless"
at noon on WSPA ("Y&R" was still a half-hour) rather
than 1 PM on WAGA. To each his/her own, I suppose.