Retro: Milwaukee, Wednesday, July 16, 1969

[DM601]

(Source: Sheboygan, Wis, Press)
Schedule for Milwaukee's Channel 18 wasn't included in listings.

*NOTE: The Apollo space flight lifted off this morning. Although not listed in the schedule grids, an adjacent Associated Press story listed morning coverage as follows: All three networks’ coverage on by 7 a.m. CDT with NBC’s Today Show starting at 5 CDT and ABC at 6 CDT, with pre-emptions when necessary during the day and night.

WTMJ-TV 4 (NBC)
AM
6:15 Miss Julie’s House
6:30 Biography
7 Today
9 It Takes Two
9:25 NBC News
9:30 Concentration
10 Personality
10:30 Hollywood Squares
11 Jeopardy
11:30 Eye Guess
11:55 NBC News
PM
12 Girl Talk
12:30 You’re Putting Me On
1 Days Of Our Lives
1:30 The Doctors
2 Another World
2:30 You Don’t Say
3 Match Game
3:25 Cash-On-The-Line
3:30 Sea Spray
4 Marshal Dillon
4:30 Man From U.N.C.L.E.
5:30 NBC News
6 News
6:30 The Virginian
8 Music Hall
9 The Outsider
10 News
10:30 Tonight Show
12M News
12:15 Movie: “Paratrooper”

WITI 6 (ABC)
AM
6:45 RFD
6:55 News
7 Funny Farm
8 King Kong
8:30 Underdog
8:45 Cartoon Capers
9 Whirlybirds
9:30 Movie (name not listed)
11 Bewitched
11:30 That Girl
PM
12 News
12:30 Let’s Make A Deal
1 Newlywed Game
1:30 Divorce Court (instead of ABC’s Dating Game)
2 General Hospital
2:30 Suspense Theatre
3:30 Dark Shadows
4 Mike Douglas
5:30 ABC News
6 News
6:30 Here Come The Brides
7:30 King Family
8 ABC Movie: “Come Blow Your Horn”
10:15 News
10:45 Movie: “Something of Value” (instead of ABC’s Joey Bishop Show)
1:20A Movie: “Espionage in Tangier”
3:15 Whirlybirds

WMVS 10 (Edu.)
PM (no listings before 5 p.m. – did they sign on that late?)
5 Misterrogers
5:30 Friendly Giant
5:45 Library Story
6 Managers In Action
6:30 Wings To Europe
7 Spectrum
7:30 Book Beat
8 News In Perspective
9 Melange
9:30 Jewels And Gems

WISN-TV 12 (CBS)
AM
6:20 Farm Report
6:30 Black Heritage
7 CBS News
8 Captain Kangaroo
9 Bachelor Father
9:30 Beverly Hillbillies
10 Andy Griffith
10:30 Dick Van Dyke
11 Love Of Life
11:25 CBS News
11:30 Search For Tomorrow
PM
12 News; Dialing For Dollars
12:30 As The World Turns
1 Love Is A Many Splendored Thing
1:30 Guiding Light
2 Secret Storm
2:30 Edge Of Night
3 Linkletter Show
3:30 Leave It To Beaver
4 The Monroes
4:30 Branded
5 Lucy Show
5:30 CBS News
6 News
6:30 Tarzan
7:30 Good Guys
8 Beverly Hillbillies
8:30 Green Acres
9 Hawaii Five-O
10 News
10:30 Movie: “Shape of Things To Come”
12:25 Movie: “For The Love Of Kitty”

 

[rugrats1]

> WMVS 10 (Edu.)
> PM (no listings before 5 p.m. – did they sign on that late?)

During the summer, most-likely. Normally, they have in-school educational programming, but during the summer, when school is out, theere was no need (at the time) to be on during the day.

 

[KingDaevid]

> *NOTE: The Apollo space flight lifted off this morning.
> Although not listed in the schedule grids, an adjacent
> Associated Press story listed morning coverage as follows:
> All three networks’ coverage on by 7 a.m. CDT with NBC’s
> Today Show starting at 5 CDT and ABC at 6 CDT, with
> pre-emptions when necessary during the day and night.

...which reminds me, I was reading part of David Brinkley's memoirs over the weekend and was reminded of Gulf Oil's blanket sponsorship of all NASA coverage on NBC (the Houston connection, of course). That in turn reminded me of Abbie Hoffman's gag that the real purpose of the space program was to eventually paint the Gulf logo across the Moon and use it as a billboard sign ;-) ...

> WITI 6 (ABC)
> PM
> 10:45 Movie: “Something of Value” (instead of ABC’s Joey
> Bishop Show)

...Bishop was carried in Milwaukee on WVTV/18 at the time. After Bishop was finally cancelled by ABC, WVTV picked up Merv Griffin from CBS and fed him to KFIZ-TV/34 in Fond du Lac, since WISN-TV/12 wasn't carrying him, either (WITI did pick up Dick Cavett after a while, didn't they?)...

...oh, by the way, a section of a "Joey Bishop Show" broadcast can be heard on the soundtrack to the movie TARGETS; Peter Bogdanovich used it to illustrate the culturelessness of the sniper character before he goes on his rampage...<P ID="signature">______________
King Daevid MacKenzie
WLSU Wisconsin Public Radio, La Crosse
heard weekly on http://whiterosesociety.org
"Kill Ugly Radio." FRANK ZAPPA</P>

 

[Braves2005]

>
> WTMJ-TV 4 (NBC)
> AM
> 6:30 Biography
Reruns of the show hosted by Mike Wallace.


>
> WITI 6 (ABC)
> PM
> 2:30 Suspense Theatre
> One Life To Live and another show wasn't seen.

>
> WISN-TV 12 (CBS)
> PM


> 4 The Monroes
> 4:30 Branded
> 5 Lucy Show
First off,The Monroes was an hour show,so quite possibly they syndicated the show into half hour shows as to make them 2 parters such as they did BJ and the Bear and Sheriff Lobo later on. Also,The Lucy Show was a delay of the 9 A.M. slot taken by Bachelor Father.

 

[bpatrick]

> >
>
> >
> > WITI 6 (ABC)
> > PM
> > 2:30 Suspense Theatre
> > One Life To Live and another show wasn't seen.

Dark Shadows aired on ABC at 3 PM (CT), so WITI was
delaying it at least a half-hour. I also note that
Dream House wasn't carried at noon.
>
> >
> > WISN-TV 12 (CBS)
> > PM
>
>
> > 4 The Monroes
> > 4:30 Branded
> > 5 Lucy Show
> First off,The Monroes was an hour show,so quite possibly
> they syndicated the show into half hour shows as to make
> them 2 parters such as they did BJ and the Bear and Sheriff
> Lobo later on. Also,The Lucy Show was a delay of the 9 A.M.
> slot taken by Bachelor Father.
>
This is a new one to me. WBRC/6 Birmingham carried The
Monroes but as an hour show; then again, they carried it only
once a week, Sundays at 6 (CT), delaying Land Of The Giants
a week.

 

[DrBear]

> WTMJ-TV 4 (NBC)
> PM
> 3:25 Cash-On-The-Line

I'm guessing this was some "dialing for dollars" without the name, since WISN used that name. Normally this was NBC's afternoon newsbreak.

 

[Nitelinger]

> (Source: Sheboygan, Wis, Press)
> Schedule for Milwaukee's Channel 18 wasn't included in
> listings.


My guess is that the UHF's didn't reach all the way to Sheboygan, which is why you don't list WMVT either.

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

King Daevid recalls:

> ...which reminds me, I was reading part of David Brinkley's
> memoirs over the weekend and was reminded of Gulf Oil's
> blanket sponsorship of all NASA coverage on NBC (the Houston
> connection, of course). That in turn reminded me of Abbie
> Hoffman's gag that the real purpose of the space program was
> to eventually paint the Gulf logo across the Moon and use it
> as a billboard sign ;-) ...

Or maybe to build "gas stations" to service transient spaceships....

 

[KingDaevid]

> > ...which reminds me, I was reading part of David
> Brinkley's
> > memoirs over the weekend and was reminded of Gulf Oil's
> > blanket sponsorship of all NASA coverage on NBC (the
> Houston
> > connection, of course). That in turn reminded me of Abbie
> > Hoffman's gag that the real purpose of the space program
> was
> > to eventually paint the Gulf logo across the Moon and use
> it
> > as a billboard sign ;-) ...
>
> Or maybe to build "gas stations" to service transient
> spaceships....
>
>

...naah, I think _that_ was Timothy Leary's gag, not Hoffman's ;-) ...<P ID="signature">______________
King Daevid MacKenzie
WLSU Wisconsin Public Radio, La Crosse
heard weekly on http://whiterosesociety.org
"Kill Ugly Radio." FRANK ZAPPA</P>

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

DM601 takes us back to Milwaukee on July 16, 1969:

> *NOTE: The Apollo (11) space flight lifted off this morning.
> Although not listed in the schedule grids, an adjacent
> Associated Press story listed morning coverage as follows:
> All three networks’ coverage on by 7 a.m. CDT with NBC’s
> Today Show starting at 5 CDT and ABC at 6 CDT, with
> pre-emptions when necessary during the day and night.

I may be wrong, but I thought ABC, CBS and NBC all began launch-day coverage of the Apollo 11 mission at 6 A.M. EDT (5 CDT), with NBC, as DM601 noted, running a "special" edition of "Today" from 6 to 8 A.M. EDT, which I recall was all-Apollo-11-All-The-Time except for local news cutaways at 6:25 and 7:25 A.M. EDT and very short national/world news updates at 6, 6:30, 7 and 7:30 EDT from Frank Blair (which were brief because there wasn't much news apart from the moon launch). Except for Blair, who stayed behind in New York, I believe the rest of the on-air team at the time (co-hosts Hugh Downs and Barbara Walters and commentator Joe Gargiola) were at the Cape.

At 8 A.M. EDT, NBC began their "official" coverage of the launch, anchored by Frank McGee (who I believe broadcast from a small studio on the ground floor of NBC's newly built anchor booth at Cape Canaveral). Also appearing were David Brinkley (also at the Cape; I believe he was on the roof of the NBC booth) and Chet Huntley (who "minded the store" at NBC's Studio 8-H in New York, which was filled with tracking maps, mock-ups and simulators, and renamed "NBC News Space Center").

I believe the networks were all on the air until 1:30 or 2 P.M. EDT, after the third stage of the massive Saturn 5 rocket (which remained attached to the spacecraft after it went into Earth orbit) had re-ignited to send the spacecraft towards the moon and a maneuver in which the command module separated from the third stage, turned around, docked with the lunar lander (which during launch has been stored between the command module and the rocket's third stage), and then pulled the complete spacecraft away from the third stage. Live color-TV pictures of this docking maneuver were transmitted to Earth.

All-in-all, the three networks broadcast about 60 hours each of live coverage over the nine days of the Apollo 11 mission, half of that (11 A.M. EDT Sunday, July 20th until 6 P.M. EDT Monday, July 21st) coming in a 31-hour span on the 20th and 21st to cover the moon landing (4:17 P.M. EDT Sunday), moonwalk (10:56 P.M. EDT Sunday-1:15 A.M. EDT Monday), liftoff of the upper half of the lunar lander from the moon (aproximately 1 P.M. EDT Monday), and the lunar lander docking with the mother ship, which had remained in lunar orbit (aprox. 5 P.M. EDT Monday).

 

[DrBear]

> > > ...which reminds me, I was reading part of David
> > Brinkley's
> > > memoirs over the weekend and was reminded of Gulf Oil's
> > > blanket sponsorship of all NASA coverage on NBC (the
> > Houston
> > > connection, of course).

Actually, according to NBC news boss Reuven Frank's book, Gulf sponsored any coverage of what we would today call "breaking news." It's just that the space program was the most visible.

He said Gulf was especially good as a sponsor, and that Frank McGee, a native of Oklahoma, would occasionally be a good sport and show up at meetings with the sponsor and "swap oil field stories."

 

[JohnL]

> > (Source: Sheboygan, Wis, Press)
> > Schedule for Milwaukee's Channel 18 wasn't included in
> > listings.
>
>
> My guess is that the UHF's didn't reach all the way to
> Sheboygan, which is why you don't list WMVT either.
>
If I remember right, WVTV transmitted on top of the Shroeder Hotel (Marc Plaza) at 550 feet, power 1,800 kW and coverage was small. Grade A Contour covered the whole county of Milwaukee.

-John L.

 

[Nitelinger]

I don't have the 1969 WVTV data here with me. The independent WXIX broadcast from the tower atop the hotel (530 ft above average terrain, 663 ft above ground) at 263 kw visual in 1959. When it morphed into WUHF in 1963, it broadcast from the same tower, but at 100 kw visual and 55 kw aural. In 1964 it increased power to 256 kw visual and 123 kw aural.

I think that by 1969 WKY increased the power. I'll have to dig out the 1969 figures.

- Dick


> >
> > My guess is that the UHF's didn't reach all the way to
> > Sheboygan, which is why you don't list WMVT either.
> >
> If I remember right, WVTV transmitted on top of the Shroeder
> Hotel (Marc Plaza) at 550 feet, power 1,800 kW and coverage
> was small. Grade A Contour covered the whole county of
> Milwaukee.
>
> -John L.
>