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Retro; New York City, Friday, March 12, 1948

B

Bob1370

Guest
Source; New York Times


WCBS-TV-Channel 2 (CBS)

11:00 A.M-5:00 P M.-Test Pattern

WNBT-Channel 4 (NBC)

Afternoon

I:00-Home Service Club; Tex and Jinx

Evening

7:30-Musical Merry-Go-Round-Jack Kilty
7:50-Newsreel; John Cameron Swayze
8:00-Film Shorts
8:15-Two Great Blizzards
8:25-Sports Reports
8:30-Show Business. Inc.
9:00-Television Newsreel
9:10-Boxing: Madison Square Garden

WABD-Channel 5 (DuMont)

Evening

6:05-U. S. Weather Report
0-15-Small Fry Club with Bob Emery
6:45-Walter Compton News
7:00-Play Room
7:30-Camera Headlines
8:00-Fashions on Parade
8:30-Film Shorts
9:00-Wrestling. Jamaica Arena


There was no scheduled programming on Channel 2 or this day. CBS was still eight weeks away from launching full network service in the spring of 1948.

Three other stations, WJZ-TV Channel 7 (ABC), WPIX Channel 11 (independent, owned by the Daily News) and WATV Channel 13 (independent) were under construction and targeted for air dates in the spring (WPIX, WATV) and summer (WJZ-TV) of 1948. Another independent station, WOR-TV Channel 9, was in the early phase of construction and would not begin operation until the fall of 1949.
 
Wikipedia says the Walter Compton News was reportedly off the air by January 1948. If it was "reportedly" off the air, then Wikipedia got its information from an incorrect source. :eek:
 
"Wikipedia says the Walter Compton News was reportedly off the air by January 1948."

That could be true in terms of feed to the full DuMont network, which included a bunch of other stations on the eastern seaboard like WNHC in Connecticut or WFIL in Philadelphia (which wouldn't be committed to ABC until it got its network up and fully running in August of 1948). At the same time, plenty of shows which didn't stay on the network continued for O&O stations, and Compton stayed on WABD and its originating station, WTTG in Washington, until much later. This wasn't unusual. CBS had several local shows that went network later (including the Douglas Edwards newscast) and had a few which went on and off the network repeatedly after its first series of shows began feeding in ths spring of 1948.
 
Understood, but the Wikipedia article says that a second attempt by DuMont to present a news program (named Camera Headlines) premiered in Jan., 1948, which would lead one to think it replaced Compton. I found another site (I think it was a DuMont history site.) that had a 1948 schedule showing Compton and Camera Headlines on it in different time slots. Compton was daily; Headlines was weekly.

When stations had a 15-minute newscast at 11:00 Eastern, The Tonight Show started at 11:15, and then "re-started" at 11:30 for the stations that had expanded its news to 30 minutes. I heard the first 15 minutes became more "local" in scope (telling jokes about NYC) as more stations across the country expanded their news to 30 min. until Tonight dropped the first 15 min. entirely. Does this mean that Channel 4 in NYC continued to carry a 15-min. newscast long after the other stations in the #1 market went to 30 min. news?
 
trusty said:
When stations had a 15-minute newscast at 11:00 Eastern, The Tonight Show started at 11:15, and then "re-started" at 11:30 for the stations that had expanded its news to 30 minutes. I heard the first 15 minutes became more "local" in scope (telling jokes about NYC) as more stations across the country expanded their news to 30 min. until Tonight dropped the first 15 min. entirely. Does this mean that Channel 4 in NYC continued to carry a 15-min. newscast long after the other stations in the #1 market went to 30 min. news?
Click to expand...

WNBC, at first (that is, as of Oct. 1, 1962 and the first several months afterward), carried all 1 hr. 45 min. of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, however by mid-to-late 1963 their 11 P.M. newscast became 30 minutes (probably in the aftermath of the long NYC newspaper strike), thus they were among the first stations to hack off the first 15 minutes of the program. Some other NBC O&O's of the time - notably Los Angeles' KNBC - still had 15-minute 11 P.M. newscasts at that point, though.
 
I've linked to Mark Evanier in another thread, and now I'm gonna do it here...

http://www.newsfromme.com/2012/02/05/todays-video-link-45/

...it's the first 15 minutes (along with other non-Johnny Carson components) of the December 31 1965/January 1 1966 Tonight Show, along with some commentary about the "15 Minute Flu" Johnny "suffered" when asked to continue doing the mostly-preempted opening segment.

I showed it to my parents, who don't remember them doing that first fifteen minutes at all (they'd have been watching on WNBC.)
 
Re, I:00-Home Service Club; "Tex" and Jinx in Bob's innaugural post-- was Tex the late Tex Antoine, NYC's beloved cartoonist/weatherman, whose TV moniker was a play on his Texas roots?
 
Ultimajock said:
jfrancispastirchak said:
Re, I:00-Home Service Club; "Tex" and Jinx in Bob's innaugural post-- was Tex the late Tex Antoine, NYC's beloved cartoonist/weatherman, whose TV moniker was a play on his Texas roots?
Click to expand...
...nope. Tex McCrary. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jinx_Falkenburg#Tex_and_Jinx:_Radio_and_television ...
Click to expand...
U.J: thanks for the comeback! And Mcrary's host was his wife, actress "Jinx" Falkenberg (believe her first name was Jill). Ironically, according to Wikipedia, like Tex Antoine, Mcrary was a native Texan as well.
 
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