Retro: Northern Alabama Wednesday, June 6, 1973

[bpatrick]

Regular programming may have been disrupted by
the Senate Watergate hearings on commercial networks
during the day, and taped replays on PBS at night.
Since I don't remember who carried them on this particular
day, these are the schedules as they appeared in TV Guide,
Northern Alabama Edition:

WCBI Ch. 4 Columbus, MS (CBS/ABC)

6:45 Weather
7 AM CBS News (John Hart)
8 AM Captain Kangaroo
9 AM Joker's Wild
9:30 $10,000 Pyramid
10 AM Gambit
10:30 Love Of Life
10:55 CBS News (Douglas Edwards)
11 AM Young And The Restless
11:30 Search For Tomorrow
12 N News
12:25 Chiropractics
12:30 As The World Turns
1 PM Guiding Light
1:30 Edge Of Night
2 PM Price Is Right
2:30 Hollywood's Talking
3 PM Secret Storm
3:30 Love, American Style
4 PM Bewitched
4:30 Flintstones
5 PM Way Of Truth
5:30 CBS News
6 PM News
6:30 Partridge Family
7 PM The Last King Of America (Peter
Ustinov as George III)
8 PM Dan August
9 PM Cannon
10 PM News
10:30 CBS Movie: "The Devil's 8"
sign off 12:30 AM

WSM (WSMV) Ch. 4 Nashville (NBC)

5:45 Weather
5:50 Devotional
5:55 Job Market
6 AM Morning Show (Ralph Emery)
7 AM Today
9 AM Dinah's Place (Dinah gets to sing
with another star of her era--
Kay Starr)
9:30 Baffle
10 AM Sale Of The Century
10:30 Hollywood Squares
11 AM Jeopardy!
11:30 Who, What Or Where
11:55 NBC News (Edwin Newman)
12 N News
1 PM Days Of Our Lives
1:30 The Doctors
2 PM Another World
2:30 Return To Peyton Place
3 PM Munsters
3:30 Movie: "Wheel Of Fortune" (John
Wayne in a 1941 film, made five
years before Pat Sajak was born
and sixteen before Vanna was born)
4:55 Dragnet
5:25 Weather
5:30 NBC News
6 PM News
6:30 You Asked For It (one of several
unsuccessful revivals of the '50s hit)
7 PM Adam-12
7:30 NBC Movie: "Poor Devil" (Sammy
Davis Jr. plays an emissary of the Devil,
who tries to get Satan just one soul)
9 PM Search
10 PM News
10:30 Tonight Show
sign off 12 Midnight

WLAC (WTVF) Ch. 5 Nashville (CBS)

5:15 Country Journal
5:30 Carl Tipton
6 AM CBS News
6:30 Garner Ted Armstrong
7 AM Mornings With Siegel
7:55 Kitchen Corner
8 AM Captain Kangaroo
9 AM Joker's Wild
9:30 $10,000 Pyramid
10 AM Gambit
10:30 Love Of Life
10:55 CBS News
11 AM Young And The Restless
11:30 Search For Tomorrow
12 N Singing Convention
12:25 News
12:30 As The World Turns
1 PM Guiding Light
1:30 Edge Of Night
2 PM Price Is Right
2:30 Hollywood's Talking
3 PM Secret Storm
3:30 Jeff's Collie
4 PM Movie: "Stop Train 349"
5:25 Weather
5:30 CBS News
6 PM News
6:30 To Tell The Truth
7 PM Movie: "The Magnificent Seven"
9 PM Cannon
10 PM News
10:30 Perry Mason
11:30 CBS Movie: "The Devil's 8"
sign off 1:30 AM

WBRC Ch. 6 Birmingham (ABC)

4:25 Christophers
4:40 Herald Of Truth
5:10 Morning Devotional
5:15 Farm Market Reports
5:30 News
5:35 Country Boy Eddie
7 AM Morning Show
8:30 Merv Griffin
9:30 Dating Game
10 AM All My Children
10:30 Bewitched
11 AM Password
11:30 Split Second
12 N News
12:30 Let's Make A Deal
1 PM Newlywed Game
1:30 I Dream Of Jeannie
2 PM General Hospital
2:30 One Life To Live
3 PM Love, American Style
3:30 Laramie
4:30 I Love Lucy
5 PM ABC News (Smith/Reasoner)
5:30 News
6 PM To Tell The Truth
6:30 Police Surgeon
7 PM Big Valley
8 PM ABC Theatre: "If You Give A Dance,
You Gotta Pay The Band" (ABC head
programmer Marty Starger ran a lot
of things like this)
9:30 ABC News Special: "The Methadone
Connection"
10 PM News
10:30 Man From U.N.C.L.E.
11:30 Jack Paar Tonite
sign off 1 AM

WCIQ Ch. 7 Mt. Cheaha State Park/WBIQ
Ch. 10 Birmingham/WHIQ Ch. 25 Huntsville/
WFIQ Ch. 36 Florence (PBS)

2:15 America, Be Fit
2:30 Carrascolendas
3 PM Consultation
3:30 Electric Company
4 PM Sesame Street
5 PM Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
5:30 Adult Education
6 PM Amateur Electronics/Radio
6:30 Pulse: Alabama
7:30 French Chef
8 PM Chan-Ese Way
8:30 Project 360
9 PM Hollywood Television Theatre:
"The Andersonville Trial"
sign off 12 Midnight

WSIX Ch. 8 (WKRN Ch. 2) Nashville (ABC)

6:25 F Troop
6:55 News
7:05 Bozo
8 AM New Zoo Revue
8:30 Green Acres
9 AM Movie: "The Sergeant Was A
Lady"
10:30 Daybook
11 AM Password
11:30 Split Second
12 N All My Children
12:30 Let's Make A Deal
1 PM Newlywed Game
1:30 Dating Game
2 PM General Hospital
2:30 One Life To Live
3 PM Andy Griffith
3:30 Merv Griffin
5 PM ABC News
5:30 News
6 PM Truth Or Consequences
6:30 Let's Make A Deal
7 PM The Wacky Weeki Wachee And
Silver Springs Singing And Comedy
Thing
8 PM ABC Theatre
9:30 ABC News Special
10 PM News
10:30 Jack Paar Tonite
sign off 12 Midnight

WTWV (WTVA) Ch. 9 Tupelo, MS (NBC)

7 AM Today
9 AM Dinah's Place
9:30 Baffle
10 AM Sale Of The Century
10:30 Hollywood Squares
11 AM Jeopardy!
11:30 Who, What Or Where
11:55 NBC News
12 N News
12:30 Three On A Match
1 PM Days Of Our Lives
1:30 The Doctors
2 PM Another World
2:30 Return To Peyton Place
3 PM Somerset
3:30 Movie: "The Suspect"
5 PM Green Acres
5:30 NBC News
6 PM News
6:30 To Tell The Truth
7 PM Dragnet
7:30 NBC Movie: "Poor Devil"
9 PM Search
10 PM News
10:30 Tonight Show
sign off 12 Midnight

WAPI (WVTM) Ch. 13 Birmingham (NBC)

5:15 Awake!
5:45 Top Of The Morning
7 AM Today
9 AM Dinah's Place
9:30 Baffle
10 AM Sale Of The Century
10:30 Hollywood Squares
11 AM Jeopardy!
11:30 Who, What Or Where
11:55 NBC News
12 N News
12:15 Mid-Day
12:30 Three On A Match
1 PM Days Of Our Lives
1:30 The Doctors
2 PM Another World
2:30 Return To Peyton Place
3 PM Somerset
3:30 Green Acres
4 PM Gomer Pyle, USMC
4:30 Andy Griffith
5 PM News
5:30 NBC News
6 PM News
6:30 Buck Owens
7 PM Adam-12
7:30 NBC Movie: "Poor Devil"
9 PM Search
10 PM The Protectors
10:30 The Adventurer
11 PM News
11:30 Tonight Show (Ch. 13 and, later,
KARE/11 Minneapolis-St. Paul were
the only stations allowed to delay
Carson)
sign off 1 AM

WOWL (WHDF) Ch. 15 Florence, AL (NBC)

7 AM Today
9 AM Dinah's Place
9:30 Baffle
10 AM Sale Of The Century
10:30 Hollywood Squares
11 AM Jeopardy!
11:30 Who, What Or Where
11:55 NBC News
12 N News
12:15 Bible Televisit
12:30 As The World Turns
1 PM Days Of Our Lives
1:30 The Doctors
2 PM Another World
2:30 Return To Peyton Place
3 PM Somerset
3:30 Three On A Match
4 PM Children's Hour
5 PM News
6 PM NBC News
6:30 Police Surgeon
7 PM Adam-12
7:30 NBC Movie: "Poor Devil"
9 PM Search
10 PM News
10:30 Tonight Show
sign off 12 Midnight

WHNT Ch. 19 Huntsville (CBS)

5:25 Crossroads 19
5:55 Minister's Study
6 AM CBS News
7 AM Morning Folks
8 AM Captain Kangaroo
9 AM Joker's Wild
9:30 $10,000 Pyramid
10 AM Gambit
10:30 Love Of Life
10:55 CBS News
11 AM Young And The Restless
11:30 Search For Tomorrow
12 N News
12:30 As The World Turns
1 PM Guiding Light
1:30 Edge Of Night
2 PM Price Is Right
2:30 Hollywood's Talking
3 PM Secret Storm
3:30 Cartoons
4 PM Movie: "Tarzan And The
She-Devil"
5:30 CBS News
6 PM News
6:30 Truth Or Consequences
7 PM The Last King Of America
8 PM Dan August
9 PM Cannon
10 PM News
10:30 CBS Movie: "The Devil's 8"
12:30 News
sign off after the news

WAAY Ch. 31 Huntsville (NBC)

5:45 Devotional
6 AM Cartoons
7 AM Today
9 AM Coffee Break
9:30 Baffle
10 AM Sale Of The Century
10:30 Hollywood Squares
11 AM Jeopardy!
11:30 Who, What Or Where
11:55 NBC News
12 N Dinah's Place
12:30 Three On A Match
1 PM Days Of Our Lives
1:30 The Doctors
2 PM Another World
2:30 Return To Peyton Place
3 PM Somerset
3:30 Flintstones
4 PM Gomer Pyle, USMC
4:30 Beverly Hillbillies
5 PM Andy Griffith
5:25 Weather
5:30 NBC News
6 PM News
6:30 I Dream Of Jeannie
7 PM Adam-12
7:30 NBC Movie: "Poor Devil"
9 PM Search
10 PM News
10:30 Tonight Show
12 M News
12:05 Movie: "All I Desire"
sign off 1:35 AM

WCFT Ch. 33 Tuscaloosa (CBS)

6:30 Cartoons
7 AM CBS News
8 AM Captain Kangaroo
9 AM Joker's Wild
9:30 $10,000 Pyramid
10 AM Gambit
10:30 Love Of Life
10:55 CBS News
11 AM Young And The Restless
11:30 Search For Tomorrow
12 N Galloping Gourmet
12:30 As The World Turns
1 PM Guiding Light
1:30 Edge Of Night
2 PM Price Is Right
2:30 Hollywood's Talking
3 PM Secret Storm
3:30 Movie: "Emergency Wedding"
5 PM Little Black Book
5:30 CBS News
6 PM News
6:30 My Favorite Martian
7 PM Baseball: Braves-Expos
9:30 TBA (time approximate)
10 PM News
10:30 CBS Movie: "The Devil's 8"
sign off 12:30 AM

WHMA (WJSU) Ch. 40 Anniston, AL (CBS)

6:55 Ted Allen
7 AM CBS News
7:30 Paul Harvey
7:35 Rise And Shine
8 AM Captain Kangaroo
9 AM Joker's Wild
9:30 $10,000 Pyramid
10 AM Gambit
10:30 Love Of Life
10:55 CBS News
11 AM Young And The Restless
11:30 Search For Tomorrow
12 N News
12:05 By The Way
12:30 As The World Turns
1 PM Guiding Light
1:30 Edge Of Night
2 PM Price Is Right
2:30 Hollywood's Talking
3 PM Secret Storm
3:30 Joanne Carson's VIPs (yes,
she's one of Johnny's exes)
4 PM Father Knows Best
4:30 Real McCoys
5 PM News
5:30 CBS News
6 PM Rollin' (with Kenny Rogers and
the First Edition)
6:30 Mancini Generation (yes, Henry)
7 PM Baseball: Braves-Expos
9:30 TBA (time approximate)
10 PM News
10:30 CBS Movie: "The Devil's 8"
sign off 12:30 AM

WBMG (WIAT) Ch. 42 Birmingham (CBS)

6:45 Focus
7 AM CBS News
8 AM Captain Kangaroo
9 AM Joker's Wild
9:30 $10,000 Pyramid
10 AM Gambit
10:30 Love Of Life
10:55 CBS News
11 AM Young And The Restless
11:30 Search For Tomorrow
12 N Divorce Court
12:30 As The World Turns
1 PM Guiding Light
1:30 Edge Of Night
2 PM Price Is Right
2:30 Hollywood's Talking
3 PM Secret Storm
3:30 Mayberry R.F.D.
4 PM Sergeant Jack (one of many
great kids' shows in Birmingham)
4:30 Munsters
5 PM Dragnet
5:30 CBS News
6 PM Truth Or Consequences
6:30 What's My Line?
7 PM Baseball: Braves-Expos
9:30 Felony Squad (time approximate)
10 PM News
10:30 CBS Movie: "The Devil's 8"
sign off 12:30 AM

WMSL (WAFF) Ch. 48 Huntsville (ABC)

6:30 Farm News
6:45 Agriculture Film
7 AM News
7:05 Sonny Sims
8 AM Romper Room
8:30 This Morning
9 AM Jack LaLanne
9:30 Not For Women Only
10 AM Galloping Gourmet
10:30 Bewitched
11 AM Password
11:30 Split Second
12 N All My Children
12:30 Let's Make A Deal
1 PM Newlywed Game
1:30 Dating Game
2 PM General Hospital
2:30 One Life To Live
3 PM Love, American Style
3:30 New Zoo Revue
4 PM Happy Hour
4:30 Green Acres
5 PM News
5:30 ABC News
6 PM UFO
7 PM The Wacky Weeki Wachee And
Silver Springs Singing And Comedy
Thing
8 PM ABC Theatre
9:30 ABC News Special
10 PM News
10:30 Jack Paar Tonite
sign off 12 Midnight

 

[Ultimajock]

WAPI (WVTM) Ch. 13 Birmingham (NBC)

11:30 Tonight Show (Ch. 13 and, later,
KARE/11 Minneapolis-St. Paul were
the only stations allowed to delay
Carson)

...are you sure of that? Seems to me that WTMJ-TV/4 Milwaukee also pushed Carson back at some point in the '80s, perhaps leading to then-indie WVTV/18 picking it up. That, in turn, made WVTV the only independent station to carry all three of the major networks' 1969 offerings -- ABC's Joey Bishop, CBS' Merv Griffin and NBC's Carson -- in network pattern, IIRC...

 

[rwells2265]

WAPI (WVTM) Ch. 13 Birmingham (NBC)

11:30 Tonight Show (Ch. 13 and, later,
KARE/11 Minneapolis-St. Paul were
the only stations allowed to delay
Carson)

...are you sure of that? Seems to me that WTMJ-TV/4 Milwaukee also pushed Carson back at some point in the '80s, perhaps leading to then-indie WVTV/18 picking it up. That, in turn, made WVTV the only independent station to carry all three of the major networks' 1969 offerings -- ABC's Joey Bishop, CBS' Merv Griffin and NBC's Carson -- in network pattern, IIRC...

Absolutely. This quirk dates back to the '60s, when then WAPI-TV was dual CBS/NBC.

For a long time, 13 didn't air Carson at all, and then WBMG-42 started clearing it ca. 1966. When 13 picked it up, it was at 1130. Without any late '60s TV GUIDEs within reach at the moment (correct me if I'm off here, bpatrick), I suspect it was to allow for an extra hour's worth of network shows.

After May 31, 1970, when B'ham television went to one station-one network, 13 continued the one-hour delay with syndie shows in the 10:00 slot, followed by news at 11. This continued well into the '80s, if not '90s, before "Tonight" began airing in pattern in B'ham.

--Russell

 

[Charles1]

Russell is right about Channel 13 airing another hour of network programming between 10-11 CT before they became an exclusive NBC affiliate. And by the way---not only did WBMG-42 air Carson prior to becoming an exclusive CBS station, but so too did WCFT-33 in Tuscaloosa and WHMA-40 in Anniston. IIRC, 33, 40, and 42 had the same prime-time schedule 7 days week, meaning that when one station aired a CBS or NBC program out of pattern, all three did.

Another Birmingham quirk of 60's and into the early or mid 70's---both Channel 13 and WBRC-6 aired their late night news at 11:00 back in those days...wonder how many other Central time zone markets did the same thing? Even after becoming an NBC-only station and moving its late news to 10:00 PM, Channel 13 aired an hour of syndicated reruns from 10:30-11:30, including "M*A*S*H", "All in the Family", "Taxi", "Carol Burnett and Friends", and "The Jeffersons", (later 10:35-11:35). This continued until either '94 or '95...just before Channel 13 became an NBC O & O.

 

[bpatrick]

First, IIRC WTMJ dropped Carson in favor of "Thicke
Of The Night" in 1983, which is how WVTV acquired
Carson in Milwaukee, at least temporarily since Alan
Thicke's show was one of television's great disasters.
Also, IIRC, Carson was already being aired on delay in
the Twin Cities at the time.

As for the weird scheduling in Birmingham, when I
moved there in the summer of 1969 WAPI and WBMG
were still splitting CBS and NBC; Carson was on WBMG
at 10:30, and Merv Griffin (on CBS at the time) wasn't
carried in Birmingham at all. WAPI did schedule an
extra hour of entertainment shows from 10 to 11 (I
remember Hee Haw and Mannix airing on delay in 10 PM
slots), followed by news at 11 and a movie at 11:30.
WBRC, by that time, was running its news at 10 but then
followed with movies or syndicated fare, so Joey Bishop
tended to come on at a different time every night (WFAA
Dallas used to do the same thing with Wide World Of Entertainment).
In the years before I moved there, WBRC did have an 11 PM newscast
that ran about 10 minutes before Alfred Hitchcock Presents came on.

But when WAPI became exclusive NBC, and WBMG (and WCFT
and WHMA) exclusive CBS, Merv began airing at 10:30 in Birmingham,
Tuscaloosa, and Anniston, while WAPI stuck to its practice of (now
syndicated) entertainment shows from 10 to 11. While in the '80s
13 moved its news to 10, it ran reruns of All In The Family, M*A*S*H,
etc., from 10:30 to 11:30. I don't think it began running The Tonight
Show at 10:30 until it became an NBC o&o.

Russell can correct me on this, but I think ABC put the pressure on
WBRC (and every other affiliate that was delaying it) to carry Nightline
at 10:30 as well; it did carry Koppel at that
time in the later years of its ABC affiliation, as ABC33/40 does now
(and here's one to chew on: ABC33/40 was carrying Jimmy Kimmel
long before he was finally picked up in supposedly-sophisticated
Atlanta).

I speak from experience when I say that Birmingham is the most
peculiar market I've ever lived in, so anything their stations did or
do is just par for the course.