Retro: Philadelphia/Wilmington Sun 7/6/58

[Bluenoser]

from TV Guide

Network listings only channels listed with originating Philly station:
Lebanon: 15 WLBR
Harrisburg: 27 WTPA, 55 WHP
York: 43 WSBA, 49 WNOW

(c)color program

WRCV 3-NBC
7:25 Thought for Today
7:30 Farm, Home & Garden
8:00 Come Little Children (c)
8:30 See the World (c)
9:00 Frontiers of Faith
9:30 This is the Life
10:00 Cartoons
11:00 Mr. Wizard
11:30 Bertie the Bunyip (c)
12:30 Buckskin Billy Playhouse "Night Riders of Montana"
1:50 Universal Pressbox
2:00 Baseball: Philadelphia @ Cincinnati (1st game of doubleheader)
4:30 Movie: TBA
5:30 Comment
6:00 Meet the Press
6:30 Outlook
7:00 Noah's Ark (c)
7:30 No Warning!
8:00 Steve Allen (c/in b&w on 49)
9:00 Chevy Show (c)
10:00 Decision
10:30 Movie 3 "Hotel Sahara"
11:00 News
11:10 Movie 3 cont'd
12:30 Douglas Fairbanks
1:00 Thought for Tomorrow

WFIL 6-ABC
8:30 TV Garden Club
9:00 Adventures in Israel
9:30 Christian Science
9:45 Christophers
10:15 Faith for Today
10:45 Pastors
11:00 Sunday Funnies (Sawdust Sam reads Inquirer comics and hosts cartoons)
1:00 Halls of Ivy
1:30 World's Best Movies "The Kissing Bandit"
3:30 Sunday Festival (c)
5:00 Baseball Corner (I think this may be a replay of previous week)
5:30 Lone Ranger (also on 27)
6:00 TV Readers Digest
6:30 Silent Service
7:00 You Asked for It
7:30 Maverick (also on 27/43)
8:30 Anybody Can Play (also on 43)
9:00 Baseball Corner (also on 15/27/43)
9:30 Open Hearing (also on 27)
10:00 Mike Wallace (also on 27/43)
10:30 News
10:40 Weather
10:45 World's Best Movies "A Tale of Two Cities"

WGAL 8-CBS/NBC Lancaster
10:15 Off to Adventure
10:30 Christophers
11:00 Council of Churches
11:30 This is the Life
Noon Brave Eagle
12:30 Big Picture
1:00 American Cancer Society
1:30 Championship Bowling
2:00 Baseball: Philadelphia @ Cincinnati (1st game of DH)
4:30 Youth Wants to Know
5:00 Frontiers of Faith
5:30 December Bride
6:00 Doorway to Life
6:20 News
6:30 Air Power
7:00 Californians
7:30 Bachelor Father
8:00 Ed Sullivan
9:00 Chevy Show (c)
10:00 Decision
10:30 What's My Line?
11:00 News
11:15 Starlight Theater "Docks of New York"
12:45 News/Sports

WCAU 10-CBS
8:05 News
8:10 Hall of Fame
8:30 Look Up & Live
9:00 Sunday School
9:30 Lamp Unto My Feet
10:00 Action Playhouse "West of the Badlands"
11:00 Cartoon Theater
11:30 Children's Hour
12:30 Command Theater "Pennies from Heaven/Adventure in Manhattan"
3:00 Command Theater "Louise"
3:30 Prospect
4:00 Byline Danger
4:30 Search
5:00 Last Word (also on 55)
5:30 Face the Nation (also on 55)
6:00 Don Ameche
6:30 Air Power (also on 55)
7:00 Lassie (also on 55)
7:30 Bachelor Father
8:00 Ed Sullivan
9:00 GE Theater "Father & Son Night", with Ronald Reagan (also on 55)
9:30 Alfred Hitchcock (also on 55)
10:00 $64,000 Challenge (also on 55)
10:30 What's My Line?
11:00 News
11:10 Weather
11:15 Frank Brookhouser
11:30 Mystery Theater "The Woman in the Window"

WVUE 12-Ind
11:25 News
11:30 Oral Roberts
Noon Cartoon Comics
1:00 Ramar of the Jungle
1:30 Hopalong Cassidy Playhouse "Border Vigilantes"
2:30 Hawkeye
3:00 Frontier Playhouse "The Arizona Ranger"
4:00 Brave Eagle
4:30 Foreign Legionnaire
5:00 Laurel & Hardy
6:30 Mama
7:00 Bishop Sheen
7:30 Movie of the Week "Leave Her to Heaven"
9:00 Movie of the Week (replay of 7:30)
11:00 CBS News

Here are the addresses/phone numbers of the Philly/Wilmington stations at that time:

WRCV 3
NBC Building, 1619 Walnut St, Philadelphia; LOcust 4-3700

WFIL 6
46th & Market St's, Philadelphia; EVergreen 2-4700

WGAL 8
Lincoln Hwy W, Lancaster; EXpress 3-5851

WCAU 10
City Line & Monument Ave's, Philadelphia; GReenwood 7-8300

WVUE 12
Box 867, Wilmington, Del.
Philly office: Sub. Station Building, Philadelphia; LOcust 8-4400

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

Bluenoser provided us with addresses and phone numbers of the Philadelphia-area TV stations, as published in the July 5th-11th, 1958 TV Guide:

> WRCV 3
> NBC Building, 1619 Walnut St, Philadelphia; LOcust 4-3700

Actually built in the late 1930's for Group W/Westinghouse's KYW-1060. NBC acquired the building with the controversial (and later reversed) swap with Group W for Channel 3 and 1100 AM in Cleveland.

Click here for a vintage (circa late 1940's) picture of 1619 Walnut Street. Note that most of the ground floor appears to be taken-up by a Westinghouse appliance showroom, with a small entryway into the KYW studios!

I'm not 100% sure, but I thought that Channel 3's original owners, Philco (as WPTZ) leased space at 1619 Walnut for the TV studios around 1948 or so.

After the FCC ordered the swap reversed in 1965, KYW returned to 1619 Walnut for a short time, but I think they had moved to the new Independence Mall facility by 1968 or so. I had heard the reason KYW moved was that the largest studio at 1619 Walnut, while adequate for local TV shows, was far too small for the nationally-syndicated "Mike Douglas Show", which moved to Philly with the Group W/NBC swap.

> WFIL 6
> 46th & Market St's, Philadelphia; EVergreen 2-4700

Perhaps the most famous address of a local TV station (other than a network O&O) in broadcasting history. It was the original home of "American Bandstand". I have heard that the building is now a warehouse!

> WCAU 10
> City Line & Monument Ave's, Philadelphia; GReenwood 7-8300

Although now an NBC O&O, I believe WCAU is still at City Line and Monument.

> WVUE 12
> Box 867, Wilmington, Del.
> Philly office: Sub. Station Building, Philadelphia; LOcust
> 8-4400

Although licensed to Wilmington, I believe that when Channel 12 was reactivated as noncommercial WHYY, the station's main studios in fact were in Philly.

 

[MikefromDelaware]

WHYY still has its main studio in Philly with a much smaller studio in Wilmington at 8th and Orange Sts (originally was at 5th & Scott Sts which was an old schoolhouse) which is used for the Delaware Tonight newscast.

> > WVUE 12
> > Box 867, Wilmington, Del.
> > Philly office: Sub. Station Building, Philadelphia; LOcust
>
> > 8-4400
>
> Although licensed to Wilmington, I believe that when Channel
> 12 was reactivated as noncommercial WHYY, the station's main
> studios in fact were in Philly.
>