Retro: Toronto/Buffalo/Rochester Mon, June 16, 1958

[Bluenoser]

from TV Guide-Lake Ontario edition

WGR 2-ABC Buffalo
8:45 Rumpus Room
9:00 Eddie Cantor "V for Victory"
9:30 Boston Blackie
10:00 My Little Margie "Real George"
10:30 Abbott & Costello "The Charity Bazaar"
11:00 Favorite Story
11:30 Public Defender "Destiny"
noon Love of Life
12:30 Mid-Day Matinee "One Crowded Night"
2:00 Helen Neville
2:30 Laugh Time
3:00 American Bandstand
3:30 Do You Trust Your Wife?
4:00 American Bandstand
5:00 Superman "Disappearing Lois"
5:30 Mickey Mouse Club
6:00 Colonel Bleep
6:30 News (Roy Kerns)
6:45 Comedy Capers
7:00 Corliss Archer
7:30 Twilight Theater "Night Song"
8:30 Bold Journey "Across the Atlantic"
9:00 Featurama "It Happened One Night"
10:30 Whistler "Triggerman"
11:00 News (Charles Poth)
11:30 Outboard Water Sports
mid. Operation Swing Shift "The Corpse Came COD"

WBEN 4-CBS Buffalo
8:00 Captain Kangaroo
8:45 News (Stuart Novins)
9:00 Popeye
9:30 Susie "The Little Caesar of Bleeker Street"
10:00 Garry Moore
10:30 How Do You Rate?
11:00 Arthur Godfrey
11:30 Dotto
noon News (Jack Ogilvie)
12:15 Speaker of the House (John Corbett)
12:30 Search for Tomorrow
12:45 Guiding Light
1:00 Meet the Millers (c/Bill & Mildred Miller)
1:30 As the World Turns
2:00 Beat the Clock
2:30 House Party
3:00 Big Payoff
3:30 Verdict is Yours
4:00 Brighter Day
4:15 Secret Storm
4:30 Edge of Night
5:00 Fun to Learn
5:15 Children's Theater
5:55 Weather/News/Sports
6:15 Cisco Kid
6:45 CBS News
7:00 Death Valley Days "The Big Rendezvous"
7:30 Robin Hood "Marian's Prize"
8:00 Burns & Allen
8:30 Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts
9:00 Danny Thomas
9:30 Men of Annapolis "Ship's Log"
10:00 Studio One "The Left-Hand Welcome"
11:00 News
11:30 Prize Winner Playhouse "The Magic Garden"

WROC 5-ABC/NBC Rochester
7:00 Today
9:00 Susie "The Brass Ring"
9:30 Mr. District Attorney
10:00 Dough Re Mi
10:30 Treasure Hunt
11:00 Price is Right
11:30 Truth or Consequences
noon Tic Tac Dough
12:30 It Could Be You
1:00 Feature Movie "Fort Algiers"
2:30 Home Cooking (McNall)
3:00 Matinee Theater "The Odd Ones" (c)
3:30 Verdict is Yours
4:00 Queen for a Day
4:45 Modern Romances
5:00 Playhouse Five "You Pay Your Money"
6:40 Weather Report
6:45 NBC News
7:00 Dick Clark (guests Ed Townsend, and Johnny Nash & the Coasters)
7:30 Price is Right (c)
8:00 Restless Gun "Gratitude"
8:30 Wells Fargo "The Auction"
9:00 Twenty One
9:30 Alcoa Theatre "Johnny Risk"
10:00 Sheriff of Cochise "Statute of Limitations"
10:30 Top Tunes
11:00 News
11:20 Hollywood Feature "Trapped"

CBLT 6-CBC Toronto
2:15pm CBC News
2:30 Matinee "Gunfighters"
4:00 Open House
4:30 Howdy Doody
5:00 Hobby Corner
5:15 Children's International Newsreel
5:30 Mickey Mouse Club (CBLT ran a different episode than ABC's)
6:00 Capt. David Grief
6:30 Patti Page
6:45 CBC News
7:00 Tabloid
7:30 Political Talk
7:45 Scan (Bruce Marsh goes behind the scenes to talk to the guys who take care of CBC's sets and studio settings)
8:00 Millionaire "The Susan Birchard Story"
8:30 On Camera "Rigoletto Rock"
9:00 I Love Lucy
9:30 Tugboat Annie "Chinese Formula"
10:00 Studio One "The Left-Hand Welcome"
11:00 CBC News
11:15 Viewpoint (Lamont Tilden)
11:30 Decoy

WHEC/WVET 10-ABC/CBS Rochester
7:25 RFD 10
7:55 News
8:00 Captain Kangaroo
8:45 Coffee Cup Theater "Saloon Bar"
10:00 Garry Moore
10:30 How Do You Rate?
11:00 Arthur Godfrey
11:30 Dotto
noon Love of Life
12:30 Search for Tomorrow
12:45 Guiding Light
1:00 Stage One "The Case of Emily Cameron"
1:30 As the World Turns
2:00 Beat the Clock
2:30 House Party
3:00 Big Payoff
3:30 Verdict is Yours
4:00 Brighter Day
4:15 Secret Storm
4:30 Edge of Night
5:00 Superman "Disappearing Lois"
5:30 Mickey Mouse Club
6:00 Popeye
6:30 News
6:45 CBS News
7:00 State Trooper "Red Badge of Death"
7:30 Robin Hood "Marian's Prize"
8:00 Burns & Allen
8:30 Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts
9:00 Danny Thomas
9:30 December Bride
10:00 Studio One "The Left-Hand Welcome"
11:00 News
11:20 20th Century Fox "City in Flames"

CHCH 11-CBC Hamilton
3pm Movie Matinee "Down to the Sea"
4:30 Howdy Doody
5:00 Family Theater "Knickerbocker Holiday"
6:30 News (Norm Marshall was the sports guy)
7:00 Movie at Seven "Charlie Chan in Honolulu"
8:00 Millionaire "The Susan Birchard Story"
8:30 On Camera "Rigoletto Rock"
9:00 I Love Lucy
9:30 Tugboat Annie "Chinese Formula"
10:00 Man Behind the Badge "The Case of the Troubled Circus"
10:30 Oh! Susanna "Beat the Band"
11:00 News
11:30 Late Show "The Golden Gloves Story"

WICU 12-ABC/NBC Erie
7:00 Today
8:55 Your Church
9:00 Movie: TBA
10:00 Dough Re Mi
10:30 Treasure Hunt
11:00 Price is Right
11:30 Truth or Consequences
noon Tic Tac Dough
12:30 It Could Be You
1:00 Afternoon Playhouse "Way Down East"
2:30 Kitty Foyle
3:00 Matinee Theater "The Odd Ones" (c)
4:00 Queen for a Day
4:45 Modern Romances
5:00 Superman "Disappearing Lois"
5:30 Mickey Mouse Club
6:00 Candy Cane Lane
6:30 News
6:45 NBC News
7:00 Pat Boone (guest Gary Crosby)
7:30 Price is Right (c)
8:00 Restless Gun "Gratitude"
8:30 Wells Fargo "The Auction"
9:00 Twenty One
9:30 Alcoa Theatre "Johnny Risk"
10:00 Suspicion "The Woman Turned to Salt"
11:00 News
11:30 Jack Paar

CKCO 13-CBC Kitchener
3pm Cartoons
3:20 Minister's Study
3:35 Bazaar
4:30 Howdy Doody
5:00 Hobby Corner
5:15 Children's International Newsreel
5:30 Cartoon Merry-Go-Round
6:00 News
6:05 Telescope (Elaine Cole)
6:35 Sports (Tom Rafferty)
6:45 CBC News
7:00 Crunch & Des "A Fish for Billy"
7:30 Mark Saber "Silent Alibi"
8:00 Millionaire "The Susan Birchard Story"
8:30 On Camera "Rigoletto Rock"
9:00 I Love Lucy
9:30 Tugboat Annie "Chinese Formula"
10:00 Studio One "The Left-Hand Welcome"
11:00 CBC/Local News
11:35 Frontier Theater "Frontier Law"

WBUF 17-NBC Buffalo
7:00 Today
9:00 no programs listed
10:00 Dough Re Mi
10:30 Treasure Hunt
11:00 Price is Right
11:30 Truth or Consequences
noon Tic Tac Dough
12:30 It Could Be You
1:00 Hollywood Playhouse "Road Show"
2:30 Kitty Foyle
3:00 Matinee Theater "The Odd Ones" (c)
4:00 Queen for a Day
4:45 Modern Romances
5:00 I Married Joan "The Maid"
5:30 Early Show "Melba"
6:55 Weather (Rick Azar)
7:00 News/Sports
7:15 NBC News
7:30 Price is Right (c)
8:00 Restless Gun "Gratitude"
8:30 Wells Fargo "The Auction"
9:00 Twenty One
9:30 Alcoa Theatre "Johnny Risk"
10:00 Suspicion "The Woman Turned to Salt"
11:00 News
11:15 Jack Paar

 

[Bob1370]

Couple observations...

First, it's interesting to see what Buffalo TV looked like in the months just before channel 7, WKBW-TV, signed on for the first time (its first broadcast was just after Thanksgiving in 1958), and WBUF, Channel 17, was playing out the string as NBC's failed experiment in making a UHF station work as an affiliate in a major market (which Buffalo then was). WGR-TV was the country's number one ABC affiliate in terms of market share, and WBEN-TV was the strongest affiliate in the CBS chain market-share-wise, while WBUF had a half to a third the share that large market NBC affiliates usually commanded back in the day. In the eastern portion of the Buffalo market, NBC viewers tended to point their antennas toward Rochester to watch WROC-TV, then on Channel 5.
After November 1958, NBC audience shares in Buffalo went back to normal with WGR-TV picking up the NBC affiliation and a lot of viewers, and CBS, while still tops in the market on Channel 4, slumped some. The new kid on the VHF block, WKBW on Channel 7, had a strong full-market-coverage signal from day one and kept most of the audience for ABC's programming which Channel 2 had built in the preceding four years, performing well from the start for a newcomer. Buffalo remained one of ABC's strongest markets.

Second, it's interesting to see who the news personalities in Western NY were. On Channel 2, Roy Kerns was their chief anchor for about 15 years, though I believe he eventually retired and handed it off to an anchor team of George Redpath and Pat Fagan. Over on Channel 4, Jack Ogilvie was noon news anchor (it was the first and for many years the only station in town with a noon local newscast); he'd eventually move over to WBEN Radio to be part of the morning show, along with Jeff Kaye and myself...he passed away at the age of 57 in 1979. John Corbett, who handled the noontime talk show which followed, was with Channel 4 for many years until he retired in the 1980s. Chuck Healy, who's not listed in TV Guide, handled the 6 and 11 anchor chores (as Jack Ogilvie remembered it and told me about those days, the evening newscast was unusual at Channel 4 because it actually began at 5:45, not 5:55, and lasted 30 minutes even then--TV Guide made a minor error in the schedule.

It's also interesting to note that Channel 17 in its final days was off the air in the 9 AM hour and only ran network programming most of the day, although it had a 7 and 11 PM newscast with no anchor promoted in the listings--although Rick Azar, their weathercaster, was mentioned. He'd become far better known and remembered from his 40 year run, which began that November, as Channel 7's sports director and one of its initial announcers--his brother, who is a senior government official in Rochester, told me Rick actually voiced Channel 7's first sign-on announcement on November 30, 1958.

 

[mjlarochelle]

Channel 7 wasn't even originally allocated to Buffalo - I've read they originally had Channel 8 as an allocation, but the owner of CKNX Radio in Wingham, Ont. successfully lobbied to have a Channel 8 allocation moved south from Owen Sound to Wingham, displacing one from Buffalo.

Had Buffalo kept Channel 8, the later changes in Rochester might not have happened and CBLT would still be on Channel 6. At least from what I can tell.

 

[Bob1370]

Channel 7 had two lives in Buffalo's allocation table. The first was the orignal FCC allocation scheme of 1946, which envisioned four VHF stations in the city (channel 4, which WBEN applied for the moment the table came out, and got; and channels 7, 9 and 13, which drew crowds of applicants which jammed up the whole process). Then came the 1948 freeze while Uncle Sam sorted out the twin problems of interference and scarcity of channel allocations for a growing country's needs. They tried twice to come up with plans--one in 1949 envisioned a Buffalo Channel 8 but that was scrapped when it was realized it short-spaced an existing station (WHEN-TV) in Syracuse. The final 1952 allocation plan brought back Channel 7 for Buffalo and dropped Channel 2 into the market, as well as putting a second VHF signal back in Rochester (which was going to be left with just WHAM-TV on Channel 6 along with a bunch of UHFs under the 1949 plan) on Channel 10. The Feds worked out a deal to put WGR-TV on the air on Channel 2 by 1954, but the battle for Channel 7 between WKBW and the Courier-Express wasn't resolved until KB finally prevailed in 1957 and got WKBW-TV on the air a little over a year later.

Meanwhile in Rochester WVET and WHEC worked out a share-time arrangement to get Channel 10 on the air in 1953. WVET's owners eventually bought WHAM-TV (which had been renamed WROC and moved to channel 5) and sold their share of channel 10 to WHEC, which took over 24/7 use of the channel in 1961.

UHF crashed and burned, with two stations (WBUF on Channel 17 and WBES on Channel 59) failing in Buffalo after getting on the air in the 1950s, and no one even getting to the stage of building out their CPs in Rochester. That was repeated in market after market across America where in the days before every TV set had to have all-channel capability, people just didn't bother retrofitting their sets to get UHF signals.

Between 1957 and 1962 ABC lobbied like crazy to get the tables rewritten to put additional VHF full power allocations into the system so they could get viable affiliates on the air in a number of markets. They didn't get everything they wanted but they did get additional allocations in markets all over the country, including all the major upstate New York cities as well as Providence, St. Louis, New Orleans, Tampa, Sacramento/Stockton and Miami. In most of those cities the FCC just found a way to squeeze the new stations in without crowding anyone out or forcing other stations to move, but the upstate New York table east of Buffalo had to be substantially added or rewritten. We know the eventual result...more stations on the VHF channels, each of them affiliated with ABC and each of them eventually proving successful,