Retro:Wisconsin Saturday July 11, 1959

[djhend1]

From TV Guide Saturday July 11, 1959

2 WBAY-CBS Green Bay
3 WISC-CBS Madison
4 WTMJ-NBC Milwaukee
5 WFRV-NBC Green Bay
6 WITI-ABC Milwaukee
6m WDMJ-CBS (and ABC) Marquette
7 WSAU-CBS, ABC, NBC Wausau
11 WMBV ABC Green Bay
12 WISN-CBS Milwaukee
18 WXIX-Ind Milwaukee
27 WKOW-ABC Madison
33 WMTV-NBC Madison

Morning

7:00
2 Cheer Up Time

7:50
6 News

8:00
6 Farm Scene

8:30
2 3 6 7 Captain Kangaroo

33 Breakfast With Popeye

9:00
4 5 33 Howdy Doody (Color)

9:25
12 News

9:30
2 3 6 7 Mighty Mouse

4 5 33 Ruff and Reddy

12 Life In Wisconsin

10:00
2 Sky King

3 6 Heckle and Jeckle

4 5 7 33
Fury

10:30
2 3 6 Robin Hood

4 Terrytoons

5 33 Circus Boy

7 Ruff and Reddy

12 Movie (Juinor Miss 1945)

11:00
2 Heckle and Jeckle

3 Looney Tunes

4 Mr Wizard

5 7 33 True Story

6 Mac The Mailman

11:30
2 Bugs Bunny

3 Flash Gordon

4 Circus Boy

5 7 33 Detective's Diary

11:45
27 Country Style U.S.A.

Afternoon

2 6m Noon Show

3 News

4 Hot Shots

5 Mr. Wizard

6 Jet Jackson

7 Cartoons

12 Uncle Hugo and Popeye

27 Farm and Home

33 Christian Science

12:15
33 Industry on Parade

12:30
2 6m Cartoon Time

3 Tim McCoy

5 To Be Announced

6 Air Force Story

33 Topic

12:45
3 Liberace

5 33 Basball: Yankees vs Red Sox

6 Senate Report

1:00
4 News

6 Open Book

12 Movie (North of the Border 1948)

27 Uncle AL

1:15
2 3 6m 7 Baseball: Giants vs Reds

4 Library Story

1:30
4 Parade (Color)

6 Sacred Heart

27 Big Picture

1:45
6 What's Your Trouble

2:00
4 Movie (The Cyclone Kid 1942)

6 Public Conference

11 Farm Service Hour

12 Americans At Work

27 Let's Find Out

2:15
12 Scope

2:30
6 Movie (Best of the Badmen 1951)

12 Movie (Renegade Girl 1946)

2:45
27 Know Your Country Goverment

3:00
4 11 Cartoon Carnival

27 Movie (Man Hunt 1941)

3:30
4 Movie (On Their Own 1940)

5 33 To Be Announced

11 Uncle AL

3:45
3 Juinor Service

4:00
2 Movie (Western)

3 7 Horse Race

5 Sports

6 Dance Party

6m To Be Announced

11 Movie (Law Comes To Texas 1939)

12 Charlie Chan

33 Movie (My Pal The King)

4:30
3 Quest For Adventure

4 Governor's Conference

5 Movie (Another Thin Man 1939)

6m Mighty Mouse

7 To Be Announced

12 Foreign Legionaire

4:45
7 Churches Speak

5:00
3 Michaels In Africa

4 True Story

6m Family Life

11 Big Picture

12 Sword of Freedom

27 ChampionShip Bowling

33 Popeye's Weekend Party

5:15
7 Lone Ranger

5:30
3 Whirlybords

4 Dectective's Diary

5 Air Force Story

6m 6 Lone Ranger

11 Movie (Strange Experiment)

12 Young World

5:45
7 News

5:55
3 Proxmire Reports

Evening

6:00
2 4 6m 27 News

3 Kingdom Of The Sea

5 Susie

6 Jeff's Collie

7 Lawman

12 The Other 98

33 Boots and Saddles

6:15
27 Mayor's Report

6:30
2 3 6m 6 Reckoning

4 5 33 People Are Funny

7 Dancing Party

11 12 27 Dick Clark

7:00
4 5 33 Perry Presents (Color)

11 12 27 Jubilee U.S.A.

7:30
2 3 6m 6 7 Wanted-Dead or Alive

8:00
2 6m 6 Brenner

3 State Trooper

4 5 33 Black Saddle

7 Whirlybirds

11 12 27 Dancing Party

8:30
2 3 6m 6 7 Have Gun, Will Travel

4 5 33 Cimarron City

9:00
2 3 6m 6 7 Gunsmoke

11 Movie (We Who Are About To Die 1937)

12 Play Ball

27 Night Court

9:30
2 6 Markham

3 12 Bold Venture

4 Flight

5 33 D.A.'s Man

6m Jim Bowie

7 To Be Announced

27 Movie (Rage at Dawn 1955)

10:00
2 26 Men

3 5 12 33 News

4 Movie (Thundebirds 1952)

6 Movie (Key Largo 1948)

6m Charlie Chan

7 Wagon Train

10:15
5 Movie (Third Finger, Left Hand 1940)

12 Top Pro Golf

33 Martin Kane

10:20
3 Brenner

10:30
2 U.S. Marshall

6m Grey Ghost

10:45
33 Movie (Living On Love 1937)

10:50
3 Movie (Call Northside 777 1948)

11:00
2 6m Movie (Fury at Furnance Creek 1937)

7 Movie (Let's Get Married 1937)

11:15
12 Night Watch

11:30
27 News

11:45
4 6 News

12:00
4 Movie (Man In Her Diary 1945)

5 News

27 Movie (Night Monster 1942)

12:15
5 Movie (The Floradora 1930)

 

[oldiesfan6479]

4 WTMJ-NBC Milwaukee
5 WFRV-NBC Green Bay
33 WMTV-NBC Madison

12:45
5 33 Baseball: Yankees vs Red Sox

Yankees/Red Sox...so were the announcers Buck and McCarver?

Why didn't WTMJ-TV Milwaukee air the (NBC?) game? Were there TV rules then
that prohibited network telecasts in MLB home markets, even if the game did not
involve the home team (Milwaukee Braves in this case)?

 

[djhend1]

The play by play was done by Lindsey Nelson and Leo Durocher. Isn't it funny that even back in 1959 the Yankees /Red Sox series was center stage. NBC also broadcast the Sunday game on July 12 and that wasn't shown on WTMJ either. If you notice a little further down at 1:15 WITI 6 in Milwaukee didn't broadcast the Giants/ Reds game. My guess is that MLB was concerned that if the local affililiates broadcast the national tv game, it would keep people from going to see their local team in person.

 

[Cincinnati Kid]

That's correct. Network telecasts of regular-season major league games were blacked out in major league cities until the 1965 season.

 

[Mr. Mike]

I don't see the listings for Channel 18, which was in the early stages as an independent. Did you forget? Or was there no programming on 18 on Saturday?

 

[w9wi]

I don't see the listings for Channel 18, which was in the early stages as an independent. Did you forget? Or was there no programming on 18 on Saturday?

The station was off the air on July 11th.

According to Dick Golembiewski's book, CBS moved their affiliation to channel 6 on April 1st & sold Channel 18. 18 went dark sometime thereafter.

They returned to the air as an independent on July 20th. (a date I remember well as it happens to be the day I was born ~3mi. north of their transmitter... maybe that predestined me to work in television?)

 

[Hal Erickson]

Here's WXIX-Channel 18's first broadcast day as an independent: Monday, July 20 1959


3:58PM (time approx.) Sign-On: Christopher Thought for Today

4PM Cookie (kid's show hosted by an 11-year-old boy, Steve "Cookie" Hildebrand. Today's
broadcast featured a Laurel and Hardy comedy, the Tim McCoy western "Code of
the Cactus", and a cartoon, probably a "Krazy Kat" or "Scrappy")

5:30PM Sheriff of Cochise (premiere episode, same title as series)

6PM Jim Bowie: "The Birth of the Blade" (premiere episode)

6:30PM News with Bruce Kanitz

6:45PM Mystery Movie: "The 13th Hour" (1947), a "Whistler" film with Richard Dix.

8PM Victory at Sea: "Design for War" (premiere episode)

8:30PM Texas Rasslin': Bobby Managoff vs. Larry Chene; Luis Martinez vs. Iron Mike;
Jim Blood vs. Otto Kuss

9:30PM Million Dollar Movie: "Thin Ice" (1937), with Sonja Henie and Tyrone Power

11PM (time approx.) Topper: "Topper Meets the Ghosts" (premiere episode)

11:30PM (time approx.): Christopher Thought for Today; sign-off


Channel 18 is now a CW affiliate, WVTV.

 

[wbhist]

Here's WXIX-Channel 18's first broadcast day as an independent: Monday, July 20 1959


3:58PM (time approx.) Sign-On: Christopher Thought for Today

4PM Cookie (kid's show hosted by an 11-year-old boy, Steve "Cookie" Hildebrand. Today's
broadcast featured a Laurel and Hardy comedy, the Tim McCoy western "Code of
the Cactus", and a cartoon, probably a "Krazy Kat" or "Scrappy")

5:30PM Sheriff of Cochise (premiere episode, same title as series)

6PM Jim Bowie: "The Birth of the Blade" (premiere episode)

6:30PM News with Bruce Kanitz

6:45PM Mystery Movie: "The 13th Hour" (1947), a "Whistler" film with Richard Dix.

8PM Victory at Sea: "Design for War" (premiere episode)

8:30PM Texas Rasslin': Bobby Managoff vs. Larry Chene; Luis Martinez vs. Iron Mike;
Jim Blood vs. Otto Kuss

9:30PM Million Dollar Movie: "Thin Ice" (1937), with Sonja Henie and Tyrone Power

11PM (time approx.) Topper: "Topper Meets the Ghosts" (premiere episode)

11:30PM (time approx.): Christopher Thought for Today; sign-off


Channel 18 is now a CW affiliate, WVTV.

While the WXIX calls are now applicable to a Fox affiliate on Channel 19 in Cincinnati, OH (city of license Newport, KY). I also remember that WVTV, in-between shedding the WXIX calls and adopting their current ones, also used WUHF (previously in use by what became WNYC Channel 31 in New York, now known as ION affiliate WPXN; and now in use in Rochester, NY, for the Fox affiliate in that town).

 

[djhend1]

Retro:Wisconsin Saturday November 12, 1955

2 WBAY-CBS Green Bay
4 WTMJ-NBC Milwaukee
5 WFRV-ABC Dumont Green Bay
7 WSAU-CBS ABC NBC Dumont Wausau
11 WMBV ABC Green Bay
12 WISN-ABC Dumont Milwaukee
19 WXIX-CBS Milwaukee
21 WHA-PBS Madison
27 WKOW-ABC Madison
33 WMTV-ABC NBC Madison


Morning

8:30
19 Western Adventure

8:45
4 Cartoon Carnival

9:00
4 Pinky Lee Show
11 Big Picture

9:30
2 19 Winky Dink and You
4 11 Winchel - Mahoney

9:45
12 Movie - Trail of the Silver Spurs

10:00
2 Movie - TBA
4 Fury
11 Roy Rodgers
19 Captain Midnight

10:30
4 Andy's Gang
11 Mr. Wizard
19 Tales of the Texas Rangers

10:45
12 Cartoon Time

11:00
2 19 Big Top
4 Popcorn Theater
12 Half Pint Party

11:30
12 Superman Comics
27 Fun House
33 Industry on Parade

11:45
33 Draw with Me

Afternoon

12:00
2 19 Buffalo Bill Jr
4 Hot Shot Revue
12 Comedy Time
27 Popcorn Theater
33 Movie - Sensation Hunters

12:30
2 TBA
7 Movies for Kids
12 Movie - Harmony Lane

12:50
7 Roy Rodgers

1:00
2 Home Planning
4 Let's Look at the News
19 Adventures of Noah Beery
27 World Report
33 Movie - Flirting with Danger

1:15
2 Industry on Parade
4 Cartoon Carnival
19 Hal Walker Predicts
27 Pigskin Preview

1:20
7 Football Preview

1:30
2 7 19 27 Football - Wisconsin vs Illinois
4 Movie - TBA

2:00
12 Beulah
33 Movie - Law of the Jungle

2:30
4 Movie - Spitfire
12 Careers

3:00
12 Big Picture
33 Movie - Law of the Valley

3:30
5 Big Picture
12 Marquette Presents

3:45
19 Reddy Wraps it up

4:00
2 Electricity at Work
4 Movie - El Rancho Grande
5 Movie - Valley of the Zombies
12 Movie - Law and Lawless
19 Repeat Performance
27 Football Scoreboard
33 Mr. Wizard

4:15
2 Michigan Conversation
27 Weather

4:20
7 Football Recap
27 Cartoon Time

4:30
2 Sagebrush Theater
7 Movie - Western Cyclone
19 Milwaukee Reports
21 Winky Dink and You
33 Andy's Gang

5:00
4 Lone Ranger
5 Movie - El Paso Kid
11 Movie - Rainbows End
12 Focus
19 My hero
27 Lee Rothman Show
33 Wild Bill Hickok

5:30
2 19 Lucy Show
4 Sky King
7 Buffalo Bill Jr.
12 Cowboy G-Men
27 Rin Tin Tin
33 Crossroads

Evening

6:00
2 Wings over the World
4 Sports Picture
5 This is the Life
7 Mr. Wizard
11 Teen Time
12 Wild Bill Hickok
19 Science in Action
27 Buffalo Bill Jr.
33 Abbott and Costello


6:15
4 News and Weather

6:30
2 19 Beat the Clock
4 11 Big Surprise
5 12 33 Ozark Jubilee
7 Confidential File
12 Gene Autry
27 Little Rascals

7:00
2 19 Stage Show
4 11 33 Perry Como Show
5 12 Grand Ole Opry
7 Wanted
27 Counterpoint

7:30
2 7 19 27 Honeymooners

8:00
2 19 27 Two for the Money
4 7 11 33 People are Funny
5 12 Lawrence Welk

8:30
2 7 19 It's Always Jan
4 Jimmy Durante Show
11 Soldiers of Fortune
27 Triangle Theater
33 Science Fiction Theater

9:00
2 19 27 Gunsmoke
4 11 33 George Gobel
5 Movie - My Beautiful Daughter
7 Follow That Man
12 Movie - Millions Like Us

9:30
2 7 19 27 Runyon Theater
4 Movie - Casanova Brown
11 33 Your Hit Parade

10:00
2 Appointment with Adventure
5 Movie - Back Door to Heaven
7 Your Hit Parade
11 19 Championship Bowling
27 It's Always Jan
33 Star Showcase

10:15
12 Town and Country

10:30
2 Bowlathon
7 Lawrence Welk
27 News
33 News and weather

10:35
27 Weather

10:40
27 Sports

10:45
12 News
27 Wrestling
33 Movie - The Hairy Ape

10:50
12 Sports

10;55
4 12 Weather

11:00
4 Mr. District Attorney
11 Movie - Father's Wild Game
12 Movie - An Ideal Husband
19 News

11:05
19 Sports

11:10
19 Weather

11:15
19 Movie - So Ends Our Night

11:30
2 Wrestling
4 Your Hit Parade
7 Camara Headlines

11:35
7 Wrestling

Early Sunday Morning

12:00
4 Red Barber's Corner
33 Movie - The Ape

12:15
4 Movie - High Lonesome
12 Movie - Dealine for Murder

12:35
19 Late News Headlines

1:25
12 Capsule News

 

[w9wi]

27 WKOW-ABC Madison

As the listings suggest, I'm pretty sure WKOW was a CBS affiliate at that time, about a year before WISC-TV 3 signed on.

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

I thought I read somewhere that there were no local telecasts of Milwaukee Braves games in the Beer City until the early 1960's, nearly a decade after the team came from Boston, and that only a handful of away games were broadcast when local TV coverage did begin.

Which means that apart from network telecasts of the 1957 and 1958 World Series, Milwaukee viewers never saw their Braves on TV for quite a few years after the team arrived.

 

[w9wi]

I might imagine that the broadcast of away games, except those offered by the network, was unusual in TV sports in general (not just baseball, and not just in Milwaukee) until satellite equipment became widespread?

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

I might imagine that the broadcast of away games, except those offered by the network, was unusual in TV sports in general (not just baseball, and not just in Milwaukee) until satellite equipment became widespread?

Actually not.

I have seen vintage Boston TV listings indicating that some away games of the Red Sox were televised back to Boston as early as the mid-1950's, but not very many of them.

It is my understanding that when the Los Angeles Dodgers moved west, KTTV-11 televised games that first year, but they were restricted to the 11 games the team played in San Francisco against the Giants.

Starting in 1961, the Giants began televising some games on KTVU-2, but they were just the 11 away games from Los Angeles. Starting in 1962, due to expansion, just 9 games were televised a year for each team since the two teams met just nine times in each city.

The two likely reasons were the expense of land.lines (which must have cost several thousand dollars for a game from the East Coast) and the time difference.

As an example, a 1958 L.A. Dodgers night game against the Philadelphia Phillies in Philly may have begun anytime between 7:05 and 8:05 P.M. EDT, which would mean the game would begin between 4:05 and 5:05 P.M. PDT.

A Saturday or Sunday matinee starting in Philly at 1:35 P.M. EDT would have been televised in L.A. at 10:35 A.M. local.

I believe that in the late 1960's or early 1970's, the Dodgers eventually expanded their TV schedule to include Sunday away games, increasing their TV load to about 20 games a year. I think---but as I've never lived in the Bay Area, I don't know for certain---that the Giants did the same thing, but eventually began televising a limited number of home games as well.

 

[djhend1]

I thought I read somewhere that there were no local telecasts of Milwaukee Braves games in the Beer City until the early 1960's, nearly a decade after the team came from Boston, and that only a handful of away games were broadcast when local TV coverage did begin.

Which means that apart from network telecasts of the 1957 and 1958 World Series, Milwaukee viewers never saw their Braves on TV for quite a few years after the team arrived.

The Braves were first broadcast on local TV in 1962. They showed 15 games that first year (All road games) and bumped it up to 25 in 1963. The Braves TV network consisted of WTMJ in MIlwaukee, WSAU in Wausau, WFRV in Green Bay and WKOW in Madison. Earl Gillespie, Blaine Walsh, Ernie Johnson called the games.

 

[onairb]

I might imagine that the broadcast of away games, except those offered by the network, was unusual in TV sports in general (not just baseball, and not just in Milwaukee) until satellite equipment became widespread?

Actually not.

I have seen vintage Boston TV listings indicating that some away games of the Red Sox were televised back to Boston as early as the mid-1950's, but not very many of them.

It is my understanding that when the Los Angeles Dodgers moved west, KTTV-11 televised games that first year, but they were restricted to the 11 games the team played in San Francisco against the Giants.

Starting in 1961, the Giants began televising some games on KTVU-2, but they were just the 11 away games from Los Angeles. Starting in 1962, due to expansion, just 9 games were televised a year for each team since the two teams met just nine times in each city.

The two likely reasons were the expense of land.lines (which must have cost several thousand dollars for a game from the East Coast) and the time difference.

As an example, a 1958 L.A. Dodgers night game against the Philadelphia Phillies in Philly may have begun anytime between 7:05 and 8:05 P.M. EDT, which would mean the game would begin between 4:05 and 5:05 P.M. PDT.

A Saturday or Sunday matinee starting in Philly at 1:35 P.M. EDT would have been televised in L.A. at 10:35 A.M. local.

I believe that in the late 1960's or early 1970's, the Dodgers eventually expanded their TV schedule to include Sunday away games, increasing their TV load to about 20 games a year. I think---but as I've never lived in the Bay Area, I don't know for certain---that the Giants did the same thing, but eventually began televising a limited number of home games as well.

Although I do live in the Bay Area, i don't know for certain when KTVU began televising more than visits to Dodger Stadium(I'm sure that when the Padres joined MLB in 1969, it was feasible for KTVU to do games from SD. As the '70s went on, and stellites became more commonplace, all teams began to expand their coverage of away games, particularly on Sundays.
KTVU avoided televising home games for most of the '80s(with the exception of the final weekend in 1982, when the Giants. Dodgers and Braves were in a pennant race, which Atlanta ultimately won on the final Sunday after the other two eliminated one another the previous two days.)
In 1989, rather unexpectedly, KTVU televised a home midweek night game at Candlestick between the Giants and Cubs, and ever since then, the OTA schedule(on KTVU, and currently on KNTV) has always included a few home games each season. The 1989 move was ostensibly a PR campaign by then-owner Bob Lurie, who was trying (again) to build a new ballpark in downtown SF(that attempt, and the next one in 1992, failed, before new ownership came along and eventually got AT&T Park built in 2000).

 

[w9wi]

I might imagine that the broadcast of away games, except those offered by the network, was unusual in TV sports in general (not just baseball, and not just in Milwaukee) until satellite equipment became widespread?

Actually not.

I have seen vintage Boston TV listings indicating that some away games of the Red Sox were televised back to Boston as early as the mid-1950's, but not very many of them.

It is my understanding that when the Los Angeles Dodgers moved west, KTTV-11 televised games that first year, but they were restricted to the 11 games the team played in San Francisco against the Giants.

Starting in 1961, the Giants began televising some games on KTVU-2, but they were just the 11 away games from Los Angeles. Starting in 1962, due to expansion, just 9 games were televised a year for each team since the two teams met just nine times in each city.

The two likely reasons were the expense of land.lines (which must have cost several thousand dollars for a game from the East Coast) and the time difference.
...

That's what I was thinking -- while the technology existed to transmit TV signals from away ballparks, it would have been horribly expensive. Maybe they were able to use downtime on the network lines for day games? (I wonder, do your listings show broadcast of any *night* away games?)

I'm not sure how the microwave network was set up in most states. I got my start in the business in Wisconsin, where a non-AT&T firm (Midwest Relay Co., a division of WTMJ) operated the network microwave system. There was a spare channel known as "protect" which was occasionally used for special transmissions. I'm betting that the 1962 Braves network was fed over this protect channel. (making the rash assumption it existed 15 years before I got into the business )