RETRO: WLS-TV 7 Chicago - Monday, Oct. 7, 1968

[wbhist]

This day was particularly notable in Chicagoland TV history as it was there and then that ABC's Chicago O&O, known since 1953 as WBKB (TV), adopted the current call letters of WLS-TV to match with its radio sisters (at 890 AM and 94.7 FM, respectively).

[SOURCE: Chicago Tribune, Oct. 7, 1968. Any discrepancies, errors or unclear listings are from the paper; movie title info gleaned from Chicagoland TV history and other Tribune issues of the period.]

Morning
7:15 Reflections
7:20 News
7:30 The Three Stooges
8:00 Prize Movie with Ione (Rolnick): "Picnic" (1955) (Part I) - William Holden, Kim Novak, Rosalind Russell
[NOTE: This led off "Great Love Stories Week" - part of a tradition of theme weeks that would later be carried over to
The 3:30 / 3:00 Movie.]
9:30 The Dick Cavett Show
(Mr. Cavett's first show for ABC, followed by his prime-time show in mid-1969 and his late-night 1969-73 show)
11:00 Bewitched
11:30 Treasure Isle

Afternoon
12:00 Dream House
12:30 It's Happening
12:55 The Children's Doctor with Dr. Lendon Smith
1:00 The Newlywed Game
1:30 The Dating Game
2:00 General Hospital
2:30 One Life to Live
3:00 Dark Shadows
3:30 The 3:30 Movie: "Without Love" (1945) - Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn
5:30 News*

Evening
6:00 News*
6:30 The Avengers - "You'll Catch Your Death"
7:30 Peyton Place
8:00 The Outcasts - "Three Ways to Die"
9:00 The Big Valley - "Presumed Dead"
10:00 (Fahey) Flynn-(Joel) Daly News
10:30 The Joey Bishop Show (guests: Sen. Edmund Muskie (D-Maine and running mate of Presidential candidate Hubert Humphrey);
Jack E. Leonard; and Hines, Hines & Dad)
12:00 Chicago (that's how the Tribune listed the program)
1:30 News
1:35 Reflections
1:40 sign-off

* The Tribune listed both the network and local news under this title; I could not ascertain as to when specifically the ABC Evening
News with Frank Reynolds and the local Flynn-Daly News (with Fahey Flynn and Joel Daly) were on.

 

[Mike Stroud]

The question about when WLS aired ABC Evening News becomes even more problematic when you consider that ABC sent out the broadcast at 6 Eastern/5 Central, so WLS certainly did not air it live. I would guess that the time was 5:30 for ABC and 6 for local, but you never know (IIRC, both the other two O&Os aired their respective networks' newscasts at 5:30 in the 1970s).

 

[oldiesfan6479]

The question about when WLS aired ABC Evening News becomes even more problematic when you consider that ABC sent out the broadcast at 6 Eastern/5 Central, so WLS certainly did not air it live.

ABC had three feeds, at 6/5 (known as the "practice run"), 6:30/5:30,
and 7/6. As has been discussed in the past, the 6/5 feed was so often
wrought with errors that ABC probably did it again live at 6:30 ET anyway.

The 6 ET feed was eventually dropped, with ABC moving to the CBS/NBC
M.O. of live at 6:30 ET, re-feed at 7.

I also recall that at one time ABC may have even started at 5:30 ET, but
that was probably when their 'cast was still fifteen minutes. bpatrick?

 

[jh]

Yes, ABC did have a 5:30 ET feed even after they went to a half hour. My local affiliate (KCRG/Cedar Rapids) first ran the half-hour at 5:15-5:45CT, still with a 15-min local news at 5:45. I'm not sure how long it lasted, but after some months, probably less than a year, they moved the ABC news to 6pm CT, I'm guessing when ABC dropped the early feed.

When they finally expanded their local news to a half-hour at 5:30, ABC moved to 5pm, like many ABC affiliates at the time.

 

[bk77]

Looking at these listings I wonder if both WLS and even WNBC radio had made at least somewhat a mention on their radio stations welcoming their "New" TV counterparts? A long time ago on Reelradio I noticed on message on a 1968 Larry Lujack/89 WLS aircheck mentioning about how Larry shortly around that aircheck was making a big deal on the air about WBKB becoming WLS-TV however shortly after that message was posted, others claimed that Lujack wouldn't had wasted time on HIS program on such things as the new WLS-TV.

Either way its a far cry today when now you even have TV stations over the years who had made efforts to break away from their radio past as if the local radio stations who had once shared their call letters never did existed in the first place. Buffalo's WKBW comes to mind here such as WKBW changing the original meaning of their calls from "Well Known Bible Witness" to "We Know Buffalo's Watching".