RETRO: WRCA/WNBC-TV 4 New York - Sunday, May 22, 1960

[wbhist]

This day was particularly notable in New York City TV history as it was at 12 noon that NBC's New York O&O, known since 1954 as WRCA-TV, adopted the call letters of WNBC-TV (ditto for its radio sister stations at 660 AM and 97.1 FM, respectively, which adopted the WNBC call letters on the exact same day).

[SOURCE: TV Guide, New York-Metropolitan Edition, May 21-27, 1960;
additional info from Sunday Herald (Connecticut), as well as TV listings in The New York Times,
Daily News and New York Herald Tribune]
(C) - in color

Morning
6:55 Sermonette
7:00 Modern Farmer (films include "Dynamic Careers Through Agriculture")
8:00 Library Lions (A Time to Remember," travelogue of England, Scotland and Wales, narrated by Danny Kaye)
8:30 Protestant Fourth R (Ernestine Galloway continues discussion of "Palestine, Lord of Jesus")
8:45 Jewish Fourth R (Rabbi Aryeh Gottlieb discusses the giving of the Ten Commandments)
9:00 Library Lions ("Under Way," story of the design, manufacture and installation of a nuclear reactor in the world's first
atomic-powered merchant marine ship, the N.S. Savannah)
9:30 WRCA-TV Recital Hall (Beveridge Webster, pianist and faculty member of the Juilliard School of Music, performs such numbers
as Beethoven's Sonata, Op. 78; Chopin's Berceuse; and Copland's Variations for Piano; host: Ben Grauer)
10:25 News
10:30 Direct Line
11:00 Searchlight (host: Ben Grauer)
11:30 The Switch Is to NBC (special celebrating WRCA-TV's call letter change to WNBC-TV; featured are Mayor Robert F. Wagner;
newsmen Bill Ryan, Gabe Pressman, Ray Owen, John K.M. McCaffrey; weathermen Tex Antoine, Frank Field and Pat Hernon;
announcer Ben Grauer; NBC executive William Davidson, and the Ritts Puppets; host: Ken Banghart)

Afternoon
12:00 Commonwealth of Nations - "Poverty and Plenty" (about Colombo Plan; host: Edgar McInnis)
12:30 The New York Times Youth Forum - "What Is Puerto Rico's Role in Today's World?" (guest: Luis Munoz-Marin, Governor of
Puerto Rico; panelists: Wilson Roman Pineiro, Carvelia Bernacet, Juan R. Melecio, Jenaro Caparros Rivera and Maria Luisa
La Costa; moderator: Dorothy Gordon; taped in Puerto Rico)
1:00 Open Mind (topic: "Americans as Status Seekers"; guests: Vance Packard, author of "The Status Seekers," Prof. Morro Berger
of Princeton University, and E. Digby Baltzell, sociology professor at University of Pennsylvania; host: Eric Goldman)
1:30 Catholic Hour - "Looking Forward" (conclusion of four-part "Reflections USA"; voice of mirror: Ford Rainey; host: Michael
Constantine)
2:00 Sunday Matinee: "Trouble in the Glen" (1954) - Orson Welles, Margaret Lockwood, Victor McLaglen
3:30 Sunday Movie: "Passport Husband" (1938) - Stuart Erwin, Pauline Moore
5:00 World Championship Golf (Jim Ferree meets Cary Middlecoff in a first-round match at Harder Hall Country Club, Sterling, FL)

Evening
6:00 Meet the Press
6:30 Time: Present - Chet Huntley Reporting (Huntley analyzes the recent Big Four Summit Meeting in Paris)
7:00 The Overland Trail - "Escort Detail"
8:00 Music on Ice (Host Johnny Desmond offers "Keys to the City"; guests are Barbara McNair, skater Arthur Newman, comedian
A. Robbins, and the Hines Brothers) (C)
9:00 The Dinah Shore Chevy Show (guests: Art Carney, Walter Slezak, Mahalia Jackson; final show of season) (C)
10:00 The Loretta Young Show - "The Eternal Now" (Part 2)
10:30 Movie Four: "The Road to Glory" (1936) - Fredric March, Warner Baxter
11:00 News - Ken Banghart
11:10 Movie Four (cont'd)
12:20 Midnight Movie: "The Last Bandit" (1949) - William Elliott, Forrest Tucker
2:00 Sermonette
2:05 sign-off

 

[MarcB]

Previously WNBC was the call sign on Channel 30 the NBC O&O station in Hartford. Calls stood for New Britain, Connecticut (their COL). NBC then sold the station in 1959 (2 years after buying it in 1957). Calls then became WHNB. Hartford New Britain. And then in the 70s WVIT after Viacom bought them. WVIT became an NBC O&O in the mid 1990s. Put up for sale by the network a couple years ago they took it off the market with no takers. Brand new HD Studios opened last summer. The new building was built on the same lot as their original WKNB (Kensington New Britain) building which was built in 1953 at 1422 New Britain Avenue in West Hartford.

 

[wbhist]

I am in the process of trying to find out at what point in November 1962 NBC's L.A. outlet, KRCA, changed to KNBC. When I do so, the listings thereof will likewise be put here.

It should be pointed out that the Midnight Movie title, after the series was discontinued in January 1965 when the network decided to air Johnny Carson repeats on Saturday nights, was used for nightly movies on Chicago sister station WMAQ-TV from the mid-1960's to the early '70's; it was that city's equivalent, apparently, of WNBC's The Great Great Show.

 

[RALfan]

What was the weekday daytime schedule like on the station that week?