"Rozelle"

[Joseph_Gallant]

This afternoon (November 26th), I watched an NFL Films documentary on the league's late legendary commissioner Pete Rozelle, which was broadcast by CBS. I'd like to comment on those parts of the show that related to the NFL's TV policies.

One part of the show, which talked about how the league got a prime-time TV showcase, mentioned that "Friday and Saturday nights were out because of high-school and college football". But it was a bit more complicated than that.

According to their book "Monday Night Mayhem", a look at the birth and the first eighteen years of "Monday Night Football", authors Marc Gunther and Bill Carter wrote that in 1964, after losing the American Football League to NBC, ABC suggested to the NFL that they broadcast a weekly prime-time NFL game on Friday nights.

The league was interested, and the idea got far enough to have gotten Ford (who was a major sponsor of CBS' Sunday-afternoon NFL games) to sign-on as the major sponsor. However, the NFL backed-out after an organized letter-writing campaign (likely by high-schoool football coaches) pointed out to the league that in many areas, high-school football teams played on Friday nights, and that attendance would suffer if there was competition from televised NFL games, especially since the best NFL games of the season would undoubtdely be part of the prime-time TV package.

Gunther and Carter also wrote that after the Friday-night plan was dead, the league asked ABC about trying Saturday-night games instead. They wrote that Saturdays were "too valuable" to ABC. Although they did not mention it in the book, the problem for the network was that two of the it's most popular shows of the era, "The Lawrence Welk Show" and "Hollywood Palace", were broadcast on Saturday nights and the network understandably did not want to bump them for fourteen weeks every Fall.

Gunther and Carter then wrote that Rozelle suggested to ABC that NFL games be broadcast on Monday-nights. But ABC turned him down; the established hit drama "Ben Casey" was broadcast on Monday nights, and Mondays on ABC's Fall 1964 schedule also featured the promising sci-fi series "Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea" (which would be moved to Sundays in 1965).

The NFL would not look into regular prime-time broadcasts again for another five years. After a handful of prime-time "specials" in 1968 got surprisingly strong ratings, the league decided to try again with a Monday-night TV package that would start during the 1970 season. ABC won the rights (the only other bidder was Hughes Sports, who would have syndicated the games to local stations), and has carried "MNF" ever since (although this is ABC's last year with "MNF").

Surprisingly (at least to me), the show did explore Rozelle's controversial decision to play the games of November 24th, 1963 as scheduled. This was the Sunday after President Kennedy was assasinated, and the same day that suspect Lee Harvey Oswald was murdered on live TV in the basement of the Dallas Police Headquarters. Due to the around-the-clock coverage of the aftermath of the Kennedy assasination, that week's games were not televised (I don't know if it's true, but I once heard that some of the games were broadcast on local radio, but in place of commercials, the sponsors of the broadcasts supposedely ran brief messages of condolences to the Kennedy family).

They showed a clip of a circa-1970 interview in which Rozelle claimed Kennedy's press secretary Pierre Salinger told him that "things should get back to normal", but Rozelle intrepreted it to mean that the games of November 24th should not be postponed. In that clip, he said that it was a major mistake.

One other TV-related item I wished had been included in the show was the fact that Super Bowl I was broadcast by both CBS and NBC, and that the second-half kickoff had to be done twice. During the first kickoff, NBC was still in a commercial, so the play was blown dead, the few seconds that had elapsed were put back on the clock, and a second kickoff occured a minute or two later, once NBC's commercial break had ended.

 

[bhayes1016]

> The NFL would not look into regular prime-time broadcasts
> again for another five years. After a handful of prime-time
> "specials" in 1968 got surprisingly strong ratings, the
> league decided to try again with a Monday-night TV package
> that would start during the 1970 season. ABC won the rights
> (the only other bidder was Hughes Sports, who would have
> syndicated the games to local stations), and has carried
> "MNF" ever since (although this is ABC's last year with
> "MNF").
>

And ABC reportedly only outbid Hughes because they got word that most of the stations that committed to Hughes' broadcasts were ABC affiliates.

Due to the
> around-the-clock coverage of the aftermath of the Kennedy
> assasination, that week's games were not televised (I don't
> know if it's true, but I once heard that some of the games
> were broadcast on local radio, but in place of commercials,
> the sponsors of the broadcasts supposedely ran brief
> messages of condolences to the Kennedy family).

The Dallas/Cleveland game was not heard on the radio in Dallas, as Oswald had just been shot at the time.

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

B. Hayes1016 noted about Hughes, ABC, and the beginning of "Monday Night Football":

> And ABC reportedly only outbid Hughes because they got word
> that most of the stations that committed to Hughes'
> broadcasts were ABC affiliates.

I thought Gunther and Carter wrote that Hughes actually outbid ABC, but Rozelle went with ABC because they were a full-time network.

I had once heard that had Hughes gotten "MNF", half of ABC's affiliates would have defected. ABC decided to bid because they were probably most scared of seeing some 100 affiliates bumping network programming for Hughes' "MNF" games.

It would have been interesting had Hughes won "MNF": Would the company have used it as a building block towards establishing a fourth full-blown commercial TV network?? By 1970, there were enough markets with four or more commercial stations that a Hughes TV Network would have primary affiliates in most major and medium markets. And in some cities where there were only three commercial TV stations on the air (but one or more UHF's that had not been applied for), there would have been a rush to apply for the vacant UHF's, since the winner probably would have gotten a network affiliation.

My thinking is that by 1972, Hughes would indeed have "started the ball rolling" as regards launching a full-blown network.

Had Hughes gotten "MNF" and used it as a building block for a national TV network, stations carrying it that were already affiliates with another network would have had to make a choice: Keep Hughes (including "MNF") and dump either ABC, CBS or NBC, or dump Hughes. My guess is that had Hughes gotten "MNF" and then try to build a fulltime network, ABC would have lost 40 to 50 VHF affiliates to Hughes, and probably would have wound-up on UHF in most of those markets. The only major markets where ABC might have remained on VHF were their five O&O cities (New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco/Oakland, and Detroit), plus Washington, Denver, Phoenix, Dallas/Fort Worth, Indianapolis, Minneapolis/St. Paul, St. Louis, Seattle, Portland (Oregon), Las Vegas, and maybe Philadelphia, where then-affiliate (and now O&O) WPVI-6 had a close relationship with the network.

In such large and major markets like Boston, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Tampa Bay, Houston, New Orleans, Buffalo, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Providence/New Bedford, Atlanta, Nashville, Kansas City, and Salt Lake City, ABC may have found itself on UHF.

In the early 1970's, Howard Hughes was one of the very few men with pockets deep enough to have been able to launch a full-fledged fourth nationwide commercial TV network and to finance it through several years of losses before the network would have turned a profit.

I also wrote:

> I once heard that some of the games
> were broadcast on local radio, but in place of
> commercials, the sponsors of the broadcasts supposedely ran brief
> messages of condolences to the Kennedy family.

B. Hayes 1016 noted:

> The Dallas/Cleveland game was not heard on the radio in
> Dallas, as Oswald had just been shot at the time.

Note that I said "some". I think that only a handful of games were on radio that Sunday. Certainly radio flagship stations that were network afiliates (ABC, CBS, Mutual and NBC) stuck with network coverage, which like on TV, was around-the-clock.

 

[bayusm1]

>
> Note that I said "some". I think that only a handful of
> games were on radio that Sunday. Certainly radio flagship
> stations that were network afiliates (ABC, CBS, Mutual and
> NBC) stuck with network coverage, which like on TV, was
> around-the-clock.
>
I remember driving home to Michigan on that day, and listening to a game, but I don't know which one it was.

 

[clichemoth]

> B. Hayes1016 noted about Hughes, ABC, and the beginning of
> "Monday Night Football":
>
> > And ABC reportedly only outbid Hughes because they got
> word
> > that most of the stations that committed to Hughes'
> > broadcasts were ABC affiliates.
>
> I thought Gunther and Carter wrote that Hughes actually
> outbid ABC, but Rozelle went with ABC because they were a
> full-time network.
>
> I had once heard that had Hughes gotten "MNF", half of ABC's
> affiliates would have defected. ABC decided to bid because
> they were probably most scared of seeing some 100 affiliates
> bumping network programming for Hughes' "MNF" games.
>
> It would have been interesting had Hughes won "MNF": Would
> the company have used it as a building block towards
> establishing a fourth full-blown commercial TV network?? By
> 1970, there were enough markets with four or more commercial
> stations that a Hughes TV Network would have primary
> affiliates in most major and medium markets. And in some
> cities where there were only three commercial TV stations on
> the air (but one or more UHF's that had not been applied
> for), there would have been a rush to apply for the vacant
> UHF's, since the winner probably would have gotten a network
> affiliation.
>
> My thinking is that by 1972, Hughes would indeed have
> "started the ball rolling" as regards launching a full-blown
> network.
>
> Had Hughes gotten "MNF" and used it as a building block for
> a national TV network, stations carrying it that were
> already affiliates with another network would have had to
> make a choice: Keep Hughes (including "MNF") and dump either
> ABC, CBS or NBC, or dump Hughes. My guess is that had Hughes
> gotten "MNF" and then try to build a fulltime network, ABC
> would have lost 40 to 50 VHF affiliates to Hughes, and
> probably would have wound-up on UHF in most of those
> markets. The only major markets where ABC might have
> remained on VHF were their five O&O cities (New York, Los
> Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco/Oakland, and Detroit), plus
> Washington, Denver, Phoenix, Dallas/Fort Worth,
> Indianapolis, Minneapolis/St. Paul, St. Louis, Seattle,
> Portland (Oregon), Las Vegas, and maybe Philadelphia, where
> then-affiliate (and now O&O) WPVI-6 had a close relationship
> with the network.
>
> In such large and major markets like Boston, Pittsburgh,
> Baltimore, Tampa Bay, Houston, New Orleans, Buffalo,
> Cleveland, Cincinnati, Providence/New Bedford, Atlanta,
> Nashville, Kansas City, and Salt Lake City, ABC may have
> found itself on UHF.
>
> In the early 1970's, Howard Hughes was one of the very few
> men with pockets deep enough to have been able to launch a
> full-fledged fourth nationwide commercial TV network and to
> finance it through several years of losses before the
> network would have turned a profit.
>
> I also wrote:
>
> > I once heard that some of the games
> > were broadcast on local radio, but in place of
> > commercials, the sponsors of the broadcasts supposedely
> ran brief
> > messages of condolences to the Kennedy family.
>
> B. Hayes 1016 noted:
>
> > The Dallas/Cleveland game was not heard on the radio in
> > Dallas, as Oswald had just been shot at the time.
>
> Note that I said "some". I think that only a handful of
> games were on radio that Sunday. Certainly radio flagship
> stations that were network afiliates (ABC, CBS, Mutual and
> NBC) stuck with network coverage, which like on TV, was
> around-the-clock.
>


Don't forget that Hughes had actually considered purchasing ABC before founding the Hughes Sports Network, but dropped the idea after an "inter-racial" episode of the Dating Game in which a black child actor chose a white bachelorette to date his father. Hughes was more than a little racist and this offended him so much that he refused to deal with the company. If he had known that the winning bachelorette was actually black and no miscegenation was occurring, our TV landscape would be very different today.

Also, if he had purchased ABC or started his own network, he would have undoubtedly flipped KLAS to that network, leaving CBS in the lurch in Vegas. Since the market had 4 VHF allocations already, CBS would have likely grabbed the open channel 13 (now ABC affiliate KTNV).

 

[bpatrick]

>
>
> My thinking is that by 1972, Hughes would indeed have
> "started the ball rolling" as regards launching a full-blown
> network.
>
> Had Hughes gotten "MNF" and used it as a building block for
> a national TV network, stations carrying it that were
> already affiliates with another network would have had to
> make a choice: Keep Hughes (including "MNF") and dump either
> ABC, CBS or NBC, or dump Hughes. My guess is that had Hughes
> gotten "MNF" and then try to build a fulltime network, ABC
> would have lost 40 to 50 VHF affiliates to Hughes, and
> probably would have wound-up on UHF in most of those
> markets. The only major markets where ABC might have
> remained on VHF were their five O&O cities (New York, Los
> Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco/Oakland, and Detroit), plus
> Washington, Denver, Phoenix, Dallas/Fort Worth,
> Indianapolis, Minneapolis/St. Paul, St. Louis, Seattle,
> Portland (Oregon), Las Vegas, and maybe Philadelphia, where
> then-affiliate (and now O&O) WPVI-6 had a close relationship
> with the network.
>
> In such large and major markets like Boston, Pittsburgh,
> Baltimore, Tampa Bay, Houston, New Orleans, Buffalo,
> Cleveland, Cincinnati, Providence/New Bedford, Atlanta,
> Nashville, Kansas City, and Salt Lake City, ABC may have
> found itself on UHF.
>
> I'd like to know where ABC would have gone in Atlanta,
where WXIA/11 Alive was its affiliate then. Ted Turner
tried to get the ABC affiliation for Channel 17 and was
turned down (this is before ABC moved to WSB/2), WATL/36
went off the air in 1971 and stayed dark for five years,
and Pat Robertson owned Channel 46 in the 1970s. It also
seems ludicrous that a station would change affiliations
just to get one program.

But I have no doubt that Channel 11 would have pre-empted
ABC to carry Monday Night Football from Hughes if it had
had the chance, although I think Turner would have wanted
MNF for Channel 17 as well.

At any rate, next season Channel 11 will have primetime
NFL football for the first time since 1979, since they
will have NBC's Sunday-night games.
>

 

[clichemoth]

> >
> >
> > My thinking is that by 1972, Hughes would indeed have
> > "started the ball rolling" as regards launching a
> full-blown
> > network.
> >
> > Had Hughes gotten "MNF" and used it as a building block
> for
> > a national TV network, stations carrying it that were
> > already affiliates with another network would have had to
> > make a choice: Keep Hughes (including "MNF") and dump
> either
> > ABC, CBS or NBC, or dump Hughes. My guess is that had
> Hughes
> > gotten "MNF" and then try to build a fulltime network, ABC
>
> > would have lost 40 to 50 VHF affiliates to Hughes, and
> > probably would have wound-up on UHF in most of those
> > markets. The only major markets where ABC might have
> > remained on VHF were their five O&O cities (New York, Los
> > Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco/Oakland, and Detroit),
> plus
> > Washington, Denver, Phoenix, Dallas/Fort Worth,
> > Indianapolis, Minneapolis/St. Paul, St. Louis, Seattle,
> > Portland (Oregon), Las Vegas, and maybe Philadelphia,
> where
> > then-affiliate (and now O&O) WPVI-6 had a close
> relationship
> > with the network.
> >
> > In such large and major markets like Boston, Pittsburgh,
> > Baltimore, Tampa Bay, Houston, New Orleans, Buffalo,
> > Cleveland, Cincinnati, Providence/New Bedford, Atlanta,
> > Nashville, Kansas City, and Salt Lake City, ABC may have
> > found itself on UHF.
> >
> > I'd like to know where ABC would have gone in Atlanta,
> where WXIA/11 Alive was its affiliate then. Ted Turner
> tried to get the ABC affiliation for Channel 17 and was
> turned down (this is before ABC moved to WSB/2), WATL/36
> went off the air in 1971 and stayed dark for five years,
> and Pat Robertson owned Channel 46 in the 1970s. It also
> seems ludicrous that a station would change affiliations
> just to get one program.
>
> But I have no doubt that Channel 11 would have pre-empted
> ABC to carry Monday Night Football from Hughes if it had
> had the chance, although I think Turner would have wanted
> MNF for Channel 17 as well.

Didn't 17 carry some Hughes-syndicated college football during that period? It would have been the most likely candidate for MNF and any new network that may have stemmed from it. Turner may have ended up buying that network when the Hughes empire crumbled and found himself in the broadcast business rather than the cable business. If there were already 4 established networks by 1986, would Fox even exist at all?

 

[bpatrick]

> > >
> > >
> > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > In such large and major markets like Boston, Pittsburgh,
>
> > > Baltimore, Tampa Bay, Houston, New Orleans, Buffalo,
> > > Cleveland, Cincinnati, Providence/New Bedford, Atlanta,
> > > Nashville, Kansas City, and Salt Lake City, ABC may have
>
> > > found itself on UHF.
> > >
> > > I'd like to know where ABC would have gone in Atlanta,
> > where WXIA/11 Alive was its affiliate then. Ted Turner
> > tried to get the ABC affiliation for Channel 17 and was
> > turned down (this is before ABC moved to WSB/2), WATL/36
> > went off the air in 1971 and stayed dark for five years,
> > and Pat Robertson owned Channel 46 in the 1970s. It also
> > seems ludicrous that a station would change affiliations
> > just to get one program.
> >
> > But I have no doubt that Channel 11 would have pre-empted
> > ABC to carry Monday Night Football from Hughes if it had
> > had the chance, although I think Turner would have wanted
> > MNF for Channel 17 as well.
>
> Didn't 17 carry some Hughes-syndicated college football
> during that period? It would have been the most likely
> candidate for MNF and any new network that may have stemmed
> from it. Turner may have ended up buying that network when
> the Hughes empire crumbled and found himself in the
> broadcast business rather than the cable business. If there
> were already 4 established networks by 1986, would Fox even
> exist at all?
>
I believe 17 did run practically all the Hughes-syndicated
college football in the early '70s. I think you may be
right that MNF and a Hughes network would have wound up on
17; I can't imagine that, at the time, ABC would have dumped
11 for a UHF, weak as 11 was. ABC preferred to wait until
a stronger VHF (Channel 2) wanted to switch.

Same situation in Tampa. I remember watching Hughes-
syndicated games on WTOG/44, then the only independent in
the market. I could imagine 44 becoming a Hughes network
affiliate, rather than WLCY (now WTSP)/10, the ABC affiliate
until that complicated switch that began when CBS affiliate
WTVT/13 became a Fox o&o, Scripps-Howard changed WFTS/28
(which wasn't on the air in the '70s) from Fox to ABC,
and WTSP got CBS (the best thing that ever happened to it
since it often runs second to NBC affiliate WFLA/8).

New Orleans might have seen a switch; WVUE/8 (ABC in the
'70s) carried Hughes games, and in light of the fact that
it is now a Fox affiliate, it might have been enticed to
go to Hughes and the present ABC affiliate, WGNO/26, would
have been the ABC affiliate two decades earlier.<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by bpatrick on 11/28/05 10:21 PM.</FONT></P>

 

[rwells2265]

> Don't forget that Hughes had actually considered purchasing
> ABC before founding the Hughes Sports Network, but dropped
> the idea after an "inter-racial" episode of the Dating Game
> in which a black child actor chose a white bachelorette to
> date his father. Hughes was more than a little racist and
> this offended him so much that he refused to deal with the
> company. If he had known that the winning bachelorette was
> actually black and no miscegenation was occurring, our TV
> landscape would be very different today.

I was under the impression that Hughes came this close to staging a takeover of ABC, but the network resisted him - not the other way around.

In Leonard Goldenson's 1990 bio, he said the network was near desperate to figure out a way to keep Hughes from buying up more ABC stock. It involved the O&Os -- Hughes could get ABC itself through seats on the board; but acquiring ABC's (usually more valuable) O&O stations would require Hughes to testify publicly (!) before the FCC.

Howard Hughes then dropped his bid for control of ABC.

 

[bpatrick]

> > Don't forget that Hughes had actually considered
> purchasing
> > ABC before founding the Hughes Sports Network, but dropped
>
> > the idea after an "inter-racial" episode of the Dating
> Game
> > in which a black child actor chose a white bachelorette to
>
> > date his father. Hughes was more than a little racist and
> > this offended him so much that he refused to deal with the
>
> > company. If he had known that the winning bachelorette
> was
> > actually black and no miscegenation was occurring, our TV
> > landscape would be very different today.
>
> I was under the impression that Hughes came this close to
> staging a takeover of ABC, but the network resisted him -
> not the other way around.
>
> In Leonard Goldenson's 1990 bio, he said the network was
> near desperate to figure out a way to keep Hughes from
> buying up more ABC stock. It involved the O&Os -- Hughes
> could get ABC itself through seats on the board; but
> acquiring ABC's (usually more valuable) O&O stations would
> require Hughes to testify publicly (!) before the FCC.
>
> Howard Hughes then dropped his bid for control of ABC.
>
Probably a little of both. I read, I think in "The Thrill
Of Victory" by Bert Sugar, that Hughes did see an episode
of "The Dating Game" and told an assistant, "Let's not
bother with ABC." But I've also read Goldenson's book,
so either story is plausible.

 

[rwells2265]

> Probably a little of both. I read, I think in "The Thrill
> Of Victory" by Bert Sugar, that Hughes did see an episode
> of "The Dating Game" and told an assistant, "Let's not
> bother with ABC." But I've also read Goldenson's book,
> so either story is plausible.

One must ask how that would be a major deal-breaker, even for a freak like Howard Hughes. If it's true how Hughes ran his Las Vegas TV station (didn't they TBA their movie listings, so Hughes could hot-line the engineer and tell him which film to play?), then if ABC were to have become his candy store, I would think he could easily have had "Dating Game" or any other 'offensive' program canceled ... even despite bureaucratic layers inbetween.

But what if ABC had become a Hughes company? Would Arthur Duncan be forced to tapdance in Kleenex boxes on "Lawrence Welk"?

 

[bpatrick]

> > Probably a little of both. I read, I think in "The Thrill
>
> > Of Victory" by Bert Sugar, that Hughes did see an episode
> > of "The Dating Game" and told an assistant, "Let's not
> > bother with ABC." But I've also read Goldenson's book,
> > so either story is plausible.
>
> One must ask how that would be a major deal-breaker, even
> for a freak like Howard Hughes. If it's true how Hughes ran
> his Las Vegas TV station (didn't they TBA their movie
> listings, so Hughes could hot-line the engineer and tell him
> which film to play?), then if ABC were to have become his
> candy store, I would think he could easily have had "Dating
> Game" or any other 'offensive' program canceled ... even
> despite bureaucratic layers inbetween.
>
> But what if ABC had become a Hughes company? Would Arthur
> Duncan be forced to tapdance in Kleenex boxes on "Lawrence
> Welk"?
>
It turns out the story wasn't in Sugar's book, so I'm stumped
as to where I read it. Sugar and at least one other source,
Laurence Bergreen's "Look Now, Pay Later," confirm that Hughes
did not want to appear in public to testify; Sugar adds that
pert of the problem was that Hughes' Las Vegas station would
have put the network one over the ownership limit then allowed
by the FCC. No question, Hughes did not want to appear in public.

The Hughes biography "Citizen Hughes" does say that Hughes
decided to call off the talks with ABC after seeing the "Dating
Game" episode with the light-skinned black mentioned in another
posting, followed by an episode of "The Newlywed Game." According
to that source, Hughes apparently felt the two games represented
a low-water mark in television.

But certainly he could have canceled the two games if he'd
owned ABC.<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by bpatrick on 11/29/05 08:18 PM.</FONT></P>