September 6: This Day in TV History

[Stanislav]

Just a few random TV related events that happened on September 6. Discuss or comment as you please……

1942: Actress Carol Wayne is born in Chicago. She is best remembered by TV fans as the voluptuous “Matinee Lady” in Johnny Carson’s “Tea Time Movie” sketches.

1946: The former experimental TV station W9XBK in Chicago receives a commercial license (the first granted outside the Eastern Time Zone) and becomes WBKB-TV (channel 4), airing some of the earliest CBS programming. In 1953, the station would move to channel 2, and calls would change to the present WBBM-TV.

1947: Actress Jane Curtin (Saturday Night Live, Kate & Allie, 3rd Rock From the Sun) is born in Wellesley, Massachusetts.

1952: Canada’s first TV station officially launches as CBFT (channel 2) begins broadcasting in Montreal, Quebec. The station would be bilingual for a couple of years until English-language CBMT signs on in 1954.

1954: KOVR (channel 13) begins operations in Stockton, California with a broadcast from the California State Fair.

1955: CJON-TV (channel 6) debuts in St. John’s, Newfoundland, the first TV station in that province.

1955: WTTW (channel 11) signs on in Chicago.

1965: The game show PDQ premieres on NBC.

1966: The Pruitts of Southampton debuts on ABC. Usually regarded as one of the biggest “turkeys” in sitcom history, the series suffered from an improbable plot, poor acting, and a time slot opposite Red Skelton's enormously popular CBS variety series. The show would only manage to stay afloat until the following April.

1966: WXXI-TV (channel 21) begins broadcasting in Rochester, New York.

1968: The earliest incarnation of To Tell the Truth ends its 12-year run on CBS. It would return one year later in first-run syndication.

1969: H.R. Pufnstuf premieres on NBC.

1975: WLPB-TV (channel 27) signs on in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It is the first PBS station in the state outside New Orleans.

1975: The Secrets of Isis debuts on CBS’ Saturday Morning schedule. It quickly finds a solid audience of kids (who enjoy the stories and action sequences) as well as their Dads (who enjoy the comely JoAnna Cameron in the title role for entirely different reasons).

1975: One of the oddest (no pun intended) cartoons premieres on ABC: The Oddball Couple, a bastardized version of The Odd Couple with a cat (“Spiffy”) in the Felix role, and a dog (“Fleabag”) in the Oscar role.

1976: As an experiment, WOR-TV (channel 9) in New York replaces its usual primetime programming a special week of British shows from Thames Television. Most of these shows had never before been seen on American television. Americans got their first look at The Benny Hill Show, as well as an episode of Man About the House, which would be reinvented the following year on ABC as Three's Company.

1976: Medical Center ends its CBS network run.

2006: Guiding Light airs its 15,000th episode.

(Just a little featurette I hope to do as time permits…..don’t expect it every single day. It’s an entirely random selection based on a quick Net search, and is not meant to be comprehensive. So, don’t post nasty messages about “you forgot THIS” or “how could you not mention THAT?” Do so, and I’ll just take my keyboard and go home…..)

 

[KeithE4]

1946: The former experimental TV station W9XBK in Chicago receives a commercial license (the first granted outside the Eastern Time Zone) and becomes WBKB-TV (channel 4), airing some of the earliest CBS programming. In 1953, the station would move to channel 2, and calls would change to the present WBBM-TV.

Actually, it was 1943, not 1946.

 

[Ultimajock]

1946: The former experimental TV station W9XBK in Chicago receives a commercial license (the first granted outside the Eastern Time Zone) and becomes WBKB-TV (channel 4), airing some of the earliest CBS programming. In 1953, the station would move to channel 2, and calls would change to the present WBBM-TV.

Actually, it was 1943, not 1946.

...and WBKB was actually split into two stations. The license and air staff went to CBS to start WBBM-TV/2, while the call sign, management and studio facilities went in the merger of the original owners (United Paramount Theaters) into ABC and took over WENR-TV/7, which had been sharing facilities with NBC's WNBQ/5 at the Merchandise Mart...

 

[LKellerIII]

I liked the Pruitts of Southampton. But what did I know...I was 14.

Just to prove you can find anything on the internet:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gL3vX-62z1k

 

[wbhist]

...and WBKB was actually split into two stations. The license and air staff went to CBS to start WBBM-TV/2, while the call sign, management and studio facilities went in the merger of the original owners (United Paramount Theaters) into ABC and took over WENR-TV/7, which had been sharing facilities with NBC's WNBQ/5 at the Merchandise Mart...

Furthermore, CBS's change in call letters of the first WBKB to WBBM-TV preceded, by less than five months, its move to Channel 2 (the first WBKB had been on Channel 4). Of course, the second WBKB, in October 1968, became WLS-TV, but I suppose that's for another "This Day in TV History" about a month from now . . .

 

[RicoGregg]

I always knew what the call letters WGN stood for (World's Greatest Newspaper) and I recently learned that WCFL stood for Chicago Federation of Labor, but I always wondered what in the world WBBM stood for, and thanks to Wikipedia, I found out.

Chicagolanders can chastise me if they want, but I always wondered if there were ever regional jokes about the last half of WBBM's letters.

Anyway, the letters stand for World's Best Battery Maker.

The things you can learn on Wikipedia. It boggles the mind.

 

[Prais]

Whem Ralph Atlass began the station it stood for,
World’s Best Broadcast Media." I've also heard it stood for "We Broadcast Better Music."

 

[KeithE4]

Chicagolanders can chastise me if they want, but I always wondered if there were ever regional jokes about the last half of WBBM's letters.

Anyway, the letters stand for World's Best Battery Maker.

The things you can learn on Wikipedia. It boggles the mind.

I believe the call letters were sequentially assigned. The slogans came later.

There were plenty of early radio stations who developed slogans out of their (unrequested) callsigns. For example: WMAQ Chicago - "We Must Ask Questions" or WilliaM A. Quinn (an early station manager). KFCB (now KOY) Phoenix - "Kind Friends Come Back." WGN and WLS were requested by their founders the Chicago Tribune and Sears, respectively, so they don't count.

 

[Prais]

As I understood the "We Must Ask Questions" thing, it was from the time "MAQ had a partnership w/ the Chicago Daily News, so it would have been a natural.

 

[LKellerIII]

Chicagolanders can chastise me if they want, but I always wondered if there were ever regional jokes about the last half of WBBM's letters.

Anyway, the letters stand for World's Best Battery Maker.

The things you can learn on Wikipedia. It boggles the mind.

I believe the call letters were sequentially assigned. The slogans came later.

Not really true. In the very early days of radio, call letters were sequentially assigned at first - in the early 1920s. But once potential station owners realized that call letters could be considered "branding," they can and did request particular call letters. When they did so, the FCC (or whatever government entity was in control in those days) would generally grant them. The first known instance I can find was the Iowa banker that was granted the call letters WHO at his request.

I am mostly familiar with west coast call letters, but there are too many of this type to be coincidence. Examples - KFWB Los Angeles, founded by the Four Warner Brothers in 1927. An early Oakland California station (circa 1926) was KTAB, owned by the Tenth Avenue Baptist Church. There are many other examples.

So the story that call letters were always sequentially assigned cannot be true.

 

[bpatrick]

A couple of other early radio stations and what their
call letters meant:

WSB Atlanta: "Welcome South, Brother"
WSM Nashville "We Shield Millions" (the station was
owned by National Life and Accident Insurance Co.--
I think that name's right)

Some people said that WLW Cincinnati stood for "World's
Lowest Wages." I don't know what they really stood for.

Re "The Pruitts Of Southampton": Phyllis should have done
the whole show the way she did it starting in January 1967,
when the title was changed to "The Phyllis Diller Show": she
ran a boardinghouse, some of whose residents (in one or two
cases, her relatives) were: John Astin, Marty Ingels, Paul Lynde,
Louis Nye, Richard Deacon, and Billy DeWolfe. Unfortunately,
the audience had already tuned out, but had she done this
format in September 1966, who knows what might have happened?
I'll bet they had a great time filming the show, though.

 

[AH3RD]

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1975

A whole new Funshine Saturday was dawning on ABC Television.

Previous-season's hit Hong Kong Phooey and new arrival Speed Buggy (from CBS) were back for a whole new season of repeats.

Jim Nabors and Ruth Buzzi played 2 time-travelling futuristic androids who land on present-day Earth and inexplicably invite a young boy and his babysitter to check out the interior of The Lost Saucer.

Ink-and-paint renditions of Gilligan, The Skipper, and the rest of The Shipwrecked 7 returned for a second season of new animated hijinks on The New Adventures Of Gilligan.

Match Game 75 regular Charles Nelson Reilly donned a crocodile outfit and made sport of kiddie TV fare in the delightful, short-lived romp, Uncle Croc's Block.

A fastidious feline and a messy mutt put Neil Simon's award winning play (and adjoining 1968 movie and hitherto canceled ABC primetime sitcom editions) to shame as The Oddball Couple.

And a legendary cat-and-mouse duo would put to rest a 35-year feud (if only temporarily!) and join forces with a 40-foot purple ape and his beagle buddy to forge what would be Hanna-Barbera Productions, Incorporated's only new entry for the 1975-1976 fall season: The New Tom & Jerry/Grape Ape Show.

 

[azumanga]

Re: SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1975

And a legendary cat-and-mouse duo would put to rest a 35-year feud (if only temporarily!)...to forge what would be [Hanna-Barbera's] only new entry for the 1975-1976 fall season: The New Tom & Jerry/Grape Ape Show.

It was also a reunion between the cat & mouse duo and its creators, Hanna-Barbera, after the latter was forced out of MGM in 1957 (I think). Unfortunately, the reunion didn't last, as programming standards forced Tom and Jerry to become friends, and the series lasted only about a couple of seasons. Tom and Jerry would be back to their old form in 1981 -- under Filmation.

 

[Corky Marlowe]

Couple other acrostic calls--

KHJ-Kindness, Happiness, and Joy

WOWO-Wayne Offers Wonderful Opportunities (Fort Wayne, that is, not Bruce Wayne or Wayne Campbell)

WIBG-I Believe God

And from the fictional file...WJM stood for the station's owner, Wild Jack Monroe

Topic? Wasn't the title of the revamped "Pruitts Of Southampton" "The Beautiful Phyllis Diller Show"?

 

[azumanga]

Wasn't the title of the revamped "Pruitts Of Southampton" "The Beautiful Phyllis Diller Show"?

"The Beautiful Phyllis Diller Show" was her 1968 variety series -- Pruitts was her 1966 sitcom, which later became "The Phyllis Diller Show" (without the "Beautiful").

 

[WMC2006]

1975: The Secrets of Isis debuts on CBS’ Saturday Morning schedule. It quickly finds a solid audience of kids (who enjoy the stories and action sequences) as well as their Dads (who enjoy the comely JoAnna Cameron in the title role for entirely different reasons).

Forget the dads. I was 9 years old in 1975 and "the comely Joanna Cameron" is exactly why I watched that show. It was enjoyable watching her rise straight up (pun intended ) in that short skirt. I can guarantee my dad never watched it.

If I wanted action sequences, I'd watch Shazam! with Captain Marvel. Although I did often wonder about young Billy Batson and the old man travelling around the country....in a camper....together....in a camper. :

And then I had to wonder why Captain Marvel changed faces from the first season to the next.

Good thing Isis was there for me to take my mind off it. ;D

 

[azumanga]

If I wanted action sequences, I'd watch Shazam! with Captain Marvel. Although I did often wonder about young Billy Batson and the old man travelling around the country....in a camper....together....in a camper. :

And then I had to wonder why Captain Marvel changed faces from the first season to the next.

What do you expect? They're from Filmation -- they were notorious for cutting corners to save a few bucks.

 

[firepoint525]

B. Patrick is right that WSM stood for "We Shield Millions," the slogan for the insurance company that originally put them on the air. However, during the "almost" format change of WSM back in 2002, someone posted on the message board that WSMV* had at the time, erroneously saying that "WSM" represented Bill Monroe's initials (William Smith Monroe). Only problem with that was that WSM came on the air in 1925, and the program that we now know as the Grand Ole Opry didn't start until a couple of years later. And Bill Monroe was only about 12-13 years old in 1925. Even if he had been a child prodigy, I highly doubt they would have named a radio station for him, even though radio was still in its infancy then, and was still a new medium.

* Quite a few out-of-towners posted on WSMV's message board at the time of the proposed format change for WSM. It was clearly obvious that many of them did not do their homework. First of all, WSMV (TV) and WSM (radio) had not been jointly owned for many many years, thus bombarding the TV station's message board really accomplished nothing. Meredith Corporation (WSMV's owner) had no control over what Gaylord (WSM's owner) did with WSM. And I mentioned, as I said in the previous paragraph, that WSM was not named for Bill Monroe, as they had claimed. WSM's "heritage" as a "country" station would not come until many years later. Furthermore, those of us locals who used WSMV's message board on a regular basis really resented a bunch of out-of-towners coming in and basically taking it away from us for a while there, flooding the entire message board with nothing but messages about WSM, urging them not to change. Not only that, it was obvious many of them either knew nothing about "netiquette," or simply didn't know the basics about using a message board, because they did things like trying to post an entire message in the "subject" line, or using the name line for something other than a name, or putting more than just their name in the subject line! : Needless to say, we were all very glad to see them go, and give us "our" message board back when it became obvious that WSM wasn't changing!

 

[rwells2265]

WSM's "heritage" as a "country" station would not come until many years later.

Indeed. As late as 1974, WSM 650 was more of an adult contemporary station during the day, with country music at night (and aired the NBC show Monitor on the weekends). Much as the station today is revered for its country programs, perhaps one could more accurately say that the Opry is WSM's real claim to "heritage."

TV-wise, I read somewhere that a number of longtime Nashvillians still think of channels 4 (WSMV) and 5 (WTVF) by their original calls (WSM-TV, WLAC-TV), even going so far as to call the stations with comments/complaints about their radio ex-sisters.

I imagine it's a common problem with divested TV/radio combos. I wonder how many people still call the CBS station in Memphis WREC-TV (WREG since 1973) ... or, heck, still address mail to Channel 3 at the "Sheraton Peabody."

--Russell

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

1997: Princess Diana's funeral attracts a worldwide television audience of over 2.5 billion, and included Elton John's remake of his 1974 hit "Candle of the Wind" as a tribute to the Princess of Wales ("Goodbye England's Rose . . ."). "Candle in the Wind 1997" would be No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts (along with "Something About the Way You Look Tonight") from Oct. 11, 1997-Jan. 10, 1998.