Looking at bpatrick's recent post about a North Georgia TV Guide sked on a summer Sunday in 1974, I would like to find out how many stations throughout the Southeastern U.S. carried Atlanta Braves baseball games on that team's regional network from the late 1960s to the late 1970s. (Yes, I am a Braves fan myself)
This question is significant in that a drawing card for the team to move from Milwaukee was the potential for the Braves to have the largest territorial fan base in all of the Major Leagues. Having a team in Atlanta meant that radio and TV stations in not only Georgia, but also the Carolinas, Alabama, Florida, and most of Tennessee and Mississippi, would be more than eager to sign up for the games of the Deep South's first-ever pro sports franchise. By contrast, in Milwaukee, only stations in Wisconsin and perhaps the Upper Peninsula of Michigan were able to carry games because of the Chicago teams to the south and the Minnesota Twins to the west (which actually had western Wisconsin in its territory, meaning that the Braves only had a loyal following in certain portions of the state).
So, when the team packed up and moved south after the 1965 season (after a one-year court-enforced delay), retired Braves player and then-broadcaster Ernie Johnson, Sr. came along. A Chicago White Sox announcer during the early 1960s, Milo Hamilton, joined him in the broadcast booth. According to Charles1, who posted on this topic in March 2007, one worked the radio broadcast and the other TV, if the game was televised. Wikipedia and other sources claim that Larry Munson, who up until that time was a Nashville sportscaster, announced games for the first two months in 1966 before opting to take the job most know him for today: play-by-play man of University of Georgia football.
WSB radio and TV, the dominant stations in both media in Atlanta at the time, acquired broadcast rights, and WSB radio aired the games for ages until sometime in the early 2000s. The TV station, an NBC affil, presumably aired Sunday afternoon games and, probably during the summer rerun season in July and August, one game on a weeknight (usually Fridays, from the listings I have seen).
However, in the 1972-73 offseason, a struggling UHF station owner by the name of Robert E. Turner III managed to somehow beat out the seemingly esconced WSB-TV to get the rights for his unaffiliated WTCG, channel 17. This was a grand coup at the time; although many teams had been shown on independents in their home markets for years, all of them were larger than Atlanta, making this a tremendous gamble. With fans’ attentions firmly fixed on Hank Aaron’s chase to topple Babe Ruth, few if any could imagine what was in store in the next several years.
First off, Ted Turner began exporting his station to cable TV systems by microwave relay in not only outlying parts of Georgia, but nearby Alabama and South Carolina also, giving some fans whose local stations did not carry the syndication package a direct line to their team. This was so successful that, in fact, some former affiliates had dropped coverage by 1975, due to WTCG’s presence on local cable in their areas.
In the meantime, things did not look too good, though, as the attendance at Atlanta Stadium fell precipitously after Aaron hit #715 in April 1974. Things got so bad that Milo Hamilton denounced the team on-air in 1975. Needless to say, at the end of the season, he got his walking papers. But not long afterward, so did conventional ownership of the team, as Turner approached his friend, owner Bill Bartholomay, about buying him out. Now things really turned risky. But the Bicentennial year would justify Turner’s foolhardiness and elevate him from a local up-and-comer to a national hero.
To replace Hamilton, Turner decided to expand the broadcast booth to three voices, bringing in a Norfolk, Va. minor-league announcer, Pete Van Wieren, and one with a family baseball heritage but who had originally come to Atlanta to announce Hawks pro basketball games, Skip Caray. Ernie Johnson stayed on and headed the broadcast operation. Although the team’s record didn’t improve in 1976, its profile did the following year.
For in the offseason, Turner, in a first for broadcasting, put WTCG’s signal onto a satellite in outer space, and cable systems outside the South began carrying his station. Finally TV had broken the limits of a terrestrial signal; the cable revolution had begun. By the next season, loads of cable systems were signing up for this Atlanta station, as an alternative to the Big Three. The Braves profited mightily from this, to the point where syndication to local Southern stations became superfluous, and the team became the first to discontinue broadcasting its games on traditional TV stations outside its home market. By the 1980s, people everywhere in the U.S. followed the team, thanks to WTCG’s/WTBS’/TBS’ coverage of nearly all games.
Johnson retired at the end of the millenium, Van Wieren until 2008, and Caray became as familiar to Southern listeners and viewers as his father Harry had in the Midwest, until his untimely death during the 2008 season.
Below is a list of stations that I have determined to carry Braves games, from the move to Atlanta in ’66 to Turner’s move to WTCG-only coverage circa 1978. These have been gathered from previous posts and from my TV Guide collection. If any of you know of any other stations, please post, and if you have memories of Johnson, Hamilton, Caray, or Van Wieren, share them with us too.
Alabama:
Anniston (40) WHMA, CBS; early 1970s
Birmingham (13) WAPI, NBC; late 1960s
Birmingham (42) WBMG, CBS; early 1970s
Decatur (23) WMSL, NBC/ABC; late 1960s
Dothan (4) WTVY, CBS; mid-1970s
Florence (15) WOWL, NBC; late 1960s
Huntsville (31) WAAY, NBC; early 1970s
Montgomery (20) WCOV, CBS; mid-1970s
Tuscaloosa (33) WCFT, CBS, early 1970s
Florida:
Jacksonville (17) WJKS, ABC; early, mid-1970s
Orlando (35) WSWB, Ind.; mid-1970s
Panama City (7) WJHG, ABC; mid-1970s
St. Petersburg (44) WTOG, Ind.; mid-1970s
Georgia:
Atlanta (2) WSB, NBC; 1966-72 (first flagship)
Atlanta (17) WTCG, Ind.; 1973-present (second flagship; now WPCH)
Augusta (6) WJBF, ABC; mid-1970s
Columbus (38) WYEA, NBC; early 1970s
Macon (13) WMAZ, CBS; late 1960s/early 1970s
Macon (41) WCWB, NBC; mid-1970s
Savannah (22) WJCL, ABC; mid-1970s
North Carolina:
Charlotte (9) WSOC, NBC; late 1960s/early 1970s (sister station, then and now, of flagship WSB)
Charlotte (36) WRET, Ind.; 1973-78 (of course, WTCG's sister owned by Ted Turner; like WSOC above, it had no choice but to carry the games)
Durham (11) WTVD, CBS; mid-1970s
Greensboro (2) WFMY, CBS; early 1970s
Raleigh (5) WRAL, ABC; early 1970s
South Carolina:
Columbia (10) WIS, NBC, early 1970s
Greenville (4) WFBC, NBC; early 1970s
Spartanburg (7) WSPA, CBS; mid-1970s
Tennessee:
Chattanooga (3) WRCB, NBC; early 1970s
Kingsport (19) WKPT, ABC; mid-1970s
Knoxville (10) WBIR, CBS; early 1970s
Knoxville (26) WTVK, ABC; mid-1970s
Nashville (4) WSM, NBC; late 1960s
Nashville (8) WSIX, ABC; early 1970s
This question is significant in that a drawing card for the team to move from Milwaukee was the potential for the Braves to have the largest territorial fan base in all of the Major Leagues. Having a team in Atlanta meant that radio and TV stations in not only Georgia, but also the Carolinas, Alabama, Florida, and most of Tennessee and Mississippi, would be more than eager to sign up for the games of the Deep South's first-ever pro sports franchise. By contrast, in Milwaukee, only stations in Wisconsin and perhaps the Upper Peninsula of Michigan were able to carry games because of the Chicago teams to the south and the Minnesota Twins to the west (which actually had western Wisconsin in its territory, meaning that the Braves only had a loyal following in certain portions of the state).
So, when the team packed up and moved south after the 1965 season (after a one-year court-enforced delay), retired Braves player and then-broadcaster Ernie Johnson, Sr. came along. A Chicago White Sox announcer during the early 1960s, Milo Hamilton, joined him in the broadcast booth. According to Charles1, who posted on this topic in March 2007, one worked the radio broadcast and the other TV, if the game was televised. Wikipedia and other sources claim that Larry Munson, who up until that time was a Nashville sportscaster, announced games for the first two months in 1966 before opting to take the job most know him for today: play-by-play man of University of Georgia football.
WSB radio and TV, the dominant stations in both media in Atlanta at the time, acquired broadcast rights, and WSB radio aired the games for ages until sometime in the early 2000s. The TV station, an NBC affil, presumably aired Sunday afternoon games and, probably during the summer rerun season in July and August, one game on a weeknight (usually Fridays, from the listings I have seen).
However, in the 1972-73 offseason, a struggling UHF station owner by the name of Robert E. Turner III managed to somehow beat out the seemingly esconced WSB-TV to get the rights for his unaffiliated WTCG, channel 17. This was a grand coup at the time; although many teams had been shown on independents in their home markets for years, all of them were larger than Atlanta, making this a tremendous gamble. With fans’ attentions firmly fixed on Hank Aaron’s chase to topple Babe Ruth, few if any could imagine what was in store in the next several years.
First off, Ted Turner began exporting his station to cable TV systems by microwave relay in not only outlying parts of Georgia, but nearby Alabama and South Carolina also, giving some fans whose local stations did not carry the syndication package a direct line to their team. This was so successful that, in fact, some former affiliates had dropped coverage by 1975, due to WTCG’s presence on local cable in their areas.
In the meantime, things did not look too good, though, as the attendance at Atlanta Stadium fell precipitously after Aaron hit #715 in April 1974. Things got so bad that Milo Hamilton denounced the team on-air in 1975. Needless to say, at the end of the season, he got his walking papers. But not long afterward, so did conventional ownership of the team, as Turner approached his friend, owner Bill Bartholomay, about buying him out. Now things really turned risky. But the Bicentennial year would justify Turner’s foolhardiness and elevate him from a local up-and-comer to a national hero.
To replace Hamilton, Turner decided to expand the broadcast booth to three voices, bringing in a Norfolk, Va. minor-league announcer, Pete Van Wieren, and one with a family baseball heritage but who had originally come to Atlanta to announce Hawks pro basketball games, Skip Caray. Ernie Johnson stayed on and headed the broadcast operation. Although the team’s record didn’t improve in 1976, its profile did the following year.
For in the offseason, Turner, in a first for broadcasting, put WTCG’s signal onto a satellite in outer space, and cable systems outside the South began carrying his station. Finally TV had broken the limits of a terrestrial signal; the cable revolution had begun. By the next season, loads of cable systems were signing up for this Atlanta station, as an alternative to the Big Three. The Braves profited mightily from this, to the point where syndication to local Southern stations became superfluous, and the team became the first to discontinue broadcasting its games on traditional TV stations outside its home market. By the 1980s, people everywhere in the U.S. followed the team, thanks to WTCG’s/WTBS’/TBS’ coverage of nearly all games.
Johnson retired at the end of the millenium, Van Wieren until 2008, and Caray became as familiar to Southern listeners and viewers as his father Harry had in the Midwest, until his untimely death during the 2008 season.
Below is a list of stations that I have determined to carry Braves games, from the move to Atlanta in ’66 to Turner’s move to WTCG-only coverage circa 1978. These have been gathered from previous posts and from my TV Guide collection. If any of you know of any other stations, please post, and if you have memories of Johnson, Hamilton, Caray, or Van Wieren, share them with us too.
Alabama:
Anniston (40) WHMA, CBS; early 1970s
Birmingham (13) WAPI, NBC; late 1960s
Birmingham (42) WBMG, CBS; early 1970s
Decatur (23) WMSL, NBC/ABC; late 1960s
Dothan (4) WTVY, CBS; mid-1970s
Florence (15) WOWL, NBC; late 1960s
Huntsville (31) WAAY, NBC; early 1970s
Montgomery (20) WCOV, CBS; mid-1970s
Tuscaloosa (33) WCFT, CBS, early 1970s
Florida:
Jacksonville (17) WJKS, ABC; early, mid-1970s
Orlando (35) WSWB, Ind.; mid-1970s
Panama City (7) WJHG, ABC; mid-1970s
St. Petersburg (44) WTOG, Ind.; mid-1970s
Georgia:
Atlanta (2) WSB, NBC; 1966-72 (first flagship)
Atlanta (17) WTCG, Ind.; 1973-present (second flagship; now WPCH)
Augusta (6) WJBF, ABC; mid-1970s
Columbus (38) WYEA, NBC; early 1970s
Macon (13) WMAZ, CBS; late 1960s/early 1970s
Macon (41) WCWB, NBC; mid-1970s
Savannah (22) WJCL, ABC; mid-1970s
North Carolina:
Charlotte (9) WSOC, NBC; late 1960s/early 1970s (sister station, then and now, of flagship WSB)
Charlotte (36) WRET, Ind.; 1973-78 (of course, WTCG's sister owned by Ted Turner; like WSOC above, it had no choice but to carry the games)
Durham (11) WTVD, CBS; mid-1970s
Greensboro (2) WFMY, CBS; early 1970s
Raleigh (5) WRAL, ABC; early 1970s
South Carolina:
Columbia (10) WIS, NBC, early 1970s
Greenville (4) WFBC, NBC; early 1970s
Spartanburg (7) WSPA, CBS; mid-1970s
Tennessee:
Chattanooga (3) WRCB, NBC; early 1970s
Kingsport (19) WKPT, ABC; mid-1970s
Knoxville (10) WBIR, CBS; early 1970s
Knoxville (26) WTVK, ABC; mid-1970s
Nashville (4) WSM, NBC; late 1960s
Nashville (8) WSIX, ABC; early 1970s
