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The 4:30-5:30 p.m. hour (EST)

H

harrisburgpatv

Guest
From my memory and from my childhood I've noticed that programming an hour show in the 4:30-5:30pm slot was quite popular back in the late '70s/early 80's. Any reason for this phenomenon? Only thing I can think of is that the 4:00pm slot still belonged to the networks at that time.
 
I can't give you a complete answer, although I
remember the same thing, but I know that many
ABC affiliates in the Eastern time zone did their
local news at 5:30, followed by the network news
at 6 (an incentive on the part of ABC to get its
affiliates to clear the news, which wasn't as competitve
then).
 
bpatrick said:
I can't give you a complete answer, although I
remember the same thing, but I know that many
ABC affiliates in the Eastern time zone did their
local news at 5:30, followed by the network news
at 6 (an incentive on the part of ABC to get its
affiliates to clear the news, which wasn't as competitve
then).
Click to expand...

WTPA/WHTM in Harrisburg did that up until September 1981...It was odd to see a syndicated show listed at 6:30pm!
 
Between 1965 and 1979 I got four ABC stations
that carried syndicated shows at 6:30: WCTI New
Bern, NC; WVEC Norfolk; WLOS Asheville, NC; and
WLCY/WTSP Tampa/St. Petersburg. The only ones I got
that had news at that time were in the Central Time Zone
(5:30): local news on WBRC Birmingham, and network
news on WFAA Dallas/Ft. Worth. (I also got WXIA, then
Atlanta's ABC affiliate, while at the University of Georgia,
and ABC News came on there at 6:30.)

I think in your neck of the woods 7 PM was a popular
time for network news; I remember WJLA and WJZ
carrying ABC News at that time.
 
During my time (1979-1982) as a master control operator at WLKY-TV in Louisville (then ABC, now CBS), the period from 3:57:30 PM (the end of "General Hospital") until 5:59:00 PM, EDT/EST (the countdown into the first, live feed of "ABC World News Tonight") Monday-Friday was ABC Network-to affiliate closed circuit time, available to affiliates for local programming. These were the days of the split anchor news shows with Frank Reynolds in New York and Max Robinson in Chicago, with Peter Jennings as a frequent contributor, relief anchor, and later as the regular London reporter.

I remember the ABC announcer at 4:00 PM every day-"Hello stations, this is your American Broadcasting Company affiliate service feed for (day-date), and is NOT-repeat-NOT for broadcast live. Be sure this feed does not retransmit live to your viewers."

During this closed-circuit time, the stations would receive and record telescoped feeds of prime-time programs, regionalized commercials, timing cards for upcoming programs such as "20/20," and the Daily Electronic Feed (ABC-DEF, as it was nicknamed) of news packages, newstape and film for local VO, weather, sports and net promos. WLKY's early local news hit at 5:30 PM, leading into the live "A Feed" of ABC News at 6:00:00 PM ET. Access syndication started at 6:30:30 with Barry/Enright's revived "Tic Tac Dough."
 
bpatrick said:
I think in your neck of the woods 7 PM was a popular
time for network news; I remember WJLA and WJZ
carrying ABC News at that time.
Click to expand...

It was and I believe WJZ still airs their network news ( though its now CBS ) at 7pm.

Until within the last 5 years or so until WSET, I dont think any Virginia stations aired network news at 7pm. Local yes like WTVR but not network. Back in the early 90's when I worked in radio in Harrisonburg, VA we had an employee who also did things for WHSV-TV. I remember she was telling me that back in the 60s, 70s and until the early 80s there was some kind of "promise" , like one of those so-called Gentlemen's Agreements" between most if not all of the TV stations in Virginia to keep their news "simple and conservative". "Conservative" as in not going overboard such as using news choppers ( though WXEX had one in the early 80s ) or even offering a noon newscast. For years, until the early 80s only Norfolk's WTKR and Roanoke's WDBJ had one full-time while the other stations either aired their Noon News part-time ( like WAVY ) or tried to pass them off as more of a magazine show than news like WWBT and WTVR. The rest of the stations aired network fare at Noon. Also I think Virginia was late getting into the 5pm newscast game as well.

Anyway I asked her why did they did all of this and even though she worked at WHSV during that time frame even she wasn't totally sure why other than maybe "protecting newspapers and radio" or perhaps it was some then-rule among the Virginia Assoication of Broadcasters. Either way it was odd. Today when it comes to news Virginia other than the lack of a station using the "Eyewitness News" name, the stations there are no more different than anywhere else.
 
WSET didn't run ABC News at 7 for long; it's
back at 6:30, and "Virginia News Tonight"
runs at 7. BTW, "Entertainment Tonight" is
moving to WSET at 7:30 this fall.

Interestingly, South Carolina viewers seem to
prefer their local news at 7; while most of them
do a 5 and 6 PM newscast (and WCSC Charleston
has one at 4), six of them do a 7 PM local news:
2 in Columbia, 2 in Charleston (including WCSC),
1 in Florence, and (starting Sept. 8) 1 in Greenville/
Spartanburg. CBS News aired at 7 PM for years in
Charleston, as NBC did in Greenville.
 
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