Three "TV Guide" Questions

[Stanislav]

(My 4th post tonight -- can you tell I'm bored?)

(1)When did TVG switch from using the "C" to denote color broadcasts to the opposite tack of using "BW" to designate black-and-white programs? I would assume it was around the time that the majority of the network schedules went color, but when did the switch occur, and was it uniform across all the editions at the same time?

(2)I have seen TVGs from the 60s in which one listed network affiliate had not yet converted to color -- let's say for argument that it was on channel 7. Throughout the listings, every time there was a color show, they would add the dislcaimer "Channel 7 does not colorcast" under the listing. I have seen TVGs where this was done dozens of times through a week's listings. Would it not have been easier (and saved a lot of ink) to just make note of the station's lack of color capability in the station list once at the beginning of the listings? Or would that have been too easily missed or skipped over?

(3)There seems to have been no uniform manner of handling translators over the years. In most cases, translators (if listed at all) were simply listed as a small appendix to the channel grid. But in a few cases, a translator's channel number icon was actually used in the program listings. (A good example is ch. 30 in New Britain CT, whose ch. 79 translator in East Hartford was for a long time listed thusly.) Was there some reason for the discrepancy -- just local editors' discretion, or what?

 

[bpatrick]

I will attempt to answer your
questions. The switch from "C" to "BW"
happened around the mid-'70s, and TV
Guide explained the switch by pointing out
that most programs were in color and that
it was extraneous to label them as such.
The change was made simultaneously in
all editions, IIRC.
BTW, a lot of people were unhappy when
TV Guide switched from the COLOR box to
the "C" designation in 1969.

As to the "Channel ... will not colorcast
this program," I think that was more likely
to be seen in major metropolitan editions.
For example, in the early '60s Channel 7
in New York could colorcast "The Flintstones,"
while Channel 8 in New Haven could not.
So in the New York Metropolitan Edition you'd
see the line "Channel 8 will not colorcast this
program," and I assume that was for the
benefit of viewers on Long Island who could
receive both stations.

I've seldom seen translator channels in the
regular listings; I have seen them in the New
York Metropolitan Edition and I used to see
Channel 6 in Miami listed as 6-33 in the South
Florida Edition. But a TV Guide employee once
pointed out to me that a channel had to cover
at least 15% of the edition's market area in order
to be included. Can you imagine how big an
edition such as Carolina-Tennessee would have
been with all those translators in the North Carolina
and Tennessee mountains?

 

[Stanislav]

I've seldom seen translator channels in the
regular listings; I have seen them in the New
York Metropolitan Edition and I used to see
Channel 6 in Miami listed as 6-33 in the South
Florida Edition. But a TV Guide employee once
pointed out to me that a channel had to cover
at least 15% of the edition's market area in order
to be included.

That kind of makes sense in the example of WCIX (now WTVJ) -- their inferior transmitter location did (and still does) put them at a disadvantage over the other affiliates when it comes to the northern suburbs of the market. Back in the day, that ch. 33 translator was the primary way for most Broward and southern Palm Beach county residents to clearly watch WCIX off-air. But in my Connecticut example, from what I've read that infamous ch. 79 translator was weak, inefficient, and probably only used by a handful of viewers -- it makes me wonder why it merited listing ("30-79") on each and every program instead of just a note at the beginning to say something like "Ch. 30 programs may also be seen by some Hartford area viewers on ch. 79." ???

 

[bpatrick]

I got some 1972 issues of the Atlanta edition the
other day and noticed that BW was being used to
denote black-and-white programs even then. I seem
to recall the C designation in 1971, so likely that's the
latest it was used.

 

[KML0224]

(My 4th post tonight -- can you tell I'm bored?)

(3)There seems to have been no uniform manner of handling translators over the years. In most cases, translators (if listed at all) were simply listed as a small appendix to the channel grid. But in a few cases, a translator's channel number icon was actually used in the program listings. (A good example is ch. 30 in New Britain CT, whose ch. 79 translator in East Hartford was for a long time listed thusly.) Was there some reason for the discrepancy -- just local editors' discretion, or what?

WVIT-TV's channel 79 translator on channel 79 was from Torrington, CT, not East Hartford.

 

[Stanislav]

WVIT-TV's channel 79 translator on channel 79 was from Torrington, CT, not East Hartford.

I stand corrected. (Hard to type this while standing...)

Still doesn't explain how a pygmy translator like ch. 79 merited treatment like a full-fledged station in TVG's listing, tho...