TV Stations that published their own program guides

[fortmill]

Recent discussions of classic TV Guides made me remember a few TV stations who published and distributed their own program guides. Yes, I know PBS stations have done this for many years (and some continue to do so). I'm talking about commercial stations back in the 60s and 70s. My grandmother for years got guides mailed to her every month from several stations. She got guides from WITN/7/NBC in Washington NC, as well as WRAL/5/ABC Raleigh and WTVD/11/CBS-NBC Durham. The guides included day by day program listings, special categories for movies and sports, and an article or two about station news. Of course, each guide listed information for only the station who produced the guide--my grand kept all three right next to her "TV chair" all month. I seem to remember she recieved the WITN guide for years after she stopped getting the WRAL and WTVD guides, but maybe that was because WITN was her favorite station and she didn't re-subscribe to the others--though there was no charge for any of them. Has anyone heard of any other stations with similar guides?

 

[rwells2265]

Not so much a program "guide", but KFVS-12 in Cape Girardeau, Mo. (CBS) used to have their 7-day schedule printed on card-stock 8-1/2x11 paper. They were distributed to all the motels in the viewing area, where most put them on top of the TVs in each room. I remember seeing one in 1973 at the Ramada Inn, nearby in Sikeston .... and five years later, in the Holiday Inn of Cape, where we stayed before Mom & Dad bought our house up there.

This practice seemed to have stopped when AFLAC bought KFVS-TV from founder Oscar Hirsch in April 1979.

Wish I'd kept one as a souvenir.......

--Russell

 

[bk77]

Back in the 1980s and perhaps the early 90's, I know many LPTV stations ( mainly religious outlets ) sent out to viewers by mail their TV listings. Mainly because TV Guide and even many local newspapers didn't carry their listings for one reason or another.

I know back then our local paper wouldn't publish the listings of one those channels because they felt by being LP ( at the time ) and mostly religious they didn't have much in the way of viewers. But when they became a part of the then-new WB, their listings started to appear.

 

[mbatchelor]

PBS KETC 9 in St. Louis used to publish and mail their own listings to members.

 

[MACK184]

I remember when what was then WNBF-AM-FM-TV in Binghamton, NY used to publish a monthly guide to their programming. The TV part of the guide wasn't day by day, program by program, but it would include monthly highlights of special programs, and a schedule of when all news broadcasts were scheduled. This was back in the very early 60's. You had to ask for it, and they would mail it to you. I remember my parents getting it regularly.

 

[KML0224]

Is that PBS channel 46 by chance? Here in Connecticut, I never saw CPTV (Connecticut Public Television) publish any sort of guide.

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

Re: TV Stations that published their own program guides--Des Moines

The DesMoinesBroadcasting.com website contains links to two program guides published by two Des Moines stations to promote their fall lineups, which I have linked below.

The first was printed by KRNT-8 (CBS, now KCCI-TV) to promote the fall 1968 CBS prime-time lineup, and was distributed to Iowa State Fair visitors. It also contained the signatures of several TV-8 personalities:

http://www.desmoinesbroadcasting.com/kcci/krnt-tv-fair-handout-1968/fairhandout-1968.html

The second was printed by WOI-5 (ABC) and advertised their fall 1990 schedule:

http://www.desmoinesbroadcasting.com/woi-tv/fall-preview-90/fall-90.html

 

[Gregg]

I have an old television guide from I believe the Detroit News, which I believe owned Channel 4 at the time. So for some odd reason, the TV stations are NOT listed in the normal order. Who knows why, but Channel 4 programs are always listed first!

Otherwise the television guide is very much like a TV Guide... same size, articles in front and back, and hourly program guide for the week in the middle. Of course, in those days, only Channels 2, 4 and 7 from Detroit and 9 from Windsor Ontario were listed. There was a single page for Educational Channel 56, but that station wasn't listed with the commercial stations.



Gregg
[email protected]

 

[Tim L]

I have 2 microfilmed copies of TeleVue Magazine, an early TV Guide from Cleveland circa 1949..While the Magazine was probably an independent publication, There were only channel 4 and 5 in Cleveland at the time..However, Channel 5 was always first in the listings before channel 4..And any TV station ads were from channel 5..I've featured "Televue" in my Cleveland Classic Media Blog..More about the magazine is in the posts at the link below:

http://clevelandclassicmedia.blogspot.com/search?q=TeleVue

 

[MACK184]

Is that PBS channel 46 by chance? Here in Connecticut, I never saw CPTV (Connecticut Public Television) publish any sort of guide.

No, it's not. I think WSKG did publish a guide, but I never saw one.

 

[fybush]

Is that PBS channel 46 by chance? Here in Connecticut, I never saw CPTV (Connecticut Public Television) publish any sort of guide.

No, it's not. I think WSKG did publish a guide, but I never saw one.

WSKG did, and does, publish a monthly program guide called "Gamut." Most (not all, but most) public TV stations put out similar monthly guides for their members.

 

[mjlarochelle]

The CBC network used to publish "CBC Times" back in the 1960s in various regional editions. It included radio and TV listings for the week, and articles about the CBC and its programming and hosts. At my university there are several years of back issues in one of the libraries, and they include detailed listings for CBLT in Toronto, and radio stations CBE (1550 Windsor), CBL (740 Toronto), CJBC (860 Toronto French), and the Northern Ontario LPRT network which rebroadcast CBL but had some of its own regional programming inserts.