UHF Network Affil Start-Ups in Late 1960s/Early 1970s

[bpatrick]

I-85 also ends in Montgomery, AL, where I don't recall
any stations using "Eyewitness News". However, the
term "I-85 corridor" refers to the area of tremendous
growth since the late '70s/early '80s and generally does
not include Petersburg or Montgomery. If anything, the
Richmond-Petersburg area would now be included in the
"I-95 corridor" which extends to Boston. (Keep in mind
that 85 hasn't completely filled in with businesses between Durham and
Petersburg.)

People who tend to study growth patterns thus consider
the "I-85 corridor" to be Raleigh/Durham to Atlanta; at
least one book I've read, "The Book Of America" by Pierce
and Hagstrom, extends it via I-20 to Birmingham.

But you're right that WRIC had "Eyewitness News," as did WAVY
and Roanoke's WSLS.

 

[TexasTom]

As an interesting aside to the WAGT/WAGU Augusta saga: A friend of mine who lived there told me that at one time when they had no spots to run in commercial cutaways, that they would play songs!!! I assume that they sat on a logo/slide while the song played. I thought back then it was cool, but now looking back at it, not so much---financially bad for them.

That seems unusual for a commercial network affiliate. Growing up, the primary place I remember seeing stations do this (play music and run a station ID slide) was on small UHF public TV stations. Where I lived at the time, KPEC/56 and KTPS/62 in Tacoma, WA both did this. Before it went bankrupt, we did have one commercial station that would occasionally do this as well -- KTVW/13, also in Tacoma.

This was all in the early to mid-seventies -- is that the same time frame that your friend told you that Augusta's TV 26 did this?

 

[Ultimajock]

As an interesting aside to the WAGT/WAGU Augusta saga: A friend of mine who lived there told me that at one time when they had no spots to run in commercial cutaways, that they would play songs!!! I assume that they sat on a logo/slide while the song played. I thought back then it was cool, but now looking back at it, not so much---financially bad for them.

That seems unusual for a commercial network affiliate. Growing up, the primary place I remember seeing stations do this (play music and run a station ID slide) was on small UHF public TV stations. Where I lived at the time, KPEC/56 and KTPS/62 in Tacoma, WA both did this. Before it went bankrupt, we did have one commercial station that would occasionally do this as well -- KTVW/13, also in Tacoma.

...KFIZ-TV/34 Fond du Lac WI also did this, but only when they would pick up the WVTV/18 Milwaukee broadcasts of Irv Kupcinet's syndicated chatfest Kup's Show. This was while (IIRC) that show was produced through NBC's WMAQ-TV/5 Chicago; it eventually moved to WTTW/11, Chicago's main PBS affiliate, for the last chunk of its run. Oddly, I don't recall KFIZ doing that for any of the other programs they picked up from WVTV or WTMJ-TV/4 -- not All-Star Wrestling, not Roller Game of the Week, not The Merv Griffin Show, and certainly not the Bucks or Brewers telecasts. I suspect KFIZ could get enough spots sold in those programs, but Kupcinet wasn't of as much interest to local sponsors...

 

[azumanga]

As an interesting aside to the WAGT/WAGU Augusta saga: A friend of mine who lived there told me that at one time when they had no spots to run in commercial cutaways, that they would play songs!!!

Growing up, the primary place I remember seeing stations do this (play music and run a station ID slide) was on small UHF public TV stations. Where I lived at the time, KPEC/56 and KTPS/62 in Tacoma, WA both did this.

I read somewhere that WGBX ch.44 in Boston would show an ID slide with music between shows, unlike its big sister WGBH.