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UHF station later sign ons

C

chris12

Guest
I was looking at some old tv guides from Chicago and I notices that as late as 1978 or so WFLD 32 and WSNS 44 didn't sign on until 10 or 11 am. How many had UHF independent stations that signed on that late. Also, some of the clips on youtube I saw with the anthem or America the Beautiful from what I understand were the same on lots of stations with the same ownership.
 
The Global Television Network in Ontario signed on at 3 PM for the first year or so it was in operation, starting in 1974. Three of the original stations (including Toronto) were UHF, while the other three were VHF. When TQS started in 1986, the stations in that network signed on at 2:45 PM. The orignal TQS stations were UHF, except for CFAP 2 in Quebec City.

Even CBC/SRC signed on late relative to other stations in the 1980s. Most CBC O&O stations signed on at 10:00. CBLT in Toronto was an exception, since they had a local breakfast show.
 
Before Good Morning America started, many ABC UHF's (and many V's in small markets) didn't sign on til ABC programing started at noon for the reruns of Bewitched.
 
anoldguy said:
Before Good Morning America started, many ABC UHF's (and many V's in small markets) didn't sign on til ABC programing started at noon for the reruns of Bewitched.
Click to expand...

WAKR in Akron for instance in some of the retro schedules posted signed on at 11:30am until GMA debuted.
 
...as I recall from seeing some of the other retro schedules of the period, midday sign-ons were the general policy at all the Kaiser and Field stations of the '70s, which included WKBS/48 Philadelphia, WKBD/50 Detroit, WLVI/56 Boston, WKBF/61 Cleveland, KBSC/52 Los Angeles and KBHK/44 San Francisco as well as WFLD. I suspect WKBD was the first station to expand into the mornings after it was microwaved regionally to distant cable operations in Michigan. I'm fairly positive that WVTV/18 and WCGV/24 Milwaukee did the same, although WVTV went to an earlier morning sign-on in the mid-to-late '70s when it was also microwaved to cable systems as far away as North Dakota, and the company microwaving them began to pipe in WBBM-TV/2 Chicago to fill the off-the-air hours and turn the combined cable channel into a 24-hour operation (although WBBM-TV occasionally signed off as well for a couple of hours after its late-late movie). WCGV's main draw in its early years had been the SelecTV OTA pay service, and in its earliest weeks before SelecTV cranked up, WCGV actually signed off the air at 7:00 P.M. on weekends after AWA "All-Star Wrestling" (which had come over from WVTV)...

...and, as I've noted previously on this board, KFIZ-TV/34 in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, would sign on at 10:30 A.M. to relay WHA/21 Madison's airing of "Sesame Street," and then sign back off at 11:30 A.M., later returning to the air at 2:00 with either "I Love Lucy" or "Make Room for Daddy" (or, on some weekends, a relay of a Milwaukee Bucks or Brewers game from WTMJ-TV/4 Milwaukee before WVTV got those contracts). KFIZ-TV folded in November 1972...
 
There were even some VHF stations with late sign-ons.

KTNT channel 11 in Tacoma, WA didn't sign on until 9 AM as late as 1974. That was the year that Gaylord Broadcasting bought the station and moved the sign-on up to 6 AM, adding an early morning broadcast of the "700 Club" followed by a morning kid's block between 7 AM and 9 AM.

As for late sign-ons for UHF stations, I remember being surprised on a visit to Detroit in 1974 that WXON channel 20 didn't sign on until 3 PM! From some of the retro schedules I've seen here, I think that KBSC channel 52 had an even later sign on when it was owned by Kaiser Broadcasting.
 
I once posted a schedule for Greenville/Spartanburg/Asheville/
Anderson from 1977, when WAIM/40 Anderson was an ABC affiliate.
WAIM did not carry Good Morning America, didn't even sign on until
11:30 AM, meaning Family Feud was the first show they carried each
weekday, and signed off at 11 PM. On Saturdays, they didn't sign on
until ABC's college football games came on (this particular schedule
was from November), and I don't think they signed on on Sunday until
sometime in the afternoon.
 
Philadelphia UHFs had late sign-ons well into the 70's.

WPHL-17 had its weekday sign-on in 1971 at noon for "Jeopardy!" -- yes, the NBC daytime version with Art Fleming. Channel 17 picked it up because KYW-3 carried news at noon.

WTAF-29 signed on around 9-10 AM or so.
 
chuckydoll said:
Philadelphia UHFs had late sign-ons well into the 70's.

WPHL-17 had its weekday sign-on in 1971 at noon for "Jeopardy!" -- yes, the NBC daytime version with Art Fleming. Channel 17 picked it up because KYW-3 carried news at noon.
Click to expand...

Was that the norm in markets with NBC-affiliated Group W stations?
 
Ultimajock said:
...and, as I've noted previously on this board, KFIZ-TV/34 in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, would sign on at 10:30 A.M. to relay WHA/21 Madison's airing of "Sesame Street," and then sign back off at 11:30 A.M., later returning to the air at 2:00 with either "I Love Lucy" or "Make Room for Daddy" (or, on some weekends, a relay of a Milwaukee Bucks or Brewers game from WTMJ-TV/4 Milwaukee before WVTV got those contracts). KFIZ-TV folded in November 1972...
Click to expand...

The PBS station in Peoria Illinois WTVP channle 47 Used to sign on at I think 8 AM. sing off around 11 AM sign back on at three pm and sign off at midnight. I'm not sure of the exact times sence this was a long time ago. Maybe someone can give the exact times. This was also their weekday hours. I don't remember if they did this during the weekends or when they finally went to programming the entire day but I do know they did this well in to the eighties.
 
M.J. said:
chuckydoll said:
Philadelphia UHFs had late sign-ons well into the 70's.

WPHL-17 had its weekday sign-on in 1971 at noon for "Jeopardy!" -- yes, the NBC daytime version with Art Fleming. Channel 17 picked it up because KYW-3 carried news at noon.
Click to expand...

Was that the norm in markets with NBC-affiliated Group W stations?
In lots of eastern time zone stations not just group w stations that was the case. Looking at some of the Atlanta listings and talking to people who lived there in the day, pretty much your only chance of seeing an ABC or NBC noon show was either on an early morning tape delay or an independent picking it up.
Click to expand...
 
WSJK 2 (now WETP) and WKOP 15, PBS stations that simulcast and serve East Tennessee, didn't sign on weekdays until 3pm for quite some time in throughout the 90s. The first program to broadcast during the week was "The Joy of Painting."
 
Apollo7979 said:
WSJK 2 (now WETP) and WKOP 15, PBS stations that simulcast and serve East Tennessee, didn't sign on weekdays until 3pm for quite some time in throughout the 90s. The first program to broadcast during the week was "The Joy of Painting."
Click to expand...

You've just jogged my memory...

WNEQ 23 (now WNLO) was Buffalo's second PBS station, co-owned with WNED 17. WNEQ was launched in 1987 and broadcast for only a few hours per day. This situation continued well into the 90s, although I don't know many details about how many hours, what programming was on, or if they ever became full-time. In early 2001 WNEQ was sold to LIN Television, who owns WIVB 4, and it became WNLO. Initially it was independent, then UPN, and now CW.
 
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