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Unusual programming on PBS/educational stations
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Some PBS stations in the bible belt have aired gospel music shows
South Dakota PBS aired state high school championships in multiple sports at one time, not sure if they still have the contract or not.
Not sure if anyone would consider this unusual or not, but my favorite program that was on for years during the North Dakota PBS pledge drives was a documentary on the Three Stooges that went from their early lives through the deaths of Larry and Moe.
Not sure if anyone would consider this unusual or not, but my favorite program that was on for years during the North Dakota PBS pledge drives was a documentary on the Three Stooges that went from their early lives through the deaths of Larry and Moe.
yes they do. They were carrying the volleyball tournament a few weeks ago
Nebraska PBS (state wide) also does the same thing. They have carried UNO Maverick hockey games every now and then.
Pre-Big Ten Network Wisconsin PBS carried hockey and basketball. Even after BTN launched they carried some games tape delayed.
KTCA Minneapolis carried MST3K a few times....after all that was started in Mpls on KTMA now WUCW) 23
Our Iowa PBS station aired Zoobilee Zoo in the 80s which I thought was a PBS show but when Internet came around and found out it was syndicated.
High school baseball or softball has aired on our PBS station plus the Iowa state fair is featured all week plus the crowning of the fair queen from high schools across Iowa and the talent show is also aired on our PBS station.
High school baseball or softball has aired on our PBS station plus the Iowa state fair is featured all week plus the crowning of the fair queen from high schools across Iowa and the talent show is also aired on our PBS station.
Some examples from New England:
For a long number of years, WGBH-2 Boston carried the Longwood tennis tournament (held just outside of Boston) and eventually fed it to PBS. WGBH also occasionally carried some Boston area college sports, especially college hockey in the early 1970's (then, as now, three of the teams usually seen on those telecasts, Boston College, Boston University, and Harvard University were/are among the country's elite men's college hockey teams).
For nearly three decades, New Hampshire's statewide public TV network (then known as New Hampshire Public Television, now known as NHPBS) carried a number of home games of the University of New Hampshire men's hockey team. The telecasts were quite popular, especially as the team during those years was a regular contender for championships first in ECAC Division 1 men's hockey and later, Hockey East.
However, NHPBS dropped the games a little more than ten years ago because the costs of production were getting too high.
Also in New England, Connecticut Public Television for years carried University of Connecticut women's basketball games. With the team having won several national titles and being perennial national championship contenders, the telecasts became extremely popular.
But a few years back, the SNY regional cable network, looking to get more cable systems in Connecticut to carry it, made a huge bid for the rights, a sum that a noncommercial broadcaster like CPTV couldn't match.
And up in Maine, the statewide public TV network (Maine Public) has long carried that state's high school basketball tournament, which as far as I know, they still do.
For a long number of years, WGBH-2 Boston carried the Longwood tennis tournament (held just outside of Boston) and eventually fed it to PBS. WGBH also occasionally carried some Boston area college sports, especially college hockey in the early 1970's (then, as now, three of the teams usually seen on those telecasts, Boston College, Boston University, and Harvard University were/are among the country's elite men's college hockey teams).
For nearly three decades, New Hampshire's statewide public TV network (then known as New Hampshire Public Television, now known as NHPBS) carried a number of home games of the University of New Hampshire men's hockey team. The telecasts were quite popular, especially as the team during those years was a regular contender for championships first in ECAC Division 1 men's hockey and later, Hockey East.
However, NHPBS dropped the games a little more than ten years ago because the costs of production were getting too high.
Also in New England, Connecticut Public Television for years carried University of Connecticut women's basketball games. With the team having won several national titles and being perennial national championship contenders, the telecasts became extremely popular.
But a few years back, the SNY regional cable network, looking to get more cable systems in Connecticut to carry it, made a huge bid for the rights, a sum that a noncommercial broadcaster like CPTV couldn't match.
And up in Maine, the statewide public TV network (Maine Public) has long carried that state's high school basketball tournament, which as far as I know, they still do.
Throught the 1970's and into the 80's, the one and only Curt Gowdy hosted the annual Drum Core International Championship Finals from Indianapolis, IN (produced by WFYI)
Anything low budget and in house from KLCS. In the mid 2000s KCET aired Grandma and her Ghosts.
per their November newsletter they carried Football and Volleyball championships
PBS in iowa show high school wrestling sometimes
WQED in Pittsburgh has done several in-house documentaries about stuff in and around that city that makes the area unique and at one time at least, they aired them fairly often, especially around the holidays and pledge break time. They came up with the idea in I believe the late 80s or early 90s. Pittsburgh tends to be a big city with a small town feel, many families have lived there for generations and the residents tend to have a lot of pride in the place. One of their producers started turning out the documentaries in an effort to raise money during pledge drives. It worked! Cash came flowing in as people tuned in to watch the documentaries, and people also bought copies to send to friends and loved ones who might like them, their kids or others who'd moved away, etc. Last I checked was several year ago and they'd done upwards of a dozen of them at that point.
There's a story behind that, which is that KCPQ was the non-commercial successor of commercial KTVW that had gone bankrupt on the channel 13 a little more than a year earlier. KTVW had carried wrestling, so when channel 13 returned to the air as KCPQ they decided to keep the Saturday night wrestling show and see if it could bring a new audience to public television. Apparently it didn't, because the Saturday night wrestling didn't last long.
For that matter, KCPQ as a public TV station didn't last long -- just a couple months over four years before it got sold again and reverted to commercial operation. It is now the Fox affiliate for the Seattle/Tacoma market, giving it the distinction of being one of two Fox affiliates that used to be PBS stations (the other is KOKH in Oklahoma City).
"Doctor Who" on public TV stations was pretty common for a long time. KERA (channel 13) in Dallas and KBTC (channel 28) in Tacoma both ran it on Saturday nights for many years, and I think that there were many others that did the same.
On the flip side...
Commercial KTVB (NBC) Boise ran Sesame Street in the afternoon for a few years or so before the KAID NET station went on the air.
Stipulation was no commercials before or after the program.
Prior to that the two commercial TV stations (KTVB & KBOI-TV) cobbled together a microwave link from NET KUID Moscow to Boise and put on a temporary translator in Boise. It was to demonstrate to the legislator what NET programming was and to fund building a public TV station in Southwest Idaho.
Commercial KTVB (NBC) Boise ran Sesame Street in the afternoon for a few years or so before the KAID NET station went on the air.
Stipulation was no commercials before or after the program.
Prior to that the two commercial TV stations (KTVB & KBOI-TV) cobbled together a microwave link from NET KUID Moscow to Boise and put on a temporary translator in Boise. It was to demonstrate to the legislator what NET programming was and to fund building a public TV station in Southwest Idaho.
WNET (Thirteen), which is the main PBS station in the New York metropolitan area, has never aired Doctor Who.
PBS channel 11 in Iowa still airs Doctor Who on Saturday Nights and it's still the classic episodes from the 70's.
IIRC, it was on WOR-TV.
"Doctor Who" still airs on KBTC (Saturday nights at 11pm), with many of the episodes from the 60s. I'm not sure "Doctor Who" really qualifies as unusual programming for PBS, since it overwhelmingly aired on noncommercial stations. Kemosabe has noted it aired on WOR, did any other commercial stations air it?
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