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Virgin Islands TV in the '70s

J

johnnya2k6

So far, there have been two U.S. Virgin Islands TV schedules from the late 1970's posted on here, and unlike Alaska at the time, they were very dire.

For one thing...WBNB never aired Walter Cronkite; they could've had the tape flown in from Miami for late night broadcast. And speaking of Miami, I'm certain WBNB and WSVI may have gotten their shows from WTVJ and WPLG on a one-week delay. In the case of morning shows, no Captain Kangaroo or Good Morning America, which explains their 4:00 sign-on times.

But what about NBC? How did the USVI get their Johnny Carson/Saturday Night Live fix (since they were the only things worth watching on NBC back then)?
 
USVI is three small islands in the middle of the Caribbean. In the 1970s, the population of the whole territory was less than 100,000; with a much lower per capita income than the mainland. The TV stations probably came on at 4pm because they couldn't afford to come on any earlier. I doubt there was any money in the budget for flying in tapes of Cronkite. The islanders probably didn't even know who Cronkite was, or cared. Probably didn't know who Johnny Carson was, either. The islands have their own culture... they don't really have that much in common with the rest of the U.S.

WSVI was sold last year for $350K, less than most small market radio stations. It's not a very good advertising market for radio or TV.
 
As for the "Dallas" episode when we found out who shot J.R.? I'm guessing that even though it was seen on the same day all over the country (including Hawaii and Anchorage, Alaska; Fairbanks for some reason would see it the following Friday), WBNB probably made an arrangement with WTVJ to tape the episode and fly it down there for next-day airing.
 
jh said:
WSVI was sold last year for $350K, less than most small market radio stations. It's not a very good advertising market for radio or TV.
Click to expand...

And furthermore, after Hurricane Hugo struck VI in 1989, Benedek Broadcasting, the owners of WBNB that also had their own share of problems, never bothered to rebuild the station after it got damaged.
 
Am I correct in assuming that the British Virgin Islands operated on the British TV standard?
Or did both the BVI and USVI share a standard so they could all watch the same television?
 
FreddyE1977 said:
Am I correct in assuming that the British Virgin Islands operated on the British TV standard?
Or did both the BVI and USVI share a standard so they could all watch the same television?
Click to expand...

If Wikipedia is to be believed, they only have (or had) one station -- ZBTV channel 5:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZBTV

Also, NTSC is used in the British Virgin Islands -- especially considering that most people get their TV from the US and Canada, as well as nearby USVI. For the record, Caribbean islands controlled by Britain (including Bermuda) and the Netherlands also use NTSC, as opposed to PAL back in Europe:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTSC
 
Sorry that this little factoid doesn't have much in common with this topic, other than being an island and using mostly American TV...Bermuda has several US network affiliates. Problem is, being in the Atlantic time zone, prime time is from 9 PM to midnight. THEN...they have late local news!

I just thought this didn't deserve its own topic...
 
Of course, today, with satellite technology, it's possible
for the Hamilton stations to get live feeds from New York,
even though the schedules look a bit strange to those of
us on the mainland: network news at 7:30 (we haven't had
that since the early days of network TV) and, as mentioned,
a 9-midnight primetime. But what would the alternative be?
Bermuda is four hours behind England; a BBC program airing in
London at 8 PM would air at 4 PM in Hamilton. Possibly the CBC,
with its clock-time schedule for all the provinces except Newfoundland
(with its half-hour offset). But the Hamilton stations are affiliated with
U.S. networks (ABC7, CBS9, NBC11), so the U.S. schedules are what
they see.

I know this thread is about the Virgin Islands in the '70s, but let me
back up a bit to 1967: the finale of "The Fugitive" was shown the same
day (August 29, the day the running stopped) everywhere in the world
where the show aired; I wonder if the USVI saw that episode that night.
 
bpatrick said:
I know this thread is about the Virgin Islands in the '70s, but let me
back up a bit to 1967: the finale of "The Fugitive" was shown the same
day (August 29, the day the running stopped) everywhere in the world
where the show aired; I wonder if the USVI saw that episode that night.
Click to expand...

Even in countries where they're still in the first or second season in black and white?
 
azumanga said:
Also, NTSC is used in the British Virgin Islands -- especially considering that most people get their TV from the US and Canada, as well as nearby USVI. For the record, Caribbean islands controlled by Britain (including Bermuda) and the Netherlands also use NTSC, as opposed to PAL back in Europe:
Click to expand...

The French islands, however, used SECAM.
 
There is a new TV station in the BVI called CBN (Caribbean Broadcast Network, www.cbnbvi.com ), which I believe was told by them that they have the analog ch 5 (formerly ZBTV) facilities, but at this time they are cable only. Whether they will ever actually activate the ch 5, especially in analog, remains to be seen. IMO it wouldn't make much financial sense.

I was in the USVI in summer 2004, and brought a TV & antenna to DX....the only ch 5's at that time were two translators of other stations. I was also told even then by someone at WTJX 12 that ZBTV was history.

cd
 
Heading into the modern age, it seems that WSVI's website is severely out of date, as it was not updated since February 2011 (the Oscars ad on that site refers to Sunday, February 27, which was last year). Hopefully, the new owners would breathe new life into that station:

http://www.wsvi.tv/
 
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