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What impact did "Soul Train" have on black--and white--America?

Rollo-Smokes said:
Mostly everyone who posted here brought up great and relevant points, a lot of which I was thinking of had I gotten on here sooner. From me they are very appreciated.

Slightly off-topic, but I've always wondered: who were those courageous stations that got on board in the fall of '71 and set the train in motion?
Click to expand...

From the Soul Train website (which hasn't been updated in quite awhile), they didn't list the actual stations, but the first seven markets that intially picked-up the show, out of the originally targeted 25:

  • Los Angeles
  • Atlanta
  • Cleveland
  • Detroit
  • Houston
  • Philadelphia
  • San Francisco
 
ShawnHill1 said:
Rollo-Smokes said:
Mostly everyone who posted here brought up great and relevant points, a lot of which I was thinking of had I gotten on here sooner. From me they are very appreciated.

Slightly off-topic, but I've always wondered: who were those courageous stations that got on board in the fall of '71 and set the train in motion?
Click to expand...

From the Soul Train website (which hasn't been updated in quite awhile), they didn't list the actual stations, but the first seven markets that intially picked-up the show, out of the originally targeted 25:

  • Los Angeles
  • Atlanta
  • Cleveland
  • Detroit
  • Houston
  • Philadelphia
  • San Francisco
Click to expand...

The "San Franciso" station was actually KTVU Channel 2, licensed to Oakland - a Fox affiliate since the 80s, but originally an independent. On their 10:00 News last night, their story about Cornelius's death included live coverage of a Black History event month eulogy to Don, an interview with actress Holly Robinson Peete (who spoke at the event about Don's influence on the African-American community), and closed with a note that KTVU had run Soul Train since the beginning of its syndication, and all the way to the end in 2006.
 
ShawnHill1 said:
From the Soul Train website (which hasn't been updated in quite awhile), they didn't list the actual stations, but the first seven markets that intially picked-up the show, out of the originally targeted 25:

  • Los Angeles
  • Atlanta
  • Cleveland
  • Detroit
  • Houston
  • Philadelphia
  • San Francisco
Click to expand...

At what point did New York (which would have been WNEW-TV 5 up to the early 1980's) climb on board? I know that by around Spring 1972 - the middle of its first season in syndication - they were running the show both on Saturday mornings and repeating it that night before sign-off time. Ditto for such other high-ranked markets as Boston, Philadelphia, Dallas, Washington (DC), Pittsburgh, et al.

And WCIU, I.I.N.M., went color about 2-3 years before 1978, because I saw on a website devoted to classic Chicago TV a color program on that channel from 1977; and there is a blog with some screenshots of their long-running Stock Market Observer which were dated as 1976 - and very much in color. (Their first color camera was the IVC 501, which was first introduced by that company in or around 1973.) As for the nationally syndicated version, the first Chicago station to run it was WBBM-TV 2, through 1977, after which it migrated to WGN.
 
P.S. Looking at old area newspapers, apparently Soul Train's WNEW-TV debut was Saturday, March 25, 1972 at 11 A.M. (It replaced repeats of Daktari in that time slot.) It was later in the year (i.e. by the summer) that late Saturday night repeats were effected, as for a time.
 
Soul Train debuted in Cleveland on WJW-TV 8..Earliest listing I've seen for it is Saturday. October 8, 1971..
 
Tim L said:
Soul Train debuted in Cleveland on WJW-TV 8..Earliest listing I've seen for it is Saturday. October 8, 1971..
Click to expand...

That was six days after its national syndication debut of Oct. 2, 1971.
 
So here's what we got so far:

Chicago: WBBM-TV
Cleveland: I figured it was WJW-TV. They were still running it six years later, as per this YouTube clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxywFylBcA8
San Francisco: KTVU

As for the rest:
Los Angeles: as it taped at KTTV, I would be surprised if they didn't pick it up
Atlanta: I'll guess either WAGA-TV (like WJW-TV, a Storer station) or maybe WQXI-TV (WXIA)
Detroit: maybe WJBK-TV (another Storer station)
Houston: just four commercial stations there in '71, that's a toss-up
Philadelphia: could it have been WCAU-TV? Or one of the UHF independents?
 
As of 1977, the once-and-future WJW (then called WJKW) ran Soul Train back-to-back with The Lawrence Welk Show - as much a polar opposite of Cornelius' hour of "love, peace and soul" as one can possibly get. I suppose some other markets ran Soul Train back-to-back with Hee Haw; if anyone has such info, that'd be much appreciated.
 
KDFW/4 was the Dallas station that aired ST (I'm not sure how much of the 35 years though), I think the weekend times varied over the years IIRR...much of ST's time, KDFW was a CBS station, so I'm sure there was some kind of sports that the network would run, and KDFW would have to fit ST in around that....there could have been times when ST waited until late night on Saturday (?) if the network offerings were keeping the afternoons busy.
 
ShawnHill1 said:
From the Soul Train website (which hasn't been updated in quite awhile), they didn't list the actual stations, but the first seven markets that intially picked-up the show, out of the originally targeted 25:

  • Los Angeles
  • Atlanta
  • Cleveland
  • Detroit
  • Houston
  • Philadelphia
  • San Francisco
Click to expand...

Surprised that Chicago was not one of the first markets to show the national "Soul Train" when it started. How soon until WBBM started showing that version?

wbhist said:
As of 1977, the once-and-future WJW (then called WJKW) ran Soul Train back-to-back with The Lawrence Welk Show - as much a polar opposite of Cornelius' hour of "love, peace and soul" as one can possibly get. I suppose some other markets ran Soul Train back-to-back with Hee Haw; if anyone has such info, that'd be much appreciated.
Click to expand...

The closest situation I can think of is WNEM in Bay City / Saginaw, Michigan -- on Saturdays in the mid- to late-1970s, WNEM would show Soul Train at 12 Noon (bumping the last hour of NBC's Saturday morning shows), and later, show Hee Haw at 6:30PM, not clearing the Saturday "NBC Nightly News".
 
In Philadelphia, I believe the station that aired "Soul Train" in the early days was WPHL Channel 17. That station was carried on cable in outlying areas while the Vs were not, and I recall seeing the show. If it wasn't WPHL it would have been WKBS Channel 48. The other U, WIBF Channel 29, was too low-budget.
 
John-Summers said:
In Philadelphia, I believe the station that aired "Soul Train" in the early days was WPHL Channel 17. That station was carried on cable in outlying areas while the Vs were not, and I recall seeing the show. If it wasn't WPHL it would have been WKBS Channel 48. The other U, WIBF Channel 29, was too low-budget.
Click to expand...

By 1971, Channel 29 had already changed ownership hands and had become WTAF (had been since 1969), but otherwise it's true that they didn't break out ratings-wise until they started running Benny Hill in 1979. (You can check old Reading Eagle issues on Google News Archive from 1971-72 to see which of the U's aired Soul Train.)
 
azumanga said:
ShawnHill1 said:
From the Soul Train website (which hasn't been updated in quite awhile), they didn't list the actual stations, but the first seven markets that intially picked-up the show, out of the originally targeted 25:

  • Los Angeles
  • Atlanta
  • Cleveland
  • Detroit
  • Houston
  • Philadelphia
  • San Francisco
Click to expand...

Surprised that Chicago was not one of the first markets to show the national "Soul Train" when it started. How soon until WBBM started showing that version?
Click to expand...

Actually, those seven were the other charter markets; Chicago's WBBM was on board, from what I can tell, from Point Go. A total of 8 markets were the first to sign up; the other 17 (including New York), out of a targeted 25 that Cornelius envisioned, didn't sign up until later that first season.
 
John-Summers said:
In Philadelphia, I believe the station that aired "Soul Train" in the early days was WPHL Channel 17. That station was carried on cable in outlying areas while the Vs were not, and I recall seeing the show. If it wasn't WPHL it would have been WKBS Channel 48.
Click to expand...

It was WKBS. An article on Cornelius, Gamble-Huff, Philadelphia International and "The Sound of Philadelphia" that was published Wednesday on this site confirmed Channel 48 was the station that took the show at the point of its national launch.
 
As well, I uncovered two of the "other" initial group of seven that first climbed on board the Soul Train express: WJBK-TV 2 in Detroit and WAGA-TV 5 in Atlanta. (Both Storer stations, as was WJW; and all now Fox affiliates.) Still trying to find out which of the Houston stations would've aired it.
 
wbhist said:
As well, I uncovered two of the "other" initial group of seven that first climbed on board the Soul Train express: WJBK-TV 2 in Detroit and WAGA-TV 5 in Atlanta. (Both Storer stations, as was WJW; and all now Fox affiliates.) Still trying to find out which of the Houston stations would've aired it.
Click to expand...

William, how are you getting your information? I've tried Google News Archive but it never works for me; maybe I'm putting in the wrong search criteria.
 
Why, on this board; in the "Classic TV" section, type "Retro Detroit Soul Train" or "Retro Atlanta Soul Train" in the "Search" box.
 
We have that settled - or so we thought.

(http://soultrain.com/2011/09/30/soul-what-soul-train-the-40th-anniversary-of-the-first-national-airing-of-soul-train/)

I stumbled across this article on the national debut of Soul Train and it was in-line with what's been posted here, except:

  • KTLA is listed as the Los Angeles station
  • KBHK-TV is the San Francisco outlet
  • WBRC-TV in Birmingham is one of the charter affiliates (that would actually be not surprising)
  • L.A., Birmingham, Atlanta (WAGA-TV) and Philadelphia (WKBS-TV) were the only places where the premiere episode aired on Oct. 2, 1971
  • The show premiered in Detroit (WJBK-TV) on Oct. 7
  • San Francisco got on board Oct. 13 (must have been ep. 2)
  • Houston (KHTV) premiered the series on Oct. 16 (in time for ep. 3)
  • WBBM-TV introduced Chicago audiences to the national version on Oct. 30 (ep. 5)
  • there is no mention of Cleveland having picked up the show within its first month.

I guess more digging is needed, if that can be done.
 
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