When did Alaska and Hawaii get live network coverage?

[Fenway1912]

Does anybody have an idea when network stations in Alaska and Hawaii were able to access the networks in real time?

The archivist in me thinks there could be many lost kinescopes in both of those locations.

 

[cd637299]

Wanna say 1982, give or take a year, for Alaska. I was stationed there 1978-80.

During my tour, KAKM, the PBS station, was the first to go same-night schedule as the 48; however....

KIMO 13 (ABC) was 1-week delay, very often delaying the start of programs, ostensibly to fit more commercials;
KTVA 11 (CBS) was 2-week delay;
KENI-TV (NBC) was 3-week delay.

This was, of course, Anchorage; possibly Fairbanks was even longer delay. We have an RD member in Fairbanks; maybe he can enlighten us.

cd

 

[johnnya2k6]

The Apollo 11 mission was the first ever live network TV broadcast to Alaska in 1969; then in the '70s, the network news, sports, and special events like the Oscars would later be seen same-day.

In the early '80s, Juneau got their shows same-day, which explained the one- to two-week delay. But that long practice came to a permanent end in 1984 when the other networks all transitioned to satellite.

 

[firepoint525]

In the early '80s, Juneau got their shows same-day, which explained the one- to two-week delay. But that long practice came to a permanent end in 1984 when the other networks all transitioned to satellite.

Juneau is much further east than the other major cities in Alaska, and I'm guessing that it would have been much easier for them to simply use the Pacific coast feeds. I am not sure what time zone that they are on, or if they observe DST. If they are, say, one hour behind PST, then it would be similar to those of us on central time getting the EST feeds. But I don't understand how Juneau getting their programming same-day would result in a one or even two-week delay for the rest of the state. And once satellite came in, how did they bring their week-old programming up to date? For prime-time shows, they could just skip a week (or two) of reruns in the summer. But for daytime programming, it might not have been so simple.

 

[Mr Tony]

Juneau is on Alaska time (1 hour behind Pacific) and they do observe DST

 

[azumanga]

Juneau is on Alaska time (1 hour behind Pacific) and they do observe DST

As far as I know, all of Alaska is in its own time zone, except for the western Aleutians, which is in the same time zone as Hawaii (save for observing DST, which during that time, their time zone is their own). From 1967 to 1983, Alaska was in the same time zone, as Hawaii, except for Juneau and the panhandle area, which was in its own time zone (prior to 1975, it and Yukon Territory shared that time zone).

 

[only1moore]

Hawaii, which began picking up live network programming via satellite in 1966 (mostly sports or award events but tape-delayed by hours or a day), did not go to a same-day network schedule until 1985.

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

The first network program carried live to Hawaii from the mainland was a college football game between Notre Dame and Michigan State in November, 1966.

At halftime, the then-ABC station in Honolulu fed to the mainland a live segment from Waikiki Beach which was not only the first TV program or segment beamed live from Hawaii to the mainland, but I believe was also the first local live color TV program broadcast in Hawaii itself.

I suspect that for the Apollo space missions, Hawaiian (and Alaskan) TV stations merely carried the NASA pool feeds from Cape Canaveral, the Houston space center (where mission control is), and downlinked the signal from the Pacific satellite of splashdowns in the Pacific that had been sent up to the satellite from pool coverage uplinked from the recovery ship.

Thus, I would think that when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon in July of 1969, Alaskans and Hawaiians never heard the commentary of ABC's Jules Bergman, CBS' Walter Cronkite nor NBC's Frank McGee (who anchored their respective networks' coverage of the Apollo 11 mission). They likely heard commentary from the anchors of the local newscasts of whatever station they were tuned into. For all I know, if there was a space expert living in the area that a particular Alaska or Hawaii station was located in, such an expert would have done commentary or even anchored the coverage for these stations.

 

[FreddyE1977]

Thus, I would think that when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon in July of 1969, Alaskans and Hawaiians never heard the commentary of ABC's Jules Bergman, CBS' Walter Cronkite nor NBC's Frank McGee (who anchored their respective networks' coverage of the Apollo 11 mission). They likely heard commentary from the anchors of the local newscasts of whatever station they were tuned into.

"There you have it. One small step for man.
And the Islanders drop a double-header against Portland.
Film at 11."

 

[only1moore]

Thus, I would think that when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon in July of 1969, Alaskans and Hawaiians never heard the commentary of ABC's Jules Bergman, CBS' Walter Cronkite nor NBC's Frank McGee (who anchored their respective networks' coverage of the Apollo 11 mission). They likely heard commentary from the anchors of the local newscasts of whatever station they were tuned into.

"There you have it. One small step for man.
And the Islanders drop a double-header against Portland.
Film at 11."

He's referring to the Hawaii islanders (now the Colorado Springs Sky Sox) and the Portland Beavers of the Triple-A Pacific Coast League.

 

[johnnya2k6]

I think all of the Anchorage stations got the same live CBS coverage of Apollo 11; Fairbanks, for reasons unknown, watched it on a one-day delay but there was always live radio coverage on KFAR and KFRB.

But Super Bowl V in 1971 would be the first time Fairbanks would finally see live network TV.

 

[ajmcwhorter]

Armed Forces prints and kinescopes have been found that trace to back Hawaii, one in particular was Don Larsen's perfect World Series game.

Apollo 11 coverage was tape delayed in Hawaii.

Channel 4 (KHVH, now KITV) Apollo 11 coverage was anchored by Chuck Henry (now with KNBC), probably one of the youngest news anchors to cover such a big event.

Channel 9 (KGMB) Apollo 11 coverage was anchored by the late Bob Sevey (who filmed some earlier segments in Houston and came home to cover the events such as the splashdown in Hawaii.

Channel 2 (KHON) Apollo coverage was anchored by Don Picken, Charles Stubblefield and some science and space experts from the University of Hawaii and The Bishop Museum.

Some other tidbits of information...

While Monday Night Football is still tape delayed, some might be surprised to know that many sporting events were still tape delayed less than 10 years ago. Why? Because the local stations wanted people to be able to watch the sporting events after they got home from work, the games were often padded with tons of extra commercials too. The 10:00 local news never started on time until around 2001 for all the stations because again the satellite costs were high to carry same day network programming so extra commercials were inserted into the ad breaks.