WJAN-TV Transmitter: building. I dont know much about electronics. I will admit, but even I can tell this is old..Was finally turned off Thursday night..
Taken at the 1972 Jerry Lewis Telethon.. The gentleman in the middle of the photo is probably "Milton The Milkman", who hosted a kids' cartoon show in the afternoons..Am not 100% sure, however..Also dont know who the man he is talking to is..Check out the young lady on the right..Little short on the skirt there.. WJAN carried the telethon till 1977..WOAC eventually took it over..With Scott Davis and Sherry Lee hosting..Ms Lee was also a long time WJAN personality..
Early 1970's camera..Perhaps Ed or Cleveland Classic Media reader wbhist can tell us the make of this camera..This was taken at the 1972 Jerry Lewis Telethon
Camera looks like a Norelco PC-70...
ReplyDeleteI agree. One of the earliest plumbicon cameras if I recall correctly.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I can remember about WJAN the broadcast equipment had to be far from top drawer. Everything seemed so bargain basement, even compared to WTRF channel 7 and WSTV channel 9.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I remember about WJAN when I lived in Canton was Milton the Milkman and The Cool Ghoul.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the WJAN entries. I just read all of them. WJAN was the worst TV station I ever watched, but I loved it. I watched it al the time. It was so much fun. Like watching Cleveland TV in the late 1940s.
ReplyDeleteHere's some things I remember. They ran a lot of industrial fillers. I actually sat through a film about Kikuman (sp.) soy sauce once. I have a high tolerance for boredom.
Another favorite was a local evangelist with the last name of Mayle. (Isn't half of Canton named that?) He was kind of a greasy guy with a mushtasche, a bit overweight. Why a Pentecostal had a supply of light-up Virgin Mary portraits I don't know, but if you called in and pledged X amount of money you could get one.
My fav, though, was the Greek show where some old Greek guy with an easel and a bunch of pictures would play music and flip over the pictures.
I also remember Larry Flynt came up and did an interview with Chuck Healy (I think) abbout the old Hustler Club in Columbus.
Another time, singer David Alan Coe showed up and declared that he knew for a fact that Burt Reynolds was going to be charged with murder in the death of Sylvia Mile's boyfriend. I'm still waiting.
Finally, the Canton Area Peace Movement got a lot of play.
I've also got a story about one of the on-air personalities, but it's not for polite company.
That hot looking girl in the short shorts could be someone's grandmother today!!
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ReplyDeleteFound a few more pictures of her which I uploaded to:
ReplyDeletehttp://drop.io/wjan17canton
Ed...
The guy on the far left in the first telethon photo with Milton the Milkman is none other than Max Heywood.
ReplyDeleteThe PC-70's came from RME productions in Columbus when they went belly up. WAKR-23 bought one, WJAN-17 bought two. They were used on the USS Hornet when the Apollo 11 astronauts returned home. Milions of people watched video from these cameras before WJAN bought them.
ReplyDeleteIn the 1972 MDA Telethon photos, the guy who looks like David Crosby was Tim Davidson (can you say Contemporary-Q?). Guy next to him is Max.
ReplyDeleteTransmitter photo is circa late 70's. Townsend model TA-15, upgraded to a TA-30. 4KM100LA external cavity klystrons in the PA cabinets. This transmitter signed WJAN on in 1967 and was in use when analog was terminated, albeit with an updated exciter. Pretty reliable, WJAN was first commercial station in Ohio to adopt a 24/7 air schedule.
ReplyDeleteOld style TV camera was a TK-41C. WJAN bought a truckload of these from NBC NY about 1974 when NBC upgraded. Three image orthicons for pickup, about a million knobs, took a long time to set up.
ReplyDeleteComments about programming are mostly spot on. In that era, there were hundreds of struggling independent UHF stations on the air. IMO, all were cut from the same cloth. If you could thrive in that environment, you were ready for anything. Call it "TV boot camp". Many people passed through these small market stations on their way to greatness. I remember Carl Monday when he was a shiny faced KSU intern doing the 10 PM news.
ReplyDeleteTo the poster with the recent anonymous comments (May 8-9):
ReplyDeleteCould you email me to leat me know who you are?..I'd like to post your comments on the main blog page as an "update". I think people who dont read the comments section would be interested in knowing all this..and I'd like to give you proper credit..A lot of valuable informatio there..thanks..
Have a good weekend
Tim
Yea thanks anomymous for all the great fill information... I had heard the story about TV23's studio camera covering the spashdown but didn't realize TV17's PC-70s were related... I think 23's cameras were donated to a college in Pennsylvania when they upgraded to LDK-25s...
ReplyDeleteYep, Max Heywood a.k.a. Dick Smith formerly a Rock Jock at WCUE-AM 1150...
Remember Carl Day who used to do news and "The Early Bird Club" when they signed on at 4 in the afternoon... think he moved on to the Dayton market...
They used to call the TK-41C "the Ray Gun" like something out of a sci-fi movie...
The good old days of local TV...
To "wd8kct", you're correct about Carl Day having moved to Dayton. He spent about 15 years at WDTN-2, and if memory serves, has gone through 4 bouts with leukemia. He'd been off the air for many months during his latest relapse, and WDTN failed to renew his contract earlier this year, so he's now officially retired. Coincidentally, there was an article in today's Dayton Daily News about an honor being bestowed on Carl (hope the whole URL shows up properly!):
ReplyDeletewww.daytondailynews.com/news/dayton-news/carl-day-retha-phillips-to-be-honored-at-festival-of-caring-119556.html
Hello, You wonderful people. I just tuned in here on this website and found a great surprise.I am overwhelmed with joy. I am very much alive and well here in Camarillo, CA. Much gratitude to you all for keeping the spirit of Milton alive. By the way I have no tape recordings of the show, but I do have a few pictures. God Bless You Milkdrinkers Milton the Milkman. Thanks Carl.
ReplyDeleteHello Milton:
ReplyDeleteWhie I was pretty much a teen/young adult when you were on, I really enjoyed watching your show when I could..The horrible prints of shows like "Linus The Lionhearted" notwithstanding..Until I started writing about TV 17 on the blog, there was nothing really online about it at all..We would love to share pictures that you have about that time. Click on the email link at my Profile Page..We'll be glad to put them up on the blog at some point..An honor to hear from you..
Tim
I'd like to pose a question to the former staffer: Which film chains were used at telecine - RCA TK-26 or 27? General Electric PE-24 or 240? Sometimes the way films looked or the way slides were scanned depended heavily on which chain was used. There was a different "look" to some degree on pictures replicated from GE chains than from RCA.
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