History and Memories of Cleveland and Northeast Ohio Television and Radio from the 1940's-1980's..Dedicated to preserving the Broadcast Heritage of Northeast Ohio..
Picture Postcard of Hopalong Cassidy, distributed by Bond Bread..The other side had "Tune In Hopalong Cassidy on WNBK-4"..Hoppy was starting his Radio Show Jan. 1, 1950 on Mutual-WHK..The Hopalong movies and TV shows started being shown later in 1950 on NBC..
Football Bowl Games on WGAR-1220, Including the OSU-California Rose Bowl Game from Pasadena..
January 2, 1950 from the Plain Dealer.."Folksinger" (not Country Music Singer) Eddy Arnold had his own weekday morning show on NBC-WTAM
WXEL-9 Test Pattern-Very nice copy..
WXEL-TV 9 Dedication plaque-Cleveland's Third TV Station had been on the air less than two weeks..
Looking some at New Years Eve Radio-TV 1949.
George Condon wrote in his Plain Dealer Column on December 31, 1949 about the possibility of The Cleveland Orchestra making it's debut on Television January 8, 1950 on WNBK-4..Radio broadcasts on WTAM and several other stations were to commence then, and it was planned to have an experimental TV relay during an Orchestra rehearsal from Severance Hall to the NBC Building on Superior Avenue using a Microwave reflector on top of Severance Hall, hoping to get the signal to a dish at WNBK/WTAM..Sohio was to sponsor the Radio/TV Broadcasts beginning 1/8/1950..
A Narrative Review of the last 50 years in Cleveland was to be aired by WGAR December 31 at 1PM, hosted by Reg Merridew and Sid Andorn..
Talk about going through Material..It was figured out that Cooking Hostess Alice Weston of WEWS had gone through 1, 068 of her own recipies and 168 others from viewers since starting her program February 14, 1949..
Hopalong Cassidy was to begin his own Radio Show January 1, 1950 at 4PM on WHK. Cassidy (William Boyd) was already a huge Movie Star and would soon gain many more fans as his films hit Television..
Robert Kintner, who joined ABC (Blue Network) in 1944, was announced as President of ABC-Radio/TV, where he served until 1956..
More Program Highlights
TV:(Dec. 31) Jack Carter hosts Cavalcade of Stars on DuMont-WXEL at 9PM Meet The Press with Senator Scott Lucas (D-Illinois) NBC-WNBK at 9:30 Morey Amsterdam hosts a New Years Eve Party on NBC-WNBK at 10
CBS New Years Party with Ed Sullivan, Robert Q. Lewis and others on WEWS at 10PM
Radio (Dec. 31)
Blue-Gray Football WHK 2:30 East-West Shrine Football-WHK 5:30
Forecast 1950-WTAM 3:30 Dallas Symphony-WTAM 4PM
AHL Hockey Cleveland Barons/Cincinnati Mohawks-WJW 9:45 (Third Period only) (Barons win 5-1 before 6891 at the Arena)
TV (Jan. 1, 1950) Movie-Little Men WEWS 3PM
Movie-That Uncertain Feeling WXEL 3PM
Super Circus-WXEL (ABC) 5PM Exit 1949-News Films WNBK 5PM
Perry Como WNBK-NBC 8PM Toast Of The Town WEWS-CBS 8PM with Charles Laughton and Mary McCarty
Radio Listings in The Plain Dealer Saturday, December 31, 1949 (Open link for better reading)
TV Listings Saturday December 31, 1949
Later Today, Tomorrow or Monday we'll have a brief Classic TV "Year In Review" Post..Want to wish all our readers a Happy and safe New Year..
December 25, 1947:WSRS radio ad in the Plain Dealer
WAKR-TV 23 Test Pattern from the 1970's
Just wanted to wish everybody on the blog a safe and Happy Christmas and thank you all for all the contributions made, whether it be by asking questions, providing media clips , or just commenting..Its really been an interesting year..And judging by recent Radio/TV changes in the Cleveland area, it promises to be more interesting in the year ahead..I will do a year end review sometime late next week..Again, have a very Merry Christmas everybody..
In the last few months I've become aware of a portion of the newsnet5.com (WEWS-TV 5) website known as "Video Vault"..TV 5's Tom Livingston digs out old film footage to share with everyone and he has found some real gems..The one drawback is that much of the earlier films are missing the soundtrack, but the memories are there..I want to share on the page today two of the recent Video Vault entries..
October 15, 1959 preparations for Downtown Cleveland Christmas Decorating, then we see shoppers mingling about on November 27, 1959 and then the later Cleveland Christmas Parade..
Christmas 1960:Santa In A Spaceship..One viewer thinks this is from Bailey's Department Store. We also get a look at the Sterling-Lindner Christmas Tree and a brief glimpse of Johnny Mathis, who sang for the City Tree-lighting ceremony November 25, 1960..
Portion of a May Company ad announcing the appearance of Johnny Mathis in Cleveland..
Wednesday, December 23, 1964:The Adventures Of Ozzie And Harriet:"Busy Christmas"..This was actually a repeat of the December 19, 1956 episode, with a newly-done opening by the Nelsons, with Ricky Nelson singing "The Christmas Song" at the end..Aired on WEWS-TV 5 and sponsored by The Gas Industry..
Christmas Comedy and Music Special produced by KYW-TV Tuesday, December 22, 1964..Looks like a good time was had by all..
Thursday, December 24, 1964:Cleveland Orchestra Concert with Robert Shaw Conducting..This was the fifth annual presentation..
December 23, 1964 Plain Dealer TV Listings..
December 24, 1964:Extensive plans for KYW-AM 1100 for 6PM-Midnight using most of the On-Air Radio Crew as well as KYW-TV 3's Barnaby and Woodrow..
A little bit of Christmas 1964 is featured, with KYW Radio and Television leading the way during Christmas week with a couple of special programs and a 6-hour extravaganza on radio. When TV and radio were creative and really wanted to make holidays special..I only wish that either the radio or TV special might be out there somewhere..Also featuring Ozzie and Harriet in a repeat of a 1956 episode with 1964 vintage commercials for the Gas Industry..
The features on the Facebook page today about Mr. Jingeling really took off..Lots of people responded..Just goes to show that some folks really like Christmas the way they remember it..Appreciate the response..
Images courtsy the Plain Dealer Archive and TV Guide..Video from the Internet Archive..
Plain Dealer ad for "Morning Surprise" with Tom Haley and "Mr. Rivitz" on KYW-TV 3
Ad for "Toyland Express" presented by something called the "Toy Guidance Council"
"Brod" Crawford stars in Highway Partol sponsored by Kroger on WKBN-27 Youngstown Tuesdays at 9:30, Preempting Red Skelton..
Ad for "Merry Christmas Mr. Baxter" on the Alcoa Hour Sunday, December 2 at 9:00 on NBC (3-21)
November 16, 1957..The first mention I could find in Halles advertising for Mr. Jingeling(Max Ellis), who may have begun playing the Character on TV in 1957
For our first holiday posting, I thought we'd look at December 1956, partly through the pages of Cleveland TV Guide, December 1-8, 1956..
WEWS was well into the "Holiday Spirit" with shows like Toyland Express(15 minutes) with Jimmy Nelson and his Dummies, shown Saturday at 10:45 and 11:30 and Sunday at 9:45 and 11:45 AM..
Santa Claus Monday, Thursday and Friday at 4:45..
There was also"Toy Preview" weekdays at 12:40 and 6:25 PM..My guess here is that Halles sponsored this, though it's not said so in the listings and no host is mentioned. While Mr. Jingeling was created for Halles in 1956, it appears he only made store appearances and possible other personal appearances.."Mr. Jingeling" as noted above was not mentioned by name in Halles ads till November 1957..
WJW-TV 8 featured Nelson Olmstead's "Ohio Story" weeknights at 6:30 with stories including Medina, Ohio as "Bee Captital" of the world..(To this day, Medina High School Sports Teams are nicknamed "The Bees") Toledo Zoo in Wintertime, and"Darling Nellie Gray" writer Ben Hamby..
Ron Penfound was doing WEWS sign-on news Saturdays at 8:55 and possibly hosting Fun Farm, as Mary Ellen Sussex had left for Florida a month earlier..
Romper Room was carried on WJW-TV 8 weekdays at 9AM with "Miss Pat" (Pat Ryan Dopp)The franchise moved to Channel 5 in 1958 with Barbara Plummer until 1971..
"Mr. Rivitz" was a character played by Jay Miltner in the Saturday morning "Nuts and Bolts" series on KYW-TV 3 and as part of Tom Haley's "Morning Surprise" weekdays at 9AM..A similar character, Mr. Rivets, was played by a different actor at WPTZ/WRCV-3 in Philadelphia from 1954-56..
Saturday, December 1, 1956:
3 KYW-NBC
7:30 This Land Is Ours 8:30 Nuts and Bolts-Mr. Rivitz 9:30 Teachers Meeting-Cleveland Schools 10AM Howdy Doody 10:30 Sheena of the Jungle 11AM Fury 11:30 Buffalo Bill Jr. Noon Roy Rogers 12:30 Duke Jenkins-Music 1PM Football Preview 1:15 Army/Navy College Football-Lindsey Nelson/Red Grange 4:45 Football Scoreboard 5PM 77th Bengal Lancers 5:30 Ramar of the Jungle 6PM Bowling-Chicago 7PM Racket Squad 7:30 People Are Funny-Art Linkletter 8PM Perry Como-COLOR Carol Channing, Nat King Cole 9PM Caesar's Hour 10PM George Gobel-Guest Angela Lansbury 10:30 Your Hit Parade 11PM News-Tom Field 11:05 Movie-Johnny Come Lately-1943 12:30 News-Tom Field
5 WEWS-ABC
8:55 News-Ron Penfound 9AM Fun Farm 10AM Story of TV 10:30 Friendly Giant 10:45 Toyland Express 11AM Mr. Lollipops-Joe Berg 11:30 Toyland Express 11:45 Learn To Draw-Jon Gnagy Noon Double Feature Western Movie 2PM Bandstand-Phil McLean Patty Rowe 4PM Movie-Kansas Terrors-1939 5PM Movie-Call of the Mesquiteers-1938 6PM Kit Carson 6:30 Gene Autry 7PM Old Dutch Revue-Johnny Andrews 7:30 Famous Film Festival-Hamlet Part One (Sir Laurence Olivier) 9PM Lawrence Welk 10PM Masquerade Party 10:30 Police Call 11PM I Spy-Anthology about spying and espionage 11:30 Conrad Nagel Theater Midnight Movie-A Matter of Murder 1AM News-Randy Culver
8 WJW CBS
8:30 Movie-Six-Gun Man 9:30 Captain Kangaroo 10:30 Mighty Mouse 11AM Looney Tunes 11:30 Texas Rangers Noon Big Top 1PM Lone Ranger 1:30 Humbard Family 2PM Science Sermons-Likely from Moody Bible Institute 2:30 Animal Fair 3PM Teen Press-Maggie Wulff 3:30 Salute-Documentary 4PM Movie-Six-Gun Man (Repeat from 8:30) 5PM Sky King 5:30 Captain Midnight 6PM Hopalong Cassidy 6:30 Annie Oakley 7PM Beat The Clock-Bud Collyer 7:30 Buccaneers 8PM Jackie Gleason 9AM Oh Susanna 9:30 Hey, Jeannie 10PM Gunsmoke 10:30 Frontier 11PM News-Warren Guthrie 11:10 Sports-John Fitzgerald 11:15 Movie-I Am The Law-1938 12:45 Movie-Love From A Stranger-1947
21 WFMJ-Youngstown NBC
10AM Howdy Doody 10:30 I Married Joan 11AM Fury 11:30 Cowboy Theater-Monty Hall 1PM To Be Announced 1:15 Army-Navy Football 5PM Funhouse Gang 6:15 Jungle Jim 6:45 Hollywood Backstage 7PM Rumpus Room 7:30 People Are Funny-Art Linkletter 8PM Perry Como-COLOR Carol Channing, Nat King Cole 9PM Caesar;s Hour 10PM George Gobel-Guest Angela Lansbury 10:30 Your Hit Parade 11PM News 11:15 Movie-The Secret People-1952
27 WKBN-Youngstown CBS/ABC
9:30 Captain Kangaroo 10:15 Toyland Express 10:30 Cartoon Classics 11AM Western Movie Noon Big Top 1PM Movie-The Old Barn Dance 2PM Movie-Fighting Pioneers 3PM Movie-The Quitter-1934 4PM Western Movie 5PM Bowling Champs 6PM Uncovered 6:30 News 7PM Ozzie And Harriet-ABC 7:30 Buccaneers 8PM Jackie Gleason 9AM Lawrence Welk-ABC 10PM Gunsmoke 10:30 Ford Theater 11PM Polka Party Midnight Wrestling Time
49 WAKR-Akron ABC
12:30 Movie-Cowboy Holiday-1934 1:30 Humbard Family 2PM Mr. and Mrs. North 2:30 Akron University 3PM Movie-I Met My Love Again-1938 4PM Movie-Gentleman From Texas-1946 6PM Movie-Musical 7PM Grand Ole Opry 7:30 Famous Film Festival-Hamlet Part One (Sir Laurence Olivier) 9PM Lawrence Welk 10PM Movie-More Than A Secretary-1936 11:30 Movie-Fall Guy-1947
Thursday, December 6, 1956
3 KYW NBC
7AM Today 9AM Morning Surprise-Tom Haley 10AM Ding Dong School 10:30 Price Is Right-Bill Cullen 11AM Home-Arlene Francis 11:25 Window-Women 11:30 Home-Continues Noon Tic Tac Dough 12:30 It Could Be You 1PM Movie-The Flying Irishman-1939 2:30 Tennessee Ernie 3PM Matinee Theater-COLOR "The Refugee" 4PM Queen For A Day 4:45 Modern Romances 5PM I Married Joan 5:30 Mr. District Attorney 6PM Six O'Clock-Adventure-My Hero (Robert Cummings) 6:30 Six O'Clock Adventure-Colonel March (Boris Karloff) 6:55 News-Tom Field 7PM Soldiers Of Fortune 7:30 Dinah Shore 7:45 Huntley/Brinkley Report 8PM You Bet Your Life-Groucho Marx 8:30 Dragnet 9PM People's Choice-Jackie Cooper, Pat Breslin 9:30 Ford Show-Tennessee Ernie Ford-Guest Ken Murray 10PM Project 20-"The Jazz Age" with host Fred Allen (Lux Video Theatre is off tonight) 11PM News-Tom Field 11:10 Weather-Joe Finan 11:15 Sports-Joe Mulvihill 11:20 Big Wilson-Music 11:30 Steve Allen Tonight Show 12:30 My Little Margie 1AM News-Tom Field
5 WEWS ABC
8:55 News-Bill Prentice 9AM Fun Farm 9:45 Paige Palmer 10AM Western Reserve University Telecourse 10:30 Movie-Blonde Ice-1948 11:55 News-Ron Penfound-Probably a voiceover with a slide, as Penfound was likely already in his "Captain Penny" train outfit for his show at Noon
Noon Captain Penny 12:40 Toy Preview 12:45 Beulah-The Play 1:15 Stu Erwin-Yvette 1:45 Susie-Too Much Spring 2:15 Liberace 2:45 Music Masters-Songs 3PM Afternoon Film Festival-It Started In Paradise (English:1953) 4:30 Little Rascals 4:45 Toyland Santa 5PM Mickey Mouse Club 6PM Three Musketeers-The Marshal and Milady 6:25 Toy Preview 6:30 Dorothy Fuldheim 6:45 Weather-Bill Prentice 6:50 News-Paul Wilcox, Ron Penfound 7PM Stories Of The Century-Kate Bender 7:30 Lone Ranger-Decision For Chris McKeever 8PM Circus Time-Paul Winchell 9PM Wire Service-The Avengers 10PM Ozark Jubilee-Red Foley 10:30 Public Defender-The Hitchhiker 11PM Weather-Paul Wilcox 11:05 Movie-The Groom Wore Spurs-1951 (IMDB) 12:30 News-Court Stanton
8 WJW CBS
7AM Good Morning-Will Rogers Jr. with Norman Vincent Peale, Mitch Miller 8AM Captain Kangaroo 9AM Romper Room-Miss Pat 9:30 Heart Of The City 10AM Garry Moore 10:30 Arthur Godfrey 11:30 Strike It Rich-Warren Hull Noon Valiant Lady 12:15 Love Of Life 12:30 Search For Tomorrow 12:45 Guiding Light 1PM Our Miss Brooks-Thanksgiving 1:30 As The World Turns 2PM Alice Weston 2:30 House Party-Linkletter 3PM Blackboard-Maggie Wulff (Pre-empted Big Payoff today only) 3:30 Bob Crosby-Bob sings brother Bing's holiday hit, "White Christmas" 4PM Brighter Day 4:15 Secret Storm 4:30 Edge Of Night 5PM Movie-Blind Alley-1939 (IMDB) 6:15 News-Roger Kennedy 6:30 Ohio Story-segment on Cleveland Police's Bureau of Scientific Investigation-Nelson Olmstead narrates
6:40 News-Roger Kennedy 6:45 CBS News-Douglas Edwards 7PM Dr. Christian 7:30 Sergeant Preston 8PM Bob Cummings (Love That Bob)-Chuck Buys A Hot Rod 8:30 Climax! Savage Portrait 9:30 Playhouse 90-Made In Heaven with Imogene Coca and Robert Preston 11PM News-Warren Guthrie 11:10 Sports-John Fitzgerald 11:15 Weather-Ken Armstrong 11:20 Les Paul/Mary Ford 11:25 Movie-Parole Racket-1937
21 WFMJ NBC Youngstown
7AM Today 9AM Adelaide Snyder 10AM Ding Dong School 10:30 Price Is Right-Bill Cullen 11AM Home-Arlene Francis Noon Tic Tac Dough 12:30 It Could Be You 1PM Local News 1:15 Kitchen Corner-Mariner 1:45 Hal's A-Poppin-Hal Fryar 2:30 Tennessee Ernie 3PM Matinee Theater-COLOR "The Refugee" 4PM Queen For A Day 4:45 Modern Romances 5PM Funhouse Gang 6PM Popeye 7PM Dr. Christian 7:30 Dinah Shore 7:45 Huntley/Brinkley Report 8PM You Bet Your Life-Groucho Marx 8:30 Dragnet 9PM People's Choice-Jackie Cooper, Pat Breslin 9:30 Ford Show-Tennessee Ernie Ford-Guest Ken Murray 10PM Project 20-"The Jazz Age" with host Fred Allen (Lux Video Theatre is off tonight) 11PM News/Weather/Sports 11:20 Living Word 11:30 Steve Allen Tonight Show
27 WKBN CBS/ABC Youngstown
7AM Good Morning-Will Rogers Jr. with Norman Vincent Peale, Mitch Miller 8AM Captain Kangaroo 9AM To Be Announced-(Nothing listed-On occasion 27 would run Captain Kangaroo Twice-this may be the case here)
10AM Fashions-Esther Sonntag 10:15 Movie-Charlie Chan In Rio-1941 11:30 Strike It Rich-Warren Hull Noon Cartoon Carnival 12:30 Playhouse 1PM CBS News-Charles Colligwood 1:10 Stand Up-Women 1:30 Movie-Pearl Of Death-1944 2:45 Casteel's Carousel 3PM Big Payoff 3:30 Western Movie 4:45 Clancy's Clubhouse 5PM Mickey Mouse Club-ABC 6PM Annie Oakley 6:30 Sports/News 6:45 CBS News-Douglas Edwards 7PM Crunch and Des 7:30 Sergeant Preston 8PM Bob Cummings (Love That Bob)-Chuck Buys A Hot Rod 8:30 Climax! Savage Portrait 9:30 Playhouse 90-Made In Heaven with Imogene Coca and Robert Preston 11PM News-Warren Guthrie 11:10 Local News 11:15 Movie-Conflict Of Wings-1955
49 WAKR ABC Akron
1PM Movie-Johnny In The Clouds-1945 2:30 Chef Lorenzo 3PM Afternoon Film Festival-It Started In Paradise (English:1953) 4:30 Adventure 5PM Movie-Paradise Canyon-1935 6PM Local News 6:30 Dinner Spinner-Music 7PM News 7:15 ABC News-John Daly 7:30 Chef Lorenzo 8PM Movie-Four Days Leave-1950 (IMDB) 9:30 Movie-Guest Wife-1945 11PM Movie-Shadow On The Range-1946
Some movie dates courtesy IMDB Movie Database
1956 episode of the 15 minute NBC Dinah Shore Show.
September 29, 1951:Advertisement for Sears featuring early color TV..
September 29, 1951:WEWS Statement explaining the CBS Color TV system..
September 30, 1951:Front Page Plain Dealer article describing the Color College Football Gane aired on CBS (WEWS-TV 5)
Part 2 of the Article above-September 30, 1951..
As so often happens, when I look for one thing in an archive, I find something different to feature that is much more interesting..The FCC, in it's "Wisdom" awarded CBS the first crack at color tv with a "spinning disc" system in 1950,,,By the fall of 1951 they felt ready to test it out..The only problem (a big one) was that CBS color system was not "backwards compatible" with current black and white sets, meaning that if you bought or had an already functioning Black and White set, the CBS Color Picture would be scrambled..The first tests were done with College Football in September-October 1951..The California-Penn game was televised in Color on CBS (WEWS) September 29..
Among the exhibits above: A Sears ad for the first color tv's in Cleveland..A WEWS-TV 5 ad (some might call it a "disclaimer") Basically stating while they were participating in the test, their main focus was still their original monochrome programming..Explaining the picture would be scrambled on all Black and White sets and basically inviting folks to tune to channels 4 and 9, and that to call a TV repairman would be futile..
There is also a Plain Dealer from a day later with a review of the proceedings..The reporter(unnamed)..Stated while there was potential, there was a long way to go..
The CBS experiments lasted only a few weeks..All the CBS Color TV sets were ordered destroyed and CBS ultimately adopted the RCA system..
George Condon writes on the demise of some of the early FM stations in Cleveland, such as WEWS-FM and WLAL-FM, licensed to Lakewood..Condon also speculates on the reasons behind FM's failure, which mirrors just about every new entertainment technology to start up..High prices for sets, not much advertising,..In the case of FM, most stations were duplicating AM programming, though in the case of WEWS and WLAL (104.9) they were stand alone operations, without an AM partner.. George Condon Plain Dealer Article-Dated April 4, 1950.. Notice the WEOL-AM/FM Listings
FM would take off again in the 60's and 70's..Music formats were the big ticket..Though in recent years, more talk and sports would find its way to FM, leaving AM an endangered species in some areas of the country..
Monday, March 29, 1965:Plain Dealer ad for the premiere of Bob Wells as "Hoolihan The Weatherman" on WJW-TV 8 Cleveland, City Camera News. With the hiring of Dick Goddard a year later, Wells was moved to Noon and Weekends..He would gain lasting fame as half of "Hoolihan and Big Chuck" from 1966-79..
July 26, 1977:The first ever Hoolihan and Big Chuck "Oldies Night"..
After Bob Wells left Cleveland, he continued to do voiceover commercial work, Had a TV Ministry with his wife Barbara Wells for a time, then retired to Florida, where he still makes occasional appearances in Dinner Theater and comes up to Cleveland and participates in "Ghoulardifest" easch year..A good man, and an awesome talent..
George Condon, who was the first Cleveland Plain Dealer TV columnist, died October 7, 2011..He was 94.
He began his career at the Plain Dealer in 1943..Becoming TV Critic/Columnist in 1948 and continuing on that beat till 1962...After which he did a daily editorial column until his retirement in 1985.. Condon was also an accomplished author writing several books about Cleveland..
Here is an example of his writing-At the time of the first Cleveland TV Network Swap around March 1, 1955 between then-WXEL-8 and WEWS-5
Below is a series of Plain Dealer stories about an AFTRA strike by Announcers and Newsmen at KYW-Radio 1100 and TV 3 which began February 9, 1959 and ended l February 11..Issues were The new technology of video tape and how it would affect the way announcers worked.. as well as wages. Personnel were flown in from other Westinghouse stations to keep the station going, and Cleveland management filled on-air slots.
First:The Plain Dealer Strike Story Monday, February 9..
Continuation of PD Strike Story from Page 1:
Note the early Kenny Kings ad-Before KFC
George Condon Column-Also from February 9, Including full details of on-air radio/tv replacements for strikers and a photo of Tom Haley and Big Wilson outside KYW picketing..
Cleveland Plain Dealer Wednesday February 11, 1959-Details of Strike Settlement..
Some of the issues dealt with at that time are still issues 50-some years later, only more so..Technology has just about wiped out the need of "live announcers" on Television and Radio veterans know the effects of "Voice-Tracking" on radio..
Ad for one of the first, and I think, best animated Thanksgiving Specials..Mouse On The Mayflower, which had it's premiere showing Saturday, November 23, 1968 on NBC/WKYC-TV 3
Plain Dealer ad for WNOB 107.9. The station is now WENZ "The End"
"The Singing Rage" Patti Page, in a musical special sponored by a pair of Cleveland Area Car Dealerships Sunday, November 24, 1968
November 28:WUAB early "Star Movie" presentation..Channel 43 would use the "Star Movie" title into the 1980's..
Today, we'll look at Thanksgiving 1968 in Cleveland TV..
Some Highlights:
NFL Football: Philadelphia/Detroit at Noon, Washington/Dallas at 6, WJW-TV 8
AFL Football: Houston/Kansas City at 1:30 Buffalo/Oakland at 4 WKYC-TV 3
Mr. Jingeling (Earl Keyes) begins his 13th year on WEWS-TV 5 sponsored by Halles at a special time of 2:15 due to College Football
WVIZ-25, despite the Holiday, offered a full slate of classroom TV from 8AM-3PM..Also, nearly all their programming was still Black and White..
WKYC-TV offered a Thanksgiving Special at 1PM, with Tom Haley, Gary Essex and Norma Quarles..
Macy's Parade on NBC was hosted by Lorne Greene and Betty White
Parades on CBS
New York-Burr Tillstrom/Fran Allison Detroit-Bob Keeshan/Beth Brickell (Gentle Ben) Toronto-Arthur Godfrey/Barbara McNair Philadelphia-Mile Douglas/Bess Myerson North Carolina-Jack Linkletter
Listings for Thursday, November 28, 1968:
WKYC-3 NBC
7AM Today 9AM Mike Douglas 10AM Macy's Parade Lorne Greene/Betty White Noon Jeopardy-Art Fleming 12:30 Eye Guess-Bill Cullen 12:55 NBC News 1PM Tribute To Thanksgiving 1:30 AFL Football Chiefs/Oilers 4PM AFL Football-Bills/Raiders 7PM Huntley/Brinkley 7:30 Daniel Boone 8:30 Ironside 9:30 Dragnet 10PM Dean Martin 11PM News-Virgil Dominic 11:15 Weather-Wally Kinnan 11:20 Sports-Jim Graner 11:30 Tonight 1AM Playhouse
WEWS-5 ABC 7AM Funny You Should Ask 7:30 Dream House 8AM Treasure Isle 8:30 Bullwinkle 9AM Uncle Al 9:30 Romper Room 10AM Paige Palmer 10:30 Dick Cavett Noon Bewitched 12:30 News 12:45 Dorothy Fuldheim 1PM What's My Line?-Wally Brunner 1:30 Password-reruns of 1966-67 season. 2PM Captain Penny 2:15 Mr, Jingeling 2:30 College Football-Texas/Texas A&M 6PM Merv Griffin 7:30 Thanksgiving Visitor 8:30 Bewitched 9PM That Girl 9:30 Journey To The Unknown 10:30 Felony Squad 11PM News 11:30 Joey Bishop
WJW-TV 8 CBS
7AM Sunrise Semester 7:30 CBS News/Local News 8AM Captain Kangaroo 9AM Thanksgiving Parades Noon NFL Football-Eagles/Lions 3:30 Mr. Magoo in Sherwood Forest Compilation of 1964-65 Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo series..The entire series is now out on DVD, with the Complete Magoo TV Collection.
5PM City Camera News 5:30 Voice Of The Fans-Andy Hale, Blanton Collier 5:45 Best Of The Browns-John Fitzgerald 6PM NFL Football-Redskins/Cowboys 9PM CBS Movie-Marco Polo The Magnificient 11PM City Camera-Doug Adair, Martin Ross, Dick Goddard, Harry Jones 11:25 Movie-The Tender Trap-1955 1AM Moivie-Fury at Furnace Creek-1948 (per IMDB)
WAKR-23 ABC Akron
9:30 Ed Allen 10AM Women's Page 11AM Dick Cavett (Joined In Progress) Noon Bewitched 12:30 Treasure Isle 1PM Funny You Should Ask (listed as an hour) 2PM Newlywed Game 2:30 College Football-Texas/Texas A&M 6PM ABC News 6:30 Cheyenne 7:30 Thanksgiving Visitor 8:30 Bewitched 9PM Football High School Champs (Akron City Series) 11PM News/Weather 11:30 Joey Bishop
WVIZ-25 NET
8AM Classroom Programs 11:30 Misterogers Noon Classroom Programs 3PM Being Mature 4:15 Reading 4:45 Friendly Giant 5PM Yoga 5:30 Kindergarten 6PM Misterogers 6:30 Folk Guitar 7PM Insight 7:30 In Society 8PM Joyce Chen Cooks 8:30 French Chef 9PM Don Robertson-Robertson At Large Special 2 hour show with The Browns' Bill Glass, Classical Music Composer/Conductor Jose Serebrier,Liquor Control agent Ralph Kreiger (who may have just been elected Cuyahoga County Sherriff), Plain Dealer Writer Russell W, Kane and WEWS-TV 5 News Commentator Dorothy Fuldheim.
(Personal Note:In the few times I have seen Robertson At Large listings..The guests that he had make me want to see some of these..Too bad they are'nt likely to have been saved..)
11PM Sign-Off
WUAB-43 Ind
Noon News 12:30 Underdog/Uncle Waldo (Hoppity Hooper) 1PM Lucy Show 1:30 Movie-Magic Sword-1962 3PM Cartoon Special 3:30 Bugs and Friends 4PM Ultraman 4:30 Batman 5PM Batman 5:30 Patty Duke 6PM Real McCoys 6:30 Farmer's Daughter 7PM Gilligan's Island 7:30 I Spy 8:30 Movie-Brass Legend-1956 10:25 Paul Harvey 10:30 Untouchables 11:30 Football Forecast
WKBF-61 Ind.
9AM Jack LaLanne 9:30 Mr. Ed 10AM Woody Woodbury Show 11:30 Make Room For Daddy Noon Cartoons 1PM Movie-Two-Way Stretch-1961 3PM Linn Sheldon 3:30 Captain Cleveland 4:30 Dennis the Menace 5PM My Favorite Martian 5:30 Superman 6PM Flintstones 6:30 McHale's Navy 7PM Twilight Zone 7:30 Special-This Is Show Business 9PM Ray Anthony Special 10PM News 10:30 Alfred Hitchcock Presents 11PM Perry Nason Midnight The New Breed
Note:Since there hasnt been a lot of response to the messageboard since I put it up in early October, I've made the decision to discontinue it. I will, however over the next few weeks merge some of the History posts into the blog itself..Thanks to everybody who signed up..
Thursday, October 4, 1956. Cleveland Plain Dealer mentions WEWS' Bob Dale and Mary Ellen Sussex leaving the station..Dale had been with WEWS since 1948 and was probably the most popular personality at the time....
Mary Ellen had hosted Fun Farm since March 1955 after bringing the show from WSPD-TV 13 Toledo..
Dale spent more than 40 years in San Diego TV and passed away in 2008.
Mrs. Sussex continued Fun Farm and other shows in her new home at Tampa, Florida (WTVT-13) from 1957 through 1964.
Sadly, Mary Ellen passed away last April..She and her husband Clyde moved to Hawaii in 1980.
Blog written by TampaBay.com's Eric Deggans at the time of Mary Ellen's passing..
Cover of Joe Tait's Biography, "It's Been a Real Ball" co-authored with Terry Pluto..Gray and Company Publishers
Terry Pluto at one time has covered both the Indians and the Cavaliers in a long newspaper career..Currently a Sports and Faith Columnist for the Cleveland Plain Dealer and frequent guest on "More Sports and Les Levine"..aired Monday-Friday at 6PM with an 11PM repeat on Time Warner Cable Northeast Ohio Network (NEON). He has also authored over 20 sports books, many of them classics..
Here on the blog we have written twice about Joe Tait..The time of his 3,000th NBA game and at his retirement in April 2011..It's no secret I am a Tait fan as from 1971-72 I have listened to Tait call Cleveland Cavaliers Basketball action (as well as the Indians)
It has always been hoped that Tait would someday write a book. According to all indications, he never thought he was that interesting..And never wanted to go through the process..It was a surprise that Tait was the one to ask Terry Pluto, "Well, what about that book?"..So The process was begun this spring..The result is a smorgasbord of Joe Tait Stories, many never made public before..His Illinois upbringing, with a stern Father Figure..Joe's lifelong love for trains, his early Radio work..A friendship with Bill Fitch that would lead to the big leagues as he became the Cavaliers Radio announcer in 1970. The Early Cavaliers years, where there was some doubt the franchise would survive..The Miracle Of Richfield..The Stepien years..His Indians work from 1973-87..Back to the Cavs after a couple of years away..The Lebron years..Some of the people mentioned include Indians announcer Bob Neal, who had a fairly large ego..Frank Robinson, who blamed Tait for getting him fired as Indians Manager in 1977, Ted Stepien, worst owner ever in pro sports..Pete Franklin..and many others..
Much of the book is also taken up with memories of Joe from fans, players and broadcasters, some who worked with Joe and others who looked up to Joe as a Mentor in other broadcasting jobs..Joe Tait, from his earliest jobs in broadcasting, always worked hard and went the extra mile..He also went the extra mile for fans whether it be writing a letter, impromptu invitation to sit with Joe at dinner, an autograph or just taking time to say hello..Joe "Got it" from a fan's standpoint..
As a whole, the book is just a delight. While it covers much of Joe's life biographically it is just as much a book of Cleveland Sports History from 1970-2011 as anything else..I guarantee you will not be able to put it down..
January 29, 1958:Cleveland TV Guide Ad for "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" aired Wednesdays at 9 on Cleveland's WEWS Channel 5 and WKST-Channel 45 in New Castle Pa. (Youngstown, Ohio Market)
Note about an intriguing possibility in Classic TV:
Sam Nelson, son of the late Rick Nelson.has upon the death of his Uncle David Nelson, acquired the Nelson Family Archives. Included in these archives are the 35 mm original Masters of all 435 episodes of the TV series Adventures Of Ozzie and Harriet, along with much other memorabilia..He has launched a campaign to try to digitize all the Ozzie and Harriet episodes to save them and make them available on DVD for future generations..There have numerous DVD collections in Public Domain as well as a few Nelson Family authorized Mill Creek Collections, but these would be official authorized collections of the complete series, which no one thought would be possible till now..Here's hoping Sam Nelson is successful here as I am for saving any Classic tv series to DVD if it can be possibly done..
Update (October 22, 2023)
As of October 10, 2023 MPI Home Video has released all 14 seasons (435 Episodes) to DVD. A Complete Series Collection is due to be released December 19, 2023.
Partridge Family Reruns on WKBN-TV, October 1975:The show ran on ABC 1970-74.
WEWS-TV 5 Movie:October 1975
WYTV-33 Sitcom Lineup-June 1976
Hello everybody: As I said before, when we started Cleveland Classic Media, I didnt know how well we'd be received..Though there have been slow times in recent months, I am very pleased and honored that people seem to like what we do..We've extended the reach of C-C-M to a YouTube Page and several Facebook Pages, which have been well received, and I thank you all for that..
Today I want to announce what will be probably our last extension, as far as I know..I have toyed with the idea of an HTML message board for some time now just a few days ago decided to take the plunge..Going through the Boardhost.com free service, I've created the Cleveland Classic Media Message Board..While There will be some room for discussion of current broadcast topics, I've made separate Boards for each full-power station in Cleveland and Youngstown, a board for former TV stations, and a General TV/Radio Board, which will contain current discussion, and National Classic TV Clips, along with perhaps Radio memories as well..I might expand to a new radio section should board action warrant it, but we'll see how things go..We've had 3 members thus far..
To eliminate possible spam from the outset, all new members will have to be approved by me first..Would love to see some of the regular readers come aboard..
Hello All: I was looking through the Plain Dealer Archives, as I pretty much do every day trying to find articles, etc. of interest..As I did so today I fould a couple of outstanding articles on the late Lawson Deming, who was famed as Detroit's Sir Graves Ghastly from 1967-Late 1982..Before this, however, he had been at WTAM Radio and WNBK/KYW/WKYC Cleveland from 1947-66..His biggest fame in Cleveland was Woodrow's (Clay Conroy) assistant who provided voices for Woodrow's Puppet friends..Even before WNBK, he had been in radio since 1932..
What follows are two separate profiles in the Cleveland Plain Dealer..The first from January 29, 1965 in TV Week where James Flanagan discusses Deming's career to 1965..
The second article is from August 12, 1982..Columnist William Hickey catches up with Deming on his 50th anniversary in broadcasting..At the end of 1982 Sir Graves has begun to be preempted by Sports on WJBK-2 in Detroit..So the show wasnt officially canceled till 1983..Deming continued to make appearances as Sir Graves into the 1990's before passing away April 24, 2007..
Football Bowl Games on WGAR-1220, Including the OSU-California Rose Bowl Game from Pasadena..
January 2, 1950 from the Plain Dealer.."Folksinger" (not Country Music Singer) Eddy Arnold had his own weekday morning show on NBC-WTAM
WXEL-9 Test Pattern-Very nice copy..
WXEL-TV 9 Dedication plaque-Cleveland's Third TV Station had been on the air less than two weeks.. 
