Thursday, May 10, 2012
Channel 5 Video Vault:Movie Intros..
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Cleveland TV Memories-Sunday Plain Dealer October 1991
While looking up other things I found this great article from The Plain Dealer Sunday Magazine October 6, 1991..Part of a 150-Year Celebration of Arts In The Cleveland area..A legthy article on The History of Cleveland Television..Tom Feran Interviewed TV pioneers Linn Sheldon, Don Webster, Betty Cope and Virgil Dominic. More In Depth on how TV actually was in the old days..
Article content from Newsbank's Plain Dealer Article Collection..Betty Cope Image from Cleveland.com..I added the other images from my own collection..
The '40s And '50s: Linn Sheldon
Television hit Cleveland on December 17, 1947, when Scripps-Howard's WEWS Channel 5 signed on the air as a CBS affiliate and the first station in Ohio. Itwas followed on October 31, 1948, by WNBK Channel 4, an NBC-owned station that moved to Channel 3 in 1954 and became KYW in 1956, under Westinghouse ownership.The city's third station, WXEL Channel 9, arrived on December 17, 1949; originally owned by the Empire Coil Co. of New York and affiliated with ABC and the old Dumont Network, it moved to Channel 8 and CBS and was renamed WJW after its purchase by Storer Broadcasting in the early 1950s.
Early broadcast hours were few and irregular; network programs couldn't be carried live until 1949. Staples were old movies, grainy kinescope films of network shows and live local programs. Local news was delivered radio-style by such announcers as Tom Field, Warren Guthrie and Jack Perkins.
Linn Sheldon, a stage and film actor and cabaret entertainer, was an original employee of WEWS. Nationally known and local legend as the children's host "Barnaby," a role he filled until 1990, he has been the host of 33 shows on four different stations here.
"The joy of working was unbelievable. We'd come early. We had no one to copy, and the ideas just flowed. We didn't worry about the news because the news was rip and read. We'd lip-synch records, we did game shows, we did plays - live, right in the studio.
"In 1948, I was doing the opening and telling people what's coming up, and I did a lip-synch of Jimmy Durante. A guy walked in a couple of days later and said, 'Can you do that three times a week for 15 minutes?' His name was Fred Shaw, from Rogers jewelry stores, and that was the first sponsored show in Cleveland - I lip-synched records three times a week.
"The facilities were a lot different. You talk about lights, we had scoops that were so hot you could bring them down and heat your soup. WEWS had three cameras on wood tripods. One had three lenses, to also do wide-angle and close-up. If you wanted to go to a close-up, the director would have to go to another camera while the guy turned the whole turret by hand and then focused it. We had boom mikes. Sports brought in the zoom lens. You could only use it on a good clear day.
"Everybody had kind of the same set - one door, it'd turn around and there'd be a kitchen, the other side a living room or whatever you wanted. Like radio, we had a staff orchestra, and the other stations had them, too. Everybody had a piano player.
"Everything was first. It was a discovery. The only audio was 78 rpm records. We had a desk that was called Public Service - a desk with a globe on it, a picture of Wyoming and an American flag."
Once, Sheldon remembers, a fire chief sat at the set to demonstrate a new extinguisher; speechless before the camera, he burned and extinguished every bit of paper he had, but didn't say a word in 10 minutes. Later, Sheldon recalls, on the first day of color programming at Channel 3, a guest threw up on the air.
"We never thought of being personalities, celebrities. I was standing out front of WEWS, after we'd been on a few months, and a man and his wife and little child came by. He said, 'How about a picture?' I was so thrilled. Then he handed me the camera - they wanted me to take a picture of them with their camera.
"Mistakes kept coming, but we learned from them. We didn't know about ratings, though we got them. Then the time got tighter. The money got tighter. I don't think it's fun for them anymore."
The '60s: Don Webster
The 1960s brought lasting change to Cleveland television. Color was introduced and became the norm. Newscasts expanded to a half-hour. Non-commercial, educational television arrived in 1965 with WVIZ Channel 25. It was the city's first UHF station, followed in 1968 by Kaiser's WKBF Channel 61 and United Artists' WUAB Channel 43. Viewers saw "Eyewitness News," "City Camera," "Montage" specials, the locally produced "Mike Douglas Show," "The One O'Clock Club," "Polka Varieties," "The Gene Carroll Show," "Jim Doney's Adventure Road,""Ghoulardi," "Jerry G & Co.," "Big Chuck & Hoolihan."
Two of the most remembered shows are "It's Academic," still broadcast as "Academic Challenge," and "Upbeat," an "American Bandstand"-type series. Both were on WEWS with Don Webster, who has served the station in a variety of roles and today is back as the popular weather forecaster on "Newschannel 5."
"I came to town from Hamilton, Ont., in September 1964 to do the 'Upbeat' show and a quiz show called 'Quick As A Wink.' WEWS [which had canceled "The One O'Clock Club"] was trying to do something against 'Mike Douglas' on Channel 3. It was a good quiz show, well-produced, and it lasted 13 weeks because Mike was really starting a roll. That whole talk-variety concept was new and innovative then.
"When I first came on 'Upbeat,' it was called 'The Big 5 Show' because it was on TV-5 at 5 in the afternoon. We used co-hosts from WHK radio. The business was so different because there was no FM radio in the way there is today. WHK was the big rock station, and record companies would do just about anything to get exposure for their artists. There were no Coliseums, no big concerts as we know them. We were in the era of these people going around town to town, playing movie theaters and high school gyms, so it was relatively easy to get big acts - with the understanding that if you got a good act, an A act, you'd have to take two B's, or maybe a B and a C. We ended up with people like Kenny Rogers, when he was first starting, or Simon & Garfunkel. I can remember sitting in the dressing room with Bobby Goldsboro, we were pretty good friends, saying, 'Gee, is this a weird act, we'll probably never hear from them again.'
"We didn't just have the rock acts. We had Duke Ellington once ... Paul Anka ... Frankie Avalon ... Connie Francis. Otis Redding made his last appearance with us. He left the show, got on that old DC-3 and crashed.
"The show became so successful in Cleveland that Scripps-Howard decided to put it on their other stations. It wasn't too far from the era of Downbeat magazine, so the name came to be 'Upbeat.' It was a badge of honor for a high school kid to become an 'Upbeat' dancer. I think they got $40, $50 a week, and back in 1968 that was a lot of money. I think every high school girl in town had a pair of white go-go boots in her closet.
"We were on 90 stations at one time , including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Dick Clark called me and suggested I go to California and work for him. We talked and talked, and Dick's a wonderful guy, but Dick still has the first nickel he ever made, so the money wasn't all that great. And we both had dark hair and our style was really similar, so I decided there wasn't much point. I said, 'If you continue producing new shows and doing things on the air yourself, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out who's going to get the good ones.' So I stayed here in Cleveland, which I really never regretted.
"I did some announcing. We all pulled a booth shift then, and each station had a group of announcers you never saw on the air because we didn't have the automation we have now. Then I started to do a little bit of weather, sports, a little entertainment. About '71 I took over 'Academic.' By and large, the show is still the same. The kids never change . One of the things that impressed me was the good, solid, dedicated teachers who'd be there year after year. That's really nice to see.'
Webster also was host of the Ohio Lottery shows for nine years, a weekly half-hour and a nightly drawing. It was all live, with ever-changing contestants drawn by chance, "and that was the scariest thing I've ever done in my life." He was later asked to do "The Gene Carroll Show," a weekly amateur variety hour, after the death of its original host and the untimely cancer deaths of two replacements, Ron Penfound and Jim Runyon.
"So they said, 'Webster, it's yours.' I said, 'Wait a minute, I'm feeling pretty good, I'm not sure I want to do this.' So then I took it over and they had a pool at the station to see how long I was going to last. Fortunately, the show died before I did.'
The '70s: Betty Cope
The 1970s brought minicams and helicopters as a sideshow to Cleveland TV news, while the city's dire financial strait and political controversies lent anincreased air of urgency and importance. Cable arrived, with little initial impact, as suburbs awarded local franchises. Financially strapped WKBF Channel 61 went dark; it returned under new ownership as WCLQ. WUAB was sold to Gaylord Broadcasting of Texas. WJW, in new quarters on South Marginal, became WJKW afterStorer Broadcasting sold off its radio station, which had rights to the call letters it had used longer. WEWS started "The MorningExchange ," the pioneering morning show that is widely considered the model for "Good Morning America," andWJW launched "PM Magazine."
The 1970s were growth years that turned "educational television" into "public televison." WVIZ enlarged its quarters, added staff and built a new transmitter. Its president and general manager from the beginning has been Betty Cope, who broke into television as a producer at WEWS in the '40s.
"'Masterpiece Theater' was just getting started in 1970. Big Bird didn't come into his own until about '70. 'Mister Rogers' was about a year old. Kukla, Fran and Ollie were about to come back to TV. We had 'The Great American Dream Machine,' sort of a cross between '60 Minutes' and 'Saturday Night Live'; the National Conference of Christians and Jews, live; Julia Child; the first 'Live From the Met,' the first-ever 'Live From the Grand Ole Opry.' We had a slew of local things. We did City Council, the George Forbes carnival kickback trial.
"We had more programs for national distribution for instructional broadcasting in the '70s than any time before or since.
"We had started operating Monday-Friday for the schools and probably had only enough programs to go 6 to 10 on Sunday night. Our first March membership drive was in 1971, under the banner of 'S.O.S.' - 'Sesame On Saturday' - because we weren't on the air on Saturday then. We raised $23,000, and went on the air on Saturdays. By comparison, in March 1979, we raised $273,000. Then, because so many people were saying they wanted 'Sesame Street' on Sunday mornings and we started at 6 Sunday night, within two years we were on the air all day Saturday and all Sunday.
"What a dichotomy. Just as all the good program things looked like they were about to happen, along came something which threatened to sink us. 'Firing Line' - William F. Buckley broke with Nixon on China. 'Washington Week in Review' - the Nixon administration hated it. Then came the talk of gavel-to-gavel Watergate [coverage].
"The Nixon administration said public broadcasting could spend money only on drama, dance and music. There would be no public affairs paid for by the federal funding, which had just begun in 1967. There were 15 people on the board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, appointed with the advice and consent of Congress and nominated by the president. A bunch of us in about eight or 10 major cities, who decided we had as much clout on our boards, got on a plane and flew to Dallas and hammered out what we thought would be a compromise. We said, 'OK, you guys in the federal government, you can put all the strings you want on your monies, all we want is free and clear access if we can figure out a way to fund this ourselves.' They allowed as how we couldn't figure out how to fund it anyhow and said OK. And that really is what gave impetus to membership drives.
"That was in 1972. It was exciting. We didn't know if it was going to work or not. Our first membership drive was in '70. But they really started going big when we had this story to say. I think we got a lot of awareness by doing Watergate gavel-to-gavel, without commercial interruption. I think it gave us credibility."
The '80s: Virgil Dominic
Television exploded in the 1980s. It changed, and so did the way viewers watched it. Cleveland was wired for cable and more than half the area subscribed. Independent WUAB Channel 43 won rights to Indians and Cavs games andstarted its own newscast. WOIO Channel 19 took to the air in 1985 and soon affiliated with a new fourth network, Fox. WCLQ, unable to compete, was sold to Home Shopping Network and became WQHS. WJW, its old call letters back, led expansion in local news at 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., TV-5's "Afternoon Exchange " became"Live on Five," but fragmentation of the audience and commercial dollars led WKYC to cancel "AM Cleveland." Stations expanded to 24-hour service, and competition intensified as the Arbitron Co. began providing local ratings on a next-day basis. Almost emblematically, a symbol of local television was lost with the debilitating stroke and death of pioneering WEWS commentator Dorothy Fuldheim.
As much as anyone, Virgil Dominic came to personify local television. A popular news anchor for WKYC and NBC in the '60s, he became news director of WJW in the '70s, served a time as station manager and now is its president and general manager.
"The year 1980 itself started off with a very dramatic event for local television. It was technological, the year local stations got into the satellite business. We were the first station to do it here. Storer Broadcasting had decided it wanted to be on the cutting edge of this new technology. Our first satellite receiving dish is still out there on the front lawn. We don't use it anymore, it's just a billboard, but it's the first one. We have a garden around it."
Storer wanted to "knock the socks off" local viewers with satellite technology. It was soon after the Three Mile Island nuclear power mishap; Dominic, then news director, spent eight weeks reporting on nuclear power around the world, sending back 28 reports for a month-long series.
"Now satellites are so commonplace. We probably have six dishes and most stations even have the uplinks to transmit. It's allowed us to get out of our own back yard, not just TV-8 but all the stations here. The benefit to the community was that it expanded a whole area of knowledge, enabled us to report more broadly and in-depth and really propelled us into partnerships with stations all across the country.
"Television became more of a business in the '80s. The main thing that caused that was the Reagan deregulation applied to broadcasting. Until then, people who owned stations had some degree of protection because you had a license to maintain, as opposed to running a grocery store or automotive factory. It afforded some insulation from the competitive forces that besiege other businesses. Until then, it was competitive within itself, you were competing against a like force.
"The '80s were the years we got a whole new competitor, cable. When I started in Cleveland in 1965, there were only two other stations that meant anything. Now the revenue pie is split among 54 different channels.
"The independents really came into their own. They got good programming together and were able to do things network affiliates were not able to do. When you're an affiliate, you cannot put on 65 Indians games a year; we were out of that ballgame, after almost 20 years, and that also began to affect revenue.
"Then the VCR came along. People were still using television, but not in the way anyone once envisioned. And the zappers, the remote controls - the opportunity to change channels without getting up from their easy chairs. Now we've got to prove to advertisers that their commercials are being watched. Talk about giving power to the people.
"I think all of us began searching for ways that cable would not be able to duplicate us. By far the best example was local news. It was always important from an image, community service and profit standpoint, but the importance to the profit side was increased. It was the quickest, surest way to differentiate ourselves from cable - you weren't going to get a Cleveland City Council meeting on CNN. That's why other local programs became more important, things like ' MorningExchange ' on Channel 5. I still think that's what's going to save us in local television.' cp060
Television hit Cleveland on December 17, 1947, when Scripps-Howard's WEWS Channel 5 signed on the air as a CBS affiliate and the first station in Ohio. Itwas followed on October 31, 1948, by WNBK Channel 4, an NBC-owned station that moved to Channel 3 in 1954 and became KYW in 1956, under Westinghouse ownership.The city's third station, WXEL Channel 9, arrived on December 17, 1949; originally owned by the Empire Coil Co. of New York and affiliated with ABC and the old Dumont Network, it moved to Channel 8 and CBS and was renamed WJW after its purchase by Storer Broadcasting in the early 1950s.
Early broadcast hours were few and irregular; network programs couldn't be carried live until 1949. Staples were old movies, grainy kinescope films of network shows and live local programs. Local news was delivered radio-style by such announcers as Tom Field, Warren Guthrie and Jack Perkins.
Linn Sheldon, a stage and film actor and cabaret entertainer, was an original employee of WEWS. Nationally known and local legend as the children's host "Barnaby," a role he filled until 1990, he has been the host of 33 shows on four different stations here.
"The joy of working was unbelievable. We'd come early. We had no one to copy, and the ideas just flowed. We didn't worry about the news because the news was rip and read. We'd lip-synch records, we did game shows, we did plays - live, right in the studio.
"In 1948, I was doing the opening and telling people what's coming up, and I did a lip-synch of Jimmy Durante. A guy walked in a couple of days later and said, 'Can you do that three times a week for 15 minutes?' His name was Fred Shaw, from Rogers jewelry stores, and that was the first sponsored show in Cleveland - I lip-synched records three times a week.
"The facilities were a lot different. You talk about lights, we had scoops that were so hot you could bring them down and heat your soup. WEWS had three cameras on wood tripods. One had three lenses, to also do wide-angle and close-up. If you wanted to go to a close-up, the director would have to go to another camera while the guy turned the whole turret by hand and then focused it. We had boom mikes. Sports brought in the zoom lens. You could only use it on a good clear day.
"Everybody had kind of the same set - one door, it'd turn around and there'd be a kitchen, the other side a living room or whatever you wanted. Like radio, we had a staff orchestra, and the other stations had them, too. Everybody had a piano player.
"Everything was first. It was a discovery. The only audio was 78 rpm records. We had a desk that was called Public Service - a desk with a globe on it, a picture of Wyoming and an American flag."
Once, Sheldon remembers, a fire chief sat at the set to demonstrate a new extinguisher; speechless before the camera, he burned and extinguished every bit of paper he had, but didn't say a word in 10 minutes. Later, Sheldon recalls, on the first day of color programming at Channel 3, a guest threw up on the air.
"We never thought of being personalities, celebrities. I was standing out front of WEWS, after we'd been on a few months, and a man and his wife and little child came by. He said, 'How about a picture?' I was so thrilled. Then he handed me the camera - they wanted me to take a picture of them with their camera.
"Mistakes kept coming, but we learned from them. We didn't know about ratings, though we got them. Then the time got tighter. The money got tighter. I don't think it's fun for them anymore."
The 1960s brought lasting change to Cleveland television. Color was introduced and became the norm. Newscasts expanded to a half-hour. Non-commercial, educational television arrived in 1965 with WVIZ Channel 25. It was the city's first UHF station, followed in 1968 by Kaiser's WKBF Channel 61 and United Artists' WUAB Channel 43. Viewers saw "Eyewitness News," "City Camera," "Montage" specials, the locally produced "Mike Douglas Show," "The One O'Clock Club," "Polka Varieties," "The Gene Carroll Show," "Jim Doney's Adventure Road,""Ghoulardi," "Jerry G & Co.," "Big Chuck & Hoolihan."
Two of the most remembered shows are "It's Academic," still broadcast as "Academic Challenge," and "Upbeat," an "American Bandstand"-type series. Both were on WEWS with Don Webster, who has served the station in a variety of roles and today is back as the popular weather forecaster on "Newschannel 5."
"I came to town from Hamilton, Ont., in September 1964 to do the 'Upbeat' show and a quiz show called 'Quick As A Wink.' WEWS [which had canceled "The One O'Clock Club"] was trying to do something against 'Mike Douglas' on Channel 3. It was a good quiz show, well-produced, and it lasted 13 weeks because Mike was really starting a roll. That whole talk-variety concept was new and innovative then.
"When I first came on 'Upbeat,' it was called 'The Big 5 Show' because it was on TV-5 at 5 in the afternoon. We used co-hosts from WHK radio. The business was so different because there was no FM radio in the way there is today. WHK was the big rock station, and record companies would do just about anything to get exposure for their artists. There were no Coliseums, no big concerts as we know them. We were in the era of these people going around town to town, playing movie theaters and high school gyms, so it was relatively easy to get big acts - with the understanding that if you got a good act, an A act, you'd have to take two B's, or maybe a B and a C. We ended up with people like Kenny Rogers, when he was first starting, or Simon & Garfunkel. I can remember sitting in the dressing room with Bobby Goldsboro, we were pretty good friends, saying, 'Gee, is this a weird act, we'll probably never hear from them again.'
"We didn't just have the rock acts. We had Duke Ellington once ... Paul Anka ... Frankie Avalon ... Connie Francis. Otis Redding made his last appearance with us. He left the show, got on that old DC-3 and crashed.
"The show became so successful in Cleveland that Scripps-Howard decided to put it on their other stations. It wasn't too far from the era of Downbeat magazine, so the name came to be 'Upbeat.' It was a badge of honor for a high school kid to become an 'Upbeat' dancer. I think they got $40, $50 a week, and back in 1968 that was a lot of money. I think every high school girl in town had a pair of white go-go boots in her closet.
"We were on 90 stations at one time , including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Dick Clark called me and suggested I go to California and work for him. We talked and talked, and Dick's a wonderful guy, but Dick still has the first nickel he ever made, so the money wasn't all that great. And we both had dark hair and our style was really similar, so I decided there wasn't much point. I said, 'If you continue producing new shows and doing things on the air yourself, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out who's going to get the good ones.' So I stayed here in Cleveland, which I really never regretted.
"I did some announcing. We all pulled a booth shift then, and each station had a group of announcers you never saw on the air because we didn't have the automation we have now. Then I started to do a little bit of weather, sports, a little entertainment. About '71 I took over 'Academic.' By and large, the show is still the same. The kids never change . One of the things that impressed me was the good, solid, dedicated teachers who'd be there year after year. That's really nice to see.'
Webster also was host of the Ohio Lottery shows for nine years, a weekly half-hour and a nightly drawing. It was all live, with ever-changing contestants drawn by chance, "and that was the scariest thing I've ever done in my life." He was later asked to do "The Gene Carroll Show," a weekly amateur variety hour, after the death of its original host and the untimely cancer deaths of two replacements, Ron Penfound and Jim Runyon.
"So they said, 'Webster, it's yours.' I said, 'Wait a minute, I'm feeling pretty good, I'm not sure I want to do this.' So then I took it over and they had a pool at the station to see how long I was going to last. Fortunately, the show died before I did.'
The 1970s brought minicams and helicopters as a sideshow to Cleveland TV news, while the city's dire financial strait and political controversies lent anincreased air of urgency and importance. Cable arrived, with little initial impact, as suburbs awarded local franchises. Financially strapped WKBF Channel 61 went dark; it returned under new ownership as WCLQ. WUAB was sold to Gaylord Broadcasting of Texas. WJW, in new quarters on South Marginal, became WJKW afterStorer Broadcasting sold off its radio station, which had rights to the call letters it had used longer. WEWS started "The MorningExchange ," the pioneering morning show that is widely considered the model for "Good Morning America," andWJW launched "PM Magazine."
The 1970s were growth years that turned "educational television" into "public televison." WVIZ enlarged its quarters, added staff and built a new transmitter. Its president and general manager from the beginning has been Betty Cope, who broke into television as a producer at WEWS in the '40s.
"'Masterpiece Theater' was just getting started in 1970. Big Bird didn't come into his own until about '70. 'Mister Rogers' was about a year old. Kukla, Fran and Ollie were about to come back to TV. We had 'The Great American Dream Machine,' sort of a cross between '60 Minutes' and 'Saturday Night Live'; the National Conference of Christians and Jews, live; Julia Child; the first 'Live From the Met,' the first-ever 'Live From the Grand Ole Opry.' We had a slew of local things. We did City Council, the George Forbes carnival kickback trial.
"We had more programs for national distribution for instructional broadcasting in the '70s than any time before or since.
"We had started operating Monday-Friday for the schools and probably had only enough programs to go 6 to 10 on Sunday night. Our first March membership drive was in 1971, under the banner of 'S.O.S.' - 'Sesame On Saturday' - because we weren't on the air on Saturday then. We raised $23,000, and went on the air on Saturdays. By comparison, in March 1979, we raised $273,000. Then, because so many people were saying they wanted 'Sesame Street' on Sunday mornings and we started at 6 Sunday night, within two years we were on the air all day Saturday and all Sunday.
"What a dichotomy. Just as all the good program things looked like they were about to happen, along came something which threatened to sink us. 'Firing Line' - William F. Buckley broke with Nixon on China. 'Washington Week in Review' - the Nixon administration hated it. Then came the talk of gavel-to-gavel Watergate [coverage].
"The Nixon administration said public broadcasting could spend money only on drama, dance and music. There would be no public affairs paid for by the federal funding, which had just begun in 1967. There were 15 people on the board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, appointed with the advice and consent of Congress and nominated by the president. A bunch of us in about eight or 10 major cities, who decided we had as much clout on our boards, got on a plane and flew to Dallas and hammered out what we thought would be a compromise. We said, 'OK, you guys in the federal government, you can put all the strings you want on your monies, all we want is free and clear access if we can figure out a way to fund this ourselves.' They allowed as how we couldn't figure out how to fund it anyhow and said OK. And that really is what gave impetus to membership drives.
"That was in 1972. It was exciting. We didn't know if it was going to work or not. Our first membership drive was in '70. But they really started going big when we had this story to say. I think we got a lot of awareness by doing Watergate gavel-to-gavel, without commercial interruption. I think it gave us credibility."
The '80s: Virgil Dominic
As much as anyone, Virgil Dominic came to personify local television. A popular news anchor for WKYC and NBC in the '60s, he became news director of WJW in the '70s, served a time as station manager and now is its president and general manager.
"The year 1980 itself started off with a very dramatic event for local television. It was technological, the year local stations got into the satellite business. We were the first station to do it here. Storer Broadcasting had decided it wanted to be on the cutting edge of this new technology. Our first satellite receiving dish is still out there on the front lawn. We don't use it anymore, it's just a billboard, but it's the first one. We have a garden around it."
Storer wanted to "knock the socks off" local viewers with satellite technology. It was soon after the Three Mile Island nuclear power mishap; Dominic, then news director, spent eight weeks reporting on nuclear power around the world, sending back 28 reports for a month-long series.
"Now satellites are so commonplace. We probably have six dishes and most stations even have the uplinks to transmit. It's allowed us to get out of our own back yard, not just TV-8 but all the stations here. The benefit to the community was that it expanded a whole area of knowledge, enabled us to report more broadly and in-depth and really propelled us into partnerships with stations all across the country.
"Television became more of a business in the '80s. The main thing that caused that was the Reagan deregulation applied to broadcasting. Until then, people who owned stations had some degree of protection because you had a license to maintain, as opposed to running a grocery store or automotive factory. It afforded some insulation from the competitive forces that besiege other businesses. Until then, it was competitive within itself, you were competing against a like force.
"The '80s were the years we got a whole new competitor, cable. When I started in Cleveland in 1965, there were only two other stations that meant anything. Now the revenue pie is split among 54 different channels.
"The independents really came into their own. They got good programming together and were able to do things network affiliates were not able to do. When you're an affiliate, you cannot put on 65 Indians games a year; we were out of that ballgame, after almost 20 years, and that also began to affect revenue.
"Then the VCR came along. People were still using television, but not in the way anyone once envisioned. And the zappers, the remote controls - the opportunity to change channels without getting up from their easy chairs. Now we've got to prove to advertisers that their commercials are being watched. Talk about giving power to the people.
"I think all of us began searching for ways that cable would not be able to duplicate us. By far the best example was local news. It was always important from an image, community service and profit standpoint, but the importance to the profit side was increased. It was the quickest, surest way to differentiate ourselves from cable - you weren't going to get a Cleveland City Council meeting on CNN. That's why other local programs became more important, things like ' MorningExchange ' on Channel 5. I still think that's what's going to save us in local television.' cp060
Monday, March 12, 2012
Live, Out Of town TV comes to Cleveland..
September 1948 was the beginning of big things in Northeast Ohio Television.Plans were put in motion for live, network broadcasts to Cleveland..The first of these was a Detroit/Boston American League Baseball Game September 20, 1948..As we see in the above articles, it was a mammoth undertaking just to air one Baseball Game from Detroit to Cleveland..About this time also WEWS aired an ABC-TV Inaugral Show live from Chicago..These were the first "On Location" telecasts ever seen live in Cleveland..When we compare with how easily and relatively cheaply remote telecasting is done today..Very Intriguing.
September 29, 1948 TV Schedule: Cleveland Plain Dealer
WEWS-TV 5
10AM Test Pattern
1:30 News
1:40 Dugout Interviews
1:55 Baseball Chicago White Sox at Indians
4:15 Fans In The Stands
5PM Just For Kids
6:30 News
6:45 Face The Music-Johnny Desmond (CBS)
7PM Feminine Features
7:20 Film Short
7:30 Winner Take All (CBS)
8PM Places Please (CBS)
8:15 Know Your Neighbors
8:30 As Others See Us
8:50 Film Short
9PM Videovaudeville
9:20 Film Short
9:30 Tune Time
9:45 Film Shorts
10PM Hot Rod Auto Races (ABC)
Midnight News
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
New Link:CBS Radio Mystery Theater
Want to Introduce a New Link to everyone. A gentleman has gone through the trouble and expense of acquiring the entire CBS Radio Mystery Theater series..The program began in 1974 with EG Marshall as host, airing till 1982. all 1399 ahows are available for free download..There is also a searchable database of actors. appearing on each episode. Not sure how long, but WHBC-1480 AM in Canton carried the show for awhile..Cleveland's WERE-1300 and WJW850 also carried the show..In addition to the broadcasts, which many times had top of the hour CBS News included in the tapes..There is a lot of of history on this site as well..
http://www.cbsrmt.com/
Monday, January 16, 2012
Just when did Jack Benny first appear on the radio?
One of the things I like about writing the blog is finding out things not generally known, or better yet, refuting things that are suppoosed "known" facts..
One of these assumptions is that Jack Benny began his radio career as a guest of Ed Sullivan on a show in New York on March 29, 1932..His first words were documented as "Hello, this is Jack Benny. Now there will be a slight pause while you say, who cares?"
In recent days, friend Don M. Yowp, whom we have mentioned here before because of his vintage Hanna-Barbera Blog, has started "Tralfaz" a second blog for more of his general entertainment Interests:
Jack Benny On The Air, 1931
Yowp writes about an earlier Benny appearance on RKO Theater of The Air September 4, 1931 on WIBA Madison, Wisconsin.
I thought I'd look around the Plain Dealer Archive to find anything sooner, not really thinking I would..Surprisingly, I came up with a Monday January 20, 1930 Broadcast on WHK-1390 Cleveland at 7:30 PM called "Voices From Filmland"
This appears to be a early Columbia/CBS Radio series on until at least March 1930..According to JJ's Radio log website, this was also on KHJ-930 Los Angeles and WABC-860 New York..
Mr. Benny was on either Radio or TV regularly from 1932-65, with periodic NBC specials until his death in December 1974.
Ms. Laura Leff, a fan of Jack Benny since 10 years of age, runs some facets of the Jack Benny Estate and is head of the International Jack Benny Fan Club.. International Jack Benny Fan Club
International Jack Benny Fan Club
One of these assumptions is that Jack Benny began his radio career as a guest of Ed Sullivan on a show in New York on March 29, 1932..His first words were documented as "Hello, this is Jack Benny. Now there will be a slight pause while you say, who cares?"
In recent days, friend Don M. Yowp, whom we have mentioned here before because of his vintage Hanna-Barbera Blog, has started "Tralfaz" a second blog for more of his general entertainment Interests:
Jack Benny On The Air, 1931
Yowp writes about an earlier Benny appearance on RKO Theater of The Air September 4, 1931 on WIBA Madison, Wisconsin.
I thought I'd look around the Plain Dealer Archive to find anything sooner, not really thinking I would..Surprisingly, I came up with a Monday January 20, 1930 Broadcast on WHK-1390 Cleveland at 7:30 PM called "Voices From Filmland"
Mr. Benny was on either Radio or TV regularly from 1932-65, with periodic NBC specials until his death in December 1974.
Ms. Laura Leff, a fan of Jack Benny since 10 years of age, runs some facets of the Jack Benny Estate and is head of the International Jack Benny Fan Club.. International Jack Benny Fan Club
International Jack Benny Fan Club
Monday, January 2, 2012
Year In Review-2011
Mary Holt, pioneer among women in Cleveland Broadcasting, passed away March 9th..
Broadcaster Joe Tait retired in April after 39 years of NBA Play-By-Play with the Cleveland Cavaliers..Tait, with Terry Pluto recently brought out his Biography, "It's Been A Real Ball."
Dick Goddard, Cleveland TV Weather Forecaster who on May 1, 2011 celebrated his 50th year in Television, starting out at KYW-TV 3..After a short stint in Philadelphia at KYW, Goddard has been with WJW-8 Cleveland since March 1966..(Photo courtesy Cleveland Leader)
Jane Scott, Rock Music Critic for the Plain Dealer, died July 4 (Photo courtesy Cleveland.com)
Chuck Collier, WGAR Radio Host for over 40 years, passed away September 22..(Photo courtesy WGAR.com and WEWS Newsnet5.com)
Hello..
I'd like to present our second annual Year In Review of Classic Cleveland and Northeast Ohio Media happenings..
Passings..
Mary Holt, a Pioneer in Cleveland Women's Broadcasting..worked at WJMO and WJW Radio as well as KYW-TV 3 in Cleveland..March 9
Dick Dugan, Cartoonist for the Plain Dealer for 38 years..April 16
Jane Scott, Rock Music Writer/Critic for The Plain Dealer..July 4
Chuck Collier..WGAR DJ for over 40 years. September 22..
(If anyone can think of any local folks I might have missed, Email me..)
Milestones:
Dick Goddard celebrated 50 years in TV in May..At That time he brought out his Biography "Six Inches of Partly Cloudy" with Tom Feran..
Joe Tait retires as Cavaliers Basketball Announcer in April after 39 years as an NBA Play By Play man..He also recently wrote, with Terry Pluto "It's Been A Real Ball."
He is replaced by former Lake Erie Monsters Announcer John Michael..
Mike Hegan retires as Indians Radio announcer in October, replaced by Jim Rosenhaus, who was already on the Broadcast Team, rotating with Tom Hamilton And Hegan..
Other News:
In Classic TV Locally, WIVM-52 Canton moves to digital 39 in January, eventually having 4 streams..1. Local With RTV, 2. Tuff TV 3. PBJ Family/Kids Programming 4. Denny and Marge Hazen FM stations..
Antenna TV began on channel 8.2 January 1, 2011
MeTV Began August 1, 2011 on WOIO 19.2 replacing Weather Now
TCT (WRLM-former WOAC) adds a Family/Classic TV channel on 47.3 with TCT regular (.1) TCT HD (.2) and Spanish (.4)
Bounce African American TV Channel is scheduled to begin shortly on WUAB-43.2 or 3 in addition to ThisTV..
In Radio, The biggest news is probably WKRK 92.3 switching from Alt Rock to Sports Talk in late August 2011..
WNWV (107.3) recently was sold by Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting to Rubber City Radio..Format was changed to a form of Smooth Jazz..
Four New FM stations debuted this year in parts of Northeast Ohio..
WKJA (91.9)..Calvary Chapel from California operates this station licensed to Brunswick, Ohio covering much of NE Ohio with 25kw..
WHVY-89.5 Coshocton-Operated by Harvest Baptist Temple Of Clyde, Ohio (WHVT 90.5 and a Findlay Translator on 94.1)
WJDD-90.9 Carrollton (June 2011) and WJEE-90.1 Bolivar (East Sparta)-Operated by Denny and Marge Hazen of TV Ministry Plus Or Minus 60..
More Radio:
WINW Radio 1520 left the air last Spring partly due to Copper Theivery and flooding in the station's transmitter area. They recently returned to the air at low power..
Curtis Perry III, who had been operating WINW under an LMA with an Urban Gospel Format (and appears to be again)..In the meantime, WCER-900 was LMA'ed to Mr. Perry, with the result that the station is currently off the air..Hoping that someone will put 900 back on the air at some point..I's a pretty good facility..
It will be interesting to see what 2012 brings..As always, we're on the lookout for rare Radio/TV airchecks, either audio or video to share on our sites..God Bless you all, thanks for reading and contibuting and Happy New Year to all..
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Cleveland Broadcasting-New Years Eve 1949
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..
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