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WAND, Channel 17, Decatur, Illinois

Page 2: WAND    LIN Broadcasting(1965-1975)

WTVP grows up, becomes colorful, expands and gets a new name under a new owner




On December 23, 1965 Frederick Gregg Jr., President of LIN Broadcasting, announced the future expansion of WTVP.  The announcement also came with the announcement of the ownership change of WTVP to the Nashville, Tennessee based company on December 15, 1965.  The purchase price was listed as $2-million.

The $800,000 expansion plans would involve a power increase of almost “five fold” and a doubling of the height of it’s tower.  The plans also included the conversion to a color TV studio and color broadcasting which would begin during 1966.  The W-70-AF translator wasn’t included in the briefing, but according to the Urbana Courier, “others familiar with the station’s capabilities feel it can be eliminated.”

In late 1965, WTVP was stated as having a Grade B signal over 45% of Champaign-Urbana.  With the tower/antenna and transmitter upgrade, it was felt that WTVP would have a Grade A signal over the Twin Cities.





In February 1966 a press release read that all TV owners should be able to received ABC programming from WTVP by May of that year.  The final engineering plans were completed and submitted to the FCC for approval.  WTVP Station Manager Len Carl stated that the station upgrade would include a new 1-million watt transmitter to be located near Argenta, Illinois.  Some communities, which would now be included in the coverage area, were to be Melvin, Loda and Rankin to the north, Ashland to the west, Danville to the east and Mattoon to the south.  It was also revealed on February 10th that WTVP would become WAND on the following Monday.

The plans began for building of a tower and transmitter that would eventually be destroyed by an ice storm.  That weather-related event would ultimately bring down the 1,135-foot structure during the late 70's...more on that later.


In the meantime, the Macon County Zoning Board approved the construction of the tower and transmitter building on a one-acre tract of land located 2 miles northeast of Oreana, Illinois before the final FCC approval was granted. 


WAND Broadcast Schedule from May 30, 1966, Monday
6:30  AM Farm Show-Bob Schneider
7:30  AM Kartoon Kampus-children
8:30  AM Romper Room-children
9:00  AM Movie-to be announced
10:30 AM Dating Game-ABC
11:00 AM Donna Reed-ABC
11:30 AM Father Knows Best-ABC
12:00 PM Ben Casey-ABC
1:00   PM Confidential for Women-ABC serial
1:30   PM A Time for Us-ABC serial
2:00   PM General Hospital-ABC serial
2:30   PM Nurses-ABC serial
3:00   PM Never Too Young-ABC serial
3:30   PM Catain Scotty-WAND originated children's participation/cartoon show

4:00   PM Davey's Locker-WAND originated children's particpation/cartoon show
4:30   PM Where the Action Is-ABC Music variety show
5:00   PM Soupy Sales-syndicated children's comedy show
5:30   PM Leave It to Beaver-syndicated off network sit-com
6:00   PM News-Peter Jennings
6:15   PM News, weather, sports

6:30   PM
Twelve O'Clock High-ABC WWII drama(see Part 1)
7:30   PM Legend of Jesse James-ABC western
8:00   PM Shenandoah-ABC western
8:30   PM Peyton Place-ABC serial
9:00   PM Avengers-ABC adventure
10:00  PM News, Weather, Sports-WAND originated
10:30 PM Nightwatch-WAND originated movie
"Five Gates to Hell" (1959) Meville Brand (1:50)






Before the new transmitter and tower were installed, WAND went on line on July 1st, 1966 with a new film chain with color capabilities, and color VTR’s.  It seems that WTVP had capabilities to broadcast the network in color as early as 1965.  Live studio color broadcasting was still being planned for October of 1966, several months in the future.

In August of 1966 construction was begun on the new tower for WAND.  Weather delays continued to plague the construction schedule for the new high-powered facility.  By August 16th, the tower concrete forms began to be placed and readied for the foundation of the tower.  The construction of the new concrete block style transmitter building was underway as well.  Stainless, Inc. was the manufacturer and assembly contractor for the tower (being the same company, which built the WILL-TV/FM tower just a few miles to the northeast of the WAND tower).
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WAND sponsored "The Houswife Club" in which viewers could win prizes and such.  You had to send in an entry, like the one pictured from newspaper ads published at the time.  They also asked for reception reports with the actual entry, although it wasn't included in this representation.  Also, note the logo for LIN Broadcasting, the new owner of Channel 17, now called "Magic WAND."  The Feb 20, 1966 newspaper ad in the Urbana Courier is below....



Further information on the subject of the antenna comes from the WJJY-TV web site. (www.brainmist.com/wjjy_tv/wjjy_tv.htm) The WAND antenna along with the antenna of the ill-fated Jacksonville, Illinois station were manufactured by RCA.  The WJJY-TV antenna was slightly larger because of a higher power level but wasn’t used until August of 1969.  According to the site listed above “to gain such incredibly high power levels, WJJY-TV utilized an experimental antenna manufactured by RCA and only three were ever constructed.  Because the station operated on channel 14, the lowest possible UHF frequency, the physical dimensions of the radiator elements were very large making the antenna the most massive ever constructed for the commercial UHF market.”  “WAND-TV in Decatur, Illinois purchased the second smaller unit.  The third antenna remained unsold and stayed on the ground at the RCA test facility in Camden, New Jersey.  No one trusted such a large, heavy antenna.  Those fears would later be realized.” 

“The complete antenna (for WJJY-TV) was so massive that it had to be manufactured and shipped in three separate sections on three separate trucks.  Each part was lifted to the top of the tower individually and stacked by the tower riggers.  The average antenna weight for a UHF antenna at that time was between two and nine tons.  The RCA “Vee-Zee” panel antenna weighed in at 26-tons, not counting the transmission line, radome covers and mounting plates.”  The story of the antenna for WJJY would come to an end the same weekend as the story of the new antenna for WAND.  More on that later....





Here's another of the ABC shows that was originally produced in black and white, then was shifted to color when the ABC TV Network went to a nearly full color schedule.  "The Big Valley" ran from 1965 to 1969 and starred Barbara Stanwyck, Richard Long(later of "Nanny and the Professor"), Peter Breck, Lee Majors(later of "The Six Million Dollar Man"), and Linda Evans(later of "Dynasty")




The ABC Color Logo of 1965 as broadcast on WAND.  WAND was able to pass the ABC Color signal to their transmitter perhaps two years before any locally origination of color was possible.
"The FBI" premiered on ABC and WTVP on September 19, 1965 where it remained until 1974.  It was sponsored by the Ford Motor Company which held prominent product placement of Ford cars throughout, including the Mustang or Thunderbird driven by the star of the series, Efrem Zimbalist Jr..  The show also starred Philip Abbott, Lynn Loring, Stephen Brooks and William Reynolds.  The show was endoresed by J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI Director.  "The F.B.I." was a Quinn Martin Production.
"Peyton Plac"e continued from it's 1964 premiere on ABC where it ran until 1969.  It was now produced in color.  Ryan O'Neil continued to star as Rodney Harrington for the series entire run.

Sure, it was cheaper to produce a series in black and white, but even some pioneer TV producers saw the value in filming in color for future syndication .  Quinn Martin, wasn't one of them.  He produced "The Fugitive" originally in black and white, but by the 1966 season, it was finally in color.  The show ended it's run on August 29th, 1967 to the largest TV audience of any TV series ever, with a 72 share of all TV's in use!  "The Fugitive" also ran on weekday afternoons on ABC from 1967 to 1968 where it aired on WTVP/WAND.


ABC Shows from the years of 1965 to 1969 include:  Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The F.B.I., ABC Sunday Night Movie, Twelve O'Clock High, Legend of Jesse James, Man Called Shenandowh, Farmer's Daughter, Ben Casey, Combat, McHale's Navy, F-Troop, Peyton Place, The Fugitive, Adventrues of Ozzie and Harriett, Patty Duke Show, Gidget, Big Valley, Amos Burke-Secret Agent, Shindig, Donna Reed Show, O.K. Crackerby, Bewitched, The Long Hot Summer, The Flintstones, Tammy, Addams Family, Honey West, Jimmy Dean Show, King Family, Lawrence Welk, Hollywood Palace, Iron Horse, Rat Patrol, Felony Squad, The Rounders, Pruits of South Hampton, Love on a Rooftop, Batman, The Monroes, Man Who Never Was, ABC Stage 67, Tammy Grimes Show, That Girl, Hawk, Green Hornet, Time Tunnel, Milton Berle, Shane, Cowboy in Africa, Garrison's Gorillas, The Invaders, N.Y.P.D., Legend of Custer, Second 100 Years, ABC Wednesday Night Movie, Flying Nun, Good Company, Off To See The Wizard, Hondo, Guns of Will Sonnett, Judd for the Defense, Dating Game, Newlywed Game, Land of the Giants, TheAvengers, The Outcasts, Mod Squad, It Takes a Thief, That's Life, Here Comes the Brides, Ugliest Girl in Town, Journey to the Unknown, Operation: Entertainment, Felony Squad, DonRickles Show, Music Scene, The New People, Harold Robbins' The Survivors, Love American Style, Marcus Welby M.D., Courtship of Eddies Father, Room 222, Ghost and Mrs. Muir, This is Tom Jones, Let's Make a Deal, Brady Bunch, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Jimmy Durante Presents: The Lennon Sisters.




"Gidget" starred Sally Field in her first TV effort...little did she know that 40 years later she'd return to the ABC prime time lineup.  "Gidget" was based on the movie series of the same name and lasted through the 1965-1966 seasons.  Along with an incredibly cute Sally Field the show starred Don Porter as her dad, Professor Russel Lawrence, a widower.  Sally was only 18 when the show began production.  The show would return in the 1980's in which the character would be played by Caryn Richman, and William Schallert(of the "Patty Duke Show").  The sequel was a syndicated series which ran from 1986-1988.




In 1966, WAND was passing most of the ABC schedeule of programs, and the following syndicated shows Soupy Sales Show, Tennessee Tuxedo and his Friends, Cameo Theater, Death Valley Days, Sergeant Preston of the Yukon, Tales of Wells Fargo, The New Breed, Detectives, Zoro, Court Marshall and Hopalong Cassidy.

ABC offered the following children's shows either on Saturday or Sunday mornings: Porky Pig(c), Beatles(c), Casper(c), Magilla Gorilla(c), Bugs Bunny(c), Milton the Monster(c), Hoppity Hooper(c), American Bandstand,  Beany and Cecil(c), Peter Potamus(c) and Bullwinkle(c).  All programs with a (c) were broadcast in color on WAND.

Also on weekends, the network offered ABC's Wide World of Sports on Saturday afternoons at 4PM....in black and white.

"Father Knows Best" was part of the ABC daytime schedule from 1962 to 1967 in reruns.  In 1966, as seen in the schedule above it aired at 11:30am
Also a a part of the daytime schedule, "Ben Casey" was seen in reruns at Noon from  1965 to 1967.



"The Donna Reed Show" was rerun as part of the ABC daytime schedule from 1964 to 1968.
Nick Adams starred as "The Rebel" the off network show in syndication on shown weekends on WAND in the late 60's.
"American Bandstand" with Dick Clark and announcer Charlie O'Donnell continued as a Saturday mid day feature where it would remain through the early 80's.
"Gilligan's Island" the CBS off network series was a part of the weekday afternoon schedule of WAND in 1968.  The black and while episodes were shown along with the color episodes.


"I Love Lucy" was scheduled to air opposite WCIA's local news at 6PM, as the WAND local news ran at 5:30PM for a time in the late 1960's.


ABC couldn't get the real thing, so they got the cartoon characters for the Saturday morning lineup.  These rather cheesy imitations of the "Beatles" had other actors do the voices, with stupid situations and music video like sequences featuring the real Beatles songs from the 1964 to 65 era.  King Features Syndicate produced the series, that later produced the "Yellow Submarine" movie a couple of years later.


"The Time Tunnel" was another one of my personal favorites.  This series was another of the sci-fi series of the late 1960's....and another one from Irwin Allen's Production unit.  "The Time Tunnel" starred James Darren(later of "TJ Hooker") as Dr. Tony Newman and Robert Colbert(later of "The Young and the Restless") as Dr. Doug Phillips, scientists who were forced to enter the Time Tunnel, a top secret US government project which was about to lose funding.  They became time travelers to prove to a visiting senator that the project was worth keeping.  Unfortunatley, they couldn't return and was forced to bounce around in time aided somewhat by the other scientists who were at the controls.  This series featured huge sets, or at least it appeared so due to the imagination of Irwin Allen.  It also appeared some of the same props were used in "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea."  One of my favorite episodes was one in which our heros traveled back to Pearl Harbor and James Darren's character ran into himself as a young boy.

"The Time Tunnel" aired on ABC from September 1966 through September of 1967.  Since the series was a serial of sorts....each episode was connected to the next as they traveled from one time setting to another... you would expect that the series would have an ending.  Wrong....the series didn't end...they didn't find their way back to the 1970's, the original setting of the series.


This was probably the most popular, most imitated and most paradied show of the era. "Batman" premiered on January 12, 1966 on ABC and WAND and took the viewers by storm.  It's campy style attracted audience members of all ages.  It aired on two parts airing on ABC on Wednesday and Thursday nights at 6:30PM CT.  On Wednesday, the show ended with some kind of cliff hanging impossible situation for our heroes....and the announcer would recap the situation and tell us to watch tomorrow night...."same Bat time, same Bat channel..."  Adam West and Burt Ward as Bruce Wayne/Batman and Dick Grayson/Robin were joined by Alan Napier as Alfred, the butler, Madge Blake as Aunt Harriet, Neil Hamilton as Police CommissionerGordon and Stafford Repp as Chief O'Hara.  Later in the shows run they were joined by the Commissioner's daughter Barbara Gordon/Batgirl played by Yvonne Craig(who was from my hometown of Taylorville, Illinois!)  The show's villians ended up being a "who's who" of actors/actresses who often time asked to be featured as part of the show.  By March 14th, 1968, the show would air it's final episode.  It seems the public just tired of the formula.  "Batman" also brought about a theatrical movie which starred most of the original villians together against the "caped crusader."  The stars later furnished the voices of several animated spin-offs, most of which ended up on the CBS Saturday morning schedule.

Click on PLAY to hear actual audio taken from WAND and ABC.  This one is a network promo for "Batman."    This was recorded  on Thursday  January 12, 1967 from WAND/ABC.  You'll need Real Audio.
Click on PLAY to hear actual audio taken from WAND and ABC.  In January of 1967, "The Pruitts of South Hampton" show which starred Phyllis Diller went through a slight format change and a title change to "The Phyllis Diller Show."  This is an ABC network promo which aired on the night show began it's new title, January 13,1967.  You'll need Real Audio.
Click on PLAY to hear actual audio taken from WAND and ABC for the ABC "Second Season" of Janury 1967.   The promo features a very modern music background with a list of the new ABC shows which will premiere for the second half of the TV season.  You'll need Real Audio.

These pieces of audio gold were recorded by me, after I received my first reel to reel tape recorder for Christmas 1966.  This Christmas gift, probably set the path for my broadcast career.  The moral to the story: Be carefull what you get your kids for Christmas.....it may just change their life!  These and other sound clips which will show up on the WCIA and WICS sites were recorded by a Montgomery Ward 5" reel to reel tape recorder with a michrophone held up in front of the speaker of a 1950's vintage Philco VHF console which I had in my room.  It had a UHF slide rule tuner converter box sitting on top.  I only wish I had it today!  It had great audio with a large cone speaker, the set was really sensitive when it came to bringing in distant signals from St. Louis.....and Champaign....and it did so much better than my parents living room G.E. at the time.


Click on PLAY to hear the ABC Sounder which the network used to begin various network promos and announcements during the mid to late 1960's.
Click on PLAY to hear a short ABC billboard promo for "F-Troop" with Ken Berry
Click on PLAY to hear a short ABC billboard promo for "The FBI" with Efrem Zimbalist Jr..
Click on PLAY to hear Jim Clayton, News Director/Anchor do a station ID for WAND.


From the studio which brought us "Batman", 20th Century Fox,....it was another superhero of sorts...."The Green Hornet."  This series premiered on September 9th, 1966(in color) where it ran until 1967.  This was a great Friday night series, for the kids(and adults alike), and starred Van Williams(from the Warner Brothers series "Surfside Six"),  Bruce Lee, Wende Wagner, Lloyd Gough and Walter Brooke.  The concept was created by George W.Trendle, the creator of "The Lone Ranger."  The character of Britt Reid/The Green Hornet was the great grand nephew of The Lone Ranger and fought for justice as well.  This time Britt Reid was the publisher of the Daily Sentinel and the owner of the newspaper's TV station.  He would often use the TV station by going on the air for some kind of statment warning the public of a law breaker.  By the way, the Black Beauty(his car) was a 1966 Chrysler Imperial customized by Dean Jeffries.  The show also featured product placement for Chrysler 


"Bewitched" was another of ABC's hit shows of the 60's.  This one was quite creative, with a concept which was totally original but one which was to be copied over the next couple of seasons by at least one of the other networks(NBC-I Dream of Jeannie).  This one starred Elizabeth Montgomery(daughter of movie actor George Montgomery)as Samantha Stevens,  Dick York, later Dick Sargent as husband Darrin, veteran radio/movie/TV actress Agnes Moorehead as Endora, Samantha's mother, David White as Larry Tate, Darrins boss, and many other regulars including veteran actor George Tobias, Alice Pearce, Marion Lorne, Paul Lynde, Alice Ghostley, Bernard Fox, Maurice Evans, and Erin/Diane Murphy(as daughter Tabitha).  The show lasted on the ABC primetime schedule from 1964 to 1972 and on the daytime schedule from 1968-1973 and continued for several years in local syndication then later on several cable networks.  It was recorded and delayed until 3:30PM for time on WAND.  It's sad to think that virtually all of the stars of this series are no longer with us.

"The Dating Game" was created by Chuck Barris for the ABC daytime schedule in 1965.  It then popped up in prime time to replace "The Tammy Grimes Show" after it was the first series cancelled in the 1966 season.  So on October 6th 1966 "The Dating Game" with it's Herb Alpert theme song ended up in prime time.  The show was hosted by Jim Lange and featured a guest choosing from three other guests of the opposite sex.  Imagine doing this one today!  The risque questions were written by the staff.  After a date was chosen they were chaperoned to some vacation spot for a weekend of fun.  "The Newlywed Game" also began on ABC daytime, in 1966.  It ended up being a "sister" show along with "The Dating Game" on the Saturday night ABC schedule.  "The Dating Game" was hosted by Bob Eubanks.  The daytime version ran from 1966 to 1974, later in syndication until 1980, and later in 1985.  It ran in prime time until 1971.
ABC's "Hollywood Palace" was a big budget, formal variety show produced at the ABC Palace Theatre-formerly the El Capitan Theatre on Hollywood Boulivard in Hollywood.  It was produced live on the network, originally in black and white in 1964 when it began, then later in color.  Guest hosts included
Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire, Milton Berle, Jimmy Durante(pictured above), Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca, Sammy Davis Jr. and Don Adams among others.
Acts included Mickey Rooney, Bobby Van, Nancy Wilson, Bob Newhart,  Ed Wynn, Frank Sinatra, Groucho Marx, Judy Garland, The Rolling Stones and many other popular performers of the day.  The show was produced as a major TV event and lasted on ABC from 1964 through 1970 seen for most of it's run on Saturday nights.  The Hollywood Palace Theater is now the home of "The Jimmy Kimmell Show" on ABC currently.       








"The Invaders"
was the original show about extra-terrestrials who landed on earth to take over.  It premiered on ABC in January 1967 as part of ABC's Second Season.  Roy Thinnes starred as Archetect David Vincent who went on a quest to warn us that the "invasion had already begun."  He stumbles on a UFO and learns the secret one night one night on the way home from a meeting.  Do you remember how you could spot an alien???  ...they were the one's with the crooked little finger.  Another Quinn Martin Production.


Click on PLAY to hear actual audio taken from WAND before the premiere of "The Invaders."    This network promo was recorded on January 10, 1967 from WAND/ABC.  You'll need Real Audio.
Click on PLAY to hear actual audio taken from WAND on the premiere of "The Invaders."    On this one you'll hear the opening credits of the show.  This was recorded on January 10, 1967 from WAND/ABC.  You'll need Real Audio.

"The Invaders" and "The Avengers" were two of the first ABC series which by adding the short title graphic before the show, would read "IN COLOR."  This was paradied, you might remember with the opening of the"Police Squad" series of the 1980's as all of the ABC shows that were broadcast in color featured a similar open.  This practice was eliminated within a couple of years, when virtually all of the shows produced were in color.





"The Avengers" began on British TV in 1963 and appeared on ABC with black and white episodes in March of 1966 where it continued until September of 1967.  After it was cancelled, it generated a letter writing campaign to bring it back.....ABC listened and returned the series as part of the ABC Second Season of 1967....this time in color.  Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg starred as John Steed and Emma Peel who as secret agents battled diabolical fiends of all sorts with a dash of class, champaign and their fashion setting wardrobes.  This series spawned a spin-off called "The New Avengers" which later showed up on CBS late night(see WRSP).  It also inspired a really bad movie "The Avengers"....don't waste your time on the movie.... Check out "The Avengers" on BBC-Americal where it shows up on the schedule from time to time.  By the way, Diana Rigg left the series with the episode called "The Forget Me Knot" when she was replaced by Tara King, played by Linda Thorson.  Another character was added....a boss for the Steed played by Patrick Newell called "Mother."  The series continued it's run through September of 1969, when it was cancelled by ABC.


Click on PLAY to hear actual audio taken from WAND and ABC.  This one is a network promo for the return of "The Avengers" to the ABC prime time schedule...."good show!"   This was recorded on the same date as the "Invaders" intro above, January 10, 1967.  You'll need Real Audio.


"The Lawrence Welk Show" was a favorite of the "old folks" from 1955 to 1971 on ABC...and later in syndicated through 1982!  WTVP/WAND aired the show during the entire run of the show.  ABC cancelled the show, simply because the demos were "too old."  The show featured his cast of singers, dancers and musicians with shows often time centered on a theme....or holiday.  Many performers went on to successful careers of their own including The Lennon Sisters, Pete Fountain and Lynn Anderson.  This show went color in 1966 along with most of the ABC schedule.




"The King Family Show" premiered on ABC in 1965 where it ran until 1969.  This show was a spin-off from an apperance on "The Hollywood Palace" during 1964.  The family included nearly 40 members, all musical, but centered on the six King Sisters, a singing group from the 1940's when they were part of the Alvino Rey's Orchestra.  Music ranged from semi-classical to contemporary with some family comedy thrown in.  The popular family show lasted but one season on ABC.
This is a strange one....yes it's a picture of a kangaroo....but not just any kangaroo....it's "Skippy the Bush Kangaroo."  A syndicated half hour Austrailian version of "Lassie."  This TV series ended up as part of the WTVP/WAND weekend schedule during the 1960's.  It at least appeared during the years of 1967-69.

You might not remember this one..."Love on a Rooftop" ran on ABC from 1966-67 with reruns during 1971 and starred Peter Deul(later "Alias Smith and Jones") and Judy Carne(pre "Laugh In").  This was a show with a young married couple in San Fransico and costarred Rich Little, Barbara Bostock and Sandy Kenyon.  The reruns were added to the 1971 summer season to profit from the popularity of Judy Carne of her "Rowan and Martin's Laugh In" run.  Peter Duel showed up in January of 1971 in "Alias Smith and Jones" before his suicide in December of 1971

"ABC Stage 67" was the title for a number of specials offered by the network.  Most of the "Stage 67" installments were variety specials hosted by Jack Paar, David Frost and others.  It ran from September of 1966 through May of 1967.


The Bullwinkle Show was a regular Sunday morning feature along with other kdis shows during the late 1960's




Danny Thomas' little girl, Marlo starred as struggling actress Ann Marie in "That Girl."  It was a trend setter for a bunch of independent woman" series to come such as  "The Mary Tyler Moore Show."  "That Girl" premiered on September 8th, 1966 and ran unitl September 10, 1971 on ABC.  The show co-starred Ted Bessell (later TV director), Lew Parker (radio's "The Bickersons"), Rosemary DeCamp (TV's "The Death Valley Days") and Bernie Kopell (later "The Love Boat").  Other regulars included Ronnie Schell, Ruth Buzzi, George Carlin, yes the comedian.  Danny Thoms made several cameo appearances, as did her siblings, Tony and sister UNKNOWN.  Marlo Thomas as the distinction as being the first TV series actress to appear bra-less....really.  This series had a unique intro in which guest stars would would talk about Ann and end their conversation with the phrase  "....that girl."  The theme song, very New York-ish and opening titles were very similar in concept to that taken by Mary Tyler Moore.




"The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" was based on the 1947 movie starring Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison.  The TV series starred Hope Lange and Edward Mulhare(later of "Knight Rider"), Reta Shaw, Kellie Flanagan, Harlen Carraher and Charles Nelson Riley("The Match Game").  "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" premiered on ABC on September 21, 1968 where it continued through September 18, 1970.

"The Joey Bishop Show"
was a late night talker designed to compete with the King of Latenight, Johnny Carson.  Needless to say, it didn't compete very well.  It began in April 17, 1967 and ran until December 26, 1969.  Joey Bishop actually acted as a substitute for Johnny Carson on "The Tonight Show" when ABC tagged him to host the late night show.  It was produced live....which ended up being a problem as guests often time turned up late....or missing their cues.  His side-kick was Regis Philbin(pictured with Joey above).  WAND ran Joey Bishop via tape delay after the 10:30 Movie "Nightwatch" at least for while, although it did air at it's network time for a time.   It aired after midnight on most nights, certainly contributing to it's failure.  There were probably many ABC affiliates doing a similar tape delay, as they would make more money selling as many commericals as they could cram into a late night movie, while the local avails were limited in the network fare.


"Dark Shadows"
the daytime drama continued and was by the late 1960's produced in color.  Here Barnabas Collins prepares to put the bite on some unsuspecting daytime drama actress.  Believe it or not, NBC actually revived the daytime drama in 1991 as a prime time series.  It lasted 3 months.



"The Monroes" premiered in September of 1966 and ran for one season.  The western starred Michael Anderson, Jr., Barbara Hershey, Ben Johnson and Buck Taylor among others. 
Take a hit movie, "The Dirty Dozen" and create a TV series with a similar set up.  It was called "Garrison's Gorillas" which ran during the 1967-68 season.  The stars included Ron Harper as Lt. Craig Garrison, along with Cesare Danova, Rudy Solari, Christopher Cary and Brendon Boone.

ABC was continuing a network theme in 1968 based on attractive programming to the youth of the country.  This crime drama starred three young undercover cops played by Michael Cole, Clarance Williams III and Peggy Lipton.  The police Captain in charge of our young heroes was played by Tige Andrews(formerlly known as Tiger Andrews).


Clinton Judd was played by former Donna Reed Show star Carl Betz and in an effort to keep that youth theme going, Steven Young.  "Judd for the Defense" was a part of the Friday night schedule in 1967 to 1969.  This was one of my personal favorites.
The youth theme was part of "It Takes a Thief" which ran from 1968 to 1970.  Young Robert Wagner starred as young Alexander Mundy, a theif recruited to work for the government in the form of Noah Bain, played by Malachi Throne.  Fred Astaire joined the production as Alister Mundy, father of Wagner's character.
The opening credits of this ABC series from the 1967 to 69 seasons, was paradied on the "Police Squad" series of the 1980's.  The original "NYPD" starred Jack Wardon, Frank Converse and Robert Hooks.  Probably the most interesting thing about this crime drama, was it's length, only 30 minutes.

In 1967, the WAND schedule was starting to see more contemporary off network TV shows.  From the older 1950's series listed as part of the 1966 schedule, LIN Broadcasting seemed to take WAND into a new era with some of the more recent network shows, like "McHale's Navy" and "Twilight Zone."  The Bowery Boys movie series ran as a filler during weekday mornings.
"McHale's Navy" was in syndication in by the fall of 1966, and it ended up on the weekday schedule at 4:30 PM on WAND and later part of the weekday morning schedule in 1969.
The off network syndication rights to "The Twilight Zone" was on the WAND weekday schedule at 5 PM.
"The Bowery Boys" ran on weekday mornings at 7:30 AM as well as weekend afternoons on WAND.







"The ABC Movie of the Week"
was a very ambitious series of  90-minute TV movies with major stars airing on Tuesday nights from 7:30 to 9:00 PM CT.  Two of the more famous products of the series were "Brian's Song"(pictured above) and "Duel"(the first major film of Steven Spielberg).  Stars featured on other films include Fred Astaire, Brian Keith, Milton Berle and others.  This series of TV movies still end up on local stations from time to time and cable channels occasionaly.


One of the series which ABC introduced with a youth appeal.  "Room 222" was a drama-comedy set in the classroom of an integrated LA high school.  It starred Lloyd Haynes, Denise Nicholas, Michael Constatine and Karen Valentine as teachers, principal and student teacher.  The students were played by Howard Rice, Judy Strangis, David Jolliffe, Ta-Tanisha and others.  The series ran on ABC from 1969-1974.







 Click on the "ABC" at left to hear the ABC color presentation logo as recorded from WAND in January of 1967.
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"Love American Style" was a romantic comedy anthology which starred most active actors on TV at the time.  The list of guests include: Ann Southern, Paul Ford, George Gobel, Tony Randall, Burt Reynolds, Harry Morgan, Paul Lynde, Rich Little, Sid Caesar, Imogine Coca, Bob Cummings, Michael Callan, Flip Wilson, Jane Wyatt, Ronny Howard, Anson Willaims, Martha Raye, Sonny and Cher, Phyllis Diller, Nanette Fabray, Milton Berle, Harrison Ford and many more old timers, and up and coming actors.  The series also included a series of short skits with the centerpiece prop being a brass bed.  The repertory company included: Stuart Margolin, Tracy Reed, Phyllis Davis, Jim Hampton, Clifton Davis and Jed Allan.   "Love American Style" also spawned the ABC hit show of the 1970's, "Happy Days" with it's pilot show called "Love and Happy Days."





ABC News experienced much turnover during the period.  Ron Cochran was anchor in 1963 for a short 15 minute network newscast.  He was replaced by a very young, 20 something   Canadian, Peter Jennings.  Jennings was the anchor when during the Winter of 1967, the 15-minute cast was expanded to 30 minutes as part of ABC's "Second Season."  A year later, Jennings went on the road as middle east reporter and was replaced by Bob Young.  By May of 1968, Young was replaced by Frank Reynolds, then Reynolds was joined by Howard K. Smith(pictured left).  By 1970, the ABC network news became "The ABC Evening News with Howard K. Smith and Harry Reasoner."  Reasoner was recruited by ABC from CBS and brought tons of credibility to the ABC News Department.  This team lasted five years when Howard K. Smith left ABC.

In spite of the constant turnover of staff at most local TV stations through the country, one thing remained constant at the central Illinois TV stations WCIA and WTVP(WAND), and that was the role of the nightly weathercaster.  In the case of WAND it was long standing meteorologist Loren Boatman.  The veteran Decatur teacher and weatherman was the first to occupy that position at WTVP in 1953 and he continued through most of the 1980's.  His relatively dry but no-nonsense presentation was right on and just what the market needed during the early years.  His marking pen was his trademark as he drew the position of frontal boundarys and wrote current temps of cities across the country.



ABC Shows from 1970 to 1975 include: The Young Rebels, The F.B.I., ABC Sunday Night Movie, Young Lawyers, Silent Force, ABC Monday Night Football, The Mod Squad, ABC Movie of the Week, Marcus Welby M.D., Courtship of Eddie's Father, Make Room for Granddaddy, Room 222, Johnny Cash Show, Dan August, Matt Lincoln, Bewitched, Barefoot in the Park, The Odd Couple, The Immortal, The Brady Bunch, Nanny and the Professor, Partridge Famly, That Girl, Love American Style, This is Tom Jones, Let's Make a Deal, The Newlywed Game, The Lawrence Welk Show, Most Deadly Game, The Smith Family, Shirley's World, Man and the City, Alias Smith and Jones, Longstreet, Owen Marshall, Getting Together, ABC Movie of the Weekend, The Persuaders, The Rookies, Temperatures Rising, Tuesday Movie of the Week, Paul Lynde, Wednesday Movie of theWeek, Julie Andrews Hour, The Men: Assignment Vienna-Delphi Bureau-Jigsaw, Streets of San Francisco, The Sixth Sense, Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice, Toma, Kung Fu, Adam's Rib, ABC Suspense Movie, Griff, Sonny Comedy Revue, Happy Days, That's My Mama, Get Christie Love, Paper Moon, Harry-O, Kodiak, Six Million Dollar Man, Texas Wheelers, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, The New Land and Nakia

"The Flying Nun" began the Thursday night lineup in September of 1967.  This was the most preposterous series ever....even including "My Mother the Car."  Sally Field as Sister Bertrille a novice nun in Puerto Rico who flew whenever the winds were active enough to lift the 90 pound Sally Field into the air.  Her cornette with the wings would allow her to fly.  How disappointing to have Sally Field, formerly of "Gidget" from bathing suit to a nun's habit.  This sit com also starred Marge Redmond, Madeleine Sherwood, Shelly Morrison, Linda Dangcil as nuns, and the rich playboy Carlos Ramirez played by Alejandro Rey.  The Sister was always using Carlos to fianance some project of hers to improve conditions on the island for kids or to improve life in the convent.  This unique series lasted through 1970.





ABC during the mid to late 1960's did a revolutionary thing on the Friday after Thanksgiving holiday.  It was called "Turkey Day on ABC" and the regular daytime schedule was replaced with a lineup of the Saturday morning chidlren's TV fare.  At the left are three examples of ABC's Saturday morning linup:  "The Fantastic Four," "Lance-a-Lot Link" and "Motor Mouse."  My favorites included: "George of the Jungle," "Hoppity Hooper" and the Bugs Bunny Warner Brothers cartoons.

Robert Young, after being the father on "Father Knows Best" during the 1950's on both radio and TV, now graduates from medical school and becomes Marcus Welby, for ABC.  This was one of the most successful series in the ABC programming collection.  Robert Young came out of retirement at the age of 62 to play one of the rolls of his lifetime.  "Marcus Welby, M.D." was a staple of Tuesday nights at 9pm CT from 1969 to 1976.  Along with Young, the series starred James Brolin as young relevant Dr. Steven Kiley and Elena Verdugo as Nurse Lopez.  Fans of other Universal Studio series will recognize the home/office of Dr. Welby as being the Cleaver's second home on "Leave it to Beaver" and one of the homes of the housewives on "Desparate Housewives."  Interestingly enough, it was also used in another vehicle with the word "desparate" in it.  Movie fans of Humphrey Bogart will recognize the home as being the one occupied by desparate criminal Bogart in the movie "Desparate Hours" made back in the early 1950's.  There were also some cast swapping done with sister series "Owen Marshall Councelor at Law" (see below).

The Lennon Sisters began a long association with Lawrence Welk as a  quartet of young ladies who remained with the mystro through the 50's and 60's.  By 1969, though, they were on their own and hosting their own hour long musical variety show with many big name guests like Jack Benny, Glen Campbell, Bob Hope and Phyllis Diller....and of course Jimmy Durante.  That's why this  ABC variety show was called "Jimmy Durante Presents the Lennon Sisters."  It ran on ABC from September 1969 to July of 1970.



This was another program with ABC youth appeal, and set for the high school set.  "Room 222" starred Lloyd Haynes, Denise Nicholas, Michael Constatine and cute newcomer Karen Valentine.  This half our drama/comedy premiered in 1969 and ran through 1974, mostly on Wednesday nights until it's last season when it moved to Fridays.

"The Music Scene" was hosted by David Steinberg, for the most part, although the series was to draw the hosting talents from 5 other part timers, whose names have been lost to time.  Among those appearing on this series during it's short run were The Beatles, Three Dog Night, Oliver, James Brown, Crosby Stills and Nash and Tom Jones among many more.  Even Groucho Marx appeared!  A comedy group also were part of this modern variety show.  "The Music Scene" ran from September 1969 to January of 1970, and yes, was only 45-minutes in length.  It was followed by "The New People" described to the right.


If you're a fan of the current ABC series "Lost" you would have loved this one.   "The New People" was a fantasy drama entered on a group of 40 young Americans stranded  on a South Pacific island after a plane crash.  The island was an abandoned US atomic test site, which meant that there were buildings, supplies, and other "normal" items which allowed the residence to live just like they were home, but alone on an island.  Stars included Tiffany Bolling, Zooey Hall, Jill Jaress, Dennis Olivieri, David Moses and Peter Ratray.  One of the most unique things about this series, is that it was only 45-minutes long, running as the second part of a block of programming 90 minutes long.  The first 45-minutes were taken up by the program described to the left....."Music Scene."

This more traditional TV legal drama starred Arthur Hill as "Owen Marshall, Councelor at Law" with young law partner Jess Brandon played by Lee Majors(of The Big Valley).  This was a very similar set up as "Marcus Welby M.D." but played thorugh the legal world, instead of the medical world.  This was another vehicle from Universal Studios, which would sometimes combine forces and Robert Young would play Marcus Welby within the confines of this show.  Sometimes Arthur Hill would return the favor and appear on "Marcus Welby."  Obviously a great sweeps ploy for additional viewers.





Handicapped characters were poplular during the era. NBC had "Ironside" in a wheelchair and ABC had "Longstreet" which ran from 1971-72.  This time James Franciscus played Mike Longstreet, who was blinded by his wife's killer, who didn't want to be identified.  Longstreet was an insurance investigator in New Orleans, who refused to quit after being blinded.   Here's a great bit of trivia for you....the name of his seeing eye dog: "Pax."  The series also starred Marlyn Mason, Peter Mark Richman and Ann Doran.  Another bit of trivia....who played his self defense instructior?  Bruce Lee.



Juliet Mills starred as Phoebe Figalilly, the nanny hired by one Professor played by Richard Long(of The Big Valley).  Phoebe was from England and had special gifts.....like ESP, and was able to talk to animals and the like.  She was the 5th housekeeper and nanny in the household in a year, because of some unruly kids played by David Doremus, Trent Lehman and Kim Richards.  "The Nanny and the Professor" ran on ABC from 1970 to 1971, at at least three different days and time periods.
Another relevant hour long drama, with a well known actor playing the old guy, and a number of young actors to attract those important younger demos.  This time Lee J. Cobb played old Attorney David Barrett and the young law students were played by Zalman King, Judy Pace and later Philip Clark was added.   "The Young Lawyers" ran on ABC from 1970 to 1971.





"The Lawrence Welk Show" was about to end it's network run by 1971.  It had been a Saturday night fixture on ABC since 1955.  Here is a publicity picture celebrating it's 16th, and final, season on ABC.  It wasn't all over yet, though.  The show continued to be popular with the "older set" and went into syndication, on many of the stations which originally ran the show while it was on ABC.  WAND continued to air it earlier on Saturdays for several years through the 1970's.







Based on the 1963 Glen Ford and Ronny Howard movie, this very hip TV series starred Bill Bixby(from "My Favorite Martian"),  and Brandon Cruiz in "The Courtship of Eddie's Father."  This ultra hip, ultra modern series featured music from one of my favorite songwriter/performers, the late Harry Nilsson.  The theme song was "Let Me Tell You 'Bout My Best Friend."  "The Courtship of Eddie's Father" ran on ABC from 1969 to 1972. also featured James Komack, and Miyoshi Umeki as Mrs. Livingston, the housekeeper and nanny to Eddie.



"The Brady Bunch" began as a family sit com, no messages, just good old fashioned simple situations and everyday problems of being a kid, and having kids.  This one ended up being a classic from the Sherwood Swartz production factory, who brought us "Gilligan's Island."  "The Brady Bunch" premiered on September 26, 1969 and ran on ABC until 1974.  It could've run longer...and in fact did in different forms....as a seriesof variety shows....and TV movies.  The cast included Robert Reed ("TheDefenders"), Forence Henderson, Ann B. Davis ("Bob Cummings Show") and the kids: Maureen McCormick, Eve Plumb, Susan Olson, Barry Williams, Christopher Knight and Mike Lookinland.  Reruns were aired on weekdays from 1973 to 1975 and also spawned an animatd series which ran on ABC Saturday mornings from 1972-1974.






More ABC/WAND video coming soon





Another one of the hip family sit-coms "The Partridge Family" was based on the "Cowsills" a family pop group of the late 1960's.  This one starred the "family" of Shirley Jones and her step son David Cassidy.  Also Susan Dey("L.A. Law"), Danny Bonaduce(of radio) and Dave Madden(of "Camp Runamuck").  The other kids were played by Jeremy Gelbwaks/Brian Foster, Suzanne Crough and later Ricky Segall.  This series aired on ABC from September 1970 to August 1974.  David Cassidy became a teenage idol during the run of the series and actually had several top 40 hits in the early 1970's.  Most weren't really that bad...in fact they were pretty good, unfortunately, the teeny bopper label was one to escape for Cassidy and helped to wreck any possibility of a legitiment music career.  "The Partridge Family" ended up in syndication and was a staple of late afternoon TV stations during the 1970's and early 1980's.  Just like the "TheBrady Bunch" this one also spun off an animated version for Saturday morning TV.


The Dick Cavett Show came after Joey Bishop as ABC's answer to Johnny Carson, and probably had the most success....but still not enough to satisfy ABC.  Cavett was incredibly smart, witty and the critics loved him.  Some of his one guest shows were historically superb and became great studies of the personalities of his guests.  People like Groucho Marx (pictured), Fred Astaire, John and Yoko Lennon (pictured), Jack Lemmon and Woody Allen among others were interviewed for the entire show.  The late night version aired from 1969 to 1972, and later he came back in prime time as a two night a week series during the summer of 1975.
Based on the Neil Simon play and movie, the TV version of "The Odd Couple" was less dark with the casting of Tony Randell nd Jack Klugman as the Felix and Oscar characters.  This was actually a great series and included a great ensemble cast including Al Molinaro (later of "Happy Days"), Gerry Walberg, Larry Gelman, Archie Hahn, Ryan McDonald, Monica Evans, Carol Shelly and sister of the producer, Penny Marshall (later of Laverne and Shirley).  This show was produced in part by Gary Marshall who later produced "Happy Days" and "Laverne and Shirley" for ABC.  "The Odd Couple" ran on ABC from 1970 to 1983.  It also spun off a twin series called "The New Odd Couple" several years later.  See the further history of WAND for details...



In 1971, Bobby Sherman, off of his success being a teen heart throb on the ABC series "Here Come the Brides" which ran on ABC from 1968 to 1970 hosted his own musical variety special.  His original series starred Robert Brown, David Soul(pre Starsky and Hutch), Joan Blondell, Bridget Hanley, Mark Lenard, Bo Svensen, Susan Tolsky, Henry Beckman and many others.  The show took place in 1800's Seattle, in which the male loggers sent for a number of mail order brides for wives.  It's the story of the Bolt Brothers who owned the mountain and the battle to keep their "mountain."  Bobby Sherman also had a couple of hit records during the late 1960's and early 70's and hosted his own variety special with the Fifth Dimension.  If anyone has a copy of this special on VHS or DVD, please e-mail me!!!   dougquick @ dougquick.com


One of the hip cop shows of the 1970's, "The Streets of San Fancisco" was one of the first....as Michael Douglas the young hip cop starred with Carl Malden, the old experienced cop in San Francisco.  Michael Douglas played Inspector Steve Keller from 1972-1976 then left the series and was replaced by Inspector Dan Robbins played by Richard Hatch.  This was another of the Quinn Martin series produced for ABC.


For a listing of network Prime TimeSchedules from 1969-1980 click HERE


This one is about obscure as it gets....."Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice" premiered on ABC in September of 1973 and by November it was history.  But this series starred some up and coming stars of the future....Robert Urich("Vegas""Spensor for Hire"), Anne Archer, David Spielgerg, and Anita Gillette.  Jodie Foster starred as Ted and Alice's daughter Elizabeth.  This was based on the movie of the same name.
"Kung Fu" was a cult favorite series...starring
David Carradine as Kwai Chang Caine.  It also starred Keye Luke as Master Po.  Caine was a Buddist monk, who ended up in the American west because he killed a member of the Chinese royal family and fled to America.  The show was paradied many times and was given credit for creating the "Kung Fu" rage of the 70's and early 80's. 


"American Bandstand" continued as a Saturday late morning entry on the ABC network schedule through the 1970's.  "AB" survived through the disco era, having brought the show up to date.  "America's Oldest Teenager," Dick Clark expanded his empire as producer of many music specials, as well as the host/producer of "New Year's Rockin' Eve" specials for ABC.


The pilot for "Happy Days" was featured as part of "Love American Style" and is given the credit for creating the phrase "jumping the shark."  "Happy Days" was actually the second series with the same title....the first was a variety show which featured Louis Nye, Bob and Ray and a large cast of singers and dancers and aired on CBS during the summer of 1970....but that's not the series we're talking about here.  The second "Happy Days" premiered in January of 1974 and continued for ten years on ABC.  The show starred Ron Howard, Henry Winkler, Tom Bosley, Marion Ross, Anson Williams, Donny Most, Erin Moran and a cast of what seemed to be hundreds over the ten years.  This show helped establish ABC as a network power during the 1970's.  Nostalgia was big in the 1970's....and this one was kind of an extension of the hit movie "American Graffiti"....and the broadway show "Grease" and took "TheAdventures of Ozzie and Harriet" into the 1970's while keeping the 50's alive as well.  The show, though, changed over it's run....starting out as a high school sit-com based on friends growing up in Milwaukee, it became a parady of itself later.  With the addition of Henry Winkler as "Fonzie" the show took off....and became a huge hit for ABC.  The show took a turn downward in popularity and credibility when the character of Fonzie as a stunt planed to jump a shark invested pool on his motorcycle....hence the phrase "jump the shark."  This series also ran in syndication for many years....but it's been awhile since it's shown up.....   The show also spun off several other series including "Joanie Loves Chachi" and "Laverne and Shirley."


"The Six Million Dollar Man" starred former Heath Barkley of Big Valley as Col. Steve Austin an astronaut who had been critically injured when the moon lander he was in crashed in the desert.  The government doctors rebuilt him using atomic powered parts.  It began as a series of 90 minute movies on ABC under the heading of "The ABC Suspense Movie", and later a regular hour long series.  It also starred Richard Anderson as Oscar Goldman his boss.  The series spawned the spin-off "The Bionic Woman" which starred Lindsey Wagner.  This series ran from 1974 to 1978.


"Welcome Back Kotter" was another of the ABC hit sit-coms of the 1970's....  and this one sold records for the performer and writer of the theme show, John Sebastian.  "Welcome Back..." premeired on ABC on September 9, 1975 and ran through August of 1979.  Kotter, played by Gabriel Kaplan was a Brooklyn, New York teacher who returned to teach at his old high school.  His students known as "the Sweat Hogs" included John Travolta as Vinnie Barbarino, and Robert Hegyes, Lawrence-Hilton Jacobs, Ron Paillo.  Other students included Debralee Scott, Vernee Watson, Helaine Lembeck and others.  Gabe Kotter's wife was played by Marcia Strassman.  The series was created by Gabe Kaplan and Alan Sacks.  The theme song, by the way, went to number one on the Top 40 charts....the show did pretty well as well.



"Starsky and Hutch" premiered in September 1975 and ran through the end of the 1979 season on ABC.  This was yet another of the hip cop shows with Paul Michael Galser as Detective Dave Starsky and David Soul as Detective Ken "Hutch" Hutchinson....and of course the Ford Torino.  These two plainclothes cops were two free and easy bachelors who took on the toughest cases in L.A. with the help of Huggy Bear played by Antonio Fargas.  The show included lots of car chases with the Torino always being challenged by their hot tempered boss Captain Dobey played by Bernie Hamilton.  The show would inspire a comedic parady in the early 00's.



This ensemble cast were featured in "The Life and Times of Barney Miller" as part of a summer anthology called "Just for Laughs" and returned, in a slightly different form and a new title: "Barney Miller" in January of 1975.  The cast included left to right: Maxwell Gail as Det. Stanley "Wojo" Wohohowicz, Hal Lindon as Captain Barney Miller, Ron Glass as Det. Ron Harris, Abe Vigoda as Det. Phil Fish and Jack Soo as Det. Nick Yemana.  The show ran most of the time on Thursday nights through September 1982.  Other cast members included Barbara Barrie, Linda Lavin, and Steve Landesberg.

"NFL Monday Night Football" later became "ABC's Monday Night Football" and ran on Monday nights from 1970 to 2006 in it's regular 8-11pm CT spot during the NFL season.  It's announcers became household words, especially Howard Cosell pictured above.  Others included Kieth Jackson, Don Meredith, Frank Gifford, Fred Willaimson, Alex Karras during 1970 to 1975, the years covered on this page.

Since we've got Howard Cosell pictured above, we have to bring up his try at hosting a variety show.  It was called "Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell."  He was one of the best known TV personalities ever....unfortunately he wasn't a likeable person and viewers stayed away from what could have been an entertaining show.  It was similar to "The Ed Sullivan Show" but Howard was very ill at ease.  Some of the guests included the premiere of The Bay City Rollers along with veterans like Sinatra, John Wayne, John Denver and other sports personalities as well.  It lasted from September 1975 to January 1976 on Saturday's from 7-8pm CT.

WAND becomes a Big Central Illinois Broadcaster

On October 3rd of 1966, WAND General Manager Len Carl announced that the new WAND transmitter and antenna was to be operational on Wednesday, October 5th.  It was also stated that the translator for WAND, W-70-AE would be taken off the air from it’s location in Champaign, since it was projected that WAND would throw a class A signal into the Champaign-Urbana area. It also appears that after tests were conducted about the signal strength of the new transmitter and antenna, that the translator would be moved to Danville.  Channel 70 would be used to “fill in” the signal to a populated area which was located just inside the coverage area but had a questionable ability to receive the signal from channel 17.  Channel 70 was able to get a class A signal over Danville along with the channel 17 class A signal over Springfield, Decatur and Champaign-Urbana.  The achievement gave WAND the ability to pitch it’s 100-percent class A coverage area to buyers of national and regional advertising.  This was necessary in order for the station to maximize potential households reached and hopefully WAND’s ratings.  This new situation would increase the chance to pick up it’s share of that all important advertising market.

Unfortunately, there was a delay in the initial broadcast from the new site, but it was only for a couple of days.  On Saturday morning, October 8th, 1966 at 6:40, WAND began to broadcast it’s 2-million watt signal from it’s new tower and transmitter located near Argenta, Illinois.  Reception reports were favorable for the most part from all over the area.  The only exceptions were complaints from viewers in Decatur, who failed to compensate for the new transmitter location and to re-direct their antennas toward the new broadcast site.

At least WAND is on the air.....



I’m not positive about the timing of this event in the history of WAND, but central Illinois experienced an ice storm on January 26th of 1967, which caused the collapse of the newly constructed 1,335 foot tower of WICD between Homer and Fithian, Illinois (See WICD).   This may have coincided with an ice storm which affected WAND as well.  I remember an ice storm, from about that time, which took WAND off the air with a power failure and/or damage to the stations studio-transmitter microwave link.  WAND scrambled to return to the air with a temporary arrangement which caused them to abandon their studio and move to the newly constructed transmitter building at the tower near Argenta, Illinois. I assume either that location had power, or a back up generator was used to keep the station on the air.  Unfortunately, there was probably no switching equipment, or a network feed to keep the station with the look of normal programming.

Instead, the engineering staff had wired in a camera, maybe a studio camera, along with a couple of microphones wired into the transmitter to broadcast on-going news news and ice storm reports and weather from inside their transmitter building!  WAND also used a 16 mm movie projector to show movies, cartoons and syndicated programming on the wall of the building and simply stuck a mike in front of a speaker of the projector.  The shows were “video jocked” by on-air staffers, of which I remember Bob Billman and Bill Wohlfarth doing at least one shift.  The two VJ’s would sit at a table with chairs and when it was time to go back to “programming” you could hear the projector start up and the studio camera would pan up to the wall and then focus in on the projected image of a movie, or whatever program on the wall. 

This was the arrangement for at least a couple of days as the station would show countless old westerns, cartoons and other movies and programs which came from the WAND film library.  I also remembered being disappointed when the station regained power and once again resumed normal broadcasting.  I was so impressed with the way the staff handled the situation and the ingenious way they solved a problem which would probably take most stations off the air during that period of time.  I wonder how stations now would handle such an event, as most wouldn’t have a library of programs to air in case of an emergency.

The WAND General Manager Merry-Go-Round

The names of the various General Managers of WAND seemed to change quite often during it’s history.  As told earlier, the first GM, Howard“Harry” Cowgill(1953-1954) was replaced by Steve Pozhay(1954-1959).  Pozhay was followed by Bob King(1959-1965), LenCarl(1965-?), Fred Grezy(?-1969), and Decatur native and Channel 17 veteran, Jack P. Kussart who also earned the title of Vice President(1969- ).   His appointment was announced on January 26th of 1969 by Martin Ackerman, President of LIN Broadcasting.

The Turbulent era of the late 1960's and early 1970's



In seems that a WAND reporter reported more unrest than what the Champaign mayor thought it should have.  Champaign Mayor Virgil Wikoff in a letter to the FCC asked for an investigation of WAND’s coverage of the “recent racial problem in Champaign.”  He wrote that WAND issued a false news report on May 2nd, 1970, then failed to make an adequate retraction on that alleged false report.  He noted that WAND showed film of disorders taken the previous day and stated that “helmeted troops were patrolling the city, tear gas was being used and that there were unconfirmed reports of grenades being used.”  Wikoff said that by the time the report was made, that it was calm in Champaign-Urbana. 

The incident did draw National Guard troops into Champaign a few days after the incidents to deal with disturbances on the University of Illinois campus, but the Guard was not activated during the night in question.  The mayor said he called WAND and had the story read to him as it was broadcast, then called the news director at home to complain.  Mayor Wikoff said he, “received no satisfactory explanation for this irresponsible report.”  After his phone calls, WAND, according to his letter did another news report about an hour later stating that everything was now calm in Champaign, but did not retract the previous report that aired during the newscast.  Wikoff complained “none of the news reports were true, the situation was calm and relatively quiet that night, as both the other TV stations(WCIA and WICD) were reporting.”  The reporter in question was not named in the letter, nor was the news director. 

This incident would also cause problems for WAND at the next licence renewal time.  In December of 1970 most of the other broadcast properties in the area had automatic renewals of their three year licenses, but the permit of one central Illinois TV station was held up.  The license to operate WAND by LIN Broadcasting was delayed because of the letter that Champaign Mayor Wikoff filed with the commission earlier that year.  It was reported that the FCC contacted both Wikoff and WAND for an explanation.  The Mayor explained at that time, he had decided to let the matter drop, although he didn’t get “satisfaction” from either WAND or the FCC.  In a press release from the station it later says, “the matter was cleared up” and the FCC would take action soon on the renewal.  The licence was later renewed for another three years.


(Left): WAND news ad from around 1968 with at top left, Bob Billman, right Jim Clayton, 2nd row left: Loren Boatman, right: Bill Jones, 3rd row left: Fred Straub, right George Thompson, bottom row left: Lowell Davis, right: Don Shroyer. 

thanks to Bruce Frey for his contribution



More Children's Programming.....or is a syndicated game show enough?

In January of 1971 local TV stations and their affiliated networks were faced with an FCC ruling which required networks to give more time back to the local stations so they could program more educational programming or more children’s programming.  Barry Geohegan, WAND’s General Manager at the time, in a press release told of the plan by ABC to give up 9:30 to 10 PM Thursdays, 8:30-9:30 PM Saturdays and 6 - 7PM Sundays to the local stations to air local programming, ideally for educational or children’s programming, but certainly something with a local flavor. 

NBC gave up the 6:30 to 7 PM time slot Monday through Saturday for the local stations.  CBS was undecided on the issue.

The plan as stated by Geohegan was to redistribute some network programming to allow for a showing of a feature film on Wednesday evenings to fill the time.  He said that, “people go to the entertainment programs as opposed to the educational” and that WAND didn’t have the resources to do local programming as was the original plan set forth by the FCC.  He said that most stations would fill with reruns, movies, special syndicated shows or programming from other networks.  Ultimately, he was right, as no local stations filled the time on a regular basis with any local productions, and certainly no educational or children’s shows.

The economics of the local stations prevented the production of local programming, while ABC in particular was suffering from an advertising slowdown and reportedly embraced the cutback in programming as a cost savings.  The reason for the ad slowdown was the elimination of cigarette advertising in January of 1971.  This sent the networks reeling from the loss in revenue, and probably hurt the ad sales of local TV as well, as many companies bought ads on local stations as well.

Is anyone watching????   Late Night Programming Changes in the mid 70's

By 1974, ABC wasn’t quite in the ratings basement, as that era saw NBC with that honor.   But the 1973-74 season didn’t find any of ABC’s programs in the top 10.  In fact the highest rated ABC show “The Six Million Dollar Man” which landed in 11th place.  The only other ABC shows in the top 25 were Happy Days(#16), Monday Night Football(#19), Tuesday Movie of the Week(#21), The Streets of SanFranciso(#22), The ABC Sunday Night Movie(#24) and The Rookies(#25).  The tally saw CBS with 14 shows in the top 25, while ABC had 7, NBC had only 4.  It was definitely was one of CBS’s great years.  These network numbers can also be translated to just how the local ratings puzzle came together as well.  Even though, now virtually all of the market could receive all three networks, the local news audience of the Decatur area still belonged mostly with WAND, with WCIA being the second choice.  While probably, most of the prime time viewing went with the network leader CBS and WCIA.

The late night, though, belonged to NBC’s “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson” with still a strong local audience for the programming of WCIA.  WCIA during the early to mid 1970's was airing a late movie under the heading of “The Late Show” with various nightly themes.  ABC was trying new things with it’s post late news time period, but unfortunately, wasn’t gaining much ground or audience for WAND.  After the years of Les Crane, Joey Bishop and Dick Cavette, ABC tried diversity with a lineup of talk shows with Dick Cavette or Jack Paar, but also reruns of the ABC Movie of the Week, variety shows entitled Let’s Celebrate, The Roger Miller Show and even Truman Capote hosted an interview show with prison convicts.  ABC’s late night package was called “ABC’s Wide World of Entertainment.” 

During the Spring of 1974, T.J. Vaughn,a former director at the station, who was now the Program Director announced a programming strategy which would put WAND back into a competitive situation with the other local stations.  He said that the ABC late-night lineup wasn’t “doing the job” of bringing viewers to the late night.  He also admitted “the ratings aren’t that good.”  It was very likely that WAND had virtually no audience after their local newscast.  So, that program strategy could bring back what made late night TV viewing popular from the very beginning of Channel 17 with the return of the “Nightwatch” late movie.  Vaughn expected the movie to capture a “bigger slice of the ratings.”  More on that in a later section....


Norman Lear makes waves on ABC and WAND

At the premiere of Norman Lear’s “All in the Family” on CBS in 1971, TV grew up.  But, sometimes the audience didn’t.  ABC premiered a new sit-com also produced by Norman Lear based on an award winning off-Broadway play, Hot-L Baltimore.  The show brought all kinds of racy dialog and sexual innuendo to prime-time TV.  The characters included a strange combination of off beat people who lived in a dilapidated hotel in Baltimore, Maryland.  The show was to premiere at 8 PM on Friday, January 24, 1975 on ABC and WAND.  Viewers of the station on that night instead saw alternative programming.  Program Director T.J Vaughn had to release a statement that the show was deemed unsuitable for WAND’s prime time audience.  A decision was made to delay showing the new ABC series until the next night,  Saturday at 10:30.  The management of WAND previewed the first two episodes of the new series on closed circuit from the network and said, “the language was not good and the subject matter would be difficult to explain to a child.”  The decision to air Hot L Baltimore on Saturday night was made because kids stay up to watch the Friday night “Creature Feature” movie, and Saturday night didn’t normally consist of an audience of children.  Ultimately, the ratings of the series did it in, as it ran it’s last network episode on June 6th of 1975. 

WAND gets beaten not TO the Curb.....but by CURB

The precedent of WAND being rather sensitive to what would be questionable programming came from two different sources.  First of all, Decatur is home to a very strong religious community.  The early schedules of WTVP and WAND were weighted very heavily with religious programs either nationally produced or local.  Weekly shows about and for the Decatur churches were a part of prime-time during the 1950's, Revivalists Oral Roberts, A.A. Allen, Rex Humbard and others have always been a part of at least Sunday morning programming.  Later in the 1970's, Jim and Tammy Bakker’s The PTL Club ran in late night and early mornings.  The FourSquare Church was the original license holder of a cable channel during the 1970's and 80's in Decatur, and eventually developed WFHL, Channel 23, a full powered station which later would become a PAX net affiliate before being sold to ACME Broadcasting and made into the market’s WB affiliate in the late 1990's.  The religious community had an extraordinary strong voice in Decatur and central Illinois broadcasting.





WAND was also getting a barrage of protests by a newly formed citizen’s group, Citizens Urging Responsible Broadcasting(CURB).  The spokesperson of the group, who ironically had the same last name as a rather famous X-rated movie star of the mid 70's, Mrs. Adrainna Lovelace.  In an interview which appeared in the Urbana Courier, she said she, “became upset over the X-rated movies being shown in the home and protested to both WAND and WICS.”  She formed a group to protest to the FCC and to the stations as well as sponsors.

She was asked about the option of just “tuning out” the offensive programming, and she said, “When you pay $500 for a set, you have the right to see decent programs in the home.  I don’t want to sit and watch people taking off their clothes, and going to bed in my living room.  I feel ths is an invasion of privacy.”   I guess no one made the argument the other way to her, that if some one pays $500 for a set, you should be able to watch what you want....”

It appears though, she wasn’t offended by the amount of violence on TV as she continued, “I feel violence is handled more humanely on the detective shows.  What I am primarily objecting to is the dirty movies.”  The group also made statements about the local TV stations airing X-rated movies.  Since, no central Illinois TV stations ever aired an MPAA X-rated movie during the 1960's and 70's, one can only assume she based that statement on her own ratings criteria.  Also, based on what she describes as being offensive, the daytime dramas, even in that era, would have been considered X-rated in her judgement.  Others in CURB included the co-chairs Dwight Cribe and Mrs. Margaret Cognace.  The newspaper story said the group would continue to monitor programs on Channel 3, 17 and 20.



Personalities of the mid 70's....






By 1976 the news theme was “Bring the News into Perspective with Scene 17.”  The main anchor continued to be Jerry Slabe with Jeff Beimfohr(sports), Loren Boatman(weather), Jane Bigelow(legislative reporter-Springfield) along with Dan Medina, Lance Standstead, Don Bradley, Lynn Fellows and Dan Bowman.  The News Director was Dick Westbrook.  It appears that a change was on the way by 1977 as Jerry Slabe was making plans to make a move to replace out-going Paul Davis as main anchor at local competitor WCIA.


In September of 1977 the employee roster included the names of Bob Cashen as Anchor, who previously was at WPTA-TV in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he was the morning and weekend anchor.  The Peoria native was also a news director at KVIQ in Eureka, California.



From a 1976 TV Guide, pictured left to right is Jane Bigelow, Loren Boatman, Jerry Slable(in a  leather sport coat.....how cool is that!) and Jeff Beimforh.  WAND was then "Scene 17." 






A former radio newscaster John Wingate, joined the staff during the fall of 1977 as well.  He was formerly with WJBC/WBNQ radio in Bloomington, Illinois.  It was also at this time that reporter Jane Bigelow was moved from her Illinois State House Legislative Reporter position to that of a Producer.  Also, Scott Lynn Betzelberger was named Sports Director of the station.  He was a graduate of SIU-Edwardsville.  Meanwhile, Perry William Ergang was named reporter for WAND.  He was a native of Highland Park, Illinois and a U of I grad.


This section listing personalities will be updated as more names are gathered....if you have a name to contribute....please e-mail it to me, let me know what that person did-or title and the years of employment.  E-mail to dougquick @ dougquick.com
 
Programming from the mid to late 1960's and very early 1970's

Western movies, western TV series along with other off network shows filled the non-network schedule of WAND from the mid to late 1960's.  The station continued to include religious programming as well, especially on Sunday morning.  Local news saw the technical improvement of broadcasting in color during the period with some expansion of newscasts from fifteen to thirty minutes. 

Some of the syndicated shows appearing on the schedule of WAND included The Texan, an off network CBS show with Rory Calhoun from 1958-1960.  This TV western was on the Saturday morning pre-cartoon schedule in 1966.  Earlier in the morning if you were watching at 6:30 you would see Industry on Parade followed by Senator Dirkson and the Farm Show, for one hour hosted by WAND Farm Director Bob Schneider.  The 1966 ABC Saturday morning schedule, included Porky Pig, The Beatles, Casper the Friendly Ghost, Magilla Gorilla, BugsBunny, Milton the Monster, Hoppity Hooper and American Bandstand.  The rest of the afternoon included reruns of the syndicated Sargent Preston of the Yukon, the off network syndicated reruns of Tales of Wells Fargo with Dale Robertson, The New Breed a police drama starring Leslie Nielson and The Detectives starring Robert Taylor. 

ABC wrapped up Saturday afternoon in 1966 and beyond with the ever famous Wide Wide World of Sports.  At 5:30 the station aired a local newscast with news, weather and sports.  Then at 6, it was Zorro, the long running Disney ABC off network western series in syndication, and ABC’s prime time schedule of Ozzie and Harriet (in color), Donna Reed, Lawrence Welk(in color) and The Hollywood Palace(in color) which ended at 9:30pm.  ABC left the final half hour of prime on Saturday night for local programming.  WAND filled that time with The WilburnBrothers country-western show which continued the role of Channel 17 keeping the country music TV tradition alive.  It is assumed The WilburnBrothers was a syndicated first run music variety series.

Sundays included religious programming such as A.A.Allen, Oral Roberts, This is the Life, Revival Fires, Rev. Schwambach and RexHumbard.  Public affairs/documentary shows were aired on Sunday’s as well, from ABC such as Discovery.  Sundays were also big sports days for ABC with the airing of various golf tournaments and other sporting events.  Syndicated shows did show up on Sundays, though.  At least in 1966, the schedule included Sargent Preston of the Yukon, Tales of Wells Fargo, and the syndicated first run western anthology series TheDeath Valley Days along with the western movie/TV classic Hopalong Cassidy.

Weekday afternoons included Captain Scotty and Davey’s Locker, two locally produced kids shows with a studio host and cartoons.  It’s unknown who actually hosted these shows, although I remember watching them at the time. I do remember Jim Clayton, who was also a WAND news anchor at the time hosting at least for a while.  It also appears that 1966 was the final year of the locally produced kids shows for WAND.  At 4:30pm weekdays it was the Dick Clark produced filmed music series Where the Action Is followed by Soupy Sales-the syndicated adult/kid show at 5, then at 5:30 it was the off network series Leave It to Beaver.  At six it was 15-minutes of ABC News with Peter Jennings and 15-minutes of local news, weather and sports.  The late night programming after the 30-minute local news was Nightwatch with a locally run movie.

In 1967, Saturday morning looked somewhat different as the Farm Show was dropped and the morning’s entertainment programming began with Hopalong Cassidy.  On Saturday afternoons, the lineup included once again, Sargent Preston of the Yukon then ABC Sports programming including Wide Wide World of Sports wrapping up the day.  Once again the ABC schedule allowed for local programming at 9:30, and this year it was the black and white 1950's western Tales of Wells Fargo.

Sunday included a show entitled Just For You with Bill Ellis, but unfortunately, information on this listing is lost in history.  Cameo Theater, the NBC off network series from 1950-55 ran late on Sunday afternoons along with Death Valley Days.


The weekdays in 1967 included an early morning Farm Show which ran at 7:20 with Bob Schneider followed by The Bowery Boys-an hour long edited version of the Monogram Pictures movie series, then a collection of cartoons at 8:30 and Romper Room with Miss Martha at 9.  Weekday mornings at 11:30 included a half hour locally produced Farm and Home Show-probably hosted by Bob Schneider and others from the news department.  The late afternoons included Where the Action Is at 3:30, followed by a collection of cartoons, Cartoon Cutups, along with the off network syndicated reruns of McHale’s Navy and The Twilight Zone


In January 1967 with “ABC’s Second Season”(see audio from a promo of ABC’s Second Season from January of 1967 on this site) ABC expanded network news coverage to 30-minutes with Peter Jennings at 5:30, then a half hour of local news, weather and sports.  It’s also important to note that local news, weather and sports were still being broadcast in black and white, as Midwest Television’s WCIA and WMBD(Peoria) were the only stations broadcasting local news in color.

Later in 1968, scheduling changed to include a Saturday morning series called Panarama Showcase with an unknown source, format and subject to replace Hopalong Cassidy.  A Dick Clark produced variety series for young people followed American Bandstand on Saturdays called TheHappening.  One episode in July of 1968 was hosted by Dick Cavette and Frank Sinatra Jr. and included the bubblegum rock group The Peppermint Trolly Company and Olympic swimmers Mike Burton, Debbie Meyer and Ken Merten.  That show was followed by a Saturday afternoon movie. 

By July of 1968, it appears that WAND along with WICS, WICD and the Peoria stations WEEK and WIRL were also broadcasting local news in color.  The two Terre Haute TV stations WTWO and WTHI were still broadcasting local news in black and white, and would continue for at least several more years even into the 1970's.



Rod Serling's Twilight Zone aired from 66-67 weedays at 5. 

Weekdays during the Summer of 1968 included the 15-minute color syndicated cartoon series The King and Odie, characters from the Tennessee Tuxedo CBS cartoon series of the 1960's running at 7:45.  At 8 it was the British off network series Ivanhoe which starred a pre-James Bond Roger Moore as the legendary knight.  Weekday afternoons had a slightly different look with the elimination of cartoon kids shows and the airing of off network and first run syndicated programming such as Divorce Court at 3:30, followed by McHale’s Navy, Gilligan’s Island, then the first run Ralph Edwards production of the first run syndicated quiz show Truth or Consequences hosted by long running game show MC Bob Barker.  By then, the ABC News was now anchored by Frank Reynolds, followed by local news, weather and sports broadcast in color on WAND.  Nightwatch was now more like the Over-Night Watch as WAND began to air ABC’s The Joey Bishop Show at 10:30, followed by the late movie at Midnight. 

By the Fall of 1968 the schedule was shuffled to include the ABC public affairs documentary Discovery early on Saturday morning at 7:30.  Local news was cut back on Saturday evenings as the early news was eliminated and replaced by The Bobby Lord Show.  The source, content, or talents of host Bobby Lord is unknown.  ABC continued to end it’s programming on Saturday at 9:30pm, and WAND kept up it’s connection to country-western music with the local production of Cornbelt Country Style hosted by Uncle Johnny Barton from WHOW, Clinton, Illinois’ local country music radio station.  I remember a yearly holiday show of the Cornbelt Country Style would include an installment recorded at the Veterans Hospital in Danville, Illinois.  The Untouchables continued at 10:30 on Saturday night followed by Nightwatch.

Meanwhile, the late afternoon was shuffled again with Truth or Consequences at 3:30, followed by the off network series in reruns, Dennis theMenace and Gilligan’s Island.  There was a major move of the WAND’s local news time, perhaps to bring about a more favorable viewing audience to the station and to eliminate viewers having to make a choice between Channel 3 and 17.  ABC News with Frank Reynolds ran at 5pm, followed by WAND’s local news, weather and sports at 5:30.  At six, it was the CBS off network classic series I Love Lucy, which ran as lead in to ABC’s prime schedule.

The only change by April 1969 was the Saturday morning addition of 4-H Science Club.  It’s unknown where the source, host, or format of this series was as it appeared previously on the WICS schedule in previous years.  WAND also began Community 17 a locally produced public affairs show.   This was also the year that two additional off network series were added to the schedule.  On Sundays The Rebel-with Nick Adams, the off network reruns of the former ABC and CBS series ran at Noon, then later in the day the off network CBS anthology series Herald TheaterSuspense was added at 5PM.  Another unique syndicated show on the schedule in 1969 was Skippy the BushKangaroo, an Australian produced adventure show for kids, in the style of Lassie, except with a Kangaroo.  This Aussie series would continue for several years on WAND.

On weekdays in 1969 an interesting country music artifact was broadcast at 7:30 each weekday morning.  For country music fans, this was quite a find!  Ranch Party was a filmed full color variety series from the mid to late 1950's with stars of the Grand Ol’ Opry.  The series featured early appearances of Johnny Cash, Minnie Pearl, Earnest Tubb, Webb Pierce and many other, now, legendary country music artists.  I was not a fan of country but this show did catch my attention, simply because it was in color and very old.   I developed an appreciation of the series, and even now, I recognize this would be an incredible DVD collection for real country music fans today or a great series or a country video channel!   Meanwhile, another half hour of locally produced country music was added to the weekennds with the title of Midwest Hayride.  This show, with host and musical regulars unknown, is assumed to have been produced at WAND.



By Spring 1969, WAND made the shift to move the early evening local news back to 6PM.  The late afternoon schedule was changed to add Bewitched-recorded from 11am on the ABC network feed and played back at 3:30.  This was because of the scheduling of an early morning local  movie which ran from 9:30 to 11:30am.  The Munsters ran at 4, followed by Gilligan’s Island, Dennis the Menace and I Love Lucy.  At 6, it was the syndicated commentary of Paul Harvey followed by 25-minutes of local news, weather and sports.  Late nights still consisted of Joey Bishop followed by Nightwatch.       
hosted by Sebastian Cabot and

Also being broadcast during 1969 were the Sherlock Holmes movie series, although edited down to fit a 60 minute slot on Saturday afternoons.  The afternoon included Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, followed by The Bowery Boys, The Rebel and a locally originated movie.  It appears that The Untouchables ended it’s run on Saturday night as Nightwatch followed the late news on Saturday night.

WAND’s religious programming of the era included the broadcast of the Billy Graham Specials about four times a year.  These would pre-empt network programming usually just before or just after a ratings period.  WAND, as well as other network broadcasters would tape a the network show for showing later, perhaps during a weekend afternoon or late night.  That way, the station could still collect the network fees, plus make money on the Graham special in prime time, as the religious group sponsoring the broadcast would actually purchase the time on the station. This was quite an income producing opportunity for the station, and did little harm to the ratings of the station, as it would fall outside the ratings periods.



In February of 1971, WAND was broadcasting a half hour morning news broadcasts at 7am, followed by Dennis the Menace, Jeff’s Collie, Cartoons, Romper Room, McHale’s Navy and The Movie Game before joining the network for mid day programming.  The late afternoons included Mr. Ed, the CBS off network sit com, Daniel Boone the hour long NBC off network adventure series in syndicated reruns, The BigValley the hour long ABC off network adult western in reruns, The 6PM local news, weather and sports followed by ABC prime time.  Late night news was followed by ABC’s The Dick Cavette Show, a short 5 minute news summary at midnight and Nightwatch.

Weekend programming by 1971 included The Three Stooges early Saturday mornings.  Since WAND ran the Three Stooges cartoon segments during some of it’s generic cartoon time slots, I assume this was simply several of those short 5 minute features back to back and not the classic 20 minute features.  Other shows included  Nashville Music, a syndicated country music variety show of unknown format and Untamed World, a nature animal documentary show of unknown source.  Sundays also included the locally produced public affairs program Community 17 at 11:30am followed by a short 10 minute local news summary of news, weather and sports.  This short news summary, probably was recorded the night before as it seems unlikely to have been a live production.  The Sunday night news was abbreviated in 1971 and continued to be for a number of years, as WAND ran the ABC late night 15-minute newscast which in 1971 was anchored by Bill Beutel and then followed by the local newscast.



The ABC off network series, adult western The Big Valley became a part of weekday afternoons during 1971.



Detailed program listings from 1972 through 1976 are not available any longer from any source obtainable in east central Illinois.  The research will continue and when a source is found for these listings, the information will be added to this text.




So, we’re jumping ahead to November of 1976.  ABC began it’s Saturday morning programming at 7am, so WAND didn’t have to program anything earlier than that.  On this November 13th of 1976, ABC was showing two college football games which began at 11:30am.  The Alabama/Notre Dame game was followed by the Texas A&M/Arkansas game.  At 6PM WAND broadcast Ara’s Sports World, hosted by Ara Parseghian-presumably from ABC.  This was also a night which ABC broadcast the often joked about Battle of the Network Stars, featuring stars of ABC, CBS and NBC competing in bazaar competitive events for the prize at being number one.  It was lovingly hosted by Howard Cosell.  The 15-minute local news was followed by the ABC late night 15-minute newscast.  WAND followed the news with the 90 minute firt run syndicated Peter Marshall variety show, which in on this date included Betty White and Allen Ludden, Country Joe McDonald and Harry James.  The show included a wide variety of musical acts, as you can image with the Woodstock performer of the late 60's and early 70's and the Big Band Leader of the 1940's, along with some comedy sketches.  The Peter Marshall Show would continue for several years.  Keep in mind the local competition at the time included a late movie on WCIA and WICS, and Saturday Night Live on WICD.  A short local newscast finished off the broadcast day.

Sunday’s day didn’t begin until 8am with the religious show Christian Viewpoint-source unknown, Have You Met Jesus?, both of unknown source, Rex Humbard, The Way The Truth The Light, The Methodist Church Service and Good News.  It appears as though, either ABC had quit the tradition of airing kids cartoon shows on Sunday, or WAND decided not to clear those ABC kids shows and instead ran an overabundance of religious programs.  By the mid 70's, ABC’s Issues and Answers was a part of the Sunday news interview shows in the style of NBC’s Meet The Press. Community 17 continued to fill a slot of early Sunday afternoon.  WAND also ran a locally originated movie series with the theme of “The Million Dollar Movie.”  On November 14th of 1976 the movies were “Blue Hawaii” and “If It’s Tuesday, This Must be Belgium.”  These two films would have probably been considered above average in attracting an audience.  After ABC purged The LawrenceWelk Show from the network schedule in the early 1970's, it ended up in syndication and WAND ran it, Sunday’s at 5pm.  After a late running of the ABC Sunday Night Movie of “Patton”, WAND followed it with the 15-minute edition of local news, weather and sports, then ABC’s late night news with Bill Beutel and a showing of The PTL Club, hosted by the soon to be controversial Jim and Tammy Bakker.  After the PTL Club, it was a re-showing of Community 17 and a rebroadcast of the late news.

Weekday mornings began rather late, at 6:50 with more religion and Closer To God Today, followed by the syndicated Bozo’s Big Top.  It’s unknown where the children’s show Bozo originated, but it wasn’t the same as WGN’s version of the famous clown.  This show was much more generic in it’s approach and had no local flavor to it, as did the Chicago version.   The half hour kids show was followed by Lassie, the newer first run syndicated version starring Robert Bray as Corey, the forest ranger, then 90-minutes of Good Morning America with David Hartman beginning at 8.  The WAND public affairs program Looking In followed at 9:30am, then the ABC daytime schedule of Edge of Night, HappyDays, Don Ho-variety show with the famous Hawaiian host, Ryan’s Hope, Family Feud, $20,000 Pyramid, One Life to Live(45-minutes) and General Hospital(45-minutes).  At 3pm, it was the syndicated long running Mike Douglas Show, Andy Griffith Show, the syndicated off network CBS classic, the ABC News anchored by Harry Reasoner and Barbara Walters, then local news, weather and sports.  Since prime time was rolled back to 7PM, it allowed WAND to air Gunsmoke-the CBS off network adult western classic syndicated color reruns at 6-7PM.  The late local news was followed by the Nightwatch late movie, The PTL Club and the rebroadcast of the late local newscast.  It was also the first time that the station ran it’s 10 PM newscast at 35 minutes, a common occurrence today.

1976 also included the broadcast of WAND’s late Friday night movie feature “Tales of Terror” local creature feature movies.  It was rather off the genre on the night of November 19th, as the station ran “The Return of Dr. X” with Humphrey Bogart.  Although, it’s know that during at least part of his tenure at WAND, former Promotion Director Mike Cheevers would don make up and dress the part of a vampire like character to host the movie, but it’s unknown if that was the case at this particular time.   
  


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