UHF TV in Boston: WSBK (38) vs WKBG/WLVI (56)

In the early 70s, Ch. 38 was more adventurous about what filmed programming that they leased. They ran rarely seen Universal B comedies on Sunday afternoons(with Hugh Herbert, Leon Erroll, and Olson and Johnson)and forgotten RKO comedy shorts(Leon Erroll and Edgar Kennedy) every weeknight at 11:00.

 

Creature Double Feature breaks the tie.

 

Wow, this really brings me back! In the years before cable was a thing, Boston stations were my TV life. LVI had Flintstones, Hanna Barbera, Gilligan, The Bradys, Welcome Back Kotter and Good Times after school. SBK had the "legendary" Movie Loft (I still have some old ML recorded on VHS in my collection) and The Stooges on in a big block, 2 or 3 hours on Sunday (at least I think it was) mornings. LVI had an 8-10 p.m. movie on weeknights as well and often showed controversial (for the times) stuff. Neither one had Saturday morning cartoons as I recall but they did have a fair amount of weekday animation, including some then-rare anime ("Battle of the Planets" on LVI for one). Back then anime was, shall we say, not a mainstream thing like it is now and you could only find it here and there, and for the most part it was very unlike Disney/HB in its plots and style and was not hugely popular. They were definitely trailblazers for including this content in their broadcasts. LVI also had Creature Double Feature in a three-hour Saturday block where they sometimes showed two kaiju ("big monster") movies or Euro-horror movies in a row. This was a mind-blowing experience as an 11-year-old, although grown-ups back then were not too happy to have a kid "just sit there and watch TV for three hours straight"! I think that SBK was also my first exposure to what I consider the greatest TV show of all time, The Twilight Zone. These channels lasted me all through grammar school up until I joined the military. When cable came in 83-84, I watched MTV, Nickelodeon and TNT but these channels were still my go-to for news and movies. I would have to say I probably watched more LVI than SBK, but in the end it's a tough call. I enjoyed them both, and miss them quite a bit.

 

I'd have to say TV 38 (Bobby Orr, Espo and Sanderson were found there!!!) (Though I'd grab that dial and try and tweak the antenna to see MaryAnne/Gilligan's Island on 56 )

 

I just hate the way independant stations chop the heck out of shows like this one. Look there - all three asterisks are missing!

 

Didn't either 56 or 38 air an animated series for Fantastic Voyage and/or Journey to the Center of the Earth? Or am I imagining things?

 

And lets not forget that WLVI had Benny Hill weeknights! WSBK would show The Deer Hunter on The Movie Loft over two nights. Or if you were lucky the Saturday or Sunday Red Sox afternoon game would end around 3:40 and they would squeeze a Three Stooges short already in progress.....

 

I seem to remember those being shown early on Sunday mornings, but on one of the VHF channels (maybe Channel 5, before Captain Bob?).

But, the memories are hazy. A TV Guide from the time would help.

Update: Speaking of Captain Bob:

 

Channel 56 was on pretty much ten times more than 38, because of The Brady Bunch and The Monkees in particular. In the mid-80s, during summer vacation, or on the random sick day from school, the morning lineup was always superior, with stuff like I Dream of Jeannie and Bewitched.

I watched the Stooges on 38, and Red Sox games, but their sitcom selection was far inferior, IMO. I think they did have The Odd Couple, though, which was great. Ask The Manager was fun...one guy would read the letters, sometimes it was Dana Hersey, sometimes another guy -- mostly people asking whether they could put a certain syndicated show on the station, and the manager would almost always respond that another station has the rights to it.

 

Man, I loved racing home after school and spending a few hours watching The Monkees, Gilligan's Island, etc. on Channel 56 before dinner. Great memories.

Dale Dorman... now there's a guy I haven't thought about it decades!

 

Really? Decades? That's too bad as Dale Dorman was on Boston radio, daily, from 1968 to 2008...

Of course, I mostly remember him from his WRKO days (and being the voice of the afternoon kids' shows on 56), but he was also on Kiss 108 from 1978 to 2003, then on WODS from 2003 until he retired in 2008.

I actually met him at a remote WRKO did at the Woburn Mall circa 1977 (even won a portable AM radio from him, as he was giving away a lot of swag to all the kids gathered around the 'RKO van that day). [He was a bit on the pudgy side, with long hair pulled back into a ponytail. He didn't quite "rock that look", truth be told....]

The website reelradio.com has an old Dale Dorman WRKO aircheck as one of its exhibits. It's a 70- (or so) minute bit of vintage fun as Dale tries to get going on a cold and dreary Tuesday morning in May, 1973.

 

Here's a clip of Willie Whistle from 1984 (based on one of the commercials, not the uploader's claim of 1983):



Seeing the very tail end of "The Lion's Busy" reminded me while I prefered 38 over 56 for WB cartoons – uncut and better picture quality than the grainy and dark A.A.P. prints 56 ran.

 

I didn't live here between 1979 and 2005.

 

I would love to find a commercial for The Brady Bunch Hour.

 

I lived there for some of that time, but I never really knew Dale Dorman was still on Boston radio after he left WRKO. (I prefered WBCN to WXKS.)

I honestly had thought his only gig was channel 56 after he left RKO. It wasn't until much later (and living in Japan) when I learned he was still plugging along.

 

While rummaging around at YouTube, I found a clip from "Meet the Manager" – WLVI's answer to 38's "Ask the Manager".

It's more serious in nature than ATM (w/Dana Hersey's freewheeling antics), but it's still fairly interesting in its own right:


(The clip is from a YouTube channel called "VintageTelevision". The uploader posts a lot of old content (mostly from Boston-area TV), but in quality that is obviously better than typical at-home Beta or VHS copies. The channel is very "grab-baggy" in nature, but worth your time to check out if old-time TV is your thing.)

 

I remember one station would show an hour of MASH from 6-7pm, then I'd flip over to another station which showed an hour of MASH from 7-8pm. Then I could watch a new episode when it was still running at 8-8:30pm. I always remember The Monkees being on only in the summer. I was the type of kid that loved to be inside during the summer watching tv and sitting in front of a fan. Not much has changed on that end.

 

I voted for 56 because it had Star Trek in the mid-70s; 38 had MASH in the eighties, plus the Red Sox and the Movie Loft. I still have some VHS tapes kicking around with Dana Hersey's bass-baritone. When my to-be (and still-is) wife (the one with the Phi Beta Kappa key) moved here she liked funny Nazis while I was horrified. (We are Jewish; after she pointed out most of the Germans -- and Robert Clary -- were Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany, I relented a little.)

I think Speed Racer and Kimba the White Lion were 56.

 

The stations also had differing test patterns:

(All re-creations based on original elements - WLVI's circa 1975-76, WSBK's around 1984 or '85.)

 

Mostly watched 56. And V66!

 

I'm from the Berkshires originally, so we had cable TV pretty much since forever (not pay TV, but a cable running into our house, because TV reception there was terrible). When we moved towns in '76 we started getting WSBK via cable. Never did get the other channel.

 

I used to do Radio with Marsha Masters, who was on this

 

Hmm. It's a toss-up! I have very warm memories of Ch.56 in the 60s, when it was WKBG. I watched ASTRO BOY, SUPERMAN, THE LITTLE RASCALS, and RUFF AND REDDY(and other early H-B cartoons) , hosted by one "Bunker Hill", and these shows fueled my dreams(if you can believe that-I really did dream about them, and I LOVE LUCY and ULTRAMAN). But on 38 there were really fascinating old cartoons like the OUT OF THE INKWELL series and other silent cartoons(Van Bueren's TOM AND JERRY, Lantz's FARMER ALFALFA), Britain's BUBBLE AND SQUEAK cartoons, COMEDY CAPERS, a golden opportunity to see Silent Comedies every weekday, THE MISCHIEF MAKERS(silent OUR GANG shorts), and OZZIE AND HARRIET. I even liked seeing the movie trailers on 38, for movies my parents were never going to take me to see("The Green Berets, "Dracula Has Risen From the Grave", "Torture Garden", etc.). But for some reason 38 sat on the Three Stooges for a while after leasing it.

 

Channel 56 they had all the B monster and SciFi Movies I still love. Creature Double feature was cool. If I remember right did they not have the Ghoul Movie late night on 56 it was either Fri or Sat night starting at 10:00 I believe. Since we are on the subject loved the line up of channel 27 in Worcester, I watched U.F.O. on that station.