KTTV-11 Los Angeles

Rather than continuing to hijack one of the off-topic threads, i'd thought i'd start a new one here and hope it takes off.

This was a great channel before it became a Fox affilliate in the late 80s. I watched, probably over 70% of everything I liked on this channel during 1972-1977. It was in Los Angeles, but we saw it by way of cable.

On KTTV, we got to watch three hours of Wonderama, a kid's show that came on Sunday Mornings. My favorite part was the dance contest, only so I could hear songs like the Grass Roots' "Sooner Or Later", or the Raspberries "I Wanna Be With You", or to see their musical guest star.

Another KTTV memory was watching "Soul Train" on Saturday afternoon. It was filmed there at Metromedia studios, so I always felt like I was watching the real deal, and I was. I hated it in the summer when they would pre-enpt it for a stupid Dodgers game.

They always showed reruns of 60s sitcoms and cartoons, and their nightly newscast was the best.

They would also show a lot of great old movies from the 30s and 40s on the weekend overnight.

"Metro...media...televisionnnnnn...eleven...eleven...eleven..."

 

I miss the old "independent" stations, the ones that were around(like KTTV, WPIX, WGN,etc)before the days of Fox, the WB, and UPN. Great programming, and if there was nothing else on at night, you knew that one of these stations would always be showing a movie.

Evan

 

I miss seeing the Twilight Zone reruns and marathons on KTLA. But, for a kid, KTTV was the place to be!

 

WPIX in NY was a big part of my childhood. Later in HS - I loved their Nighttime line up. Odd Couple, Honeymooners, Star Trek, Twilight Zone! Awesome!

Danny

 

We had WPIX on cable up here in Burlington(still do,actually)in the 1970's and yes, I loved to watch Star Trek, The Honeymooners and Twilight Zone on that station.

Evan

 

Who hosted the LA version of Wonderama, or did they run the NYC produced version? I have very fond memories of Sunday mornings watching Bob McAlister on WNEW Channel 5, which we got among a bunch of NYC stations on cable back in the 70's. WNEW also ran Best Of Groucho at 11 every night, and Bowery Boys movies every weekend.

 

I have a buddy who has a Wonderama lp. I wonder if that's worth anything.

Danny

 

Hmm, I'll have to give a slight edge to:

KTLA-5 (monster movies)
KCOP-13 (Star Trek)


Besides, KTTV (then) broadcast the Dodgers...

 

WNEW had The Monkees every afternoon as well. Channel 5 rocked!

 

Anti-Dodger sentiment will not be tolerated. A couple of Dodger Dogs will fix that turbulent tummy up pronto.

In the early sixties only 9 games were televised. All against the Giants in S.F.
My, how things have changed.

 

I got the Bob McAllister version.

 

Good thoughts. Those days of independant TV stations were great. You never knew what would pop up in those days. Once they all affiliated with Fox, UPN, WB, the randomness of the shows went away.

Another by-gone era now turned into Nick-at-Night.........................

 

Our local Channel 50 (WKBD) was a great independent. After school, I watched just about all of the classics: Looney Tunes, the Three Stooges, Star Trek, Lost In Space, and around dinnertime the "adult" reruns like M*A*S*H would be on.

Channel 20 (WXON) was a bit more low-brow, IMHO...rarely turned them on. In fact, they were the local channel that broadcasted the scrambled "On TV" service, a precursor to the neighborhoods getting wired for cable and getting HBO. On TV was too easy to crack, though. In electronics class, we found out there were kits you could buy to descramble the signal.

 

Re WPIX: Does anyone remember the PIX contest where they would call some kid at home who had entered the contest. And they basically would play a video game over the phone and on TV. I think it was "Space Invaders" or "Asteroids" or something, and in order to fire the laser the kid would have to yell "PIX" into the phone. That was a weird one....

"PIX, PIX, PIX PIX PIX PIX" -- oh boy!

Danny

 

Growing up in El Paso in the late 70s and early 80s, our local cable company gave us the great indie LA stations including KTTV. Mostly I remember gobs of Warner cartoons on "Channel 11" after school. The weekends were great with monster movies and other weird stuff that we couldn't see on our local stations (there were only 3 for most of my childhood).
The ads for things like "Carpeteria" and "Worthington Ford" (It's Cal Worthington and his dog Spot!) will be stuck in my brain forever!
It was always fun to watch the news on 11 and 5 as well. Like watching a broadcast from a different planet!
Everything's sort of homogenized and corporate now, isn't it. Shame indeed.

Dan C

 

Rudy,

In Hartford, CT, we had what they claimed was the very first "Subscription TV" station. It was Channel 18, WHCT in Hartford. In the last part of the '60s, at night they would scramble their signal and show movies. Subscribers would have a box on their set that would unscramble the picture and the sound. During the day, they would show really inexpensive reruns, like Topper and Millionaire, then at night, they would play the classical piece "Fanfare for the Common Man", and scramle the broadcast.

I can't tell you how many times I watched the Beatles "Help!" all scrambled up, hoping for a moment or two when the signal got in sync.

:-jon

 

Well, that applies to everything. All states are the same now. You can be in Utah and it's the same as being in California. Same stores, same stuff in the stores, same gas stations, same restaurants, same radio, same tv... so, you are correct.

 

I wish I did. I do remember Officer Joe hosting the Three Stooges and saying, "Remember, kids....don't try this at home!"

Evan

 

That sounds almost exactly like WXON! OnTV was the subscription service. Since it wasn't digital or anything, it was easily descrambled with a $50 kit. And during the day, there wasn't much worth watching. After midnight, they'd throw in the occasional "soft porn" R-rated flick, like Young Lady Chatterley. I remember when OnTV was on its last couple of weeks before going off the air, they played porno all the time. Sort of a "to heck with it!!" attitude.

I never had OnTV (yes, really!) since the descramblers required a certain kind of TV tuner, and would not work on all TVs (like the Magnavox I tried it on, and fried the UHF tuner ). My little 5" portable was electronically tuned, so that wasn't possible either. And I wasn't going to mess up the parents' good Sony. But in those days, with separate UHF and VHF tuners, there was a coaxial cable with RCA plugs on it that ran between the two tuners. By disconnecting that cable, inserting the descrambler in its place and tuning it until the red LED lit up, you'd get a nice clear picture. Our electronics teacher was getting some kits, which were mediocre and didn't always work, but I checked at a local electronics store and they actually stocked a few dozen kits, in brown paper bags, behind the front counter. It's no wonder OnTV went out of business. In addition to homes finally starting to get cable TV around that time, so many were pirating the signal that they didn't stand a chance.

 

Wonderama

Ditto. Does any of that stuff still exist?

 

The commercials were the COOLEST! And, if you watched the late, late night movie, you got to see the long version of those Cal Worthington comercials. And, how about all those Magic Mountain commercials.

Those were fun times.

At least I got to see the Reele Don Steele Show a few times in 1974.

 

I think I remember that.

I loved TV38 in Boston. They had the 3 Stooges and then the Sat afternoon Sox game right afterwards.