WKBG/WLVI-TV composite

[rgaviere]

What happened to TV Jerry Brown? Its interesting that theres another Jerry Brown I heard of the name as Governor of California.

[dukes0916]

I become more nostagic as I get older, and posts like these so take me back to old times. (Not that they were always 'better' times.) But TV back then had a way of making you feel like you were part of a community. Modern TV doesn't even try to do that! Thanks for the post!

[aleks1939]

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 destroyed good TV and good Radio. RIP WLVI :(

[VintageTelevision]

@aleks1939

How very true!

[mdgeist012002]

they where on zion hill in woburn ma the Signal was always poor then they moved

to newton.

[jdrukman]

Wow, this really brings back memories.  How do you have this stuff in such good quality?

[parkman35]

WFLD CH 32 in Chicago was started in '66 and was part of Field Communications who then sold the station to the Kaiser Brothers, who in my opinion darn near ruined everything with their terrible programming choices & policies...FLD is now Chicago's Fox affiliate...Good stuff here..It's neat to see how TV has progressed over the years...

[jehobden]

I have great memories of watching WKBG/WLVI-TV when I was a kid visiting my grandparents, who all lived N. of Boston. I'd love to see the promo which had kids singing "Here in Boston, the kids' choice is, Channel 56", as well as the bumper that stated "This is Field Communications in Boston". I saw the same Field Communications bumper on WKBS-TV, ch. 48, mentioning Philly instead of Boston, when I visited my aunt & uncle in PA back in 1981.

[K1JWM]

By any chance do U have the rest of starting movie? For those who don't have a clue what a microwave unit us. And so forth...

[VintageTelevision]

What you see is pretty much the extent of it.

[K1JWM]

Ok on that. Thank you for posting...

[bossradio930]

No local station has bothered to air "Kimba: The White Lion" since. Only on channel 52. There's a complete set on DVD of the original 1960s series on Amazon.

[GSking4Ever]

LoL

[stokepogue]

Using ELP for creature double feature theme?

[LowellDevil]

Yep. A song called "The Barbarian".

[StingBorden64]

Hey Vintage Television love this. Can you post the whole song on the 56 intro. My brothers and I remember this song growing up watching 56 in the 60`s. Hope you have the whole song. Thanks for the post. Awesome Job.

[VintageTelevision]

The song is titled "That Happy Feeling" by Bert Kaempfert. It is available on CD. Another version is published on iTunes.

[jgc760]

In Los Angeles the Kaiser station was KBSC 52. It struggled as LA already had 4 indies and they were the 5th. They brodcast from 3- midnight with shows like felix the cat, uncle waldo, kimba, speed racer, Three Stooges, Little Rascals and the Addams Family. Travel shows from 8 PM to sign off.

[bossradio930]

Channel 52 had a nightly movie feature called "Hollywood Movie Classics" from 8:00pm-10:00pm featuring films from Warner Bros., MGM, etc. at 10:00pm weekends it was "The Lou Gordon Program". Not sure about what they had weeknights at 10:00. 52 would sign on from either 3:30 or 4:00pm until 11:00pm. I loved all the Kaiser logos but would love to see one from channel 52 on the 'net somewhere.

[1L6E6VHF]

Very cool!!

Questions:

1) Was "That Happy Feeling" in the original WKBG feature, or was it added to this YT feature later? I heard this song on the radio when I was about 7, and my dad completely surprised me by buying the album a days later - I wore that LP out but listen to another copy I found regularly!

2) Was WKBG built from the ground up, or was it a reactivation of the defunct WATO channel 56?

3) By any chance, is the whole 30 minute documentary saved anywhere?

[VintageTelevision]

1. The music you hear is part of the original broadcast. Incidentally, WKBG-TV often used this tune as background music during their morning test pattern.

2. WKBG was a fresh startup in 1966.

3. I have not seen the complete inaugural broadcast, and do not know whether it has been preserved.

[jsmoothproductions]

I laughed my ass off at 1:19 that sounded like an intro to a Black Sabbath video!!!!!!!!!!lol

[RoachRadio]

"LVI is part of Living"... Lame.

[VaultMasterDBT]

LVI is part of LiVIng..not lame, but a fact :P

[wsr216]

I remember when they first started going with that "Living 56" identifier...thought it was incredibly silly. (Was this in response to/a copy of WPIX/New York's "11 Alive" identifier? I believe that was around at about the same time.) Of course, they were just trying to make a word containing the call letters, it was just dumb. Tthat rationale COULD be used today for Channel 7 - one word comes to mind that contains the letters "HDH" - HeaDacHe. Which is what I usually get when I watch "7 News".

[CelesteK]

Ooh what the fuck is that starting at 1:19?

[LittleJohnnyShow]

Years ago, there was a movie package offered to tv stations called the "Creature Feature." It had a local host that would introduce horror, monster and sci-fi movies.

That was TV-56's intro for the Creature Feature.

[randywilharm]

That sign-on is priceless

thanks for posting this

lotta memories

[agardnahh]

Does anyone know who performed the music for the creature double feature segment?  It sounds like Atomic Rooster, but I'm not sure, rockin' stuff!

[KidAJonni]

That would be "Emerson, Lake & Palmer" doing the music the Creature Double Feature

[KidAJonni]

That would be "Emerson, Lake & Palmer" doing the music for Creature Feature

[veluz330]

WLVI Moved to Bullfinch Place because it ended its Independence and merged WHDH-TV 7

[kimberlyKfnOphiEAGLE]

I remember WKBS' Creature Double Feature having tacky B-grade movies like "Giant Spider Invasion" and "They Saved Hitler's Brain"...

[Bunny9o9]

Is that Kevin Spacey?

[kimberlyKfnOphiEAGLE]

What kind of cameras did WKBG use at first and when they became WLVI? And when did WKBG get videotape capability? What equipment did they use for VTR and telecine?

[wmbrown6]

Well, for starters, WKBG became WLVI in May of 1974 - after The Boston Globe sold its 50% stake in the station back to Kaiser, which had already owned the other half. (The test pattern seen on the clip designated watch?v=mMoY5fAcd84 evidently was post-'74.) As for the cameras used at the time of the station's start-up in 1966, five'll get ya ten it was likely RCA's TK-60.

[kimberlyKfnOphiEAGLE]

Would they have used RCA VTR's such as the TR-70B and TCR-100 also? Or did they use Ampex VTR equipment?

[wmbrown6]

As of 1966, the VT equipment available included the Ampex VR-2000 and RCA TR-22. The TR-70 didn't come out until 1967 (and the TR-70B, until 1969), and I believe the TCR-100 was introduced around 1971. Maybe in later years WKBG/WLVI had some or all of this newer equipment on hand. Or maybe Ampex; I've heard of TV stations simultaneously using equipment from both companies.

[kimberlyKfnOphiEAGLE]

I'm going to go to the Smithsonian in the spring, one thing that's exhibited there is one of the original Ampex VR-1000's used by CBS!

I wonder if there's a museum where I could see TV cameras like RCA's TK-41 and TK-44A, and VTR's like the AVR-1 and TR-70B..

[pikl57]

For nearly forty years I've been trying to figure out what that song was -- you don't know how many Sunday mornings I got up early to warm up the television set (a "big" 13 inch RCA console) and listen to what I now know is Burt Kaempfert! Thanks for solving a mystery!

[kimberlyKfnOphiEAGLE]

Hi, in my area we had another Kaiser-owned station, WKBS Channel 48 in Philadelphia. The station closed in (i think) 1982. Recently it's been brought back under another owner as a christian-oriented station. I miss the original programming, especially Creature Feature.

[wmbrown6]

August of 1983, actually, was when Field pulled the plug on WKBS and then returned its license to the FCC.

[kimberlyKfnOphiEAGLE]

Thanks. I remember the last night they were broadcasting, when there was a 'final tribute' to the staff that worked there. I wonder if anyone has uploaded WKBS stuff, I don't have any old videos or I would.

[wmbrown6]

Google for "WKBS final signoff 1983" to find what you're looking for. Alas, from what I could tell, it's only available in audio. Also, type "WKBS" in the search box of this site.

[kimberlyKfnOphiEAGLE]

I wish there was a full video on here of 'A TV Station Is Born'. I'd love to see how they got WKBG up and running!

[wmbrown6]

I'd settle for the point in May 1974 whereby WKBG became WLVI ;)

[tom01757]

thanks jim by the way big fan i wish someone would upload that

[tom01757]

does anyone remeber before they went to the wb they had a late night from 7pm of shows like night court and they had a theme with these people in a car driving down a street i forget what it was called all i know it had something to do about comedy?? anyone please let me know or post thanks

[JimCutler]

Hi Tom. It was "Sitcom City".

[MSTS1]

I remember the old WKBG-56, and its' sisters:

WCAS-740 AM, and WJIB-FM Stereo 97. (at first Kaiser-Globe Broadcasting; I knew them as General-Electric). And KFOG Stereo 104-5.

And about WXHR... (before my time...)

[TheHoldingCoat]

Fascinating piece! Where in the world did you find that WKBG sign-on?

[davidhazard71]

Does anyone have the "Here in Boston the Kid's Choice is....channel 56" promo? Great footage here. Perhaps digital tv will bring back some kind of independence of stations because there is more than one channel. I so tire of getting CW, NBC, ABC, CBS, and FOX with just an antenna , even if it was a good antenna, and no matter what market its all the same now.

[burbank]

I remember this promo as a kid. I liked the jingle! Thanks for posting this! If you have any more, please post.

[dgendvil]

I grew up watching Julie Emry in Portland. Jerry Brown also worked for KVVU in Las Vegas, too.

[newenglandvideo]

I live in Maine and I remember as a child asking my dad what the UHF dial was for. He didn't know. I moved it around and got wsbk and wlvi. It was pretty neat. It didn't always come in but it did most of the time at night. Later our cable company added it to our channel lineup.

[CDF1970]

Great video however I believe the Creature clip is from the early 80's and not the 70's.

[wmbrown6]

Probably . . . however the typeface (of which I am in the dark about its name) used for WLVI's logo (and WFLD's - and WKBS's, KBHK's and WKBD's) is post-1977/78, after Field bought out Kaiser.

[wmbrown6]

Was curious as to the music at the start - I remember hearing it on many a beautiful music station in the '70's.

[wmbrown6]

P.S. Sounds to me like one of Bert Kaempfert's numbers - am I correct in that assumption?

[wmbrown6]

I've since found out it was indeed a Kaempfert piece - "That Happy Feeling (Eyi Wala Dong)", released in 1962 on Decca single #31388 and on the album "That Happy Feeling" (DL [7]4305). I think it was the same LP that contained the original "Match Game" theme, "A Swingin' Safari."

[heine71]

What's a promo donut?

Do you have the WLVI 56 "In Boston, the Choice is Yours" I.D.?

[VintageTelevision]

A promo donut consists of an recurring open and close with a center section that is filled with changeable content.

I don't have the I.D. that you mentioned.

[NEPatriot]

In radio there is also something called a donut. Usually a commercial jingle starts it out, then instrumental space for the announcer to read the text and the closing jingle.

[NEPatriot]

Talk about classic Boston TV!