WIFR The Late Show

Back in the late 70's, the CBS Network had tried and failed any number of times to come up with something, ANYTHING, that would compete with the Tonight Show. At WIFR we just pre-empted whatever was on the network post-1o:30PM and ran (ultra-cheap) movies. Here was a (for the time) a very nice-looking movie open for our "Late Show." It was done before my time, perhaps in 1977?

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• WIFR
• Rockford
• Late
• Show

[pbarrett29]

WIFR was pre-empting whatever CBS had on in late night at that time and running local movies. It's just been too long for me to remember all the details, but I am pretty sure this was Monday through Sunday. This was 1977 or so, and just don't recall what, if anything, CBS was trying to get affiliates to run.

[chabba77]

From what I've heard, the CBS Late "Movie" at the time was just a collection of reruns of shows like "Hawaii Five-O", not actual movies. My city's CBS affiliate, WCCO, also preempted this, and it was actually picked up by the ABC affiliate at the time, KMSP. This was just the beginning of the confusion, as KMSP, and two other stations later swapped their affiliations.

[ShawnieMac]

From my time living and growing up in Rockford, WIFR by around the mid-80s cleared the CBS late night lineup, but on an hour delay.