most infuriating! pre-emptions by local stations

According to this website maintained by David P. Johnson (http://www.wtv-zone.com/dpjohnson/kcit50/index.html ), Kansas City in 1969 and 1970 may have had the greatest number of network pre-emptions of any major market in television history.

An independent station launched in the Fall of 1969, KCIT-50, carried a number of programs that the network stations there passed on.

But KCIT lost a lot of money and only lasted about a year-and-a-half.

WAGM-TV Presque Isle, Maine's preemptions of The Incredible Hulk included the "Homecoming" episode of Season 3 (both initial run and rerun) and part 1 of the fourth season episode, "The First". Good thing there was a detailed recap at the start of part 2.

High School Basketball every year would preempt much of the CBS Saturday morning line-up on WAGM.

In Canada, CHSJ-TV's preemptions of Saturday CBC-TV Space: 1999 episodes. For the likes of Talent Parade, the World Literature Crusade, the Kiwanis Auction, Canadian Express, and the Liberal Party Leadership Convention.

KHQA-TV (CBS) in Quincy, Ill. did some pretty notorious pre-empting in the early 1980s, much of it due to the station's commitment to carry the Illinois high school basketball tournament in March of each year (which also led to the station pre-empting some of CBS' coverage of the NCAA Basketball Tournament). The coverage of the Illinois tournament was particularly annoying due to half the station's coverage area being in Missouri (also a chunk of southeast Iowa). The boys tournament would take two weekends (Class A the first weekend, then Class AA on the second), with limited coverage of the girls tournament occurring on an additional Saturday.

Similar to WAGM, which an earlier poster said pre-empted part 1 of "The Incredible Hulk" episode, "The First," KHQA carried part 1 of the of the episode, but pre-empted part 2. (the station carried both parts when CBS reran the episode in the summer). KHQA also pre-empted the infamous episode of "Dallas" in which J.R. was shot (KHQA aired that episode on a tape-delay the next night at 11:00, although it was scheduled for 10:30. It was pushed back due to an overrun of the Illinois tournament earlier in the evening). In somewhat of an ironic twist, KHQA sponsored a "Who Shot J.R." contest over the summer and early fall.

The Illinois tournament also led KHQA to pre-empt CBS' annual showing of "The Wizard of Oz" two years in a row (1982 and 1983). The second year (I'm sure after multitudes of viewer complaints the previous year), KHQA aired the movie on a tape-delay, with that airing at least 8 days after the CBS showing. In the following years, CBS's scheduling of "The Wizard of Oz" always fell outside of the Illinois high school tournament, although there were years where it just missed by a week. In those years, CBS always scheduled "The Wizard of Oz" on a Friday or Saturday night late February or March, and the Illinois tournament was on Friday and Saturday nights

The CBS Saturday night shows would also be totally pre-empted.

Since "Dallas" and "Falcon Crest" had continuing storylines, KHQA always showed them on tape-delay if pre-empted. "Dallas" was always shown Saturday night at 10:30. "Falcon Crest"'s alternate timeslot changed from year to year...sometimes it would follow "Dallas" late night on Saturday (11:30), or would be shown Sunday at 10:30 PM. "The Incredible Hulk" and "The Dukes of Hazzard" (depending on year) were totally pre-empted due to Illinois basketball.

The Illinois high school tournament also aired games on Friday and Saturday afternoons. Initially, KHQA just pre-empted the CBS soaps on Friday afternoon, and whatever sports programming CBS had on Saturday afternoon (most years this included NCAA tourney coverage). Sometimes KHQA would join the Saturday NCAA coverage in progress, and some years they would just pre-empt whatever part fell outside of the Illinois basketball coverage with syndicated shows, particularly if the NCAA coverage started before the Illinois coverage. For a few years, when KHQA was still showing mainly sitcom reruns in the afternoon, KHQA would tape-delay "As the World Turns" and "Guiding Light" to 3:30 and 4:30, respectively, with "Capitol" being pre-empted. When KHQA started showing more first-run syndicated shows in the afternoon (i.e. Oprah), the Friday soaps were again totally pre-empted.

KHQA stopped carrying the Illinois high school tournament sometime in the early to mid-'90s. By that time, the popular CBS shows that always fell victim to the tournament were long gone.

KHQA also pre-empted "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" two years in a row, I believe in 1984 and 1985. The first pre-emption was the result of KHQA showing a Red Cross or Salvation Army special. The second year, Rudolph fell victim to a Billy Graham crusade.

WHBF-TV in the Quad Cities was another CBS affiliate that carried the Illinois high school tournament for many years. Subsequently, the station's Friday and Saturday CBS pre-emptions were identical to that of KHQA. However, WHBF gave up (or lost) the rights to the tournament in 1984 or '85 when WQAD (ABC) took over coverage in that market.

SteveRichards said:

Similar to WAGM, which an earlier poster said pre-empted part 1 of "The Incredible Hulk" episode, "The First," KHQA carried part 1 of the of the episode, but pre-empted part 2. (the station carried both parts when CBS reran the episode in the summer).

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Many other western/northwestern Illinoisians would have likely not been able to see both parts of the "Incredible Hulk" episode--due to WHBF-4 Quad Cities opting for Hee Haw at 7 before the Dukes and Dallas rather than the Hulk (and IIRC it may have been preempted entirely for a few years in the QC market).

Need we say more about the broadcast history of "The Incredible Hulk" in downstate Illinois--you could have sworn the show starred a young Rod Blagojevich considering all the preemptions it endured during its run, in addition to WHBF and KHQA. ;D ;D WCIA Champaign (which was and is the CBS affiliate for Springfield) and WMBD Peoria bumped its first partial season in spring 1978 for "Streets of San Francisco" reruns (but may have had the Hulk by the fall with no more regular preemptions).

I also remember that WMBD also carried the Illinois HS state tournament during the '70s, but I think by 1981 the games had moved to WRAU/WHOI-19 (ABC) where they stayed until 1990--meaning bumps to the Friday night sked including the early TGIF lineups. (Then the tourney went to WEEK-25 until 1996 before going cable only on the former Sportschannel/Fox Sports Chicago for 4 seasons and the subsequent loss of cable coverage downstate--before the IHSA developed their own mix of an OTA and cable network in 2001 and the poor quality of the tournament coverage compared to the "old days").

It is correct that WHBF was not carrying "The Incredible Hulk" at all when the two-part episode, "The First." was aired in March of 1981. KHQA never pre-empted "The Incredible Hulk" on a regular basis, only during the Illinois high-school basketball tournament, and maybe every once in a great while for Billy Graham, although KHQA usually burned off Graham's 3-part series of specials on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

I lived in northeast Missouri and got the Western Illinois Edition of "TV Guide." Out of the three CBS affiliates carried in that edition (WHBF, KHQA, and WMBD), KHQA was the only CBS affiliate to carry the first episode of "The Incredible Hulk" when it premiered in March of 1978 as a regular weekly series (the two Hulk TV-movies had aired several months before). WHBF and WMBD were both carrying the high-school basketball tournament at that time (this was a year or two before KHQA picked up the tournament and WMBD dropped it to WRAU (WHOI). As Tim mentioned, WMBD (and also sister WCIA) pre-empted at least the first several months of the Hulk. And then there was WHBF bumping the Hulk in favor of "Hee Haw" for at least one season, possibly two (not sure when the pre-emption started). WHBF did carry the Hulk's final season.

KHQA was the only CBS affiliate in the WIE to carry the Hulk on a regular basis from start to finish...the station just happened to bump one of the series' most famous episodes.

CBS seemed to be on a bit of a superhero kick there for awhile in the late '70s...they had "Wonder Woman," "The Incredible Hulk," and even "Spider-Man" had a short-lived show. On top of that, there was at least one, maybe two, "Captain America" specials on CBS around that time. I don't recall if those specials were a pre-cursor to a possible series or not, but it never materialized. Maybe some CBS affiliate managers, including those at WMBD, WCIA, and WHBF, thought the network was taking the genre a little too far. However, I suspect WHBF's rationale for pre-empting the Hulk grew more out of having the rights to both "Hee Haw" and "The Lawrence Welk Show" at the same time rather than any specific animosity towards the Hulk. Friday night at 7:00 probably just seemed like a good place to stick "Hee Haw." WHBF probably also figured "Hee Haw" would attract more adult viewers than the Hulk, and running "Hee Haw" allowed the station to make more money locally than running whatever was on the network.

SteveRichards said:

CBS seemed to be on a bit of a superhero kick there for awhile in the late '70s...they had "Wonder Woman," "The Incredible Hulk," and even "Spider-Man" had a short-lived show. On top of that, there was at least one, maybe two, "Captain America" specials on CBS around that time. I don't recall if those specials were a pre-cursor to a possible series or not, but it never materialized. Maybe some CBS affiliate managers, including those at WMBD, WCIA, and WHBF, thought the network was taking the genre a little too far.

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Steve,

IIRC wasn't the "same opinion" shared by KRCG Jefferson City/Columbia--but "Wonder Woman" was the show that fell victim to Hee Haw in central Missouri?

Joseph_Gallant said:

According to this website maintained by David P. Johnson (http://www.wtv-zone.com/dpjohnson/kcit50/index.html ), Kansas City in 1969 and 1970 may have had the greatest number of network pre-emptions of any major market in television history.

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Mr. Johnson had also posted on Google group posts about 10-12 years ago that all NBC affiliates in Iowa (he later lived in the Des Moines market), with the exception of WOC (now KWQC) in Davenport (Quad Cities) aired "Hee Haw" on Fridays at 6:30 from about 1971-79--bumping the ENTIRE RUN of "Sanford of Son" onto tape-delay in most of Iowa and also affecting other NBC 7PM shows during those years (e.g., "Sanford Arms," "Waverly Wonders," the first partial season of "Diff'rent Strokes)." And also from his posts on the Google groups he stated that Des Moines was also a preemption-happy market along the lines of KC (e.g., no "Days of Our Lives" until 1984).

perfidia08 said:

skippercollector said:

During 1973? 1974?, WKRC played over all closing credits (remember those?) of prime time programming. The credits were shown, but some generic instrumental music was played instead. I've NEVER figured that one out!

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Actually, that "generic" music was likely an instrumental cut of whatever ABC's fall campaign jingle was at the time (probably "This is The Place To Be"). WPVI in Philly used to pre-empt a lot back then too, and used cuts like that, or promo versions of specific shows.

I remember the same thing happening on a Brady Bunch episode here.


Perf

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In the late 70s/early 80s, KHOU didn't carry the Friday CBS late movie. So, on the closing credits of Dallas, instead of the closing theme/promo for the late movie, all you'd hear was the local announcer saying "Stay tuned for Newscenter 11 at 10 with Steve Smith and Amanda Arnold", followed by 10-15 seconds of silence.

KRCG in Jefferson City did pre-empt the first CBS season of "Wonder Woman", choosing to air "Hee Haw" instead. The University of Missouri-owned NBC affiliate, KOMU, picked up the slack for most of the season, airing "Wonder Woman" Saturday nights at 6:00. If memory serves, KRCG picked up "Wonder Woman" either the following summer or fall, moving "Hee Haw" to Saturday night at 7:00 following "The Lawrence Welk Show." This caused "The Bob Newhart Show" and another sitcom to be pre-empted by KRCG, but I believe, at least for awhile, KOMU also aired those shows Saturday night at 6:00.

For its first two seasons (1969-70 and 70-71), the Chad Everett drama "Medical Center" was not even shown by the Cleveland CBS affiliate, while Hawaii Five-O (in seasons two and three) was banished to 5 p.m. Saturday afternoons so that a movie from the station's collection could be shown

cowboybud said:

In the late 70s/early 80s, KHOU didn't carry the Friday CBS late movie. So, on the closing credits of Dallas, instead of the closing theme/promo for the late movie, all you'd hear was the local announcer saying "Stay tuned for Newscenter 11 at 10 with Steve Smith and Amanda Arnold", followed by 10-15 seconds of silence.

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No doubt enough time to promote the show that's pre-empting the movie.

Denver bailed out of Hawaii Five-O in it's last season (the one with nobody left except Jack Lord, not even Dan-O).

BD Sullivan said:

For its first two seasons (1969-70 and 70-71), the Chad Everett drama "Medical Center" was not even shown by the Cleveland CBS affiliate, while Hawaii Five-O (in seasons two and three) was banished to 5 p.m. Saturday afternoons so that a movie from the station's collection could be shown

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That Cleveland station, WJW, and Atlanta's WAGA were both owned by Storer at the time; WAGA did the exact same thing, handing off "Medical Center" to WATL/36, delaying "Hawaii Five-O" to Saturdays at 5, and running movies on Wednesday nights.
Does anyone know if WJBK Detroit (sister station to both) also did this?

bpatrick said:

BD Sullivan said:

For its first two seasons (1969-70 and 70-71), the Chad Everett drama "Medical Center" was not even shown by the Cleveland CBS affiliate, while Hawaii Five-O (in seasons two and three) was banished to 5 p.m. Saturday afternoons so that a movie from the station's collection could be shown

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Does anyone know if WJBK Detroit (sister station to both) also did this?

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It looks like they started out showing them in the Fall of 1969, then switched to the movie at midseason. However, they returned to showing the programs when the 1970-71 season began.