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Retro: Atlanta Thursday, June 17, 1948

Television in Atlanta was just over three
months away; WSB-TV would sign on
September 29. But for now it's all radio.
From The Atlanta Constitution:

WCON 550 (ABC)

5:45 Doin' Chores; News
6 AM Yellow River Farm With Channing
Cope
6:30 News; Devotional
6:45 LeFevre Trio
7 AM News; Rangers Quartet; Bill Hickok
7:30 Jim Woods, News
7:45 Bill Hickok
8 AM News; Bill Hickok
8:45 Jim Woods, News
9 AM Breakfast Club (Don McNeill)
10 AM My True Story
10:25 Betty Crocker And Allen Funt
10:45 Star Time
11 AM Breakfast In Hollywood (Garry Moore,
who had replaced the late Tom Breneman
in late April)
11:30 Galen Drake
11:45 Ted Malone (he read poetry)
12 N Welcome Travelers (Tommy Bartlett)
12:30 Lockwood Doty; News
12:45 Channing Cope, Farm
1 PM Hello, Georgia
1:15 LeFevre Trio
1:30 Hovie Lister (gospel music)
1:45 T.T. Hillbilly Beat
2 PM Town Toppers
2:15 Maggie Davis
2:30 Bride And Groom (couples got married
on this proto-reality show, John Nelson
hosted)
3 PM Ladies Be Seated (Tom Moore, although
Johnny Olson had hosted a test television
episode in 1945)
3:30 Paul Whiteman Record Club
4:30 News; Mitchell's Matinee
5:15 Terry And The Pirates
5:30 Sea Hound
6 PM Music; Hollywood And Vine
6:15 Les Henrikson's Sports
6:30 Lockwood Doty; News
6:45 Dr. George Gallup (Gallup Poll)
7 PM Old Days; Mystery
7:15 Al Helfer; Edwin C. Hill; News
7:30 Henry Morgan Show
8 PM Front Page
8:30 Criminal Casebook
9 PM Gangbusters (with the loudest opening
this side of "Truth Or Consequences")
9:30 Famous Jury Trials
10 PM Superstition
10:30 Tonight's Star Band
10:45 News
11 PM Let's Dance
11:55 News
sign off 12 Midnight

WAGA 590 (Ind. but soon to be CBS)

5:15 News; Trio (whose name isn't given)
5:45 Slim Bryant
6 AM Hillbilly Hit Revue
6:45 Sheb Wooley ("Flying Purple People Eater"
was his big hit, and he played on "Rawhide")
7 AM News; Jon Farmer
7:30 Dale Clark News
7:45 Early Worm
8 AM News; Farmer
8:15 Early Worm
8:45 News Summary
9 AM Party Line
10 AM Edward McHugh
10:15 McCain News
10:30 Alan Roth Concert (Roth was Milton Berle's
bandleader, 1948-56)
11 AM Shorty And Leroy
11:15 Heartland Harmony
11:30 Dixie Fun Barn
12 N McCain News
12:15 Peachtree Party
1 PM Heartland Harmony
1:15 Dixie Fun Barn
1:45 Town Talk
2 PM Hillbilly Hit Revue
2:30 News Summary
2:45 The Joybelles
3 PM Easy Chair
4 PM School Of Jive
4:45 In The Groove
5 PM School Of Jive
5:45 News Summary
6 PM Sammy Kaye
6:15 Guy Lombardo
6:30 Terry News
6:45 Tello Test
7 PM Panorama (also the name of WAGA-TV's
newscast for years)
7:15 Flowers For The Lady
7:30 Frankie Carle's Orchestra
8 PM News Summary
8:15 Roundtable
8:30 Georgia Hayride
10 PM Barber News
10:15 Music 'n' Memories
11 PM Barber News
11:15 Symphony Club
12 M News And Sign Off

WSB 750 (NBC)

5:15 First Call
5:45 Dixie Farm And Home Hour
6:30 Sun-Up Serenade
7 AM News And Sports
7:15 News
7:30 Merry-Go-Round
8 AM World News
8:15 Morning Melodies
9 AM News; Music To Remember
9:30 Clevelandaires
9:45 Kate's Daughter (begins the soap
parade)
10 AM Enid Day
10:15 Old Corral
10:30 Road Of Life
10:45 Joyce Jordan, Girl Interne
11 AM Fred Waring
11:30 Jack Berch (music)
11:45 Lora Lawton (another soap)
12 N News
12:15 Markets, Weather, News
12:30 Juniper Junction (a television version
would air on Ch. 11 in the '50s)
12:45 Doughboys
1 PM Georgia Jubilee
1:30 Mae's Sewing Circle
2 PM Double Or Nothing
2:30 Today's Children (soap)
2:45 News
3 PM Life Can Be Beautiful
3:15 Ma Perkins
3:30 Pepper Young's Family
3:45 Right To Happiness
4 PM Mary Noble, Backstage Wife (or as
Bob and Ray called it, "Mary Backstage,
Noble Wife")
4:15 Stella Dallas
4:30 Lorenzo Jones
4:45 Young Widder Brown
5 PM When A Girl Marries
5:15 Portia Faces Life
5:30 Just Plain Bill
5:45 Front Page Farrell
6 PM News And Sports
6:15 Peter Donald (a regular on Fred Allen's show
and later host of "Masquerade Party")
6:30 Twin Views Of The News
6:45 Scoreboard
7 PM Supper Club (Perry Como)
7:15 News Of The World
7:30 Music For Tonite
7:45 Richard Harkness (NBC News)
8 PM Henry Aldrich
8:30 New Faces
9 PM Kraft Music Hall
9:30 Village Store
10 PM Bob Hawk (he had the "Lemac" quiz--"Lemac"
was his sponsor, Camel cigarettes, spelled backwards--
tonight's "Lemac" jackpot is $750)
10:30 Time, Place, The Tune
11 PM News
11:15 Morton Downey (singer and father of the controversial
1980s talk-show host)
11:30 First Piano Quartet
12 M News
12:05 Music To 1:05

WQXI 790 (Ind.)

6 AM Sign On
6:02 Time Capsule
6:05 Corley's Corn
7 AM Time Capsule
7:03 Corley's Corn
7:30 Let's Have Fun
8 AM Time Capsule
8:03 Let's Have Fun
9 AM Time Capsule
9:03 It's Your Miss Fortune
9:15 Dishpan Serenade (wouldn't work today--
assumes women are all at home)
10 AM Time Capsule
10:03 The Mailman
11 AM Time Capsule
11:03 U.S. Marine Band
11:15 Uncle Eb
11:30 Guest Star
11:45 Tonic Tunes
12 N Twelve O'Clock Edition
12:15 The Man Says Yes
12:30 WQXI Witness (when Ch. 11 was WQXI-TV
it had "Eyewitness News" from 1969-72)
12:45 Crosley Bandstand
1 PM Time Capsule
1:03 Mardi Gras
1:30 Cole's Carousel
2 PM Time Capsule
2:03 Cole's Carousel
2:30 Music From Hollywood
3 PM Time Capsule
3:03 The People's Choice (I don't think this has
any relation to Jackie Cooper's popular 1950s
sitcom)
4 PM Time Capsule
4:03 Peachtree Plaza
4:15 Adventures In Research
4:30 Sleepy Joe
4:45 Off To Susie's
5 PM Time Capsule
5:03 Kurian Kapers
5:45 Three Views Of The News
6 PM Reminiscent Rhythm
6:30 Music By The Masters
6:45 Down In Front
7 PM Time Capsule
7:03 790 Radio Row
7:15 Talk Of The Town
7:30 Album Of Music
7:45 Sign Off

WGST 920 (CBS)

6 AM Jack Holden And The Georgia
Boys
6:30 True-Tone Quartet
6:45 Mountain Melodies
7 AM News
7:15 Our Sisters
7:30 Gospel Harmoniers
7:45 Plantation Party
8 AM World News Roundup
8:15 Renfro Valley Folks
8:30 Morning Starter
8:45 Happy Valley Ramblers
9 AM Corn Huskers
9:15 Hillbilly Jamboree
10 AM Do You Know?
10:15 Who Is The Mrs.?
10:30 Buddy Clark (popular singer killed later
that year in a plane crash)
10:45 Romantic Music
11 AM Arthur Godfrey
11:30 Music USA
11:45 Rosemary (starts the CBS soap block)
12 N Wendy Warren And The News (an unusual
news/soap combination: Douglas Edwards
delivers a straight newscast before segueing
into the story)
12:15 Aunt Jenny's True Life Stories
12:30 Linda's First Love (I don't know why WGST
didn't carry Helen Trent at this time)
12:45 Our Gal Sunday
1 PM Big Sister
1:15 Ma Perkins (yes, she was popular enough to
air on two networks)
1:30 Young Dr. Malone
1:45 Guiding Light
2 PM Music Shop (Dick Van Dyke hosted a show on
Ch. 11 by this name in the '50s--may have
pre-empted The Second Mrs. Burton)
2:15 Perry Mason
2:30 Nora Drake
2:45 Evelyn Winters
3 PM Double Or Nothing (another show big enough
to air on two networks)
3:30 Art Linkletter's House Party
3:55 CBS News
4 PM Hint Hunt
4:15 Lullaby Time
4:30 920 Special
5:45 Lum And Abner
6 PM Eric Sevareid--news
6:15 Deep South Boys
6:30 Meet The Candidate ('48 was an election year)
6:45 Lowell Thomas
7 PM Beulah
7:15 Jack Smith (singer Smilin' Jack Smith, later host
of "You Asked For It")
7:30 Jerry Wayne
7:45 Ned Calmer--news (Edward R. Murrow was off)
8 PM FBI In Peace And War
8:30 Mr. Keen, Tracer Of Lost Persons
8:55 CBS News--Bill Henry
9 PM Dick Haymes
9:30 Crime Photographer
10 PM Playhouse
10:30 First Nighter
11 PM News; Georgia Story
11:15 Gene Krupa
11:30 Bud Waples' Orchestra
12 M News And Sign Off

WBGE 1340 (Ind.)

5:15 Milkman's Matinee
6 AM News; Scotty's Metro Rangers
6:30 Vie Hadlock
7 AM News; Stan Raymond
8 AM News; Stan Raymond
9 AM News; Music To Work By
9:30 Evangelistic Hour
10 AM Hollywood Reporter
10:15 Madeline
10:30 Stitch In Time
10:45 Nelson Banks
11 AM News; Que Pasa?
11:30 Personality Parade
12 N News
12:15 Eddy LaMar
12:30 Musical Horizons
1 PM News; Pop Eckler
2 PM News; Golden Melodies
2:30 At Your Door
2:45 Here's To Vets
3 PM News
3:15 Hal Darwin
3:30 Music You Want
4 PM News
4:15 Miller's Record Club
5 PM News
5:15 Story Time
5:30 Ellen Potter
5:45 Time To Dance
6 PM News; Serenade
6:15 Sportscene
6:30 Motorcade Of Melody
7 PM Cavalcade
7:15 Paul Steed
7:30 Show Time
8 PM News; Silver Strings
8:30 Tony Pastor
9 PM News
9:15 Riders Of The Purple Sage
9:30 Tex Beneke
10 PM News
10:15 Music To Read By
11 PM News; Barney Ochs
12 M News; Music
isn't indicated if the station signed off

WATL 1400 (Mutual)

6 AM Zenas Sears Morning Man (he
became better known in the '50s
for his nightly r&b show)
9 AM Brisendine News
9:15 Church Voice
9:30 The World Waltzes
9:45 Poetry Corner
10 AM Bing Crosby
10:15 Rev. G.C. Keadle
10:30 Radio Want Ads
11 AM Wake Up And Live
11:15 America's Playing
11:30 Music For Milady
12 N Memories
12:15 Checkerboard Jamboree
12:30 Diggin' The Discs (this would be
Zenas Sears' nightly show in the
'50s)
1:30 Frankie Carle
1:45 Dick Jurgens
2 PM Queen For A Day
2:30 Melody Matinee
3 PM Gene Walters Swing Session
5 PM A Date With Music
5:30 Captain Midnight
5:45 Tom Mix
6 PM Sports Line-Up
6:15 Radio Want Ads
6:30 The Christians
6:45 Time Running Out
7 PM Front Page
7:15 News; Music
7:30 Choral Gospel
7:45 Tommy Dorsey
8 PM Concert Master
8:30 Curtain Call--Billy Rose
9 PM Gabriel Heatter ("ah, there's
good news tonight")
9:15 Music For The Soul (why do I
think this is gospel music and
not what we call soul music?)
9:30 All-Star Revue (not to be confused
with an early-'50s variety show on
NBC-TV)
9:45 Guest Star
10 PM The Dream Peddler
12 M Sign Off
 
Thanks, Bpatrick,

Even though this was before I was born, I thought I would have recognized more shows, as I listen to
Classic Radio (XM channel 164) quite a bit.

I also see where some of these shows later came TV shows (I believe you mention one) i.e. Perry Mason.

I didn't realize that radio had soap operas in the afternoon; I thought the network show schedules just had evening prime time. (i.e. Fibber McGee and Molly, Jack Benny, The Shadow, Dragnet etc).

It's all very interesting.

drt,
st. petersburg,fl (never lived in Atlanta, but have changed planes there - what a mess! :) )
 
bpatrick said:
3:03 The People's Choice (I don't think this has
any relation to Jackie Cooper's popular 1950s
sitcom)

In the late 50's, WQXI branded itself "The People's Choice" before they went Top 40. Now I know where they got the slogan. :)
 
drt said:
Thanks, Bpatrick,

Even though this was before I was born, I thought I would have recognized more shows, as I listen to
Classic Radio (XM channel 164) quite a bit.

I also see where some of these shows later came TV shows (I believe you mention one) i.e. Perry Mason.

I didn't realize that radio had soap operas in the afternoon; I thought the network show schedules just had evening prime time. (i.e. Fibber McGee and Molly, Jack Benny, The Shadow, Dragnet etc).

It's all very interesting.

drt,
st. petersburg,fl (never lived in Atlanta, but have changed planes there - what a mess! :) )

Perry Mason on radio was a soap; he was more of a playboy than Raymond Burr's Mason could ever be. When Procter & Gamble wanted to move Mason to television, Erle Stanley Gardner (Mason's creator) didn't want to do it as a soap but rather as a straight whodunit. Head writer Irving Vendig then made a few changes, such as creating the character of lawyer Mike Karr for radio's Mason, John Larkin, and put the soap on television as "The Edge Of Night" in 1956.

Bill Paley, who considered himself more of a radio fan than a television one, felt that radio formats could work on television, and daytime proved his point: CBS's daytime television schedule in the '50s was built around Arthur Godfrey in the morning, soaps (one, "Guiding Light," even moving over from radio) and Art Linkletter in the afternoon...just as was the case on radio in the late '40s. Pat Weaver, running NBC-TV programming, preferred reality-based shows like the "Today" show and the Hugh Downs/Arlene Francis "Home" show, and tended to avoid soaps. After he was kicked upstairs in 1956, NBC began to build its daytime schedule around something in short supply on CBS: game shows. NBC's first successful television soaps were "From These Roots" in 1958 and "Young Dr. Malone" in 1959, but only three lasted more than a decade: "The Doctors" (19 years), "Another World" (35 years), and "Days Of Our Lives" (44 years and counting).

ABC, which didn't field a full daytime schedule until 1958, avoided soaps at first. Soaps need an absolute minimum of 18 months before programmers can really determine if they have a hit; with game shows the writing is usually on the wall in 13 weeks, so ABC--needing instant credibility--built on its two existing hits, "American Bandstand" and "Who Do You Trust?" with a mostly-game lineup, shows like "Beat The Clock," "Queen For A Day," "Seven Keys," and "Camouflage." It finally tried a soap in 1963 and struck gold the first time out: "General Hospital."
 
drt said:
Thanks, Bpatrick,

Even though this was before I was born, I thought I would have recognized more shows, as I listen to
Classic Radio (XM channel 164) quite a bit.

I also see where some of these shows later came TV shows (I believe you mention one) i.e. Perry Mason.

I didn't realize that radio had soap operas in the afternoon; I thought the network show schedules just had evening prime time. (i.e. Fibber McGee and Molly, Jack Benny, The Shadow, Dragnet etc).

It's all very interesting.

drt,
st. petersburg,fl (never lived in Atlanta, but have changed planes there - what a mess! :) )

Perry Mason on radio was a soap; he was more of a playboy than Raymond Burr's Mason could ever be. When Procter & Gamble wanted to move Mason to television, Erle Stanley Gardner (Mason's creator) didn't want to do it as a soap but rather as a straight whodunit. Head writer Irving Vendig then made a few changes, such as creating the character of lawyer Mike Karr for radio's Mason, John Larkin, and put the soap on television as "The Edge Of Night" in 1956.

Bill Paley, who considered himself more of a radio fan than a television one, felt that radio formats could work on television, and daytime proved his point: CBS's daytime television schedule in the '50s was built around Arthur Godfrey in the morning, soaps (one, "Guiding Light," even moving over from radio) and Art Linkletter in the afternoon...just as was the case on radio in the late '40s. Pat Weaver, running NBC-TV programming, preferred reality-based shows like the "Today" show and the Hugh Downs/Arlene Francis "Home" show, and tended to avoid soaps. After he was kicked upstairs in 1956, NBC began to build its daytime schedule around something in short supply on CBS: game shows. NBC's first successful television soaps were "From These Roots" in 1958 and "Young Dr. Malone" in 1959, but only three lasted more than a decade: "The Doctors" (19 years), "Another World" (35 years), and "Days Of Our Lives" (44 years and counting).

ABC, which didn't field a full daytime schedule until 1958, avoided soaps at first. Soaps need an absolute minimum of 18 months before programmers can really determine if they have a hit; with game shows the writing is usually on the wall in 13 weeks, so ABC--needing instant credibility--built on its two existing hits, "American Bandstand" and "Who Do You Trust?" with a mostly-game lineup, shows like "Beat The Clock," "Queen For A Day," "Seven Keys," and "Camouflage." It finally tried a soap in 1963 and struck gold the first time out: "General Hospital."
 
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