Does anybody remember in the 1970's when Sesame Street might air on a commercial TV station. I know in my market it aired on Channel 3 which was the CBS station for Mason City IA/Rochester/Austin MN. And if you do remember it why did it stop airing on commercial TV stations TY.
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Sesame Street on Commercial TV Stations
- Thread starter paulsonj72
- Start date
Here's what I've Dug Up by state:
ALABAMA: None, since All Alabama Public Television Stations were in operation in 1969
ALASKA: KTVA, Anchorage (1969-1975)
ARIZONA: None
ARKANSAS: NO DATA
CALIFORNIA: NO DATA
COLORADO: KRMA Served Denver, No word on rest of state
CONNECTICUT: WEDH can serve the entire state, so no problems here
GEORGIA: GPTV was fully operational in 1969
INDIANA: WLWI *(1969-1970)
KENTUCKY: KET and WFPK held the fort
LOUISIANA: OUTSIDE of New Orleans: I think WBRZ in Baton Rouge and KSLA in Shreveport (Latter took place of KTAL in 1972).
MAINE: Fully operational
MARYLAND: WMPB 67 Signed on in 1969, Others who couldn't receive WMPB used WETA, WHYY, or even WITF.
MASSACHUSETTS: No word on Springfield.
MISSISSIPPI: WMAA (now WMPN) Signed on during Season 1, but the Mississippi Authority of Educational Television (MAET) Banned Sesame Street due to it's "Integrated Cast" in May of 1970 (Ban was overturned about 22 days later). Otherwise, Only areas that could watch Sesame Street were on the Coast (WYES, New Orleans and WEIQ Mobile), and in Northern M.S. (oxford-Southaven area) (from WKNO, Memphis).
If anyone has more information to help me out, PLEASE LET ME KNOW!!
ALABAMA: None, since All Alabama Public Television Stations were in operation in 1969
ALASKA: KTVA, Anchorage (1969-1975)
ARIZONA: None
ARKANSAS: NO DATA
CALIFORNIA: NO DATA
COLORADO: KRMA Served Denver, No word on rest of state
CONNECTICUT: WEDH can serve the entire state, so no problems here
GEORGIA: GPTV was fully operational in 1969
INDIANA: WLWI *(1969-1970)
KENTUCKY: KET and WFPK held the fort
LOUISIANA: OUTSIDE of New Orleans: I think WBRZ in Baton Rouge and KSLA in Shreveport (Latter took place of KTAL in 1972).
MAINE: Fully operational
MARYLAND: WMPB 67 Signed on in 1969, Others who couldn't receive WMPB used WETA, WHYY, or even WITF.
MASSACHUSETTS: No word on Springfield.
MISSISSIPPI: WMAA (now WMPN) Signed on during Season 1, but the Mississippi Authority of Educational Television (MAET) Banned Sesame Street due to it's "Integrated Cast" in May of 1970 (Ban was overturned about 22 days later). Otherwise, Only areas that could watch Sesame Street were on the Coast (WYES, New Orleans and WEIQ Mobile), and in Northern M.S. (oxford-Southaven area) (from WKNO, Memphis).
If anyone has more information to help me out, PLEASE LET ME KNOW!!
According to Wikipedia, the following stations in Montana aired Sesame Street until Montana PBS signed on in 1984:
KTVQ Billings (CBS)
KTVM Butte (NBC)
KFBB Great Falls (ABC)
KCFW Kalispell (NBC)
KECI Missoula (NBC)
Some areas also received KSPS Spokane (which still has translators in far western Montana), KUED Salt Lake City, KRMA Denver (which still has three translators in Montana), and/or Prairie Public Television from North Dakota on cable.
KTVQ Billings (CBS)
KTVM Butte (NBC)
KFBB Great Falls (ABC)
KCFW Kalispell (NBC)
KECI Missoula (NBC)
Some areas also received KSPS Spokane (which still has translators in far western Montana), KUED Salt Lake City, KRMA Denver (which still has three translators in Montana), and/or Prairie Public Television from North Dakota on cable.
WEDH-TV channel 24 of Hartford never served the entire state on its own. It was the head station for Connecticut Public Television (CPTV). The other stations were WEDN-TV channel 53 of Norwich, WEDY-TV channel 65 of New Haven and WEDW-TV channel 49 of Bridgeport. Channel 65 was fairly low-powered, as I never once received a signal of it 30 miles away in the south end of New Britain.
I never received WGBY-TV (PBS) channel 57 of Springfield, MA properly in the analog era. It's still on the Comcast cable lineup in New Britain to this day (channel 12).
49 has overlap with WNET in NYC, 53 With WSBE in Providence. that was what I meant.
based off the images, I think that WNET has been able to get into part of the Southwest Connetictut area since that one county in CT is of the NYC market.
WPTA in Fort Wayne carried Sesame Street for several seasons until translator W39AA signed on as the first PBS signal in the market. W39AA relayed WBGU-TV Bowling Green and later WFYI Indianapolis before finally becoming a full-power local PBS station, WFWA, in the late 1980s.
I remember reading, sometime back, that WNDU-TV, Ch. 16 in South Bend, IN, had aired Sesame Street from 1969 until WNIT-TV, Ch. 34 (Also in South Bend, IN.) signed on-the-air in February, 1974.
In New Britain, CT (southern Hartford County), some people would receive WGBY-TV channel 57 of Springfield, MA. It never came in properly where I lived. All I received was a second CPTV station. That was a snowy color signal of WEDN-TV channel 53 of Norwich. I often had to watch that, since WEDH-TV channel 24 of Hartford never came in properly, due to multipath and ghosting (from Avon Mountain, since the same thing happened with channel 18 of Hartford). It dramatically improved when they moved their transmitter to Rattlesnake Mountain in Farmington, roughly a year before the digital switch-over. There were times, if on the third floor of my old house, that I'd get a faint signal of WEDW-TV channel 49 from Bridgeport. Never on the second floor where I lived though.
I NEVER once received a hint of WNET-TV channel 13.
Yes, Fairfield County (i.e. Stamford, Norwalk, Bridgeport and Danbury) is in the New York City DMA. Bridgeport is closer to New Haven than NYC though.
I NEVER once received a hint of WNET-TV channel 13.
Yes, Fairfield County (i.e. Stamford, Norwalk, Bridgeport and Danbury) is in the New York City DMA. Bridgeport is closer to New Haven than NYC though.
I have a guide listing from the Lexington News newspaper (Lexington, MO.) that shows that ABC affiliate KQTV-TV Ch. 2 in St. Joseph, MO carried Sesame Street as late as January 1981. They showed it on weekday mornings from 6-7AM, before Good Morning America.
I just posted the guide listing here.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/showthread.php?722512-Retro-Lexington-MO-Monday-Janurary-5-1981&p=6296118#post6296118
June 3 1977 is the last day I can find for KIMT airing Sesame Street via the TV listings in the Des Moines Register. I didn't find the regional listings for Monday BUT on Tuesday June 7 KIMT had different programing between 3-4 PM(which is when Sesame Street aired) I have a newspapers.com publishers extra subscription I used to aid in my research. I knew my memory was good there. KYIN(Iowa Public Television) and Channel 24 in Mason City started airing the show
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KYIN signed on in May 1977 (from the same tower KIMT broadcasts from)
I don't ever remember is running on a commercial station in Pittsburgh.
However, for a time KDKA would run Villa Allegre, PBS' attempt to do a
Spanish version of Sesame Street back in the 70's.
However, for a time KDKA would run Villa Allegre, PBS' attempt to do a
Spanish version of Sesame Street back in the 70's.
May 14 to be exact(A Saturday) but Sesame Street aired on KIMT through June 3 from 3-4 PM CT
With the exception of the very early 1969 broadcast on WPIX in New York, Sesame Street only aired on commercial stations in markets where there was no PBS station, like Fort Wayne, Mason City or St. Joseph. There's no reason it would have needed to run on a commercial station in Pittsburgh, where WQED was already among the most established educational TV stations in the country.
KIMT(CBS) in Mason City IA aired Sesame Street
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