Re: A Providence TV question

["A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@world.std.com>]

On 15 Jun 2000,  Scott D Fybush wrote:

> Your cited reason is correct as well, but I believe the war also
> played a role; they didn't want to divert resources to building new TVs. I
> know the war froze CBS' new color system (the color wheel), which was the
> standard approved by the FCC for a few years between 1951 and (IIRC) 1954,
> when RCA persuaded a move back to NTSC color.  The color wheels took up
> some material (I don't recall which one) that was needed for the war
> effort.

Interesting.  I always thought the CBS system just didn't go anywhere 
because it was incompatible with the existing B&W system.  I know that 
"compatible color" was a major promotional point when the RCA system 
started operating.
 
> I don't know how the hand-off worked where viewers were concerned. My
> understanding of the schedule is that they swapped dayparts from 
> day to day, so if WHEC had Monday daytime and Tuesday night, WVET would
> have Monday night and Tuesday daytime.  WVET had the early-evening news
> each night, as well as the 11 PM news every other night, leaving WHEC's
> small news operation with an 11 PM show every other night in addition to
> the WHEC radio newscasts.  Talking to folks who worked there, it's clear
> that WHEC-TV didn't really think of itself as a news operation until 1961
> and the end of WVET-TV.

Sounds like it would have confused viewers and really made local 
programming complicated.
 
> I just wish some film existed to show what the channel swaps actually
> looked like on air.

Me too.



===================================================
 A. Joseph Ross, J.D.                        617.367.0468
 15 Court Square                     lawyer@world.std.com
 Boston, MA 02108-2503      http://world.std.com/~lawyer/
===================================================