WHDH snubs Leno

[A. Joseph Ross]

On 3 Apr 2009 at 3:06, Bob Nelson wrote:

> Speaking of pre-emptions, there was one point when WBZ, then an NBC
> affiliate, wouldn't run the then-new Late Night with David Letterman
> (IIRC, or was it the Tomorrow show?) and Friday night's SCTV...they
> ran "Hawaii Five O" reruns instead. SCTV regulars Dave Thomas and Rick
> Moranis, who played the ultra-Canadian McKenzie brothers, used to joke
> about "hosers" on the show... and one day, they made a guest
> appearance on WBCN. Someone called in and asked them to define a
> "hoser". "Well, you know that people at the NBC station in Boston who
> won't run us? THAT is a hoser..."

As I recall, in the early 1990s, WBZ was regularly pre-empting NBC 
shows, to the point where channel 62 became a secondary NBC 
affiliate, carrying programs that WBZ didn't carry.  Maybe the upshot 
of all this will be that Leno will be on some other station, while 
channel 7 remains the primary NBC affiliate.

This was particularly common in the early days, when there were fewer 
stations than networks.  When WHDH-TV 5 came on in November 1957, it 
was primarily an ABC affiliate, but it carried a number of NBC and 
CBS shows that channels 4 and 7 didn't carry.  I remember that 
included a couple of daytime game shows that were on while channel 4 
had noon news and Big Brother Bob Emery (ABC didn't have daytime 
programming at the time), the Huntley-Brinkley news, the CBS news 
with Douglas Edwards (in preference to ABC's John Daly), Meet the 
Press, and the Tonight Show with Jack Parr.  At the same time, ABC's 
Mickey Mouse Club remained on channel 7 until the following fall.

-- 
A. Joseph Ross, J.D.                           617.367.0468
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