The courtship of NBC by the Hearld-Traveler

[A. Joseph Ross]

On 20 Jun 2009 at 9:36, Kevin Vahey wrote:


> Cottle in 1958-9 hosted a Saturday morning show on NBC that was fed
> live to the network from Morrisey Blvd. It was The Ruff and Reddy Show
> hosted by Cottle and what made it unusual was that the show came from
> Boston and not from a NBC affilate. It was the first time NBC had ever
> done this and to get NABET New York to agree to let IBEW Boston cover
> a show was a major hurdle.

I remember Captain Bob, but was Bob Cottle that desirable that NBC 
was willing to go to all that trouble? 
 
> My Dad told me that the H-T coveted NBC and the peacock was so fed up
> with Westinghouse they were exploring options. The Herald spent a
> fortune being one of the first built from scratch all color studios
> and spent millions with RCA for equipment to curry favor. 

Was anyone else making color equipment at that time?

> WHDH-TV would clear any NBC show that channel 4 passed on most
> notably The Tonight Show. 

And also Meet the Press, which previously had aired on Channel 2, 
without commercials.  And the Huntley-Brinkley news, which also had 
previously been carried on channel 2, since channel 4 didn't carry 
it.  And a couple of noontime game shows that channel 4 blanked in 
favor of noon news and Big Brother Bob Emery.  With the large number 
of NBC shows channel 4 was blanking, it's understandable why NBC was 
upset with them.

Channel 5 also carried any CBS shows that channel 7 passed up, 
including Douglas Edwards' evening news show.  With Huntley-Brinkley 
and Douglas Edwards, they never carried the ABC news with John Daly.

But for some reason ABC's Mickey Mouse Club remained on channel 7 
after channel 5 came on the air, until the following fall, even 
though all other ABC shows moved to channel 5.

-- 
A. Joseph Ross, J.D.                           617.367.0468
 92 State Street, Suite 700                   Fax 617.507.7856
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