Post by lazarus94 on Aug 12, 2018 15:12:32 GMT
Hi, everyone! Longtime fan of the Wiki, I even mentioned it in a speech on media preservation for my comm class in college!
I figured, due to this being more of a "shared memories" thread, it belongs here. Apologies if it doesn't.
I used to co-host a show on a low power TV station in my hometown, a small market in the south. The master control guy had worked in the business since the early 80s, and thus had amassed quite the collection of 1/4 in. tape and converted DVDs of lesser known stations, ads, and shows from around town. (The would be-FOX station in particular apparently threw out almost its entire past when ownership changed in around '87.)
Before tapings, we'd sit in the control room and watch campy religious shows or local wrestling from the 70s, and talk TV history. However, there were 2 moments that he said were lost to history that he was either there for or watched. And they're both pretty funny.
Details may be fuzzy or incorrect, but here's my secondhand account.
First, was the night the would be-FOX station ran adult films in an intentional effort to purge itself of religious program buyers.
The station started secular in around 1972, but due to a low budget only broadcast a few hours a day. So the station soon became wall to wall pay to play religious programming to make money.
By 1981, cable and more bountiful syndicated shows put pressure on the owner to go secular. Instead of doing it slowly over time, he decided to run them all off at once. One night, he decided to run a porn movie late at night, in full, before going on the live call in show the next morning (which I have seen a recording of) to blame it on a lower level staffer who would be disciplined. Great, except he did it again the next night before going on the call in show again to deal with upset callers. That pretty much sealed it, as they went secular the following fall with a spread of syndicated primetime shows before affiliating with FOX in '86.
The other comes from the independent that would become our UPN affiliate. My master control friend was in the studio for this.
The station was originally in a converted house, with the studio in the basement. I can't remember for sure, but I'm fairly certain it was the same host as the morning show I discussed above, typical low budget 2 hosts and a desk type show.
Either way, he was having an affair with his cohost, and one night his wife broke into the studio as the show was live.
She screamed off camera, "He's an adulterer, and she's-" *hard cut to commercial*
What happened next, during the break, was a 1 on 2 beatdown before the fight was broken up. The episode never came back from break, and the presumably few viewers watching at home had no idea what they had seen.
Does anyone else have any weird local TV memories, or stories of bizzare things that happened on the airwaves in your town?
I figured, due to this being more of a "shared memories" thread, it belongs here. Apologies if it doesn't.
I used to co-host a show on a low power TV station in my hometown, a small market in the south. The master control guy had worked in the business since the early 80s, and thus had amassed quite the collection of 1/4 in. tape and converted DVDs of lesser known stations, ads, and shows from around town. (The would be-FOX station in particular apparently threw out almost its entire past when ownership changed in around '87.)
Before tapings, we'd sit in the control room and watch campy religious shows or local wrestling from the 70s, and talk TV history. However, there were 2 moments that he said were lost to history that he was either there for or watched. And they're both pretty funny.
Details may be fuzzy or incorrect, but here's my secondhand account.
First, was the night the would be-FOX station ran adult films in an intentional effort to purge itself of religious program buyers.
The station started secular in around 1972, but due to a low budget only broadcast a few hours a day. So the station soon became wall to wall pay to play religious programming to make money.
By 1981, cable and more bountiful syndicated shows put pressure on the owner to go secular. Instead of doing it slowly over time, he decided to run them all off at once. One night, he decided to run a porn movie late at night, in full, before going on the live call in show the next morning (which I have seen a recording of) to blame it on a lower level staffer who would be disciplined. Great, except he did it again the next night before going on the call in show again to deal with upset callers. That pretty much sealed it, as they went secular the following fall with a spread of syndicated primetime shows before affiliating with FOX in '86.
The other comes from the independent that would become our UPN affiliate. My master control friend was in the studio for this.
The station was originally in a converted house, with the studio in the basement. I can't remember for sure, but I'm fairly certain it was the same host as the morning show I discussed above, typical low budget 2 hosts and a desk type show.
Either way, he was having an affair with his cohost, and one night his wife broke into the studio as the show was live.
She screamed off camera, "He's an adulterer, and she's-" *hard cut to commercial*
What happened next, during the break, was a 1 on 2 beatdown before the fight was broken up. The episode never came back from break, and the presumably few viewers watching at home had no idea what they had seen.
Does anyone else have any weird local TV memories, or stories of bizzare things that happened on the airwaves in your town?
