1953: The End of Network Radio Is Foretold

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• I can remember sitting on the floor in my Grandparent’s living room watching the TV forever, just waiting for one of the early Seattle TV stations to take the Indian Chief head down and put on some actual programming due to the sporadic broadcast schedule. We were to little to realize there was a scheduled time when nothing was being shown. I think it might have been mid to late afternoons, probably KOMO-TV.

  • Those first-day program schedules are listed for KRSC 5, KTNT 11, KMO 13, KOMO 4 and KIRO 7 on our schedules page, under the heading TELEVISION IS HERE! https://qzvx.com/listings/

• And yes, KTNT 11 ran both CBS and DuMont programs. https://qzvx.com/2022/01/13/ktnt-tv-channel-11-tacoma/

• KTNT TV slowly expanded hours of operation. First from 5pm to 11:30, a couple months later 4pm-midnight, 2pm start time in June, 10:30 am start in August, etc. That is the reason some CBS daytime programs appeared on KING 5.

• A question for local TV historians:
  1953 was obviously a big year for growth in the Puget Sound television market.
  I had been under the impression that when Channel 11 hit the airwaves in March 1953, that it immediately became the sole CBS affiliate for the area and that Channel 5 was then limited to NBC, ABC and Dumont (until Channel 13 in August of that year launched and very briefly had NBC until Channel 4 started out in December 1953. ) But in the listings above, 11 is carrying just a little CBS content, including Douglas Edwards and the News and Beat the Clock. But it also shows Channel 5 still carrying substantially more CBS programming, including Arthur Godfrey, Garry Moore and the soap operas. So did 11 essentially start out as more of an independent station than a network affiliate?

  • I noticed that too. I think ch. 11 was both CBS and Dumont.

• I remember that our family did not get a TV till 1957 and our poor grandparents did not get a TV till about 62 or 63. We still had to rely on radio. I noticed that the radio dragnet was the same as the TV dragnet. Same episodes. Robert Young played the lead roll on both the radio and TV "father knows best" The radio version had different actors. Now internet has replaced radio and maybe TV is next?