My friends and I always made sure we were back inside from playing ball by 6:05 pm on Saturdays so we could watch Georgia Championship Wrestling. We liked it better than the WWF wrestling we received on our local channels.
Those 5-minutes-past-the-hour (or half-hour) were genius, too. Check out your local channels and cable channels, but not miss anything on WTBS. Brilliant.
This is a fascinating read for me. As I am in the UK, the TV broadcast market was very different to the US. The BBC was the only player for a long time.b But it just shows how much regulations and independence (or lack of) can influence how things developed and evolved in different countries. I think around a similar sort of time in the 70s independent broadcasting was just starting to become a thing in the UK with the IBA. This was made up ofb regional broadcasters but the difference being they all came together to reach a national audience, but with then had regional variations when a local output was different. I remember distinctly the ident of Yorkshire Television as a child. Affectionately know as YTV. Cable TV never became a big thing until the late 90s. And satellite was always the dominant option. There was I believe a cable TV system in the 60s known as Rediffusion. But it was limited to a few cities I think.
Thanks for bringing up Rediffusion, I have not heard of it before. The tech was so similar, but differences in regulation and organization made the outcomes very different.
I never became a Cubs or Braves fan, but I watched every game on WGN and WTBS that I could. The nightly Braves game became a soundtrack to my high school and early college years.
I loved having a baseball game on in the background when I did other things. Suddenly I could name the players on the Braves as well as I could players on the Mets (my favorite local team) or the Giants (the team my family rooted for.)
"People kept it on for simple reasons. WTCG, and later WTBS, carried Atlanta Braves baseball, Atlanta Hawks basketball, and a steady stream of classic movies."
Turner owned both the Braves and the Hawks, and he acquired a massive library of films when he purchased MGM and then abruptly sold it back to its orignal owner, sans the library.
This wasn't much of a thing in Canada given our more limited broadcast bandwith and audience at that time. The closest thing we had to a "superstation" of any form was the fictional comedy classic SCTV...
WSBK (TV38) in Boston, too. It’s how became a Bruins fan despite growing up on Long Island in the middle of the Islanders dynasty (we had cable, but mom and dad wouldn’t spring for Sportschannel).
Great post! Born and raised a Chicagoan it was always great that people got to experience WGN across the country. It's a shame that to watch the CUBS today we all have to pay for Marquee.
My friends and I always made sure we were back inside from playing ball by 6:05 pm on Saturdays so we could watch Georgia Championship Wrestling. We liked it better than the WWF wrestling we received on our local channels.
Such a huge effect on early wrestling fandom. Just opened my eyes to the broader world of wrestling.
Those 5-minutes-past-the-hour (or half-hour) were genius, too. Check out your local channels and cable channels, but not miss anything on WTBS. Brilliant.
This is a fascinating read for me. As I am in the UK, the TV broadcast market was very different to the US. The BBC was the only player for a long time.b But it just shows how much regulations and independence (or lack of) can influence how things developed and evolved in different countries. I think around a similar sort of time in the 70s independent broadcasting was just starting to become a thing in the UK with the IBA. This was made up ofb regional broadcasters but the difference being they all came together to reach a national audience, but with then had regional variations when a local output was different. I remember distinctly the ident of Yorkshire Television as a child. Affectionately know as YTV. Cable TV never became a big thing until the late 90s. And satellite was always the dominant option. There was I believe a cable TV system in the 60s known as Rediffusion. But it was limited to a few cities I think.
Thanks for bringing up Rediffusion, I have not heard of it before. The tech was so similar, but differences in regulation and organization made the outcomes very different.
A recent YT video was made by Ringway Manchester which may give you an idea how different it was. https://youtu.be/VkBiUrAESGY?si=jYc9j5At3JmsvwZO
I never became a Cubs or Braves fan, but I watched every game on WGN and WTBS that I could. The nightly Braves game became a soundtrack to my high school and early college years.
I loved having a baseball game on in the background when I did other things. Suddenly I could name the players on the Braves as well as I could players on the Mets (my favorite local team) or the Giants (the team my family rooted for.)
"People kept it on for simple reasons. WTCG, and later WTBS, carried Atlanta Braves baseball, Atlanta Hawks basketball, and a steady stream of classic movies."
Turner owned both the Braves and the Hawks, and he acquired a massive library of films when he purchased MGM and then abruptly sold it back to its orignal owner, sans the library.
This wasn't much of a thing in Canada given our more limited broadcast bandwith and audience at that time. The closest thing we had to a "superstation" of any form was the fictional comedy classic SCTV...
WSBK (TV38) in Boston, too. It’s how became a Bruins fan despite growing up on Long Island in the middle of the Islanders dynasty (we had cable, but mom and dad wouldn’t spring for Sportschannel).
Great post! Born and raised a Chicagoan it was always great that people got to experience WGN across the country. It's a shame that to watch the CUBS today we all have to pay for Marquee.
Remember GCW from Atlanta, WWF from NYC and idk if WGN ever carried the AWA but they did had NWA / WCW Pro Chicago later on.