Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your
contribution is not tax-deductible.)
PayPal Acct: 
Feedback: 
Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):
| [ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time ] |
| Subject: Re: CONTINENTAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE | |
|
Author: john meyer |
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
Date Posted: 15:02:28 08/31/04 Tue In reply to: Klaus 's message, "Re: CONTINENTAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE" on 13:13:09 08/31/04 Tue >John and Hawkeye, > >Thanks for questions/info regarding the Continental >Football League. The enthusiasm I have for this >defunct league is the same as I had for when I first >found out about the defunct WFL in 1981. Wish more >people would take an interest! > >I was going to ask a similar question, John, as to >when the DuMont network started and folded (who was >the one missing major network at the time? I want to >say ABC) and what about the TVS? network that >televised WFL games? Was this a similar network to the >aforementioned DuMont? Did the Overmeyer network ever >get off of the ground and if it did how long did it >last? > >Thanks again for the info! I'm not where I can page through my reference books, but, DuMont came on line at the dawn of television, just like CBS and NBC. ABC showed up just a bit later. But for a couple years or so there were four major networks. In the early days of tv, many cities, even larger ones, had only one or two local stations and would share air time between networks. That is, they could carry this or that NBC show, a couple other CBS shows and whatever they wanted to from other networks. It wasn't until most cities of moderate size began to have three or four stations that the networks could squeeze them into choosing one or the other. DuMont lasted IIRC until something like 1952-54, at times they shared stations with either ABC or nobody at all, meaning some independent stations would carry DuMont during certain hours or certain days only. The famous Captain Video was one of DuMont's few hits and had a reputation for using anything at hand for props, up to and including using a stapler as a space-telegraph key (Honest, they really did that). Which shows how low budget they were. DuMont was the name of a very early tv pioneer who made a real try at turning himself into an entire network. In one of my old (1953-54 or so) football magazines there's a couple pages reporting on that fall's tv football schedule. It went something like this: NBC - College football, DuMont - NFL, ABC - Canadian Football (Big Four only). TVS was a regional network only, producing programming for whomever wanted to carry it, any station. In the days before cable, which includes most of the 1970's for most of the country, regional networks operated sort of like cable channels do today, not trying to be a coast-to-coast major network. There were several others like TVS but the call letters escape me at the moment. Don't know if Overmeyer ever amounted to even a single night of broadcasting, don't remember anything about it but the name. [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] |