NHL on RKO General
NHL on RKO General relates to a small, syndicated network of stations owned by RKO General[1][2][3][4] which broadcast National Hockey League games.
Background
In the United States, the clinching game of the 1966 Stanley Cup Finals on the evening of Thursday, May 5 aired on RKO General's stations, such as WOR-TV in New York City and WHCT in Hartford, Connecticut. Bob Wolff, who at the time did play-by-play for New York Rangers games seen on WOR, called the game that night with Emile Francis.
Although the TV listings page of the May 5, 1966 edition of the -affiliated station did clear the broadcast at the last minute.
The following season, CBS won U.S. network television rights to weekend-afternoon regular-season games as well as weekend playoff games. Due to other programming commitments,[6] the 1966-67 regular-season games were subleased to RKO General, which aired a series of Sunday afternoon broadcasts[7][8] at 4 p.m. Eastern Time during the last eight weeks[9] of the regular season, starting on February 12, 1967.[10]
Some regular-season games were blacked out in the cities where they were played. For example, the March 26, 1967 game between the Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens in Boston was not televised on any station in the Boston area.[11]
Schedule (1966–67 season)
| Date | Teams |
| February 12 | Montreal at Detroit |
| February 26 | Boston at Detroit |
| March 5[12] | Montreal at New York Rangers |
| March 12 | Toronto at Chicago |
| March 19 | Toronto at Detroit |
| March 26 | Montreal at Boston |
| April 2[13] | Chicago at New York |
Announcing crews and combinations
- Jim Gordon/Lloyd Pettit
- Win Elliott/Stu Nahan
- Fred Cusick[14]/Jim Gordon
- Stu Nahan/Win Elliot
- Fred Cusick/Win Elliot
- Jim Gordon/Stu Nahan
History of NHL coverage on RKO stations
- MSG Network. While WOR/WWOR broadcasts of Rangers' games were generally away games, mainly on Saturday nights, the station broadcast on November 27, 1965 the Rangers' home game against the Chicago Blackhawks on a few hours' tape delay. WOR-TV claimed that this game was the first NHL contest to ever be broadcast in color. The game was also colorcast on the Blackhawks' station, WGN-TV in Chicago.[16] From the team's founding in 1972 through 1985, the station also carried some away games of the New York Islanders.
- Los Angeles: Independent KHJ-TV (now KCAL-TV) was home to the Los Angeles Kings in the early 1980s and again during the mid-to-late 1990s, long after RKO divested itself of the station. The 1966-67 RKO games aired on KHJ-TV because Los Angeles had been one of six cities that were granted expansion teams that would begin play in the Fall of 1967 (although another local station, KTLA, began televising Kings' away games from Oakland during the 1967-68 season).
- Hartford-New Haven, CT: From 1962 to 1969, independent WHCT (now WUVN) ran a subscription television service from 7 p.m. to midnight with scrambled first-run movies and sports events from Madison Square Garden.
- CBXT/Edmonton) region.
- WHDH-TV, carried the full NHL on NBC schedule until January 1, 2017, when the NBC network moved to WBTS-LD, which is owned and operated by NBC itself. WHDH often got the highest ratings for NBC's NHL games among stations in "neutral markets" (that is, markets whose local team is not playing in a particular network telecast); WBTS-CDoften continues to get the highest ratings for NBC's NHL telecasts in "neutral" markets.
RKO also owned WHBQ-TV in Memphis during this period. WHBQ-TV is notable for having pre-empted ABC's coverage of the "Miracle on Ice" gold medal championship game during the 1980 Winter Olympics.
References
- ^ Page, Don (December 11, 1965). "TV Boxing: It's Down but Not Out". Los Angeles Times. p. B2.
- ^ Page, Don (April 23, 1966). "Old Kel Back With the Needle and All". Los Angeles Times. p. B2.
- New York Times. p. 44. Retrieved 2023-08-21.
- ^ "RKO Official Says Boxing Headed for TV Revival". Hartford Courant. Associated Press. June 14, 1966. p. 27.
- ^ Boston Globe, May 5, 1966
- ^ Broadcasting magazine, September 26, 1966
- ^ "SCHEDULE OF HOCKEY ON TV IS ANNOUNCED". Chicago Tribune. Dec 13, 1966. p. C4.
- ^ Lipsyte, Robert (1966-09-23). "C.B.S. Purchases TV Hockey Rights For $3.5-Million (Published 1966)". Retrieved 2023-07-30.
- ^ "NHL television opener Feb. 12, Hawks vs. Wings". Christian Science Monitor. December 23, 1966. p. 7.
- New York Times. 1967-02-12. p. 184. Retrieved 2023-08-21.
- ^ Boston Globe, March 26, 1967, p. 37
- New York Times. p. 59. Retrieved 2023-08-21.
- New York Times. Retrieved 2023-07-30.
- ISBN 9781582619811.
- ^ Durso, Joseph (1967-02-12). "Local Pro Soccer Teams May Share Stadium With Yanks in Spring; 2 New Leagues Are Leasing Biggest Parks in U.S." Retrieved 2023-07-30.
- ^ New York Times, November 27, 1965