NHL on RKO General

Last updated August 22, 2023

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 Boston Globe indicated that RKO-owned WNAC-TV in Boston would not carry the game,^[5] the then-ABC-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

History of NHL coverage on RKO stations

New York City :^[15] Independent station WOR-TV acquired local broadcast rights for the New York Rangers in 1965. The station, which was sold in 1987 and became WWOR-TV, lost the Rangers in 1989 when the team became cable-exclusive to the 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.
Windsor, ON-Detroit : The CBC-affiliated CKLW-TV's (now CBC-owned CBET) sports programming, including Hockey Night in Canada and coverage of the Olympic Games, has historically been quite popular in the Detroit area, sometimes even more popular than American network coverage of the same events. CBC's National Hockey League coverage is not subject to local blackout. Indeed, CKLW-TV/CBET has generally aired any Detroit Red Wings game covered by CBC in preference over the default national broadcast. For example, CBET aired all of the 2006 Western Conference Quarterfinal games between the Edmonton Oilers and the Red Wings, although some games were only initially designated to air in the Northern and Central Alberta (CBXT/Edmonton) region.
Boston : RKO's oldest television station, WNAC-TV was the first station in that city to televise games of the Boston Bruins in the 1948-49 season, the first after the birth of commercial television in Boston, but would not continue carrying games after that one season. While WNAC-TV carried the sixth game of the 1966 Finals (clearing it on the day of the broadcast, bumping network programs), it did not air the 1966-67 NHL package even though it was an RKO-owned station in a city that had an NHL team. The station could not do so because at the time, WNAC was an affiliate of the ABC Television Network, and elected to air ABC's National Basketball Association games, some of which featured the Boston Celtics. Instead, the NHL games were broadcast on newly launched UHF station WKBG-TV, which also broadcast road games of the Boston Bruins during the 1966-67 season. WNAC carried NHL games produced by CBS from the 1956-57 through 1959-60 seasons as part of its affiliation with that network from June 21, 1948 through December 31, 1960; when WNAC regained CBS affiliation on March 19, 1972, it carried the remainder of the 1971-72 NHL on CBS schedule. From the 2005-2006 season until it lost its NBC affiliation on January 1, 2017, the station, by then re-named 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-CD often 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.

Related Research Articles

WWOR-TV is a television station licensed to Secaucus, New Jersey, United States, serving the New York City area as the flagship of the MyNetworkTV programming service. It is owned and operated by Fox Television Stations alongside Fox flagship WNYW. Both stations share studios at the Fox Television Center on East 67th Street in Manhattan's Lenox Hill neighborhood, while WWOR-TV's transmitter is located at One World Trade Center.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">RKO General</span> Former broadcasting mass media corporation

RKO General Inc. was, from 1952 through 1991, the main holding company for the noncore businesses of the General Tire and Rubber Company and, after General Tire's reorganization in the 1980s, GenCorp. The concern was based around the consolidation of its parent company's broadcasting interests, which dated to 1943 and were brought together under the General Teleradio umbrella in 1952. The company was renamed RKO Teleradio Pictures following its 1955 purchase of the RKO Pictures film studio, and then RKO General in 1959 after dissolving the motion picture division. Headquartered in New York City, the company operated six television stations and more than a dozen major radio stations around North America between 1959 and 1991.

WSBK-TV is an independent television station in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is owned by the CBS News and Stations group alongside CBS owned-and-operated station WBZ-TV. Both stations share studios on Soldiers Field Road in the Allston–Brighton section of Boston. WSBK-TV's transmitter is located on Cedar Street in Needham, Massachusetts, on a tower site that was formerly owned by CBS and is now owned by American Tower Corporation.

<i>NHL on NBC</i> Former American television series

The NHL on NBC is an American presentation of National Hockey League (NHL) games produced by NBC Sports, and televised on NBC properties, including MSNBC, CNBC, Golf Channel, USA Network and NBCSN in the United States.

Frederick Michael Cusick was an American ice hockey broadcaster who served as the Boston Bruins play-by-play announcer from 1971 until 1997 on WSBK-TV in Boston, and from 1984 until 1995 on NESN. Counting his radio broadcasts, he was a Bruins' announcer for an unprecedented 45 years, and was an active sports announcer for over seven decades. He is best known for yelling "SCORE!" when a Boston player scored a goal.

The NHL Network was an American television syndication package that broadcast National Hockey League games from the 1975–76 through 1978–79 seasons. The NHL Network was distributed by the Hughes Television Network.

The NHL on USA was the de facto title of a television show that broadcast National Hockey League games on the USA Network.

The NHL on CBS is the branding used for broadcasts of National Hockey League (NHL) games produced by CBS Sports and televised on CBS in the United States.

WHDH-TV was a television station in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. The station ceased operations on March 18, 1972, following the revocation of the station's license. The channel 5 allocation in the market was taken over by WCVB-TV the following morning, March 19, 1972. WCVB operates using a separate license from WHDH-TV; conversely, the original WHDH-TV is also of no relation to the current WHDH, which is a news-intensive independent; it served as the Boston market's NBC affiliate from January 2, 1995, through December 31, 2016.

The National Hockey League has never fared as well on American television in comparison to the National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, or the National Football League, although that has begun to change, with NBC's broadcasts of the final games of the 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2013 Stanley Cup Finals scoring some of the best ratings ever enjoyed by the sport on American television.

The National Hockey League (NHL), a professional ice hockey league active in the United States and Canada, is broadcast over the radio mainly in its participating countries.

Hockey Weekend Across America is an annual event devised by USA Hockey to promote the game of ice hockey in the United States. The weekend is capped by "Hockey Day in America", with broadcasts of National Hockey League games on the national networks of NBC.

WNAC-TV, channel 7, was a television station located in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. The station was owned by RKO General. Originally established in 1948, WNAC-TV signed off for the final time at 1:00 a.m. on May 22, 1982, due to improprieties by its parent company; it was replaced that morning with WNEV-TV, which operates on a separate license. The station was Boston's original CBS television affiliate; except for a period from 1961 to 1972 during which it was an ABC affiliate, WNAC-TV would remain with CBS until its replacement with WNEV-TV.

The National Hockey League Game of the Week is a branding used for regular season National Hockey League weekend games that are typically televised on a national broadcast network in the U.S.

Hockey Night in Canada began airing on Saturday nights on CBC Television in 1952. National coverage of the NHL in the U.S. was limited to Saturday afternoon regular season games on CBS, running for four seasons from 1956–57 to 1959–60.

From 1965 through 1975, in addition to the Saturday night game on CBC, Hockey Night in Canada also produced and broadcast a Wednesday night game on CTV, CBC's privately owned competitor; beginning in the 1975–76 NHL season, these midweek games would begin to be broadcast by local stations.

From 1965 through 1975, in addition to the Saturday night game on CBC, Hockey Night in Canada also produced and broadcast a Wednesday night game on CTV, CBC's privately owned competitor; beginning in the 1975–76 NHL season, these midweek games began to broadcast by local stations. In 1970–71, the Vancouver Canucks joined the NHL, meaning that there were now three possible venues for an HNIC telecast.

The National Hockey League (NHL) is shown on national television in the United States and Canada. With 25 teams in the U.S. and 7 in Canada, the NHL is the only one of the four major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada that maintains separate national broadcasters in each country, each producing separate telecasts of a slate of regular season games, playoff games, and the Stanley Cup Finals.

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.
↑ McGowen, Deane (1966-04-25). "NIGERIAN TAKES BRIEF WORKOUTS; Stirs Speculation on His Weight for Middleweight Title Defense at Garden". 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.
↑ "PRO HOCKEY GAME IS DUE ON TV TODAY". New York Times . 1967-02-12. p. 184. Retrieved 2023-08-21.
↑ Boston Globe, March 26, 1967, p. 37
↑ Eskenazi, Gerald (1967-03-06). "VACHON REGISTERS HIS FIRST SHUTOUT; Cournoyer, Rousseau Tally --Fleming Is Given Game Misconduct Penalty". New York Times . p. 59. Retrieved 2023-08-21.
↑ Eskenazi, Gerald (1967-04-03). "Rangers Lose to Hawks, 8-0, Finish Fourth; Canadiens Win and Gain Second; WORST TROUNCING OF YEAR FOR BLUES Chicago Sets 2 Records as Regular Season Ends--Cup Playoffs Open Thursday". New York Times . Retrieved 2023-07-30.
↑ Cusick, Fred (2006). Fred Cusick: voice of the Bruins. Sports Publishing L.L.C. p. 163. 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

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] Page, Don (December 11, 1965). "TV Boxing: It's Down but Not Out". Los Angeles Times. p. B2.

[2] Page, Don (April 23, 1966). "Old Kel Back With the Needle and All". Los Angeles Times. p. B2.

[3] McGowen, Deane (1966-04-25). "NIGERIAN TAKES BRIEF WORKOUTS; Stirs Speculation on His Weight for Middleweight Title Defense at Garden". New York Times . p. 44. Retrieved 2023-08-21.

[4] "RKO Official Says Boxing Headed for TV Revival". Hartford Courant. Associated Press. June 14, 1966. p. 27.

[5] Boston Globe, May 5, 1966

[6] Broadcasting magazine, September 26, 1966

[7] "SCHEDULE OF HOCKEY ON TV IS ANNOUNCED". Chicago Tribune. Dec 13, 1966. p. C4.

[8] Lipsyte, Robert (1966-09-23). "C.B.S. Purchases TV Hockey Rights For $3.5-Million (Published 1966)" . Retrieved 2023-07-30.

[9] "NHL television opener Feb. 12, Hawks vs. Wings". Christian Science Monitor. December 23, 1966. p. 7.

[10] "PRO HOCKEY GAME IS DUE ON TV TODAY". New York Times . 1967-02-12. p. 184. Retrieved 2023-08-21.

[11] Boston Globe, March 26, 1967, p. 37

[12] Eskenazi, Gerald (1967-03-06). "VACHON REGISTERS HIS FIRST SHUTOUT; Cournoyer, Rousseau Tally --Fleming Is Given Game Misconduct Penalty". New York Times . p. 59. Retrieved 2023-08-21.

[13] Eskenazi, Gerald (1967-04-03). "Rangers Lose to Hawks, 8-0, Finish Fourth; Canadiens Win and Gain Second; WORST TROUNCING OF YEAR FOR BLUES Chicago Sets 2 Records as Regular Season Ends--Cup Playoffs Open Thursday". New York Times . Retrieved 2023-07-30.

[14] Cusick, Fred (2006). Fred Cusick: voice of the Bruins. Sports Publishing L.L.C. p. 163. ISBN 9781582619811.

[15] 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.

[16] New York Times, November 27, 1965

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

[15]

[16]