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Wgpr-tv Schedule

Wgpr-tv Schedule image
Parent Issue
Day
15
Month
October
Year
1975
OCR Text

WCPR-TV Schedule

Monday- Friday

9:30 am The Morning Party; entertainment and variety.

10:30

Monday - Tell Terry-, "Dear Abby" of the airwaves.

Tuesday - Green Thumb; gardening show.

Wednesday - Soul-O-Scope; astrological forecasts.

Thursday -Consumer Spotlight; issues and tips.

Friday - Creative Cooking; "a little soul."

11.00

Countdown; game show hosted by Conrad Patrick.

11:30 BIG CITY NEWS

12:00 pm A Time To Live; soap opera with local actors and actresses.

12:30 Galaxy Theatre; feature length movie hosted by Rick Hamilton.

3:00 Candy Store; cartoon.

3:30 Kimba; cartoon.

4:00 Abbot and Costello Get Smart

5:00 The Scene; dance party featuring live acts, including local artists and records, hosted by WGPR-FM disc jockeys Ray Henderson and Ray Morris.

6:00 I Spy with Bill Cosby.

7:00 Monday - Speaking of Sports.

Tuesday - Corners of Black History; hosted by Reginald Larrie.

Wednesday - Have Gun, Will Travel.

Thursday - Kreskin.

Friday - Speaking of Sports with Bill Humphries.

7:30 BIG CITY NEWS EVENING EDITION.

8:00 A Time To Live; rebroadcast soap opera from the afternoon.

8:30 Rawhide

9:30 Showcase Theatre ; movies.

Saturday

9:30 am Candy Store; children's show.

10:00 Cartoons

10:30 Felix the Cat

11:00 Serial Theatre: westerns and science fiction.

11:30 The Lone Ranger

12:00 pm Abbott and Costello

3:00 Countdown-, game show.

3:30 Black Belt In Focus; karate.

4:00 Motor City Wrestling

5.00 The Scene; dance party.

6:00 Teen Profile; high school students deal with contemporary issues,

6:30 Rolling Funk dance show on ice skates.

7:00 Victory at Sea

7:30 Fashion Fanfare

8:00 That's Showtbiz; entertainment column of the air.

8:30 Rawhide

9:30 Detroit Open Line; call-in interview show hosted by Reverend John Smettler.

11:00 Terror Theatre; horror flicks hosted by Jiam Desiardins. student of the occult.

Sunday

7:00 am til 1:00 pm Religious programming

1:00 pm Movie

3:30 Gospel Song Fest

4:00 Motor City Wrestling

5:00 The Scene; dance party hosted by WGPR fm jocks.

6:00 Rawhide

7:00 Outdoors; with Ken Callaway.

7:30 Movie of the Week

9:00 Movie Classics

Perhaps the most significant, and certainly the most thrilling. aspect of the birth of WGPR-TV is the twice-daily "Big City News." It may be a week yet until the rest of the locally-originated programming gets off the ground but the WGPR-TV News Department is already deep into it every day. Unlike the area's seven other television stations, which are white-owned and operated, WGPR doesn't have to play lo the suburbs, to the entire tri -county area.

News Director Jerry Blocker explained, "Our target area basically is the city of Detroit. There are many stories, both negative and positive, that are not getting told. and that's what we're trying to gel into.1 Anna Booker, the program's producer, told us "Most of what we do is community-oriented. Not necessarily black, but in most instances minority affairs."

It's no secret that in the Motor City, 1975, 'minority affairs" are in fact majority affairs. The "Big City News" will thus be concentrating on and representing a reality which the other stations neither have much time for nor, indeed, much knowledge of.

Blocker also points out that the other stations "lo a very great degree, don't feel too comfortable over here (in Detroit) . People can be nasty it' they want to be. And if you don't look as if you belong, they don't have to relate to you 01 your TV camera. I wouldn't think that we '11 have that kind of problem. We'll be able to relate just because of the black thing itself. If we can't do that.then we're not doing the job."

Of course, all of this specialized coverage is in addition to the major stories that all the stations will carry- the 5-alarm fires, the goings-on at City Hall, weekly presidential assassination attempts. etc. 

During these first few weeks of operation, especial by, the GPR news team plans to emphasize the many positive, flourishing aspects ot Detroit and not. as Blocker put it. m a "goody-two-shoes" way. "We've been trying to show a lot of the things that are actually happening in the city where people are trying to do something either in their community or in the city as a whole." The "Big City News" will demonstrate that. contrary to all the press and talk about urban blight and unsafe streets, "Everybody in Detroit just hasn't rolled up in a bag and said. 'Oh my god. aren't we a terrible city!' "

Obviously nut. Consider, among other chest-swelling facts, that the entire GPR-TV news Stiff of thirteen is home-grown. Blocker himself is formerly a weekend anchorman with WWJ-TV, Channel 4, and was one of the first black newspersons on Detroit television. The dynamic Anna Booker worked with him there producing his show for two years. Blocker's co-host on the evening edition of the "Big City News," Dong Morison, is a Wayne State graduate who's worked for WGPR-FM and for WEXL.

Terry Jones, one of the two full-time street reporters, also has had considerable experience at GPR radio including her own "Woman's World." Terry is a graduate of WSU in mass communication, appropriately enough Investigative reporter Richard Morris was a radio reporter at WJLB and the City Editor, at different times, for several black weeklies in various parts of the country. Channel 62's (and the area's first) all-woman anchor team (they co-host the morning edition of the news) consists of Amyre Porter and Pal D'Que. Pal, a dancer in addition to her other talents, is a WSU grad. Amyre has had TV experience in Washington and Nashville and is a graduate of Fisk University. .

Meteorologist Sharon Crews personifies the type of no-waste energy necessary at a newborn tv station, and isa former professional model and a graduate of North Carolina A.andT. Senior Camera Operator Paul Jeffries is a University of Detroit graduate in mass comm. He's since worked with Allied Film, Wilding Film, and others.

And speaking of cameras, we come to the Big City News' major technical innovation. They are the Detroit area's first television station to use portable mini-cameras. These use video cassette tape, not film. The tape is far cheaper (it's erasable and reusable up to 1 50 times, unlike film which is a one-shot deal) and quicker-it can be instantly edited or even put on the air immediately. What the Channel 62 portables can't do is transmit live.

At this point there are still bugs in the equipment to be worked out and the technical staff likewise needs to become thoroughly familiari.ed with the gleaming new cameras.

As a consequence there is the occasional rough spot during a telecast. However, the same spirit which prompts a fledgling enterprise Iike WGPR-TV to take a chance on a new technical system, communicates itself, through its air staff, as a warmth, a naturalness, one rarely finds on TV and which, in our opinion, transcends the momentary distraction of equipment malfunction. But check out Channel 62's "Big City News" at 1 1 :30 and 7:30 every day of the week and decide for vourself.