"Monday Night Hockey" TV Package (1970s)
TMC
After being dropped by NBC after the 1974-75 season, the NHL had no US
network TV contract. The league put together a network of independent
stations.
According to the 11/09/76 Times Herald, there would be 8 Monday night
8:00 ET games, starting Jan. 3, 1977 with Philadelphia at Montreal,
and the All-Star game. 4 more games would be announced later. They
also covered playoff games. Howard Smith’s AP Article on 1/12/79 said
there would be 18 Monday night games and 12 Saturday afternoon games
(my guess here is that would be over 1976-77 and 1977-78).
The rest of the 1976-77 schedule was:
Jan 10. Philadelphia at New York Islanders
Jan 17, Montreal at Boston
Jan 25, the All-Star game at Vancouver
Jan 31. Toronto at Atlanta
Feb 7, Toronto at Buffalo
Feb. 14, St. Louis at Philadelphia
Feb 21, Atlanta at Montreal
Feb 28, Cleveland at St. Louis.
The package was offered to local stations with no rights fee,
according to the 1/14/77 Salisbury Daily Times. Profits would be
derived from the advertising, which was about evenly split between the
network and the local station. According to an AP article on 2/27/77,
there were 47 stations, covering 55% of the US, with all NHL cities
except Minneapolis included. Some of the affiliates were:
WOR 9 New York
WOR did Islander games then, WTAF (now WTXF) did Flyer games, WTCG
(later became WTBS) covered Atlanta games, and WGR (now WGRZ) did
Buffalo games. WUTV in Buffalo would carry the Sabres in the late
'80s. KDNL later did Blues games, but I saw an old TV listing from
Alton, Il showing channel 4 with a Blues game on a Friday night.
WSNS 44 Chicago (’76-’77 only)
WSBK 38 Boston
WTAF 29 Philadelphia
WTCG 17 Atlanta
KDNL 30 St. Louis
WUAB 43 Cleveland (tape delay)
WUTV 29 Buffalo
Washington and KHJ (today's KCAL) in LA were on the network too. They
were (generally) on the same station that aired the local team's
games.
More affiliates that carried the 1/17/77 Montreal-Boston game (These
are independent stations unless otherwise indicated):
KHJ 9 (now KCAL) Los Angeles (tape delay to 8:00 PT) (JP called it)
WDCA 20 Washington (tape delay to 9:00 ET)
WBFF 45 Baltimore
KQED 9 San Francisco (yeah, PBS showing hockey!)
KRIV 26 Houston (tape delay to 11:30 CT)
KXTX 39 Dallas (CBN, really) (tape delay to 10:00 CT)
WPGH 53 Pittsburgh
KSTW 11 Seattle (tape delay to 10:30 PT)
WRET 36 (now WCNC) Charlotte NC
KDIN 11 Des Moines (PBS)
KRIN 32 Cedar Rapids, IA (PBS)
KIIN 12 Iowa City (PBS)
KBIN 32 Council Bluffs, IA
KHIN 36 Red Oak, IA
KSIN 27 Sioux City, IA
KBJR 6 Duluth (NBC)
KETV 7 Omaha (ABC) (tape delay to 11:30 CT)
WGPR 62 (now WWJ) Detroit
We can add these to the 8 found previously, for 26 affiliates total:
WOR 9 New York
WSNS 44 Chicago (’76-’77 only)
WSBK 38 Boston
WTAF 29 Philadelphia
WTCG 17 Atlanta
KDNL 30 St. Louis
WUAB 43 Cleveland (tape delay)
WUTV 29 Buffalo
Other findings: Local affiliates carrying teams’ games in Jan. 1977:
WBEN (now WIVB) 4 Buffalo (NBA Braves)
KBMA (now KSHB) 41 Kansas City (NBA Kings)
KPHO 5 Phoenix (Suns)
WTCN (now KARE) 11 Minneapolis (NHL North Stars)
KWGN Denver (NHL Rockies)
CJOC 7 (now CISA) Lethbridge AB (NHL Vancouver Canucks and WHA Calgary
Cowboys). CJOC had transmitters in Montana, and was ch. 7 in Havre and
ch. 3 in Kalispell.
All of these were independent stations except WBEN (CBS).
We can add 3 Iowa stations to the 1976-77-affiliate list:
KBIN 32 Council Bluffs
KHIN 36 Red Oak
KSIN 27 Sioux City
In 1977-78, KBJR 6 Duluth (NBC) picked up the Saturday afternoon
package, and dropped the Monday games, which were shown in Michigan’s
Upper Peninsula by WNMU (PBS) Marquette. I found listings for channel
50 in Detroit, and it had no hockey coverage (Red Wings or national)
in ’76-77 or ’77-78.
In Buffalo, the January and February Saturday games were on WGR 2
(NBC); the March Saturday games were on WUTV 29. 29 carried the Monday
Night Hockey package, while 2 was the Sabres station. The lone
exception was Feb. 25, when Saturday afternoon hockey was pre-empted
by a Sabres-Cleveland game (Buffalo won 13-3). In New York, WOR did
not carry January or February Saturday games. WNEW 5 carried the March
Saturday games (at 2:00). In both Buffalo and New York, college
basketball and WCT Tennis knocked the NHL off its usual Monday night
carrier.
The Iowa PBS stations dropped the NHL.
Jack Craig’s SporTView (9/15/79 Sporting News, p.50) said that the
Monday games were seen by about 1 million viewers, 300,000 of which
were in the Boston area. In 1979-80 Apparently there was Monday night
hockey in 1978-79 on what Craig referred to as “conventional TV.” In
that year, the 2pm ET version (1st period cut out) was picked up by
all participating affiliates except Boston. In 1979-80, the NHL
replaced their coverage package with a 12-game Thursday night package,
also starting in January, on something called UA-Columbia. This entity
already had a Thursday baseball package with MLB, and had a 40-game
NBA package starting in 1979-80.
Corrections: WSNS 44 Chicago did carry the Monday night games and All-
Star game. Additions: there was a Saturday afternoon game on Jan. 14,
1978: NY Islanders at Washington.
I found one new affiliate that joined for the NHL package in 1977-78:
WHMB 40 Indianapolis (Ind., religious). They had the Saturday games at
2:00, and Monday games at 11:00 pm.
As mentioned, the package was in every US NHL city except
Minneapolis.
Only Buffalo, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Detroit and Los Angeles got “NHL
Game of the Week” on a different station than the local team’s games.
When a team had a “home” game, they showed the home team’s broadcast,
not the network’s. Thus, WSBK listed “Bruins hockey” for their game
that night, with “Bruins Postgame” following. In Buffalo, when the
Sabres were on, the game was on the Sabres affiliate (WKBW 7), not
WUTV, and was called by Sabres announcers Ted Darling and Pat
Hannigan.
When NBC’s contract with the NHL ended after 1974-75, games were
getting 3.8 ratings. The ratings for the NHL TV Network in its first
month were 3.1 in NY, 1.9 in LA and 1.3 in Chicago (national ratings
were unavailable). After these 2 seasons, the network appeared no
more. By 1979-80, ESPN became the next phase in US NHL national
coverage.
The full 1976-77 schedule was:
Jan. 3, Philadelphia at Montreal
Jan 10, Philadelphia at New York Islanders
Jan 17, Montreal at Boston
Jan 25, the All-Star game at Vancouver
Jan 31, Toronto at Atlanta
Feb 7, Toronto at Buffalo
Feb. 14, St. Louis at Philadelphia
Feb 21, Atlanta at Montreal
Feb 28, Cleveland at St. Louis.
Mar. 7 Toronto at Philadelphia
Mar. 14 Los Angeles at Montreal
Mar. 21 Montreal at Boston
Mar. 28 St. Louis at Minnesota
1977-78 season schedule:
Monday package:
Mon. Jan. 9 Montreal at Philadelphia
Mon. Jan. 16 Atlanta at Philadelphia
Tue. Jan. 24 All-Star Game from Buffalo
Mon. Jan. 30 NY Islanders at Buffalo
Mon. Feb. 6 St. Louis at Philadelphia
Mon. Feb. 13 Toronto at Buffalo
Mon. Feb. 20 Buffalo at Montreal
Mon. Feb. 27 Atlanta at NY Rangers
Mon. Mar. 6 Montreal at Buffalo
Mon. Mar. 13 Montreal at Minnesota
Mon. Mar. 20 NY Islanders at Philadelphia
Saturday afternoon package:
Sat. Jan. 14 NY Islanders at Washington
Sat. Jan. 21 Detroit at Boston
Sat. Jan. 28 Buffalo at Pittsburgh
Sat. Feb. 4 Buffalo at Minnesota
Sat. Feb. 11 Philadelphia at Boston*
Sat. Feb. 18 Atlanta at NY Islanders
Sat. Feb. 25 Colorado at St. Louis
Sat. Mar. 4 Buffalo at Boston
Sat. Mar. 11 Boston at Philadelphia
Sat. Mar. 18 Boston at NY Rangers
Sat. Mar. 25 Washington at Montreal
* The Feb. 11, 1978 Philadelphia-Boston game was postponed because of
snow. So I remember that they showed a tape of the Fri. Feb. 10 game
between the Washington Capitals and Cleveland Barons.
The NHL added Saturday afternoon games. The League said they would
start at 1:00, and end by 4:00 ET. They said that markets with only 3
stations were reluctant to give up prime-time program slots. From what
I can see, the plan failed. Not only did they not gain new markets,
many stations that already carried the Monday game didn't pick up the
Saturday one. I haven't finished research, but in the Eastern Time
Zone, the only stations I found showing Saturday games were in Boston,
New York, Buffalo and Washington.
The NHL gave stations the option of starting at 1:00, or starting at
2:00, with the full open and a 1st period summary preceeding live
action. WDCA took that option. WPGH 53 Pittsburgh and WTCG 17 Atlanta
didn’t pick up the Saturday package, leaving their markets without
Saturday coverage. WPGH and WTCG also showed the Monday games on tape
delay at midnight and 11:30 ET, respectively. WUAB 43 Cleveland and
WBFF 45 Baltimore dropped hockey coverage completely.
The NHL Network also televised Stanley Cup playoff games in 1976, as
well as four games from the Super Series with Red Army and Wings of
the Soviet in midseason. (The big one in that package was Red Army at
Philadelphia, but the package didn't include Red Army at Montreal, the
famed New Year's Eve game, which was seen only on CBC.) Marv Albert
handled play-by-play, joined by an assortment of analysts and local
play-by-play men.
I believe they did 5 games of the superseries; on 4 of them, at ny
dec28,buffalo jan 4, boston jan 8 and phila jan 11, Marv Albert split
the pbp with a local voice...Jim Gordon, Ted Darling, Fred Cusick and
Gene Hart, respectively; the dec 29 game at Pittsburgh was done by Sam
Nover; Albert and Hart also did the nhl all star game at Phila on jan
20
They did playoffs on a once a week basis until the finals where they
did all four games of the Canadiens sweep; Marv Albert split pbp with
Tim Ryan on apr 11 at Buffalo and with Brad Palmer apr 18 at Chicago
(even though Palmer never did pbp for the Hawks that year..or any
other); for the remainder of the playoffs Marv did all the pbp (except
may 11 at Montreal when Ted Darling replaced him) with color
commentators Terry Crisp, Phil Esposito, Stan Mikita, Curt Bennett,
Garry Unger and Glenn Resch; for the finals, Stan Fischler was on the
broadcasts as an intermission analyst.
'Mad' Mark Chelap
wrote:
>
>Other findings: Local affiliates carrying teams=92 games in Jan. 1977:
>KWGN Denver (NHL Rockies)
You would be correct. At the time; Denver had only 5 TV stations
(ABC/CBS/NBC/PBS) and independent KWGN-2 (take the last three letters
of their calls and you can figure out that Tribune owned/still owns
that station). Not only did KWGN air the games of the old "MNH"
package; they were the station that indeed aired approximately 10-15
games of the old NHL Colorado Rockies back in the years they were here
(I don't know if any regional cable sports networks with the possible
exception of MSG existed back in those days), but Denver didn't have
one back then.
If you have/ever start a current list; the current NHL Avalanche
started their Denver tenure by using then-independent (now UPN)
station KTVD-20 for free telecasts, with cable telecasts picked by
what was *then* known as Prime Sports Network-Rocky Mountain (which
since morphed into Fox Sports Net-Rocky Mountain).
Going back to the Avs; a few seasons ago; team ownership (i.e., Stan
Kroenke of Kroenke Sports/whose wife is one of the WalMart heiresses)
started his own regional basic cable sports network (Altitude Sports &
Entertainment) where they moved *all* local telecasts to and where
they still remain to this day--and there have been no local
over-the-air telecasts ever since (I never heard whether it was a
control-of-programming issue, or whether FSN-RM low-balled them on
rights fees). Eliminating the NFL Broncos and MLB Rockies; Kroenke
owns all the other pro sports teams in Denver (Avs/NBA Nuggets/MLS
Rapids/NLL Mammoth) and local telecasts of all four teams air on
Altitude with winter conflicts between the Avs/Nuggets being put on
"Altitude2"--which is aired on cable systems on the local-origination
channel (at least it is all over metro Denver and is only used as need
be). FWIW--in the wintertime, the Avs and Nuggets seem to split the
conflicts pretty evenly, Only the NLL Mammoth seem to get all their
telecasts on the primary ALT--like the other night when neither the
Avs/Nuggets played and for such few telecasts; I don't think the
Mammoth ever get televised on a conflict night against either the
Avs/Nuggets.
I'll wrap it up, since it morphs off-topic (and I apologize for making
a short story long), but only the MLB Rockies and U. of Denver NCAA
hockey (and maybe DU basketball but those telecasts are few/far
between) still use FSN-RM for their local telecasts. I would bet
Kroenke/Altitude has either tried unsuccesfully (or will try in the
future) to bid for those teams as well whenever their TV contracts
come up for renewal--but if Altitude *ever* got the MLB Rockies--I
would think it would pretty much drive FSN-RM out of the region, but
the Rockies and DU supposedly are on long-standing deals with FSN-RM
as best as I've heard.
_
M