Here’s the schedule for station WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee, Wisconsin for the week starting Sunday, April 25th, 1948, straight from the weekly television listings printed in The Milwaukee Journal. Baseball took over much of the schedule during the week, with the station televising its first American Association baseball game during the afternoon of Tuesday, April 27th. The game, which pitted the Milwaukee Brewers against the Toledo Mud Hens, drew 13,705 fans to Borchert field and an unknown number — perhaps thousands — to television sets throughout Milwaukee. Cleon Walfoort, writing for The Milwaukee Journal on April 28th, explained how viewers gathered in bars, cocktail lounges, stores and homes to watch the game:
Sometimes the play was too far away to follow accurately. Once something happened to the camera and the screen blanked out for half an inning. In some places reflections from the sun that streamed through open doors or interior lights distorted the images on the larger screens. Still, a lot — not all, admittedly, but a lot — of the excitement and thrills and suspense of the action on the diamond filtered into places remote from Borchert field through the medium of the recent scientific miracle. [1].
The Brewers won that first game against the Toledo Mud Hens, seven to five. They played Toledo again on Wednesday, April 28th, winning fourteen to three, and on Thursday, April 29th, winning five to four. After taking a day of, the Brewers beat the Indianapolis Indians ten to one. Note that the schedule for Sunday, April 25th is an assumption based on previous programming. There may have been a special baseball broadcast aired that day. Also, this will be the last historical WTMJ-TV schedule I post for a while.
Sunday, April 25th, 1948
3:00PM – News and Views.
3:10PM – Last of the Mohicans, film. [Or another serial installment.]
3:30PM – Movie Matinee.
7:45PM – Choral Concert.
8:00PM – Telenews Digest.
8:20PM – Films Featurette.
8:30PM – The Sportsman.
8:45PM – Armchair Travels.
9:00PM – Man About Town.Tuesday, April 27th, 1948 [2]
2:15PM – Dugout Doings.
2:25PM – Brewers vs. Toledo.Wednesday, April 28th, 1948 [3, 4]
2:15PM – Dugout Doings.
2:25PM – Brewers vs. Toledo.
7:45PM – News and Views.
7:55PM – Look at Louise!
8:00PM – Film Presentation.
8:15PM – Movie Makers.
8:30PM – Musical Gems.
8:40PM – Paul Skinner’s Music Room.
9:00PM – Look at Television.
9:15PM – Film Presentation.Thursday, April 29th, 1948 [5, 6]
2:15PM – Dugout Doings.
2:25PM – Brewers vs. Toledo.
7:45PM – News and Views.
7:55PM – Musical Film.
8:00PM – How To Do It.
8:20PM – Film Featurettes.
8:30PM – Wrestling.Friday, April 30th, 1948 [7]
3:00PM – Meet Your Neighbor.
3:30PM – Let’s Look at the News.
3:40PM – Movie Matinee.
4:00PM – Children’s Corner.
4:15PM – Hi, Kids!
4:30PM – Animal Adventures, film.
7:45PM – News and Views.
7:55PM – Barbara Becker Sings.
8:00PM – Reel Fun–Film.
8:20PM – Amateur Boxing from Milwaukee Elks Club.Saturday, May 1st, 1948 [9]
1:45PM – Keen Teens.
2:15PM – Dugout Doings.
2:25PM – Brewers vs. Indianapolis.
7:45PM – News and Views.
7:55PM – Golden Wedding Greetings.
8:00PM – Family Album.
8:20PM – Film Featurettes.
8:30PM – It’s Quiz Time.
9:00PM – Look at America, film.
Works Cited:
2 “Television–WTMJ-TV.” Milwaukee Journel Green Sheet. 26 Apr. 1948: 2.
3 “Television–WTMJ-TV.” Milwaukee Journel Green Sheet. 27 Apr. 1948: 2.
4 “Television–WTMJ-TV.” Milwaukee Journel Green Sheet. 28 Apr. 1948: 2.
5 Ibid.
6 “Television–WTMJ-TV.” Milwaukee Journel Green Sheet. 29 Apr. 1948: 2.
7 [Advertisement]. Milwaukee Sentinel. 30 Apr. 1948: Part 1, Page 20.
8 Ibid.
What a difference almost six months made! When WTMJ first signed on in November 1947, they barely had a schedule. Now, they’re telecasting at least two hours during the day (on those afternoons without local baseball games, usually from 3 to 5), and from 7:45 through 9:30…they were “off” from 5 through 7:45, and I suspect their test pattern- with “canned music”?- often filled that “down time”. Two live afternoon children’s programs are seen on weekdays; “TEEN AGE TIME”, a Saturday afternoon staple since December, became “KEEN TEENS”. Old movie serials [definitely Mascot productions from the early ’30s) are a regular staple- “The Last of the Mohicans” (1932) will be ending soon….it couldn’t have been one of the feature film versions because of the 20 minute running time, and the first sound feature version wasn’t produced until 1936…and THAT wasn’t released to local TV stations until 1956.
The thousands watching that first televised Milwaukee Brewers baseball game would eventually become more…watching more games from the comfort of their own living rooms, as 1948 became THE year television “exploded”, as TV sets became prominent in more homes. If and when ‘RGJ’ resumes these listings, you’ll notice a BIG difference in WTMJ’s schedule towards the end of that year…
By the Fall of 1948, Milwaukee (and WTMJ) would be connected to the Midwest TV network and the following January, the East Coast and Midwest TV networks were connected together.
While nominally an NBC affiliate, as Milwaukee’s only TV station for a few years, WTMJ probably also carried a large number of CBS programs and a handful of ABC and DuMont shows in the early years.