Here’s the schedule for WCBW, the CBS station in New York City, for the week starting Sunday, November 30th, 1941, straight from daily television listings printed in The New York Times. As always, the station was off the air on Sunday.
Once again, this week’s TV listings only saw a test pattern airing Saturday. If WCBW did stop airing test patterns in November 1941, I wonder how viewers reacted. Did the station make on-air announcements that the test patterns were going away? Were viewers so used to seeing test patterns that they thought something was wrong?
The listings didn’t specify the daily Children’s Story for Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday. On Thursday and Friday, however, it featured an adaptation of Hugh Troy’s The Chippendale Dam, a story about a widow and her pet beavers.
Monday’s Men at Work variety hour included a comic, a musician, the Three Waltons, a singer, and dancers. Tamara was back with songs on Tuesday. Bob Edge’s guest on his Tuesday sports program was Joel Barber. This may have been the Joel Barber who collected duck decoys.
Table Talk with Helen Sioussat on Wednesday featured a discussion of skiing. A National Defense program aired on Friday.
Sunday, November 30th, 1941
No Programs ScheduledMonday, December 1st, 1941 [1]
2:30PM – News Reports
2:45PM – Boys in the Back Room
3:15PM – Children’s Story
8:00PM – News Reports
8:15PM – Joan Edwards, Songs
8:30PM – Variety Show [Men at Work]: Jerry Munson, Comic; Joe Sodja, Music; Three Waltons; Dolores Anderson, Songs; Carole and Sherod; Paul Petroff, Nina Gollner, DancersTuesday, December 2nd, 1941 [2]
2:30PM – News Reports
2:45PM – Dancing Lesson
3:15PM – Children’s Story
8:00PM – News Reports
8:15PM – Tamara, Songs
8:30PM – Metropolitan Museum of Art
9-9:30PM – Sports–Bob Edge; Joel Barber, GuestWednesday, December 3rd, 1941 [3]
2:30PM – News Reports
2:45PM – Table Talk with Helen Sioussat: Skiing–Kenneth Littlefield; T.B. Ripsom, Bill Hines, Fritz Loosli
3:15PM – Children’s Story
8:00PM – News Reports
8:15PM – Joan Edwards, Songs
8:30-9:30PM – Country DanceThursday, December 4th, 1941 [4]
2:30PM – News Reports
2:45PM – Metropolitan Museum of Art
3:15PM – Children’s Story: Chippendale Dam
8:00PM – News Reports
8:15PM – Sports-Bob Edge
8:30-9:30PM – Visual QuizFriday, December 5th, 1941 [5]
2:30PM – News Reports
2:45PM – Film
3:15PM – Children’s Story: Chippendale Dam
8:00PM – News Reports
8:15PM – National Defense Program
9-10PM – Sports–Bob Edge: BadmintonSaturday, December 6th, 1941 [6]
2:00PM – Test Pattern
2:30-4:30PM – Films
Note: Television listings published in newspapers were based on information provided by stations and were subject to change at the last minute. They may not be an accurate representation of what actually aired.
Works Cited:
2 “Radio Today.” New York Times. 2 Dec. 1941: 46.
3 “Radio Today.” New York Times. 3 Dec. 1941: 50.
4 “Radio Today.” New York Times. 4 Dec. 1941: 50.
5 “Radio Today.” New York Times. 5 Dec. 1941: C44.
6 “Radio Today.” New York Times. 6 Dec. 1941: 32.
Note that WCBW’s Saturday program schedule was entirely in the afternoon, and not at night.
I suspect the reason for that was that many people were off from work on Saturdays, and that by WCBW’s being on the air Saturday afternoons, New York-area radio and appliance stores could demonstrate television to shoppers who were off from work that day.