Exhibit: Full Issue of 1948 Television Forecast
Television Forecast was first published in 1948 by TELEVISION FORECAST, Inc. out of Chicago, Illinois. In September of 1948 each issue cost fifteen cents and a year’s subscription was $3. Robert A. Kubicek was editor, Patricia Cooper associate editor, Roy V. Whiting advertising director, Lester Vihon sales manager, Norbert F. Dompke business director and John E. Groenings production manager. Each issue was sixteen pages, counting both covers and included television listings running Monday through Sunday, articles, advertisements and pictures.
Here are two Television Forecast covers from May and July of 1949:
Television Forecast, May 28th and July 2nd, 1949
And here are two from August of 1949:
Television Forecast, August 6th and August 20th, 1949
I’ve scanned the entire Monday, September 6th, 1948 issue of Television Forecast, with listings through Sunday, September 12th, 1948. It includes an editorial about WENR-TV, a new television station (an ABC affiliate) to begin broadcasting on September 17th. Click on the cover for a larger version and to begin reading the entire issue.
Television Forecast, Volume 1, Number 18 (Whole No. 9) – Published September 6th, 1948
I don’t know exactly when Television Forecast stopped publishing. I would guess around 1952 or 1953.
Last Updated April 25th, 2009
As it happens, I have the Television Forecast issue from the following week, which covers the launch of WENR-Channel 7. As noted, this was the third station to go on the air officially in Chicago, following WBKB-channel 4, an independent station owned by the Balaban & Katz theater chain, and WGN-TV-channel 9,owned by the Chicago Tribune and affiliated with CBS and DuMont. WNBQ-channel 5, the NBC station, held off its official launch until January of 1949, to coincide with the hookup of the East-to-Midwest coaxial cable. My own (woefully incomplete) collection of TV Forecast (as it eventually came to be called) starts with the ’48 issue I mentioned above, and continues through to 1953, when it was absorbed by Annenberg’s Triangle Publications to form the national TV Guide with a number of other local TV magazines. Up to that point, these magazines had been loosely networked, sharing stories and features about national shows and stars, while concentrating on local programs and personalities. I happen to have a Forecast issue for the Davenport IA-Rock island-Moline IL area (later the Quad Cities with the addition of Bettendorf IA) from ’52; it resembles its Chicago cousin in most respects. As TV forecast evolved over the years, it expanded into more detailed listings and features, as did its counterparts in other early TV cities; the practice of sharing features is what led Walter Annenberg to believe that a national TV guide could be successful, and so he proceeded to buy up all the local magazines, in cluding Forecast. I have some of the earliest national TV Guides for Chicago, which are basically the color section from Radnor PA wrapped around the old Chicago Forecast. I would suppose that you’d find this to be the case in other cities where national TV Guide was launched.
This 1948 issue is the earliest one in my collection and the only one from 1948. I have another 17 issues from 1949, one of which I have scanned and will put up as an exhibit later this year. They are really fun to read.