I saw a posting on the KFVS-TV fan page that the television station went on the air Oct. 3, 1954. Actually, according to a letters received by the station, people were watching the test pattern days before the station went live with programming.
Brother Mark wasn’t there for the very first broadcast, but he worked a number of jobs there, including cameraman, in the mid-to-late 1960s.
KFVS-TV video about 58th birthday
Here’s is a video KFVS produced to mark the October 3 celebration.
KFVS12 News
Other stories about KFVS
- KFVS radio tower coming into Cape from Jackson
- View from the 11th floor of the KFVS-TV building
- KFVS radio tower had a twin
- Dobie Gillis TV Guide cover
- 1966 Homecoming Parade passes in front of KFVS
- Ken Steinhoff and John Mueller appear on KFVS for Scout Week
- Crusader Rabbit
I was six years old and had started first grade and riding a bus, we had just put hot water in the house and and a new TV. Culture shock big time. Later that new TV was seemed so out of date when WPSD started broadcasting in color. To make it look like a color set we bought a plastic film that was blue near the top and green near the bottom so that outside shots looked nearer to normal. Wow! We had another clear plastic sheet that I used to the cartoon show ‘Winy Dinks’. At the end of the progaram a sparkling light would move around the screen and you would use a special crayon to trace it’s movements to reveal something special about the progarm for next week. Double wow!
The cartoon show was Winky Dinks. I got excited.
Is the lack of a Missourian headline indicitive of the relationship between the Naeters and Hirschs?
Missourian style was to refer to “a local radio station” or a “local TV station” without naming KFVS.
We had the “Winky Dinks” as well. It seems so simple now with all of the electroics kids have but almost 60 years later I still remember it and what fun I had on Saturday!
I too watched the test pattern on channel 12 before it can on the air…and because I was a night owl i watched the Starspanged Banner played at nigth and then after that…they played a 5 or so commerical for Gristo Feeds andthey liasted every and I mean every place in Southeast Missouri and Ky, Il. and Tenn that sold Gristo feed and there was a bunch!
Don McNelly was the first TV star of our area and his mom and dad lived right nesxt door to us, their house was on the north east corner of Mississippi and West End Blvd. I remember meeting him often thinking, wow that is cool to be seen by a million people a day!
One Channel and then two and when we had three channels I thougth the world was great place.
Winky Dinks was pretty cool show, I had the screen and Special markers too…and used to tell you on the show NOT to use caryons on the TV without “specail” Screen…Way cool stuff…Winky Dink was star shaped creature that just talked…not much movement.
I started watching channel 12 with rabbit ears on top of the tv. could get channels 12,8,6,3. then I put up 40 ft self supporting tower with a roating antenna, then I started getting St Louis channels 11,4,5,2.
now I have cable do not know how maney channel I get
I do not watch much tv now all I get is advertising
but I still watch the channel 12 news bwtween the commercial.(advertising) Ken: thanks for the update.
PS: I still have the tower and antenna, working and ready to go also with a uhf/vrhf antenna ready when cable go out.
i had to laugh when i read the statement they watched the test pattern until the channel went online..when color was coming around only NBC had color..and that peacock..we would watch anything that was in color
in 1960? KFVS had a live children’s program..i think the sponsor was a potato chip company..the kids would play simon says and win a prize..i won a pair of swiming fins..LOL
I worked as a part-time KFVS studio camera operator in 1979-80, and thereafter on several vacations and summers when I was home from college. I am pretty sure I operated the camera you have pictured above. Your brother Mark was one of the people who taught me how to run the camera and other equipment. He was a great (and very patient) teacher.
I too, am an alumni of KFVS-TV. One of my tours there overlapped with Mark’s. It seem’s there is a typo in your article above. I don’t think Mark was old enough to work there in the 1960’s…did you mean to type 1980’s? Hi to David Grimm!
When I was a Cub Scout, our Pack made a live appearance on the Breakfast Show with the Pinewood Derby track and our handmade cars. I don’t remember who won the race. I was mesmerized by the equipment and lights and behind the scenes activities. Most of my career has been in television.
I’m pretty sure I shot that picture of Mark not long after I left Cape for Athens, Ohio. That would have put it in the 1967-1970 range.
Mark has been trying to knock me off for years so he can attain “oldest brother” status, so I’ll leave the past as-is so he can fudge up a few years if I’m in error.