New cadet reporting for duty [TV Stations]

[RabbiBob]

Should be fairly ok at this time (FL now AL as of my last edit.)

It's bugging me now: I swear that it ran on WVII Channel 7 out of Bangor, ME, which is a sister station to WMTW Channel 8 out of Portland, ME. Beyond old memories, geographically I grew up closer to Bangor and it ran on the ABC affiliate on Saturday mornings, around or before 7AM. 95% sure of this.

[Mark Lungo]

Should be fairly ok at this time (FL now AL as of my last edit.)

Thank you kindly!

It's bugging me now: I swear that it ran on WVII Channel 7 out of Bangor, ME, which is a sister station to WMTW Channel 8 out of Portland, ME. Beyond old memories, geographically I grew up closer to Bangor and it ran on the ABC affiliate on Saturday mornings, around or before 7AM. 95% sure of this.

I wouldn't be surprised. Through my research, I've discovered that WVII showed a lot of syndicated cartoons, including Inhumanoids, Visionaries, Defenders of the Earth, and the original animated space western, Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs. Feel free to ad it to the list if you want, although if you can confirm your memories with old TV listings, that would be even better.

Also: I wonder what it was like watching Galaxy Rangers on a network affiliate on the weekend instead of an independent station on weekdays. Did they even run all 65 episodes?

[RabbiBob]

I looked around through newspaper archives last night and a little this morning and the only regional newspaper in the archive for Bangor didn't run TV listings for the day time, they only ran the evening listings. I was hoping they had a Saturday special listing edition like my town did, which was usually an insert (I was a paperboy back in 1988) but those things rarely get scanned.

I'll roll it around in my head for a bit longer. I can't remember where my VHS tapes went, I gave a ton of to my nephew that had episodes recorded and would have had the station bumpers.

Oh well...

Denver: HOW DOES DENVER NOT HAVE ANY PAPERS IN THE GOOGLE NEWSPAPER ARCHIVE?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

I figured that would have been an easy search... but nothing. Back in November I was standing outside of the Denver Post, but you weren't here yet

Also: I wonder what it was like watching Galaxy Rangers on a network affiliate on the weekend instead of an independent station on weekdays. Did they even run all 65 episodes?

At 12, the only thought I remember was that it was cool that I could watch it on Saturday as well. The show came and went away, never returned that I was aware of and mathematically there isn't enough time to have run the full series, even if it stayed around for two full quarters.

[Mark Lungo]

Hey, Bob! You're beginning to discover the joys and sorrows of looking through old TV listings using internet newspaper archives.

I looked around through newspaper archives last night and a little this morning and the only regional newspaper in the archive for Bangor didn't run TV listings for the day time, they only ran the evening listings. I was hoping they had a Saturday special listing edition like my town did, which was usually an insert (I was a paperboy back in 1988) but those things rarely get scanned.

Many papers had a big weekly TV listing insert on Sunday, although some papers published them on Saturday or even Friday depending on the city.

I'll roll it around in my head for a bit longer. I can't remember where my VHS tapes went, I gave a ton of to my nephew that had episodes recorded and would have had the station bumpers.

Oh well...

I hope your nephew still has those tapes. It would be cool to see Galaxy Rangers as people originally watched it, with vintage station IDs and ads. (Side note: as much as I love the Koch/eOne DVDs for going above and beyond on extras, it would have been nice if they'd included the series' ad bumpers as well.)

Denver: HOW DOES DENVER NOT HAVE ANY PAPERS IN THE GOOGLE NEWSPAPER ARCHIVE?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

I figured that would have been an easy search... but nothing.

Some big cities have papers in the online archives, some don't. Denver is one of the cities where it's hard to find coverage; Dallas is another. The good news is that suburban and small town papers will often have big city TV listings. The bad news is that sometimes these listings are incomplete. For example, there's a Montana paper (I forget which one) that used to list Denver's network affiliates and major indie KWGN, but not KDVR (or KTVD after it signed on).

(Another side note: Newspapers.com, the largest and most comprehensive of the archives, has recently complicated matters with a lovely new "feature" called Publisher Extra, which means that if you have a free trial or even a basic subscription it's basically worthless because now you have to pay an additional fee to access pretty much anything! Argghh! )

Back in November I was standing outside of the Denver Post, but you weren't here yet

Yeah, we could have stormed the building together. "Just give us your old TV listings and nobody gets hurt." Where are Doc and his tweakers when you need them?

Also: I wonder what it was like watching Galaxy Rangers on a network affiliate on the weekend instead of an independent station on weekdays. Did they even run all 65 episodes?

At 12, the only thought I remember was that it was cool that I could watch it on Saturday as well.

You got it six days a week? How? Did you get WSBK Boston on cable? They were quite the regional superstation back in the day.

The show came and went away, never returned that I was aware of and mathematically there isn't enough time to have run the full series, even if it stayed around for two full quarters.

Oh well, at least kids in Maine got to see some of the episodes. Better than nothing! And now,the entire series is easily available. Hooray for modern technology!

[RabbiBob]

Brutus, Zachary's horse, was named Z-100, which is for New York radio station WHTZ, FM 100.3, branded "Z100".

[Mark Lungo]

Huh. You learn something new every day. I guess we're lucky Brutus didn't wind up being called "97X. Bam! The future of rock and roll."

[MaryNiko]

I recently added a new station to the list: KOOG, Channel 30 in Salt Lake City (now KUCW). They ran Galaxy Rangers at 5:30 PM, which is an interesting timeslot. I wonder how it did in the local ratings?

I found this link ... it's very old and I don't know if it's of interest, if you already have it or if it's nothing
https://oklahoman.com/article/2157637/t ... its-it-big

[RabbiBob]

Nice find, look at the date on that article!

I added it as a footnote on the TV Listings article.

Gaylord Productions is owned by Edward L. Gaylord, who owns Gaylord Broadcasting Company, Gaylord Program Services and several television stations across the United States. He is president and publisher of The Oklahoman.

Sadly that was the only GR article I could find on that site.

[Mark Lungo]

Thanks for sharing this, MaryNiko!

[RabbiBob]

Check this out (saw it in an eBay auction where the person is selling home recorded VHS tapes):



I am going to edit the Subject of this post, there's a substantial amount of useful info in it for the series!