Worst Cub Team Ever?

[russ99]

Originally Posted by Lip Man 1

Fielder:

Assuming you had a newer TV in the first place. It was mandatory by the FCC but if you didn't have a set with a dial that actually got UHF channels you were screwed.

In my neighborhood (Back of the Yards) there were Sox fans everywhere but very few of them were going to spring for a new TV.

Reception was awful when the Sox first went over and it didn't get better until the early 70's.

Lip

Wasn't there a broadcast range issue with UHF then too?

By the time I was watching games with regularity, the Sox and Harry were on Ch.44 and the UHF reception issues were lessened. But there were times I had to wiggle the dial.

[DumpJerry]

Originally Posted by kittle42

For three days, it's sadly Go, Cubs, Go.

I would post they will do the same for us over the next three days, but that won't change the big picture for them.

[kba]

Originally Posted by Lip Man 1

This and that:
Also in fact, leaving WGN was a unmitigated disaster because YOU COULDN'T GET WFLD-TV in the Chicago area. The technology was new and untested. Richard Roeper wrote about those issues in his book "Sox and the City..." At best, the picture you got was snowy and blurry.

The WFLD move was a disaster in a lot of ways, but the Sox did it because the station paid the then-unheard-of amount of million dollars a year for the rights to the telecasts. In a 1971 Tribune article, Sox GM Stu Holcomb said the WFLD money was the only thing keeping the Sox franchise afloat and keeping John Allyn from moving the team.

The same article quoted announcer Jack Drees saying that even if WFLD sold out all the advertising time on the telecasts, the station would still lose $600,000 to $700,000 a year. While the Cubs ratings on WGN were in the mid-teens, the Sox were getting 2's and 3's on WFLD.

[FielderJones]

Originally Posted by Lip Man 1

In my neighborhood (Back of the Yards) there were Sox fans everywhere but very few of them were going to spring for a new TV.

My gramps was Back of the Yards too, not exactly rolling in dough as he had been a laborer in the Stockyards. Some of my single uncles who still lived at home popped for the TV.

Were there really that many B&W Philcos with only VHF still left by 1968?

[Lip Man 1]

Fielder:

Yes there was. Folks who bought sets in 64-65 weren't going to suddenly dump them just to see the Sox.

Seriously I don't think I'm exaggerating the issue, although granted 45 years ago is a long time. But Rich Lindberg the Sox historian has written the same thing in his books and as I said, Richard Roeper devoted a chapter to it in his book.

KBA:

Valid point. Although I'd say Art Allyn (who owner the team then, not John) was still being shortsighted. He had to know (unless someone sold him a bill of goods, which is possible) that reception was going to be poor and you didn't have the same number of sets that could even get the channel. I can't fault him heavily for taking the money (although the Sox weren't losing money through 68) but in retrospect it was a disasterous decision.

I'd argue (and its going to be a part of my speech in a few weeks at the Allen celebration), that it was the money the Sox made because of the 72 season AND the resulting new AM radio contract with WMAQ for 1973 that kept them from moving. John Allyn had just enough money to survive when his other business interests went belly-up and he nearly went bankrupt. He hung on long enough to sell to Veeck instead of doing what the league wanted and move the Sox to Seattle.

By the way you wouldn't happen to have a link to the story with Jack Drees would you?

Lip

[Noneck]

Originally Posted by FielderJones

Were there really that many B&W Philcos with only VHF still left by 1968?

Yes there were, just about everyone in my family didnt have uhf TV's. Also the outside antennas had to be changed because a different type of antenna was needed to to get uhf.

[LITTLE NELL]

Originally Posted by Noneck

Yes there were, just about everyone in my family didnt have uhf TV's. Also the outside antennas had to be changed because a different type of antenna was needed to to get uhf.

We had to be one of the first families in our neighborhood to have UHF, my Dad was a electronics nut and always was up on the latest technology, IIRC it was summer of 64 or 65 when we got the UHF. I can't remember what shows were on but when I was discharged from the USAF in 1969 all the Sox games came in very clear and there were never any ghosts like you would get on VHF.

[kba]

Originally Posted by Lip Man 1

Fielder:

By the way you wouldn't happen to have a link to the story with Jack Drees would you?

Lip

Behind a paywall here. If you have access to ProQuest, you can search the Tribune archives free.

[FielderJones]

Originally Posted by LITTLE NELL

We had to be one of the first families in our neighborhood to have UHF, my Dad was a electronics nut and always was up on the latest technology, IIRC it was summer of 64 or 65 when we got the UHF.

Same here. My Dad had an amateur radio license as a kid, was a radio tech in the Navy and for UAL at Midway, so we had UHF in 1964. I remember him watching the stock ticker on Channel 26. There was never a time when I couldn't watch the Sox.