Extra: Alaskan TV (Mid to Late 1970s)

Television in Fairbanks, Alaska during the mid 1970s.
Sigh. Those weren't the days.

This concept might be a bit difficult for some people to fully grasp today, but as a kid growing up in the interior of Alaska, I only had three television channels at my disposal - and two of the major networks shared one of those channels.

KTVF (Channel 11) handled CBS broadcasts. KUAC (Channel 9) was (and still is) the PBS station, beaming out of the University of Alaska campus. (PBS enjoyed healthy ratings in Alaska; I am told that at one point Alaskans watched more public television than any other state in the union when taken on a per capita basis). And KATN (Channel 2) was the oddball "hybrid" channel that offered programming from both NBC and ABC. And you never really knew when KATN would pull the rug out from underneath you by switching networks. Sometimes they changed things up right in the middle of the program you were watching. We never had a TV guide in the house; it would have been pointless.

Like most of my schoolmates, I lived for Friday nights. After Scope News at 11:00pm there was Theater 11, a time slot KTVF often used to show old monster movies. I loved Theater 11, and I can still remember the cheesy elevator music they used for the theme. It was an orchestral rendition of "To Dream The Impossible Dream" from Man of La Mancha.

We watched an unhealthy amount of television back then. It might be the reason I don't watch a whole lot of television as an adult. But television was something of a lifeline during those long, dark Alaskan winters. I also enjoyed reading as a child. There were many times during that period of my life when I really needed a place to escape, and books allowed me to shut out the rest of the world. I would disappear into my own imagination. I still remember many of the books I read as a child, but (with some notable exceptions) I can't recall most of the television I watched back then.
















My sister Aimee and I taking in a good ol' fashioned retina sizzlin'

It wasn't all bad, but it is also true that we were a captive audience. Faced with eight months of perpetual darkness and subzero temperatures which emphasized indoor activity, there wasn't a lot for a kid to do. But there were moments when TV truly brought my friends and I together. A freaky movie or a startling plot twist in a popular series always set our tongues awag on the playground the next day during recess. We shared this bond because nearly everyone saw the same show the night before. We didn't have many choices or distractions.















They don't call it the 'Land of the Midnight Sun' for nothing

Summer in Alaska meant no sleep for most of us kids because the sun never really went down. It was the polar opposite of winter. We were up all night, bouncing off the walls. When we ventured outside (often without parental knowledge, let alone approval) we liked to play the occasional game of "dodge the curfew" which was almost always exciting. Kids weren't supposed to be out on the streets of Ft. Wainwright past a certain hour. Is that MP car slowing down? Did the cop see us? Run!

Perhaps because he could not sleep himself, the manager of Channel 11 announced one summer that all-night broadcasting would commence for the months of June and July. Compeau's Marine (the local boat dealer) signed on as the prime sponsor. We were really excited about this as kids.

Forget about Theater 11 or Midnight Madness...this new idea meant that during our so-called sleepovers we could watch old movies like "The Blob" and old TV shows like "The Twilight Zone" until 5am! While we had fun at night, we were often cranky, red-eyed kids during the day. Our parents must have hated the manager of Channel 11.



















I remember one 4am movie we liked in particular - The Losers - about a misfit motorcycle gang which faced one of two choices: either go to prison or go over to Vietnam to fight as a special unit using tricked-out motorcycles. The gang chose Vietnam (well of course!) and their bikes were outfitted with machine guns and rocket launchers. Cool, man! Tragically, not all of those dirtbag motorcycle gang members made it home...*sniff*

















Another odd thing I remember about Alaskan TV in those days is that many TV programs were shown a good two weeks after the original broadcast as seen by households in the "Lower 48". I'll give you an example.

About every other summer or so, my family and I would fly down to Gunnison, Colorado to visit my grandparents. I was amazed to discover that my Nana and Gramps were watching television programs that I'd never even heard of. Thanks to satellite/tape delay (I never really figured out the technical reasons) these programs would not be televised in Alaska for another 14 to 21 days.

It was sort of like catching a glimpse of the future; you knew what was going to happen (at least in the realm of television) long before any of your friends back in Alaska did. "Heed my words. I predict that there shall be a made-for-TV Star Wars movie coming on NBC...at the end of the month!" I once said to my astonished friends during recess. It was oddly empowering.
















My grandmother and I liked to watch a game show called Tic-Tac-Dough. The show's host was Wink Martindale(!) I can't remember what I did to cross her one day (I know that she didn't like to lose at Chinese checkers) but the punishment from my grandmother was pretty harsh. She laid down the law: "Michael, you will not watch Tic-Tac-Dough tonight and you will turn in early!"

Catch you later, Wink.

I pretended to be hurt as I shambled off to bed, performing the most theatrical mope I could muster. But Grandma couldn't see that I had a little smirk on my face. For I had some inside information. I knew that I could catch that forbidden episode of Tic-Tac-Dough in another week or two after I had returned home. I congratulated myself for being so clever as I turned off the bedside lamp. Grandma can send me to bed early, but she can't get the best of me!

And then I heard my grandmother's voice boom from the living room downstairs. "And I'll tell your parents not to let you watch it in Alaska either!"