Posts: 305
From: Lake Orion, MI
Registered: Feb 2006

posted 11-24-2014 09:20 AM               

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Does anyone know which American network had the highest ratings and most viewers during the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo eras?

I recall during the Gemini flights of 1965 and 1966, I preferred to watch the NBC crew of Frank McGee, David Brinkley and Jim Hartz. Gulf Oil was the major sponsor of NBC's coverage.

However during the Apollo era of 1967 to 1972, I mostly watched CBS's coverage with the legendary Walter Cronkite. Once in a while I would check out ABC's coverage with Frank Reynolds and Jules Bergman.

But who was the "ratings king" with the most viewers during those years?

Posts: 2486
From: U.K.
Registered: Jul 2009

posted 11-26-2014 10:14 AM               

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Slightly off topic. On this side of the pond in the early days we listened to either VOA or AFN broadcasts of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo flights. They were very informative and had full access to all the flight communications links. In fact, my preferred option, when both were available, was BBC pictures but VOA sound.

On edit - VOA = Voice of America; AFN = American Forces Network.

Posts: 52003
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

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From: Dumfries, VA, USA
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Posts: 113
From: Irvine, CA USA
Registered: May 2014

posted 11-26-2014 05:54 PM            

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For me, the best reception in those pre-cable days was the local NBC affiliate. NBC had great theme music to open their Apollo-era broadcasts. I wish I could find a recording of it. The theme music changed around Apollo 16 (and not for the better IMHO). Gulf Oil also had great theme music that apparently went back to the Gemini days before I caught the space bug.

I would guess that CBS had the best ratings. Walter Cronkite seemed to be the most enthusiastice about manned spaceflight.

Posts: 1759
From: Washington, DC, USA
Registered: Apr 2003

posted 11-26-2014 07:02 PM               

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NukeGuy brings up an interesting point — back in the "antenna" days of TV, reception often dictated what one watched. In my hometown (Wichita, KS) CBS came in fuzzy at best, so I usually watched NBC and switched to ABC for short bits when NBC went to commercial.

As far as theme music goes — I remember ABC using Apollo 100's rendition of "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" as the lead-in to their coverage of either Apollo 16 or 17. It lit a spark in me then, and is still front-and-center on my iPod...

Posts: 568
From: Houston, Texas
Registered: Aug 2002

posted 11-28-2014 12:41 PM               

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My experience was similar. I was raised on a farm in rural Kentucky. We could not reliably receive NBC broadcasts, so the entire Apollo program was viewed on either ABC or CBS. I developed an affinity for ABC primarily because I liked the Frank Reynolds and Jules Bergman team. Plus I always looked forward to seeing Bergman use a blowtorch on a model of the Command Module to demonstrate reentry.

As an aside, not being able to receive NBC probably shaped other aspects of my early life. Roughly one third of television culture during that era was completely lost to me. For instance, one of my first crushes was on Elizabeth Montgomery of "Bewitched" (ABC) as opposed to Barbara Eden of "I Dreamed of Jeannie" (NBC).

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Posts: 749
From: Albany, Oregon
Registered: Jul 2006

posted 11-29-2014 03:08 PM               

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"Bringin' Home the Oil" was the tune dating from 1969. It was played during the Apollo 17 moon landing (NBC) which I recorded off the TV on a cassette.(new technology then).

In the Gemini and Apollo days, I split coverage between CBS & NBC about equally, mainly due to signal reception on the old antenna. Rarely did a clear picture come in.

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From: U.K.
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Posts: 3030
From: Guyton, GA
Registered: Jan 2006

posted 11-29-2014 07:33 PM               

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quote:

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Originally posted by alanh_7:
I live in Canada but we received the signals for the US stations through the Buffalo affiliates.

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I too grew up in Canada but further north and there was only one station CBC, Canadian Broadcast Corporation (as a kid I always wondered what those other numbers on the dial were for).

CBC carried the CBS feed so that was all we could watch, Walter and Wally were a great combination, but when they went to commercial we had Loyd Robertson.

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From: Germany
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Posts: 104
From: Alabama, USA
Registered: Feb 2011

posted 12-20-2014 10:24 PM               

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My experience is much like the OP's. Our household was NBC all the way in the early (Gemini) days when they had the rotating earth-to-Gulf Oil morph graphic. Somehow it shifted as Apollo dawned and Uncle Walter OWNED the moon landings on TV. CBS seemed to get ahead of the pack with simulations and mockups, and they brought in Schirra who really went along with Cronkite very well.

CBS always seemed to me to want a New Age/ futuristic feel to their Apollo coverage, more so than the other two networks who were more utilitarian. Chet Huntley and/or Frank McGee just seemed ill-suited to cover space flight personality-wise.

Posts: 806
From: South Carolina
Registered: Jul 2006

posted 12-26-2014 03:07 PM               

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NBC's Chet Huntley and David Brinkley weren't at their best covering spaceflight, I think because it was too technical (and too futuristic) a story and they didn't feel comfortable "owning" it. David Brinkley in particular didn't seem engaged by it, as evidenced by his covering the Apollo 11 launch from KSC. They preferred to hand it over to reporters like Frank McGee or Peter Hackes, who were engaged by it and knew the story well. Cronkite, of course, was all over it at CBS, and ABC always had Jules Bergman close at hand.

CBS had several advantages in its coverage, including relationships with North American-Rockwell and Grumman to have live remotes from full-size simulations featuring company engineers. The network also had some very artistically-inclined producers and directors (Joel Banow, who directed most of the Special Events coverage during the Apollo era, was one of many who had a particular influence on it), and CBS itself prided itself on looking classy and distinctive. Space coverage at CBS was a source of pride and stops were pulled out, and anybody who's seen a copy of "10:56:20 PM EDT 7/20/1969" knows what a point of pride it was for the network.

There was also another constraint NBC faced - most of its coverage originated from Studio 8H at 30 Rockefeller Plaza (the same one where "Saturday Night Live" originates now). Although it's a huge studio, it's smaller than you'd think, as anyone who's taken the NBC tour knows. And being on the eighth floor of 30 Rock's Studio Building, everything has to fit into a comparatively small freight elevator, if I recall correctly about the size of a hospital elevator. The mock-ups had to be modularized for reassembly in the studio and then disassembled - and although they still got the job done, they weren't quite as impressive as those CBS had through the live remotes from the manufacturers at Downey and Bethpage. ABC faced its own constraints as the third place and not-so-wealthy but up-and-coming network, too, and thus didn't have the resources the other two had.

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Posts: 104
From: Alabama, USA
Registered: Feb 2011

posted 12-31-2014 09:27 PM               

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Who did ABC utilize as their anchor during the Mercury/early Gemini period? I know that Bergman did not rise to prominence in that network until after the JFK assassination when he was just a man-in-the-street junior reporter. I don't recall seeing clips of Swayze or Howard K Smith ever doing any space reporting either.

I have zero personal recollection of any ABC News broadcasts until about 1970 (I was just a young child then).

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From: Seminole, Fla.
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