Growing up poor in Moline was difficult. When transients came to our door, we asked them for a handout.
We had to borrow garbage from our neighbors, so we would have something to set out in the alley on pick-up day.
I am sure my classmates shared our glee when Moline finally got its own TV station. Before that, we had two channels only - Channel 4 and 6. With WQAD we had Channel 8 as well.
Best of all, we got the goofiness of small-town TV. The same man who hosted the monster movies also ran the children's show. The monster movies were horrible and fun. The children's shows were bought from some thrift shop for new TV stations. They were old, cheap, and fun to laugh at.
Nevertheless, there were hardships with this upgrade in media. We had to walk across the room to change channels. I tell my grandchildren how wrenching it was to shake off the stupor and move. My parents did not change channels. They made us change channels for them. If I had known the phone number for Child Protection Services....
Having a TV station in Moline was indeed neat. But as the johnny-come-lately, they had a rough road to hoe.
ReplyDeleteI remember that the general manager, an old broadcast veteran, was caught picking his nose during the inaugural broadcast welcoming viewers. And that the first news director couldn't deliver a good newscast without being sloshed.
But they also did some great things... the first "live" telecast of a Moline-Galesburg basketball game, in color, from Wharton Fieldhouse and the first live broadcasts of the Quad City Open golf tournament.
Hey I was there, a staff member a WQAD-TV. The nose picker was Frank Schrieber. He'd been GM at WGN for many years. The news director was Dick Richmond who's boozed his way out of WMAL-TV Washington D.C. After the 5 o'clock he'd snap his fingers and cry "Wheels up gang!" and head for Fitzpatricks five blocks away. He'd return at 9:30, do the same newscast as the 5 o'clock and then head back down the street. Once the pub was closed he head to his house in Geneseo. Don Raymond, a good guy, did the play by play on the Maroon/Silver Streak bb game.
ReplyDeleteI was on the MHS swim team when WQAD-TV opened in 1963. Jim King, not his real name, was Sports Director, and he came to The George Senneff (namesake for MHS basketball coach 21 years-1920 to 1945) Pool - Moline High School to film our practice and televise tidbits on the sports news segment. Romper Room was hugely successful-it featured local children (age 4-6) from the Quad Cities area (we applied to have our daughter on the program-it did not happen). Nancy(Strutz)Pheifer(MHS Class of '65)is pictured with Ed Kiely -Junior Achievement program (http://www.captainerniesshowboat.com/wqad). Jim King was the Channel 8 QCA icon. For over two decades he signed off his broadcast with the endearing words "thank you for inviting us into your home". He retired in 1998, and succumbed to a heart attack shoveling snow on his driveway (just a few blocks south of the station)January 2, 1999.
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