I was rolling laughing when you showed the actual broadcast. Young people today could probably not really understand, but if you lived in a rural area up until close to the 80's, that telecast might have seemed pretty good. We had an NBC affiliate close and that came through pretty good. CBS was basically like what was shown here and you had to really find the sweet spot on the bunny ears to get it that good. ABC was a pipe dream.
Most young people like me had Bunny ears television so I knew some channels had fuzzy signal. Some of them where even buzzy. I think anyone born after 2013 wouldn't know because thats when tv's went fully HD.
I can agree on that. I live in a rural part of North Carolina that gets local stations from the Norfolk, VA area and that was my experience growing up (and the worst reception was the local CBS affiliate, WTKR-TV 3). Often the clearest picture was either from the local ABC affiliate or 2 UHF stations
Thing is, watching tv like this, you at least got some signal that you could decipher what's going on. With modern digital television, the signal either works or it doesn't, so if you're in an area with bad reception, you're SOL.
KTXS-TV was a secondary ABC station due to a lack of stations in that small DMA. When KTAB-TV signed on in 1979, it was able to make CBS its sole network focus while KTXS-TV ran the full ABC schedule. Nonetheless, I can't believe what we saw in this video that this is the way KTXS-TV's CBS stint ended. Crazy!
This is why we love your channel. I never heard the background of what happened in Abilene. I think you may have done a video on this game earlier because you clarified this game started at 5pm eastern. Back then I thought all the games in the late window started at 4pm. The Cowboys avenged a loss to the Rams earlier in the season. The Rams forced the Cowboys to wear their blue jerseys which everyone thought was bad luck for the Cowboys. I remember Hollywood Henderson spiking the ball. I remember the ice storm on New Year’s Day because of the Cotton Bowl. You brought back a lot memories for me. Thank you
Through the 1981 season, the NFL often had the late game in the playoffs at 5:00 PM. There were several factors in that changing at the time, mainly the Chargers-Dolphins game on January 2, 1982 finishing around 9:00 PM ET that delayed prime time (networks actually programmed Saturday nights back then), coupled with the at that time the FCC being as a rule more stringent of 7:00-8:00 PM ET being "prime time access," requiring that time to be news or children's programming (coupled with "60 Minutes" then being the #1 show) forced the NFL to go to 12:30 and 4:00 PM ET for playoff games. This would remain the case for years after until first 9/11 that delayed the playoffs a week, resulting in a permanent change to the Saturday playoff schedule and the conference title games becoming 3:00 and 6:40 PM ET as they are now for both the conference title and divisional rounds, and then as JG9 noted in a prior video an ice storm in Kansas City forcing a Steelers-Chiefs game to be delayed from 1:00 PM to 8:20 PM ET and now the likelihood that when a playoff weekend falls with Monday being MLK day AND there is no conflict with the college football playoff, we likely will have two playoff games on Monday, whether it is the Wild Card or Divisional round (if the Divisional, that being Sunday-Monday in those years).
This is absolutely the first video you've made about this game, and obviously the first you've made about the '78 Cowboys (which totally wouldn't include something as ridiculous as future Trump hire, ridiculous by itself, Walt Michaels trashing the Cowboys like they were a World League leftover)
This was the first time that TV transmitter than knocked the station off the air due to an ice storm. But it happened 10 years later when WBNB-TV (channel 10) when it was a CBS affiliate got destroyed by Hurricane Hugo that includes the TV studio and transmitter, everything got destroyed by a massive storm as a category 5 hurricane. That was from around September 1989. Going back to 1979, WCBS-TV (channel 2) in New York City did aired the NFC Championship with the Cowboys Vs. Rams without any problems, but the transmitter still stands on top of the Empire State Building while building a transmitter on top of the World Trade Center at “Tower 1” and moved the transmitter down there where it remained until 2001 where both planes struck the Twin Towers and completely destroyed on September 11th. Following the tragic events on 9/11, the transmitter relocated back to the Empire State Building for the first time since the late 1970’s.
I remember this game; it was brutal. Then the Rams just started making mistakes. Shoulda kept Ron Jaworski instead of Haden/Ferragamo. The Rams had exorcised their demons trying to beat the Vikings by finally beating them in the playoffs.
Wow, your re-creation of "snow" brought back childhood memories; how did you do it? This is the one reason i grew up a Dallas fan and not a Patriot fan living in New England. The NBC affiliate was always "snow" for our house, difficult to see.
@@OfficialJaguarGator9Here in New York City, WCBS-TV (channel 2) did carried the 1979 NFC championship game with a clear picture depending on reception which was a rooftop antenna or rabbit ears. And the transmitter for WCBS-TV is at the top of the Empire State Building before they were building another transmitter on the North Tower of the World Trade Center which used to be the Twin Towers and channel 2 moved to the World Trade Center where it remained until 9/11/01 where the transmitter moved back to the Empire State Building after a horrific tragic event took place. The NFC championship game on WCBS-TV in NYC back in 1979 had no problem, no screwups, nothing. Just the actual game with the Cowboys and the Rams.
No more snow thats the good news but the bad news now we have to deal with the digital antenna looking for the perfect spot or holding like the Bundy watching FOX to get a clear picture LOL
This unofficial Official Jaguar Gator 9 historian will remind everyone you made a video about how an ice storm in Kansas City affected the broadcast of the Steelers-Chiefs playoff game in 2016.
This is very similar to what almost happened a few weeks after this in NE Illinois/NW Indiana during the infamous President's Day snowstorm that affected much of the Midwest & the Northeast & another sporting event CBS was covering the Daytona 500. I should point out that this particular Daytona 500 was the first one ever to be shown live as all of other ones shown previously were shown on tape delay a few hours after they concluded on ABC's Wide World of Sports (ABC also did this with the Indy 500 & F1's Monaco GP). Because much of the country was snowed in, CBS figured showing the race live followed by a live NBA game (a very rare thing in those days as most games even playoff ones were shown on tape delay) between the Lakers & Suns would do the trick in terms of beating ABC & NBC in the ratings that Sunday. For most of the country there were no issues with getting the race. However because it had snowed 21 inches in 24 hours in NE Illinois/NW Indiana, many power lines fell over due to the weight of the snow & many people in the area lost power. Like with this there were concerns about the CBS affiliate in Chicago (the CBS station in the area) being able to show the race. Luckily power crews were able to get the power back on just in time for the race. As for the race itself, it is considered to be one of the most iconic in NASCAR history especially the ending where Cale Yarborogh & Donnie Allison took each other out battling for the lead on the last lap, allowing Richard Petty to win. Then afterwards Yarborogh & Allison along with Allison's brother Bobby got into a fight that was caught by CBS's cameras. This race & the ending associated with it (which was watched by 16 million) is what really propelled NASCAR into the national sports scene & expanded its reach outside of the South.
I was 13 years old at the time when this game was played. Living in Hanford, CA which is located in the central valley of CA and watching it on KFSN-TV ch 30 Fresno, CA then a CBS station. 6 years later in 1985,KFSN became an ABC station. The picture was clear at the time when this game was shown. I feel for the people in Abilene at that time who unfortunately couldn’t clearly watch that game. Also glad to hear the technician from KTXS was not hurt. Pre digital era.
WCBS-TV (channel 2) in New York City did aired the NFC championship game with the Cowboys Vs. Rams and the picture looks clear when you had a rooftop antenna. The transmitter itself has no problem, because it’s at the top of the Empire State Building where it remains there. Channel 2 ran the NFC championship in 1979 without screwing things up. This was right after the Giants on WCBS-TV was done for the season.
During the mid and late 70s it was a given that the rams were going to get knocked out of the playoffs by the Cowboys or Vikings until they finally got over the hump the next season.
I wouldhave just turned the brightness down and listened to it. It also reminds me of watching the Colts Bills games in the 70's on a B&W TV from a station in Buffalo as I was located in Northeast Ohio.
It said on the snowy screen Hi-Fi LOL what a joke of a broadcast and with the 34-5 game earlier and the 28-0 game here all in Conference Championship games contrary to popular belief there was some bad football played in the 1970s.
Boy, what a mess they made with the broadcast of this game-if they let the nbc station carry it if they couldn’t, it might have been better but they got greedy and turned it into this scrambled egg 🍳 of a picture! I imagine some cowboys fans were turned off by it! 😮😮😮😮😮
Since many people still had aerial antennas at the time, they’d have been better off pointing it towards Dallas. They probably eould’ve gotten s better picture.
WCBS-TV (channel 2) in NYC did aired the NFC Championship game where the Cowboys played against the Rams, and there’s no problem there, the transmitter is safe on top of the Empire State Building, and on the new transmitter on top of “North Tower” of the World Trade Center, and the picture came clear without static since it was on channel 2.
@@PAGoTribe1963But in New York City, they did, WCBS-TV (channel 2), another CBS affiliate did aired the Cowboys/Rams game for the NFC Championship on 1/7/79, and guess what? No problem! The TV transmitter is still up on top of the Empire State Building, never toppled down or knocking off the air, just stayed up and running.
I heard about the Philadelphia 76ers nearly getting stranded in San Antonio because of an ice storm there. They were playing the Rockets there in 1973 (The Spurs didn't exist yet) and the morning they were supposed to leave for Portland, an ice storm closed the airport. They barely made it to Portland in time to play it on its scheduled date.
