Sunday Showcase Review December 9, 1973

 I didn't set out to share a very special Sunday Showcase this week. It just fell right into my lap as I perused old issues of the Tennessean.

The cover of the December 9-15, 1973 Sunday Showcase features Big Bird and Marcus Welby, M.D. because one of the most momentous television events of my young life was going to be taking place on Tuesday night as Channel 8 and Channel 2 swapped stations (the numbers at least)!!! You can read the details if you blow up the photo. More on this event from me below.

I was 6 for most of 1973 and I watched lots of television. Channel 2 and channel 8 happened to be the ones I watched the most. Channel 2 was the public television station at the time and I was hooked on Sesame Street, The Electric Company, Zoom, and more, while channel 8 was the ABC affiliate which showed lots of cool stuff too. It was traumatic that they would be swapping. I thought the adult world was a fairly unchanging monolith. Sure, new things were created, but I was still at the age when most things seemed permanent. I got over it especially since the public television station came in much clearer. I wonder how many parents let their children stay up until 9PM Central that night to see the switch happen?

There were multiple Showcase pages associated with this swap. I remember the animated A Christmas Carol special from this page vividly as it actually frightened me. 

If you read the article about the move you know that not only would the channels swap, but that WSIX channel 8 would get new call letters also becoming WNGE2. The good doctor Welby approves.

Here's the Sunday night TV guide with WSIX-TV Channel 8 and WDCN Channel 2 listed. NBC will have Bing Crosby and Bob Hope Christmas specials on this night. 

Marie Osmond & Bob Hope

Tuesday night December 11 is when the change happens at 9PM Central. WSIX becomes WNGE channel 2 and WDCN becomes channel 8. There's ad for the first show aired on the new channel 8 below the guide. It was The Six Wives of Henry VIII with this night's installment about Catherine of Aragon.

This week's Sunday Showcase review is brought to you by the Franklin Road Melrose Business District. Don't let construction keep you away from the great businesses on this road. 

There was a time when Harding Mall had it all. 

Rivergate Mall has free rides on Santa's rocket sleigh. I love the Rivergate logo.

I tried to find a color version of this ad online, but could not find one. I dig the graphics. I also miss the Holiday Inn signs from the past. 

Cain-Sloan has your Christmas records covered at their Green Hills, Rivergate, and downtown location.

This would have a great week to just camp out at the Exit/In with Linda Ronstadt and Jerry Jeff Walker playing multiple nights. I wonder if any of those WKDA broadcasts were taped and saved?

Jerry Jeff Walker live 1973

Linda Ronstadt on the Midnight Special 1973

11-18-1973 Linda live broadcast on KSAN

Johnny Winter was coming in the upcoming year. Brownsville Station would open for him at Municipal Auditorium on January 5, 1974. That must have been a rocking night!

Brownsville Station live 1972

Johnny Winter live 1973

One of the neat things about these old issues of the Sunday Showcase is finding how often country music stars performed benefits for local high schools. One of my favorite country music singer/songwriter of the Seventies was Tom T. Hall and he was scheduled to do 2 shows at Franklin High School to benefit the band boosters. 

Tom T. Hall

Muther's Music Emporium was short lived, but it was about to open with a stellar first week's line-up of acts with Wet Willie, Ted Nugent & The Amboy Dukes, and the Bob Seger System among them.

Wet Willie live 1973

Ted Nugent & The Amboy Dukes live 1973

Bob Seger System

There was no music top ten this week. I guess with all of the excitement with the channel 2 and 8 swap they forgot to include it. So let's go see Black Belt at the Loews Crescent instead. Remember when I made a series of posts about the movies that played the Loews Crescent over the years? Sure you do. That's all for this week, but the Sunday Showcase review will return for a few more weeks and then the series will be finished. 

Sunday Showcase May 4, 1975

John Wayne heads to Tower Bridge in London on the front cover of this week's Sunday Showcase from May 4, 1975. Brannigan was the movie which was playing at the Loews Crescent downtown. I've done a whole series of posts about what I believe is every movie that played the theatre after Loews took over the lease. Here's the post to the movies that played there in 1975. It was one of his last film roles.

Brannigan trailer

This week's Sunday Showcase review is brought to you by Friedman's Army Surplus Stores with two convenient locations in Nashville and one store located in Murfreesboro. I really miss these stores. I wonder if you can still buy Duck Head clothes? I guess I need to search the net and see.

There's not lots to cover this week so I'm getting right to the Top 10 Records. Number one is "Philadelphia Freedom" which is not by a solo Elton John, but is credited to the Elton John Band. The song title was a tribute to Billie Jean King's professional tennis team the Philadelphia Freedom, but not about the team according to lyricist Bernie Taupin. One of my father's favorite artists is in number 3. My dad got a real kick out of Freddy Fender. My favorites from this list would have to be Linda Rondstadt, the Carpenters, and America. 

I have many copies of the Heart Like A Wheel album on record and CD

Carpenters - Only Yesterday

the official vinyl video - ok well whatever it's Sister Golden Hair

I don't watch regular broadcast television anymore. It's probably because they don't have cool movie line-ups like WNGE2 did back in the day. They had something worth viewing from morning until late night. Now it's a wasteland of talking heads with their insufferable infotainment. I occasionally have to suffer through some of it when I had a doctor or dentist appointment as they will usually have a local station on in the waiting room. I just don't see how anyone can watch that stuff.

Two of the Top Ten Record sellers in Nashville were headed to town for concerts in May. I really love this ad from Sound Seventy Productions for upcoming shows. Nice clean newsprint with excellent ticket graphics for each artist. First the big ad and then each one separately with a video afterwards.

America was riding high in 1975. I didn't like these guys much in my younger days, but I've really come to appreciate their song craft. That's one of the best things about music is how it aways finds you in the end. "I've been hit by purple rain."

I think I've shared this song before since it's so great

It's been pretty cool to see Linda Ronstadt get so much recognition over the last year or so. She was arguably the premier female rock artist of the Seventies and I have always loved her voice. She would be coming to the New Grand Ole Opry House on May 19th. Just a few short years before it would have been the Exit/In for her, but her fame was exploding and she needed a bigger place to perform.

Live "You're No Good" January 1975

Some people who were really in the dark might have said Alice Cooper was arguably the premier female rock artist of the Seventies, but of course Alice is a dude. The name was at first just the name of the whole band before Vincent Furnier decided to take on the persona and by 1975 the band was dissolved and he had become a solo artist with the release of Welcome To My Nightmare. The stage show was compared to a Broadway production and would be coming to Municipal Auditorium on May 25, 1975. I'm a bigger fan of the original band days, but I do enjoy most of Alice Cooper's work and with Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner on guitar for this tour you know it rocked. It would have been super cool to see this show especially with Suzi Quatro opening. She's in my rock and roll hall of fame.

Glycerine Queen live Japan 1975

From the 1976 Welcome To My Nightmare film

John Prine would be playing the War Memorial Auditorium on May 30th. I wish John was still around to be playing today, but we lost him on April 7th to the coronavirus. 2020 has been such a bust so far that there are moments that this journey back into time is quite comforting. Prine was an interesting artist. He never broke through into the stardom of a Willie Nelson or Kris Kristofferson, but like those guys his appeal broke through with everyone that heard him. I know metal music fans, punk fans, and lots of commercial country music fans who would all get along famously if you bring up John Prine's name. Godspeed good sir.

Souvenirs - this is the studio version

The Eagles would be coming in June to Municipal Auditorium and the Charlie Daniels Band would be playing May 13th at Columbia State Community College.

I must admit much of interest in movies has to do with their newspaper ads. Drive-in movies generally had to make do with much less newsprint in the Seventies so much of the appeal is with just the fonts of their often scandalous titles. Here's what was playing this week at 4 drive-in's and the Colonial Twin in Hendersonville which I suspect was much like the Martin Twin in Murfreesboro.

Next week I'm heading to the 80's with television Nazi's being chased by Pac Man. Or something like that.