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17 Update Early In The Morning This just in - News with a difference. Ted Turner's genius was in spotting cable TV as the coming thing. In the late 60s he bought a UHF TV station in Atlanta, Channel 17, and changed the call letters to WTCG for Watch This Channel Grow. It was a time when most folks couldn't get a UHF signal over the air. But Ted recognized that he could use it to provide programming to cable operators. He spread his signal around the southeast using microwave, and by 1976, he made WTCG into the first superstation. Even then, most traditional broadcasters couldn't understand why anyone would want to watch an independent TV station broadcasting in a distant city. Turner built his audience with movies and wrestling and later with the Atlanta Braves. He pioneered alternative programming by airing Star Trek reruns at 6PM eastern, when all the other stations aired news. The result (and this was before Saturday Night Live) was 17 Update Early In The Morning. It was shot at the end of the day using whatever Tush could scrape together. It had no particular air time - it came on sometime after 3AM, whenever the movie ended. And it was unlike anything anyone had seen at the time. These shows were taped in the old studios on West Peachtree Street before Turner converted an old mansion on Techwood Drive into his broadcast headquarters. My favorite 17 Early In The Morning newscasts involved Ralph The Wonder Dog. The crew would dress a German Shepherd in a coat and tie, put him in front of the camera, and stuff a peanut butter sandwich in his mouth. As the dog chewed, Tush read the news off camera. By about 1976, Channel 11 in Atlanta, the ABC affiliate, changed its call letters to WXIA. It brought on new, inflammatory newscasters - an early version of tabloid news. Their investigative reporter was called The News Hawk and his stories were heavily hyped, uh, promoed. 17 Update was not to be out done - it hired The News Chicken. Tush stood outside, behind the sation near the satellite uplink dishes, and read the news with his left arm expended parallel to the ground. Behind him and up a hill a ways so that it looked sort-of like it was on his arm, was a guy in a chicken suit. It danced around and clucked while Tush read his copy. It was too funny for words to do justice. Now, Brushsroke TV has put a few clips of the show on the net. They are a hoot - or woof - or cluck. In 1979, Turner canceled the show. He feared credibility problems for his new venture - CNN.
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