Indianapolis Television

Images of America: Indiana

by David L. Smith

In 1949, when the first television station in Indianapolis was about to go on the air, R.K. Shull, the venerated television columnist for the Indianapolis Times and Indianapolis News, said, "Channel 6 has laid plans for the biggest possible attention-grabbing debut a TV station could make in Indianapolis . . . live coverage of the Indianapolis 500-mile race." Only three cameras covered the entire track, but the audience at the time was not very discriminating. Before networks had full-time programming, casts and crews experimented with the new medium in full view of the audience. Even after the networks began to monopolize programming, a number of local personalities became viewer favorites. David Letterman decided to have fun with the weather. Jane Pauley refused to cut her long locks, so her entire face was seldom seen on location in windy weather. George Willeford made fun of the movies he was introducing. Frank Edwards had his dog sitting on his desk during his newscast. Debbie Drake started her own daily exercise show, which was later nationally syndicated.

130 pages, Hardcover

First published April 23, 2012

Reviews

[Erin Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a born and bred Hoosier and Circle City native, I picked up this book because I (mistakenly) thought it was about television shows about or filmed in Indy, or TV stars from here. Whoops. This slim volume, in actuality, is a history of Indiana’s television largely relating to broadcast communications and the news. This topic, sadly, was less interesting to me than the one I thought I was getting into, but is abundantly clear that the author meticulously researched this work and is passionate about his subject matter. My only real critique is that within the broader “chapter” headings, it was hard to ascertain why the layout was the way it was, but the index by individuals will help for anyone who is looking for specific people.