WBTV Sign On & Carolina Calling 1958 ?

[@staffordrh2]

I can remember when I was a very young child, waking up to the smell of breakfast cooking. Dad was getting dressed for work. Mom was cooking breakfast and I could hear Carolina Calling on the TV. Thanks for the post. This has brought back so many wonderful memories.

[@stephenadamsmusicalinterpr4203]

Same here, in Union County.

[@spccclentenlectureseries2049]

Me too. I remember watching Carolina Calling while eating my breakfast, watching on a ginormous B&W console TV. I lived only 4 houses away from my elementary school (Villa Heights) so I could even take in 20 minutes of Captain Kangaroo before school.

[@mclark42]

Growing up in North Carolina in the 60's, Arthur Smith was on TV all the time. It was only later that I learned his 1947 record Guitar Boogie was a precursor of rock n roll and put the guitar on the map as a solo instrument in pop music. He influenced everyone from Chuck Berry to Carl Perkins and BB King to Chet Atkins. Guitar Boogie was one of the songs George Harrison played that impressed Paul McCartney and John Lennon enough to ask him to join the Beatles.

[@rhondaprice5202]

I was born in 1959 and remember all of this fr a smile child. I had forgotten how well Arthur Smith picked that guitar. I remember the chicken scratch song. Took me back. Thank you for the trip down memory lane 👍

[@prestn109]

Watched it every morning before going to school made for happy informative way to start the day.

[@terryburleyson1208]

man i am from China Grove, nc and this brings back memories......we would watch this show before school.......and JIm Patterson went on to be on Fred Kirby's show......

[@terryburleyson1208]

yeah nothing better than saturday mornings the lttle rascals

[@terryburleyson1208]

where did you go to high school at ? i'm from china grove also...

[@NEPatriot]

The beginning of this tape...no doubt the earliest TV station daily sign-on ever...and action packed for its time with the dissolves to all the slides.

[@jimbo41pie]

Rest in peace, Arthur Smith.

[@TPINSC]

I really wish that someone had more of these videos and we could watch them.

[@BobFeezor]

WONDERFUL, THANK YOU for posting this !! what a treat it would be to turn on the television today and find Uncle Jim and Arthur Smith. and hear Arthur Smith sign off again saying "God bless ya now, real good."

[@JohnHolton]

That's some fine pickin' there!

[@iblefty1951]

The date 1958 is approximate. It is videotape which was developed nationally in 1956 and had probably gotten to Charlotte a couple of years later.

[@kingward8426]

Jim Patterson was the first voice heard on WBTV when it signed on the air.

[@dannyfarr4205]

My dad told me this was the first TV program he ever saw. My uncle bought a TV in the late 1940's right after WBTV went on the air. We are right outside of Greenville, SC, which is 100 miles from that station, but up until late 1953, they were the only TV station that could be picked up here. People put great big antennas on high poles to pull it in. Once WFBC channel 4 in Greenville went on the air, WBTV's signal was no longer receivable here.

[@MrTechHistory]

That's because WBTV got lucky and was the first of 108 stations to get on the air. In 1948, the FCC froze any new stations - so... lots of places didn't have TV until after the freeze - 4 years. Many stations did not come on the air until 1953.

[@TPINSC]

Growing up in the midland's of SC channel 4 was one of only 4 channels that we could pick-up Two from Augusta and two from Carolina. Most of the good country music shows were on channel 4.Everything from the Wilburn Bro's ,Flat and Scruggs, Porter Wagoner Bonnie Lou and Buster. Saturdays were a Great day for music.

[@robertmccoy4802]

My Dad use to play with Author Smith and Tommy Fail before they got famous. He said they played under a oak tree in Ervin Farms little community in Lancaster S.C. They played across the street from the school.

[@mtnman6557]

What a way to start a day, remember it well: as we stopped by each friends' house that walked w/ us on the way to school, you were invited in for just a min or 2 while they got ready & Arthur Smith was on the TV every time, so we'd watch him do some pickin' if we had time. I think this Chicken Strut is Arthur Smith at his very best; sounds just like a chicken strutting around!...fun music!

[@shadomoon2000]

My grandfather William Sheppard played and toured with Bill Monroe. He played Banjo and Mandolin-It was before Bill Monroe went back to Kentucky and became the Blue Grass Boys. He was in Greensboro at the time It was before he was famous. He also played with Arthur Smith and the Crackerjacks,a and later with Jim Thorton, and was on the TV show. Anyone remember him from those days?

[@barrygrant2907]

The "Metropolis" of the Carolinas. Even then Charlotte thought highly of itself, which is why I left and never considered moving back.

[@ddoeser5830]

Onvergetelijk ! Arthur Smith R.I.P ❤ (2021)

[@DesirreeClonch]

😮 THNKXZ so VERY much for posting this I grew up with this on TV starting our day 😁 I was the one in my playpen lol in my cloth diper excuse me , LOLOL

[@robydean7]

love it. glad you shared

[@Jm01394]

That was fun! Thanks!!

[@Themaddprof]

I was born six years later and remember Arthur Smith on Saturday afternoons on Channel 5 in Charleston when I was a boy.

[@charlesmeadows6285]

This reminds me of Channel 5’s early riser Country Junction with Eddie Hill.

[@phantomcharger568]

I was thinking how they couldn't even imagine back then an internet, and that 70+ years later after they were all gone, they'd be on it. Wow

[@bobblair5959]

I remember growing up with Wayne "Skeeter" Hass in Whitnel (outside Lenoir) and watching him play (Jumbalya Crawfish Pie) at the elementary school talent show and also play for the construction workers as they built the bridge across Hwy 321. Neat guy. Bob Blair

[@jennyjames11able]

Thanks for sharing

[@ftjax]

We remember WBTV 1953

[@DIPEDEntertainmentPOE]

Nice to see it restored.

[@TheChannning]

Thanks so much for posting, do you have any more Carolina Calling, particularly the counsellors?

[@paul29671]

2:12, Chicken Strut

[@94757598494309438]

Rest in Peace, Cloudy McClain.

[@edwardbaggett8287]

cut 2 records at Arthur Smith Studios..1964

[@namnoiz]

Nice Epiphone guitar dude !!

[@ApartmentKing66]

Wonder why Jefferson Standard didn't get WBT-TV. Maybe the same reason CBS got KNXT rather than KNX-TV.

[@phyllismcmullen3423]

ty

[@hf6150]

Interesting to see a TV station use four slides to sign on for the day. Most (back then) probably didn't do more than one.

[@Ariamaluum]

Looked like George Harrison got his influence from Arthur Smith. Especially the guitar riff, I Feel Fine.

[@charlesmeadows6285]

I noticed on the sign on sound that WBTVs tower was on Spencer Mountain in Gaston County outside Charlotte, NC. Does anyone know that the tower is still there?

[@charltonbaker6479]

The bottom portion still stands, The FAA made them truncate it when WBTV moved their signal to a new tower in 1984. A number of signals still originate there, the NOAA emergency broadcast being one of them. Back in the 70's, WBTV used to illuminate the tower during the Holidays, doing it up like a gigantic Christmas tree!

[@brandonthemainstreetelectr1204]

Smooth video cameras in the 50s

[@edwardklintworth2004]

I may be wrong, but this looks more like the 60's to me.

[@jamesbatchelor4772]

How so?

[@doyneallison7230]

My memory thinks Mr. Klintworth is correct. I hadn't remembered Jim Buchanan and David Deese being around back that far. But I could be wrong.

[@ScrootchGun]

Carolina Calling officially ended in early 1965. WBTV’s studios were all color, including VTRs around 1963-64. That would put this video’s record date between 1958 and 1964.

[@Crlpope]

Anyone remember Gus Travis stories in the Charlotte News.

[@jerryv.397]

Wonder if Jerry Reed Ever Heard Of Arthur Smith :-) ???. Chicken Pickin.

[@polydueres]

Is it not possible for wbtv to bring back something like this-I know there will never be another Arthur Smith-but a similar show of some kind--young people will never know what they missed.. ty

[@eascec8374]

Bunch of Lines like from the 70s!

[@AaronJuarezzz]

what is the name of the melody?

[@rockjohnson2879]

What a picker..

[@iblefty1951]

No, this is all i have.

[@RathouseFilmworks]

Oh OH OH OH, THIS WAS IN HIGH DEF VOICING! But not so High Def quality. Oh well, it WAS 480p.

[@andrewfernandez4609]

pbs took over carolina calling