Bangor CBS affiliate WABI is celebrating its 60th anniversary. The station first went on the air January 25, 1953, when the television industry was much different than it is today, according to the station’s tribute segment:
Everything was live, including the commercials, which were read from cue cards. George Hale came to WABI just a few months after the television station went on the air in 1953.
“I can remember doing a thing called ‘Spin the Wheel.’ The show was supposed to be five minutes. They came in with five minutes of commercials. The sponsor said, ‘you want to do a show, that’s your problem. I bought five minutes, I want it all commercials.’ So I did the first infomercial.”
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