Big 13, where news comes first

I just discovered this site, which is a history site about one of the TV stations I grew up watching. It's a pretty good site, although it focuses on the 1950s through the 1970s, which I don't remember. What I do remember about this station is that they preempted CBS's broadcast of a "Peanuts" special for a syndicated Benny Hill special in 1981 or 1982. Yes, I'm still bitter. They also didn't carry some CBS daytime programming, including the game show "Body Language" (which I didn't realize even existed until I saw it on Game Show Network) and "Press Your Luck" after it moved from 10:30 A.M. to 4:00 P.M., and they also weren't perfect on the CBS Saturday morning lineup, if I recall correctly. And they pioneered the use of the "squeezeback" in the Tampa Bay area to promote the 11:00 news, and for several years from the late '80s to the early '90s, every closing credit sequence that ran at 8:58 P.M. was completely unreadable because it was in a tiny little box in one corner.

On the other hand, their news had a good, unique name: "Pulse News," or "Pulse 13." The midday newsmagazine was called "Pulse Plus." (I'm too young to remember this, but it would have been competing against "Password Plus" on NBC at one point. What are the odds of two shows with "Plus" in the title being on at the same time?) But then they wimped out and renamed it "Eyewitness News" in the late '80s. And they had a nice, soothing early-morning show called "Breakfast Beat," starring Ernie Lee and his guitar that had his name spelled out on the neck. I don't remember anything else about it because I was anxiously awaiting "Captain Kangaroo" at the time.

Most importantly, they're responsible for my lifelong love of game shows, since the first game show I have a distinct memory of watching aired on this station: a syndicated show called "Cross-Wits." I really don't remember much about it, because I haven't seen it since 1979 or 1980, but I've got TV Guides where it's listed, so I know where it was on the dial.

Now, in the early '70s, they were producing commercials that looked like this for what was then a fairly small Florida supermarket chain, Publix. This image is very scary and raises a lot of questions:

1. This is supposed to attract customers?!
2. This is supposed to give people recipe ideas?!
3. Did they realize they were being ironic when they included miniature marshmallows?!
4. F&P fruit cocktail is only 4 for $1.00?!
5. Really, doesn't everyone hate it when perfectly good Jell-O is ruined by having crap put into it, such as fruit cocktail and/or miniature marshmallows (or worse yet, tiny pieces of carrot)?!
6. And isn't it even worse when the problem is compounded by serving the Jell-O with crap in it on top of a lettuce leaf?!
7. How did Publix manage to grow into the giant juggernaut that today blankets much of the Southeast when it had TV commercials like this 30 years ago?!

Anyway, this TV station has been a Fox affiliate for about eight years now, and it's still very bizarre when I watch TV in the old hometown. It also doesn't help that since the cable lineup has been changed, what used to be CBS on cable channel 13 is now Fox on cable channel 14. No wonder they say you can't go home again.

The title of this entry was their slogan during the '80s, usually set to music in "jingle" form. Ask me sometime and I'll sing it for you.