Turning 70 today...

[Ccook]

...is the soap opera Guiding Light. Today's telecast on CBS (3 PM Eastern/2 PM Central and Pacific--mornings before Price on a number of CBS O&Os) will be a retrospective of the show.

Guiding Light actually premiered on radio on 1/25/37 on the old NBC Red Network. Fifteen years later, it went to television where CBS aired it at 12:45 in the afternoons at fifteen minutes per show. It's been on for an hour since 1977 and running at 3 PM Eastern since 1980.

One CBS affiliate--KOVR/ch. 13 in Sacramento CA--doesn't show it at all, while another--WNEM/ch. 5 in Flint MI--passes it on to their second digital outlet (which is a My Network TV affiliate). The stations running it in the mornings do so because it's been getting hammered in the ratings by ABC's General Hospital.

It serves as a lead in to Price here on WWJ, channel 62 in Detroit.

[Superballer]

It also does so here on WYOU-22 in Screaton/Wilkes-Barre.  It's amazing how so many soaps have lasted so incredibly long, especially with all the changes television's gone through since most of them started, but I guess there's still a strong core audience out there (my grandmother's a hardcore General Hospital fan for one).

[joechopchop]

Same with KYW (channel 3) in Philadelphia.

[Ccook]

And as usual, I get it wrong. The show was not a retrospective, but it was a storyline taking place at a radio studio in Chicago, 1937, the time and site where Guiding Light first took place.

WGCL/ch. 46 here airs it at 3 PM. It airs in the morning in the following cities:

Miami (WFOR/ch. 4) 10 AM
Orlando FL (WKMG/ch. 6) 9 AM
Chicago (WBBM/ch. 2) 9 AM)
Ft. Wayne IN (WANE/ch. 15) 9 AM
South Bend IN (WSBT/ch. 22) 9 AM
Portland ME (WGME/ch. 13) 10 AM
Baltimore MD (WJZ/ch. 13) 10 AM
Boston MA (WBZ/ch. 4) 10 AM
New York City N Y (WCBS/ch. 2) 10 AM
Pittsburgh PA (KDKA/ch. 2) 10 AM
Albany N Y (WRGB/ch. 6) 10 AM

As well as the aforementioned KYW, WYOU and WWJ.

[CBSpromoman]

Ccook wrote:
And as usual, I get it wrong. The show was not a retrospective, but it was a storyline taking place at a radio studio in Chicago, 1937, the time and site where Guiding Light first took place.

You didn't really get it wrong.  It was a retrospective but it took today's actors and placed them in reinactments of the earliest days of the show, then ran with that theme through the hour highlighting storylines through present day.

"Guiding Light" is the longest-running show in the history of broadcasting.  While it celebrates a total of 70 years on the air (radio and television), on June 30th, it will celebrate its  55th anniversary on television, and all 55 years have been on CBS.  

An interesting note:  It was also the first soap to be broadcast in color (then still in its experimental stages) in 1953.  Creator Irna Phillips was so against the idea of doing the show in color that she set the entire episode that day in a white and gray hospital room.

The show commemmorated its 15,000 show last September.  Today's special episode will be the series' 17,554th.  

One can hope 'Price' lives as long.

[Joe_Capitano]

And since, at the going rate, Price airs approximately 80 fewer episodes a year than (The) Guiding Light, it's going to happen somewhere around 2070.

"Honey, don't wait up for me. I think I'm going to be Late."

[FieldsFan336]

Guiding Light is my grandmother's favorite soap, it's a lead-in to Price on the CBS affiliate from Detroit (which she watches it on in Thunder Bay)

[Ccook]

The morning telecasts are the same as the afternoon telecasts that day. Guiding Light is sent to affiliates on what's called a "wild feed." CBS beams the show at late night hours on a closed circuit so the affiliates can record them and show them later in the day. 3 PM/2 PM Central is the preferred time, but seeing as how even the CBS flagship WCBS in New York City is running it at 10 AM, I'd expect more affiliates to follow suit just to get out of General Hospital's path.

[jhc2010]

As much as people on here have said how Guiding Light's time has been moved to get "out of General Hospital's path" isn't really the case.  The real powerhouse-of-a-Soap is Y&R right now...  Here are the latest ratings from last week if anyone's interested:

1. The Young and the Restless 4.5
2. The Bold & the Beautiful 3.2
3. General Hospital 2.9
4. Days of Our Lives 2.7
4. One Life to Live 2.7
6. All My Children 2.6
7. As the World Turns 2.4
8. Guiding Light 2.2
9. Passions 1.7

[rodroddyfan]

Around here in rockford, The young and the restless follows price.   And Y&R is the only soap I watch.

[jhc2010]

Just to add some Price to it, I've found the ratings of last week's complete Daytime schedule:

1. The Price Is Right (second half) 5.0 Rating/16 Share
2. The Young and the Restless 4.5/14
3. The Price Is Right (first half) 4.1/13
4. The View 3.4/11
5. The Bold and the Beautiful 3.2/10
6. General Hospital 2.9/08
7. Days of Our Lives 2.7/08
7. One Life to Live 2.7/08
9. All My Children 2.6/08
10. As the World Turns 2.4/07
11. Guiding Light 2.2/06
12. Passions 1.7/05

[Ccook]

I still don't understand why Nielsen chooses to split Price into separate half hours to gauge their ratings. It's the only hour long network daytime show to which they do that.

[tpir1983]

It airs here in Dayton, OH on WHIO-TV at 3pm. And it still trounces General Hospital in ratings. Let's just say, (The) Guiding Light beats GH by a 5 to 1 ratio.
Now, as mentioned before, in my new place in Florida, (during my job interview at a TV station, in which yes I got the job) it was weird to see it being aired at 9am on WKMG.

[Ccook]

Weird, to be sure. KFMB/ch. 8, the CBS affiliate in San Diego, runs The Bold And The Beautiful at 9:30 AM Pacific, just before Price. That's because their noon newscast runs an hour.