Television reception for most Freeborn County residents 50 years ago was limited to just three channels, according to the program schedules published in Albert Lea’s Community Magazine.

This was the era of rooftop antennas for the reception of KGLO-TV, channel 3, Mason City, Iowa; KMMT-TV, channel 6, Austin; and KROC-TV, channel 10, Rochester. The call letters for two of the three channels clearly indicated their radio station affiliations. In later years these three television stations changed their call letters to the present KIMT, KAAL and KTTC.

On Thanksgiving Day in 1958, channel 3 operated from 8 a.m. to midnight. KGLO-TV maintained its regular programming that day with no Thanksgiving specials. Evening programs included “Annie Oakley,” “December Bride,” “Derringer,” “Zane Grey Theatre” and “Playhouse 90.”Austin’s KMMT-TV started telecasting at 10:30 a.m. on weekdays in November 1958. An exception was made on Nov. 27 with the Thanksgiving Day Parade, an ABC Network production, starting at 9:15 a.m. Evening programs included “Leave It to Beaver,” “Zorro,” “The Real McCoys,” “The Pat Boone Chevy Show,” “The Rough Riders,” and “The Dick Powell Show.”

KROC-TV, Rochester, went on the air at 6:30 a.m. that same day. At 10 a.m. a special two-hour telecast of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade was relayed from the NBC Network.

Channel 10 had the only televised football game that day. It was a Thanksgiving afternoon NCAA encounter between Texas and Texas A&M.

Evening programs on KROC-TV featured “Huckleberry Hound,” “Jefferson Drum,” “Sea Hunt,” “Concentration” (a game show), and the (Tennessee) “Ernie Ford Show” as a “colorcast.” The Ford program was one of the few televised in color for the very few who had color sets in the fall of 1958.

Radio was still a very viable entertainment and information option 50 years ago. However, nearly all the once popular radio programs had either made the conversion to television or had just faded away. What was left on the radio dial was mostly music, news and weather reports.

Yet, there was one program on the eve of Thanksgiving 50 years ago which featured a popular musician who once played in the Midwest. This was Lawrence Welk, who had a full hour program on KATE’s Wednesday evening schedule.

At the New Broadway Theater the Thanksgiving Day film, scheduled to run continuously from 2 p.m. to 11 p.m., was Walt Disney’s “White Wilderness.” Admission prices to this epic, as listed in the theater’s Tribune ad, was 65 cents for adults, 50 cents for students, and 35 cents for children.

The Rivoli Theater was showing another film intended to appeal to the younger generation. This was “The Littlest Hobo,” starring London, the dog, and Fleece, the lamb.